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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: On the Heights + A Novel + +Author: Berthold Auerbach + +Translator: Simon Adler Stern + +Release Date: July 30, 2010 [EBook #33294] +[Last updated: July 22, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE HEIGHTS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br> +Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/onheightsanovel01auergoog</p> + +<br> + +<br> +<table style="width:50%; margin-left:25%"> +<tr> +<td style="border-top:solid black 2px; border-bottom: solid black 2px; +border-right:solid black 2px; border-left:solid black 2px"> +<br> +<h3>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</h3> +<hr class="W10"> +<h3>THE VILLA ON THE RHINE</h3> +<h4>Leisure Hour Series, 2 vols. 16mo. $2.00</h4> +<hr class="W10"> +<h3>HENRY HOLT & CO., NEW YORK</h3> +<br> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>ON THE HEIGHTS</h1> +<br> + + +<h3><i>A NOVEL</i></h3> +<br> + + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>BERTHOLD AUERBACH</h2> +<br> + + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY</h4> +<h3>SIMON ADLER STERN</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h4>NEW YORK</h4> +<h3>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h3> +<h4>1907</h4> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by<br> +HENRY HOLT,<br> +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h1 class="normal">ON THE HEIGHTS.</h1> + +<hr class="W10"> + + + +<h2>BOOK I.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<br> + +<p class="normal">Early mass was being celebrated in the chapel attached to the +royal +summer palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">The palace stood on a slight eminence in the center of the +park. The +eastern slope of the hill had been planted with vineyards, and its +crest was covered with mighty, towering beeches. The park abounded with +maples, plane-trees and elms, with their rich foliage, and firs of +various kinds, while the thick clusters of needles on the fir-leaved +mountain pine showed that it had become acclimated. On grassy lawns +there were solitary tall pines of perfect growth. A charming variety of +flowers and leaf plants lent grace to the picture which, in all its +details, showed evidence of artistic design and exquisite taste.</p> + +<p class="normal">The paths were neatly kept. The flowers were sparkling with +the dews of +morning; birds were singing and the air was laden with the fragrant +perfume of the new-mown grass. Swans, and rare varieties of ducks from +foreign lands, were swimming in the large lake, on the banks of which +the bright-hued flamingo might also have been seen. The fountain in the +center of the lake sent its waters to such a height that they were lost +in spray.</p> + +<p class="normal">A clear mountain brook, running between alders and +weeping-willows, and +under many a rustic bridge, emptied into the lake, flowing thence +through the valley until it reached the river, bright glimpses of which +might here and there be caught through openings in the shrubbery.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tables, chairs and benches of graceful form had been placed +under the +trees and at various points that commanded a fine prospect.</p> + +<p class="normal">Seated near the chapel there was a man of impressive +appearance. His +dress betokened scrupulous care. His thick hair was as white as his +cravat. His eyes were blue and sparkling, and full of youthful fire. He +looked out upon the broad landscape, the valley crowded with fruit-trees, +the near-lying hills, and the mountain beyond, whose lines stood +out in bold relief against the blue sky above. He had a book in his +hand, but now laid it aside and drank in the peaceful influences of the +scene before him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The great door of the chapel was open: the mighty sounds of +the organ +were heard; a soft cloud of incense floated out on the morning air and +then vanished into space.</p> + +<p class="normal">This impressive-looking man was the king's physician, Doctor +Gunther, +who, being a Protestant, had not attended mass.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just then, a beautiful woman, carrying an open sunshade, +stepped out +from the veranda which was almost concealed by trellised vines. She +wore a full, white robe, and her headdress was a simple morning cap +with blue ribbons. Her bright, rosy face beamed with youth and beauty; +her hair was of a golden hue and she seemed the very incarnation of +glorious day.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor, hearing the rustling of her dress, had at once +advanced and +made his obeisance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning, doctor!" said the lady, whose two female +companions had +kept a few steps to the rear. Her voice was not clear and bright, but +suggestive of the soulful violoncello-tone which is more properly the +vehicle of intense and fervent feeling, than of loud-voiced joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a charming day!" continued the lady; "and yet, for that +very +reason, doubly sad to those who are obliged to pass it in a sick-room. +How is our dear Countess Brinkenstein?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The countess, may it please Your Majesty, may safely take +the air for +an hour to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm delighted to hear you say so. Sadness and sickness +should indeed +both be unknown in this lovely spot."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The countess must regard herself as doubly fortunate, now +that she is +able to perform the interesting duties that await her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak softly," suddenly said the queen, for the sounds of +the organ +had ceased; the time of the consecration had arrived. "Ah, dear doctor, +I should like to confide a secret to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The other ladies stepped aside, while the queen and the +doctor walked +up and down on the open space in front of the chapel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"From one's physician, nothing should be kept concealed," +said the +doctor; "Your Majesty credited me, not long since, with the possession +of a stethoscope by means of which I could note the movements of the +soul itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied the queen, her face mantled with blushes, +"I've already +thought of applying to you for ghostly advice, but that were +impracticable; such matters I must settle for myself. But I've a +request to make of you as the physician."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty has but to command--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, that can't be done in this instance. What I meant was--"</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment, the bell began to toll, and the king came out +of the +chapel. He wore the simple dress of a citizen and was without +decorations of any kind. He was followed by the gentlemen and ladies of +the court, the former of whom were also in citizen's dress, and, for +the greater part, wore the picturesque costume of the mountaineers of +that region.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was a man of stately appearance and erect bearing. +He bowed to +the queen from afar, and hastened forward to meet her. The ladies and +gentlemen composing his train remained in the background exchanging +kindly greetings. The king addressed a few words to the queen, whereat +she smiled; he, too, seemed happy, and, offering her his arm, led her +toward the pavilion. The ladies and gentlemen followed, indulging in +cheerful and unconstrained conversation by the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">A young lady, leaving the rest of the party, joined the +doctor and +grasped his hand most cordially. She was of a tall and graceful figure; +her hair and eyes were brown. She wore a simple, light-colored summer +dress and a loose jacket which was open and revealed the full +chemisette. A leather girdle studded with steel buttons encircled her +waist. Her movements were easy and graceful; her expression, half +earnest, half mischievous. "Might I ask," said she, addressing the +doctor, "the name of the book you've found worth reading on this lovely +morning?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was well worth reading, although, to tell the truth, I've +not +opened it," replied the doctor, while he handed the little book to her. +It was Horace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, it's Latin!" said the lady. Her voice was as clear and +bold as +that of a chaffinch. "And this, I suppose, is your mass."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor briefly alluded to the success with which the +ancient +writers had compressed so many weighty and enduring thoughts into so +small a volume.</p> + +<p class="normal">The party entered the saloon, seating themselves as best +pleased them, +for the order of rank or precedence was not insisted on at breakfast. +They were in the country and, with their uniforms, had laid aside many +of the vexatious requirements of etiquette.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is nothing more cheerful than a gay and unconstrained +party at +breakfast. All are still full of the new strength that refreshing sleep +has lent them; society succeeds to solitude; and the spirits of all +seem affected by the soft, dewy morn.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were no servants at breakfast. The ladies waited on the +company, +which was almost as free and unconstrained as a family party. The +doctor drank nothing but tea which he himself prepared. The lady with +the brown hair invited herself to a seat next to him and poured out +the tea for him. At her left, sat Colonel Von Bronnen, the king's +adjutant-general, and the only one, in fact, who did not seem to miss +his uniform.</p> + +<p class="normal">The party seemed in undress, mentally as well as physically, +and there +was much loud and confused talking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! It's Sunday!" said the young lady with the brown +hair.</p> + +<p class="normal">Uproarious laughter greeted her remark; and when the queen +inquired as +to the cause of so much merriment, the doctor informed her of the +startling discovery which had just been made by Countess Irma von +Wildenort. The queen smiled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had thought," said the king, addressing the countess and +at the same +time lighting his cigar--he was the only one who smoked in the +saloon--"that with you every day was Sunday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty, but only since I've had the honor of +being here. At +the convent, Sunday was the only day on which we had cake, whilst here +we have cake every day; and so I am obliged to use some other means to +find out which is Sunday."</p> + +<p class="normal">Von Schnabelsdorf, who had recently visited Spain on service +of a +diplomatic nature and was now awaiting orders, was sitting opposite the +doctor. Addressing his conversation to the latter, he remarked that a +friend of his who lived in Madrid had written a highly interesting +work, to which he, also, had contributed a few ideas. It was soon to +appear, and its subject was "Sunday," or rather "The Sabbath."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king had overheard his remarks and inquired as to what +these ideas +were. Schnabelsdorf replied that as seven corresponded with the quarter +of the lunar month, it was a natural division, and that the institution +of the Sabbath was older than all positive religions. He had apt +quotations to support every statement and did not forget to lug in the +names of his distinguished friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">Von Schnabelsdorf's learned discourse failed to make a deep +impression +on the company, which continued in its cheerful vein until the queen +rose, beckoning the doctor to follow. The king offered her his arm and +conducted her to a lovely seat under a weeping ash, on the slope of the +lawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was delightful to behold this royal pair, so tall and +stately; and +the queen was doubly beautiful, for another life was budding within her +own.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen seated herself and the king sat down beside her. +Without +waiting for orders, the doctor drew up his chair and joined them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said the queen, "I must speak to you about it; I must +tell you +of a pain--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I had better withdraw," said the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you must remain. Once more, I ask you; if God grants me +health, +may I not nurse the child that is to be mine?"</p> + +<p class="normal">An almost imperceptible glance from the king informed the +doctor what +answer he was to make to the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have already had the honor of acquainting Your Majesty +with my +opinion of the superstitious belief that the mere performance of +maternal duties preserves the mother's beauty. Your wish is inspired by +a feeling which, in itself, is beautiful. But, both for your own sake +and that of the child, it were impossible to accede to it. The duties +of a queen, the demands of etiquette, the need of your presence at +court and the various emotions which these employments must necessarily +occasion, render it out of the question. A high state of development +has effects upon the nervous system, which effects, being transmitted +to the child, must cling to it for life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg you, dear Mathilde," added the king, "to avoid +distressing +yourself. Consider the prince's welfare."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't always talk of a prince. Promise me that you will be +just as +happy, if it be a princess--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just as happy! No, that were impossible. I can't control my +feelings +to that extent. But this I can promise you--if you and the child are +well, I shall be happy for all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, let a nurse be brought:--even now, I envy her +the child's +affectionate glances and hearty caresses!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what is the sorrow you were complaining of?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The thought of depriving another child of its mother +troubles my +conscience. Even if thousands have done the same thing time and time +again, he who commits a wrong, sins for himself and as deeply as if it +were the first time the sin were ever committed. Yet, I submit. But I +shall insist on one thing: the foster-mother of my child must be an +honest married woman and must belong to a respectable family. I could +never silence my conscience if I were to deprive a child, already +wretched enough, of its all--its mother! In this I am perfectly +indifferent to worldly regulations and prescribed forms. Is the poor, +forlorn child, born into a hostile world, to be robbed of the only +source of love yet left it? And even if we take an honest married +woman, we will be depriving a child of its mother and inflicting an +injury upon a being that we do not even know. Ah! how hard it is! In +spite of our knowing better, we are yet forced to commit wrong. +However, I shall submit to necessity. But the child that we take from +its mother will be cared for by her family, has a father and, perhaps, +even a kind grandmother and affectionate brothers and sisters. A +hospitable roof will shelter its infant head--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," exclaimed the doctor, with an outburst of +enthusiasm, +"at this very moment prayers are being offered up for you in thousands +of churches, and myriad voices are saying: 'Amen'!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Great God, what duties are thus imposed! One had needs be +more than +human to bear the charge--it crushes me to the earth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It should elevate instead of depressing you. At this very +moment the +breath issuing from millions of lips forms a cloud that supports you. +True humanity is best shown when those who are prosperous and happy and +therefore need no assistance from others, protect the suffering instead +of putting them away from them. The effect of such a mood upon the +child whose heart throbs beneath that of its mother is one of nature's +mysteries. This child must needs become a noble, beautiful being, for +its mother has instilled purest philanthropy into it before its birth."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, who had taken the queen's hand in his, now said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you really know nothing of the law. It isn't merely a +family +law that the princes and princesses of our house must be born in +the royal palace--and for which reason, we shall return to the city +to-morrow--but it is also a law of the court that the nurse of a prince +must be a married woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Great Heavens! And how I've been tormenting myself. In the +future I +shall think better of the customs of the Court, since I find there are +such beautiful ones among them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"From the depths of your soul. Your Majesty has given new +life to this +law," interposed the doctor, "a law is neither free nor sacred until it +has become a living truth to us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very pretty, and true besides," said the King. He dropped +his cigar, +and after looking for it for a little while, said: "Excuse me, doctor, +but wouldn't you be kind enough to have cigars brought for us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor went into the house and, after he had left, the +King said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray tell me, Mathilde, was that all that troubled you? I +have, for +some time past, observed that there's something on your mind--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, there is something on my mind, but I can't speak of it, +until it +becomes an actual truth. It's nothing but love for you; pray don't ask +me more at present. You'll soon know all."</p> + +<p class="normal">When the doctor returned, he found the king alone, and +sitting under +the ash. The queen had withdrawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was the compliment you've just paid the Queen prompted by +professional +considerations?" asked the king, with lowering eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Your Majesty. I spoke sincerely and from conviction."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king remained silent for a long time, his eyes resting on +the +ground. At last he arose and, moving his hand as if putting something +far away from him, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, the queen wishes the nurse to be a young woman from +the +Highlands and of a respectable family. Is there time enough left for +you to journey there and select one? Are you not a native of the +Highlands? That were--but no, you must not go now. Send Doctor Sixtus; +give him precise instructions, and let him go from village to village. +He can propose several and you can select the best of them; the others +can be sent home with a gratuity, and--but act on your own judgment; +only, don't fail to send the doctor off this very day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty's wishes shall be obeyed."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"How radiant you look!" said Countess Irma, as she met the doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I do," he replied, "for I've just beheld that divine +sight,--a +heart overflowing with pure love of its fellow-beings;--but excuse me +for a moment!" he said, interrupting himself and leaving the countess, +while he went into an adjoining apartment and dispatched a telegram to +Doctor Sixtus, instructing him to prepare himself for an eight days' +journey, and to come to the summer palace forthwith. He then returned +to the countess, to whom he gave an account of what had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I tell you what I think?" asked the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know very well that none dare say you 'nay'."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, I can't help thinking that it was far better in +olden +times; for then royal children were born in some lonely, out-of-the-way +palace, as quietly as if it were to be kept a secret--"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor interrupted her: "You are indeed a true child of +your +father. For, although my dear friend Eberhard was full of strange +fancies during his younger years, he would at times manifest sudden and +surprising diffidence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, do tell me of my father! I know so little about him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've known nothing of him for many years. Of course you know +that he +has broken with me, because I am at court; but, in the olden times, in +our youthful, enthusiastic days--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you, too, were once enthusiastic!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was; but not to so great a degree as your father. When I +see you, it +seems as if his ideal had become realized. In those days, when I was a +young army surgeon, and he a still younger officer, we would indulge in +fantasy pictures of the future, and what it might have in store for us. +He never thought of a beloved one, or a wife, but would at one bound, +as it were, clear all that lay between, and indulge himself with brain +pictures of a child; a daughter, fresh, tender and lovely beyond +comparison. And now, when I behold you, I look upon his ideal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so my father's only ideal was a child?" asked Irma with +pensive +air, and looking earnestly into the doctor's eyes, "and yet for all +that, he left his children to grow up among strangers, and all that I +know of him I am obliged to learn from the lips of others. But I don't +care to speak of myself at present, dear doctor. I have a presentiment +of the queen's secret. I think I know what makes her so quiet and +reserved."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear child," said the doctor, "if you really have a +presentiment,--and that, moreover, in regard to a secret of their +majesties--take my advice: Don't impart it to any one, not even to the +pillow on which you lay your head at night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if your knowing would be of service to the queen? You +ought to be +her guide."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can only lead those who desire to be led."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All I ask of you is to have an eye on certain signs. Did the +queen say +nothing when she was before the church a little while ago and heard the +mass? Wasn't she startled by a certain tone? Didn't you observe a +certain inclination--"</p> + +<p class="normal">By a motion of his hand, the doctor signified that Irma had +better +stop, and added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child, if you desire to live comfortably at court, you +had better +not try to solve riddles which those to whom they belong don't care to +solve for you. But, above all, let no one know--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Discretion, discretion; the same old text," said Irma, +roguishly, her +beautifully curved lips quivering with emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are of a creative temperament, and are therefore out of +place at +court," said the doctor. "You desire to assert your individuality, +instead of giving way to prescribed forms; but it can't be done. Just +observe Councilor Schnabelsdorf, who will be used up much sooner +than he imagines. He is constantly offering or preparing something +new--cooking, roasting, or stewing all sorts of interesting information +for his masters--and his memory is an everlasting 'table, table, cover +thyself.' Take my word for it, before a year goes round, they'll all be +tired of him. He who wishes to remain a favorite must not thrust +himself forward."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma assented to this opinion, but saw through his attempt to +change +the direction of the conversation, and at once returned to what she had +intended to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray tell me," said she roguishly, "when one takes a false +step, and, +at the same time, injures himself, is it not called a misstep?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, let me tell you that the queen is in danger of +making a +misstep, which may be fraught with irreparable injury to her--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd prefer--" interrupted the doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! you'd prefer. Whenever you say that, you've something to +find +fault with."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've guessed it. I'd prefer your leaving the queen to +divulge her +secrets at her own pleasure. I thought you were a friend of hers--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, and since I am your morning preacher to-day, let me +give you +another warning. You are in danger of becoming one of those ladies who +have no friends of their own sex."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that really so dreadful?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most assuredly. You must have a female friend, or there is +some fault +in your disposition. Isolation, such as yours, warps one's character, +and, consciously or otherwise, results in vanity. If, from among all +the ladies here, you can't make even one your friend, the fault must +lie in yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But there's no harm in my having a male friend, a friend +like +yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I couldn't wish you a truer one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma walked beside the doctor in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they again reached the lawn in front of the palace, Irma +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know that this lawn is dressed up every Saturday with +false +hay?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Less wit and more clearness, if you please."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pshaw, how officinal!" said Irma, laughing. "Then allow me +to tell you +that the queen once said that she was very fond of the odor of new-mown +hay; and, ever since then, the intendant of the gardens has had the +lawn mowed at least once a week. But as stubborn nature won't furnish +hay quickly enough, they bring some from one of the outlying meadows +and spread it about during the night. And yet they persist in saying +that, in our age, princes are not deceived."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can find nothing wrong or laughable in the matter. The +intendant is +one of those who regard themselves as the pleasure-purveying providence +of their masters and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Pleasure-purveying providence!'--that's excellent. What a +happy +thought! I shall hold fast to that. How can you say you've no wit? Why, +you're brimful of delicious sarcasm. Oh dear, 'pleasure-purveying +providence'!" said Irma, laughing heartily; and while laughing, more +lovely than ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor found it no easy matter to lead the conversation +back to the +point at which it had been interrupted. Whenever he attempted a serious +remark, she would look at him with a roguish expression and give way to +laughter so hearty that he could not help joining in it. But when he at +last said that he had heretofore given her credit for something more +than mere occasional flashes of wit, and that he had, until now, +supposed her capable of carrying on an argument, she quickly became the +docile scholar, willing to be led by her master. And so skillfully did +the doctor use his arguments that she soon reflected his thoughts as if +they were her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">A tall and handsome page, with an aquiline nose and raven +hair, +approached the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My lady," said he, "her majesty the queen awaits you in the +music-room."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma excused herself to the doctor, whose eyes followed her +with a +thoughtful gaze. In a little while the rich and metallic notes of +Countess Irma's voice were heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eberhard used to sing delightfully," said the doctor, +directing his +steps toward the palace. When he approached the music-room, and saw +that the canon, who had read the mass that morning, was about to enter, +he hesitated.</p> + +<p class="normal">The morning was soft and balmy; nature seemed wrapped in +bliss. Every +plant, every flower, thrives best in its native soil. Man alone is +constantly creating new torments for himself. Could it be possible that +the mischievous countess was right, after all? But why should the queen +wish to forsake the faith of her ancestors?</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor retired to an arbor and read his Horace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus presented himself before the dinner hour, and, +while the +company were seating themselves at table, rode off in the direction of +the mountains.</p> + +<p class="normal">That evening--it was mild and starlight--the court drove to +the +capital; for the corner-stone of the new arsenal was to be laid on the +following day, with great pomp and military display.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The bells were ringing merrily. Their sounds were re-echoed by the +rugged mountains, and then floated out over the lake, the smooth, +green, glassy surface of which mirrored the forest-clad shores, the +rocky crags, and the skies above.</p> + +<p class="normal">Crowds were issuing from the church, the only building at the +upper end +of the lake. The men, donning their green hats with the black cock +plumes, took their pipes from their pockets and struck a light; the +women busied themselves with their dress, adjusted the pointed, green +hats, smoothed their aprons, and tied the broad streaming ends of their +silk kerchiefs anew. Following after the old women, who are always the +last to leave the church, there was a handsome young couple. The wife +was tall and stout, the husband slender and hardy as a pine. His +appearance showed the effects of the week's hard work. His pointed, +green hat, on which there was no hunter's badge, was worn aslant; he +took off his jacket and laid it over his shoulder, and then, with a +smile which seemed somewhat out of keeping with his weather-beaten +face, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you see? This is much better. Now there's no danger of +your +getting squeezed in the crowd."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young wife nodded assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">A group of women and girls seemed to have been waiting for +her. One of +the older members of the party said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, you shouldn't have done such a thing as walk all +the way to +church. You don't know how near you are to your time, and sometimes +there's too much of a good thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It won't do me any harm," replied the young wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I've prayed for you this morning," said a young, saucy +maid, who +wore a bunch of fresh flowers in her bosom. "When the priest prayed for +the queen and asked God to help her in the hour of trial, I asked +myself: What's the use of my worrying about the queen? There are enough +praying for her without me: and so I thought of you and said, Amen, +Walpurga!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stasi, I'm sure you meant well," said Walpurga +deprecatingly, "but I +want no share in it. You never ought to do such a thing. It's wrong to +change a prayer in that way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's right," said the old woman. "Why, that 'ud be just the +same as +taking a false oath."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let it go for nothing, then," said the girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It must be fine to be a queen," said the old woman, folding +her hands. +"At this very hour, in all the churches, millions are praying for her. +If such a king and queen aren't good after all that, they must be awful +wicked."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman, who was the midwife of the neighborhood, was +always +listened to with great attention. She accompanied husband and wife for +a part of the way, and gave them precise information as to where she +might be found at any hour during the next few days. Then, taking the +mountain path which led to her dwelling, she left them, the rest of the +church-goers dropping off in various directions as they reached the +lanes and by-paths leading to their farms. The children always kept in +front, their parents following after them.</p> + +<p class="normal">A party of girls, who were walking along hand in hand, had +much to say +to one another. But at last they, too, separated and joined their +parents.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young couple were alone on the road. The glaring rays of +the +noonday sun were reflected from the lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was almost a full hour's walk to their house, and they had +scarcely +gone a few hundred steps, when the wife said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei, I oughtn't to have let Annamirl go."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ill run after her as fast as I can, I can catch up with her +yet," said +the husband.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake, don't!" said his wife, holding him fast. +"I'd be all +alone here on the highway. Stay here! It'll soon be all right again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait a second! Hold fast to the tree! That's it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The husband rushed into the meadow, gathered up an armful of +hay, +placed it on the pile of stones by the wayside, and seated his wife +upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel better, already," said the wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk now, rest yourself! Oh! dear me; if only a wagon +were to +come along; but there's neither man nor beast in sight. Just take a +good rest, and then I'll carry you home. You're not too heavy for me. +I've carried heavier loads many a time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean to carry me, in broad daylight?" said the wife, +laughing +so heartily that she was obliged to rest her hand on the stones, to +support herself. "You dear, good fellow! Much obliged, but there's no +need of it. I'm all right now, and can walk." She got up briskly, and +Hansei's face was radiant with joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God! Here comes the doctor, in the very nick of time."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor, who lived in the neighboring town, was just +turning the +corner. Hansei raised his hat and requested him to take his wife into +the carriage. He gladly consented, but Walpurga seemed loth to get in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never rode in a carriage in all my life," said she, +repeatedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Everything must be tried, you know," said the doctor, +laughing, as he +assisted her into the carriage. He told the husband that he might get +up on the box, but he declined.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll drive slowly," said the doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei walked along by the side of the carriage, constantly +casting +happy glances at his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now we're two thousand paces from home; now we're a +thousand," said +he, talking to himself, while his glances showed his gratitude to the +doctor, to the carriage that was kind enough to allow his wife to sit +in it; and even to the horse from which he brushed the troublesome +flies.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei is doing the horse a kindness," said the doctor to +the young +wife. She did not answer, and the doctor looked pleased with the +husband, whom he had known for a long while as a wood-cutter in the +royal forest. Hansei carried his hat in his hand and would now and then +with his sleeve wipe the perspiration from his brow. His face was +sunburnt and void of expression, and, as he had not been a soldier, he +wore no mustache. A shaggy beard, extending from his temples, encircled +his long face; his forehead was, for the greater part, covered with +thick, light hair; his short leather breeches displayed his great +knees; the clocked, knitted leggins must surely have been a gift from +his wife; the heavy hobnailed shoes had been used in many a mountain +walk. Hansei walked along, beside the coach, with steady step, and at +last exclaimed: "We're home!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The little cottage by the lake stood in the midst of a small +garden; an +old woman was at the gate, and called out: "So you ride home in the +bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother," answered the wife, who, with profuse thanks, +took leave +of the doctor, while Hansei gratefully patted the horse that had safely +brought her home.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going right off for Annamirl," said he; "keep some +dinner for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, let's eat together; I'm hungry, too," exclaimed the +wife, while +she laid her hymn-book aside, and removed her hat and jacket. She was +good-looking, had a full, round, cheerful face, and large plaits of +light hair encircled her brow. She forced herself to remain at the +table and join in the meal with her husband and mother, but as soon as +the last morsel had passed his lips, Hansei started on his errand.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was high time for Annamirl to come. Before the chickens +had gone to +roost, the Sunday child, a screaming, fair-haired girl baby, had come.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was quite beside himself with joy, and did not know +what to do. +He had not had a comfortable dinner, and it seemed a great while since +he had eaten anything. It was ever so long ago, for he had become a +father since then; and it seemed as if years, instead of hours, had +passed in the mean while. He cut off a large slice from the loaf, but +when he got out of doors, where the birds were chirping so merrily and +the starlings were so tame, he cried out: "Here! You shall have some +too; I want you to know that I'm a father, and of a Sunday child at +that!" He threw the soft bread-crumbs to them, and the crust into the +sea, saying: "Here, ye fish who feed us; to-day I'll feed you!" He +was overflowing with goodwill to the whole world, but there was no +one left on whom he could exercise it. He knew not where he should +betake himself to. Suddenly he spied the ladder leaning against the +cherry-tree; he mounted it, plucked the cherries, and kept on eating +until he quite forgot himself, and felt as if it were not he who was +eating, but as if he were giving them to some one else. He no longer +knew where or who he was, and at last began to fear that he was +bewitched and would never be able to get down again. The telegraph wire +ran by the house and almost touched the cherry-tree. Hansei looked at +it as if to say: "Go, tell the whole world that I'm a father." He was +delighted to see swallows and starlings sitting on the wire, and nodded +to them, saying: "Don't disturb yourselves, I'll not harm ye." And so +he went on plucking cherries, and looking straight before him for ever +so long.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the grandmother put her head out of the window and +called to him: +"Hansei, your wife wants you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He hurried down from the tree, and when he entered the room +his wife +laughed at him heartily, for his lips were black and his face was +streaked with the juice of cherries.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you've been pilfering. Do leave a few cherries for me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll bring the ladder into your room, so that I shant be +able to go up +into the tree again," said he, and there was merry laughter in the +little cottage by the lake until the moon and stars looked down on it. +The lamp in the little chamber was kept burning all night. The mother +soon fell into a peaceful and happy slumber, and the Sunday child would +whimper at times, but was easily quieted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother was the only one awake--she had merely +feigned +sleep--and now sat on a footstool by the cradle of the new-born babe.</p> + +<p class="normal">A bright star was shining overhead. It flickered and +sparkled, and, +within the cottage, the face of the mother was resplendent with joy as +indescribable as the radiance of the star above. A child of man had +become mother of a child of man, and she who watched over them was the +one from whom both these lives had sprung. The soft air seemed laden +with song and the sounds of heavenly music, and the room itself, as if +thronged with fluttering, smiling cherubs.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old grandmother sat there, resting her chin on her hand +and gazing +at the star above, whose rays fell upon her face. She sat there with +bated breath, feeling as if transported into another world. The glory +of the Highest had descended upon the cottage, and, like a halo, now +encircled the head of the grandmother, Walpurga, and the infant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother! How brightly the stars are shining!" said Walpurga, +awaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never fear, they'll keep on shining, even if you shut your +eyes. Do go +to sleep again!" answered the grandmother.</p> + +<p class="normal">And, until the day broke, all lay hushed in slumber.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Seated in an open carriage, Doctor Sixtus journeyed toward the +Highlands.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor was a man of easy and winning address. While the +present +king was yet the crown prince, he had accompanied him on his travels +and, in the society of nobles, had improved on the light and graceful +manner which he had acquired during a three years' stay in Paris. Just +as princes treat their inferiors and regard their service as a right, +so, in turn, do courtiers abuse those who are under them. The court +doctor had chosen for his lackey, one of the readiest, and most +skillful at command.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me a light, Baum!" said he; and the lackey, who was +sitting +beside the driver on the box, handed him a lighted match. With gentle +condescension, Sixtus offered his cigar-case to the lackey, who +gratefully helped himself to a cigar. He well knew that it would prove +too strong for him, and that, if he attempted to smoke it, it would in +all likelihood throw him into a cold sweat; but he knew also that it is +a safe rule never to refuse a proffered favor.</p> + +<p class="normal">The road was good and the ride a pleasant one. At the next +station, the +royal horses were sent back to the king's stables and a relay of fleet +post-horses was taken. Doctor Sixtus had no need to trouble himself +about such matters--Baum knew what was needed and attended to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Baum, where were you born?" asked the court doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Baum was startled by the question, he acted as if he +had not +heard it. He found it necessary to collect himself before he could +reply. His features were agitated for a moment, but he quickly assumed +a modest and innocent expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor repeated his question: "Baum, where were you +born?"</p> + +<p class="normal">With a face expressive of willingness to serve him in any +way, Baum +turned toward the doctor and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I come from the Highlands; far over there near the border; +but I've +never felt at home there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus, whose question had been a casual one, had no desire +to inquire +further into Baum's history.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was quite affable toward Baum, who was the favorite lackey +at court, +since he possessed the art of showing by his demeanor how highly he +esteemed the exalted personages whom he served.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep as near the telegraph as possible," had been the +instructions +given to Doctor Sixtus. "Report every morning and evening where a +dispatch will reach you, so that you may be recalled at any moment."</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus looked out at the telegraph wires, running +through the +valleys and climbing over the hills, and smiled to himself. "I, too, am +nothing more than an electric spark, with this difference however: the +master who has sent me does not know where I am going to. No, I am like +the spirit in the fairy-tale; I bring money and luxury to an invisible +cottage, for I cannot find a rich peasant woman. Where art thou, O +noble foster-mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked out at the landscape with a self-complacent smile, +while, in +his day-dreams, various images appeared and vanished like the smoke +clouds of his cigar.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was after dark when they drew near to a little +watering-place in the +Highlands.</p> + +<p class="normal">While they ascended the mountain, the lackey walked on beside +the +postilion. Sixtus had entrusted him with the secret reason for their +journey. They had already, in distant lands, shared in adventures of +quite a different nature. Baum engaged the postilion in conversation +about the life and ways of the neighborhood and adroitly managed to +inquire about young lying-in women. He had found the right party. The +postilion was the son of a midwife, whose only fault was that she had +died some time ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus was much gratified by the hint which he had just +received of how +his mission might be fulfilled. He would seek information from the +midwives of every village, and, in order to avoid being overrun, would +take good care not to let them know for whom the foster-mother was +wanted.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Baum was about to return to his seat, Sixtus quietly +called him +and said: "During the whole of this journey, you're to address me +simply as 'Herr Doctor.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lackey did not ask why, for that was no part of his +business; nor +did he conjecture as to the reason; he was a lackey and obeyed orders. +"He who does more than he's ordered to do is good for nothing," were +the words that Baroness Steigeneck's chamberlain had often impressed +upon him, and whatever the chamberlain said was as a sacred law to +Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little watering-place was full of life. The company had +just left +the table. Some were talking of the day's excursion; others, about that +projected for the morrow. A young officer in civil dress, and a stout +gentleman, appeared to be the wags of the assembly. There were jokes +and laughter, and, in the background, a party were singing to the +accompaniment of a piano that was out of tune. All seemed more or less +excited. They had repaired to the Highlands to escape from <i>ennui</i>, +and, having arrived there, found themselves bored in earnest; for +there are but few to whom the beauties of nature afford constant and +all-sufficient entertainment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Luckily for Sixtus, no one recognized him, and Baum, who was +without +his livery, allowed no information to escape him. The doctor looked +upon the doings of the gentry about him with a certain aristocratic +sense of superiority. As the neighborhood abounded with goitres, he +concluded to leave without making further inquiries. On the following +morning, they reached a small mountain village. Doctor Sixtus addressed +himself to the village doctor, rode about the country with him for +several days and, at last, left without having accomplished his +mission. He, however, made a note of the names of several of the +parties they had seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">His knightly pride had well-nigh left him. He had looked into +the +dwellings of want and had beheld so much that told of toil and misery, +that the careless indifference with which beings of the same flesh and +blood could live in palaces, seemed like a dream. In this outer world, +existence is mere toil and care, nothing more than a painful effort to +sustain life, with no other outlook than that of renewed toil and care +on the morrow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A truce to sentiment," said the doctor to himself. "Things +happen thus +in this fine world. Men and beasts are alike. The stag in the forest +doesn't ask what becomes of the bird, and the bird, unless it be a +stork, doesn't care what becomes of the frogs! Away with sentimentality +and dreams of universal happiness!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor traveled to and fro among the Highlands, always +careful to +keep near the telegraph stations, and, as instructed, reporting twice a +day. He despaired of accomplishing his mission, and wrote to his chief +that, although he could not find married women, there were lots of +excellent unmarried ones. He therefore suggested that, as it would not +do to deceive a queen, it would be well to have the most acceptable one +married to her lover at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">While awaiting a reply, he remained at a village near the +lake, the +resident physician of which had been a fellow-student of his.</p> + +<p class="normal">The scarred face of the portly village doctor was refulgent +with traces +of the student cheer which in former days they had enjoyed in common. +He was still provided with a never-failing thirst and ready for +all sorts of fun. His manners had become rustic, and it was with a +self-complacent feeling Sixtus thought of the difference in their +positions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Kumpan--this was a nickname he had received while at +the +university--looked upon his friend's excursion in search of a nurse as +if it were one of their old student escapades. He rode with him over +hill and dale, never loth to make a slight detour, if, by that means, +they might gain an inn, where he could gratify his hunger with a good +meal, and his thirst with a drop of good wine--the more drops the +better.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So many of our customs," said Sixtus, one day, "are, at +bottom, +immoral. For instance, nurse-hunting."</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Kumpan roared with laughter and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you too, Schniepel,"--the college nickname of +Sixtus--"so you, +also, are one of the new-fashioned friends of the people. You +gentlemen, whose gloves are ever buttoned, treat the people far too +gingerly. We, who live among them, know them far better. They're a pack +of rogues and blockheads, just like their superiors; the only +difference's that they're more honest about it. The only effect your +care for them can have will be to make matters worse. How lucky it is +that the trees in the forest grow without artificial irrigation!"</p> + +<p class="normal">During these excursions, Doctor Kumpan gave free vent to his +rough +humor, and was so delighted with his wit that he could live three days +on the recollection of one of his own wretched jokes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus found himself ill at ease in the company of the +village doctor, +with whom it was necessary to keep on the same friendly footing as of +yore; and, therefore, made an effort to hasten his departure.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was about to take his leave--it was on the morning of the +second +Sunday following--when Doctor Kumpan said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm disgusted with myself for having been so stupid. I've +got it! +Mother nature herself, unconditioned and absolute--just as old +Professor Genitivius, the son of his celebrated father, used to say, +while he brought his fist down on his desk--Come along with me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove off in the direction of the lake.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Sunday morning had come again, and, with it, stirring times in the +cottage by the lake. Godfather and godmother were there, and, at the +first tolling of the church bell, whose sounds floated on the air like +so many invisible yet audible waves, a procession moved from the house. +The grandmother carried the child upon a soft, downy pillow, over which +a white cover had been spread; following after her, proudly walked the +father, with a nosegay in his button-hole. Beside him, was the +godfather, mine host of the Chamois, followed by tailor Schneck's wife +and other females. A light-haired boy about five years old, and bearing +a two-pronged twig of hazel in his hand, had also joined in the +procession.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you after, Waldl?" asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy did not answer. Mistress Schneck took his hand in +hers and +said: "Come along, Waldl!" and then turning to Hansei, she continued: +"Don't drive the child away! It's a good sign when a young boy goes +along to the christening; the child will get a husband so much the +sooner, and who knows but--" Hansei laughed to find that they were +already thinking of a mate for his daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">While moving along in silent procession, they beheld another +good omen. +A swallow flew directly over the heads of the grandmother and the +child, whereupon the former opened her great red umbrella and held it +over herself and the babe.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, unable to accompany them on their long walk to +church, was +obliged to remain at home. Her friend Stasi, who, on the previous +Sunday, had altered the prayer for the queen in Walpurga's favor, +remained to bear her company. Walpurga, seated in grandmother's +arm-chair, looked out of the latticed window, at the violets, the +buttercups, and the rosemary, the peaceful lake and the blue skies, +while she listened to the sound of the church bell.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the first time my babe goes out into the wide, wide +world, and +I'm not with it," said she; "and some day I shall go into the other +world and never be with it again. And still I feel as if it was with me +all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what makes you so downhearted today," said her +companion; +"if that comes o' getting married, I'll never have a husband."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense!" curtly replied Walpurga; her meaning was plain +enough. Soon +afterward, she added in a voice tremulous with emotion: "I'm not +downhearted. It's only this. I just feel as if the baby and I had been +both born over again. I don't know how it is, but I feel as if I were +another person. Just think of it! In all my life, I've never lain abed +so quietly and peacefully as I've been doing these many days. And to be +lying there perfectly well, and with nothing to do but think and sleep, +and awake again, and nurse the baby, while kind folks are forever +bringing whatever heart can wish for--I tell you, if I'd been a hermit +in the woods for seven years, I couldn't have done more thinking. It +would keep me busy day and night to tell you all. But what's that?" +said she, suddenly interrupting herself; "just then it seemed as if the +whole house were shaking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I didn't notice anything. But your face is enough to give +one the +blues. Let's sing something. Just try whether you're still our best +singer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her companion insisting, Walpurga at last began to sing, but +soon +stopped. Stasi essayed another song, but Walpurga did not care for it; +indeed, none of them were to her liking that day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's be quiet," said she at last. "Don't worry me through +all those +songs; I don't feel like doing anything to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">The bells were tolling for the third time. The two friends +were sitting +together in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last Stasi said: "How kind it is of the innkeeper to let +them ride +home from church in his wagon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Listen! I hear wheels. They can't be coming already."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, that's the rattle of the doctor's carriage. There he is, +up there +by the willows; and there's another gentleman with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk to me now, Stasi," said the young mother; "let +the whole +world drive by; it's all the same to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat there silently, resting her head against the back of +the chair +and looking out into the golden sunlight that seemed to infuse all +nature with new life. The grass was of a lovelier green than ever +before; the lake glittered with the soft sheen of the ever-changing +light; the waves were splashing against the shore; a gentle breeze +wafted the odors of the violets and rosemary from the window-shelf into +the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">A carriage stopped before the cottage. First, the loud +cracking of a +whip was heard; then, approaching footsteps, and at last, the jolly +doctor calling out: "Hansei! Is there no one at home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," answered Stasi, "there's nobody but Walpurga and me," +whereupon +there was great laughter out of doors.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Kumpan entered the room, followed by the stranger, who +started +as if amazed. Moved with admiration by the sight he beheld, he bowed +involuntarily; but, checking himself, he was more erect than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where's Hansei, the Sunday child's father?" inquired Doctor +Kumpan.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wife arose and said that he had gone to church with the +child and +its sponsors, but that he would soon return.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep your seat!" said the doctor. "I mean to be an unbidden +guest at +your christening dinner, and my friend here, who is also a man-killer +like myself, will join us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want of my husband? Mayn't I know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The husband cuts the loaf and then helps his wife to some of +it. You +know that's the custom of the country, Walpurga. We want to talk to +your husband about a matter of great importance. Don't get frightened, +it isn't a law affair. All I have to say to you is, you've a Sunday +child. Perhaps you're one yourself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am, indeed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So much the better; you're doubly fortunate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seems to me," said Doctor Sixtus, "we might as well speak +to the +wife at once. She appears to be a sensible woman and will be glad to +make her husband and child happy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked about her as if imploring help.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then," said Doctor Kumpan, taking a seat, "you may as +well let me +tell it. Now, pay attention, Walpurga. Just keep your seat and let me +tell you a story: Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen. The +king was good and brave, and the queen was lovely, and a son was born +to them who inherited the father's virtues and the mother's beauty; it +might have been a daughter, but they would rather have it a son. Now +when the son was born, they summoned a spirit who lived in the palace, +and was called Doctor Puck; and they said to him: Puck, dear Puck, pack +up your things, and pack yourself off to the mountains as fast as you +can; for there, by the border of the lake, is a pretty little cottage +in which there sits a mother who's tidy, strong, and good, and who's to +be the foster-mother of the little prince, who is as good as his +father, and as lovely as his mother. And the foster-mother shall have +whatever her heart wishes for, and shall make her husband and child +happy; and the king and the queen and the prince, and--but look up, +Walpurga! look at this gentleman. He's the kind spirit named Doctor +Puck, and he comes from the king and the queen. Do you understand me, +Walpurga?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The young mother rested her head upon the back of the chair +and closed +her eyes. She drew a long breath and uttered not a word. At that moment +Hansei returned with the sponsor and the babe. The mother hurried to +her child and taking it in her arms, rushed out into the garden with +it, Stasi running after her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter?" asked Hansei, casting angry glances at +the doctor +and the stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down, my worthy Hansei, and I'll tell you all about it. +And it's +well that you're here, too, my good friend of the Chamois: remain with +us. The rest of you may all leave the room."</p> + +<p class="normal">Suiting the action to the words, Doctor Kumpan hurried out +the +villagers, who had been drawn there by curiosity. Then, accepting a +pinch of snuff from the innkeeper, he said: "Hansei, make a bow; you +must know that this gentleman is the court physician. He's sent here by +the king, who wants you to lend him your wife for a year."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor's overbearing manner so enraged Hansei, that he +almost felt +like putting him and the court doctor out of the room, and was already +squaring his shoulders for the attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">Motioning Kumpan to be silent, Sixtus told Hansei that, by +the king's +orders, he had sought information in regard to him, and that it had +seemed as if the people did not know whom to praise the most--Hansei or +Walpurga. Hansei grinned self-complacently, and now Sixtus acquainted +him with the king's pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many thanks for the kind words," replied Hansei; "I'm much +obliged to +the king for his good opinion of me. I know him well; I rowed him +across the lake twice while he was yet a merry lad, and a wide-awake +huntsman. Tell the king that I hadn't thought he'd still remember me, +but I can't part with my wife. I couldn't be so cruel to her, to +myself, and, above all, to our child."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the longest speech he had ever made. He wiped the +perspiration +from his brow, and turned toward the table. He was as hungry as a wolf, +and, seeing the nicely cut cake, took a piece, exclaiming: "Before I do +it, may this morsel--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't swear!" cried the innkeeper, taking the cake from him. +"Don't +swear; you can do as you please; no one can compel you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And no one wishes to," said Doctor Sixtus; "may I have a +piece of +cake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure you may! Help yourself,--and you too, doctor! +We've wine +also. Ah, doctor, this day two weeks ago, out on the road, things +looked very serious!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was eating and drinking, and with every morsel that +Hansei +swallowed, his face grew more cheerful.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seems to me, Mr. Landlord, that you could explain the +matter to him +better than we," said Sixtus. The innkeeper offered Hansei a pinch of +snuff, with the words: "It would be a great honor to the village and to +the whole neighborhood. Just think of it, Hansei! the king and the +crown prince--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps it's a princess," interrupted Sixtus.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh!" said Hansei laughing, "and so the child isn't born +yet?" But +while laughing, he thought to himself: "There's still time to think the +matter over." Then he laughed again at the thought, for, with all his +simplicity, he was rogue enough to determine to reap the greatest +possible advantage from it; he couldn't think of such a thing for less +than a thousand--no, two thousand--and, who knows, perhaps even three +thousand florins. Hansei would probably have gone up to a hundred +thousand if the innkeeper had not resumed the conversation, and thus +interrupted the current of his thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei is perfectly right; he says neither 'yes,' nor 'no'; +he says +nothing; for here the wife must decide. He's a good husband, and won't +force her to do anything against her will. Yes, gentlemen, although +we're only simple country folk, we know what's right."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It does you credit to respect your wife so," said Doctor +Sixtus. The +innkeeper took another pinch of snuff and went on to say: "Of course; +but after all, if I may be allowed to speak my mind freely, a woman's +only half a man in reason and judgment. With your permission, Herr +Court Doctor, I think we'd better say no more for the present, but call +the wife. She's ever so good."</p> + +<p class="normal">Happiness and misery, pride and humility, were depicted in +Hansei's +features.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whatever she says, I'll abide by," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was proud of possessing such a wife, and yet dreaded her +decision. +He pulled at the buttons of his coat as if to make sure they were all +there. At last, urged by the innkeeper, he went out into the garden and +called Walpurga, who was still sitting under the cherry tree.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">After Walpurga had hurried out into the garden and had pressed the babe +to her bosom, she quietly gave it to Stasi, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take the child; I daren't feed it now. Oh, you poor, dear +thing! They +want to take me away from you. What harm have you ever done that they +should treat you so? And what have I done? But they can't make me go! +And who'd dare try? But what have they come for? Why to me? Come, +darling, I'm all right again. I'm with you, and we'll not part from +each other. I'm quite calm again."</p> + +<p class="normal">When Hansei came to call Walpurga, he found her quietly +pressing the +child to her bosom and kissing its little hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you've had your talk out, do come in."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga motioned him to be quiet, lest he should disturb the +child. He +stood there silently for a while; not a sound escaped father, mother, +or child; naught was heard but the starlings in the cherry-tree, who +were feeding their young. Swift as the wind itself they would fly from +their nests and return again. At last, the child, its hunger thoroughly +sated, but its lips still softly moving, dropped back on the pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come into the house," said Hansei, in a voice far gentler +than his +rough looks would have led one to expect, "Come in, Walpurga. There's +no need of being rude, and there's nothing wrong in what they ask of +us. They can't force us, you know, and we can thank them, at any rate. +You can talk to strangers much better than I can. It's your turn to +speak now; and I'll be satisfied with whatever you say or do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga handed the child to the grandmother, and accompanied +Hansei +into the house. She looked back several times, and almost stumbled at +the very threshold.</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as she entered the room, Doctor Sixtus came up to +her, and, +addressing her in a gentle, insinuating manner, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My good woman! I should think it a sin to induce you to do +anything +that your heart condemns. But I feel it my duty to urge you to reflect +upon the matter calmly and dispassionately."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many thanks. But--I hope you won't think ill of me--I +couldn't be so +cruel to my child." Her eye fell on Hansei, and she quickly added, "Nor +my husband either. I can't go away and leave them all alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why they won't be alone; your mother's here," said the +innkeeper, +interrupting her. Doctor Sixtus interposed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't interrupt her, if you please, sir. Let her speak for +herself, +and pour out her whole heart. Pray go on, my good woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've nothing more to say; I know nothing more. Yes, there's +one thing +more. I've never been in service, except to do an odd day's work, now +and then. I was born in this cottage, and I've lived here up to this +time, and 'twas here my husband came to see me. I've never thought of +leaving it, and I can't think of doing so now. I've never slept in a +strange bed. If I had to leave here and go to the city for so long a +time, I'd die of homesickness; and what would become of my child and my +husband? I'm sure the king don't want us all to die of grief."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to say a word, too," said Doctor Kumpan, casting an +expressive glance at Doctor Sixtus. "We've already thought of your +child. You've often wished for a cow, and we'll get you one that has +just calved."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've got the very thing you want," exclaimed the innkeeper, +rushing to +the window and calling to a boy outside: "Go tell my man to bring my +heifer, right away. Be quick about it! Hurry yourself!--I really didn't +care to part with her," said he, addressing Doctor Sixtus and turning +his back on Hansei, who well knew that the innkeeper dealt in cattle +and pigs, all the year around. Everything in his stable had its price, +and here he was acting just as if the heifer were a member of his +family. "She's the very best beast I've got," added he, "but one ought +to give up everything for his king; and she's a bargain at forty crown +thalers." Then turning to Hansei he said, with a grin: "You're getting +a fine, plump little cow--not an empty hide."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so fast, my friend," said Doctor Sixtus; "but if Hansei +likes the +heifer, I'll buy it of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The mother goes and the cow takes her place," muttered +Walpurga, +absently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never thought you could be so foolish," thundered the +innkeeper. +"Why, what a fuss you're making! You ought to shout for joy, and get +down on your knees and thank God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus quieted him, and the village doctor now said: +"Joy and +song come at no one's bidding; if Walpurga won't go with us cheerfully +we'll look further; there must be others besides her."</p> + +<p class="normal">He arose, and took his hat as if to depart, Doctor Sixtus +doing +likewise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How soon would I have to go, and how long would I have to be +away from +home?" asked the young wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Seating himself again. Doctor Sixtus replied: "I can't say +how soon, +but you'd have to be ready to go at a moment's notice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I wouldn't have to go right off--and how long would I +have to +stay?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A year, or thereabouts."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no! I won't go. God forgive me for giving it a moment's +thought!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then we'll take our leave, and may God bless you and your +child," said +Doctor Sixtus, offering her his hand. With a voice full of emotion, he +added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would do the royal child more harm than good if you were +to leave +here regretfully, and carry a constant grief about with you. That the +mere idea pains you is quite natural. You couldn't, as a good woman and +true mother, have consented at once, and who knows whether I would have +accepted you if you had? What the queen desires is a good woman, who +has a respectable husband and a kind mother; she will have no other, +and has no thought of grieving or offending you. Therefore, if you +can't be cheerful among strangers; if it doesn't gladden your heart to +think that you may benefit the royal child, and that the king will be +kind to you, you'll do far better to remain at home and not allow +yourself to be tempted by the money. Don't let that induce you. No; +you'd better not go."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was about to leave, when the innkeeper detained him and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've only one word more to say. Listen, Walpurga, and you, +too, +Hansei. You've said: 'No, I won't go,' and the answer does you great +credit. But ask yourselves what the consequence will be? To-day, +to-morrow, perhaps even the day after to-morrow, you'll be quite +content--will take each other by the hand, kiss your child, and say: +'Thank God! we've resisted temptation; we've remained united in +poverty, and maintain ourselves honestly; we'd rather toil and suffer +together than part.' But how will it be a day or a week later? How +then? When sorrow and want and misfortune come--for we're only human +after all--and you find yourselves helpless? Won't you say to +yourselves: 'If we'd only consented.' Won't you then, by word or look, +say to one another: 'Why didn't you urge me? Why didn't you decide to +go?' I don't want to persuade you, I merely want to remind you of all +you ought to consider in the matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Silence ensued. The husband looked at his wife and then at +the ground; +the wife looked at him for a while, and then suddenly raised her hand +to her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cracking of a whip was heard and then a fine black-pied +cow +bellowing loud and deep, as if the sound issued from a cavern. All were +startled. The sound broke upon the silence like a ghost-call at +noonday.</p> + +<p class="normal">The innkeeper cursed and swore, and putting his head out of +the window, +abused the servant for not having brought the calf, which had, in +truth, already been sold to the butcher.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant fastened the cow to the fence, and hurried home +to bring +its calf. The cow dragged at the rope, as if trying to strangle +herself, and groaned and bellowed until she foamed at the mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's only a beast, and see how she goes on!" cried +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">The arrival of the cow seemed to dissipate the effect of the +innkeeper's eloquence. But Walpurga suddenly composed herself. Speaking +quickly, as if addressing an unseen being, and without looking at any +one, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"A man or a woman can do more than a beast!" Then, turning +toward her +husband, she added: "Come here, Hansei, give me your hand. Tell me, +from the bottom of your heart, will you be satisfied with whatever I +may do or say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean if you say 'no'?" replied Hansei, hesitating.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whether I say 'yes' or 'no' is what I mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei could not utter a word. Had he been able to speak, his +remarks +would have been very sensible. He kept looking into his hat, as if +there to read the thoughts that were running through his head. Then he +took his blue pocket-handkerchief, and twisted it up as if he were +trying to make a ball of it. When Walpurga found that Hansei did not +answer, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't ask you to decide. I, alone, can do that. I'm the +child's +mother--I'm the wife, and ... if I go, I must, and I'm sure I can, +keep down all grief, so that I may do no harm to the other child; +and--and--here's my hand, sir--my answer is 'yes'."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if a load had been lifted from the hearts of all +present. +Hansei felt a stinging sensation in his eyes, and as if choking. To +allay this, he indulged in a fresh glass of wine and a large slice of +cake. What a strange day! If the company would only go, so that one +could get a bite of something warm. The morning seemed as if it would +never end. The two physicians had much to say to Walpurga, who promised +to keep herself as cheerful as possible. She told them that when she +had once undertaken a thing she would carry it out; that God would help +to preserve her child and that she would do all she could for the +king's child. "You can depend upon it, when I've made up my mind to do +a thing, I do it," she repeated again and again. Now that she had +decided, she seemed to have acquired wondrous self-control. Spying her +mother, who was carrying the child, she called her to her, and told her +of everything. The child slumbered peacefully, and was placed in the +cradle that stood in the bedroom. The grandmother seemed to look upon +the whole affair as if it were an unalterable decree of fate. For years +it had been her wont to allow Walpurga to decide in all things, and in +this case, moreover, the king's pleasure was to be regarded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your child won't be motherless; I understand her better than +you do. +We've got a cow, and we'll see that the child is well cared for."</p> + +<p class="normal">The innkeeper hurried out and put the cow in the stable. That +closed +the purchase and gave him a pretty profit. He was provoked at himself +to think that he had not asked ten thalers more. He managed to get two +thalers additional, as a gratuity for the boy, but half of this sum +found its way into his own pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, who had in the mean while refreshed himself, thought +it would +be well to show that he was a man. He inquired as to the pay, and was +just about to name the large sum he had been thinking of, when the +innkeeper returned, and made it clear to him that the less he bargained +the more he would get. He offered to give him five hundred florins for +the christening gifts alone, and told him that, if he left it to the +king, he would get all the more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga now asked what she would have to take with her. +Doctor Sixtus +told her that her best suit would be all that was necessary.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many of the villagers had gathered before the window. They +had heard +the news, and others, while on their way to afternoon church, stopped, +and at last there was quite a crowd. There was much merriment, for +every man said that he would gladly let the king borrow his wife for a +year.</p> + +<p class="normal">Stasi offered to help the grandmother. It was not without +pride that +she spoke of her being able to write a good hand and promised to send +Walpurga a letter once a week, about the child, the husband, and the +mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">She then brought the plates, for it was high time they were +at dinner. +Walpurga said that she would put all to rights within the next few +days.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What I now deny my child," said she, "I can more than make +up to her +for the rest of her life."</p> + +<p class="normal">While she was thus speaking, she heard the child crying in +the other +room and hurried to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The two physicians and the innkeeper were about to leave, +when the +sounds of a post-horn were heard in the direction of the road that led +up from the lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">The special post had arrived. The lackey whom Doctor Sixtus +had left at +the telegraph station near by, was sitting in the open carriage. He +raised his hand, in which he held a letter aloft. He stopped before the +cottage and called out to the crowd:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shout huzza! every one of you! A crown prince was born an +hour ago!"</p> + +<p class="normal">They cheered again and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">An old woman, bent double, suddenly turned toward the lackey +and gazed +into his face with her bright, brown eyes that, in spite of her years, +were still sparkling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whose voice is that?" muttered the old woman to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was an almost imperceptible change in the features of +the lackey, +but the old woman had noticed it. "Clear the way, folks!" said he, "so +that I may alight!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Get out of the way, Zenza!" (Vincenza) "Old Zenza's always +in the +way."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman stood there, staring before her vacantly, as if +in a +waking dream. She was shoved aside, and lost the staff with which she +had supported herself. The lackey tripped over it, but, without looking +to the right or left, hurried into the cottage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus advanced to meet him, took the dispatch, and +returned to +the room. Walpurga had come back in the mean while, and he said to her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has happened sooner than we expected. I've just received +a +dispatch; at ten o'clock this morning, the crown prince was born. I am +to hurry off to the capital and bring the nurse with me. Now, Walpurga, +is the time to prove your strength. We leave in an hour."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm ready," said Walpurga resolutely. She felt so weak, +however, that +she was obliged to sit down.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The two physicians, accompanied by the innkeeper, left the house. Stasi +brought in the soup and the roast meat for the christening dinner and +placed them on the table. The grandmother offered up a prayer, in which +the others joined; they all seated themselves at the table. Walpurga +was the first to take a spoonful of the soup from the dish, but, +finding that no one cared to eat, she filled her spoon again and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Open your mouth, Hansei, and let me give you something to +eat. Take +this, and may God's blessing go with it. And just as the food I now +offer you gives me more pleasure than if I were eating it myself, so, +when I'm among strangers, not a morsel will pass my lips that I +wouldn't rather give you and the child. I only go away so that we may +be able to live in peace and comfort hereafter. I shall think of you +and mother and the child, by day and night, and, God willing, I'll +return again in health and happiness. Don't forget that God might have +called me away in the hour of pain and trial, and that then you'd have +been without me all your lifetime. Mother, I've often heard you say +that a wife giving birth to a child has one foot in the grave. I'm only +going away for a year, and you all know that I'll return the same +Walpurga that I now am. Don't let our parting be sad, Hansei; you must +help me! You can, and I know you will. You're my only support. Keep +yourself tidy while I'm gone. You'd better wear a good shirt every +Sunday morning, for now you can afford it. You'll find them in the blue +closet--on the upper right-hand shelf. Do eat something; I'll eat just +as soon as you do. We need all our strength. You'll be all right +to-morrow, and so shall I. But do eat something! For every spoonful you +take, I'll take one, too:--there, that's it--but not so fast, or I +can't keep up with you!" Smiling through her tears, she went on eating.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, mother," she continued, "you'll have no chance to +say that +you're a burden to us. When I'm gone, you can take the two pillows off +my bed and put them on yours, so that you can sleep with your head +right high. That'll do you good. If we didn't have you, I wouldn't dare +to think of going. Don't spoil my husband, and, when I come back again, +we'll fix up a little room for you where you can live as well as the +first farmer's wife in the land."</p> + +<p class="normal">They let her do all the talking, and when she said: "Do say +something, +Hansei," he replied: "You'd better keep on talking. I can hear my voice +any time; but it'll be a long while before I listen to yours again. Who +knows but--"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was about to take a piece of meat, but he put it back on +the plate. +He could not eat another morsel; nor could the others. The grandmother +arose and said grace. Time flew by. A coach drove up to the door. The +lackey was the only one seated in it; the gentlemen intended to follow +shortly after. Baum speedily found himself on a familiar footing with +Hansei. The first step toward their intimacy was the offer of a good +cigar. He said that he envied Hansei's luck in having such a wife, and +in being so fortunate into the bargain. Hansei felt greatly flattered. +Doctor Sixtus gave orders that some bed cushions should be placed in +the coach, so that Walpurga might be comfortable and well protected +against the night air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you ride all night?" inquired Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, no! We shall reach the capital by midnight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But your fast driving may hurt my wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let that worry you. Your wife will be as well taken +care of as +the queen herself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know how it is, but when I look at this gentleman +and hear him +talk," said Hansei, looking Baum straight in the face, "I feel ever so +queer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How so? Do I look so terrible?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God forbid! No, indeed! But the one I'm thinking of was a +good-for-nothing fellow. No offense, I assure you. But old Zenza--there +she is at the garden gate, watching us--had twins. One is named Thomas +and the other was Wolfgang, or Jangerl, as they say hereabouts. Well, +Jangerl joined the soldiers and went to America. It must have been some +thirteen or fourteen years ago, and no one has ever heard of him since, +and really--but you won't think ill of what I say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course not! Go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, Jangerl looked just like you to the very hair. No, not +the hair, +for his was red and his face wasn't as fine as yours, either; but +taking it altogether, just as the devil takes the farmers"--Hansei was +delighted with his joke, and the lackey joined in his laughter--"one +might say that you look like each other. But you're sure you're not +angry at what I've said?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all," said Baum, looking at his watch. The clock in +the church +steeple was just striking five, and he said: "There's a difference of +exactly one hour between your clock and that at the capital. Did this +house belong to your parents?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I got it with my wife. That's to say, we still owe a +mortgage of +two hundred florins on it, but the farmer who holds it, doesn't press +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your wife can buy you another house, and you ought to +consider +yourself lucky to have so good-looking a wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and that's what makes me sorry to give her up," +complained +Hansei. "However, there are only three hundred and sixty-five days in a +year--but that's a good many, after all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And as many nights in the bargain," said Baum, laughing. +Poor Hansei +shuddered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed!" said he. He felt that politeness required an +answer on +his part.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the mean while, Walpurga had asked her mother and Stasi to +leave her +alone with the child. She was kneeling beside the cradle and wetted the +pillow with her tears. She kissed the child, the coverlet, and cradle, +and then, getting up, said: "Farewell! A thousand times, farewell!" She +had dried her tears, and was about to leave the room, when the door +opened from without and her mother entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll help you," said she. "You'll be either twice as happy, +or twice +as miserable, when you return, and will make us just as happy or as +miserable as you are."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she took Walpurga's left hand in hers, and, in a +commanding voice, +said: "Put your right hand on your child's head!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that for, mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do as I bid you. Swear by your child's head and by the hand +I hold in +mine, that you'll remain good and pure, no matter what temptations may +assail you. Remember you're a wife, a mother, a daughter! Do you swear +this with all your heart?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do, mother, so help me God! But there's no need of such an +oath."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," said the mother. "Now walk around the cradle +three times +with your face turned from it. I'll lead you; don't stumble. Now you've +taken the child's homesickness from it, and I'll take good care of it. +Take my word for that."</p> + +<p class="normal">She then led Walpurga into the room and, handing her the +great loaf of +bread and the knife, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cut a piece for yourself, before you go. May God bless it +for your +sake, and when you've reached your journey's end, let the bread that +you've brought from home be the first morsel you eat. That'll kill the +feeling of strangeness; and now, farewell."</p> + +<p class="normal">They remained there in silence, holding each other by the +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga found it wondrous strange that Hansei was walking +about in the +garden with the lackey and forgetting her. Just then, he went up the +ladder to get him some cherries, and was smoking incessantly; after +that, he took him into the stable, where the cow had been placed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The two physicians had returned, and Hansei had to be called +into the +room, for it was here, and not out of doors in the presence of the +crowd, that the wife wished to take leave of her husband. Doctor Sixtus +put a roll of crown thalers in Hansei's pocket. After that, Hansei +constantly kept his hand there and was loth to remove it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me your hand, Hansei," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">He loosened his grasp of the money and gave her his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Farewell, dear Hansei, and be a good man. I'll remain a good +wife.... And now, God keep you all of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She kissed her mother and Stasi, and then, without once +looking back, +she hurried through the garden and seated herself in the carriage. The +cow in the stable bellowed and groaned, but the sounds were drowned by +the postilion's fanfare.</p> + +<p class="normal">During all this, old Zenza had been leaning against the +garden gate; at +times passing her hand over her face and rubbing her bright and +sparkling eyes. And now, when the lackey passed her she stared at him +so, that he asked, in a rough and yet not unkind voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you want anything, mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; I'm old, and a mother in the bargain. Hi-hi-hi!" said +she, +laughing, and the crowd hinted to the lackey that her mind often +wandered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is there anything you want?" asked the lackey again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course there is, if you'll give it to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">With trembling hand, the lackey drew the large purse from his +pocket, +and took out a piece of gold. But no, that might betray him. After +fumbling with the money a long while, he at last gave the gold piece to +the old woman, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is from the king."</p> + +<p class="normal">He mounted the box and never looked back again. The coach +started off.</p> + +<p class="normal">People came up to Zenza and asked her to show them what she +had +received, but her hand was closed as with a convulsive grasp. Without +answering, she went away, supporting herself upon her staff.</p> + +<p class="normal">She walked on, constantly looking at the ruts that the +carriage wheels +had made in the road, and those who passed her could hear her muttering +unintelligibly. Her staff was in her right hand, and with her left she +still clutched the gold piece.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The carriage moved along the road by the lake, and, at last, turning +the corner at the stone-pile, was out of sight. The hay on which +Walpurga had rested a fortnight before was still lying in the same +place.</p> + +<p class="normal">They passed a handsome girl, dressed in once genteel, but now +shabby, +finery. She was of a powerful frame, tawny complexion, and her +blue-black hair was braided in thick plaits. She stared at Walpurga, +but did not greet her until after she had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the daughter of the old woman you gave a present to," +said +Walpurga, addressing the lackey. "She goes by the name of Black Esther. +If the mother doesn't bury the money out of sight, she'll surely take +it from her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Baum turned toward Walpurga, he was not looking at +her, but at +the girl, who was no other than his sister. A little while ago, he had +denied his mother, while bestowing an alms upon her. And now he sat up +beside the postilion, his arms folded as if to brace himself, for he +felt as if his heart would break. His whole life passed before him, +and, now and then, he planted himself more firmly in his seat, lest he +should fall. And now the carriage passed by a farmyard where, twenty +years ago, he had, by his mother's order, stolen a goose. He was a slim +lad then and had found it easy to slip in, on all fours, through the +gap in the hedge, which had closed up in the mean while.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas, his twin brother, had joined the poachers. But Baum, +who was +not apt at their work, was glad when they took him for a soldier. One +day while he was on duty at the palace an old <i>valet de chambre</i> +brought a letter from Baroness Steigeneck, who was then at the height +of her power. The valet was kept waiting a long while, during which he +chatted with Baum, to whom he took a great liking. He invited Baum to +visit the Steigeneck palace, where they drank together in the servants' +room and were exceedingly jolly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why is your hair so red?" said the <i>valet de chambre</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? Because it grew so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But that can be remedied."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed! How so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man gave Baum the requisite directions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must also change your name. Rauhensteiner is too hard +for their +lordships. It is difficult to pronounce, and particularly for those who +have false teeth. You must take some such name as Beck, or Schultz, or +Hecht, or Baum. For, mind you, a dog has no name except the one its +master sees fit to call it by."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Baum' would suit me very well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, let it be Baum." On his way home that night, he +kept +continually saying to himself, "Baum, Baum--that's a short and easy +name and no one will know me." The old man had made him swear that he +would have nothing more to do with his family. His recent visit to his +native village had reminded him of his pledge, and, although he +attached but little importance to an oath, he found it convenient and, +as he thought, praiseworthy to keep this one.</p> + +<p class="normal">Through the intercession of the Steigeneck valet, his +military +discharge was made out in the name of Wolfgang Rauhensteiner--surnamed +Baum. After that, he was simply known as Baum, and none knew that he +had ever borne another name. He was perfectly willing to forego his +chance of any bequests that might be left to him under the name of +Rauhensteiner.</p> + +<p class="normal">He entered the service of the court, and his first position +was as +groom to the prince, while at the university and during his subsequent +journey through Italy. As a precaution, he had gone home and obtained +an emigrant's passport, and afterward had dyed his hair black. In his +native village, all were under the impression that he had emigrated.</p> + +<p class="normal">After he returned from his travels, he married the daughter +of the +<i>valet de chambre</i>, and ever grew in favor with his masters. He was +discreet in all things, and would cough behind his raised left hand. He +was delighted with the name of "Baum." Such was his zeal to serve his +masters, that had it been possible he would, for their sakes, have +banished all harsh consonants from the language.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's settled," said Baum, as he sat on the box beside the +postilion +and coughed behind his hand. "That's settled"--and his face assumed a +calm and determined expression as if he thought some one was watching +him. "I've emigrated to America. If I were there, I'd be dead and +buried as far as my family are concerned. Family, indeed! They'd only +ruin and beggar me, and always be at my heels. None of that for me!" He +watched the people, many of whom he knew, walking along the road. "What +a pitiful life these folks must lead--no pleasure the whole year round! +Once a week, on Sunday they get shaved and preached to, and the next +morning the squalor begins anew. Any one who has escaped, would be a +fool to think of returning to it again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst Baum was thus recalling long-forgotten incidents of +his past, +Walpurga was trying hard to repress her tears. It seemed as if some +higher power to whose sway she submitted herself had deprived her of +thought and feeling.</p> + +<p class="normal">With wondering eyes she gazed at the brooks that hurried down +from the +hills and then, as if to see what was becoming of Walpurga, would run +along beside the road. When they dashed across the wooden bridges that +overhung the roaring brook, she would tremble with fear, and would not +feel reassured until they had gained the smooth road on the other side. +She looked up at the mountains, the houses and the Alpine huts; she +knew the names of those who dwelt in every one of them. But they soon +reached a region to which she was a stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the next station where they stopped to change horses, the +Sunday +idlers were astonished to see a peasant woman descend from so elegant a +carriage. A woman nursing her child was sitting under a linden tree +near by. Prompted by curiosity, she raised herself in her seat, and the +child turning its head at the same time, mother and child were staring +at Walpurga, who nodded to them kindly, while her eyes filled with +tears and her throat seemed to close. The postilion blew his horn, the +horses started off at a gallop, and Walpurga again felt as if flying +through the air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is fast traveling, Walpurga, isn't it?" exclaimed Baum. +When she +now looked at him, she, too, was startled by his wonderful resemblance +to Thomas.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed!" said she. The doctor said but little, for he +was too +deeply moved by sympathy for her. Nor did he, as usual, assert his +pride of position. This woman was so much more than a mere tool that +one might well treat her with kindness and consideration. She had found +it so hard to leave her home. He was, for some time, considering what +he should say to her, and, at last, inquired:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you like your doctor?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed I do! He's very odd. He scolds and abuses +everybody; but +for all that, he does good wherever he can, be it day or night; rich +and poor are all the same to him. Oh, he's a real good man!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus smiled and asked her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I didn't get to see his wife. Do you know her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I do. It's Hedwig, the apothecary's daughter. Her +family are +very nice folks, and she's a sweet, charming creature; plain in her +ways and quite a home body. They have fine children, too--five or six +of them, I believe--and so she has her hands full. He might have taken +you to his house, for it's ever so neat and tidy."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was delighted with Walpurga's good report of his friend. +And now +that he had succeeded in changing the train of her thoughts, he +concluded that he had done enough and could leave her to shift for +herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">She saw everything as if in a dream. There were fields and +meadows, +then a village, a window-shelf covered with carnations and hanging +vines. You've such at home, too, thought she, and in a moment they had +vanished from sight. Then they passed the churchyard, its black crosses +half buried in the earth and yet standing out boldly against the clear +sky. In the village there was music and dancing, and merry youths and +maidens, their faces flushed by their sport, hurried to the windows. +Then they passed more fields and meadows and houses, and saw groups +sitting together and talking. And then the postilion blew a loud blast. +A child was running in the middle of the road. With a shriek of horror, +the mother rescued it and hastened away. The carriage did not stop. +Walpurga looked back, feeling sure that they must now be thanking God +for the child's escape. And still they went on. Then they passed a cow +grazing by the wayside, a boy near by watching her. In the level +country where the climate is so much milder, the cherry-trees were +already bare of fruit. And then they came to great fields, with their +vast sea of waving grain--there were none such in the Highlands.... How +happy these people must be who live down here, where there is something +more than water, meadow and forest. In yonder fallow field, there lies +a plow as if sleeping over Sunday. It grows dark, lights begin to +twinkle; there are men and women, too. They are in their homes, but I'm +being taken away from mine.... At the next post station, both the +doctor and Walpurga remained in the carriage. The horses were quickly +changed, the old ones going, with heavy steps, into the stable; a new +postilion mounted the box, and they were off again. Walpurga saw +nothing more; her eyes were closed, and it seemed as if it were a +dream, when the carriage stopped again for a fresh relay of horses, and +she heard Baum ordering the postilion not to blow his horn lest he +might awaken those inside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not asleep," said the doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor am I! Just blow your horn, postilion," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">The postilion blew a loud blast, and they were off again. The +stars +were glittering overhead. They passed through more villages; windows +were quickly raised, but they dashed by so rapidly that they were out +of sight before the surprised villagers had time to collect their +senses. Objects at the wayside were strangely illumined by the +ever-moving glimmer of the two carriage-lamps, and at last, in the +distance, they descried a great light and, over it, a cloud of smoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's an illumination in the city!" exclaimed Baum. The +horses were +urged to greater speed, and the postilion blew his horn more merrily +than before. They were, at last, in the capital.</p> + +<p class="normal">The carriage made slow headway through the surging, joyous +crowd that +filled the streets.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here comes the crown prince's nurse," was soon noised about, +and the +merry crowd greeted Walpurga with loud cheers. Confused and abashed, +she hid her face in her hands. At last they were safely in the +courtyard of the palace.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga found herself in the interior quadrangle of the palace. She +was quite giddy, with looking at the many doors, the great windows, the +broad staircases and the coats of arms, emblazoned with figures of wild +men and beasts. All seemed wondrous strange under the glare of the gas +lamps, the strong lights, here and there, contrasting with the deep, +mysterious shadows. Walpurga stared about her with a dreamy vacant +gaze. Giving way to memories of olden legends, she thought of the young +mother whom the genii of the mountain had carried off to a subterranean +cavern, where they detained her by means of a magic charm, while she +nursed a new-born babe.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she was recalled to herself at last. From the +palace-guard, where +the muskets were stacked in two long rows and the sentry was marching +to and fro, she heard one of the songs of her home.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The captain of the palace-guard has sent wine to the +soldiers," said a +young liveried servant addressing Baum, whom he assisted to unharness +the horses: "the whole town will be drunk."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt like telling them that they should not permit +the +soldiers to sing so loudly, because the young mother who was lying +overhead ought to sleep. She had no idea of the great size of the +palace, but was soon to find it out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come with me," said Doctor Sixtus; "I'll conduct you to the +first lady +of the bed-chamber. Have no fear! You will be cordially welcomed by +all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd better bring my pillows with me," answered Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind; Baum will attend to them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga followed after the doctor. They ascended a +staircase, +brilliantly illuminated and decorated with flowers, and Walpurga felt +ashamed at the thought of her coming empty-handed, just as if there was +nothing she could call her own. "I'm not that poor, after all," said +she almost audibly.</p> + +<p class="normal">They reached the grand corridor. It was also brilliantly +illuminated +and filled with flowers. There were people in uniform, walking to and +fro, but the soft carpets prevented their footsteps from being heard. +The under-servants remained standing while Sixtus and Walpurga passed +by them. At last they stopped before a door. Addressing the servant who +was stationed there, Doctor Sixtus said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Inform her excellency that Doctor Sixtus is in waiting, and +that he +has brought the nurse."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the first time that Walpurga had heard herself +spoken of as +"the nurse," and as being "brought."</p> + +<p class="normal">She again felt as if under a spell, or rather, as if sold. +But she +plucked up courage, and suddenly it seemed to her as if she were +seated, as she often had been, in a boat on the lake; as if she were +plying the oars with her strong arms--a furious wind resisting her +progress, and the waves rushing wildly on high. But she was strong, and +rowed with a steady hand, and at last conquered the wind and the waves. +She stiffened her arms and clenched her fists as if to grasp the oars +more firmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant soon returned, and held the door open while +Doctor Sixtus +and Walpurga entered a large, well-lighted apartment. A tall, thin +lady, clad in a dress of black satin, was seated in an arm-chair near +the table. She arose for a moment, but resumed her seat immediately. It +is no trifling matter to be first lady of the bedchamber at the birth +of a crown prince. This had been a great day with Countess +Brinkenstein. Her name had been inscribed for all time in the great +official record of the day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although she always judged her actions by a severe standard, +she had +reason to be satisfied with herself that day. While the court and +capital were all commotion, she had been perfectly calm. She had kept +up the dignity of the court and, moreover, of the king, who had shown +himself strangely weak and excited.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was resting on her laurels. One circumstance had greatly +vexed her +and had not yet been dismissed from her mind; but as she had a firm +will, she controlled her feelings. She was always self-possessed, +because she always knew just what was to be done.</p> + +<p class="normal">To have waited so long before securing a nurse was a thing +unheard of. +Many had offered themselves, and, among them, some who belonged to good +families; that is, of the nobility who had married lower officials. +Countess Brinkenstein regarded the queen's resolve that the nurse must +be of the common people--a peasant woman, indeed--as overstrained +fastidiousness; there could be no harm in referring to princely errors +in such terms. The preserver of decorum was therefore determined to +assume the responsibility of filling the post with a nurse of her own +choice, when the doctor's telegram, informing them that he had secured +the ideal peasant woman, was received. Her displeasure at the queen's +behavior was now transferred to the peasant woman, who was as yet a +stranger to her, and who would, in all likelihood, bring trouble into +the palace. But, after all, what were rules and regulations made for? +By consistently observing them, all would yet be well.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the peasant woman was announced. Countess Brinkenstein +arose, her +stern features softened by the noble thought that this poor woman ought +not to suffer because of the queen's newly acquired love for the +people; a love which would only render its objects the more unhappy and +discontented.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor presented Walpurga, and spoke of her in such terms +that she +cast down her eyes, abashed at his praise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Addressing Countess Brinkenstein in French, he told her how +difficult +it had been to secure this, the fairest and best woman in the +Highlands. Answering in the same tongue, the countess congratulated him +upon his success and commented on Walpurga's healthy appearance. +Finally she inquired, still in French:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has she good teeth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor turned to Walpurga, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her ladyship thinks you can't laugh."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga smiled, and the countess praised her perfect teeth. +She then +touched the bell on the table and a lackey appeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell privy councilor Gunther," said she, "that I await him +here, and +that the nurse of his royal highness has arrived."</p> + +<p class="normal">The lackey left the room. The countess now touched the bell +twice; a +tall lady, advanced in years, and wearing long, corkscrew curls, +appeared, and bowed so low that Walpurga imagined she intended to sit +down on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come nearer, dear Kramer," said the countess. "This is the +nurse of +his royal highness; she is in your especial charge. Take her to your +room and let her have something to eat. What shall it be, doctor?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good beef broth will do very well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go with Kramer," said the countess, addressing Walpurga, and +smiling +graciously. "Whenever you want any thing, dear child, ask her for it. +God be with you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady with the corkscrew curls, offering her hand to +Walpurga, said: +"Come with me, my good woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga nodded a grateful assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so, after all, there was some one to take her by the hand +and speak +German to her. And they were kind words, too, for the old lady had +addressed her as "dear child," and mademoiselle as "my good woman." +While they were speaking French, it had seemed as if she were betrayed, +for she could not help feeling that they were talking of her. +Mademoiselle Kramer now conducted her to the second room beyond.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now let me bid you welcome!" said the lady, while her +homely face +suddenly acquired a charming expression. "Give me both hands. Let us be +good friends, for we'll always be together, by day and by night! They +call me the chief-stewardess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I'm called Walpurga."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A pretty name, too! I think you'll keep it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep my name! Why, who can take it from me? I was christened +Walpurga, +and I've been called so ever since childhood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't agitate yourself, dear Walpurga," said the stewardess, +with much +feeling. "Yes, pray be calm," added she, "and whenever anything +displeases you, tell me of it, and I'll see that it is remedied. You +ought to be contented and happy always; and now, sit in this arm-chair, +or if you'd rather lie on the sofa and rest yourself, do so. Make +yourself perfectly at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"This will do very well," said Walpurga, ensconcing herself +in the +great arm-chair and resting her hands upon her knees. Mademoiselle +Kramer now ordered one of the serving-maids to bring in some good beef +broth and wheaten bread for the nurse. Turning toward Walpurga, she saw +that she was crying bitterly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake, what's the matter? You're not frightened or +worried +about anything? What are you crying for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me cry. It does me good. My heart's been heavy for ever +so long. I +suppose you'll let me cry when I can't help it. I didn't know what I +was doing when I said 'yes.' God's my witness, I never thought it would +be like this!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What has happened? Who has done anything to you? For God's +sake, don't +cry; it will do you harm, and I'll be reprimanded for having allowed +it. Just tell me what you want; I'll do all I can for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All I want of you is to let me cry. Oh, my child! Oh, +Hansei! Oh, +mother!--But now I'm all right again. I'll be calm. I'm here now, and +must make the best of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The soup was brought. Mademoiselle Kramer held a spoonful to +Walpurga's +lips, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take something, my dear, and you'll soon feel better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't want any broth. Am I to be treated as if I were +sick, and +forced to eat what I don't like? If there was any one in the house who +could make porridge, I'd rather have that than anything else. I'll go +into the kitchen and make some myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer was in despair. To her great relief, +there was a +knock at the door. Doctor Gunther, the king's physician, entered, +accompanied by Doctor Sixtus. He held out his hand to the nurse, and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you, Walpurga of the cottage by the lake! You've +made a good +catch in coming to this house. Don't be alarmed by the ways of the +palace, and do just as you would at home. Take my word for it, water is +needed for cooking, all the world over. The folks here are just as they +are in your neighborhood--just as good and just as bad; just as wise +and just as stupid; with this difference, however--here they know how +to hide their wickedness and stupidity."</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Gunther had, in part, used the Highland dialect while +addressing +her, and her face suddenly brightened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you! thank you! I'll remember what you tell me," said +she, +cheerfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer now introduced the great question of the +day--beef +broth or porridge. Doctor Gunther laughed, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why porridge, to be sure; that's the best. In fact, +Walpurga, all you +need do is to say what you've been used to at home, and you shall have +it here, provided it is neither sour nor fat."</p> + +<p class="normal">Addressing his colleague, he added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll keep the nurse on her accustomed diet for the present, +and +afterward can gradually bring about a change. Come here, Walpurga, and +let me look into your eyes. I've something to tell you. In a quarter of +an hour from now, you're to appear before the queen. Don't be alarmed, +no one will harm you. She merely wishes to see you. Don't fail to prove +that your eyes are right, when they say they belong to a clever head. +Address the queen calmly, and if, as is quite likely, you still feel a +homesick yearning for your child and the others you've left behind you, +don't show it while you are with the queen. You might cause her to weep +and make her ill, for she's very delicate. Do you quite understand me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do, indeed! I'll be very careful. I'll cheer her up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must not do that either. Remain perfectly calm and +composed; speak +little, and in a low voice. Try to get out of the room as soon as you +can, for she needs all the sleep she can get."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll do everything just as you say. You can depend on me," +said +Walpurga. "Aren't you going along?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; you'll meet me there. But now, take something to eat. +Here comes +the porridge. I hope it will do you good. You needn't eat it all; half +will do for the present. But wait a little while until it cools. Come +with me a moment. I suppose you're not afraid to go with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; it seems as if I'd often heard your voice before."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very likely! I am also from the Highlands, and have already +been in +your father's house. If I am not mistaken, your mother was from our +region. Was she not in service with the freehold farmer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was, indeed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, your mother's a good woman, and don't forget to +tell the +queen that she's taking good care of your child. That will please her. +I knew your father, too; he was a merry soul, and perfectly honest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt happy to know that her parents were well +thought of and +that the others had heard them so favorably mentioned. If the doctor +who had known her father had been that father himself, she could not +have been more willing to accompany him into the adjoining room. He +returned, in a few moments, and left in the company of Doctor Sixtus; +and then Walpurga came, her eyes bent on the ground. When she at last +looked up, she was glad there was no one in the room but Mademoiselle +Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her thoughts must have been of home, for she suddenly +exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! I've got you, yet." She then took from her pocket +the piece +of bread which her mother had given her. And thus the first morsel she +ate while in the palace, was brought from home, and was of her mother's +baking. Her mother had told her that this would cure her of +homesickness; and she really found it so, for, with every mouthful, she +became more cheerful.</p> + +<p class="normal">If seven queens were to have come just then, she would not +have been +afraid of them, and her crying was at an end. She ate all the crumbs +that had fallen into her lap, as if they had some sacred potency. After +that she tried a little of the porridge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can't I go somewhere to wash my face and dress my hair?" +asked she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course. Doctor Gunther has given orders that you should."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't need orders for everything I do!" said Walpurga, +defiantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer wanted to have her maid dress Walpurga's +hair. But +Walpurga would not allow it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No stranger's hand shall touch my head," said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">And after a little while she presented a tidy and almost +cheerful +appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There, now I'll go to the queen," said she. "How do you +address her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Your majesty,' or, 'most gracious madam.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the prayers at church they call her the 'country's +mother,'" said +Walpurga, "and I like that far better. That's a glorious, beautiful +name. If it were mine, no one should take it from me. And now I'll go +to the queen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! you must wait. You will be sent for."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That'll suit me just as well. But I want to ask a favor of +you. Call +me 'Du'."<a name="div2Ref_note01" href="#div2_note01"><sup>1</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite willingly, if the first lady of the bedchamber does +not object."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so nothing can be done here without asking leave. But +now we've +done talking, let's be quiet. Ah, yes! there's one thing more. Whose +picture is that hanging up there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that the queen? Oh, how lovely! But she's very young."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, she's only eighteen years old."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga gazed at the picture for a long while. Then, turning +away from +it, she sank on her knees beside the great chair, folded her hands and +softly whispered a paternoster.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was still kneeling, when a knock at the door was +heard. A +lackey entered and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her majesty has sent for his royal highness's nurse."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga arose and followed the servant. Mademoiselle Kramer +accompanying them.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Preceded by a servant bearing a lantern, they passed through the long, +narrow, brilliantly lighted passage and ascending a staircase, reached +the gallery of the royal chapel. There were cushioned chairs for the +court. Walpurga looked down into the vast, dark hall. There was no +light except that in the altar lamp, the rays of which faintly +illumined the image of the Virgin.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou art everywhere!" said Walpurga, half aloud, while she +looked down +into the dark church and saluted the Madonna with the Child, as +familiarly as if greeting an intimate friend. A dim sense of the divine +attributes of maternity, as glorified in ages of song and picture, +prayer and sacrifice, filled her soul. She nodded to the picture once +again, and then walked on. As uncertain of her steps as if walking on +glass, she went through the throne-room, and the great ball-room. Then +they passed through other apartments which, though evidently intended +for more domestic uses, were without doors and were separated from each +other by heavy double hangings. At last they descended a wide marble +staircase with a golden balustrade. It was well-lighted and carpeted. +Here there were servants and guards. They entered other apartments, +which were filled with people, who paused in their eager conversation +to glance at Walpurga, In the third room, Dr. Gunther advanced toward +her. Taking her by the hand, he led her up to a gentleman who was +attired in a brilliant uniform and wore the crosses and medals of many +orders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is his majesty, the king," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know him; I've seen him before," replied Walpurga. "My +father rowed +him across the lake, and so did my Hansei, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then, as we have known each other so long, let us improve +our +acquaintance," replied the king. "And now go to the queen; but be +careful not to agitate her."</p> + +<p class="normal">He dismissed her with a gracious inclination of the head and, +accompanied by Doctor Gunther and Countess Brinkenstein, whom they +found in attendance, she passed through several other rooms, the heavy +carpets of which deadened the sounds of their footsteps.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be careful not to agitate her." The words greatly troubled +Walpurga. +Why should she provoke the queen to anger? for that was the only +meaning she could take from the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although she did not know what they meant by the word, her +being pushed +hither and thither, up and down, through passages and rooms without +number, encountering the glances of the courtiers by the way and, at +last, receiving the king's warning, had had the effect of agitating +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last she stood at the threshold of a green apartment that +appeared +to her like an enchanted room, hollowed out of some vast emerald. A +lamp with a green glass shade hung from the ceiling, and shed a soft, +fairy-like light on the room and its inmates. And there on the large, +canopied bed, with the glittering crown overhead, lay the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga held her breath; a soft glow illumined the face of +her who lay +there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you come?" asked a gentle voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my queen, God greet you! Just keep yourself quiet and +cheerful. +All has gone well with you, thank God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">With these words, Walpurga advanced toward the bedside, and +would not +suffer Doctor Gunther nor Countess Brinkenstein to keep her back. She +offered her hand to the queen. And thus two hands--one hardened by toil +and rough as the bark of a tree, the other as soft as the petal of a +lily--clasped each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you for having come. Were you glad to do so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was glad to come, but sorry to leave home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You surely love your child and your husband with all your +heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm my husband's wife, and my child's mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And your mother nurses your child and cares for it with a +loving +heart?" inquired the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The idea!" replied Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen did not seem to know that her answer meant: "That's +a matter +of course," and she therefore asked: "Do you understand me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed; I understand German," replied Walpurga. "But +Your Majesty +shouldn't speak so much. God willing, we'll be together in happiness +for many days to come. We'll arrange everything when we can look into +each other's eyes in broad daylight, and I'll do all I can to please +you and the child. I've got over my homesickness and now I must do my +duty. I'll be a good nurse to your child; don't let that worry you. And +now, good-night! Sleep well, and let nothing trouble you. And now let +me see our child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Breath of my breath, it lies here, sleeping by my side. How +infinite +is God's grace, how marvelous are his works!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt that some one was pulling at her dress, and +hastily said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night, dear queen. Put all idle thoughts away from you. +This is +no time to busy yourself thinking. We'll have enough to think of when +the time comes. Good-night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, remain here! You must stay!" begged the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must beg Your Majesty--" hurriedly interposed Doctor +Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do leave her with me a little while," begged the queen, in +childlike +tones. "I am sure it will do me no harm to talk with her. When she drew +near the bed, and I heard her voice, I felt as if a breath of Alpine +air, in all its dewy freshness, was being wafted toward me. Even now I +feel as if lying on a high mountain, from which I can look down into +the beautiful world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, such excitement may prove quite injurious."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; I will be calm. But do leave her with me a moment +longer! +Let me have more light, so that I may see her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The screen was removed from a lamp that stood on a +side-table, and the +two mothers beheld each other, face to face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How beautiful you are!" exclaimed the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That doesn't matter any longer," replied Walpurga. "God be +praised, +we've both got over having our heads turned by such nonsense. You're a +wife and mother, and so am I."</p> + +<p class="normal">The screen fell again; the queen, taking Walpurga's hand in +hers, said +in a gentle voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bend down to me, I want to kiss you--I must kiss you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga did as she was bid, and the queen kissed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can go now. Keep yourself good and true," said the +queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">A tear of Walpurga's fell upon the face of the queen, who +added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't weep! You, too, are a mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">Unable to utter another word, Walpurga turned to go, and the +queen +called after her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is your name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga," said Doctor Gunther, answering for her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And can you sing well?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They say so," replied Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then sing often to my child, or 'our child,' as you call +him. +Good-night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Gunther remained with the queen. It was some time +before he +uttered a word. He felt that he must calm her excited feelings, and he +had a safe and simple remedy at command.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must request Your Majesty," said he, "to return my +congratulations. +My daughter Cornelia, the wife of Professor Korn of the university, was +safely delivered of a little girl, at the very hour in which the crown +prince was born."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I congratulate the child on having such a grandfather. You +shall, +also, be the grandfather of our son."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The congratulation that imposes a noble duty upon its +recipient, is +the best that can be given," replied Gunther. "I thank you. But we must +now cease talking. Permit me to bid Your Majesty good-night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther left the room. All was silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Instead of taking Walpurga back to the upper rooms, they had +conducted +her to a well-furnished apartment on the other side of the palace, +where, to her great delight, she found Mademoiselle Kramer awaiting +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen kissed me!" exclaimed she. "Oh, what an angel she +is! I'd no +idea there were such creatures in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Some time later, when the queen had fallen asleep, two women +brought a +gilded cradle into Walpurga's room.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they took the child from the bed, the queen, as if +conscious of +what was being done, moved in her sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before taking the child to her bosom, Walpurga breathed upon +it thrice. +It opened its eyes and looked at her, and then quickly closed them +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Throughout the palace, all was soon hushed in silence. +Walpurga and the +child by her side were asleep. Mademoiselle Kramer sat up during the +night, and, in the antechamber on either side, there were doctors and +servants within call.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">In the village by the lake, or, to speak more correctly, in the few +houses clustered near the Chamois inn, Walpurga's strange and sudden +departure caused great commotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">All hurried toward the inn. The innkeeper assumed a wise air +and +desired it to be understood that he knew far more than people gave him +credit for. The whole affair was, of course, of his planning; for had +it not been proven that his acquaintance included even the king +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Immediately after Walpurga's departure, he urged Hansei to +accompany +him to the Chamois, for he well knew that his presence there would +prove a far greater attraction than a band of musicians.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei would not go at once, but promised to follow soon +afterward. He +could not leave home just then.</p> + +<p class="normal">He went through the whole house, from cellar to garret. Then +he went +out into the stable, where, for a long while, he watched the cow +feeding. "Such a beast has a good time of it, after all," thought he; +"others have to provide for it, and wherever it finds a full crib, it +is at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went into the room and, silently nodding to the +grandmother, cast a +hurried glance at the slumbering child. He seated himself near the +table and, resting his elbows thereon, buried his face in his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It still goes," said he, looking up at the Black Forest +clock that was +ticking on the wall. "She wound it up before she left."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went out and sat down on the bench under the cherry-tree. +The +starlings overhead were quite merry, and from the woods a cuckoo +called: "Yes, he goes away, too, and leaves his children to be brought +up by strangers."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei laughed to himself, and looked about him. Had the wife +really +gone? She must still be sitting there! How could those who belong +together be thus parted?</p> + +<p class="normal">He kept staring at the seat next to him,--but she was not +there.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half the village had gathered before the garden gate. Young +and old, +big and little, stood there, gazing at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wastl (Sebastian), the weaver, who had for many years been a +comrade of +Hansei's, and had worked with him in the forest, called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you, Hansei! Your bread has fallen with the +buttered side +up."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei muttered sullen thanks. Suddenly, there was a great +peal of +laughter. No one knew who had been the first to utter the word +"he-nurse." It had been rapidly and quietly passed from one to another +through the crowd, until it at last reached Thomas, Zenza's son--a +bold, rawboned fellow, whose open shirt revealed a brawny chest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga's the crown prince's <i>she</i>-nurse, and Hansei's the +<i>he</i>-nurse."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wastl opened the gate and entered the garden, the whole crowd +following +at his heels. They went through garden, house and stable; peeped +through the windows, smelled at the violets on the window-shelf, and +sat down on the kindling-wood that lay under the shed. The house seemed +to have become the property of the whole village. When joy or sorrow +enters a home, all doors are open, and the rooms and passages become as +a public highway.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do they all want?" inquired Hansei of Wastl, who had +sat down +beside him on the bench.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing! All they've come for is to see for themselves that +the whole +thing's true, so they can tell others about it. But they're all pleased +with your good luck."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My good luck! Well, I suppose it had to be," said Hansei, in +a tone +scarcely suggestive of happiness. "Wastl, it seems as if nothing is to +go right with me. I'd just begun to think that everything would go on +smoothly as it had been doing, and now, all at once, I've got to climb +another mountain. But you're single and, of course, you can't know how +I feel."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's very good of you to be so fond of your wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My wife? So fond?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know how you must feel."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei shook his head with an incredulous air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cheer up!" said Wastl. "Many a husband would be glad to be +rid of his +wife for a year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For a year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The longer the better, some would say," thought Wastl. "But +your wife +will come back again and turn your cottage into a palace, and then +you'll be king number two!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei laughed loudly, although he was not in a laughing +mood. He felt +as if he must go out into the forest, where he should neither hear nor +see anything of the world. Confound it all! Why did the wife leave? Was +it for this that we married and pledged ourselves to be one for life, +come weal come woe?</p> + +<p class="normal">But Hansei could not get away. Half the village had gathered +about him. +All spoke of his good-fortune. The owner of the great farm up the road, +he who was known as the Leithof bauer, even stopped his team at the +garden gate and alighted in order to shake hands with Hansei and wish +him joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you'd like to buy the meadow next to your garden, I'll +sell it to +you. It's a little too far off for me," said the Leithof bauer. The +joiner who lived in the village, and who had long been anxious to +emigrate, quickly said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll do far better if you buy my house and farm. I'll let +you have +them dirt cheap."</p> + +<p class="normal">The starlings up in the tree could not out-chatter these +people. Hansei +laughed heartily. Why, this is splendid! thought he. The whole world +comes to offer me house and farm, field and meadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were right, Walpurga!" said he suddenly. The people +stared, first +at him and then at each other, and did not know what to make of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stretched his limbs, as if awaking from sleep, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many thanks, dear neighbors. If I can ever repay you, in joy +or in +sorrow, I'll surely do so. But now, I'll make no change; no, I shant +move a nail in the house till my wife comes back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Spoken like a man, good and true," said the Leithof bauer, +and greater +praise could befall no one, than to be thus spoken of by the wealthiest +farmer in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you like to look at my cow?" said Hansei, beckoning to +the +Leithof bauer, who now seemed the only one on a level with himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Leithof bauer thanked him, but had no time to stop. +Before taking +his leave, he assured Hansei that he would willingly advise him how to +put out his money safely.</p> + +<p class="normal">His money? Where could it be? Hansei trembled with fear and +pressed his +hands to his head--he had lost the roll of money! Where was it? He +plunged his hand into his pocket. The roll was still there! And now +that his hand again clutched it, he was quite affable to those who +still remained, and had a kind word for every one.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last, the villagers had all left, and Hansei could think +of nothing +better to do than to climb up into his cherry-tree--the true friend +that would never desert him, and would give as long as it had aught to +give.</p> + +<p class="normal">He plucked and ate lots of cherries, while he looked at the +telegraph +wire, and thought: It runs into the palace and I could talk to my wife +through it, if I only knew how. He bent forward until he could touch +the wire, and having done so, quickly withdrew his hand, as if +frightened.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly he heard a voice calling to him:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei! where are you?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come along!" was the answer. It was the priest who had +called to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei hurried down from the tree and now received the +greatest honor +that had yet been paid him. The priest beckoned to him, and Hansei +approached, hat in hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish you joy!" said the priest. "Come along to the inn; +the host of +the Chamois has opened a fresh tap."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei looked at himself to see what had come over him. To +think of the +priest's inviting him to walk with him, and to drink in his company, +too!</p> + +<p class="normal">He received the new honor with dignity. While he walked with +the +priest, the people whom they met along the road would lift their hats +and he would acknowledge their greetings quite affably.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the large room at the Chamois, where every one was either +talking to +or of him, he felt so happy that he opened the roll of money, without, +however, removing it from his pocket. He meant to offer the first +piece to the priest, so that he might say a mass for Walpurga. But the +pieces were so large. They were all crown thalers. And so Hansei merely +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish you'd say a mass for my wife and child. I'll pay +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was already twilight. The guests gradually departed. But +Hansei +remained sitting there, as if rooted to the spot. At last, he and the +inn-keeper were the only ones in the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now that they've all had a talk at you," said the innkeeper, +"you may +as well listen to me. No one means it as kindly with you as I do, and +I'm not a fool, either. Do you know what would suit you, Hansei, and +would suit your wife still better?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the place for you,--you and your wife! I've been +landlord long +enough. When your wife comes back, you can say 'good-night' to your +cottage and settle yourselves here, where you'll find a good living for +your children and your grandchildren. We won't talk about it now; but +don't commit yourself to anything else. I'm your best friend; I think +I've proved that, this very day. I don't care to make a penny by the +affair--quite the contrary."</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how kind they are when all goes well with one!</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei sat there for a long while, looking into his glass, +and +endeavoring to satisfy himself as to who he really was. Then he began +to think of his wife again: where she might be, and how it was with +her. If he could only go to sleep that very moment and remain asleep +until the year was out; but to sit and wait.... He looked up at the +clock; it was just striking ten.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How often you'll have to strike ten before we meet again," +thought he +to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei almost staggered as he walked through the village. The +people +who were sitting at their doors, or standing about, saluted him and +wished him joy, and he well knew that, far away among the mountains, +all were speaking of his good luck. He felt as if he must cut himself +into a thousand pieces in order to thank them all.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was standing near his garden and looking at the hedge. How +long was +it since he, who had never before known a spot which he could call his +home, had prized himself as ever so happy in the possession of a little +property! And now the grandmother was sitting in the house, and he +heard her singing his child to sleep:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"If all the streams were naught but wine,</p> +<p class="t6">And all the hills were gems so fine,</p> +<p class="t6">And all were mine:</p> +<p class="t6">Yet would my darling treasure be</p> +<p class="t6">Dearer far than all to me.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6a">"And since we needs must part,</p> +<p class="t6">One more kiss before I start.</p> +<p class="t6">Thou remain'st, but I must leave,</p> +<p class="t6">And parting sore the heart doth grieve;</p> +<p class="t6">But, though life drags, we'll not despond,</p> +<p class="t6">For longer far is the life beyond."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">"But though life drags, we'll not despond, For longer far is +the life +beyond." The words sank deep into Hansei's heart, and the fireflies +flitting about in the darkness, or resting on fence and grass, drew his +glance hither and thither, as if they were some new and startling +phenomenon. Hansei's waking dream continued for some time, and when he, +at last, passed his hand over his face, it was wet with the dew. He +felt as if some one must carry him into the house and put him to bed. +But a sudden turn caused the roll of money to touch his hip, and he was +wide awake again. He walked far out along the road, in the same +direction that Walpurga had gone, and at last reached the pile of +stones on which she had rested a fortnight ago. There was still some +hay lying there. He sat down upon it and gazed out at the broad lake, +over which the moon shed its bright rays. It was just as quiet as it +had been a fortnight before; but that was in the daytime, and now it +was night. "Where can my wife be now?" said he, springing to his feet, +so that he might run to her, though it took the whole night. "How glad +she will be to have me come to the palace the very first morning she is +there!" With giant strides he hurried on. But he could not help asking +himself: "How will it be if you have to leave again to-morrow, and what +will the folks at home say, and what will grandmother think, left all +alone with the child?"</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet he walked on. Suddenly, he became alarmed at the +thought of the +money on his person. The neighborhood was safe enough, to be sure. It +was long since any crime had been heard of in that region. But still +there might be robbers, who, after helping themselves to his treasure, +would murder him, and throw him into the lake.... Tortured by fear, he +hurriedly turned about and ran toward home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Advancing toward him, he beheld a figure of threatening +aspect. He +grasped the knife in his belt--"If there's only one, and no other's +lying in wait, I'm man enough to defend myself," thought he.</p> + +<p class="normal">The figure advanced, greeting him from afar. The voice was +that of a +woman. Could Walpurga have--No, that were impossible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The figure halted. Hansei advanced toward it and said: "Oh! +is it you, +Esther, out on the road so late?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And is this you, Hansei?" said Black Esther, laughing +heartily. "I +thought it was some drunken fellow, because I heard you, a great way +off, talking to yourself. But, of course, now you're lonely enough, I +suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you walk in the woods so late at night, and all alone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must go alone, if no one goes with me," said Black Esther, +with a +laugh that fell harshly upon the silent night. There was a pause. +Hansei could hear the beating of his heart. Perhaps it was caused by +his rapid walking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must go home," said he, at last. "Good-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">Laying her hand on his shoulder, Black Esther said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei, I'm not used to begging and, if it were day, I'd +rather starve +than ask you for anything. But now, you've a good heart and are doing +well; give me something, or lend it to me. I'll give it back to you +again." She spoke so persuasively that Hansei trembled. Her hand still +rested upon him; he was about to feel in his pocket for the crown +thaler he had saved from the priest, when he suddenly pushed her hand +from his shoulder, and said: "I'll give you something another time." He +then ran off toward home. Her shrill laughter rang in his ears, and it +sounded as if hundreds of voices were answering from the rocks. His +hair stood on end and he felt, by turns, as if shivering with cold and +burning with fever. She must surely have been one of the forest demons, +who had merely assumed the form of Black Esther. And there really were +such beings, for the old forest inspector had, on his deathbed, +confessed to having seen one. They wander about when the moon is at its +full. Instead of wearing clothes, they merely wind their long hair +about their bodies, and on such a night as this, when the mother is +away from her child, they can--</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had never before run so fast, or found the road by the +lake so +long, as on this very night.</p> + +<p class="normal">He reached home at last and, as if to assure himself that the +house was +still there, touched the walls with his hands. Nothing had been +disturbed. All was as he had left it.</p> + +<p class="normal">He went indoors. The light in the room was still burning. The +grandmother was sitting on a low stool, and had the child on her lap. +With one hand, she hid her eyes--they were red with weeping; with the +other, she motioned Hansei to step lightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not observe that there had been, and still was, +something +wrong with his mother-in-law. He had taken a seat behind the table, was +thinking of no one but himself, and felt as tired and ill at ease as if +he had just returned from a long and dangerous journey. He was even +obliged to remind himself that, although he was at home, it was no +longer the right sort of a home. The grandmother placed the child in +the cradle and sat down, resting her chin upon her closed hand. +Thoughts far different from Hansei's had passed through her mind. Stasi +had remained with the grandmother for some time after Hansei left the +house. How it would fare with Walpurga, was a topic of but short +duration with them; for what could they say, or know, about that? When +it began to grow dark, Stasi spoke of going, and promised to come again +the next day. The grandmother nodded assent. She preferred being alone, +for then there would be nothing to prevent her thinking of her child. +Her prayers followed Walpurga; but the words flowed forth so easily +that her mind was elsewhere much of the time. Her first thought was: +Walpurga must be saying the same prayer and, although every word +lengthens the distance between us, we are together in spirit, +nevertheless. She felt happy that Walpurga had turned out so well in +all things, and that she could be depended upon. It was hard to be +among strangers; but they were men and women, after all. At times, her +heart would misgive her, lest Walpurga should not be able to hold out +to the end. She has lots of good notions--if she only thinks of them at +the right time. "For my sake, if for nothing else, you'll keep yourself +pure," said she aloud, as she ended her prayer. All at once, she felt +so lonely and forlorn. She had never passed a night without Walpurga, +and, looking up at the stars, she wished it were day again. Hansei +might just as well have remained at home; still, it was a great honor +to be invited by the priest. He'll surely send home a schoppen of wine +to gladden grandmother's heart; and if it be only half a schoppen, +it'll show his good heart. Her tongue seemed as if parched; she +thirsted for the wine, and listened for a long while, in the vain hope +that she might hear the footsteps of the innkeeper's servant, bringing +the bottle under her apron. At last, pity for herself made her +indescribably miserable, and she burst into tears. Oh, that her husband +were still alive! A poor widow woman is always expected to be at hand, +but no one thinks of how it fares with her. Tears came to her relief; +for, after a little while, she said to herself: "What an awful sinner +you are! Isn't it enough to have clothes and food and a home, and never +to hear a harsh word? You ought to be thankful that you're still active +enough to be of use to others."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if ashamed of herself, she turned away, wiped the tears +from her +furrowed face, and then sang cheerful songs to the child. Then she +waited silently, until Hansei, at last, returned. And thus he found +her, seated beside the cradle and resting her chin upon her clenched +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where have you been so long?" asked the grandmother, in a +low voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hardly know, myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga must be in bed by this time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very likely; they can travel fast, four-in-hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you hear the cow lowing? The poor beast isn't used to be +alone and, +this very evening, the butcher drove her calf by the stable. It's awful +to hear her moan. Do go and look after her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei went out to the stable, and the cow became perfectly +quiet. He +walked away, and she began lowing again. He returned and spoke to her +kindly. As long as he talked to her and kept his hand upon her back, +she was quiet; but as soon as he left her, she would low more piteously +than before. In despair, he was constantly going back and forth, +between the room and the stable. He returned several times, gave her +some fodder, and then sat down on a bundle of hay. At last the cow lay +down and slept, and Hansei, overcome with fatigue, also fell asleep. +Indeed, few had ever gone through so much in one day as our poor Hansei +had.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga awoke next morning, she fancied herself at home, and +looked at the strange surroundings as if it were all a dream that would +not vanish at her bidding. She gradually realized what had happened. +Closing her eyes again, she said her prayers and then boldly looked +about her; the same sun that shone on the cottage by the lake, shone on +the palace, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">Full of fresh courage, she arose.</p> + +<p class="normal">She lay at the window for a long while, looking at the scene +so strange +to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She saw nothing of the bustling city. The palace square, +encircled by +thick, bushy orange-trees, was far removed from the noise of the +streets. At the palace gate, two soldiers, with their muskets at rest, +were seen marching up and down.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Walpurga's thoughts wandered homeward. In her mind's eye, +she saw +the cottage by the lake and all within its walls. In fancy, she heard +the crackling of the wood with which her mother kindled the fire, and +saw the lamp which she took from the kitchen-shelf. We have milk in the +house, for we've got a cow. Mother will be glad to go milking again. +I'm sure they never light a fire at home without thinking of me. And +the chattering starlings, up in the cherry-tree, are saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Our goodwife is gone; a cow has taken her place."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga smiled and went on thinking to herself: My Hansei's +oversleeping himself this morning. If you didn't call him, he'd sleep +till noon; he never wakes of himself. She hears her mother calling: +"Get up, Hansei; the sun is burning a hole in your bed!" He gets up and +washes his face at the pump, and now she sees them at their meal; the +child is fed with good milk. If I'd only taken a good look at the cow! +And now Hansei is getting fodder for it from the innkeeper. If he only +doesn't let the rogue cheat him; and Hansei will feel more forlorn than +the child; but, thank God, he has work enough to keep him busy. It's +fishing time, and so he doesn't go into the woods. I see him jump into +his boat; what a noise he makes! The oars are plashing, and away he +rows to catch what fish he can.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga would have gone on picturing to herself her home at +noon and +at evening. Suddenly, she felt as if she had lost her reason. Absence +and death are almost one and the same. You can have no idea of how it +will be one hour after your death; you cannot imagine yourself out of +the world. Her head swam and, as if startled by an apparition, she +turned to Mademoiselle Kramer, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's talk!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer required no second hint, and told +Walpurga that +every one in the palace knew of the queen's having kissed her the night +before, and that it would be in all the newspapers of the next day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pshaw!" said Walpurga; whereupon Mademoiselle Kramer +declared that, +although it made no difference in her case, it was highly improper to +answer in that way, and told her, also, that she ought always express +herself distinctly and in a respectful manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked up and listened, as if waiting for +Mademoiselle Kramer +to continue and, at last, said: "My dear father once said almost the +very same thing to me; but I was too young to understand it then. All I +meant to say was, that the city people must have very little to do, if +they can make a fuss about such a matter"--mentally concluding her +remarks with another "pshaw!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The little prince awoke. Walpurga took him up and speedily +put him to +sleep, while she sang in a clear voice:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Ah, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee,</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">When she had finished her song, and had placed the child in +the cradle, +she looked toward the door and beheld the king and Doctor Gunther +standing there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You sing finely," said the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pshaw!" said Walpurga, and, acting as her own interpreter, +she quickly +added, while casting a hurried glance at Mademoiselle Kramer: "It's +good enough for home use, but not particularly fine."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and Doctor Gunther were delighted with the +appearance of the +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The day on which one beholds his child for the first time is +a +red-letter day," observed the king; and Walpurga, as if to confirm what +he had said, added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed; that makes one look at the world with different +eyes. His +majesty told the truth that time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although her remark caused the king to smile, it was received +in +silence. Accompanied by Doctor Gunther, he soon left the room. After +they had gone. Mademoiselle Kramer endeavored, as delicately as +possible, to impress Walpurga with the importance of observing the +first commandment:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must not speak to their majesties, unless they ask you a +question."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's sensible," exclaimed Walpurga, to the great surprise +of +Mademoiselle Kramer. "That prevents you from hearing anything out of +the way. What a clever idea! I won't forget that."</p> + +<p class="normal">During breakfast, in the pavilion, it was plainly to be seen +that +Mademoiselle Kramer, and perhaps Walpurga, too, had spoken truly. The +various groups on the veranda and under the orange-trees were engaged +in what seemed to be confidential conversation. After they had sounded +each other, and had satisfied themselves that they could safely indulge +in scandal, the common topic was the manner in which the queen's +sentimentality had manifested itself in her behavior toward the nurse. +It was agreed that this mawkishness was an unfortunate legacy from the +house of ----. Some even went so far as to say that Countess +Brinkenstein was quite ill with anger at the queen's disregard of +etiquette.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen's conduct deprives her favors of their value," +said an +elderly court lady, who must have had at least a pound and a half of +false hair on her head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing is so great a bore as mawkish sensibility," observed +another +one of the ladies attached to the palace. She was corpulent, and +piously inclined withal. As if to cover her ill-natured remark with the +mantle of charity, she added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen isn't much more than a child, and really means +well at +heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had thus made herself safe with both parties--those who +praised, +and those who abused the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You look as if you had slept but little," said an elderly +lady, +addressing a very young and pale-looking one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are right," sighed the latter, in reply. "I sat up to +read the +last volume of ----" giving the name of a recent unequivocal French +novel--"and finished it at a single sitting. I shall return the book to +you to-day. It is very interesting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please let me have it next," resounded from several quarters +at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pious lady, who had, indeed, read the novel in secret and +was loth +to talk of such subjects, changed the conversation by introducing the +topic of Walpurga. As the latest piece of news, she acquainted them +with the report that the nurse could sing beautifully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who sings beautifully?" inquired Countess Irma, joining the +group.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This will interest you, dear Wildenort. You will be able to +learn many +new songs from Walpurga, and accompany them on the zither."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll wait until we are in the country again. A peasant woman +seems +strangely out of place in a palace. When does the court return to the +country?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not for six weeks."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was much talk about Walpurga. One lady maintained that +Doctor +Gunther was a native of the Highlands, and that it was only through his +intriguing that a nurse had to be brought from the same region; that he +was constantly surrounding himself with allies, and was clever enough +to know that this person would exert a great influence upon the queen. +They also spoke of the doctor's love of intrigue, and of his affecting +to sympathize with the queen in all her extravagant fancies. Of one +thing they all felt assured: that it was impossible to retain the favor +of the court for so long a time, by fair means alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The doctor isn't so very old," remarked a very thin lady. +"He is only +a little over fifty. I think he must have dyed his hair white, in order +to appear venerable before his time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Loud laughter greeted this sally.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before breakfast, the ladies and gentlemen were in separate +groups. A +knot of courtiers were discussing the telegrams which had been sent out +to various governments, and to which, in some instances, replies had +already been received.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until after breakfast that a council of the royal +household +was to determine who, besides the queen's parents, should be invited to +stand as sponsors. It was even reported that the christening would be +celebrated by a special papal nuncio, assisted by the bishop.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Irma's brother, the king's aid-de-camp, again +diverted the +conversation from such lofty topics back to Walpurga. He extolled her +beauty and her droll ways, and they smacked their lips, when they spoke +of the queen's kiss. The aid-de-camp had given vent to a joke on the +subject, at which they laughed uproariously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king!" suddenly whispered several of the gentlemen.</p> + +<p class="normal">They separated and, while making their obeisance, arranged +themselves +in two rows. The king, acknowledging their salutation, passed between +the rows and entered the hall of Diana, where breakfast was served. The +frescoes on the ceiling represented the goddess with her hunting train, +and had been painted by a pupil of Rubens. The lord steward handed a +packet of telegrams to the king, who instructed him to open them, and +inform him when they contained anything more than congratulations.</p> + +<p class="normal">They now sat down to breakfast.</p> + +<p class="normal">The company was not so cheerful and unconstrained as it had +been at the +summer palace. Indeed, no one had yet recovered from the excitement of +the previous night, and conversation was carried on in a quiet tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Countess Irma," said the king, "I commend Walpurga to you; +she will be +sure to please you. You will be able to learn some beautiful songs from +her, and to teach her new ones."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks, Your Majesty! If Your Majesty would only deign to +order the +first lady of the bedchamber to grant me access, at all times, to the +apartments of His Royal Highness the crown prince."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray see to it, dear Rittersfeld!" said the king, turning to +the lord +steward.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Irma, who sat at the lower end of the table, +received the +congratulations of all. Walpurga had become the sole topic of +conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The morning papers were brought to the king. He glanced +through them +hurriedly and, throwing them aside with an angry air, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This babbling press! The queen's kiss is already in all the +newspapers." His face darkened; it was evident that, as the fact itself +had displeased him, the publicity given it was doubly annoying. After a +time, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I desire you, gentlemen and ladies, to see to it that the +queen does +not hear of this." He rose quickly, and left the apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The breakfast party lingered for some time, and the pious +lady could +now openly join the ranks of the scandalmongers. The mantle of charity +was no longer necessary--it was very evident that the king had already +tired of his sentimental wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">If Countess Irma--? Who could tell but what this was part of +a +deep-laid plan to give her free access to the crown prince's +apartments? The king could meet her there--and who knows but that--</p> + +<p class="normal">They were quite ingenious in the malicious conjectures which +they +whispered to each other with great caution and circumspection. For a +while, at least, Walpurga, the queen and even the crown prince were +completely forgotten.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"There, my boy! Now you've seen the sun. May you see it for seven and +seventy years to come, and when they've run their course, may the Lord +grant you a new lease of life. Last night, they lit millions of lamps +for your sake. But they were nothing to the sun up in heaven, which the +Lord himself lighted for you this very morning. Be a good boy, always, +so that you may deserve to have the sun shine on you. Yes, now the +angel's whispering to you. Laugh while you sleep! That's right. There's +one angel belongs to you on earth, and that's your mother! And you're +mine, too! You're mine, indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus spake Walpurga, her voice soft, yet full of emotion, +while she +gazed into the face of the child that lay on her lap. Her soul was +already swayed by that mysterious bond of affection which never fails +to develop itself in the heart of the foster-mother. It is a noble +trait in human nature that we love those on whom we can confer a +kindness. Their whole life gradually becomes interwoven with our own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga became oblivious of herself and of all that was dear +to her in +the cottage by the lake. She was now needed here where a young life had +been assigned to her loving charge.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up at Mademoiselle Kramer, with beaming eyes, and +met a +joyful glance in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seems to me," said Walpurga, "that a palace is just like +a church. +One has only good and pious thoughts here; and all the people are so +kind and frank."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer suddenly smiled and replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear child--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't call me 'child'! I'm not a child! I'm a mother!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But here, in the great world, you are only a child. A court +is a +strange place. Some go hunting, others go fishing; one builds, another +paints; one studies a <i>rôle</i>, another a piece of music; a dancer learns +a new step, an author writes a new book. Every one in the land is doing +something,--cooking or baking, drilling or practicing, writing, +painting, or dancing--simply in order that the king and queen may be +entertained."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand you," said Walpurga, and Mademoiselle Kramer +continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My family has been in the service of the court for sixteen +generations";--six would have been the right number, but sixteen +sounded so much better;--"my father is the governor of the summer +palace, and I was born there. I know all about the court, and can teach +you a great deal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I'll be glad to learn," interposed Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you imagine that every one is kindly disposed toward you? +Take my +word for it, a palace contains people of all sorts, good and bad. All +the vices abound in such a place. And there are many other matters of +which you have no idea and of which you will, I trust, ever remain +ignorant. But all you meet are wondrous polite. Try to remain just as +you now are, and, when you leave the palace, let it be as the same +Walpurga you were when you came here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga stared at her in surprise. Who could change her?</p> + +<p class="normal">Word came that the queen was awake and desired Walpurga to +bring the +crown prince to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Accompanied by Doctor Gunther, Mademoiselle Kramer and two +waiting-women, she proceeded to the queen's bedchamber. The queen lay +there, calm and beautiful, and, with a smile of greeting, turned her +face toward those who had entered. The curtains had been partially +drawn aside and a broad, slanting ray of light shone into the +apartment, which seemed still more peaceful than during the breathless +silence of the previous night.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning!" said the queen, with a voice full of feeling. +"Let me +have my child!" She looked down at the babe that rested in her arms and +then, without noticing any one in the room, lifted her glance on high +and faintly murmured:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the first time I behold my child in the daylight!"</p> + +<p class="normal">All were silent; it seemed as if there was naught in the +apartment +except the broad slanting ray of light that streamed in at the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you slept well?" inquired the queen. Walpurga was glad +that the +queen had asked a question, for now she could answer. Casting a hurried +glance at Mademoiselle Kramer, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed! Sleep's the first, the last, and the best thing +in the +world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's clever," said the queen, addressing Doctor Gunther in +French.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's heart sank within her. Whenever she heard them +speak French, +she felt as if they were betraying her; as if they had put on an +invisible cap, like that worn by the goblins in the fairy tale, and +could thus speak without being seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did the prince sleep well?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga passed her hand over her face, as if to brush away a +spider +that had been creeping there. The queen doesn't speak of her "child" or +her "son," but only of "the crown prince."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, quite well, thank God! That is, I couldn't hear him, +and I only +wanted to say that I'd like to act toward the--" she could not say "the +prince"--"that is, toward him, as I'd do with my own child. We began +right on the very first day. My mother taught me that. Such a child has +a will of its own from the very start, and it won't do to give way to +it. It won't do to take it from the cradle, or to feed it, whenever it +pleases; there ought to be regular times for all those things. It'll +soon get used to that, and it won't harm it either, to let it cry once +in a while. On the contrary, that expands the chest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does he cry?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The infant answered the question for itself, for it at once +began to +cry most lustily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take him and quiet him," begged the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king entered the apartment before the child had stopped +crying.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He will have a good voice of command," said he, kissing the +queen's +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga quieted the child, and she and Mademoiselle Kramer +were sent +back to their apartments.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king informed the queen of the dispatches that had been +received, +and of the sponsors who had been decided upon. She was perfectly +satisfied with all the arrangements that had been made.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga had returned to her room and had placed the +child in the +cradle, she walked up and down and seemed quite agitated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are no angels in this world!" said she. "They're all +just like +the rest of us, and who knows but--" she was vexed at the queen: "Why +won't she listen patiently when her child cries? We must take all our +children bring us, whether it be joy or pain."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stepped out into the passageway and heard the tones of +the organ in +the palace chapel. For the first time in her life, these sounds +displeased her. It don't belong in the house, thought she, where all +sorts of things are going on. The church ought to stand by itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she returned to the room, she found a stranger there. +Mademoiselle +Kramer informed her that this was the tailor to the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga laughed outright at the notion of a "tailor to the +queen." The +elegantly attired person looked at her in amazement, while Mademoiselle +Kramer explained to her that this was the dressmaker to her majesty the +queen, and that he had come to take her measure for three new dresses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Am I to wear city clothes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God forbid! You're to wear the dress of your neighborhood, +and can +order a stomacher in red, blue, green, or any color that you like +best."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hardly know what to say; but I'd like to have a workday +suit, too. +Sunday clothes on week-days--that won't do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"At court, one always wears Sunday clothes, and when her +majesty drives +out again you will have to accompany her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right, then. I won't object."</p> + +<p class="normal">While the tailor took her measure, Walpurga laughed +incessantly, and he +was at last obliged to ask her to hold still, so that he might go on +with his work. Putting his measure into his pocket, he informed +Mademoiselle Kramer that he had ordered an exact model, and that the +chief master of ceremonies had favored him with several drawings, so +that there might be no doubt of success.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, he asked permission to see the crown prince. +Mademoiselle +Kramer was about to let him do so, but Walpurga objected. "Before the +child is christened," said she, "no one shall look at it just out of +curiosity, and least of all, a tailor, or else the child will never +turn out the right sort of man."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tailor took his leave, Mademoiselle Kramer having +politely hinted +to him that nothing could be done with the superstition of the lower +orders, and that it would not do to irritate the nurse.</p> + +<p class="normal">This occurrence induced Walpurga to administer the first +serious +reprimand to Mademoiselle Kramer. She could not understand why she was +so willing to make an exhibition of the child. "Nothing does a child +more harm than to let strangers look at it in its sleep, and a tailor +at that."</p> + +<p class="normal">All the wild fun with which, in popular songs, tailors are +held up to +scorn and ridicule, found vent in Walpurga, and she began singing:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Just list, ye braves, who love to roam!</p> +<p class="t6">A snail was chasing a tailor home,</p> +<p class="t6">And if Old Shears hadn't run so fast,</p> +<p class="t6">The snail would surely have caught him at last."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer's acquaintance with the court tailor had +lowered +her in Walpurga's esteem, and with an evident effort to mollify the +latter, she asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does the idea of your new and beautiful clothes really +afford you no +pleasure?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be frank with you, no! I don't wear them for my own sake, +but for +that of others, who dress me to please themselves. It's all the same to +me, however! I've given myself up to them, and suppose I must submit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I come in?" asked a pleasant voice. Countess Irma +entered the +room. Extending both her hands to Walpurga, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you, my countrywoman! I am also from the +Highlands, seven +hours distance from your village. I know it well, and once sailed over +the lake with your father. Does he still live?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alas! no; he was drowned, and the lake hasn't given up its +dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was a fine-looking old man, and you are the very image of +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad to find some one else here who knew my father. The +court +tailor--I meant the court doctor--knew him, too. Yes, search the land +through, you couldn't have found a better man than my father, and no +one can help but admit it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes: I've often heard as much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I ask your ladyship's name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Countess Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wildenort? I've heard the name before. Yes, I remember my +mother's +mentioning it. Your father was known as a very kind and benevolent man. +Has he been dead a long while?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, he is still living."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is he here, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And as what are you here, Countess?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As maid of honor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Being attached to the queen's person; or what, in your part +of the +country, would be called a companion!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed! And is your father willing to let them use you that +way?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Irma, who was somewhat annoyed by her questions, +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wished to ask you something--can you write?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I once could, but I've quite forgotten how."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I've just hit it! that's the very reason for my coming +here. Now, +whenever you wish to write home, you can dictate your letter to me, and +I will write whatever you tell me to."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could have done that, too," suggested Mademoiselle Kramer, +timidly; +"and your ladyship would not have needed to trouble yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, the countess will write for me. Shall it be now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Walpurga had to go to the child. While she was in the +next room, +Countess Irma and Mademoiselle Kramer engaged each other in +conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga returned, she found Irma, pen in hand, and at +once began +to dictate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear husband, dear mother, and dear child. No, stop! don't +write that! +Take another sheet of paper. Now I've got it, now you can go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish to let you know, that by the help of God, I arrived +here safe +and sound, in the carriage with the four horses. I don't know how. And +the queen's an angel, and there were millions of lights, and my +child--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga covered her face with both hands--she had said "my +child," +without knowing which child she meant.</p> + +<p class="normal">A pause ensued.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And my child," said Countess Irma, repeating the words after +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" exclaimed Walpurga, "I can't write to-day. Excuse me; +there's no +use trying. But you've promised to write for me to-morrow or the day +after. Do come and see us every day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And shall I bring a good friend with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course; any friend of yours will be welcome. Isn't it so. +Mademoiselle Kramer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; Countess Irma has special permission."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll bring a very good friend with me; she can sing +charmingly, and +her voice is soft and gentle--but I'll not torment you with riddles; I +play the zither, and will bring mine with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You play the zither?" exclaimed Walpurga, scarcely able to +contain +herself for joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Any further expressions on her part were prevented by the +presence of +the king, who entered at that moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a gentle inclination of the head, he greeted Countess +Irma, who +had risen from her seat and bowed so low that it seemed as though she +meant to sit down on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you writing?" asked the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga's secrets, may it please Your Majesty," replied +Countess +Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king may read all that's there," said Walpurga, handing +him the +sheet.</p> + +<p class="normal">He hurriedly ran his eye over it, and then, with a glance at +the +countess, folded it and put it in his breast pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall sing with Walpurga," said Irma, "and Your Majesty +will again +observe that music is the highest good on earth. Singing together, +Walpurga and I are equals. The creations of other arts, poetry +especially, may be translated by every one into his own language, +according to the measure of his knowledge and experience."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite true," replied the king; "music is the universal +language, the +only one that requires no translation, and in which soul speaks to +soul."</p> + +<p class="normal">While they were thus talking, Walpurga stared at them in dumb +amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, accompanied by Countess Irma, looked at the prince +for a +little while, and then, having said: "The christening will take place +next Sunday," he withdrew.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was with a strange expression that Walpurga's eyes +followed the king +and then rested in earnest gaze upon Countess Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">The countess busied herself with the papers, and then, with +cheerful +voice, took leave of Walpurga. Her cheerfulness almost seemed +constrained, for she laughed while there was nothing to laugh at.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a long while, Walpurga stood looking at the curtains, +behind which +the countess had disappeared, and at last said to Mademoiselle Kramer:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You told the truth, when you said that the palace isn't a +church."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not enter into any further explanation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will teach you how to write," said Mademoiselle Kramer; +"it will be +pleasant employment for us, and you will then be able to do your own +writing to your family."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that I will," said Walpurga.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"I want to ask a favor of you," said Walpurga to Countess Irma, the +next day. "Always tell me frankly whenever I do anything wrong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite willingly; but, in return, you must always tell me +when I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I've something on my heart, this very moment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some time when we're alone together, I will."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray, dear Kramer, would you oblige me by retiring for a few +moments?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer went into the adjoining room, and +Walpurga could +not help feeling astonished when she observed how, in the palace, +people were pushed hither and thither, just like so many chairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, what is it?" inquired the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You won't think ill of me, if I say anything foolish; you're +sure you +won't?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" asked Irma again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're so beautiful, so very beautiful; more so than any one +I've even +seen; you're even more beautiful than the queen--no, not more +beautiful, but more powerful, and your eyes are full of kindness--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well what is it? speak out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd rather think I'm wrong; but it's best to feel sure. +Well, I didn't +like the way you and the king looked at each other yesterday; while +your hand was on the cradle-rail, he placed his upon it; and he's a +husband and a father. You're an unmarried girl, and don't know what it +means when a man looks at you in that way; but I'm a married woman, and +it's my duty to warn you. You said that we'd be good friends, and now +there's a chance to test our friendship."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma shook her head, and replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean well enough; but you're mistaken. The king has a +noble heart +and, since the birth of his son, would like to make every one as happy +as he is himself. He loves his wife dearly and, as you have seen for +yourself, she's an angel--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if she weren't an angel, she's his wife and the mother +of his +child, and he must be true to her; for with every glance he gives +another woman he's a confounded adulterer, whose eyes ought to be put +out. Look here! If I were to think that my husband could do such a +thing--but the men are wicked enough to do anything--that a man could +stand by the cradle of his new-born babe, and let the same eyes with +which he had just been looking at his child tell another woman, 'I love +you,'--if I were to think that, I'd go mad. And if a man whose hand has +pressed that of a woman not his wife, can offer his hand to that wife, +or touch his child's face with it, the world in which such things could +happen ought to be burned up and the Lord ought to shower pitch and +brimstone down on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak softly, Walpurga; don't scream so. Don't let such +words pass +your lips. You are not here to look after our morals, nor is it for you +to pass judgment. What do you know of the world? You've not the +slightest idea of what politeness means."</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Irma's words were harsh and severe, and had deeply +humbled +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now that you know who you are and what you are about, I've +something +more to tell you: I forgive you for insulting the king and myself with +your silly talk. If I didn't pity your ignorance, I would never speak +to you again; but, as I feel kindly disposed toward you, and know that +you meant no harm, I shall give you a bit of advice. No matter what may +happen, don't concern yourself about it. Attend to your child, and let +no one induce you to speak ill of others. Take my word for it--here, +all are deceitful. They are ever ready to speak ill of one another, and +unless you are very careful you'll not have a friend in the whole +palace. Mind you don't forget what I've said to you. And now I must +thank you once more for having spoken to me as you did. You meant it +all well enough, and it is proper that you should be perfectly frank. I +shall always be your good friend. Although one treats the king +respectfully, he is, nevertheless, as good as your Hansei, and I'm as +good as you. And now, let's shake hands! Let bygones be bygones. +Whatever you do, not a word of this to Kramer; and don't forget that, +hereabouts, the walls have ears."</p> + +<p class="normal">Without saying another word. Countess Irma began the melody +of a +Highland song upon her zither.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could hardly realize what had happened to her. She +was +provoked at her own stupid and forward behavior, and was firmly +resolved to keep her own counsel in the future.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Irma was playing, the king again passed through the +<i>portière</i> +and stopped to listen. Irma did not look up; her eyes were fixed upon +her zither. When she had finished, the king applauded faintly. She +arose and bowed, but did not accompany the king when he went into the +adjoining chamber to look at the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your zither is in perfect tune, dear countess, but you seem +to be +somewhat out of tune," said the king, as he came back into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am in tune. Your Majesty," replied Countess Irma. "I've +just been +playing an air to Walpurga, and it has deeply affected me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king left very soon afterward, and without offering his +hand to the +countess. Walpurga's saddest thought was that she dared not even trust +Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you poor child!" said she to the prince, one day, when +no one was +by. "Oh, you poor, dear child! you're expected to grow up among people +who don't trust each other. If I could only take you with me, what a +fine boy you'd become. You're still innocent--children, until they +begin to speak, are the only innocent creatures in this world. But what +matters it? I didn't make the world, and needn't change it. The +countess is right. I'll nurse you well, care for you tenderly, and +leave the rest to God."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Your wish is fulfilled at last," said Countess Irma to Doctor Gunther, +just as they were rising from the dinner-table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What wish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I how have a female friend, a companion, and, in the words +of the +song, 'you'll ne'er find a better.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your treatment of the peasant woman is quite amiable and +does you +great credit, but she is not a friend. Your friend should be one who is +your equal. Your relation toward this peasant woman will always be that +of a patron. She never dare find fault with you, and if she were to +make the attempt, you could readily silence her. Mere common-sense is +defenseless against the armory of culture."</p> + +<p class="normal">Without noticing how Irma started at these words, the doctor +calmly +continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's just as much difference, mentally, between yourself +and such a +type of popular simplicity as there is between a grown person and a +child. I fear you've neglected to secure yourself a friend who is your +equal in birth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My equal in birth? So you, too, are an aristocrat?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor explained that equality of rights could be +conceded without +doing away with social distinctions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whenever I leave you," said Irma, her face radiant with +enthusiasm--"whenever I've been under the influence of your thoughts, +all that I do or attempt seems petty and trifling. At such moments, I +feel just as I do after listening to glorious music, and long to +accomplish something out of the usual way. I wish I were gifted with +artistic talent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Content yourself with being one of nature's loveliest works. +That's +the best thing to do."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor was called away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma remained seated for some time, and at last repaired to +her room, +where she amused herself with her parrot. Then, after looking at her +flowers for a while, she began to copy them in colors on a slab of +marble. She evidently intended it to be a rare work. But for whom? She +knew not. A tear fell on a rose, the color in which was still wet. She +looked up and left her work. Then she dried the tear, and found herself +obliged to paint the rose anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the day before the christening, Walpurga dictated the +following +letter to Countess Irma:</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-morrow will be Sunday, and I'll try to be with you, too. +In +thought, I'm always there. It seems as if it were seven years since I +left home. The day's ever so long here, and there are more than three +times as many people in the palace as could get into our church. There +are lots of married servants here who have servants of their own; there +are none but tall, fine-looking men in service here. Mademoiselle +Kramer tells me that their lordships don't care to have any but +handsome people about them; and some of them are as prim and proper as +a parson. They call them lackeys, and whenever the king goes near one +of them, they bow very low and double up with a snap, just like a +pocket-knife. Oh, what lots of good things I have! If I could only send +you some of them. I'm ever so glad that we shall go to the country +palace in four weeks and stay there till autumn. But how's my child, +and how goes it with Hansei and with mother, and you too, Stasi? In my +sleep at night, I'm always with you. I can't sleep much, for my prince +is a real night-watchman, and the king's doctor said I mustn't let +him cry as much as Burgei does at home. But he has good lungs, and +to-morrow is the christening. The queen's brother and his wife are to +be godfather and godmother, and there'll be lots of princes and +princesses besides. And I've got beautiful new dresses and two green +hats with gold lace, and two silver chains for my stomacher, and I can +take them all home with me when I go, but that won't be for a long +while. If all the weeks are as long as last week, I'll be seven hundred +years old when I get home. I'm quite lively again. But, at first, it +seemed as if I could always hear the lowing of the cow in the stable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She who writes this is the Countess Wildenort, from over +beyond the +Chamois Hill; she's a very good friend of mine. She knew our dear +father, too, and you, mother, know of her family.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I've something to tell you, Hansei. Don't have too much +to do with +the innkeeper; he's a rogue, and he'll talk your money out of your +pocket. There are good folks and bad everywhere; at home with us and +here too; and the king's doctor says you mustn't give the cow any green +fodder, nothing but hay, or else the milk won't agree with the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm learning to write. Indeed I'm learning a great many +things here.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And tell me what the people say about my leaving home so +suddenly, and +about my having left at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I don't care what they say. I know I've done my duty by +my child; +my husband, and my mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, dear mother, take a servant-girl into the house; we can +afford it +now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, Hansei, don't let the innkeeper wheedle you out of your +money. +Put it out safely at mortgage, till we have enough to buy a few acres +of land.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And don't forget, Wednesday's the day on which father died; +have a +mass said for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We've got a church in the house here, and I hear the organ +every +morning, while I stand in the passage. Tomorrow will be a great day, +and I remain your ever faithful</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Walpurga Andermatten</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I send you a little cap for my child; let her wear it every +Sunday. A +thousand greetings to all of you, from your</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Walpurga</span>."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Oh how lovely! How beautiful!--And is it all mine?--And is it you, +Walpurga, of the cottage by the lake?--How proud she'll be!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Such were Walpurga's extravagant expressions of delight, +while she +stood looking at herself in the full-length mirror. Mademoiselle Kramer +was indeed obliged to hold her back, lest she should rush through the +glass in her eager desire to embrace the figure she saw reflected in +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The court tailor had sent home the new clothes. It was +difficult to +decide which was the most beautiful--the stomacher, the skirt, +the collar, the shirt with the short, wide sleeves--but no! the +narrow-rimmed hat, trimmed with flowers and gold lace and with gold +tassels, was the most beautiful of all. It fitted perfectly, and was as +light as a feather. "There, I'll just move it a little to the left. +Gracious me!--Well, you are beautiful! The folks are right!" She placed +her arms akimbo and danced about the room, like one possessed. And +then, placing herself before the mirror, she stared into it, silently, +as if lost in contemplation of her own image.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, that mirror! Walpurga had never before seen her full +figure, from +head to foot. What could she see in the twopenny looking-glass at home? +Nothing but the face and a little of the neck!</p> + +<p class="normal">She lifted her hand to her throat. It was encircled by a +necklace +composed of seven rows of garnets and fastened in front with an +agraffe. And how clever Mademoiselle Kramer was! How many things she +could do!</p> + +<p class="normal">She had placed a large mirror behind Walpurga, who could now +see how +she looked in the back, and on all sides. Oh, how clever these people +are! What do they know out our way? Nothing of the world, and less +about themselves!</p> + +<p class="normal">"And this is how Walpurga looks to those who walk behind her? +And so," +turning herself on one side, "and so," turning again on the other. "I +must say, I like your looks; you're not out of the way, at all! So +that's Hansei's wife? He ought to feel satisfied with her; but then, +he's good and true and has well deserved her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Giddy with excitement, Walpurga thus talked to herself; it +was the +first time that she had ever seen a full length reflection of herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first stranger who saw her thus was Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">He always wore shoes without heels and, putting down his +whole foot at +once, managed to step so softly that you could never know when he was +coming. He always approached with a modest air, as if fearful of +disturbing you, but always kept his own counsel and was an available +tool, no matter what the nature of the service might be.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! how pretty!" he exclaimed, staring at her as if quite +lost with +admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's nothing to you, sirrah, at any rate," said Walpurga; +"you're a +married man and I'm a married woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">Assuming an air of command, and acting as if these were the +first words +uttered since he entered the apartment, Baum went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's the lord steward's pleasure that the nurse shall come +to the +court chapel immediately, if His Royal Highness the crown prince, is +asleep. The rehearsal is about to begin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've tried my clothes on," answered Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum told her that it had nothing to do with trying on +clothes, but +that, excepting the highest personages, all who were to take part in +the grand ceremonies of the morrow, were now to rehearse the order of +the procession, so that there might be no confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went with Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ladies and gentlemen of the court were assembled in the +throne-room. Most of them were eagerly engaged in conversation, and the +confused sound of many voices was strangely echoed back from the high, +vaulted ceiling. When Walpurga entered, she could hear them whispering +on all sides. Some spoke French, but others used plain German, to say +that the nurse was a fine specimen of a Highland peasant woman. +Walpurga had a smile for every one, and was quite unembarrassed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lord steward, bearing a gold-headed stick in his hand, +now +stationed himself on the lowest step of the throne, which had been +covered with an ermine mantle. He struck the floor thrice with the +stick and then held it up. Every one was provided with a printed +programme, and Walpurga also received one. After reading it to the +company, the lord steward enjoined its strict observance on all. +The procession now moved toward the chapel, passing through the +picture-gallery and the portrait-gallery, by the way. The open space +before it presented the appearance of an enchanted garden. It was +filled with exotic trees, and the air was laden with the odor of +flowers. The chapel was also decorated with flowers and shrubbery; and +the paintings on the ceiling represented angels flying about in the +air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein, whose appearance was even more austere +than on +the first evening, was engrossed with her official duties; this was no +time for her to be ill.</p> + +<p class="normal">She cautioned Walpurga, who walked beside her, to be very +careful how +she carried the prince, and earnestly enjoined her not to withdraw her +arms until she felt quite certain that the prince was safely in his +godfather's arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I won't; I'm not that stupid," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I require no answer from you." Countess Brinkenstein was +vexed at +Walpurga. She was indeed displeased with the queen, who, she thought, +was spoiling the poor servant, but found it more convenient to vent her +resentment upon Walpurga than upon so exalted a personage as her +majesty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The various groups were chatting and laughing in as careless +a tone as +if they were in a ball-room instead of a church.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lord steward, who had stationed himself at the altar, +inquired +whether all were in readiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," was answered from various quarters, amid much +laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked up at the image of the Virgin, which she had +seen by +the light of the everlasting lamp on the evening of her arrival,--it +was the first time she saw it by daylight--and said: "Thou, too, must +look on while they rehearse." She now fully understood Mademoiselle +Kramer's remark that, for royalty, everything must be arranged in +advance. But was it right to do so with sacred matters? It must be, +thought she, or they wouldn't do it. The court chaplain was there too, +but not in his ecclesiastical robes. She saw him taking a pinch from +the golden snuff-box of the lord steward, with whom he was talking just +as if they were in the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so this is the rehearsal, thought Walpurga to herself, +when +Countess Brinkenstein approached and said that, as she now knew her +place for the morrow, she might go. She also ordered Walpurga to wear +white cotton gloves, and said that she would send her several pairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went out by way of the throne-room and the +picture-gallery. +Without looking about her, she walked through numerous apartments, and +suddenly found herself standing before a large, dark room. The door was +open, but she could not see where it led to. She turned in alarm, for +she had lost her way. All was silent as death. She looked out of the +window and saw a street that she had never seen before. She knew not +where she was, and hurried on; from a distance, she could see strange +men and beasts and places on the walls, and suddenly she uttered a +shriek of terror, for the devil himself, black as pitch, came toward +her, gnashing his teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"O Lord! Forgive me! I'll never be proud and vain again! I'll +be good +and honest," she cried aloud, wringing her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you making such a noise about? who are you?" +exclaimed the +devil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm Walpurga, from the lake; and I've a child and husband +and mother, +at home. I was brought here to be the crown prince's nurse, but indeed, +I didn't want to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed! and so you're the nurse. I rather like your looks."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I don't want you, or any one else, to like my looks. +I've a +husband of my own and want nothing to do with other men."</p> + +<p class="normal">The black fellow laughed heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then what were you doing in my master's apartments?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's your master? I've nothing to do with him. I and all +good spirits +praise God the Lord! Speak! What is it you want of me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you stupid! My master is the queen's brother. I'm his +<i>valet de +chambre</i>. We arrived here last evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could not understand what it all meant. Luckily for +her, at +that moment, the duke and the king came out of the apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Addressing the Moor in English, the duke inquired what had +happened; +answering in the same tongue, the Moor said that the peasant woman had +taken him for the devil incarnate; upon hearing which, the duke and the +king laughed heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What brings you here?" inquired the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I lost my way, after leaving the chapel," replied Walpurga. +"My child +will cry. Do please show me the way back to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king instructed one of the lackeys to conduct her to her +apartments. While going away she overheard the uncle, who was to be +chief sponsor, saying: "What a fine milch-cow you've brought from the +Highlands!"</p> + +<p class="normal">When she had returned to her room, and again beheld herself +in the +large mirror, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're nothing but a cow that can chatter, and is dressed up +in +clothes! Well, it served you right."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The night was a bad one. The crown prince suffered because of the +fright which the Moor had given his foster-mother. Doctor Gunther sat +up all night, in the adjoining room, so as to be within ready call, and +was constant in his inquiries as to Walpurga and the child. He +instructed Mademoiselle Kramer never again to allow the nurse to leave +the room without his permission.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Walpurga this imprisonment was welcome, as she wished to +have +nothing more to do with the whole world; for the child filled her soul +and, while she lay on the sofa, she vowed to God that nothing else +should enter her mind. She looked at the new clothes that were spread +out on the large table and shook her head; she no longer cared for the +trumpery. Indeed, she almost hated it, for had it not led her into +evil? and had not the punishment quickly followed?</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's sleep was broken and fitful, and whenever she +closed her +eyes, she beheld herself pursued by the Moor. It was not until near +daybreak, that she and the child slept soundly. The great ceremony +could therefore take place at the appointed time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum brought the beautiful pillows and the brocaded coverlet +embroidered with two wild animals. While passing Walpurga, he softly +whispered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep a brave heart, so that you don't get sick again; for if +you do, +they will discharge you at once. I mean well by you, and that's why I +say so."</p> + +<p class="normal">He said this without moving a feature, for Mademoiselle +Kramer was to +know nothing of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked after him in amazement; and Baum, indeed, +presented +quite an odd appearance, in his gray linen undress uniform.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so they'll send you away when you get sick," thought she +to +herself. "I'm a cow. They're right, There's no longer any room in the +stable for a cow that's barren."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I and thou and the miller's cow--" said she, to the prince, +as she +again took him to her bosom, while she laughed and sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">"Cock a doodle doo!</p> +<p class="t6">The clock strikes two;</p> +<p class="t6">The clock strikes four.</p> +<p class="t6">While all sleep and snore.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6">"Be it palace or cot,</p> +<p class="t6">It matters not,</p> +<p class="t6">Though they cook sour beets,</p> +<p class="t6">Or eat almonds and sweets--</p> +<p class="t6">As long as they care</p> +<p class="t6">For the little ones there."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Walpurga would have said and sung much more that day, were it +not for +the constant hurrying to and fro in the prince's apartments. Countess +Brinkenstein came in person, and said to Walpurga:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you not all sorts of secret charms which you place +under the +pillow for the child's sake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, a twig of mistletoe will do, or a nail dropped from a +horse-shoe; +I'd get them quick enough if I were at home; but I've nothing of the +sort here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt quite proud while telling what she knew of the +secret +charms; but grew alarmed when she looked at Countess Brinkenstein and +saw that her face wore an expression of displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mademoiselle Kramer," said she, "you will be held +responsible if this +peasant woman attempts to practice any of her superstitious nonsense +with the child."</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a word of this was addressed to Walpurga, who had +persuaded herself +into believing that she was the first person in the palace, and now, +for the first time, experienced the mortification of being ignored, +just as if she were nothing more than empty air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't lose my temper, in spite of you. And I won't do you +the favor +to get sick, so that you may send me off," muttered Walpurga, laughing +to herself, while the countess withdrew.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now followed a beautiful and happy hour. Two maidens +came, who +dressed the prince. Walpurga also allowed them to dress her, and +greatly enjoyed being thus waited upon.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the bells, throughout the city, were ringing; the chimes +of the +palace tower joined in the merry din, and almost caused the vast +building to tremble. And now Baum came. He looked magnificent. The +richly-embroidered uniform with the silver lace, the scarlet vest +embroidered with gold, the short, gray-plush breeches, the white +stockings, the buckled shoes--all seemed as if they had come from some +enchanted closet, and Baum well knew that he was cutting a grand +figure. He smiled when Walpurga stared at him, and knew what that look +meant. He could afford to wait.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One should not attempt to reap too soon," had been a +favorite saying +of Baroness Steigeneck's valet, and he knew what he was about.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum announced a chamberlain and two pages, who entered soon +afterward.</p> + +<p class="normal">Heavy steps and words of command were heard from the +adjoining room. +The doors were opened by a servant and a number of cuirassiers entered +the room. They were a detachment from the regiment to which the prince +would belong, as soon as he had received his name.</p> + +<p class="normal">The procession that accompanied the prince moved at the +appointed hour. +The chamberlain walked in advance and then came Mademoiselle Kramer and +Walpurga, the pages bringing up the rear. It was fortunate for Walpurga +that Baum was at her side, for she felt so timid and bashful, that she +looked about her as if imploring aid. Baum understood it all and +whimpered to her: "Keep up your courage, Walpurga!" She merely nodded +her thanks, for she could not utter a word. Bearing the child on her +arms, she passed through the crowd of cuirassiers who, with drawn +swords and glittering coats of mail, stood there like so many statues. +Suddenly, she thought of where she had been last Sunday at the same +hour. If Hansei could only see this, too. And Franz, tailor Schenck's +son, is in the cuirassiers--perhaps he, too, is among those lifeless +ones; but they must be alive, for their eyes sparkle. She looked up, +but did not recognize the tailor's son, although he was in the line.</p> + +<p class="normal">The prince's train, with its escort, passed on to the +so-called grand +center gallery, where the procession was forming.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had been told to seat herself with the prince on the +lowest +step of the throne, and when she looked about her she beheld a sea of +splendor and beauty. There were richly embroidered costumes, lovely +women, their heads adorned with flowers, and jewels that sparkled like +dew-drops on the meadow at early morn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning, Walpurga! Pray don't rise," said a pleasant +voice, +addressing her. It was Countess Irma. But she had scarcely commenced +speaking to her, when the lord steward thrice struck the floor with his +gold-headed stick, the diamonds on which sparkled brightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">A train of halberdiers, wearing gay plumes on their helmets, +marched in +from a side apartment. And then the king came. He carried his helmet in +his left hand and at his side. His face was radiant with happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">At his side walked the duchess, a diamond crown on her head, +and with +two pages bearing her long silk train. She was followed by a numerous +and brilliant suite.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had hastened to her appropriate place. The bells were +slowly +tolling, and the procession moved. At the entrance of the palace +chapel, the duchess took the child from the nurse and carried it up to +the altar, where priests, clad in splendid robes, were awaiting it, and +where countless lights were burning.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga followed, feeling as if bereft--not only as if the +clothes had +been torn from her body, but as if the body had been rent from her +soul. The child cried aloud, as if aware of what was taking place, but +its voice was drowned by the tones of the organ and choir. The whole +church was filled with a mighty volume of sound, which descended from +the gallery and was echoed back from the floor beneath, like sullen, +muttering thunder. Involuntarily, Walpurga fell on her knees at the +altar--there was no need to order her to do so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Choir, organ and orchestra burst forth with a mighty volume +of sound, +and Walpurga, overwhelmed with awe and surprise, imagined that the end +of the world had come and that the painted angels on the ceiling,--aye, +the very pillars, too--were swelling the heavenly harmonies.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly all was silent again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child received its names. One would not suffice: there +were eight; +a whole section of the calendar had been emptied for its benefit.</p> + +<p class="normal">But from that moment until she reached her room, Walpurga +knew nothing +of what had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she found herself alone with Mademoiselle Kramer, she +asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, and what am I to call my prince?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"None of us know. He has three names until he succeeds to the +throne, +when he himself selects one, under which he reigns, and which is +stamped on the coins."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've something to tell you," said Walpurga, "and mind you +don't forget +it. You must send me the first ducat you have stamped with your name +and your picture! See! he gives me his hand on it!" cried she, +exultingly, when the child stretched out its little hand as if to grasp +hers. "Oh, you dear Sunday child! Let the first lady of the bedchamber +say it's superstition--it's true, for all. I'm a cow and you're a +Sunday child, and Sunday children understand the language of the +beasts. But that's only once a year--at midnight on Christmas eve. But +as you're a prince, I'm sure you can do more than the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was called into the queen's apartment, the dazzling +beauty of +which suggested a glittering cavern in fairy-land. All was quiet; here +nothing was heard of the noisy, bustling crowd overhead. The queen +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"On that table you will find a roll containing a hundred gold +pieces. +It is your christening present from my brother and the other sponsors. +Does it make you happy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, queen! If the lips on these gold pieces could speak, the +hundred +together couldn't tell you how happy I am. It's too much! Why, you +could buy half our village with it! With that much you could buy--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't excite yourself! Keep calm! Come here, and I'll give +you +something else, for myself. May this little ring always remind you of +me, and may your hand thus be as if it were mine, doing good to the +child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh my queen! How happy it must make you to be able to speak +right out +when your heart is full of kind thoughts, and to have it in your power +to do so many great and good actions; besides, God must love you very +much, to permit so much good to be done by your hand! I thank you with +all my heart! And to Him who has given it all to you, a thousand +thanks!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, your words do me more good than all that the +archbishop and +the rest of them said. I shall not forget them!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what I've said--but it's all your fault! When +I'm with +you, I--I hardly know how to say it--but I feel as if I were standing +before the holy of holies in the church. Oh, what a heavenly creature +you are! You're all heart! I'll tell the child of it, and though it +doesn't understand what I say, it'll feel it all. From me it shall get +only good thoughts of you! I beg your pardon now, if I should ever +offend you, even in thought or do anything out of the way--" She could +say no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen motioned Walpurga to be quiet and held out her hand +to her; +neither spoke another word. Angels were indeed passing through the +silent room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went away. It was self-confidence, not boldness, +that made her +look straight into the faces of the courtiers whom she passed by the +way. As far as she was concerned, they did not exist.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she was with the child again, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, drink in my whole soul! It's all yours! If you don't +become a man +in whom God and the world can take delight, you don't deserve a mother +like yours!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer was amazed at Walpurga's words. But the +latter did +not care to tell what was passing in her mind. There was perfect +silence, and yet she sat there, motionless, as if she could still hear +the organ and the singing of the angels.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't this that makes me so happy," said she, looking at +the money +once more. "It must be just this way when one gets to heaven and the +Lord says: 'I'm glad you've come!' Oh, if I could only fly there now! I +don't know what to do with myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">She loosened all her clothes; the world seemed too close and +confined +to contain her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God be praised! the day's over," said she, when she lay down +to rest +that evening. "It was a hard day, but a beautiful one; more beautiful +than I'll ever see again."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>(<span class="sc">IRMA TO HER FRIEND EMMA</span>.)</h3> + +<p class="normal">"You ask me how I like the great world. The great world, dear Emma, +is but a little world, after all. But I can readily understand why they +term it 'great.' It has a firmament of its own. Two suns rise daily; I +mean their majesties, of course. A gracious glance, or a kind word, +from either--and the day is clear and bright. Should they ignore you, +the weather is dull and dreary.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen is all feeling, and lives in a transcendental +world of her +own into which she would fain draw every one. She suggests a 'Jean +Paul' born after his time, and is of a tender, clinging disposition, +constantly vacillating between the dawn and twilight of emotion, and +always avoiding the white light of day. She is exceedingly gracious +toward me, but we cannot help feeling that we do not harmonize.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know not why it is, but I have of late frequently thought +of a +saying of my father's: 'Whenever you find yourself on friendly or +affectionate terms with any one, imagine how he would seem if he had +become your enemy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The thought follows me like a phantom, I know not why. It +must be my +evil spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">"All here regard me as wonderfully naïve, simply because I +have the +courage to think for myself. I have not inherited the spectacles and +tight-lacing of tradition. The world seems to follow the fashion, even +in clothing the inside of their heads.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I admire the first lady of the bedchamber most of all. She +is the law +incarnate, carefully covered with <i>poudre de riz</i>. The ladies here +ridicule her, but I have only pity for those who are obliged to resort +to the use of cosmetics. Ah, you can have no idea, my dear Emma, how +stupid and bored some persons are when unable to indulge in scandal. +There are but few who know how to enjoy themselves innocently. But I am +forgetting that I intended to tell you about Countess Brinkenstein.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She read me a lecture on etiquette. What a pity that I +cannot give it +you, word for word. She said many pretty things; for instance,--that we +have as little right to doubt in matters of etiquette as in religion, +that, in either case, reasoning always led to heresy and schism, and +that one ought to feel happy to have the law ready made, instead of +being obliged to frame it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Countess Brinkenstein, like Socrates the peripatetic, +teaches by +example. In the park of the summer palace there is a jutting rock, from +the top of which a fine view can be obtained. It is protected on all +sides by an iron rail. 'Do you observe, my dear countess,' said this +high priest of etiquette to me--for she seems to have conceived quite +an affection for your humble servant--'it is because we know there is a +railing, that we feel perfectly safe here. If it were not for that, we +should become too dizzy to remain. It is just the same with the laws of +court etiquette; remove the railing and there will be some one falling +every day.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king enjoys conversing with Brinkenstein and, although +decorous +and dignified demeanor best pleases him, he is not averse to +unconstrained cheerfulness. The queen is too serious; she is always +grand organ. But one cannot dance to organ music, and as we are still +young, we often feel like dancing. Brinkenstein must have commended me +to the king, for he often addresses me, and in a manner that seems to +say: 'We understand each other perfectly.'"</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>June 1st</i> (<i>at night</i>).</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a pity, dear Emma, that what I have written above +bears no date. +I have completely forgotten when I wrote it--auld lang syne, as it says +in the pretty Scotch song.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel the justice of your complaint, that my letters are +written for +myself and not for the one to whom they are addressed; that is, +whenever I feel like writing, but not when you happen to wish for news. +But you are wrong in charging this to egotism. I am not an egotist. I +am wholly absorbed by the impressions of the moment. Ah, why are you +not here with me! There is not a day, not a night, not an hour-- But I +shall do better. That is, I mean to try, at all events.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king distinguishes me above all others, and I enjoy the +favor of +the whole court. If it were not for the demon that ever whispers to +me--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I send you my photograph. We are now wearing wings on our +hats, and +the feather you see on mine was taken from an eagle that the king shot +with his own hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, what lovely days and nights we are having! If one could +only do +without sleep. I am giving great attention to music and sing nothing +but Schumann. His music invests the soul with a magic veil, with a fire +that seems to consume while it fills you with happiness, and from the +spell of which none can escape, though they try ever so hard. I gladly +yield to its influence. I have just been singing 'The heavens have +kissed the earth.' It was late at night, and I felt as if I could go on +singing forever. You know my habit of repeating the same song again and +again; of all things a <i>pot-pourri</i> of the emotions is least to my +liking. At last I lay down by the window--who was it that glided past? +I dare not say. I do not care to know. There was a humming in the +direction of the lamp on my table. A moth-fly had flown into it and had +been consumed by the flame. The moth had not wished to die; it had +imagined the light to be a glowing flower-cup, and had buried itself in +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a beautiful death! To die in the summer night, amid +song and in +the light of the fiery calyx. Good-night!"</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>June 3d</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"No matter where I am or what I do, I am always excited, +without +knowing why. But I have it, after all. I am constantly thinking that +this letter to you is still lying in my portfolio. If any one at court +knew what I have written--I have already been on the point of burning +these sheets. I beg of you, destroy them. You will,--will you not? or +else conceal them in some safe place. I cannot help it, I must tell you +all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen is very kind to me. Her present condition invests +her with a +touching, I might almost say, a sacred character.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Man is God's temple,' said the archbishop, who paid us a +visit +yesterday, 'and of no one is this so true as of a young mother; above +all, a young royal mother.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a noble thought!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I now think quite differently of the queen. When she said to +me, +yesterday: 'Countess Irma, the king speaks of you with great affection, +and I am very glad of it,' I thought to myself: Blessed be the +etiquette that permits me to bend down before the queen and kiss her +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her hand is now quite full and round."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>June 5th</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"The most cheerful hours are those we spend at breakfast. I +do not know +how, after such Olympic moments, the rest can content themselves with +every-day matters, for I always wing my flight into the boundless realm +of music.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king is very kind to me. He is of a noble and earnest +character. +While I was walking with him in the park, yesterday, and we both kept +step so beautifully, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You seem like a true comrade to me, for we always walk +together in +perfect step. No woman has ever walked thus with me. With the queen I +am always obliged to slacken my usual pace.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'That is only of late, I suppose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No, it is always so. Will you permit me, when we are alone, +to +address you as my good comrade?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"We stopped where we were, like two children who have lost +their way in +the woods and do not know where they are.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Let us return,' was all I could say.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We went back to the palace. I admire the king's +self-control, for +he at once entered into earnest conversation with his minister. Such +self-control can only result from great education and innate mental +power.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But there is one thing more. Let me confide it to you.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel sure that the queen meditates a step which must needs +be +fraught with evil to the king, to herself, and to who knows how many +more. I would have liked to acquaint him with my fears, but I dared not +speak of the queen at that time, and Doctor Gunther, the king's +physician, had made me afraid to utter a word on the subject. I am +talking in riddles, I know. I will explain all to you at some future +day, if you remind me of it. In a few weeks, all will be decided. My +lips are not sealed, for the queen has confided nothing to me. I have +simply reasoned from appearances. But enough of this. I shall no longer +torment you with riddles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My best friend, after all, is Doctor Gunther. He is great by +nature, +and still more so by education. He is always up to his own high +standard. I have never yet seen him confused or uncertain. The +old-fashioned phrase, a 'wise man,' is, indeed, applicable to him. He +is not fond of so-called 'spirituality' or 'intellectuality,' for he is +truly wise. He has great command of language. His hands are beautiful, +almost priestly, as if formed for blessing. He never loses his +equanimity and, what is best of all, never indulges in superlatives. +When I once mentioned this to him, he agreed with me, and added: 'I +should like to deprive the world of its superlatives for the next fifty +years; that would oblige men to think and feel more clearly and +distinctly than they now do.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you not, dear Emma, perfectly agree with this? Let us +found an +<i>anti-superlative</i> society. I admire the man, but will never be able +successfully to imitate him. Through him, I have learned to believe +that there have been great and wise men on earth. While yet a surgeon +in the army, he was my father's friend. Afterward, he filled a +professorship in Switzerland, and, for the last eighteen years, has +been physician to the king. You would be delighted with him. To know +him, is to enrich one's life. If I were to write down all his sayings, +half the charm were lost, for you would lose the spell of his presence. +He has a most convincing air and a sonorous voice, and I have heard +that he used to sing very well. He is a perfect man, and loves me as if +I were his niece. I shall have much more to tell you about him. Above +all things, I am glad that he has a fine vein of humor. This furnishes +the salt and prevents him from being included among the class of +sugar-water beings.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Colonel Bronnen is his best, perhaps his only intimate, +friend, and +the doctor recently told me that the colonel's manner and appearance +greatly resemble that of my father while a young man."</p> + +<p class="right"><i>June 15th</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, how hateful, how horrible is the thought of man's birth +and death! +To die--to be laid in the earth, and to know that the eyes that once +glowed with life, and the lips that once smiled, are to decay. The very +idea is a barbarous one. Why do we know of death? We must be immortal, +or else it were terrible that we human beings should alone know that we +must die. The moth-fly did not know it. It simply thought the burning +light was a lovely flower, and died in that belief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since last evening, we have been greatly concerned for the +queen, +indeed, for a double life. She was so good, so angelic.--But no, she +still is, and will remain so. She will live. I have prayed for it with +all my heart. Away with doubts! My prayer must avail.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I met the king to-day he scarcely looked at me, and it +is better +for me, that it should be thus. A feeling was beginning to bud within +me, and now I pluck it out by the roots. It dare not be. I will be his +comrade; his good, his best comrade.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My piano, my music, my pictures, my statuettes, my bird--all +seem +strange to me. A human being, a two-fold life, is in mortal danger. +What does all the trumpery in the world amount to now? All of it +together cannot save a human life. Is original sin a truth, and is it +because of that, that man must pass through the throes of death before +he can behold the light?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would like to read, but there is no book that can serve +one in such +moments. One cannot even think. Nothing, nothing can be done. All the +wisdom in all the books is of no avail."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>June 16th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallelujah! I have just come from church. Oh, that my song +could reach +you. I have just sung the Hallelujah as if I were pouring out my whole +soul to God above.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallelujah!</p> + +<p class="normal">"All is well!</p> + +<p class="normal">"The crown prince is born!</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen is doing well. The king is happy! the world is +bright, and +the blue sky overhead is cloudless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God be praised, that I have so soon escaped from my +perplexing doubts. +Perhaps it was all imagination, after all. There was not the slightest +ground for my alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am but a silly cloister plant, after all, and do not yet +understand +the ways of the court. Is it not so? I see you laughing at me, and see +the dimples in your cheeks. I send you many kisses. Ah, all are so good +and pious, and holy, and happy, and-- If I could only compose, I should +produce some great work. A mute Beethoven dwells within my soul."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>July 18th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The crown prince's nurse is a peasant woman from the +Highlands. At the +king's desire, I paid her a visit. I was standing by the prince's +cradle, when the king approached.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Softly he whispered to me: 'It is indeed true; there is an +angel +standing by my child's cradle.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"My hand was on the rail, and his hand rested on mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king left the room, and just imagine what happened +afterward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The nurse, a fresh and hardy-looking peasant woman, with +shrewd blue +eyes--a perfect rustic beauty, indeed, to whom I had been kind in order +to cheer up, and prevent her from growing homesick--now turned upon me +and told me harshly, and to my face: 'You're an adulteress; you've been +exchanging love-glances with the king!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Emma, I now feel the force of what you have often said to +me: 'You +idolize the people; but they are just as sinful and corrupt as the +great world, and without education to curb and restrain them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what is the peasant woman to me, after all? Certain +persons exist, +only in so far as they serve our purposes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, she is a good and sensible woman, and has asked me to +forgive her +boldness. I shall remain her friend. I shall, indeed."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>June 25th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king evinces the greatest kindness toward me. It is only +yesterday +that he remarked to me, while passing:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Should you ever have a secret, confide it to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He knows full well that I could hardly go to my brother, as +a sister +should, and that my father is so far away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Colonel Bronnen, of the queen's regiment, is very attentive +to me. +He is usually quite reserved. Ah, how I envy those who possess such +self-control. I have none. The demonstrative are always flattering +themselves that their irrepressibility is simple honesty, whereas it is +nothing but weakness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bronnen tells me that you write to him at times. Can it be +possible +that a single thought of yours enters this palace, without being mine?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am delighted to know that we return to the summer palace +in a +fortnight from now. Cities ought to vanish during the summer. We ought +to be able to transport our houses into the woods, among the mountains, +or in the valleys, and in the winter they might be brought together +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Last evening, while we were sitting on the verandah, we were +greatly +amused by a joke of my brother Bruno's. He gave us a description of +what might happen if the feet of all the four-post bedsteads in the +city were endowed with life and, with their contents, were to come +stalking along the garden-walks. It was very droll. Of course, there +was some little that was scarcely proper; but Bruno, with all his +impertinence, has so charming a manner that he knew how to couch his +descriptions in most discreet yet piquant terms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was this that suggested the idea of a migration of +houses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a lively evening, full of merry jests that still seem +to ring +in my ears while I write to you.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king has a new walking-stick--he has quite a collection +of +such--and this one pays court to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am said to be intellectual, and this walking-stick is +intellectual +<i>par excellence</i>, and 'birds of a feather flock together,' you know.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is Baron Schnabelsdorf, privy councilor of one of the +legations.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Picture to yourself a dapper, beardless bachelor, always in +faultless +attire. Every one of the few hairs left him is made to do service, and +is artistically brushed up into the form of a cock's comb. He passes +for an authority in matters of statecraft. He has just returned from +Rome, and was formerly attached to the embassies at Paris and Madrid +and, if I am not mistaken, that at Stockholm, also. He is a fluent and +ready anecdotist. He must have a familiar spirit who crams for him, for +he knows everything, from the cut of Queen Elizabeth's sleeve to the +latest discoveries in the milky-way and the recent excavations at +Nineveh. The ladies and gentlemen have several times amused themselves +by reading up one or more articles in the encyclopedia, and then +directing their conversation to the subjects they had prepared +themselves upon. But the omniscient Baron was, even then, better +informed as to dates and circumstances than they were. He is always +provided with a <i>bonbonnière</i> full of piquant anecdotes. He is almost +constantly with the king, and it is rumored that a high position will +soon be conferred upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you think of it? had I better marry him?</p> + +<p class="normal">"My brother would like me to do so and, although he stoutly +denies it, +I still believe that Schnabelsdorf sent him to broach the affair to me. +I could not help laughing, if I were to stand at the altar with this +learned walking-stick. But it is, nevertheless, very flattering to know +that so learned a man desires me as his spouse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must be excessively learned and clever, and you ought to +respect me +accordingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A thousand greetings and kisses, from</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your ever spoiled</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Irma</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"P. S.--The queen's brother, the hereditary prince of ----, +was at the +christening, and his wife was also present. She rarely utters a word, +but is beautiful. It is reported that the hereditary prince intends to +seek a divorce from her, as she is childless. If, as really seems to be +the case, she loves her husband, how terribly the poor thing must feel. +She must have noticed my interest in her, for she treats me with marked +favor, and has more to say to me than any one else. She wishes me to +ride with her. The christening ceremonies were impressive and +beautiful. At church, I wore a white moiré dress, and a veil fastened +to my <i>coiffure</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At the banquet, Baron Schoning, the chamberlain, escorted me +to the +table. I am regarded here as of a highly poetic temperament, and the +chamberlain has already presented me with a copy of his poems. (You +know them. He has disguised his sublime emotions in the Highland +dialect.) He affects my company and, while at table, told me lots of +fearfully silly stuff. Well, as I was going to say, at the banquet I +wore a dress of sea-green silk, cut out square <i>à la madonna</i>, and in +my hair a simple wreath of heather. They all said that I looked very +well, and I am inclined to believe that they told the truth."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK II.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Life at the palace again moved in its wonted channel. Bulletins as to +the condition of the queen and the crown prince, were no longer issued. +The amnesty which had been proclaimed in consequence of the happy +event, had been received with satisfaction throughout the land.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma spent much of her time in the crown prince's apartments, +and +endeavored to enter into the feelings of the peasant woman who had been +transplanted into a world that was entirely new and strange to her. She +was greatly amused by the droll conceits that this new life awakened in +Walpurga. Her peculiar way of looking at things was frequently in +accord with Walpurga's simple-minded notions, and when Irma was absent, +the nurse would speak to the child for hours, endeavoring, as it were, +to outdo herself with all sorts of droll expressions which, eccentric +as they were, failed to satisfy her.</p> + +<p class="normal">A strong and deep spring of happiness and content, earnest +resolve and +all that makes men true, welled up from Walpurga's soul and ministered +to the benefit of the babe that she had pressed to her bosom; the child +had become as a part of herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">With constant regularity the prince was daily carried to the +queen. +That was the event of the day, after which life, in the crown prince's +apartments, went on in its usual course.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Gunther now relaxed his orders; for one day, he said: +"The +weather is charming, and it will do the prince good to send him out of +doors a little while. We will arrange it in this way:--At +eleven o'clock, you can drive out with Walpurga and the prince, as far +as the Nymph's Grove. Arrived there, you can walk about with the child +under the pines, or can sit down, if you wish to do so. After remaining +there about half an hour, you will return and at once remove to the new +apartments. You have taken good care of yourself, Walpurga; continue to +do so. Let nothing move you from your accustomed ways, and you will +continue to afford pleasure to all of us, as well as to yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite beside herself with happiness. "We're +going out +riding," said she to the child, when the physician had left. "God sends +you everything good while you are asleep. But you'll let me have some, +too, won't you? for you've a good heart, and I've given you mine."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga would have continued in this vein for a long while, +but +Mademoiselle Kramer came up and, while gently patting her cheeks, said: +"You'll have red cheeks again. Show your love for the prince, with +calmness and moderation, and not with such extravagant expressions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right," said Walpurga. "It's true; I'm not always so. +I was +always cheerful, but prudent at the same time: not so giddy as I now +am," said she, after she had walked up and down the room several +times, and at last sat down by the window. "I'll tell you what ails +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed, does anything ail you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, the worst of all ills. I've nothing to do. I don't know +what to +put my hands to. This constant talking, dressing and undressing, eating +and drinking, with nothing else to do, makes me stupid. The next time +the doctor comes, tell him to give me some work. I'll carry wood or do +anything that is to be done. They're mowing the grass in the palace +garden, and if I could only be down there with them, I'd feel the +better of it. No man could beat me at mowing grass. Grubersepp often +used to say that the women sharpened their scythes seven times as often +as the men, but that never happened with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, that would never do. But I shall see that you get some +exercise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, you're to go out of doors, into the fresh air," said +Walpurga to +the prince.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Thy cage is open! Fly away,</p> +<p class="t8">Far o'er land and sea.</p> +<p class="t6">But tell me, birdie; tell me pray,--</p> +<p class="t8">Where can my darling be?"</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">"What a pity that the birds have stopped singing. Yes, dear +child, they +only sing so long as there are young ones in the nest; but I shall have +you in my nest for a whole year, and I'll sing better than the birds +could,"--and she sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Ah, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee,</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6a">"My heart doth bear a burden, love,</p> +<p class="t6">And thou hast placed it there--</p> +<p class="t6">And I would wager e'en my life</p> +<p class="t6">That none doth heavier bear."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">"Brava! charming!" said Countess Irma, entering the room. "I +should +like to learn that song. Sing it again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga repeated it and, at the second verse, Irma joined in +the song.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It doesn't really suit a child," said Walpurga, "but what +does such a +youngster know about lowing cows or singing birds? It's all one to him. +We're going out riding to-day. Do you go with us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would be glad to ride with you, but I may not," replied +Countess +Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you're not allowed to do whatever you please."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her words surprised Irma: "What do you mean?" asked she, +sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive me, if I've said anything stupid. I only meant to +say you're +in service as well as the rest of us. You're a maid of honor, I +believe."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All must serve some one; the king and queen serve God."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must all do that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but princes have a much harder time of it than we, for +theirs is +a far greater responsibility. But what am I saying? You ought to feel +happy that you needn't know everything. I've brought some writing +copies for you. I owe you thanks for one thing, already. Ever since +I've resolved to teach you, my own writing has become far plainer than +before--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma suddenly checked herself, for she realized the full +force of what +she had been saying, and continued: "for you are to learn it +thoroughly."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum came to announce that the carriage was waiting. Irma +left, saying +that she would meet Walpurga in the park.</p> + +<p class="normal">They now went out and Baum let down the carriage steps for +them. +Mademoiselle Kramer, who was the first to enter, held the child until +Walpurga had seated herself. Baum jumped up behind and took his place +beside the second lackey; the four horses stepped out and the carriage +started.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are we driving?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seems like flying. I can't hear the least rumbling of the +wheels."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you can't. The tires are covered with +india-rubber."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so they wear cloth shoes just as we do when we walk on +smooth +floors. Oh, how clever they all are here. Out yonder, they don't know a +thing. They live just like cattle; the only difference is they don't +eat grass--but what's the matter?" said she, starting with fright. +"They're beating the drums and the soldiers are rushing toward us. Is +there a fire somewhere?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's on our account. The guard always present arms when a +member of +the royal family passes by--watch them. They're presenting arms and +after we've passed they'll lay their muskets aside and return to the +guardroom. Their regiment is known as the crown prince's, for it +belongs to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so he'll have live soldiers to play with when he grows +up."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer showed all the self-command befitting one +who could +boast of a line of sixteen ancestors. A slight start and an odd, +nervous twitching of the features, as if suppressing a yawn, were the +only visible effects of Walpurga's words. But of laughter there was not +a sign. An upper servant of the right sort must hear and see all that +is going on, and yet stand by as if he were no more than the table or +plate that can be moved about at will; and although Walpurga was not +her superior, it would not do to laugh at her, for she was nurse to his +royal highness the crown prince. Mademoiselle Kramer therefore +refrained from laughing, and, as if to evade answering, merely said: +"When we pass the guard on our way home, the same thing will happen +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And may I ask what's the good of it all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; there is a good reason for everything, and this +serves to +accustom the people, and especially the soldiers, to show proper +respect to their superiors."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But our prince don't know anything of that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must show our respect for him, even though he know +nothing of it; +and now let me tell you something which it would be well for you to +know. Whenever you speak or think of their majesties, the king and +queen, let it be as 'his majesty' or 'her majesty,' but never simply as +king and queen, so that you may never so far forget yourself as to +speak of them in a disrespectful manner. Bear this in mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga scarcely heard a word of what she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Lord!" she exclaimed, "how wisely they've arranged +everything. It +must have taken many thousand years before they could get so far."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has, indeed. But you needn't nod to everyone you see +bowing. It +isn't meant for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I'd like to do it for my prince, until he can attend to +it +himself. They all show how glad they'll be to get a look at him. They +all bow to you, my child--you're well off, indeed--oh, what a lovely +carriage this is. It's as soft as a bed, and as comfortable as a room, +and you can sit here and see all that's going on outside, and--dear me, +how fast we're going."</p> + +<p class="normal">They turned into the park. The carriage drove slowly while +they passed +the lake, and Walpurga was ever saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel as if I were in fairyland."</p> + +<p class="normal">They alighted by the shady and fragrant Grove of the Nymphs. +As soon as +she had left the carriage, Walpurga, who was carrying the child in her +arms, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Open your eyes! Look about you! The whole world's yours. +There are +trees and meadows and, overhead the blue sky. But your father can't +give you that; you'll have to earn it by being good, and if you and I +both remain good, we'll meet again, up above."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down here, Walpurga, and pray cease talking," said +Mademoiselle +Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was terribly anxious about Walpurga, who talked +incessantly and +incoherently, and was as unmanageable as a young foal that had just +been let loose in the meadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">For this reason, Mademoiselle Kramer again remarked: "Speak +softly, and +address all your remarks to me. I should be sorry if the lackeys behind +us were making sport of you. Do you see the outrider over there? He is +my nephew." Walpurga had not, until then, noticed that two lackeys, one +of whom was Baum, were following them. The carriage was being driven up +and down the side avenues. Suddenly Walpurga stopped, as if spellbound, +before a marble figure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Isn't it beautiful?" asked Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fie!" replied Walpurga. "It's abominable; and to think of +men and +women walking about here and looking at such an object."</p> + +<p class="normal">When the old king had the statues placed in the park, +Mademoiselle +Kramer had deemed them objectionable, but as their majesties had found +them beautiful, she had gradually come to look upon them in the same +light.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went into a side avenue, where Walpurga sat down on a +bench and, +falling into a reverie, soon knew as little of the world as did the +child in her arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's there?" said she, as if awakened from sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">Riding between two horsemen, she beheld a lady mounted on a +glossy +black steed. Her riding-habit was of blue and the long flowing veil +fastened to her hat was of the same color.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It looks like the countess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is she, and now they dismount. His majesty the king and +their royal +highnesses the hereditary prince and princess, are with her. They are +coming this way," said Mademoiselle Kramer. "Keep your seat. As nurse, +you need not trouble about being polite."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Walpurga could not help putting her hands up to her hat, +in order +to feel whether the tassel at the back and the flowers in front were +still in place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer begged their highnesses not to look at +the sleeping +child, lest they might awaken it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was the first to speak. "How deeply significant are all +of +nature's laws. The waking eye arouses the sleeping child. In the depths +of every human soul, an infant soul rests sleeping, and it is not well +to permit either sympathy or idle curiosity to disturb it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would like to know how you always manage to have such +original +thoughts," replied the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know," replied Irma, playing with her riding-whip. +"I've +courage enough to say what I think, and that passes for originality. +Nearly all human beings are changelings. They were changed while in the +cradle of education."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king laughed. Walpurga, however, quickly turned her +thumbs inward, +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Changelings. It's wrong to speak of anything of that sort +before a +child that's less than seven months old, for the evil spirits are all +powerful up to that time, even if the child is christened."</p> + +<p class="normal">In order to exorcise any evil spell from the child, she +breathed upon +it thrice.</p> + +<p class="normal">The princess looked sadly at the nurse and the child, but did +not utter +a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand a word of what the nurse says," remarked +the +hereditary prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga blushed scarlet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you look at me so?" asked Countess Irma, "don't you +know me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I do, but do you know who you look like? like the +Lady of +the Lake. When she rises from the waves, her dress hangs about her in a +sea of folds just like yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma laughed, while she, in High German, told the prince and +princess +what the nurse had been saying. The prince nodded to Walpurga much as +he would have done with a dumb animal to which he could not render +himself intelligible.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Countess Irma's feet are not swan's feet. Don't believe +that, +Walpurga," said the king laughing. "Come, 'Lady of the Lake.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">They mounted their horses and rode away.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was time for the prince to return.</p> + +<p class="normal">On their return, they at once repaired to the new apartments +on the +ground floor, into which everything had been removed during their +absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">They now had sunlight at all hours of the day. The apartments +opened +out on the park, where the blackbird sang in the broad daylight, and +where the breezes were laden with the odor of the orange bushes. Tall +trees were whispering in the wind and a great fountain was constantly +murmuring and plashing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite happy, and the fountain was her greatest +delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's far more comfortable on the first floor," she would +often say; "I +feel as if I'd just returned from a long journey. The rooms are so +nice and cool, and my night-watchman sleeps in the daytime just as a +night-watchman should, and--and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">And Walpurga, too, fell asleep, although 'twas daylight.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga soon accustomed herself to her changed mode of life. She was +often concerned because she received no tidings from home.</p> + +<p class="normal">But if there were no letters, there was a messenger at all +events. A +servant entered the room and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a woman outside, who comes from the same place as +Walpurga. +She wishes to speak to you for a few moments."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll go to her. Who is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said Mademoiselle Kramer; "receive her here."</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant went out at once, and returned, bringing old +Zenza with +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, is it you, Zenza? Have you brought me anything from my +child, my +husband, or my mother? For God's sake, has anything happened? Are they +sick?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, they're all well, thank God, and send their love to +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, with an affectionate glance, gazed into Zenza's +cunning eyes, +which now seemed good and truthful, because they had seen her child. +Smiling, Zenza went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad you still know me. How bad the folks are. They told +me you +wouldn't recognize me, because you'd become a fine lady. But no, you +always were a good girl, and I've always said so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, that's all very well; but what do you want of me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I want you to help me. If you don't, my son Thomas will take +his life +and I'll drown myself in the lake. You'll help me, won't you? See, I'm +kneeling at your feet. You must help me. Your dear father and I were +almost cousins, and if your father were alive, he'd say what he's now +calling down to you from heaven--'Walpurga, if you don't help Zenza, +I'll never forgive you.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Get up! What's the matter? How can I help you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't get up. I'll die at your feet unless you promise to +help me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll do all I can for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer interposed and said that unless Zenza +would calm +herself, she would not be allowed to remain in the room another moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Zenza arose and asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that the queen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and Mademoiselle Kramer laughed at her question, and +Zenza at +last made known her wish.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her son Thomas, she said, was standing down there before the +palace, as +the guard would not allow him to enter. He had been caught poaching +and, as it was his second offense, he had been sentenced to two years' +imprisonment. And yet he was not to blame. It lay in his blood. He must +go hunting. His father had been that way before him. He had only shot +one little chamois buck and for that he was to go to jail again. He had +sworn an oath that, before he would let them lock him up, he would take +his own life or else commit a murder, so that they might behead him at +once; and Zenza went on to say that Walpurga would have two,--nay, +three human lives on her conscience if she did not help them; that +Walpurga must procure her an audience with the king or queen, so that +she might, on her knees, beg them for mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your husband and the landlord of the Chamois sent me," added +Zenza, +"and they both say it'll be easy enough for you to help me, and if you +do, I'll be your slave as long as I live."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I'd like to help you, but I can't see how. Things are +not managed +here as they are at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you can find a way, quick enough. You're clever, the +whole +neighborhood says so; and I've known it ever so long, and said so, too, +on last St. Leonard's day. Schenck, the tailor will bear me witness, +and so will Spinnerwastl, too; 'Walpurga bears herself,' said I, 'as if +she were one of the lowliest, but she's the first in the whole +neighborhood. You'll all live to see what becomes of her. Her wisdom +and her goodness will show themselves.' Now, Walpurga, you'll help me: +won't you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, as soon as there's a chance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I can't wait. Thomas is to go to jail to-morrow, at +daybreak, and, +if he's not released to-day, there will be murder."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear woman," interposed Mademoiselle Kramer, "his majesty +the king +declared a general amnesty at the birth of the crown prince. That +covers your son's case, does it not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; that's the very trouble. All the courts in the country +are against +my Thomas. Look at this. It's all there. The innkeeper wrote it down, +better than I can tell you. The writing must reach the king before +noon, or it'll be too late. My son Thomas is walking up and down out +there, and it's an even chance whether he goes to heaven or hell. He's +got a double-barreled pistol with him, and he'll shoot the first man he +looks at and himself, too, before this very palace, if I go out there +without having done anything for him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but I can't run up to the king as I would to the +innkeeper, or +I'd gladly do it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must sit down, my knees are breaking under me," exclaimed +Zenza; +and Mademoiselle Kramer hurried to bring her a chair. And while +she sat there with drooping head, great tears dropped upon the bony, +thick-veined hands that lay folded on her knees.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga motioned to Mademoiselle Kramer, who was trying to +console the +old woman. She wanted to tell her that Zenza was not so very good, +after all, and that Thomas was still worse; but Mademoiselle Kramer +turned about and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have an idea. Countess Wildenort's brother is aid-de-camp +to his +majesty, and, in half an hour from now, will present his report and get +the countersign. Now, Walpurga, go to Countess Irma at once and request +her to hand the petition to her brother, so that he may submit it to +his majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, do go--do! Lord, what a wise angel you have here +with you, +Walpurga;--but go right off--don't lose a moment! May I stay here a +little while longer, or shall I wait down there before the palace?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! you may remain here, my good woman," said Mademoiselle +Kramer, +consoling her. "But hurry yourself," said she, addressing Walpurga, who +still held the letter before her, and stood there as if immovable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga left the apartment. When she drew near to Irma's +door, she +heard the countess, with fervid expression, singing Schumann's song to +Friedrich Rueckert's words:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">He came to me,</p> +<p class="t8">In storm and rain,</p> +<p class="t6">And boldly, he</p> +<p class="t8">My heart hath ta'en.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6">Was my heart won,</p> +<p class="t8">Or his, that day?</p> +<p class="t6">Methinks both hearts</p> +<p class="t8">Did meet half-way.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">The chambermaid announced Walpurga. Irma stopped in the +middle of her +song.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Welcome! What good thought brings you here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga hesitated, but, at last, preferred her request and +handed the +paper to the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take courage," said Irma, consolingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rang for a servant, to whom she said: "Tell my brother to +come here +at once." Then, addressing Walpurga, she continued: "I'll add a few +words of my own. Be calm. I am glad to be able to grant your request. +I've often wanted to ask you whether there was not some wish that you +would like to have gratified. The king will surely grant the pardon."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga would have liked to interrupt her, but everything +seemed as if +bewitched. Before she could say a word, the aid-de-camp +had come. Irma +begged him to wait while she added a few lines of her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">The aid-de-camp +had taken his leave. Irma passed her hand over +Walpurga's face and said: "Let me banish all your sad thoughts. Be +happy and take my word for it--the man is saved. Go to the poor woman +and quiet her in the mean while. I'll bring the answer to your room."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could not find words, or she would have said +something, even +then. But the petition had already gone. After all no one would be +harmed in the matter, and, although Thomas really was a wicked fellow, +this might make a better man of him. Walpurga left Irma's apartment. +Stopping at the door, for an instant, to recover herself, she heard +Irma singing again. When she reached her room, she was in a calmer +state and said to Zenza:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Thomas will get off; depend upon it. But you must give +me your +word, and promise to keep it, too, that Thomas will become an honest +man, and that you won't help him sell his stolen wares and hide his +evil ways. You needn't look at me so, for I've a right to talk to you +this way. I've risked a great deal for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed; you've a right to say it," replied Zenza, in a +half-earnest, half-jesting tone. "You make our whole neighborhood +happy. We're all proud of you. On Sunday, before the church, I'll tell +them what influence you have here, and they'll all believe me. Your +mother was my playfellow, and if my Thomas had got an honest woman like +you for his wife, he'd been thrifty, too. He must get himself a good +wife. I'll give him no peace till he does."</p> + +<p class="normal">Zenza was enjoying some good coffee which Mademoiselle Kramer +had +prepared for her, and the kind-hearted housekeeper filled her cup again +and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I could only give my son some of this! Oh, how he must be +suffering +out there! But it serves him right; that's his punishment. He's on the +lookout now, but not as a poacher. It's quite a different thing, now." +Zenza was quite voluble and Mademoiselle Kramer was charmed with the +frankness and motherly affection of the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Zenza had emptied her cup and eaten nearly all the cake, +she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I take this little bit of sugar with me? It'll always +remind me +that I've drunk coffee in the king's palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer wrapped a piece of cake in a paper, and +said: "Take +this to your son."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as though Zenza would never get done thanking them. +She was +in great good-humor, and asked permission to see the prince; but +Walpurga refused it and well knew why; for, at home, Zenza was regarded +as a witch and, even if it were mere superstition, thought Walpurga, +who can know what might happen? She had already become so politic that +she availed herself, as an excuse, of the doctor's order that no +stranger should be allowed near the person of the crown prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">Zenza now told them how great a commotion Walpurga's sudden +departure +had created in their neighborhood. Ever since, the people would talk of +nothing else. The folks were all late at church on Sunday, because they +had stopped before Walpurga's house and stared at it as if there was +something new to be seen, and Hansei had been obliged to show his cow +to half the congregation, as if there was something strange about it. +But the thoughts of all were of Walpurga; and she also said that it was +well known that Walpurga's influence had secured Stasi's betrothed his +position as ranger. In spite of Walpurga's protestations that she knew +nothing of it, Zenza insisted on her story, and praised her the more +for her modesty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The time passed quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Irma, her face radiant with joy, brought the king's +letter of +pardon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Zenza would have fallen on her knees to her and kissed her +feet, but +Irma held her up and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've something more for you: take this, so that, besides +being free, +you may be able to get some pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave her a gold piece.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Zenza's eyes sparkled, while she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the gracious princess should ever want any one who'd go +through +fire and water to serve her, she need only think of Zenza and Thomas."</p> + +<p class="normal">She would have said much more, but Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thomas is waiting for you at the gate; make haste and go to +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see, dear princess, how good she is. She deserves to be +happy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga," said Mademoiselle Kramer, "you might give the +woman the +money for your husband."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll take it for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I'll send it. I must wait awhile," said Walpurga +hesitating. She +could not well explain that she distrusted both Zenza and her son.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here," said Irma, handing Zenza the little golden heart +which she +wore; "take this to Walpurga's child, from me." Then, removing her silk +kerchief, she added, "give her this, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, what a lovely neck!" exclaimed Zenza.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga again reminded her that she had better return to her +son.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt happy to think that she had brought about the +pardon. +Walpurga was afraid to tell them Zenza was a stranger to her and that +she almost hated her; or that Red Thomas was one of the worst men in +their neighborhood. She consoled herself with the thought that all +would yet be well. Bad men can grow better, or else all talk of +repentance would be mere lies and deceit.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the mean while, Zenza, holding the pardon on high, had +hurried out +of the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is my reckoning settled?" asked Thomas, spitting as far as +he could.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, thank God! See what a mother can do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't owe you much thanks for that, what did you bring me +into the +world for? But the best of it all is it's a slap in the face for the +great snarling country justice. Now, mother, I'm as thirsty as three +bailiff's clerks. Waiting has almost used me up. Have you anything more +about you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I have; just look."</p> + +<p class="normal">She showed him the gold piece, which he most dexterously +removed from +her hand and into his pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What else have you got?" said he, when he noticed the little +gold +heart that she had taken from her pocket at the same time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The beautiful princess gave me that and this silk kerchief +for +Walpurga's child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei's child will have enough with the kerchief," said +Thomas, +appropriating the gold heart, while he good-naturedly allowed his +mother to retain the black cord which had been attached to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There, mother; that'll do very well, and now let's take a +drink for +having waited so long. While I was waiting out here, I saw a splendid +rifle at the gunsmith's. You can take it apart and put it in your +pocket, and we'll see if the greencoats catch me again."</p> + +<p class="normal">The first thing young Thomas did was to take the chamois +beard and the +black cock plume out of his pocket and stick them in his hat again. +Then he put on his hat in a defiant manner, and his whole bearing +seemed to say: I'd like to see who'd dare touch them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just as they were going away, Baum came in from the street. +He seemed +anxious to avoid them, but Zenza went up to him and thanked him again +for the handsome present he had given her when Walpurga had been sent +for. She looked at him strangely and Baum, with a side glance, noticed +that Thomas's eyes were fixed upon him. He felt a shudder passing like +a flash of lightning, from his heart to his head. It actually made his +hair stand on end, and obliged him to raise his hat and adjust it +differently; but he took a nail-file from his pocket and began trimming +his nails, and then said: "You've thanked me already; once is enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother! if Jangerl wasn't in America, I'd have sworn that +was he."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're crazy," replied Zenza.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went into the town together. Thomas always walking +briskly in +front. It seemed as if it would not worry him much, were he to lose his +mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">They repaired to an inn, where, without taking time to sit +down, he +drank off a schoppen of wine. Then, telling his mother to wait, he went +off to purchase the rifle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Walpurga was sitting by the window and imagining +how the +folks at home would be talking of her great power, and how, at the +Chamois, they would have so much to say about her, and that the +innkeeper's wife, who had always looked down upon her, would almost +burst with envy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga laughed and was pleased to think that the envious +and proud +would be angry at her good fortune. This, indeed, seemed her greatest +delight, and at all events, was the thought on which she dwelt longest. +Another reason may have been that the joy of the virtuous is more +quickly exhausted than the angry and evil speeches of the wicked, which +keep fermenting and sending bubbles to the surface long after they have +been uttered. Walpurga remained sitting by the window, her lips +silently moving, as if she were repeating to herself the words of those +who envied and were angry at her, until, at last, Countess Irma +addressed her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can see how happy you are. Yes, Walpurga, if we could only +do good +to some fellow-creature every moment, we would be the happiest beings +under the sun. Don't you see, Walpurga, the real divine grace of a +prince lies in his being able to do good at any moment?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand that quite well," answered Walpurga. "A king is +like the +sun which shines down on all, and refreshes the trees near by, as well +as the flowers in the distant, hidden valley; it does good to men and +beast and everything. Such a king is a messenger from God; but he must +be careful to remain one, for being lord over all pride and lust may +overpower him. He's just given life to Thomas, and all the prison doors +open as they do in the fable when they say: '<i>Open sesame</i>,' Oh, you +good king! don't let them spoil you, and always have such kindhearted +people about you as my Countess Irma."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks," said Irma. "I now know you perfectly. Believe me, +all the +books in the world contain nothing better and nothing more than does +your heart; and, although you cannot write, it has been so much the +more plainly written there.--But let us be quiet and sensible. Come, +you must take your writing lesson."</p> + +<p class="normal">They sat down together, and Irma taught Walpurga how to use +the pen. +Walpurga said that she did not care to write single letters, and that +she would prefer having a word to copy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma wrote the word "pardon" for her. Walpurga filled a whole +sheet +with that word, and when Irma left the room, she took the writing with +her, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall preserve this as a memento of this hour."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"What can be the matter with the queen?--"</p> + +<p class="normal">--"Her majesty," added Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">--"What can it be?" said Walpurga; "for some days, the +prince--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His royal highness," said Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">--"Has hardly been noticed by her. Before that, whenever she +saw the +child and held it to her heart, she always seemed lifted up to the +skies, and once said to me: 'Walpurga, didn't it make you feel as if +you'd become a girl again, free and independent of everything? To me, +the world is nothing but myself and my child'--and now she hardly looks +at it, just as if her having had a child were a dream. There must be +great trouble in a mother's heart--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Royal mother," said Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">--"When she doesn't care to look at her child."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen's heart was, in truth, torn by a mighty struggle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her feelings had, for months past, been of a most distressing +and +excited nature. There was one point on which she dared not even think +aloud, and which she would have thought profaned by speaking of it to +others. It was her wish to determine for herself, and she had done so. +Ever since she had become a mother, she had felt as if separated from +the rest of the world. When she thought of her child and, above all, +when she clasped it to her heart, she felt as if nothing more remained +to be done. She and the child were her world; all else was as nothing. +And yet she loved the king with all her heart, and ardently desired +that their union should be so complete that they be one in +feeling, in belief, and in affection.</p> + +<p class="normal">The thought that they ought to be united in all things, +constantly grew +upon her. Father, mother and child should be as one, praying to the +same God, with the same thoughts, and in the same words.</p> + +<p class="normal">The isolation of the sick chamber only helped to strengthen +these +thoughts, and, now that she was about to return to the world, she +longed to make the bond that united her to the king, perfect in the +highest sense.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was allowed to do but little talking, and, therefore, did +not +indulge in conversation. After a few days had passed, she had a +Madonna, by Filippo Lippi the younger, brought to her dimly lighted +chamber. She gazed at the picture for hours, and it seemed to be +looking at her in return--the two mothers were one in bliss.</p> + +<p class="normal">The canon visited her and found her in this devotional frame +of mind. +With trembling lips, she confided to him her desire to belong to the +church of her husband and child. He lent a ready assent to the request +that she might be spared all dogmatic teachings. When the canon had +left, she became oppressed with a sense of fear. There goes a man, +thought she, who bears my secret with him. He had promised to keep it +to himself and thus prove himself worthy her confidence. But the secret +had, nevertheless, ceased to be entirely her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">She soon quieted her fears, and a glow of delight overspread +her +features at the thought that, although she was now a mother, there was +yet another sublime and exalted function which would perfect her union +with her husband and furnish one more proof of her great love for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the fullness of life, the thought of death occurred to +her, and she +ordered another painting to be placed on the easel before her. It was +the Maria Ægyptica, by Ribera.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen often felt as if she must seek the glance of the +penitent. +But those eyes, instead of beholding aught, seem as if listening: not +in alarm, for an angel is calling to her--but submissive and trustful, +for she is used to the sound of heavenly voices. Instead of +representing the penitent daughter of the king as crushed and bruised +from having mortified the flesh, the artist has made her features +expressive of restored, childlike innocence and youthful beauty--a nude +figure, divested of all raiment, wrapped in the long, fair tresses that +descend to her knees. She is kneeling beside the open grave that is to +receive her. Her blue eyes gaze into eternity; her lips are closed, as +if in pain, and above her hovers an angel who spreads the mantle of +mercy over her and exclaims: "Thou art forgiven!" Forgiven and +redeemed, she sinks into the grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ascetic tone of the picture fully accorded with the +queen's mood, +and the canon often found her lost in ecstatic admiration of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Doctor Gunther disapproved of this mute +companionship, his +wishes and his orders were alike unavailing. It was the first time that +this man, who was so highly esteemed by the queen, had encountered +obstinacy and unyielding defiance at her hands. When Irma saw the +picture, she carelessly remarked that the position of the eyes was +faulty, but that the artist had skillfully availed himself of this +fault in order to produce a peculiar expression. The queen pressed her +hand to her heart--she was alone in her feelings and wished to remain +so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was successful where both Gunther and Irma had +failed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that a forest-sprite?" asked she,</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Out our way, they tell of the forest-sprites. They haunt the +mountains +on ghost-nights, and can wrap themselves in their long hair."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen related the legend of Maria Ægyptica to Walpurga. +She was a +princess who had led a dissolute life. Suddenly, she left the palace +and, renouncing all pleasures, went out into the desert, where she +supported herself on roots and lived many years, until all her clothes +fell from her body: and, when her dying hour arrived, an angel +descended from above and spread the mantle of mercy over her--</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's all very good and pretty," said Walpurga, "but, no +offense to +you, my queen, it seems a sin to have such a terrible picture before +one's eyes. I wouldn't want to sleep in the same room with it. It seems +as if some night it would come down and drag me into the open grave +with it. Oh, dear Lord! I'm afraid of it, even in broad daylight."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's words were not without effect. When night came, +the queen +really imagined that the picture was coming toward her. She could not +sleep, and was obliged to have it removed during the night.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her calmness and equanimity were thus restored, and, as +reading was now +permitted her, the priest provided her with suitable books.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her whole life was possessed by the one idea. Walpurga had +observed +correctly. The queen scarcely looked at her child, although the step +she contemplated taking was prompted by love for her husband and her +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few days before she went out for the first time, she sent +for the +king, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kurt, next Sunday will be the first time that I go out, and +the first +day that I enter your church, and that of our son. Henceforth, I shall +pray at the same altar with you and him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have vowed that if God, in his mercy, would preserve my +life and +that of the child, I would be united with you in all things. I am not +fulfilling an enforced vow, but a free and well-considered resolution. +I offer this, not as a new proof, but rather as a confirmation or final +sealing of our love. Kurt, my every thought, all that I am, is yours. +We are as one before the world; let us be as one before God. +Henceforth, we will not take separate ways, or have separate thoughts. +Let our child learn nothing of the differences between men, and, above +all, between those to whom he owes his life. I feel happy that I can do +this as a free offering and not as a sacrifice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde," said the king, with a strangely cold tone, "is +this the +first time you speak of this, or have you already made preparations--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My resolution was formed in secret, and in all earnestness. +Afterward, +I announced it and all is now in readiness. I had intended it as a +surprise for you. The canon almost insisted that I must tell you of it +in his presence, but I wouldn't consent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God!" said the king, drawing a long breath, "all may +again be +well!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Again?' 'Well?'" inquired the queen in amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king calmly explained to her that, although he +appreciated the +sacrifice, he could not accept it. The queen deprecated his terming it +a sacrifice, and the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, then; you need go no further than myself, who of +all +beings am most in accord with you, to discover that others may--nay, +must--judge of your actions differently from yourself. What will the +world, the courts, our subjects, think of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What need we care about that, when we know that we are +right? 'What +will the world say?' is always the great question. But the world must +not force us to be different from what we are."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, you speak like a martyr. Your feelings are exalted +and +worthy of all reverence. You are both good and noble; but, believe me, +the best actions, indeed, the only proper ones, are those which require +neither explanations nor apology. We are not hermits. Although your +motives are pure and lofty, the world will be unable and unwilling to +understand them. Nor dare we make explanations. A prince degrades +himself by stooping to explain his actions. You regard the world with +heavenly feelings; but the heaven lies in your way of looking at +things, not in the world itself. I should be sorry to reveal the +world's wickedness to you, and thus cast a gloom over your kindly views +of life. Hold fast to your belief in the Highest, but do it after the +forms of your own faith."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And must I, all my life, walk in one path, while you and the +child +take another?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, we are not anchorites; we are not even private +citizens. Our +position is an exposed one. A sovereign can have no private actions--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean that all we do is to be as an example to +others?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean that, too," said the king, hesitating; "but what I +meant to say +was, that, in whatever you do, it is not yourself alone, but the queen +who acts. Its effects are felt far and near. I am happy to be the +object of so much love. You feel it, do you not, Mathilde?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't speak of it. Our best and deepest feelings do not seek +expression in words."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bear this well in mind--the wife of a private gentleman can +perform +such an action in secret. You cannot. You would be obliged to close the +Protestant court chapel, and would thus offend all throughout the land +who hold your present faith."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't wish to offend any one. The world can't ask me to +make such a +sacrifice. My highest, my only aim, is to be one with you, on earth and +in heaven, now and hereafter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, then; promise me one thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whatever you wish."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Promise me that you will defer acting on your resolve, for +at least a +month. It would be wrong to allow a passing mood to change the course +of one's life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a noble creature," said the queen; "I'll obey you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you give up your resolve?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I shall wait. I don't wish it to be what you imagine +it--the +outgrowth of a sickly mood, engendered by the seclusion of my chamber. +I'll allow it to ripen in the sunlight, and you will then discover that +it is something more than a mere mood."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was satisfied with the result. But, strangely +enough, he +refrained from any display of affection, and when, at parting, he took +the queen's hand in his, his manner seemed cold and distant.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king had shown great self-command while conversing with his wife, +and, now that he was alone, felt that her words had aroused a dormant +feeling of displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sincerely loved his wife, but he was of an heroic, active +temperament, and all that savored of pettiness, self-questioning or +sentimentality, was utterly distasteful to him. His great ambition was +to promote the happiness of his subjects, and to achieve for himself a +place in history. But a period of peaceful development, in which all +were friendly to the government and anxious to serve it, afforded no +opportunity for heroic deeds, or for new and startling measures. All +that could be done was to hold fast to what had already been achieved +and, at the same time, to encourage new growths. But such labors absorb +the work of many whose names remain unknown to fame, and it was this +that explained the king's fondness for building. The construction of +great edifices devoted to art, science, the church and the army, could +not but be regarded as proofs of a mind anxious to achieve great deeds.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king loved his wife, and was content to have it so. The +queen, on +the other hand, was ever anxious to furnish new proofs of her love, and +her deep sensibility was again displayed in this attempt to carry out a +resolve which, although prompted by the best motives, was utterly +impracticable. She idealized everything, and, in that respect, the +king's temperament was the very opposite of hers. Her apartments were +always so dimly lighted that, when he entered them, he was obliged to +grope his way. On emerging from this gloom, it seemed to him as if the +morn had dawned anew, for he dearly loved the bright light of day. This +continual worrying about religious problems that none can solve--this +constant mental excitement, incapacitates one for prompt action. He who +desires to have his life-fabric rest on a firm foundation, must be free +from over-refined self-criticism. He must subordinate all his feelings, +all his passions, to the one aim, and to no one does this so forcibly +apply as to the monarch who desires to direct the diversified and +all-embracing interests of his subjects.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen's aim was to realize, in her own person, her ideal +of the +wife and the mother; but then she had no right to forget that she was a +queen. Something more was required than eternal trifling and weaving of +garlands, ingeniously devised as they might be. Love, such as hers, is +exacting withal, for, while it lavishes endearments, it constantly +requires a return in kind. It is exclusive and, at the same time, +wearisome. The sun shines and love exists, but why constantly worry +about either.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lonely life the queen had been leading had produced an +excited +condition that sought vent in the attempt to change her faith, and, +although the king had determined that it should be nothing more than an +attempt, her words had tended to confirm a corresponding feeling of +loneliness on his part--a result to which his recent experience had in +no slight degree contributed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was alone in his cabinet. How would it have stood +with him, if +his wife had possessed a great and commanding mind? The thought had +suddenly flashed upon him. He passed his hand across his brow, as if to +banish the idea; he dared not, could not think of such a thing. He sent +for Doctor Gunther, for this affair must be disposed of at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther came.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, at first, cautiously sounded him, in order to +discover +whether this confidant of the queen's knew aught of what had happened, +and then, under the seal of secrecy, informed him of all.</p> + +<p class="normal">To the king's great surprise, Gunther, instead of thanking +him for this +mark of confidence, politely said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should much prefer that Your Majesty had graciously +permitted me to +remain ignorant of secrets and troubles in which I can be of no +assistance."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king stared at him in astonishment. This man was always +obstinate +and preserved his dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was about to ask you," said the king, harshly, "whether +you believe +that you can influence the queen in this matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I fear not; but if Your Majesty desires it, I am ready to +make the +effort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I fear her majesty will be offended. I understand her +idiosyncrasies. If the matter is noised about, she will think it +profaned by the touch of others, and it will thus, in her opinion, lose +its greatest charm."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That would be the very thing," said the king, eagerly. +"Perhaps that +will be the best way to cure her of her enthusiasm. Everything is +considered a fit subject for debate, nowadays. Your friends in the +chamber of delegates debate everything, and they might as well--"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a constant source of annoyance to the king, that the +doctor, who +never obtruded his opinions, would, when drawn into an argument on +questions of religion or politics, always espouse the liberal side; +but, with all that, he could ill afford to do without Gunther. Although +the king found him objectionable in some respects, he nevertheless had +a high regard for him. He held so high a position in the world of +science and in the esteem of his countrymen, that the presence, near +the king, of one possessed of such liberal views, reflected peculiar +glory on the court itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king now formally requested Gunther to endeavor to move +the queen +from her resolve.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a difficult undertaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had, heretofore, made this trusted friend her +confidant, and +now he was possessed of a secret of hers that had been given him by +another. Gunther endeavored to draw the queen into some allusion to her +secret resolve, but, failing in the attempt, was obliged to introduce +the subject himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen seemed surprised and grieved.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why has the king done this?" asked she, her features +expressing +intense pain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps his majesty," replied Gunther, "credits me with the +possession +of more powerful arguments that any which have yet been advanced."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know them, all," answered the queen, excitedly; "in such a +matter, +no stranger should dare to breathe a word of--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then, Your Majesty, I've nothing more to say, and humbly beg +leave to +withdraw."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no! Speak on--I must hear you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Must? You must not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wish, or must, it's all the same. You're always saying that +there's no +such thing as free will, and with monarchs it is certainly so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," said Gunther, in a gentle voice, "the high +resolve you +have formed was not an act of your will. It is the natural and +inevitable consequence of a chain of events and impressions, which have +been shaped by your temperament. Fervent natures are always afraid lest +they cannot do enough for themselves and for the world. They would +like, with every hour--nay, with every breath--to make others happy, or +impress the world with some great thought."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you, too, can flatter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never flatter. I simply take the diagnosis which, in your +case, is +not flattering. This excess of sensibility is not health--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you consider my mood as unhealthy--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We should not use that term.--But I entreat you. Your +Majesty! this +tone, with either of us, is hardly--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak on. I like to hear you. I don't feel hurt that you +know of this. +I regard you as part of the daylight that was to ripen my resolve."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, all that is to ripen must needs be subjected to +currents of +air and even to storms. But I shall bring you no storm, and shall not +even speak of the fact that whoever deserts the faith into which he was +born, insults his parents; nor shall I tell you that the ceremonies to +which we have been accustomed from youth, are the soul's mother-tongue. +All that does not address itself to the mind. Mind and reason are the +parents of conscious man. It is our duty to live up to our convictions, +and I can, therefore, find no fault with a change of religion based +upon conviction. But it seems to me, Your Majesty, that your change of +faith is simply superficial or, if it be deeper, only from love for +your husband. You know, however, that I view all these things from an +entirely different standpoint. I believe I know the spring in paradise, +whence flows the stream that on earth is divided into so many little +rivulets; and these again, to use the words of my friend Eberhard, +Countess Irma's father, furnish the power for the mills that grind out +sermons. Your Majesty knows that the legend of the four streams that +flowed from the tree Igdrasil, which is found in the most beautiful of +all books, the Bible, is also to be found in our old German Saga."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well--but I beg of you, my dear friend, spare me your +literary +curiosities."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," resumed Gunther, "as long as we remain in the +faith of +our fathers, we can enjoy great latitude of opinion. Our thoughts can +reach far beyond its confines, and no inquisition has power over us: +but, as soon as we profess another religion, we forfeit the right to be +free. It is our duty to live up to it. One who is noble by birth can +afford to admit civil equality, but he who has had nobility conferred +on him, cannot do so. Will Your Majesty permit me to say one word more? +I regard it as fortunate for mankind in general, and our German +fatherland in particular, that there is a diversity of religious +beliefs. That of itself tends to preserve feelings of humanity, for +thus we cannot help seeing that there are different forms of soul +utterances for one and the same thing. A multiplicity of sects affords +the best protection against fanaticism and, moreover, helps to prove +that religious forms are of no consequence; that is, one can be +righteous in any faith and, indeed, without any outward show of +religion."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther remained with the queen for a long while, offering +further +explanations of the ideas he had advanced.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was still with her, when the canon was announced.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen sent word that she desired to be excused, and +requested him +to come the next day.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Gunther left, she was still as firm in her resolve as at +first. +She felt persuaded that this was an action in which no other being +should interfere, and, least of all, a man.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was on the point of taking Irma into her confidence. She +felt that +the countess was clever and, moreover, a true friend. Unconquerable +dread held her back. She feared lest she might appear weak and +vacillating in Irma's eyes.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">For days, the queen remained alone. Walpurga and the child were the +only ones permitted near her. She did not wish to speak to any one +else, be it her husband, Gunther, or the priest.</p> + +<p class="normal">One afternoon, when Walpurga was with her, she felt impelled +to ask:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, do you know that I don't belong to your faith?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed, I do; and I'm glad of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Glad of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I am; you're the first and only Lutheran I've ever +known, +and if they're all like you, it must be a beautiful religion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is beautiful, and so are all religions that make good +beings of +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, do you know, queen, that's the very thing my father +used to say, +and in the very same words? Oh, if he'd only lived long enough to have +had a talk with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was silent for a long while.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last she asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, if your religion was different from Hansei's, +would you go +to his church?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, Hansei's Catholic, as well as I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if it were otherwise?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it isn't otherwise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But just imagine it were."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I can't do that," said she, as if about to cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was again silent for some time. Presently Walpurga, +of her +own accord, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I can, after all. I've thought it out. Why, you're +Lutheran and +your husband's Catholic. But why do you ask me that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Imagine yourself in my position. If you were a Protestant, +would you +not visit your husband's church?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, queen, never! As long as I'd been an honest wife while a +Protestant, I'd remain one. May I tell you a little story, queen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was I going to say?--Yes, now I know.--You see, my dear +father--the king's physician has surely told you what a good man he +was--But I'm beginning at the wrong end; I wanted to tell it to you +differently.--Well, as I was going to say, I went to school to a very +strict priest who condemned all people that didn't belong to our faith, +to the lowest depths of hell. I was once telling my father about it, +when he said: 'Purgei,'--he always called me Purgei when he wanted to +speak right to my heart--'Purgei,' said he, 'there are many millions of +people in the world, and the smallest portion of them are Christians, +and what a vile God it would be who would condemn all the rest to hell +just because they aren't Christians, when they can't help it, and were +born as they are. Don't you believe,' said he, 'that a man's damned for +his faith; as long as he's virtuous.' Well, I hold fast by that. Of +course, I didn't say anything to the priest about it, for he needn't +know everything. I'm sure he don't tell me all he knows."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was silent, and Walpurga soon began again:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now I think of something, better than all. Oh, my dear +queen, I +must tell you this, too. It's about my father, who used to think a +great deal. The old doctor, the father of the one who's living there +now, often used to say that if father had studied he'd have become a +great man. Well, one evening, on the very Sunday that I was confirmed, +I was sitting with father and mother on the bench behind our little +cottage by the lake. The evening bells were tolling; we had said our +aves and were sitting about in front of the cottage, when we heard the +Liederkranz. They were coming across the lake in a boat, and were +singing so beautifully--I can't tell you how lovely their singing was. +And then father got up from his seat, his face glowing in the sunshine, +and said: 'Now I know how our Lord in heaven must feel.' 'Don't +blaspheme,' said my mother. 'I'm not blaspheming; quite the reverse,' +said father. His voice seemed wondrous strange. 'Yes, I know it, I feel +it,' said he; 'all churches--our own, the Protestant, the Jewish, the +Turkish, and whatever their names may be--every one of them has a part +in the song, and though each sings as best he can, they go together +very well, and make a chorus that must sound glorious up there in +heaven. Let every one sing according to the voice God has given him, +for He will know how it will harmonize, and it surely does harmonize +beautifully.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's beaming glance met that of the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your father spoke wisely," said the queen; a tear glistened +in her eye +and in that of the nurse, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went away, taking the child with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next day the queen sent for the king, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kurt, I have courage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. I have a courage that you do not know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A courage that I do not know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And never will know. I have courage enough to appear weak +and +vacillating; but, Kurt, you will not misjudge me on that account?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray speak more plainly, and with fewer preliminaries."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am determined," continued the queen, "I hardly dare utter +that word, +now--but you will not misjudge me? I shall remain in the faith in which +I was born, and we shall nevertheless be as one."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king thanked her quite cordially, and only regretted that +the canon +knew of the matter. He hoped, however, to be able to silence his +tongue.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was surprised to find that he manifested so little +joy; but, +on second thought, this seemed quite natural to her, for why should +that which had been nothing more than a passing cloud, leave great +results in its wake? Others could know nothing of the bitter struggle +it had cost her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt sensible that it would be a long while before any +expression +or resolve of hers would obtain weight or authority, for it would not +soon be forgotten that she had once shown herself weak.</p> + +<p class="normal">While she was in the Protestant court chapel, on the +following Sunday, +she scarcely ventured to raise her eyes. She was thinking of how it +would have been if she now were in the other church, and of how the +eyes of the congregation would have been directed to the pew that was +thenceforward to remain vacant. In spirit, she had already deserted +this church and its congregation. Her soul trembled when she thought of +the resolve she had entertained, and, from the bottom of her heart, she +thanked her husband, whose strong arm had held her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the whole congregation arose and, in the prayers for the +royal +household, offered up thanks for her preservation and that of the royal +prince, she could no longer restrain her tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">Contrary to her usual habit, she went to church again that +afternoon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the king and Countess Irma were pleasantly +sauntering in +that portion of the park from which the public was shut out.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king informed Irma of the queen's resolve and of how she +had been +induced to give it up. Irma replied that she had, long since, surmised +as much, but had not felt that she had a right to speak of it. She had +dropped a hint to Doctor Gunther, who had refused to have anything to +do with the matter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king expressed his dislike for Gunther, but Irma defended +him with +great enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The doctor is very fortunate," said the king, "to have so +eloquent an +advocate in his absence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am that to all friends whom I truly respect."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could wish that I, too, were accused," continued the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I believe," replied Irma, smiling, "Your Majesty could +not wish +for a more earnest advocate than I would be."</p> + +<p class="normal">A pause ensued. The king gracefully and frankly retracted his +complaints against Gunther, and this conversation seemed merely a +bridge over which they passed to another topic.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king spoke of the queen and of her peculiar temperament.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the first time that the king and Irma had spoken of +the queen. +That the king not only prompted, but actually called forth her remarks, +was the cause, at a later day, of incalculable suffering.</p> + +<p class="normal">They extolled the poetic sense, the fervent feeling, the +flower-like +tenderness of the queen, and while they thus depicted her in glowing +colors, they, in their own minds, found fault with her weakness and +overflowing enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">When a husband thus speaks of his wife, to a third person, it +inevitably leads to estrangement and exposure.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus far, all was veiled in terms of praise. It was here just +as it was +with the queen in church. With all the power of her will, she strove to +forget herself in her prayer, and to be again as she had once been; and +yet, while the sense of the words she uttered entered her soul, she +could not help being aware of a secret numbness and estrangement that +seemed to say to her: "You will never again be as you once were."</p> + +<p class="normal">While the king and Irma were thus conversing, they appeared +to each +other as equals. Their views of life were in accord, and while they +spoke of how easily one might yield to temptation, their intimacy +seemed to them a proof of strength rather than of weakness. They went +on in perfect step with each other, and Irma no longer said: "Let us +return."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen, since she had again appeared in society, was, if +possible, +more gracious and amiable than she had ever been. She placed every one +far above her. They had none of them been as weak and vacillating as +she. She felt it her duty to do good to every one, because, although +she was no better than they, she was placed far above them. Her soul +was all humility.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few days later, the newspapers mysteriously hinted that +attempts had +been made to take advantage of the angelic purity of the queen, in +order to estrange her from herself and alienate the affections of the +people from her.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, it was readily understood, alluded to the queen's +contemplated +change of faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had always openly acknowledged herself on the side +of the +liberal opposition, and the king regarded Gunther as the mediator who +had procured her the goodwill of the press, and who, in doing so, had +not feared committing an indiscretion.</p> + +<p class="normal">This plain and flagrant perversion of the truth only served +the more to +embitter him against the press and the machinations of the queen's +party at court. Nevertheless, he dissembled his resentment, for he felt +that he could well afford to bide his time.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>(<span class="sc">IRMA TO HER FRIEND EMMA</span>.)</h3> + +<p class="normal">"Let me tell you all that I did yesterday. I wanted to read--I saw the +letters but could not read a word, for they all seemed to be moving +about the page, like so many ants in an anthill. I wanted to sing, but +no song was to my liking. I wanted to play, but even Beethoven seemed +strange, and I lay for hours, dreaming. I followed the little mother +and her son beyond the mountain. The larks sang my thoughts to them. +They reach their home, and the wild, daring lad is tractable once more. +He carols his merry song to his beloved. I fancy I hear him. Ah, Emma! +what is there so glorious as making others happy? It is hard enough to +be a human being, fettered by a thousand trammels, by ailments, +consideration for others, and all sorts of misery; but to suffer want +beside! The very idea of jails is a disgrace to humanity. Ah, Emma! how +noble, how like a revelation from the great heart of the people, were +the words of the simple-minded wife of the wood-cutter. I tried to put +what she had said into verse, intending to give it to the king the next +morning; but I could not do it; nothing satisfied me. Language is worn +out, narrow, coarse. I was ever thinking of Schiller's words: 'When the +soul speaks, it has ceased to be the soul.' I left my scribbling. I +passed a restless night. When the soul's depths are stirred, it wanders +about like a spirit, and can find no rest in sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"While at breakfast this morning, I informed the king of what +Walpurga +had said. I was annoyed to find that he did not understand more than +half of it. How else could he have answered me: 'Yes, the Highlanders +have great affection for their rulers. Pray tell that to your father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king observed that he had made a mistake, but, adroit +and amiable +as he is, quickly recovered his good nature and said: 'Dear Countess, I +will give you a secret title, which is to be known only by us two. I +appoint you as spy on the popular heart. Seek and listen, and whenever +you find anything, you can always count upon unquestioning compliance +on my part. Does it not seem to you that Egeria was nothing more than a +spy on the popular heart? At the altar in the temple, she could +overhear the secret thoughts of the people, and then repeated them to +king Numa, whom they deified and adored.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But our people only use prescribed prayers,' said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'The thought is quite suggestive,' replied the king, and +when +Schnabelsdorf entered shortly afterward, he commissioned him to make +brief notes of what fixed prayers the Grecians and Romans used in their +temples.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And thus the whole story ended. What I had imagined would +create a +deep impression, merely served to furnish amusement for an evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, dear Emma, <i>amusement</i> is the point about which all +revolves. If +an apostle were to appear to-day, he could not help preaching, 'Ask +not, how shall we amuse ourselves to-day, but'--etc., etc.,--finish the +sentence for yourself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am no better than the rest of them. I, too, am nothing but +a puppet, +wound up to run seventy years, and to dance and laugh and ride and +amuse itself in the mean while. All of us are mere singing-birds; the +only difference being that some are contented with grain and +caterpillars and flies, while others require larger morsels, such as +rabbits, bucks, deer, pheasants, fish. And the higher education of that +variety of singing-birds known as man, lies in the fact that he cooks +his food. There is terrible vacuity in many men. <i>To make +conversation.</i> Therein lies the whole art. Try to get a clear notion of +the expression: <i>to make conversation</i>, and you will find how +nonsensical it is. The people find me entertaining, but I don't <i>make</i> +conversation. I merely speak when I have somewhat to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My evil spirit is constantly shouting the word +'<i>dilettante</i>' in my +ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Dilettante--One who junkets or feeds on tit-bits for +pastime,'--says +my dictionary. Rather rough, but there is something in it."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>One day later</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king has just sent me the following poem. I must +apologize to him; +he seems to have understood my communication far better than I had +suspected. What do you think of the lines? Why should a king not write +verses? Ideality is required of him. Indeed a king should understand +all things, but be a dilettante in none.</p> + +<p class="normal">"P. S.--I have just looked at the lines again, and find that +I cannot +copy them for you."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>A day later</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't laugh at my continually telling you of Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was during our writing-lesson to-day, that the king found +me with +her. He told me how much pleasure it had afforded him to be able to +pardon her relative.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Our relationship is very distant,' said she, 'nothing more +than +forty-second cousins; and, Your Majesty, I've something on my mind. If +Red Thomas turns out badly, I can't help it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king laughed and replied: 'Nor can I.' It is hard to +understand +how Walpurga never speaks of Zenza and her son except in anger, and +that she will have nothing to do with them. Strange demons jostle each +other in the hearts of the people. I fear that my office of spy on the +popular heart will prove very difficult.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By the king's orders, I have been furnished with a copy of +the church +prayers of the Greeks and Romans.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must write it down and then the idea will cease tormenting +me. I am +constantly picturing to myself, how would it have been if Zenza had +become first lady of the bedchamber, and her son, the poacher, master +of the hounds. She would be ready enough of speech. She has exceedingly +clever and cunning eyes, and the lad would surely have been an elegant +cavalier.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In spite of all their prating about human equality and pride +of birth, +I cannot help regarding it as a sign of divine grace, that I was born a +countess, instead of Zenza's daughter; but there are two sides to that +question.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God's creatures are not so badly off in this world, after +all. The +frog croaking in the marsh is just as happy as the nightingale that +sings on the tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To say to the frog, 'Thou, too, should'st dwell in the +rosebush and +sing like the nightingale,' were not humane, but simply tyrannical.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you ever patiently listened to the croaking of the +frogs? How +expressive it is of comfort! While I write, they are having a grand +concert over in the park pond. I enjoy listening to them. We human +beings are impudent enough to judge everything by the standard of our +own taste, and yet Mistress Frog will, very justly, find no music so +sweet to her ears as the song of Master Frog.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel so grateful, dear Emma, that I can write everything +to you. You +cannot imagine what a relief it is to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am a spy on my own heart; there are many wild spirits in +it--adventurers and fortune-hunters and, with them all, a nun. I am +quite curious to know how so mixed a company will get on together.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My behavior toward the whole court is so free and +independent, because +I have a secret daily task: writing to you.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But my thoughts go out to you a thousand times oftener:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">There's not an hour in the silent night.</p> +<p class="t8">But what my thoughts go out to thee.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">"Do you remember it? It was your favorite song. I sing it, +for your +sake, at least once every day. You and my piano are all in all to me. +You patiently await my coming. All the music of all the masters that +ever were. Or ever will be, dwells within you, and you only await the +coming of the one whose touch can release those tones.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a dual soul. In its one phase, the piano--in its +other, the +zither. The one is easily moved from place to place; the other not. The +one requires that the fingers touch the strings. But ah, dear Emma, I +scarce know what I am writing. I wish I could get rid of the habit of +thinking. I wish I were Zenza's daughter and the poacher were my +brother. But no; our thieves and rogues who have been at school long +enough to know the seven cardinal sins and the whole of the catechism +by heart, are timid and cowardly; they drop the petition for pardon +into their mother's lap, while they stand by whining: Forgive us, we +have done nothing wrong. All the world over, there is no longer genuine +scorn of nature. Methinks the 'Italian robber behind the rock' that you +once worked in wools, has, in these days, ceased to be more than a +traditional pattern for embroidery. The arts simply serve to gloss over +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night--good-night."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>A day later</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never read what I have once written. I do not care to be +reminded of +it again. Yesterday's sun does not shine to-day.--But that was not what +I meant. The sun is the same, but the light is ever new, and I am happy +to-day and do not care for all the churches and palaces, men and women, +frogs and crocodiles in the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-day, the king said to me:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I am well aware, Countess, that you have thought +contemptuously of +me, during the last two days. Every withdrawal of your sympathy affects +me as sensibly as if it were an electric shock. Do not let this happen +again, I beg of you!' and while he spoke, he looked at me like a +beseeching child. Ah, he has such deep, beautiful eyes!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I remember your once saying to me: 'There are glances +without a +background, void of depth or soul'; but the glances of this friend have +unfathomed depths.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The bonds that held me captive shall no longer restrain me! +I--I--but +no--I cannot write the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Emma! How I wish I were a peasant on a lonely mountain +height. +Last night, it seemed to me as if my native mountains were calling out +to me, 'Come home'--'Do come'--'It is good to be with us.' Ah, I would +like to come, but cannot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga is a great friend to me at present. I become +absorbed in her +life, so full of true, natural repose. I find it excessively amusing to +behold the court as reflected through her eyes. It seems like a very +puppet-play, and we, like two merry children at a raree-show.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We often sing together, and I have learned some lovely songs +from her. +Oh, how charmingly independent the country people are.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'On mountain heights there dwells no sin.' The song is ever +haunting +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king departs for the baths to-day: my brother is in his +suite. The +king requested me to write to him, now and then. I shall not do it."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>Two days later</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king knows that I cannot live unless there be flowers in +my room, +and has given orders to have a fresh bouquet placed there every day. +This displeases me. A flower that a friend has stooped to pluck for you +is worth more than a thousand artistically arranged bouquets.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king has also left orders that bouquets shall be sent +daily to +Baroness N---- and Countess A----. I think this is only to avoid +remarks upon the attentions shown me. I am angry at the king. He shall +not have a line from me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have for some time past been taking lessons in modeling, +from a +professor at the academy. He has finished a bust of me, and has used it +as a model for a figure of Victory, to be placed on the new arsenal. +Have I not reason to be proud? After this, I shall ever be in the open +air, and shall see nothing but the blue sky, the sun, the moon, and the +stars, and, at noon, the guard-mounting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The professor says that I have talent for modeling. This has +made me +quite happy. Painting and drawing are only half the battle--mere +makeshifts. Will you permit me, on my return, to make a <i>relievo</i> of +you?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did I not, in one of my letters to you, speak of a secret in +regard to +the queen?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I did.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The affair is now at an end. For love of the king, the queen +wished to +enter our church, or rather yours--pardon me, once and for all time, I +have no church. The king behaved nobly in the matter. I shall never +forget the time he told me of it. He is, indeed, a great man. How +glorious it is, that there are princes on earth who realize our ideal +of the perfect man. Free and yet self-possessed, unspoiled, unperverted +and unbiased. If there were no kings, we could no longer know a free, +beautiful, perfect man. I use the word <i>beautiful</i> in its highest +sense, and of course presuppose the existence of a noble mind. All are +not gods who suffer themselves to be worshiped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The poet and the king are, of all men, alone perfect. All +others--be +they musicians or painters, sculptors or architects, artists or +scholars--have narrow, contracted vocations, solo instruments, as it +were. The poet and the king are the only ones who grasp life in all its +phases. To them, naught is devoid of meaning, because all belongs to +them. The poet creates a world; the king is a world in himself. The +poet knows and depicts the shepherd and the huntsman, the king and the +waiting-maid, the seamstress--in fact, all. But the king is hunter and +statesman, soldier and farmer, scholar and artist, all in himself. He +represents the orchestra of talents. Thus is he king, and thus does he +represent a people, an age--aye, humanity itself, and at its best.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Emma! Call me Turandot. Schoning, the poetic +chamberlain, is also +paying his addresses to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know what I ought to have been?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Queen of a tribe of savages. That is what I was created for. +My true +vocation would be to found a new civilization. Don't laugh at me. I am +not joking; indeed, I'm not. I am fit for something far better than all +I have here. I am not modest. I judge others and myself, too. I know my +merits and my faults, also.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On father's estate, there is a hammock that hangs between +two elms. My +greatest pleasure was to lie in it, suspended in the air, while I +dreamt of distant woods.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know some savage tribe that would elect me as its +queen? I have +procured some of the Indian melodies, if they really deserve the name. +One of the professors at the university, who spent six years among the +Indians, recently gave a lecture at court. He brought some of their +instruments with him, and had them played on. There was more noise than +music. It seemed like the lisping of a nation which, as regards +civilization, is yet in its infancy."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>Four o'clock in the morning</i>,</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forget all that I have written to you, as you would the +breezes and +the weather-changes of yesterday.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have just left my bed, in order to write to you. I cannot +sleep. I +am scarcely dressed while I sit here speaking to you. Oh, that I +<i>could</i> speak to you! Writing is a miserable makeshift--nay, +helplessness itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what ails me. All that I am--my very +self--seems as if +only for the time being. I feel as if waiting for something, I know not +what. I fancy that the very next moment must bring it, and that I shall +either be doing some wonderful thing, or have it happen to me--that I +shall be completely changed and become a great healing power, instead +of the puny, useless child of man that I now am. I listen and fancy +that I must hear a tone that has never yet been uttered on earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no use trying--I cannot write. I imagined that it +would +soothe me if I could force myself to think and speak of all things in +definite terms, but I know nothing definite. I only know that I am +unhappy. Not unhappy, but as if dead and yet alive. I imagine myself a +sleep-walker.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can write no more. I close my letter and shall go to bed. +I want to +sleep. All the world about me lies hushed in slumber. Oh, that I could +dream myself into another world, even though my sleep were one from +which there is no waking!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night! Good-morning!<span style="letter-spacing:3em"> </span><span class="sc">Irma</span>."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"To-morrow, I mean to bring Countess Irma to you," said Doctor Gunther +to his wife, one evening. "She's the daughter of my old friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In voice and manner, the countess is full of majesty, but +her singing +is not practical."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you shall teach her. She will be glad to learn from +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she be willing, I am quite at her service."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor was delighted to find it so easy to bring the two +ladies +together. He knew, of course, that his wife complied with his every +wish, but in this instance he was doubly anxious that all should go +smoothly.</p> + +<p class="normal">For some time past, he had observed that Irma was in a +feverish +condition which, during the last few days, had been growing worse; but +he was one of those physicians who pay great attention to mental +conditions and, instead of waiting for disease to make its appearance, +endeavor to avert it by proper changes in the mode of living. He did +not know the cause of Irma's excitement, but he knew that her +temperament was one of extremes, and felt sure that if she could only +obtain an insight into a pure home and, perhaps, become initiated into +its ways, it would have a tranquilizing effect and lead her mind to +move in quieter channels. He had enough experience to know that there +are no substitutes for sympathy and friendship, but felt that the +acquaintance of a citizen's wife, of exalted character and ripe +culture, could not fail to have an effect upon Irma, who had thus far +known no life but that of the cloister and the court.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had no need to give his wife instructions, or even a +mere hint +as to the way in which she was to endeavor to gain an influence over +Irma. He felt as sure of his wife's course in the matter as if she were +a force in nature, and well knew that, if left to her own methods, the +result would be so much the more certain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther usually kept his household free from all relations +with the +court; but this was the daughter of his friend--although that friend +was angry at him--and he allowed her the freedom of his house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some weeks before, when speaking of the Te Deum on the +occasion of the +birth of the crown prince, Irma had casually referred to her having met +Gunther's wife and youngest daughter. The doctor had again, as if by +the merest chance, introduced the subject, and, almost without knowing +it, Irma had expressed a wish to improve the slight acquaintance thus +begun. This was just what he wished for, and, on the afternoon of the +day following, he conducted Irma to his beautiful, well-furnished home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's wife was Swiss by birth, and had come from a +wealthy and +cultured family. She spoke High German with a strong Alemannic accent. +She endeavored neither to retain the dialect nor to acquire the +language of books. Her easy, natural ways seemed the result of careful +culture, but there was no attempt to show off either. As a matter of +course, she was perfectly conversant with all that related to the +economy of the household, and at the same time fully alive to all that +makes for beauty and the common weal.</p> + +<p class="normal">As a singer, Madame Gunther had been a great favorite, both +in social +circles and at important vocal performances. Her voice was a full, +resonant soprano and, although she had given up singing solos, she and +her daughters would still take part when great musical works were +performed. When fresher voices had taken the solo parts, she had, +without a murmur of regret, retired to her place in the chorus.</p> + +<p class="normal">And thus, too, was her life. Self-reliant and diligent at +home, she +took an active interest in all public institutions in which women were +permitted to take part. She had preserved one priceless heirloom--she +was free from nervousness and, with her, public spirit was a duty. She +educated her children, managed her household, was a kind and attentive +hostess, and performed all this as if obeying the simple instincts of +her nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">She honored her husband. Whatever he said was always of +special weight, +but still she held fast to her own judgment. Although she had been +living in the capital for nearly twenty years, she had remained a +stranger to the whole of the hodge-podge system of caste and the +granting of favors by the grace of this or that one. She was not +opposed to the system, but she left such matters to those in whose eyes +they possessed value and importance; as for herself, she regarded them +with absolute indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was pleased at the honors shown her husband, but that +seemed, to +her, a matter of course. He was a great man, and if the world had +withheld its praise, he would, in her eyes, still have been the +greatest and best of men. Her whole bearing expressed this feeling. She +had never had the slightest desire to appear at court, and when her +husband was obliged to be away from home by day or at night, and often +for weeks at a time, she accepted his absence as unavoidably incident +to his calling, and refrained from adding to his discomfort by +complaining thereat.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the doctor returned, it was always to a well-ordered +home. +Refreshed and invigorated by its influence, he would go back to the +smooth and slippery precincts of the court.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was now introduced to this home. In appearance, she was +all beauty +and dignity, and no one would have guessed how forlorn and homeless she +felt within her heart. In her hand, she held the bouquet which had, as +usual, been sent to her that day, by the king's orders. Gunther had +told her that this was his daughter Paula's birthday, and she had +brought the flowers for her. They were as lovely as she who brought +them. And yet what was it that clung to them? It was almost sinful to +use the bouquet as a birthday favor, for Irma felt mortified when she +received it. But the flowers were as coin that might be passed on to +another.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Irma entered the house, she felt as if escaping from the +noise and +bustle of the market-place, or the restless life and cries of the +highway, into a temple of domestic peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">The house was on a little, narrow street, and was surrounded +by a +garden full of tall, fine trees. A portion of the yard had been fenced +off and converted into an aviary. The hallway and rooms were adorned +with statuettes and pictures; the furniture was simple and massive. The +doctor's library, reception-room and study were in the upper story.</p> + +<p class="normal">There had been no preparations of any kind for Irma's +reception. The +mother had carefully enjoined her daughters not to make any change in +their dress on account of the countess's visit. They did not go out to +meet her. She was conducted through the summer house, where the flowers +and presents for Paula had been arranged, and there, on the steps, sat +Madame Gunther and her daughters, busily engaged in needlework. The +elder daughter, the wife of Professor Korn of the university, had her +child with her. Paula, the younger of the two, who, like Irma, had just +entered her twenty-first year, could not be termed beautiful, but had a +bright and cheerful countenance and a fine figure.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was warmly welcomed. As it was Gunther's hour for +consultation, he +soon retired and left her with the ladies. She was surprised, at first, +to find herself repeatedly accosted as the daughter of an old friend. +She was not here on her own merit, or as the most admired of all the +ladies at court, but simply as Count Eberhard's daughter, who had been +received into the house from an affectionate sense of duty. When asked +about her father's health, she thanked them, although she felt sad at +heart to think that she knew so little of him. How utterly different +from hers was the life these children led.</p> + +<p class="normal">Music soon afforded a convenient and agreeable change. On the +piano, +there lay a composition in manuscript. It was by a nephew of Madame +Gunther's, who lived in northern Germany. Madame Gunther told her that +he was a philologist by profession, but that, as he would, in all +likelihood, lose his eyesight, he had determined to cultivate his +decided musical gifts and to perfect himself as a musician.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma begged Madame Gunther to sing the song, but she replied +that, +while her voice was no longer equal to it, that of the countess was +exactly suited to it. She gave the manuscript to Irma, who read it over +and afterward sang it with rich, full voice, to Madame Gunther's +accompaniment. The composition was pleasing, but full of suggestions of +well-known masters.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther now showed what she meant by practical +singing. Irma did +not make the best use of the means at her command, and where there were +faults showed them too plainly. The doctor's wife instructed her in a +simple, unpretentious manner, and Irma remarked that the daughters +ought to feel happy to think that they could hear such singing every +day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And this is my son, the most grateful of all listeners," +said Madame +Gunther, introducing a handsome young man with a full, brown beard. He +was technical director in a manufactory of chemicals, and had brought a +student with him. Female friends who lived in the neighborhood joined +them soon afterward, and there were merry times on the terrace and in +the garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma remarked the attentive glances directed upon her. It +seemed to her +as if all knew the troubles that filled her soul; she had completely +forgotten how beautiful she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me, Madame Gunther, for looking at you so," said +Irma, +suddenly, "but I am somewhat of a dabbler in plastic art, and when I +notice the contour and color of your head, it seems as if the Holbein +Madonna, of the Dresden Gallery, had come to life and was standing +before me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you really see the resemblance, at this late day?" asked +Madame +Gunther, blushing slightly; "in former days, it was often remarked and +was almost the very first thing my husband said to me in Zurich, now +well-nigh twenty-six years ago. On my mother's side I can trace my +descent from the family of Burgomaster Maier, by whose orders the +picture was originally painted."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was delighted with all that she heard and saw, and +especially with +Madame Gunther's reminiscences. While speaking of her own efforts in +the way of art, she looked at the doctor's wife earnestly, and only +wished she were able to model a portrait, in which case Madame Gunther +would have to sit to her. She could not help thinking, at the same +time, that there was a culture which had been handed down from earliest +times: a culture whose history, running through all ages, is entirely +different from that of the nobility, and that the best results of human +effort had been brought about, not by the nobles, but by civic liberty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther asked Irma whether she had a picture of her +mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma replied that her father had had a portrait taken of her +mother +when in the fullness of her beauty. The picture had been a failure, and +almost seemed as if intended for some one else, and so her father had +ordered it to be destroyed. He would rather have no picture than a +false one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That, of itself, is enough to make one honor him for his +love of +truth," said Madame Gunther. "Most people are satisfied with what is +false, and keep on saying: 'you can recognize this or that feature,' +until they, at last, persuade themselves that it must once have been a +true likeness."</p> + +<p class="normal">The conversation now turned upon the fact that Irma had never +known her +mother, and Irma's glance often dwelt upon the two daughters sitting +beside their mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I trust that I've not awakened painful memories, but I +regard it as a +duty that we should often think of our beloved dead; calmly and +peacefully, of course. I've always felt thus with regard to my departed +mother, and I hope that, when the time comes, my children may have the +same feelings toward me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma pressed Madame Gunther's hand. All that she said was so +full of +truth, so satisfying.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther told her that it was long before she had +acquired a +taste for plastic art. Appreciation had, however, gradually dawned upon +her; but it was for what related to the human figure, rather than for +landscapes. The conversation continued in an easy and cheerful vein. +The carriage had long ago been announced; the half-hour which Irma had +meant to stay with Madame Gunther had been prolonged to more than an +hour. At last, she took her leave with sincere requests to repeat her +visit.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When Irma returned to the palace, she felt as if coming from +another +world--from a life far removed from her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther was a deep student of the human heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">In one respect, Irma's visit had had the result foreseen by +him; but +there was some unknown influence at work, and, perhaps, affecting +previously existing conditions. Nothing unless it be the drop that +falls from the cloud, is free from foreign admixture, and it is from +pure thought alone that one can draw definite conclusions. The water in +the spring, and the living human heart, both contain foreign elements +within themselves, and no one can foretell how a new ingredient may +affect the invisible atoms thus held in solution.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's soul was deeply agitated. Her great power had been +exercised and +had sought some act in which to spend itself. She had felt happy in the +possession of the king's friendship and in the thought that she could +furnish so great a mind as his with the congenial companionship he +would otherwise be obliged to forego; but the daily bouquet, trivial +attention as it was, had aroused and offended her. "He isn't my ideal," +said she to herself, and her heart felt lonely again, as it had been +ever since she was old enough to think.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although she had been lonely while at the cloister, she had +there found +a friend who, if she had little to impart, gratefully accepted all that +Irma could give her. At the court, she felt lonely in spite of her +wanton humors. She was always obliged to be doing something, be it +playing, singing, painting or modeling; anything but this deathlike +solitude. She was suffering the homesickness of the soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are not all in this world homeless?" she asked herself, and, +while +searching her mind for an answer, Gunther had introduced her to his +household.</p> + +<p class="normal">There, all seemed beautiful and complete. There was a home, +and a +mother who showed that she understood a young and ardent life; the +daughters would never suffer as she did. The mother's glance fell upon +her and seemed to say: "I shall understand you and will soothe all +sorrows you may tell me of." But Irma could not complain, nor exclaim: +"Help me!"--and where nothing was required of her, least of all. She +could and must help herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther had touched her most tender chord: the memory +of her +mother, and, although Irma gently avoided the subject, her pain was so +much the greater.</p> + +<p class="normal">She wept, but did not know it until a tear dropped on her +bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is so much comfort, so much of real and beautiful +seclusion, in a +world which is content with itself, and which, in its work and +education, requires no favors from those above. How happy the lot of a +daughter in such a home, until she, in turn, becomes the head of +another household.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt humbled. All her pride had left her. Her thoughts +were still +in the garden, where the people moved about in careless unconstraint +and where the men, returning from their professional labors, and the +maidens, from their domestic duties, were enjoying themselves in +common.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One thing yet remains mine and it is the best," exclaimed +Irma, +suddenly rising: "solitude is mine. I can yet be lonely, strong, +self-contained."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her waiting-maid entered and announced a lackey sent by the +queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does the queen want to see me at once?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, gracious Countess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I'll be there directly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga was right, after all," said she to herself; "I, +too, serve."</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt vexed while she stood before the mirror to have her +dress +adjusted. She assumed a cheerful expression with which to appear before +the queen. She was obliged to do so.</p> + +<p class="normal">She hastened to obey the queen's orders. When she got near +the door, +she drew herself up and again fixed her features in the cheerful, +smiling expression that she wished them to have, and then entered the +room, which, as usual, was dimly lighted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was sitting in a large arm-chair. She was clad in a +dress of +snowy white, and a lace handkerchief had been twined about her golden +hair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come nearer, dear Countess," said the queen. "I am delighted +to see +you again. When I see my dear friends, it seems as if I'd been spending +the last few weeks in another world. Unfortunately, I am somewhat +indisposed again. I owe you special thanks, for I understand that +you've kindly interested yourself in the nurse; by keeping her +cheerful, you do the prince a service. The king quite agrees with me +that you're a real treasure to us. I shall write as much to your father +and tell him how happy we are to have you with us. That will surely put +him in a better humor with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was glad that the queen had so much to say, for she was +thus +enabled to recover her composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray give me the letter that lies on the table," said the +queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma brought it and the queen added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just read these lines of the king's."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma read: "Pray tell Countess Irma to keep me constantly +informed as +to the condition of our son. Remember me to the dear fourth petal of +our clover-leaf."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma returned the letter with thanks. She felt deeply +humiliated to +think that the king was trying to force her to write, and at the method +he had chosen. Walpurga was right when she spoke of love-glances at the +cradle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma almost fainted with grief and shame.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Won't you do us the favor to write, dear Countess?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma bowed deeply, and the queen continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course there will be very little to write about. Man is +the highest +object in creation and, for that very reason, develops far more slowly +than all other creatures."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was about to suggest that, at that rate, a prince would +develop +still more slowly, but she merely nodded and smiled assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was not in a mood to enter into the queen's way of +thinking. She +could see nothing in her but nursery thoughts, with which, at present, +she had no sympathy. Though they were vastly more important, what would +it matter to me, thought she to herself. Here, just as in Gunther's +house, there is a life separate from the world and contented with +itself. Here is a mother and her child. Of what use am I? Merely to +talk and take part in everything. All others are complete and possess a +world of their own; and am I always only to take a part--there, the +alms bestowed by friendship; here, those accorded me by royal grace? Am +I complete in myself, or am I not?</p> + +<p class="normal">And while Irma's mind was filled with these thoughts, the +queen, in her +agitated, soulful manner, went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The miracle of life fills me with awe. Have you never +thought of the +world of meaning suggested by the idea of a child drawing its first +breath and opening its eyes for the first time? Air and light are +earth's first and last messengers; the first breath and the last; the +first glance and the last. How wonderful!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma now felt what it was to serve. Had she been free, and on +an equal +footing with the one who addressed her, she would have said: "My dear +friend, I am not in the mood, just now, to enter into what you are +saying. Within your soul, there is the calm of early morn; in mine, +hot, burning noonday. I implore you, leave me to myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was filled with a deep longing for boundless solitude, +but she +dared not show it. She would gladly have closed her eyes, but +obsequious glances were required of her. She listened and answered, but +her soul was far away. For the first time in her life, she felt +indignant that there was a fellow-being who enjoyed rights of which she +was deprived. She felt angry at the queen. She was, several times, on +the point of mentioning her visit to Gunther's house, but felt that +life there had nothing in common with the constant gloom of the queen's +apartment. It seemed to her, moreover, that it were wrong, even in +thought, to bring hither the citizen-wife whose footsteps had never +entered the palace; and then she thought of her father and his strong +sense of independence.</p> + +<p class="normal">And while such were her thoughts, she spoke of the prince and +of +Walpurga's amusing peculiarities.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen saw that Irma's thoughts were slightly tinged with +sadness +and, wishing to cheer her up, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, dear countess, I am really languishing for music. Friend +Gunther +has forbidden my listening to music, lest it might affect my nerves; +but one of your little songs would do no harm. I hear that you've +learned a beautiful one from the nurse. Won't you sing it for me? May I +send for your zither?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt more like crying, but she bowed assent and sent a +servant for +the zither. He brought it, and Irma sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Ah, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee,</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6a">"My heart doth bear a burden, love,</p> +<p class="t6">And thou hast placed it there;</p> +<p class="t6">And I would wager e'en my life</p> +<p class="t6">That none doth heavier bear."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Within Irma's soul there was a shrill, discordant +accompaniment to this +song, every word of which had a double meaning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I must sing this to the queen," said the voice within +her. "Yes, +you two are united. All happy ones are. The unhappy one is always +lonely."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her song was full of gloomy despair; her heart, of anger. +"You sing +that with deep feeling," said the queen, "and my son hears it, too. One +can scarcely say 'hears,' for all that he hears or sees is undefined. +Pray repeat the song, so that I may sing it to myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma sang it again, but this time her mind was more at ease. +The queen +thanked her heartily. "The doctor has unfortunately forbidden my +conversing for any length of time, even with those who are dear to me. +I am delighted to think that we shall soon go to the summer palace. +Then we will spend much of our time together and with the child. Adieu! +dear Countess, write soon, and sing your lovely soul into the child's +heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma went away. While passing through the long corridors, she +stopped +several times, as if to remember where she was. At last she reached her +room, and gave orders that her horse be saddled at once and that a +groom be in waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had just changed her dress when a servant brought her a +letter. +She broke the seal with a trembling hand and read:</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>My child</i>: You have now been at court for eighteen months. +I have +left you free and uncontrolled. There are many things which I would +like to say to you, but cannot write. Writing estranges. Your rooms are +ready, and flowers await you. It is now lovely summer and apples on +your tree are getting ruddy cheeks like your own, and I should like to +see yours again. Come to</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Your Father</span>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma threw up her hands. "This is deliverance! Yes, I still +have a +home, and there is still a heart against which I can rest my head. I am +coming, father! I am coming!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her brain whirled with excitement. She rang for her servant +and sent +word to the groom that she would not ride out. Then, after having +ordered the waiting-maid to pack up enough clothes for several weeks, +as quickly as possible she presented herself before the queen and asked +for leave of absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry that you, too, leave me," said the queen, "but I +shall +gladly part with you if it only helps, as I hope it will, to make you +happy. Do all that lies in your power to be in full accord with your +father. Believe me, Irma, in the various relations of life, be it as +wife or as mother, one is sensible of a constant desire to grow and +expand with each succeeding day; the child alone is perfectly satisfied +with itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen and Irma were not in accord that day. Irma was +restless and +anxious to depart. Whatever detained her, though it were only for a +second, excited her resentment.</p> + +<p class="normal">What the queen was saying might have been interesting to one +who was +not in a hurry, but not to her whose foot was already on the carriage +step.</p> + +<p class="normal">The parting was, nevertheless, an affecting one, the queen +kissing +Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">All that now remained was to ask Countess Brinkenstein's +formal assent +That, too, was obtained.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had not yet said farewell to Doctor Gunther and his +family. She +wished to say good-by through Colonel Bronnen, or Baron Schoning, who +had told her that he often visited the doctor's house. It was also +necessary to take leave of these men and her companions at court. Now +that she was about to go, she found out how many acquaintances she had. +But where are they when you need them? They are here, simply that you +may not need them. Such is the world; but stop! There's one to whom, of +all others, you must say farewell. She hurried off to Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga," she exclaimed, "when you get up tomorrow, shout +as loud as +you can. By that time, I'll be at our mountain home, and I'll shout +back to you until the whole world rings with laughter. I'm going to my +father."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And aren't you sorry to see me go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course; but if your father's still alive you oughtn't +miss looking +into the eyes that are only once in the world for you. I'm glad, for +your father's sake, that he's able to look on such a child as you are. +Oh! if my Burgei were only as tall."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, I'll also go to see your husband, your child and +your +mother. I'll sit down at your table and remember you to your cow and +your dog. I shall; depend upon it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! how happy they'll be! If Hansei's only at home and not +in the +woods."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he is, I'll have them send for him; and now farewell! +don't forget +me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can rely on that," said Walpurga, while Irma hurried +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">She still found time to write to her friend Emma:</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Dearest Emma</i>: Two hours ago, I received a letter from father. He +calls me home to him. I have leave of absence for a fortnight. Do you +know what that means? I was obliged to promise that I would surely +return; I don't know whether I shall keep my promise. The earth +trembles at my feet and my head swims. The world is all chaos, but +there will be light! Any one can say: 'Let there be light!' If we only +could always do our best. But I shall not write another word. It is +enough; I shall see you soon. Come to Wildenort as soon as you can, to +your</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Irma</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"P.S.--I shall take no excuse; you must come. In return, I +promise to +go to your wedding. Many greetings to all of yours, and, above all, to +your Albrecht."</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun was already sinking toward the horizon, when Irma, accompanied +by her maid, departed for Wildenort.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">So one can go away, after all, and leave the motley monotony called +"the world" behind. Farewell, thou palace, and furnish thy inmates with +their daily pleasures. Farewell, ye streets, filled with shops and +offices, towers and churches, theaters, music halls and barracks. May +fashion be gracious and favor you with customers, clients, guests, +applause, and fostering laws. Vanish, frail frippery! I feel like a +bird flying from the housetop, out into the wide world. How foolish to +remain in the cage when the door is always open. Thou, great bailiff +who holds the world captive--thy name is custom!</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus thought Irma to herself, while seated in the carriage +and driving +out into the open world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her thoughts again recurred to the great house which she had +just left. +It was the dinner hour and they were waiting for the queen to appear. +What a pity that the lord steward had not been present at the creation +of the world, for here every one has his fixed place and the service is +simply perfect. The queen expresses her regrets at the departure of +Countess Irma. All praise her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, she's so very good," says one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so merry," says another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Somewhat unmanageable, but very amiable," says still +another.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what is there new? It's a bore to be talking of one +subject all the +time. Help! Zamiel Schnabelsdorf!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Away with it all!" exclaimed Irma, suddenly: "I shall not +look back +again, but forward to my father."</p> + +<p class="normal">The horses stepped out bravely, as if they knew they were +carrying a +child to her father.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was so impatient that she told the servant who was +seated on the +box, to give a double fee to the driver so that they might get on +faster.</p> + +<p class="normal">She could hardly wait until she saw her father, so anxious +was she to +rest her head upon his breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">What did she desire? To complain to him? How could he help +her? She +knew not. All she knew was that, with him, there must be peace. She +wished to be sheltered, protected; no longer alone. To obey him and +anticipate his every wish would be her highest happiness. To be +released from herself, and to desire nothing that did not minister to +the joy of another--oh, how happy the thought! The whole earthly load +is removed. Thus must it be with the blessed spirits above! Thus should +we imagine angels to be! They want for nothing and need nothing, they +never change and never grow, are neither young nor old. They are +eternal, and are ever laboring for and through others. Their works +bring joy to the world and to themselves. They are the undying rays of +an eternal sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">During the greater part of the journey, Irma's brain was +filled with +such unintelligible dreams, and the whole world seemed to be saying: +"Father--Daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">She regained composure at last. It would not do to arrive at +the castle +in this state.</p> + +<p class="normal">Agitation is weakness, and it had always been her father's +aim to +foster strength of mind and self-command.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma forced herself to observe what was going on about her.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was twilight when they reached the first post-station. +Irma fancied +she could almost feel the air of her native mountains, although they +were still far off.</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on at a rapid pace. The evening bells were +ringing, and the +air was filled with their sounds, carrying them out to the men and +women in the fields, and measuring time and eternity for them.</p> + +<p class="normal">What would the world be without its bells, whose pealing +harmonies are +to serve as a substitute for the beautiful creations of antique art?</p> + +<p class="normal">But these thoughts failed to satisfy Irma. They lifted her +out of the +world, whilst she desired to occupy herself with what was present and +established.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the villages through which they drove, and the fields by +which they +passed, there was singing, interrupted, now and then, by the rattling +of the carriage wheels, and Irma thought: We make too much noise in +this world, and thus miss enjoying what the rest may have to tell us.</p> + +<p class="normal">No thoughts were to her liking. No outlook pleased her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stars appeared in the heavens, but what were they to man? +They +shine for him who is free and has naught to seek on earth. She, +however, was seeking, and, in the world's vast circle, could see +nothing but two starry eyes directed upon her; and they were her +father's.</p> + +<p class="normal">They continued on their journey, disturbing lazy horses and +sleepy +postilions at every station.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was long after midnight when they arrived at Wildenort.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma alighted at the manor-house and, accompanied by the +servant, +knocked at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her father had not expected her so soon. There were no lights +in the +large house, or its extensive outbuildings.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dogs barked, for strangers were coming. There was not even a +dumb beast +that knew Irma, for she was a stranger in her father's house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two plowboys passed by. They were astonished to see the +beautiful lady +at that hour, and she was obliged to tell them who she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">She ordered her rooms to be opened. Her father slept near by. +She +longed to see him, but controlled herself. He could sleep calmly and +not know that she was breathing near him. She, too, soon fell asleep +and did not wake till broad daylight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Stepping softly, old Eberhard entered the ante-chamber where +Irma's +maid was already sitting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My lady the countess, is still sleeping. It was three +o'clock, just +about daybreak, when we arrived."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What made you hurry so and take no rest?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know; but the countess was quite excited on the way. +They +couldn't drive fast enough for her. When my lady wishes anything, it +must be done at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you, dear child?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her ladyship's maid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, but who are your parents? What took you to court?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father was riding-master to Prince Adolar, and her royal +highness +had me educated in the convent school."</p> + +<p class="normal">A chain of dependents, from generation to generation, thought +the old +man to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The maid looked at him wonderingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was tall and broad-shouldered.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wore the mountaineer's dress and a white horn whistle hung +by a cord +from his neck. His fine head bent slightly forward and rested on a +massive neck; his gray hair and beard were thick and closely cropped; +his brown eye still sparkled, as if in youth; his expressive +countenance looked like embossed work, and his whole figure resembled +that of a knight who has just laid aside his armor and put himself at +ease.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish to see my daughter," said the old man as he went into +the +adjoining room. It was dark. Eberhard stepped to the window, on tiptoe, +and drew aside the green damask curtain. A broad ray of light streamed +into the room. He stood before the bed and, with bated breath, watched +the sleeping one.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was beautiful to behold. Her head, encircled by the +long, +loosened, golden-brown tresses; the clear, arched brow, the delicately +chiseled nose, the mouth with its exquisitely curved upper lip, the +rosy chin, the full cheeks with their peach-like glow--over all there +lay a calm and peaceful expression. The beautiful, small, white hands +lay folded on her breast.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was breathing heavily, and her lips moved as if with a +sad smile. +It is difficult to sleep with one's hands folded on the breast. The +hands gently loosened themselves, but the left one still rested on her +heart. The father lifted it carefully and laid it at her side. Irma +slept on quietly. Silently, the father took a chair and sat down at +her bedside. While he sat there, two doves alighted on the broad +window-sill, where they remained cooing with each other. He would have +liked to frighten them away, but he dared not stir. Irma slept on and +heard nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly the pigeons flew away, and Irma opened her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck and +kissing him. +"Home again! Oh, how happy it makes me! Do draw the other curtain, so +that I can see you better, and pray open the window so that I may +inhale my native air! Oh, father! I've been away and now I've come back +to you, and you won't let me go away again. You will support me in your +powerful arms. Oh, now I think of what you said to me in my dream. We +were standing together up on the Chamois hill and you took me up in +your arms and, while carrying me, said: 'See, my child; so long as one +of your parents lives, there is some one to help you bear up in the +world.' Oh, father! Where have I been? Where am I now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be calm, my child. You've been at court and now you're home +again. +You're excited. Calm yourself. I'll call the servant. Breakfast is +ready in the arbor."</p> + +<p class="normal">He kissed her forehead and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I kiss all your good and pure thoughts, and now let us live +together +again, as plain and sensible beings."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, that voice! To be in my father's house and at home once +more. Life +elsewhere is just like sleeping in one's clothes. 'Tis only at home +that one can rest; for there no bond oppresses us."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was about to leave, but Irma detained him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel so happy," said she, "to be here and look at you; to +see you +and think of you, all the time."</p> + +<p class="normal">The father passed his hand over her forehead, and she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let your hand rest there. I now believe in the laying on of +hands; my +own experience convinces me."</p> + +<p class="normal">He remained at her bedside for some time, his hand still +resting upon +her forehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now arise, my child. I shall expect you at breakfast."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad there is some one who can command me to 'get up.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't command, I simply advise you. But, my dear child, +something +strange must be going on with you, as you understand nothing in its +literal sense."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, father,--very strange! but that's all over, now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, follow me as soon as you can; I shall await you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The father went out to the arbor, where he awaited her +coming. He moved +the two cups and the beautiful vase of flowers first to one position, +and then to another, and arranged the white table-cloth. Shortly after, +Irma entered, clad in a white morning dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're--you're taller than I thought you were," said the +father, a +bright color suffusing his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stroked his daughter's cheek, while he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This white spot on your rosy cheek, extending from the jaw +to the +cheek-bone, is just as your mother had it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma smiled and, grasping both of her father's hands, looked +into his +eyes. Her glance was so full of happiness that the old man, who, at all +times, preserved his equanimity, found his eyes filling with tears. He +endeavored to conceal them, but Irma said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"That won't in the least detract from your heroism. Oh, +father, why are +we such slaves to ourselves? Why should we be afraid to appear as we +are? Your great rule is that we should follow out our natures. Why do +we not always do so? Oh, father, let me send up a joyful shout to my +native mountains, to the forests and the lakes! I'm with ye, again, my +constant friends! Let us live together! Hold fast by me and I will be +as faithful as ye are! I greet thee, sun; and yonder hill under which +my mother rests--"</p> + +<p class="normal">She could not go on. After some time, the old man said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would be well, my child, if we could live out our life in +all its +native purity; but it is neither fear of ourselves, nor self-imposed +slavery that induces us to avoid such scenes, such violent agitation. +It is a deep-seated feeling that, by contrast, the next moment must +appear bald and commonplace. It would oblige us to plunge from a life +of excessive sensibility into the every-day world. It is for this +reason that we should, and do, exercise self-control; for such emotions +should not exhaust themselves in what might be called a devout +outburst, but should extend through all our acts and thoughts, even to +the smallest and most insignificant. That is the source of our noblest +aspiration. Yes, my child, the very ones who thus, as it were, divide +their life in two, profane the one-half of it, while they secretly +flatter themselves: We have had great and noble emotions and are still +capable of feeling them."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old housekeeper brought the coffee. Irma waited on her +father and +told him that she expected Emma and her betrothed. Eberhard said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When Emma was here, years ago, your thoughts ran in the same +vein as +at present. We were on the Chamois hill, where a fine view of the great +lake can be obtained, and were waiting to see the sunrise. Emma, in her +matter-of-fact and plain-spoken way, said: 'I don't think it worth +while to lose one's sleep and go to so much trouble for this. I find +the sunset fully as beautiful and far less troublesome.' What did you +answer her at the time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't remember, father, dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I do. You said: 'The sunrise is far more elevating, but +I don't +know what one can do to have the rest of the day in keeping with the +lofty mood thus inspired. Sunset is better for us, because the world +then veils itself and allows us to rest. After beholding the highest, +there are only two things left us--sleep and music.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, father, I've ceased to think so. Yesterday, during the +whole of +my drive, I was haunted by the thought: What are we in the world for, +after all? Without us the trees would still grow; the beasts, the birds +and the fishes would still live without us. All these have a purpose in +the world; man alone is obliged to seek one. Men paint, and build, and +till the soil, and study how they may the better kill each other. The +only difference, after all, between mankind and the beast is that man +buries his dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And have you ventured so far, my child? I am indeed glad +that you're +with me once again. You must have had much to contend with. I trust you +will once more learn to believe that our proper destiny is, to live in +accordance with nature and reason. Look at the world!" said he, with a +smile. "A maiden twenty-one years of age, and a countess to boot, asks: +'Why am I in the world?' Ah, my child, to be beautiful, to be good, to +be as lovely as possible in mind as well as in outward form. Conduct +yourself so that you can afford to wish that every one might know you +thoroughly.--But enough of this, for the present."</p> + +<p class="normal">The hour that father and daughter thus spent together in the +arbor was +full of happiness for both, and Irma repeatedly expressed a wish that +she could thus live forever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oblivious of all else, each seemed to constitute the other's +world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've become my great tall girl," said her father. He had +intended to +say: "You must have gone through a great deal, for you return to your +father and have nothing to tell about matters trifling or personal to +yourself." He had intended to say this, but simply repeated: "You've +become my great girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, father! you order me to remain with you, do you not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know very well that I've never ordered you to do +anything, since +you were able to think for yourself," replied the father. "I'd have you +act according to your own convictions, and not against your will or +reason."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was silent. She had not received the answer she had +hoped for, +and, feeling that she must herself bring about the desired result, +determined to do so.</p> + +<p class="normal">A forest-keeper came to receive instructions in regard to the +woods. +Eberhard replied that he would ride out there himself. Irma begged to +be allowed to accompany him and, her father consenting, she soon +appeared in a hunting-dress and rode off with him across the meadows +and in the direction of the forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her face glowed with animation while she felt herself moving +along on +the spirited steed, through the shady, dewy forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">While her father was giving his orders to the forest-keepers, +Irma was +resting on a mossy bank under a broad spreading fir tree. Her father's +dog had already made friends with her, and now came up and licked her +hand. Thus awakened, she arose and walked over toward the field at +the edge of the forest. The first object her eyes fell upon was a +four-petaled clover-leaf. She quickly possessed herself of it. Her +father now joined her and noticed her happy looks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How much good it has done me to rest on the earth," said +she.</p> + +<p class="normal">He made no reply. He did not think it necessary that every +feeling, +however deep, should find vent in words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked up in surprise. In the world of conversation, +small change +is paid back for every remark.</p> + +<p class="normal">They soon returned home.</p> + +<p class="normal">During the afternoon they were seated together in the cool +library. +Cicero's words, "When I am alone, then am I least alone," were written +in letters of gold, over the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">The father was writing and would occasionally look at his +daughter, who +was engaged with a volume of Shakespeare. She was reading the noblest +thoughts, taking them up into herself, and making them a part of her +own soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard felt it a joy to detect his own glance in another's +eye, to +hear his own thoughts from other lips, and that eye and those lips his +child's--to note that her soul reflected his, although native +temperament and peculiar impressions had served to make hers different +from and independent of his own. The ideal that had filled his youthful +dreams now stood before him, incarnate.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard soon closed his book and smiled to himself. He was +not so +strong as he had imagined. Now that his child was with him, he could +not keep on with his work, as he had done the day before. He sat down +by Irma, and, pointing to Spinoza's and Shakespeare's works, that +always lay on his work-table, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"To them, the whole world was revealed. Although they lived +centuries +ago, they are my constant companions on these lonely mountains. I shall +pass away and leave no trace of my thoughts behind me, but I've already +lived the life eternal in the companionship of the noblest minds. The +tree and the beast live only for themselves, and during the short +period that ends with death. With life, we inherit the result of +centuries of thought and he who, within himself, has become a true man +fully embodies the idea of humanity. Thus you live on, with your father +and with all that is true and beautiful in the history of the human +race."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a long pause. It was, at last, broken by the +father's saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Didn't you come in a court carriage?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you intend to return to court?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father, don't let us speak of that, now. I've not, like you, +strength +enough to drop from the greatest heights down to the level of every-day +life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child, every-day affairs are the highest that can engage +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I'd like to forget that there is such a thing as a +court, or that +I've ever been, or ever shall be, anything but part of your heart and +soul."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you're to live for yourself; but if you wish to remain +with me, +all you need do is to send the carriage back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall have to return, though it be but for a few days. I +have only +leave of absence, not a discharge. The best thing would be for you to +go with me and bring me back again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't go to court, as you well know; and I give you credit +for +enough strength to take yourself away from there. I was watching you +to-day while you lay asleep. There's nothing false in you; as yet, no +evil passions cloud your brow. I know your brother is anxious to have +you marry, and I, too, wish that you may become a good wife and mother. +But I fear that you have become too much your own, ever to become +another's. Be that as it may, my child, look at the scene spread out +before you. Myriads of flowers are blooming silent and unknown. Should +a wanderer pass by and feast his eyes upon them, or even pluck a +flower, it has lived for him. Should it blossom and fade away unseen, +it has lived for itself. But, my child, don't go out of your way to +please me. How long is your leave?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A fortnight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us spend the time in truth and cheerfulness, and then +act as your +judgment dictates."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The days passed by quickly. Eberhard had little to do with his +neighbors, but was always glad to see the burgomaster of the village, +who was, also, a deputy to the Diet, and to consult with him regarding +the affairs of the community.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma spent much of her time alone. She read, embroidered, +painted and +sang. After the first few days, a reaction set in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is this life?" she asked herself, "of what use? I work +for +dress--dress for my soul and for my body. And to what purpose? The +mirror sees me, the walls hear me, and I have my father for one hour at +noon and another in the evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">She endeavored to control her flights, and, although she +succeeded in +that, could not prevent herself from thinking of one who was distant. +She would look around as if she could hear his footsteps and as if the +air were filled with his presence; and that man was--the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">She could not but think that he expected a letter from her, +and what +had he received? The news of her departure. Why should she insult and +mortify him?</p> + +<p class="normal">While at Wildenort, she was several times on the point of +writing to +him. She wanted to tell him that she had meant to flee from him; nay, +from herself. Framing the sentences in her mind, she would say to +herself: Flight is not cowardice. Indeed, it requires great strength +thus to tear one's self away. She meant to make this clear to him. She +did not wish him to think ill of humanity and, least of all, of her. +His great and extended energy should not be weakened, or even +disturbed, by the consciousness that mankind had no conception of the +truly noble. She owed it, both to him and to herself, to explain this; +but it is difficult to do it all in writing. She would, therefore, +return and tell him all, and, after that, they would, although distant, +be united in the noblest thoughts. She felt satisfied that she would +find full compensation for a lonely life in the recollection of one +moment of perfect communion with a noble mind, and the consciousness of +truth and purity in thought and deed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was delighted to think that she had thus liberated +herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">She refrained, as far as possible, from speaking to her +father about +the court; but a remark would, now and then, involuntarily escape her, +and she would tell how the king and the queen had praised this or that, +or had uttered such and such a remark, and it was easily to be seen +that she attached special importance to what they had said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the way with men," said Eberhard, smiling. "They know +what they +are, or, at least, ought to; and yet they give a prince the right to +stamp them with a value. It is he who determines: you are worth so and +so much; you a ducat, you a thaler, you a mere brass counter, you a +privy councilor and you a colonel. The story of the creation of the +world is thus ever renewed. There it says that the Creator led the +beasts out before man so that he might give them names. Here the human +animals come to the prince and say; 'Give us a name, or we shall feel +as if naked and be afraid.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started at these harsh words. Solitude had brought her +father to +this point. She could not refrain from saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You do the king great injustice; he has a noble mind and is +full of +intelligence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Intelligence! I know all about that," replied Eberhard. "He +can ask +questions without number, propound problems and, for his dessert, would +fain have an epitome of ecclesiastical history, physiology or any other +interesting department of knowledge. But he never applies himself; +never reads a work through. He requires excerpts and essences. I know +all about it. And the courtly roulade singers place their thoughts at +his service. Don't imagine, my child, that I underrate the king's +efforts. They've always told him: 'You are a genius!' They are always +persuading kings that they possess genius, either military, political +or artistic. All who approach a monarch are obliged, even in an +intellectual sense, to attire themselves in court dress. He never sees +men and things in their true colors; they all drape themselves to +please him. Nevertheless, I believe the king honestly endeavors to see +things as they are, and that's a great deal; but he can't shake off the +magic spell of set forms and phrases."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's lips trembled with emotion. She did not believe that +her father +meant to weaken her interest in the king, since he could not know of +its existence; but his antagonism irritated her and she saw, with +alarm, that no help was to be looked for in that quarter. She might +have shared her father's solitude, if he had honored the exalted man as +she did. He might have done homage to the noble mind, even though it +was a monarch's, without doing violence to his republican feelings, or +his sense of justice. But now he destroyed every bridge that had led to +a better understanding and to justice. If another had spoken thus of +the king, she would have made him feel her wrath, and now she felt that +her silence was a sufficient sacrifice to filial duty. Her heart seemed +to close up within itself, as if never again to be opened. She was a +stranger in her father's house, and now doubly felt that she had never +been at home there. She forced herself to appear cheerful and tranquil.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard observed that an inner conflict agitated her, and +thought it +was merely a struggle between court life and solitude. He did not aid +her, for he thought that she could best gain peace if she fought the +battle for herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">On Sunday morning--Eberhard never went to church--he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you time to listen to a long story?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then let me make my will while I am yet in health."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray, father, don't do that. Spare me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't mean as to my possessions, but as to myself. We have +no +picture of your dear mother, and none of you children have any idea of +her appearance--so pure, so lovely, so full of sunshine; and, for that +reason, I mean to give you a picture of my life. Treasure it. Who knows +when I may again have a chance? If there's anything that you don't +understand or that seems to you in danger of being misinterpreted, ask +me about it. I don't find such objections an interruption. I pursue my +life in its even tenor; nothing disturbs me. I've accustomed myself to +improve my estate, to give orders to my servants and to answer their +questions, and, afterward, to take up the train of thought just where +it was broken off; and so you, too, may interrupt me whenever you care +to.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father, who was a free count, was always proud of his +direct +relations to the empire. Unto his last day, he would never acknowledge +the unity of the kingdom and would always ask; 'How goes it over +there?' He regarded his domain as distinct from the rest, and his +family as on an equality with all princely houses."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why, dear father," asked Irma, "would you destroy these +beautiful +memories that have been handed down from generation to generation?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because history itself has destroyed them, and justly too. +It is +necessary for the preservation of mankind that new races should +constantly ascend to the surface; but I didn't mean to tell you about +my father. I spent a happy youth in this house. My preceptor, although +an ecclesiastic, was a man of liberal opinions. I entered the military +service a year before my father's death and, though I say it myself, +presented no mean figure while there, for I possessed good looks and an +iron frame. I was stationed with my regiment, in a fortress belonging +to the confederation. While recklessly riding one day, I fell from my +horse and dislocated my hip. It laid me up for a long time and thus +afforded me an opportunity to become better acquainted with our +regimental surgeon, Doctor Gunther. Has he never told you of the times +we passed together?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has merely mentioned them. It was only a few days ago +that the king +told me I was right in saying that Doctor Gunther would only furnish +verbal prescriptions when they were demanded and were really +necessary."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! and so the king said that you were right? 'You are +right'--that is +a real mark of grace and should make one happy for a whole day and +perhaps even longer. Isn't it so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father--didn't you mean to tell me more about your life with +Gunther?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, my child, that was a wondrous time. As far as I was +able, I dived, +with him, into the study of philosophy. I can still remember, as if it +were this very moment, the very hour and the very place by the fortress +wall--it was a dull evening in autumn; I can still see the leaves as +they fell from the trees--when Gunther for the first time, explained to +me the great saying of the all-wise one: 'Self-preservation is the +first law of nature.' I stood as if rooted to the spot; it dawned upon +me like a revelation, and has never since left me. Although at times +obscured by the events of life, 'preserve thyself,' has always been +before my mind. I have faithfully lived up to the great precept, and +alas, as I now see, too completely and selfishly. The man who lives +only for himself does not live a complete life, but I can confess this +to you, of all others, without fear. It was only later that I came +thoroughly to know the great right of sovereignty that belongs to every +human being. I had done much thinking before that, but never in logical +connection. You cannot imagine what courage it requires, on the part of +a favorite and respected officer, to venture on the study of +philosophy; how opposed it is to the very idea of military service, how +improper it seems to one's superiors, and how ridiculous to one's +comrades. Military service so exhausts the body, by daily, and for the +greater part, useless exercises, that it renders it difficult to +cultivate one's mind. I often excused myself, as unwell, and remained +in my room during the loveliest weather, simply on account of my +studies. Our regiment was ordered to the capital, and Gunther accepted +my offer of a discharge. He became a professor and I attended lectures. +But I was painfully conscious of my deficiency in knowledge and +ardently longed for a chance to devote my life to perfecting my +education. An unforeseen event helped to bring about the desired end. I +had become gentleman of the bedchamber and spent much of my time at +court. At that early day, I observed the ineradicable, servile spirit +that dwells in man. Every one rejoices that there are others lower down +in the scale than himself, and is willing, on that account, to suffer +some to stand above him. Princes are not to blame for this ladder of +nonsense. One day while at the summer palace, the king had gone out +hunting, and although it was long past the dinner hour, not a glimpse +of him was to be seen. The chamberlains and the court ladies--I forget +their titles--were walking in the park. They would sit down on the +benches, look through their spy-glasses, and endeavor, unsuccessfully +however, to keep up a sustained conversation; for the ladies and +gentlemen, both young and old, were possessed of vulgar hunger. And +still the herdsman who was to put fodder in the rack for them, did not +make his appearance. Your uncle Willibald pacified his gnawing hunger +with little biscuits, which did not destroy his appetite. Hours passed, +while they walked about like Jews on the Day of Atonement. But they +laughed and joked--at least they tried to--while their stomachs +growled. And though your uncle had thirty horses in his stable at home, +with oxen and cows and many broad acres besides, he was content to +serve and wait there, because he took great pride in being lord +chamberlain. At that time, my child, I was as old as you are now, and I +swore to myself never more to be a servant to any man. At last, the +king's hunting carriage arrived. All were profuse in their greetings +and received him with smiling faces. And yet his majesty was in a bad +humor, for while he had been unsuccessful, General Kont, who had been +one of the hunting party, had committed the impropriety of shooting a +deer with twelve antlers. The general felt very unhappy at his good +luck, and his head hung as mournfully as that of the dead beast. He +apologized again and expressed his regrets that his majesty had not +killed the stag. With rueful countenance, the monarch congratulated +him. The king looked at me and asked 'How are you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very hungry. Your Majesty,' was my answer. The king smiled, +but the +rest of the court were horror-struck at my impertinence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We were obliged to wait another half-hour, while the king +changed his +dress and, at last, we went to dinner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child, if you were to tell the story to a courtier, he +would +consider me intolerably stupid; but that meal was the last I ever ate +at princely table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that I'm talkative--I'm an old man. I merely wanted +to say: +Look about you and see how many human sacrifices they are constantly +requiring.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The idea of princely dignity is a noble and beautiful one. +The prince +should embody the unity of the state; but, although the idea, in +itself, is beautiful, the knowledge that its realization requires a +pyramid of worn-out creatures, divested of human dignity, renders it +repulsive to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma, I feel as if I must impress the testament of my soul +upon yours. +The moment you feel that you've lost the smallest portion of your crown +of human dignity, flee, without hatred or contempt; for he who carries +such feelings in his soul is heavily laden and can never breathe +freely. I don't hate the world; neither do I despise it. It simply +appears to me strange, decayed, distant. Nor can I hate or despise any +one, because his belief is different from mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But as I don't wish to teach you, I will go on with my +story. I +applied for my discharge and entered the university as a student. I +soon left, however, in order to continue my education in an +agricultural school. After that, I traveled and, as you know, spent an +entire year in America. I had a great desire to become acquainted with +that new phase of history in which men are born to intellectual freedom +and are not constantly looking back toward Palestine, Greece or Rome. I +don't find the world of the future in America. All there is still, as +it were, in a state of ferment suggestive of primeval processes; but +whether a new civilization will be the result, is more than I know. I +do know, however, that all mankind is patiently waiting for a new moral +compact. But I, and many more of us, will never live to see it +realized.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will the world of the future be governed by pure ideas, or +will it +again look up to some lofty personage as its exemplar? I should wish +for the former, but its realization seems far off.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now to continue with the story of my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I returned home and, meeting your mother, was unutterably +happy. She +was alone in the world. I have enjoyed the greatest of all happiness; +there is none other like it. Three years after you were born, your +mother died. I cannot give you particulars about her. Her whole +appearance was one of strength and purity. The world regarded her as +cold and reserved, but she was ardent and open-hearted, beautiful to +her very heart, but only for me. I know that if she had been spared to +me, I would have become one of the best and kindest of men. I dare not +think of that.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was not to be.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I feel as if sanctified through her, for since that time +no base +thought has ever entered my soul; nor have I ever committed a deed that +I should feel ashamed to confess to my daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She died, and I stood alone, my violent nature confronting +the enigma +of life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Although I could not give my children a stepmother, I became +a +stepfather to them. Yes, let me speak on: I am unsparing toward myself. +I know that if others heard me, they would say that I am using too +strong language. It is the fashion to be indulgent nowadays, but I am +not in the mode. I put my children away from me. I placed you with your +aunt, until you entered the convent, and Bruno remained with me until +he went to the seminary. You were in fine institutions, with expensive +fees, but you were nevertheless put away from me. You did not know your +father; you merely knew that he was alive, but did not live with him. +You grew up like orphaned children.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is only two years since I confessed this to myself. For +weeks, it +robbed me of sleep, of feeling and of thought, and still I adhered to +it. The demon called sophistry was ever telling me: 'You could have +been of no use to your children. You had still too much to do for +yourself, and it is better for them that they should become free human +agents through their own unaided efforts than through you.' There may +be some truth in it, but nevertheless, I've put my children away from +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man paused. Irma laid her hand upon his and gently +stroked it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis well. I've said it at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I remained here, leading a solitary but not a lonely life. I +communed +with the greatest minds and, at the same time, easily managed our +estate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I devoted myself to national affairs, but soon withdrew. I +can't +belong to a party, not even to the one that calls itself the party of +freedom. It includes many noble-hearted men whom I honor and respect, +but they put up with too many frivolous comrades who, while they prate +of equality and of the highest good of man, do not hesitate to +sacrifice their fellow-beings to themselves. Aristocratic triflers are +simply vicious, but democratic triflers are corrupters of ideas. He who +dare not wish that the whole people should think and act as he does, +has no right to term himself a free and honest man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If liberty does not rest on morality, what is there to +distinguish it +from tyranny? What is tyranny? The egotistical abuse of beings endowed +with equal rights to ourselves. A tyrant, in effect, denies his God. A +frivolous democrat blasphemes Him. By the term God, I mean the full +conception of the world's moral law. I was a hermit in the midst of the +crowd, and am happier and more consistent, when away from the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now I am here leading a solitary life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Isn't it sad to be so lonely?" asked Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I felt lonely, it would be very hard," replied Eberhard; +"but man +should not feel lonely, though he be alone. <i>Ennui</i> and loneliness have +no resting-place here. Men who are nothing to themselves are lonely +wherever they be; but let me continue my story.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gunther's defection caused me the greatest sorrow, but I was +unjust +toward him. He always was a friend of court life and regarded it as the +culmination of culture. He was always too æsthetic and would often say: +'I, too, have a claim on the luxuries, the comforts, the pleasures of +life and am determined to have my share of them.' That led him to +court and caused him to desert free science and, at the same time, to +lose both himself and me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have probably been told, and have perhaps even yourself +thought, +that I am a misanthrope. He who hates mankind is a vain fool. In what +respect is he better than the rest, or different from them? I don't +hate mankind. I only know that most of them, either by their own +efforts or through those of others, appear in false colors. They affect +an interest in things that do not concern them and, in most instances, +do not even know that it is affectation. I have often been deceived and +cheated, but, I frankly confess, it was because I deceived myself. I +gave forth what was best in me, and imagined that others were with me, +but it was mere politeness that induced them to assent. They were not +hypocrites; it was I who deceived myself. I imagined myself in a world +in which all was peace and harmony, while, in fact, I was alone, +completely alone. Every one who has a character of his own, is alone. +There is no such thing as perfect accord; to live out one's self is all +that remains. But most men do not care to do this, and they are best +off. They live as custom and morals require, and do not greatly concern +themselves about the present or the past. They jump or dawdle as the +case may be from mood to mood, from enjoyment to enjoyment, and as long +as they can always see the same face when they look in the glass, are +perfectly content. Such faces never change. If the human countenance +always expressed the thoughts that fill the soul, you would not be able +to recognize any one from day to day, or even from hour to hour. I do +not know, my child, where I am leading you to; I only meant to tell you +that I am not a misanthrope. I love all men. I know that, at bottom, +they cannot be different from what they are, and that honest nature +still lies concealed beneath their frizzled, overloaded, glittering +masks. They cannot reveal it, however, and in spite of their false, +cunning ways, there still remains a great and wise precept: 'Forgive +them, for they know not what they do.' And now let me add that I +forgive your brother, too. He has deeply mortified me, for the deepest +mortification that one can suffer is at the hands of one's child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot force Bruno to act against his will, nor do I wish +to. It is +a strange world. The struggle between father and son drags on through +all ages. My son defends the old, and I the new; but I must bear with +it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Freedom alone accords with the dictates of nature and +reason. But you +cannot force one to be free; nor do I wish to force you, in any way. +Most women would rather yield to nature than affection, but I do not +regard you as an ordinary woman, nor do I wish you to be one. You +should--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Eberhard had said that he did not wish to be +interrupted, +something now came which did interrupt him.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a messenger with a letter for Irma. She recognized the +handwriting of her friend Emma, and hurriedly opening the letter, read +as follows:</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Irma</i>: I cannot come to thee. I have said farewell to the world. +Three weeks ago to-day, my Albrecht lost his life through the bite of a +mad dog. My life for this world is also at an end. I humbly submit to +the inscrutable will of the Almighty. I have vowed to take the veil. I +am here now, and shall never again leave this spot. Come, as soon as +thou canst, to thy</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Sister Euphrosyne</span>,</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>In the convent of Frauenwörth</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma handed the letter to her father to read.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so the bite of a mad dog has destroyed two human lives. +Who will +explain this?" exclaimed Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that respect, religion is just as impotent as we are. +Like reason, +she commands us to obey nature's law."</p> + +<p class="normal">The messenger waited, and Irma went off to write an answer in +which she +promised to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Eberhard sat alone. He had confided the story of +his life to +his child--and what would it avail? How often had he realized that no +teaching, be it ever so noble, can change the human mind. Life, +observation and experience can alone produce conviction. The weak point +of dogmatism is that it attempts to teach that which can only be +learned from life itself. His children had not shared in his life, and +it was now of little avail to recount it to them, in all its details, +or to explain the motives that directed it. There was enough of +contradiction implied in the fact that the father was obliged to tell +what his life had been.</p> + +<p class="normal">In his own mind, Eberhard acknowledged that his own conduct +had borne +its legitimate results. He had no real claim to filial affection; at +all events, not to the degree in which he craved it, for he had lived +for himself alone. When Irma returned and asked permission to visit her +friend Emma, he nodded assent. He had boasted that nothing could +interrupt him. He might use the rule for himself, but not for others. +He had told his child the story of his life--who knew but what this +untoward interruption would efface it all from her memory?</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Seated in the open court carriage, Irma rode over hill and dale. She +lay back on the cushions; the waiting-maid and the lackey sat on the +back seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Emma's sad and sudden message had almost paralyzed her; but, +now that +she was in the carriage, her strength returned. Travel and change of +air always exerted a magic influence over her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The echo of her father's story followed her during a great +part of the +journey. She had listened with great interest, although the story +itself had made but a faint impression upon her. An inner voice told +her: These matters are not so serious or important as he takes them. It +is his peculiar temperament that causes them to affect his course in +life. It would not be so with another. It was enough that she was able +to do justice to his eccentricity. He could hardly expect it to exert +any decided influence upon her. Emma's fate was horrible, maddening; +but her father's was not. Much of his life-trouble was mere +self-torment. He spoke of repose, and yet knew it not.</p> + +<p class="normal">With all Irma's affection for her father, she had really so +little in +common with him, that the painful expression that played about his +mouth, while he told her his story, simply served to remind her of the +Laocoön.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma shook her head quite petulantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">What a chaos is the world!</p> + +<p class="normal">A mad dog destroys a life and, here and there, solitary +beings are +tormenting themselves to death. Every one is conscious of some fault or +weakness; all seek the unattainable and, in unending attempts and +trials, life is spent. In the midst of this chaos, a single figure +appears. It is full, beautiful, great, sure of life and, in truth, +controls life. Irma turned back as if to say: "Alas! it is not you, +father, although you could and ought to be the one. The king alone is +the one free being on the pinnacle of life."</p> + +<p class="normal">A smile played about her lips while she thought of him. She +looked up +at the blue heavens and, forgetting whither she was going, felt as if +gentle arms were carrying her away over hill and dale.</p> + +<p class="normal">An eagle was winging its flight far above the mountain tops. +Irma's +eyes followed it for a long while. She ordered the driver to stop the +carriage, and the servant alighted in order to receive her ladyship's +order. She motioned him to mount the box again, and, though all the +comforts wealth affords were hers, stopped in the midst of wild nature +to watch the eagle hovering in the air, until it at last disappeared in +the clouds.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If one must die, I'd like to die thus," said an inner voice, +"fly into +heaven and be no more."</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on. For the rest of the journey, Irma did not +utter a word. +It was toward evening when the lackey said: "We've reached the place."</p> + +<p class="normal">The road descended toward the lake, by the shore of which the +carriage +stopped. The convent was on an island in the center of the lake, and +the sounds of the curfew bells filled the air. The sun was still +visible over the mountain tops, its rays were almost horizontal, and +the dancing, sparkling waves looked like so many lights swimming to and +fro. The surface of the lake was rapidly assuming a golden hue.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the sound of the evening bells, the lackey and the +postilion lifted +their hats and the waiting-maid folded her hands. Irma also folded her +hands, but did not pray. She thought to herself: The sound of the bells +is pleasant enough, if one can listen to them from without, and then +return to the happy world; but to those who are within the convent, it +is a daily death-knell; for life such as theirs, is death.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's mood was not in sympathy with that of her friend, and +she did +her best to feel as befitted the occasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">While they were getting the boat ready, she overheard the +lackey +speaking with another servant whose face she remembered to have seen at +court.</p> + +<p class="normal">She heard the court lackey saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My master's been here for some days and has been waiting for +something; I don't know what."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma would have liked to ask with whom he had come, but a +sudden fear +overpowered her and she was unable to speak a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">Accompanied by the waiting-maid, she stepped into the boat. +An old +boatman and his daughter rowed the rudderless skiff. The waters of the +lake were deep and dark. The sun was setting, and the shadows of the +western mountains were reflected in dark outlines on the hills along +the shore. The fresh-fallen snow lay on the glaciers, whose white +crests contrasted sharply with the wooded hills of the foreground and +the clear blue sky. Below, all was as silent and dusky as though they +were sailing into the realm of shadows.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is this your daughter?" asked Irma, addressing the old +boatman.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded a glad assent, delighted to find her conversant +with the +dialect of that portion of the country. Her intercourse with Walpurga +had kept her in practice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied the boatman, "and she'd like to go into +service with +some good family. She can sew well and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Remain with your father; that's the best thing you can do," +said Irma +to the girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">They rowed on in silence. "How deep is the lake here?" +inquired Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sixty fathoms, at least." Irma's hand played with the water, +and she +was pleased with the thought that human beings could so easily and +boldly move along over a threatening, watery grave. She leaned a little +way over the side of the boat, and the boatman called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take care, miss!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can swim," replied Irma, splashing the waves.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's all very well," said the old man, laughing. "They can +all swim +until they have to, and then all's over; and if they happen to have +clothes hanging to them, mighty few can swim."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right there. Our gay frippery would drag us down."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man did not understand her and made no reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was quite excited and asked: "Have many persons been +drowned in +this lake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very few; but just below us, there's the body of a young +man, +twenty-one years old."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How was he lost?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They say he'd been drinking too freely, but I think that he +had a +sweetheart in the convent over there. It's a good thing she don't know +of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked down into the waves, while the old man continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And over there by the rock the trunk of a tree struck a +woodcutter and +hurled him into the lake. Over there by the flood-gate, a milkmaid, +fifteen years old, happened to get into the current where the drift +logs were whirling along, and by the time her body reached the lake, +every bit of clothing had been torn from it by the logs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't tell such frightful stories," said the waiting-maid to +the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked up at the steep mountains and asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Could one climb up there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but they'd find it mighty hard work; still, wherever +there are +trees, man can climb."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked down into the lake, and then up at the mountains. +One can +lose one's-self in the world. "How would it be if one were to do so?" +said the voice within her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood up in the boat. The old man exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down! there's danger if you stir one way or the other."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall not move," said Irma, and she really stood erect in +the +unsteady little boat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By your leave, the beautiful young lady surely doesn't mean +to enter +the convent?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I'd be sorry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why would you be sorry? Don't the nuns lead a pleasant, +peaceful +life?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes, they do; but it is a life in which nothing +happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if obeying a higher summons, Irma sat down and immediately +stood up +again. The boat reeled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A life in which nothing happens"--the words touched a chord +in her own +heart. With her, the pride and strength of youth rebelled against +sacrificing one's life in such a manner. It is a life in which nothing +happens: whether it be, like her father's, spent in solitary thought, +or, like that of the nun's, in common devotion. Are we not placed upon +earth so that we may call all our own--come joy, come grief; come +mirth, come sadness--a life in which nothing happens is not for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Filled with such thoughts she stepped ashore and, while +walking up the +avenue of lindens that led to the convent, heard the boatman fastening +his skiff by the chain.</p> + +<p class="normal">She inquired for Sister Euphrosyne. The nuns were all at +vespers. Irma +also repaired to the chapel, in which the everlasting lamp was the only +light. Although the service was over, the sisters were still kneeling +on the floor. At last they arose, looking like so many ghostly figures +stepping out from chaotic darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma returned to the parlor, where the portress told her that +she would +not be allowed to speak to Emma that day, as the sisters were not +permitted to receive any communication, or converse with any one, after +vespers. Irma, in the mean while, was lodged in the convent.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a mild September night. Wrapped in her plaid, Irma sat +out on +the landing until a late hour. Her thoughts were lost in the +illimitable. She scarcely knew what she was thinking of, and yet, as if +wafted toward her on the air, she would now and then seem to hear the +words: "A life in which nothing happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following morning, after early mass, Irma was +permitted to visit +her friend. She was frightened when she saw Emma, and yet it was the +same mild countenance, only terribly disfigured by the closely fitting +hood that completely covered the hair and gave her face greater +prominence.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the first outburst of grief and sympathy that followed +the +recital of her sad affliction, Emma at last said to Irma, who had again +and again pressed her to her heart:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your embraces are so passionate. I know you will never be +able to +learn humility. You cannot; it is not your nature. But you should +acquire equanimity. You could never enter a convent, Irma, and never +ought to; or you would long to return to the world. You must become a +good wife, but do not imagine that your ideal will ever be realized. +Our existence here is fragmentary and full of misery. Life here below +is not intended to be beautiful and complete. But, Irma, take heed you +do not attempt to loosen a barrier, or to overstep it. Draw back while +you are still on this side!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Emma did not mention the king's name. There was a long pause. +Irma felt +as if their present surroundings must stifle her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Emma spoke of what had happened but a few weeks ago, as if +decades has +passed in the mean while. She discoursed to her friend the strength +that lay in continuous devotion; how it lengthened the hours into years +full of placid victory over the world. She felt happy that it was +possible, even on earth, to lay aside one's name and memories, and lead +an existence which, without one steep step, gradually led one to +eternal bliss. Emma, however, complained that they would not allow her +to take the veil, and resented it as tyranny that she was only +permitted to remain as a serving sister without vows.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is right that you should not," exclaimed Irma; "I think +Bronnen +loves you, but he's a man who respects existing facts. His moral +character would lead him to repress, rather than manifest, warm feeling +toward an affianced bride. He deserves you. I don't say that you should +now--How could you? How would he dare? You should remain your own +mistress and, after you've spent a year or more in the convent, you +may, with that excellent man, lead a life which, if void of transports, +will be none the less true and beautiful. All I can say to you now is: +Don't fetter your future. No one should take a vow that binds him for +life, that, on the very morrow, might seal his lips and make him a +slave, a liar, a hypocrite or a deceiver, in his own eyes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma," exclaimed Emma, "what bad advice are you giving me. +Is that the +language used at court? Oh, forgive me for speaking to you so! It was +the old Emma that did it; not I. Forgive me, I pray you, forgive me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She threw herself on her knees at Irma's feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand up," said Irma, "I've nothing to forgive. I will speak +more +calmly. You see, dear Emma, it is fortunate for you that you cannot +take the vow. A fearful blow has prostrated you; but if you remain free +in your seclusion, your load will gradually lighten and your wounds +will heal. Then, should the world call you, you are free to return to +it. This should be a place of refuge for you, and not a prison."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah yes," said Emma, with a smile, "you must of course think +so, but +I--I do not care to see the world again which no longer contains him +who was dearer to me than life. You cannot realize what it is to be +betrothed on earth, and be obliged to wait for eternal union in heaven. +I have prayed God to take my heart from me and banish every selfish +desire, and He has hearkened unto me. It is tyrannical to attempt to +force our opinions upon others. Do you still remember, Irma, the first +time we read the story of Odysseus, and how he had them bind him to the +mast so that he might listen to the songs of the syrens and yet not be +able to follow them? Do you still remember the remark you then made?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've quite forgotten it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Much-bepraised Odysseus,' said you, 'was a weakling, not a +hero. A +hero must not suffer himself to be bound by external fetters; he must +resist everything by his inner strength.' Even then, I felt how strong +you were. Odysseus was only a heathen and knew nothing of the eternal +law. I rejoice in that law; I cling to that rock. I long for the +divine, the eternal bond; it will support me if I sink. I do not wish +to return to the world. I wish to fetter myself, and can it be that men +who claim to be free dare forbid others to tread the path that leads to +perfection--to the true eternal life? Is not that tyrannical and +godless?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; but who forbids you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The law of the state. It has ordered this convent to be +closed and +forbids its taking any more young nuns."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And does the law say that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The king shall not allow it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma spoke so loudly that her words were echoed back from the +vaulted +ceiling of the cell.</p> + +<p class="normal">Emma's glance was fastened on Irma--if it only could be +brought about!</p> + +<p class="normal">The two maidens had no time to exchange a word on the +subject, for, at +that moment, the abbess sent for them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The abbess addressed Irma, just as if she had overheard the +last words +of the latter. With gentle voice, but positive manner, she complained +of the tyranny of the free-thinkers--whom she did not judge, but simply +pitied--and maintained that the attempt to destroy ancient and holy +institutions was revolting.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's countenance glowed with excitement. She again said +that the law +must be repealed, and that she would exert all her influence to bring +about that end. She offered to write to the king at once. The abbess +gladly accepted the proffered service and Irma wrote:</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Your Majesty</i>: I write to you from the convent, but I am not a nun. I +believe my talent does not lie in that way. But what laws are these +that forbid a maiden from taking the eternal vow? Is that freedom? Is +it justice? What is it? Your Majesty will, I trust, pardon my +agitation. I am writing with convent ink on convent paper, and it is +not the first time that such ink and such paper have been used in the +service of freedom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it possible that one set of human beings can forbid +others to live +together in seclusion?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quacks cannot create life or happiness; should they, +therefore, be +allowed to forbid unhappiness from effecting its own cure?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty's great mind cannot suffer such barbarism, and +it is +barbarous, although hedged about by culture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am aware, Your Majesty, that I have not yet made my +meaning clear. I +shall endeavor to do so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am here in the convent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Emma, the woman whom I love above all others--I believe I +have already +spoken of her to Your Majesty--wishes to take the veil. From her point +of view, she is in the right. Dogs will go mad, although the dog-tax be +paid. A mad dog killed her affianced and she now desires to renounce +the world. Who dare prevent it? And yet the law of the state commands +that this convent shall die out, and forbids its receiving nuns.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty dare not permit this. Your eye takes in all at +a glance; +your life is the nation's history. You must teach these journeymen to +be greater-minded than they now are. They must abolish this law; +indeed, they must.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon my language. Your Majesty; but I cannot help myself. +I feel as +if I were your deputy. I feel that your great mind resents such +pettiness as an insult.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope to see Your Majesty soon again, and, meanwhile, send +my most +respectful greetings.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Irma von Wildenort</span>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Without being observed, Irma inclosed the four-petaled clover-leaf with +the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Irma sat in the boat that took her back to the shore, +she was +filled with pride. She felt that she had instigated, if not +accomplished, a beautiful and noble act in the service of freedom and +was determined that it should be carried out.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old boatman was glad to see her again. He rowed lustily, +but did +not speak a word. Now and then, he would smile to himself, as if happy +in the thought that he was carrying a young soul away from the realm of +shadows.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the distance there was a skiff and, in it, a man clad in a +green +hunting dress. He waved his hat and bowed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Absorbed in thought, Irma was gazing into the lake, when her +maid drew +her attention to the other boat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it not the king?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thinking that he had not yet been observed, the hunter fired +off his +gun, the report of which was echoed again and again from the hills. He +then waved his hat once more. With trembling hand, Irma waved her white +handkerchief as a token of recognition.</p> + +<p class="normal">The skiff approached. Irma's expression rapidly changed from +one of joy +to that of disappointment.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not the king. It was Baron Schoning who greeted her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sprang into the boat, kissed her trembling hand and told +her how +happy he was to meet her there.</p> + +<p class="normal">They alighted. The baron offered his arm to Irma and they +walked along +the bank, the maid going before. In the distance, Irma could see the +lackey who, on the previous day, had been speaking to hers. Had not the +servant said that his master had been waiting here for a long time? Had +not Baron Schoning, before this, been open in his attentions to her? +His words soon relieved her of all doubt on that score.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are alone here, in the presence only of the mountains, +the lake and +the heavens. Dearest Countess! May I speak of something that lies near +my heart and which I have for a long while desired to tell you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She silently nodded assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, permit me to tell you that the court is not the +right place +for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not quite sure that I shall return there; but why do +you think me +out of place there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because there is something in you which will always prevent +you from +feeling at home there. You are surprised to hear me, the jester, the +court warbler, speak thus. I know very well I bear that title; but +believe me, Countess, while they imagine they are playing with me, I am +amusing myself at their expense. You, Countess, will never feel at home +at court. You do not accept that life and its customs, as fixed and +settled. You interpret it according to your own peculiar views; your +mind cannot wear a uniform; your soul utters its deepest feelings in +its own dialect, and when your utterances get abroad in the liveried +world, they find it exceedingly original, but strange and--no one knows +it better than I--you have not, and never will have aught in common +with those who surround you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should not have believed that you could thus look into my +heart; but +I thank you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not looking into your heart; I live in it. Oh, +Countess! Oh! thou +child-like and all-loving heart, tremble not! Suffer me to clasp +this hand in mine, while I tell you that I, too, am a stranger there, +and have resolved to retire from court and live for myself on +yonder patrimonial estate of mine. Irma, will you render my life a +thousand-fold happier than it can otherwise be? Will you be my wife?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was long before Irma could answer him. At last she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My friend--yes, my friend--on yonder island there lives a +friend of +mine who is dead, both to herself and me. Fate deals kindly with +me and sends me another in her stead. I thank you--but--I am so +confused--perhaps more than-- But look, dear baron, at the little +cottage half-way up the mountain. I would be content to live there--to +grow my cabbages, milk my goats, plant my hemp, make my clothes--and +could be happy, desiring nothing, forgetting the world and forgotten by +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You jest, dear Countess; you are creating an idea whose +bright colors +will soon grow dim."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not jest. I could live alone while laboring for my +daily bread, +but not as the mistress of a castle and surrounded by the trifles and +frippery of the fashionable world. To dress for the mere sake of seeing +one's self in the glass, is not to my taste. In yonder cottage, I could +live without a mirror. I need not look at myself, nor need another look +at me; but if I am to live with the world, I must be wholly with it; at +the reigning center, in the metropolis, or traveling. I must have all +or nothing. Nothing else will make me happy. Nothing half-and-half or +intermediate will satisfy me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's tone was so determined that the baron saw how +thoroughly in +earnest she was, and that her words meant more than mere caprice or +sport.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must either subject myself to the world," said she, "or, +despising +it, put it beneath me. I must either be perfectly indifferent and +regardless of the impression I produce upon others, or else afraid of +every glance, even my own."</p> + +<p class="normal">The baron was silent, and evidently at a loss for words.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would gladly have gone to your father's house, but I know +that he +dislikes men of my class. I waited for you here, knowing that you would +come to your friend. Pray answer me another question: Do you intend to +return to court?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Irma, now, for the first time, firmly resolved +upon +returning. "It were ungrateful to act otherwise. Ungrateful to the +queen and to--the king and all my friends. I feel sure, my friend, that +I am not yet mature enough to lead a life in which nothing happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">They came to a seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you not sit down with me?" said Irma to the baron.</p> + +<p class="normal">They seated themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When did you leave the capital?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Five days ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And was everything going on as usual?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alas, not everything. Doctor Gunther has met with a sad +affliction. +Professor Korn, his son-in-law, died suddenly, having poisoned himself +while dissecting a corpse."</p> + +<p class="normal">"While dissecting a corpse?" exclaimed Irma. "We all die of +the poison +of decay, but not so suddenly; those on yonder island and we--all of +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very bitter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all. My head is filled with the strangest fancies. I +became +acquainted with a great law over there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The law of renunciation?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, no; the justification of fashion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are mocking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"By no means. Fashion is the charter of human liberty and the +journal +of fashion is humanity's greatest boon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What an odd conceit!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all. It is the simple truth. The frequency with which +a man +changes the material, cut and color of his clothes, proves his claim to +culture. It is man alone who constantly clothes himself differently and +anew. The tree retains its bark, the animal its hide, and, as the +national and clerical costumes are both stereotyped, as it were, those +who use them are regarded as belonging to an inferior, or less +civilized class."</p> + +<p class="normal">The baron looked at Irma, wonderingly. He was glad at heart, +that she +had candidly given him the mitten. He could not have satisfied so +restless and exacting a nature that constantly required intellectual +fireworks for its amusement; and she, moreover, took delight in her +absurd ways. All at once, he saw nothing but the shadows in Irma's +character. An hour ago, he had seen only the bright side and had +regarded her as a vision of light itself. She had just visited a +friend about to take the veil, had just listened to a proposal of +marriage--how could she possibly indulge in such strange notions +immediately afterward?</p> + +<p class="normal">Baron Schoning told her that he had ordered photographs of +Walpurga and +the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Walpurga," said Irma, as if suddenly remembering +something.</p> + +<p class="normal">The baron politely took his leave and rowed back across the +lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma took the road that led homeward. She wished to visit +Walpurga's +relatives and inquired as to the route toward the lake on the other +side of the mountains. They told her that a carriage could not get +there, and that the only way to reach the point was on horseback. Irma +took the direct road for home.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Something ails me! It always seems as if some one were calling me, and +I can't help looking round to see who it is. The countess must be +thinking of us all the time. Ah me, she's the best creature in the +world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst Walpurga, for many days, thus lamented Irma's +departure, the +others at the palace rarely thought of her. The place we leave, be it +to journey in this or to the other world, is speedily filled. In the +palace, they tolerate neither vacancies nor sentiment. There, life is a +part of history; and history, as we all know, never stands still.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer continued to teach Walpurga how to write, +and the +latter did not understand her, when she said: "The quality are fond of +taking up all sorts of things, but we must finish what we begin. I've +finished many a piece of embroidery, of which the hand that was kissed +for it scarcely worked a couple of stitches; but that's in the order of +things."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Mademoiselle Kramer found everything in order that +was done by +the quality, she, nevertheless, had a habit of speaking of such things +to her inferiors, not with the hope of being understood by them, but +merely to relieve her mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child was well and hearty. Day after day passed in quiet +routine, +and now Walpurga was richly recompensed for the absence of Countess +Irma. The queen was permitted to have the nurse and child about her for +several hours every day.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Irma had gone forth to seek rest and quiet, but had +found chaos +instead, the queen's life had become serene and happy; Her recent +experience of life's trials had been a novel and difficult one; but now +her mind was at rest, her health restored. She would look at her child +and, when she spoke, Walpurga would fold her hands and listen in +silence. The nurse did not understand all that was said, but, +nevertheless, sympathized with what was going on. The queen endeavored +to console Doctor Gunther in his affliction, and spoke to him of the +consolation that the mother could find in her child: "In spite of all +life's contradictions and enigmas," said she "there is yet the one glad +thought that every child bears within it the possibility of the highest +human development."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen while speaking looked around at her child, and +Walpurga said +in a gentle voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look at our child; it's laughing for the first time. It's +seven weeks +old to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've seen my child's first smile, and its father is not +here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't make such a long face," said Walpurga; "just keep on +laughing +and he'll laugh too; your pleasant glances will bide in his face."</p> + +<p class="normal">The child kept smiling until the doctor requested them not to +excite it +any more. He said that Walpurga was right and that if one looks at an +infant kindly it has the effect of imprinting a sweet expression upon +its features.</p> + +<p class="normal">From that day forward the child never saw a sad look on its +mother's +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was only when she spoke of persons that Walpurga could +talk volubly +and continuously. Countess Irma was therefore frequently the topic of +conversation. But this subject was soon exhausted, and when the queen +would say: "Why are you silent? I hear that you can talk to the child +so prettily and carry on all sorts of fun with him," Walpurga +persistently remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen made Walpurga tell her her history. It required +much +questioning to get at the entire story for Walpurga could not narrate +it in a continuous strain as she had never thought of her life as a +connected whole. Everything had gone on of its own accord as it were +and without requiring one to stop and think. While telling her story +she was as anxious as if before a court of justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did you happen to fall in love with your husband? Do you +love him +with all your heart?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course. He's my husband and there isn't a bad drop of +blood in him. +He's a little awkward--I mean unhandy,--but only when others are about. +He's never been much among people. He grew up in a one-storied house +and until he was twenty-two years old had seen nothing but trees; but +no work's too hard for him and whatever you put him to, he does his +duty. He's not so dull, either; but he doesn't show it to the world; +with me, he can talk well enough, and he's satisfied as long as I know +he's the right sort of man. It takes my Hansei a long while to make up +his mind, but when he's made it up, he's always right. You see, dear +queen, I might have got a much cleverer husband; my playmate was a +hunter, and his comrade was after me for a long while; but I didn't +want to have anything to do with him, for he's too much in love with +himself. He once rowed over the lake with me, and was all the time +looking at himself in the water, and twisting his mustache and making +mouths, and so thought I to myself: If your clothes were made of gold, +I wouldn't have you. And when father was drowned in the lake, Hansei +was at hand and did everything about the house. He'd go out in his +skiff and bring in fish, and while I and mother would sell 'em, he'd +work in the forest. Father was also woodcutter and fisherman, at the +same time. And so Hansei was there a full half year; no one bid him +come and no one told him to go, for he was there and was honest and +good and never gave me an unkind word; and so we were married, and, +thank God, we're happy and, through our good prince, we'll have +something of our own. We've got it already, and it's no easy matter for +a husband to give his wife away for a year. But Hansei didn't waste +many words over it. If a thing's right and must be, he only nods--this +way--and then it's done. Forgive me, dear queen, for telling you all +this silly stuff, but you asked me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am heartily glad that there are simple-minded, happy +beings in +this world. The worldly-wise think they prove their infinite wisdom +when they say: 'There are no simple-minded, happy people, and the +country folk are not nearly so good as we imagine.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No more they are," said Walpurga, eagerly; "there aren't any +worse +people than some of those out our way. There are good ones, of +course; but there are wicked and envious and thieving and lazy and +good-for-nothing and godless creatures besides; and Zenza and Thomas +are among the worst, but I can't help it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga imagined that the queen must know of the pardon, and +they +should not say of her that she had not told the truth. The queen felt +grieved at Walpurga's vehemence and the serious charges she made +against the people of her neighborhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">After a little while, she said to Walpurga:</p> + +<p class="normal">"They tell me you sing so beautifully. Sing something for me, +or, +rather, for the child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, dear queen, I can't do it. I'd like to, but I can't. I +don't know +any but silly songs. The good ones are all church songs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sing me one of those that you call silly songs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I can't; they're lonely songs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you mean by lonely songs?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know, but that's what they call 'em."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, I understand: they can only be sung when one is solitary +and +alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I suppose that's it; the queen's right."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the queen endeavored to induce her to sing, Walpurga +protested +that she could not and finally became so agitated that she burst into +tears. The queen experienced some difficulty in pacifying her, but +succeeded at last, and then Walpurga, taking the child with her, +returned to her room.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following day Walpurga was again summoned to the +queen, who +said: "You're right, Walpurga. You can't sing to me. I've been thinking +a great deal about you. The bird on the tree doesn't sing at one's +bidding. Free nature cannot be directed by a baton. You needn't sing +for me. I shall not ask it of you again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had intended to sing to the queen that day. She had +chosen her +prettiest songs and now the queen actually ordered her not to sing, and +even compared her to a bird. "Palace folk," thought she, "are queer +folk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand," continued the queen, "that in your +neighborhood they +believe in the Lady of the Lake. Do you believe in her, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Believe in her? I don't know, but they tell of her. Father +saw her +three days before he died, and that was a sure sign that he would soon +die. They say, too, that she's the Lady of Waldeck."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is the Lady of Waldeck?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's the Lady of Wörth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is Wörth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A bit of land in the middle of the lake, with water all +round it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean an island?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, an island; we sometimes call it that, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what is the story of the Lady of Waldeck?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Once upon a time, many thousand years ago, there was a man, +and he was +a knight by the name of Waldeck, and he was a crusader. He and lots of +emperors and kings went off to our Saviour's grave in the Holy Land. He +left his wife at home and before he went away, he said to her: 'You're +good and you'll remain true to me'; and when, after many years, he +returned, quite black with the eastern sun, he found his wife with +another man, and so he bound the two together, put them in a boat and +rowed them over to Wörth where he left them; and there they lay, and +had nothing to eat, and nothing to drink, and were tied together and +died of hunger, and the birds of the air ate them. They were adulterers +and it served them right; but he was horrible for all. And even +nowadays, on spirit nights, you can often see a little blue flame on +the island of Wörth, and they say that the Lady of Waldeck's soul has +passed into a nymph and that she must wander about."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was Walpurga's story.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't frightened you, I hope?" said she, anxiously, as +she +observed the queen's fixed gaze. "That's what they say. But may be it's +only talk, after all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no. Don't be anxious about that," cried the queen. "So +many +different thoughts pass through my mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Like enough; it's very hard to be the housewife, with so big +a house +as this to keep, and so many folk in it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen laughed heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga did not know that she had said anything odd or droll +and was +therefore surprised at the effect of her remarks; but she soon became +satisfied that all she said was quoted. This made her quite shy, +although she would now and then give way to fits of extravagance and +would, at such moments, delight in her own odd freaks, for they always +provoked a smile. While the queen aimed to be as simple as possible in +her intercourse with Walpurga, the latter was, with each succeeding +day, becoming more artificial and affected. She copied herself and her +whilom <i>naïvete</i>. When she knew that the queen was within hearing, she +would repeat the wondrous combination of words with which she was wont +to amuse the prince. She one day began to sing of her own accord and, +when she had finished, she felt surprised and almost hurt, because her +song had elicited no remark from the queen. Had she not sung well?</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had said nothing, because she feared that she might +embarrass +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a strange contrast between these two women, each of +whom was +trying to place herself in more perfect sympathy with the other, while +both were, with every step, adding to the distance that separated them.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a great day when the queen, accompanied by Walpurga +and the +crown prince, rode out for the first time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a thousand times more beautiful when you're +out-of-doors, in +the open air. In the darkened rooms, I never knew how beautiful you +were," said Walpurga to the queen, who immediately afterward had +something to say in French to the Countess Brinkenstein who sat beside +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I ask a favor, gracious queen?" said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly. What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think it hurts the child to talk gibberish before it. A +young soul +like his understands, even if it can't speak, and it seems to me it +must confuse his little brain. I hardly know how to tell you; but I +feel it in my own head, and whatever affects me, affects the child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's right," said the queen to Countess Brinkenstein, +"until the +child can speak perfectly, it should hear no language but its mother +tongue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's it--mother tongue," exclaimed Walpurga, "you've hit +it. I had +it on my lips, but I couldn't think of it; that's the very word. I'm, +so to say, the same as a mother to the child and so--isn't it so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, certainly. It shall be as you say in all things. See to +it, my +dear Brinkenstein, that after this, nothing but German be spoken before +the prince. No one can tell what sounds may sink into the soul which, +as yet, is but half awakened."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was delighted. There would now be no more gibberish +when she +was by for wherever the child was, there was she.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer added to her happiness by informing her +that they +would start for the country, that is, the summer palace, within a few +days.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">In the mean while there was a special reason for detaining Walpurga and +the prince in the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baron Schoning had spoken of the matter, while at breakfast +one day, +and the suggestion which had been offered as a bit of pleasantry was +well received. The millions who were anxious to behold their future +ruler were to be gratified by the work of an instant. It was determined +that there should be a photograph of the crown prince borne aloft on +the hands of the people, Walpurga representing the people. She urged +various objections to the idea, and said it was wrong to let a child +less than a year old look into a mirror, and quite wrong to have its +likeness taken. "As long as you haven't let a child look in the glass, +it can see itself in the hollow of its left hand." Finding that her +opposition was of no avail, she dressed herself in her best gown. The +crown prince looked very pretty, and as he already had fair curly hair, +the artist removed his cap.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first few attempts to get the likeness were failures. +Whenever she +heard the voice issuing from the dark room, Walpurga was frightened and +imagined that witchery was going on. She became more and more agitated, +but at last, at Schoning's clever suggestion, a pianist in the +adjoining room played the air of Walpurga's favorite song. As soon +as she heard it, she could not help joining in the strain. Her +expression--and that of the child, too--became cheerful and +unconstrained. Eureka! the picture was a success.</p> + +<p class="normal">The drives about the city had been lovely, but the most +beautiful of +all was now to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a bright, balmy afternoon when they drove off. +Although there +had been no rain for some time, the road was free from dust, sprinklers +having preceded the court carriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was in an open carriage, with the prince and the +queen. It was +the first time that she rode out among the villages and the fields. She +gazed at the people who were looking out of the windows, or sitting at +the doorsteps of the houses by the roadside, at the children who would +stop and salute them, and then, again, at the laborers in the fields. +She kept smiling, nodding and winking in all directions. The queen +asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What ails you? What's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, pardon me, queen; but here I'm riding in a carriage and +four, and +over there the likes of me are working and toiling, and I know how the +women's backs ache from digging up potatoes, and while I ride by, as +though I were somebody better than they, it makes me feel as if I ought +to ask 'em all to forgive me for riding by in this way. I feel as if I +ought to say: 'Never mind; when the year's over, I'll be the same as +you are; the clothes I wear, the carriage and the horses, none of 'em +are mine; they're all borrowed.' Ah, dear queen, forgive me for saying +this to you, but you understand everything and know how to explain it +for the best. I empty my whole heart out to you," said Walpurga, +smiling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I understand what you mean," replied the queen; "and it +is wise +of you thus to look forward to a return to your home. The thought that +you might be unable to content yourself there, has often troubled me. +Believe me, we who ride in carriages are no better off than those who +are walking barefoot through yonder stubble."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know it," said Walpurga. "No one can eat more than his +fill, as my +father used to say, and queens must bear their children in pain and +sorrow, just like the rest of us; no one can save them from that."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen made no reply, and looked out of the other side of +the +carriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein motioned Walpurga to be silent; for, +while it was +difficult to induce her to talk, when she had once begun, she did not +know when to stop.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was only silent because she wished to say something +in +French, to Countess Brinkenstein, and had refrained from doing so on +account of Walpurga's precious admonition.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear child," said the queen at last, "I would, gladly, +give up +everything, if I knew that I could thereby render mankind happy and +contented. But what good would it do! Money wouldn't help the people, +and it is not we who have brought about this inequality. God has +ordained it thus."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could easily have answered her, but thought it best +to leave +something for the morrow; for her father had often said: "It isn't well +to catch all the fish in one day." She therefore remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen felt greatly constrained by her promise not to +speak French +in Walpurga's presence. There was much that she desired to say and with +which the peasant woman had no concern.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How beautiful! how lovely is the world," she murmured to +herself, and +then closed her eyes, as if fatigued with the splendor which had opened +before them, after her long seclusion. And while she lay there, her +head thrown back on the cushion, she looked like a sleeping angel, so +peaceful, so tender, as if mother and child in one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The soft cushions almost make me think I am sitting on +clouds," said +Walpurga, when they reached their journey's end.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was unspeakably happy in the country. The broad prospect, +the clear +skies, the mountains, the large and beautiful garden with its +comfortable seats, the fountains, the swans--all delighted her. There +was also a fine dairy-farm, about a quarter of a mile distant, where +the cow-stable was much finer than the dancing floor at the Chamois +inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was out in the open air during the greater part of +the day. +The queen lived for her child alone, and Walpurga was again talkative +and natural. All the affected ways that she had acquired while in the +city, had left her.</p> + +<p class="normal">In her first letter home--she could now write for +herself--she said: +"If I only had you here for one day, to tell you about everything; for, +if the sky were nothing but paper and our lake nothing but ink, I +couldn't write it all. If it were only not so far off, Hansei; a pound +of fish here costs twice as much as with us. We're living in the summer +palace now, and just think, mother, what such a king has. He has seven +palaces, and they're all furnished, every one with a hundred beds, +rooms, kitchens and all of them filled, and when they go from one +palace to another they needn't take a fork or a spoon along. Everything +here is silver, and the doctor and the apothecary and the preacher and +the court people and the horses and the carriages, all move out here +with us. There's a whole town here in the palace, and I've the best +beer and more than I care for; and when one gets up in the morning +everything is as neat and clean as a new-laid egg. There's not a leaf +on the paths, and then there's a house all made with glass. The flowers +live in it; but I daren't go in, because it's too hot in there. They +keep it heated the whole year round, and it's filled with great palms +and other trees from the east, and, in the pond, there's a fountain, +and the water rises up as high as our church steeple. And just think of +all such a king can have. All day long, when the sun shines, there's a +rainbow there, sometimes above and sometimes below. Of course, he nor +no one else can make the sun; and they all do their best to please me. +I hardly can say I like a thing, before they give it to me at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen is just like a companion with me. Just like you, +Stasi. I +wish you much joy at your wedding. I only heard of it from Zenza. You +shall have a wedding present from me; let me know what you'd like to +have. But now I beg of you, just tell me how it goes with my child. It +didn't please me to know that you had weighed it on the butcher's +scales, and that it's so heavy. I wouldn't have thought, mother, that +you would have allowed it, or that you, Hansei, would have given way to +the innkeeper. Beware of that fellow. It was only last night that I +dreamt you and he were rowing across the lake, and that he clutched you +and dragged you into the water. Then all was over. And then the Lady of +the Lake appeared, and she looked like the good countess who is now +away. She's the best friend I have here, and promised to visit you on +her way back. You can tell her and give her everything just as if it +was myself. They've just brought me my dinner. Ah, dear mother, if I +could only give you some of it. There are so many good things here and +there's always so much left. Don't let yourself want for anything, or +Hansei either, and my child least of all, for we can now afford it, +thank God! And I want to be with you for a long while yet, dear mother. +It often makes me feel bad that I can't be a mother--I mean a true +mother; but when I come home I'll make it all up to my child; and +Hansei, put all your money out at interest until I get home; remember, +it doesn't belong to us, but to our child, whom we deprive of its +mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mademoiselle Kramer, who is with me all day, was born here. +She'd +rather be in the city, and she says it used to be much prettier here +than it now is; that everything used to be like the little garden +yonder, where there are walls and rooms with doors and windows, all +made of shrubbery. It's all very pretty and I like to go there, but +when I've been there a few minutes I am almost frightened to death: for +I feel as if I and the trees were bewitched, and I get away as soon as +I can. Mademoiselle Kramer is a very good person, but nothing is +quite to her taste. She's been used all her life to riding and fine +eating and sitting about; and mother, just think of what I have eaten +here--live ice! People here are so clever they can preserve ice and +make it up so that you can eat it. Yes, if that could satisfy one's +appetite, there wouldn't be any hungry people with us in the winter, or +even in the summer, further up the mountains. And mother, you once told +me a fairy-tale about walls that have ears; but this is no fable, it's +true and quite natural. They have speaking-trumpets, running through +the whole palace, and you can speak through them, and if I want +anything in my room, all I've got to do is to go up to the wall and say +so and in a minute it's there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is a beautiful day and that makes me think that you +have it as +well as we, and that the same sun that shines on us here shines on you, +too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The main business here is taking walks. Every one must take +walks +here. They call it taking exercise, so that they can get up their +appetite and keep their limbs from getting stiff. They even take the +horses out walking when there's nothing for them to do. Early in the +morning, the grooms ride out a long way with them and then come home. I +often wish the horses could only take me home for an hour. I often get +homesick, but I am well and hearty and only hope it is the same with +you. Your</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Walpurga</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Postscript.--Why haven't you mentioned a word about the +little gold +heart which my countess sent to my Burgei? And no one is to send me any +more petitions, or to come to me. I won't receive another one. As long +as I live, I'll be sorry for having anything to do with Zenza and +Thomas; but perhaps it's all for the best and may be he's turned out +better. Don't think hard of it, dear Hansei, but I beg you, once more, +to have very little to do with the host of the Chamois. He's a rogue, +and a dangerous one at that, but you needn't tell him that I say so, +for I want the ill-will of no one. I send my love to all good friends. +I must stop now, my hand is quite stiff with writing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop! I must begin again. I send you a picture of myself and +my +prince. It was taken in a sort of peepshow, before we came out here, +and now, as long as the world lasts, the prince and I will always be +together, and I'll be holding him in my arms. But I am still with you, +dear Hansei, and you, dear mother, and, most of all, with my dear child +that I bear in my heart where no one can look. Don't show the picture +to any one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, dear me! what good will it do if you don't show it? +Mademoiselle +Kramer tells me that they've made a hundred thousand pictures of me and +the prince, and now I am hanging up in all the shops, and wherever I go +they know me as well as the king and the queen, whose pictures hang +next to mine. I feel as if I wanted no one ever to see me again, but +when I think of it, it's really an honor after all. I am out in the +world now, and must let them do what they please with me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I shall ever be true to you, and I am at home nowhere +but with +you, and am always there in thought."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"How goes it, Walpurga?" asked Baum, one morning, when the nurse was +looking out of the window of the ground floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, dear," replied she, "this is a real paradise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Could it be any finer in paradise? The people live without +care and +have nothing to do but eat and drink and laugh and go out walking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right there; but still it was finer in paradise, for +there +father Adam couldn't covet another man's wife, as his was the only one +in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What queer notions you have," said Walpurga, laughing; and +Baum, +feeling flattered, added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"In paradise they had no use for servants, no coachman, no +cook, no +house, no clothes. There were no boots to be cleaned, because there +were none, and there were no coats and shirts to be woven, and sewed +and mended."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You dreadful creature," exclaimed Walpurga. She felt as if +Baum's +words had almost torn the clothes from her; her face was crimson. Baum +quickly answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm sorry I look so dreadful in your eyes. In my eyes you're +so +beautiful that I--" He was interrupted by a servant who called him +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga quickly drew back into the room. She was angry at +Baum. How +could any one use such language to a married woman? "And yet," thought +she, with a self-complacent smile, "Baum's a well-mannered person, +after all; and why shouldn't one crack a joke, now and then?" She +looked in the large mirror for a moment and smiled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, when Hansei sees you again, he'll hardly know you; it's +the good +living that does it. But I'll say to myself every day: 'It won't last +long; you're only hired here for a while. But dancing's pleasant, even +if the dance doesn't last long,'" said Walpurga, as if to console +herself. All sort of dance tunes occurred to her and she kept humming +them to the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga roamed about through the beautiful park as if in a +dream. She +imagined that the trees, the sky and the birds were all enchanted and +in a strange world; that they would suddenly awaken and all would +vanish. But everything went on in its quiet course, each day as +beautiful as the one that preceded, like the sun rising anew every day, +the flowers that are constantly giving forth their fragrance, or the +spring that never ceases to flow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had a special liking for Mademoiselle Kramer's +father, who was +governor of the castle. He was a venerable man who raised lovely +flowers in his little lodge, and she could talk to him as with her own +father.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting out of doors for the greater part of the +day. +Mademoiselle Kramer was always with her and two servants within ready +call. The queen would also often join them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had a beautiful snow-white setter of which the +child was +especially fond. Walpurga requested her to let the prince often have +the dog, because it is well for a child to have a living animal about +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is right," said the queen, addressing the court lady at +her side; +"animal life awakens human consciousness."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga stared at her in surprise. The queen had said she +was right, +but added words that she did not understand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just look," said she to the queen, "how fond the bees are of +our +child. They won't hurt him--you needn't fear. The bee is the only +creature that came out of paradise without being spoiled."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen manifested her pleasure at the manner in which +Walpurga's +thoughts were, interwoven with tradition.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga observed that the queen had but little worldly +wisdom and gave +her the benefit of hers whenever opportunity presented itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know what that is?" she once asked, while they sat in +the +shrubbery.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A tree."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but do you know it's a sacred tree and that lightning +doesn't +strike where it grows?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I never knew that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then of course, you don't know why. Now my mother told +me all +about it. The Virgin was once crossing a mountain and was caught in a +fearful storm. So she stood under a great large hazel-tree and remained +safe, and, because it had protected her she blessed it for all time. +You can make magic wands from hazel twigs. The serpent-king dwells +under the hazel-tree and, sometimes, under the weeping willow. Do you +know why the weeping willow drops its branches so sadly?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I don't know that either. You're full of wisdom," said +the queen, +smiling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not, but my mother is. I don't know half as much as she. +She's +very clever, and told me about the weeping willow. The rods with which +they scourged our Saviour were made from the weeping willow, and ever +since that time she droops her branches with shame."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite happy to think that she could teach the +queen +something. She felt that she was quite a different being from all in +the palace and that the queen was the only one who understood her. She +was always happy and cheerful when with her and opened her whole heart +to the queen. "You're quite a stranger in the world; you've never, in +all your life, seen how the burghers and farmers sit in their rooms of +an evening, what they eat, what they talk of, what they wish for, and +what makes them happy or gives them pain. I once heard my father tell a +story. It was about a prince and a princess who grew up as shepherds, +and didn't know who they were until they were grown up, when they said +to him: 'you're a prince,' and to her: 'you're a princess,' and they +became right good and honest people. Of course they'd been out in the +world, and had learned how people live and what they need. I only wish +that we could send our prince out the same way. I think it would be +good for him and the whole country, too. If servants are running after +you all day long, it's just as if you were in a prison, the people form +a living wall around you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can all be honest and good," replied the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And make good men and women of our children," added +Walpurga. "Do you +know what I'd like? I'd like, as long as I live, to take all trouble +from you, and if sickness came to you, to be sick in your place."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes that's very well; but let us be quiet now."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was all happiness. She saw to the bottom of a +simple peasant +woman's heart, and into a new world that revealed itself to her in her +child.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Baum availed himself of every opportunity to speak with Walpurga. He +was in deep affliction; his wife was seriously ill, and Walpurga +endeavored to console him. In return, Baum lent a willing ear to all +her complaints, for she had just heard from home, that Zenza denied all +knowledge of the little golden heart that Countess Irma had sent to the +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, and so your countess has a golden heart left to give +away," said +Baum in a mocking voice. "You ought to be glad to have such a friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I am. Oh, if she were only here again, then it would +be a real +paradise. I don't worry about Zenza's making away with the golden +heart; there must be some bad people, or else the world would be too +beautiful."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I tell you, it's only half a life when the king's away. +Just wait +till he comes back and see how it will be then. When there's no man +about, it isn't a complete house."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen approached and Baum withdrew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was that man saying to you?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We were telling each other of our troubles; he has great +longing for +the king and I, dear queen, have great longing for my Countess Irma."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I long for her, too; but she has asked to have her leave of +absence +extended for another fortnight."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peacefully and calmly, the days passed by. Walpurga's +favorite resort +was in the neighborhood of the dairy-farm; for there were cows there, +and cows are the same everywhere, and don't know that they belong to +the king, or that their milk is served at his table.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga remarked this one day to Baum, who had discovered +that he +could meet her there, and he replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how clever you are; if I only had got a wife like you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are dozens like me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, not so clever as you are. You could get far in the +world, if you +only wanted to."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How far should I go?" said Walpurga. "I want to go home and +no +farther."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one will think the worse of you for that, but one can +make a new +home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't explain now. Countess Brinkenstein is coming. Meet +me in the +shrubbery behind the chapel, this evening when they're all at table, +I've something good to tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had not time to reply. Baum saw Countess +Brinkenstein +approaching and, in a loud voice, gave the dairy inspector an order +from the head cook, and then walked away quickly, respectfully saluting +the countess as he passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein administered a severe reproof to +Mademoiselle +Kramer for having allowed Walpurga to stand there with the prince, and +chatter with the servants.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer made no reply, and only motioned Walpurga +to go +into the vine-clad arbor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was busy conjecturing what sort of advice Baum might +have to +give her. He knew lots of things and perhaps knew of some clever +stroke, by which Hansei, her mother and the child might be brought to +the palace. But Hansei wouldn't do for a lackey. Perhaps, though, they +could make him court fisherman or chief woodsman of the royal forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">When evening came, she was quite uneasy. It was not the right +thing for +her to have a secret meeting with any man but her husband; but, perhaps +the place may be given away to-morrow, and then it would be too late. +She sat by the window and looked up at the stars. Her cheeks glowed, +she drew a deep breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What ails you?" inquired Mademoiselle Kramer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel so warm and oppressed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll send for the doctor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't need the doctor. Just let me sit here quietly. But +no; let me +walk up and down in the garden for a few minutes and I'll feel better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The maid can go with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I don't need any one; I'll feel better if I go alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, I beg of you, don't go too far, and come back soon. +You've seen, +to-day, how every misstep of yours draws reproof on me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I'll come back soon."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went out at the back door. The gravel grated under +her +footsteps and she trod more lightly. The air was laden with the perfume +of the flowers; the swans in the lake uttered a strange sound, like a +deep, muffled trumpet tone; the sky sparkled with countless stars and, +just as Walpurga looked up, she saw a brilliant meteor and exclaimed: +"Hansei!"</p> + +<p class="normal">In her innermost heart she wished for nothing but her +husband's +happiness. She stopped when she had uttered his name. She felt as if +she had better return. She was a married woman and oughtn't to meet a +strange man at night, even though it was by the chapel.</p> + +<p class="normal">Something ran across the path. Was it a cat, a martin or a +weasel?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Return," said an inner voice, but she went on, nevertheless. +She +reached the arbor. Baum stepped forth from behind a vine-clad column. +He held out both his hands to her and she offered him her own. He tried +to draw her closer to him but she stood firm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have you to tell me?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing but what's good. You see, we lesser folks must help +each +other, and you're so much to me that I could do anything for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you can do me a good service, I shall be grateful as long +as I +live--I and my husband and my child. Tell me quick; I'm in a hurry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then we can leave it for some other time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, tell me now. What do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I really meant nothing at all, but you see we must always +wait on +others, and so I thought that we might have a quarter of an hour to +ourselves. I only wanted to tell you that you are the light of my life, +my happiness. When I look at you, and listen to you, I'd like to do--I +don't know what, and I can't tell."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't necessary, either; and let me tell you, this is +very wicked +of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it wicked that I love you to distraction?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and doubly wicked that you fooled me here and made me +believe +that you had something good to tell me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I have," said Baum, quickly; "forgive me for what +I've done; if +you do, I'll tell you the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I'll forgive you, but make haste."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," said Baum with great composure, "it's simply this. He +who +stands at the manger and doesn't eat, is a fool. Do you understand me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course; it doesn't take much to know that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but you don't take my meaning. A court like this is a +full +manger, and you'll be a great fool if you go away without having taken +enough to satisfy yourself and your child for life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to know how that can be done. You've got to eat +every day, +and can't stuff yourself with enough to last for a lifetime."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're clever, but you might be more so. Just listen! What I +mean is +this. A good position, or a profitable situation, should give one a +chance to make himself comfortable for life. The tenant of the +dairy-farm will have to leave next spring or, at the latest, in the +fall, and I think you ought to manage it with the queen and the rest of +them, so that your husband should get the position, and then you could +be here all your life and you and yours would be well provided for. +Take my word for it, I know what the quality are. If you leave here +without having secured a good situation, not a cat will remember you. +But if you remain here, you'll be well taken care of to the end of your +days, and the older the prince gets, the more he'll think of you; and +when he becomes king, he'll provide for you, your family, your child +and even your grandchildren. Is that wicked advice?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; on the contrary, it's very good and I'll remember it. +That, +indeed, would be bread and lots of butter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, I've never seen or heard so sensible a woman as you are. +You +deserve a better lot; but that can't be helped, and if you remain here, +I'll often have the pleasure of seeing you and speaking a word with +you, for I hope we'll be good friends; shall we not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed, and my Hansei will also be a good friend to +you. There's +not a false drop of blood in his body and he's clever, too, only he's +not much of a talker; and he loves me just as much as gold; he's true +and kindhearted, and I won't let any one say a word against him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't said anything against him," replied Baum, and +Walpurga was +obliged to admit that this was the case; nevertheless, she could not +help feeling that any offer of love to another man's wife is an insult +to her husband, for it implies as plainly as words can express it: "He +is not the right man, for he has such and such faults; I alone am +worthy of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sighing deeply, Baum answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, if one could only double his life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should think one life was enough for any man."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, if one hasn't wasted it. One can only live once, +you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, in this world; but in the next it begins anew."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean in this world, too. But it's very hard, let me tell +you, if +one's whole life has been wasted through a stupid blunder. Must one +bear with it and make no attempt to change it? We've both of us +blundered."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"While I was a soldier, I became acquainted with the valet of +the late +king. He was very fond of me and took great pleasure in helping me +forward; but he well knew what he was about. I thought it a wonderful +piece of luck, when I found I was to marry his daughter. It was only +too late, when I discovered that she was sickly and irritable and +without a healthy drop of blood in her body. And is my whole life to be +wasted, because of this blunder? And is no love left for me in the +world? And with you, it's just the same; with both of us, you and +I--but why should it be too late, even now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pretty jokes, indeed! but they're not to my taste. It's +wrong to talk +about such things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not joking. Are all of earth's joys to be lost to us, +just because +we have once blundered? In that case, we'd be doubly fools."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see you're in earnest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly I am," said Baum, his voice trembling with +emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, then. Just listen to what I've got to say. How +can you dare +insult my Hansei, that way? If it were so--and it isn't--but suppose it +were; do you think, even if you were better looking or better mannered +than my Hansei, and you're far from being that, let me tell you.--But +that doesn't matter one way or the other. There's not a better man +living than my Hansei, and even if there be one, he's nothing to me; +we're husband and wife and belong to each other.--But it was only a +joke, after all, wasn't it? and a mighty stupid one at that. Say that +you only meant it for fun, for if I thought you were in earnest, I'd +never speak another word to you; and now--Good-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, wait a moment. Now that I know how good you are, I think +so much +the more of you. If I only had a wife like you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum was greatly agitated. He had at first only dallied with +kind +words, but his voice had gradually assumed an agitated and touching +tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll give you something," said Walpurga, placing her hand on +his +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it; a kiss?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Get out! Don't talk so. You've just been behaving so well. +Now I'll +tell you something that my mother taught me. She always says, that he +who is not contented with what he has, would be dissatisfied even if he +had what he wished for."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did your mother tell you that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and she knows many other good sayings, and I am glad +that this +one will be of use to you; it'll do you good."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course--but now give me just one kiss, because I've been +so good."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a foolish fellow you are," said Walpurga; "you say +you're good, +and, the very next minute, want something wicked as a reward. I'm a +married woman and, if you were to give me a whole palace with all +that's in it and seven palaces besides, I'd not kiss any man but my +husband. There, I'll shake hands with you--and now--good-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">They parted, with a mutual promise to remain good friends.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga found Mademoiselle Kramer in great trouble. The +child was +crying, and would not be pacified until Walpurga sang to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Baum returned to the palace. He bit his lips with +vexation +and thought to himself: What a simple, stupid creature such a peasant +woman is. And she is beautiful; I can wait; I know the long road; she +shall be tamed yet.</p> + +<p class="normal">For many days, Walpurga would pass Baum without looking up, +and he, +too, seemed shy; but one day, when she was sitting on the bench, he +quickly said while passing:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't be angry at me; I didn't know I'd offended you +and, if I +have, I ask your pardon."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked up as if relieved. Baum nodded to her and +hurried away.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king had returned from the baths. He was received with great +ceremony, but he and the queen soon withdrew from the company and +repaired to the crown prince's apartments. The parents, clasping hands, +stood by the cradle of the sleeping child. Their glances rested upon +each other and then upon the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can there be a higher joy than thus to behold the babe whose +life +belongs to and is a part of our own?" softly whispered the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king embraced her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child awoke; his cheeks were glowing, his eyes were +bright.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the mean while, Walpurga had been sitting in a corner, +weeping +silently; but now she was obliged to go to the child. The king left; +the queen remained with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've been crying?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was for joy, nothing but joy. Could anything be more +beautiful than +the way you stood together there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll have your husband come to you," replied the queen; +"write him to +come, and say that your mother and child may come too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, dear queen, it would be very nice, but it would cost a +pretty +penny." Surprised that any one was obliged to deny himself a pleasure, +because of the expense, the queen looked up and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go to the paymaster and get the money. Would a hundred +florins be +enough?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! More than enough! But if the queen would give me the +money, we +could make better use of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked at Walpurga, as if shocked to think that, +even in +simple hearts, avarice can destroy the noblest emotions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga observed the change in the queen's expression and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell you, honestly, why I don't want it, even if it +cost nothing. +My husband's a good man, but he's just a little bit awkward, and it +would grieve him to the heart if any one were to laugh at him. And it +would be too much to expect of mother, for she's over sixty years old, +and hasn't been out of the village since her wedding-day--that is, not +farther than Hohenheiligen, three miles from our place, where she went +on a pilgrimage. Though it would only be a day's journey, she hasn't +even once gone home in all that time; and so I think it might do her +harm if she were taken anywhere else, even it were only for a few days. +The best thing would be if we could all of us remain near the king. I'm +sure we'd take good care of the dairy-farm. My husband knows all about +cattle; he was cowboy for many years, and, afterward, herdsman on the +mountain meadows."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga spoke as if the queen knew all about the plan, but +the queen +was so possessed with the thought of her domestic happiness, that she +did not hear a word of what was said.</p> + +<p class="normal">Days passed by, and Walpurga, who had received none of the +traveling +money that the queen had promised her, did not venture to ask the court +paymaster for it. Desirous of showing Baum that she was still on +friendly terms with him, she told him what had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The best thing you can do," said he, with a shrewd air, "is +not to +take so small a gift. If you do, they'll think they've done with you; +don't lose sight of the main chance, and that's the farm."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sincerely grateful to Baum. It was very +fortunate, she +thought, to have a friend at the palace, who, while the king was yet a +prince, had traveled with him through Italy and France, and who knew +how one ought to deal with such high folk.</p> + +<p class="normal">The palace seemed to have thrown off its tranquil ways of the +last few +weeks. All was life and bustle. Sounds of laughter and of song could be +heard from early morn until late at night. Gay colored lamps hung from +the trees and, at night, the sparkling lights seemed, in the distance, +as if part of a fairy-scene.</p> + +<p class="normal">Early in the morning, wagons laden with provisions could be +seen going +hither and thither. To-day, the court would dine on some wooded height; +to-morrow, in a ravine, or near a waterfall.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was all kindness and attention to his wife, and the +queen had +never seemed more lovely in his eyes, than now, elevated as she was by +maternal happiness and conjugal affection.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the apartments occupied by Walpurga and Mademoiselle +Kramer, none of +this bustle of preparation or departure was heard. They simply knew +that "all had gone off, for the day."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the morning, while the day was still young, and in the +evening, +while the soft dews were falling, the king and queen, arm in arm, might +often have been seen sauntering in the park, and at such times the +ladies and gentlemen would remain near the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">One evening, while the king and queen were thus walking +together, +engaged in familiar conversation, the queen said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How delightful it is to be thus leaning on your arm; to +close one's +eyes and be led by you. You can't imagine what good it does me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the king expressed himself delighted with her +devotion, an +inner voice told him that such sensibility was unqueenly. How +differently--</p> + +<p class="normal">No, he would not permit himself to think of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had much to tell him of the gradual dawning of +sense in the +prince. He listened attentively, but rather through politeness than +sympathy. After the first week, the queen excused herself from taking +part in the frequent excursions, for she found no pleasure in all the +bustle.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had Walpurga and the child with her, either in the +park or on +the rising ground behind the palace, where she would sketch groups of +trees, the lake and the swans, the castle, the chapel, and various +distant views.</p> + +<p class="normal">One morning, while at breakfast, the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What charming rivalry it was when you and Countess Irma were +drawing +together. Your dispositions were both illustrated by the way in which +you treated the same subjects."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, we often remarked that. Perhaps I worked in the details +more +correctly and sharply, while Countess Irma sketched with far greater +ease and freedom. I greatly miss the dear countess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then let us write to her and tell her that she must return, +and that +at once. Let us send her a joint letter. Ladies and gentleman, we shall +now, all of us, write a letter to Countess Irma."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Order the writing materials to be brought," said he to one +of the +gentlemen in waiting. His request was speedily complied with and he +wrote:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Beautiful Countess! Fugitive bird! At last I know what bird you +are:--The wild dove. Does this contradiction describe you? Wild, and +yet a dove? Come, do come to us; your forest companions hang their +heads because of your absence. Hasten to us, on wings of song."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king offered the sheet to the queen and said: "What will you +write?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't write when any one is present," replied the queen. +"I can't +write a word now; I shall send her a separate letter."</p> + +<p class="normal">An almost imperceptible expression of displeasure passed over +the +king's countenance, but he subdued it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you please," said he courteously, although, at heart, +angry at this +everlasting sentimentalism.</p> + +<p class="normal">The courtiers and ladies all wrote, each adding a few lines +of a light, +jesting character.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein, however, had slipped away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Amid jests and laughter, the whole sheet was at last filled, +and then +the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The chief one is still missing. Walpurga must also write to +the +countess, for the voice of the people has most influence with her. Send +Walpurga here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum was at once sent to bring Walpurga. On the way, he +explained to +her what was going on. Walpurga was not shy, in the midst of the +assembled court.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you rather be alone in your room while you write?" +asked the +king, betraying his vexation, in spite of himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll write wherever you want me to, but I can't do it well."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga seated herself and wrote:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If your noble father will allow it, I shall be heartily glad +when my +dear Countess Irma is here again. My heart longs for her.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Walpurga Andermatten</span>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, having read it, said: "Write also--'it will do me +and the +prince much good to have you here again. You make us both happier'."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear king," said Walpurga, "how clever you are. What you say +is quite +true. Now be so kind as to dictate it to me. I can't put it into such +good words, but I can write quite well from dictation. I learned it +from Mademoiselle Kramer. I used to know how at school, but forgot it +afterward."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," replied the king, "write as your feelings prompt you. +Ladies and +gentlemen, let us leave Walpurga alone, and go to the veranda."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting alone, in the great breakfast-room, +biting the end +of her pen and vainly endeavoring to remember the king's words. +Suddenly she heard a slight noise near her and, looking up, saw Baum +who was standing in the doorway.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come here," she exclaimed, "you can help me, for you must +have heard +it all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly," replied Baum and dictated the king's words to +Walpurga. +She went out and handed the letter to the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">He praised her for having put the words so nicely. She was +about to say +that Baum had helped her, but one need not tell everything, and why not +receive praise for what might have been?</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga returned to her room, she smiled at her own +shrewdness. +The king would now surely give her the farm, for he had seen that she +could write down everything and could keep accounts.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen came into the garden with her hastily written note.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was unsealed. She gave it to the king saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you read it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't necessary," said the king, closing the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the letter was written there was endless tittering +among the +court ladies. They chirruped and chattered and teased each other, and +hopped about like a flock of sparrows that have just discovered an open +sack of corn. They soon scattered, and ladies who at other times could +not endure each other were now good friends and, arm in arm, would walk +up and down the park, while others would stand gathered in little +groups. All seemed loth to separate. They had so much to tell each +other that none seemed willing to leave. They all spoke kindly of Irma. +Every one was still her best friend, but, nevertheless, careful to +leave a loophole of escape open, for things might change.</p> + +<p class="normal">Within a few days, a great change had come over the feelings +of all at +the summer palace. The king and queen had, at first, greeted each other +as if newly married, as if unspeakably happy; but, soon afterward, came +the first distinct sense of uncongeniality which, in a word, betokened +that the king wearied of the queen. He did full justice to her noble +and exalted appearance. Her every word and thought was an outgush of +purest emotion. But this exaltation of feeling, which, to an every-day +world, appears strange and incomprehensible and yet exacts constant +consideration for its peculiarities; this endeavor to give intense and +exhaustive thought to every casual subject; this utter absence of all +cheerful or sportive traits; this cathedral-like solemnity of +character; this constant dwelling on the heights: though beautiful and +engaging at times, had become monotonous and distasteful to the king. +The queen's conversation lacked that sparkling effervescence which, +though it be only for a moment, charms and animates the listener.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king who was fond of change, delighted in what was +sportive, +capricious, or enigmatical in character, and in the conquering of +difficulties.</p> + +<p class="normal">The remembrance of Irma supplied all that he missed in the +queen. He +felt sure of his faithful love for his wife, but admired the frank and +lovely disposition of Irma, and why should he not, therefore, enjoy her +society?</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will come and remain with us, and bring new and fresh +life with +her," thought he to himself when he saw the courier who bore the letter +to Irma, hurrying along the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the afternoon, the king and queen drove out together; he +sat at her +side and held the reins. Their only attendants were the two grooms who +followed on horseback.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was quite amiable; the queen happy. He felt inwardly +conscious +of having, in ever so slight a degree, swerved from the right path, and +this made him doubly affectionate. With a frank gaze, he looked into +the brightly beaming eyes of his beautiful wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus should it ever be. Thus, purely and frankly, shouldst +thou ever be +able to look into those eyes.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," said Countess Brinkenstein, on the following morning +when they were sauntering in the park, "I owe you an explanation for +not having signed the letter to the queen's maid of honor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You did not?" replied the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rigid yet refined features of the old lady showed no +change at +these words, although she might have felt wounded at the intimation +that the absence of her signature had not been remarked. But, in all +things, she obeyed the highest law of the courtier; that is, to repress +all personal feeling and thus avoid all sensitiveness. Couching her +censure in terms of praise, in according with courtly fashion, she +calmly added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The idea of the invitation was quite original, but genius +must ever +stand alone. Your Majesty has often honored me by addressing me as your +motherly friend and, as such, you will, I trust, permit me to remark +that it does not become either the gentlemen or the ladies to put their +names to an extraordinary jest of Your Majesty's. There should not be +the slightest cause for suspicion that this invitation was designedly +open and informal, because secretly intended and wished for."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king looked at the old lady in surprise, but acted as if +unconscious of her having seen through his disguise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must again tell you, my lady, that you ought to have gone +to the +baths. You take such somber and serious views of everything; but when +one has been at the baths, as I have, everything looks gay and happy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, it is simply my duty to emphasize the rules +that govern +Your Majesty's high position."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you not overdoing it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, etiquette, although invisible, is none the +less +valuable. Treasures of artistic and great historical value are not +melted over to make new coins, but are carefully handed down from +century to century. The palace is the highest point in the land, where +one is in full view of all, and where we should so live that we can +afford to have all our actions seen."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was listless, for his mind wandered to Irma, who +must now be +receiving the letter. "She has awakened," thought he, "and is standing +alone, or sitting beside her misanthropic father, on the balcony of the +mountain castle. The letter comes, and she feels as if surrounded by a +flock of chirruping, singing birds, that alight on her hands, her +shoulders and her head. What a pity that one cannot behold her charming +smile!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's vision had been a true one. Irma was sitting +beside her +father and dreamily gazing into the distance. What was to become of +her? If her father, would only say: "You must stay here." But this +being obliged to decide for herself was the trouble. If she had a +husband to command her--but Baron Schoning would have been her subject, +and that would have made life's load a doubled one. At that moment, the +housekeeper announced a messenger who had just arrived on horseback.</p> + +<p class="normal">The courier entered, delivered his letter and said that he +would await +an answer. Irma read it and laughed aloud. She laid the letter on her +lap, took it up again, and read and laughed again. Her father looked at +her in surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Read this."</p> + +<p class="normal">The father read it; his expression did not change in the +least.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you mean to do?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I must obey such requests; but can I return without +incurring +your reproof?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Always; if there be nothing in your own heart to reprove +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma rang for the housekeeper and told her to order the maid +to make +the necessary preparations for her departure; she also ordered them to +treat the courier with hospitality, and to inform him that a part of +the journey was to be accomplished the same evening. "Are you angry at +me, father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am never angry. I am only sorry that so few persons allow +their +reason to guide them. But be calm, my child. If your resolve is +dictated by reason you must follow it and bear the consequences calmly, +just as I do. But let us spend the few hours yet left us, in peace and +quiet; life lies in the present."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma gave many instructions to her maid and the courier, +although it +always seemed to her as if she were forgetting something which would +not occur to her until after she had left.</p> + +<p class="normal">Father and daughter were still at dinner. The carriage, laden +with the +luggage, had been sent forward a short distance to await them in the +valley. The father accompanied Irma down the mountain. He spoke with +her in a cheerful strain. While passing the apple-tree, on the way, he +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child, let us take leave of each other here. This is the +tree that +I planted on the day you were born. It often marks the limit of my +evening walk."</p> + +<p class="normal">They stood there in silence. An apple fell from the tree and +struck the +ground at their feet. The father picked it up and gave it to his +daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take this fruit of your native soil with you. The apple +falls from the +tree because it is ripe, and because the tree has nothing more to give +it. In the same way, man leaves home and kindred; but a human being is +more than the fruit of the tree. And now, my child, take off your hat, +and let me once more place my hands upon your head. No one knows when +his hour will come. Nay, my child, do not weep. Nay, weep; and may you, +through life, only have to weep for others, but never for yourself." +His voice faltered, but, recovering himself, he continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And just as I now rest my hands upon your head and would +fain place +them on all your thoughts, do you ever remain true unto yourself. I +would like to give you all my thoughts, but, for the present, keep this +one in your memory: Indulge in no pleasures but those which you can +remember with pleasure. Take this kiss--you kiss passionately--may you +never give a kiss in which your soul is less pure than at this moment. +Farewell!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The father turned away and walked up the mountain road. He +did not look +back again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked after him, trembling and feeling as if something +drew her +toward home and bade her remain there forever. But she felt ashamed of +her indecision; she thought of the next hour and of how strange it +would seem to the servants and to her father, to see her trunks +unpacked and all the preparation for the journey undone. No, it was too +late, and she went on. She seated herself in the carriage and was soon +on her journey. She was no longer her own mistress; a strange power had +taken possession of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the following day, at noon, that Irma reached the +summer +palace. All was quiet; no one came to meet her but the old steward, who +hurriedly laid aside his long pipe.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are their highnesses?" asked the courier.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They dine at the Devil's Pulpit to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">From the garden, there resounded a cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my countess! My countess is here!" exclaimed Walpurga, +kissing +Irma's hands and weeping for joy. "Now we'll have sunshine! Now we'll +have day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma quieted the excited woman, who said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll go and tell the queen at once. She's the only one at +home, and is +up on yonder hill, painting; she doesn't care to go on these holiday +excursions, and here every day seems a holiday."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma instructed Walpurga not to tell the queen, and said that +she would +join her. She went to her room and sat there for a long while, buried +in thought. She felt as if she had extended a friendly hand and that no +one had clasped it in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the hallway, they were moving trunks about. Suddenly, she +thought of +the time when she sat in her room, an orphan child, clad in black, and +heard them moving her mother's coffin about in the adjoining apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why had it occurred to her at that moment? She arose--she +could no +longer endure being alone. She hastily changed her dress and went to +the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen saw her coming and advanced to meet her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma bent low and made an effort to kiss her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen held her up and, embracing her, imprinted a tender +kiss upon +her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're the only one who dare touch the lips that my father +has +kissed," said Irma--that is, she did not say it aloud, but simply moved +her lips as if forming the words. Deep within her soul, arose a +thought: I'd rather die a thousand deaths, than sadden that guileless +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">The thought illumined her countenance with a noble +expression, and the +queen, all delight, exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh how beautiful, how radiant you are, Countess Irma!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma dropped her eyes and knelt down beside the child's +cradle. Her +eyes were so lustrous that the child put out its hand as if to seize +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's right," said Walpurga, "he tries to catch the light +already, but +I think your eyes have grown larger than they used to be."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma went with Walpurga and excused herself for not having +visited the +cottage by the lake. She then told her of her friend in the convent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how's your father?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was startled. The queen had not even inquired about her +father. +Walpurga was the only one who had asked about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">She told her that he knew her mother, and also her uncle, who +often +burnt pitch in the forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, he's my mother's brother; so you know him, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't, but my father does."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga told her about her uncle Peter, who was known as the +"little +pitchman," and vowed that she would send him something, one of these +days, for the poor old fellow had a hard time of it in this world. Old +Zenza had had the courage to come to the palace, but the little +pitchman would starve to death before he would do such a thing.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Walpurga was speaking, the queen went to the cradle, +and when the +prince saw her, he struggled, with hands and feet, as if trying to get +to her. She bent down and raised him up, and Walpurga exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! on the very day our countess returns, our prince +sits up for +the first time. Yes, she can make everything go right."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen and Irma remained together in cheerful and +unconstrained +conversation. In the evening, there were joyful greetings on the part +of those who had returned from the excursion to the Devil's Pulpit. +Irma now, for the first time, learned that her brother was not at +court. While at the baths, he had made the acquaintance of Baroness +Steigeneck and her daughter and was now visiting them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's greeting of Irma was quite formal. Even Countess +Brinkenstein could have found nothing to object to in it; but how could +he well have done otherwise, when the queen said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't tell you how happy our dear countess's return has +made me; +we've already spent several delightful hours together."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the evening, there were fireworks which the king had +ordered to be +prepared in honor of Irma's arrival. Far and near, the people were +looking at the lights and the gay-colored sheets of fire ascending +heavenward. At last, Countess Irma's name stood forth in letters of +fire, held aloft by mountaineers. The flame crackled, and, from behind +the shrubbery, there issued strains of music which were echoed back +from the distance. In the midst of all this noise and splendor, Irma +was ever asking herself: "How fares it now with your father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Eberhard, in his mountain castle, was sitting by the +window and, +looking out into the starry night, said to himself: "Just as the stars +above are separate and distinct from each other, so is every human soul +solitary and alone. Each travels in its own orbit, its course +determined by the attraction and repulsion of the heavenly bodies that +environ it."</p> + +<p class="normal">That night, Irma dreamt that a star descended from heaven and +fell upon +her bosom. She tried to grasp it, but it eluded her and transformed +itself into a human figure which, with averted glance, exclaimed: +"Thou, too, art solitary."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK III.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was looking out of the window, holding his pipe with both hands +and smoking away, while the morning passed. Near by, a day-laborer was +cutting a load of wood. Hansei looked on, calmly nodding approval when +the woodcutter made a clever stroke and, like a true judge, smiling at +the awkward fellow when an obstinate branch would oblige him to turn it +again and again before he succeeded in chopping it up. The grandmother +was carrying the chopped wood into the shed at the gable end of the +house and was there piling it up. Every time she passed, she would look +at Hansei, who did not stir. At last, with an armful of wood, she +stopped before him and said: "Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he replied and puffed on. The grandmother's +exclamation +had meant: "What's this? Are you only here to look on? Can't you, at +least, pile up the cut wood?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had fully understood her and had answered as if to +say: "Of +course I shan't help; I don't feel a mind to."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother was about to throw down the armful of wood +before his +very face, but she reflected that the day-laborer outside need not see +that. She carried the wood into the shed and then went into the room +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look here, Hansei! I've got something to tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can hear you," he replied, still looking out of the +window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what to make of you. What's got into you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not deem it necessary to make any reply, but went +on smoking +while the grandmother continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's shame enough that you have the wood brought to the +house, instead +of going and getting it yourself. You're a woodcutter, and yet you must +have another come and cut your wood for you. Such a thing never +happened before. As long as this house stands, the axe-handle has never +grown warm in the hands of a stranger. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of my doing it," replied Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I suppose you know your needs, better than I do," +cried the +old woman, angrily; "but I'll not scold. Do just as you please; let +yourself and everything else go to ruin. As you make your bed, so +you'll have to lie on it. Oh, if Walpurga knew of this! She's gone away +among strangers, for our sake, while you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! I've had enough of it," said Hansei, closing the +window and +turning round. "Mother-in-law, I don't interfere in anything; I let you +manage just as you please, and so I don't mean to let anybody interfere +with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't want to interfere with you. You're father and +husband."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A fine husband, indeed, whose wife leaves him for a year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps she's having a harder time of it than you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May be so; but she has pleasure and enjoyment, and what have +I? I +wander about as if lost, and that's why I'm not ashamed. The best thing +left me is the tavern. One can feel at home there, when he can't in his +own house. I don't need to cut or haul wood any longer, and I want to +have some good of my wife's being--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei could not finish what he was about to say, for, at +that moment, +the door opened and Zenza entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing here? Who sent for you?" inquired the +grandmother +of Zenza, who replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning to you--I didn't come to see you; I want to see +this man. +Who's master here? you or he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak out; what's the matter?" said Hansei, winking at his +mother-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was to bring you the smith's compliments and tell you that +the gun's +ready for you, at his workshop."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you're going to be a sportsman?" inquired the +grandmother; "are +you going a-hunting?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose I'll have to go if you don't carry me," replied +Hansei, +laughing loudly at his joke.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother left the room, slamming the door after her. +As nimbly +as a cat, Zenza sprang toward Hansei and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She'll wait for you up there, at dusk." Then, in a loud +voice, she +added: "God keep you, Hansei," and left the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother went out to the woodcutter and told him that +he mustn't +think they were used to having such wicked people as Zenza come to the +house; but that, no matter how often they forbade her coming, she would +force herself upon them, in order to show her gratitude for Walpurga's +having procured the pardon of her son Thomas. It had been a foolish +action; for Red Thomas would have been much better taken care of under +lock and key. But Walpurga had meant it for the best. The woodcutter +was satisfied; he well knew that it was a respectable house, and it was +quite by accident that he remarked: "I wonder why Zenza's without Black +Esther. They're generally together in the daytime."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother's eyes flashed when she heard his words. She +bent down +hurriedly, took up an armful of wood and carried it up to the house. +When she reached the gable side, she found Hansei there, piling up the +wood and whistling cheerfully. The grandmother kept on carrying wood, +while Hansei piled it up, neither of them speaking a word. At noon, +Hansei paid the woodcutter and said: "I'll cut the rest myself; you +needn't come to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's a good fellow, after all," thought the grandmother to +herself. +"He don't like to give in, in so many words, but afterward he does what +you tell him, for all. He soon finds out what's right."</p> + +<p class="normal">After dinner she brought the child to him and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just look here! Just feel! There's a tooth coming already. +It's very +soon, but it was just the same way with your wife. Just see how it puts +its little hands in its mouth. God be praised that our child is +thriving so nicely! Since you've been using hay for fodder, and since +it's been getting the new cow's milk, you can see the child growing +before your very eyes. If Walpurga could only see it, just for an hour. +Take it; I'll give it to you carefully. See, it's laughing at you. It +knows you. Ah, dear me! but it doesn't know its mother yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't take the child on my arms; I'm afraid I'd hurt it," +replied +Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother felt like saying: "If you let yourself go to +ruin, +you'll surely harm the child--" but checked herself. When a man is +getting back into the right road, it isn't well to keep preaching at +him. Let him go on quietly in his own way, or else he will lose all +pleasure in it.--Thus thought the grandmother to herself, and, although +she had already opened her lips to speak, she swallowed her words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei looked about him, with an unsteady glance, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother-in-law, you were going to say something else."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of saying everything. But yes!--you lower +yourself +when you let Zenza bring messages to you. I noticed the woodcutter +making a queer face when he saw that Zenza was allowed to enter our +house. Don't go to the Windenreuthe; the place has a bad name, and it +does no one credit to go there. If you do want to go hunting, and have +bought yourself a gun, you can give a boy a penny to go there and get +it for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed," thought Hansei, smiling, "grandmother's right; +but one +needn't tell all one's thoughts."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going into the forest now. I want to be about when they +load up my +wood."</p> + +<p class="normal">He took his hat and mountain-staff, donned his hunter's pouch +and +provided himself with a piece of bread. The grandmother, carrying the +child on her arm, accompanied him as far as the cherry-tree, from which +the withered leaves were already beginning to fall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei went into the forest; but, as soon as he was out of +sight, he +turned about and took the road that led to Windenreuthe.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt quite strangely while on his way. He had never before +known +that he breathed so hard and was so easily frightened. He was terrified +by every sound, by the nutpecker flying from the tree, the chattering +magpie, the hooting hawk-owl on the rocky ridge, and the bellowing cow +in the meadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I oughtn't to go, and I won't go," he exclaimed, bringing +his staff +down with such force that the pointed ferrule struck sparks from the +stones in the road, and yet he went on.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately, a mist was ascending the mountain, but he walked +on, +farther and farther, through the clouds.</p> + +<p class="normal">Windenreuthe consists of a few poor-looking, scattered +houses. Hansei +stopped in front of the first house, as if riveted to the spot. He was +seized with fright as sudden as if a bullet had struck him, and yet +what had alarmed him was nothing, after all. He had merely heard a +child crying in the house before which he stood. "Your child cries just +like this one," said an inner voice. "How will you be, when you see it +and hear it and kiss it again? How will you be, when you pass this +house on your way back.... How will you be, in the spring, when your +wife returns and you walk with her and meet Black Esther? And at every +merry-making, either at home or at the inn, Black Esther will come and +say: 'Make room for me; I belong here too.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei's brain reeled. He looked into the future--days and +years passed +before him in an instant. And yet he went on. Indeed, he snapped his +fingers and said to himself: "You're a foolish fellow; a perfect +simpleton; you haven't a bit of courage. Other people are merry and +lead a happy life, and don't care a deuce about it and--what jolly +stories the innkeeper tells of such and such a one, and what pranks the +hunters tell of.... To enjoy all you can and lead a loose life into the +bargain, does one credit with those who're not obliged to earn a +living."</p> + +<p class="normal">He removed his hat; his head seemed as if burning. He put his +hat on +again, pressing it down over his eyes, and went on through the dreary +village.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night had come on. Zenza lived in a so-called herb-hut, in +the woods +and at some distance from the village. It was there that her deceased +husband had distilled brandy from various herbs, but principally of +gentian. His master-wort was still noted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The light from a large fire shone through the open door of +the hut. At +that moment, some one came to the threshold and leaned against the +doorpost. She was full of wild beauty and power. Behind her, the flames +were brightly burning. Hansei was now quite free from the fear he +had experienced on the night when he still believed in the fabled +forest-sprites. The figure now placed its hand to its cheek and uttered +a shrill shout, which might be compared to a tone-rocket ascending on +high and then bursting into all sorts of carols. Hansei trembled, and +then he heard Zenza say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't shout so. Don't scream to the whole world that +you're at +home. Wait till the horse is in the stable--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo!" thought Hansei to himself, while he stood there, +trembling, +"she means to make a prisoner of you, and will drag every kreutzer from +your pocket, if you act meanly or badly with her.... She'll make a +beggar of you, and disgrace you in the bargain. No, you shan't rob me +of my money. I won't put myself in your clutches. I'll do no such +thing. You shan't have a right to stand up before my wife, and look her +in the face and talk to her, while I'll have to thank you, in the +bargain, if you don't do it. No, a thousand times no. I won't be +wicked. I'd rather--"</p> + +<p class="normal">As if pursued by an enemy, Hansei hurried back with mighty +strides, and +the unbarked oaken staff which he held with both hands served to +support him in his flight. It was long since he had bounded down the +rocks with such energy and rapidity. He again passed the house where he +heard the child crying. It had not yet been hushed, but he who heard it +was a different man from what he had been a little while ago. He +hurried on as if pursued. The perspiration trickled down his cheeks and +dropped on his hands, but he did not once stop. He felt as if Zenza, +Black Esther and Red Thomas had followed and overtaken him, and were +tearing the clothes from his body. It was not until he had gone far +into the forest, that he ventured to sit down on the stump of a tree. +He felt as tired as if he had been running ten miles. He rested his +hands on his naked knees, and it seemed as if they were grasping a +strange body. He touched the stockings that Walpurga had knit for him, +and the first word that left his lips was: "Walpurga, I've only once +trodden such a path. It shall never happen again. I swear it, +Walpurga," and taking the last letter he had received from her out of +his pocket, he said: "I put your letter in my shoe, and these feet +shall never tread the path of evil again. Thank God! I've only been +wicked in thought." He took off his shoe, placed the letter in it, and +had just stood up again, when he once more heard the loud shout issuing +from Zenza's house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Scream on, as long as you've a mind to," said he to himself, +while he +went farther into the wood. He tried to light his pipe, but always +struck his fingers with the steel; and, besides, his tinder was damp. +"You don't need any fire, you wicked fellow," said he at last, while he +put the pipe into his pocket. "You don't need fire; there's one burning +up there, that would have been hell-fire for you. You may be right glad +that you're out of it; it's more than you deserve."</p> + +<p class="normal">If Hansei, at that moment, could have laid hands on the +Hansei of an +hour ago he would have strangled him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mist had become so thick that it was almost like a +drizzling rain. +The forest seemed to be growing vaster, and a path was nowhere to be +found.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've lost your way, and it serves you right," said Hansei, +speaking to himself. "You're no longer fit to be with decent men, you +good-for-nothing wretch. It's only a pity that your wife and child are +innocent sufferers by it--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Two men in one were lost in the mist. Hansei cursed and swore +at +himself, but soon grew frightened, for his mind became filled with +stories of the evil spirits that lead the solitary traveler up and down +hill, and round and about, through the livelong night. He was about to +turn back. It would be easier to find the way to Windenreuthe.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait, you accursed devil," said he, addressing the invisible +companion +who had thus advised him; "all you want is to get me back there again. +No, you shan't catch me."</p> + +<p class="normal">He again tried to strike a light and, this time, with +success. Just as +he drew the first puff, he heard the tones of the bell, and pressed his +hand to his forehead, for it seemed to him as if the clapper of the +bell were striking against his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the vesper bell of the chapel by the lake. The sounds +seem so +near. Can I be on this side? No, it's the mist that makes it sound so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Uncovering his head, and clinging with both hands to the +staff which +now stood firmly planted in the ground, he cast aside all other +thoughts and breathed a silent prayer.</p> + +<p class="normal">While praying, he could not help thinking: O God! I can still +pray, +although I could so far forget myself and go astray.</p> + +<p class="normal">The immortal words which an inspired mind drew from the +depths of the +human heart and its never-ending struggles, thousands of years ago, +have been, and still are, the source of blessings innumerable. They are +a guide to the lonely wanderer who has lost his way in the mist and +darkness of the forest, and lead him back to the right path. The bell +utters its sounds and, though it does not speak in words, it yet fills +the soul with those immortal words which serve as a staff to the weary +and a guide to the blind. When Hansei finished his prayer, the bell was +still tolling, and it seemed to him as if the whole village, every soul +in it,--and above all, his wife and child--were calling to him. And now +he found the path. He descended the stony bed of a dried mountain +current which led into the valley. He had gone far out of his way, for +when he descended the mountain, he found himself back of the Chamois +inn. Evil desires, fright, devotion, and losing his way had made him +both hungry and thirsty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! God greet you, Hansei," exclaimed the host. "God greet +you! God be +with you!" stammered out Hansei, confusedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter with you? You're as pale as death. What's +happened +to you? Where do you come from?" inquired the host.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell you all about it, after awhile," answered Hansei; +"but, +first of all, give me a schoppen of wine."</p> + +<p class="normal">The wine was brought, and Hansei looked around, as if +wondering where +he was.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt as if he had come from another world, and it was not +until he +had eaten some bread and salt, that he told them of the strange +adventures he had had that day. He had gone out into the forest to load +up the wood, and had lost his way, and wandered in the direction of +Windenreuthe. He said this intentionally, lest some one might have seen +him in that neighborhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">They spoke of the belief in ghosts, but the innkeeper +ridiculed such +nursery tales. Hansei made no reply. The innkeeper remarked, very +sensibly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're often bewildered, nowadays, just because your +Walpurga isn't +with you. You're thinking of her all the time, and that's what makes +you lose your way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes--quite likely."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know what they call you in the village, now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The he-nurse. Your wife, who's with the crown prince, is the +she-nurse, and so they call you the he-nurse."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei laughed with all his might.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say, Hansei, what pay does your wife get?" inquired Wastl +the weaver.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't tell," replied Hansei, with an air of mystery.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's a long while since you had a letter from your wife, +isn't it?" +inquired the innkeeper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; I'm expecting one any hour." He had scarcely uttered the +words, +when the letter-carrier entered and said, "So here you are, Hansei; +I've been at your house twice to-day. I've got a letter with money in +it, for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's have it," said Hansei, breaking the five seals with a +trembling +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A nice way of treating money," said the innkeeper, picking +up a +hundred florin note from the floor. "That'll suit me very well. I've +use for one, and will give you the change for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right," said Hansei, leaving the money in the +innkeeper's hands. +He then read his letter:</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Dear Hansei</i>: This time, I write to you all alone. Here are +a hundred +florins that the queen has given me for a special present, because you +haven't come to see me; but I must tell you all about it so that you +can understand it. You've no idea what a good soul the queen is; +whenever you pray, pray for her. We often sit together for hours, and +she can take down everything on paper beautifully--the trees and all +sorts of things, and we talk to each other as if we had gone to school +together. But she's Lutheran and is very good and pious, and has such +kind thoughts about all things that an ugly word couldn't pass her +lips. If she weren't Lutheran, she might become a saint, but she'll get +to heaven anyhow. That's my belief, and you can believe it, too; but +you needn't tell any one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, the queen wanted to give me a treat. She would like to +make the +whole world happy; that's the way the saints must have been in the +olden times. Well, as I said before, the queen wanted to give me a +treat, because her husband came home well and hearty, and they're so +fond of each other, and she wanted you and the child and mother to come +and see me for one or two days, for she notices everything; she looks +right into your heart, and I'm often homesick for you all. And when the +queen talked about having you come, I said to her: 'That would be very +nice, but it would cost a pretty penny,' and so I let her make me a +present of the money, and we can make better use of it. You haven't the +right sort of clothes, you know, and the people here might make fun of +you. But with all that, I wouldn't have got the money, for that's +nothing to her. She never thinks of such things. She's never counted +money in all her life, and I really believe that she don't know how to +reckon. The court paymaster attends to all that. Here there's an extra +servant for everything--butlers and silver keepers and lots of others. +But now my good countess is back again. She's been to see her father. +They say he's a sort of a hermit who don't want to know anything of the +world, and I must thank my countess that I got the money, for she knows +how to manage everything. And so I send you the money. Put it out +safely, and don't forget to take some of it to make a holiday for you +and the child and grandmother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, dear Hansei, the palace folk are not all saints and +honest people, +as I once used to think. Lots of thieving and deceit are carried on +here. The father of my Mademoiselle Kramer is an honorable old man; +he's the keeper of the castle here, and he's told me many things. But +one can be honest everywhere, in the palace or in the cottage by the +lake. And now, I beg of you dear Hansei--I always say 'dear Hansei,' +whenever I think of you, and that's very often. It was only last night +that I dreamt of you, but I won't tell you about that, because we +oughtn't to believe in dreams. But write to me very soon and tell me +how it goes with you; send me a good, long letter, and don't let the +time seem long till we meet again; and always think as kindly of me as +I do of you.</p> + +<p class="right">"Till death, your faithful <span style="letter-spacing:3em"> </span> <span class="sc">Walpurga</span>."</p> + +<p class="normal">In spite of their entreaties, Hansei would not tell a word of +what was +in the letter; he went home quietly, and kissed his sleeping child. He +felt happy that he could thus be at home again, and that his home did +not reject him. A cold sweat came over him when he thought that he was +sleeping in this bed, and of what a changed man he might have become. +He stretched forth his hand toward his wife's bed and, in the silent +night, kissed her pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I'm all right again," said he. He arose, struck a light, +and +removed the letter which he had put into his shoe. Then, cutting the +passage, "until death, your faithful Walpurga," out of the letter last +received, he loosened the inner sole, placed the little paper +underneath it, and fastened the sole down again. After that, he soon +fell into a sound sleep.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," said Countess Irma to the king one day, while walking +on the veranda with him--the queen was in the music-room, practicing a +classical composition with one of the court performers--"it is curious +that, while absence lends additional charms and greater merit to some +persons, there are others who are all the more perfect and interesting +when one is in constant, daily intercourse with them. And yet, when +away from such, it is almost impossible to remember them just as they +are; and as to describing their character, or even their personal +appearance, to one who is not acquainted with them--why, that is +entirely out of the question. How do you account for it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must confess that I have never reflected on the subject," +replied +the king, "but it seems to me that the chief characteristic of the one +class is an infinitude of small details; while with the other, one is +struck by the general effect of the various traits that go to make up +the character. Those whose character still presents an unsolved +problem, and who thus give us more to think of, would seem to belong to +the class to whom absence lends importance. Does it not seem so to +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; but I might also say that the one class are more +impressive +and thus even in the present, seem like remote historical personages. +Although they die, they yet remain--indeed, absence is a sort of death. +The others however, only exist as long as they breathe, and only live +for us as long as we breathe the same atmosphere with them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you name examples of such imposing historical +personages, and also +of ephemeral ones?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At present, I could only recall the historical."</p> + +<p class="normal">A slight blush passed over the king's features. "Well," said +he, when +he found that Irma hesitated, "I beg of you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that class, I place my father over all others. I cannot +describe to +Your Majesty how his great nature seems constantly before me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I've often heard him spoken of as a man of high +character and +eminent ability. It is a pity, for his sake--and, still more, for our +own--that he is opposed to the government. And in which class would +you count me? I have sufficient confidence in your candor to believe +that you will frankly give me your opinion, and you are so sure of +my--my--respect, that you can speak without reserve."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty is present company," replied Irma, "and yet, at +the same +time, absent; or your position exalts you far above the rest of us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Friendship does not dwell on the throne, but here where we +stand on +equal ground, dear Countess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor does friendship pass sentence," replied the countess. +"Her place +is not the judgment-seat. I know of nothing more revolting than when +men who profess to be friends, constantly cast up their accounts with +each other, as if to say: 'You are worth so much and I am worth so +much; this is yours and this is mine--'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, these state affairs," interposed the king, as a lackey +announced +the arrival of the minister. "We will speak of this subject again," he +added, taking leave of Irma and politely greeting the ladies and +gentlemen whom he passed on his way. He offered his hand to his prime +minister and, accompanied by him, went into the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's friendly relations with the king seemed to have +acquired new +life since her return. Her daily greeting seemed filled with the joy of +meeting after long separation.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the king would say: "Good morning, Countess," and Irma +would +answer: "Thanks, Your Majesty," there lay a wealth of unuttered thought +in those simple words. The king had never before been in so pleasing +and witty a mood, and Irma, it was justly said, had brought the +mountain breezes with her. The queen would never tire of telling the +ladies and gentlemen of the court how pleased she was with Irma, who, +although simple and unaffected, possessed the highest intellectual +gifts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like melodies that have sunk deep into the soul and which +gradually +return and harmoniously blend, so did her father's words and ideas now +recur to Irma. She had spent weeks in a strict school, where idle talk +and trifling were of no value and where distinctness and certainty were +insisted upon. Formerly, Irma had been regarded as a child of nature, +freely pouring forth whatever engaged her thoughts; but now they +recognized in her a mind whose groundwork was solid and comprehensive, +and which, nevertheless, was full of the simplicity of nature. She was +full of sympathy and kindness, but did not concern herself about +prevailing modes of thought. She freely expressed her likes and +dislikes, and one was obliged to admit that she was something more than +a mere original or artless hoyden, and that she really possessed +intellectual self-consciousness to a great degree.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma often changed her style of dressing her hair. This was +naturally +censured as coquetry, and as an attempt to draw the glances of all upon +her. But it was simply a desire to appear different every day, even +though it were in unimportant and subordinate matters.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was very fortunate for Irma that she had become so +attached to +Walpurga; for, on sunny afternoons, the queen would scarcely ever +suffer Walpurga to leave her; and then Irma would be seated with them +and would read aloud to the queen, or join Walpurga in some of the +lovely mountain songs.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's eyes would sparkle with delight when he happened +to join +them at such times, and find Irma with his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You look troubled," said the queen, when the king, who had +just left +the ministerial council, joined her and Irma in the park.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I ask why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was about to withdraw, but the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay, Countess; the matter is one which has been brought to +an issue +by the case of your friend Emma." Turning to the queen, he added: "Has +our countess told you of the terrible fate of her friend?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She has; and when I think of it, I feel as if I were +standing on the +edge of a precipice."</p> + +<p class="normal">Strangely enough, the king had, thus far, neither spoken to +Irma about +the matter, nor alluded to her letter. Irma had had so much to engage +her mind since her return, that Emma's troubles had almost escaped her +memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Our friend," began the king, "has informed me of the affair, +and I +appreciate her delicacy in refraining from pressing the subject. In +matters of state, we have no right to allow personal feelings to affect +us. Nevertheless, one of our greatest pleasures is to find that our +friends cherish our honor as their own."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked down. He added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Although a prince owes thanks to his friends, for informing +him of +what is going on, no influence, not even the best, should affect his +decision."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma did not dare to raise her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The matter stands thus," continued the king. "We have +provisionally +suspended the right to receive new nuns, and now the ministers desire +me, at the next meeting of the estates, to consent to the introduction +of a law by which the convent of Frauenwörth is to be definitively +placed upon the extinct list. They hope by this and additional +measures, to be enabled to make a stand against the constantly +increasing strength of the opposition."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king looked at Irma while he said this, and she inquired:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And has Your Majesty approved the draft of the law?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet. I have no special feeling in favor of keeping up +the +convents, but I don't find it so easy a matter to lay the axe to a tree +which is the growth of centuries. It is the special duty of royalty to +establish and foster institutions that are to endure longer than a +generation or even a century, and a convent--What do you think of it, +Mathilde?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think that a woman who has lost all, should not be +prevented from +devoting herself to solitude and prayer. But perhaps I ought not +express an opinion on the subject. My youthful impressions, or rather +instruction, in regard to convent life, may not always have been +correct. It seems to me that woman alone should have the right to +determine as to the continuance of a convent. What do you think of it, +Countess Irma? You were educated at a convent, and Emma is your +friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Irma, "I was with my friend at Frauenwörth, where +she +desires to live, or rather to die; for life there is a daily waiting +for death. It seems terrible to me, too, to think of making what may +perhaps be only a passing mood, the irrevocable law of one's life, or a +fate from which there can be no escape. And yet many other holy +institutions are just the same. I can now see what an exalted and +difficult vocation it is to be a king. I frankly confess that if I were +now called upon to decide this matter, or to suggest a law upon the +subject, I could not arrive at a decision. Now, more than ever before, +do I realize that we women were not born to rule."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's voice, although usually so clear and firm, was now +veiled and +trembling. She was standing on a pinnacle where she could find no firm +footing; she looked up to the king, as if to a higher being; his +bearing was so firm, his eye so clear. She would gladly have fallen on +her knees at his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come nearer, Count Wildenort," exclaimed the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started. Was her father there? She was so excited that +everything +seemed possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had, at the moment, quite forgotten that her brother +Bruno was the +king's aid-de-camp. He had been standing a little distance off, and now +approached, in order to take his leave of the queen, as he was about to +go away for some time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and queen left; after which, Irma and her brother +walked away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's behavior seemed a riddle; but for this he had his +own +reasons, the first and greatest of which was invincible distrust of +others. "Distrust all," was the great precept which had been instilled +into him from earliest youth. "One can never know what selfish purposes +may lurk behind the noblest exterior." This maxim was in accord with +one trait of the king's character. He desired to be strong in himself, +to allow no one to guide his judgment; and that is the great secret of +the heroic nature. It was this which, with all his love of freedom, had +made constitutionalism repugnant to him; for the constitution destroyed +great and powerful personal influence, and required that he be simply +the vehicle of the spirit of the age, or the exponent of public +opinion. This was opposed to his own strong self-consciousness. He +distrusted every one who attempted to press him for an opinion or a +decision. He even distrusted Irma. Perhaps she did not know that she +was the instrument of a party; but she was, nevertheless. They had +found out that he held her in great esteem, and were now availing +themselves of Emma's entering the convent, to force him to a decision. +He would not submit to this. Irma should be made to know that he would +not allow another, even though it were his lovely friend, to lead him. +The olden time could never again return. They would find him a new +being; he would not permit female interference in state affairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was these conflicting feelings of distrust and +self-exaltation that +had induced the king to refrain from mentioning Irma's letter, and at +last to speak of it in the way he had.</p> + +<p class="normal">While walking with the queen, the king still enjoyed his +victory over +the women and, above all, over the one whom he had believed possessed +of so powerful a mind. He repeatedly spoke of Irma's petition in favor +of her friend, and of his determination not to be swayed by it. His +remarks betrayed a trace of ill-humor toward Irma. The queen was lavish +in her praise of the countess. The king smiled.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let me wait any longer for your answer," said Bruno to his +sister; "are you ready?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg your pardon. What was it? I was so preoccupied that I +didn't +hear you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno looked at his sister with an air of surprise. Irma had +indeed not +heard him. She had been puzzling her brain in regard to the king's +behavior. He had plainly intimated that he would allow no one to +influence his course in state affairs. It now occurred to Irma that the +tone of the letter which she had written while at the convent, had been +quite improper, and her heart was filled with thanks to the great and +noble man, who, having it in his power to forgive her, had forgiven her +so gracefully. She felt doubly grateful to him for refusing to be +swayed by her ardent entreaties. She was, herself, in doubt as to the +best course, and it now seemed to her, as at first, that it was the +duty of the state to prevent the consummation of an irrevocable vow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg your pardon," she again said to her brother. "Do you +wish +anything of me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must go with me to-morrow," said Bruno; "we're going on +a journey. +I've already obtained leave of absence for myself, and the queen will +grant you leave."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on a journey? Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To witness my betrothal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Surely not with--?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; with the king's sister; or, if you'd rather have +it so, his +half, or quarter sister. Baroness Arabella von Steigeneck will be +delighted to make your acquaintance."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked down. It was the oldest daughter of the dancer +who had been +ennobled by the late king. Irma spoke of the impression that this +marriage would make upon her father; but Bruno jestingly answered, that +he and his sister had been separated from their father, who indulged +the strange whim of desiring to be a common citizen. Perceiving that +his remarks displeased Irma, he changed his manner and explained to her +how cruel and narrow-minded it would be to make Baroness Arabella, who +had royal blood in her veins, suffer on account of a few irregularities +for which she was not to blame. And when he represented to Irma, that, +independent of his wishes, it was her duty to meet Arabella in a spirit +of kindness and without prejudice, he touched the right chord. He +added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are so affectionate to the simple minded peasant woman, +the crown +prince's nurse. It is very cheap to practice humanity toward one of the +lower classes. You will find its exercise pleasanter and more effective +in this instance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad to find that you think so," replied Irma, +regarding her +brother with a more cheerful glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was delighted. He had used the right bait, and, for a +few +moments, found real pleasure in conversing on such subjects as +elevation of mind and nobility of soul. Irma consented to accompany +him. When she applied to the queen for leave of absence, and the +latter, in the most delicate manner, intimated surprise at Bruno's +choice, Irma proved herself so zealous an advocate of humanity that the +queen could not avoid saying to her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are, and ever will be, a noble heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma imprinted a fervent kiss on the queen's hand. They +started off on +their journey, taking with them Bruno's two private servants, and +jockey Fritz, Baum's son. Father Baum, who was both indispensable and +ubiquitous, also accompanied them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was in high spirits. Like all other epicures, he was +not averse +to occasional tender scenes. He played the piano excellently and, at +times, would indulge in a sentimental adagio. Irma now seemed +sentimental in his eyes. But he soon tired of the melting mood and in +his flippant, jesting manner, exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am better than the world of cavaliers that surround us. +You +smile--and wonder what sort of cavaliers they must be among whom I am +the best.--Yes, dear sister Krimhilde, it is so nevertheless. I +honestly confess that I only marry this lady in order to be enabled to +lead as jolly a life as possible, and am I not better than those who +act the hypocrite in such a case?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, if you think that makes you better. But I think you're +simply +ashamed of being in love, and are afraid of appearing sentimental."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks! You're a profound judge of human nature."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno, at heart, desired his sister to imagine that he was in +love; for +that would render the demeanor of both of them more natural and more +befitting the occasion. He blushed and smiled with a bashful air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baroness Steigeneck lived in a little town and occupied a +castle which +had once been a retreat of a sister of the late king.</p> + +<p class="normal">They reached the castle. A bright peacock stood on the high +wall, and +filled the air with its shrill cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rooms had been prepared for Bruno and Irma, who retired to +change their +dress. Bruno appeared in full uniform, and with all his medals and +orders. They were conducted to Baroness Steigeneck's salon by two +servants, who opened the folding doors. Baroness Steigeneck, who was +clad in studiously simple attire, came forward to meet Bruno and Irma, +and received them with a graceful bow. Bruno kissed her, and then +embraced his betrothed, who, in form and feature, presented a pleasing +appearance. He introduced her to his sister, who embraced and kissed +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The furniture of the castle was splendid, but in somewhat +gaudy taste, +with more regard to show than comfort. A life-size picture of the late +king was displayed in the great <i>salon</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt alarmed when she first beheld the old baroness. Her +boudoir +was hung with pictures of herself, taken while she was yet a young, +beautiful and voluptuous creature, and representing her in various bold +poses, such as Psyche, Eros, and the Fairy Queen. And could this heavy +woman, with rigid features, be the same person? Her chief employment +was card-playing, and it was here, for the first time in her life, that +Irma saw people who would sit at cards by the hour, out in the open +air, under the trees, and amid the singing of birds. What would become +of some people, how empty their lives would be, if there were no cards!</p> + +<p class="normal">The time was pleasantly spent with music--for Baroness +Arabella sang +beautifully,--merry dinners and excursions in the neighborhood. Irma +could not help watching the servants, and wondering how they felt, and +what their thoughts must be, while serving such a mistress. But she saw +the same respect shown as at court; and when they drove through the +little town, the people would stop and lift their hats in token of +respect, for the baroness had brought life and money to the place. +Everything in this world, even respect, can be purchased.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three days sped by quickly. Baroness Steigeneck held a little +court, +quite modest in appearance. An old and exceedingly eccentric French +legitimist was the special attraction of this, and French was the only +language spoken.</p> + +<p class="normal">The formal betrothal was speedily settled by the notary, whom +Bruno had +brought with him from the capital. He had been carefully instructed, +and it fared hard with the old Baroness. There were all sorts of +devilishly close clauses in reference to death or separation. Bruno had +made himself secure. The Baroness jestingly spoke of love, and said +that she had not imagined such enthusiasm possible at the present day. +Bruno agreed with her, for they both well knew that it was simply a +question of money.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arabella had the air of a well-bred lady and possessed that +degree of +education that can be purchased from teachers. She could sing and +sketch, and spoke three foreign languages, which, at her mother's +bidding, she was obliged to make a parade of. But all of this showed +application, rather than native talent. She had also read a great deal, +but affected ignorance of certain works, passages in which might be +applied to herself or her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was exceedingly kind to her sister-in-law, and Bruno +heartily +thanked her. And yet Irma's mind was not at ease. The house seemed +under the influence of a peculiar spell--it was just as if in +fairy-land. People would go about, and laugh and joke and sing and +play, but there was one word they dared not utter; for, at the very +mention of it, the castle, with all its pomp and splendor, would +disappear. And that word was: "father." But it was here that Irma was +the more impelled to think of her father. When alone in her room, she +began a letter to him, and when she wrote the words; "Dear Father," she +looked about her. She regarded it as her duty, and thought herself +better able than Bruno, to inform her father of the betrothal, and to +invoke his forbearance for this unfortunate, though wealthy, girl. +Never before had she made so many unsuccessful attempts to write a +letter. She had begun again and again, and had always ended by tearing +up the sheet and throwing it into the fire. She found it impossible to +finish her letter, and at last concluded to wait until she returned to +the summer palace. But she could not get rid a desire to speak of +parents, and when Baum came to her with a message, she detained him +with the question:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Baum, are your parents still living?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you know them long?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum coughed behind his raised hand and answered: "I never +knew my +father; and my mother--my mother was taken from me long ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum, who still held his hand before his face, bit his lips +and at last +ventured to ask: "May I inquire, my lady, why you put that question to +me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I desire to acquaint myself with the life and history of +those whom I +know personally."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum dropped his hand and his face was as smooth and void of +expression +as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The strictest decorum was observed during their stay at the +castle. On +one occasion, however, Irma felt offended, and that was when the old +lady--they called her "Her Grace"--declared the relation of an +affianced couple the silliest of all conventionalities--the most +natural and proper course would be to have marriage follow immediately +upon the betrothal--yes, in the very same hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">These remarks were accompanied by a peculiar change in the +expression +of the old lady's features. Irma was startled and did not get over her +fright, for when, at parting, the baroness impressed a kiss upon her, +Irma could not help shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had been in the carriage for some time, when Bruno at +last came, +and again stopped to throw a kiss to his betrothed, who was standing at +the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove off, and when Irma found herself alone with her +brother she +said, in a loud voice and with a strange expression:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, father! father!" She drew a long and deep breath, as if +relieved +from some dread spell.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What ails you?" said Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma did not care to tell him what she felt, and merely +replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"As soon as we get back to the palace, you must write to +father, or, +what would be better, must go to him. Let him scold you, if it must be. +He's our father, after all, and will be kind to you once more and +accept what is past."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We had better write," said Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" exclaimed Irma, clasping both his hands, "you must do +it, for +Arabella's sake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For her sake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. I wish her to feel that there is some one whom she can +address as +'father'; that would be the happiest moment she had ever known."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno drew back. After a little while, he said: "Let us speak +softly. +You know, I suppose, that you've touched me in a tender spot. Arabella +couldn't call any one father, and can't do so now. Irma, you're strong +enough to look the truth in the face. What is it that forms the +indissoluble bond between father and child? It is not nature alone, but +history. By rejecting our rank, our father has denied father and mother +and our long line of ancestors. It was he who broke the strong and +glittering chain that, through him, linked us to our house. We have +renewed the connection which was thus broken, but, in doing so, have +become sundered from our father. He separated himself from us; in the +sense in which you mean, we can neither of us say 'father.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma turned pale. She had never thought of the matter in that +light, +and had never dreamt that Bruno would thus defend his course. She had +thought his life naught but frivolity, and now, for the first time, +beheld the deep chasm that separated them. She was about to reply that +her father had remained true to all that was noble, to all that the +best of their ancestors had transmitted to him, and that he had simply +cast aside the external prerogatives of rank. But, for the first time, +she felt that she could not maintain her ground against her brother. +She too, had separated herself from her father. She was silent. They +drove on and, for hours, neither spoke a word. They reached the summer +palace. To all who congratulated her on her brother's betrothal, Irma +offered most courteous thanks. She felt strangely embarrassed in the +presence of the court jeweler, who had been requested to present +himself at the palace with various caskets of gems. She was to join +Bruno in selecting a rich present for Arabella. She did so, but would +not suffer any of the jewels to be tried on herself. Her maid was +present for that purpose, and, at last, they decided on a rich set of +diamonds, which was at once dispatched to Bruno's betrothed.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Irma recovered her wonted cheerfulness and was the merriest sprite of +the whole court, teasing and bantering every one except Colonel +Bronnen, with whom alone she was always serious and reserved. She rode +out a great deal and often accompanied the king in the chase, in which +the other court ladies were also glad to join. The advance of autumn +rendered the air fresh and bracing, and there was no lack of variety in +their amusements. The queen was obliged to remain at home. She had +Walpurga and the prince about her for a great part of the time, and was +made happy by every new proof of the child's dawning intelligence. He +already knew his mother and had begun to notice many objects. She +deplored her husband's restless mind, which constantly craved new and +violent excitement, and thus deprived him of many delightful moments +with his child.</p> + +<p class="normal">They would often take their meals in the woods or on the +mountains, +whither their viands and cooking utensils were quickly transported on +the backs of mules.</p> + +<p class="normal">The idea had originated with Baron Schoning, and he was not a +little +vain of it. It was, indeed, a surprise that almost savored of magic, to +find a banquet spread in the heart of the forest, or on some height +that commanded a lovely view; and at the end of the feast all of their +paraphernalia would as quickly disappear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ever since his return from the lake, Baron Schoning had +treated Irma +with as much forbearance and consideration as if he had refused her, +instead of having been refused by her, and he really felt as if he were +the one who had said "no." The idea of his ever entertaining thoughts +of marriage now seemed to him sheer madness. The baron endeavored, +withal, to assume an air of dignity, but, in doing so, acted very +cautiously, lest too sudden a change in his deportment might awaken +unpleasant comment. He had told Irma that the court imagined it was +trifling with him, while he in reality was playing with it. The bold +change which he was now attempting to consummate had, in truth, only +suggested itself to him during the conversation referred to.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schoning was an odd character at court. He had, at the start, +entered +the diplomatic service, but soon left it, in order to become a +landscape artist. His achievements in his new vocation proving of +slight merit, he sought, and found it an easy matter to obtain, a +position at court. He became one of the directors of the royal gardens +and chief in the office of the lord steward and, by virtue of his +position, chamberlain also.</p> + +<p class="normal">In familiar moments, he was fond of telling his intimate +friends--and +these, of course, included every lady and gentleman at court--that his +real vocation was art; that he had only sacrificed it for the sake of +the king, whom he loved above all beings; and maintained that this was +a duty that the nobles owed their sovereign. A landscape of his, +showing a view of the lake, on the borders of which lay Walpurga's +birthplace, was hanging in the summer palace. It was a clever picture, +but malicious tongues asserted that one of his friends, at the academy, +had painted the landscape, and that another had done the figures.</p> + +<p class="normal">On their mountain excursions, Schoning paid marked attention +to Irma, +who could freely indulge her wanton humor with him, for it was well +understood, at court, that no one could have a love affair with +Schoning. He was the butt of every one, and knew how to take, as well +as give a joke.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schoning would, many a time, have liked to avoid taking part +in these +excursions, for he well knew that his attempts to acquire dignity were +far from being successful. But even pretended illness did not serve as +an excuse; for, without Schoning, there was no target for their jests.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was he to do? He put the best face possible on the +matter and, +with feigned willingness, accompanied them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Notwithstanding the wide difference in their stations, +Schoning and +Baum were both indispensable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum was the favorite servant at court. He was fortunate +enough to be +useful in every way, and no country party, no dinner in the woods, no +excursion on the water, was considered complete without him. Actors are +often vexed when they are not sufficiently employed, or are cast for +unimportant parts, and lackeys, in the same way, have a jealous desire +to be kept ever busy. It follows, as a matter of course, that Baum had +his favorites, whom he would, when occasion offered, mention +approvingly to the lord steward, and they obeyed him as if he were +their natural superior. The queen's shawl, or the king's paletot, were +never so well carried as by Baum. While hanging on his arm, they would +almost seem to say: "Oh, how warm and soft we are, and we are ready, at +any time, to protect and warm you. Your Majesties have only to command +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">The evenings were pleasantly spent. After tea, they would +usually +repair to the inner palace yard and, by the light of torches, look at +the wild beasts that had been shot during the day's hunt. The queen, +although loth to behold such sights, would always join the party, lest +they might regard her as being sentimental. Success in the chase always +put the king in a good humor. They would then return to the open +saloons, where they would have instrumental and vocal music, play cards +or have some one read to them. Irma was an excellent billiard player, +and won many a game from the king. Her every movement was full of grace +and every pose that she assumed while playing was worthy of an artist's +pencil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How beautiful she is," the queen would often say to her +husband, who +would nod assent. There was much merriment in the great billiard-room. +Before parting for the night, the inner circle of the court would +gather, as if for rest and retrospection; for, every evening, the +chronicle of the day was read aloud. Baron Schoning had conducted this +daily journal for many years. It was written in verse and, what was +still better, in the Highland dialect. Countess Irma was often +mentioned in it, under the name of the "Rock-maiden." All the little +events of the day were presented in a comic dress, and, as the company +knew all the personages referred to, the reading of the journal always +occasioned great merriment. The king was usually referred to as Nimrod, +or Artus. Nor were the dogs forgotten, and one of the standing jokes +was: "Foster-mother Walpurga ate heartily, and Romulus drank copiously. +Aunt Lint"--meaning Mademoiselle Kramer--"began to recount her family +history, but has not yet reached the end."</p> + +<p class="normal">After the king and queen had retired, the court would break +up into +small parties. Accompanied by Doctor Gunther, Irma would often ascend +some neighboring height or descend into the valley. Gunther taught her +the constellations: and here, in the stilly night, he would explain to +her the great laws that govern the universe; how the planets move in +infinite space, attracted and repelled, so that none described a +perfect circle. They would often speak of Irma's father, who, Gunther +maintained, would be able to complete his circle, because he had +isolated himself. The doctor, however, maintained that his own case was +different; that it had been his lot to remain in the world; that an +elliptical course was the only one in which he could move; and that, +being a physician, he was obliged to influence others and was unable to +escape their influence on himself. Thus absorbed in the secrets of the +universe, the old man and the maiden would forget themselves until +fatigue warned them that it was time to return and seek repose.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma would often say that she intended to spend much of her +time with +the Gunthers, during the winter. The young widow and her child had now +come home to live with the father.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma would rarely retire for the night, without first +visiting +Walpurga, who would generally lie awake and wait for her, and who, if +she had fallen asleep, would, as if conscious of her presence, awaken +as soon as Irma drew near. They would sit talking to each other for +some time. Walpurga had always much to relate about her clever prince, +and still more about the good queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The days grew shorter, the evenings longer. The gardeners +were kept +busy, clearing the fallen leaves from the paths, before the court +awoke. It was said they would soon leave the summer palace and return +to the capital. The king had preceded them thither. Surrounded by a new +ministry, of which Schnabelsdorf was president, he opened the +parliament in person.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther felt sorry, and expressed his regrets to Irma, that +the king, +in appointing a reactionary and ultramonnate ministry, had taken a step +fraught with serious consequences. In firm and measured language, he +inveighed against all the romance of the convent. Irma had not enough +courage to confess how much she was to blame in all this, and consoled +herself with the thought that the king had, in the queen's presence, +rejected all outside influence. For the first time, she became +conscious of a feeling of antagonism to the doctor, who, in her eyes, +now seemed illiberal and filled with the fanaticism of unbelief. He was +a stranger to the greatest glory in life, the flights of a soaring +soul, and anathematized them by the words "romance" and +"sentimentalism." The king, solitary and alone while breasting the +torrent of public opinion, seemed to her greater than ever before. The +idea that she had once expressed in a letter to Emma, gradually became +clearer to her. No one but a king, and such a one as he, has the large +and comprehensive mind that will not suffer itself to be cramped by the +systems of the schools. Logic is only part of the human mind. The +complete man alone possesses a complete mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even such a mind and such a man as the doctor, seemed to her +to suffer +by comparison with the only one.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite uneasy on account of the second change of +residence, +and complained to Irma that it was a fearful life. "Why, it's nothing +but living in carriages. You never get a chance to feel settled +anywhere. It don't seem right to go and come in this way. Of course, +they drive the cattle away from the mountain-meadows when the grass is +gone, but cattle aren't human beings. I can't help pitying my poor +prince, for there's nothing in his youth worth remembering. When he +gets older, he won't be able to say: 'I used to be at home here, and +saw these trees blossom and bear fruit; and then the snow covered them, +and, after that, the spring came'--and if the poor child hasn't that, +where'll it ever have a home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">At breakfast, Irma repeated Walpurga's words, and found much +that was +affecting and poetical in this identifying one's-self with nature, and +in this attachment to lifeless objects. The ladies and gentlemen in the +breakfast-room could not understand where the poetry lay, for to them, +it seemed narrow-mindedness. Baron Schoning interposed, and reminded +them that this attachment to the soil possessed its advantages; for it +was thus alone that solitary heights and valleys were inhabited. He +maintained that the common people could only be governed by the force +of habit; that man, as a free agent, must rid himself of such +restraint; and that the true poetic idea was that of Pegasus resting on +the earth, but yet able to wing his flight aloft.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schoning looked about him as if he expected applause for his +profound +remark. It failed, however, to produce an impression. He had so +constantly ministered to the amusement of the court, that all his +attempts to be serious were failures, suggesting the success with which +a well-known comedian or country bumpkin would undertake a tragic +<i>rôle</i>, Schoning imagined that Irma understood him better than any of +the others, but even she was not in a humor to assent that day. Gunther +was the first to take up the conversation, saying that the present +desire for incessant travel constituted a new impulse in the history of +mankind, and one which no former age had known to the same extent. The +generation which, even in its cradle, had heard the whistle of the +locomotive, must, of necessity, be different from its predecessors. But +yet poetry would never die, for every mother would teach her child to +sing, and time, the everlasting mother, would teach unto the children +of a new generation, new songs, different from those of the past but +none the less full of beauty and feeling.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen nodded to Gunther, and her face was mantled with +blushes, +while she said that she agreed with Walpurga, and would rather remain +in one place and become settled there.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gentlemen and ladies of the court were loud in their +praise of the +queen's beautiful and feeling remarks, while, in their hearts, many +considered them just as foolish as Walpurga's.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they had left the table, the queen said to Irma:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear Countess, you shouldn't say such things at table, or in +the +presence of company. Let me assure you, they are out of place there. +Walpurga's thoughts are like fresh wild-flowers, which, when plucked +and bound into a bouquet, soon wither and die. It is only artificially +cultivated flowers that are adapted for the <i>salon</i>, and the best of +all are those made of tulle and gauze. Hereafter, confide such things +to me alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was delighted with this agreement; but when, at noon, +the queen +told Walpurga what she had heard about her, the latter was angry at +Irma. It won't do, thought she, to repeat everything you hear. She felt +ashamed of herself, and became shy and reserved in Irma's presence. It +was only when she was alone with the prince, that she whispered: "Yes, +my little wanderer; after this, you shall be the only one to whom I'll +tell everything. You're the cleverest in the whole house, and the only +one who holds his tongue. You won't say a word to any one, will you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite troubled by the idea of leaving, and Baum +was the +only one who knew how to pacify her. He said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be foolish. What do the furniture and the trees and +all the rest +matter to you? They remain here. You step into the carriage and ride to +the city and, when you get there, find all you need, ready for you. +There are hands and feet enough to attend to all that."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga gradually quieted herself. They waited for the first +sunny +day, and then the queen, the prince, Walpurga and the royal suite drove +to the capital. The summer palace was once more lonely and deserted; +dead leaves filled the paths in the park and were no longer swept away. +The great colored lamps of the veranda were put away for safe-keeping, +and the large windows were covered with layers of straw. The summer +palace entered on its winter sleep, and, in the mean while, new life +awakened at the city palace.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The royal palace was in the center of the city, and was without walls +or fosse. Although its windows looked down on the busy streets, it +seemed as if it stood on some fortified height, and as if outworks for +offense and defense surrounded it for some distance. It was only at +rare intervals, and in indistinct utterances, that a stray echo of +popular feeling penetrated so far. There were hundreds of human beings, +from the lowest kitchen servant up to the major-domo, who served in +place of wall or fosse, and prevented all except the favored few from +entering the royal presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was in a happy mood and yet his cheerfulness seemed +forced. He +was a prey to a restless disposition which would not permit him to +dwell long on any one subject. From morning till night, he required +constant change and gay excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">If he had been asked to answer on his conscience, he would +frankly have +said: "I respect the constitution and am faithful to it"--and yet, at +heart, he was unconquerably opposed to it, for it cramped his +individuality. It was in the same way that he loved his wife, while his +heart paid homage to her friend; but that he should be subjected to the +law, or even to his own desires, was equally distasteful to him--for +that, too, would retard the full development of his new individuality. +He regarded all that savored of opposition, whether it was the +constitution of the state or the opinion of a kind friend, as an +attempt to subjugate him. He desired to be perfectly free and yet not +without law and affection. He could not forego the approbation of those +to whom he was, at the same time, unwilling to accord the right to +dissent. He would have liked his own people to regard him with as loyal +an affection as that which the English bestow upon their rulers, but +did not care to have it interfere with his following the dictates of +his own judgment. He studied the laws of the state, but favored such +interpretations thereof as rendered them nugatory. He loved the +constitution, much as he did his wife; that is, he prized her virtues, +and aimed to be faithful to her without sacrificing his inclinations.</p> + +<p class="normal">The journals of the day reached the king in the form of an +abstract, +which was prepared in the literary court-kitchen. By his orders, +stenographic reports of the proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies were +brought to his cabinet, but for the greater part they remained unread. +There was too much to be done, too much of ceremonious receptions, +parading and exercises. The new arsenal was now under roof, and they +were engaged in supplying the decorations, devices for some of which +were prepared by the king himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The great autumn maneuvers took place near the palace. There +was much +talk of changes, and, among the soldiers, great enthusiasm thereat. The +queen and Irma, attired in the uniform of the queen's guards, appeared +on horseback. The queen looked like a patron saint, while Irma, with +her triumphant air, looked like a commander.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the word of command, the huzzas of the soldiers filled the +air, and +it seemed as if their joyous shouts would never end.</p> + +<p class="normal">Colonel Bronnen was quite devoted in his attentions to Irma. +It was +generally believed that he would, before long, sue for her hand. Some +even went so far as to assert that they were already secretly +betrothed, and that Irma's father, the old misanthrope, had refused his +consent, but that the beautiful countess would be of age within a +month. No regiment could have wished for a more beautiful colonel's +wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's life seemed to glide on in ecstatic happiness. She did +not even +know that the world had betrothed her. When she met the doctor, she +would say: "I think of visiting your dear family, every day, but there +is always something to prevent me; I'll surely come to-morrow or the +day after."</p> + +<p class="normal">Weeks passed before she paid the visit, and when she did +call, the +servant informed her that the family were not at home. Irma had +intended to call again, and finally concluded that they had treated her +rudely in neglecting to return her visit. She waited, and, at last, +dropped all intercourse with them. It is far better, she thought in +one's own sphere; aside from this, they were in mourning at the +doctor's, and Irma was not in the mood to seek sorrowful scenes. The +doctor himself even appeared ill at ease, for he had recently said to +her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most persons, even those who are matured and self-conscious, +exhaust +their joys, just as children do. Like them, they indulge their love of +pleasure without stint, and then follows the reaction, when joy is +followed by tears."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma avoided all further discussion with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rainy days came, and no one could leave the house. Walpurga +would go +about as if a prisoner, longing to be at the summer palace, although if +she had been there at that season of the year, she would have been +obliged to remain indoors. "Uncle was right," said she, jestingly, to +Mademoiselle Kramer. "At the christening, he said I was a cow, and now +I can fancy how a cow must feel, when it comes down from the mountain +meadows to its stall in the valley. Grubersepp, who lives at our place, +has a mountain meadow, and whenever his cows are brought home, they +keep on lowing for three days, and won't eat a thing. If I only knew +how things are at home; if I only felt sure that they keep my child +indoors; but I'll write at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga wrote an anxious, sorrowful letter and was not +content until +good tidings came in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whenever Irma entered the crown prince's apartments, even in +the +gloomiest weather, her presence seemed like sunshine. There was rarely +a day that she did not come, although her visits were shorter than they +had been. She said that the preparations for her brother's wedding took +up so much of her time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to see your father," said Walpurga, one day; "he +must be a +splendid man to have such good and beautiful children."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma pressed her hand to her heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If father comes I'll bring him to you," said she, as if to +silence +her. The innocent remark of this simpleminded woman had deeply moved +her, and the anticipation of brilliant festivities gave way to sad and +sombre thoughts. She was often in the city, either alone or attended by +her brother, while making purchases for a complete and luxuriously +furnished household. Women in large towns find as much pleasure in +shopping as children in the woods do in gathering wild-flowers. To go +from shop to shop, to compare, to select, to purchase--it is just like +plucking flowers. Irma was enough of a child and woman of the world to +delight in this, and to enjoy the pleasure of furnishing a house +according to her own taste. The workmen and shopkeepers exaggerated +nothing when they said that they had never before met one whose orders +showed such excellent judgment. Irma was not amiable and gracious, she +was simply courteous. She never apologized for the trouble she gave the +shopkeepers and workmen, for that was part of their business. She +addressed them respectfully, freely expressed her approval, when their +suggestions were in good taste, and thanked them for correcting her, +when her demands were impracticable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Could Irma have heard how sewing-women, workmen and shopmen +praised +her, it would have gladdened her heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">It struck her as very singular that every one would make the +mistake of +speaking of the new establishment as her own, and not as her brother's.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wedding was solemnized. Irma had no opportunity of +introducing her +father to Walpurga, for he did not come. During those few days, she +neglected to visit the crown prince's apartments, and when she again +went--she had dreaded Walpurga's questions--the nurse made no allusions +to the wedding or to her father.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt that Mademoiselle Kramer had informed Walpurga of +the state +of affairs. She would gladly have placed matters before her in their +true light, but that were impracticable. The common people could only +understand simple relations, and an involved and complicated story, +such as hers, would pass Walpurga's comprehension. Irma forced herself +to appear the same to Walpurga as she had always been. The latter +observed this, although she said nothing about it. She, too, had become +strangely reserved.</p> + +<p class="normal">Winter came in all its might. Walpurga could not go out into +the open +air, but found pleasure in taking long walks with the crown prince, +inside the palace. A whole suite of apartments had been thrown open and +heated for this purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may sing if you like," the doctor had said to her. But +Walpurga +could not utter a sound in the grand saloons, for she was afraid of the +pictures of men in coats of mail, and of women with stiff ruffs or +bare-necks, who were looking down upon her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know what I am going to say is very stupid, and you must +promise not +to repeat it," said she, one day, in confidence to Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it? You can always tell me everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's very silly, I'm sure, but it seems to me as if those +men and +women can't find rest in the other world and have got to be here all +the time and look on at what happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That isn't at all stupid," said Irma, smiling. "But, pay +attention, +Walpurga, to what I am about to tell you. To stand here, and feel that +your father, your great-grandfather, and others still further back, are +looking at you--that's what is meant by nobility. Thus, we are always +in the company of our ancestors."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand; it's just the same as if, in your heart, you +were always +saying a mass for the repose of their souls."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's it, exactly."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma thought of repeating this conversation to the queen. +But, no; she +would tell it to the king. His was a truly poetic and exalted +conception of all things. Irma had accustomed herself to tell the king +all that happened to her. She spoke to him of all her thoughts, and of +every book that she read, and thus found all her experiences invested +with a twofold interest. He was so grateful, so appreciative, so happy, +and was, moreover, so burdened down with the cares of state that it was +a duty to cheer him with other thoughts.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the summer palace, the trees were covered with snow and +the windows +were protected with straw; but in the palace at the capital, pleasure +reigned supreme. Here all was fragrance, splendor, glitter, and, in +Bruno's house, it seemed as if the feasting would never end. The +court had honored the opening fête with their presence, and, throughout +the city, all spoke of the queen's great kindness, in visiting a +sister-in-law of so peculiar a kind, and of her having, in the most +affable and friendly manner, actually sat on the same sofa with her. +The old baroness had also wished to attend the first fête given by her +children, but, having been informed that, in that case, the queen would +not come, she remained at her castle in the little country town.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arabella had written to Bruno's father. Her husband had not +forbidden +her doing so, but he had told her, beforehand, that she would receive +no answer. He had every reason to feel assured of this, for he had +never forwarded the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma consoled her, and found it painful to offer such a +description of +her father's peculiarities as would satisfactorily account for his +silence. It seemed like treachery, but she could not help it, for why +should the poor child be made to suffer. But fête succeeded fête with +such rapidity, that the father, the whilom dancer--aye, even her own +thoughts, were soon forgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Chamber of Deputies was not far from the royal stables, +and, while +the delegates were heatedly discussing so-called decisive questions, +the royal riding school was the scene of a rehearsal for a tournament +in the knightly costume of the Middle Ages. Prince Arnold who, as the +story went, was wooing princess Angelica, was chief of the gentlemen, +and Irma of the ladies.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although it was merely by accident that the tournament opened +on the +evening of the day on which the Chamber was dissolved, the circumstance +occasioned much ironical comment throughout the capital.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was the central figure in the brilliant scene. When she +entered +the royal box, the king lavished loud praise upon her beauty and skill.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen added her praises to his and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must feel happy. Countess Irma, to think that you afford +us so +much pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma bowed low and kissed the queen's hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was hardly time to rest from one fête, before another +succeeded +it. The grand sleighing-party, which was especially brilliant, excited +the whole city. The king and the queen drove in an open sleigh, and, in +spite of their dissatisfaction with the policy of the government, the +citizens were delighted to see the royal couple so happy. Following +immediately after the sleigh of the prince of the house came that of +Bruno and his handsome wife; but, rich as were the trappings and +handsome as were the couple, all glances were quickly turned to the +next sleigh in which sat Irma and Baron Schoning. She had pitched upon +him as the most convenient dummy. The countenances of the lookers-on +were expressive of mingled surprise and derision.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If Hansei could only see it! How I wish he could! One would +hardly +believe it!" said Walpurga, as she looked out of her window at the +sleighing-party.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one had noticed her but Irma, who nodded to her. How +radiant she +was; she had never looked so beautiful. The clear cold air of winter +had wondrously animated her features. She was sitting in a swan, drawn +by two white horses, and Walpurga said to herself: "Oh, you dear +creature! You just look as if you couldn't help riding to heaven; but +you'll never marry that clown aside of you." The last words she had +uttered in quite a loud voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She won't marry at all," said a voice behind her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked around, startled. Baum had been standing +behind her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What an everlasting eavesdropper you are," said she. All her +joy had +been embittered, but this did not last long, for Irma soon came and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, I can only warm myself with you. It is bitter +cold, and +you're like a good warm stove. You're growing as fat and as broad as a +Dutch oven."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was delighted with her friend. She was always coming +to see +her and allowing her to share in all her pleasures.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Walpurga started with fright, when the king suddenly +entered. +Courteously bowing to Irma, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"A letter has just come for you; I thought I would bring it +myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked down, while she took the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray open it," said the king while he motioned Walpurga to +follow him +into the prince's room. When he came out again, the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did the letter bring you good news?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked at him with surprise, and at last said: "It was +from my +dearest friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king nodded, as if pleased that the letter, which had +been written +by himself, should receive such an answer. He added, in a careless +tone:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear Countess, you will, of course, feel sad at parting from +Walpurga, +but her situation must necessarily end with time. Think of some other +position for her, so that you may keep her near you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga drew a long breath. "Give me the farm," lay on her +lips, but +she could not utter the words. She felt as if her tongue clave to the +roof of her mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king soon took his leave. He always came and went so +quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you shall not remain here," said Irma when she was alone +with +Walpurga. "It is better, a thousand times better for you, that you +should go home again. Next summer, I'll come to see you. I'll never +forget you. Rely upon it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga now felt bold enough to express her wishes in regard +to the +farm; but Irma was immovable. "You know nothing about these things. +Take my word for it--it will be far better for you, if you go home +again."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"How do you live in the country in winter?" asked the queen while she +sat by the cradle of her child. "Well enough," replied Walpurga, "but +wood is getting to be quite dear. We're glad when spring returns. To be +sure, my Hansei has good earnings in the winter, when the wood can be +brought down the snow road to the valley. Mother always says our Lord's +the greatest of all road-masters, for He can make roads and make it +easy to bring the wood where no man can."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have a good mother. Give her my love, and when I again +go to the +mountains, I shall visit her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, if you only would!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now," resumed the queen, "tell me how you pass your time +during +the winter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"When the housework for the day is done, the women spin. The +men spend +the day in the forest, cutting wood, and, when night comes, they're so +tired that they hardly ever cut kindling-wood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you sing much at such times?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course. Why not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you never read to each other?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, never. But we like to tell stories, and frighten each +other as +much as we can."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you sometimes dance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, at carnival time; but there's not much of that +nowadays. They say +it used to be much better in old times."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you never find the day hang heavy on your hands?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, never; we've no time for that."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen smiled when she looked at the astral lamp that +stood on the +table, and thought of the many expedients that society employed to kill +time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen at length said: "And do you feel quite sure that +your husband +is always true to you? Do you never think of his being otherwise?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother often says that the men are all good for nothing, but +she says +my Hansei's not like the rest of 'em. He'd be heartily ashamed of +himself if he spoke a loving word to another woman. It would haunt him +day and night, and he'd never be able to look any one in the face +again. He's not one of your sharp, clever folks--far from it; but he's +good, thoroughly good at heart; a little bit close in money matters, +and he's always afraid that, some time or other, we might come to want. +However, one who has to save every kreutzer can easily get used to +that. But, thank God, that's over, now."</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga had once begun to talk, she would, unless +interrupted, +run on like a mountain spring. She had a thousand and one little +stories to tell.--How she had, for the first time, bought three geese, +two white and one gray; how many feathers she got from them, and what a +good price she obtained for the feathers; and that she now had eight +ducks--they were much more useful than geese, and required but little +food; and that her goat was wondrous clever. They had once had a sheep, +but that was nothing. They belong in flocks and don't thrive well +alone. At last, Walpurga said that she could hardly believe that they +really had two cows of their own in the stable. She had never, in all +her life, even wished for so much. And then she spoke of the innkeeper +and said that, although one couldn't trust him, it was necessary to +keep on good terms with him, for, if he was your enemy, you might as +well be put out of the village and the principal house would be closed +to you. The innkeeper would, once in a while, do you a favor, if he +lost nothing by it. He had paid a good price for her ducks and fish, +and if you should happen to need it, you could always get a little from +him on trust. She didn't want to speak ill of him, but he had once been +impudent to her; but she had taught him a lesson that he'd remember as +long as he lived. She hoped the queen wouldn't do anything to him for +that; he was good enough, after all, considering that he was an +innkeeper. But there were ever so many good people in their +neighborhood. They didn't give anything away, and she wouldn't want +their gifts, but when you know that on every hillside there are people +who feel kindly toward you, it makes the whole neighborhood seem as if +it were one warm room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen smiled.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went on talking. The more she talked, the more the +child +prattled and crowed and clapped its hands; the sound of his nurse's +voice pleased him, and Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's just like a canary-bird; when there's lots of +chattering in the +room, he joins in with his merry song. Isn't it so, you canary-bird?" +said she, shaking her head at the child, while it crowed yet more +lustily than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">Buried in thought, the queen passed her hand over her face +several +times. Walpurga's words had transported her into another world. And so, +thought she, there are other beings, beneath me and far away, who pass +their days in work and care and yet are happy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What makes you look so sad?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her question had recalled the queen to herself. No one had +ever read +her face in this way. No one could, or would have questioned her thus.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen made no answer, and Walpurga continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my dear queen, I can't help thinking you must have a +hard time of +it. To have plenty of everything isn't so good for one after all. It's +like having your heaven on earth. Have you never felt lonely and lorn? +When one wakes to sorrow and thinks that one still has sound limbs, and +can work, and can see the sun and know that there are still good people +in the world--it's then that you really feel at home in the world. Oh, +my dear queen, don't be sad. You couldn't, if you knew how happy you +ought to feel."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was silent for a long while. There must have been +something +in Walpurga that suggested the thought, for she at last said: "They +play William Tell to-night. I would like you to go to the theater, for +once."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to go, well enough. Mademoiselle Kramer has told me +a great +deal about it; it must be splendid, but I can't take the child with me, +and I can't leave it alone for so long a time. See how he listens, and +what a cross voice he has already. He understands everything we say, +I'll bet my head on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy began to cry. Walpurga took him up in her arms, +fondled him and +sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">I won't leave you a minute,</p> +<p class="t6">To see the finest play;</p> +<p class="t6">It's better far, and safer,</p> +<p class="t6">If at home with you I stay.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">The little prince was soon quieted and fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, you're right," said the queen, after a pause. "Remain +just as you +are, and when you go home again, don't think of what is past. Only +think that your lot is the best in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen left. Walpurga felt like telling Mademoiselle +Kramer that the +queen was very sad, and was about to ask what could be the matter; but, +with clever tact, she refrained from alluding to the subject. The queen +had been so confiding and so sisterly with her, that it would not do to +speak of it to any one else; and perhaps, too, the queen did not wish +others to know that she was sad.</p> + +<p class="normal">For many days, there was a pilgrimage of court ladies and +gentlemen to +Walpurga for the sake of seeing something that was quite new to them. +Doctor Gunther had given Walpurga permission to get a distaff and spin. +To see a spinning-wheel in use seemed like a fairy-tale. Few of the +ladies and gentlemen had ever seen such a thing before, and now they +came and looked on wonderingly. Walpurga, however, always laughed +merrily when she wound a fresh thread on the spindle. All the court +came to look at the distaff, and Schoning declared that this was the +implement with which Little Thomrose had injured herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was again the object of envy, for she, too, knew how to +spin and, +like a village neighbor, would sometimes come and join threads for +Walpurga. They both sat spinning at the same distaff, and, while they +worked, their voices joined in merry songs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's to be done with what we spin?" asked Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was vexed, for the question had destroyed the charm. +She said: +"Little shirts for my prince; but they must only be of my spinning." +After that, she laid the bobbins which Irma had filled in a separate +place. The threads which she had moistened with her own lips, should be +the only ones used by the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma could not help telling Baron Schoning of Walpurga's +plan, and it +suggested to him a poem, in which he alluded to the legend of a fairy, +or enchanted princess, who was spinning flax for her darling. The queen +was delighted with the poem, and, for the first time, and with perfect +sincerity, praised the Baron's verses.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting at her distaff and telling the prince in +the +cradle the story of the King of the Carps, who swims about at the +bottom of the lake. He's more than seven thousand years old, wears a +crown on his head, has a great long beard and, up over him, millions of +fishes are swimming about and playing tag with each other and when +one's naughty and envious and quarrelsome and disobedient, the naughty +pike comes and eats him, and then comes the fisherman who catches the +pike, and then comes the cook who cuts up the pike, and then all the +little fishes jump out and go back into the lake and come to life and +tell all that's happened to them, how dark it was in the pike's belly, +and how much brighter it is in the sea and, in the mean while, the pike +is cut in pieces and eaten, and if one's not very careful, he'll get a +fish-bone in his mouth, and that'll make him cough, and Walpurga +coughed with great skill.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door suddenly opened and, to Walpurga's great alarm, a +handsome +young officer entered, went straight up to her, saluted her in military +fashion, and, while twirling his mustache, asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have I the honor of addressing the magic spinner, named +Walpurga +Andermatten, from the cottage by the lake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; dear me, what can be the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sent by the spirit Kussschmatzky, and he commands me to +kiss you +three times in order to break, a spell."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga trembled. It was her own fault. Why had she told the +child so +many fairy-tales, and now it had all come true. All at once, the +officer threw his arms about her neck, and kissed her with all his +might, and then laughed until he could no longer stand, and seating +himself, exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you really don't know me? That's splendid. Don't you +know your +friend Irma, any more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You rogue! You good-for-nothing rogue," burst out Walpurga. +"Pardon +me. Countess Irma, but who'd have thought of such a thing; and you +threw me into such a fright! What's it all about? Is it carnival time +already?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, if you understood the language, you might see me +in a French +play this evening. The king is also going to act. I'm sorry, for I'd +rather had you in the audience than any of the rest. But I've had +sufficient applause already; you didn't know me. I'm glad of that at +all events."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I'm heartily sorry," said Walpurga, becoming quite +serious. "Oh, +dear Countess, do you know what you're doing? It's the greatest sin to +put on men's clothes, for then the devil's master over one. Don't laugh +at me! I'm not so silly as you think. It's just as true as can be. +Grubersepp's grandfather had a daughter, and she had a sweetheart who +was off at the wars, and while she was sitting in the room spinning, +just as I was a little while ago, a girl dressed herself up in +soldier's clothes, and went into the room and acted just as if she was +the sweetheart himself. Grubersepp's daughter fainted, but got over it +again and the disguised girl ran away. And as soon as she got out of +the house, there were hundreds of men with whips and horses' heads, and +they chased her ever so far and, at last, the devil caught her, tore +her to pieces and threw her into the lake. Yes, it's a true story; you +can take my word for it. There are people enough living to this day who +knew her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're enough to make one quite melancholy," said Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps such things only happen with us," said Walpurga, as +if to +console her. "The soldiers out there, with their swords and muskets, +wouldn't let the devil enter here; but, my dear, good Countess, don't +you feel ashamed to wear those clothes before so many people?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You belong to a different world from ours. You're right, and +so are +we," said Irma, walking up and down the room quickly and rattling her +spurs. "No, Walpurga, don't alarm yourself about me, and don't take +your fright so much to heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was again the same careless, true-hearted creature that +she had +ever been, and Walpurga could not help saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how beautiful! you look just like a prince."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's eyes rested on the door long after Irma had left. +It seemed +to her as if it had all been a dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many days passed by, and Irma was always blithe and cheerful +when with +Walpurga. They would sing and spin, and the king and queen once came +together--they had never done so before--and seated themselves by the +child's cradle, while they looked at, and listened to, the workers. +Walpurga was timid at first, but, after a while, sang quite cheerfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">A veritable surprise was in store for Walpurga. Christmas eve +arrived. +The manner in which it was observed at her home, had been transplanted +hither by the queen. Walpurga and the child were conducted into the +great saloon, where the Christmas tree was all ablaze with lights, and +where there also were many rich presents.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed to her as if she were in a fairy grotto; there was +so much +glitter and sparkle, and the presents were so rich and varied. The +child shouted for joy and was ever putting out its little hands to +grasp the lights. Walpurga received lavish gifts, but, although the +dazzling gold and the rich garnet necklace with golden clasp delighted +her, a well-arranged table covered with clothing pleased her more than +all the rest. There was a complete winter suit for Walpurga's mother, +another, with a beautiful green hat, for Hansei, and many articles of +clothing for little Burgei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does it all please you?" asked the queen. "I sent to your +village to +get the measure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how it does please me!" said Walpurga; "If I could thank +you as +many times as there are threads in these clothes, it wouldn't be +enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she sent Baum to her +room to +get the yarn which was hanging there. He soon returned with it and, +presenting it to the queen, in the king's presence, she said: "As often +as I've wetted each thread with my lips, do I thank you. I shall pray +for you as long as I can move my lips, and all will go well with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king held out his hand to her and said: "You're a good +soul, but +don't excite yourself so." She pressed his hand firmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting in her room, late at night, when the +queen came to +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad you've come," said Walpurga, softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? Does anything ail the child?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; thank God, he's quiet. See how he clenches his little +fists while +he sleeps. But, on this night, at twelve, a Sunday child sees +everything. He can hear all that the angels in heaven and the beasts in +the wood are saying. One must always be with him at that time, and keep +on saying the paternoster, and then no harm will come to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I'll stay with you; that can do no harm. But you must +not torment +yourself so with your belief."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked at the queen with a strange expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, she knows nothing of this," she thought to herself. "She +wasn't +born in our faith." The queen said: "I'm glad that I can make so many +people happy, just as I've made you happy, to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you must be happy, too," said Walpurga. "Take my word +for it--I'd +put my hand in the fire as a pledge--there's nothing wrong with Irma. +She's true, and so is the king."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen started convulsively. And had it come to this pass? +Must she +receive consolation from such a quarter? She sat there motionless, for +some time. The clock struck twelve, and, at the same instant, bells +were heard ringing from every tower filling the air with their merry +sounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child in the cradle began to mutter in its sleep. +Walpurga made a +sign to the queen and went on repeating the Lord's Prayer, in a firm +voice. The queen moved her lips and silently joined in the prayer. When +it was repeated for the third time, she said aloud: "And forgive us our +trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.'" Then she +knelt down by the child's cradle, and buried her face in the pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was filled with reverence for the mother who thus +knelt +silently at her child's cradle. She went on praying in a low voice. The +queen arose, nodded to Walpurga, and waved both her hands to her. She +looked almost like a spirit, and, without uttering another word, she +left the room. The sound of the bells died on the air, and the child +slept on quietly.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Strange things were always happening during the days and nights of +Christmas week. Some mortals maintain that the kingdom of the fairies +has vanished, but it still exists.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a large building, standing back from the king's street, +there are +silent workmen, placing strange wedges side by side, which wedges are +afterward handed over to a huge monster. It is still at rest, but as +soon as it receives them, it suddenly moves, creaks, groans and puffs, +and, in an instant, hundreds of human beings are, as it were, created +anew.--In other words, it is the government printing-office, and they +are printing the official gazette, which at the beginning of every +year, announces the promotion and the orders conferred upon hundreds of +individuals.</p> + +<p class="normal">What is New Year's day to most mortals? Retrospection, +reflections that +life is but transitory, succeeded by joy at what is still left us, and +good resolutions for the future; and yet to-morrow is a mere repetition +of yesterday.</p> + +<p class="normal">How different with those whose importance depends upon their +station, +and who can be elevated into something more than they now are.</p> + +<p class="normal">The official gazette appeared, with its list of New Year's +gifts. One +pleasure fell to the lot of the queen. Her English teacher, an +estimable and noble hearted old man, whom she had brought with her as +her private secretary, received the title of privy councilor, and was +thus, in a social sense, rendered capable of being presented at court.</p> + +<p class="normal">But of all the promotions, none excited so much comment at +court and in +the capital, as the appointment of Baron Schoning to the office of +intendant-general of the royal theater, and he, himself, was more +surprised than all others. Although he had been greatly applauded for +his share in the French play, in which Irma had also taken part, he had +not anticipated such a result. When he read the announcement, he rubbed +his eyes, to make sure of being awake. Was it a bit of royal +pleasantry? He would willingly submit to any joke, but then it must be +in a confined circle, not in the eyes of the world. But it was not a +joke, it was the simple truth, for, side by side with his own, he could +read of the appointment and the promotion of many distinguished men to +important positions.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an actual fact--beautiful reality.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the city it was said, with a significant smile, that the +baron had +received the appointment in order to place him in the proper position +to marry Countess Irma. Others, who were less kindly disposed, asserted +that it was freely offered to the gallant court fool, as the court had +always regarded theatrical matters as a sort of time-honored +buffoonery, furnishing amusement of a light and trivial character.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Baron Schoning--or, as he must now be styled, the +intendant--received the visits of his subordinates with great dignity +and then drove to the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the way, he was obliged to pass Countess Irma's +apartments. He +stopped and sent in his card.</p> + +<p class="normal">The countess received him kindly, and offered him her sincere +congratulations. He plainly intimated that he, in a great measure, owed +his promotion to her, and he remarked that a lady of good taste and +true artistic feeling could be his greatest aid and support in his new +calling. She affected not to understand him and assented, in an absent +manner. Her thoughts were wandering. She would often look out of the +window that opened on the park. The snow had almost disappeared and the +marble statues of gods and goddesses had thrown off their winter +covering. Nearest her window, and in a position which showed its +profile, stood the Venus de Milo.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me," said she, at last, as if collecting her +thoughts, "I am +delighted that you have again resumed your connection with art, and +would be very glad to have a talk with you on the subject. Above all +things, let me beg of you to let us have music again at the theater: if +not during the <i>entr'actes</i>, before the performance, at all events."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The musicians are all opposed to such a course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that very well. Each art endeavors to isolate itself, +to remain +independent of all others. But a play without music is like a feast +without wine. Music cleanses the soul from the dust and dross of +every-day life and seems to say to every one: 'You are no longer in +your office, in the barracks, or in the workshop.' If it could be done, +I would prescribe a special costume for all who frequent the theater. +Their uncovered heads should be a token of spiritual reverence, and, +besides that, I would have theatrical performances only once a week."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are perfectly right as regards the music," interposed +the +intendant. "If you have any other suggestion, dear Countess--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some other time. I know of nothing at present. Just now, my +mind is +full of the <i>bal costumé</i>, which is to take place next week."</p> + +<p class="normal">The ball was to be given in the palace and the adjoining +winter garden. +The intendant now informed Irma of his plan, and was delighted to find +that she approved of it. At the end of the garden, he intended to erect +a large fountain, ornamented with antique groups. In the foreground, he +meant to have trees and shrubbery and various kinds of rocks, so that +none could approach too closely, and the background was to be a Grecian +landscape, painted in the grand style.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma promised to keep his secret. Suddenly, she exclaimed: +"We are, all +of us, no better than lackeys and kitchen-maids. We are kept busy, +stewing, roasting and cooking for weeks, in order to prepare a dish +that may please their majesties."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant made no reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you remember," continued Irma, "how, when we were at the +lake, we +spoke of the fact that man possessed the advantage of being able to +change his dress, and thus to alter his appearance? While yet a child, +masquerading was my greatest delight. The soul wings its flight in +callow infancy. A <i>bal costumé</i> is, indeed, one of the noblest fruits +of culture. The love of coquetry which is innate with all of us, there +displays itself undisguised."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant took his leave; while walking away, his mind +was filled +with his old thoughts about Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," said he to himself, "such a woman would be a constant +strain, and +would require one to be brilliant and intellectual all day long. She +would exhaust one," said he, almost aloud.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one knew what character Irma intended to appear in, +although many +supposed that it would be as Victoria, since it was well known that she +stood for the model of the statue that surmounted the arsenal. They +were busy conjecturing how she could assume that character, without +violating the social proprieties.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma spent much of her time in the atelier and worked +assiduously. She +was unable to escape a feeling of unrest, far greater than that she had +experienced years ago, when looking forward to her first ball. She +could not reconcile herself to the idea of preparing for the fête, so +long beforehand, and would like to have had it take place in the very +next hour, so that something else might be taken up at once. The long +delay tried her patience. She almost envied those beings to whom the +preparation for pleasure affords the greatest part of the enjoyment. +Work alone calmed her unrest. She had something to do, and this +prevented the thoughts of the festival from engaging her mind during +the day. It was only in the evenings that she would recompense herself +for the day's work, by giving full swing to her fancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The statue of Victory was still in the atelier and was almost +finished. +High ladders were placed beside it. The artist was still chiseling at +the figure and would, now and then, hurry down to observe the general +effect and then hastily mount the ladder again in order to add a touch +here or there. Irma scarcely ventured to look up at this effigy of +herself in Grecian costume--transformed and yet herself. The idea of +being thus translated into the purest of art's forms filled her with a +tremor--half joy, half fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on a winter afternoon. Irma was working assiduously at +a copy +of a bust of Theseus, for it was growing dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">Near her, stood her preceptor's marble bust of Doctor +Gunther. All was +silent; not a sound was heard save, now and then, the picking or +scratching of the chisel. At that moment, the master descended the +ladder and, drawing a deep breath, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There--that will do. One can never finish. I shall not put +another +stroke to it. I am afraid that retouching would only injure it. It is +done."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the master's words and manner, struggling effort and calm +content +seem mingled. He laid the chisel aside. Irma looked at him earnestly +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are a happy man; but I can imagine that you are still +unsatisfied. +I don't believe that even Raphael or Michael Angelo were ever satisfied +with the work they had completed. The remnant of dissatisfaction which +an artist feels at the completion of a work, is the germ of a new +creation."</p> + +<p class="normal">The master nodded his approval of her words. His eyes +expressed his +thanks. He went to the hydrant and washed his hands. Then he placed +himself near Irma and looked at her, while telling her that, in every +work, an artist parts with a portion of his life; that the figure, will +never again inspire the same feelings that it did while in the +workshop. Viewed from afar, and serving as an ornament, no regard would +be had to the care bestowed upon details. But the artist's great +satisfaction in his work is in having pleased himself; and yet no one +can accurately determine how, or to what extent, a conscientious +working up of details will influence the general effect.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the master was speaking, the king was announced. Irma +hurriedly +spread a damp cloth over her clay model.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king entered. He was unattended, and begged Irma not to +allow +herself to be disturbed in her work. Without looking up, she went on +with her modeling. The king was earnest in his praise of the master's +work.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The grandeur that dwells in this figure will show posterity +what our +days have beheld. I am proud of such contemporaries."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt that the words applied to her as well. Her heart +throbbed. +The plaster of Paris which stood before her suddenly seemed to gaze at +her with a strange expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should like to compare the finished work with the first +models," +said the king to the artist.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I regret that the experimental models are in my small +atelier. Does +Your Majesty wish me to have them brought here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you will be good enough to do so."</p> + +<p class="normal">The master left. The king and Irma were alone. With rapid +steps, he +mounted the ladder and exclaimed, in a tremulous voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I ascend into heaven--I ascend to you. Irma, I kiss you, I +kiss your +image, and may this kiss forever rest upon those lips, enduring beyond +all time. I kiss thee, with the kiss of eternity."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood aloft and kissed the lips of the statue. Irma could +not help +looking up, and, just at that moment, a slanting sunbeam fell on the +king and on the face of the marble figure, making it glow as if with +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt as if wrapped in a fiery cloud, bearing her away +into +eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king descended and placed himself beside her. His +breathing was +short and quick--she did not dare to look up--she stood as silent and +as immovable as the statue. Then the king embraced her--she lay in his +arms and living lips kissed each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the artist returned, the king was alone. Irma crossed +the street, +on her way to the palace, as if dreaming. She felt herself borne on +wings, and likened herself to Semele whom the ardent kisses of Jupiter +had made immortal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The greatest happiness has been mine," said she to herself. +"I can +easily give up all else, for the kiss of eternity rests upon my lips."</p> + +<p class="normal">The people and the houses seemed like so many shadowy forms, +and she +felt as if flying through the air above them.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until she had gained her apartment and beheld her +costume, +that she was reminded of the ball that was to take place that very +night. Her lips were wreathed in smiles, while her maid attired her in +the full, cloudlike, white robe, trimmed with rushes set with diamonds.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My lady promised the crown prince's nurse," said the maid, +"that she +should see her in her ball-dress. Shall I send for her now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma nodded assent. All that she heard seemed as if in a +dream; all +that she saw, as if in a cloud. She felt it a torture to be obliged to +display herself to so many people. She wished to appear to him only. To +him who was all the world to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga came, and gazed upon her like one entranced. There +stood a +maiden, so beautiful, so charming, so brilliantly and wonderfully +encircled with reeds, and with diamond drops hanging from those reeds +and from red coral branches. The girdle was a green serpent, with large +glittering diamond eyes that sparkled so that it dazzled one's eyes to +look at them. Her long hair was loosened, and fell down over her bare +neck. It was held together at the top by a wreath of water-lilies +glittering with dew-drops, and on her brow was a star which flashed and +sparkled, while the face of the beautiful maiden was more radiant than +all her jewels. Irma had never before looked so beautiful. She seemed +so noble, so far away, as if smiling, from the clouds above, upon +mortals below.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! Why, you're the Lady of the Lake," exclaimed +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! So you recognize me," said Irma, holding out her hand. +Her voice +sounded strangely.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga pressed her hand to her heart. She felt grieved that +Irma +should assume this character. It was defying God, and would end in +evil. But Walpurga said nothing; she merely folded her hands and moved +her lips in silent prayer for Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me!" she exclaimed, after passing her hand across her +eyes, "dear +me, how the people can fix themselves up. Where do they get everything +from? How is it possible?" She walked round and round Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I tell 'em at home, they'll never believe I've seen +anything like +this. The Lady of the Lake wears an undergarment of sea-foam and loose +hair just like this. If only mother and Hansei were here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma made no reply. She walked about the room, and when she +saw herself +reflected in the great mirrors her own figure seemed like a strange +apparition, and the rustling of the reeds bewildered her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would like to jump into the lake, just as I am, and quench +the +burning flames," thought she to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga seemed dazzled by so much splendor, and returned to +her +apartments.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can easily imagine," she said to herself, "that the people +here +don't understand the world, and that the queen herself doesn't +understand it, either. They make a new world every day, and turn +everything upside down and inside out, and disguise and mask +themselves. How are they ever to get rest and keep their senses? The +queen's right; it's better that I should go home again. I'd go crazy +here."</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga reached her room, she found a letter from home +awaiting +her. She had been joyfully looking forward to this letter for weeks. +She had fancied how delighted her mother and Hansei would be, and +how the villagers would come and admire their new clothes, and +express their astonishment. She had placed a cheerful letter in the +breast-pocket of Hansei's jacket, and this was the answer. Stasi had +written it, but the mother had dictated every word. It read thus:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, child, I'm sure you meant well enough, but it didn't +turn out +well. I and Hansei wore the beautiful clothes when we went to church on +New Year's day. I didn't want to; I felt sure something would happen; +but Hansei said we must put them on, for the king would think ill of +it, if we didn't wear the clothes he sent us, and so, for peace's sake, +I went to church with him. But the people kept looking at us so +strangely, and didn't say a word; and after church, they were standing +together in crowds and we could hear them say, while they pointed their +fingers at us: 'It's all very fine. Such things can be got at the +capital, but every one knows how; not in an honest way, that's certain. +The old fool and that blockhead there are proud of it in the bargain, +and show off their new clothes.' Old Zenza was worse than any of them, +and people who never listen to her at other times, were quite willing +to hear all she had to say, and urged her to go on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my dear child! you don't know how bad people can be. I +know that +you're good, but some people are bad and begrudge one everything, and +what they can't take from you they befoul. You meant well enough, I'm +sure, but I won't even venture out of the house in my own clothes now. +The people are so envious, so cunning and so willing to speak evil. As +long as you're poor you know nothing of it, but now I see it. And, dear +child, that's not the worst of it. The worst of all is that they want +to fill one's heart with mistrust, but I have none toward you; I know +you're good. Remain so, and bear in mind, that if your heart is +troubled you can't find rest, though you sleep in a golden bed and on +pillows of silk. It were far better to lie on thorns, or in the grave. +The innkeeper came and offered to buy the clothes for himself and his +wife, but I won't let him have them. And now, dear child, keep honest, +and don't touch a thread or a penny to which any evil clings. I know +you wouldn't do it, but I can't help telling you; and don't take it so +much to heart that people are so bad, and I shan't either."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga cried bitterly while she read the letter. "The +peasants are +the worst people in the world," thought she. "Of course, there are bad +people among the court folk, but they're not that bad. Just let one of +'em come again and ask for pardon. I'll send them home again." She felt +like asking the king to have a sound thrashing administered to every +one of the villagers. She only wished that the king's power could be +hers for one short hour, so that she might show these silly, infamous +people who really was their master.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting in her room, weeping with anger. Now and then she +would clench her fists and speak her mind to the folks at home, in such +a manner that they would have trembled with fear, if they could only +have heard her.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she soon regained her self-control and repressed all +emotion, lest +the excitement occasioned by the wicked folk at home should injuriously +affect the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, there were sounds of music far away in the +brightly +illuminated and elegant apartments of the palace, and also in the +winter garden. There were thousands of lights, a perfect sea of velvets +and silks, pearls and diamonds, flowers and wreaths, and smiling, +joyous faces; but the king outshone them all.</p> + +<p class="normal">He knew that he was handsome, and took an almost childlike +delight in +the fact. He was always in a good humor when attired in becoming +uniform. At the great <i>fêtes</i> which were given on the various +regimental anniversaries, he always wore the uniform of the regiment +thus honored. He was best pleased with himself, when in the dress of +the hussars, for that displayed his fine figure to great advantage. On +this occasion, he appeared in the fantastic costume of the mythic king +Artus, in a golden coat of mail and flowing purple mantle. At his side, +was the queen, refined and delicate as a lily, and wearing a light, +flowing white veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king observed the pleased expression of all who beheld +him. He was +happy, for he knew that their admiration was not flattery. When Irma +first saw him and made her obeisance to the royal couple, it required +all her self-command, to refrain from sinking on her knees at his feet. +Then she looked up into his face, with a happy, beseeching air.</p> + +<p class="normal">She could scarce refrain from expressing her admiration and +devotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen greeted her cordially, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry, Irma, that you can't see yourself; you're enough +to make +one believe in miracles."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king said nothing, but Irma felt his glance resting upon +her. She +could not conceive how it was that his glances and the queen's words +did not destroy her. With an effort to regain her composure, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Your Majesty, I find my costume oppressive. A spirit +should stay +but a minute and then vanish in a burst of flame."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is a minute which is as eternity."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had, indeed, felt a conscious pride in her beautiful +appearance, +but now she experienced a higher joy. He who was so tall and handsome, +a knight more perfect than fancy could devise, could give the kiss of +eternity; for he alone, was the highest embodiment of the idea of +royalty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma scarcely noticed what was going on about her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The royal couple passed on, and Irma, in spite of her +splendid attire, +felt as if deserted and forlorn. The king was no longer near her. In +the distance she could still see him, radiant as a god.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who were near Irma, praised her ingenious and poetical +costume. +She did not hear a word of what was said. The queen sent for her. The +king had wished the queen to open the ball with him, but she had +declined. He always asked her, as a matter of form, but she never +danced.</p> + +<p class="normal">She now begged Irma to open the ball in her stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma bowed her thanks, but a proud feeling of superiority +filled her +breast. "You have nothing to give me. It is I who am giving. It is I +who am renouncing. He is mine. The priest gave him to you; nature has +given him to me. You are a tender, delicate flower, but we are eagles, +who soar into the clouds."</p> + +<p class="normal">She could hardly conceive how she could bear it all. Every +drop of +blood in her veins had turned to fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">The quadrille began.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt the king's warm breath against her cheek. He +pressed her +hand, indulged in various pleasantries, and remarked that it was +charming to be able to indulge one's fancy in conjuring up a fantastic +world. Irma felt that both she and the king would have liked to speak +of far different things, and that, indeed, silence was even more +eloquent than speech; but they were obliged to talk, and of indifferent +subjects at that. Whenever the king's hand touched hers, she felt as if +she must suddenly fly aloft with him; and, whenever he removed it, as +if she must sink. They came near throwing the whole quadrille into +confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen left the ball at an early hour. The king +accompanied her, but +soon returned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma went about the room, but the gay scene seemed like a +confused +dream. At last she met her brother and his wife, who were richly +attired, and greeted them with a pleasant smile. She was forever asking +herself: "Do I still live? where am I? who am I?" She had descended +through the air, and was floating in a strange world, in which there +were only two human beings--he and she; the first, the only human pair. +The gods have again descended upon earth, and his kiss is eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat with her brother and his wife, in a bower under a +pine-tree. +Presently, the king approached. In her heart, she rushed forth to +embrace him, exclaiming: "Let us die together! Thou art mine and I am +thine. We are alone in the world--" But all she did was to rise from +her seat, and bow tremblingly. The king sat down beside her.</p> + +<p class="normal">As if this were the first time he had beheld her, he gazed +with delight +upon her beautifully shaped head, the curls playing about her throat +and descending to her shoulders, and the dimpled neck. She seemed +taller than usual. The delicate, oval face; the broad forehead richly +arched as if with too great a wealth of thought; the finely curved +eyebrows; the brown eyes with their limpid brilliancy, and the swelling +lips; all were in beautiful and harmonious proportion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are beautiful, and I love you," whispered the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you are beautiful and great, and my love for you is +without +limit," answered her heart, although her lips did not utter a sound. +She closed her eyes and suffered his glance to rest upon her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma!" said the king. "Irma," he repeated, with a choking +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">They sat there in silence for some time, and then, drawing a +deep +breath, the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Irma! There is one moment which is as eternity--there +parting is +unknown. In the world below, men reckon by hours and minutes, but to +those who dwell in the heaven above, the earth is no longer visible."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked up. Bruno and his wife had gone. She was alone +with the +king.</p> + +<p class="normal">She longed to fall on her knees before him, to clasp him in +her ardent +embrace. With powerful effort, she forced herself to remember her +surroundings. The music, the lights, the gay figures: all was a +confused jumble. She opened her lips but could not utter a word. She +arose quickly and with trembling step left the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king left the ball soon after.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was late at night. Walpurga, her heart filled with +sadness, stood +looking out of the window of the room over Irma's apartments.</p> + +<p class="normal">Light clouds were passing over the sky, now covering the +moon, and then +again revealing it in all its splendor.</p> + +<p class="normal">The light fell full on the figure of the Venus de Milo, and +she seemed +to turn her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga bounded away from the window, and was so frightened +that she +did not venture again to return to the open casement.</p> + +<p class="normal">The same ray of moonlight that shone upon the Venus de Milo +rested +tremblingly on the lips of the statue which the king had kissed.... The +gods were astir that moonlight night....</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When the small circle composed of the select of the court were at tea, +the intendant announced it as his intention to celebrate the birthdays +of those great minds who had contributed to the elevation of the drama, +and said that he meant to begin with the approaching anniversary of +Lessing's birth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What play will you give us?" inquired the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should feel highly honored if Your Majesty would decide +which it +shall be."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I?" asked the queen, looking toward the king, who was +sitting opposite +to her. Although apparently engaged with an illustrated newspaper, he +must have felt that the queen's eye was upon him, for he looked up and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, please yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I should like 'Emilia Galotti.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">All looked up, for this work, as well as Schiller's "Love and +Intrigue," had, during the last reign, been placed on the list of +forbidden plays.</p> + +<p class="normal">A pause ensued. It was the king's turn to speak, and what +would he say?</p> + +<p class="normal">He remained silent. A moment later, he showed Schnabelsdorf, +who was +sitting near him, a portrait of a foreign scholar who had recently +died, and asked whether it was a good likeness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf replied affirmatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's voice seemed so harsh and strange that the queen +felt +greatly alarmed.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment, Baum was about to hand a cup to the queen. +She turned +quickly, with a frightened look, just as if a cat had sprung upon her +shoulders, and, while turning, struck against the proffered cup, which +fell to the floor. If a bomb had suddenly burst, it could not have +produced greater consternation. Baum picked up the fragments, and felt +so terribly unhappy, that he would gladly have prostrated himself; but +it would not do for him to speak or even ask pardon, for that would +have been a still more heinous breach of discipline. The queen turned +toward him and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was my fault, not yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">She requested the ladies who had hurriedly left their seats, +in order +to satisfy their curiosity and rectify the damage that had been done, +to be seated again. The lord steward beckoned Baum to approach, and +whispered him to withdraw and leave the rest to the other servants.</p> + +<p class="normal">It required all the queen's power of self-command to preserve +the +appearance of unconcern which etiquette demanded. Although her brain +whirled with contending emotions, she sat erect and smiling, while her +eyes followed the servant who was carrying away the broken fragments, +just as if he were bearing with him something else which had been +shattered forever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum went out to the landing, and stood by the stair-rail. He +felt as +if stunned, and was so ashamed of himself that he would gladly have +hurled himself down to the floor below. Such a thing had never happened +to him before. It would disgrace him for life, and, although the queen +had taken the blame upon herself, he would have to suffer for it all +the same. He looked at the fragments of the cup, and only wished that +he, too, had been dashed into pieces.</p> + +<p class="normal">Order was speedily restored. Schnabelsdorf, who, in the new +ministry, +held the position of foreign secretary and temporarily conducted the +department of education, proved himself a friend in need. With +consummate tact, he succeeded in engaging the company with subjects +that interested them, and thus restored their good-humor. Taking the +play of "Emilia Galotti," as an instance, he said that the names which +poets had assigned to their <i>dramatis personæ</i> would furnish the +subject of interesting investigations, or rather hypotheses. It was his +opinion that in naming his intriguant Marinelli, Lessing had intended +an allusion to Machiavelli, to whose character the last century had not +been able to do justice. The vowels were the same in both names; and +the name of Orsina reminded one of a dagger leaping from its sheath. +The full round O followed by the sharp I. He continued in this vein, +and afforded much interesting information in regard to the names of +poetic characters. Lessing had acted wisely, substituting for the name +of Melchisedek--Boccaccio's Jew--that of Nathan, for the very name +reminds one of an all-embracing garment. How appropriate are the names +which Goethe has given his female characters--Gretchen, Clärchen, +Dorothea, Natalie. Even Schiller had frequently been happy in his +choice of names, as, for instance, Franz Mohr--Posa--how sonorous are +the O and the A.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf's conversation was both fluent and pleasing. +How +fortunate it is to be so well informed, and to be able to impart one's +knowledge to others, without troubling one's-self about moods, broken +cups, or ill-humored people looking at illustrated papers.</p> + +<p class="normal">As no one seemed inclined to assist Schnabelsdorf, he was +obliged to +monopolize the conversation. At last Irma took pity on him and +carelessly remarked how strange it was that no proper names were +invented in our day, and that all we could do was to borrow, combine, +or abbreviate those which already existed.</p> + +<p class="normal">This suggested various unsuccessful, but mirth-provoking, +attempts to +invent new names.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant told them of a peasant whom he knew and who had +named the +first of his daughters Prima, the second Secunda, the third Tertia, and +so on.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king scarcely ever looked up from the illustrated papers +that lay +before him, but the queen was affable and kindly toward all who took +part in the conversation. She felt grateful to every one who spoke, for +something had happened to her which she had really not desired. She +was, even now, as ignorant of the false construction which might be put +upon her motive in selecting "Emilia Galotti," as she was of having +intended to break the cup. It was evident that the king's mind was +agitated, for he frequently passed his hand over his brows as if to +smooth them, and it was his wont to indulge in this movement whenever +he felt it necessary to repress his excitement. His first thought had +been: Is she really ignorant that the play has, for many years, been a +forbidden one? Perhaps she is, for those who measure life by their own +feelings have no sense for historic data. But suddenly a thought +occurred to him--and he again stroked his eyebrows--it is an intrigue, +and she is capable of it. She means to lay a trap <i>á la</i> Hamlet, in +order to see what effect the play will have upon us. But no, thought he +to himself, in that case, she would be obliged to surprise us, and +that's not her way. But anger and violence and a rebuking conscience +struggled within him. His persistent devotion to the illustrated +journals made it seem as if, while in the midst of the company, he had +withdrawn into a private box. The king had never before, while in his +private circle, read so uninterruptedly. It had been his wont to look +now at this, and now at another picture, and to hand it to others for +notice or comparison. But, on this evening, he read and yet knew not +what he read. He would gladly have caught Irma's eye, and felt happy +when he heard her expressing herself so unconstrainedly. He admired +her, and would gladly have looked round to her, but dared not even +smile approval of her words. He had left Schnabeldorf's remarks +unanswered, and must, therefore, seem not to have heard Irma's.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen arose. All stood up with a sense of relief, for +every one had +felt opposed, although the evening had proven a cheerful one. Before +withdrawing, the queen made Schnabelsdorf happy by telling him how +grateful they ought to feel toward him, since he was always able to +introduce such charming subjects of conversation. Then, addressing the +intendant, she said in a voice louder than was her wont:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If it is any trouble to study 'Emilia Galotti'--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, no, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean if the time's too short."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's ample time," replied the intendant. He had already +determined +how he would cast the play, and intended to try the novel experiment of +using the costume of the last century.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think," said the queen, while her voice assumed an +expression which +was foreign to it, "that you might give us 'Nathan the Wise' or 'Minna +von Barnhelm,' if you think they can be produced more effectively."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let it be as it is," exclaimed the king, suddenly. "Let +'Emilia +Galotti' be the play, and have the bills read: 'By royal command.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The king offered his arm to the queen, and, accompanied by +her, +withdrew. The rest of the company bowed low and soon afterward +separated for the night. Those who lived without the palace got into +their carriages; the rest retired to their apartments, and, although +indifferent and unimportant topics had but recently engaged them, every +one was busied with his own thoughts on one and the same subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma dismissed her maid as soon as possible; then, taking up +a +dust-covered volume of Lessing, she opened and closed the book several +times in order to shake off the dust, and, at one sitting, read the +whole of "Emilia Galotti."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not fall asleep until near morning, and, when she +awoke, hardly +knew where she was. The open book still lay before her; the lights had +gone out of themselves, for she had forgotten to put them out, and the +air in her apartment was close and almost stifling.</p> + +<p class="normal">At about the same time that Irma awoke, bitter tears were +being shed in +the theater. The intendant had assigned "Emilia Galotti" to a new cast, +had taken the <i>rôle</i> of Emilia from the leading actress, who had looked +upon the part as hers in perpetuity, and had given it to a more +youthful performer. The <i>rôle</i> of Claudia had been assigned to the +elder actress, who sat weeping behind a side-scene, exclaiming; "Pearls +mean tears, but tears do not mean pearls." The intendant, though +generally kind and amiable, was unrelenting.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Baum was far more unhappy than the dissatisfied actress. +For she +was still permitted to take part in the performance, while he, on +account of the mishap with the cup, was no longer allowed to remain +near their majesties. He deplored his misfortune to Walpurga, and she +begged the queen that Baum might again be restored to favor. On the +second evening, the queen inquired if the lackey Baum was ill. He was +saved. Full of gratitude, he went to Walpurga and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll never forget you for this: you've served me for life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad I've been able, for once, to do you a favor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll repay you some time or other, depend upon it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum hurriedly withdrew, for Irma entered the room. The king +came in +soon afterward. He was about to speak French with Irma, but she begged +him not to do so, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Simplicity is very susceptible."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so-called good-nature," replied the king, "is often full +of malice +and intrigue. Weakness all at once fancies itself obliged to be very +strong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must be gentle for all that," replied Irma. Although they +had +spoken German before Walpurga, she had not understood a word of what +they said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I admire the power of my spy," said the king, "and confess +that I bow +to her, in all humility. I would never have believed such greatness +possible."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma nodded gently, and replied: "The hero is Hettore +Gonzaga, but the +true Emilia Galotti loves him with a power which is worthy of him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the true Hettore is neither dilettante nor weakling, and +needs no +Marinelli."</p> + +<p class="normal">The relation born of shame and passion received added +strength through +the cunning and intriguing opposition of the queen, for the choice of +the proscribed play was regarded as part of a well-considered plan. It +was like a breath of wind, which, instead of extinguishing the flame, +fans it. Deep within their hearts, lurked the self-extenuating plea +that the queen was not the pure angel she pretended to be.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am firmly convinced," said the king, "that Hippocrates +conjured the +fatal crystal cup into Nausikaa's hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Your Majesty," replied Irma, eagerly, "Hippocrates is a +thoroughly +noble man; somewhat of a pedant, indeed, but too good and too wise to +do anything like that."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king soon left and, after he had gone, Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Countess, you might open every vein in my body and I +couldn't +repeat one word of what you've been saying. I don't understand a word +of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Walpurga," said Irma, "the king's a very learned man, +and we have +just been talking about a book which was read yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was satisfied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had expected to meet the queen here," said Irma, after a +while, +passing her hand over her face, as if to change its expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen isn't coming to-day," replied Walpurga. "She sent +word that +she isn't very well. At other times, she never misses being here when +we bathe the child, and there's nothing more beautiful either, than +such a child in its bath, or right after the bath. It's like a newborn +babe, and splashes and shouts and crows. Won't you stop and see it for +once? It's a real treat."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma declined and soon afterward left the room. Silent and +alone, the +queen lay in her room. Her heart still trembled with fear of the +consequences of what she had done; no, of what had happened without her +having really desired it. A dagger had been forced into her hand, as if +by invisible fate. She could not, dared not use it; and yet suspicion +filled her soul. Suspicion! The word suddenly seemed as if she had +never heard it before, just as she had in truth never felt what it +meant. Purity and innocence no longer exist. Every joyful word, every +cheerful expression, every smile is equivocal. Every harmless remark +has a new meaning. It were better to die than cherish suspicion. The +blessed gift of fancy which enables its possessor faithfully to realize +to himself, and sympathize with, the actions and thoughts of others, +now became a consuming flame. Specters appeared before her waking eyes +and would not be laid. If the dread truth were only determined. One can +take his position against a manifest wrong, but against suspicion there +is none. It renders one weak and unsteady; nothing is fixed; the very +earth under one's feet seems to tremble.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was not ill. She could easily enough have gone to +the +apartments of her son; but she could not have looked into his face and +smiled--for her heart was filled with a bitter thought against the +father.</p> + +<p class="normal">She arose quickly, and was about to send for the king. She +would tell +him all. She wished him to release her from the torment of suspicion. +She would believe him. She would only ask him honestly to acknowledge +whether he was still true and at one with her. "At heart he's frank and +truthful," said she to herself, and love for her husband welled up from +the depths of her heart. Still, if he but swerved from himself, he has +already been untrue: and would he acknowledge it? Can one expect a man +to answer on his conscience, when he has already denied that +conscience? And if he were to acknowledge the horrible fact, she would +still bear it in silence. Anything was better than this suspicion that +poisoned her heart and hardened her soul. Could it be that evil, nay, +the mere suspicion of evil, destroys everything that lies within its +reach?</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat down again; she could not ask the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be it so," said she at last; "I must overcome this +temptation, and the +spirit of truth will lend me strength."</p> + +<p class="normal">She thought for a moment of making Gunther her confidant. He +was her +fatherly friend. "But no," she exclaimed to herself, "I am not weak. I +will not seek help from others. If I must learn the terrible truth, I +will do it by myself; and if it is a delusion, I mean to conquer it +unaided."</p> + +<p class="normal">At table and in the social circle, the queen's behavior +toward the king +and Irma was more loving than ever. When she looked at her friend, she +felt as if she ought to ask forgiveness for having, even for a moment, +thought basely of her; but when she was alone she felt her soul carried +away toward him and her. She longed to know what they were thinking of, +what they were doing or saying.--They were speaking of her, smiling at +and ridiculing her. Who knows? perhaps wishing her dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">She, indeed, wished that she were dead.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going to the theater this evening," said Baum to Walpurga, in the +afternoon of the 22d of January. "They're going to play a great piece. +What a pity you can't go, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've seen enough of masquerading," replied Walpurga. "I +shall stay +with my child. He's the only one in the whole court who can't disguise +himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Every seat in the court theater was occupied long before the +beginning +of the play, and the lively talking among the audience seemed like the +roar of the sea. Many wondered at the words on the play-bill:</p> + +<p class="center">"<i>In Commemoration of Lessing's Birthday</i><br> +EMILIA GALOTTI<br> +<span class="sc">BY ROYAL COMMAND</span>."</p> + +<p class="normal">They spoke in hints, but understood each other perfectly. Was the +performance intended to refute certain rumors? Would the court attend, +and who would form the suite?</p> + +<p class="normal">Three dull knocks were heard. They were the signal that the +court had +entered the passage leading from the palace to the theater. Every eye, +every opera-glass was directed to the royal box.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen entered, radiant with youthful beauty. The nobles +who +occupied the first tier arose. She bowed graciously, and then sat down, +and attentively read the playbill that was fastened to the front of the +box. The king entered soon after and took the seat beside her. He, too, +saluted the nobles who were still standing, and who seated themselves +at the same time he did, just as if they were part of himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king reached back for his lorgnette, which was handed to +him, and +surveyed the audience, while the orchestra played the overture. Irma's +wish was realized. Since the new intendant had come into power, there +was music at the beginning of the play and during the <i>entr'actes</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's sitting behind the queen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Countess von Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">She wore a single rose in her brown hair. She was exchanging +a few +complimentary remarks with Colonel Bronnen, and was smiling and showing +her pearly teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">A young critic in the pit said to his neighbor:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is surely not without design that Countess Wildenort, +like Emilia +Galotti, wears only a single rose in her hair."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was so much talking during the overture, that those who +desired +to listen to the music frequently hissed, but without avail; for it was +not until the curtain rose that the audience became silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is not until near the end of the first act of the play +that there is +any occasion for marked applause. The prince's haste and prejudice are +shown in his readiness to sign the death-warrant, while the carriage +waits for him. Old privy councilor Rota withdraws the document.</p> + +<p class="normal">In order to mark the festal character of the evening's +performance, the +intendant had selected music by celebrated composers, for the +<i>entr'actes</i>. The malicious maintained that this was only done in order +to prevent discussion of the play, which had not been performed for +many years. If this had really been the intention, the lively +conversation, both in the royal box and among the rest of the audience, +prevented its success.</p> + +<p class="normal">In reply to a remark of the king's, the intendant said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The rôle of Rota, although insignificant, is quite a +graceful one, +and, in this, Lessing has proved himself the master. Another advantage +is that the part can be played by a veteran."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked around in surprise--was this mere acting, +instead of a +living, thrilling fact?</p> + +<p class="normal">They went on with the play. The scene between Appiani and +Marinelli +aroused tumultuous applause. The queen never once left her place, +although it was her wont between the acts to retire to the <i>salon</i> near +her box; and Irma, as first maid of honor, was obliged to remain in +attendance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Between the third and fourth acts, the lord steward met +Bronnen in the +corridor and said: "If they would only get through with this +confounded, democratic play. The sweet rabble down there may become +demonstrative." The next act was the fourth, containing the scene +between Orsina and Marinelli. The queen held her fan with a convulsive +grasp. She saw and heard all that passed on the stage while, with +strained attention, she listened to the quickened breathing of Irma, +who stood behind her. She longed to turn round suddenly and look into +her face, but did not venture to do so. With one and the same glance, +she saw the figures on the stage and watched her husband's countenance. +Her eyes and ears did double service. It was all she could do to +control herself. The play went on. Orsina and Odoardo--if Irma were +now to faint--What then? What had she done in having this piece +performed?--Orsina hands the dagger to her father, and at last rises +into a frenzy of fury. "If we, all of us," she cried, "this whole host +of forsaken ones, were transformed into bacchantes and furies, with him +in our possession, and were tearing him to pieces and rending the flesh +from his limbs--yea, tearing out his vitals in order to find the heart +which the traitor promised to each and yet gave to none! Ah, what a +dance that would be! That would--"</p> + +<p class="normal">If Irma should cry out!--The queen clutched the rail of the +box with +convulsive grasp. She felt as if she, herself, must cry out to the +audience.</p> + +<p class="normal">But all was as silent as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the scene was over, the king, addressing Irma, in a +careless tone, +said: "Müller plays excellently, does she not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wonderfully, Your Majesty, although some parts were +overacted. The +passage, 'I have nothing to pardon, because I have not been offended,' +she gave in too sharp a tone, and her voice seemed unnatural. The +sentences of one who had been thus openly humiliated should be more +like dagger thrusts; the words should prepare us for the sharp point of +the dagger that follows them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's voice was firm and clear. The queen fanned herself, in +order to +cool her burning face and prevent herself from betraying her agitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">One whose conscience reproved her could not have spoken thus. +Her voice +must have faltered and the terrible lesson of the play itself must have +petrified her, thought the queen, as she turned toward Irma and nodded +pleasantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am stronger than I imagined, thought Irma to herself, +smoothing her +gloves. While she heard Odoardo's words, a mist had arisen before her +eyes. If it had been her father--and it might have been he. A cry arose +from her heart, but did not pass her lips; and now she was quiet and +self-composed. The play progressed without interruption, and, when it +was over, the audience were not content until they had twice called the +Odoardo of the evening before the curtain. The king joined in the +applause.</p> + +<p class="normal">The court party returned to the palace, and retired to the +queen's +apartments for tea.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was cheerful, as if she had escaped from some +danger. For the +first time in a long while her bearing was easy and vivacious. A dread +load had been lifted from her heart. She was now free and vowed that +she would never more think basely of any one; and, least of all, of her +neighbor.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were at tea, and the queen asked her husband: "And had +you also +never seen the play before?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes. I saw it on my travels; I forget where it was." +Turning +toward the intendant, he added: "I think that the costume of the last +century was very appropriate. When I saw the play before, it was in +modern attire, which seemed quite out of place. In spite of its classic +character, the play has a thin crust of powder which one dare not blow +away, lest the whole, both scene and action, become unnatural."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant was delighted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you like the piece?" asked the king of Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, it is one of our classics."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're not always so orthodox."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor am I in this case," replied Gunther; "I can safely say +that I +honor Lessing with all my heart and perhaps, indeed, with undue +partiality. But in this play, Lessing had not yet arrived at the repose +of freedom. It is the result of noblest melancholy, and might be termed +fragmentary and incomplete; for the account is not closed, and at the +end there still remains an unfilled breach. This, however, arises from +the fact that a great historical subject taken from the age of the +Romans has been transferred to the cabinet and country-seat of a petty +Italian prince."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you mean?" enquired the king. Gunther went on to +explain:</p> + +<p class="normal">"In this play, there is a pathos of despair which reaches its +climax in +the final question: 'Is it not enough that princes are men? Must they +also learn that their friends are demons in disguise?' One might assume +that this discovery was a punishment that would cling to the prince for +life. Henceforth, he must become a changed man. But this epigrammatic +confession of his own weakness and of the baseness of those who environ +him, does not seem to me a full expiation. A question, and such as +this, at the close of a drama whose aim should be to leave us +reconciled with eternal and unchanging law, can only be explained by +the fact that the keynote of the whole play is sarcastic. He whom +certain things will not deprive of his reason, has none to lose. The +fault of the play--Lessing's love of truth would court the boldest +investigation--the gap, as it were, lay in the fact that Lessing has +transferred the act of Virginius from the Roman forum to the modern +stage and has given us, instead of the infuriated citizen with knife in +hand, the malcontent Colonel Galotti. The act of Virginius was the +turning point that led to a great political catastrophe, after which +came revolution and expiation. But in Lessing's play, the deed takes +place at the end, and leads to no results. It closes with a question, +as it were, or rather with an unresolved dissonance."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although this explanation had, at first, been given in a +somewhat +acrimonious tone, it gave great satisfaction. It elevated the subject, +and the painful impressions awakened by it, into the cool, serene +atmosphere of criticism.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What struck me as peculiar, in the play," said Irma, unable +to remain +silent, "was that I discovered two marriage stories in it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marriage stories? and two of them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly. Emilia is the offspring of an unfortunate, or, to +speak +plainly, a bad marriage. Odoardo, with his rude virtue, and Claudia, so +yielding, led each other a terrible life and, in the end, parted +without scandal. He remained on his estate, while she took the daughter +to the city, in order that she might there receive the finishing +touches. Emilia was obliged to devote much of her time to the piano. +Papa Appiani was, in a moral sense, always on stilts. Madame Claudia +was worldly-minded and fond of society. The fruit of this marriage was +Emilia, and her marriage with Appiani would have been just like that of +her parents."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cleverly expounded," said the king, and, encouraged by his +praise, +Irma continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Emilia's grandmother may have said: 'I am unhappy, but I +would like my +daughter Claudia to be happy with good Odoardo, who was then but a +captain. And in turn, mother Claudia said: 'I am not happy, but my +daughter shall be'; and, at a later day, Emilia would have said: 'I am +not happy, but my daughter, etc., etc.' It's an everlasting round of +misery and resignation. Who is this Mr. Appiani? A splenetic counselor +to the embassy, who is out of employ, and merely marries for the sake +of the worthy man whom he thus makes his father-in-law, and who, after +marriage, would preach to his wife just as Odoardo had done before him, +and with just as much effect. Appiani was worth a charge of powder, or +even two, as Marinelli thought. Why had he no eye for the toilette of +his betrothed? The very next winter, Emilia would have died of <i>ennui</i> +in the country, or, becoming transformed in spirit, would have founded +an infant school on her estate. If Emilia could sing, her melodies +would have been like those of Mozart's Zerlina. Masetto Appiani felt +that he would not suit, and, although he could not tell why, had good +reasons for feeling so bad before the betrothal. Appiani ought to have +married a widow with seven children. The man's heart was tender by +nature. Had he quarreled with his wife, he would have said, as he did +after his dispute with Marinelli; 'Ah, that did me good. It stirred up +my blood and now I feel like a new and better man.' Emilia loves the +prince and, therefore, fears him. He who becomes her husband by virtue +of the marriage contract, has never possessed her love. I would have +chosen Appiani for a parliamentary delegate, but not for a husband. +Such a man should either remain unmarried, or else take unto himself a +wife who founds soup-kitchens; not an Emilia, who is enough of a +coquette to know what becomes her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's cheeks glowed while she thus spoke. She felt as if +riding o'er +forest and field on a wild courser. She had begun in bitterness and, +yielding to imagination, she went on boldly and fearlessly. She had +lost all fear and felt a conscious pride in her sway over life itself +and all that surrounded her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The evening which had threatened dire storms had brought +refreshing +breezes and a purified atmosphere.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen breathed freely once more, and felt happy in the +midst of +this circle of good and gifted people.</p> + +<p class="normal">Immediately after the play, Baum had hurried to Walpurga and +told her: +"Oh, what a play we've had. I wonder they allow them to play anything +so free. There's a prince who's just about to marry a princess, and has +an old love who's still good-looking. He wants to get rid of her and, +in the mean while, tries to procure a new one who is very beautiful and +whose marriage is to take place that very day. He has a chamberlain who +is his friend, but whom he treats quite roughly if he doesn't bring him +what he wants on the instant. He treats him as an inferior and calls +him a fool one moment, and embraces him the next. So the chamberlain +manages to have the bridegroom shot dead and the bride carried away. +But, all at once, the old love comes and meets the father of Emilia +Galotti and sets him on, and the father stabs his daughter, and she +drops down dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what becomes of the prince and the chamberlain?" asked +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me once more," said Walpurga; "what was the bride's +name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's the play-bill. It's all there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga read the bill; the hand with which she held it +trembled. There +were names which the king and Irma had mentioned that day, when she had +not understood a word of what they were saying.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you've had that story performed. Oh you--The whole +pack of you +are--I know--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer's' advice stood her in good stead. +Walpurga did not +venture to utter the thoughts that filled her mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following evening, there was a court concert. The +large hall in +the main building was crowded with men wearing gay uniforms and crosses +of various orders, and richly dressed ladies. The select court circle +were in the hall, and the guests in the adjoining apartments and +galleries.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who belonged to the queen's small circle, and who had +been +together yesterday, greeted each other with a familiar air. They did +not keep together to-day. It was their duty to mingle with those guests +who were less frequently invited. The king was attired in the uniform +of the hussars and was in a happy mood. During the pauses, he would +walk through the rooms, speaking to this one and that, and would have a +pleasant word for every one. The queen looked as if suffering, and it +was evident that it cost her an effort to keep up.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Irma's habit to enter into cheerful conversation with +the +singers, who were always seated on a raised platform separated from the +rest of the room. The malicious asserted that she did this, in order to +make a parade of her affability; but Irma simply believed it her duty +to be kind and affable to the artists.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Gunther was engaged in conversation with the director +of the +academy and intendant Schoning. They were discussing designs for +paintings to decorate the new parliament house, which had recently been +completed by the king's orders. The artist regretted that there was no +accepted symbol of the constitution. The conventional antique female +figure holding a sheet of paper, was always cold and unsatisfactory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You re-awaken an old thought," replied the intendant. "What +we lack is +the myth-creating power and, if you will allow the expression in this +case, the court-directing power. Just as there is a field marshal, so +should there be a court director who--I mean it seriously--should +always have precedence in all affairs of importance, and, at court, +should always represent the constitution. Believe me, the constitution +is not admitted at court. What I mean is, it is not represented and is, +therefore, unknown there. Do you not agree with me, privy councilor +Gunther?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther, rousing himself from a reverie, answered: "There's +no longer +any use in trying to find myths and symbols to represent things which +have been weighed and measured and of which we have distinct +conceptions. It would be just as unsuccessful as an attempt to +represent the goddess of reason."</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke in an absent manner, for he was constantly watching +Irma. She +was about to return to the company, when he advanced toward her. She +said: "Ah, nowadays everything is according to programme. In olden +times, the king sent for a bard with his harp, and the old man, with +his white beard, sang wondrous songs. But now, nothing less than an +orchestra and a dozen singers will do, and one has the musical bill of +fare in his hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther did not seem disposed to enter upon the subject, and +replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've been thinking seriously about what you said yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never think about what was said yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I'm a pendant and can't help it. You're right. Emilia +would never +have been happy with Appiani."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad that you agree with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think that Emilia would have been happy with the +prince?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And for how long?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That I don't know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She would soon have been undeceived, for this prince is only +a selfish +voluptuary, one who steals sweets in love and in life; in a word, a +dilettante. As long as a dilettante is young, the grace which is +inseparable from the vigor and elasticity of youth, lend him what is +called an interesting air. But when he becomes older he copies himself, +repeats the few phrases which he has heard from others or has, perhaps, +blundered together for himself, and, as if disguising his soul with +rouge, affects the possession of youthful enthusiasm. Beneath the +surface, all is withered, empty, decayed and fragile. It is not without +reason that Lessing depicted Hettore as young and handsome, and on the +eve of consummating a lawful marriage. He is ready to make Appiani +embassador to his father. Are you not of my opinion?" asked Gunther at +last. He noticed that Irma seemed unwilling to answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, excuse me," said she; "I've drunk so deeply of the music +of to-day +that I've no memory left for the dry affairs of yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">She took leave of him with a pleasant smile and disappeared +in the +throng.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Although its advent had been preceded by much gayety and merriment, +there were quiet times at court during the carnival season.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was ill.</p> + +<p class="normal">The excitement of the last few weeks had greatly impaired her +strength, +and it was feared that her life was in danger.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma now spent most of her time in the queen's apartments, +and when, at +rare intervals, she visited Walpurga, looked pale and worn.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga still kept on spinning, and the child thrived +amazingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how true were our good queen's words! 'God be praised, +my child!' +said she to the prince, one day, 'that you're healthy and away from me. +You live for yourself, alone.' Yes, she's looked deep into every one's +heart, and I think she's too good for this world. Mother's said, a +thousand times, that the Lord soon calls those who are always good, and +who never get downright angry and furious. Oh, if I could only take my +prince home with me! Spring'll soon be here. Oh God! if he were to lose +his mother and me too!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus did Walpurga express herself to Mademoiselle Kramer, who +found it +no easy matter to console her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum so managed it that there was always something for him to +do in the +crown prince's apartments. He was no longer importunate, but simply +grateful and obliging, in his attentions to Walpurga. He was determined +to gain her sympathy, for that was worth more to him than aught else. +And now when Walpurga confided her trouble to him, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do I wish you well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I can't deny that you do," replied Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then listen to what I've got to tell you. There's nothing +more +tiresome, or niggardly, than a good, simple marriage; that is, what +they call a 'good marriage.' What does one get by it? Wages, a tip, +once in a while from a stranger, or a few bottles of wine which one can +make away with. In Baroness Steigeneck's time, it was quite different, +for then the valets de chambre and every one about the place grew rich, +and had houses in the town, and owned mortgages and estates. But now, +thank God, it'll soon be different again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what you mean," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish I were in your place, only for one hour," replied +Baum. "She +thinks more of you than she does of any one. It was here that they came +to an understanding, and, if you've a mind to, you can get all the +money you want, and woods and fields and meadows besides. All I ask +for, is the place of steward at the summer palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how am I to do all that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh you--" laughed Baum. "Haven't you noticed anything? +Haven't you +eyes in your head? If the queen dies, the king will marry your +countess. She's a free countess, and can marry any king; and if the +queen doesn't die, it won't matter much anyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to box your ears for saying such a thing; and the +next minute +you'll be cringing and bowing to them. How can you say such a thing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if it's true?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it isn't true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if it were true, for all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It can't be true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I tell you it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And even if it were-- But, forgive me, good Countess! I +don't believe +a word of it, it's only he that says it.--If it were true, I'd rather +die than ask for the wages of sin. You're a good-for-nothing fellow, +and if you ever say such a thing again, I'll tell on you. Take my word +for it, I will."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum pretended that it was all a joke. But Walpurga could see +no joke +in the matter, and he was glad when she, at last, promised to say +nothing about it. He remarked that he required no mediator and would +manage to look out for himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">In Countess Irma's apartment, which was just below that of +the crown +prince and Walpurga, a scene of quite a different nature was going on.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was there, and thus addressed Irma:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm in trouble, and I can't help saying that it's your +fault. Mother +Sylph has inflicted herself upon me, and is very much in my way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whom do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My mother-in-law has come and has told me with a smile, that +as long +as my sister--she, too, might just as well be here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma covered her face with both her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you, too, believe it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What matters it what I believe? It's the town-talk, and +that's +enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't enough; I shall teach them to talk differently."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. Go into every house, to every man and every +woman, and tell +them to think differently. But there's one thing you can do. Shall I +tell you what it is?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma nodded a silent assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that the intendant sued for your hand last summer. He +would +feel it an honor to be able to call you his wife. Make up your mind to +accept him."</p> + +<p class="normal">A servant entered and announced the intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a strange coincidence! Make up your mind at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant entered. Bruno greeted him most cordially, and +Irma's +welcome was a friendly one.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno soon took his leave. The intendant handed Irma a +manuscript play +and requested her to read it and give him her opinion of it. She +accepted it with thanks, and laid it on a table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, when spring returns, I shall not care to hear the +theater +mentioned. Our theater is a winter plant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"This piece is intended for next winter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't tell you how I long for summer. When everything is +barren and +desolate at present, one can hardly realize that there ever were +sunshine and green trees and sparkling seas. Do you remember the balmy +day last summer, when we met on the lake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do, indeed; very well."</p> + +<p class="normal">A long pause ensued. Irma waited for the intendant to speak, +but he +remained silent. Not a sound was heard but that made by the parrot +hopping about in its cage and pecking at the golden wires.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I long," said Irma, "to visit my friend Emma next summer. I +would like +to revel in solitude. This winter has been too noisy and exciting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and besides that, the queen's illness."</p> + +<p class="normal">The parrot tugged at the golden wires, and Irma slightly +loosened the +red velvet ribbon on her morning dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you intend to visit the lake again?" said Irma, +trembling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, dear Countess; I shall visit the various theaters of +Germany, in +order to engage a second basso and, above all, a young person for the +lover's parts. You would hardly believe how scarce youthful lovers have +become in the German world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma laughed heartily, while the blood mounted to her +temples. She felt +quite faint.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant announced Baroness Steigeneck.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not at home," was Irma's hurried reply. "Pray remain a +moment +longer," said she, addressing the intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">He remained for some time longer, and referred to the +manuscript, +mentioning that the passages to be omitted were marked with a red +pencil. Irma promised to read the play, thanked him for the compliment +paid her judgment, and conversed in a light and careless tone, until he +had left the room. As soon as he had gone, she threw herself on a sofa, +where she lay for a long while, weeping bitterly. At last, she looked +up, as if bewildered, for she thought she had heard a voice saying: +"You meant to--Is there no other course left? Must one who has +swerved from the straight path, necessarily sink into the mire of +self-abasement?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, she arose, shook her head defiantly and brushed the +hair from +her face. She ordered her carriage, intending to drive to the +sculptor's atelier and resume her work. The servant announced Colonel +von Bronnen. "Let him enter," said Irma. A moment later, Irma was +apologizing for receiving him in her hat. She was just about to drive +out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can call again, dear Countess, and will only leave the +messages I +have for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Messages?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, from your father."</p> + +<p class="normal">"From my father? Where did you meet him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Were you there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I had some matters to attend to in the neighborhood, +and, without +further introduction, called on your father. I felt that I had a right +to call myself an intimate friend of yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how fares it with my father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As it should with the father of such a daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of such a daughter--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me, dearest Countess. You are in a hurry, and I am +still so +impressed by your father's great and noble nature, that I would rather +we were both calm--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am quite calm now; pray tell me, have you a message for +me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have not. But it seems to me, dear Countess, as if I were +just +beginning to understand you.--Oh, what a man your father is!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked up in surprise. She thought of Appiani speaking +to Odoardo.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colonel continued, calmly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear Countess, I am not an enthusiastic youth; but, during +the short +time I was permitted to spend with your father, I felt as if the +exalted existence which had once been my ideal had become a real, +living fact. Such perfect communings are impossible unless one feels +sure that he is looked upon with favor, and I feel that I have had the +good fortune to gain your father's good opinion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You fully deserve it. Excuse me, while I lay off my hat. +Pray take a +seat and tell me more about father." She removed her hat; her +excitement had only added to her beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rang for a servant and ordered him to send the carriage +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colonel seated himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was all attention. "Now tell me all," said she, brushing +back her +curls.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You, of all others, will understand me, when I say that I +passed +sublime hours with your father. And yet I can recount nothing definite +in regard to them. If, while rambling through the woods, I pluck a +spray and fasten it to my hat, what can the spray tell of the rustling +of the forest, or of the free mountain air? It is merely a symbol, both +for us and to those we meet, of the joy that pervades our whole being."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand you," said Irma. They sat opposite each other, +and +neither of them spoke for some time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did my father mention my brother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. The word 'son' never passed his lips. Oh, Countess! the +man to +whom pure love vouchsafes the happiness of becoming a son--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Emotion seemed to choke his utterance. Irma trembled; her +heart beat +quickly. Here was a man, noble and highly esteemed, who offered her his +heart and hand. Yea, his heart, and she had none to give him in return. +She felt a pang that pierced her very soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel happy," said she, "that father, in his solitude, has +once more +seen that this stirring, bustling court contains some worthy men; men +like yourself, who stand for that which is best in all things. Do not, +I beg of you, reject my honest praise. I know that true merit is always +modest, because it is never satisfied with itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your father expressed the same thought, in the very same +words."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe he must have taught it to me; if not in words, at +all events +by his example. I would have liked to see you and him together. Your +presence must have restored his faith in humanity. You are a messenger +of goodness, and since you are good, you believe in the virtue of +others."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where I have once felt respect and love," replied Bronnen, +"I am +unchangeable. I should like to write to your father at an early day. I +should love, dear Countess, to send him the best of news, and in the +best words that language affords. Countess Irma, I long to tell him--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear friend," interposed Irma, "I am, like my father, of +a solitary +nature. I thank you. You do not know how greatly your visit and all +that you have told me, has benefited me. I thank you with all my heart. +Let us remain friends. Give me your hand as a pledge. Let us remain +friends, just as we have been. I thank you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her voice was choked with tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colonel took his leave. Irma was alone. She lay kneeling +near the +sofa. Her heart was filled with unutterable sorrow. The coxcomb had +rejected her. Then came a man worthy of the best of wives. He loved and +trusted her, and she had refused him. His kind and honest heart had a +right to ask for full, unbounded love. She shook off the mingled +feeling of distress and mortification. The thought that she had acted +honorably, soothed her and seemed like refreshing dew to her whirling +brain. But then, again, it galled her when she asked herself: "How far +have you sunk, that you are obliged to make a show of simple honesty? +And where lives the girl who, if not bound by love, has a right to +reject the man whom you have just refused? He cannot but esteem you and +your love."</p> + +<p class="normal">She knew not how long she lay there. She laughed and wept, +lamented and +rejoiced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her maid entered. It was time to dress for dinner.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen was ill. Her life was saved, but a hope was lost.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on a stormy morning in spring, that Baum, caring a +little coffin +that contained the corpse of a still-born babe, descended the back +stairs of the palace. He walked so softly that he did not hear his own +footsteps. He was followed by Madame Leoni, the queen's waiting-woman, +who held a white handkerchief to her eyes. At the foot of the stairs, a +carriage was in waiting. Baum was obliged to tell the coachman, who was +not in court livery, where to drive to. Scarcely any one in the palace +knew of what was going on.</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove out of town and toward the church-yard. An unnamed +child is +not placed in the vault, but is buried in the public cemetery. The +grave-digger was waiting for them. The little corpse was lowered into +the open grave, without a name or sign to mark its place of burial. +About the same time that Baum and Madame Leoni were out at the +churchyard, Walpurga was thus writing home:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">".... Thank God! all's over. Now I can look forward to +happier days. +We've had a terrible time here. If all goes well, there are only seven +Sundays more till I come home again. I can hardly believe it possible +that I've got to go away from here again, and yet I'll thank God a +thousand times, when I'm with you once more. If I stay here, I shall +grow quite stupid from thinking so much. There's misery everywhere and +people take pleasure in each other's wickedness, and, even if it isn't +true, they imagine it is and find pleasure in it, besides.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was some talk about our getting a place here, where we +could all +be comfortable for life; but the queen said that it would be better for +me to go home, and whatever she says, is right. She's a true queen, +just as a queen ought to be. God has made her so, on purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd only like to know why she has to suffer so much.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, what a time we've had. Every minute, we thought the +queen-- There's not another soul like her in the world, and she had so +much to bear, and we're all human after all. But now, thank God, all's +over. The king's doctor says the danger's over. But, of course, what we +hoped for, is gone. I can't tell you how it made me feel, to think that +I was so well, and I felt as if I must go to the queen and give up +every drop of my blood to save her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whenever I had a chance, I went down to the church--they +have their +church in the house here--and prayed for the queen. My countess has +never once come to me. They say she looks like a shadow. All the +passages here are heated and the whole house is just like one warm +room, and the people in the palace would pass each other, without +taking notice of any one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the evening that the queen thought she was going to die, +she sent +for me and the child. She didn't say much, but her eyes told it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, Hansei, keep yourself ready; you must come for me. +Next time +I write, I'll tell you the very day when you're to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel as if I couldn't wait; and yet it makes my heart ache +to think +that I must leave my prince, for he loves me so. But I can't help it. +I've got a child, a husband and a mother of my own, at home, and am +tired of being in service and among strangers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does the storm rage so terribly with you? Oh, how the wind +blows. If +it would only bear me home. Last night it blew down a tree in front of +my window. It was a fine, large tree, and fell on a figure which it +broke to pieces. Every one said it was very beautiful, but I couldn't +see any beauty in such a thing. It seemed ever so impudent as it stood +there, and was enough to make one blush. I could see the tree and the +figure from my window, and people are already there, putting things to +rights, and carrying all that's damaged out of the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They're very quick about such things here, whether it be a +tree, a +marble figure, or a dead child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive me for writing such a mixed-up letter. When I get +home again, +I can never tell you all that I've gone through here, if I live to be a +hundred years old.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when you come, dear Hansei, just put on the clothes that +the king +sent, and one of the fine shirts that I made for you when we were +married. They're in the blue closet on the upper shelf on the left-hand +side with the red ribbon. Forgive me for writing all this to you, but +you've had to take care of yourself almost a year, and I haven't been +able to help you, or get your things for you. Now that will all come +right again. I feel as if I were at home already, pulling your +shirt-collar straight, as we go to church of a Sunday morning. I feel +as if it was some one else who had gone through all this, and as if the +days were a high mountain that one can never cross. But all will be +right again, and we'll be merry and happy together, for, thank God, +we've sound limbs, and true hearts. Forgive me, all of you, if I've +ever said a single word to offend you.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I had you here, dear Hansei, I'd put my arms round your +neck and +kiss you to my heart's content. You and the child and mother are all +the world to me. I'm just beginning to feel how much I love you all, +and I can't understand how I could stay away from you so long, without +dying of grief and homesickness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't forget to bring a large chest with you, for they've +given me +ever so many things.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And bring me something out of our garden; one of my pinks, +and also +one of the child's shoes. But I'll tell you more plainly about this, in +my next letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't fall into the ways of the court folk. I'm told that +they can't +touch or dress their own dead. They have it all done by strangers, who +are paid for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've been spinning flax this winter, for shirts for my +prince. They +were all pleased with it, and came to my room to look on and seemed as +much astonished as if it were something wonderful.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I like to think of working in the fields again, it makes one +much +healthier. But don't worry, for nothing ails me except that I am +terribly homesick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now farewell; a thousand times farewell!</p> + +<p class="right">"Your <span class="sc">Walpurga Andermatten</span>."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">While Walpurga, with slow and heavy hand, toiled at her letter, +Countess Irma sat at her desk, in the room below, and dashed off the +following lines:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>My dearest Emma</i>: What a night I've passed--I must be endowed with +herculean strength, or I should not have lived through it. I have +looked into the fiery eyes of the glaring monsters who dwell above and +below our daily life and who suddenly, and without warning, burst upon +us. You must suffer me to return to you,--to write to you once more. I +don't know how long it is since I've done so. You are my fortress, my +rock, my shelter. You are firm, immovable, steadfast, patient. When in +distress, I come to you. I flee to you.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a terrible night. The tree still stands, but a young +blossom +was broken off. I came from the queen's apartment; I could not pray, +but stood by the window, and thought while I looked out into the night: +Thou who renewest everything, who awakenest the earth from its wintry +sleep, breathing new life into trees and flowers and all that faded and +withered last year--suffer a human heart to renew itself; let past +deeds be destroyed and forgotten. Suffer a child of man, regenerate and +redeemed, to begin life anew. I stood at the casement, while the wind +howled without. Suddenly there was a fearful crash. A tall oak before +my window had been broken by the angry wind. The tree toppled and, in +its fall, dashed a statue of Venus, which stood beneath it, into +fragments. It all seemed like a feverish dream, and when I realized +what had happened, my only wish was: Oh that I had been in the statue's +place! Oh that I had been dashed to atoms--It would have been far +better for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hardly know what to tell you. I only know that I may again +be with +you--perhaps to-day, to-morrow, at night or in the daytime, I shall +fall on my knees to you and you will lift me up. I shall rest on your +heart, and you will protect me. You will save me from the demons; you +will not question me; you will give food and drink and rest to the +stranger soul, and will not ask whence it comes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are we? What is the world? We see and know all, and +yet--</p> + +<p class="normal">"How ingenious the devices with which the world lulls its +conscience +into slumber--If there were only no awakening! The awakening--the +morrow--that is the most terrible thought of all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An eternal kiss rests upon a statue at the arsenal, and the +stars, the +moon and the sun look down upon it. If I could but climb up there, hurl +myself to the earth and destroy myself--the world--everything!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Should you hear the bells tolling loudly, know that it is my +funeral. +If there be a gentle knock at your door, think that it is a poor soul +that was once so rich--might still be--aye, is. Who can restore a human +being to himself? Who draws him out of the lake--out of the lake--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why is it that the lake is constantly before my eyes? I see +myself in +it--I sink! Help me! Save me, Emma! Help me, I sink--!"</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Irma suddenly uttered a loud shriek. The maid hurried into the room. +Her mistress had fainted and lay on the floor. When she revived, she +asked what had happened to her. Doctor Gunther sat at her bedside and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've been writing; here is the letter. I took charge of +it, as I +supposed it was this that had so excited you. I read the first six +lines. I was obliged to, but I assure you, on my honor, that I did not +read a word more. I took charge of the letter, so that no other eye +should see it. And now, keep yourself quiet; here it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma sat up and read the letter. Then she looked at the +Doctor +earnestly, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe you." She called for a light and consigned the +letter to the +flames.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you promise me one thing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That you will give me poison, if I lose my mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are playing with extremes," replied the physician, "and +that can't +be done with impunity."</p> + +<p class="normal">After a long pause, Gunther said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Above all things, you must control yourself, and must not +imagine that +these wild, wandering thoughts are your true self. I thought that you +would take my advice, but I was mistaken. You are your best, your only, +physician; force yourself to rest and let calm and happy thoughts alone +engage you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma rested her head on her hand. Her eyes glowed with +feverish fire. +She closed them, but suddenly arose and, seizing her loosened hair with +both hands, exclaimed: "I will have my hair cut off."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is another of your wild thoughts," said Gunther, +calming her and +taking her hand in his. "You always wish to accomplish your desires by +violent methods. You must acquire repose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, life is a slow and gradual growth, and death, yes, +death in life, +takes but a moment," said Irma, with a wild and vacant stare.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now go to sleep, and you will soon be well again," said +Gunther. +He was about to leave, but Irma detained him, and inquired.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How is your wife--your family?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," said he. "They are calm and resigned."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was about to beg that Gunther's wife might visit her, +but could +not force herself to do so. Gunther left. He, himself, thought that if +Irma would frankly open her mind to his wife, the good sense of the +latter would gradually help the distracted one. But he knew that his +wife would not visit Irma. With all her kindness of heart, she had no +mercy for arrogance, and Irma, in her prosperous days, had neglected to +revisit the house in which she had received so hearty a welcome. Ever +since Irma had again left her father and returned to court, its doors +were closed to her. Irma, moreover, was regarded as having promoted the +revival of the convents and the appointment of the reactionary +ecclesiastical ministry of which Schnabelsdorf was premier.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's thoughts were of home, and she tried to picture to herself +how it would be when her letter arrived there. But she had been away so +long that she found it difficult to do so. The letter had arrived at +dusk, and Hansei, who was out in the backyard, chopping wood, was +called in. He hurriedly lit the lamp, and Stasi read the letter to +them. The grandmother wept, and the child on her lap moved about +restlessly, as if it felt that the words it heard were its mother's. +Nor could they help noticing that it had twice pulled the letter out of +Stasi's hand, and that, in order to finish reading it, she had been +obliged to move her seat. The child had, nevertheless, remained +restless as before. At last, the grandmother dried her tears and said: +"Thank God, that I have such a child. I don't mean you," said she to +her granddaughter, "I mean your mother. You may be glad if you turn out +as good as she is." Hansei listened with mouth agape, and smiled all +over his face when they came to the passage about Walpurga's embracing +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she had finished the letter, Stasi said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's a sad letter for all; but she'll be so much the happier +when she +gets home again. I'm only sorry that I shan't meet her when she does +come."</p> + +<p class="normal">Stasi was to be married on the following Sunday, to a +forest-keeper, +who lived near the frontier, on the other side of the mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei took the letter again and was about to go away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave the letter here," whispered the mother to him. "That's +not the +sort of a letter to read aloud at the Chamois. There are things in it +which only man and wife ought to tell each other when they're alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, you're right," said Hansei. "Here's the letter." He +was, +nevertheless, sorry that the folks would not be able to see what a +pretty letter his wife could write, and how much she loved him, and how +good she was, and that none in the whole village deserved to be spoken +to by her, for his Walpurga was the pride of his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, grandmother," said he, while he stood in the doorway, +"thank God, +the longest time's over. I can hardly understand how we managed to live +without each other so long, or how it'll be when she sits in this low +room again. But that'll be all right, and there are other houses +besides this."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei spoke these last words quite rapidly. He wanted his +mother-in-law to understand that he was about to purchase a house. It +was proper that she should know of it, but there was no need of her +interference, lest she should rule him. The innkeeper was quite in the +right.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei could hardly wait until he was again with his privy +counselor, +and this privy counselor was, of course, the innkeeper. He looked up at +the house and the trees, as if to say: "Just keep still, and don't be +afraid. She'll come back again in good time, and she still thinks of +you all. She knows many a thing, and would make a better queen than +many another woman, and could reign better than the strongest man--" +When Hansei arrived in front of the inn, he waited for a little while, +in order to get his breath, and compose himself. It is no light matter +to have such an extraordinary wife; one is very apt to be thrown into +the background and to be less thought of. He was proud of his wife, but +he was the husband, nevertheless. He went into the inn quietly, and sat +down to a schoppen of wine, as calmly as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the way a man should be," thought he to himself, +while he took +a comfortable draught. "It won't do to tell the world everything. Keep +things to yourself. That makes the master; and that's what the women +can't do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei patted Dachsel and Wachsel, the landlord's two dogs, +who seemed +to be fond of him, for they knew their master's favorites.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it long since you've heard from your queen?" asked the +host, +casually.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. Only to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does she say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"All sorts of things," said Hansei, discreetly, adding, in a +careless +manner, "I want to ask your advice about something presently."</p> + +<p class="normal">The other guests looked up in surprise, to find Hansei the +woodcutter +addressing the innkeeper in this familiar tone, and were none the less +astonished that the latter did not object.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you've got more paper money it would be quite +convenient," replied +the innkeeper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've none this time, but I want to talk to you about another +matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">The host went into the back room, sent his wife out to wait +on the +guests, and exclaimed: "Come in, Hansei." A secret council was held in +the back room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei told him that his wife would return in seven weeks +from +yesterday, that she had written to him to come for her, and that, while +he knew how to carry himself in the world--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that you do," said the host, "it was only yesterday +that the +chief forester--he was sitting in the very seat you're in, now--said: +'That Hansei's a sharp fellow'."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei smiled his thanks for the compliment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I want to ask you about something."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look here. You're so much--how shall I say it?--so much +readier with +your mouth, and more mannerly than I am, and if I have to go to the +capital and stand up before the king and queen and all the grand +gentlemen, why--why--why, look here, whenever I think of it, even now, +it chokes me, and my opinion is that you'd better go along as my +mouthpiece and say everything properly. One doesn't have such a chance +more than once in a lifetime, and it won't do to forget anything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's a clever thought of yours," said the innkeeper.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shan't do it for nothing and the journey shan't cost you +a +groschen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I can't go with you. At court, it won't do to say: 'This +is my +child's godfather, my comrade, and he's to come in, too, and speak for +me.' The one who has the audience is the only one who's allowed to +speak. If you want to have a little fun, and your wife's agreed, I +might go as Walpurga's husband--that would do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," cried Hansei, "I won't do any such thing, and my wife +wouldn't, +either. That won't do at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, my dear fellow, all that remains is to go and speak +for +yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was sad. He felt as if thrust out of doors. He had not +been +brought up and schooled for such things as talking to the king and +queen and their courtiers, and was afraid of what he might do to them +if they were to laugh at and ridicule him, for he wouldn't stand that. +He would allow no one to make sport of him, in his wife's presence, for +he was the husband and she only the wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be so faint-hearted--a man like you--" said the +innkeeper +consolingly, while Hansei rubbed his forehead as if to make another +head out of his own. "Just pretend I was the king. What would you say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You speak first."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right." The innkeeper placed himself in position, put +his hand in +the breast of his coat, balanced himself on one foot, threw his head +back, and said gravely:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, and so you're the husband of--ah, what's her name--of +Walpurga?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, she's my wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you been a soldier?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, by your leave."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't say 'by your leave,' but you must add 'Your +Majesty,' and +always as short as possible. The high folk never have any time to +spare; they're always in a hurry and everything is counted out to the +very minute. But what's the use of worrying ourselves already? We'd +better settle our little business now. You buy my house and fields. +I'll let you have them cheap, and then when the king asks how it goes +with you, you can answer: 'Your Majesty, it would go very well with me; +but I still owe three thousand florins on my house and farm and they +trouble me greatly.' And when you say that, you'll see that the king +will give you the three thousand florins at once. But if you didn't owe +it, you couldn't say it. I know you. You're an honest fellow and can't +tell a lie, and you know you might just as well say four thousand, or +five thousand--it's all the same--and you'll have some money over to +build with. But there's no need of that, and so you can lay in a stock +of wine instead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, you're right, but I think we'll make it a sham +sale, for I +oughtn't do it without my wife's consent. The money really comes from +her, and I don't even know whether she's willing to have the inn. We'll +just make it a sham sale, and, if the king gives me the money and my +wife's agreed, it'll be all right."</p> + +<p class="normal">The host had, before that, flattered Hansei on account of his +cleverness, but now, when there was real occasion for his doing so, +held his peace. After a pause, he said: "While the clever fellow makes +up his mind, the fool has time to make up his. I'll think about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">They returned to the inn-parlor. Hansei felt ill at ease and +soon went +home. On the way, old Zenza greeted him. He made believe that he +neither saw nor heard her, and hurried on. How glad he was that he had +not become wicked, and how would he have felt now, if he had allowed +himself to be tempted. Nothing would have been left him but to drown +himself in the lake before Walpurga's return.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he reached home, he said to himself: "I can still enter +here with +a good conscience and, God be praised, I can bid her welcome with a +good conscience." After he got into bed, he kept on repeating the +words: "God be praised," to himself, until he at last fell asleep. When +he awoke, the first thing he said was: "Good-morning, Walpurga." He +addressed his words to the empty air, but he felt as if she must hear +him, as if she were at home already, for she had sent so good a +messenger in advance. The letter was like a postillion playing welcome +melodies. Hansei lay there dreaming, with his eyes wide open, until +late in the day. But the day was both a good and an evil one. He had +promised his comrades to go out hunting with them. All at once, it +occurred to him that it was time to give up such sport. He would gladly +have remained at home, but feared the talk of the innkeeper and, though +the hills were far away, he felt as if he could distinctly hear the +innkeeper telling his comrades: "Ha! Ha! His wife's coming home, and +she's the master, and Hansei will have to lie down as she bids him." He +fancied that he heard his laughing comrades walking about in the woods +and calling out: "Lie down, Hansei; lie down," as if he were a dog.</p> + +<p class="normal">An advocate at the provincial court,--for Hansei now had such +distinguished companions--was also with the hunting party, and would +laugh and jeer more than any of them. And then, to add to the fun, the +innkeeper would tell a fine story about the letter. Thank God, he +hadn't had a chance to read it. That would have been too bad. If I only +hadn't mentioned it; but I'm too stupid and can't keep a thing to +myself. If the innkeeper knew nothing of the letter, I could turn back +without feeling ashamed and without minding their jeers. But my mind's +made up. I shan't go with them again. I used to get along by myself, +and I will again, when she comes back. We'll need no one, then. Hansei +was busy thinking, that morning. He looked back upon how he had been +living all this time. He felt so homesick about his wife at first, that +he could not remain in the house and was unable to eat, drink sleep, or +work. So he went to the inn, where they wished him joy because his wife +had brought him such good luck, and this had pleased him; and when +others stopped talking about it, he would renew the subject; and +the innkeeper would take him along to fairs, target-shootings and +pleasure-parties. One could not help but admit it was all very pleasant +and entertaining, and the folks would say: "There goes Hansei, whose +wife is the crown prince's nurse." Wherever he went they showed him +great respect, and it's very pleasant to be received with respect +wherever you go. Before allowing him to sit down, the hostess would +always wipe off the chair with her apron, and considered it a pleasure +to do so. At last, a happy thought occurred to him, and he still held +fast to it. He would be the very man to keep an inn, and his wife would +be the best hostess from one end of the land to the other. She would +know how to talk to the people; and, after all, what is there +pleasanter in the world than keeping an inn?</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was so long in getting up that the grandmother came to +the door +and asked: "Is anything the matter? Are you sick?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no, God forbid. I'm coming directly," replied Hansei. He +soon came +and, in a kindly tone, said: "Good-morning. Is the child hearty?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. All's well, thank God," said the grandmother. She was +always the +same, whether Hansei was rude and taciturn, or talkative and +confidential.</p> + +<p class="normal">During her daughter's absence, she had never interfered with +him but +once, and then she had said: "You're the husband and the father, and +should know what to do, and what to let alone." She knew very well that +if she attempted to induce Hansei to give up his free life and his +comrades, he would be less likely to do so, if it were only to avoid +the appearance of being ruled by the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you be at home at noon, or are you going across the +field."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll stay at home," said he, "I want to split wood. We'll +clear up +things and make it look tidy about the house, by the time she returns."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother nodded a pleasant assent. Hansei would gladly +have said +more, but he always thought that another ought to speak first, and so +he sat there, stuffing potato after potato into his mouth, just as if +every one were an answer he had received. With every potato that he +pared, he thought of the clever things he would say to the king. He +felt that the latter could not escape him. Six thousand florins could +be counted on; and of five thousand he felt quite sure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the king gives us a good farm on a royal estate, or any +other +appointment, we'll move away from here," said Hansei aloud. He thought +that the grandmother must know that he would gladly break loose from +his comrades and begin a changed life, elsewhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes," was all that the grandmother said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think we must soon write an answer, and I'll write to her, +too. She +seems so sad."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; do so. I must go to the child."</p> + +<p class="normal">In promising to write to his wife, Hansei had imposed a +difficult task +upon himself. He would have liked to write kind, consoling, hearty +words; to have cautioned her not to worry so much about the few weeks +that still remained, and thus, perhaps, lost sight of what advantages +might present themselves. Now was the time to be in good spirits, for +pay-day was fast approaching. He had all these thoughts in his head, +and she would respect him for the manly advice he was about to offer. +But to get these ideas out of his head and on paper, was a difficult +task.</p> + +<p class="normal">Consoling himself with the words: "There's no need of my +writing. I'll +see her soon, and can tell her everything far better," he gave up the +attempt.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the grandmother went into the room in which the child +lay, Hansei +remained sitting at the table and emptied the whole dish of potatoes, +while he was, in imagination, explaining to the king how well he +understood forest matters. When the last potato was eaten, he went out, +took axe, mallet and wedge and, with mighty strokes, split the stumps +which had been piled up along the road in front of the garden. He had +just taken off his coat, for, in spite of the keen spring breeze, he +didn't feel cold, when a voice said, "Ah, you're still here." The +innkeeper stood behind him with his rifle slung over his shoulder and +accompanied by his two dogs, Dachsel and Wachsel. "You must have +overslept yourself, just as I did. If we take the road through the +valley and the ravine, we can still catch up with our comrades. Come, +hurry and dress yourself, and get your gun."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if this were a command which he must obey, Hansei carried +axe, +mallet and wedge into the house, dressed himself, took his gun and said +to the grandmother: "I think I'll go along, after all." He would have +liked to say; "I shall only go this once, so that they don't think that +I stay at home on account of my wife's letter," but he held his peace. +It isn't necessary to tell everything, and those to whom you do tell +all, have a right to interfere in all. I want to arrange everything +myself, and she must respect me for doing it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei accompanied the innkeeper to the hunt. He was in a +good humor +and more cheerful than ever.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"How was it once? How will it be?"</p> +<p class="t6">I prithee, darling, ask not me.</p> +<p class="t6">Our life's the Present--hold it fast,</p> +<p class="t6">And let each hour in joy be passed.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6">Lift up thine eyes, so bright and clear;</p> +<p class="t6">To search my heart, thou need'st not fear.</p> +<p class="t6">Come, let us gather Flora's sweets,</p> +<p class="t6">Ere wintry storm around us beats.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Thus sang Irma, with clear, ringing voice. Nature was again +decked in +beauteous array. The sharp winds of early spring were still blowing, +and the sunlight was often suddenly obscured by floating snow-clouds. +But the grass had begun to grow in the meadows, and here and there +spring flowers were blooming.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had recovered, after a few days. The bulletins +respecting the +queen's health had ceased, and Gunther, who had lived in the palace for +weeks, now returned to his own house.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen, who was now permitted to leave her apartment, +spent much of +her time in the winter-garden, where the last fête had been celebrated. +The trees and flowers were again in their wonted places; the fountains +plashed, the fish swam about in the marble basin, and the birds +twittered in their great cages. Walpurga and the prince were allowed to +remain with the queen for hours at a time. All vied with each other in +offering her delicate attentions which were inspired by something more +than a mere sense of what was due her rank. Irma had shown so much +devotion to the queen that the latter felt like begging her pardon. She +often had the words upon her lips, but could not utter them. Friendship +suffers from mere suspicion, and the queen well knew that she was +looked upon as weak-minded and vacillating. She determined that she +would be thus no longer. She felt that the great mark of a strong +character is to prevent the world from knowing every change and phase +of thought and feeling, and to give it naught but results.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one should ever know what had so troubled her heart. She +would be +strong.</p> + +<p class="normal">She kept Irma about her much of the time, and the hours they +spent in +the green, flowering, winter-garden, reading, working, conversing or +singing, were serene and blissful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma, who was an excellent reader, read Goethe's Tasso to +them. It +accorded with their present mood, and one day, Irma said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty resembles Princess Leonora in many things. You +have the +advantage, however, of being able to accomplish in a few weeks what, in +her case, it required years to bring about."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What I mean is, that long confinement to the sickroom and +careful +nursing are apt to produce, in the invalid, a certain sensitiveness and +an almost imperceptible change in manner. It is well to escape from +this hothouse mood into the open air; to be once again among the +trees which are proof against all weathers, and to inhale the fresh, +life-giving breeze."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was often present during these readings, and +frequently felt +moved to express his thoughts on the weightiest and most beautiful +passages in Tasso. Irma often trembled. Every word she uttered seemed +wicked. She felt that she no longer had a right to speak of pure and +holy subjects, but the king was so cheerful and unconstrained that she +speedily dismissed all concern.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are spoiling me, and will make me quite vain," said the +queen, one +day. "I have another wish. I long to go from flowers to works of art. I +often feel like visiting the picture-gallery and the collection of +antiques. When we move among the achievements of art the deepest +impression we receive is, that human beings who lived long ago, have +bequeathed their best possessions to us, and that eyes long since +closed in death, look down upon us with their undying glances, and are +still with us."</p> + +<p class="normal">At the words "undying glances," the king and Irma looked at +each other +with involuntary surprise. To them, the words were suggestive. Irma +composed herself and replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot help joining in Your Majesty's wish: from flowers +and trees +to works of art! Surrounded by pictures and statues, the soul dwells in +an ideal atmosphere; life everlasting environs us; we inhale the very +breath of genius which, although its possessors may have vanished from +earth, endures for ever. When I was forced to the conclusion that I was +without real artistic talent, I envied the monarchs to whom is +vouchsafed the happiness of encouraging talent and genius in others. +That is a great compensation."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How beautifully she interprets everything," said the queen, +addressing +her husband; and it was with a mingled expression of delight and pain +that the king regarded the two ladies. What was passing in his mind? He +admired and loved Irma; he respected and loved his wife. He was untrue +to both. Irma and the queen went through the galleries and the +collection of antiques, and would sit for hours, looking at the +pictures and statues. Every remark of the queen's was met by an +observation of Irma's, which was in full accord with hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I look at and listen to you two," said the king, "and +think of +where you resemble each other and where you differ, it seems as if I +saw the daughters of Schiller and Goethe before me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How singular!" interposed the queen, and the king continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Goethe saw the world through brown, and Schiller through +blue eyes; +and so it is with you two. You look through blue eyes, like Schiller's, +and our friend through brown eyes, like those of Goethe's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It won't do to let any one know that we flatter each other +so," said +the queen, smiling. Irma looked up to the ceiling, where painted angels +were hovering in the air. There is a world of infinite space where no +one can supplant another; it is only in the everyday world that +exclusiveness exists, thought she to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The more the queen gained in strength, the more marked was +the change +from a subdued, to a bright and cheerful vein.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if Irma's wish was about to be realized. The +life-renewing +power of spring which reanimates the trees and the plants, seemed to +extend its influence over human life. It seemed as if the past were +buried and forgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the first mild day of spring, and they were walking +together +in the palace garden, when the queen said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't imagine that there ever was a time when we did not +know each +other, dear Irma." She stopped and looked into Irma's eyes with an +expression radiant with joy. "You once told me about a Greek +philosopher," said she, addressing Doctor Gunther, who was walking +after them with the captain of the palace-guard, "who thought that our +souls had a previous existence, and that our best experience, in this +world, is merely the recollection of what we have experienced or +imagined to ourselves in some earlier state of being."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Without accepting this fanciful theory," replied Gunther, +"there is +much in life which may be regarded as destiny. I believe that all +living truths which we take up into ourselves, and which thus, as it +were, become a part of our being, were intended for us. Our mind, the +whole constitution of our being, is destined for and attuned to it. +There is thus perfect correspondence between our destiny and our +capacity. But I beg Your Majesty to regard yourself as destined, at +present, to step into your carriage. We must not let the first walk be +too long."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen and Irma seated themselves in the carriage which +awaited them +at the Nymph's Grove. They drove on slowly, and the queen said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You cannot imagine, dear Irma, how timid and fearful I was +when I +first came here." She told her how she had looked into the eyes of the +multitude that surrounded her, and had asked herself: "Who of all these +does, in truth, belong to you?" and how encouraged she had felt when +Irma spoke to her, as it were, with her warm, brown eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And they were speaking to you," replied Irma. "I should have +liked to +say to you: 'Sweet being! imagine that we have known each other for +years, and feel just as if we had been friends forever.' I fancy that +we both felt thus because we were both timid and fearful. It was the +first time I had ever been at court, and I felt as if I couldn't help +taking the lord steward's staff out of his hand, and supporting myself +on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How strange! I had the very same thought," said the queen, +"and, now +that I think of it, I can still recollect that the lord steward looked +at me incessantly."</p> + +<p class="normal">The affection of the two ladies was cemented by a hundred +little +memories. The carriage drove on slowly, but their thoughts took in days +and months. There was a turn in the road; they had just reached the +place where the statue had been shattered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a terrible night," said the queen, "when that +happened, and it +seems to me that simple-minded Walpurga is right when she says that it +is wrong for us thus to expose the undraped human figure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must be permitted to differ with Your Majesty," replied +Irma. "The +free--why should we mince words?--the nude, beautiful human form is the +only one in accord with free nature. All frippery is subject to changes +of taste and fashion. The human form as shaped by the hand of nature, +is alone fitted to stand in her temple."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are a free soul; far freer than I am," said the queen. +They +alighted. Irma accompanied the queen to her apartments and then +returned to her own. When she found herself alone she threw up her +hands, exclaiming:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is the greatest punishment? It is not hell, where other +guilty +ones suffer with us! No; to be conscious of guilt and yet condemned to +remain beside a pure and happy creature; that is far worse than all the +torments of hell!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God keep you, Irma! God keep you!" shrieked the parrot. Irma +started +with a shudder.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Spring returned, ushered in by the merry singing of larks and finches, +and bringing with it the latest Paris fashions. The queen now appeared +in public, and the ladies of the capital were delighted to pattern +their costumes after hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen drove out, with Irma beside her, and Walpurga and +the prince +opposite.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must not worry when you're at home again," said the +queen to +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Addressing the queen in French, Irma said, with a smile: +"Countess +Brinkenstein would disapprove of your manifesting any interest in the +future fortunes of one whose term of service is at an end."</p> + +<p class="normal">With a degree of boldness that surprised her two +well-wishers, Walpurga +said: "There'll be one advantage at any rate, for, at home, they won't +treat me as if I were deaf and dumb."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, they wouldn't, while I was about, say things that I +can't +understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma endeavored to pacify her, but without avail. Walpurga's +longing +for home had made her exacting and dissatisfied. She felt ill at ease +everywhere, and felt sure that the very people who had done so much to +humor and spoil her would soon get along without her.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was another and a deeper cause for her feeling annoyed +when Irma +spoke French. A youthful-looking nurse from one of the French cantons +of Switzerland had become a member of the prince's household. She could +not understand a word of German, and that had been the principal reason +for engaging her. The prince was to speak French before he acquired any +other language.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and the new-comer were, as regarded each other, like +two +mutes. Nor was she otherwise favorably disposed toward the tall, +handsome girl with the French cap. She was, indeed, quite jealous of +her. What had the foreigner to do with the child? She was, at times, +angry at the child itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll soon <i>parlez vous</i> so that I shan't be able to +understand a +word," she would say, when alone with him, and would feel quite angry; +and, the very next minute, she would exclaim: "God forgive me! How well +it is that I'll soon be home again. I can count the days on my +fingers."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer now told Walpurga that a chamber<a name="div2Ref_note02" href="#div2_note02"><sup>2</sup></a> had +been +prepared for the crown prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has rooms enough already," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer was again obliged to undertake the +difficult task +of explaining the court custom, in such matters, to Walpurga, who made +her go over the various names again and again. She would always begin +thus:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The crown prince will have an ayah--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ayah? what sort of a word's that? what does that mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It means the prince's waiting-maid. And when his royal +highness +becomes four years old, he will have a new set of officers; and so on, +as he grows older, only the new set will always be of higher rank than +those who precede them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I can easily understand it," thought Walpurga; "new +people and +new palaces, constant change; how lucky that your eyes and your limbs +are fast to you; if it wasn't for that, they'd be getting you new ones +every year or two."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt reassured when she learned that Frau von +Gerloff, a lady +of noble birth and, hitherto, first waiting-woman to the queen, had +been appointed as ayah to the prince. Walpurga had known her for a long +while and said to her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If any one had asked me who should take charge of the +prince, you'd +have been my first choice. This is only another proof of the queen's +wisdom and her kind heart. She gives up her dearest friend for the sake +of her son."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga deemed it necessary to give Frau von Gerloff various +directions as to the management of the prince. The good lady listened +to her patiently. When Walpurga next saw the queen, she felt it +necessary to express her satisfaction with the arrangements which had +been made.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'd have done very well," said she to Madame Leoni, the +queen's +second waiting-maid; "but our good queen can't afford to part with both +hands at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Leoni smiled her thanks, although she really felt +mortified and +thought that she had been slighted because of her being a commoner. But +the first law of court life is: "Take offense at nothing."</p> + +<p class="normal">The slumbering infant-prince had no idea of the jealous +feelings which +already played about his cradle.</p> + +<p class="normal">By degrees, Walpurga got her effects ready, and, when packing +up +certain articles, she would say: "No one would dream that heart's blood +is clinging to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Gunther had given orders that Walpurga should often +leave the +prince for a while, in order that he might gradually grow accustomed to +her absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer, who, during the first few days +accompanied her on +her walks, found the occupation a difficult one, for Walpurga wanted to +stop at every shop window, and whenever she saw men or women whose +costume resembled that worn at her home, wanted to go up to them and +inquire whence they had come, and whether they knew her husband, her +child and her mother. Mademoiselle Kramer soon wearied of the office of +guide, and would sometimes allow Walpurga to go out alone, on which +occasions she would entrust her with her watch, so that she might +return at the proper time. Walpurga's great delight was to watch the +soldiers parading at guard-mounting, and her route generally led her +beyond the city gates. She would walk along the highway that led to her +home. This comforted her, and she would often think of how she had felt +when coming to the palace by that very road. It seemed to her as if +ages had passed since then, and it was not without an effort, at times, +that she induced herself to retrace her steps. She would often stand +there listening, and imagining that she could hear her child's voice +borne on the breeze. Which child? Her heart was divided and she hurried +back to the prince. It was well he rested so quietly in the arms of the +Frenchwoman. Walpurga, however, was vexed at this circumstance, and +laughed triumphantly when he wanted to be taken by her as soon as he +noticed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, you're a true soul," said she. "When men are good, +they're a +great deal better than women. Your other father, my Hansei, is very +good, too, and he's coming, day after to-morrow, and you'll shake hands +with him when he comes,--so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga observed that the ayah was almost beside herself at +this mode +of treating the child, and that it cost Mademoiselle Kramer an effort +to prevent her from putting a veto upon it; but this only made Walpurga +the more wanton in her mad pranks with the prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now don't forget," said she, "that I gave you myself to +feast upon. +The others only give you what comes from the kitchen. We two are one, +and day after tomorrow my Hansei will come, and then I'll go home, and +when you're a big boy you must come and see me; and if it's in cherry +time, I'll give you the best cherries. And my Hansei will go hunting +with you and will carry your gun for you, and you'll shoot a great big +stag and a roe, and a chamois, and we'll roast them. I'll stick a +nosegay on your hat, and then we'll row over the lake together, and +I'll give you a kiss, and then I'll bid you good-by."</p> + +<p class="normal">The child laughed heartily, while Walpurga looked into his +eyes and +spoke to him thus. Then it laid its little head on her cheek, and +Walpurga cried out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mademoiselle Kramer! Mademoiselle Kramer! he knows how to +kiss +already: he's kissing me now. Yes, you're the right sort of a man and a +king's son to boot; they always begin betimes."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if she wanted to make known all the love she had +for the +child during the few days that yet remained to her at the palace, and +she did this both from affection and spite, for she desired to show the +Frenchwoman how very much she and the child loved one another. He would +never grow to love the foreigner as much as he loved Walpurga, and then +she would sing:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Standing by yon willow tree,</p> +<p class="t6">Scarcely weeping, thou dost see</p> +<p class="t6">My bark put off from shore.</p> +<p class="t6"> </p> +<p class="t6a">"As long as willows grow,</p> +<p class="t6">As long as waters flow,</p> +<p class="t6">Thou'lt see me nevermore."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">While she sang, the boy crowed and laughed, and Walpurga +protested to +Mademoiselle Kramer, that she would wager her head he understood +everything already.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And besides," said she, with an angry glance at the +Frenchwoman, "the +language that little children speak is the same all the world over. +Isn't it so? The French don't come into the world speaking gibberish." +Then she would sing and dance about, and kiss the child again. It +seemed as if she must repress all her sadness, and, in one outburst, +give vent to all her joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You excite the child too much; you will do it harm," said +Mademoiselle +Kramer, endeavoring to quiet her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That won't harm him; he's got the right stuff in him. No +Frenchwoman +can spoil him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was in a restless and contradictory mood. She had +long known +that the tie would be broken, and had often wished and hoped for that +end. But now when the moment of separation approached, all painful +memories vanished. She felt that she could never again live alone. She +would always miss something, even the trouble and excitement; and, +besides, everything had always come all right again. She felt hurt, +moreover, that the others seemed so indifferent about her leaving them. +And the child--why hadn't it sense enough to speak and say: "Father and +mother, you mustn't do this; you mustn't take my Walpurga away?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But now others controlled the child. What would they do with +him? Why +should she no longer be allowed to interfere, and to say things should +be thus and so? She had nursed him from the first day of his life, and +they had been together day and night. And how would the days and nights +be when they were no longer together?</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga had finished her supper, she held up the empty +dish to +the child and, with a bitter tone, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you see this? I'm of no more use now than this empty +platter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor did she care to sleep. She felt that she could not lose a +minute of +the time that was yet left her with the child. Although she did at +times drop asleep, she would wake up in a fright; for, in her dream, +she had heard children crying--one far off by the lane, and another +beside her--and had thought she was standing between them, and that she +must divide herself: must be there and here. And then, too, she had +heard the cow bellowing and pulling at the rope, just as it had when +fastened to the garden hedge. Walpurga saw it all, quite distinctly; +and the cow had such large eyes, and she could feel its warm breath +against her face. Then she would wake up and rub her eyes and all would +be quiet again, and she would know that it was a dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the day before her departure. Walpurga bitterly +regretted that +she had not told Hansei to come sooner. He might have remained there a +day, and she would then have had some one to stretch out his hand in +welcome, while now she could only offer hers in farewell.</p> + +<p class="normal">She walked the streets and looked up into the blue sky--the +same blue +sky that rested over her home. She went through the little street in +which Doctor Gunther lived. She read the name on the door-plate and +walked in. A servant conducted her into the doctor's ante-room, where +many patients were waiting to see him. Walpurga gave her name to the +servant. All looked at her in astonishment. She was asked to come in +without waiting for her turn, and said that she had only come to say +good-by. Gunther told her to go into the garden and wait there for him +until his office hours were over. She did so. Madame Gunther was +sitting on the steps that led into the garden. She called the peasant +woman to her, and when she learned who she was, told her she might wait +there. Walpurga sat down. Madame Gunther went on with her work and did +not speak a word. She had a decided prejudice against the nurse. Her +husband had often told her of Walpurga's peculiarities, and Madame +Gunther had concluded that they were full of coquetry, and that she was +trying to make a show of her simplicity. Walpurga's appearance only +confirmed her in this opinion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are going home again, aren't you?" asked Madame Gunther, +at last; +for she did not wish to be uncivil.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga told her how happy she would be at home again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther looked up. She was one of those persons who +are rendered +truly happy when freed from a prejudice. Entering into conversation +with Walpurga, she soon found that the nurse had been led to exaggerate +certain traits of her strong nature, but that it was just this strength +of character that had prevented her from losing herself in the new +scenes through which she had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther now urged her to keep a stout heart and to +avoid making +herself unhappy by comparing her home with what she had left behind her +in the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How is that you know all about it?" asked Walpurga; "have +you ever +been among strangers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can put myself in your place," said Madame Gunther with a +smile. She +was rapidly winning her way to Walpurga's heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">She asked her into the room; and, when Gunther came down, he +found +Walpurga on the steps, with his fatherless little grandchild on her +lap.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now you know my wife, too," said Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; but too late."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther also advised Walpurga to keep up her spirits after +she got +home, and, as he, too, was a native of the Highlands, he gave her a +merry description of what her welcome would be.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther said he would see her once more, at the palace, and +his wife +shook hands with her, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"May you be happy at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean to send your mother a present," said the doctor. +"Tell her to +try and think of the young student who danced with her at the +Kirchweih<a name="div2Ref_note03" href="#div2_note03"><sup>3</sup></a> many years ago, when she was betrothed to your father. +I'll send you six bottles of wine to-day. Tell her to drink them in +remembrance of me, but not to take too much at a time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you for my mother, and I feel already as if I had +been +drinking the best of wine," said Walpurga. "My Countess Irma was right, +for she always said Madame Gunther would be a lady after my own heart, +and now all that I can wish you is, that, to the end of your days, you +may be as happy as you've made me."</p> + +<p class="normal">No notice was taken of her allusion to Irma. Encouraged and +strengthened, Walpurga returned to the palace.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen came to Walpurga that evening and said: "I shall not say +farewell to you. Don't let us speak of parting. I only wish to thank +you with all my heart, for the love you've shown me and my child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, queen! how can you thank me. I'll tell no one on earth +that the +queen has thanked me," cried Walpurga. "But it's only because you're so +kind and want to make parting easy to me. Believe me, I'd gladly give +every drop of blood in my veins for you and our child. Oh good God! our +child--I daren't say that any longer. I, must go; but when I get home, +I'll have my own child again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Walpurga; that is what I was about to tell you. The +greatest +happiness on earth is to be at home, and, by this time, you must have +seen that it is all one, whether that home be a palace or a cottage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right there; you can't get more than your fill of +eating and +sleeping, anywhere. My Hansei'll be here to-morrow morning. May I bring +him to the queen and to the king, and to the good ladies and gentlemen +of the court, so that he may thank them, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind that, Walpurga. There's no need of it. Indeed, +Doctor +Gunther forbade my taking leave of you; but I may, for all that, say +good-by to you again, to-morrow. Believe me, I feel very sorry to part +with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the queen wishes it, I'll remain, and my husband and my +whole brood +can come too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you had better go home again. If I ever get into your +neighborhood, I will pay you a visit. I shall not fail to tell my son +how kind you've been to him. He shall never forget you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had put the child in the cradle and cried out;</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just look! he's talking. We grown-up folks don't understand +what the +children say, but he understands us." Walpurga now joyfully related +that the prince had kissed her, and tried to persuade him to give his +mother a kiss, but he would not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall leave something good for you behind me," said +Walpurga to the +queen. "I've found something that'll be good for you." Her face glowed +with pleasure, and the queen asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've found a friend, one of the best of friends, for you. +Madame +Gunther can speak right to one's heart; just as you do, but in a +different way. I think you ought to visit her right often. It would do +you good if you could, once in a while, spend an hour in a good +neighbor's house. You'd always feel much better after it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga eagerly told how delightful it was to visit one's +neighbors. +The queen smiled at Walpurga's ignorance of the conditions of court +life, and explained to her that she could only have intercourse with +those who visited the palace. Walpurga was very sorry that she could +not bring about a meeting of the two ladies.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now she's gone," said Walpurga. "I've said nothing at all; +and I feel +as if I had ever so much to say to her." She felt as if she ought not +to leave the queen--as if she were her only true friend, a faithful +companion who, if others were to menace her queen with harm, would +hasten to her aid.</p> + +<p class="normal">She thought of the time the queen had kissed her. How much +they had +experienced together since that time. Could it be possible that it was +scarcely a year ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cowering beside the cradle, she was silent for a long while. +At last +she softly sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"My heart doth bear a burden,</p> +<p class="t6">And thou hast placed it there;</p> +<p class="t6">And I would warn e'en my life</p> +<p class="t6">That none doth heavier bear."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Her voice trembled with emotion. The child slept. She got up +and told +Mademoiselle Kramer that she intended to take leave of all in the +palace. Mademoiselle Kramer dissuaded her from doing this. So Walpurga +only went in search of Countess Irma, but did not find her, as she had +gone to a party at her brother's house. Walpurga told the maid that she +intended to leave early the next morning, and that she would be very +sorry if she did not have a chance to say good-by. Meanwhile, she took +leave of the maid, and recommended her to take great care of the good +countess so that she might always keep well. Walpurga held out her hand +to the maid, but was obliged to draw it back again, for the latter had +both hands in the pockets of her silk apron, and, as if mocking +Walpurga, merely curtsied to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The higher people are, the better they are," said Walpurga, +when she +got back to her room. "The queen's the highest and best of them all."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sent for by Countess Brinkenstein, who was +standing in the +same place and in the same position as when she had received the nurse, +nearly a year ago. She had seen this rigid lady almost every day. In +all that time she had not become more familiar, but had treated +Walpurga with unvarying kindness. It now seemed as if her disposition, +or perhaps her office, required her to dismiss Walpurga in a formal +manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have behaved well," said Countess Brinkenstein, with a +kindly +motion of the hand; "their majesties are satisfied with you. And now, +farewell; and keep yourself good."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not rise, nor offer her hand to Walpurga. She merely +nodded in +token of farewell, and Walpurga left.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although this mode of dismissal was by no means over-gentle +or +courteous, it, nevertheless, afforded Walpurga great satisfaction. She +felt as if she had received a sort of honorable discharge. Although +Countess Brinkenstein had ruled with almost military severity, she had +always been the same and could always be relied upon. And this +consistency was not without its due influence on Walpurga's mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">In Walpurga's room stood two large chests, filled to the very +top and +locked. She had received many presents during the year, and enough +money to buy a moderate-sized farm. She would sit down, now on one and +now on the other chest, and when she at last lay down to rest, she +still cast a wistful eye on her treasures. Like wandering spirits, her +thoughts roved through the apartments of the palace, and then to her +cottage at home, through the garden and over the mountains, until she +was suddenly awakened by the crying of the child. She was obliged to +ask herself whether it was her own, or a strange child. She speedily +quieted the prince, but remained beside his cradle. "Sleep shan't steal +another minute of the time that's left us," said she softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Day dawned. Walpurga nursed the child for the last time. A +tear dropped +on its head; it looked up at her and then fell asleep, resting against +her heart. She whispered softly into its little left hand, which she +held to her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">She put the child in the cradle again, fixed one more sad +look upon it, +then, with her back turned, walked around the cradle thrice, and, at +last, said to Mademoiselle Kramer:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going now; it's time."</p> + +<p class="normal">The servants came and carried the chests away. Walpurga was +in so +forgiving a mood, that she even took leave of the Frenchwoman. She did +not look back toward the cradle, but went downstairs, and ordered the +boxes to be carried to an inn near the palace, where she had asked +Hansei to meet her. She thought he would surely be on hand by that +time, for she had told him the very hour when he could meet her. But +Hansei was not there.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although it was early in the day, there was life and bustle +at the inn, +which was frequented by the court servants. There was loud carousing, +and some liveried servants were inveighing against their masters who, +at Count Wildenort's soirée of the previous' night, had kept them +waiting in the porter's lodge, and the coachman on the box, for nearly +three hours. It was said that Count Wildenort had obtained royal +permission to set up a roulette table, that there had been high play, +and that the king had also been there, but not the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga sat behind the screen with the hostess, and was +seated on the +largest of the chests. She went to the front of the house to look for +Hansei, but he did not come. Baum brought her a message that she was to +go to Countess Irma, but not until nine o'clock. Walpurga wandered +about town as if lost. "How the people run past each other," thought +she; "no one knows who the other is, and hasn't time to ask." At that +hour of the day, round hats are not seen on the streets. None but the +cap-wearing population is now represented. Bakers' men and butchers' +boys whistling merrily while at their work, are serving bread and meat. +Servant-maids stand at the street corners waiting while milk is +measured out to them, and market-women from the country hurry to their +posts, with baskets and hand-barrows.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It'll be just the same to-morrow again, and you'll be gone. +Indeed, it +don't concern you to-day," said Walpurga to herself, while she looked +on at their busy doings. Just then a large bookseller's shop was +opened, and her picture hung in the window. What did it matter to her? +No one concerned himself about her feelings.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-morrow the picture will still be hanging there; it'll be +all the +same, whether you're here or not. I believe it's all the same, whether +you're in the world or out of it," added Walpurga, as a hearse went by +and no one cared to inquire whom they were burying. Every one went his +own way.</p> + +<p class="normal">With heavy heart, Walpurga walked on, feeling as if something +were +drawing her back to the palace and to the child. She went on until she +reached the gate by which Hansei must come. But still he came not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he doesn't come at all--if the child at home is ill--if +it is +dead!" Walpurga was almost frightened to death with thoughts of what +might be. She seated herself on a bench near the gate. Horsemen were +galloping past, and a blind invalid soldier was playing a merry waltz +on his organ.</p> + +<p class="normal">A clock struck nine, and Walpurga walked through the town. At +the +palace gate she found Hansei, and his first words were:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you, Walpurga; you're here at last. Where have you +been +running to? I've been looking for you, the last two hours."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come in here," said Walpurga, leading Hansei into a covered +way. "They +don't speak so loud here."</p> + +<p class="normal">It turned out that, in her last letter, Walpurga had told +Hansei to +come to the palace, and not to the inn. She begged him to forgive her, +for she had been so confused while writing, and then she said: "Now let +me give you a kiss of welcome. Thank God, all are well. I need lots of +love and kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">She asked him to wait at the door of Irma's apartment, while +she went +in. Irma was still in bed, but, as soon as she heard Walpurga's voice, +asked her to enter. The countess looked lovely in deshabille, but she +was quite pale, and her loosened hair lay in wild profusion on the +pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wanted to give you something to remember me by," said +Irma, raising +herself, "but I thought the best thing I could give you would be money. +Take what's lying there. Take it all; I want none of it. Take +it; don't be afraid, it's real gold, won in honest play. I always +win--always--Take out your handkerchief and wrap the money up in it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's voice was hoarse. The room was so dimly lighted that +Walpurga +looked about in fear, as if she were in some enchanted apartment; and +yet she knew the maid, the tables, the chairs, and could hear the +screaming of the parrot in the next room. She knew all this, but she +could not help thinking that there might be something wrong about the +money. She hurriedly made the sign of the cross over it, and then put +it in her pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, farewell," said Irma; "may you be happy; a thousand +times +happy. You are happier than all of us. When I don't know where to go in +this world, I shall come to you. You'll receive me, won't you? and will +make room for me at your hearth? Now go! go! I must sleep. Farewell, +Walpurga, don't forget me. No thanks; not a word. I'll soon come to +you, and then we'll sing again; aye, sing. Farewell!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg of you, let me say only one single word!" cried +Walpurga, +grasping her hands. "We can't, either of us, know which of us may die, +and then it would be too late."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma pressed her hand over her eyes, and nodded assent. +Walpurga +continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what ails you. Something's going wrong with +you, and it +may go worse yet. Your hands are often so cold and your cheeks so hot. +I wronged you that day--the second day after I came here. Forgive me! +I'll never wrong you again, even in thought; and no one shall. No one +shall ever slander you to me; but, I beg of you, leave the palace as +soon as you can! Go home to--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Enough, enough," said Irma, deprecatingly, and holding her +hands +before her face as if Walpurga's words were stones hurled at her. +"Enough," added she, "farewell; do not forget me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She held out her hand to Walpurga, who kissed it. The hand +was hot, as +if with fever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga left. The parrot in the ante-room was still crying: +"God keep +you, Irma." Walpurga started with terror, and hurried away as if some +one were after her.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga came out to Hansei, he asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I go in, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, we're ready."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I ought to go to the king and queen. I've got a good +deal to +say to them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; that won't do at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not? I know how to talk to them."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had frequently rehearsed what he intended to say to the +king and +queen. He would let them know that he deserved something more for +giving up his wife for so long a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga found it difficult to make him understand that it +would not do +to press the matter. Hansei was not inclined to give up the point, and +was, moreover, ashamed of confessing to the innkeeper that he had not +sat at the same table with their majesties, and that he had not even +seen them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, who herself needed support, was now obliged to make +a double +effort in order to pacify Hansei, who threatened to become rude and +troublesome.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I may see your prince? You still have a right to take me +there?" +asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes," replied Walpurga, "that can be done." She, too, +was herself +glad to have a chance to see the child once more, and this would +furnish a good excuse. "What matters it if Mademoiselle Kramer or Frau +von Gerloff make sport of Hansei? Day after to-morrow all these people +will be nothing to me, and I shall be nothing to them." Her cheeks +glowed with excitement, while she hurriedly led Hansei toward the +prince's apartments. She was met at the door by Mademoiselle Kramer, +who, when Walpurga stated her wish, answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; it can't be done. You must not go in again. Doctor +Gunther is +there and the child is crying and screaming terribly. Go; in God's +name, go."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Kramer disappeared, closing the door after her. +Walpurga +heard the child cry, and was not allowed to go in and help it. She was +shut out--thrust out of doors. Shame at the treatment she had received +in Hansei's presence, and anger at these cruel, ungrateful people +struggled within her. At last, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, Hansei; we mustn't demean ourselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course not," said Hansei. "It's plain enough that this is +the way +they treat folks when they have no further need for them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor do we need them any more. Thank God, that's over," said +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">She left the palace in an angry mood, and Hansei muttered to +himself +that he would thrash the first man he met on the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">They returned to the inn where the chests had been left. They +met Baum +there, and Hansei again said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd swear that he's no one but Zenza's Jangerl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jangerl's in America," insisted Walpurga. "I beg of you, +don't trouble +yourself about other matters. Let's hurry and get away from here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've arranged to stay for another day. I'd like to see the +sights, and +would like to go to the theater for once in my life, and then--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some other time--I want to get home to my child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've been away so long that you needn't mind waiting a day +longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga insisted and Hansei was obliged to yield.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you always look at me?" asked Hansei. "It seems as if +you +scarcely know me any more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd forgotten what true, blue eyes you have."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, and so I've been so little in your thoughts that you +didn't even +remember how I look."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be quiet; I thought of you always. What sort of eyes has the +child?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bright and clear ones, and there's never been anything the +matter with +them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga wanted to know what color its eyes were, and whether +their +color had changed, as had been the case with the prince. But Hansei did +not know, and was quite vexed that his wife asked him questions about +matters that he knew nothing of.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last they mounted the wagon.</p> + +<p class="normal">It drove by the palace, and, in spite of the rattling of the +wheels +over the stones, it seemed to Walpurga as if she could hear the prince +crying.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I, too, must wean myself," said Walpurga, weeping silently.</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as they had passed the city gates, Hansei began +abusing the +court. "They might have sent us home in a coach; but that's the way +with them. They'd rather fetch our wives than take 'em back again." +Whenever he said anything, he would look about as if his boon +companions were present to nod their approval. "They might have let us +have a pair of horses at least; indeed, they ought to have told us to +keep them, for they've got more than they know what to do with, in the +royal stables," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had so often told every one that her husband was +coming to +take her home in a wagon, that no arrangements had been made for that +purpose; and now when Hansei grumbled at their want of consideration, +she remembered her mistake and, without confessing it, endeavored to +quiet him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg you, for all the world," said she, "don't say anything +against +the court. They can't help it. If the king or queen knew of these +things, they'd gladly do everything. But you've no idea how little the +queen knows of the world; of what costs money, of what has to be +bought, or earned, or paid, she has no notion at all. She's just like +the angels. They can't count money any more than she can, and have +nothing to do with it. She's as dear as an angel, too. She takes the +words out of your heart, and gives you such good ones in return." When +she stopped and found that Hansei made no reply, she bit her lips with +vexation. How she would have been praised if she had uttered such +remarks to Countess Irma or Mademoiselle Kramer. But he behaved as if +what she had said were nothing at all. A feeling of discontent +struggled within her, but she repressed it. "Yes, I, too, must get used +to the change," thought she to herself. "It's all over. Where I'm +going, they'll not make much of everything I say." For a long while she +was silent. She felt that looking into life-size double-mirrors was now +at end. At last she thought of what the queen had told her: "When you +get home, be patient with your people. The way to have peace on earth +is to be patient with one another, and to do good to others without +hope of recompense. Those who look for no reward are repaid sevenfold." +When she left home her mother had given her a piece of bread, with +which to deaden her homesickness while at the palace, but the queen had +given her words and thoughts that were as bread, for they, too, were +life sustaining and, moreover, long-enduring.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if a ray from the queen's sunny nature rested +upon +Walpurga's countenance. She regained her composure, and calm and gentle +thoughts now filled her mind. Suddenly she seized her husband's hand +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, God be praised, we hold fast to each other again. You +must have +lots of patience with me. I've been among strangers, but you'll soon +see that I'll be all right again at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, it's all right," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wherever they alighted by the way, Hansei would tell the folk +at the +inn:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is my wife: she's been nurse to the crown prince, and +now, thank +God, we're well to do."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had become boastful, but Walpurga remained silent in the +presence of +others. It was only when they were in the wagon that she became +talkative. She asked many questions and Hansei had much to relate, but +she heard little of what was said. She was forever thinking of her +child, which seemed to be dancing on the mountain peaks; just like the +moon which stood in the sky in broad daylight, it ever seemed to move +along with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And has it blue eyes?" asked she suddenly, while Hansei was +giving her +a circumstantial account of the cow that was again giving milk.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what color the calf's eyes are," said Hansei, +laughing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't think hard of me. I can't think of anything but +our child. +If we traveled as fast as my thoughts, we'd be home in a twinkling, as +tailor Schneck says."</p> + +<p class="normal">She smiled and checked herself and, soon after, continued: +"Oh, how +could I ever have stayed away from you so long? It isn't true. I've +always been at home and now I'm coming. I'm coming to you, my child. +Didn't you hear some one cry, Hansei?" said she, looking round. "I hear +some one crying; it sounds like a child."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do be quiet. You're enough to frighten one out of his +senses."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga would often look back, for it seemed to her as if +she could +hear a child crying.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the city a child <i>was</i> crying, and those who were about it +could not +quiet it. Their diamonds, their gold, their soldiers, were all of no +avail. Behind her and before her, Walpurga heard nothing but the crying +of a child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you shut your eyes?" asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh," replied Walpurga, "I feel like the father of Wastl the +weaver. +When he was cured of his blindness, he used to say that the trees came +toward him, and that everything blinded him. I too, feel as if I had +seen nothing during this whole time. Look! there's the first man with a +green hat, and he has his game-bag on his back; and the trees have kept +on growing of themselves, while I was away. I don't know how I'll go +through it all and not die, for I shouldn't like to die just now. I +want to walk about with my child. Oh dear, good Hansei, don't give her +a stepmother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wife, wife," said Hansei, quieting her, "you're making fools +of both +of us. I'm quite sure that comes of your not having eaten a thing all +day."</p> + +<p class="normal">He insisted upon stopping at the next inn, where Walpurga was +obliged +to drink some wine. There was, indeed, wine in her chest, that is, the +six bottles with silver foil, which the doctor had sent. But she wished +to take that to her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although it was in broad daylight, Walpurga fell asleep in +the wagon. +When she awoke, she silently took her husband's hand in hers and held +it for a long while. In the last little town this side of their +village, they stopped again, in spite of Walpurga's protests. Hansei +asserted that the grandmother did not expect them before the next day, +and that they would find nothing to eat at home. He ordered a bounteous +meal, as if he were laying in a supply for several days. Walpurga fell +to heartily, and at last they quite forgot themselves, for Doctor +Kumpan entered the inn. He was quite affable toward Walpurga and drank +heartily with Hansei. He then called him aside and enjoined him to +treat his wife considerately.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they at last got into the wagon, half of the town had +gathered +about the inn, in order to have a look at the crown prince's nurse. +Doctor Kumpan ordered the postillion, who was not in uniform, to take +his post-horn with him, and the handsome, dark-eyed, lively fellow blew +his horn while they drove through the little town and along the road. +The merry echoes resounded from the mountains and through the forests. +Walpurga was almost ashamed to drive in this style, while the people +were at work along the road; but Hansei felt a childish delight in the +sound of the horn.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last they caught a glimpse of the lake. Evening was +already setting +in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Those are swallows from home," said Walpurga. "The next +village is +ours. I see the church, and--hark! I hear the bells! I hear them +with you, my child, and soon you'll hear them, in my arms; and your +voice--your voice--coachman, drive faster; no, drive gently; drive just +as you please, so that we don't upset. Stop here; we'll get out now. +Stop! I tell you." She alighted, but as soon as she had done so, she +exclaimed: "No, I'll get in again. We'll get home sooner if we ride. +But why don't mother and the child come out to meet me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She thinks we won't be home till to-morrow," cried Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then maybe she isn't at home at all, and has gone off with +the child +to visit some neighbor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maybe so; but I think not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you see a child there, running across the road? Is +that it? Is +it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, that's not our child. It can't run yet; but it can crawl +about +like a young dog."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who cut down the willow?" suddenly asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was blown down by the storm, last spring."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga asked questions, but heeded not what she asked nor +the answers +she received. "Just see, how clear the brook is, and how swiftly it +flows. I think it never used to flow so quickly. And they've built a +new house here, and there they've felled the trees, and, just look at +the beautiful little water-wagtails. They're larger and more beautiful +with us than anywhere else."</p> + +<p class="normal">They met a boy on a gray mare which he was riding to water. +"That's +Grubersepp's Waldl. How stout he's growing!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it's a good beginning, that the first one to meet us +should be a +boy," said Hansei. "Waldl!" he called out to the lad, "come over to our +house this evening and I'll give you some cherries." The boy made no +reply and rode on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The two cows grazing there near the little girl, are ours," +said +Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything comes; everything except the mother and the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother's at home," cried Walpurga, suddenly. "Mother's at +home. I see +smoke rising from our chimney; and there she stands by the fire with +the child on her arms. Oh mother! Oh child! How is it possible that you +don't notice anything? I'm coming! I'm here! I'm home! I'm coming!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The wagon stopped before the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother! Child!" cried Walpurga from the depths of her heart. +The +mother came out of the house, with the child on her arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga embraced her mother and kissed her child, but it +cried and +would not go to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went into the room and sat down beside the stove. +Her hands +were folded on her lap, and she was weeping. She looked about her as if +she were in a strange world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave her to herself for a little while; give her a +breathing spell," +said the grandmother to Hansei, who had gone out of the house, and who, +with the driver's assistance, had been unloading the chests.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was but a short time that Walpurga remained in the room, a +prey to +sad thoughts. The sun stood high over the opposite mountains, its rays +making every blade of grass in the garden glitter like burnished gold. +The mountains in the west were all aglow with light, and those opposite +were reflected half-way across the lake. The day had been one of great +excitement to Walpurga. What she had hoped for was now realized. There +was nothing more to come. She felt as if she must start off again, as +if she must be up and doing. And then it suddenly occurred to her that +it was wrong to remain sitting there alone, while her mother and her +child were out of doors, and that it was almost a crime to pass a +moment away from them.</p> + +<p class="normal">She went into the kitchen. The grandmother, with the child on +her arm, +was standing by the hearth in which there was a bright fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does my child eat broth?" asked Walpurga. Attracted by the +voice, the +child stared at her; but, as soon as Walpurga fixed her glance upon it, +it nestled close to its grandmother, as if to hide itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed. It eats anything, and is just like you. You did +so, too. +It would like to take a spoon and help itself, but it can't find its +mouth. I'm making soup for you, you must eat something warm."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's looks became more cheerful. The grandmother soon +brought her +some soup. Walpurga ate it and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, mother; the first soup I eat at home. Nothing on earth +tastes like +it. They can't make such soup as this at the palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother smiled, and stroked Walpurga's head with her +hand, as +if blessing her. She felt that Walpurga's joy at being home again +affected her every thought and action.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The home soup--yes, indeed," said she at last, and smiled; +and, moved +thereto by the grandmother's cheerful looks, the child laughed, too.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK IV.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The soft glimmer of early dawn stole through the heart-shaped opening +in the shutters of their little room. Down by the reedy bank the +water-ousel piped its matin song. Walpurga awoke and listened to the +breathing of her husband and child. Her life, now, is a threefold +breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morrow, day. I'm home again," said she, softly. She +felt so happy +at the thought of being in her own bed. Suddenly, she folded her hands +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank Thee, Lord! Now I know how it must be to wake in +heaven and +feel as if home were reached at last, to have all your loved ones with +you, to know that parting's at an end, and that all will remain +together forever. Now we'll live happily, in kindness and in +righteousness. Grant us all good health, and put all evil away from +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">She closed her eyes and indulged in retrospection. Last night +the +grandmother had beckoned her to follow her into the little grassy +garden back of the house. When they reached there, her mother had said: +"Look up to those stars and tell me: Can you still kiss your husband +and your child, with pure lips? If--God forbid--it be otherwise--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother!" Walpurga had cried. "Mother, I can. I raise my hand +and call +God to bear me witness, I am just as I was when I left home."</p> + +<p class="normal">Said the mother: "That makes me happy. Now I'm content to +die."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, mother; let's live together in happiness for many years +to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm content. And now let me give you a piece of advice; and +mind what +I tell you. You've been out in the wide world for nearly a year. You've +been riding about in carriages, while I've been here in the cottage and +garden, taking care of your child. But, for all that, my thoughts went +out into the world, and far beyond, where coach and four never get to. +Now listen to me and obey me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; with all my heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then mind what I tell you. Give yourself time to get used to +things +again, and don't ask for anything out of reason. You can't expect your +child to love you yet. You've been away from it so long that it doesn't +know you, and has become estranged. And so you must expect to find it +with everything else. Your husband's been alone for nearly a year; his +lot has been much harder than yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here they were interrupted. Hansei called from the window and +asked +them what they were doing out there so late, in the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now go to sleep," said the mother. "I've had your bed +aired these +three days. Sleep well. Goodnight."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother led her daughter by the hand as if she were a +little child, +and when they had passed the threshold, she fell upon Walpurga's neck +and hugged and kissed her in the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had closed her eyes, and, in thought, recalled all +that had +happened during the preceding night. Everything seemed double, just as +with the stars that are reflected in the lake at night, making it seem +as if there were two skies, one above and one in the waters below.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the thought of the lake, Walpurga arose, quietly dressed +herself, +bent over her child and husband for a moment, softly opened the door, +left the room, and went out of the house. She passed through the +garden. The air was filled with the fragrance of the elder-bushes in +the hedge The finch on the cherry-tree warbled merrily, and she would +fain have called out to him: "Be quiet; wake no one till I return."</p> + +<p class="normal">She passed on. From the reedy banks of the lake, where the +water-ousel +and the reed-sparrow were chirping their song, there flew up a flock of +wild ducks, twittering while on the wing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun rose, and the whole lake shone as if a softly +undulating golden +mantle had been spread over it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga looked about her in all directions, and then, +undressing +herself in a trice, jumped into the lake. She dived and rose again, +brushed her hair from her face and plashed about, as happy as if she +were a fish at the bottom of the lake. The golden mantle of the lake +assumed a purple hue, and Walpurga looked up at the purple sun, and +over the glowing lake. "Thus it is," said she, "and thus it's right. +I'm here again and yours again, and everything else is put away from +me. I've never been away." Under the clustering willows, she hurriedly +dressed herself, and felt so happy and cheerful that it cost her an +effort to refrain from singing aloud. Blue and green dragon-flies +hovered over the water. Swallows were flying over the lake and dipping +their bills into the waters, which were gradually acquiring a paler +hue, and from yonder forest resounded the cuckoo's note. A stork among +the reeds seemed to watch Walpurga while she dressed herself. She +noticed the bird rattling its great bill and waved it away. She hurried +back to the house. The finch in the cherry-tree was still warbling its +morning song, the two cows in the stable were lowing, but everything +else about the house was still wrapped in silence. For a long while, +Walpurga stood gazing at the flowers on the window-sill, and was +delighted with the fragrance of the pinks and the rosemary. She had +planted them while still a child, and before she had had a garden of +her own. All the earth that she could then call her own, was contained +in these flower-pots. Now she was able to buy many a broad field, but +who could say whether they would give her as much joy as she now +derived from these dingy, broken pots.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if the pinks had purposely blossomed, in honor +of the +return of her who had planted and cared for them. There were scarcely +any buds left, but even these few were putting out their little red +tongues. Walpurga returned to her pinks again and again, and could not +get enough of their fragrance. Suddenly, she laughed to herself at the +thought of an old story that her mother had told her about blessed +Susanna, who, when hungry and thirsty, could satisfy herself by +smelling a flower. "Yes, but that wouldn't satisfy my folks," said she +with a smile, and went back into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mother, husband and child were still asleep. Walpurga sat by +the cradle +for a little while. Then she went out to the kitchen, and kindled the +first fire on her own hearth. Silently she watched at the rising flame, +while the sounds of the matin bell of the chapel by the lake fell on +her ear. She pressed both hands firmly against her heart, as if to hold +fast the happiness with which it was overflowing.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"What! at work already?" said Hansei, entering the kitchen, and bearing +in his arms the child, whose only garment was its little shirt.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning! Good-morning to both of you," exclaimed +Walpurga, with +joyful voice. Her every tone and every word seemed to say that she +could feed and satisfy them all with her love.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning, my child!" said she. The baby stretched out +its arms +toward her, but, when she offered to take it, turned its back on her +and laid its head upon Hansei's shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have patience with it; it doesn't know you right yet," said +Hansei; +"after all, such a young child is just like an animal, and don't know +its mother if she's been living away from it."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if to refute Hansei's humiliating philosophy, the child +turned round +again, stared at the fire, pursed up its little mouth, and blew just as +when one does when blowing the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Grandmother taught her that," said Hansei. "It can do lots +of other +clever things. Grandmother never slept so late as she does to-day. She +seems to feel that she's no longer obliged to draw the cart all by +herself. No one'll grudge it to her. Yes, there never was a better +woman in all the wide world, than your mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never was! isn't she so still?" asked Walpurga, in alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her mother had been so unutterably happy yesterday. Who knows +but what +her joy had killed her? They had been so happy that perhaps misfortune +must come, for nothing is perfect in this world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga trembled with fear while these thoughts flashed +through her +mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll go look after mother," said she, and went to her room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei followed, carrying the child on his arm. And now, when +the +mother awoke, she said: "Well, and so they have to awaken me. Am I +still a young girl who sleeps late and dreams when the elder-flower is +in blossom? Yes, now I remember my dream. I dreamt that I was young +again and was a servant at the farm on the other side of the mountains, +and that your father came. It was on a Sunday, and he and I went off +together to my brother's, in the pitch hut. We were standing by the +brook where the elder grows, and father was on the other side, reaching +out his hand to me, so that I could jump across, when you woke me. I +can feel his hand in mine yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"God be praised that you're awake again," interposed +Walpurga. The +mother smiled and continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, Walpurga, I've only one thing to ask of you. If you +don't +mind doing so, give me a florin or two. I'd like to go home once more, +to the place where I was born and was in service, and where my brother +lives; and I would like to have a few pence about me, to give to the +poor people who are still there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; you shall have all you want. We've plenty, +thank God."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to know," said the mother, "why I dreamt of my home +last +night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's plain enough," said Hansei. "A few days ago, when the +wood-carver from your village was here, they were saying that the owner +of the freehold farm there would like to sell his place. But who's got +money enough to buy that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see," said the old woman to Walpurga, "what a heretic +and believer +in dreams your husband has become. He learned all that from the +innkeeper. And now give me the child and hurry out of here. Come, you +little chamois-kid, jump about and dance."</p> + +<p class="normal">She sang to the child, and it stretched forth its arms toward +her, just +like a bird glad to return to its nest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and Walpurga left the room. The child lay beside the +grandmother, and the two were quite happy together.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now I'll milk the cow," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. Who else? Mother can't do everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; let me do that now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went out to the stable with her husband; she wanted +to relieve +him of the task, but it would not do, and Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of it, either; that'll all soon be +different. When you +become landlady, we'll have two servants, at least, and they can see to +the milking. We'll have room for six cows besides our own, and will be +entitled to have as many more on the mountain meadow. Then you can make +butter and cheese, and do what you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei seemed to be talking to the cow. He did not care to +see what +sort of a face his wife would make. But now she had, at all events, +heard of the matter, and they could talk it over, afterward.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was about to reply, when the stable door opened, and +a girl +entered, carrying a cake on a large platter.</p> + +<p class="normal">She removed the cloth with which it was covered, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My master, the landlord of the Chamois, sends this with his +kind +greetings, and his welcome to the wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You silly thing!" exclaimed Hansei, jumping to his feet, and +looking +quite oddly with the milk-pail buckled fast to him. "You silly thing! +People don't carry cakes into a stable. Take it into the room, and when +you get home, give them my best thanks, and tell the innkeeper, our +godfather, to honor us with a visit soon--no, we'll come to see him +this forenoon; and now you may go."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga remembered that her mother advised her not to +attempt to +change things at once. She determined, for the present, to listen to +everything, and let affairs go on in their own way, keeping her eyes +open in the mean while. Time would show how the land lay.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei went on milking the cows, and Walpurga said nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One can't always have the world all to one's-self, the way +it was down +at the lake this morning; but while there's such a bustle about my ears +I must keep my own counsel," thought she.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Hansei had finished milking, and stood there with a pail +in each +hand, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you think of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's splendid milk; and there's lots of it, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I mean what do you think of the landlord of the +Chamois?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's very polite of him, and I'm much obliged to him for it. +We must +try to get even with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of that; we'll have to pay dear enough for +the cake. +But we're not so stupid, either. You'll soon see, Walpurga, I know +which side my bread's buttered on as well as he does. Yes," continued +Hansei, "if I'd only had a chance to talk to the king, you'd have soon +have found out that Hansei's not the dullest fellow in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew that long ago. I don't need the king to tell me +that."</p> + +<p class="normal">At breakfast, Walpurga was delighted to find that the child +would take +a few spoonfuls of porridge from her: but it would not go to her, and +cried as if its heart would break when she tried to take it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you counted up all we're worth? Of all the money you +sent, not +one penny's been taken. That is, I took fifteen florins to buy me a +rifle."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was right," said Walpurga. And with all her confidence +in him, +she resolved that she would not hand Hansei the money that Irma had +given her on the day she left the palace. She knew not why, but she +felt a dread of the gold that had come to her in so strange a manner. +She had not yet looked at it herself. Besides, she felt that it might +be well to keep something in reserve for a rainy day. It might be +better if all were not displayed at once. She promised to reckon it all +up before noon, and expressed her regret that she had no closet in +which to pack away all the pretty things she had brought with her in +the chest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wouldn't unpack at all, if I were you," said Hansei. "You +might as +well wait till we have our inn. You'll find enough chests and trunks +there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga made no answer. Hansei looked at her curiously, but +she +remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why don't you say something about the matter?" he inquired +at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because you haven't told me about it right. Come now, what +do you +really mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei informed her that every one said the most sensible +thing he +could do would be to buy out the landlord of the Chamois. There +couldn't be a better hostess in the world than Walpurga, and they would +have a larger custom than any house in the land. They could alter the +sign--that would be a clever stroke and would draw more than anything +else. It should no longer be "The Chamois," but the "The King's Nurse," +or "The Prince's Nurse," instead. There was a painter thereabouts, who +would make a new sign, representing Walpurga with the prince in her +arms. People would be drawn together from all parts of the +neighborhood; there wouldn't be tables and chairs enough, and money +would pour in on them from all sides. The bargain was a fair one; the +innkeeper had named a reasonable price. "Every one says so," said +Hansei, "and now what have you to say? for it's for you to decide."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't care for what the people say," began Walpurga, "but +tell me, +frankly, have you concluded the purchase? If you have, I've nothing to +say. I wouldn't have you break your word nor disgrace yourself, for all +the world. You're the husband and your word must be kept."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's right; if only every one could have heard that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What need you care whether they hear it or not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, the stupid people think that you rule everything, +because the +money comes from you. To be frank with you, the bargain isn't +concluded; it all depends upon your consent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I were to say 'no,' would you be angry? Answer me; +why are you +silent now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it would grieve me to the heart if you did."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't say 'no,'" answered his wife, soothingly. "But +there's one +thing we'd better have an understanding about, at once. I never want to +hear another word as to where the money comes from. You were alone all +that time; you've had to suffer for it, as well as I, and, take my word +for it, I shan't forget it. But, as I told you before, I don't say +'no.' We're husband and wife and will talk over and settle everything +together. If the money's to bring discord, I'd rather throw the whole +of it into the lake and myself in after it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga wept, and Hansei, with choking voice, said: "For +God's sake, +don't weep. I feel as if my heart would break when you cry. I wouldn't +have you cry, no, not for ten inns. Oh Lord! to cry on the very first +morning! Depend on it nothing shall be done, unless you're perfectly +satisfied."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga held out her hand to him, and, with the other, wiped +away the +tears which had relieved her overflowing heart. They heard visitors +approaching. Walpurga hurried to the bedroom, for she would have no one +see that she had been weeping. While in the room, she put the gold that +Irma had given her into a pillow-case, and then hid it. One piece of +the money had dropped on the floor. She picked it up and looked at the +image of the king stamped upon it. "Such a king's head goes +everywhere," said she. "If he could only be everywhere in thought, so +as to set everything to rights. But that's more than any man can do. +God alone can do that--How are they getting on in the palace? What will +become of them all? Is it only a day since I left there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lost in reverie, Walpurga remained in the room for a long +while. At +last, with a deep sigh, she awakened to the fact that, in this world, +none can afford to give all his thoughts to others. It was now her duty +to take care of herself. Various neighbors and friends dropped in to +welcome Walpurga. Hansei, who was all impatience, said that she had +just gone to her room and would return in a little while. At last +Walpurga came, radiant with joy and health. They all expressed +themselves delighted to see her looking so well, spoke of the excellent +reputation she enjoyed, and assured her that they took as much pleasure +in her good fortune as if it were their own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga thanked them heartily. The great cake which the +innkeeper had +sent was soon eaten up, for she offered some of it to every visitor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How goes it with old Zenza?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just to think how good she is; she even remembers the old +torment. +Yes, your kindness was thrown away on her and her offspring," said +several voices. She was soon informed that Zenza, with her son and +Black Esther, had left the neighborhood. No one knew where they had +gone, but the root-hut on the Windenreuthe now stood empty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor did troops of beggars from the village and the +neighboring country +fail to present themselves. It must have been quickly noised about that +Walpurga had returned, bringing a whole chestful of gold with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was astonished to learn how many relations she had +in the +neighborhood. Many claimed relationship with her father, but were +unable to state exactly in what degree, and some of the beggars, who +disputed each other's claims, were soon involved in quarrels with each +other. Walpurga dispensed modest gifts to all of them. They left in an +ill-humor. What they had received had hardly been worth the trouble of +going for it, and the highways and byways resounded with imprecations +launched against Walpurga, who, they said, had become proud and stingy. +But there were soon fresh troops of beggars. It was like scattering +wheat among sparrows; more were constantly coming.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take your whip and drive the whole pack of beggars away," +suddenly +cried a loud voice from the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the innkeeper, accompanied by his two dogs Dachsel and +Wachsel, +who added their voices to that of their master, until at last a beggar +gave one of the dogs a kick that sent him off yelping. The innkeeper +now swore more violently than before, but Walpurga went out and, in +quite a determined tone, requested him not to interfere, and then +doubled her gifts to all of them. She thus escaped a confidential and +patronizing familiarity on the part of the innkeeper. She was, as yet, +uncertain how she ought to behave toward him. He was evidently Hansei's +seducer. If she were to show herself angry at him at the start, it +might lead to much vexation and would destroy all her influence. On the +other hand, she found it difficult to force herself to greet him in a +friendly manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he had entered the room, he asked Hansei:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you told her everything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And is she agreed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She says she'll be satisfied with anything I do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga came into the room, and with the words, "Welcome, +and many +congratulations to the hostess of the Chamois," the innkeeper extended +his hand to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks for the first; but, before I accept the second, my +husband must +be landlord of the Chamois."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heigho!" exclaimed the innkeeper, "how clever! how studied! +how +dignified and polite! Look here, Hansei! haven't I always told you that +you've got a wife who might be a queen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why not, if my husband were a king?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The innkeeper's fist descended on the table, and he laughed +so heartily +at this clever sally, that his two dogs began to bark and thus +accompanied his laughter with their applause. He showed the other +visitors that it would not do to weary their hosts. He left soon +afterward, the rest of the company going with him.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"And for your mother I'll build a snug room looking toward the garden, +where she can take her comfort. I always knew it before, but it wasn't +till you were away, that I found out what a treasure she is to us. If +the Lord only lets us keep her with us for many a year to come. Yes, +your mother shall have the best room in the house."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus spake Hansei, with gleeful countenance. Walpurga +inquired: "Where +do you mean to build?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei looked around as if to express his surprise at her +asking such a +question. He had yielded so far as to promise that nothing should be +done without his wife's consent. He thought that this was all that +could in reason be expected of him, and that it was best to finish up +the business at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">With great self-command, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, at our inn, to be sure. I shan't do anything to this +tumble-down +cottage. But I've already told them that they mustn't disturb the +nut-tree. You'll be surprised when you see how full it is. We shall get +three measures of nuts this year, and a nut year is a good one for +boys."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga clapped her hand to his mouth and, with downcast +eyes, said: +"You're a dear, good fellow: but, believe me, I know you better than +you do yourself. I'm glad that you're much sharper than you used to. +be. I often used to tell you not to be so bashful and forever keeping +in the background. You've so much common sense; more, indeed, than all +the rest of them. If you could only have been behind the door, when I +told the queen about you; and she promised me faithfully that she'll +come to see us when she visits the mountains next year."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei complacently swallowed the praise that his wife +bestowed upon +him, and kept on smiling to himself for some time afterward.</p> + +<p class="normal">Husband and wife praised and extolled each other--a custom +more honored +in the breach than the observance, at least among peasants, who would +feel ashamed if they knew of it. Their coming together, after so long a +separation, seemed like a new wooing and wedding. The question of the +purchase of the inn prevented them, however, from fully realizing this, +and even threatened to imperil their domestic happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you're agreed that we'll be host and hostess of the +Chamois?" +inquired Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've told you already that we'd talk it over; and so you +think you'll +make a good landlord?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so good a landlord as you will a landlady. That's what +everybody +says; and the landlady's always the chief point. You'd be the best +landlady, for you can earn your bread with your tongue, just as the +parson does; and that'll help us to get a penny or two more for our +wine and everything else. You've got a way of looking right into +people's hearts, and can give and take, and that's the best sign that +you're made to be a landlady."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not understand how Walpurga could still hesitate. +The +highest ideal of the young mountaineer is to be an innkeeper; to supply +every one with meat and drink, and to live by the profits of it; to +give feasts and, at the same time, be the merriest one at them; to +receive money while others spend it; to have his house the rendezvous +of all, no matter how varied their pursuits and interests; to be the +helper and adviser of every one; the man with whom all keep on good +terms, who knows all that is going on, all about bargains and prices, +and who, like the lord of the manor in the olden time, receives a +profit whenever cow, or farm, or house change hands. And besides, what +others eat and drink tickles his palate, too, and he doesn't grow thin +upon it. And then, like the parson, he would derive profit from +baptisms, marriages and funerals; to say nothing of the strangers who +would come during the summer and would be obliged to pay tribute to the +landlord, because the mountains are so high and the lake so deep, +and because he allows them to see it all. Yes, an inn is like a great +lake--all the little streams that flow from the different mountain +rills concentrate there.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga stared at her husband in surprise, while she +listened to his +animated and yet detailed description of the advantages of innkeeping. +She almost felt inclined to favor his plan, and thought to herself: +"Perhaps it would be the most sensible thing after all; for I'll never +feel quite at home again in the old, narrow ways of life that I once +used to lead. I've grown different, and must have something different." +Frankly and sincerely, she again assured him that she was not opposed +to the project, but that it would be well to go about it cautiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you know what's best of all?" asked Hansei. "We're to +have a +post-office here--the judge himself says so--and if it should fail us, +you could easily bring it about. You'll give the village a great name. +Indeed, you'll make a town of it, and the houses will be worth twice as +much as they now are."</p> + +<p class="normal">He wanted his wife to go up to the village with him at once, +in order +to look at the inn; but Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me get a good rest in our old house before we go up +there. The inn +won't run away. I can't tell you how happy I am to be in our house +again. I feel as if I must try every chair. Everything seems so good at +home. It's just as if every chair and every table had eyes, and was +looking at me and saying: 'Yes, we still know you, and have waited for +you'; and now, I beg of you, do let me rest awhile."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; just stay," replied Hansei, walking up and down +the room. +Suddenly, as if called by some one, he went out and split several logs +which he had laid aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga came out and looked at him with evident +satisfaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said he, "work will be kept up just as it always was. +I shan't +be a lazy landlord--rest assured of that; and I won't take to drinking, +either. Are you going up to the village with me?" he inquired at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; but do come in."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was soon on the road, and was not a little proud to be +seen +entering the village with his wife. At the fountain near the town hall, +there were women and girls with their tubs. As soon as they saw +Walpurga, they came up to her and offered their greetings and +congratulations.</p> + +<p class="normal">The children were just leaving school. Walpurga called +several of them +to her, shook hands with them, and gave them kind messages to their +parents. With saddened heart, she would hear of the death of such and +such a one. The other children were gathered in groups, and would stand +about, staring at her with surprise. Walpurga's being sent for and +taken to the palace had been as a fairy-tale to the village children; +and now the fairy herself was standing there in broad daylight, and +talking just as other people did.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last Walpurga left them, but the children kept calling out +her name, +in order to prove that they still knew her.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she and her husband walked on, the latter pointed toward +the town +hall. "Look!" said he, "I'll soon be there, too. It's almost certain +that they'll elect me as one of the town council. I might even become a +burgomaster. But I won't take that, for that would get an innkeeper +into lots of trouble."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga observed that the idea of becoming a host had taken +deep root +in Hansei. She simply replied: "I find that you've seen a great deal of +the world this year, but you must certainly have learned that it's +every one's duty to care for his own, and that when one's poor and +unfortunate, no one lends a helping hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; but thank God! we don't need any one now; quite +the +contrary."</p> + +<p class="normal">They were passing the house of Grubersepp, the wealthy farmer +and, +indeed, the richest man in the community. He was a tall, lean man, +whose features always wore a sour expression. He was standing on the +steps before his house, and Hansei greeted him civilly. Grubersepp, +however, turned on his heel and walked off toward the stable. It would +not do for a rich farmer like him to welcome a day laborer's child like +Walpurga. The whole village might make fools of themselves on her +account, but a rich farmer like Grubersepp knows his own importance too +well. It would be mighty fine, indeed, if he were known to trouble +himself about a creature who used to be glad if he would let her have a +pint or two of milk on trust.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei cried out aloud: "Good-day, Grubersepp! my wife's come +back +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp acted as if he had not heard him, and went toward +the +stable.</p> + +<p class="normal">The joy that Walpurga had experienced while receiving the +greetings of +the villagers was not enough to compensate her for her pain at +the slight thus put upon her. After all, as it was only a silly, +narrow-minded farmer displaying his stupid peasant pride. Hadn't the +king spoken to her, and had he ever spoken to such a dolt as he? But +this did not satisfy her. Grubersepp was the first in the village, and +to be slighted by him, or to incur his ill-will, was no trifling matter +after all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll never be hostess to you, you old pitchfork," said +Walpurga, +looking toward the house; "I'll never pour out a glass of wine for you +and say, 'God bless you!' with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you saying?" said Hansei, as Walpurga uttered these +words to +herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If we could buy that silly old pitchfork's land, I'd like it +much +better than the inn," she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, that would be much finer; but we haven't enough +money for +that; and, even if we had, Grubersepp wouldn't sell. On the contrary, +when a poor man has his eye on a field, he buys it up before he gets a +chance at it."</p> + +<p class="normal">When Hansei and Walpurga arrived at the inn, they found quite +a crowd +there. A new purchase of wine had just been opened, and, as usual on +such occasions, the drinking was at the host's expense.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! here comes the new landlady," exclaimed several voices.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," said Walpurga, "my husband hasn't concluded the +bargain +yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">The hunter from Zell was there also, and Walpurga saw, at a +glance, +that her husband was caught in a net of flatterers. She soon got out of +the room. The host and his wife showed her and Hansei through all the +rooms and the cellars. Walpurga found it all very good, but kept saying +that they would have to build and arrange everything anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're spoiled," said the innkeeper. "Here in the country, +things are +different from what they are in your palace. You seem to forget that +one needn't drive a nail into this house for the next fifty years." +Walpurga would not permit herself to be drawn into any discussion of +the subject. On the way home, she remarked to her husband, that it +would be well to have the house examined by some one who knew all about +building matters, for neither of them understood anything about it, and +to make anything out of the innkeeper, was like drawing blood from a +stone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was vexed that the bargain had not been concluded on +the spot. +He felt as if he could not remain in the old house another hour. +Walpurga, on the other hand, wished to stave off the matter for a +while. Besides that, as Hansei was obliged to admit, she suggested many +points that required careful consideration.</p> + +<p class="normal">That afternoon, Walpurga reckoned up all that belonged to +her. It was a +handsome amount. There was almost enough to pay for the inn, with the +fields, meadows and woods belonging to it. One or two prosperous years +would enable them to clear off the mortgage which they might be obliged +to leave remaining on the property.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was evening. The grandmother was in the room and, in a tremulous +voice, was singing her granddaughter to sleep. She, too, was singing +the song:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Oh, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Walpurga and Hansei were the only ones at the table, and he +could +scarcely eat the potatoes as fast as she pared them. She would always +put the best and finest before him. "Just think of it, Hansei," said +she, looking so happy while she spoke; "the best things in the +world--sleep, sunlight, water, eggs, boiled potatoes and salt--are all +the same in the palace and in the cottage. The king and the queen can't +have them better than we, and the very best of all is the same +everywhere. And do you know what it is?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; a good kiss. It wouldn't be any better from the queen's +lips than +from yours; and there I'm like the king, too, especially when I'm as +nicely shaved as today," he added, taking his wife's hand and passing +it over his smooth chin.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right; but I didn't mean to say it that way. Love's +the same, +too. It can't be different up there from what it is here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what's come over you," said Hansei. "I never +thought you +were such a witch, so clever and so wide-awake. It provokes me that +people should be so familiar with you, and treat you as if you were +still the same old Walpurga."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought to be glad that I'm still the same, or else I +shouldn't be +your wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei stopped chewing the potato that was in his mouth and +stared at +his wife in surprise. At last he hurriedly bolted down the potato and +said: "Now that joke don't please me at all. It's wrong to joke about +such things." Both were silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the next room sat the mother singing:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"My heart doth bear a burden,</p> +<p class="t6">And thou hast placed it there";</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">And the song seemed to touch them both.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've got something to tell you," said Hansei, at last. "It's +been my +habit, for the last year, to go up to the Chamois after supper, and +especially on Saturday evenings. Sometimes I've taken a drop, and +sometimes not; and as this is Saturday and as they'll all be there, I +think I'd better go up once more, just for your sake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For my sake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, for fear the people might say: 'Now he's got to duck +under, for +his gracious wife has come home.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you always worry about what the people say? Suppose +they were +to say: 'What sort of a man is this? His wife was gone for a year, and +on the second night after her return, he runs off to the inn'?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, unable to parry this thrust, stared at her in +surprise. At last +he said: "I think I'll go, after all. You won't think hard of it, will +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go, if you like," replied Walpurga, and Hansei hurried off. +Walpurga +looked after him, while her eyes filled with tears. "Is this what I've +so longed for?" thought she to herself. "Was it for this that I thought +the minutes would never end, and felt as if I must chase the hours +away?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her mother came in and, gently closing the door, said: "She +sleeps +sweetly."</p> + +<p class="normal">The ruddy glow of the rosy setting sun illumined Walpurga's +countenance, in which, it was plainly to be seen, a great change had +taken place since that sun rose.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child again began to cry. The grandmother went in to it, +and +Walpurga stealthily hurried in the direction of the lake. It was night. +The waves were softly beating on the shore; the reed-sparrow was still +chattering, and the water-hens kept up their twittering. Far up on the +mountain, bright fires were burning; for it was Saturday night, and the +mountain lasses were looking out for their swains. And now the moon +rose over the summit of the Chamois hill and shone upon the lake. +Walpurga, as if lost in reverie, stood there for some time, gazing into +the lake. Then she turned toward home, but, instead of going into the +room, quietly stole into the cellar. With almost superhuman strength, +she moved the stone cabbage-tub from its place, dug a hole in the +ground, placed the money that Irma had given her in it, and shoved the +cabbage-tub back into its place again.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was washing her hands at the pump, when she noticed that +her mother +was lighting the lamp in the room. She went in, staring at the light.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you stare at the light so?" asked her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, mother, I'm not used to a single light any more; in +the palace, +there are ever so many."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the people there have only one pair of eyes," replied +the mother. +"No, my child; that's not why you look so troubled. Tell me honestly, +what's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga frankly confessed that it almost broke her heart to +think that +her husband couldn't stay at home on the second evening after her +return, but must go to the inn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me your hand," said the mother. "Yes, I've been +thinking about +your hands. I've noticed that you wash them whenever you've touched +anything. That's very nice, but it won't do here. Your hand's become +soft and tender this last year, while mine's as hard as leather; and +you'll soon have to harden your hands too. For God's sake, don't make +your husband skittish, and don't give him an ugly word. Take my word +for it, he couldn't help going up there to-night, and it's Saturday +night besides. It was just as if six horses were dragging him. He's got +used to it, and habits are strong things that can't be changed at will. +He's not bad; I'm sure of that. Let him have his own way, just as he's +used to, and he'll soon be all right again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga made no answer. She busied herself paring potatoes +for her +mother, who went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The things that are God's gifts we have just as good as they +have them +in the palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! we've saved one poor soul," replied Walpurga with a +smile, "I +said the very same words to Hansei, a little while ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">When they had finished paring the potatoes for the next day, +the mother +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell you what. Let's close the front door, and sit on +the little +seat your father was so fond of, in the grassy garden back of the +house. There we can talk to each other without being disturbed, and, as +the lights are out, we'll have no visitors. Nor do we want any, for +we're enough by ourselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh God! if only my husband felt so, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let him alone at the inn. Thank God that we're alone +together. Don't +act like a deposed queen; it only makes it so much the harder for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mother and daughter went out through the back door that led +to the +little garden, where they seated themselves on a bench which stood +against the wall and opposite the stable window, and left the back door +ajar so that they might hear the child if it should cry. They heard +nothing, however, except the noise, made by the cows while feeding. The +moon was high, and the shimmering surface of the lake reflected its +rays. Now and then, the <i>yodel</i> of some distant mountaineer, the +barking of a dog, or the soft splash of an oar, were the only sounds +that broke the silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the first two weeks were only over," said Walpurga, "I'd +be better +used to it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't wish for time to pass. It comes and goes of itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; tell me everything I'm to do, I don't care to +have my own +will now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That won't do, either. Those who can walk alone must fall +alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll try to do my best."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. Tell me one thing: how is it in the palace about +now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"About now? Dear me, it seems two years since I left there. +By this +time, the lamps have been lit in all the passageways, and downstairs, +where the king and the queen are, they're just about leaving the table. +But we have nothing to do with that. Mademoiselle Kramer is reading her +book. She reads a book through every day; and my prince. O you poor +child--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga burst into tears. At the same moment, her own child +began to +cry and the two women hurried in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was only dreaming," said the mother softly. "The child +must feel +that the right mother is come."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga again felt conscious of the double life she was +leading.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although she was at home, her thoughts were still at the +palace. +Everything seemed confused and indistinct, and when she found herself +again sitting on the bench at her mother's side, she was obliged to +stop and consider where she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seems to me," said the mother, "that those who possess so +many +worldly gifts as the king and queen and the quality have, can't take +much time to think of the heavenly life hereafter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga told her how pious they all were at court, and that +the queen, +although a Protestant, was especially so.</p> + +<p class="normal">They conversed with each other in calm and gentle tones. +Walpurga +rested her head against her mother's heart and, at last, fell asleep +there. The mother held her in her embrace, scarcely venturing to +breathe, lest she might waken her. After they had been sitting there +awhile, she awakened Walpurga and told her that she might catch cold +and had better go to bed. Walpurga scarcely knew where she was and, +while still rubbing her eyes, she asked: "Isn't my husband home yet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just go to bed, I'll help you," said the mother, and she +undressed +Walpurga, as if she were a little child. Then she sat down by the bed +and, taking her daughter's hand in hers, said: "You see, it's a queer +thing when people who belong together have lived apart for a long time. +They've become used to getting along without each other, and the only +thing to do is to wait till they grow used to each other again. Take +precious good care that you never speak an unkind word, and don't dare +to think to yourself: 'If I only were away again, and out in the +world.' If you harbor such thoughts, you'll be like a tree cut off at +its roots and transplanted--it must die. Mind what I tell you! Whenever +you can change anything according to your own notion, do so; but you'd +better not attempt to alter what can't be altered. Make up your mind +that it's got to be as it is, and submit. There's nothing so silly, in +all the world, as to wish for what you can't have. When the wind blows +and the rain descends, you'll often hear people say: 'If it were only +fine weather to-day.' We can't change the weather outside of us; but we +can see to it that there's fair weather inside. And what I was going to +say is: see that you have fair weather within yourself and then all +will be well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; but what am I to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Make an effort this very night. Promise me, faithfully, that +if you're +awake when your husband comes home, you'll say to him, cheerfully, 'God +greet you, Hansei!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't do that, mother; indeed, I can't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I tell you you must be able to do it, or else you're not +a true +wife and mother, and every piece of gold you've brought home with you +will be as if a fiery demon were lurking in it. You promised to obey +me, and at the very start you refuse."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; I'll try my best."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, good-night," said the mother, and returned to +her room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga lay there in silence. Anger and sorrow kept her +awake. Her +child had become estranged from her, her husband had acquired bad +habits and preferred the society of his comrades to hers. For whose +sake had she imposed the heavy burden upon herself? For whose sake had +she gone among strangers to earn all that she had brought home with +her, and for whom had she kept herself so pure? She wet her pillow with +bitter tears. But suddenly an inner voice said to her: "Do you mean to +take credit to yourself for having been honest? Were you honest for +yourself, or for others? and weren't they obliged to suffer, too, in +taking everything upon themselves? Oughtn't you to thank God that they +didn't die of grief?--Yes, that was all very well; but now they ought +to be heartily glad and grateful--I can't expect it of the child, for +that's too young to know; but my husband--he has sense enough when he +feels like it. And have I gained all this only to be a hostess to the +whole world? No, I've earned it, and I've a right--For God's sake! A +right? There's the trouble. When the one always insists upon claiming +his rights from the other, it's just like hell itself--I don't want any +rights; I've got no rights; I want nothing at all. All I wish is to be +an obedient wife and a good mother--Dear Lord, assist me if I'm not +one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Heavy steps were heard approaching. Hansei entered and, with +cheerful +voice, Walpurga exclaimed: "God greet you, Hansei! I'm glad that you've +found me still awake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've won the bet! I've won it!" exclaimed Hansei with a loud +voice. +"There's two men standing out there under the window. We had a wager +together and I've won six measures of wine from them. They said that +the best proof of a wife is the way she receives her husband when he +returns from the tavern, or when he awakes her out of her sleep. I told +them: 'I know my wife. When I get home, she'll be kind and friendly to +me.' But they wouldn't believe a word of it. And so we've had a wager, +and I've won it; and if all the wine in the whole world were mine, it +wouldn't please me half so much as to know that I was right."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei opened the shutters of the window toward the lake, and +called +out: "Now you've heard it, friends. You can go now; I've won the wine. +Good night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga pulled the cover over her head. There was laughter +outside, +and the two men departed. For a minute or two, the bright moonlight +shone into the lowly cottage, and then the shutter was closed again.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When Hansei awoke the next morning, the cows were already milked, and +the house looked so bright and clean that it seemed as if one of the +kind fairies that dwelt on the mountains had been putting things to +rights. A pot of blooming, scarlet pinks stood in the center of the +table, over which a neat, white cloth had been spread; and, as if to +hide the dingy flower-pot from view, a garland of leaves had been +twined around it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've been industrious," said Hansei, and Walpurga +answered: "Yes, my +thoughts wandered far away into the world, and have come back again. +You see, the quality have all that one can wish for, but do you know +what they haven't got?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They've no Sunday; and do you know why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know that, either."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because they've no real workdays. In the palace, when you +get up in +the morning, your boots and shoes are ready at your door just as if +they had blackened themselves. The coffee is ready of itself, the bread +has baked itself, the paths have swept themselves clean, and everything +is attended to, one hardly knows how. But to do everything with your +own hands--Just see! to-day, I've already put my hand under your feet; +I've cleaned your shoes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mustn't do that; that's no work for you. Don't you do it +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I won't do it again. But to-day I've done +everything, and I +can hardly tell you how happy I felt when I went after the first pail +of water. It went hard at first, but I managed it, after all. And now +I'm longing for breakfast. Since the day I left home, I've never once +been so hungry as I now am."</p> + +<p class="normal">When the grandmother came, bringing the child with her, she, +too, was +surprised, and said: "Walpurga, you'll turn our cottage into a palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">With joyful mien, Hansei told her of all that Walpurga had +been doing, +and the mother said: "She's right; an industrious home is the happiest +home, and now, just because you've got some means, you must work so +much the more. For where there's idleness riches take wings to +themselves; but if you're always adding something, no matter how +little, to your store, the old is likely to stay."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think we need go to church to-day," said Hansei, +"mother's +giving us the best benediction."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but we'll go to church, for all that," replied +Walpurga. "All the +time I was away, I've looked forward to this first going to church. +What a fine day it is! I don't believe there ever was such lovely +weather." Their intercourse was full of happiness. The only drawback +was that the child still refused to go to Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga told her mother that everything had been well +attended to +during her absence, but she was displeased at one thing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it? what have I done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, you didn't get yourself a servant."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman smiled. She could never do that. She didn't +know how she +could ever order a servant about. And now Hansei said he wouldn't allow +his wife to overwork herself, and that there must be a servant in the +house.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother recommended one of her brother's children +from over the +mountains. So it was decided that they should send word to Uncle Peter +to come, and bring one of his daughters with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The morning was clear and bracing, and Hansei, who had put on +his +snow-white shirt, said, while lighting his pipe:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, let your mother work a little while, and come out +into the +garden."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was sitting on the bench under the cherry-tree. Walpurga +soon joined +him and, after the fashion of women, said that she could only remain +for a short time, that she had various matters to attend to, and that +they ought to be at church in good season.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat down beside him, and Hansei said: "Why don't you say +something? +you must have lots to tell about."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't think of anything now. Just wait, it'll all come in +time. It's +happiness enough that we're together again. If we, all of us, only keep +well. I think our cherry-tree has grown."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now that I think of it, you've had no cherries from it +this year. +I'll climb up and get some for you, and if I could get up, way beyond +the tree, and bring down the blue sky for you, I'd do it."</p> + +<p class="normal">He climbed up the tree, and cried out: "Shoo! you sparrows, +you've had +enough. My old woman's here again, but she's a young one, still, and +wants some, too. You've had your wives with you the whole year, and I +haven't." He hurriedly plucked the finest cherries, singing the while:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"In cherry time, you left me, dear;</p> +<p class="t6">In cherry time, again you're here.</p> +<p class="t6">The cherries they are black and red,</p> +<p class="t6">And I'll love my darling till I'm dead."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Suddenly he called out: "Walpurga, I must come down, I can't +get any +more for you, I'm so giddy."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was soon on the ground again and said: "That never +happened to me +before, in all my life, and I've been up there many a half-day at a +time. I suppose it's our good fortune that makes me so giddy. I'll +never climb a tree again, I promise you that. It would be a terrible +thing if I were to fall down. We must take care that we keep well and +hearty, and stick to each other. I don't want to break my legs. I want +to dance with you yet. I'll dance with you at Burgei's wedding. It +seems as if I could hear the music already. Hark! don't you hear +anything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. It'll be a long while before the music for Burgei's +wedding is +struck up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And she must get a good husband; I won't have it otherwise. +What do +you think of a prince? but I'll be quiet, for I'm talking nothing but +silly stuff. I scarcely know what I'm saying, where I am, or who I am, +and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We're at home, and you're my husband and that's all of it. +You'll see, +I have something else good in store for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me nothing, and promise me nothing more. I've got +enough already. +I can hardly believe that we've a child. It seems as if we were just +married."</p> + +<p class="normal">In a soft voice, too low for any passer-by to hear it and +just loud +enough for them to know they were singing, they sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Oh, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee.</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by,</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">Just like the finch who never wearies of repeating his song, +they sang +the same words over and over again. They had nothing more to tell each +other, for they were unspeakably happy. The church bell now began +tolling. Its sounds, floating over the lake, were echoed back from the +forests and mountains. A wagon was seen coming from the village and +Walpurga said: "We must get ready for church."</p> + +<p class="normal">They went into the house. The mother had already brought +Hansei his +royal Sunday suit. They soon heard the cracking of a whip and a voice +cried out: "Are you coming?" Hansei put his head out of the window and +asked: "What's the matter?" Covering herself with a large sheet, +Walpurga looked out of the low window. The innkeeper's head-servant, +who was standing by the wagon out in the road, answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My master sends you his wagon, so that you may drive to +church."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, do you wish to ride?" asked Hansei, at the closed +chamber +door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I'll walk. I beg of you, Hansei, send the wagon away; +I've had +enough riding." Hansei went out. At the same moment the innkeeper, with +his military medal glittering on his breast, arrived.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei thanked him, but said that his wife didn't care to +ride. But it +was not so easy to deny the innkeeper, who waited until Walpurga came +out of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was not long dressing herself, and that is saying a great +deal; for +this was to be her first appearance at church and she knew that all +eyes would be directed upon her. When she came out, clad in tasteful +attire, the innkeeper said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must do me the honor of letting me drive you and your +husband to +church."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm still quite sound on my feet, and shall be glad to have +a good +walk again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can do that, too; but not on the first Sunday. We'd feel +ashamed +before the folks who live in the wilderness and out at the +Windenreuthe, if we didn't show them that we know how to treat a woman +like yourself with proper respect. We're all proud of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks. Don't think hard of it, but I won't ride."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was not to be moved. The innkeeper was about to give +vent to +his anger, but, fearing the consequences, he restrained himself, and, +with smiling mien, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I ought to have known as much. Walking's a great treat to +the quality. +Yes, indeed!" He laughed at his own cleverness and sent the wagon home +again. He kept smiling till he had a chance to turn his back on Hansei +and Walpurga, when his face assumed quite an angry expression. He went +home, took off his coat with the medal, hung it up in the closet, and +wished he could hang himself in the same manner. Who could tell but +what Walpurga would interfere both with all his fun and the handsome +receipts he expected that day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and Hansei started off by the road along the lake, +the +grandmother, with the child on her arm, standing at the garden hedge +and looking after them. She softly repeated to the child: "mother," and +it suddenly called out "mother" in a loud voice. Walpurga turned round +and wanted to hug the child, but it again tried to hide from her, and +cried when she attempted to kiss it. Hansei stood by, and was so vexed +that he raised his hand as if to strike the child, but Walpurga +pacified him and said: "We must wait."</p> + +<p class="normal">The second bell was ringing, and they hurried on. On the way, +they were +joined by men, women and children coming from the village and various +farms in the neighborhood. Hansei longed to drive them away, and he +once said, softly, "I'd like to go with you, alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be patient," said Walpurga, "don't begrudge them their +delight in our +happiness." She was affable to all. Hansei looked out over the lake, +then up at the sky, and then again at his wife, as if to say: "She's +here again." He smiled when he heard the children saying: "She's the +grandest peasant now--she comes right after the queen."</p> + +<p class="normal">The third bell, or the ringing in, which generally lasts a +full quarter +of an hour, had just begun, when Hansei and his wife reached the +church. Many churchgoers were standing about in groups and welcomed +them. There was still time to remain there, chatting for awhile; but +Walpurga took her husband's hand and went into the church with him. +They were the first to enter. Walpurga took her usual seat in the place +allotted to the women, and Hansei went into that assigned to the men. +Thus they were together and yet apart. The bells overhead were still +ringing out their merry peal, while they sat there in silent +introspection. Once only did Hansei nod to his wife, but she shook her +head deprecatingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The playing of the organ began, and the people poured into +church. +Walpurga knew that such and such a one was near her, but she did not +wish to be welcomed or greeted by any one in such a place. She felt +that the eye of the Invisible One was resting upon her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor preached of the return to the everlasting home. It +seemed as +if his words were intended for Hansei and Walpurga; as if he were +speaking only to them.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the sermon was over and prayers were offered for the +king, the +queen and the royal family, there was strange whispering in the church. +Walpurga felt that all eyes were directed upon her, and did not look +up.</p> + +<p class="normal">The service was over. The congregation left the church, and +Walpurga +was now welcomed by the latecomers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sexton came to Walpurga and Hansei, and said that the +pastor wished +to see them in the vestry. They went in. The pastor again welcomed +them, spoke of their good fortune, and admonished them to be humble.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes," said Hansei, "my mother-in-law said almost the +same thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor promised to visit them before long, and said that +he was +proud to have such a woman among his parishioners. Hansei put out his +hand as if to check him, and felt like answering: "What's the use of +your warning us against pride when you tell us such things yourself?" +The pastor motioned him to be quiet, and went on to say: "I shall visit +the capital next week, and you must do me the favor, Walpurga, to give +me a letter to Countess von Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"With all my heart," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they were out of doors again, Hansei looked at his wife +from head +to foot. And so even the pastor would ask his wife to intercede for +him. Yes, she was a splendid wife, if all that couldn't turn her head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh Hansei," said Walpurga suddenly, "what a pack of fools +they all +are. They do all they can to make one proud, and if one were to become +so, they'd do nothing but abuse you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was on the point of saying that he had thought the +very same +thing, but, before he had a chance to do so, he saw Schneck the tailor +coming down the mountainside, and carrying his great bass viol. The +weak and delicate-looking man, with the great instrument on his back, +presented quite an odd appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heigho! why here's the wedding party," exclaimed the tailor, +while he +left the meadow path and ran up the road to shake hands with Hansei and +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter? what are you going to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm going to play for you to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For us? Who ordered you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a pity my wife didn't live to see this day. How happy +it would +have made her. Don't you know about it? There's going to be a great +feast at the Chamois, in honor of your return, Walpurga, and the +innkeeper has engaged me and six other musicians. The forest keeper, +the chief forester, all the judges of the court, and everybody for six +leagues around, have been invited. How stupid that I've only got my +bass viol with me, or else I'd play you a piece, right here on the +road."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There you have it," whispered Walpurga to her husband, "the +innkeeper +makes money out of everything. If he only could do it, he'd have +fiddle-strings stretched over my back, and have the skin drawn off of +you to make drum-heads with."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on; we'll follow," said Hansei to the tailor. He was +annoyed when +others joined them on their way home. He wanted to be alone with his +wife. No one should have a share of her; she belonged to him alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It'll soon be a year since we sat on this pile of stones. Do +you +remember? It must have been somewhat about here," exclaimed Hansei, +with joyous voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga gave an evasive answer. She told Hansei that she +thought it a +stupid piece of business for the innkeeper to make a festival of her +return, but that she wouldn't put foot in the Chamois for all his +music.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had not thought so ill of the projected entertainment; +on the +contrary, he had found pleasure in the idea of sitting in the midst of +the crowd, with his wife by his side and all the people frisking about +him. That was more than Grubersepp, with all his money, could get. It +was not without a struggle, that he, at last, said: "Just as you +please; you ought to know best whether it's proper for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as the afternoon service was over, crowds, on their +way to the +Chamois, were seen hurrying through the village in carriages, on +horseback, or afoot. The sound of the music could be heard from afar, +and the tones of tailor Schneck's bass viol were heard over all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I could only hide myself from them," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's easily done," said Hansei, triumphantly, "that's all +right. Let +us go off together, by ourselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went out through the back door and into the back garden +and loosened +the boat from the spile. While the chain rattled over its side, +Walpurga laid her hand on her heart and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've loosened a chain from my heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">They got into the boat and pushed oft, and, like an arrow, +the slender +bark shot out over the smooth water of the lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The pastor meant to come," said Walpurga, when they had gone +some +distance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He can come some other time; he won't run away," thought +Hansei. +"We're rowing together, just as we did when we were betrothed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga also seized the oars. She and Hansei sat face to +face. The +four oars rose and fell as if it were a single hand that plied them. +Neither spoke a word; there was nothing to be said. The happy glances +they bestowed on each other were full of eloquence, and the equal +stroke of the oars told the whole story.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they reached the middle of the lake, they heard loud +music from +the shore, and, looking back, saw a great crowd, accompanied by the +band, in front of their house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God! We've escaped that," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">They rowed on, further and further, and went ashore on the +opposite +bank where, holding each other by the hand, they walked up the hill. +They soon reached a bluff, where they rested for awhile. At last, +Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, it seems to me that you don't want to be the +landlady of the +Chamois. Tell me frankly, is it so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I don't; but if you're really bent upon it--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I want nothing that doesn't suit you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor do I want anything that displeases you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so we'll let the innkeeper go his own way?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gladly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can wait."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can remain as we are, for the present."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll soon find a good chance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The money won't grow moldy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor will you. I've got a bran-new wife. Hurrah! hurrah!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Their voices joined in merry song, and they felt as if +relieved from a +self-imposed burden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They may make sport of me, as much as they please, as long +as we're +happy together," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei, I'll never forget you for that. There's something +else coming, +too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There needn't be anything more. All I ask for is that we may +keep what +we have."</p> + +<p class="normal">They sat there for a long while, and at last Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! how beautiful the world is. If we could only always +remain +together thus. There's nothing more beautiful than to sit here and look +at the lake, through the green leaves and the gray boughs. There are +two skies, one above and one below. Hansei, we have two heavens, too, +and I almost think that the one on earth is the lovelier of the two."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but joy has made me hungry and thirsty; I must have +something to +eat."</p> + +<p class="normal">They descended to a quiet, desolate-looking village that lay +near by. +Here and there people were seated before their doors, chatting and +yawning, to while away the sultry hour of noon. But Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Hansei, how beautiful everything is! Just look at that +wheelbarrow, and that pile of wood, and that house--I don't know what's +the matter with me, but I feel quite dizzy, and as if everything were +smiling at me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must have something to eat and drink; you're quite +beside +yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">They found the inn-parlor untenanted except by myriads of +flies.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They've got lots of guests here, but they don't pay +anything," said +Hansei, and they both laughed with all their might. They were so happy +that the merest trifle provoked them to laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">After repeated calls the landlady appeared, bringing some +sour wine and +stale bread; but it was quite palatable, nevertheless.</p> + +<p class="normal">They left and, when evening came on, rowed about the lake for +a long +while. The evening dews were already falling, when Hansei, pointing +toward a distant bare spot in the forest, said: "That's our meadow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga seemed busied with other thoughts. She rested her +oars and +exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The little house over there is our home, and there's our +child. I +don't know how it is--" She could not express her feelings, but it +seemed as if she must fly away and hover over the sea and the +mountains, with all that belonged to her. She gazed earnestly at +Hansei, until he at last said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course it's our little house; and our cows, and our +tables, and our +chairs, and our beds, are all there. Walpurga, you've become a foolish +thing; everything seems strange to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right, Hansei. Only have patience with me. I'm just +coming home +to it all again."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had, at first, almost felt mortified at Hansei's words. +He had +taken her expressions so literally, and had not appreciated her +high-strung feelings. But she quickly regained her self-control, and +realized how changed she had become, and that all this was out of place +here.</p> + +<p class="normal">They returned home, and slipped into the house through the +back door. +They found everything quiet and in good order. They did not care for +the people outside, or for their merry-making. They were enough to each +other.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Were these the same villagers who had talked so scandalously of +Walpurga when, at Christmas time, the new clothes had come for Hansei +and the mother? Had they suddenly become kind and loving?</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed, at first, as if they had really raised themselves +to the +noblest height, that of pure sympathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now-- If there had been a weathercock to mark the +feelings of men, +it would have turned quite suddenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">It all came about quite naturally.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were few amusements still left to the villagers. The +church and +state authorities had ruled with a severe hand. It was, therefore, no +trifle that the members of the provincial court would permit music in +midsummer, in honor of the prince's nurse, for the sanction of the +authorities was required, even for music.</p> + +<p class="normal">All were delighted except, of course, Grubersepp, who made a +wry face +at their noisy doings, and, after he had taken his comfortable +afternoon nap, went out to his fields. Such a noise and fuss about +nothing at all, would do very well for the little farmers, the +woodcutters, the boatmen and the fishermen; but it should not interest +a rich, sober-minded farmer.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when they found that Walpurga and Hansei had gone away, +and that +the cream of the joke was thus spoiled; when even the country justice +said that their behavior was shameful, there was quite a revulsion of +sentiment, and many who had gone to the cottage by the lake in order to +do honor to its inmates, now began to think of what tricks they might +play Hansei and his haughty wife. There were many ways of annoying +them, such as cutting off the cows' tails, nailing up the doors, +breaking the windows--they were quite ingenious in inventing all sorts +of mean tricks, but the presence of the justice acted as an +uncomfortable restraint. So the crowd returned to the inn and amused +themselves by inveighing against the he-nurse and his stupid wife. By +degrees, however, another change in feeling took place. There are many +who rejoice in another's misfortunes, and they chuckled over the +landlord's disappointment. The feast, and the great earnings he had +expected, had both been failures, for the better portion of the company +soon drove off, leaving him enough roast meats and cakes on hand to +last a week. Out in the kitchen, the hostess was weeping with anger and +vexation, which she would gladly have vented upon her husband. There +was lively talking on all sides, and they found it a great joke to make +sport of the innkeeper, and to advise him to add the day's loss to the +price of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shan't sell at all," said the host. "Such people shan't +enter my +house again."</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga awoke, early on Monday morning, Hansei was +nowhere to be +seen. The week's work had begun. Before daylight, he had taken his +scythe and gone out to his mountain meadow, where he was now mowing the +dewy grass. He worked with such joy, such pleasure and calmness, that +it seemed as if an invisible power were guiding his hand. When the +breakfast was ready and Walpurga had searched for her husband +everywhere, and thinking that he might have gone fishing, had called +out for him back of the house and down by the lake, she went out into +the garden again and looked up into the cherry-tree. Perhaps he was up +there, although this constant plucking of cherries would be too much of +a good thing. At the same moment, she looked toward the hill, and saw +Hansei coming home, his scythe glittering in the sun. Walpurga beckoned +to him. He quickened his pace and told her how much he had already +done. "Ah!" said he, stretching his limbs while he seated himself at +the breakfast-table, "it does one good to work before breakfast, and +then come home and find wife and child and mother, with something warm +and good to eat, waiting for you--Ah! that tastes good. Sunday's +beautiful, but a workday's much finer. I wouldn't care to be one of +your quality, who have Sunday all the year round. If I only had lots of +fields and meadows and forests, so that I could always work on my own +land."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll have them, God willing," answered Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were a happy party at breakfast, and the child was full +of life. +They had been sitting together for a little while, when the innkeeper's +servant entered and brought Hansei his beer-mug with his name engraved +on the pewter lid, and signified that the innkeeper desired no further +visits on his part.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei sent word to the host that he had better return the +two hundred +florins that he still owed him. He did not like to send such a message +by the servant, but he felt that he ought to give him tit for tat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And tell him, besides," he called out to the servant, "he's +often been +warned that he might get hold of the wrong fellow. Just tell him that +I'm the wrong fellow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei could not help feeling sad while he looked at the +empty +beer-mug. Who knew how long it would remain empty. Perhaps forever. And +it's no trifling matter to be excluded from the village inn. It's +almost as hard as to live in a small capital where the prince gives +entertainments, and to be unable to take part in them because you are +not admitted at court. "There's a new tap," they'd say; "there's a new +wine purchase; there are entertaining strangers there--" He was now +excluded from the best thing there was in the village. When he looked +at his tankard it was with sad thoughts, and with a prophetic sense of +the thirst which in future he would be unable to quench.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before long, woodcutters, on their way to the forest, stopped +to see +Hansei and tell him of all that had been said of him and his wife on +the previous day. They roundly abused those who, in order to please the +innkeeper, had spoken ill of an honest man, one against whom nothing +could be said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no harm done," replied Hansei; "on the contrary, it +makes one +wiser to see how people will talk when their tongues are loosened."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And your comrades, the huntsmen, said they had only let you +go with +them in order to have fun at your expense."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That doesn't matter. I'll soon show them that I've learnt +wisdom from +them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wasn't there one who spoke well of us?" inquired Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes," replied Wastl the weaver, who felt kindly +inclined toward +Hansei, but feared to incur the displeasure of the innkeeper--"the +doctor. He's a real friend of yours. He said: 'Walpurga was perfectly +right; it's the most sensible thing she's ever done'--and he also said +that he and his wife would soon come on purpose to welcome you."</p> + +<p class="normal">And now the woodcutters cautioned Hansei, and told him that +there were +others who thought just as they did, that the old inn had been of +little account for a great while, and that he would do well to apply +for a license. He couldn't fail to get one, and then he could run the +host of the Chamois so dry that the hoops would fall from his casks.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei nodded his cheerful approval. "Just wait, we'll show +you, yet," +he muttered to himself, clenching his fists, stretching out his arms, +and raising his shoulders as if he would fell the innkeeper to the +earth with a blow that would make him forget to rise again. But +Walpurga said: "We'll harm no one, and we'll let no one harm us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Haven't you something to drink?" inquired the woodcutters. +They wanted +a reward for the news they had brought.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I've nothing," replied Hansei. "I must be off to the +meadow to +turn the hay."</p> + +<p class="normal">The men left, and had gone a great ways before they ceased +abusing +Hansei. "That's the way with a beggar on horseback. He won't even give +you a drink when you bring him news."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wastl the weaver had not the courage to contradict them, +although he +knew that Hansei would gladly have given him something to drink if the +rest of the company had not been present.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei gazed at his forlorn tankard for some time. At last he +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't care. I wanted to be all alone with you, Walpurga, +and now we +are alone, I ask nothing of the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The innkeeper's not the whole world," said Walpurga, +consolingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei shook his head, as if to say that a woman can't +understand what +it is to be shut out of the inn, just like a drunkard whom the law +prevents from going there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's got no right to keep me out," said he, angrily. "I know +my +rights. The landlord must give drink to every guest who enters his +house. But I shan't do him the honor to go there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, whose thoughts followed the woodcutters, +conjectured they +were speaking ill of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We ought to have given the woodcutters something to drink. +They're +surely abusing us now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can't stop every one's mouth," replied Hansei. "Let them +talk; and +don't begin to repent now. We must be firm. What's done is done." With +a changed tone he added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The sun's burning hot on the mountain, and if we stick at +our work, we +can get our hay in this very evening. In such weather as this, the +grass turns into hay as fast as it falls from the scythe. But there's +something brewing in the lake. There may be a storm before we know it; +and so I'd like to get the hay in under cover. Won't you go along?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was delighted to go. The mother also wished to +accompany them, +and so, taking their dinner with them, the whole family set out for the +mountain meadow. Hansei carried the child, Walpurga took the barrow, +and the grandmother carried the dinner basket. As soon as the dog saw +them start, he followed after them, and was constantly running backward +and forward, from one to the other of the party. The dew had already +disappeared from field and meadow, when they entered the shady forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd rather push a barrow," said Walpurga, "than ride in a +coach."</p> + +<p class="normal">When they began to ascend the hill, they changed about. The +grandmother +took the child, Walpurga the dinner, and Hansei the wheelbarrow. It was +not until the child was asleep that Walpurga could take it on her arm, +and she felt happy while carrying it through the green wood. Once, it +opened its eyes and looked at her, but soon closed them again and went +to sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they reached the meadow, they laid the child in a shady +spot, +where they could always have it in sight, and the dog remained there +guarding it. Hansei and the two women worked assiduously. Hansei called +out to Walpurga that she must not turn the hay so quickly, or she would +soon tire herself, for she was no longer used to such work. So she went +about it more slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This meadow was bought with your money," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't say that. Promise me you'll never say such a thing +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I promise."</p> + +<p class="normal">They found it warm work, and when Hansei came near Walpurga +again, she +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The same sun that dries the grass makes us wet with +perspiration. At +the summer palace, they mow the grass every week. They never let it +grow high, and take great care that there are no flowers in the grass; +but they tell me that it doesn't make good fodder."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You think of so many things," replied Hansei. "Aren't you +tired yet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no; I've been resting so long. Do you know what pleases +me most of +all? Just look," said she, showing him that her hands were becoming +hardened by labor.</p> + +<p class="normal">They heard the bell down in the valley striking the hour of +eleven. +This was the signal to prepare dinner. Hansei hurriedly brought some +wood, a bright fire was kindled, and the child was so lively that the +grandmother had to exert all her strength to keep it on her lap. While +the soup was being warmed, Hansei sat by smoking his pipe. The three +sat on the ground eating out of one dish. After dinner, Hansei +stretched himself out and said: "I'll sleep for a quarter of an hour."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga also lay down, but the mother remained awake, +watching the +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei slept but a short time. He looked pleased when he saw +his wife +lying on the ground, sleeping by his side. He motioned to the mother +that she should not awaken Walpurga. The child was placed in the basket +beside its mother, who slept on quietly, while Hansei and the +grandmother were at work further down the hillside. The sun was already +sinking when Walpurga awoke. She felt something touching her which +thrilled her strangely. She opened her eyes, and they met those of her +child. Its hands were stroking her cheeks. The child had crept out of +its basket and had crawled up to her. Walpurga kept perfectly still. +She scarcely ventured to breathe, and closed her eyes, lest she should +frighten the child away. "Mother," cried the child. She still +restrained herself, though she felt as if her heart must burst. +"Mother! Mother!" it cried, more eagerly than before; and now she +raised herself and embraced the child, and it let her do with it as she +liked. Her heart overflowing with happiness, she sank on her knees and +held her little, laughing child on high.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sprang to her feet, held the child up with both her +hands, and, +hurrying to her people, exclaimed: "Hansei! mother! the child's mine!" +and the little one held her tightly in its arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Moderate yourself!" said her mother. "You'll spoil the child +if you +show that you care for it so much. That's enough, Burgei," said she to +the little one. "Put it down, Walpurga, and come help us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga followed her mother's advice, but could not help +looking +toward the child. It did not turn toward her. It was playing with the +dog, who had made good friends with it. Presently it tumbled down from +the pile of hay. Walpurga shrieked; but the mother exclaimed, "let it +alone!" The child lifted its head, laughed, crawled over to the +grandmother, and then looked over at its mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hay was dry. Hansei hurried off to fetch his cow team, as +he was +anxious to get the load home betimes. The wagon could not come nearer +than the road, and so they were obliged to carry the hay down the hill +and to pile it up in heaps. Walpurga said that she had slept enough and +had been idle for a long while, and allowed her mother to help her but +little.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei returned. They loaded the wagon. Grandmother, Walpurga +and child +sat on top of the load of hay, and Hansei, at last, got up, too. +Evening had set in. The lake began to assume a darker hue, and it was +only here and there that a streak of light played upon its surface.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now the people may say whatever they please," said +Walpurga, +"here, we're far above them all."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother and Hansei looked at each other, and their glance +meant: +"How wonderful it is that Walpurga should have such strange thoughts +about everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was soon quiet in the little cottage by the lake. Its +tired but +happy inmates were sleeping, and the whole house was fragrant with the +odor of the new-mown hay.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The folks in the cottage slept on peacefully, knowing nothing of the +whirlwind of dust, the dark clouds that overcast the sky, the mighty +storm, or the violent rain that followed. When Hansei put his head out +of the window next morning, it was still raining. He turned to Walpurga +and said: "Do you see? I was right, yesterday. The weather's changed. +Thank God! our hay's under cover."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied Walpurga. "What a day it was. It was all +sunshine."</p> + +<p class="normal">It rained all day. A sharp wind was blowing, the waves of the +lake rose +on high and lashed themselves against the shore.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How good it is to have a roof over one's head," said +Walpurga. Hansei +again looked at his wife with surprise. Walpurga discovered everything +anew. But now she was happy, for her child clung to her. It called her +"mother," and called the grandmother "mamma."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, with the child on her arm, was standing at the +stable door +and throwing bread-crumbs to the finches, who could find no food that +day. The birds picked up the crumbs and flew away to their nests with +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They've got young ones at home, too," said she. Suddenly, +she +interrupted herself and said: "Burgei, we've been in the sun together, +now we'll go into the rain together." She ran out into the warm rain +with her child and then back again into the stable. She dried herself +and the child and said: "There! wasn't it lovely? and now it's raining +on our meadow and fresh grass will grow, and my child must grow too, +and when we gather the aftermath, you'll be able to run alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt so happy that the child had become attached to +her that +she hardly knew what to do for joy. The child, too, was happier than it +had ever been before. The young mother could play with it far better +than the grandmother could. Her laugh was so bright, and she would +count its little fingers and renew all those wondrous, childish plays +which overflowering maternal love invented.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga did not care to eat anything all that day. She +merely tasted a +spoonful of the broth before giving it to her child. It rained +incessantly. Hansei was out in the shed, chopping wood. Suddenly, he +came into the room and said: "How careless we were yesterday. They all +know that you brought home so much money with you, and we went off and +left the house alone. Have you looked to see if it's still here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was filled with alarm, but speedily satisfied +herself that all +was still there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It must be put in a safe place before long. At all events, +one of us +must always stay at home, now," said Hansei, and returned to his work.</p> + +<p class="normal">Time passes slowly on rainy days, and what better employment +is there +in such seasons than to sit together and abuse those who are absent? At +noon, Hansei said: "The Chamois must be crowded, all day long." It +worried him to think that he could not be there. What a merry time he +might have had. They might have drunk those six measures of wine, and +now he must let the rogues get off without paying their wager.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga added: "Yes, and, from what I know of the people, +I'm quite +sure they're abusing us, because, thank God, we're doing well. It seems +as if I'd never known people before, except by their outsides; but now +I can see through them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Didn't you say that you wouldn't care what people thought?" +replied +Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had a wonderful knack of divining the ideas of +others. Her +thoughts now penetrated every house, wandered to the pump by the +courthouse, and into the inn itself, in order to discover what the +people there were saying against her and hers. She was not obliged to +wait long for confirmation. The joiner who, on the day of Walpurga's +departure, had offered to sell his house and farm, now came to borrow +money from Hansei, as he had received notice to pay off his mortgage. +As an introduction, he thought it best to assure Hansei that he was his +only friend, and the only well-wisher left him in the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei plainly told him that he wouldn't lend money to any +one, for +that changed one's friends into foes. The friendly tale-bearer soon +took his leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">Living in the village had ceased to be a pleasure to them. +The closing +of the inn doors against Hansei was only the beginning. No one, of his +own accord, bade him or his wife "good-day," and their greetings were +scarcely returned. Walpurga, who had grown accustomed to being praised +and esteemed by those about her, was often very sad. What vexed her +most of all was that the story of the wager had been passed from mouth +to mouth, and had become so distorted that it was scarcely fit to be +repeated. It seemed as if the privacy of the marital chamber had been +revealed to the world and discussed in the market-place. She felt +insecure in her own house. Every noise frightened her, though it were +merely a barking dog, or the elder-bush brushing against the roof. +Every night, before going to sleep, she would try the window-shutters, +to see that they were firmly closed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't believe," said she, "that great folk are half so bad +as +villagers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" said the mother. "I don't know anything about them; +but from +what I've heard, the quality are just as good and just as bad as the +common folk. It don't depend on the clothes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're just like Countess Brinkenstein. If you'd been +obliged to spend +all your life in the palace, you'd have been just like her." thought +Walpurga to herself, while she looked at her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's mind was agitated by contending emotions. She was +obliged to +reconcile two distinct spheres of life; the court and the village, and, +in imagination, would often transplant villagers to the court and <i>vice +versa</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was sometimes quite bewildered, and scarcely able to +distinguish +what she had only imagined from what she had really experienced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei would listen to his wife and her mother discussing +people and, +with a smile, would think to himself:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How changeable the women are; there's nothing consistent +about them."</p> + +<p class="normal">After Hansei had, for two or three evenings, resisted his +inclination +to go to the inn, he was merrier than ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad," said he, "that I can give up a habit, if +necessary. I +really think I could give up smoking, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">Those dull days served to show the difference between the +dispositions +of Hansei and his wife. To the superficial observer, Walpurga, so +cheerful and wide-awake, would seem the superior of her sullen, awkward +husband. Her temperament was suggestive of life among the mountains; +for there, when it is dull and rainy, everything is covered with +darkness, but, as soon as the sun breaks forth, every object is lighted +up afresh--the green meadows are brighter, the lake acquires a darker +blue, every mountain height and every forest stream is revealed anew in +clear and perfect lines. Like a beautiful flower, opening and revealing +all its beauty in the glowing sunshine, Walpurga was always better and +brighter in fair weather. Hansei remained steady and, indeed, gained in +firmness while the bad weather lasted. When the storm raged, swaying +branches and boughs to and fro, he resisted, as it were, and maintained +his ground. He had something in common with the rough-barked, +weather-beaten oak. The monarch of the forest does not don its robes of +green with the first mild rays of the spring sun. Its boughs remain +bare long after its neighbors are decked with foliage, but, in the end, +it surpasses them all in strength and beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The past year had indeed wrought a greater change in Hansei +than in +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tree growing on a rock, drawing scanty nourishment from +the thin +crust of earth around it, and exposed to wind and storm, will, when +transplanted to a rich soil, seem to languish at first; but it will +soon shoot forth with new strength. Thus had it been with Hansei. The +sudden transition, from a life of care and toil into a new sphere, had +almost ruined him. But in a little while, all was well with him again. +And now his firmness and self-possession stood him in good stead, for +he was obliged to prevent Walpurga's kind but strongly self-conscious +nature from gaining ascendency over his.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was, at first, almost vexed at her husband's +insensibility. +She would go about in an angry mood, would curl her lips and clench her +fists. She felt as if she must do something to punish the villagers. +Hansei remained calm; it was not his habit to trouble his head with +much thinking. It gradually dawned upon Walpurga's mind that Hansei was +far stronger than she. Like a plant deprived of sunshine, and in spite +of her happy home, she would have withered and languished because of +the averted glances of her neighbors. She was so possessed by her anger +that she was only sensible to that which, feeding it, provoked her the +more. Hansei was quite calm, and Walpurga, for the first time, became +fully aware of his strength of character. No one could make him change +his gait. He was like a horse which jogs on, regardless of the dog +barking at its heels, or which, when going up hill, will suffer no one +to urge it into a trot.</p> + +<p class="normal">In true humility, Walpurga bowed to her husband. He might +have been +wittier, readier, and more sprightly, but none could be better nor +steadier than he.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The village council were in session.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was summoned to the town hall. The messenger who came +for him +told him that there was to be a new assessment, and that higher taxes +were to be levied upon him, now that he had come into property.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't tell everything to the last kreutzer," said he.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell them all. Thank God, I've got something to pay +taxes for," +replied Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga listened with eager interest. She had been boiling +with rage +for many days, and now the time had come when her anger could find vent +in words. She said she would go along to the town hall where they were +all assembled, and would, then and there, tell them what she thought of +them. Hansei persuaded her that that wouldn't do, and now the messenger +seemed the very man to serve her purpose. She burst forth in a torrent +of abuse of the villagers, and asked the messenger to go to them and +repeat every word he had heard. She threatened them with the house of +correction and the king, as if both were at her service, besides +mentioning other punishments which were quite new and of her own +invention.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come along," said Hansei to the messenger. While on the way, +he gave +him some drink-money, and told him that his wife had not yet become +used to things at home, and that, naturally enough, many a thing +worried her. The messenger reassured Hansei by saying that, in an +office like his, one was obliged to hear and see much which it was best +to seem ignorant of afterward, and that women were very queer. Their +great delight was to unburden themselves; after that, they were all +right again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was detained at the town hall for a long time. The +innkeeper, +who was one of the councilmen, was seated at the table, and found great +pleasure in trying to get him into a tight place. His office protected +him as with a shield. He tried to provoke Hansei to insult him, so that +he might put him in jail and thus, at one stroke, disgrace the haughty +beggar and his wife. Hansei saw what was in the wind, and every one was +astonished at the polite manner in which he expressed himself. He never +addressed the innkeeper except as "Mr. Councilman." "He must have +learned that from his wife, who got her education at the palace," +whispered the councilmen to each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">In spite of the pouring rain that lasted during the whole of +the +meeting, Walpurga waited and watched outside of the town hall. If there +should be any trouble up there, thought she to herself, she would go up +and tell them all what they were. She was insensible to the rain +penetrating her clothes, for she was all aglow with excitement. At last +she heard a noise on the stairs. Many were coming down, and she hurried +home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei returned home, full of self-confidence. He had +conquered +himself, and the victory had been a greater one than if he had laid +about him with cudgels. At home, he found everything in great +confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, after walking about in the rain, had suddenly +hurried home as +if some one was after her, and had fainted as soon as she entered the +room where her mother was sitting. She had recovered, but was still in +a high fever, and her teeth were chattering. Once she opened her eyes, +but quickly closed them again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei wanted to go for the doctor at once, but the mother +advised him +to stay at home and send a messenger in his stead. Before the doctor +came, Walpurga was sitting up in bed and telling her own story.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei informed her how he had killed the innkeeper with +politeness. +Walpurga's face suddenly lit up with joy, and she held out her hand to +him, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're--you're a splendid fellow," and then she wept until +the tears +streamed down her cheeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's right," said the grandmother to Hansei; "that'll +clear her +head. I was afraid it had gone to her head, but now it's all right. You +can go now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei left the room. He stood at the window for a while, +looking out +at the rain. "If your wife were to die, or if she should live and be +worse than dead. If she--" He did not dare to think of the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother came out into the room and said: "Thank God! she's +sleeping. +When this is well over, the danger's past. It was no trifle to leave +the palace as she's done, where they all petted her and showed her +great respect, and to come here among these coarse, spiteful people. +She'd become filled with anger and hatred, and it had to come out some +day. Thank God, it's out now. It's lucky for us that the people have +shown themselves so mean. Take my word for it--with all her goodness, +she would have found fault with everything in the house, and nothing +would have suited her, if this hadn't come in the way."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother thus consoled Hansei, who nodded approval of her +words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga slept. Her cheeks were scarlet. Hansei, with the +child in his +arms, stood at his wife's bedside for a long time, looking at her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor did not come until the next morning. He found +Walpurga +lively, but very weak. He prescribed drastic remedies, and, in the +course of a few days, she was quite restored. She now saw what danger +she had been in, and how luckily she had escaped it.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until then that she felt quite at home and +perfectly happy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and her mother were down by the lake, washing +clothes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, it's our business to keep things clean," said Walpurga. +"When I +look up at the mountains, I see the rocks and forests which only men, +with their chisels and axes, can shape into houses. Men's work is with +whatever's strong and powerful. Even if others do flatter us, and we +persuade ourselves that we're ever so great, we women are less than +they are."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother smiled and said: "Oh child, your thoughts are +far-fetched, +but you're right, for all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My Hansei's a real steady man," continued Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That he is," answered the mother, with joyful mien.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He doesn't talk as much as others do, but when it comes to a +pinch, he +knows what he has to do and how to do it, and that's just the way your +blessed father was. You're very lucky to find this out so soon after +the birth of your first child. I didn't know it till after my third, +or, indeed, till I'd lost all my children except yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-day to you all!" suddenly said a little needy-looking +man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, it's Peter!" cried the grandmother; "you here already? +That's +good. And is this your daughter? What's her name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gundel."</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you both," said the grandmother, who kept wetting +and wiping +her hand again and again, before offering it to her brother.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little man's features expressed great surprise. It was +long since +any one had been so glad to see him; but, of course, he had come to a +house that was overflowing with joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother took her brother by the hand, and led him +toward the +house. She felt sad when she looked at the poor little man, for his +appearance betokened great poverty.</p> + +<p class="normal">She forthwith gave her brother and her niece something to +eat. When +they had finished, she took Gundel out to the wash-tub by the lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just work there till dinner-time, and then you'll know where +you +belong." She went back to her brother and again bade him welcome. The +little man complained that life went hard with him. The grandmother +went into the other room with Walpurga, and asked her:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How much money did you mean to give me for my journey home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As much as you want."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No.--Tell me how much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would ten florins be enough?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"More than enough. Give them to me at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga gave her a ten florin piece and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, I haven't given you a present since I came back."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave her mother several florins in addition to the ten +which she +had already handed her, and said: "Take this and give it away. I know +that your greatest pleasure is in giving to others."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my child! you know me well. Oh God! I can now give +something to +others; that's the best thing in the world. You see, I've never been +able to do anything for the poor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't say that, mother; how often you've watched, day and +night, by +the sick."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's nothing; that's not money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's far better than money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May be it is with God, but with men-- Just think of it!--to +be able to +give money and money's worth to others! You make me ever so happy. I've +had gifts, too, in my time. You don't know how it is, when the hands of +the giver and the receiver touch. And some gifts are like hot bread in +one's stomach. It stills your hunger, but it lies there like so much +molten lead. But there are some good people whose gifts do one good. +Grubersepp's father once came to me and gave me something, and so did +Count Eberhard Wildenort, who lives on the other side of the Chamois +hill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, that's the father of my countess," said Walpurga, +interrupting +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God! Then he'll live to be rewarded for it by his +children. I +never forget a name. Yes, I received presents from them both, and now +they're again bestowing gifts through me. My child, I'll never forget +you for this. To be able to give is heaven on earth. But while we stand +here chattering, my poor brother's waiting out there like a poor soul +at heaven's gate. Come along."</p> + +<p class="normal">They went into the room. The mother put the ten florin piece +into her +brother's hand, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There, take it. I needn't go to my home now, for it has come +to me, +and if I never get there again, it's enough for me that I've seen my +brother once more. There, Peter; that was to have been the money for my +journey."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tsch-st-st-st--" with these sounds, resembling the hissing +of a pot on +a fire, did the little pitchman receive the gift.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does that mean?" asked Walpurga and her mother, in one +breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tsch-st-st-st," answered Peter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter with you? are you crazy?" asked the +mother, whose +face had suddenly assumed a serious expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tsch-st-st-st," replied the little pitchman again.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now it was Walpurga's turn to become angry and to +inquire: "What do +you mean by such capers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you piece of palace wisdom!" said Peter at last, "don't +you know +how it hisses when a drop falls on a hot stone, and, d'ye see? it's +just the same with me and the money."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother told him that he was ungrateful, and that the +people thought +that Walpurga had now enough money to make every one rich. He ought to +feel very happy, for he had never before had so much at any one time. +But the little pitchman, without making further answer, continued to +repeat the strange, hissing noise. Walpurga went out and soon returned +with another ten florin piece, which she gave to the little pitchman, +who then said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! it's out now; I can pay all my debts and buy me a +goat, +besides," and, striking the pieces of money together, he sang:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"What's the best? aye, what's the best?</p> +<p class="t6">To be free from debt or care,</p> +<p class="t6">And have a little money to spare--</p> +<p class="t6">That's the best; aye, that's the best."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">The mother was now quite happy again. She resolved to be +prudent and +economical in dispensing her gifts. In imagination, she already saw the +people whose want she could now alleviate, and perhaps remove. The +joyful glances of those who were to be gladdened by her bounty seemed +reflected in her calm and happy face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh you women!" said the little pitchman, as if sermonizing, +while he +looked with sparkling eyes at his two pieces of money, "you women can't +know what money is. I shall put small change for a florin in my pocket, +and always keep it with me. Hurrah! what a jolly life I'll lead. What +do you know of such things? You go by a public-house on Sunday, put +your hand in your pocket and there's nothing there. But I'll go in and +won't begrudge myself a treat, and wherever there's an inn, I can make +myself at home. Wine and beer await me, and host, hostess, daughter and +servant treat me kindly, and ask how it goes with me, where I've come +from and where I'm going to; and when I leave, they go with me part of +the way, and ask me to come again. And why do they do so? Just because +I've got money in my pocket."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man shouted for joy. The grandmother cautioned him +not to +become dissipated, and Peter laughed until his face was nothing but +wrinkles. He declared that he had made it all up, and that now he was +less likely to go to the public-house than before. "When you've got +money in your pocket," he said, "it's great fun to go and quench your +thirst at the pump in front of the inn."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My countess told me," said Walpurga, seating herself near +her uncle, +"that you knew her father."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what countess is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I know him. He's a man; the right sort of a man; a +German of +the old sort; a gentleman, a real gentleman. He ought to be king, +he--" Heavy footsteps were heard approaching. Hansei entered. Peter +quickly put the money in his pocket and whispered: "I shan't say +anything to Hansei about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't tell him; we'll do it, ourselves," replied +Walpurga.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not stand on ceremony with his uncle. He had known him for a +long while. They had often met up in the mountains, where Hansei had +worked as a woodsman and Peter had gathered pitch. But they had not +made much ado of their friendship; an occasional charge of tobacco had +been the only exchange of courtesy between them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei now had something more important to relate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was working out by the garden hedge that the band and the +rest of +the crowd almost tore down last Sunday, and, all at once, I heard some +one say: 'You're quite industrious, Hansei'; and, when I looked round, +who do you think it was? You can't guess."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not the innkeeper?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll never guess. It was Grubersepp, and he said: 'I hear +you've +stopped going to the Chamois,' and I said: 'That's nobody's business +but my own.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why did you answer so rudely?" asked Walpurga, interrupting +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I know him. If you don't show your teeth to such a +fellow, +he'll hold you mighty cheap--'See here,' said he. 'It'll be six years, +come Michaelmas--ever since Waldl was born--and in all that time I've +never once set foot in the Chamois, and I'm still alive for all. You'll +find it'll do you good to stay away, just as it did me. I've laid in +beer of my own, and if you ever feel like having a glass, send for it, +or come yourself. Maybe you'll want a word of advice as to what you'd +better do with your money, and let me tell you one thing, lend nothing +to any one--' Now tell me, mother, tell me, wife, who'd have thought of +such a thing? Who'd ever expect as much from old Grubersepp, who's +always afraid he might waste a word? Now, Walpurga, you can see that +the people aren't all wicked; good and bad are mixed together in the +palace as well as in the village. When they find that Grubersepp keeps +company with me, they'll come flocking back, just like bees to a mellow +pear."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was indeed a great event. A resident of the capital could +not feel +more highly favored if accosted by the king in the public street, than +Hansei and his whole family now were.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga wanted to go up to Grubersepp's at once, and to +acknowledge +that she had done him wrong, but Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of being in such a hurry about it. I'll wait +till he +comes again; I won't go one step to meet him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right," replied Walpurga, "you're the right sort of a +man."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've got my full growth," said he. "Isn't it so, uncle? I'm +done +growing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied the uncle, "you've got your full size. But do +you know +what you ought to be? You ought to own a large farm. You'd be the very +man, and Walpurga the very woman for it; and now that I think of it, +have you heard that the owner of the freehold at our place wants to +sell? They say he's obliged to. You ought to go there; you'd be better +off than the king, then. If you've got the ready money, you can buy the +farm at half-price."</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle now praised the farm, with its fields and its +meadows, and +said the soil was so rich and in such good condition that it was almost +good enough to eat; and as to the timber, no one knew how much it was +worth. The only trouble was that one couldn't get at it everywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle was a pitchburner, and knew the woods well.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was quite happy, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It won't do to lose sight of this."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei seemed quite indifferent about the matter. Walpurga +took his +hand in hers, and whispered: "I've something more for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't need anything. There's only one thing I ask of you: +let me +attend to the purchase of the farm, and don't let uncle see that you +snuff at it so. I really think the farmer must have sent him here. We +must be hard, and make believe we don't care for it at all. I shan't +neglect the matter, you may depend upon that. And, besides, I've been a +woodcutter long enough to know something about timber land."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei let the uncle go away alone and merely said, in a +casual manner, +that he would take a look at the farm some time or other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp came that evening, according to promise. A +maid-servant, +carrying a large stone jug of beer, followed him. A wealthy farmer +visiting the cottage by the lake, and bringing his beer there of an +evening--such a thing had never been heard of as long as the village +existed.</p> + +<p class="normal">His whole manner seemed to say: "I've got sixty cows +pasturing on the +mountain meadows." No one had ever heard a word of praise pass his +lips. He was a sour-visaged fellow, and was chary of his words. He was +what is called a drudging farmer. All that he cared for was incessant +work, and he never concerned himself about others.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga kept out of sight. She was afraid lest she might +humble +herself too much, and thus vex Hansei, who behaved as if Grubersepp had +been visiting the family for years.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp inquired for Walpurga. Hansei called her, and when +she came, +the rich farmer shook hands with her and bade her welcome.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Walpurga had left the room, they spoke of the best way +of +investing the money.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp was a great enemy of the public funds.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Hansei, at last. "I've had an offer of the farm +on the +other side of the lake, six leagues inland. My mother-in-law is from +that neighborhood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know the farm. I was there once. I was to have married the +farmer's +daughter, but nothing came of it. They tell me that the property is in +a poor condition. If you want to reap good from land, you must give it +something in return. The soil requires it, and, if you should purchase, +don't forget that a good portion of the meadow land had best be sold. +My father always used to say that the meadows of a farm are like a +cow's udder."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was astonished at the amount of wisdom which +Grubersepp had +inherited, and marveled at his carrying it all about with him and +making so little ado of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp added: "The matter will bear thinking over, at all +events, +and I'd be glad if some one from our village should get so fine a +property."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you wouldn't let me have anything toward it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. I don't owe you anything. But if you can use me in any +other +way--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, how? Will you go bail for me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; that I won't either. But I understand the matter better +than you +do, and I'll give you a whole day of my time. I'll drive over there +with you and value the whole property for you. I'm glad that you've +concluded not to take the inn. The weather's clearing, and I'll have +all my hay under cover by to-morrow noon. If you need me for a day, I'm +at your service, and we'll ride over there. You know that when I say a +thing it's so, for I'm Grubersepp."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I accept it," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Radiant with joy, Walpurga stood at the garden hedge the next +day, +watching the wagon in which Hansei and Grubersepp were sitting. She was +glad that so many people happened to be coming from work at about the +time the two drove off together.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now let 'em burst with anger; the first man in the village +is my +Hansei's comrade."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no small matter for Grubersepp thus to give a whole +day of his +time, and in midsummer at that. He meant it kindly enough, but his main +object was to show that the innkeeper and his pack could not make a man +of one, while he, Grubersepp, could. He felt quite indifferent as to +what people thought of him, but, nevertheless, it does one good to let +them know who's the master, as long as it costs nothing to do so. When +it costs nothing--that was the chief point in all that Grubersepp did.</p> + +<p class="normal">The nearest route lay across the lake and straight up the +mountain on +the other side. But Grubersepp had an unconquerable aversion to the +water, and so they drove round the lake and then up the mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was late on the following evening when Hansei and +Grubersepp +returned. Hansei reported that the farm was a fine one, and that it +would be quite a fair purchase, although not so wonderfully cheap as +the uncle had vaunted it to be. The place had been sadly neglected; but +that wouldn't stand in the way, for he could put all that to rights +again. Still, he wouldn't buy, because he'd be obliged to leave too +much remaining on mortgage, and he'd rather own a smaller farm and be +out of debt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Walpurga said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, I've been wanting to tell you something for a great +while, and +you'd never listen to me. I've something more for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She led Hansei down into the cellar and, with a mighty +effort, removed +the stone cabbage-tub, after which she dug up the earth with her hands, +and displayed to the astonished eyes of Hansei the pillow-case filled +with gold pieces.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gold! Every bit of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good God! you're a witch; that's--that's enchanted gold!" +exclaimed +Hansei. He was so startled that he upset the oil lamp which Walpurga +had placed on an inverted pail.</p> + +<p class="normal">They both stood there in the dark, shuddering with fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you still here?" cried Hansei, trembling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I am. Don't be--don't be--so--so superstitious. +Strike a +light. Have you no matches about you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I have."</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew them from his pocket, but let them all fall on the +ground. +Walpurga gathered them up. Several of them caught fire, but immediately +went out again. The sudden flash of blue light seemed weird and dismal. +At last they succeeded in lighting the lamp, and went upstairs into the +room, where Walpurga lit a second lamp, lest the darkness might again +frighten them. Hansei hurriedly removed the pillow-case, and the +glittering gold met his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now tell me," said he, passing his hand over his face, "have +you any +more? Don't try that again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga assured him that this was all. Hansei spread the +gold out on +the table, piled it up in little heaps, and counted it with his +fingers. He always had a piece of chalk in his pocket, and he now took +it out and reckoned up the money. When he had finished, he turned and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come here, Walpurga. Come, there's your first kiss as +mistress of the +freehold."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei put the gold back into the pillow-case, and when he +went to bed +he placed it under his pillow, saying: "Oh, what a good pillow; one can +sleep sweetly on it."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When Walpurga awoke the next morning, she found the sack of gold in bed +beside her, but Hansei had disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he? What's become of him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She dressed herself in a hurry, hunted for him, and went all +over the +house calling for him; but he was not there. She hurried over to +Grubersepp's, but they had seen nothing of him. She returned home, but +Hansei had not yet arrived.</p> + +<p class="normal">What could it be? If Hansei had done some harm to himself--If +having so +much money had turned his head--Oh, that terrible money! It had been +lying in the earth, and there was now nothing wrong about it, for what +has once been in the ground is purified.</p> + +<p class="normal">She went out to the lake. It was still storming; its waves +were high, +and the sky was covered with dark gray clouds.</p> + +<p class="normal">Maybe Hansei's destroyed himself--maybe he's floating in +there.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood by the water's edge and cried "Hansei" with all her +might.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no answer. She returned to the house, and, as +coherently as +she could, told her mother of her grief. Her mother consoled her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do be quiet. Hansei took his axe with him--the one that +always hangs +up there. I suppose he had something to do in the forest. He never +shirks work. When he comes home don't tell him how foolish you've been. +The palace still clings to you. You worry too much about everything. +Take my word for it, the world's quiet and peaceful enough as long as +we're quiet and orderly. Hush! I hear him coming. He's whistling."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei approached whistling, and bearing his axe on his +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could not go forward to meet him. She felt so weak +in her +limbs that she was obliged to sit down.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning, Mistress Freeholder!" cried Hansei from afar. +"Good-morning, Freeholder!" replied Walpurga. "Where have you been?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Out in the woods. I cut down a pine-tree, a splendid one +that must +have felt my strokes. It did me good. But, first of all, give me +something to eat, for I'm hungry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He can still eat; thank God for that," thought Walpurga to +herself, +while she hurried to fetch the porridge. She sat down beside him, +delighting in every spoonful which he took. She had much to tell and to +ask about, but she didn't wish to disturb him while he was eating, and +when the dish was half empty she held it up for him, so that he could +fill his spoon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now tell me," said she, when the dish was emptied, "why did +you go out +so early and steal away so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I'll tell you. When I awoke, I thought it was all a +dream, and +when, after that, I found the money, so much of it, I thought I'd go +crazy. Hansei, the poor fellow who used to save for months at a time, +and felt so happy when he could buy himself a shirt and a pair of +shoes, had all at once become rich, and it seemed as if some one were +turning me round and round and driving me crazy. Then I felt like +waking you up, that we might consider what I'd better do with myself. +But you sleep so soundly that I thought--Pshaw! is your wife to help +you? Just you wait, Hansei; I'll show you--and so I got out and took my +axe and went up the mountain. Day was just breaking. Although I was +quite alone, I felt, all the time, as if there was a great crowd of +people after me. Still I went on till I reached the pine. It was marked +out to be felled long ago. I threw off my jacket and set to work, and +when the chips began to fly, I felt better. Afterward, Wastl came up +and helped me, but he kept saying, all the time: 'Hansei, you never +worked as you do to-day'; and he spoke the truth. We felled the tree +and it came down with a crash. That did me, good, and I felt better and +better. We chopped off the branches and did three times as much as we +generally do in the same time, and so, little by little, all the +foolish notions and giddiness left my head. Now I'm here again and +happy, and I'm with you, Walpurga, my old sweetheart. I've been a +woodcutter again, in downright earnest, and now I'm to become a +farmer--that is, if all goes right."</p> + +<p class="normal">And it all came to pass.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother had a wonderful way of disappearing when she knew +that +Hansei and Walpurga had anything to settle between themselves. One +could almost have fancied that the cottage was provided with secret +doors and subterranean passages, so suddenly would she vanish. She +would reappear just as suddenly, and no one would know where she had +been or how she had returned.</p> + +<p class="normal">According to her wont, she had disappeared. Walpurga and +Hansei +searched through the house for her, but found her nowhere. When they +returned to the room, she was there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, we've good news for you," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see what's best of all, already," she replied, "and that +is that your +hearts are truly united. I don't care to know any more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, mother, you must know this. Did you ever imagine that +you might be +mistress of the freehold at which you once were a servant?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, never."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But now it is so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and Hansei, relieving each other by turns, told her +that they +had enough money to pay the cash down for the farm, and that the +purchase was as good as concluded, because Hansei had obtained the +refusal of it for eight days.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mother Beate could not utter a word in reply. She folded her +hands, and +her features assumed an expression of sadness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, aren't you pleased at it?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not pleased? You'll soon see. But I'm old, my child, and +can't jump +about, the way you do. Look at the mountains over there. As long as +they've been standing there, no one has ever felt happier than I do. +I don't know what the Lord means by giving me so much happiness on +earth. He knows what He is doing and I accept it calmly and patiently. +When you came home to us again, I thought my cup of happiness was full, +but now I see there's more coming. Well, let what will come, I'm going +home again."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother was obliged to stop, but Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; you shall see something that you've never seen +before in +all your life." He went into the room, returned with the sack of gold, +and opened it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just look at that!" said he. "How it shines and sparkles. +You can hold +it all in two hands, and yet there's enough there to buy a farm, with +house and fields and forests, and cattle and tools and everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's a great deal of money," said the mother. She laid her +hand on +the gold, while her lips moved silently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Put your hand into it," urged Hansei. "Oh, how good it feels +to stir +about in the gold that way."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother did not comply with his wish, but kept +murmuring to +herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child in the next room cried, and Hansei called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The freeholder's daughter's awake. Good morning, +freeholder's +daughter!" said he, while the two women went out to the child. Then he +took up the bag of gold, shook it, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just listen; you never heard such music before."</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother lifted the child out of the bed and said: +"Hansei, just +do as I tell you, and put the gold in the warm crib of the innocent +child. That'll bless it, and no matter whose hands the gold may have +been in, that consecrates it and brings a blessing with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother; we can do that." Turning to Walpurga, he added: +"Mother +always has such pretty notions. You know it'll do the gold good in the +warm nest. Yes," said he to the little child, "they've put lots of gold +in your cradle. We'll take one piece and have a hole drilled through +it, and you shall get it when you become confirmed. Only keep good."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But now I must go over to Grubersepp's," said he, at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was obliged to tell that she had already been +looking for him +there, that morning. She now realized how prone she was to give way to +exaggerated fears, and determined to break herself of the habit.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother, Walpurga and the child were happy together +at home, +and the mother related that just three months before Walpurga was born, +she had been at the farm for the last time, and that was to attend her +brother's wedding.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They can bury me up there," added she. "It's a pity I can't +rest +beside your father, for the lake never gave him up again. Oh if he'd +only lived to see this!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Our highest joys and our deepest sorrows are closely allied.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp came back with Hansei, and was the first to +congratulate +Walpurga and the grandmother. He advised them, however, to say nothing +of the matter until the purchase was legally consummated.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On Sunday, Hansei, Walpurga, and the mother, went to church together. +The child remained at home with Gundel. They walked along the shore of +the lake in silence, thinking of how often they had gone that way in +joy and in sorrow, and how they would feel when walking along another +path and to another church.</p> + +<p class="normal">The churchgoers whom they met on the way greeted them coldly, +and the +grandmother said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let us take evil thoughts against others into church +with us. We +must leave them outside."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But when one comes out again, they're there all the same, +just like +the dogs that wait at the church door," replied Walpurga sharply. The +mother looked at her and she shook her head, while she said: "Take my +word for it, the people are not nearly so bad as they make believe to +be. They think it makes them look grander and more important, if they +show that they can be angry and spiteful; but let that be as it may, if +we can't make others good, we can make ourselves better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me the umbrella, mother--I can carry it better than +you," said +Hansei. This was his manner of expressing his assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The innkeeper drove by. Hansei saluted him, but the only +answer he +heard was the cracking of the whip.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the way," said Hansei. "If he's angry, it's no reason +why I +should be."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother nodded her approval.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the service had both edified and satisfied them, it +did not +prevent Hansei from having a mighty appetite at dinner that day, and he +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think the freeholder can eat more than ever, but I'll see +to it that +he works right bravely, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was quite merry, but he did not climb the cherry-tree +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor and his wife paid them a visit that afternoon. +Walpurga +showed the pretty gifts she had received, and Frau Hedwig was all +admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall lay this beautiful dress aside for my child's +wedding. You +can't begin thinking of the outfit too soon."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor had brought a good supply of bottle food. He +placed the +bottles on the table and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei, they tell me that you're doing dry penance, and as +I'm a +heretic, I'll pour out the wine for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He proceeded to do so most generously.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga brought one of the silver-sealed bottles of wine +that Doctor +Gunther had given her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Kumpan knew how to open the bottles. He praised the +wine, but +bestowed still greater praise on Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think," said Walpurga, "that we ought to tell our honored +guests +what we have in view. They're honorable people and won't carry it +further."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right," said Hansei, and told them about the farm. +The doctor +and his wife congratulated them, and were only sorry that such good +people were about to leave the neighborhood. Encouraged by the wine, +Hansei asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Doctor, might I--be so free--? You see, you're really the +cause of our +good fortune. Would you do us the honor to accept a present from us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's hear what it is. How many thousand florins will you +spend on +me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was quite frightened; he had not meant to go that far.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a merry gentleman; you're full of fun," said he, +collecting his +wits. "What I meant to say was--I've got three cords of wood out in the +forest. I only finished cutting it last week, and I'd like to take it +to your house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll do you the favor of accepting it. I see you're a real +farmer +already. You have an itching palm and money clings to it. Take care to +remain so."</p> + +<p class="normal">That Sunday had other honors in store for them, for when the +afternoon +service was over, the pastor called. He told them that he intended to +leave for the capital on the following day, and reminded Walpurga of +her promise to give him a letter to Countess Wildenort. Laughing +heartily. Doctor Kumpan exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! so her highness Countess Wildenort is your friend, and +the +pastor--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Doctor, I'd like to speak a word with you," said Walpurga, +interrupting him. "Come, as quickly as you can."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had learned one lesson at court: viz., that a firm yet +polite +manner enables one to check or avert many an ill-natured remark. There +was a certain grandeur in her manner when she told the doctor that, in +her house, she would allow no one to speak ill of Countess Irma, just +as she would allow no one to say anything against the doctor. That +would be just as false as what was said about the countess, who, while +she was merry enough to be his comrade, was just as good as he was. +Walpurga added that she hoped he would not grieve her by speaking ill +of the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor looked at Walpurga in astonishment. When he came +back into +the room, he said to Hansei:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've got a great wife; one whose friendship is an honor to +any one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga went to her room and wrote:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>My Dearly Beloved Countess</i>:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I take this opportunity to write to you. Our pastor is going +to the +city, and has promised to be kind enough to take the letter with him +and deliver it to you. I don't know what else he wishes to do, but rest +assured that whatever he wants is all right. He's very kind to me, and +particularly so since I've come home again. And now I'd like to write +you how things are going with me. I couldn't ask God to make them +better. To have one's husband, mother, child, and one's daily work +besides! We've already made our hay, but not make-believe, as it used +to be with us on the lawn at the summer palace. Don't you remember?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! I say with <i>us</i>, and who knows whether any one at +the palace +still thinks of me?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I am sure you do, my good countess; and my child, I +mean the +prince, and the queen and Mademoiselle Kramer and her father too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray give my love to them all, the doctor and Baron Schoning +and +Countess Brinkenstein. She's good, too, and Madame Gunther, also, if +you should meet her. Oh, what a woman she is! I'm sorry enough that I +only made her acquaintance the day before I left. You ought to go to +see her every day. Your blessed mother must have been just such a woman +as she is; and do me the favor and write me how my prince is getting +on. He's fond of you, too, and if you get married, let me know, and, if +there's an opportunity. Mademoiselle Kramer might send me the beautiful +distaff. It would be a great pity if it had to lie up there in the +garret.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My husband was very sorry that he didn't get to see you, and +I was +sorry, too. I must always try to forget how you looked that morning, +and when I try to picture my beautiful countess and good friend to +myself, I have to pass over that.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My mother sends her respects; she remembers your mother and +says that +when one looked into her face it was like looking at the sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My child was quite stubborn at first. You saw, by the +prince, how +stubborn children can be when they don't like a person; but my child +and I are very good friends, and the best thing in the world, after +all, is to have a child, something to do, and a little property +besides. Ah! to walk about with one's child is to have a fountain of +life with you; one from which you can drink pure happiness at any +moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It often seems like a dream, when I think that I've been +away; and +it's well that it's past. I feel that I couldn't go through it again, +and all that I wish for now is to live happy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I kiss this sheet, for your hands will touch it.</p> + +<p class="center">"From your true friend,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Walpurga Andermatten</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Postscript.--I've got some new songs here, but they're not +pretty. +I've no time to sing during the day, and if I didn't sing my child to +sleep of an evening, I'd never have a chance to sing at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Excuse me for writing so badly, but my hands have become +hard already, +and the paper and ink are very bad. Yes, that's what all bad writers +say. Once more, farewell! I'm writing in haste and the pastor's waiting +in the other room, and the doctor and his wife are here too. They're +mighty good people, and if there are many wicked and envious folks in +the world, they harm themselves more than they do others. My dear +Countess, you can't imagine how much good you've done us. You'll be +rewarded for it--you, your children, and your grandchildren. It's as +good as certain that we won't stay here; but there's the same sky +everywhere. And when you see your father, give him my mother's +respects. She hasn't forgotten his kindness to her, and you are his +daughter, and have your good heart from him and your mother. All that I +wish is that you still had such a mother as mine. But mother's right: +she says that there's no use wishing for what you can't have. I feel as +if I had to write you a great deal more, but I can't think of anything +else, and they're calling for me from the other room. Farewell! my best +wishes, thousandfold, for your health and happiness. From my very +heart, I wish you all that's good. Oh, if I could only go to you with +this letter. But I'm glad to be home and mean to remain as long as I +live. Farewell, all you good people out in the world."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Walpurga handed the letter to the pastor, who left soon afterward. He +was not fond of being with the doctor, who was a sad heretic. Toward +evening the doctor and his wife left, and Walpurga was not a little +proud of the fact that all the villagers knew of the distinguished +visitors who had called at the cottage. None of their neighbors could +boast of like honor.</p> + +<p class="normal">The week went by quietly. Hansei was absent for several days, +during +which time he concluded the purchase.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman had asked permission to be present when +the money +for the farm was paid, and had requested this as an especial favor. His +face brightened when he saw the heaps of gold, and when Grubersepp +asked: "Do you like it?" he answered, as if waking from a dream:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, it's true; I couldn't have believed it. I've often +heard, in old +stories, of such heaps of gold. The whole lot of stuff doesn't weigh +more than a couple of pounds, and you can get the whole farm for it. +Yes, yes. I'll remember that to the end of my days."</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp laughed heartily. The little, gray-haired man must +have +thought himself quite young to talk thus of the end of his days as a +thing of the remote future.</p> + +<p class="normal">On Friday, the pastor returned. He had not seen Countess +Irma, as she +had accompanied the court to a watering-place. He had left the letter +at the palace, and was told that it would be forwarded to her.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The weathercock turned again and indicated fair weather. The sky was +almost cloudless. With men's minds it was just the same. It was rumored +in the village that Hansei had bought the farm on the other side of the +lake, and that he had paid for it in ready money. How could any one +harbor ill-feeling against a man who was able to do that? No; it was +shameful, on the part of the innkeeper, to drive a man like Hansei, and +such a woman as Walpurga, from the village. They were a credit to every +one, to say nothing of the advantage it is to have such rich and good +people in the place--people, moreover, who have themselves been poor +and know how the poor feel.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and Walpurga now received kindly greetings wherever +they went, +and all spoke of their intended departure as if it grieved them to +think of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ringleader on the Sunday that the band had come to the +house, the +very one, indeed, who wanted to play a trick on Hansei, now came and +offered to engage with him as a farm-hand. Hansei replied that, for the +present, he would keep the servants who were at the farm, and that, in +the beginning, he would require people who knew all about the +neighborhood and the farm itself. He said that he might be able to +employ him later. Hansei was obliged to travel back and forth quite +frequently. There were many legal matters to be arranged, and, besides, +there was an old resident on the property who had a life-claim against +the estate, for maintenance and support, and whom money would not +induce to quit the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you know," said Hansei, one day, "who helped me ever +so much? +We had quite forgotten that Stasi lives up there near the frontier, +about three leagues from the farm. Her husband is the under-forester at +that district. He showed me the forest, and he's quite right when he +says that paths can be made, so that beams and planks may be brought +down. Won't you go with me some time, and take a look at our new home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll wait till we go there for good," answered Walpurga. +"Wherever you +take me to, I'll be satisfied, for we'll be together, and you can't +imagine how happy mother is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the grandmother had, before this, rarely thought of +dying, she +often complained that she wouldn't live long enough to move to the farm +with them, and thus, as mother of the farmer's wife, return to where +she had once been a servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">All day long, she would tell Walpurga of the beautiful +apple-trees in +the great garden there, and of the brook whose water was such that the +articles washed in it would become as white as snow, and that, too, +without using a particle of soap. She also extolled the virtue of the +people who were living there, and cautioned Walpurga to use good +judgment in dispensing the gifts which it would now be her duty to +bestow on others. She knew the old pensioner, and was indeed distantly +related to him. They must treat him kindly, and thus bring blessings on +the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Time sped by, and the hour of departure gradually drew near.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga had already packed the clothing and household +utensils, but +was obliged to unpack them again, as they were needed.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the time for their departure drew near, the villagers +became even +more kindly and affable toward them, and Walpurga complained to her +mother:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel just as I did when I was about to leave the palace. I +was +always anxious to get away, and when the time came, I felt worried +about leaving."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, child," said the mother, consoling her, "it will be +just the same +when you leave the world. How often one would like to go, but when the +time comes, one isn't anxious to leave. Oh, my child! I feel as if the +whole world were speaking to me and as if I understood it all. +Everything, men and women especially, seems at its best when you have +to part from it. That's the way it is when one parts with life. For it +isn't till then that we begin to understand how beautiful the world is, +after all, and how many good hearts we leave behind us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and her mother were now able to talk with each other +to their +heart's content, for they no longer got an hour of Hansei's company. He +spent much of his time with Grubersepp, whom he accompanied into the +fields, and from whom he received much advice and instruction.</p> + +<p class="normal">One evening a messenger came, asking Hansei to come to +Grubersepp's at +once. He hurried off and did not return until late. Walpurga and her +mother, curious to know what was going on, sat up for him. It was near +midnight when he returned, and Walpurga asked: "What's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Grubersepp has got a colt."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and her mother almost split their sides with +laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is there to laugh at?" asked Hansei, almost angry. "And +besides, +the signs are that it'll be a white one."</p> + +<p class="normal">They burst out laughing again, and Hansei looked amazed. He +told them, +in great earnest, that Grubersepp had sent for him, so that he might +learn all about it, and he was just about to acquaint them with the +latest bit of information he had acquired: namely, that foals are never +born white. But he thought better of it; for it occurred to him that it +wouldn't do to tell the women all he knew, for they laughed so stupidly +at everything. Besides, a rich farmer ought to be on his dignity with +the women; he wouldn't forget that Grubersepp was so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei received various offers for his cottage, and was +always provoked +when it was spoken of as a tumbledown old shanty. He always looked as +if he meant to say: "Don't take it ill of me, good old house; the +people only abuse you so that they may get you cheap." Hansei stood his +ground. He wouldn't sell his home for a penny less than it was worth; +and, besides that, he owned the fishing right, which was also worth +something. Grubersepp at last took the house off his hands, with the +design of putting a servant of his, who intended to marry in the fall, +in possession of the place.</p> + +<p class="normal">All the villagers were kind and friendly to them--nay, doubly +so, since +they were about to leave--and Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It hurts me to think that I must leave a single enemy behind +me. I'd +like to make it up with the innkeeper."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga agreed with him, and said that she would go along; +that she +had really been the cause of the trouble, and that if the innkeeper +wanted to scold any one, he might as well scold her, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not want his wife to go along, but she insisted +upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the last evening in August, that they went up into +the +village. Their hearts beat violently while they drew near to the inn. +There was no light in the room. They groped about the porch, but not a +soul was to be seen. Dachsel and Wachsel, however, were making a +heathenish racket. Hansei called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is there no one at home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. There's no one at home," answered a voice from the dark +room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, tell the host, when he returns, that Hansei and +his wife +were here, and that they came to ask him to forgive them if they've +done him any wrong, and to say that they forgive him, too, and wish him +luck."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right; I'll tell him," said the voice. The door was +again slammed +to, and Dachsel and Wachsel began barking again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and Walpurga returned homeward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know who that was?" asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, yes; 'twas the innkeeper himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, we've done all we could."</p> + +<p class="normal">They found it sad to part from all the villagers. They +listened to the +lovely tones of the bell which they had heard every hour since +childhood. Although their hearts were full, they did not say a word +about the sadness of parting. Hansei at last broke silence:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Our new home isn't out of the world, we can often come +here."</p> + +<p class="normal">When they reached the cottage they found that nearly all of +the +villagers had assembled, in order to bid them farewell, but every one +added: "I'll see you again in the morning."</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp also came again. He had been proud enough before; +but now he +was doubly so, for he had made a man of his neighbor, or had, at all +events, helped to do so. He did not give way to tender sentiment. He +condensed all his knowledge of life into a couple of sentences, which +he delivered himself of most bluntly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I only want to tell you," said he, "you'll now have lots of +servants. +Take my word for it, the best of them are good for nothing; but +something may be made of them, for all. He who would have his servants +mow well, must himself take the scythe in hand. And since you got your +riches so quickly, don't forget the proverb: 'Light come, light go.' +Keep steady, or it'll go ill with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave him much more good advice, and Hansei accompanied him +all the +way back to his house. With a silent pressure of the hand, they took +leave of each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">The house seemed empty, for quite a number of chests and +boxes had been +sent in advance by a boat that was already crossing the lake. On the +following morning, two teams would be in waiting on the other side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So this is the last time that we go to bed in this house," +said the +mother. They were all fatigued with work and excitement, and yet none +of them cared to go to bed. At last, however, they could not help doing +so, although they all slept but little.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next morning, they were up and about at an early hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">Having attired themselves in their best clothes, they bundled +up the +beds and carried them into the boat. The mother kindled the last fire +on the hearth. The cows were led out and put into the boat, the +chickens were also taken along in a coop, and the dog was constantly +running to and fro.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hour of parting had come.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother uttered a prayer and then called all of them into +the +kitchen. She scooped up some water from the pail and poured it into the +fire, with these words: "May all that's evil be thus poured out and +extinguished, and let those who light a fire after us, find nothing but +health in their home."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, Walpurga and Gundel were, each of them, obliged to +pour a +ladleful of water into the fire, and the grandmother guided the child's +hand, while it did the same thing.</p> + +<p class="normal">After they had all silently performed this ceremony, the +grandmother +prayed aloud:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take from us, O Lord our God! all heartache and homesickness +and all +trouble, and grant us health and a happy home where we next kindle our +fire."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was the first to cross the threshold. She had the child +in her arms +and covered its eyes with her hands, while she called out to the +others:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't look back when you go out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just wait a moment," said Hansei to Walpurga, when he found +himself +alone with her. "Before we cross this threshold for the last time, I've +something to tell you. I must tell it. I mean to be a righteous man and +to keep nothing concealed from you. I must tell you this, Walpurga. +While you were away and Black Esther lived up yonder, I once came very +near being wicked and unfaithful--thank God, I wasn't. But it torments +me to think that I ever wanted to be bad; and now, Walpurga, forgive +me, and God will forgive me too. Now I've told you and have nothing +more to tell. If I were to appear before God this moment, I'd know of +nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga embraced him and, sobbing, said: "You're my dear, +good +husband," and they crossed the threshold for the last time.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they reached the garden, Hansei paused, looked up at the +cherry-tree, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you remain here. Won't you come with us? We've always +been good +friends and spent many an hour together. But wait! I'll take you with +me, for all," cried he, joyfully, "and I'll plant you in my new home."</p> + +<p class="normal">He carefully dug out a shoot that was sprouting up from one +of the +roots of the tree. He stuck it in his hatband and went down to join his +wife at the boat.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the landing-place on the bank, were heard the merry +sounds of +fiddles, clarionets and trumpets.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Hansei hastened to the landing-place. The whole village had congregated +there and, with it, the full band of music. Tailor Schneck's son, he +who had been one of the cuirassiers at the christening of the crown +prince, had arranged, and was now conducting, the parting ceremonies. +Schneck, who was scraping his bass viol, was the first to see Hansei, +and he called out, in the midst of the music:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Long live farmer Hansei and the one he loves best! Hip, hip, +hurrah!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The early dawn resounded with their cheers. There was a +flourish of +trumpets, and the salutes fired from several small mortars were echoed +back from the mountains. The large boat in which their household +furniture, the two cows and their fowls were placed, was adorned with +wreaths of fir and oak. Walpurga was standing in the middle of the +boat, and with both hands held the child aloft, so that it might see +the great crowd of friends and the lake sparkling in the rosy dawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My master's best respects," said one of Grubersepp's +servants, leading +a snow-white colt by the halter, "he sends you this to remember him +by."</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp was not present. He disliked noise and crowds. He +was of a +solitary and self-contained temperament. Nevertheless, he sent a +present which was not only of intrinsic value, but was also a most +flattering souvenir; for a colt is usually given by a rich farmer to a +younger brother when about to depart. In the eyes of all the world, +that is to say, the whole village, Hansei appeared as the younger +brother of Grubersepp.</p> + +<p class="normal">Little Burgei shouted for joy when she saw them leading the +snow-white +foal into the boat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gruberwaldl, who was but six years old, stood by the +whinnying colt +stroking it, and speaking kindly to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you like to go to the farm with me and be my servant?" +asked +Hansei of Gruberwaldl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes indeed, if you'll take me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"See, what a boy he is," said Hansei to his wife. "What a +boy!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga made no answer, but busied herself with the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei shook hands with every one at parting. His hand +trembled, but he +did not forget to give a couple of crown thalers to the musicians.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last he got into the boat and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kind friends! I thank you all. Don't forget us, and we +shan't forget +you. Farewell! may God protect you all."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga and her mother were in tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, in God's name, let us start." The chains were +loosened; the +boat put off. Music, shouting, singing, and the firing of cannon +resounded while the boat quietly moved away from the shore. The sun +burst forth in all his glory.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother sat there, with her hands clasped. All were +silent. The only +sound heard was the neighing of the foal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was the first to break the silence. "O dear Lord! if +people +would only show each other half as much love during life as they do +when one dies or moves away."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother, who was in the middle of a prayer, shook her +head. She +quickly finished her prayer and said: "That's more than one has a right +to ask. It won't do to go about all day long with your heart in your +hand. But remember, I've always told you that the people are good +enough at heart, even if there are a few bad ones among them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei bestowed an admiring glance upon his wife, who had so +many +different thoughts about almost everything. He supposed it was caused +by her having been away from home. But his heart was full too, although +in a different way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can hardly realize," said Hansei, taking a long breath and +putting +the pipe which he had intended to light back into his pocket, "what has +become of all the years that I spent there and all that I went through +during the time. Look, Walpurga! the road you see there leads to my +home. I know every hill and every hollow. My mother's buried there. Do +you see the pines growing on the hill over yonder? That hill was quite +bare; every tree was cut down when the French were here; and see how +fine and hardy the trees are now. I planted most of them myself. I was +a little boy about eleven or twelve years old when the forester hired +me. He had fresh soil brought for the whole place and covered the rocky +spots with moss. In the spring, I worked from six in the morning till +seven in the evening, putting in the little plants. My left hand was +almost frozen, for I had to keep putting it into a tub of wet loam with +which I covered the roots. I was scantily clothed into the bargain, and +had nothing to eat, all day long, but a piece of bread. In the morning +it was cold enough to freeze the marrow in one's bones, and at noon I +was almost roasted by the hot sun beating on the rocks. It was a hard +life. Yes, I had a hard time of it when I was young. Thank God, it +hasn't harmed me any. But I shan't forget it; and let's be right +industrious and give all we can to the poor. I never would have +believed that I'd live to call a single tree or a handful of earth my +own; and now that God has given me so much, let's try and deserve it +all."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei's eyes blinked, as if there was something in them, and +he pulled +his hat down over his forehead. Now, while he was pulling himself up by +the roots, as it were, he could not help thinking of how thoroughly he +had become engrafted into the neighborhood by the work of his hands and +by habit. He had felled many a tree, but he knew full well how hard it +was to remove the stumps.</p> + +<p class="normal">The foal grew restive. Gruberwaldl, who had come with them in +order to +hold it, was not strong enough, and one of the boatmen was obliged to +go to his assistance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay with the foal," said Hansei. "I'll take the oar."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I, too," cried Walpurga. "Who knows when I'll have +another chance? +Ah! how often I've rowed on the lake with you and my blessed father."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and Walpurga sat side by side plying their oars in +perfect time. +It did them both good to have some employment which would enable them +to work off the excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall miss the water," said Walpurga; "without the lake, +life'll +seem so dull and dry. I felt that, while I was in the city."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei did not answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At the summer palace, there's a pond with swans swimming +about in it," +said she, but still received no answer. She looked around, and a +feeling of anger arose within her. When she said anything at the +palace, it was always listened to.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a sorrowful tone, she added: "It would have been better if +we'd +moved in the spring; it would have been much easier to get used to +things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maybe it would," replied Hansei, at last, "but I've got to +hew wood in +the winter. Walpurga, let's make life pleasant to each other, and not +sad. I shall have enough on my shoulders, and can't have you and your +palace thoughts besides."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga quickly answered: "I'll throw this ring, which the +queen gave +me, into the lake, to prove that I've stopped thinking of the palace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of that. The ring's worth a nice sum and, +besides +that, it's an honorable keepsake. You must do just as I do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; only remain strong and true."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother suddenly stood up before them. Her features were +illumined +with a strange expression and she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Children! Hold fast to the good fortune that you have. +You've gone +through fire and water together; for it was fire when you were +surrounded by joy and love and every one greeted you with kindness--and +you passed through the water, when the wickedness of others stung you +to the soul. At that time, the water was up to your neck, and yet you +weren't drowned. Now you've got over it all. And when my last hour +comes, don't weep for me; for through you I've enjoyed all the +happiness a mother's heart can have in this world."</p> + +<p class="normal">She knelt down, scooped up some water with her hand and +sprinkled it +over Hansei's, and also over Walpurga's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">They rowed on, in silence. The mother laid her head on a roll +of +bedding and closed her eyes. Her face wore a strange expression. After +a while she opened her eyes again, and casting a glance full of +happiness on her children, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sing and be merry. Sing the song that father and I so often +sang +together; that one verse, the good one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and Walpurga plied the oars while they sang:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Ah, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee;</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by,</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">They repeated the verse again, although, at times, the joyous +shouting +of the child and the neighing of the foal bade fair to interrupt it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The singing and shouting was suddenly interrupted by a young +sailor, +who cried out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's some one floating there! it's a human being--there! +the head's +over water! don't you see it? there's the long, coal-black hair +floating on the water. Some woman's drowned herself, or has fallen +overboard."</p> + +<p class="normal">Every one in the boat looked toward the point indicated. The +object +rose and fell on the waves. It appeared to be a human face that would, +now and then, rise to the surface and sink again. All were dumb with +terror, and Hansei rubbed his eyes, asking himself: "Was it imagination +or was it reality?" He thought he had recognized the face of Black +Esther rising on the waves and sinking again. It floated on, further +and further, and, at last, sank out of sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's nothing," said Walpurga, "it's nothing. Don't let us +make +ourselves unhappy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a stupid fellow," said the old boatman, scolding his +comrade. +"It was nothing but a dead crow or some other bird floating on the +water. Who'd say such a thing?" added he in a whisper. "If we get but +little drink-money, it'll be your fault. They were so happy that they'd +have given us a thaler at least, but now you can see Hansei rummaging +in his purse. He's looking for small change, and it's all your fault."</p> + +<p class="normal">Without knowing why, Hansei had indeed pulled out his purse, +and was +fumbling in it. He was so bewildered with what he had seen--it was +true, after all--but it could not be right--just now--to-day, when all +was forgiven and past; and, after all, he hadn't sinned.</p> + +<p class="normal">In order to regain his composure, he counted out several +pieces of +money. That restored his spirits. He was able to count; his senses had +returned. He had resigned the oar and, with his piece of chalk, had +actually been making some calculations on the bench. But he soon rubbed +them out again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's the other shore," said he, looking up and lifting +his hat, +"we'll soon be there. I can see the wagon and horses and Uncle Peter +there already. I can see our blue chest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heavens!" cried Walpurga, and the oar remained motionless in +her +hands. "Heavens! Who is it? Who is that figure? I can take my oath +that, while we were singing, I thought to myself: If only my good +Countess Irma could see us sitting in the boat together. It would have +made her happy to see that, and just then it seemed to me as if--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad," said Hansei, interrupting her, "that we're +getting to shore. +If this lasts much longer, we'll all lose our wits."</p> + +<p class="normal">On the distant shore, some one was seen running to and fro. +The figure +was wrapped in a flowing dress, and suddenly started when the wind +wafted the sound of music across toward her. She sank to the earth and +seemed to be crouching on the bank. Now that the sound had died away, +she arose and fled, disappearing among the bushes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Didn't you see anything?" asked Walpurga again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed. If I was superstitious, and it wasn't in the +day-time, +I'd have thought it was the Lady of the Lake."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boat reached the bank. Walpurga was the first to leap +ashore. +Leaving her people, she ran toward the bushes as fast as she could, and +there, behind the willows, the figure fell on her neck and fainted.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK V.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The summer was almost at an end when the court returned from the baths.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's first official act was to sign the proclamation of +the +Schnabelsdorf ministry, dissolving the refractory Chamber of Deputies +and ordering a new election.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was displeased; and yet, that which now surprised +him was the +inevitable consequence of his previous doings. He had returned in high +spirits, but, like an importunate creditor, the state was already +thrusting its claims upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt happy that his government met with popular approval; +but that, +he thought, should be a matter of course. And now a great question was +to be submitted to the country, and there were doubts as to what the +answer might be.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf exercised his great conversational gifts, and +adroitly +endeavored to humor the heroic side of the king's character. But his +efforts were in vain.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole land was in great commotion, but of this they knew +little or +nothing at court. The autumn maneuvers had begun, and in a few days the +court expected to move to the summer palace, after which, hunting in +the Highlands was to begin.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king had seldom taken so lively an interest in the +maneuvers. The +ease and precision with which, on such occasions, large bodies of men +were moved at will, afforded a suggestive contrast to the spirit of +disorganization and breaking away from authority which seemed abroad in +the land. Nothing, however, was further from his thoughts than the idea +of bringing the two opposing tendencies to bear upon each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the court assemblages, the king always seemed to be in an +exceptionally pleasant mood. The greater his ill-humor, the more he +regarded it his duty to keep up the outward semblance of cheerfulness. +The habit, acquired in youth, of always keeping up his dignity; the +knowledge that the eyes of all were upon him; a due consideration for +the claims of those about him; the need of always speaking the right +word at the right time; above all, the art of ignoring--an art in which +others refrain from indulging themselves, and which, for that very +reason, requires practice--and, added to this, the consciousness of +possessing kingly power:--all this prevented him from betraying the +slightest trace of ill-humor. He manifested a lively interest in +whatever was going on, especially so, when Irma was present. She, above +all, should never find him wavering, for she would have misinterpreted +it. It was therefore necessary, in her presence, to keep up that +exalted mood which regards dissent or contradiction as impossible, and +thus esteems itself as above the law. And yet the king felt the danger +of encouraging a secret passion while all his strength was required by +a weighty problem, in the solution of which he would necessarily +encounter great opposition.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma returned from her visit to the seashore refreshed and +invigorated. +She was more beautiful than ever, but was rarely seen at court, as she +spent much of her time with Arabella. On the day after Arabella had +given birth to a boy, Irma and the doctor left Bruno's house together.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was about to say: "I am beginning to get tired of this +everlasting +nursery," but checked herself in time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor did not utter a word, while accompanying her down +the +carpeted stairs. His features wore a serious expression. He had been +living in the great world for many years, but, even now, it offended +his sense of justice when he saw the joys of paternity fall to the +share of one who, like Bruno, had led what is mildly termed a "fast +life." The doctor pressed the ivory handle of his cane against his +lips, as if thus to prevent his thoughts from finding vent in words. +Silently, he seated himself in the carriage with Irma. They drove to +the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My sister-in-law has imposed a difficult task upon me," said +Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther did not inquire as to the nature of the task, and +Irma was +obliged to continue of herself:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She made me promise that I'd inform father of the birth of +his +grandson. If you were still on former terms of intimacy with him, you +would be the best mediator."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can do nothing," replied Gunther, curtly. He was unusually +reserved +in his manner toward Irma. She felt conscious of this, and felt, too, +that she no longer had a right to claim unreserved confidence on the +part of her friends. But as she did not wish to break with those whom +she esteemed, it was necessary to maintain relations of courtesy with +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe that Bruno's better nature will now assert +itself," said +Irma. She forced herself to speak, and trembled when she thought that +the man who sat beside her might suddenly ask her: "What have you done +with <i>your</i> better nature?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The carriage stopped before the palace. Irma alighted and +Gunther drove +home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once in her room, Irma pressed both hands to her heart as if +to allay +the storm within. "Must I beg every one to prove his friendly feeling +by silence, or to admit that I am right? Those who despise the world's +laws and have soared above them, had better cease to live." She aroused +herself by a violent effort and began the letter to her father. She +complained that she had had no news from him for a long while. She +wrote about Arabella, informed him that Bruno had become a steady +<i>paterfamilias</i>, and, at last, mentioned the birth of the grandson. She +also wrote that Arabella begged for a few lines from the grandfather, +and that they would render her happy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma found her letter a difficult task. Her pen usually +responded to +every varying phase of feeling; but, that day, it seemed to stumble and +hesitate. She leaned back in her chair, and picked up a letter that she +had found lying there. It was Walpurga's. She smiled while reading it, +and enjoyed the satisfaction of having benefited a fellow-creature who, +although distant, held her in faithful remembrance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The waiting-maid announced Bruno's groom. Irma had him come +in. He had +come to express his master's desire that the gracious countess should +at once dispatch the letter she had promised to write, and said that he +had been ordered to take it to the post-office himself. Irma sealed it +and gave it to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno, seated in his dog-cart, was waiting at the corner of +the palace +square. The groom handed him the letter. Bruno put it in his pocket. He +drove to the post-office and, with his own hands, dropped a letter into +the box. This epistle, however, was directed to a lady. The one +intended for his father he retained in his possession. He was +determined not to humble himself, either through his sister or his +wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">The box into which Bruno dropped the perfumed <i>billet-doux</i> +contained +letters for old Eberhard,--letters which Bruno could not intercept.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the very morning that his first grandchild was born, Count Eberhard +was returning, with a light heart, from a walk in the fields. They had +begun, that day, to gather the first harvest from a large, tray-formed +tract of land which had once been a swamp. Eberhard had drained the +desolate tract with great care and judgment, and now it produced +unequaled crops. The sight of the ripened grain waving in the gentle +breeze, inspired him with pure and happy feelings, and he thought of +the generations to come, who would derive sustenance from a tract of +land rendered fertile by him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt no desire to impart his happiness to another. He had +accustomed +himself, in the past, to live within himself. His one real life-burden +he had confessed to his daughter. He thoroughly enjoyed the repose +which solitude alone affords. He imagined that pure reflection had +conquered all passion. He always obeyed the inner voice of nature; +there was no one for whose sake he was obliged to repress it. He had +faithfully endeavored to perfect himself, and, while placing himself +beyond the reach of temptation, had, at the same time, withdrawn from +social activity.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he left his work in field or forest, it was to commune +with those +great ones who had long since left the world, and with whose +profoundest thoughts he felt himself in full accord.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had just come in from the fields and was about to repair +to his +library, there to converse with a spirit that had long since left this +world. His step was steady, his mind was calm and placid. He could, at +will, preserve a certain state of feeling, or resign himself to the +guidance of a spirit living in another sphere. His life lay in two +distinct spheres, and yet the transition from one to the other was +never violent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The impressions of the moment had already clothed themselves +in words, +and he was about to note them down in a little book which bore the +inscription: "Self-redemption."</p> + +<p class="normal">Entering the manor-house, he found a number of persons +waiting for him +in the great, long, harvest hall, which was hung with garlands and +wreaths. They saluted him as he approached. The village burgomaster, +who had, hitherto, represented that district at the Diet, and many +other persons of local importance were assembled there. The burgomaster +was the spokesman of the party, and stated that, in the forthcoming +election, it would be necessary to relinquish the field to blockheads +and bigots, unless they could nominate a candidate whose high personal +character and influence would secure them victory. Colonel Bronnen, who +had been recommended by Count Eberhard, had refused to stand, and now +Count Eberhard was the only one who could defeat the enemy. The +electors said that they well knew what a sacrifice it would be for him +to take part in the canvass. They had, therefore, waited until now, the +day of the election, and they urgently entreated him not to withdraw at +the eleventh hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," added the burgomaster, "you've drained a swamp and +carried off +the foul water; and now you must help us in this, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">To their great surprise and delight, Eberhard, without +further +objection, declared his willingness to stand. He had succeeded in one +undertaking, and, from a sense of duty, felt that he had no right to +avoid assuming the greater trust now offered him. The old enemy was +still in force, and it was meet that the old warriors should go forth +to battle against him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The friends left and, after giving a few orders to the +servants, +Eberhard followed. He rode a large, powerful horse, such as a large, +strong man requires. He caught up with his friends before they reached +the town, and thus made his entry with quite a following.</p> + +<p class="normal">He presented himself before the assembled electors. The hall +was almost +full. The people were astonished to see the count, but the glances +turned toward him were soon withdrawn, and much whispered conversation +ensued. Making his way through the crowd, Eberhard walked up to the +speaker's stand. Few stood up or greeted him. Why was it? At other +times, the crowd would always make way for him; but to-day, he had to +push his way through them. It almost vexed him, but he controlled +himself. "This is the true effect of free thought; homage should not be +bestowed according to custom and precedence; it should only be for +those who have earned it. You are still an aristocrat at heart, and are +still filled with pride of ancestry--pride in your own past." Such were +the thoughts that passed through his mind, while, with a smile, he +rejoiced in the victory he had won over himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first one to mount the speaker's stand was the candidate +of the +"Blacks," as the popular party termed their opponents. He spoke with +cleverness, but without fervor, and it was evident that his address had +been carefully studied. He made several clever points, however, which +were received with loud applause.</p> + +<p class="normal">The retiring delegate came forward and, stating that he +declined a +re-election, proposed Count Eberhard of Wildenort, the tried champion +of freedom and popular rights.</p> + +<p class="normal">The assembly seemed taken by surprise. There was but little +clapping of +hands, and few bravos were heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Count Eberhard was quite taken aback by this cold reception, +and looked +about him in astonishment. The burgomaster whispered to him that this +was a sure sign of victory, and that the enemy was confounded. Eberhard +merely nodded. A strange feeling of embarrassment arose within him. He +repressed it, and mounted the speaker's stand. With every step, he +gained in courage and became more fully persuaded that it was his duty +to defend the new trust without regard to thought of self. He began his +speech by giving an account of his past life and struggles, adding, +with a smile, that there were many present who, like himself, had gray +hairs, and that there was no need of telling them what he desired. He +was glad, however, to find that, there were so many younger men +present. They listened with considerable patience. Among the +opposition there was, now and then, loud talking, which was, however, +soon silenced. Eberhard went on speaking. Suddenly loud peals of +laughter resounded through the assembly, and the words "left-handed +father-in-law" were heard. Eberhard did not know what it meant, and +went on with his remarks. The talking in the crowd grew louder. Drops +of cold sweat stood on his brow. The burgomaster mounted the stand and +exclaimed: "Whoever isn't willing to listen to a man like Count +Eberhard, doesn't deserve to have a vote."</p> + +<p class="normal">Breathless silence ensued. Eberhard concluded with the words:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am proud enough to tell you that I don't ask you for your +votes. I +simply say that I accept the nomination."</p> + +<p class="normal">He left the assembly, but, before doing so, begged his +friends to +remain. He rode home, filled with the thought that he had separated +himself from the world, instead of having conquered it.</p> + +<p class="normal">He alighted as soon as he came to his own land in the valley, +and gave +orders to some of the laborers. When he returned to the road, he met +the postman, who handed him several letters. Eberhard opened the first +and read:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your daughter has fallen into disgrace, and yet stands in +high grace +as the mistress of the king. To her the country owes the restoration of +the ecclesiastical ministry. If you still doubt, ask the first person +you meet in the streets of the capital. Unhappy father of a happy +daughter." It was signed "The Public Voice."</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard tore up the letter and gave the shreds to the winds, +which +carried them far away over the fields.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Anonymous letters," said he, "are the meanest things +conceivable. They +are far lower than cowardly assassination, and yet--" It seemed as if +the breeze which carried the shreds away had now returned, laden with +the expression that he had heard at the meeting. Had they not said +"left-handed father-in-law"?</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard pressed his hand to his brow--the thought was like a +burning +arrow piercing his brain. He opened the second letter and read: "You do +not care to believe how it stands with your daughter. Ask him who was +once your friend. Ask the king's physician, on his honor and +conscience. He will tell you the truth. Save what may yet be saved. +Then will the writer of these lines divulge his name. From one who +greatly esteems you. ----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard did not destroy this letter; he held it in his +trembling hand. +A mist suddenly rose before him. He passed his hands over his eyes as +if to brush it away; but it still remained, growing denser with each +succeeding moment. He tried to read the letter again, but could not +distinguish a word of it. He crumpled up the paper and put it in his +breast-pocket, where it lay like a burning coal against his heart. His +head swam and he sat down by the wayside. What could he do? They would +smile if he went to court to fetch her. They would be very gracious and +would say: "Let there be no scenes, no noise. Let everything be +arranged quietly; let there be no scandal; decorum must be maintained." +And one must smile, though his heart is bursting. We live in a +civilized world, and this they call culture and good manners. Oh! you +are well off. With you, all is pastime. You can afford to be ever +polite, ever cool and reserved. Oh, why did I come home to waste my +powers in this miserable nook! It's all my own fault. I meant to rescue +myself from the hurly-burly of the world. I've lost my children, +instead. A satanic sophist lurks in us all. I persuaded myself that it +was better, and more in accordance with nature, to let my children grow +up, free from all control; and yet it was only a vain excuse for my own +weakness. Because the duty of incessantly watching over them was +distasteful to me, I suffered them to go to ruin, while persuading +myself that their nature could thus best develop itself. And here I +stand, and must fetch my child--</p> + +<p class="normal">The sudden neighing of the horse, hitched to a tree near by, +so +startled Eberhard that he almost fell back. A laborer who was bringing +two horses in from the field, stopped and asked: "What ails you, +master?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The laborer unhitched the horse. Eberhard rose hastily and, +without +saying a word, walked up the hill in the direction of the manor-house. +He felt as if the air was filled with intangible, electric clouds that +drew him back; but he forced his way through them. He reached the house +and held fast by the doorposts. He was giddy, but still he did not give +up. He went through the stables and barns, saw the men storing away the +fodder, and remained looking at them for a long while. Then he went +through the whole house and looked at every object with an inquiring +gaze. In the great room with the bay-window, he lingered long before a +picture of Irma, painted when she was but seven years old, a beautiful, +large-eyed child. The attitude was natural, a mixture of childlike +awkwardness and grace. The painter had wanted to put a nosegay in the +child's hand, but she had said: "I won't have dead flowers; give me a +pot with living flowers in it." Ah, she had had such pretty conceits! +There she stood, the very picture of childish grace, with rosy cheeks, +and with blooming roses in her hand. "A rose plucked before the storm +could scatter its petals." These last words of Emilia Galotti passed +through his mind. "No, I am not that strong."</p> + +<p class="normal">He rang, but when the servant came, had forgotten what he +wanted. The +effort to collect his scattered thoughts seemed like plunging into +chaos. At last he ordered the carriage, which was all he had wanted the +servant for.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The traveling carriage," he called out after the servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he reached the library, he paused, and gazed at the door +for a +while. There were so many great and mighty minds in there--why did none +of them come to his aid? There is no help but that we find within +ourselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">While descending the steps, he would now and then hold fast +to the +baluster as if to support himself. He drew himself up, as if filled +with anger because of the weakness that mastered him. In the courtyard, +he gave orders that the carriage should drive on and meet him down in +the valley. His speech was noticeably indistinct. Half way down the +mountain, he suddenly seated himself on a heap of stones and looked +about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was passing before his eyes? What thoughts filled his +mind? He +looked for the tree which he had planted on the very spot where word +was brought him of Irma's birth. This is the first soil trodden by her +feet; these are the first trees she ever saw. The sky, the forests, +the mountains, the blooming flowers, the merry birds, the grazing +cows--all, all seemed like phantoms.--None of these will ever find you +pure again. Never again dare you approach a living creature, or tree or +flower; for they repudiate you, they are pure and you are--the world's +a paradise. You have been driven thence, and roam about, a restless +fugitive. You may deaden your conscience, may smile and jest and +dissemble, but the sun does not dissemble, neither does the earth, nor +your own conscience. You've destroyed the world and yourself, and still +live,--dead in a dead world. How is it possible? It cannot be. I am +mad. I shall neither punish nor chastise you; but you must know who and +what you are, and the knowledge of that will be your punishment and +your cure. I shall palliate nothing; you must know, see, and +acknowledge it all, yourself--</p> + +<p class="normal">A road laborer went up to the count and asked whether he was +ill. He +had noticed him sitting on the stones, and supposed that something +might be wrong.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not well!" groaned Eberhard, "not well? It would be well for +me if +I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">He got up and walked away.</p> + +<p class="normal">A grief stricken mother can shed tears; a father cannot.</p> + +<p class="normal">His head was bowed on his chest. He saw blooming roses; they +should +have adorned her. He saw thorns; they should tear her brow. Anger and +grief struggled within him. Anger raged; grief wept. Anger would have +lent him giant strength, with which to destroy the world; but grief +crushed his very soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly he drew himself up, and, as if driven by the storm, +ran down +the road, over the ditch and across the meadow,--only stopping when he +reached the apple-tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the tree--you're decked with ruddy fruit--and she-- +Woe is me! +life is pitiless!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A deep cry of pain escaped him. The road laborer above, and +the driver +who was waiting with the carriage below, heard him and ran to his help. +They found him lying on the ground, face downward. He was foaming at +the mouth and was unable to speak. They bore him into the castle.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Throughout the capital, schools, offices, and workshops were closed. +With the exception of, now and then, a noisy group of men who soon +entered a large building and disappeared from view, the streets were +given over to women and children. It was election day. It seemed as if +the thousand and one diversified interests and sentiments that help to +make up the life of a city had converged to a single point--as if a +great soul were communing with itself. Although it was in broad +daylight, a wondrous silence rested upon the deserted streets. +Gunther's carriage had just come from Bruno's house, and now stopped at +the town-hall. The doctor alighted, went upstairs and gave in his vote. +In consideration of his being a physician in active practice, he was +allowed to vote before his turn. He returned to his carriage and drove +home, When he entered the sitting-room, his wife handed him a telegram +which had just been received. Gunther opened it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter?" exclaimed Madame Gunther, for she had +never before +seen so great a change in her husband's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">He handed her the telegram and she read:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"Count Eberhard Wildenort paralyzed. Deprived of speech. Send word to +son and daughter to come at once; if possible, you also.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Doctor Mann</span>, <i>District Physician</i>."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"You are going?" said Madame Gunther in an agitated, but +scarcely +inquiring tone. Gunther nodded affirmatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've one request to make," continued Madame Gunther. With a +slight +motion of his hand, the doctor intimated that he wished her to proceed. +He felt as if his tongue were palsied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to go with you," said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down," said the wife, and when Gunther had seated +himself, she +placed her gentle hand upon his lofty forehead. His face brightened, +and she went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wilhelm, this is a terrible visitation. Let me do all I can +to +alleviate the grief of the lost child whom this dread message will soon +reach. I can imagine her feelings. Who knows? Perhaps her own actions +have been the cause of this.--Although she rides in her carriage, I +shall assist her as faithfully as if she were a poor outcast; and if +the poor soul repels me, I shall not leave her. I don't know what may +happen, but the moment may come when she will feel it a comfort to rest +the head now scourged by thorns against a woman's heart. Do let me go +with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've no objection. For the present, however, you had better +get +everything ready for my departure." He drove to Bruno's house.</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as the latter noticed his sad looks, he exclaimed: +"And so your +party was beaten?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet," replied Gunther, gently breaking the news to +Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno turned away, hurriedly gathered up several letters that +were +lying on the table and locked them up in his desk. He was soon ready to +go with Gunther to Irma, to whom they broke the sad news as gently as +possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew it! I knew it!" cried Irma. Not another word escaped +her. She +went into her bedchamber and threw herself on the bed; but she had +hardly touched the pillow before she sprang up as if thrust back, and +then knelt on the floor and swooned away. When she returned to the +reception room, her features wore a fixed, rigid expression. She gave +hurried orders to her servant and her maid to prepare for the journey. +The doctor withdrew, in order to ask for leave of absence, and promised +to procure leave for Irma, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought to bid adieu to the queen, before you go," said +Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no!" cried Irma vehemently. "I cannot; I will not."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no servant in the antechamber. There was a knock at +the door. +Irma started. "Was the king coming?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come in!" said Bruno. Madame Gunther entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma could not utter a word, but her eyes seemed to ask: "You +here? and +now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther told her that she had heard the sad news, and +would +regard it as a proof of her friendship, if Irma would allow her to +accompany her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, with all my heart," stammered Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you grant my request?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you; on my knees, I'll thank you; but I beg of you, +don't make +me talk much now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of your doing so, dear Countess," said +Madame Gunther. +"You've apparently neglected or forgotten me; but in your heart, you've +remembered me. And even if it were otherwise, there was one short hour +during which we opened our hearts to each other."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma raised her hands as if to shield herself,--as if the +kind words +pierced her like so many arrows. In a soothing voice, Madame Gunther +added: "I shall consider it a kindness, if you will allow me to be kind +to you; you have no mother and, perhaps--you will soon have no father."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma groaned aloud and pressed her hands to her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear child," said Madame Gunther, placing her hand upon +Irma's arm. +Irma started--"there are many of God's creatures on earth, so that the +sympathy of those whom misfortune has spared may serve as a support to +the afflicted, and as a light in the hour of darkness. I beg of you, do +not be proud in your grief. Let me share in all that the next few days +may have in store for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Proud? proud?" asked Irma, suddenly grasping Madame +Gunther's hand and +as suddenly dropping it again. "No, dear honored madame. I appreciate +your affectionate motives. I understand--I know--all. I could calmly +accept your kindness. I know--at least I think--that I, too, would have +just acted as you do, if--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the best and the only thanks," interposed Madame +Gunther, but +Irma motioned her to stop, and continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I entreat you, do not torture me. Your husband and my +brother will +accompany me. I beg of you, say nothing more. I thank you; I shall +never forget your kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther entered the room again and Irma said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is everything ready? We have no time to lose."</p> + +<p class="normal">She bowed to Madame Gunther, and would gladly have embraced +her, but +could not.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther, who had never, before this, set foot in the +palace, had +only come to succor a ruined one. Never had the thought of herself so +filled Irma with anguish and remorse, as when this embodiment of +loving-kindness had held out her hand to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The thought that she no longer dared approach the pure pained +her as if +demons were tearing her to pieces. Her first impulse was to throw +herself at Madame Gunther's feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">She controlled herself, however, and, looking at her with a +fixed gaze, +passed on.</p> + +<p class="normal">The parrot in the anteroom spread out its wings, as if it, +too, wanted +to go along, and screamed; "God keep you, Irma!"</p> + +<p class="normal">As if veiled in a cloud, Irma walked through the corridor. At +the +palace gate, she met the king coming out of the park with +Schnabelsdorf, who had a number of dispatches in his hand, and whose +cheerful looks were owing to the news of victory which he had just +received.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Irma, the king and Schnabelsdorf seemed like misty forms. +She wore a +double black veil, for she did not care to gratify the idle curiosity +of the court, by making a show of the face on which grief had done its +work.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king drew near. She could not remove her veil. He seemed +far, far +away. She heard his friendly and, of course, kind words, but she knew +not what he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king extended his hand to Gunther, then to Bruno, and, at +last, to +Irma. He pressed her hand tenderly, but she did not return the +pressure.</p> + +<p class="normal">They got into the carriage. Just as they were about to start, +Irma, +noticing Madame Gunther's hand on the carriage door, bent down and +kissed it. The next moment they were gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were silent for some time. After they had passed the +first +village, Bruno took out a cigar, saying to Irma, who sat opposite him: +"I'm a man, and a man must calmly accept the inevitable. Show that you, +too, have a strong mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma did not reply. She threw back her veil and looked out of +the +window. Her departure had been so hurried that she was just beginning +to recover herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought to have taken leave of the queen in person," said +Bruno, in +a calm tone. The long silence was irksome to him. Such dark hours +should be made to pass as agreeably as possible. When he found that +Irma still remained silent, he added: "For you know that the queen's +tender nature is so easily offended."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma still made no reply, but Gunther said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; it were sacrilege to offend the queen. No one but a +savage would +dare to weaken her faith in human goodness and veracity."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther expressed himself with unwonted energy, and his words +cut Irma +to the heart. Was it she who had committed sacrilege? And then the +thought gradually dawned upon her; the queen is his ideal; the king is +mine. Who knows whether the mask of intellectual affinity may not have +served to screen--Quick as thought, she dropped her veil; her breathing +was short and fast; her cheeks were burning. He who knows himself to +be--must judge others--nothing is perfect--no one--She felt as if she +must speak, and at last said: "The queen deserves to have a friend like +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I place myself beside you," said Gunther calmly. "I believe +that we +both deserve the friendship of that pure heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you believe that friendship can exist between married +people of +different sex?" inquired Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know it," replied Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the first posting-house, where they came upon noisy +crowds, the +postmaster informed them that the election was going on, and that the +contest was quite an excited one. The "Blacks" would certainly be +defeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno, who had alighted, asked the postillion:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My noble fellow-citizen, have you exercised your sovereign +right of +voting to-day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and against the 'Blacks'."</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno did not get out at the other stations. They were +drawing near to +Eberhard's district. While they were changing horses at the assize +town, they heard loud cries of: "Long live Count Eberhard! Victory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?" inquired Gunther, putting his head out of the +carriage +door.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was informed that, in spite of the "Blacks," Count +Eberhard would +prove the victor. The opposition had started a contemptible rumor, +intended to disgrace the old count. But, although meant to injure +others, it had proved a stumbling-block to themselves; for every one +had said: "A father can't help what his child does, and, for that very +reason, greater respect should now be shown him."--Irma drew back into +the dark corner of the carriage and held her breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on without saying a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">After they had started, Bruno said it was too warm for him in +the +carriage, and that it did not agree with him to ride backward. Still, +he would not suffer Gunther to change seats with him. He ordered the +carriage to stop and, telling the lackey to sit up with the driver, +placed himself on the back seat, next to the waiting-maid. Irma took +off her hat and laid her head back. It was heavy with sad thoughts. Now +and then, when the road lay along the edge of a precipice, she would +quickly raise herself in her seat. She felt as if she must plunge into +the abyss; but, weak and feeble, she would fall back again. Gunther, +too, remained silent; and thus they drove on through the night, without +uttering a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">At one time, the waiting-maid would have laughed out aloud, +but Bruno +held his hand over her mouth and prevented her.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was near midnight when the travelers reached castle Wildenort. The +servant said that the count was sleeping, and that the physician who +lived in the valley was with him. The country doctor left the sickroom +and came out into the ante-chamber to welcome the new arrivals. He was +about to describe the case to Gunther, who, however, requested him not +to do so until he had himself seen the patient. Accompanied by Irma and +Bruno, he went into the sick-room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard lay in bed, his head propped up by pillows. His eyes +were wide +open, and, without showing the slightest emotion, he stared at those +who entered, as if they were figures in a dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I greet you, Eberhard, with all my heart," said Gunther. The +sick +man's features twitched convulsively, and his eyelids rose quickly and +as quickly fell again, while he gropingly put forth his hand toward his +old friend. But the hand sank powerless on the coverlet. Gunther +grasped it and held it fast.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma stood as if rooted to the spot, unable to move or utter +a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How are you, papa?" asked Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a sudden start, as if a shot had whizzed by his ear, +Eberhard +turned toward Bruno and motioned to him to leave the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma knelt down at his bedside, while Eberhard passed his +trembling +hand over her face. It became wet with her tears. Suddenly, he drew it +back, as if it had been touching a poisonous reptile. He averted his +face and pressed his brow against the wall; and thus he lay for a long +while.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither Gunther nor Irma spoke a word. Their voices failed +them in the +presence of him who had been deprived of speech. And now Eberhard +turned again and gently motioned his daughter to leave the room. She +did so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther remained alone with Eberhard. It was the first time +in thirty +years that the two friends had met. Eberhard passed Gunther's hand +across his eyes, and then shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther said: "I know what you mean; you would like to weep, +but +cannot. Do you understand all I say to you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The patient nodded affirmatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then just imagine," continued Gunther, and his voice has a +rich and +comforting tone, "that the years we've been separated from each other +were but one hour. Our measure of time is a different one. Do you still +remember how you would often in enthusiastic moments exclaim: 'We've +just been living centuries'?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was again a convulsive twitching of the patient's +features, just +as when a weeping one is enlivened by a cheerful thought and would fain +smile, but cannot.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard attempted to trace letters on the coverlet, but +Gunther found +it difficult to decipher them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sick man pointed to a table on which there lay books and +manuscripts. Gunther brought several of them, but none was the right +one. At last he brought a little manuscript book, the cover of which +was inscribed with the title, "Self-redemption." The sick man seemed +pleased, as if welcoming a fortunate occurrence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You wrote this yourself. Shall I read some of it to you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard nodded assent. Gunther sat down by the bed and read:</p> + +<p class="normal">"May this serve to enlighten me on the day and in the hour +when my mind +becomes obscured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have been much given to introspection. I have endeavored +to study +myself, without regard to the outward conditions of time, standpoint, +or circumstance. I perceive it, but, as yet, I cannot grasp it. It is a +dew-drop shut up in the heart of a rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are moments when I am fully up to the ideal I have +formed for +myself, but there are many more when I am merely the caricature of my +better self. How am I to form a conception of my actual self? What am +I?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I perceive that I am a something belonging to the universe +and to +eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"During the blessed moments, sometimes drawn out into hours, +in which I +realize this conception, there is naught but life for me--no such thing +as death, either for me or the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In my dying hour, I should like to be as clearly conscious +as I now am +that I am in God, and that God is in me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Religion may claim warmth of feeling and glory of +imagination as her +portion. We, on the other hand, have attained to that clear vision +which includes both feeling and imagination.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In troubled, restless days, when I endeavored to grasp the +Infinite, I +felt as if melting away, vanishing, disappearing. I longed to know: +What is God?</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now I possess our master's answer: Although we cannot +picture God +to ourselves, yet we have a clear idea or conception of Him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For us, the old commandment: 'Thou shalt not make unto +thyself any +image of God,' signifies <i>thou canst</i> not make to thyself any image of +God. Every image is finite; the idea of God is that of infinity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Spinoza teaches that we must regard ourselves as a part of +God--</p> + +<p class="normal">"While endeavoring to grasp the idea of the whole, I came to +understand +what is meant by the words: 'The human mind is part of the divine +mind.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"A single drop rises on the surface of the stormy ocean of +life. It +lasts but a second--though men term it threescore years and ten--and +then, glowing with the light it receives and imparts, sinks again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Man, regarded as an individual, is both by birth and +education a +thought entering upon the threshold of the consciousness of God. At +death, he simply sinks below that threshold, but he does not perish. He +remains a part of eternity, just as all thought endures in its +consequences.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I combine a number of such individuals or thoughts and +term them +a nation, the genius of that nation enters upon the threshold of such +consciousness as soon as the nation begins to have a history of its +own.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Combining the nations into a whole, we have mankind or the +totality of +thought, the consciousness of God and of the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have often felt giddy at the mere thought of standing firm +and +secure, on the highest pinnacle of thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May these thoughts inspire and deliver me in the hour of +dissolution. +There is no separation of mortal and immortal life, they flow into each +other and are one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The knowledge that we are one and the same with God and the +universe +is the highest bliss. He who possess this, never dies, but lives the +life eternal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come to me once more, thou spirit of Truth, at the moment +when I +sink--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dust cleaves to my wings, just as it does to yonder lark, +winging its +flight from the furrowed field into ether. The furrow is as pure as the +ether, the worm as pure as the lark,--God yet dwells in that which, to +us seems lost and ruined. And should my eye be dimmed in death--I have +beheld the Eternal One--My eyes have penetrated eternity. Free from +distortion and self-destruction, the immortal spirit soars aloft--"</p> + +<p class="normal">When Gunther had read thus far, Eberhard laid his hand on his +lips as +if to silence him, and gazed intently into his eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have honestly wrestled with yourself and the highest +ideas," said +Gunther, whose voice was tremulous with something more than grief at +approaching death.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard closed his eyes. When Gunther saw that he was +asleep, he rose +from his seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">He now noticed that Irma had been sitting behind the +bed-screen. He +beckoned to her, and she left the room with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you hear everything?" asked Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I only came a few minutes ago." Irma wanted to know the +whole truth in +regard to her father's position. Gunther admitted that there was no +hope of recovery, but that the hour of death was uncertain. Irma +covered her face with both hands and returned to the sick-room, where +she again took her seat behind the bed-screen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was with the country physician, in the great hall. As +soon as +Gunther entered, Bruno hastily arose and, advancing to meet him, +hurriedly said: "Our friend here has already quieted me. The danger, +thank God"--his tongue faltered at the words "thank God"--"is not +imminent. Pray quiet my sister's fears."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther made no reply. He saw that Bruno merely affected +ignorance of +the imminent danger, and Gunther was enough of a courtier to refrain +from forcing the truth upon unwilling ears. He returned to Irma. Bruno +followed him and endeavored to cheer his sister; but she shook her head +incredulously. He paid no heed to this, but said that he wanted to gain +strength and endurance for the sad trial that awaited them. What he +really wanted was to ride out, so that he might be absent at the +terrible moment. Since his presence could not make things any better, +why should he expose himself to such a shock?</p> + +<p class="normal">The morning began to dawn. The sick man still lay there, +motionless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"His breathing is easier," faintly whispered Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">A gentle, reassuring nod was Gunther's reply.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">With a firm tread, Bruno went down the steps. He had ordered the groom +to lead his horse some distance from the castle and there await him. +"If there only were no such thing as dying," thought he to himself. +While placing his foot in the stirrup, something tugged at his coat. +Was it his father's hand? or was it a spirit-hand dragging him back? He +stumbled; his coat had caught in a buckle. He loosened it, and was just +about to lift his riding-whip against the careless groom, when it +occurred to him that such behavior was ill-timed. His father was ill, +seriously ill, indeed, in spite of the family physician's reassuring +words. No, it would not do to punish the servant now; it should not be +said that Bruno had beaten his groom at such a moment. Fitz, who was +putting the buckle to rights, stooped as if he already felt the +whipstock across his shoulders, and looked up amazed when his master, +in the gentlest voice, said to him: "Yes, good Fitz, I see that you've +not slept any more than I have, and you're quite nervous. Lie down and +rest for another hour. You need not ride out with me. Keep your horse +saddled, however. I shall take the straight road through the forest +clearing and, if anything should happen here, you or Anton can ride +after me. At the foot of the Chamois hill, I shall turn back into the +bridle-path and return by way of the valley. Do you hear? Don't forget! +And now you can go sleep awhile; but don't unsaddle your horse. Don't +forget what I've told you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno rode off, and the astonished Fitz stood there looking +after him +for some time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno took the road that led to the woods, and in the +direction of a +clearing which was now used as a pasture. It was easy riding over the +grassy path, and the morning breezes refreshed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The golden glow of morning trembled on every leaf, and +sparkled on +every dewdrop. The woods on either side were superb, and, with a +self-complacent nod, Bruno said to himself: "How well he understood +forest matters. No, I shan't be so cruel. I shall have the woods well +looked after, and shall not cut down the timber."</p> + +<p class="normal">He now reached a level stretch of road. He put spurs to his +horse and +set off at a gallop. Suddenly he halted, for the neighborhood was one +with which he was not familiar. There had formerly been a swamp and now +there were broad fields, on which lay many sheaves of ripened grain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno turned towards the laborers who were binding the +sheaves. The +foreman told the young master that it was his father who had drained +the swamp, and that this was now some of the best land on the whole +estate. Offering Bruno a handful of the ripened ears, he said: "Take +these to your father; I'm sure he thinks of us on his sickbed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno declined them, and gave the foreman some drink money. +He rode +off, leaving word that he was going toward the Chamois hill, and +instructing the foreman to tell his groom as much, in case he should +come after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The farm laborers he had left behind him were driving home +with the +first crop gathered from the redeemed land, and the cracking of their +whips was the only sound that broke upon the silence of the forest +solitude. He checked his horse's pace to a walk and, as no one could +see him there, lit a cigar. When he reached the high level ground, he +started off at a brisk trot. Sheep were grazing here, and Bruno did not +fail to ride up to the shepherd and tell him what to say to the groom +in case he should follow. It was a comfort to know that he had made it +so easy to find him. After he had passed, he turned involuntarily. As +if to calm himself he patted his horse's neck and, drawing a tight +rein, drew himself up in his saddle. The road again led through a +clearing in the forest; the valley below was bathed in golden sunshine. +Suddenly it occurred to him: "There are so many miserable beings whose +constant care is how to manage to keep alive. Why can't one purchase +their vital power and, adding their years to his own, live forever? The +masses, stupid as they are, are right when they consider us as no +better than themselves, for we must die of the same diseases they are +subject to.--Here, all is life; tree and beast and man. There, in the +castle, lies a man whose end is drawing near, and who may be dying at +this very moment. Perhaps even now, the air is wafting his last breath +toward me--Where is it? Why does not a shudder pass through all that +belongs to him? through every tree, and man, and beast? All that lived +with him should die with him, for it is his. This wretched, miserable +life--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm a poor woman, give me something," said a figure, +suddenly emerging +from the thicket. It was Zenza.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno started as if a ghost had appeared to him. He put spurs +to his +horse and hurried off. His hair stood on end with fright, and it was +long before he regained his composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">In spite of this interruption, and without an effort on his +part, his +thoughts went back to the subject that engaged them at the moment when +Zenza appeared upon the scene; but the old woman's cry of: "Give me +something," was ever ringing in his ears. If everything were to die +with its possessor, who would inherit? What is more peculiarly a man's +own than his thoughts? And even they die with him--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't think any more," said Bruno to himself. "Not now; +to-morrow--the day after--some other time; but now I don't want to +think."</p> + +<p class="normal">He raised his hat, as if to permit his thoughts to escape; +then he +whipped and spurred his horse so that it reared and started off at a +furious pace. The effort to maintain himself in his saddle drove what +he regarded as gloomy fancies from his mind. He sat firmly, pressed his +knees against the horse's ribs, and felt the better for the exertion. +But, in spite of all, his thoughts would suddenly wander off to his +father again. He felt a sudden shudder--This must have been the +very moment--at that instant, his father must have breathed his +last--involuntarily, Bruno drew his hand back. His horse halted. He +again put spurs to him, and galloped away as if to escape from his +thoughts. Suddenly, a voice cried out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop, Bruno!" He shuddered. Whose voice could it be? Who +would call +him by name? Surprise and alarm had thrown him into a cold sweat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who calls me?" he asked with pale, trembling lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can't get here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you? Where are you?" cried Bruno. A cold shudder +passed over +him, and his horse snorted and snuffed the air. Was it true that +witches lived in rocks? for the voice had come from the rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you?" repeated Bruno; "your voice seems--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you still know Black Esther? Turn back, or you're a dead +man."</p> + +<p class="normal">He heard something whizzing by him. Benumbed with terror, he +sat upon +his horse. At last he dropped the rein, looked at his hand, drew off +his glove, as if to satisfy himself that he was still living, that it +was yet day, that all was not a dream, or the product of wild +imagination--</p> + +<p class="normal">His horse went on at a gentle pace. Suddenly, it started to +one +side--there had been the report of a gun. Who could be hunting there?</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno had already gotten beyond the limits of his own domain. +Who could +now be hunting in the royal forests, where the chase was not to begin +until next month?</p> + +<p class="normal">With a complacent air, Bruno twirled his mustache. He again +felt +confidence in himself, and in his worldly wisdom. He felt for the +revolver in his saddle-bag, and calmly examined it to see if it was fit +for use. The horse went on. Presently he saw a gun-barrel resting on a +tree and directed against him, while a voice from behind the tree +called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Turn back, or you're a dead man. One--two--three--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Trembling from head to foot, Bruno turned his horse's head. +Behind him +was the loaded gun, and, at any moment, a bullet might pierce him. The +cold sweat streamed down his face; his eyes burned; he did not venture +to raise his hand, lest the poacher behind him should misinterpret the +movement and shoot him in the back. It was not until he had reached the +rock where Black Esther had called to him and had so mysteriously +disappeared, that he ventured to breathe freely. She had not forgotten +his love, and he would henceforth provide for her. He again put spurs +to his horse, and hurried off without knowing whither. It was not until +he reached tilled land and saw laborers at work, that he alighted and +sat down on the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first feeling of safety inspired him with a good resolve. +He would +return and, bowing himself--in repentance, ask his father's +forgiveness. He would now promise to care for Black Esther, who had +been the cause of the rupture between them. But he felt so weak that he +could not rise, and a voice within him said: "You can't do it, you +can't stand two such shocks in one day, and, besides, there's no +hurry; the end will surely not come to-day. There will be time enough +to-morrow, or later."</p> + +<p class="normal">Feeling as if every bone in his body were broken, he, at +last, arose, +and asked the people in the field where he was. He found that he was +far away from the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">If the groom were now to ride after him and not find him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno quieted his conscience with the knowledge that he had +not meant +it to be thus. Dire fate, and an almost inconceivable combination of +terrors, had led him from the right road.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, no one knew him. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of music +and saw +several carriages, decorated with green boughs, driving along the road. +"What's this? a wedding?" he inquired of the peasant who had already +given him some information as to the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know, but I think they must be town folk, or else +they +couldn't ride about in harvest time. Maybe they're coming from the +election."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno again mounted his horse. When he asked for the nearest +road to +Wildenort, the peasant looked at him in surprise, and pointed to a +bridle-path on which he could not miss his way. But Bruno, who had lost +all taste for the woods, preferred keeping to the highway. He passed a +long string of wagons preceded by a band of music with a flag of black, +red, and gold. He hurried by them, for he was not in a mood to listen +to music.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Even before Gunther's arrival, Eberhard had been bled. Gunther had +brought a small medicine-chest with him, and had hastily compounded +some remedies which had relieved and quieted the patient. He was now +sleeping. Great drops of perspiration stood on his brow. Irma still sat +concealed behind the screen. She could see her father, but could not be +seen by him. Drawing a deep breath, he awoke and looked about him. Irma +hastened to him. He gazed at her fixedly, and then motioned her to open +the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">The day was bright and sunny; the cool, balmy breezes wafted +the +fragrance of the woods into the room. The cracking of whips was heard. +Eberhard's features acquired a pleased expression, for he knew that +they were now bringing in the first sheaves from the swamp which he had +redeemed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steps were heard in the ante-chamber, and Gunther came in, +accompanied +by the farm bailiff.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come in," said he, "it will please your master."</p> + +<p class="normal">With a heavy tread, the bailiff walked up to the sick man's +bedside. In +his right hand he held some of the ripened grain, while, with his left, +he beat his breast as if to force out the words:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Master, I've brought you the first ears from our new field, +and hope +your health may be spared, so that you may eat the bread from it for +many a year to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard seized the ears and, with his other hand, pressed +that of the +servant, who now left the room and went down to the barn, where he sat +down on a sheaf and wept.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I remain with you, or would you rather be alone with +your +child?" asked Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard dropped the ears, and they lay upon the coverlet. He +reached +for Irma's hand. Gunther went out.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now Eberhard dropped his daughter's hand, pointed to her +heart and +then to the ears of corn.</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head and said: "Father, I don't understand +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">An expression of pain passed over Eberhard's features, and he +placed +his finger on his lips, as if grieved that he could not speak. Who +knows but what he meant to say: "Good seed will grow from the swamp, if +we rightly cultivate it; and out of your own heart, too, my child; out +of your lost, ruined--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll call Gunther," said Irma; "perhaps he will understand +what you +mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard shook his head, as if in disapproval. His features +betrayed +something like anger at Irma's inability to understand him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He bit his speechless lips and tried to raise himself. Irma +assisted +him, and he now sat up, supported by the pillows.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face had changed. It had suddenly acquired a strange hue +and an +altered expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a shudder, Irma realized what was taking place. She fell +down by +his bedside, and laid her cheek upon her father's hand. He drew his +hand away.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him. With great effort he raised his hand--it +was damp +with the dews of death--and with outstretched finger he wrote a word +upon her brow. It was a short word; but she saw, she heard, she read +it. It was written in the air, on her forehead, in her brain,--aye, in +her very soul. Uttering a piercing cry, she sank to the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther came in hurriedly. Stepping over Irma, he rushed to +the +bedside, lifted Eberhard's fallen hand, felt for the beating of his +heart, started back--and then closed his friend's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The silence of death reigned in the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, music was heard in front of the house. They were +playing the +melody of a national song and hundreds of voices called out: "Long live +our representative, noble Count Eberhard!" Irma, who was still lying on +the ground, moved at these sounds. Gunther strode past her and went out +into the courtyard. The playing ceased and the voices were silenced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Horse's steps were heard approaching, and Bruno entered the +courtyard. +He alighted. The sorrowful mien of Gunther and those about him, told +him what had happened. He covered his face and leaned on Gunther, who +led him into the house. When Gunther and Bruno entered the chamber of +death, Irma had disappeared. She had shut herself up in her room.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">He who destroys his life, destroys more than his own life.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child that has afflicted a father sees his upbraiding +hand rise +from the grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">My father has put the mark of Cain upon my brow; a mark that +can never +be effaced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevermore dare I look upon my face or permit the eyes of +strangers to +behold it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Can I escape from myself? My thoughts will follow me +everywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am an outcast, forlorn, ruined.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the dreary monotone that rang through Irma's soul, +again and +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">She lay in the darkened chamber from which every ray of light +was +excluded. She was alone with herself and darkness. Her thoughts were +like strange voices, calling her now here, now there. And it often +seemed to her as if, with finger pointed at her, her father's fiery +hand shone through the darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">She could hear Bruno's voice and Gunther's. Bruno wanted to +ask her +about many things, and Gunther wished to return to the city. Irma +answered that she could see no one, and charged Gunther with a thousand +greetings to all who loved her. Gunther cautioned the family doctor and +the maid to keep a careful watch on Irma, and also sent a messenger to +Emma at the convent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma remained in darkness and solitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tempter came to her, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why grieve yourself to death? You are young, and the world, +with all +its beauty and splendor, lies before you. There is not the faintest +trace of a mark upon your brow. The hand that left it is cold and stiff +in death. Rise up and be yourself again! The whole world is yours! Why +pine away? Why mortify yourself? Everything lives for itself; +everything lives out its allotted time. Your father completed his life; +do you complete yours. What is sin? The dead have no claims on the +living; the living alone have rights."</p> + +<p class="normal">While distracted by grief and doubts, she suddenly saw, +arising through +the darkness, the vision described in the New Testament, of Satan and +the angel contending for the possession of the body of Moses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not a corpse!" exclaimed she suddenly. "There are +neither angels +nor devils. It is all false! In song and story, and from generation to +generation, they've been handing down all sorts of fables, just as they +do with children whom they lull to sleep in the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Day has dawned. I can draw the curtain aside, and the whole +world of +light is mine. Are there not thousands who have erred as I have, and +who still live happily?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt as if buried alive in the earth. Fancy ever +transported her to +that one grave. She rushed to the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Light! I must have light!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She raised the curtain. A broad ray of light streamed into +the room. +She sprang back, the curtain fell and she again lay in darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she soon heard a voice that went to her heart. Colonel +Bronnen had +come from the capital to pay the last honors to Eberhard. He begged +Irma--his powerful voice was thick with emotion--to permit him to mourn +with her for the dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">All her blood seemed to flow back to her heart. She opened +the door +and, through the darkness, held out her hand to her friend. He pressed +it to his lips, and she heard the strong man weep. Suddenly, the +thought flashed upon her that this man could save her, and that she +could serve him, and look up to him. But how, could she dare?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you," said she, at last. "May it ever make you happy +to know +that you've been kind to the departed and to myself--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her voice faltered; she could say no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen departed, leaving her in the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was again alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The last stay left her was broken. Had she imagined that +Bronnen had +picked up fragments of a torn letter which he had found on the road, +and that they were now in his pocket, she would have cried out for very +shame.</p> + +<p class="normal">One idea constantly possessed her. What good would it do her +to see the +sun rise so many thousand times more? Every eye would make the writing +stand out more clearly, and certain words had become undying torments +to her. Father--daughter! Who would banish these words from the +language, so that he might nevermore hear them, nevermore read them?</p> + +<p class="normal">Her ideas seemed to move in an unfathomable void. Turn it as +she might, +the one and only thought was ever returning with crushing weight. It +seemed exhausting and yet inexhaustible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then ensued that numbness of the mind which is best described +as the +entire absence of thought. Chaos reigned, and what lay beyond surpassed +conception. "Let what will come, I shall submit, like the beast led out +for the sacrifice, and upon whose head the uplifted axe of the high +priest is about to descend. Your destiny must be accomplished; you can +do nothing but submit without shrinking."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma lay thus for hours.</p> + +<p class="normal">The great clock in the hall was ticking, and seemed to be +saying: +Father--daughter; daughter--father. For hours, she could hear nothing +but the pendulum, which seemed to utter those words again and again. +She was about to give orders that the clock should be stopped, but +forebore. She tried to force herself not to hear these words, but did +not succeed. The pendulum still kept saying: Father--daughter; +daughter--father.</p> + +<p class="normal">What had once been subject to her caprice, now ruled her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have you seen of the world?" she asked herself. "A mere +corner. +You must travel round the earth, and let it be a pilgrimage in which +you may escape from yourself. You must become acquainted with the whole +planet on which these creatures who call themselves men creep about; +creatures who dig and plant, preach and sing, chisel and paint, simply +to drown the thought that death awaits them all. All is drowned in +stupor--"</p> + +<p class="normal">In imagination, she transported herself far, far away, with +faithful +servants pitching their tent in the desert; and if some wild race were +to approach--While she lay there, half awake, half asleep, she heard +the sounds of the tom-tom, and fancied herself borne away on the +shoulders of others, and adorned with peacocks' wings, while savage, +dusky forms were dancing around her.</p> + +<p class="normal">What had once been a wild day-dream now possessed her, and +her brain +whirled in fancy's maddening dance.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was late at night. All were asleep. Irma gently opened the door and +slipped out.</p> + +<p class="normal">She went to the chamber of death. A single light had been +placed near +the head of the corpse, which lay in an open coffin and with a few ears +of corn in its hands. A servant who was watching by the corpse, looked +at Irma with surprise. He bowed to her, but did not speak a word. Irma +grasped her father's hand. If that hand had rested on her head to bless +her, instead of--</p> + +<p class="normal">She knelt down and, with burning lips, kissed the cold, icy +hand. A +distracting thought flashed through her mind: This is the kiss of +eternity. Burning flame and icy coldness had met: this is the kiss of +eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she awoke in her room, she knew not whether she had +really kissed +her dead father's hand or whether it was all a dream. But she did feel +that her heart was oppressed by a burden that could never be cast +aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">The kiss of eternity. You shall nevermore kiss warm, loving +lips--you +are the bride of death.</p> + +<p class="normal">She heard the bells tolling while they bore her father to the +grave. +She did not leave her room. Not a sound escaped her lips; not a tear +fell from her eye; all her faculties were benumbed and shattered. She +lay in the dark. When she heard the pigeons on the window-sill outside, +cooing and flying away, she knew that it was day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was greatly annoyed by his sister's eccentric behavior. +He wanted +to leave, and wished her either to accompany him or, at all events, say +what she proposed doing. But, thus far, she had not replied. At length, +equipped for the journey, he went into Irma's anteroom, where he found +her maid reading a book.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno had just stretched out his hand to pat her under the +chin, when +he suddenly remembered that he was in mourning, and drew his hand back.</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave his hat to the maid, so that she might put a mourning +band on +it, and, while doing so, stroked her hand, as if by accident. Then he +went to his sister's door again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma!" he said; "Irma, be sensible; do give me an answer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want of me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Open the door."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can hear you," she replied, but did not open the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, I must tell you that no will has been found. I +shall +arrange everything with you in a brotherly manner. Won't you come along +to my house?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I must go without you! good-by!" He received no answer +and, while +waiting, heard steps moving away from the door. He turned toward the +waiting-maid, who had in the mean while fastened the crape upon his +hat. Bruno kissed her hand and gave her a handsome present.</p> + +<p class="normal">He set out on his journey at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was just as well pleased to travel without Irma's company. +There +would be no one to disturb him, and he could more easily give way to +his own inclinations. His philosophy enjoined upon him the avoidance of +all unnecessary grief; it could do no good, and would simply embitter +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was in a self-complacent mood. He meant to take the +Wildenort estate +to himself, on account of the name. It was, unfortunately, small and, +unless he obtained a position under the government, it would not +support him in a manner befitting his rank. If Irma should marry, which +he hoped would be very soon, he would give her the assessed value of +the hereditary estate as her dowry. Bruno returned to the capital, and +the first time that he left his house was to visit the jockey club, +which was now in session. By paying a moderate forfeit, he hoped to be +able to withdraw his horses from the races which were announced to take +place within a few days. He was in mourning, and they would, of course, +take that into consideration. On the way, he met Gunther and turned +back. The doctor was going to the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never had this man, who, at court, was looked upon as a +stoic, shown +such agitation as when he brought the news of old Count Wildenort's +death.</p> + +<p class="normal">He told the queen that Eberhard's last moments had renewed +the spirit +of his better days, and yet he could not refrain from adding that his +departed friend had not attained the high point to gain which he had so +honestly labored. For, at the last moment he had felt the need of +support from without, and was obliged to impress his mind anew with +truths he had long since made his own. The queen was astonished at the +doctor, who could judge so sternly, even when most deeply afflicted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How does our Irma bear it?" cried she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sadly and silently," replied Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think," said the king to the queen, "that we ought to +write to our +friend, and send a messenger to her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen approved of his suggestion, and the king said to +the captain +of the palace guard:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The queen wishes to have a courier sent to Countess Irma at +once. Pray +attend to the matter. Send Baum."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen started with fear. Why had the king said that <i>she</i> +desired +to send a messenger? The suggestion had been his own, and she had +merely assented to it. She quickly silenced her doubts, however, and +reproached herself that the suspicions she had once harbored had not +yet entirely vanished. She went to her room and wrote to Irma. The king +wrote, too.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum assumed a modest and submissive mien, while receiving +orders to +start at once as a courier to the Countess of Wildenort. He was to +remain with the countess, to be in constant attendance upon her, and, +if she desired to travel, he was to accompany her until she should +return to court.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Baum set out with the letters, his face wore a +triumphant +expression. He was now on the point of gaining the great prize. He had +been intrusted with a delicate commission, and he knew what he was +about. He felt that they appreciated him, and that he understood them. +He looked back toward the palace. The submissive air had vanished. +Stroking his chest with his right hand, and holding the left up to his +lips, he said to himself; "I shall return as a made man; I shall be +lord chamberlain at least."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum arrived at the manor-house. The maid told him that Irma +would +receive no one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she only had a good cry; her silent grief will kill her."</p> + +<p class="normal">He knocked at Irma's door. It was long before an answer came. +At last +she asked what was the matter, and when she recognized Baum's voice, +she was obliged to support herself from falling, by holding on to the +latch of the door. "Had the king come, too?" she asked herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum said that he had come as a courier to deliver a letter +from their +majesties. Irma opened the door just far enough to enable her to put +out her hand. She took the large letter and laid it on the table. There +was nothing that she cared to learn from the world, nor could it offer +her any consolation. No one could. At last, toward evening, she drew +back the curtains and broke the seal of the large envelope. There were +two letters in it; one in the queen's handwriting, the other in the +king's. She opened the queen's letter first, and read:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>My dear, good Irma</i>";</p> + +<p class="normal">(It was the first time that the queen had written so +affectionately. +Irma wiped her face with her handkerchief and went on reading.)</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have experienced life's greatest affliction. Would that +I were +with you, to press your throbbing heart to mine, and to kiss away your +tears. I shall not attempt to console you, but can only say that I +sympathize with you as far as it is possible to sympathize with griefs +one has not yet known. You are strong and noble, and I cannot help +appealing to you" (Irma's hand trembled) "to think of yourself and to +bear your grief purely and nobly. You are orphaned, but the world must +not be a desert void to you. There are still hearts that beat with +friendship for you. I am glad--that is to say--I thank fate that I am +able to be of some help to you in your sorrow. I need not assure you of +my friendship for you, and yet, at such moments, it does one good to +tell one's self so. I do not care to spend a single hour in pleasure +while you are in affliction. All feelings are shared by us." (Irma +covered her face with her hands. Recovering herself, she went on +reading.) "Let me know soon what I can do for you. Come to me, or +remain in solitude, just as your feelings dictate. If I could only +enable you to enjoy the company of yourself as we enjoy it. You don't +know how much good you've done me. You have extended the domain of our +perceptions and have thus enriched our lives. What nobler achievement +can there be! Remain firm and remember that you may always depend upon +the friendship of</p> + +<p class="center">"Your ever loving</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Mathilde</span>."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Irma laid the letter on the table and involuntarily pushed it far +away from that of the king, which was still unopened. Years should +elapse--aye, oceans should lie between the reading of the two letters; +and yet how often had she listened to them both in the same breath, and +looked at them with the same glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a violent movement, as if in anger, she opened the +king's letter +and read:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"I am deeply pained to know that you, too, my charming +friend, must +learn that we are mortal. It grieves me to think that your lovely eyes +must weep. If that which is noblest be capable of still further +purification--and what mortal being is not?--this affliction must needs +add to your noble-mindedness. I entreat you, do not soar too high, lest +you leave us too far below you. Carry us with you, to the lofty regions +in which you dwell."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's features assumed a hard and bitter expression. She +went on +reading:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you mean to torment your beautiful eyes with tears, and +your noble +heart with sighs, for more than seven days, and desire to remain alone, +pray send me word. Should you, however, wish to protract your mourning, +and to recover yourself and another self, by travel, decide upon what +direction you mean to take. Let it not be too far--not too far into the +land of sorrow, a land to which you are a stranger. Be happy again and +subdue your grief, cheerfully and speedily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Affectionately yours, <span style="letter-spacing:4em"> </span>K."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the letter, there lay a small piece of paper with the inscription: +"Burn this as soon as read."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot live without you. If I lose you, I lose myself. +Your presence +is my life. I cannot live, except in the light of your eyes. I want no +clouds; I long for the sunlight. Remember the world of thought that +dwells beneath your plumed hat. Let that world have its sway, you must +not be sad; you dare not, for my sake. You must be mistress of your +grief, just as you are mistress over me. Be firm, put all grief away +from you, and return to your <span style="letter-spacing:4em"> </span><span class="sc">Kurt</span>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The kiss of eternity! I alone can kiss away the sadness that +clouds +your brow. I can and I will."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Irma uttered a loud shriek, and then gave way to convulsive laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can any lips kiss this brow? How would they relish the +death-sweat +which has already eaten into the flesh? How would that terrible word +taste to the lips? Kiss it away! Kiss it away! I burn! I freeze!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The maid heard the last few words, and endeavored to go to +Irma's +assistance, but the door was locked.</p> + +<p class="normal">After some time, Irma raised her head and was surprised to +find herself +on the floor. She rose and ordered a light and writing materials. She +burned the king's two letters, and then sat there for a while, with her +weary head resting upon both her hands. At last she took the pen and +wrote:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>Queen</i>!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I expiate my crime, in death. Forgive and forget.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Irma</span>."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">On the envelope she wrote the words, "By the hand of Gunther," "For the +queen herself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she took another sheet and wrote:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"<i>My Friend</i>:</p> + +<p class="normal">"These are the last words I shall ever address to you. We are +treading +the wrong path, a path full of peril. I expiate my crime. You do not +belong to yourself alone; you belong to her and to your country. Death +is my expiation. Life must be yours. Be at one with the law that binds +you to her and to the state. You have denied both, and I have aided you +to do so. Our life, our love, has dealt terribly with you. You could no +longer be true to yourself. But now you must again become so; and that +completely. These are my dying words, and I shall gladly die, if you +will but hearken to me and to your better self. God knows we did not +mean to sin; but we sinned, for all. My judgment is written on my brow; +inscribe yours in your heart and live anew. All is still yours. I +receive the kiss of eternity from death. Listen to this voice and +forget it not, but forget her who calls to you. I do not wish to be +remembered."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">She sealed the letters and hurriedly hid them in the portfolio, for she +was interrupted. Emma, or rather Sister Euphrosyne, was announced.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had sent a messenger to inform Emma of Count Eberhard's death +and Irma's despair. The prioress suggested that Emma should hasten to +her young friend, to whom they owed so great a debt; and, as nuns were +not allowed to travel alone, she was accompanied by a sister who was an +experienced nun.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the maid announced them, Irma started from her seat. +This is +deliverance! In the convent, shut out from the world, a living +death--there shall you wait until they bear you to the grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly the old boatman's words flashed upon her: "A life in +which +nothing happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her lips swelled with proud defiance. I shall not wait for +the end; +I'll force it. It was long before she answered the maid:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My best thanks, but I don't care to see or hear any one."</p> + +<p class="normal">After uttering these words, Irma felt as if inspired with new +strength. +That, too, was over.</p> + +<p class="normal">All was silence and darkness again, and the clock kept on +saying: +Father--daughter; daughter--father.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the valley below, she heard the sounds of the vesper +bell.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It must be," said Irma to herself. She drew back the +curtains and, +looking down into the valley, could see the nuns, clad in their long +black gowns, walking across the meadows. Her thoughts went out after +them, as she said: "Farewell, Emma!" Then she called her maid and told +her to give orders that a horse should be saddled for her, as she +wished to ride out. She did not turn her face to the maid. No one +should ever look on that brow. The maid helped her on with her +riding-habit and riding-hat, the latter ornamented with part of an +eagle's wing. Irma started when her hand touched the wing. The king had +shot the bird, and had given her the plumes when-- It seemed like a +parting, ghostly touch.</p> + +<p class="normal">She ordered a double veil to be put on her hat, and it was +not until +she was in perfect disguise, that she set off. She did not look up; she +took leave of no one; her eyes were fixed on the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's saddle-horse stood in the courtyard. At her approach, +it pawed +the ground and snuffed the air. She did not stop to inquire who had +brought her horse from the city. She patted its neck and called it by +its name: "Pluto." In thought, she was already so far removed from the +world that she regarded the beast as a marvel, or as something never +before seen. She mounted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The large dog, a favorite of her father's, was there also, +and barked +when he saw her. She gave orders to have the dog taken back to the +house.</p> + +<p class="normal">She rode away at an easy pace. She did not look behind her, +nor to the +right or left. The sun was already behind the tops of the trees. Its +broken rays shone through the branches, like so many threads of light, +and between the boughs glowed the sky, forming a golden background.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma halted and beckoned to Baum, who had been following her, +to come +nearer. He rode up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How much money have you with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only a few florins."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must have a hundred florins; ride back and get them for +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum hesitated. He wanted to say that he was not allowed to +leave the +countess, but he could not muster courage enough to do so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you hesitate? Don't you understand me?" said Irma +harshly. +"Ride back immediately."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum was scarcely out of sight, when Irma whipped her horse, +leaped +over the ditch at the side of the road, hurried across the mountain +meadow and into the woods. She rode at full gallop, over the very road +Bruno had taken a few days before. The horse was spirited and fresh, +and proud of its beautiful rider. They knew each other, and it galloped +on right merrily, as if in the chase. And there really is a chase; for +hark! there's a shot. But Pluto stands fire, and is not so easily +frightened. Away he dashed, more wildly than before. The rays of the +setting sun shone through the forest shades, lighting up the trees and +mosses with their roseate glow. And still she rode on, ever urging her +horse to greater speed.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had reached the crest of the mountain ridge; below, lay +the broad +lake, glowing with purple.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There!" cried Irma. "There thou art, cold death!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Pluto stopped, thinking that his mistress had spoken to him. +"You're +right," said she, patting his neck; "it's far enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">She alighted and turned the horse's head. He looked at her +once more, +with his large, faithful eyes, for she had thrown back her veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go home. You're to live; go home!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The horse did not move. She raised her whip and struck it. It +started +off, with mane and tail fluttering in the evening breeze, as it hurried +away along the mountain crest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma paused and looked after it. Then she sat down on the +edge of a +projecting rock and gazed at the vast prospect and the setting sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">"O light! O lovely sky! This is the last time I gaze upon +you, before I +sink into the night of death--"</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment, she was wholly absorbed in the view that opened +before +her. She no longer knew whence she had come, or whither she would go. +Her eyes rested on the vast range of towering peaks, summit piled on +summit, and, in the distance, a peak overtopping them all. The wooded +heights seemed enveloped in a violet haze. The trembling rays of the +setting sun gilded the bare and rugged cliffs. High upon the glaciers +rested the rosy glow of sunset, ever assuming a brighter hue as it grew +darker in the valley below. One mighty, snow-clad peak seemed as if on +fire; but a cloud passed over it and, as if lifting a veil, carried the +mountain's rosy glow with it. The cloud gradually disappeared in a +blaze of glory, and the snowy peaks, standing out against the +background of dull sky, looked cold and bleak, as if in death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The mighty spirit of Death was passing o'er the heights.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh! that one might thus vanish into thin air!</p> + +<p class="normal">A chilling breeze swept over the mountain. Irma shuddered. +She passed +her hand over her face, and felt that she, too, was growing pale. She +rose to her feet and ascended the mountain for some distance, so that +she might once more see the fiery ball. She was too late and said +aloud:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of what avail is it to see the sun a thousand, or twice a +thousand +times, as long as the day must come when it sets for us, once and for +all? And it has forever set to him who lies under the sod and on whose +hand decay--"</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt giddy and sank upon the mossy ground. When she got +up again, +it was night.</p> + +<p class="normal">She arose and, holding up her dress, walked down into the +dark and +thickly wooded ravine below.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Irma advanced with a firm step. The footpath she had struck wound its +way among large and lofty trees and soon opened into a broad road that +had been cut through the forest. Ever and anon heat-lightning would +flash in the distance, breaking up the gloom and revealing another +firmament that lay beyond.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma scarcely looked up. She thought of nothing but how to +find her +way. There was perfect silence, broken now and then by a sorrowful +sound, like the sobbing of a human being. It must be from some hollow +tree, thought she. The groaning always seemed to advanced before her. +Wherever she went she heard it. She looked for the heart-sick tree, but +could not find it. With every step, she advanced further into the +forest and higher up the mountain. Then she ran down the mountain, and +now all was silent. The path was no longer visible, but, from afar, she +caught a glimpse of the moonlit lake, the object of her search. She +went on, through the pathless forest, treading down the soft moss. +Sometimes she heard the twittering of birds in the tree-tops; a martin +or a weasel was destroying the young in their nests. The world is full +of murder, thought she; its creatures are ever preying on each other. +Though man destroys and kills his fellow-men, he does not eat them. +That alone distinguishes man from the beasts. And there is one thing +more--man alone can kill himself. Irma grew dizzy at the thought. She +supported herself against a tree for a moment and then walked on Her +resolve must be carried out; there must be no weakness, no wavering. +She went still further into the dense forest. Her cheeks glowed, the +perspiration dripped from her forehead; but inwardly she fell as if +freezing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Something rustled through the thicket. It was a stag which +she had +frightened from its cover. The stag was afraid of her, and she was +afraid of the stag. He fancied that she could feel its antlers piercing +her. She hurried down the mountain side. For a while she could still +hear the crackling of the underbrush, and at last all was silent again. +The wind whistled through the treetops, and there was a sound of +running water, sometimes near and sometimes afar, and then the roaring +of a forest stream dashing down from the rocks. She beheld the moonlit +foam, and no longer knew where she was or whither she was going--toward +the lake, or away from it. If she were to lose her way in the +forest--if she were to be found there and taken back to the world and +misery! Mustering all her strength, she walked on. The cool night air +blew against her face, but her cheeks glowed as if with fire. She +pressed her hand to her brow; it seemed as if a hot spring was flowing +from the spot which had been touched. She looked up to the stars and +recognized the familiar constellations. She knew their position, but +those great guides through infinite space do not help the lonely mortal +who has lost her way in the heart of the forest. Irma thought of the +nights when, under Gunther's guidance, her glance had roamed o'er the +vast, starry expanse. But now all was annihilated, all greatness had +fallen. Even her view of the stars was confined and obstructed. She +tried to remember whether she had destroyed the letters or left them +behind her. She thought she could remember having burnt that of the +king; but how as to the letter to the queen? Torn by conflicting +doubts, she was, at last, completely bewildered. Perhaps both letters +would be found.--Be it so.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then Walpurga's song passed through her mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">If the good peasant woman who lives by the lake knew that her +friend +was thus groping her way through the woods, all alone, in darkest +night, and with such dread thoughts for her companions--she would +hasten to her aid, would draw her to her heart and would not let her +go. Who knows but that, although far away, she is thinking of me now, +dreaming of me and, perhaps, singing her song--sending it, like some +invisible messenger, on the wings of night. How the poor creature will +grieve when she hears of my death. Perhaps she will be the only one who +will sincerely mourn for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Memories of many kinds floated through her mind. Years hence, +some +boatman like the one at the island convent, will tell the story of the +drowned maid of honor. What effect will the news of my death have +upon others? None of them can help me, nor can I help them. Day after +to-morrow they'll be playing, dancing and singing as usual. No one can +keep another in remembrance. He who is absent has no claim on our +thoughts. Life is as pitiless as death. She went further into the +thicket, passing wild ravines on the way. The stones loosened by her +tread tumbled over the precipice, and the dull, hollow thud with which +they struck the earth below, told her how far they had fallen. The +rocks on either side drew closer together, the mountain torrent rushed +down over them and, all at once, she reached the edge of a precipice; +further, she could not go. I will take the fatal leap and dash myself +to pieces. But to lie there, perhaps for days, bruised and half dead. +To die a lingering death! No!</p> + +<p class="normal">She sought a path. A branch struck her in the face just where +her +father's icy finger had touched her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; this brow shall nevermore see the light of day," she +cried, +holding fast with her hands, while trying to find a way along the edge +of the cliff. Suddenly, she heard the loud voice of a woman singing. +Irma drew a long breath, for it was a human voice--a woman's, perhaps +that of a young and lovely girl, giving her lover a signal in the +night. The sounds were repeated again and again, and grew more and more +piercing, and, trembling with fear, Irma sat on the rock. She answered +with a scream. She was frightened at the sound of her own voice, but +she cried out again and again, for now there was an answer. The other +voice seemed to approach; dogs rushed forth and were already +surrounding Irma and barking, as a signal that they had found the prey. +The voice came nearer and nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are you?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here," answered Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Up there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How did you get up there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep quiet; don't move and I'll come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma waited a long while, and at last some one appeared right +below +where she was sitting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So there you are," said the figure. She threw a rope to +Irma, telling +her to bind it round her body and then fasten the other end to a rock +or tree, and slide down gently.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma did as she was bidden. During that one short moment, +while she +hovered between heaven and earth, a thousand indescribable thoughts +passed through her mind. She reached the ground in safety. The woman at +once seized her by the hand and led her away. She followed as if +without a will of her own. In scrambling through the bushes and over +the rocks, she tore herself until the blood flowed. At last they +reached a narrow rocky path. Below them the brook rushed by, but the +powerful woman held Irma's hand fast in hers, as if with an iron grip.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A chamois hunter wouldn't dare go where you've, been. Now +we're up +here, and there's our hut," said she, at last. "It's a wonder you +didn't stumble over the rock with your long dress."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you?" asked Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me first, who you are, and how you got here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't tell you that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No matter. They call me Black Esther."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you bringing there?" called out a grim-looking +woman, who +appeared at the door of the hut. Behind her glowed the fire on the +hearth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know; it's a woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma went toward the hut with Black Esther. The old woman +crossed +herself and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let all good spirits praise the Lord! it's the Lady of the +Lake--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not a spirit," said Irma. "I'm a weary mortal. Let me +rest here +for a while, and then let your daughter go with me and show me the way +to the lake. All I ask for now is a drop of water."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, that 'ud be the death of you. You mustn't drink water +now. I'll +cook some warm soup for you, and bring it to you right off."</p> + +<p class="normal">She led Irma into the room, and when she saw her hand and the +diamond +rings sparkling on it, she grinned with delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh what a beautiful ring! That's from your sweetheart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take it and keep it," said Irma, holding out her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">With great dexterity, the old woman removed the ring from +Irma's +finger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good heavens!" cried the old woman suddenly, "I've seen you +before--yes, yes, it was you. Didn't you once wear a little golden +heart and send it to a child? Didn't you once, at the palace, order +them to get something to eat for an old woman and have her son set +free, and didn't you give her money besides? Good heavens! you're +the--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't mention my name! Only let me rest a moment; ask me +nothing, and +say nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you don't want me to, certainly not. I'll hurry and get +the soup +ready for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went out, leaving Irma alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma lay on the bed, which was nothing more than a sack of +leaves that +crackled strangely whenever she turned her head. The leaves seemed to +say: "Ah! when we were green, we had a better time of it--" The moon +shone in through the window; everything seemed dancing before her +eyes; she felt as if she were on the open sea. But she soon fell +asleep.--When she awoke, she heard a man's voice.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Out on the porch, which also served as a kitchen, were Thomas and his +mother. He had removed his false beard, was cleaning his black face, +and now said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, do you know what I'm sorry for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, that I didn't shoot the young count the other day. I +won't have +as good a chance at him again. I could have shot him through the back +of the neck and that would have been the last of him. I'd have given +the daylight a chance to shine through him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a nice fellow to talk repentance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and I'd have done a good deed if I'd shot the fellow. +Just think, +mother, that's the kind of people the grand folks are who own the +forest and all the game in it. Just think of it, mother! I'm a good +fellow, after all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only think, mother! Do you know why the count was in the +forest? He +wanted to be out of the way while his father was dying; and so he rode +off and let the old man end his days alone. I promise you, if you were +going to die, and I were about, I'd stay with you to the last. I'd +deserve to go to heaven, if I'd put that fellow out of the way. If I'd +known all about it at the time, I'd have done it, too. Indeed, I did +want to, just for the fun of the thing. But it's great fun to think how +the fellow must have shook, to be riding in front of me while I had a +ball ready for him and could have shot him at any minute. Oh, you +Wildenort!"</p> + +<p class="normal">At the mention of her family name, Irma fell over as if shot +and, with +bated breath, listened while Thomas continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since then, I've been as if bewitched. I haven't chanced +across a bit +of game and I feel like a fool. Something happened to me about +twilight--the devil take it, one can't help believing in spirits. +Mother, I saw a beautiful horse, and no one was on it. If it had only +been a real horse, one that would fetch money! But I, like a fool, was +frightened when it galloped past me, with its flying mane and +clattering hoofs. But, before I'd made up my mind that it was a real +horse and that ghost stories were stupid stuff--heigho, it was gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nay, Thomas, take care! There's something in those stories +after all. +Come, stand here, hold your hand over the fire and swear that you'll +keep quiet, and I'll tell you something."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you happen to know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"More than your thick head can hold. I tell you there are +spirits, and +the Lady of the Lake is lying on the bed in there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, you've gone crazy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take care! she's ordered me to cook some soup for her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so the water-fairies eat soup. I'm not afraid of any +creature that +eats cooked victuals. I'd like to take a look at the Lady of the Lake."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman tried to keep him back, but he forced his way +into the +room. When he beheld Irma, he stood still, as if rooted to the spot. +Suddenly he exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's a woman like yourself, only she's much handsomer. If +she were +the Lady of the Lake, she'd have swan's feet, as far as I know. Mother, +who is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I'll ask her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman tried to restrain him, but Irma had already +risen to her +feet. She looked about her with a vacant stare and opened her lips, but +could not speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's you!" cried Thomas suddenly. "That's splendid."</p> + +<p class="normal">He wanted to seize her, but Zenza held him back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's you!" he cried again. "You've lost your way and here +you are; +that's splendid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, who doesn't know you? you're the king's sweetheart and +now +you're--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma's loud shriek of despair drowned the last words of the +brutal +fellow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hurrah!" shouted Thomas. "Out with you, mother; and you, +too, Esther. +I don't need either of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let her go! You shan't touch her," cried the mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shan't I? and who's to hinder me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother struggled with him, but he hurled her aside. +Unable to think +of any other expedient, she seized the vessel of boiling broth and +swore that she would dash it in his face. He warded it off and +staggered back, bellowing like a bull.</p> + +<p class="normal">Esther rushed up to Irma and hurriedly whispered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, come! I'll save you, for your father's sake. Come! +Away!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She dragged Irma away with her, and with breathless haste +they ran down +the hill. Irma was out of breath and wanted to rest. Esther, however, +dragged her a little further, until they reached a spring, where they +seated themselves. Dipping up some water in her hands, she bathed +Irma's brow and her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">For some time, neither of them spoke a word. At last, Irma +asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know the way to the lake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. That's my path, too--the only one left me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How? what do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I want to do just what you mean to do, and I suppose I'll +have to."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do I mean to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To drown yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started with surprise when she found her purpose known.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know why," continued Esther, "but I can easily +guess. My +brother spoke bitter words to you; but, I beg of you, don't do it. Just +think of it! You're so beautiful, so young, so rich. You may live for +many years, and things may be much better for you in the world. Don't +do it.--Hush!" said she, interrupting herself, "don't you hear +something? We'll stop talking, so as to hear every sound. He's +following us, and won't leave us. Get up! we must be off."</p> + +<p class="normal">They got up and walked on further through the gloomy forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">A vision of hell passed through Irma's mind. Through all +eternity, the +noble and the lowly would be linked to each other and suffer a like +fate; for sin, like virtue, knows no such distinctions.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were passing a wild, roaring stream, when Esther asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you're his sister?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's sister?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My Bruno's. How goes it with him? I saw him the other day, +when I was +looking for ants' eggs, but he didn't see me. Is it true that he's +married happily?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. But why do you call him your Bruno?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I'll tell you. You're the first one who's heard his +name pass my +lips since that day. Has he never mentioned it to you himself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He can't have forgotten it. Come on! Thomas might find us +here. Take +my hand and go backward; then the dogs will lose the scent."</p> + +<p class="normal">Esther took Irma by the hand and led her away. After they had +seated +themselves under a projecting rock. Black Esther thus told her story:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My mother knows nothing of it, nor does my brother. No one +knows the +right story; but I can tell you. This isn't our real home, but we're +often here in the summer, looking for gentian, and herbs, and ants' +eggs. I was fifteen years old, a merry devil of a girl, and could have +run a race with any stag, when your brother found me in the woods. He +was handsome--very handsome. There never was another man in all the +world so beautiful as he was. He was so clever and so good, and we +loved each other so much; and I cried every time I had to go home to my +mother again. I would have liked to stay out in the woods, just as the +deer did; and it almost pleased me when I got home and mother gave me a +beating, for then I could cry without having to give a reason for it. I +longed for him every moment, and never wanted to leave him. He once +told me who he was, and that his father was a very stern man, and that, +if it weren't for that, he'd take me home to his castle, and make a +countess of me. And what do you think I did--I've thought a thousand +times since of how foolish I was, but I'm sure I meant no harm. As +Bruno had complained so bitterly, I thought this bad father might be +brought around; so I went to the castle, and went right up to him +and told him that he oughtn't to be so cruel and hard-hearted, and +that he ought to allow Bruno to marry me, and I'd surely be a good +daughter-in-law, and that there had never, in all the world, been truer +love than ours. And your father gave me a glance--I'll never forget his +eyes. I can see them before me now, so large and bright. And a little +while ago, when Thomas started toward you, you had just such eyes, and +that made me take pity on you and help you away."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on," said Irma, after a long pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, yes," replied Esther, collecting her thoughts. "And then +your +father came toward me. I stooped, for I thought he was going to strike +me; but he put his hand on my head and said: 'You're a good child, even +if you've done wrong, and it shan't be my fault if you don't keep +good.' Then he called a servant and ordered him to go for Bruno. When +Bruno came in and saw me, he was frightened; but I said: 'Don't be +afraid; you're father's a kind-hearted man, and he'll let me have you +for a husband.' Bruno didn't stir from the spot; his face was as white +as the cloth on the table he was leaning against. And then your +father said: 'Very well, so I'll come to you. You've not acted +honorably, but you shall still have chance to do so. I permit you--nay, +I command you--to take this child of the forest for your wife--' Bruno +laughed--it was a devilish laugh, and I'll never forget it--and your +father said: 'Speak, Bruno.' Then he said: 'Father, don't be +ridiculous,' and your father's face changed as suddenly as if he had +grown thirty years older in that one minute. He could hardly stand, and +sat down on a chair. 'What do you say?' he asked. 'Repeat it once more! +Speak!' And Bruno repeated his words, twisting his mustache while he +spoke. Your father tried to persuade him, and told him that he'd teach +me, that I should learn to read, and write, and do everything else, as +well as any countess, and that Bruno had better not take a load upon +his conscience which he'd never get rid of as long as he lived. And +Bruno answered: 'If you don't send that girl away, I'll leave the room. +Go, Esther. Leave the room, and don't come again till I send for you.' +He said something to your father, in a language I didn't understand. +Your father grew pale, came up to me, gave me his hand, and said: 'Go, +Esther.' He didn't say another word, but that he said kindly. And so I +went away. That was the last time I ever saw Bruno. I heard, afterward, +that there had been terrible goings on between your father and him, +but I kept out of sight, after that. I didn't want to be the cause of +ill-feeling between father and son; I saw that it wouldn't do. Our +child meant kindly toward us, for it was born dead. That was far better +than to find only misery in the world, and die at last. Don't you think +so, too?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma did not answer, but she felt for Esther's hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Esther continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother and Thomas don't know that I ever knew your brother. +But Thomas +is a terrible fellow, and he hates your brother just as if he had a +notion of it; but I don't say a word. I'm lost; but what does it +matter? There's no need of his being ruined too. Oh! how I loved him. I +can't forget it, even now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Esther, who had, thus far, told her story in a calm and quiet +tone, +suddenly cried out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's got a beautiful, fine, rich, noble wife! Yes, that's +all we are +here for--so that nothing may happen to you in your silken beds out +yonder. Ha! ha! ha! And when they get a child in wedlock, they get some +poor woman to suckle it. Walpurga's well off; her milk's turned to +gold. Oh, if I could only stop thinking."</p> + +<p class="normal">She tore her hair and gritted her teeth. "It's a wonder that +the wild +and burning thoughts that pass through my brain haven't burned away the +stupid black hair long ago. Oh, my head's burning, and I get blows on +it every day. But it's hard--just feel--it's as hard as steel."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma stood there, as if rooted to the spot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" said Esther. "Hush. I hear the dogs. I told you he'd +hunt for +us. Fly! fly! There, to the right! that's the path; but, I beg of you, +for the sake of everything in the world, don't do it--don't do it. You +haven't gone far enough for that. But, be off. Down there you'll come +to a small, wooden bridge. Cross it and hurry on. I'll stay here; the +dogs will come to me and I'll detain them. You're saved. Away! Away!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She urged Irma away, and remained behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma hurried on, alone. She often pressed her hand to her +brow. +Grateful remembrance of her father had saved her from unspeakable +horror. When his hand rested on Esther's head, it had been in token of +forgiveness. But the characters he had branded on Irma's brow, told her +that he had forever put her away from him. "The brand upon my brow can +only be cooled by the waters of the deep lake," she kept saying to +herself, while she hurried across the wooden bridge, and then over the +rising ground until she again entered the dark forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Black Esther stood her ground quietly, and waited for the +dogs to +approach. She called them, and they ran toward her. She heard +Thomas whistling, and the dogs answering. He was still far off, but he +was on the right track. She counted every pulsation; for with every +heart-beat, Irma was one step further from where her pursuer must halt. +She was willing to suffer all. What did it matter?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; I know you're fond of me," said she to the great +wolf-dog, +that fawned upon her. "Yes, you're the only creature in this world that +loves me. I wish I'd been a dog, too. Why wasn't I born a dog? If it +were only true, as mother says, that there once were times when people +were changed into other beings."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas's whistle and cry were again heard. The dogs answered. +He drew +nearer and soon stood beside her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it's you, is it? I thought as much. Where's the other +one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where you'll never find her."</p> + +<p class="normal">A cry of pain resounded from the woods.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kill me at once!" cried Esther. The dogs howled, but knew +not which of +the two they would help.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas went off, leaving Esther lying where she had fallen.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the soft moss under the trees near the border of the forest, a +beautiful female, clad in blue, lay stretched in sleep. The trembling +sunbeams played about her face. She awoke, and, resting her head upon +her hand, gazed about her with the air of one to whom all is lost.</p> + +<p class="normal">The air was laden with the odor of pines, and fresh, cooling +breezes +were wafted from the lake. The bells of the browsing cattle were heard +from the neighboring hills. The dew glistened; every object was radiant +with light; but to her, all was night. It was long before she realized +that she was awake, or where she was. At last, she became conscious of +herself; but still she moved not. Sad and gloomy thoughts passed +through her mind. Why awake? Oh, pitiless nature! why cannot the soul's +anguish destroy thee? Why is it necessary to use another force--fire, +water, steel, or poison--to oppose thee? Why is it that the soul can +ruin the body, and yet cannot destroy it? Sun! what dost thou want of +me? I want thee no longer! My father's writing burns my brow. +Conscience hammers at me, as if with a thousand fists, and yet does not +destroy me!--Why is this? Why?</p> + +<p class="normal">She closed her eyes and turned away from the sun. Something +whispered +to her: "There's time yet. It may all prove to be a hellish adventure, +a waking dream. Turn back! You can, you may. You have fully expiated +all."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if moved by some invisible power, she again turned toward +the sun. +Below her lay the glittering lake, and its waves seemed to say; "In +these depths, all thought, all trouble, all fear, all doubt is at an +end."</p> + +<p class="normal">She arose, and when she saw the impression her figure had +made in the +moss, she looked at it for a long while. Thus, thought she, does the +stag look at his nightly couch when the fatal shot has struck him. Are +we better than the hunted beasts of the forest? All is vanity! What use +is there in torturing ourselves? One bold plunge will end all. She put +on her hat and walked away, alone in the world with the one idea that +possessed her. No voice dissuaded her; she was mistress over life and +death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blackberry bushes caught her dress and held her fast, +and, while +extricating herself, the thorns scratched her hands and feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt a sense of gnawing hunger, and wept like a forsaken +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tears came to her relief.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just then, she saw more berries, which she plucked and ate +with eager +appetite. Startled by her, a bird and its mate flew up from among the +blackberry bushes. There was the empty nest. Every creature has its +home. Irma stood there for some time, quite forgetting herself. She +turned her head,--and, behold! beside the blackberries there were +poison berries, belladonna--he who hungers for death can feed on these. +Irma did not pluck the deadly fruit. She did not care to die a death of +slow torture, perhaps to swoon away, to fall into the hands of men +again. No; it must be in the bottomless lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma now hurried off, as if she had been loitering by the +way. The dew +moistened her wounded feet; she shivered with cold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly the bright sounds of music and the flourish of +trumpets were +borne upon the breeze. Irma pressed her hand to her brow--it isn't +music, it is only the play of my frenzied imagination. The world's +pleasures are tempting me, and calling me back with violin, clarionet +and trumpet. "Come, soothe yourself with our sounds; be merry and enjoy +the days allotted to you." But listen! The sound is heard again, +accompanied by the discharge of cannon, whose reports are echoed back +from the mountains, again and again. Perhaps they are celebrating a +wedding in some quiet village on yonder shore. A youth and a maiden who +have loved each other truly, have to-day become united, and music and +cannon call out to the mountains: "Rejoice with us; love's happiness is +as eternal as ye are--" Irma walked on, lost in reverie and looking +down on the ground. Her thoughts were with the happy ones. In +imagination, she saw the glad looks of parents, of comrades, of +friends, and heard the priest's benediction; while she walked on +through the dewy grass and briars. Her hand was firmly clenched, as if +she felt obliged thus to hold fast to the resolve that urged her +onward. She walked along by the lake. The shore was flat, a mere reedy +swamp. There could be no sudden ending there; only a slow, miserable +death. She walked round and round, ran to and fro with hasty step and +bated breath. At last she saw a rock extending to the water's edge. It +was steep, almost perpendicular. She climbed up to the top, raised her +hands, leaned over the edge. But hark! Who called to her from the +water? She heard a shriek of anguish, a cry for help, a splash. In her +excitement, she dropped her hat. It rolled over the edge of the rock +and into the water. She saw a human figure wrestling with the waves. It +rose to the surface--it was Black Esther! It rose once more and then +sank out of sight.... Uttering a wild shriek, Irma sank upon the rock. +She had seen the deed she purposed enacted before her very eyes. Her +limbs seemed palsied, and she lay there as if at the bottom of the +lake. She was conscious, and yet could not raise herself. A voice +called within her, but no sound passed her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">And while she lay there, she heard voices singing:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"Ah, blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee;</p> +<p class="t6">And swiftly speed the hours by,</p> +<p class="t6">When thou art near to me."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">She sprang to her feet. What could it be?</p> + +<p class="normal">As if impelled by some unseen power, she hurried down from +the rock. +She wiped the tears from her eyes, and blood was streaming from her +face. Had she been weeping tears of blood? A large boat was +approaching. It drew nearer and nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is Walpurga's voice. It is she who calls. She comes--she +recognizes +her friend. Irma flees. Walpurga leaps ashore--pursues her--Irma tries +to escape--Walpurga at last overtakes her and clasps her in her arms, +while Irma falls fainting upon her breast.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The blood was streaming from a wound in Irma's forehead. Walpurga knelt +down beside her and, divesting herself of her neckcloth, bound the +bleeding brow. She then gathered some wet grass and shook the dew in +Irma's face. In despair, she cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dearest Countess! dear, good, beloved Countess! do wake up! +For God's +sake, what's the matter? Oh! for God's sake, wake up! Irma! Irma!" Irma +opened her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei's voice was heard calling: "Walpurga! Walpurga, where +are you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that your husband? Don't let him come here. He must not +see me," +said Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay there!" cried Walpurga. "Send mother here, and tell her +to bring +some of the wine along that I brought home with me. It's in the blue +chest, with the child's things. Be quick about it!" In a few hurried +words, Irma told her that her father was dead, and that she had sought +to drown herself in the lake. She put her hand to her brow, and drew it +back in alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Woe's me! How is this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've been bleeding. You must have fallen and struck your +head +against a stone. Just look!" said she, forcing herself to assume a +cheerful tone; "this is the green kerchief you sent my child."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma tore off the bandage, and silently looked at the +blood-stained +handkerchief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That quenches the fire; let it run," said she to herself. +Then, with a +sudden access of emotion, she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Walpurga! I can't die! I can't kill myself--and yet I +can't live. +I've--I've been wicked--"</p> + +<p class="normal">She hid her face against Walpurga's heart, which beat loud +and +violently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Help me! tell me what to do! Tell me quickly, before your +mother +comes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know--I don't know at all--but mother will know. She +knows how +to help every one. See there, it's stopped bleeding, already. Only keep +calm."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother joined them. Irma looked at her, as if she were an +angel +come to save her. With a voice free from the slightest trace of doubt +and hesitation, the mother said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, this is your Countess!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you're a thousand times welcome," said the old woman. +"I offer +you both my hands. Sad things must have happened to you. You must have +fallen. Or has some one struck you in the forehead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma made no reply. She sat between the two women who +supported her, +and her gaze was as fixed as though she were lifeless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother, help her; say something to her," whispered Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; let her quietly recover herself. Every wound must bleed +itself +out."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma grasped her hands, kissed them and cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother! you've saved me. Mother! I'll remain with you; take +me with +you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that I will. You'll find it ever so healthy up in my +home. The +air and the trees there are better than anywhere else in this world. +There you'll become well again, all this will fall away from you. Does +your father know that you've run away, out into the wide world? and +does he know why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He did know. He's dead. Walpurga, tell her how it is with +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's time enough for that; for, God willing, we'll be +together a +long while. You can tell me all when you're calm and composed. But now, +drink something."</p> + +<p class="normal">After considerable effort, the two women succeeded in drawing +the +silver-foiled cork. Walpurga finished the operation by taking the cork +between her teeth and pulling it out. Irma drank some of the wine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drink," said Walpurga. "It must be wholesome, for Doctor +Gunther sent +it to mother. But she won't drink it. She says she'll wait till she +grows old and needs the strength that wine gives."</p> + +<p class="normal">A melancholy smile passed over Irma's face at the thought +that the aged +woman before her meant to wait until she grew old.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was obliged to take a few more mouthfuls of the wine. +When she +complained of the pain in her foot, the mother skillfully extracted a +thorn. Irma felt as if a gentle angel were attending her, and offered +to kiss the old woman's hands once more. "My hands were never kissed +before you kissed 'em," said the old woman deprecatingly; "but I know +how you mean it. I never touched a countess before in all my life; but +they're human beings, just like the rest of us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma heaved a deep sigh. She told her rescuers that she would +go with +them, but only on condition that no one except themselves was to know +who she was. She wished to live concealed and unknown, and, if she were +discovered, she would take her life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't do that again," said the old woman, with a stern +voice. "Don't +say that again. It won't do to trifle with such things. That's no +threat. But here you have my hand and my word of honor that not a word +shall pass my lips."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor mine either!" exclaimed Walpurga, laying her hand, with +that of +her mother, in Irma's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me one thing," asked the mother. "Why didn't you go to +a convent? +One can do that nowadays."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean to expiate in freedom," said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand you. You're right."</p> + +<p class="normal">Not another word was spoken. The mother held her hand upon +Irma's +forehead, on which she now bound a white handkerchief. "It'll be well in +a week, and there won't be a scar left," she said, consolingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The white cloth shall remain there as long as I live," +replied Irma. +She now asked them to provide her with other clothes, before she showed +herself in Hansei's presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga hurried back to the inn near the landing-place. Here +she found +Hansei in an angry mood, and scolding terribly. Every interruption +annoyed him. He had enough to look after, as it was. There was more +work put upon him than upon the horses in the wagon. He was in that +excited state, often produced by travel and change of abode, in which +one's better self seems to disappear, and when a restless and homeless +feeling renders its possessor excessively irritable. Besides that, the +foal, beautiful as it was, had put him to considerable trouble. It had +run away, and had almost got under the wheels of one of the wagons.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was very angry. Walpurga found it difficult to pacify +him, and +at last she burst into tears and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sooner than move to our new home in anger and hatred, I'd +rather we'd +all gone to the bottom in the boat."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; I'm quiet; just try to be so, too," said Hansei, +recovering +himself and looking toward the lake as if Black Esther's head were +again rising on the waves. He continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we must hurry on, or else it'll be pitch dark before we +get there. +We've a good distance before us, and the horses have a heavy load. What +are you about there? Whom have you got over there among the willows?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll know all about it in a little while. Just take my +word for it, +that mother and I are doing something that'll be a satisfaction to us +as long as we live. I am glad that God has given me a chance to do +something at this moment, when I would have liked to ask Him what I +could do to prove my gratitude. She's a dear, kind creature, and you'll +be satisfied."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga spoke so earnestly and impressively that Hansei +replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll drive on with the household goods, and, if it suits +you, you can +follow in the covered wagon. Come as soon as you can. Uncle's here and +he'll drive."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga nodded to Hansei, who started up the mountain with +the loaded +wagon. Then she went to a chest and took out a full suit. She carried +the clothes into the thicket, where she found Irma sitting beside the +mother, Irma's head resting against the breast of the old woman, who +had wound her arms around her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard will be quite happy with us; we know each other, +already," +said the mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one on earth knows what Irma confessed to old Beate, down +among the +willows by the lake. The old woman breathed thrice on her brow, as if +her warm breath could dispel the charm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now put on your clothes," said Beate. In the thicket, +Irma +exchanged her dress for the peasant's garb.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she left the thicket and returned to the path, she kept +her eyes +fixed on the ground. She was now entering upon a new world--a new life.</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at the beings and the objects in the parlor of the +inn, as +if it were all a dream. She had come back to the world again from the +depths of the lake. Here, life was going on as usual; there was eating +and drinking, laughing and talking, singing, driving, riding--all this +she had already left far behind her. She was as one risen from the +dead. Silent, and with folded hands, she sat upon the bench, caring +nothing for the world about her, longing for only perfect solitude. And +yet her ear was so acute that she overheard the hostess whisper to +Walpurga: "A kinswoman, I suppose," and, significantly putting her +finger to her forehead, "she don't seem to be in her right wits."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maybe you're right," replied Walpurga. A smile, as of pain, +passed +over Irma's beautiful lips: "There's one protecting disguise--and it is +madness."</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt if a net of thorns had descended upon her head. +Insanity may, +indeed, sometimes serve as an invisible cap, concealing, or rather +disguising, the sorrow-stricken wearer.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother was out of doors, arranging a bed in the covered wagon. +She told her brother to drive carefully, and not crack his whip so +often; for Uncle Peter, known as the little pitchman, was so elated at +the idea of having a whip and two horses under his charge, that he +cracked his whip incessantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The stranger's puttings on airs, I think. Who is she, +anyhow?" asked +the little pitchman, taking the thong between his teeth, as if he could +only thus prevent himself from cracking the whip.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A poor, sick creature," said Beate. It went hard with her to +say this, +and yet it was not a lie.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had gone on with the large team. And now the women, +too, agreed +that it was time to start. Irma now saw Walpurga's child for the first +time, and, as soon as it caught Irma's eye, it shouted and wanted to go +to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! that's lovely," exclaimed Walpurga and her mother at the +same +time. "She's always so shy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma took the child in her arms and hugged and kissed it. She +felt as +if again embracing the childlike purity which, in herself, had withered +and died. Her expression changed from one of joy to that of sadness, +and the grandmother said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've a good, honest heart; children feel and know that. +But now +you'd better give the child to Walpurga and get into the wagon."</p> + +<p class="normal">A bed had been prepared for Irma. The grandmother got up into +the wagon +and, taking the child in her arms, sat down beside Irma. Walpurga and +Gundel sat in front, looking about them. The uncle walked beside the +horses, and would, now and then, cast a sorrowful look at the whip that +he was not allowed to crack. No one spoke a word; but the child laughed +and prattled and wanted Irma to play with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go to sleep now," said the grandmother, and in a soft voice +she sang +both child and Irma to sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who's that coming down the hill?" suddenly asked Walpurga of +the +uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The one's a forester, and the other must be a nobleman's +servant."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was alarmed. When the horsemen drew near, she +recognized Baum. +Swift as thought she slipped into the wagon and left Gundel sitting +alone in front.</p> + +<p class="normal">The horsemen drew nearer, and at last halted by the wagon. +The child +awoke and cried, and thus awakened Irma. A thin curtain was all that +separated her from him. The horse that Baum rode distended its +nostrils, threw its head back, and reared so that it was difficult to +hold it in check. Irma recognized it. It was Pluto, her own horse; and +so it had been captured and brought back again. If the horse could have +spoken, it would have said: "Here is my mistress; here is the one whom +you seek."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma could hear Baum asking the uncle:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you meet a young lady in a blue riding-habit?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you hear any one mention such a person?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a word."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whom have you in the wagon there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma trembled. Walpurga grasped her hand. It was as cold as +ice. The +child cried again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can hear it; there's a little child in there," said the +forester +to Baum. "Let's go on."</p> + +<p class="normal">The horseman rode off, and Irma, looking after them, could +see her +feathered hat hanging from the pommel of the saddle.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wagon slowly ascended the hill, while the horsemen +hurried off in +the opposite direction.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma kissed the child, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh you darling! you've saved me, for the second time. Let +me get out, +too. I want to walk."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother dissuaded her and begged her to remain with her. +Irma +yielded; she had hardly lain down before she fell asleep again, and no +longer knew that she was crossing the mountains in a farmer's wagon.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was already past noon when they overtook Hansei, far up +the +mountain, where he had stopped to rest his horses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let's keep together," said he. His anger had vanished, and +he now was +twice as kindly as before. "I think we oughtn't to enter our new home +in such a straggling way. I've given the servants strict orders to +drive slowly. We can easily catch up with 'em, for our wagons are +light, and then we'll all be together. I want mother and wife and child +to be with me when we enter on the farm."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's right! I'm glad you've come to your senses again. Oh! +I know +you. When you're excited, the only thing to do is to leave you alone +for a little while, and you soon get homesick after your folks and the +good Hansei that's in you; and then you're all right again. But come +here. I want to tell you something. To-day, you'll have to prove +whether you're a real, strong man; and if you do, I'll never, in all my +life, deny that men are stronger than we."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well! what is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She led him into the inn garden, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've often heard tell of the household fairies they used +to have in +olden times? They were good, peaceful spirits that brought blessings +and wealth and good fortune to whatever house they visited. But there +was one condition. As long as they stayed, no one dared ask their name, +or where they'd come from."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes! I've heard that often enough; but I don't believe +a word of +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't believe it; I don't ask you to. I want to put +you to the +test. Listen! Mother and I have ever so tender and delicate a creature +in the wagon there. She's strong and powerful, but quite strange in her +ways. She means to stay with us, but she won't be a burden. And now, +Hansei, tell me; have you strength enough never to ask her who and +whence she is, or any other question? You must take my word for it. I +know her and know what I'm doing in keeping her with us; and on the +strength of that, will you be good and faithful and kind to her? Tell +me; can you, will you be this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that the way I'm to prove whether I'm a strong man, or +not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that's it; nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can do that; and here's my hand on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me have it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll see. I'll keep my promise; that's easy enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't as easy as you think for, Hansei."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For the sake of getting you, for the rest of your life, to +admit that +a man has more strength of mind than a woman, and can easier undertake +a thing, and carry it out, too, I'll show you what I can do. Your good +friend shall be mine, too. But she isn't crazy, nor doesn't bite, does +she?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you needn't worry about that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right, then; that settles it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei went out to the wagon with Walpurga, who drew the +curtain aside +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My husband wants to bid you welcome."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Welcome!" said Irma, offering her hand to Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stared at her in mute astonishment, and it was not until +Walpurga +raised his hand that he offered it to Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had taken up their journey once more, and Hansei, who, +with his +wife, was walking up hill in advance of the wagons, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wife! if it wasn't daylight, and you and mother and the +child weren't +here,--if I wasn't quite sure that I'm in my right senses, and that +it's all true--I'd really believe that you had a fairy in the wagon +there. Is she lame? can't she walk?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She can walk very well."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga turned back toward the wagon, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard, don't you want to get out for a little while and +walk up the +hill with us? It's so beautiful here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, gladly," was the answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma alighted and walked with them for a while. Hansei +regarded her +with timid side-glances. The stranger limped. Perhaps it's true after +all; the Lady of the Lake has a swan's foot and can't walk well. He +cast sly looks at her feet, but they were just like those of other +people. Gradually, he ventured to raise his eyes. He saw that the +clothes she had on were his wife's, and that she was wondrously +beautiful. His head grew so warm that he lifted his hat now and then. +What's real in the world and what isn't? he would ask himself. Had his +wife a double? and could she appear in another form?</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga lingered behind and left the two walking by +themselves. Irma +asked herself what she had better say to Hansei, and how she should +address him. It was the first time in her life that she found herself +in an humble position. "How should I address one of an inferior class?" +thought she. At last she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a happy man; you have a wife and child and +mother-in-law as +good as one can wish for in this world?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, they'll do very well," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although she had not intended it, Irma's praise was, to a +certain +extent, patronizing, and Hansei had observed this. He would have +confirmed her opinion by his answer, and would have liked to ask: "Have +you known her long?" but he remembered that he had promised to ask no +questions. Walpurga was right; it was a hard task. He rolled his tongue +about in his mouth, and felt as if the one-half of it were tied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The country's pretty rough hereabouts; further up, when you +reach our +new home, it's much better," said he, at last. It was long before he +could say that. He had intended to ask whether the stranger had ever +been in that neighborhood before; but he had promised to ask no +questions, and to transpose one's questions is not so easy a task.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma felt that she must say something that would put the man +at his +ease, and she began: "Hansei!"--his face brightened when he heard her +calling him by name--"Hansei, try to think that you've known me for +ever so long; don't look at me as a stranger. I don't like to ask +anything of others; but I do ask this of you. I know you'll do it; for +you've a good, kind face. And it couldn't be otherwise; Walpurga's +husband, with whom she is so happy, must be a good man. I beg of you, +therefore, don't be concerned; I'll not be a burden to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, there's no idea of such a thing. We've enough, thank +God. One cow +more in the stable, or one person more in the house, won't make any +difference; so you needn't worry about that.--And we've also taken +charge of an old pensioner on the estate and--I don't want to know what +you don't want to tell, and if any one in this world offers to harm +you, call me, and I'll defend you with my life. But it seems you +haven't been much among the mountains; so let me give you a piece of +advice. In climbing mountains, the rule is: Go right on, and never +stop."</p> + +<p class="normal">They waited for the wagon. Hansei drew a long breath after +his long +speech. He felt satisfied with himself, and looked about him with a +self-complacent air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma sat down by the wayside. She was now on the heights +which, on the +evening before, she had seen all aglow with the rosy sunset, and then +fading away in the pale mists. The giant peaks that she had beheld from +afar were now near, and seemed still vaster than before. Here and there +in the woods, there was a clearing of meadow and field, and now and +then, a house was visible. Looking down, she caught glimpses of the +foaming, sparkling forest stream, so far below them that they could +scarcely hear its roar.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei walked at Irma's side without uttering a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wagon overtook them. Irma got in again, Hansei assisting +her quite +politely. He was about to lift his hat to her, when, with cheerful word +and glance, she thanked him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's a very decent person," said Hansei to his wife, "and +we've a nice +little room for her, too, if she isn't afraid of the old pensioner."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga felt happy that the great point was gained.</p> + +<p class="normal">As Hansei had talked with the stranger, the little pitchman +thought +himself entitled to say something, too; and, as the first sign of his +resolve, he cracked his whip so loudly that the sound was echoed back +from the valley and the mountains.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?" said the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She--she's well again," replied the little pitchman. "Isn't +it so?" +said he, addressing Irma. "The noise don't hurt you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma told him not to put himself out on her account, and, +emboldened by +her answer, he inquired:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's your name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed! why, that was my wife's name, and, if you've no +objection, +I'll marry an Irmgard again. I've got half of a house and a whole goat. +I owe something on the house, but the goat's paid for. Say! will you +have me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't make such jokes, Peter," cried Beate, nothing loth, +however, to +hear pleasantry from some quarter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman laughed heartily, and was well pleased +with +himself. Yes, Hansei was now the freehold farmer, but still he couldn't +talk to people the way he could. The little pitchman was quite +entertaining. When he had nothing more to say, he would gather +strawberries, which grew by the wayside and, in this high region, did +not ripen until late. He laid them on a hazel leaf and offered them to +Irma. Yes, Peter has good manners; he could tell that by his sister's +face, for she smiled her approval.</p> + +<p class="normal">The journey to their new home proceeded without further +adventure. When +they came in sight of their native village, and before they had had +reached the boundary line, the grandmother requested them to stop. She +alighted, went into the woods, knelt down until her face touched the +ground, and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God be praised, I'm with thee again! Keep me well, let me +and mine +pass many peaceful, happy days on thee, and, when my last hour comes, +receive me kindly."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went back to the wagon, and said: "God be with you all! +now we're +at home. Do you see that house up there, with the big linden tree? +That's the freehold farm, where we're to live."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gundel and the child alighted, Irma alone remaining in the +wagon. All +the others walked the rest of the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">They passed through the valley and reached the village, where +they were +still an hour's walk from the farm. As they entered the village, the +little pitchman cracked his whip loudly. He wanted every one to see his +kindred, and the amount of property he was now moving with. They passed +by a little cottage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was born there"; said the grandmother to Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll take off my hat to that house," replied Hansei, suiting +his +action to the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wagons which had preceded them were stopping at the inn +which was +near the town hall and the church. The people had gathered there to get +a look at the new freeholder and his family. The little pitchman acted +as master of ceremonies, and pointed out the burgomaster's wife to +Walpurga. Walpurga went up to her, and Beate felt truly happy, for the +mother of the burgomaster's wife, she in whose house Beate, while yet +in her school-days, had served as nursemaid, was also there. She +inquired for the boy whom she had then taken care of. "He's dead," they +said, "but there's his son." A stalwart lad was called, but when Beate +told him that she had taken care of his father while he was yet a +little child, he had not a word to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half the village had gathered about the new arrivals, and +they remained +there chatting for a long while.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma lay there in the wagon in the open market-place, +forgotten by +those whom she had joined. The grandmother was the first to think of +her; she hurried out and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive us for forgetting you so, but we'll soon be home."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma replied that they need not trouble themselves about her. +The +grandmother did not quite understand the tone in which she spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here on the public road, while she lay in the covered farm +wagon and +could hear the loud talking of the crowd, she felt a pang of grief to +think that she was an object of charity, and that she to whom the world +had once done homage, was now forgotten. But she quickly regained her +self-command. It is better thus, for thus you are alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last they drove on. The road again lay up the mountain. +The +grandmother was quite happy and greeted every one. The plum-trees were +laden with fruit, and the apple-trees along the road--she had, while +yet a girl, seen them planted--had grown so large that they bent under +the weight of the ruddy fruit. The grandmother often said: "I never +thought it was so far; no, I meant to say, I thought it was further +than this. Dear me, how I'm talking. It seems as if the world had +shrunk together. Children, I tell you what, you'll live to see great, +and good, and beautiful things come to pass. Come, give me the child," +said she to Gundel, and she took Burgei in her arms, her face radiant +with joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Burgei, I've sung here, and so will you; and here I carried +your +mother on my arms, just as I'm carrying you, now. There! give that to +the bird."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had taken a piece of bread from her pocket and gave the +child some +crumbs to scatter to the birds on the way, while she, too, kept +throwing crumbs to the right and the left.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not speak another word, but her lips moved silently.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">As they drew near the house, they could hear the neighing of the white +foal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's a good beginning," cried Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother placed the child on the ground, and got her +hymn-book +out of the chest. Pressing the book against her breast with both hands, +she went into the house, being the first to enter. Hansei, who was +standing near the stable, took a piece of chalk from his pocket and +wrote the letters C. M. B., and the date, on the stable-door. Then he, +too, went into the house, his wife, Irma and the child following him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before going into the sitting-room, the grandmother knocked +thrice at +the door. When she had entered, she placed the open hymn-book upon the +open window-sill, so that the sun might read in it. There were no +tables or chairs in the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei shook hands with his wife and said, "God be with you, +freeholder's wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">From that moment, Walpurga was known as the "freeholder's +wife," and +was never called by any other name.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now they showed Irma her room. The view extended over +meadow and +brook and the neighboring forest. She examined the room. There was +naught but a green Dutch oven and bare walls, and she had brought +nothing with her. In her paternal mansion, and at the castle, there +were chairs and tables, horses and carriages; but here--</p> + +<p class="normal">None of these follow the dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma knelt by the window and gazed out over meadow and +forest, where +the sun was now singing.</p> + +<p class="normal">How was it yesterday--was it only yesterday?--when you saw +the sun go +down?</p> + +<p class="normal">Her thoughts were confused and indistinct. She pressed her +hand to her +forehead; the white handkerchief was still there. A bird looked up to +her from the meadow, and, when her glance rested upon it, it flew away +into the woods.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The bird has its nest," said she to herself, "and I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly she drew herself up. Hansei had walked out to the +grass plot +in front of Irma's window, removed the slip of the cherry-tree from his +hat, and planted it in the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother stood by and said: "I trust that you'll be +alive and +hearty, long enough to climb this tree and gather cherries from it, and +that your children and grandchildren may do the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was much to do and to set to rights in the house, and, +on such +occasions, it usually happens that those who are dearest to one another +are as much in each other's way as closets and tables which have not +yet been placed where they belong. The best proof of the amiability of +these folks was that they assisted each other cheerfully, and, indeed, +with jest and song.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga moved her best furniture into Irma's room. Hansei +did not +interpose a word. "Aren't you too lonely here?" asked Walpurga, after +she had arranged everything as well as possible in so short a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all. There is no place in all the world lonely enough +for me. +You've so much to do now; don't worry about me. I must now arrange +things within myself. I see how good you and yours are; fate has +directed me kindly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't talk that way. If you hadn't given me the money, +how could +we have bought the farm? This is really your own."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't speak of that," said Irma, with a sudden start, "never +mention +that money to me again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga promised, and merely added that Irma needn't be +alarmed at the +old man who lived in the room above hers, and who, at times, would talk +to himself and make a loud noise. He was old and blind. The children +teased and worried him, but he wasn't bad and would harm no one. +Walpurga offered, at all events, to leave Gundel with Irma for the +first night; but Irma preferred to be alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll stay with us; won't you?" said Walpurga hesitatingly. +"You +won't have such bad thoughts again?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, never. But don't talk now, my voice pains me and so does +yours, +too. Good-night! leave me alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma sat by the window and gazed out into the dark night.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it only a day since she had passed through such terrors? +Suddenly +she sprang from her seat with a shudder. She had seen Black Esther's +head rising out of the darkness, had again heard her dying shriek, had +beheld the distorted face and the wild, black tresses.--Her hair stood +on end. Her thoughts carried her to the bottom of the lake, where she +now lay dead. She opened the window and inhaled the soft, balmy air. +She sat by the open casement for a long while, and suddenly heard some +one laughing in her room above her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha! ha! I won't do you the favor! I won't die! I won't die! +Pooh, +pooh! I'll live till I'm a hundred years old and then I'll get a new +lease of life."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the old pensioner. After a while, he continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not so stupid; I know that it's night now and the +freeholder and +his wife are come. I'll give them lots of trouble. I'm Jochem. Jochem's +my name, and what the people don't like, I do for spite. Ha! ha! ha! I +don't use any light and they must make me an allowance for that. I'll +insist on it, if I have to go to the king himself about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started, when she heard the king mentioned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I'll go to the king, to the king! to the king!" cried +the old man +overhead, as if he knew that the word tortured Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">She heard him close the window and move a chair. The old man +went to +bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked out into the dark night. Not a star was to be +seen. There +was no light anywhere; nothing was heard but the roaring of the +mountain stream and the rustling of the trees. The night seemed like a +dark abyss.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you still awake?" asked a soft voice without. It was the +grandmother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was once a servant at this farm," said she. "That was +forty years +ago; and now I'm the mother of the freeholder's wife, and almost the +head one on the farm. But I keep thinking of you all the time. I keep +trying to think how it is in your heart. I've something to tell you. +Come out again. I'll take you where it'll do you good to be. Come!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma went out into the dark night with the old woman. How +different +this guide from the one she had had the day before!</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman led her to the fountain. She had brought a cup +with her +and gave it to Irma. "Come, drink; good cold water's the best. Water +comforts the body; it cools and quiets us; it's like bathing one's +soul. I know what sorrow is, too. One's insides burn as if they were +afire."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma drank some of the water of the mountain spring. It +seemed like a +healing dew, whose influence was diffused through her whole frame.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother led her back to her room and said: "You've +still got +the shirt on that you wore at the palace. You'll never stop thinking of +that place till you've burned that shirt."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman would listen to no denial, and Irma was as +docile as a +little child. The grandmother hurried to get a coarse shirt for her +and, after Irma had put it on, brought wood and a light, and burnt the +other at the open fire. Irma was also obliged to cut off her long nails +and throw them into the fire. Then Beate disappeared for a few moments, +and returned with Irma's riding-habit. "You must have been shot; for +there are balls in this," said she, spreading out the long, blue habit.</p> + +<p class="normal">A smile passed over Irma's face, as she felt the balls that +had been +sewed into the lower part of the habit, so that it might hang more +gracefully. Beate had also brought something very useful--a deerskin.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei sends you this," said she. "He thinks that maybe +you're used to +having something soft for your feet to rest on. He shot the deer +himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma appreciated the kindness of the man who could show such +affection +to one who was both a stranger and a mystery to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother remained at Irma's bedside until she fell +asleep. Then +she breathed thrice on the sleeper and left the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was late at night when Irma awoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the king! to the king! to the king!" The words had been +uttered +thrice in a loud voice. Was it hers, or that of the man overhead? Irma +pressed her hand to her forehead and felt the bandage. Was it sea grass +that had gathered there? Was she lying alive at the bottom of the lake? +Gradually all that had happened became clear to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alone, in the dark and silent night, she wept. And these were +the first +tears she had shed since the terrible events through which she had +passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was evening when Irma awoke. She put her hand to her +forehead. A wet +cloth had been bound round it. She had been sleeping nearly twenty-four +hours. The grandmother was sitting by her bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've a strong constitution," said the old woman, "and that +helped +you. It's all right now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma arose. She felt strong and, guided by the grandmother, +walked over +to the dwelling-house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God be praised, that you're well again," said Walpurga, who +was +standing there with her husband; and Hansei added: "Yes, that's right."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma thanked them, and looked up at the gable of the house. +What words +there met her eye?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you think the house has a good motto written on its +forehead?" +asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma started. On the gable of the house, she read the +following +inscription:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="sc">Eat and Drink: Forget not God: Thine Honor Guard:<br> +Of all thy store,<br> +Thou'lt carry hence<br> +A winding-sheet<br> +And nothing more</span>.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK VI.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Through Irma's sudden flight, Baum's occupation was gone. He returned +to where she was to have waited for him, and found that she had +disappeared. He gazed into the distance, but saw nothing. A dog +following its master's track was better off than he, for while instinct +would help it, man could only guess.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had she flown? and if so, whither? Why had she done so? and +what, under +such circumstances, was the duty of a subordinate? Ought he to pursue +her who had sent him back? She had honestly and frankly sent the dog +home; but the servant was only human and must therefore be imposed +upon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For shame, Countess! Thus to fool a poor servant who dare +not +disobey!" said Baum, speaking to himself. He felt that now, for the +first time, he was put to the great test, and that this was the time to +prove himself a reasoning servant. Perhaps the letters he had brought +contained an appointment for this evening. They are at the hunt and, as +if by chance, meet in the woods; for it would not do to visit Wildenort +openly, as it was but a short time since they had gone into mourning +there. And so they mean to keep even the servant in ignorance of their +plans. But why should they? He could have been depended upon.</p> + +<p class="normal">But perhaps the countess had escaped after all.</p> + +<p class="normal">But why? and whither?</p> + +<p class="normal">They had shown so much confidence in him. The head +chamberlain had +told him before leaving: "You're always to remain near the countess, +always--do you understand? And you are to conduct her back to court." +Could they have dreamt that she meant to escape? and if so, why should +they only half trust him?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am innocent!" exclaimed Baum; but what avails innocence? +It was more +important to be clever and sensible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum's master, Baroness Steigeneck's chief chamberlain, had +imparted +some valuable precepts to him. "There are two things," said he, "that a +good servant should always have with him--a sharp knife and a good +watch. When anything happens that disconcerts you, take out your watch, +count off ten seconds, and then make up your mind what is best to be +done."</p> + +<p class="normal">One disadvantage possessed by this precept, in common with +many other +good ones, is the great danger of your forgetting it when excited.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum rode back to the castle. Perhaps the countess had +returned by some +other road; perhaps her maid could tell him where she had intended to +ride to. He asked the maid: "Is your mistress here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; she rode out with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you know where she intended going?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has she left you? Oh, God! now she'll do it, for sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've already told the count, that I believed she'd take her +life. I +believe she has either poison or a dagger with her; she'll kill +herself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she meant to take her life that way, she might have done +so in her +room," replied Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes! It was only last night that she cried out in her +sleep, +'Deep in the lake!' Oh gracious heavens! my dear, lovely countess is +dead! Oh, what an unhappy creature I am! what will become of me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum endeavored to pacify her, and inquired whether the +countess had +left any papers anywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">The writing-desk was open and papers were strewn about on it. +They +found a letter directed to the queen. Baum wanted to take it, but the +maid would not give it up. She would not suffer a stranger to pry into +her mistress's secrets.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of the dispute, Baum suddenly took out his +watch. The +chamberlain's advice had occurred to him. He looked fixedly at +the dial, and when he had finished counting ten, he nodded with a +self-satisfied air, for he had regained his presence of mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very well, the maid might deliver the letter herself; that +would +neither help nor hinder matters. But he would now show himself worthy +of the greatest confidence. His task was to institute inquiries; +perhaps he might yet save the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the maid, who was hastily putting the letter into her +pocket, had +turned her back upon him, he saw another letter addressed "To my +friend." He quickly perceived that this was of far greater value than +the other, and put it into his own pocket. He well knew that there was +only one person for whom it could be intended and he knew who that +person was. The maid had heard the rustling of the paper, and now asked +him to give it to her. Baum ran out of the room and summoned the +servants. The maid followed him, and he now quickly changed the +attitude of defense for one of attack, and demanded the letter to the +queen, in order that he might open it and thus obtain some clue as to +the countess's whereabouts. He said that he would hold the maid +responsible for the consequences. She ran away, and he made no further +attempt to carry out his plan, for he did not know whether he had a +right to open the letter. At any rate, he had undisputed possession of +the more important epistle to the king. He ordered the groom to saddle +another horse and accompany him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rosy sunset was already gilding the windows of the castle +when the +two horsemen rode forth. But whither?</p> + +<p class="normal">They questioned a laborer working on the road, but he had +seen nothing +of the countess. They saw a shepherd driving his flock homeward, and, +riding up to him, they inquired whether he had seen her. He nodded +affirmatively, but the loud bleating of the sheep prevented them from +hearing what he said. Baum alighted, and learned from him that the +countess had been seen riding full tilt along the road that led to the +Chamois hill.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She sits her horse firmly, and rides very well," said the +shepherd, +praising her.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was a clue, at all events. They rode off, at full +gallop, in the +direction indicated. When they reached the drained marsh, they heard +the neighing of a horse. They rode up to it, and found that it was +Irma's saddle-horse, quietly grazing, but bridle and girth were covered +with thick foam. "The countess has been thrown. Who knows where she may +be lying, weak and faint?" said Baum. He meant to be discreet, and was +in no hurry to tell all to the groom.</p> + +<p class="normal">They searched for her everywhere, and called out her name +again and +again. They found nothing, nor did they receive any answer. Baum +discovered the horse's tracks, but was somewhat confused by them, as it +had taken the same path going and returning. They took the horse with +them, but did not mount, for it was necessary to find out where +the track led to. Baum's keen eye enabled him to distinguish the +hoof-prints in the twilight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If we only had the dog with us; he knows her. Why didn't you +bring the +dog with you?" he asked angrily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You didn't say anything about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ride back and bring him. No, stay; I can't be here alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">They reached the Chamois hill. "Let's turn aside, into the +wood," cried +Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">He now found use for his good knife. He gathered some of the +brushwood, +bound it together into a torch, kindled it, and its light enabled him +to find the track. It was here that the horse had turned. There were +also prints of a woman's foot going in the opposite direction. He +followed them for a few paces and then lost the track.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She must be here," said Baum. "It was from here that she +went down +into the wood; I know every spot about here. Keep to the left with the +two horses, but always near enough to hear my voice. I'll keep to the +right with one."</p> + +<p class="normal">They searched and shouted, but found nothing. At last they +met again. A +stag rushed by. Could it have spoken, it might have told them where +Irma had startled it from its resting-place--a full hour's walk from +where they then were.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you find her, you'll be handsomely rewarded," said Baum +to the +groom. He addressed him in the way he thought his royal master would +have done.</p> + +<p class="normal">They spent the greater part of the night wandering in the +forest. At +last they were obliged to lie down and wait for the daylight, for there +was no longer a path by which to lead the horses.</p> + +<p class="normal">The day was far advanced when Baum and the groom awoke. They +could see +the sparkling lake from afar, and could hear the sounds of distant +music, while the rock near which they stood echoed the reports of +cannon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum took the pistols from the saddle-pouch and fired them +off in rapid +succession. Then he listened with bated breath, thinking that if Irma +were anywhere in the neighborhood, she would hear the shots and give +some sign of her whereabouts; but not a sound was heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">They now found a forest-path leading down toward the lake. +They reached +the water's edge. At their feet lay the lake, smooth as a mirror and +stretching away for miles. Who knew what lay concealed within its +depths? In the distance, there was a boat with people and beasts +aboard, and now the boat reached the shore. Baum's companion turned to +the other side, where there were a few scattered farmhouses and +fishermen's huts. Man and beast were worn out and needed rest. Baum +asked every one he met whether they had seen a lady in a blue +riding-habit and wearing a hat with a feather; but he could find no +trace of her anywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" at last said a little old man who was cutting willows +by the +lake: "I've seen her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where? When?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Over there in the tavern. It's almost a year ago; she lived +there a +good many weeks."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum cursed the peasant folk for a stupid set.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately, he met a gend'arme and told him who he was and +whom he was +looking for. He then sent the groom back to Wildenort with the lady's +saddle. Placing his own saddle on Pluto, he rode along the edge of the +lake with the gend'arme. On a rock near the shore, they soon saw a +figure holding out a hat with a feather on it. They made for the spot, +at full speed, Baum recognized his brother Thomas, and was so startled +that he lost his stirrup.</p> + +<p class="normal">If it were he who had robbed and murdered the countess!</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme knew the wild fellow. Thomas stared and grinned +at them +both. His hair was wet and his clothes were dripping.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing there?" cried the gend'arme. "Whose hat +is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's none of your business," replied Thomas, his teeth +chattering +with the cold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum offered the shivering man his brandy flask, and Thomas +took a long +draught. Then, with mingled rage and sorrow, he told them that the +king's sweetheart had lost her way the night before and had come to +their hut, and that she had led away his sister to plunge into the lake +with her. He had come too late; he had seen something floating on the +water and had jumped in to save her, but the hat was all he had found.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme was not inclined to believe Thomas's story, and +would +have arrested him forthwith, if Baum had not whispered to him that +there was no doubt that the lady had drowned herself, and that there +was no murder in the case. He was moved by a feeling akin to pity for +his brother, and did not wish to have him arrested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come here!" said Baum to Thomas. "Let's make an exchange. +I'll give +you my flask--there's a good deal in it yet--for the hat."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no! I know who the hat belongs to: it's worth a lot, and +I'll take +it to the king."</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6a">"He still has got his sweetheart's hat,</p> +<p class="t8">Though she lies in the lake;</p> +<p class="t6">And since she's drowned, another love</p> +<p class="t8">Right gladly will he take,"</p> +</div> +<p class="continue">sang Thomas, with heavy voice, while he threw the hat up into +the air +and caught it again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme wanted to give Thomas a beating; Baum +restrained him, +however, and then walked up to Thomas and placed his hand upon his +shoulder. Thomas started, but suddenly grew quiet, and looked at Baum +as if afraid of him. Baum spoke to him with a condescending air, and +Thomas listened, with mouth agape, as if trying to recollect something, +he knew not what. The voice, and the hand upon his shoulder, made quite +another man of him, and the savage, murderous fellow wept.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you give me the hat for a gold piece, or must it be +taken from +you by force? You see we're two to one, and can master you," said Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without saying a word, Thomas handed him the hat, and when +Baum gave +him the gold piece, Thomas could not close his hand on it. As if quite +bewildered, he looked now at the gold piece, now at the giver.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum spoke to him earnestly, and told him that he ought to +give some of +the money to his mother, if he still had one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A mother?" stammered Thomas, looking at Baum with a glassy +eye. "A +mother!" he repeated, as if reminded of something long forgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme was touched by the lackey's generosity. "He +must be a +very fine man," thought he.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas again told them that Irma had been at their hut the +night +before, and that his mother knew more about her than he did, for she +had been alone with her. Baum and the gend'arme said they would like to +talk with his mother, and Thomas guided them to the hut.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the way there, the gend'arme informed Baum of Thomas's +family +history. "You see, the fellow's a brawler, and has often been convicted +of poaching. I've often advised him to emigrate to America, for there +he can hunt as much as he pleases. He has a brother in America--a twin +brother, but he must be a good-for-nothing fellow; that is, if he isn't +dead. He's never yet written a line to his mother or his brother, and +has never sent home as much as you could put in your eye. But that's +the way they all become, after they get to America. A good many have +gone there from my place, but they're all selfish, good-for-nothing +fellows."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum smiled. He had need of all his self-command. He scarcely +spoke a +word, for he was nerving himself for the meeting with his mother, and +felt annoyed that she, too, was mixed up in this affair. He had enough +to think of without that.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme knew many stories about poachers and other +outlaws and, +in order to beguile the time and entertain Baum, recounted some of +them. Such stories, however, have one unpleasant feature. It is rather +uncomfortable to listen to them, unless one's hands are free from +guilt. Baum nodded to him graciously, for it would not do, by look or +manner, to betray that he was in the least related to the abandoned +wretch who was walking ahead of them. The gend'arme said that he had +once been bitten in the finger by a murderer, whom he had helped to +arrest, and he showed Baum the scar.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum, at last, endeavored to put an end to these terrible +stories. He +asked the gend'arme what regiment he had served in, and put the +question as graciously as if he were about to draw a medal from his +pocket and bestow it on the man. Now nothing can be pleasanter than to +recount one's military experiences. The forester told of his many +exploits, laughing heartily at his own stories, and Baum, seeing no +help for it, joined in the laughter. Thomas, who was walking on before, +turned around and grinned, and then went on. They reached the hut. It +was empty. Old Zenza had disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's looking for Esther, I'm sure," said Thomas.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's the matter with Black Esther?" asked the gend'arme.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Black Esther!" repeated Thomas; "ha! ha! the lake'll wash +her white +now. If any one would pay me well for it, I'd jump in, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw himself on the sack of leaves, and silently looked +at the +hands with which he had beaten Esther last night. Then he threw his +head back and fell into a heavy sleep, and they could not get a word +out of him. Baum and the gend'arme rode away, intending to return to +the lake, in order to pursue their inquiries, and to leave directions +everywhere that the search should be kept up. Emerging from the forest, +they gained the highway, and here it was that they had met the covered +wagon.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were again riding along the lake at a quiet pace. A +large red cow +was walking along ahead of them. It stopped now and then to nibble the +grass and would look across the lake. When it came to a thicket, it +started, turned about quickly and ran so fast that it almost rushed +against Baum's horse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That cow has shied at something. There must be something +lying there," +said Baum, quickly alighting. His dyed hair rose on end, for he felt +sure that they would find Irma's dead body the next moment. And he +really did find something; for there lay Irma's torn shoes. He knew +them. There were blood stains, too, and the grass was crushed, as if a +human being had lain there and rolled about in pain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum's hand trembled as he took up the shoes, and he trembled +still +more when he plucked a little flower. It was a simple leaf cup--the +so-called "our-lady's-man tie," the best mountain fodder--and in this +little flower there were drops of blood which were still moist.</p> + +<p class="normal">If she had drowned herself, how had the blood got there? and +whence the +shoes? and why should the shoes be so far from where Thomas had found +the hat? and besides, there were the footprints of larger shoes. If +Irma had been murdered, after all! If his brother--</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's dead, that's the main point," said Baum, consoling +himself, "and +I have the proofs. What good would it do to draw another being into +trouble?" He put the little blood-besprinkled plant away with the +letter addressed "To my friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">Accompanied by the gend'arme, he went to the inn at the +landing-place +where the wanderers had halted that morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gend'arme again inquired about the lady in the blue +riding-habit.</p> + +<p class="normal">The manner of the hostess showed that the gend'arme's +question had set +her thinking. Could it have been the crazy woman who was with the +travelers? There had been so much running hither and thither and +carrying of bundles of clothes, and she had such a queer look about +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know anything about it?" said the gend'arme, looking +her +straight in the face, "speak out!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know a thing," said the hostess. "Did I say a word? +What do +you want of me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There is nothing which the country people dread so much as +being called +into court in order to bear witness, and so the hostess was careful not +to utter a single word that might lead to such a result.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum saw that he had made a mistake in taking the gend'arme +with him, +for his presence alarmed those who might really have something to tell. +He, therefore, sent him off, so that he might make further inquiries on +his own account.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum stood before a looking-glass, combing and brushing his +dyed hair +which, that day, was unusually refractory. For the first time in his +life he was perfectly modest. He admitted to himself that, after all, +he was not the right man to follow up such an affair, and that he had +wasted too much time already. Others would be before him in profiting +by whatever advantage was to be gained from Irma's death. He felt that +he had better hurry back to the palace, and that there were others +there, enough of them, too, who could work up such a case far better +than he.</p> + +<p class="normal">He endeavored to sound the hostess, who, he still thought, +knew +something of the affair. But he was unsuccessful, for she had not +forgotten his comrade, the gend'arme, nor did it help, in the least, +when he pointed to his buttons and informed her that he was the king's +lackey.</p> + +<p class="normal">It suddenly occurred to him that Walpurga lived in the +neighborhood. It +was scarcely a year since he had been here with Doctor Sixtus. Irma had +always been a friend of Walpurga's, and perhaps was now hiding with +her--such high-flown people were capable of anything.</p> + +<p class="normal">The large boat still lay before the inn. Baum, taking his +horse with +him, went on board and ordered them to put off at once. He permitted a +laborer who arrived with a great barrow-load of hay, which he had +gathered on the most dangerous crags, to cross in the same boat with +him. They put off. Baum lay down on the wild hay, feeling completely +worn out.</p> + +<p class="normal">He asked the boatman whether they had seen anything of a +drowned +person. They answered that, in the morning, a human head with long hair +had been seen rising to the surface, and that, in all likelihood, it +was a woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum suddenly drew himself up and, with a bewildered look, +gazed over +the sparkling surface of the lake. "If the gentleman would like to +wait," said the elder boatman to Baum, "the lake will give up its dead +at the end of three days." Baum did not care to hear any more; he +merely felt in his pocket, to make sure that he still possessed the +letter and the blood-stained flower. Having satisfied himself on this +point, he stretched himself still more comfortably than before and fell +asleep. It was not until the boat struck against the shore that he +awoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no longer any need of hunting up Walpurga; but he +did so, +nevertheless, in order to show that he had left nothing undone. He went +up to the cottage by the lake and knocked at the door. There was no +answer. He looked in at the window. Two large cat's eyes were staring +at him. The cat was sitting on the ledge. She was the only one who had +remained behind. The room was completely dismantled; not a table or +even a chair was to be seen. As if in a dream, or under the influence +of a magic spell, he walked back again through the garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">A chattering magpie sat up in the leafless cherry-tree; but +not a human +being was visible. At last a man passed by. Baum recognized him; it was +tailor Schneck.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say!" he called out, "what's become of Hansei and Walpurga?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They're gone over the mountains. They've moved away and +bought a great +farm. They call it the freehold; it's way down by the frontier."</p> + +<p class="normal">Tailor Schneck was in a talkative mood, and inquired whether +the +gentleman had brought anything from the king and queen. But Baum was +sparing of his words. He mounted his horse and rode off in the +direction of the summer palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of the hurry and excitement, he had retained +enough +composure to calculate how this event might serve as a springing-board +from which he could bound into a higher position. Henceforth, he would +be the king's confidant. He alone knew what had happened and how it had +all come about. He looked at the hand which the king would press in +gratitude, and felt as if the king had done so already. The head +chamberlain was old and decrepit; he would surely step into his place. +It would have been better, of course, if he could have reported that +Irma had been murdered--the gend'arme, like a sleuth-hound, had found a +clue--But no; that wouldn't do; it was his brother, after all--although +it might be better for him if he were obliged to spend the rest of his +days behind the prison bars. He resolved that he would be very good to +his mother and brother--that is, after he had become head chamberlain. +His sister was dead,--and it was a great pity, too--but he would surely +do this, if he got on and if the king should give him lots of money and +a good life annuity. Baum was bold enough to tell God that he ought to +aid him in obtaining what he wanted, as he meant to do good with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he rode on through the darkness, he would sometimes catch +himself +falling asleep, for it was the second night he had spent in such +unrest--his thoughts were confused and bewildered.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the last post-house, he left his horse and took a +post-chaise.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was early in the morning when the carriage arrived at the +summer +palace. They found it difficult to arouse Baum, and it was some time +before he was fully awake and could recollect where he was and what he +had brought with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Various court carriages were in waiting, and fine +saddle-horses were +being led from the stables. Baum scarcely heard the salutations of his +comrades and the grooms. He entered the palace and ascended the +staircase. He was so completely worn out that he felt as if his knees +would sink under him. He entered the king's ante-chamber. The old head +chamberlain hastily took the pinch of snuff which he had been holding +between his fingers, and offered his hand to Baum. Baum sank into a +chair, and expressed a wish to be forthwith announced to his majesty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't yet. You must wait," replied the head chamberlain.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was only by a violent effort that Baum was enabled to keep +his seat +and prevent himself from falling asleep.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king was in his cabinet at an early hour. He avoided all enervating +self-indulgence, and his powers of endurance surpassed those of any +other member of the court. It was his custom to take a cold bath every +morning, all the year round, and this always gave him new life and +strength. He knew nothing of deshabille, and always left his bath-room +fully dressed for the day.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was to be a hunt that day, and the king was in hunting +costume. +He had repaired to the cabinet, for the purpose of dispatching various +matters of business that required his immediate attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">His office was situated in the central building, in the +so-called +Elector's Tower. It was a large, lofty apartment, and comfortable +withal. Its walls were covered with a sort of handy-volume library, +military maps and various favorite specimens of plastic art, mostly +antiques, of which he had procured copies while yet a prince. There +was also a letter-weight, formed of balls from the battle-field of +Leipsic. The oaken furniture was in the Renaissance style--the large +writing-table stood in the center of the room. A water-color picture, +representing the queen as a bride, hung on his right.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king entered and touched the bell which stood on the +writing-table; +the privy councilor presented himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He handed several papers to the king, who hurriedly read and +signed +them. The councilor presented a report in regard to the household +ministry. The king, meanwhile, walked up and down the room. Suddenly he +exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">From the adjoining room, he heard sounds as if moving and +lifting, and +also scraping footsteps, just as if a coffin were being borne away. He +touched the bell. In an instant, the door opened and the head +chamberlain appeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What insufferable noise is that in the gallery?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty ordered the large picture to be removed."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king remembered having given the order the day before.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although he had, for a long while, been accustomed to seeing +the +picture in that place, it had yesterday suddenly become repugnant to +him. The painting represented Belshazzar seated on his throne and +surrounded by his creatures, while a hand issuing from the clouds is +writing "Mene Tekel" on the wall. The figures were all in life size. +The king had given directions that the picture should be removed to the +public gallery.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am awkwardly served," said the king impatiently. "It would +have been +time to do that while I was at the hunt."</p> + +<p class="normal">The head chamberlain trembled when he heard these words. His +hands +dropped, and his head bent as if with shame. It was with difficulty +that he dragged himself out through the opposite door. Instant silence +ensued. Noiselessly, the painting was placed on the floor and the +servants retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">The chamberlain came around, from the other side, into the +anteroom. He +sat down in an arm-chair and took a pinch of snuff between his fingers, +but was so absorbed in thought that he forgot to use it until the very +moment when Baum entered the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sat opposite Baum. All was silent. Now and then he would +shake his +head mournfully and look at his large arm-chair. "Yes, he'll soon be +sitting here, and I'll be dismissed," thought he. When the privy +councilor passed through the ante-chamber, the old chamberlain forgot +to bring him his hat. Baum did it in his stead, for Baum was fresh +again. This was no time to show signs of fatigue. He felt that he held +the winning card, and that now was the time to play it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The bell in the cabinet was again heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is there any one else in the anteroom?" inquired the king of +the +chamberlain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty; Baum is here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let him enter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum felt fully conscious of his importance. The king had not +ordered +him to report to the chamberlain, but had said, "Let him enter." He +desired to confer with him in person. The confidential position which +he had craved was already his.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum's usually grave and submissive manner seemed more +impressive than +ever before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you a message?" asked the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have you there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," replied Baum, placing his bundle on the chair +and +untying it, "I found this hat of Countess von Wildenort in the lake, +and these shoes among the willows on the shore."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king put forth his hand, as if to grasp these tokens, and +then drew +it back and pressed it to his heart. He stared at Baum and seemed lost +in surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does it all mean?" he asked, raising his hand to his +head, as if +to smooth down his hair which stood on end.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," continued Baum, who himself trembled when he +saw the +king's agitated manner, "the countess wore these articles when she rode +out with me and ran away."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ran away? and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum laid his hand on his watch, and, although he could not +see the +dial, he counted the seconds, nevertheless; after which he softly +answered:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The countess drowned herself in the lake last night--no, it +was night +before last. The boatman saw the body of a female rise on the waters +and sink again; and tomorrow, which is the third day, the lake will +give her up."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king motioned him to stop--it was enough--his hand +trembled; he +grasped the back of a chair to support himself, and stared at the hat +and shoes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum dropped his eyes. He felt that the king's gaze was fixed +upon him, +but he still kept looking on the floor, which seemed to be rising and +lifting the lackey to the level of the throne. In his mind's eye, he +already beheld himself at the king's side, and as the confidant of +royalty. Baum modestly inclined his head still lower. He heard the king +pacing the room, but still he did not look up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A downcast air," thought he, "betokens perfect obedience and +unqualified devotion." The king now stopped before him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you know it was suicide?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know. If it is Your Majesty's pleasure, the countess +was +drowned by others--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My pleasure? I? How?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I humbly beg Your Majesty's permission--may I tell all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must--!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Summoning all his strength, Baum now said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I found the shoes myself, but I got the hat +from a man +who is fit to do anything--the gend'arme thinks--that it may perhaps be +good for the man--he might be pardoned at the end of a year and sent to +America--a brother of his--is said to be--there--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You speak incoherently."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum regained his self-command.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She may have been murdered by some poacher. The worst of it +all is +that she sent a letter to her majesty the queen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A letter to the queen! Where is it? Give it to me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't it, the maid snatched it from me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king sat down.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a long while, not a sound was heard but the rapid ticking +of the +clock that stood on the writing-table.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king arose from his seat and walked up and down the room. +Then he +came toward Baum, who felt as if the hour of judgment had come--as if +his life hung in the balance. He tried to loosen his cravat; it seemed +too tight for him. He almost felt as if a sword were passing through +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know what was in the letter to the queen?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was it sealed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And have you nothing more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty; I was almost obliged to use violence to +get this +from the maid; and here, Your Majesty, there is something more. Beside +the shoes, there was a pool of blood, and on this little plant there +are drops of her blood."</p> + +<p class="normal">A heart-rending cry of pain escaped the king; then, taking +the letter +and the plant with him, he went into the adjoining room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum remained standing there waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the next room, the king sat reading, with tearful eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She loved me intensely. She was great and beautiful," said +he to +himself, with pale and trembling lips. His mind was filled with +thoughts of her beauty, her voice, her gait, and all her varied charms. +And were they all now dead?</p> + +<p class="normal">The king looked at his hand; the hand which she had so fondly +kissed. +He took up the letter again and once more read the words: "To my +friend." He knew not how it came about, but when he again became +conscious of himself, he was kneeling by the chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was to come next?</p> + +<p class="normal">He remembered that the lackey was waiting in the cabinet. The +king felt +deeply humbled at the thought of his being obliged to take such a +creature into his confidence; but had not men of all kinds long known +of his crime? They knew of it, but were silent. A thousand eyes were +upon him, a thousand lips were speaking--and all were telling this +terrible story. The king looked about him, bewildered. He could +scarcely rise. And among the many thousands who had laid their hands in +his, and who looked up to him, there was one--Ah! how heavily her hand +and her glance now weighed upon him. And her lips; what might they say?</p> + +<p class="normal">How was he now to approach the queen? If she only knew his +deep +contrition, she would fall weeping on his neck; for she was divine +goodness itself. And yet, how had he acted toward her!</p> + +<p class="normal">He was on the point of sending Irma's last words to the +queen. He meant +to add some words expressive of his contrition--to lay bare his +thoughts and feelings. It is best, thought he to himself, not to act +precipitately, and when he was again on his feet, the consciousness of +strength returned. One must be able to fulfill the most difficult +duties, even that of repentance, without sacrificing dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king saw himself in the large mirror. He had forgotten +that he was +in hunting costume, and started at the reflection of himself, as though +it were a stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face was pale, his eyes inflamed. He had shed tears for +his friend, +and that was enough. What, with some natures, requires months or years, +great minds achieve in a few moments. Their years had become as ages. +It seemed to him as if the words: "The kiss of eternity," were being +wafted toward him on the air, and his mind was filled with memories of +that day in the atelier of the ball, and--</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was given to thee to live the highest life and then die; +to force +death to do your bidding. But I cannot do so. I do not live for myself +alone!" said he, apostrophizing his friend, and feeling as if a new +source of life flowed forth from the depths of his grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And this is thy work," said an inner voice, while his +thoughts were of +the dead. "In all that's good, your spirit will ever abide with me. +Without thee--I would confess it to God, were I now to appear before +him--I should never have discovered the deepest springs of my being. If +I only knew of some deed which could serve as a fit memorial of thy +life."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king again remembered that the lackey was waiting for +him. He felt +annoyed that there was not an hour he could call his own, in which to +calm his agitated feelings, and, for the first time in his life, it +flashed upon him: He who commands the services of others, has duties to +them, too. They lead a life of their own, extending beyond the time and +act of service.</p> + +<p class="normal">The influence of Irma's last words seemed to hover over his +soul like a +mist.</p> + +<p class="normal">He returned to his cabinet. Baum was still standing where he +had left +him, as silent and as quiet as if he were a chair or table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When did you leave there?" asked the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum told him all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must be fatigued," said the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, take a rest. Anything else you may know, you must +tell no +one but myself--do you understand?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty. I thank you, humbly."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king had drawn a large emerald ring from his finger, and, +while he +turned it from side to side, the bright gem sparkled in the sunlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum thought that the king was about to bestow the ring upon +him as a +mark of his favor, but his majesty put the ring on again, and asked: +"Are you married?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you any children?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"An only son, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. Hold yourself in readiness; I shall soon have +further +orders for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum went out. While hurrying through the anteroom, he +graciously +addressed the chamberlain with: "Pray don't rise!" There was no need +that any one should see what was plainly to be read in every line of +his face. The king had addressed him familiarly, and had even inquired +about his family. He was, at last, the confidant of royalty; the +highest honors now awaited him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He went to his quarters in the side wing of the palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was alone. Naught was near him save Irma's hat and +shoes. He +gazed at them for a long while. What a poem it would make--to bring to +the lover the shoes and the hat of his beloved--what a song it would be +to sing in the twilight. Such were his thoughts and yet his brain +whirled. With trembling hands, he took up the hat and shoes, and locked +up the tokens of death in his writing-desk.</p> + +<p class="normal">The feather on the hat broke as he closed the door. A light +was burning +on the writing-table. The king lit a cigar. When his eye fell on the +water-color portrait of the queen, he started. He went on smoking +violently.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not till some after that, that the king rang the bell +and gave +directions that the lord steward should be called, but that no one else +should be admitted.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">When the lord steward entered, the king had recovered his self-command +and had settled upon the course he should pursue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you heard the terrible news?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have, Your Majesty. The countess's maid has arrived; her +mistress +was drowned in the lake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And--?" asked the king, when he found the lord steward +paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it is also said that, after her father's death, the +countess +neither saw nor spoke to any one. But she, nevertheless, wrote a few +words to the queen, with the request that Doctor Gunther should deliver +them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And was it done without previously informing me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lord steward shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; I know--" continued the king. "Is everything in +readiness +for the hunt?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At Your Majesty's pleasure. The hunting party has been +waiting for an +hour."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm coming," said the king. "Send Doctor Sixtus to the lake +and tell +him to take Baum with him, for he knows all about the affair. Let him +also take the notary with him, and tell him to see that the body, if +found, be suitably interred. I know that you will have everything +properly attended to; act on your own good judgment in the matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king laid especial stress on the last words. Everything +was to be +managed discreetly; every appearance of undue interest, on his part, +was to be avoided.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king knit his brows, as if trying to think of something +he had +forgotten. "One thing more," added he, hastily. "Go to the poor +countess's brother, and break the news to him as gently as you can. +Should he desire leave of absence, you may inform him that it is +granted for an indefinite time."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king passed out through the anteroom and down the +staircase. Rest +and quiet had been prescribed for the queen, and, in order to avoid +arousing her early in the morning, he had bade adieu to her the night +before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hunting party assembled in the palace yard greeted the +king, who +graciously returned their salutation. In an instant, and as if by word +of command, the covers were removed from the carriage-horses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Colonel Bronnen," exclaimed the king, "come sit with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen bowed in respectful acknowledgment of the compliment, +and +stepped up to the king's carriage. The gentlemen of the party, amazed +at the honor paid the colonel, got into their carriages. Bronnen had +bowed respectfully--for the highest honor of the day had been conferred +upon him--but there was a struggle within his heart. Had the king the +faintest idea that Bronnen felt himself the avenger of old Eberhard, or +that he was wrestling with himself as to whether or not he should take +up the vendetta? He started when he involuntarily touched the hanger at +his side. Was the royal carriage to be the scene of a tragedy, such as +history had never yet known? Had Irma vauntingly told the king that he +was a rejected suitor for her hand? and was he now to receive the alms +of sympathy?</p> + +<p class="normal">The party drove on into the open country. The king was silent +for a +long time. At last, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were also a true friend of hers. There were few--indeed, +there was +no one--who she honored and esteemed as she did you. Her constant wish +was that we should be more closely united."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen drew a long breath. There was no occasion for his +saying +anything. The king offered him his cigar case.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, you don't smoke," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was another long pause, which was at last broken by the +king's +asking:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How long had you known Countess Irma?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"From childhood. She was the friend of my cousin Emma, with +whom she +was at the convent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It comforts me to be able to speak to you of our friend. You +understood her character. It was great, almost supernaturally so. +Suffer me to inherit your friendship for her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty--" replied Bronnen with constrained composure; +for his +heart was boiling with indignation at the man who had corrupted this +noble creature and had driven her to self-destruction. But his military +feeling of respect for his superiors held him in check.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, dearest Bronnen!" continued the king, "no death has ever +affected +me so. Did she ever speak to you of death? She hated it. And yet, when +I look about me, all is life. When a great heart ceases to beat, the +whole world should pause, though it were but for a moment. What are we, +after all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Each of us is but a small, limited portion of the world. +Everything +about us has its due sphere of development and right. We are masters +only of ourselves, and how few of us can claim to be even that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The king looked at Bronnen in surprise. Every one has a +sphere of +right--What could he have meant by it? Hastily collecting himself, the +king replied: "She might have used the very same words. I can easily +imagine how much you sympathized with each other. If I understand +rightly, you regard suicide as the greatest of crimes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If that which is most unnatural is, therefore, the greatest +crime, I +certainly do. 'Self-preservation is the first law of nature.' I shall +never forget a conversation I had with old Count Eberhard, last winter, +upon this very subject."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah yes, you knew him. Was he really a great man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was a man of one idea, of grand one-sidedness. But +perhaps this is +a necessary condition of greatness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"When did you speak with Countess Irma for the last time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"After her father's death, when she had shut herself up in +impenetrable +darkness. I spoke to her, but could not see her, although she extended +her hand to me. I believe that I am the last man who held her hand in +his."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then let me take your hand in mine!" exclaimed the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">He held Bronnen's hand in his for a long time, until the +latter said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, confession for confession.--I loved Irma!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke in a curt and bitter tone. The king hastily withdrew +his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see," continued Bronnen, gathering all his strength, "that +the +countess has mentioned nothing of my suit. I thank her, even now, for +this proof of her noble, generous heart. Since she could not honestly +return my love, she frankly declined it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You? my dear Bronnen!" exclaimed the king, in a tone that +betrayed his +painful agitation. He could not help thinking of the happy life which, +as the wife of this man, Irma might have led. "My poor friend!" he +added, in a voice full of feeling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty, I have a right to mourn with you, and it +seems as +if her powerful, all-embracing mind were still potent, and had caused +Your Majesty to call me to your side."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never dreamt of such a thing. If I had, I would not have +inflicted +this pain upon you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I thank Your Majesty for permitting me to share in your +grief. +Because I share it with you, I am able to comfort you; that is, as far +as another can. Since Your Majesty is so frank with me, I must needs be +as frank in return."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was silent for a long time. Although Bronnen had +opened his +heart to him, the immediate effect upon him was to rouse a deep feeling +of jealousy. He could not brook the thought that another had dared to +cast his eye upon Irma; aye, actually to woo her. She seemed no longer +entirely his own, since another had stretched out his hand toward her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen waited for the king's answer. He could not understand +what his +silence meant. Had the king repented of his frankness? Did it offend +him to find that another had placed himself on a level with him and +answered him frankly and fearlessly? The consciousness of royalty +trenches upon that of manhood, and perhaps it never happens that a +prince thinks of himself simply as a human being. Bronnen felt vexed at +the king's silence and averted looks. He could stand it no longer and, +at last, feeling that, at such a moment etiquette could be disregarded, +he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think that few men are great-minded enough to keep all +knowledge of +their conquests to themselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">This remark had a double meaning, and Bronnen would not have +been +surprised if the king had turned upon him with a crushing reply. He +felt defiant and yet composed. The man to whom he had revealed his +soul's secret, must not act as if nothing had happened; he must answer +for himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king still remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is Your Majesty not of my opinion?" asked Bronnen, trembling +with +emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king turned toward him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are my friend. I thank you, and when we reach +Wolfswinkel, you +shall receive the highest proof of my confidence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is something more which I think I ought to communicate +to Your +Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Proceed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I can see the connection between certain recent +events. During +the late election for deputies, some friends of mine in the Highlands +thought of me. They knew of my sincere devotion to my constitutional +king."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's features betrayed the faintest expression of +disgust, while +Bronnen continued calmly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I informed the voters that I would never accept an election +which +would range me with the opposition. Count Eberhard was, therefore, +proposed on the very last day, and, to the great surprise of all, +accepted the nomination. In order to cast a stigma upon the father, the +friends of the present ministry--I am now giving Your Majesty facts, +not mere opinions--were not above introducing the relation between +Countess Irma and yourself into the canvass."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king threw his cigar away, and quickly said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on; tell me more!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Count Eberhard was elected in spite of them. While I was at +Wildenort, +to attend the funeral, I was informed that the first intimation he had +received of his daughter's position was conveyed to him at the meeting +of electors. On his way home, he received letters which affected him +deeply. Nay more, for I have inquired into the matter. I found this +piece of a torn letter on the road, and the laborer who worked there +told me that the count had torn up letters at the time mentioned."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen handed him a paper on which stood the words: "Your +daughter has +fallen into disgrace, and yet stands in high grace as the king's +mistress."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That may have been written by our saintly Hippocrates," +muttered the +king to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg Your Majesty's pardon, but if you harbor the slightest +suspicion +against Doctor Gunther, you do him injustice. I will stake my honor for +him, and time will show that I am right."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go on!" said the king impatiently. He felt displeased that +Bronnen +could read his very thoughts, as it were, and understand what he had +only half muttered; and that, understanding it, he had not, as in duty +bound, ignored it. He was only to hear what was directly addressed to +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On his return from the meeting," continued Bronnen, calmly, +"Count +Eberhard was attacked by a paralytic stroke which deprived him of the +power of speech. During his last moments. Countess Irma was the only +one with him. She was heard to utter a terrible cry--when they entered +the room, she lay on the floor, and Count Eberhard was dead. Who knows +what may have happened there! But whatever it may have been, I feel +sure it was the cause that drove her to this terrible resolve."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what purpose does this ingenious combination serve?" +asked the +king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen looked at him with astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Its only purpose is to aid in clearing up the mystery."</p> + +<p class="normal">The long pause which followed Bronnen's remark added to its +impressiveness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said the king, resuming the conversation, "how much +better it is +to clear up all things! That was just her own way of doing; so natural, +and yet so clear, so conscious, and yet so strong. Well be it so. +Bronnen, why should I conceal it? I may tell you everything. I loved +the countess. And now--I must say it, for the thought tortures me--I am +almost angry at her. Her suicide has imposed a heavy life-burden upon +me. I shall never, to the end of my days, be able to lay it aside. She +must have known how it would weigh me down. Tell me, frankly--I beg of +you, tell me--is this feeling not a justifiable one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not addressing the king, now. I am speaking to the +clear-headed, +warm-hearted man."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen paused. It shocked the king to find himself thus +divested of +his inborn dignity. What would this stern man, whom he had ordered to +forget his rank, say?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak on!" said the king, encouragingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I shall speak frankly," began Bronnen, "as between man +and man. +When you reproach yourself for feeling that your friend has aggrieved +you in imposing this life-burden upon you, it is simply a proof that +your true self has been deeply affected. What really torments you, +however, is the ghost of your own act. Although our friend, who +deserved so well of fate may, in a fine frenzy, have willingly +sacrificed herself, the stern truth still confronts you: you invaded, +nay destroyed, her sphere of right, and now you reap the inevitable +consequence of what was then begun. The ghost of your own actions +disturbs you and will continue to do so, until you perceive the truth. +Every human being has its own rights, presenting a barrier which no +one, however exalted his position, dare invade. When you fully realize +this in yourself, and by your knowledge of sin have overcome sin, then, +and not until then, will you be free--no matter what may have gone +before. Superstition uses the formula: 'All good spirits praise the +Lord,' with which to exorcise phantoms. Our good spirit is that inner +perception of truth to which we appeal, or rather to whose appeal we +give utterance."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a long pause. Bronnen's face glowed with +excitement. The king +was chilly, and wrapped himself in his mantle. His eyes were closed. At +last he sat up and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank her; she has given me a friend, a true man. You will +remain to +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's voice was hoarse. He wrapped his mantle yet more +closely +about him, lay back in the corner of the carriage, and closed his eyes. +Not another word was uttered until they reached the hunting-seat. The +king told his suite that he felt unwell and would not take part in the +hunt. The rest of the party plunged into the forest, while the king +remained alone with Bronnen.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was after breakfast. The queen, attended by the ladies of the court, +was in the music room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first mist of early autumn obscured the landscape, and +the morn +gave promise of a lovely, bracing day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Various journals were lying before the queen. She pushed them +away, +saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How terrible these newspapers are! What license! This sheet +is usually +so unobjectionable; but even here it is stated that Count Wildenort +died of grief because of the conduct of his unmarried daughter. Can +such things be permitted? Was such a thing ever heard of--Ah, dear +councilor!" added she, addressing her private secretary, "there's a +sealed letter for Countess Irma on my desk upstairs. Let a messenger +take it to her at once. If she could only be kept in ignorance of these +terrible newspapers stories; I hope she may, at all events."</p> + +<p class="normal">The ladies of the court were engaged with their embroidery. +They +replied their needles more nimbly than before and did not look up from +their work.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein was called away. After some time she +returned, +accompanied by the doctor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, welcome!" cried the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">At a sign from Countess Brinkenstein, the ladies retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How charming! you've come just in the nick of time," said +the queen. "I +am just about to send off a letter for Countess Irma; you might add a +few kind words."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, Countess Irma will not be able to read your +letter of +condolence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The countess is--very ill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very ill? You say it in such a--not dangerously, I hope?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I fear so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Doctor! your voice--what is it? The countess is not--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead--!" said the doctor, covering his face with his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a few moments there was breathless silence in the great +hall. At +last the queen exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead! Was it grief at her father's death?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor nodded affirmatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">The flower-table which Irma had painted stood by the queen's +side. The +queen looked at it for a long while. At last, completely forgetting +those about her--her gaze still fixed upon the table which, now that +she was weeping bitterly, was wet with her tears--she cried out, in +heart-rending accents:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how beautiful she was; how radiant her eyes, how bright +her +glance, how musical her voice! Her singing was like the warbling of the +lark! And all this beauty, all this love and goodness is no more! I +would love to see her, even in death. She must be beautiful, a very +image of peace. And you say that she died of grief at her father's +death; of a broken heart? Was it one great, convulsive throb of feeling +that broke her ardent, noble heart? Oh, my sister--for I loved her as +such--forgive me that even the shadow of doubt--Oh, my sister!--the +lovely flowers on this table were conjured up by your hand--And you are +faded, withered, decayed! You were lovelier than any flower! I can +still see your eye, as it followed every stroke of the pencil. You +meant to give me undying flowers, and as an undying flower you shall +dwell in my heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her tears fell on the marble flower-table. A little dog came +up to her +and she said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She decked you, too, with flowers. It was on my birthday. +She sought +to adorn everything that met her eye. And you loved her, too, poor +Zephyr? every creature loved her, and now she's dead." She wept in +silence for some time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I wear mourning for my friend?" she inquired, looking up +at +Countess Brinkenstein.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, it is not the custom for the queen to go into +mourning +alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course; we are not alone. No, never! All must mourn with +us; there +must needs be a mourning livery."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had spoken harshly, and now offered her hand to Countess +Brinkenstein, as if in apology, and inquired:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When is she to be buried, and where? I should like to lay +the most +beautiful garland upon her grave. I will go to her myself, and my tears +shall drop upon her pale face. So fair a life, and so sudden an end! +Can it be possible? I must go to her!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes seemed fixed on vacancy, while she asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has the king gone hunting?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He, too, will weep, for he loved her as if she were his +sister. I know +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The look which Countess Brinkenstein now gave the doctor +seemed to say: +"I never gave the queen credit for so much tact and self-command. How +naturally she acts, while trying to make us believe that she never knew +or suspected that aught was wrong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will go to her!" suddenly exclaimed the queen. "No one +shall prevent +it. I will go to her and stand by her coffin, by her grave."</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein stared at the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor approached and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty cannot see the countess. Grief for her father's +death +affected her mind--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then she's not dead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The countess has undoubtedly drowned herself in the lake."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen cast a look of horror at the doctor. She attempted +to speak, +but could not. Gunther added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She has not left us without a farewell; she left a letter, +which I am +to deliver to Your Majesty. It must surely be intended to atone for the +frightful tidings; even in her last moments, she was true to her +affectionate nature."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen stared at Gunther vacantly. She tried to rise, but +could not. +She mutely motioned him to give her the letter. Gunther handed it to +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen read it and turned pale as a corpse. Her features +grew rigid; +her hands fell to her side, as if palsied; her eyes closed, an +expression as of death lay on her lips. Presently, she shook as if in a +chill, and then her face became flushed, as if burning. She sprang to +her feet and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no! Have you done this? Could you act thus, Irma? You--"</p> + +<p class="normal">She fell back in her chair, covered her face with both hands, +and +exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And she kissed my child, and he kissed it! Oh, they kissed +that which +was purest of all, well knowing how impure their own lips were. They +talked in the loftiest strain, and yet the words did not cut their +tongues like sharp knives! Oh, how disgusting! How disgusting, how +tainted everything seems! How I loathe myself! And he dared to tell me +that a prince could have no private actions, for his deeds are an +example to others. Shame! shame! Everything is vile, everything is +despicable! Everything!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked around, bewildered. She was as terrible in her +indignation +as she had been beautiful in her grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">With vacant gaze she regarded every object that had once met +Irma's +eye, and when her glance again fell upon the flower-table, she turned +away with a convulsive start, as if serpents had darted from the +flowers. Again she exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how loathsome! Oh, how vile, how disgusting! I beg of +you, leave +me alone! May I not be alone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me remain with Your Majesty," said the Doctor, taking +her hand, +which hung as if lifeless at her side.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein withdrew.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a long while, the queen did not speak a word. She seemed +to be +staring at vacancy, breathed heavily and would, at times, start +convulsively. She was suddenly seized with a chill, and fell back +insensible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor bathed her forehead and wrists with a few drops of +some +restorative, and then called her maid. Accompanied by the latter, he +conducted the queen to her apartments, and ordered that she should be +put to bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall never again see the light of day, nor a human face; +and +he--and he!" cried she; then she forced her lace handkerchief into her +mouth and tore it to pieces with her teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">She lay thus for some time, the doctor sitting silently by +her bedside.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length she heaved a deep sigh, opened her eyes, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you, but I would like to sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, do so," said the doctor. He was about to leave, but she +called to +him:</p> + +<p class="normal">"One word more. Does the king know--?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he went to the hunt?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is king, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know, I know!--Anything to avoid creating a sensation. +Yes, yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg of you, Your Majesty, don't think now. Don't worry +about +anything. Try to sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can give ourselves the sleep eternal, but not temporal +sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I entreat you. Your Majesty; don't give way to this violent +excitement; do try to sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will, I will. Good-night! Give me a sleeping draught, a +drop of +forgetfulness. Poison were better! Good-night!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor withdrew, but, by a faint gesture, signified to +Madame +Leoni, the woman in waiting, that he should remain in the next room.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was silent and lonely at the hunting-seat in the Highlands. The +walls of the great hall were hung with antlers; a stuffed boar's head +stared from over the entrance. A bright fire was burning on the large +hearth, for here among the mountains it was already cold. The king sat +before the fire, staring at the blazing embers. The flames, +intertwining, would leap on high, like so many tongues of fire. The +king left his chair several times, but soon sat down again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Under the antlers hung tablets marking the year and date of +each hunt. +A long line of ancestors had contributed to these proofs of victory. If +all the guns that had been used in achieving these triumphs were to be +fired off at the same moment; if, in addition to this, every horn that +had been blown, every dog which had barked, and every creature that had +cheered, were to find voice, the din thus produced could not be more +confusing or bewildering than the thoughts which jostled each other in +the head that now rested upon the king's hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">He arose from his seat and read some of the inscriptions on +the wall. +He could boast of a mighty ancestry. They were of a lusty and powerful +race, and while indulging in the pleasures of the chase and the social +board, would speedily have forgotten an adventure like the one that now +unnerved him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Have we become weaker, pettier, more timid?</p> + +<p class="normal">The king seated himself again and gazed at the fire. He was +angry with +himself, and yet could not master his weakness.</p> + +<p class="normal">We are not like the men of the olden time, with their rude +simplicity +and fearless disregard of consequences. Why have we not inherited the +strength of our ancestors, instead of mere pride in their power?</p> + +<p class="normal">What has happened?</p> + +<p class="normal">Unfaithfulness cannot be blotted out, nor can the dead be +called back +to life.</p> + +<p class="normal">The memory of the days passed in intoxicating happiness rose +up before +him, as if to say: It dare not, it cannot be.</p> + +<p class="normal">Has she a right, while destroying her life, to destroy mine, +too? And +she has destroyed it. Her death will ever remain an inseparable part of +myself. I bear a corpse about with me. The guilt of murder dwells +within my heart!</p> + +<p class="normal">He suddenly held his hands before the fire, for they were +cold. The +flames burned brightly, but they did not warm his hands, and his heart +seemed freezing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is Bronnen right in refusing to see anything in this terrible +affair +but the inevitable results of my actions?</p> + +<p class="normal">He uttered a short laugh, for it had suddenly occurred to him +that the +world would present a wondrous chaos of bloodshed and murder, if every +similar misstep were to produce like result. How many thousands--</p> + +<p class="normal">A few words uttered on a lovely morning and during happy +times, floated +through his mind. It was like suddenly recollecting a long forgotten +melody. It was scarcely more than a year ago, that the queen had said, +while sitting under the weeping ash: "He who commits a wrong sins for +himself, and as deeply as if it were the first time the sin were ever +committed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! why is it that our actions fall so far short of our +ideal?</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was still gazing into the fire. The image of his +wife, fading +from his mind, was replaced by that of the friend, whom, in fancy, he +followed to the bottom of the lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastily arose, opened the window, inhaled the bracing +mountain air +and looked out into the dark night.</p> + +<p class="normal">There, wrapped in slumber, lies the world, the palace with +its rich and +varied life, your wife, your child; and beyond, as far as the eye can +reach, the rich land over which you rule. And while millions of beings +cry to you in their hour of need, are you to be dragged down by one +mortal?</p> + +<p class="normal">The king turned round, with the intention of sending for +Bronnen.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is not well to give one's-self up to solitude and the +company of +evil spirits.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet he hesitated. From out of the darkness, there rose a +demon with +a thousand glittering, cunning eyes. He had known him from youth and +his name was--distrust. Who knows that this gentleman, with his +high-sounding phrases, is not availing himself of your humility and the +tender mood which has unmanned you, for his own selfish ends? for all +men are selfish, especially when dealing with royalty. He means to rule +me and, through me, the country. Who knows whether he ever loved her or +declared his passion to her. She neither could nor would have dared +conceal that from me. The story was a ready invention of his, intended +to make him my companion in grief. But I know no companion. I will have +none. If I cannot do all by myself, I am not a king, and if I am not a +king, what am I? No, my wise and noble-hearted gentleman--</p> + +<p class="normal">An inner voice admonished him that it was wrong to judge +Bronnen as he +judged other men, but he would not listen to it. He drew himself up as +if conscious of his power and dignity. Suddenly, a sound from the +forest broke upon his ear. It was the first wild, mournful cry of the +stag. The huntsman in him was now aroused. His hand quickly sought his +weapon, but the thought vanished with the swiftness of the stag's +flight through the forest, and gave way to another that raised a smile +on the king's countenance. The stag, thought he, was crying to him. +Nature knows nothing of such unfaithfulness as that with the thought of +which you are now tormenting yourself. The laws of nature do not +recognize unfaithfulness; it is simply a violent and arbitrary creation +of man. But neither does nature's law recognize a king, or the right of +any creature to rule others of the same species. But it is not nature +alone that directs human life. There is also another law that dwells +within man. At the birth of each beast, the law of its life seems born +anew. Man, however, inherits that which has gone before, for he has a +history. And a king more than all others--</p> + +<p class="normal">The king stood there in silence for a long time. Feeling +chilled again, +he closed the window and sat down before the fire in which the embers +were still burning. Although he found it irksome to be alone, he yet +forced himself to remain so.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fire was still flickering, and now and then a sharp +tongue of flame +would dart forth. The king's hand still clasped the silver handle of +the tongs long after the fire had ceased to burn. For the first time in +his life, he felt conscious of a void within himself--a void which +could not be filled. What could it be? Hunting or drilling, jesting or +commanding, loving or ruling, none of these filled the aching void. +What could it be? this constant unrest, this longing for something that +was yet to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had spent a happy youth. The free tone at his father's +court had not +affected him. He had lived in an ideal world. He was on his travels and +far away from home, when the sudden news of his father's death reached +him. He had hardly arrived at man's estate, when he was called to the +throne. Others might test their affections, might choose--his consort +had been selected for him--there was no wooing; a throne, a country, a +wife were given to him. His wife was graceful and pretty. He was fond +of her, and she loved him intensely. Suddenly Irma entered their +circle, and the husband, the father, the king, became seized with +ardent love. And now she was dead, destroyed by her own rash deed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is it still possible for you to subordinate yourself to the +law?</p> + +<p class="normal">You have submitted to it reluctantly, as if it were a clog +and a +fetter; but it is not submission to the law the highest, aye, the only +source of indestructible power? Yes, there is an eternal law that binds +you to your wife and to your people; in that alone dwells the life +eternal.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was filled with the thought. It was like a deliverance; +like the +first free breathing of the convalescent. He could not fully grasp the +idea, and yet it seemed to him as if he must cry aloud: I am free! free +and yet in accord with the law.</p> + +<p class="normal">He rose quickly. He meant to send for Bronnen, but restrained +himself. +He had wrestled with himself and would now bear this within himself. He +felt as if the aching void, the restless longing for change, had +suddenly been filled. He pressed his hand to his throbbing heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">He rang the bell and sent word to Bronnen that he might +retire. He sent +his body-servant away and retired to his room alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen had been waiting for hours, expecting to be sent for +at any +moment, and was now busy conjecturing why this had not been done.</p> + +<p class="normal">Could Irma's death have had more than a mere passing +influence upon the +king, or had it really helped to reconcile him with the law of life? +What proof of his confidence did the king mean to bestow upon him? And +when Bronnen had waited for hours, without receiving a message from the +king, he could not repress a feeling of resentment. Who could tell? +Perhaps the king had forgotten him? He had joined him for a while in a +plaintive duet; but now all was over. That piece had been played and, +as with a concert programme, a new one was to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of old Eberhard's sayings occurred to him: "When you are +not in the +presence of royalty," were the old man's words, "it esteems you as +little better than the servants who wait out in the vestibules, or on +the steps, with warm mantles for their masters. They go on playing, +dancing, laughing and jesting; but which of them stops to think of +those who are waiting outside, who have aching legs and are overcome +with sleep. But, nevertheless, there you must be, and that without a +murmur."</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt a touch of Eberhard's deep scorn. He, too, was a +servant, who, +while waiting in the ante-chamber, had been forgotten by his master.</p> + +<p class="normal">When, at a late hour, the king sent him word that he might +retire, he +nodded his thanks. He has remembered you after all, thought he to +himself. Many thanks. Of course they would be less ashamed of a +companion in crime.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The mountains were still covered with the mists of morning, when the +king sent for Colonel Bronnen. The latter entered with a respectful +air. The king advanced toward him and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-morning, dear Bronnen!" His voice was hoarse; he looked +pale and +unrefreshed. He took a sheet of paper from the table and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is the proof that I promised you. Read it." Bronnen +read it and +looked at the king in astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know the handwriting?" asked the king. "I do not +recognize the +handwriting, but the great mind seems familiar. I believe--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are right--they are the last words that our lost friend +left for +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">With a certain air of solemnity, Bronnen again placed the +letter upon +the table. He did not venture to say a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be seated; I see that you are agitated."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty; but, in spite of everything, these +lines only +confirm my presentiment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your presentiment?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty; a presentiment that Countess Irma is not +dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not dead? and why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know not what to say, but the proofs that were found in +the lake and +on the shore serve rather to confirm than refute my theory. They are +too complete--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You loved our friend, I believe it," said the king; "but you +did not +fully understand her. Countess Irma was incapable of deceit; and have I +not told you that boatmen saw the body of a woman floating in the +lake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who knows what they may have seen? Nothing has been found as +yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"On what do you base your presentiments?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is fully consistent with my exalted opinion of that great +woman, to +conceive of her having withdrawn to some convent, in order to leave +Your Majesty free. Yea, free and true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Free and true," said the king, repeating the words to +himself. "You +utter words which seem irreconcilable, and yet they must be reconciled. +Bronnen, you mean to show me a new life-path, and to remove the corpse +that obstructs the way, so that, relieved of my burden, I may pass on. +But I have strength to listen to the whole truth, and to decline all +soothing deceit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I have addressed you in all frankness, and +with an utter +disregard of all other considerations."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king nodded gently, and Bronnen added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be that as it may, these lines are the utterance of a great +soul, and +the realization of these thoughts is an end worth dying for. Now, Your +Majesty, the weight must be lifted from your soul. Your friend's death +or disappearance has not imposed a burden upon you; it has liberated +you. For the sake of our country and the realization of the highest +laws, she has departed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Free and true," said the king again, in a low voice. "I +would like, +this very day, to change the legend on my coat of arms and replace it +with those words. But I will prove--and to you alone do I confess it--I +will prove that they dwell within me! Yes, my friend, I read those +lines many a time during the night. When they first appealed to me +yesterday, I did not understand them; but now I do. Let us, as long as +we live, quietly celebrate the memory of this day. You uttered an +expression yesterday that startled, nay, offended me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Calm yourself. You see we are friends. I promise you never +again to +allow my displeasure to last over night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What expression?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was 'constitutional king'; and while, last night, I read +this +letter again and again, that phrase was ever between the lines. Can one +be a sovereign and yet subject to the law? Mark me, Bronnen; if I were +in the presence of Eternal God, I could not open my heart more freely. +This expression of yours and our friend's appeal aroused me. Can I +remain a sovereign, a complete man and king, and at the same time be +fettered? At last I understood it. She says: 'Be one with the law, with +your wife and your people.' Is there free love in marriage? Can there +be a free king in a constitutional government! There lies the +difficulty. But I have conquered it. Fidelity is love awakened to +itself. The life I lead, my crown, my wife, indeed all that I possess, +became mine by virtue of my rank. Last night, I earned the right to +call them mine. To be able, in all moods, to hold fast to what has, +heretofore, only been the result of impulse; to infuse new life into +one's actions, and to feel that they are in accord with one's self--Ah, +you can have no idea of the spirits I wrestled with; but I conquered at +last. 'Free and true,' is my motto for evermore."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen was deeply agitated, and, in his enthusiasm, rushed +toward the +king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have never bent the knee to human being, but now I should +like to--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, my friend," cried the king. "Come to my heart. Let us, +holding +fast to one another, act and work together. I will prove that a king +can act freely, and that his freedom and his friendship are something +more than a mere fairy ideal. Yesterday, I felt as if you were my +father-confessor. It does me good to say this. I have come to know that +the man whose hand and heart are impure is unfit to labor for the +highest and noblest ends. There is no greatness which is not based on +true morality, and, in uttering these words, I utter a verdict upon my +past life. I am not ashamed to acknowledge to you, what I have already +said to myself. And now let us, as men, consider what is best to be +done."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen's countenance seemed illumined with a ray of purest +joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A bright, unclouded spirit is with us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let her memory be held in honor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not mean her," said Bronnen. "When I spoke to Count +Eberhard, he +said: 'Honor pledges us to morality; fame, still more so; and power, +most of all.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and Bronnen discussed many other topics. With his +friend, the +king could frankly and unreservedly show the change which had taken +place in him. But with the world, the court, and the country at large, +it behooved him to avail himself of more gradual methods. A king dare +not publicly repent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen was, in secret, appointed prime minister.</p> + +<p class="normal">They remained at the hunting-seat and joined in the chase. +They deemed +it best to postpone their return to court long enough to permit certain +matters to settle themselves in the mean while.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"His Majesty desires me to assure you of his sincere sympathy, and to +say that if you wish to go away in order to arrange your family +affairs, to pursue investigations at the lake, or to divert your +thoughts by travel, you are at liberty to do so. Leave of absence, for +an indefinite period, will be sent after you."</p> + +<p class="normal">These were the words with which the lord steward, who had +been sent to +inform Bruno of his sister's death, concluded his message. He pressed +Bruno's hand, kissed him on both cheeks, and left.</p> + +<p class="normal">As soon as he was out of doors the lord steward fanned +himself with his +pocket-handkerchief. The dread task which had fallen to his lot had +greatly agitated him, but still he could not help admitting that Bruno +had received the terrible news with great composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the lord steward remained in the room, Bruno had sat on +a sofa in +the corner covering his face with his handkerchief, and listening +quietly and patiently to it all, as if it were the news of some +strange, remote event that in no way affected him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now he was alone again. He sat silent for awhile, +unconsciously +playing with a scented note which he had received a little while +before.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, he sprang from his seat as if crazed, seized a +chair and +broke it. This seemed to do him good. Then, as if possessed by a demon, +he threw himself on the floor and lay there, raving, writhing, and +screaming fearfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant entered and, finding his master lying on the +floor, lifted +him up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm ill!" said he. "No, I'm not ill! I won't be ill! Go at +once to +chamberlain Von Ross or to intendant Von Schoning, and request one of +those gentlemen to come to me directly. If my wife inquires for me, say +that I've gone out with the master of the household."</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant went away and Bruno stood at the window, looking +out into +the street. The mist had disappeared and now revealed the park in all +its beauty. The gardener was removing the pots that contained faded +flowers, and replacing them with fresh ones. Arabella's pet greyhound +was sitting on the gravel path; it looked up at its master and, in +token of its joy, jumped about and ran around the arbor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Bruno saw it all, he was thinking of something quite +different.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha ha!" he laughed, "I never thought that this world was +anything but +an empty farce. He who frets away an hour is a fool. Now I am quite +free," said he, drawing himself up; "quite free. Now there is no one on +earth for whom I need care. World, I am free and alone! And now for +seventy years to come, give me all thy pleasures! Thou canst not harm +me! I trample everything under foot!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stopped to listen--but no one came.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno had always lived in society, but had never passed any +time in the +society of his own thoughts. Now, when he was lonely and in mourning +they came to him--neglected-looking companions with an eager air and +merry glances--and cried: "Leave it all; come with us! Let us be merry! +What avails your grieving? You will be old before your time."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood before a mirror, and they said to him: "See how +horrible you +look."</p> + +<p class="normal">He could not rid himself of his companions. They played merry +dances; +they jingled their gold and cried: "va banque"; they rattled the +glasses and showed him voluptuous and seductive forms, and he could +hear rude and wanton laughter. They filled the room; they seized him +and wanted to dance about with him; but he stood firm, clenching his +fists and unable to go. And then they cried to him: "We know you! You +are a silly boy and care for what the world thinks. You have no +courage! Cheer up! Let them taunt you, but be merry, nevertheless. The +day you lose in fretting, no one can ever give back to you. Fie! at +this begging for sympathy! Go about and say: 'I'm a poor man, my +father's dead and my sister drowned herself.' Get some one to make a +song for you, and another to paint a little sign, and wander about from +fair to fair, asking for an alms. Fie! fie! You must do one thing or +the other: despise the world, or let it pity you. Which do you choose? +How often have you said: 'I despise the world'--and what makes you +afraid? You are sitting there, and would like to go out; who closes the +door? who has tied your horse's feet? You are alone. The dear friends, +the kind-hearted beings, the sympathizing souls, will come and say: 'Be +firm; be a man; conquer your grief!' And what will the dear souls do +for you? They will give you the alms of sympathy and then leave you in +solitude, while they go their way in search of pleasure. As long as +there is playing, dancing, drinking, they are true and enduring +friends; but no feast will be put off for your sake, nothing will be +changed. If you mean to enjoy the world you must despise mankind. They +merely say to you: 'Be a man'--but be one."</p> + +<p class="normal">His thoughts worked him into a frenzy. The next few days +seemed a +yawning unfathomable abyss staring him in the face. All was empty, +void, hollow, joyless, consuming solitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was at last released, for the servant entered and +announced the +intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had not been great friends, but now Bruno embraced the +intendant +as if he were the only friend he had in the world, and lay on his neck +sobbing and begging him not to abandon him to solitude. He raged and +raved and, with a strange mixture of blasphemy and mockery, reviled his +fate. "Oh, the terrible days that await me!" he exclaimed vehemently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Time heals all wounds," said the intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But to pass weeks, aye months, in mourning!" cried Bruno +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant started. He had received an insight into this +man's +character. What grieved him most was the long period during which he +would have to seem to be in mourning.</p> + +<p class="normal">It could not have happened at a more unfavorable time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno had entered two of his best horses for the races which +were to +come off in a few days. He had intended to ride Zuleika himself in a +trotting match, and, for the great hurdle race, he had carefully +trained Fitz, his groom. The name was really Fritz, but Fitz sounded +better. Fitz, Baum's son, was a thorough rascal, in whom his father +took great pride. His future was assured, for there was no doubt that +if Fitz did not break his limbs, he would be the first jockey in the +stables. He sat his horse like a cat, and it was impossible to throw +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The weather was charming. There were just enough clouds to +shield one +from the burning rays of the sun, and during the night there had been a +gentle rain which had improved the course. Fitz, in his green and white +suit, would surely win the first prize. Bruno was not a little proud of +Fitz's livery. He had, as it were, divided him in two, from the crown +of his head to his feet his dress was grass-green on the right and +snow-white on the left. What a pity that there are but seven cardinal +colors, thus affording so little chance to indulge one's love of +variety. But still, persistence can accomplish much, and while Bruno +held his handkerchief before his face, he smiled at the thought of Fitz +with one boot green and the other white.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, I shan't ride," he said to the intendant. "Do you +think I +ought to allow my jockey to do so? I may do that; may I not?" he +hastily added, as if fearing a negative reply. "They would think it +mean of me, if I didn't. I have a large amount staked on the race. I +shall let Fitz ride. Yes, I must; there's no harm in that." He had +scarcely finished speaking, when Fitz entered the room. In a harsh +voice Bruno told him to go away. He was determined to act as though he +had forgotten all about the races. That would prove his sorrow far more +effectually than if he were to withdraw his engagement. He would submit +to the fine for non-appearance, and the world would thus perceive that +his grief was deep enough to make him forget everything.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The intendant sat on the sofa with Bruno. He held Bruno's +hand in +his--it was hot with fever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now that he had found the key to Bruno's character and +present mood, he +knew what was meant when the mourner exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know how it is in the world. To-day and to-morrow there is +hunting +at Wolfswinkel; and day after to-morrow, the races. I am only surprised +that I didn't forget everything in that one hour. His excellency Von +Schnabelsdorf is now 'intellectualizing' with the handsome wife of +ambassador Von N----. After that comes guard-mounting, and, this +evening, there will be a <i>banque</i> at Prince Arnold's.--Ah! the world +goes on in its beaten track. If I could only forget it; for it forgets +me.--Who has a thought for the solitary mourner? Oh, forgive me, my +beloved, my only friend in this world. You will stay with me. You will +never, never leave me. Don't leave me alone, or I shall go mad?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant felt sincere pity for the poor man. He had been +invited +to dine with the master of the horse, and merely wished to leave for a +few moments in order to present his excuses in person. But Bruno would +not permit him to go, and induced him to send his excuse in writing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I'll stay with you," said the intendant +consolingly. "At +such moments, the presence of a friend is like a light in the night, +obliging or, at all events, enabling one to see surrounding objects; it +teaches us that the world has not yet ceased to exist, and that we do +wrong to bury ourselves in solitude."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you understand me! Tell me what to do, what to begin? I +know +nothing. I am like a child that has lost its way in the dark woods."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that you are."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno started. The intendant's confirmation of his opinion of +himself +rather displeased him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am so weak now," said he. "Just think of what I've had to +suffer +during the last few days."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a strange mixture of gentleness and bitterness in +his tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I smoke?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly. Do anything that pleases you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, no, nothing pleases me. And yet I should like to smoke."</p> + +<p class="normal">He lit a cigar.</p> + +<p class="normal">The world had, however, not quite forgotten him, as he had +said in his +anger. A visitor was announced. He hurriedly put the cigar away. The +world was not to see him smoking, and was not to imagine that he was +unfeeling, or that he did not mourn for his father and sister.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were many visitors, and Bruno was again and again +obliged to +display his grief and to accept the sympathy offered him. He now saw +how the rumor of Irma's death had spread throughout the city, from the +palace to the hovel. People whom he hardly knew, and others who were +even ill-disposed toward him, came. He was obliged to receive all +politely, to thank them, and to accept their assurances of sympathy, +while he fancied he could detect malicious pleasure in many an eye. But +he was obliged to ignore this and, although now and then a nervous +twitching of his features almost betrayed him, he managed to keep up +the semblance of all-absorbing grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">His companions in pleasure also visited him, and it was quite +curious +to witness the grave air which the young cavaliers assumed, now and +then casting a glance at the great mirror in order to see whether the +serious expression became them well.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed almost comical to think that the man who was always +the +merriest in the party, and who could make the best and most unequivocal +jokes, should now be so downcast. They seated themselves; they +straddled the chairs and rested their arms on the backs; they lit their +cigars, and much was said of their respective "papas."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My papa has been dead this two years."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My papa is ill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My papa intends to retire on his pension."</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one asked: "Bruno, how old was your father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not know, but answered at a venture:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sixty-three."</p> + +<p class="normal">They also spoke of the races; at first cautiously and almost +in a +whisper, but afterward in a loud voice. They spoke of Baron +Wolfsbuchen's great loss.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What happened to him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fatima, his splendid black mare, wouldn't obey him, and he +struck her +over the mouth with his sword. He had forgotten that the blade was +sharp."</p> + +<p class="normal">They spoke of the loss that he had incurred by forfeiting the +stakes, +and of the damage done his horse; but no one found fault with his +cruelty.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last his comrades left. As soon as they were out of doors, +they +stretched themselves. "Well, well; that's over." A visit of condolence +is a sort of funeral parade, and one's words are like muffled drums. +Before they left the carpeted staircase, they began to whisper scandal, +and to tell that Bruno had forbidden his mother-in-law to come to the +capital, as their majesties had been gracious enough to stand as +sponsors to his young scion. The whole party concluded to lunch +together, and have some wine. There were merry goings on at the French +restaurant, and Bruno was often the topic of conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He will be enormously rich, for he inherits a double share."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he had known as much a year ago, who knows whether he +would have +married Steigeneck. His debts were not so heavy but that he could have +held out for another year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He also inherits his sister's jewels, and they are of +immense value."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if he were two beings in one, the one here and the other +there, +Bruno's thoughts followed the companions who had left him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He surmised what they were saying, and once started as if he +had heard +laughing behind him. It was nothing, however, but his sister's parrot, +which he had ordered to be brought into his anteroom. He had it taken +back to Irma's apartment, as he did not know whether it really belonged +to her, and its eternal "God keep you, Irma," annoyed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked about the room for a long while, with his thumbs +stuck into +his closely buttoned coat, and his fingers playing a merry but +inaudible tune upon his breast. The visits of condolence really annoyed +him. It is so irksome to put on a sorrowful look, to listen to words of +consolation, to offer thanks for sympathy, while all is a lie or, at +most, an empty form-- It is simply one's duty to express sympathy with +the afflicted. Perhaps people regret that they cannot, in such cases, +send their empty carriages, as they do at funerals-- Is it not enough +to let the world know that the grief was great and general, and +that the funeral was a large one? These were Bruno's angry and +ill-natured thoughts. "Then they go off," thought he, "the young and +the old, in uniform and in citizen's dress, twisting their mustaches +and stroking their chins, with a self-complacent air, while they say to +themselves: 'You've done a good deed; you are a man of politeness and +feeling--' and when they get home they tell their wives and daughters: +'The king's aid-de-camp is thus and so--' and then they eat and drink +and drive out, and when they reach the house they say: 'We ought to +feel satisfied when everything goes well with us, and our family +escapes misfortune.' They use the misfortunes of others as they would a +platform, from which to get a better view of their own prosperity." +Bruno's fingers moved yet more quickly than before--death, grief, +sickness were intended for the lower orders, and not for the higher +classes. The world is miserably arranged after all, since there is no +preservative against such ills, and since one cannot purchase immunity +from them.</p> + +<p class="normal">His excellency Von Schnabelsdorf also came. Bruno hated him +at heart, +for it was he who had invented the sobriquet of "Miss Mother-in-law" +for Baroness Steigeneck, the whilom dancer. Bruno, however, felt +obliged to act as if he knew nothing of it, to take his hand in the +most polite and grateful manner, and to receive a kiss from the lips +which had put a stigma upon his family; for Von Schnabelsdorf stood +highest at court, and Bruno could not do without his friendship, which +was doubly necessary, now that his main support, his sister, had been +taken from him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus Bruno felt annoyed at the visits of condolence he +received, as +well as at those which were withheld. The world was considerate enough +to refrain from alluding to anything more than Irma's sudden and +unfortunate death; how she was thrown from her horse and fell into the +lake. The vice-master of the horse maintained that Pluto had never +properly been broken in. Bruno, himself, behaved as if he really +believed that Irma had met with her death by accident.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it seemed as if he delighted to picture to himself the +scene of the +suicide, and to think of Irma at the bottom of the lake, held fast to +the rocks by her long hair. He could not banish the awful picture, and +at last threw open the window, so that he might divert himself with +external objects.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno did not care to eat or drink anything; the intendant +could only +induce him to take some food, by ordering dinner for himself. Bruno +felt obliged to sit down with him, and, at every mouthful, he said: "I +can't eat." At last, however, he ordered some champagne.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must build a fire in my engine!" said he, gnashing his +teeth, while +he thrust the bottle into the wine-cooler. "I derive as little pleasure +from this as the engine does from the coals."</p> + +<p class="normal">He drank down the wine hastily, and went on eating with a +woe-begone +expression, as if he would, at any moment, burst into tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">He ordered more champagne.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you see that?" said he, looking out of the window. His +eyes were +inflamed. "There's Kreuter, the merchant, riding Count Klettenheim's +chestnut gelding. They must have played high last night, that the count +should give up his horse; why, it's the pride of his life, his honor. +What is Klettenheim without his gelding. A mere cipher, a double zero. +Ah, my dear friend, excuse me! I am feverish, I am ill. But I won't be +ill! I shall say nothing more. Go on; say whatever you please."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant had nothing to say. He felt as ill-at-ease as +if he were +shut up in a dungeon with a maniac.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish to speak with lackey Baum," cried Bruno suddenly. The +intendant +was obliged to dispatch a telegram to the summer palace, asking that +Baum should be sent to the king's aid-de-camp.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno let down the curtains, ordered lights and more wine, +and gave +orders that no one should be admitted. The intendant was in despair, +but Bruno exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear friend, everything on earth is suicide, with this +difference, +however--here, one can always come to life again. The hour one kills is +the only one that is rightly spent."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant feared an outbreak of delirium, but Bruno was +not one of +those cavaliers who have only as much mind as the champagne they have +just tossed down inspires them with, and who, at best, can only write a +gallant billet-doux or devise a witty impropriety. At other times, +Bruno would have laughed at the man who would ask him to adopt a system +as his own, and yet he now asserted that he had one, and, filling his +glass again, exclaimed: "Yes, my friend; there are only two kinds of +human beings in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Men and women?" said the intendant, who thought it best to +fall in +with his vein, in order more easily to divert him from it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pshaw!" interrupted Bruno. "Who is speaking of such things? +Listen, my +friend; the two human species are those who enjoy and those who suffer. +He who lives for so-called ideas--for the good, the beautiful, the +true. The man with an ideal may sacrifice his life, or be burnt at the +stake. It is his duty. His life is a short and uneventful one, but is +compensated by the long and enduring remembrance in which he is held by +posterity. That balances the reckoning. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant was obliged to assent. What could he do?</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the second species," added Bruno, "includes +ourselves--those who +enjoy. The best thing in the world is enjoyment without consequences. +After I have been smoking, gaming or listening to music, I can do +anything; nothing disturbs me then. Other pleasures unfortunately have +consequences. One ought to have no family--no family--by all means, no +family."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno suddenly burst into tears. The intendant was at a loss +how to +help him, and reproached himself for not having induced Bruno to +refrain from drinking and talking. Bruno threw his head back, and the +intendant wrapped a piece of ice in a handkerchief and laid it on his +forehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks!" said Bruno, closing his eyes; "thanks!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was soon asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant entered. Bruno awoke. The intendant drew aside +the curtains +and opened the windows. It was high noon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Word came that Baum had already started off with Doctor +Sixtus, the +court physician. "Then we will go without them," said Bruno, who had +regained his composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see, my grief makes me think that I have already told +you +everything. We must go to the lake to look for traces of my unfortunate +sister. Have I really said nothing of this to you before?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No--but I am at your service. I will ask for leave of +absence for +myself and for you, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of that. His majesty has already offered it +to me. +Your Majesty is very gracious--very. Do you think we serve you? Ha, ha! +we only serve you because we can enjoy ourselves better, and in more +varied ways, at your court. You are our host, and do not mind +stealthily taking a tit-bit yourself, behind the bar--I beg of you, my +dear friend--what did I say? You heard nothing--did you? It was +delirium! I am growing mad! I must go out! Let us start this very day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant consented and left him for an hour, in order to +arrange +various matters before his departure.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno ordered his trunks to be packed, and gave instructions +that two +saddle-horses should be sent to the lake at once.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was standing in his room, surrounded by luggage of various +shapes, when a servant announced his gracious mother-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She here? And in spite of my prohibition?" thought he to +himself. +"Show her in," he said to the servant, who quickly threw open the +folding-doors, and closed them again when the lady had entered. "Ah, my +dear mother!" exclaimed Bruno, who was about to hurry forward to +embrace her, but she coolly offered him her hand and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no," and then, seating herself on a sofa, she continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Draw near; take a seat."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know--?" inquired Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know all; you need tell me nothing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you for coming to offer me your sympathy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm delighted--I meant to say that I feel comforted to find +you so +composed. Arabella knows nothing as yet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor need she know of it.--What is the meaning of all this +luggage?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno looked at her in astonishment. Who had any right to +inquire, and +in such a tone? "I'm going on a journey," he answered bluntly, and +then, in order to prevent a scene, he added in a gentle tone: "As her +brother, I must make inquiries in regard to the accident."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I approve of that; it's quite proper," replied the Baroness. +"Have you +already had an understanding with him!--You don't seem to understand +me, as you don't answer; I mean with this king."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied Bruno boldly, "but I have pledged my word to +let it go +no further."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I respect your discretion; but now, a frank word +with you. +Please close the <i>portière</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno did as he was ordered, but ground his teeth as he +walked toward +the door. When he returned again, his manner was as polite and +attentive as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Proceed," said he, "no one hears us; a mourner listens to +you +patiently."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A mourner! We have greater cause to mourn than you have. We +thought we +had allied ourselves with one of the best families in the land." Bruno +started as if angry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray drop your acting for the present," continued the +Baroness, whose +voice and appearance had changed. "We are alone now, and unmasked. In +spite of the outward show of politeness, you have never treated me with +the respect which I have a right to demand. Don't contradict me; please +let me finish what I am about to say: When I calmly reflected on the +matter, I was not angry with you on that account. I knew my position. +But now, my dear son-in-law, matters have changed. I was what your +sister was, but I never feigned virtue. The world esteemed me at my +true value--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno heaved a deep sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Baroness continued, grinding her teeth with anger as she +spoke:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When your sister was so kind to us, I could have knelt to +her in +humility. She must give me back my humility, though she be in hell! It +was not she who was the better; it was I--But now, my son-in-law, your +disdainful behavior must cease. Let me tell you, you ought to feel glad +that we've allied ourselves with you. But we shall never let you feel +it; that is, if you conduct yourself in a becoming manner."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And am I not doing so?" asked Bruno, who, during this +attack, had +entirely lost his self-command.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We will see; but, first of all, let me tell you that, after +this, I +shall reside with Arabella as often and as long as I choose to. This +insipidly moral queen has been taught a lesson, too. At present, +however, I have no desire to appear at court. But the social circle is +open to me--I shall enter it, arm in arm with you, my amiable, my +gallant son."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman rose and, bowing gracefully, offered her arm to +Bruno. +The latter took his mother-in-law's hand in his own and held it to his +lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fie! you've been drinking wine, in your grief!" cried the +old +danseuse, hurriedly putting her fine and strongly perfumed handkerchief +to her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Mother-in-law--" the words were on the end of Bruno's +tongue; he +would like to have hurled them at her. Steps were heard. A moment +afterward the intendant entered, his presence serving as a great relief +to Bruno.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg pardon! don't let me disturb you," said he, when he +saw Bruno's +mother-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're not disturbing us," replied Bruno quickly. "In spite +of a +violent attack of fever, our dear mother, now our grandmother, has +hastened to console us. I am fortunate in still having a few faithful +relatives, and a friend like yourself. I shall now live entirely for +the family still left me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Baroness nodded a pleased assent. She was thoroughly +satisfied with +Bruno's first rehearsal of his new <i>rôle</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We shan't leave to-day?" inquired the intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes. We must not lose another minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">The mother-in-law undertook to tell Arabella of Bruno's +departure, and +to inform her that he had been sent away on public business.</p> + +<p class="normal">While slowly drawing on his black gloves, Bruno thanked his +mother-in-law. He thanked her sincerely, for while he well knew that he +was about to enter upon a state of dependence, and that her presence in +his house would prove distasteful to him in many ways, he, at the same +time, consoled himself with the hope that she would prove a companion +to his wife, and that he could thus absent himself from home more +frequently, and for longer periods, than he had before done; for he +felt it not a little irksome to be obliged to spend so much of his time +with his wife. The leave-taking was short, but hearty. Bruno was +permitted to kiss his mother-in-law's cheek. After he got into the +carriage, he rubbed his lips till they were almost sore, in order to +wipe the rouge off of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was already evening when they drove off, and they passed +the night +at the first posting-house. Bruno lay down on the bed to rest himself +"for a little while," but he did not awake until late the following +morning.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen, overcome with grief, lay sleeping in her apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The court ladies were gathered together on the terrace under +the +weeping ash, and did not care to leave one another. It seemed as if a +fear of ghosts oppressed them all. It was but a few days since Irma +had been in their midst. She had been sitting in the chair without a +back--she never leaned against anything. The seat she had occupied +remained empty, and if the paths were not freshly raked every morning, +her footprint would still be there. And now she had vanished from the +world. Her light had been extinguished, and in so terrible a manner. +Who could tell how long her ghost might haunt the palace and what +mischief it might do. The world, at last, knew what had been going on.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ladies were busily engaged at their embroidery. At other +times, +they would take turns in reading aloud; but to-day their book--it +was a French novel, of course--remained untouched. They were intensely +interested in the story, but no one ventured to propose that the +reading should be gone on with, nor did sustained conversation +seem possible. Now and then a voice was heard: "Dear Clotilde," +"Dearest Hannah, can you lend me some violet, or some pale green?" +"Oh, I tremble so, that I cannot thread my needle; have you a +needle-threader?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was, fortunately, at hand. They were, none of them, +willing to +appear so little moved as to be able to thread a needle.</p> + +<p class="normal">They deplored Irma's fate, and it did them good to be able to +show how +kind and merciful they were. They felt happy in being able to accord +their pious forgiveness to the unhappy one, and, since they had been +so gentle and forgiving, they felt it their right to denounce her +crime the more severely. It was thus they avenged themselves for the +self-humiliation they had endured; for, while Irma was the prime +favorite, they had paid greater homage to her than to the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">They never mentioned the royal couple except in terms of +respect--with +all their apparent confidence, they distrusted each other. They felt +that there was trouble ahead, but that it was best for them to appear +unconscious of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein was the only one Who had a good word to +say for +Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her father was greatly to blame," said she; "it was he who +instilled +this belief in Irma."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yet he had her educated at the convent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But she inherited from him a contempt for all forms and +traditions, +and that was her misfortune. She had a lovely disposition, was richly +endowed by nature, and her heart was free from the slightest trace of +envy or ill-nature."</p> + +<p class="normal">No one ventured to contradict Countess Brinkenstein; Perhaps, +thought +they, etiquette requires us to speak well of Irma and to forget her +terrible deed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who knows whether her brother would have married the +Steigeneck, if he +had known that he was to inherit everything!" softly whispered a +delicate and languishing little lady to her neighbor, while she bent +over her wool-basket.</p> + +<p class="normal">The one whom she had addressed looked at her with a sad, yet +grateful +expression. She had once loved Count Bruno, and still loved him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a book of hers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I have one of her drawings."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I have some of her music."</p> + +<p class="normal">They shuddered at the thought of possessing articles which +had once +been hers, and determined that everything should be sent to her +brother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I passed her rooms, early this morning," said Princess +Angelica's maid +of honor--she always seemed as if half-frozen, and rubbed her hands and +breathed on her fingertips while she spoke--"the windows were open. I +saw the lonely parrot in his cage, and he kept calling out, 'God keep +you, Irma.' It was dreadful."</p> + +<p class="normal">They all shuddered, and yet they felt a secret satisfaction +in dwelling +on the subject. The pious court lady joined the circle, and mentioned +that Doctor Sixtus had just taken leave of her, that he had started for +the Highlands, that Fein, the notary, had accompanied him, that he had +also taken Baum along, and that they meant to search for the body of +Countess Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will he bring her here, or to Wildenort castle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How terrible, to be gaped at in death by common people!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Horrible! it makes me shudder."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray let me have your vinaigrette."</p> + +<p class="normal">A bottle of English smelling-salts was passed round the +circle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And to have every bystander volunteer a funeral sermon!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How improper to take one's life in so public a manner!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If there were no horrid newspapers," whined the freezing +court lady.</p> + +<p class="normal">The conversation gradually assumed a more cheerful tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah me!" exclaimed a pert and pretty court lady, "how we were +all +obliged to 'enthuse' about the beauties of nature and the genial traits +of the lower orders during her life and reign. Now, I imagine one may +at last venture to say that nature's a bore, and that the lower orders +are horrid, without being regarded as a heretic."</p> + +<p class="normal">In spite of the malice that flavored it, they found the +remark both +just and appropriate. In a little while they were all conversing and +laughing, just as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wanton boy has shot a sparrow. The rest of the flock are +very sad, +and pipe and prate about the matter for a while; but soon they hop +about again, and chirrup as merrily as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">To give truth its due, it is necessary to state that many of +the ladies +would have been glad to speak well of Irma, but they kept such feelings +in the background. Of all things in the world they dreaded showing +themselves sentimental.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until Countess Brinkenstein again began to speak, +that the +rest of the company became more calm and dignified than they had been.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein's demeanor seemed to say: "I am, +unfortunately, +the one who prophesied it all; and now that it has all come to pass as +I said it would, I am not in the least proud of it." It was both her +right and her duty to speak compassionately of Irma, and yet, at the +same time, mildly to point a moral.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eccentricity. Ah, yes, eccentricity!" said she. "Poor +Countess +Wildenort! The publicity of her deed is, in itself, a serious offense; +but do not let us, while thinking of her terrible fate, forget that she +was undeniably possessed of many good traits. She was beautiful, +anxious to please every one, and yet without a trace of coquetry. She +possessed intellect and wit, but she never used them to slander others. +A poor eccentric creature!"</p> + +<p class="normal">This disposed of Irma, and the other court ladies had, at the +same +time, received a lesson.</p> + +<p class="normal">The eyes of all were directed toward the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There goes the carriage!" they said. Doctor Sixtus saw the +ladies and +saluted them. The notary sat by his side, and Baum sat opposite. He was +too tired to sit up on the box. "It is scarcely a year since we made +this same journey together," said Sixtus to Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum was not in a talkative mood; he was too tired. After +great +preparations, he had that day passed his examination, and could say to +himself that he had not come off without honors. Although he was not +accustomed to find himself inside of the carriage, he yet thought he +might take it for granted that this would henceforth be his place. He +was about to become a different, a more exalted personage. He had, +indeed, become such already--all that was needed was the outward token. +He would have been willing to remain a simple lackey. Perhaps the king +desired to have it so, lest he might betray himself. He was willing to +let him have his own way, even in this. He and the king knew how they +stood toward each other. He smiled to himself, and felt like a girl +whose lover has declared his affection for her; the formal wooing can +take place at any time.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Doctor Sixtus helped himself to a cigar, Baum was at +once ready +with a light. That, however, was, for the present, his last act of +service. Nature was not to be overcome, and Baum was impolite enough to +fall asleep in the presence of the gentlemen. But he was so well +schooled that, even while asleep, he sat upright and ready at any +moment to obey their commands.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until they halted that Baum awoke. The notary's +searching +questions greatly disturbed his comfort. What matters the death of a +countess, thought he, if one can rise by means of it. He was greatly +annoyed that his family--his mother, his brother and his sister--were +mixed up in the affair; and hadn't Thomas said something about the +death of Esther, or was it merely a dream? Events had succeeded each +other so rapidly that they quite bewildered him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus apologized to the notary for Baum's +disconnected +narrative.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum looked at him in amazement. Did he already know that +Baum was +about to be advanced, and did he mean to curry favor with him? He was +cunning enough to think of such a thing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum resolved, for the present, only to show the spot where +he had +found the hat and shoes, and to leave his mother and brother entirely +out of the affair. At all events, he would not drag them into it, and +suggested that they should take the forester with them. They found him +at last, and then wended their way toward the assize town in which +Doctor Kumpan lived.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus sent for the latter. He soon came to the inn, and the +jolly +fellow was lavish in his praise of Countess Irma. He thought it greatly +to her credit that she had had courage to live and die as she chose. +Besides that, Kumpan delighted in joking his friend, in regard to the +great missions on which he had been employed, looking up wet nurses and +hunting corpses. He asked for the privilege of being permitted to +dissect the countess.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doctor Sixtus did not in the least relish the coarse humor of +his +former fellow-student. Doctor Kumpan told him of the great change that +had taken place in Walpurga's circumstances, that she and the rest of +her family had moved far away to the Highlands, near the frontier. He +also told him several very funny stories at Hansei's expense, and +especially about the wager for six measures of wine.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus informed his comrade that Walpurga was no longer a +favorite at +court, and that it would soon be proven that she had been the mediator. +Although he spoke in an undertone, Baum heard every word. After Sixtus +had made this disclosure to Kumpan, he felt sorry for what he had done, +but it was just because they had so few subjects in common, that he had +told him the very matters he desired to keep from him. All that +remained was to make his friend promise not to mention a word of the +affair, and Kumpan always was a man of his word.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Kumpan had left, Baum went up to Sixtus again and told +him that +he thought it would be well to go to Walpurga, as she might know +something of the affair; but Sixtus replied that the journey would be a +useless one, and that Baum was to remain with him.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the following morning, Bruno would have liked to return. What was +the use of it all? Was he to act the fable of the little brother and +sister over again, and to be the little brother who had gone in search +of his sister? And what would be the result? A dreadful, agitating +sight--one which he could never banish from his memory. It would haunt +him in his dreams--a bloated, disfigured corpse with open mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno cast an injured look upon the friend who congratulated +him on +having slept so well, and on having thus gained new strength for the +trials the day might have in store for him. Bruno looked at the +intendant with feelings of anger and distrust. He felt almost certain +that this man regarded the whole occurrence as a tragic drama, which +would have to be mounted for the stage. It was evident to him that the +intendant was using this as a study, of which he would avail himself in +future scenic representations, and that he was observing his every +gesture and feature, so that he might be able to instruct the actors +under him; so that he might say: "Thus does one pose himself, and thus +does one groan when he finds his sister's corpse-- Am I to be this +puppet's puppet? No, never!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno would have liked, best of all, to have journeyed back +to his +mother-in-law, even if he had to succumb to her. He could convert his +humility into gallantry, and, at all events, would be spared these +terrible sights. But here was his friend encouraging him to neglect +nothing which fraternal duty demanded of him. Oh! these people of +feeling are the most abominable of mortals, for they take everything so +seriously. Do they really mean all they say? Who knows? Every one in +the world is merely playing a part, after all.</p> + +<p class="normal">He must go on, and he saw what was in store for him. This +terrible +friend with the strong sense of duty--and, after all, he was not his +friend--this man, whom he had inflicted on himself, would force him to +spend days, searching for horrors which he had no desire to find. They +drove on, in an ill-humor.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant, finding that Bruno would formally thank him +for every +little service, declared:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg of you, don't thank me. I am only doing my duty to my +friend and +to myself. You know that I once loved your sister, and that she +rejected my suit."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was discreet enough to refrain from adding that he had +afterward +rejected her offer, and Bruno groaned inwardly at his cruel discretion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant found Bruno quiet and reserved. Concluding that +this was +the natural reaction from the excitement of the previous day, he, too, +remained silent. Bruno often looked at the intendant, as if he were a +jailer leading him to the place of punishment. They drove on rapidly. +At the different post-houses, where they stopped to change horses, the +intendant would fluently converse with the postillions and the +innkeepers in their native dialect. Several of them knew him.</p> + +<p class="normal">To his great alarm, it suddenly occurred to Bruno that he had +the +saloon warbler with him. He was perfectly at home here, and would now +have a chance to display the treasures of his dialect wardrobe, to +pursue his studies, and revel in the pleasure which the rude dialect of +the region afforded him.</p> + +<p class="normal">His friend, for this was the only term by which he dared +characterize +him, was now in his element, and found it no easy matter to refrain +from expressing his delight thereat.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length they reached the last mountain and saw, from afar, +the +mirror-like surface of the lake, surrounded by gigantic mountains and +sparkling in the golden sunshine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you see that maple tree, over there?" said the intendant, +no longer +able to contain himself, "there to the left, by the small rock--that is +the point from which I sketched the painting that hangs in her +majesty's music-room."</p> + +<p class="normal">The friend had imagined that this remark might help to create +a calmer +mood in Bruno, so that the terrible idea of his sister's having sought +her death below that very spot, might not at once obtrude itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno looked at him with an impatient air. Every one thinks +of himself, +said an inner voice, and this coxcomb is now thinking of his daubs. He +remained silent, however, for silence was more expressive of grief than +words could be. He rubbed his eyes, for the dazzling reflection of the +sun's rays on the surface of the lake had made them ache. His friend +grasped his hand and silently pressed it. He had understood this +fraternal heart, and his glance meant: others may think you superficial +and frivolous, but I know you better.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the landing near by, they could hear the neighing of +Bruno's +horses, which were there in charge of his grooms. And now, for the +first time, Bruno felt a sense of shame in the presence of his +servants. They, of course, knew everything, and how they must have +talked about it in the tap-room. He was full of anger at the sister who +had inflicted all this upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first information they received at the inn was that old +Zenza had +been there. She had endeavored to sell or to pawn the ring which the +maid of honor had given her on the night before she had drowned +herself. As they all regarded the ring as stolen, she could obtain +nothing for it. It was now decided that Zenza must know more. They took +a guide and walked along the mountain path that led toward her hut.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno, being a huntsman, was usually a good climber, but +to-day he felt +as if he would break down at every step, and was often obliged to stop +and rest.</p> + +<p class="normal">His friend encouraged him, and they walked on through the +sunny forest, +where the light shone brightly on the soft moss, while many a hawk +uttered its shrill cry overhead.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the crossing of the roads, they encountered a party of +ladies and +gentlemen; they were in city dress and had adorned their hats with +green branches and garlands. Bruno hurriedly stepped aside from the +path. The intendant, however, was recognized by a former colleague of +his, and Bruno heard him say that the guests of a little watering-place +in the neighborhood were making an excursion to see the place where +Countess Wildenort had drowned herself. The party passed on, and their +loud and cheerful talk was heard from afar.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last they reached the hut. It was closed. They knocked at +the door. +A growl was the only answer they received, and the next moment they +heard some one dashing a bolt back.</p> + +<p class="normal">A neglected looking, yet powerful man, with a wild, +disheveled +appearance, stood before them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas recognized Bruno at once, and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Wildenort! it's well you've come. I take my hat off to +you, for +you're an out-and-out man. What matters one's father! When he's dying, +ride off; one can't help him die, you know. Ho, ho! you're a splendid +fellow. No one cares for the old lumber any more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want of me?" asked Bruno, with tremulous voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shan't harm you; there's my hand on it. I'll do you no +harm. You let +the king do what he chooses and make no fuss about it, and so I shall +do you no harm, for what you've done in the same line of business. +You're my king. I got it out of her at the very last, that you were the +one, and that, because it was you, she had helped your sister. You know +what I mean, well enough. I shan't say a word. The stupid world needn't +know what there is between us. Sister, king; poacher, count--it's all +as it should be."</p> + +<p class="normal">"This man seems crazed," said the intendant to the guide. +"What do you +want? Let go of the gentleman!" he called out to Thomas.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that your lackey? Where's the one with the coal-black +hair?--Let us +alone," said Thomas, turning to the intendant, "we understand each +other very well. Don't we, brother? You're a brother, and I'm one, too. +Ha! the world's wisely arranged! You mustn't think I've been drinking; +I've taken something, it's true, but that doesn't hurt me--I'm as sober +as a judge. Now let me tell you what my plan is: I'll listen to reason, +to anything that's fair and just; I can see that you're a decent +fellow, for you come to me of your own accord."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We wish to inquire whether you know anything of the lady in +the blue +riding-habit who was here?" said the intendant in the proper dialect.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ho, ho!" cried Thomas, "how finely he talks; but I can +understand +priest German, and judge's German, too. I've had enough to do with +those people already. But you'd better not interfere"; and then, +turning to Bruno, he added: "Let us two talk together, alone. Now +listen, brother; this is what we'll do: You needn't make a count of me; +all you need do is to give me servants and horses, and enough money and +chamois and deer, and you'll soon see how clever and strong and hearty +I am. Would you like to wrestle with me? or come out into the woods, +and I'll show you that I can shoot better than you can. Now, all you +need do is to give me either your sister's inheritance or my sister's, +and you'll see we'll be a couple of merry brothers!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno hardly knew whether he was dreaming or awake. Some of +the +insolent fellow's words were clear enough to him, others he could not +understand. He motioned the intendant to withdraw, and then said in a +gentle voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thomas, I know you now; sit down."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas seated himself on the bench, and, raising the brandy +jug which +he had bought with the money received for the hat, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Won't you drink something?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno declining, Thomas took a long draught.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant said to Bruno, in French, that there was no +information +to be obtained from that quarter, and that he had secretly charged the +guide to hold fast to the wild fellow, so that, unmolested, they might +return to the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What sort of gibberish is the simpleton talking, there?" +cried Thomas, +preparing to rush at the intendant. At the same moment, the guide threw +himself on Thomas, and held him fast, while the two gentlemen left the +hut and hurried down the mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until the guide again came up with them, that they +paused, +and Bruno ventured to draw a long breath. The guide now told them how +Thomas had raged, and how he had called out for the gun which he +had hidden in the wood, and that he had said he must shoot his +brother-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The best thing the fellow could do," said the guide, "would +be to +drink himself to death, so as to save himself from being hanged."</p> + +<p class="normal">After some time, Bruno ventured to ask the intendant, in a +whisper, +whether they had not proceeded far enough with their investigation, and +whether it was not best to return at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant was silent. Bruno looked at him again with that +bitter +expression which might also pass for grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant, who saw that Bruno was almost broken down, +consented to +return.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The two friends returned to the inn. On their way, they met one of the +grooms who had brought their horses, and who now told them of a boatman +who had informed him that the body of a woman had been dragged from the +lake. It had been near the village, of which a few scattered houses and +the church steeple were visible on the opposite shore.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant embraced Bruno, who seemed staggered at the +news. They +sat down for a while, in the very spot where they had been when the +news reached them. The groom said that, by boat, they could reach the +village in one hour; but that if they went by land, it would take them +several hours.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't cross the water," said Bruno, "I can't to-day; +Schoning, don't +ask it of me! Don't force me! Why do you torment me so?" he asked +impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant well knew that deep grief makes men +unreasonable. In the +dark depths of their hearts, there still lurks a feeling of anger, even +toward those who most thoroughly sympathize with them, but who, +themselves, have been spared by misfortune.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I take no offense at anything you do," he replied, "and +through you +treat me rudely, I shall bear it. I understand you, and am far from +wishing to induce you to cross the lake. We'll ride."</p> + +<p class="normal">Their horses were brought, and they rode off in the direction +of the +village that had been pointed out to them. They passed an inn where a +crowd of merry wagoners, boatmen and woodcutters were sitting under the +lindens, and drinking beer or brandy. Bruno felt that he was being +treated like a fever patient whom they were dragging over hill and +dale, and to whose clouded vision the world seemed bare and desolate. +When they reached the inn, his mouth watered. He thirsted for drink; +perhaps it might give him new strength and, what was still better, +might enable him to forget. But he did not venture to express his wish +to his friend. Was it proper for one in his position to drink brandy? A +poacher, like Thomas, might do so; but it would ill befit a cavalier. +While thanking the intendant for the trouble he had given him, and +promising that he would never forget it, Bruno, whose tongue was +parched with thirst, secretly cursed the friend who would not allow him +to drink. Ah, how fortunate it is that words are always at command. It +is almost as fortunate as the fact that horses are properly broken in, +and keep up their pace so nicely that they give one no trouble.</p> + +<p class="normal">The friends rode on at a rapid pace. It was high noon when +they reached +the village which Hansei and his family had left two days before. The +landlord of the Chamois was standing at the door, and respectfully +saluted the two horsemen with the groom behind them.</p> + +<p class="normal">They alighted. Bruno handed the reins of his steaming horse +to the +groom. The intendant led his friend into the front garden, where they +sat down. He then insisted on Bruno's taking a glass of wine. The host +quickly brought a sealed bottle, and vaunted it as the best wine in the +house. He also brought some roast meat and placed it on the table, and +as long as he had brought it, it must be paid for, even through it were +not touched.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant took the host aside and, in a whisper, asked +him whether +it was true that the body of a woman had been cast ashore near there.</p> + +<p class="normal">The host answered in the affirmative, and with a smile of +satisfaction. +The occurrence was a strange and unusual one, and it was only right +that it should enure to his great profit. The intendant again asked him +where the house was in which the body lay.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll take you there," said the host, with a smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Send for the burgomaster, also."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of that; I'm a member of the council," said +he, +hurrying into the house and returning with his long coat and his medal. +He meant to let the gentlemen see with whom they had to do. He felt +sure that they must be people of quality, or else they wouldn't be +traveling with a groom, and would have said: "Take your meat away; we +shan't pay for it!" He even fancied that he knew one of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Begging your pardon," said he to the intendant, "but some +years ago, +there was a painter here who looked enough like you to be your +brother."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant well knew that it was himself who was referred +to, but he +was not yet in the mood to renew the acquaintance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The host accompanied the strangers to Hansei's house.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the way there, he said: "She was a handsome creature. She +was +beautiful, but good-for-nothing; and her belongings were as bad as she +was: particularly her one brother."</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant beckoned the innkeeper to be quiet. Bruno bit +his lips +until they bled. They found it almost impossible to force their way +through the crowd which had gathered in the garden and about the road. +There were wailing woman, crying children, and cursing men.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Make way there!" cried the host. He walked on, forcing a +passage for +the two men, and Bruno heard some one behind him say: "The handsome +man, with the large mustache, is the king."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, he isn't; it's his cousin!" said another.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had entered the garden. Bruno leaned against the +cherry-tree, and +the intendant motioned to the host to allow his comrade to rest for a +little while. Everything seemed to swim before Bruno's eyes. Something +touched him, and he started with fear. It was a dead leaf which had +fallen from the tree above. At last, addressing Schoning in French, he +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What good will it do the dead, if I look at her? And it will +harm me +forever, for I shall never be able to banish the sight from my memory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must go in, my friend. Remember that these people have +made every +effort in their power to restore to life one who was a stranger to +them, and they have done this out of pure philanthropy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, we can give them money for that; but why torment +ourselves with +these dead remains?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Bruno was, nevertheless, obliged to go in; leaning on his +friend's +arm, he entered the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Black Esther now lay in the very spot where Hansei had been +two days +ago, when thinking of her. Her thick, glossy black hair had fallen over +her face; her mouth was open--the last cry that Irma had heard still +rested there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Esther!" cried Bruno, covering his face with his hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't your sister!" said the intendant consolingly. +"Come, let us +be off."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno could not move from the spot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! sister!" cried the old woman, who now rose up from +beside the +corpse; "yes, sister. Didn't I tell you to let her alone, even if she +did help the beautiful lady? didn't I tell you she'd kill herself, if +you beat her again? And now you've had your own way, and here she is, +lying in this house! Oh, this house, this house! The lake will wash it +away yet. Lake! take the whole house! Who are you? What do you want?" +she cried, springing up and seizing Bruno's arm. "Who are you with the +black hands? let me see who you are--it's you, is it? you who didn't +want to see your father die--and what do you want of my Esther? Great +God!--now I see it all. You were the one, you! say you were!--say it--! +Don't shut your eyes, or I'll scratch them out for all. It was +you--I'll drive a nail into your brain, into the cursed brain that +forgot her! Oh, why didn't I know it before! But there's time enough +yet. My Thomas has already aimed at you--and he'll have a chance +again--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno fainted. The intendant caught him in his arms, but +could not +support his weight and, therefore, laid him down on the same floor on +which lay the dead body of Esther. The innkeeper hurried out to fetch +water, and when they opened the door, several people entered from +without, among them Doctor Sixtus, Doctor Kumpan, the notary, and Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sixtus soon restored Bruno to consciousness. A glance +sufficed to +inform Baum of what had happened. He supported himself against a +door-post, holding fast with desperate grip, lest he should fall to the +ground. At the first opportunity he glided out of the room. He was not +needed there, and if he were now to betray himself, all might be lost. +He dragged himself as far as the cherry-tree, sat down on the bench, +buttoned his gaiters, unbuttoned them, took out his watch, counted the +seconds, wound it up again, held it to his ear and carelessly played +with the watch-chain. He stopped to consider. One great task still +remains, thought he to himself, and that I must accomplish unaided. He +felt that he had a clue to Irma's whereabouts. Sixtus wouldn't listen +to such a thing and ridiculed him. So much the better; the credit would +all fall to his share; and for that reason, this was no time to worry +about his mother. His sister was dead, and perhaps it was for the best. +At any rate, he couldn't restore her to life; but, at some future day, +he could, without discovering himself, provide for the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum felt proud of his firmness and stroked his chin with +satisfaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">Within the house, the excitement was not yet at an end. The +old woman +howled, shrieked, ran about the room, opened the window, and cried: +"Strike him dead! Drown him, he drowned her!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum let his watch drop from his hand when he heard these +words. The +old woman was dragged away from the window, and Doctor Kumpan held her +fast. She went back to the corpse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Strike us all dead!" she cried, "there's no king on earth, +and no God +in Heaven!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old woman raved; then she would weep, and then would +again go back +to her child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your lips are open! Say but a word! only one 'yes,' before +these +witnesses! speak his name! he ruined you and left you to perish in +misery! They don't believe me. Say, you!" she exclaimed, addressing the +intendant and seizing him at the same time, "say, didn't he utter her +name and confess it all? Is nothing to be done to one who leads a poor +creature into misery and drives her to death? Speak!" said she, turning +to Bruno. "Here! take the ring your sister gave me! I want nothing from +any of you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Shrieking and groaning, she again threw herself upon the +corpse.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was at last led away. He was as pale as death; his face +had been +marked by his black gloves. They placed him upon the seat under the +cherry-tree. Baum rose and brought some water, so that Bruno might wash +his face. He was astonished when he saw the white handkerchief which +had been blackened by the spots upon his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went back to the inn. Like a fearful child, Bruno never +relaxed +his hold of the intendant's hand. At every sound he heard, he fancied +that the old woman was coming to scratch out his eyes and to tear out +his heart. At last he regained his composure, and asked the intendant +what he had said on seeing the corpse. Schoning replied that he had +called out "Schwester" (sister), and that the old woman, who had +understood him to say Esther, had grown quite frantic in consequence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno felt comforted to learn that he had not betrayed +himself. He, +nevertheless, set aside a considerable sum for the life-long support of +the old woman from whom Irma had received her last shelter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, my friend!" said he to the intendant, "as long as I +live, I shall +never forget the image of that drowned girl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno was so exhausted that he was unable to ride his horse. +Doctor +Sixtus's carriage was in readiness and he got into it, in order to +accompany him back to the capital. The doctor gave Bruno the poor +consolation that Irma's body would not be recovered. That of the +abandoned girl had floated on the surface. Irma, however--as he had +already said,--must have been kept down by her long riding-habit, and +would, therefore, never be found.</p> + +<p class="normal">When taking leave of Bruno, the intendant said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I know how great a heart you have."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno merely nodded in reply. He did not object. It might be +well if +the intendant were to say the same thing at court.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they repaired to the carriage, the whole region was +obscured by a +misty rain; neither mountain nor lake were distinguishable. Just as +they were starting, Bruno called Baum to him and gave him his coat with +a red collar, for Baum was to mount Bruno's horse and ride it home. The +intendant rode back, accompanied by Baum. He told the lackey to remain +beside him, instead of following.</p> + +<p class="normal">"These are fearful goings on," said Baum, addressing the +intendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, terrible. I think the mother of the drowned girl must +be crazed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir," resumed Baum, "there is something I should like to +speak to you +about. I think that maybe the countess isn't drowned, after all. The +court physician has laughed at me, but I have a clue, and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">The report of a gun was heard. Baum fell from his horse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've hit you this time!" cried a voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas rushed forth from the thicket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take me!" cried he, "I caught him after--"</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment, he saw Baum's body lying on the ground. In a +furious +voice, he cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I meant to shoot Bruno, and now it's you! you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Brother! my brother!" gasped Baum. "I'm Wolfgang! Your +brother +Jangerl--Wolfgang--Zenza--my mother!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thomas rushed back into the thicket and, in an instant, the +report of +another shot was heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant was in despair. The rain fell in torrents. Baum +gave one +more convulsive start. Presently, a merry crowd passed by; it was the +excursion party they had met early that morning. The ladies were +horror-struck and hastened away; the gentlemen remained to assist the +intendant. Peasants were called from the fields to carry Baum's body +back to the village; others searched the thicket; and soon brought out +the lifeless body of Thomas.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant met the notary in the village, and gave him a +full report +of all that had happened. Before long, the whole village had gathered +at the Chamois. It was no unimportant event, for three of one family to +be dead at once. No one would confess to surprise that Baum had turned +out to be Wolfgang. They all declared that they had recognized him long +ago, even when he had come with Doctor Sixtus to take Walpurga away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant and the innkeeper sat up late that night. The +former had +discovered himself as the painter who had been a guest at the inn in +times gone by. The host had much to tell about Hansei and Walpurga, and +one can readily conceive the tone in which he spoke of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they told Zenza what had happened, she listened with a +stolid, +stupefied air; nor did she seem to understand them when they told her +that the count had left money for her and had promised always to take +care of her. She burst into a shrill laugh, and when food was brought, +greedily ate all that was placed before her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baum, Thomas, and Black Esther were buried in one grave.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king was at the hunt. The queen was ill. Life at court went on as +usual. The ladies and gentlemen dined at the marshal's table, and +conversed upon different subjects. They were cheerful, for it was their +duty to maintain the accustomed tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the fourth day after the receipt of the terrible news. +It was +after dinner, and the ladies were sitting under the so-called +"mushroom," a round, vine-covered arbor, situated at the edge of the +mountain vineyards. The roof rested, at the center, on a column and, in +the distance, resembled an open umbrella, or a gigantic mushroom. They +were delighted to have a chance to talk of the preparations for the +betrothal of Princess Angelica. They spoke in praise of her noble +traits, although she was merely a simple, modest good-hearted girl. +They had the court catechism, the genealogical calendar, before them; +for dispute had arisen as to the degree in which the mediatized Prince +Arnold was related, on his grandmother's side, to the reigning house. +Their conversation, however, was simply a makeshift.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one remarked that the intendant had returned from his +journey. No +one, however, knew what adventures he had passed through. They all knew +that there had been deaths by shooting and drowning, but as to the +"who" and the "how," they were as yet ignorant.</p> + +<p class="normal">They felt quite happy when they saw the intendant coming in +person. +They welcomed him in a half-pitying, half-teasing tone. He seemed quite +exhausted by his recent experiences. They offered him the most +comfortable chair and, placing it in the center of the group, begged +him to tell them everything. Although this general homage was not +without a touch of irony, the intendant felt quite flattered by it, and +was, as usual, ready to play the agreeable. He was always willing to +sacrifice everything, not excepting himself, for the sake of being in +favor.</p> + +<p class="normal">He began by telling them of Bruno's deep grief: but that did +not +interest them. Very well--"as you don't care to hear of Bruno, we'll +pass him by." He then went on to give a cleverly arranged account of +the terrible death of Baum, who, like a true servant, had been obliged +to give up his life for another. However, the death had not been an +undeserved one, for he had denied his mother and kindred, and, at last, +fell by the hand of his own brother, who immediately afterward killed +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant's audience were horror-struck, and found it +wondrous +strange that so much of the adventurous was concealed in a +common-place, everyday lackey like Baum.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have at last beheld a tragedy in real life," said one of +the +ladies.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant well knew that tragedies were no longer in +favor, and, in +his anxiety to please, recounted some very interesting reports about +Walpurga, giving, as his authority, the host of the Chamois, an honest, +upright man, who had been decorated for his services in the war.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether it was real or afflicted forgetfulness on their part, +it is +impossible to say,--but the ladies seemed to have forgotten that +Walpurga had ever existed--but who can remember all one's subordinates?</p> + +<p class="normal">For want of some other safe topic of conversation, they +listened to +various droll stories about Walpurga and her dolt of a husband. +Schoning, to use his own words, simply repeated all that the veracious +and upright host of the Chamois had told him. Hansei was described as +an awkward bumpkin, unable to use his hands or feet, and obliged to +call the schoolmaster to his assistance whenever he found it necessary +to count the smallest sum of money. One of these stories, introducing a +wager and a chamber window, was quite piquant and greatly to the taste +of the ladies. They tittered, and scolded the intendant for talking of +such things, but Schoning well knew that the more they scolded, the +better they were pleased with what he had told them. He found an added +pleasure in the opportunity afforded him of using the dialect of the +mountain region from which he had but recently returned, and cleverly +imitated the voices of the peasants and peasant women who had stood +before the window, on the night referred to. He introduced various +forcible and unequivocal expressions, and greatly enjoyed shocking the +ladies, who would, now and then, cry: "Oh, you horrid man! you terrible +man!" One lady actually pricked him with her needle, but he quietly +proceeded with his story, well knowing how delighted they were to +listen to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">And if there was no harm in describing Hansei as a dolt, +there was just +as little in heightening the colors in which Walpurga was depicted--the +petticoats of the peasant women are always shorter upon the stage than +they are in real life--and thus, with the kindest feeling toward all +and merely yielding to his desire to please, the intendant said all +sorts of strange things about Walpurga. It had been rumored, he added, +that it was not without cause that the pastor had called her into the +vestry-room on the first Sunday after her return.</p> + +<p class="normal">With cautious reserve, he at last confided to him, as a great +secret, +the story that Walpurga had received immense sums of money from a +certain lady who had been a friend of hers. It was, of course, +impossible to assign a reason for such gifts, but it was well known +that the money had been used to purchase a large farm. They had, +indeed, been obliged to remove from their old home; for, even in the +country, ill-gotten wealth disgraces its possessors. It had been the +talk of the whole neighborhood. The bailiff had also confirmed the +report that the whole purchase had been paid for in ready money, and +that the price had been more than six times as much as Walpurga had +received for her services as nurse.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intendant again remarked that he did not mean to +calumniate any +one,--that really nothing was further from his intentions;--but he was +determined to be interesting, even though it was at the expense of +others, as well as himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were delighted to know that this dressed-up specimen of +rural +innocence was at last exposed, and only hoped that the queen might also +behold her favorite in her true colors.</p> + +<p class="normal">Care was taken that she should not be left in ignorance of +the story.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king was hunting in the Highlands. He was a veritable sportsman, +and, instead of allowing his retainers to beat up the game and drive it +within shooting distance, would climb the dizziest heights while in +quest of the chamois. His hardened and elastic frame enabled him to +sustain any amount of fatigue or exposure, and gained sinewy strength +and new ardor from the chase.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gentlemen of the party felt sure that some important +matter engaged +the king's mind, and were not a little puzzled how to account for +Bronnen's constant and almost exclusive attendance upon the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was well known that Bronnen had declined to take charge of +the war +office under the Schnabelsdorf ministry, and now it was asserted that +Schnabelsdorf was at a disadvantage; for he was only master of the +green table and was unable to attend the hunt. Bronnen thus had the +king's ear for several days.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rifles were heard on the heights, and many a beast was +killed; rifles +were heard in the valley, and two brothers met their death. In the mean +while, the capital was filled with murmurs that sounded like the roar +of mighty ocean. The queen heard nothing of all this. In her +apartments, all was quiet; not a footfall was heard, naught but +occasional faint whisperings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen had felt outraged by the manner in which the +newspapers she +had read, referred to Eberhard's death; and yet the article had been +mild and reserved when compared with the utterances of the people.</p> + +<p class="normal">They reported affairs at court as in a terrible state; it was +even said +that the queen had lost her reason when she heard the news of Countess +Wildenort's death.</p> + +<p class="normal">People little knew how much of truth lay in this rumor. The +night that +Irma had spent wandering over hill and dale, was not half so terrible +as the thoughts that filled the queen's mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">She hated and abhorred Irma, and yet envied her her death. A +queen dare +not commit suicide, for that were without precedent. A queen must +patiently submit, while they slowly kill her according to the forms of +etiquette--must suffer herself, as it were, to be embalmed while yet +alive. And, even then, they do not bury her. No--they simply deposit +her in a vault; dignity must not be sacrificed, and, above all, there +must be no queenly suicide. They offered to bring her child; but she +refused to see it, for Irma had kissed it. She would rub her cheeks +again and again; they were impure, they burned,--for Irma had kissed +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Love, friendship, faith, fidelity, nature, painting, music, +eloquence--all were dead to her, for Irma had possessed them all, and +now all was a lie and a caricature.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen started from her seat with a shudder. She had been +thinking +of the king, and felt sure that his remorse must goad him to +self-destruction. He could not support the thought that she whom he had +ruined had still enough of courage and righteousness left to give up +her life. How could he live after that? How could he aim his gun at an +innocent beast, instead of at himself?</p> + +<p class="normal">He whose name is on the lips of multitudes to whom he owes +duties, may +not lay hands upon himself. But what right had he to indulge in conduct +which must drag him down from his exalted position? To whom could he +look for truth, when he himself--</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen's thoughts almost drove her mad.</p> + +<p class="normal">People said that the queen was crazed--it seemed as if a +vague feeling +had informed them of the yawning abyss that opened before her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave orders that no one should be admitted. She smiled at +the +thought that she could still command, and that there were still some +left to obey her. After some time, she sent for Doctor Gunther. He +appeared at once, for he had been waiting in the anteroom.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen found it a great relief to confide to him the +thoughts that +so bewildered and confused her, but she could not force herself to say +that she still felt how the king loved her--that is, as far as his +wavering, restless nature would permit the existence of what might be +termed love. She confessed everything to Gunther, except that--she felt +ashamed that she could still associate the thought of love with that of +the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, my friend!" said she at last, in a sad tone, "is there +no +chloroform for the soul, or for a part of it?--a few drops of Lethe? +Teach me to forget things, to blunt my sensibility; my thoughts will +kill me."</p> + +<p class="normal">According to his usual practice, Gunther thought it best to +produce an +entire change of tone, instead of attempting to patch and mend the +constitution at every fresh attack. He felt that, as soon as the queen +had learned to think and feel differently, his path would be clear. +Instead of offering to console her, he simply aided her in developing +her thoughts, while he revealed to her the causes that underlie all +human action. He treated the subject according to the great maxim of +the solitary philosopher who claimed that all human actions are +directed by the laws of nature. With those who have attained to a +proper conception and understanding of these laws, the idea of +forgiveness is out of the question. It may, indeed, be regarded as +included in the admission of necessity.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was thus that Gunther endeavored, as it were, to clear +away the +rubbish and the smoking ruins that were left after a fire. The fitful +flames would, however, still burst forth, here and there.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen complained that all seemed chaos to her, and even +went so far +as to declare the desire to be virtuous as mere folly. The only comfort +that Gunther offered her, was that he also knew the utter wretchedness +of despair. He was not as one who, feeling himself secure from danger, +calls out to him who wrestles with the agony of death: "Come to me: it +is pleasant to be here." He was a companion of misery. He told her that +there had been a period when he had not only despaired of his heart, +and believed neither in cures nor in health, but had even lost all +faith in the wisdom that rules the universe.</p> + +<p class="normal">He acted on the principle that the only way to treat the +despondent is +to show them what others have suffered and yet have learned to live.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the consciousness of this truth has dawned upon the +afflicted, +there is new light, and he enters upon the first stage of deliverance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will impart the saddest confession of my life to you," +said Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was a time when I envied the frivolous, and even the +vicious, +their light-heartedness. I desired to be like them. Why burden one's +soul with moral considerations, when one may live so pleasantly while +seizing the joys the world affords us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther paused, and the queen looked up at him in +astonishment. He +continued calmly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have saved myself, and my rich experience has convinced me +that +every one of us, even though he strive for excellence, has, so to say, +a skeleton closet somewhere in his soul. There must have been a time, +if only a moment, when his thoughts were impure, or when he was on the +point of committing a sin."</p> + +<p class="normal">As if reflecting on what he had said, the queen was silent +for a long +while, and at last said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me; are there any happy beings in this world?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mean, are there beings in whom inclination and destiny are +in +accord, and who are, at the same time, conscious of this harmony?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you! I see that you are endeavoring to express +yourself with +precision. Your Majesty knows that, to a certain extent, I judge +persons by their mode of forming sentences. It is not so important to +display what is called cleverness, as to be clear and concise in what +one has to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen observed that her friend endeavored to lead her to +take a +larger view of affairs, and to assist her in acquiring self-command; +and, with a sad smile, she asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you know the answer to my question?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I do; Your Majesty knows the story of the shirt of +the happy +one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not quite remember it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, to tell it in as few words as possible: A +certain king was +ill, and it was said that he could not recover until the shirt of a +happy man was procured for him. They searched and searched, and at last +found a man who was unspeakably happy, and--he had no shirt to his +back. I change the story according to my own conviction. Were I a poet, +I would, in fancy, wander from house to house, from town to town, from +country to country, describe the life of men in various conditions, and +point out that, with all their complaining, they were, nevertheless, +happy, or, at all events, as happy as they could be. Every human being +is endowed with a certain capacity for happiness, the measure of which +is regulated by his nature. It is this which determines how high or how +deep, his joys or misfortunes; how blunt or how keen, his sensibility. +The measure of happiness assigned to every human being corresponds to +the requirements of his nature. Unhappiness is necessary in order that +we may appreciate happiness, just as we need shadows to help us +distinguish the light."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you think that all people are happy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are so in truth, but not in reality. The reason is, +they are not +in accord with the requirements of their nature, and are ever seeking +for happiness in that which they have not, or rather that which they +are not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not quite comprehend that, but will endeavor to do so," +replied +the queen; "but, tell me, can he who is conscious of guilt also be +happy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, if he acts freely, and if the knowledge of his guilt +makes him +more forgiving and more active in good works. Errors, irregularities, +or what are termed faults, are the result of excessive or defective +endowment, and may, to a certain extent, be described as the <i>basso +relievo</i> or <i>alto relievo</i> of character. Faults of excess may be +remedied by education and knowledge, but not those of deficiency. Most +of us, however, require those who belong to us, and all whom we wish to +be noble and great, to fill up the defects of their nature; and that is +simply requiring the impossible."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was silent for some time. She was evidently making +the +doctor's thoughts her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I, too, have a bas-relief fault," said she, at last. "My +desire to +forsake the religion of my fathers and to embrace a strange faith +subjected me to deceit and estrangement, and I regard this as a +punishment visited upon me by God or nature. It was this that made the +king look upon me as weak and vacillating, and impelled him to leave +me. I was the first to think of defection, and defection at last became +my punishment!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen wept while uttering these words, and her tears were +in pity +for herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther remained calm and quiet.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was on the threshold of the second stage of +knowledge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The mere idea of renouncing your faith--and Your Majesty may +remember +that I never approved of it--" said Gunther, after a long pause, "only +served to show that Your Majesty felt the need of possessing +convictions which were not alone in accord with your nature, but were +also the outgrowth of it. Every clear perception of truth, every +conquest over pain, is a transformation, a remodeling of existence, or, +as it is sometimes termed, a purification."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand," replied the queen. "Oh, that I knew the +system by which +the world is governed, and the reasons that underlie human destiny! Why +was I obliged to experience this? Has it made me any better? Will it +inspire me to nobler actions? Would I not have been far better if my +life had remained unclouded? I was full of love for all human beings. +Ah, it was so delightful to know of no one on earth who was my enemy, +and still more delightful to know no one whom I must hate and detest! +And what am I to-day? I feel as if, where'er I turn, a corpse lies in +my path. There is no free spot left me on earth! You are a wise man; +help me to banish these terrible thoughts!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not wise; and, if I were, I could not bestow my wisdom +upon you. +It was a saying of the ancients, that others can show you the apples of +the Hesperides, but cannot gather them for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well! be it so. But tell me, would it not be better to +grow +greater and nobler and stronger in virtue, and in our faith in +humanity?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Childlike innocence is happiness, but a clear perception of +truth +is a great gain and, according to my opinion, a necessary and enduring +joy--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You avoid my question. It seems to me that you, too, are +without the +key."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not possess it--life is inexorable. All that we can do +is to bend +to the descending storm, and yet remain steadfast. Sunshine will come +again. We are subject to the lesser law of our own nature, and the +greater law that embraces the universe. There is not a star that +completes its course without deviation. Surrounding planets attract or +repel it; but yet it moves on, in its appointed course, teaching +mankind the lesson of perseverance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You offer remedies, and yet place your trust in the healing +powers of +nature?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly," replied Gunther, "nature alone can help us."</p> + +<p class="normal">After a while, he added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"To one who is bowed down by grief, it were useless to +suggest +refreshing wanderings on the heights. With returning strength, the +desire will return; for the will is merely the outward manifestation of +inner power. Now, while bending to the blow which has just descended +upon you, you are clothed and sustained by the life-giving power of +nature. It is this that sustains existence until we again awaken to +life and free action. My good mother, in her devout manner, used to +say: 'May God help us, until we can help ourselves.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you!" said the queen. "I thank you," she repeated, +and closed +her eyes.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the same morning on which the king and Bronnen were closeted +together at the hunting-seat, the queen sent for Gunther. He found her +clad in white and resting on her couch. She looked pale and feeble, and +told him how provoked she felt at the vanity and conceit which had +induced her, a young queen, to regard herself as wise and good, and had +led her to imagine herself as gifted with unusual endowments.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you know of what was going on here?" she asked the +physician.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; I would not have believed it possible, and it is only +now that I +understand the terrible death of my dear friend Eberhard. A father in +such grief--"</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen did not enter into this view of the matter and went +on, as if +speaking to herself:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I recall the days, the hours, in which she sung, I must +ask myself, can it be possible to sing such songs and such +words,--breathing naught but love, kindness, exaltation, purity--and +at the same time have nothing in one's soul? Aye, worse than +nothing--falseness and hypocrisy? Every word seems false. Have we a +right to be princes, to regard ourselves as superior to others and +entitled to rule them, if we do not elevate ourselves above them by +purity and greatness of soul? I have become a changed being since +yesterday. My soul then lay at the bottom of the sea, and the waves of +death and despair raged above me; but now I wish to live. Only tell me +how to endure it all. You've been at court so long and despise +everything. Don't shake your head; you despise it all--! Tell me, how +is one to endure it? How can one manage to live on and yet remain here? +You surely possess the mystery; impart it to me, for that alone can +save me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," replied the physician, "you are still +feverish and +excited."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed, is that the sum of all your science? Princes are +right when +they abuse their fellow-creatures, for even the best of men are naught +but polite shadows. I had placed all my dependence upon you; I had +looked up to you as one exalted far above me; and where I had hoped to +clasp a hand, you offer me an empty glove. You smile; I am not +delirious, I've merely awakened to the truth; I have just passed +through hours in which the beautiful world--ah! how full of beauty it +was--seemed filled with naught but creeping worms and loathsome +corruption. Oh, it is terrible! I fancied there was one free being to +whom I could tell all, and from whom I could ask everything in return; +but you are not the man. Ah! there are no real men in this world. The +best are nothing more than title-bearing creatures!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shall not have goaded me in vain!" muttered Gunther half +aloud, +and rising from his seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I didn't mean to offend you!" cried the queen. "Ah, thus it +is; in +pain and sorrow, we wound those who are nearest to us!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Calm yourself, Your Majesty," replied Gunther, seating +himself. "If +there is anything for which I may claim credit, it is that I do not +indulge my sensitiveness. I am severe toward others, because I am +severe toward myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen closed her eyes, but presently she looked at him +intently and +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I fear nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus encouraged, Gunther went on to say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Human fancy cannot realize how much of vice and misery, nor, +on the +other hand, how much of beauty, holiness, grandeur and sublimity there +is in life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I am here at the palace, which is a world in +miniature, +a world in itself. All that is terrible, and all that is noble, is +attracted hither--and yet, with every returning spring, the flowers +bloom and the trees deck themselves in robes of green, while the stars +shine over all. There is a blooming flower, a shining star even in the +most despicable of beings. A drop descends from the clouds and falls +upon the dusty road. The drop and the dust uniting, become the mire of +the highway; but to the eye that looks deeper, the drop is still pure, +although divided and subdivided until it is almost impalpably minute, +and inseparable from the dust that darkens it. But even this image does +not suffice. No image directed to the senses, can convey an adequate +conception of the Deity. God exists even in the grain of dust. To our +eyes, it is dust; but to the eye of God, it is as pure as the water and +is equally the abode of infinity. The very people whom you regard as so +false would like to be good, if it did not entail so much trouble and +involve so many sacrifices. Most men would like to win virtue, but do +not care to earn it. They all desire to draw the great prize in the +lottery of morality. 'Oh, if I were only good!' said a lost creature to +me, one day. Your Majesty, truth tells us that hatred and contempt are +not good for they injure the soul. The true art of living requires us +to recognize that which is base in its true colors, but at the same +time, to avoid debasing ourselves by violent or passionate feelings +against that which is wicked or vulgar. You must remove hatred from +your heart, and be at peace with yourself. Hatred destroys the soul. +You must grow to feel that, viewed in the proper light, vice and crime +are simply defects. They may lead to a thousand sad consequences, but, +of themselves, have no existence; virtue alone is a reality. Come up +higher, unto where I stand, and you will find that you have been +tormenting yourself with mere shadows."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see the steps," said the queen; "help me up!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naught can avail but self-help. Each must learn to be +monarch of +himself, even though he wear a kingly crown. The law teaches us that, +in order to retain this command over ourselves, we must not permit +anger and hatred to dwell in our souls, or to poison so much of the +world as is given us to enjoy, be our share great or small."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had too much faith in virtue and kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very likely. As long as one believes in mankind, there will +be +deception and despair. We persist in judging our fellow-creatures by +what they are as regards us, instead of what they are as regards +themselves. And thus, as long as we believe in human virtue, we may, at +times, be perplexed at finding ourselves disappointed where we least +expect it. As soon, however, as we recognize the Divine in everything, +even though the possessor himself is unconscious of it, we have +attained a lofty standpoint, from which we feel sure both of ourselves +and of the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen hurriedly raised herself and, extending both hands +to +Gunther, exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are a worker of miracles."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not that. I am only a physician who has held many a +hand hot +with fever, or stiff in death, in his own. The healing art might serve +as an illustration. We help all who need our help, and do not stop to +ask who they are, whence they come, or whether, when restored to +health, they persist in their evil courses. Our actions are incomplete, +fragmentary; thought alone is complete and all-embracing. Our deeds and +ourselves are but fragments--the whole is God."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I grasp your meaning. But our life, as you say, is +indeed a +mere fraction of life as a whole, and how is each one to bear up under +the portion of suffering that falls to his individual lot? Can one--I +mean it in its best sense--always be outside of one's-self?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am well aware, Your Majesty, that passions and emotions +cannot be +regulated by ideas; for they grow in a different soil, or, to express +myself correctly, move in entirely different spheres. It is but a few +days since I closed the eyes of my old friend Eberhard. Even he never +fully succeeded in subordinating his temperament to his philosophy; +but, in his dying hour, he rose beyond the terrible grief that broke +his heart--grief for his child. He summoned the thoughts of better +hours to his aid--hours when his perception of the truth had been +undimmed by sorrow or passion--and he died a noble, peaceful death. +Your Majesty must still live and labor, elevating yourself and others, +at one and the same time. Permit me to remind you of the moment when, +seated under the weeping ash, your heart was filled with pity for the +poor child that, from the time it enters into the world, is doubly +helpless. Do you still remember how you refused to rob it of its +mother? I appeal to the pure and genuine impulse of that moment. You +were noble and forgiving then, because you had not yet suffered. You +cast no stone at the fallen; you loved and, therefore, you forgave."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh God!" cried the queen, "and what has happened to me? The +woman on +whose bosom my child rested is the most abandoned of creatures. I loved +her, just as if she belonged to another world--a world of innocence. +And now I am satisfied that she was the go-between, and that her +<i>naïveté</i> was a mere mask concealing an unparalleled hypocrite. I +imagined that truth and purity still dwelt in the simple rustic +world--but everything is perverted and corrupt. The world of simplicity +is base; aye, far worse than that of corruption!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not arguing about individuals. I think you mistaken in +regard to +Walpurga; but, admitting that you are right, of this, at least, we can +be sure: morality does not depend upon so-called education or +ignorance, belief or unbelief. The heart and mind which have regained +purity and steadfastness alone possess true knowledge. Extend your view +beyond details and take in the whole--that alone can comfort and +reconcile you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see where you are, but I cannot get up there. I can't +always be +looking through your telescope that shows naught but blue sky. I am too +weak. I know what you mean; you say, in effect: 'Rise above these few +people, above this span of space known as a kingdom--compared with the +universe, they are but as so many blades of grass, or a mere clod of +earth.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther nodded a pleased assent, but the queen, in a sad +voice, added:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but this space and these people constitute my world. Is +purity +merely imaginary? If it be not about us, where can it be found?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Within ourselves," replied Gunther. "If it dwell within us, +it is +everywhere; if not, it is nowhere. He who asks for more, has not yet +passed the threshold. His heart is not yet what it should be. True love +for the things of this earth, and for God, the final cause of all, does +not ask for love in return. We love the divine spark that dwells in +creatures themselves unconscious of it: creatures who are wretched, +debased and, as the church has it, unredeemed. My master taught me that +the purest joys arise from this love of God or of eternally pure +nature. I made this truth my own, and you can and ought to do likewise. +This park is yours; but the birds that dwell in it, the air, the light, +its beauty, are not yours alone, but are shared with you by all. So +long as the world is ours, in the vulgar sense of the word, we may love +it; but when we have made it our own, in a purer and better sense, no +one can take it from us. The great thing is to be strong and to know +that hatred is death, that love alone is life, and that the amount of +love that we possess is the measure of the life and the divinity that +dwells within us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther rose and was about to withdraw. He feared lest +excessive +thought might over-agitate the queen, who, however, motioned him to +remain. He sat down again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You cannot imagine--" said the queen, after a long pause, +"but that is +one of the cant phrases that we have learned by heart. I mean just the +reverse of what I have said. You can imagine the change that your words +have effected in me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can conceive it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me ask a few more questions. I believe--nay, I am +sure--that on +the height you occupy, and toward which you would fain lead me, there +dwells eternal peace. But it seems so cold and lonely up there. I am +oppressed with a sense of fear, just as if I were in a balloon +ascending into a rarer atmosphere, while more and more ballast was ever +being thrown out. I don't know how to make my meaning clear to you. I +don't understand how to keep up affectionate relations with those about +me, and yet regard them from a distance, as it were--looking upon their +deeds as the mere action and reaction of natural forces. It seems to me +as if, at that height, every sound and every image must vanish into +thin air."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty. There is a realm of thought in +which hearing +and sight do not exist, where there is pure thought and nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But are not the thoughts that there abound projected from +the realm +of death into that of life, and is that any better than monastic +self-mortification?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is just the contrary. They praise death, or, at all +events, extol +it, because, after it, life is to begin. I am not one of those who deny +a future life. I only say, in the words of my master: 'Our knowledge is +of life and not of death,' and where my knowledge ceases, my thoughts +must cease. Our labors, our love, are all of this life. And because God +is in this world and in all that exist in it, and only in those things, +have we to liberate the divine essence, wherever it exists. The law of +love should rule. What the law of nature is in regard to matter, the +moral law is to man."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot reconcile myself to your dividing the divine power +into +millions of parts. When a stone is crushed, every fragment still +remains a stone; but when a flower is torn to pieces, the parts are no +longer flowers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us take your simile as an illustration, although in +truth no +example is adequate. The world, the firmament, the creatures that live +on the face of the earth, are not divided--they are one; thought +regards them as a whole. Take, for instance, the flower. The idea of +divinity which it suggests to us, and the fragrance which ascends from +it, are yet part and parcel of the flower: attributes without which it +is impossible for us to conceive of its existence. The works of all +poets, all thinkers, all heroes, may be likened to streams of +fragrance, wafted through time and space. It is in the flower that they +live forever. Although the eternal spirit dwells in the cell of every +tree or flower, and in every human heart, it is undivided and, in its +unity, fills the world. He whose thoughts dwell in the infinite, +regards the world as the mighty corolla from which the thought of God +exhales."</p> + +<p class="normal">For some time, the queen kept her face buried in her hands. +Gunther +quietly withdrew.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king returned from the hunt. His courageous wanderings among the +Highlands had reinvigorated him. He, too, was in a changed frame of +mind. He had already received a full account of what had happened at +the lake. "That's over," thought he; "I can't always be dragging the +past about with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was informed that the queen had not left her apartments +since the +receipt of the dreadful news. He sent for Gunther, who informed him of +the queen's condition, and recommended that she be treated with great +indulgence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king fancied that the doctor's manner was more reserved +than usual. +He would have liked to ask him as to the queen's thoughts, how she had +received the sad news, and whether she had conquered her grief; but it +was Gunther's duty to tell him all this, without waiting to be +questioned. At last, the king asked him:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is the queen's mind composed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is noble and beautiful as ever," replied Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has she been reading of late? Did she send for the court +chaplain?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not to my knowledge, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, who, at other times, found the observance of +etiquette so +convenient, now found it irksome.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have liked the doctor to speak of his own accord, +and explain +much that was yet unclear, instead of simply answering the questions +put to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have had a great trial; in Count Eberhard, you lost an +old +friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He lives in my memory, just as he did before he died," +replied +Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's heart was filled with anger. He had been very +friendly in +his advances toward this man, had even inquired after an event in his +private life, and yet Gunther, while preserving perfect decorum, +remained as reserved and as repelling as ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">His old aversion toward this man, who, in the midst of the +excitement +at court, always remained unmoved, was again aroused. He dismissed +Gunther, with a gracious wave of his hand; but when he had gone, his +eye followed him with a sinister expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">A thought occurred to him which made his cheeks glow, and +determined +him upon another line of action. It was now clear to him that the real +cause of his misstep lay in the fact that a third person had stood +between him and his wife. This should no longer be the case, no matter +how well it was meant. Instead of asking Gunther for information as to +his wife's thoughts and feelings, she should tell him all, in person +and alone. He felt a deep affection for her, and thought that, since he +had conquered so much within himself, he was again worthy of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king sent for Countess Brinkenstein. Since the sad +occurrence, the +king had only moved among men, by whom affairs of this nature are +treated more lightly and, in fact, are scarcely alluded to. And now, +for the first time, he stood face to face with a woman; one indeed in +whom a noble mind was combined with the most orthodox observance of +court etiquette. The king's demeanor was dignified, although his heart +trembled with emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We have had sad experiences," said he to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">With great tact, Countess Brinkenstein managed to turn the +conversation +into another channel and thus avert any explanation on the king's part. +She thought it unbecoming a king to justify himself or to show himself +weak or perplexed; and, besides that, she regarded it as the duty of +those about him, to smooth over all that was unpleasant as gracefully +as possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king appreciated her considerateness. He asked her +whether she had +often seen the queen during the last few days, and who was now waiting +on her. The countess informed him that she had only once been with the +queen, who had expressed a wish in regard to his royal highness the +crown prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, how is the prince?" asked the king. During all these +days, he had +scarcely thought of his child, and now, as if with renewed +consciousness of the fact, he remembered that he had a son.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Remarkably well," replied the countess, who went on to name +the +various ladies and gentlemen of the court who were now in attendance +upon her majesty the queen. No one had seen her during the last few +days, except Madame Leoni, who had been with her constantly, and the +doctor, who had conversed with her for hours.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king gave orders to have the prince brought into his +apartments. He +kissed the boy, whose round and delicate little hand played with his +father's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou shalt honor thy father--if I could only wipe away that +one +reproach," said he to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt as if his child's touch had endowed him with new +strength, and +was about to proceed to the queen's apartments when Schnabelsdorf was +announced. The king was obliged to remain and receive him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The prime minister informed him that the result of all the +elections +was now known, and that his position would be a difficult one, for the +majority had been on the side of the opposition.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king shrugged his shoulders and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must await events."</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf looked astounded at this indifference. What +could have +happened?</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is only one new election necessary," said he. "Your +Majesty is +aware that Count Eberhard Wildenort was elected as a deputy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know," said the king. "Why mention this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf dropped his eyes and added: "I am informed that +Colonel +von Bronnen, Your Majesty's adjutant-general, whose name has already +been mentioned in that connection, is to be brought forward as a +candidate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bronnen will refuse to stand," said the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf received this remark with an almost +imperceptible bow. He +had a presentiment of what was going on.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king permitted his minister to inform him of what was +most urgent, +but begged him to be brief.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf was very brief.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king dismissed him. His intention was to have +Schnabelsdorf open +the new chamber. If, as was to be expected, the majority were against +him, Bronnen would form a new cabinet.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no slight struggle on the part of the king, to suffer +that which +ought to have emanated from his own will to appear as a yielding, on +his part, to the popular voice; but he felt that it was the first real +proof of his subjection to the law, and he meant to find his highest +glory in giving expression to the voice of the people.</p> + +<p class="normal">His new motto: "True and free," again impressed itself upon +him. Calm +and self-possessed, he repaired to the queen's apartments.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen had been informed of the king's return, and the calmness and +self-command that she had regained seemed to vanish. As long as he +remained at a distance, she felt herself secure in the lofty realm of +thought; but now that he was near her, the thought of meeting him face +to face made her tremble with fear. Her sense of injury loosened the +weak foundations of the principles it had cost her such an effort to +make her own. It was already night when the queen heard her husband's +voice in the ante-chamber. He wished to see her, he said, even if she +were asleep. He entered softly. She kept her eyes closed and forced +herself to breathe as gently as possible. It was the first deceit of +her life. She was only feigning sleep, and how often had he who now +stood before her feigned sincerity and truth--? Her breathing became +heavier; it required all her self-command to remain quiet. Horror at +the idea of feigning death now possessed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She lay there motionless, with her hands folded, and her +husband stood +before her. She imagined that she felt his loving, affectionate glance, +but what could his love or affection be? She felt his warm breath +against her face. And now he felt her pulse, and yet she did not stir. +She felt the kiss that he imprinted upon her hand, and yet she did not +move. She heard him turn to Madame Leoni and say: "She sleeps quietly, +thank God! don't tell her that I was here." She heard his words, and +his soft footsteps while he left the room, and yet she did not move. +Lest her attendant should discover the deception, she was obliged to +keep up the appearance of being asleep and to affect entire ignorance +of what had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the king reached the anteroom, he said to the +waiting-woman:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you, dear Leoni!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," replied Madame Leoni, with a profound bow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have of late afforded fresh proofs of your attachment to +the +queen. I shall not forget it. It is a comfort to me to know that she is +surrounded by such careful attendants. My dear Leoni, do all you can to +secure the queen as much repose as possible; and if she should wish for +anything particular, which you think that the ladies of the court or +Countess Brinkenstein need know nothing of, address yourself to me. Has +the queen spoken much during the last few days?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes! unfortunately, too much; that's what makes her so +exhausted. +She talked for hours, incessantly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was it with you that she talked so much?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it was with the doctor?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was. But pardon me, Your Majesty, it seems to me that his +medicines +consist of words."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king remembered that Madame Leoni owned a grudge to the +queen, and +a still greater one to Gunther, because the position of ayah to the +crown prince had been given to Madame von Gerloff, instead of her. He +was not disposed to take advantage of this, and only said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The physician, dear Leoni, should always be the confidant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty; but our noble queen is so +despondent, and it +seems to me it would be far better to cheer her up and make her laugh, +instead of conversing about such difficult and terrible subjects. Your +Majesty will surely not understand me, but I should like to help our +noble queen, and her best, indeed her only helper, is Your Majesty. +Whoever thrusts himself between you and her does more harm than good."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king felt concerned. He had never indulged in espionage, +and now +that he felt himself purified and elevated, was doubly averse to it. +Nevertheless, he asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray, tell me what has happened!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! Your Majesty; I'd rather die than wrong my royal +mistress, but +what I am doing can't harm her; it is only meant to aid her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Confide all to me," said the king, in a soft voice,--himself +displeased at what he was saying,--"you could not so demean yourself as +to be a spy on the words and actions of others, nor could I desire or +permit you to do so; but it is necessary for me to know how the queen +can be helped out of her present trouble, and, therefore, I ought to be +informed of what is told her, and how matters are discussed here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty," replied Madame Leoni, and, having +apologized +for the ugly words, she informed him how the physician had spoken of +the origin of the mud in the highways, how a pure drop from the +heavenly clouds mingles with the dust of the road; and that they had +gone on to talk of sculpture, of <i>haut relief</i> and <i>bas relief</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Leoni could only furnish a disconnected statement, but +the king +already knew enough.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the following morning, the king sent word to the queen that he must +see her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastened to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were both alone in the apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was about to embrace his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">She begged him to be seated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you please," said he, in a gentle voice. He was resolved +to win her +back to him, in candor and love.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you speak first, or shall I?" he asked, after a pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">His voice was clear and distinct, and startled her. She +observed his +fresh appearance, and grew still paler. She pressed her hand to her +heart; she could not speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then let me speak. Mathilde, we won each other in +sincere love. +I frankly confess that I have sinned deeply against you and others, and +now I beg you to believe in my sincere repentance. Don't judge me +meanly, or in a narrow sense!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not meanly? O yes, I understand! To great minds like +yourself, +morality is narrow-mindedness. Yours are the large, the world-embracing +hearts, and I am a bigoted, self-opinionated creature!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, don't say that; I didn't mean to wound you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh no! you didn't mean to wound me; certainly not, never!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, with that tone we shall never arrive at perfect +harmony. Ask +anything of me, as a proof of my repentance and conversion. You have +the right to do so; I swear to you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't swear. I pity you,--there's nothing left by which you +can swear. +Swear by the head of your child--the child at whose cradle you +exchanged adulterous words and glances with her!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let the future efface all recollection of the past!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. Issue a royal mandate: The world and, above all, +my wife, +are to forget that there ever was a Countess Irma; such is my royal +will."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king gazed at his wife in astonishment. Was this the same +tender, +sensitive being? What great change had come over her?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let the dead rest!" said he, at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the dead do not let us rest. She looks at me through +your eyes, +speaks to me with your lips, touches me with your hand; for your hand, +your lips, your eyes, were hers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will withdraw until you regain your composure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, stay! I am quite composed. Perhaps you would rather not +hear what +I have to say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will listen to it all," said the king, seating himself; +"proceed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then let me tell you that you have desecrated a +sanctuary, +lovelier and more beautiful than any that ever existed on earth--the +sanctuary in which you were worshiped. I may tell you this, for the +temple is no more and you are no longer in it. I desired to be one with +you in everything; in every breath, in every word, in every glance, +even though it was directed to Him who is on high. It was for that, +that I offered to sacrifice my faith--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you wish to balance accounts between us? Then remember +that I +didn't ask you to make that sacrifice; it would have been a burden. The +idea of its being a sacrifice is out of the question."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; I'll say no more about that. I merely wished to +tell you +that what I regarded as a sacrifice, you looked upon as weakness. +Enough of that, however. You were false to your marriage vow, and that, +too, with her whom I regarded as my friend! I know the way of the +world, in such matters. The Steigeneck whom your father--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't insult my father's memory! Say what you choose of me, +but don't +insult my father!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't insult him; I honor him. Compared with you, he was +pure and +virtuous. He was free, from all affectation of morality, from lying, +deceit and treachery!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is it that speaks?" said the king, interrupting her. "Is +this my +wife? Is it a queen who utters these words?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They ought not to be my words; you have forced them upon me. +But let +us not dispute about words. Your father bestowed his affections on a +stranger who lived at a distance, and who did not know his wife. +Compared with your conduct, his was virtue itself. You were false to +me, and that, too, with a friend who was constantly at my side; we +conversed together of love, of the stars, of the trees, the mountains +and the valleys, and our thoughts seemed as one. Side by side, we +beheld the works of art, we sang, we played together--and yet you could +both act thus, while at my side, and enter the inner sanctuary of that +which is highest in life. The sky, the earth, all that was pure and +noble in thought or word--you have destroyed them all. I would like to +know the day when, by word or glance, you both ventured to begin your +false game! With every kiss you gave her, you must have said; 'Ah, +my wife--how unhappy I am--she's so narrow-minded, so devoid of +grandeur--'Don't interrupt me! Of one thing I am sure: no husband or +wife can ever touch the hand of another in love, without feeling: 'I am +miserable.' It isn't hatred and revenge that now speak through me, it +is justice! As long as I still loved you, I could hate you; but now I +simply judge you. You must bear the consequences of your actions. +Justice requires that. I pity and deplore your lot. How will you ever +delight in the forest, when she whom you loaded with sin fled through +the forest unto death? How can you look at the lake into which her sin +plunged her? The whole world is annihilated to you, you poor creature! +How your pen must tremble when you again sign a death sentence--you've +murdered both the dead and the living! You may write 'pardon,' but who +will pardon you, 'king by the grace of God'?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, I once believed you incapable of even alluding to +that which +is unseemly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you believe it? and what would you call unseemly in your +case?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Speak on, speak on!" said the king, as the queen now paused +and heaved +a sigh. He saw the fire consuming all that was dearest to him on earth, +and, at the same time, recognized the beauty of the flame. There are +strange chords in the human soul, and the king, although filled with +shame and indignation, could not but admire the power revealed by his +wife. He had never dreamed of its existence. She was greater and +stronger than he had ever imagined, and his appeal to her seemed to +acknowledge her supremacy. This made her the more indignant and, with +forced composure, she continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one has a right to demand of another, of a prince, or +even of +yourself, that he should be a genius; but every one has a right to ask +that you should be an upright man, a true husband and father. You could +be that, just as easily as any peasant or day-laborer can."</p> + +<p class="normal">Pain and resentment were depicted in the king's countenance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde," said he, at last, in a tremulous voice, +"Mathilde, I am not +speaking of myself; but consider how these words must injure you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've considered all that. I know that the thousand little +pleasures of +life are no longer mine. I shall bear a burden which death alone can +remove! I know that. But I've no pity for myself. Where love is dead, +justice must reign!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Love? The love that could die was not love!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let us dispute. We've ceased to understand one +another. Listen +to my last, my irrevocable words. What is left me? to despise you, or +to become despicable myself. Here I stand," said she, drawing herself +up, and appearing taller than before, while a dark flush overspread her +countenance, "here I stand and tell you that I despise you. I will live +with you and by your side, as long as life remains; but I despise you! +Know that, and now leave me. I shall appear with you this evening, at +the court festival. You shall have no reason to complain of any breach +of decorum. Once, love for you was all my life--that memory is mine; +you need it not!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The king arose. He wanted to speak, but it was long before he +could +utter a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does anyone know of your sentiments toward me?" he asked, at +last, in +a hoarse voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; we owe it to our son that no one should know of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mathilde, I never would have believed that you could speak +thus to me. +But it does not come from you; another has forced himself between us. +He taught you to think and speak thus!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are the great master who has taught me to substitute +hatred for +love, and contempt for adoration."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does your friend, the doctor, know nothing of what you are +now +inflicting upon me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot swear to you--you can no longer believe an +oath--but this I +can say: if Gunther knew that I had suffered myself to be carried away +by the ardor of my past love for you, it would grieve him deeply, for +anger, hatred, and revenge, are foreign to his great nature!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His great nature may be made very small."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not, you dare not, rob me of my only friend! I +implore you! +I'll ask for nothing more as long as I live. I'll be obedient and +submissive. I can no longer offer you love. Grant me but this one +request: leave me my only friend!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your only friend? I don't know that title. As far as I know, +there is +no such position at court."</p> + +<p class="normal">"On my knees, I implore you! Don't mortify him! let me keep +this one +friend. He's great, pure, noble; it is he alone who reconciles me to +life!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was about to throw herself on her knees before the +king. He +touched her--she shuddered and drew herself up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be proud!" exclaimed the king. "Be so! and bear the +consequences! Be +the exalted one, the pure drop from the heavenly cloud mingling with +me, the dust of the highway--"</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked up amazed. What was it she had heard? The +words of her +noble friend thus repeated and distorted. Her head swam.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be what you will!" continued the king. "Be alone, and seek +support in +yourself!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He pulled at the betrothal ring on his finger. It was +difficult to get +it off, and his face grew red while he pulled at it with all his +strength. At last, he drew it over his knuckle. Without saying a word, +he laid the ring on the table before the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked to the door. He stopped for a moment, as if +listening for a +word from her--a word to which he would have replied from the depths of +his heart, a word which would have saved and reconciled them both.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked after him. Would he not turn again? would he +not once +more, with heart-piercing tone, cry: "Forgive me!" The love that still +dwelt in her impelled her toward him. It was but for a moment that +the king paused. Involuntarily, the queen stretched her arms toward +him--the moment had passed and, with it, the king had left.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen walked to the <i>portière</i>, and stared fixedly at it. +Then she +fell back on the sofa and wept. She lay there weeping for a long while.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen was now doubly unhappy. She felt unutterable grief because of +her lost love, and had, moreover, suffered herself to be led away by +wicked and hateful passion. The sense of freedom and of elevation, +which Gunther had awakened in her, had vanished. And now that the +heart-rending separation had taken place, it seemed to her like a death +that had been foreseen. But, although we behold its approach from afar, +death ever brings new and unlooked-for woe in its train.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen went to the crown prince's apartments. On her way, +she passed +by the king's cabinet. She paused for a moment, and asked herself how +it would be if she were to enter here, clasp him in her arms and say: +"Let all be forgotten; you are unhappy as well as I, and I will help +you to bear your lot."</p> + +<p class="normal">She passed on, for she felt afraid lest she might again +appear to him +as weak and wavering, while she meant to be strong.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she saw her child, her eyes regained a bright +expression. The +child had not seen its mother weeping and wrestling with her sorrow, +and now she was with him again. "He, too, will come here," said an +inner voice that she was almost loth to listen to. She trembled when +she learned that the king had had the prince brought to his apartments +that very day.</p> + +<p class="normal">She waited for a long while. She would kiss the boy's little +hand again +and again, and would look around to see if the father were not coming.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came not.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was sitting in his cabinet, his hands pressed +against his +burning brow. He had passed the turning-point in his career, and he +could no longer permit himself to be oppressed by private, personal +griefs. He had repented, and that was sufficient. He was determined to +effect a change in himself, and that was more than enough. Of what use +were further accusations and penalties? A deep feeling of resentment +against his wife arose within him. She was weak and revengeful. No, not +weak; she was endowed with a power of which he had never had the +faintest presentiment, and he felt deeply conscious of the grievous +fault he had committed in deceiving such a wife. He was, however, +unable to free himself from the thought that his punishment was an +affront to his exalted position. And while his own life-fabric lay in +ruins, why should he, with wondrous self-denial, set about righting the +lives of others? The heart that is reconciled and at peace with itself, +is the only one that can exert a reconciling and peaceful influence on +others. A spirit of defiance and discontent moved him to abandon the +reforms he had begun, for she who was nearest and dearest to him, his +own wife, would not justly acknowledge them.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sat there for a long while, dull and depressed. At length +he arose, +his face expressive of defiance and firmness. He had determined to +accomplish the good, whether his efforts were appreciated or misjudged. +His strength for good had conquered. Unaided, and for the sake of his +own honor, he had determined to carry out the measures that he +considered right, and the happiness that this would cause him must +compensate for the lost pleasures of love.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were great festivities at court that evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">The betrothal of Princess Angelica to Prince Arnold was +officially +celebrated. The queen appeared, leaning on her husband's arm, and had a +kind and gentle greeting for every one. She looked weak, but none the +less beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one was able to discover the faintest trace of the rupture +between +the royal pair, nor did any one notice that the ring was no longer on +the king's hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and queen conversed with apparent cordiality, but +she often +looked as if she must ask him: "Has nothing happened?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she would look about her fearfully, as if the specter of +Irma must +suddenly appear in white, dripping garments.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the king, accompanied by the queen, had made the round +of the +saloons, he saluted Bronnen most cordially and remained with him for +some time, engaged in lively conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked on in amazement. She well knew that Bronnen +had +secretly admired Irma, and had even sought her hand. How had it +happened that the king had become so intimate with this man, and +distinguished him above all the other members of the court? There was +no opportunity to obtain information on this point. The whole summer +palace was illuminated; the terrace was hung with variegated lamps; +vessels of burning pitch were placed in the park, sending their +brightness out into the autumn night; the band of Prince Arnold's +regiment played merry airs, the glow of lights and the sounds of music +were wafted far out into the valley and even into the mountains, on +whose lonely heights there were human dwellings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen met Gunther, but simply exchanged a few hasty words +with him. +The king greeted him politely as he passed by.</p> + +<p class="normal">He won't be so cruel, thought the queen. There was a strange +shyness in +her expression whenever her eyes rested on Gunther, and, on one +occasion, the king observed this and shook his head. The queen felt +that Gunther must be displeased with her, for she had not acted +according to the laws that he had explained to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following day, it was reported throughout the capital +that +Doctor Gunther had received his dismissal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The official gazette which contained an account of the +betrothal +festivities announced that "His Majesty the King has been graciously +pleased to accept the resignation of his body physician, Privy +Councilor Gunther, and, in token of his satisfaction, has conferred the +cross of Commander of the ---- Order upon him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the personal announcements was the following:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I bid farewell to all my friends, and am about to remove to my native +town ---- in the Highlands.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Doctor William Gunther</span>,</p> +<p class="hang1" style="margin-left:50%; margin-top:0px">"<i>Privy Councilor and late Physician in Ordinary +to His Majesty the King</i>:"</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>A STORY</h3> + +<h4>OF</h4> + +<h2>A SOLITARY WORLDLING.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK VII.</h2> +<hr class="W10"> +<br> + +<h3>(IRMA'S JOURNAL.)</h3> + +<p class="normal">Cast ashore--what is there left me, but to live on, because I am not +dead?</p> + +<p class="normal">For days and nights, this unsolved question kept me, as it +were, +hovering between heaven and earth, just as it was in the terrible +moment when I glided down from the rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have solved the problem.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am working. I shall remain resolved, no matter what the +result. I +find it a relief to note down my thoughts and feelings.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was ill,--of a fever, they tell me,--and now I am at work.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had told the grandmother of what I could do, but there was +no chance +to apply it here. She took me out into the garden, and we gathered up +the apples that Uncle Peter shook down from the tree. Then the old, +blind pensioner, whose room is over mine, came out and told us, with +angry cries, that a certain portion of the apples belonged to him. He +tried to find one, so that he might taste it, and thus ascertain which +tree we were shaking. I handed him an apple, and told him that I lived +in the room under his.</p> + +<p class="normal">We were still in the garden, when a man came who wanted to +purchase two +maple-trees that were standing by the cross road, in order to use them +for carving. This seemed like a ray of hope. I told the grandmother +that I knew how to mold in clay, and that I thought I could easily +learn how to carve in wood. And now I'm in the workshop, as a pupil.</p> + +<p class="normal">This is my first free Sunday, and, while all are away at +church, I am +writing this.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I once knew a man who had already been kneeling on the +sand-heap, the +muskets aimed at him, and--he was pardoned. I have often seen him. Oh +that I had asked him how he lived on!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There is no mirror in my room. I have determined never to see +myself +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">And since I neither have, nor desire a mirror, let these +pages be the +mirror of my soul.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Oh this repose! this solitude! It is like rising from the +lake, like +life regained. And yet how calm, how restful!</p> + +<p class="normal">Up here, and in thousands of other places on this earth, +'twas ever +thus, while, down below, I was about to commit a fearful sin!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have just returned from the workshop. Formerly, when making +excursions from the summer palace into the surrounding country, we +would stop at the industrial villages and visit the large workshops, +where everything was shown us. I used to feel a sense of shame--ah! +that was long ago--at the thought of our merely looking on for a +moment, while others were working. And when we returned to our +carriages and drove off, leaving the men still at their work, what must +they have thought of us?</p> + +<p class="normal">I am now at the workbench myself.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Why does no religion place the command: "Thou shalt work" +above all +others?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">They say that the wound sucked by living lips heals quickly. +O thou who +art called queen! I would like to suck up the blood that trickles from +thy heart!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Did I destroy the letter to the queen, or did it reach her?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I started with fright, when the grandmother asked me why I +had pained +the queen by informing her that I meant to take my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why? I know not why. All I know is that I could not help it; +it was the +last, the unavoidable tribute I owed to truthfulness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why is it that we only concern ourselves about what others +may think of +us after death when life has become but an empty sound?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Sad and painful days.</p> + +<p class="normal">I regarded it as my duty to write to the queen from my place +of +concealment. Uncle Peter, a true-hearted and obliging little man, who +is always at my service and would like to show me a kindness every +moment, offered to carry a letter for me to a distant town. The queen +shall not grieve on my account--not for my death, at all events. I will +let her know that I am yet alive, but that my life is one of expiation. +If I only felt sure that I had really burnt the letters, or that they +reached him and her. Him I need tell no more. The good mother noticed +that something was troubling me--something that I had kept from her. +She often came to me, but asked no questions. At last I could bear it +no longer, and told her what I had determined on. She took me by the +hand--whenever she means to make her words additionally impressive, she +does this, as if she felt that she must hold fast to me physically--and +said: "Child, you've only to make up your mind clearly as to what you +mean to do. Ask your own heart whether you wouldn't rather be +discovered. Ask your conscience."</p> + +<p class="normal">I started. It is true, I should not care to do anything, but +if it were +to happen--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't give me your answer," continued the mother; "answer +yourself, and +then ask yourself whether, if you returned to where you once were, you +wouldn't, on the morrow or the day after, wish to be away again. But +let me tell you one thing: whatever you determine on, do it thoroughly. +Don't write at all, and let the queen mourn you; for it's much easier +to grieve for the dead than for one who, though living, is lost; or +else, write to her honestly and frankly: 'Here I am.' As I said before, +whatever you do, let it be done thoroughly. O my child!" she added, "I +fear it will be with you as it was with the poor soul. Do you know the +story of the poor soul?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I'll tell it to you. There was once a young girl who, +having gone +astray and died an early death, descended into hell; and there Saint +Peter could always hear her crying, from amidst the flames, 'Paul! +Paul!' in tones that were so heartrending that even the most wicked +demons couldn't find it in their hearts to mock at her. So one day +Saint Peter went up to the gates of hell and inquired: 'My dear child, +why are you always crying "Paul! Paul!" in such a pitiful voice?' and +the girl replied: 'Ah, dear Saint Peter, what are all of hell's +torments? To me, they're nothing. Paul is worse off than I am. How will +he endure life without me? I only ask for one thing; let me return to +the earth once more; only for a moment, so that I may see how he's +getting on, and I'll be willing to remain in hell a hundred years +longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'A hundred years!' said St. Peter. 'Consider, my child; a +hundred +years is a long time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Not to me. Oh, I implore you to let me see my Paul once +more! After +that, I'll certainly be quiet and submit patiently to everything.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Saint Peter resisted for a long while, but the poor soul +gave him no +peace, and at last he said: 'Well, you may go, for all I care; but +you'll be sorry for it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so the poor soul returned to the earth, in order to see +her +beloved Paul. And when she got there, and saw him feasting and enjoying +himself with others, she quietly went back to eternity and, shaking her +head sadly, said: 'Now I'll return to hell and repent.' And then Saint +Peter said to her: 'The hundred years you promised are forgiven you. +During the one minute you passed on earth, you suffered more than you +would have done in a hundred years of hell.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that's the story of the poor soul."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I thirst for some spring outside of me, which would refresh +and redeem +me. I long for music, for faith, for some soul-liberating dedication of +myself! I find it not. I must seek the spring within myself.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In deepest grief it often seems to me as if it were not I who +have +suffered thus. I go my way, and it seems as if some one were telling me +the story of what had happened to another.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">For the first time in my life, I know what it is to feel that +I am +being borne with and favored. I really ought not to be here. I am +eating the bread of charity. Now I know how the poor homeless ones must +feel. If Hansei cared to do so, he could send me out of his house this +very day, and what would become of me then?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am obliged to eat in the company of my hospitable friends, +and I find +it no easy matter to do so. I pity Hansei, most of all. To him, it must +seem as if a strange apparition--the phantom of one whom he knows not, +was seated at his table. I destroy his happiness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have punctured my hand with the gimlet, just because, while +at work, +I am busy thinking of other things. My little pitchman has brought me a +healing salve.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Antique forms of beauty cannot be worked in wood. It is +inflexible, +stubborn stuff, and can, with difficulty, be made to yield to the +designs of art. It is naught but a makeshift material.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how glorious it must be to live up here!" How often is +this +expression heard during country excursions! But we forget that the +atmosphere of country parties and that of home are two very different +things. How different when the wind whistles over the stubble fields +and rages among the leafless forest trees; when dull and heavy mists +creep over the mountains; when, for days and days, the clouds hang +upon the heights, and, now and then, suffer a summit to appear in +phantom-like outline, only to hide it again; when, at night, the storms +disturb your sleep, and it seems as if day would never come. Yes, ye +picnic spirits, with garlands of fresh leaves on your hats! spend weeks +up here without a sofa, without fresh bread; only think of it--without +a sofa!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Solitude with happy, cheerful memories, must needs be +peaceful and +placid. It suggests the lonely tree that sends its roots through the +rich soil and into the clear stream in the valley. But solitude with +sad and dark memories reminds me of the tree whose roots, ever striking +against rocks, must pass over and clamber around them. Thus, holding a +rock in their embrace, they are like a heart laden with a heavy burden +that it can never rid itself of.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Perfect solitude is when, for a whole day, no human eye has +beheld your +face. It does one good to know that no human eye has seen you, and that +the glass that mirrors your features is, as yet, unsullied by the +breath of another.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Solitude is apt to make one superstitious. One naturally +casts about +him for some external support.</p> + +<p class="normal">It always alarms me when, on beginning work in the morning, +one of my +tools drops from my hand. I feel that the day which begins thus will +prove a sad and troubled one. I fight down this superstitious feeling.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">He who possesses a firm faith, although in solitude, is not +alone.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My master is always out of humor. His wife and three +daughters assist +him at his work. Hansei has advanced the pay for my lessons. I am an +apt pupil.</p> + +<p class="normal">I notice that these people regard me as slightly demented. +The little +pitchman informed me that Hansei had given out this report, intending +that it should serve as a sort of invisible cap. This gives me liberty +and yet protects me, but at times it makes me feel uneasy.</p> + +<p class="normal">My master also thinks that I am out of my mind. He addresses +me +cautiously, and is delighted when he finds that I have understood him.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The swallows are departing. Ah! I cannot deny that I fear the +approaching winter. If I only do not become ill. That were terrible! It +would force me to betray myself or--no, I dare not be ill. But I am +still so nervous. It is hard for me to mention it, but it is hard to +bear it. A cow in the stable near by has a bell on her neck, and day +and night it keeps up its unrhythmic tinkling. But I must get used to +it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I really dread the winter. If it were only spring time, +instead of +autumn. Nature would be my friend. Nature is the same everywhere. But +now winter faces me. I must reconcile myself to it, however, for we +cannot arrange the seasons to suit ourselves. I will learn which is the +stronger, my temperament or my will. I shall impose no thoughts upon my +mind but those which ought to engage it.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have determined upon this.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The shoemaker means to recognize Cinderella by her foot--he +finds mine +unusually small for that of a peasant girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">I trust that the fairy tale may remain a fairy tale.</p> + +<p class="normal">That touching air from Isouard's Cinderella:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">Good child, thou must contented be,</p> +<p class="t6">A better lot's in store for thee,</p> +</div> +<p class="continue">has been haunting me, all day long.</p> + +<p class="normal">How simple the words! Music is the fairy that invests +Cinderella's +accents with royal robes, and enthrones them on the lips of all +mankind.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">O happy nursery tale! Thou askest not how the princess lived +as +poultry-maid. Thy fancy uttered its creative: "Let there be--" and +behold! it was.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, in life, such transformations are not brought about +without great +effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga has rightly divined my feelings. It was but to-day +that she +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can't get used to things here. Life here must seem +almost as +strange to you as it did to me in the palace, but, of course, it's +easier to get used to a silken bed than to a sack of leaves."</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt like saying: "And if one means to go home again, it's +far easier +to put up with such discomfort," but I repressed it. One ought not to +torment such people with logical consequences. Their thoughts and +feelings are like the singing of birds, without rhythm and, at best, +like the folk-songs, whose melodies close on the third, instead of on +the key-note.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Since the alluring, glittering life of the great world could +at any +time have been mine, I find it easy to forego it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had I entered a convent and were living there, fettered by a +vow and +subject to restraint, I know that I should have mourned away my days +behind the bars.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To be without gloves! I never knew that one's hands could +become so +cold. I cannot realize that I am without gloves. When he drew off my +glove, a shudder passed through me.--Was it a presentiment?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In the mornings I feel the want of a thousand little +conveniences, with +which use had so familiarized me that I scarcely knew I possessed them. +I am obliged to learn the affairs of everyday life from the good +mother. It is just these things that we forget to learn. We are taught +dancing, before we are really able to walk.</p> + +<p class="normal">From cleaning our shoes in the morning to putting out the +lamps at +night, how many are our wants, how many the helping hands we need! What +with cooking, washing, scouring, drawing of water, and carrying wood, +man finds no time to think of himself. Nature furnishes clothing and +food to the beasts; but man must spin and cook for himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have imposed a difficult task upon myself, for I have +determined to +allow no one to wait upon me. An anchorite cannot afford to be too +cleanly or fastidious; but then I was not intended for an anchorite.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At first it oppressed me to think that I had become a +Robinson Crusoe +in spirit, but now I am proud of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">He who is thrown upon himself, and is no longer able to live +in +accordance with custom, is cast away on a desert island, and must +create everything anew for himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">But why should I, whose heart was already borne down with its +burdens, +be obliged to suffer shipwreck, too?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I look out into the night and all is dark, and there is no light +to tell me: "Here are other beings like yourself," I feel oppressed +with fear, as if I were alone upon the earth!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(October.)--This evening--ah! the evenings are already +long--it +suddenly occurred to me: There are thousands who lead a life of +affluence and pleasure, who move in society, and yet--</p> + +<p class="normal">Why should I alone renounce the world, deprive myself of its +pleasures, +and bury myself in solitude?</p> + +<p class="normal">Because I must and shall! I live only by the favor and +charity of +others. I have wasted my life, trifled it away. Shall I try to regain +it in bitter earnest? I once trifled with words, but now they fetter +and judge me!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">"You're still too heavily laden?" said the grandmother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If a wagon's loaded too heavily, you can't grease its wheels +so as to +stop their creaking. You must wait till it's empty. Then you can raise +it with a jack-screw, take off the wheels and grease the axles. The +burden you still bear is the thoughts of the past; lay them aside, and +you'll soon feel relieved."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At last I know why I get up in the mornings. Something seems +to say to +me: "Thou shalt labor. To-day, this will be finished; to-morrow, that." +And when I lie down to rest, there is always something more in the +world than there was at daybreak.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">"Work!" "Work!" is the daily, hourly watchword here. They +think of +nothing but work. It is a necessity of their being, just as growth is +to the tree. It is this that makes them so self-reliant.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There is misery and discord, even here.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the kindness of her heart, Walpurga said that she could +not endure +the thought of the old blind pensioner's being obliged to eat his meals +alone, and that she meant to have him at the table with the rest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't have it!" said Hansei. "Not a word more about it; I +won't have +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? You ought to know that yourself. If Jochem has once +been at the +table, you can never get rid of him again. So we'd better not have him +at all. You don't know how an old blind man eats."</p> + +<p class="normal">After that, not a word was spoken during the meal. Walpurga +made +believe that she was eating, but she was merely choking down her tears, +and left the table soon afterward. She is keenly sensitive to such +rudeness and cruelty; but she never complains, not even to me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(During a violent storm.)</p> + +<p class="normal">What a fright I have had to-day! My little pitchman told me +that a man +had hanged himself somewhere in the vicinity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It had to come," thought he. "The man had hanged himself +fifteen years +ago, but they cut him down, and he lived on. But it was just as if he +always had a rope around his neck--people who've once tried anything of +that sort, never die a natural death."</p> + +<p class="normal">How his words startled me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Can it be that such dread fate is yet in store for me?</p> + +<p class="normal">I answer: No! It shall not be!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To sit in my warm room and look out at the driving snowstorm, +is like +going back in thought to the hurly-burly of the great world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nine weeks have passed already.</p> + +<p class="normal">I still have a dull, heavy feeling, as if I had been struck +in the head +with a hammer. I merely exist, but it seems as if life were again +dawning upon me. When I awake in the mornings, I am obliged to ask +myself who and where I am, and to recall all my woe. But then work soon +summons me away.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have nothing more to look for, be it from the outer world, +or the +morrow. I am forced back upon myself and the present. For me, there are +neither letters nor books, and the very roads are closed. To arise in +the morning and know that no tidings, whether of joy or sadness, can +come from without; to have nothing to fall back upon but one's self and +the undying laws of nature: he who can lead such a life, self-contained +and yet contented, must be like the child illuminated by its own +radiance--the child painted by Correggio.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hammer and axe, file and saw, all that once seemed to me +instruments of +torture for poor enslaved humanity, I have found the instruments of +deliverance. They banish the demons that dwell within us. Where these +tools are wielded by industrious hands, evil spirits cannot tarry. The +redeemer who will consecrate labor, is yet to come.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At last, I find myself obliged to be content without doing +anything in +the way of art.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although wood is useful, and in many respects indispensable, +it cannot +be applied to serve beauty apart from usefulness. The substance with +which my art, or rather trade, employs itself, is unequal to the +demands of art, except for decorative purposes. Bronze and marble speak +a universal language, but a wooden image always retains a provincial +character. It addresses us in dialect, as it were, and never attains to +the perfect expression of the ideal. We can make wooden effigies of +animals or plants with which we are familiar, and can even carve angels +in <i>relievo</i>, but to make a life-size bust, or human figure, of wood, +were entirely out of the question.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wood carving is only the beginning of art, and is faltering, +or, at +best, monotonous, in its expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">What has once existed as an organism cannot be transformed +into a new +organic structure. Stone and bronze, however, do not acquire organic +shape, except at the hands of man.</p> + +<p class="normal">If a Greek of the days of Pericles were to behold our images +of the +saints, how he would shudder at our barbarism.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">This journal is a comfort to me. I can express myself in my +own +language and feel perfectly at home. I cannot, at times, avoid +regarding my constant use of the dialect of this region as a sort of +affectation. Everything that I say appears to me distorted. I feel as +if wearing a strange costume, and as if my soul were concealed behind +an iron mask. Although I am a child of the mountains, the words I utter +seem strange and foreign. A dialect proves poverty of resources. It is +an imperfect instrument; a kettle-drum, for instance, on which one can +play neither concertos nor fantasias. Or, to put it differently, the +language of Lessing and Goethe is like the beautiful butterfly that has +left the chrysalis to which it can never more return.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alas! The one terrible thought confronts me at every turn. I +have +offended and denied you, ye who represent the spirit of my people and +of humanity. You fostered me, and I have abused the gifts which +education bestowed upon me. I must remain in exile.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The fire that still smolders within me must be extinguished.</p> + +<p class="normal">My heart is so heavy that it seems to drag me down, as if +weights were +hanging to me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am so weary, so exhausted, that I feel as though my limbs +must break +under me! I should like to do nothing but sleep; to sleep always.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I should like to perform a pilgrimage to some place or +person, as an +act of expiation.</p> + +<p class="normal">I now understand the basis of a religion of symbols--a +religion that +speaks to the eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will go hence--to Italy, to Spain, to Paris, to the East, +to America. +I will go to Rome and become an artist. I must be one. If I am still to +live on in the wide world, I must enjoy it fully and deny myself +nothing, for I am not of a self-sacrificing temperament. I could hurl +the full cup of life into the abyss, but to see it before my eyes, and +yet languish and mortify myself--that I cannot do. I will, I must go. +Something calls me hence. Naples lies before me. I see a villa on the +shore; merry excursions by water; a crowd of laughing, singing, gayly +attired creatures--I plunge into the current of life. Better there than +in that of death. And yet--I cannot--</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A gloomy, terrible, twilight hour. Something urges me to turn +back, and +tells me that the whole world is mine. What has happened? Are there not +thousands like me, who live honored, oblivious of themselves? What is +it within me that whispers; "You must expiate?" I can go hence. It will +seem as if nothing had occurred. "A piquant adventure," "a +disappearance for a few weeks."--What more can they say? All I need is +to be bold--the carriage rolls along, all salute me. I am beautiful, +and no one will see the writing on my brow, for a diadem sparkles +there.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the terrible words are written there--it seems as if I +could behold +my own soul face to face.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There is a childhood of the soul and, with all her +experience, the +grandmother possesses it. Oh, that I could gain that childlike feeling! +But have not those who seek it, forever lost it?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Old Jochem often brings his money to me, and makes me count +it for him, +piece by piece. He maintains that one is so often cheated in money +matters.</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman told me that the peasants almost always +treat their +aged parents who have given up their property to them, with great +unkindness, and then he asked me: "Why must Jochem live so long? He has +nothing in the world but hatred and mistrust." I know no answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Jochem is a veritable peasant Lear, but as he is able to +complain +at the court of justice, and has actually done so, his case is not pure +tragedy.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there is no court of justice at which a king can +complain; nor does +he desire one; and hence his fate is great and tragic.</p> + +<p class="normal">My friend, call me when thou standest in judgment upon +thyself. I am +the only one who dare accuse thee, and yet I accuse not thee, but +myself. And I am expiating my guilt.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The open hearth-fire affords me many happy moments. How +beautiful a +fire is! What are all jewels, compared with it? Poor old Jochem cannot +see the fire. It is the most beautiful thing in every house-- Men +should be fire-worshipers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've had good thoughts," said Hansei to me, when I was +sitting by +the open window to-day. "I could tell it by your looks."</p> + +<p class="normal">He evidently longed to put a question to me, but he is +determined to +keep his resolution. He never asks me anything and, to avoid doing so +often changes the form of his sentences. I told him my thoughts, and +his manner seemed to imply: "It isn't worth while to think of such +things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said Hansei at last, "that's true enough. When one +sits by the +fire, his thoughts will roam."</p> + +<p class="normal">To Hansei's notion, nothing in the world is so objectionable +as taking +a walk. He cannot conceive why one should roam about, where there is +nothing to seek and nothing to do, and why, under such circumstances, +one would not rather lie down on the long bench and go to sleep.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I think of good Kent, I always imagine him as having a +rich, full +voice, like that of Bronnen, whom, in his youth, he must have +resembled.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certain figures pass in procession before my mind's eye. The +queen and +Bronnen are the only ones ever present; the king vanished with the +forgotten past. In my dreams, many visit me, but he never comes. Why, I +know not. I cannot solve the enigma.</p> + +<p class="normal">To one who, when alone, stops to think, many things lose in +value, +human beings among the rest. Personally, Gunther was no more to me than +another would have been. Emma was a mere echo.</p> + +<p class="normal">If we thus reckon over our possessions, we find them little +enough, and +I have left but little behind me in the world.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The ringing of the sleigh bells is the only sound one hears. +The woods +are full of busy workmen. Snow and ice, which block the roads +elsewhere, here serve as highways.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Labor, by sending its fruits out into the world, places our +vital force +at the disposal of others. The work which I have fashioned goes out +among men, and yet I am left undisturbed in my solitude and +concealment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Man's work leaves him. It seems to me that I once met with +the same +idea in Ottilia's journal.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The dog is the friend and confidant of solitary man. Lonely, +deserted +spots, like this, aid one to appreciate his faithfulness, for he fails +not to give notice of every unwonted occurrence.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I often rush to the window when the dog barks--who knows what +stranger +may have come?</p> + +<p class="normal">Suppose the intendant or Gunther were suddenly to come, and +ask me to +follow them back into the world?</p> + +<p class="normal">The very thought makes me tremble.</p> + +<p class="normal">Would I be obliged to obey?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To know that I had, at one time, renounced the world, and +that it was +but a step and a leap--makes it easier to bear with life. I am now +beyond misfortune's reach.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet--if life were to claim me again--</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am but an ant dragging a pine-needle.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am not quite forsaken. I bear, within me, memories of +melodies and +pictures, and, above all, songs of our great master, Goethe.</p> + +<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">"On every height there lies repose."</p> + +<p class="normal">This passage has occurred to me hundreds of times, refreshing +me just +as if it were a gentle, cooling dew, falling upon a parched field. I +delight in the harmonious cadence and in the simple words!</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not rest until I had repeated the song to some one. I +recited +it to the old pensioner; he understood it, and my little pitchman has +already gotten it by heart. How fortunate is the poet! One short hour +of his life becomes undying to thousands after him. How I delight in +these precious memories! I am like the old pensioner, who has learnt a +few songs and quietly sings them to himself.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am beginning to feel something like veneration for the old +pensioner.</p> + +<p class="normal">Early this morning, he came to me, dressed in his Sunday +clothes, and +wearing the medal which he received in the war of liberation. It was +not without a certain air of pride that he said: "They're reading a +mass for me at church to-day. I served under Napoleon in those days, +just as the king did, too. It was in the year 'nine' and, on this very +day, up to three o'clock--that is, some time between three and four--I +was sound and hearty, when, all at once, I was struck by a ball, here +in the third rib--that's why I wear my medal on the right side. I fell +to the earth, thinking: Good-night, world! God keep thee, my dear +sweetheart! She who was afterward my wife, was my sweetheart at that +time. They extracted the ball with a crossbill, and I kept on smoking +while they were at work. My pipe never went out once, and I was soon +all right again. But one doesn't easily forget such a day, and so I +arranged it, at the church, that they should read a mass for me on this +day. See, this is the ball and, when they bury me, I want them to lay +it on my third rib."</p> + +<p class="normal">He showed me the ball. He carried it in a leather purse. +After that a +child that he had hired for the purpose led him down into the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will now be more patient with the unfortunate old man. His +life was a +drop in the ocean of history--struck by the enemy's bullet--! A leaden +ball can be extracted, why cannot also--</p> + +<p class="normal">When I reflect on the daily events of the life I now lead, +all my +thoughts seem to lose themselves in the one unsolvable problem.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother told me a strange truth to-day. I had been +telling her +that, even in the past, I had never been perfectly happy, when she +replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've deceived yourself. It's always so in the world. Those +who are +deceived, have deceived themselves, but they're never willing honestly +to confess it."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Uncle Peter is the very embodiment of cheerful poverty. He is +always in +a good humor, and I have been the means of making him quite happy. He +brings my work, carries away what I have finished, and, between us, we +have quite a handsome profit. He also assists me in preparing the wood, +and he handles saw and axe as deftly as a bird does its claws and beak.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To-day I received the first money that I ever earned by the +work of my +hands. Uncle Peter counted it out to me on the table. He refuses paper +money. Nothing but silver will satisfy him. "Ready money smiles," said +he, with a laugh in which I could not help joining. How small are these +gains, and yet how encouraging. I have earned them. All my life long, I +have merely enjoyed what others have offered me. It was a privilege, +inherited from my ancestors, that others should labor for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can now manage to pay Walpurga something for my support. +She refused +to receive pay, but I shall insist upon it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It is well that my employment is, to a great extent, a +mechanical one, +comprising much which is necessary and requires neither reflection nor +contrivance. Certain things must be done, and there is but one way of +doing them. If I were obliged to do anything that required great mental +exertion, it would be the death of me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It is now four months since I came here.</p> + +<p class="normal">My hands have become hardened.</p> + +<p class="normal">The treatment I receive from those about me, satisfies me +that their +affection for me is sincere.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">If one could only always remain the same--that is, in the +full +possession of one's powers.</p> + +<p class="normal">I often give way to fits of depression and feel completely +undone, +forsaken, weak and helpless, and as if help must come from somewhere. +But whence? and from who?</p> + +<p class="normal">I am obliged, with each succeeding day, to overcome the +melancholy that +oppresses me during the mornings. In the evenings, I am calm--for I am +weary then.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We hear the falling rain, but not the snow. Bitter grief is +violent; +resignation, calm and silent.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It is bitter cold up here; but the woods are near us, and my +monster of +a tile stove is a faithful friend who preserves his warmth.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Literally speaking, when Hansei returns from the forest it +often takes +him an hour to thaw, and regain control of his voice and movements. +Until then, it is best not to talk with him, for he is easily offended; +but when he has thawed, he is quite happy again, and always says: "I +thank God that I've been a woodsman!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He is evidently thinking of some method of improving the +forests, but +he does not say what it is.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lower orders always have overheated rooms. They enjoy +intoxication, +even that of heat.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have no mirror. There is no need of my knowing how I look. +A mirror +is the beginning and the cause of self-consciousness. A beast does not +see itself,--it is only seen by others--and yet, whether it be the bird +on yonder bough, or the cat that sits before my window, it adorns +itself. I, too, dress myself carefully, and for my own sake, and am ill +at ease when my clothes are loose and ill-fitting.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I first came here, I found it quite difficult to +associate with +those about me, but now I find comfort and self-forgetfulness in my +intercourse with them. I should not like to darken their existence, but +to brighten it, instead. They feel that while I partake, I also +contribute my share.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think the idea is Goethe's.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There was great joy in the house to-day, owing to the +unexpected visit +of Walpurga's friend and companion Stasi, with her husband, a forester. +What happiness, what joy, and what an interchange of experiences!</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei at once invited the forester to be sponsor to his boy, +for boy +it must be. Walpurga quickly said that she would like to show her +friend through the house, and I was obliged to go with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the higher classes, love may be greater, may possess +more energy, +more depth, and more of all that is allied to passion; but the lower +orders seem to possess greater faithfulness and constancy. Work teaches +us to be faithful.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have been out in the forest with Hansei. Oh how beautiful! +We passed +a frozen waterfall; the crystal columns sparkled in the sunshine. +Hansei pointed out two trees that were far up the mountain. He means to +have them felled for me, so that I may have the best wood for my work. +Am I expected to work up two whole trees?</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was quite amused, when I told him I had not forgotten +his rule +of the mountain: "Go right on and never stop."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mountain-climbing in winter has made me very tired, but I +feel quite +well.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have often wondered why I never heard any mention of +Hansei's family. +The little pitchman has just told me that his mother died an early +death, and that he never knew his father.</p> + +<p class="normal">This accounts for much in Hansei's behavior, and only renders +it the +more beautiful.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We are feasting on meat broth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Great is Hansei, the dispenser of good!</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, he is great. How all our illusions vanish! An Homeric +hero who +cuts up swine and cooks and roasts them, remains a hero for all, and +Hansei is as good as any of them, although it be not with the sword.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is Homeric feasting throughout the farm. They all bite +with teeth +as good as those of Menelaus.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The greatest blessings are pure blood, steeled sinews and +strong +nerves.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he who, besides these, possesses a quiet conscience, is +the +happiest of creatures.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I love the twilight--day fading into night. He who lives in +communion +with nature is the only one whose life does full justice to each day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Man is the only being who lives, far into the night. Light +and fire +makes us what we are.</p> + +<p class="normal">Schnabelsdorf the omniscient, once said: "The hour at which +men retire +is the measure of their civilization."</p> + +<p class="normal">At court, they are just sitting down to dinner. They are +joking and +laughing, and telling each other anecdotes. If I were suddenly to +appear among them?</p> + +<p class="normal">No, I shall not disturb ye!</p> + +<p class="normal">In a little while, they will be driving to the theater. Isn't +to-day--? +I had almost forgotten it--yes, this is my birthday. It was to-day a +year ago that I went to the ball, in the character of the Lady of the +Lake, and it was there he said to me--it was in the palmhouse--I can +still hear his soft voice: "I have purposely chosen this day. You alone +are to know it. You and I."</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh! that night!</p> + +<p class="normal">I wonder if they are thinking of me there?</p> + +<p class="normal">The Egyptians, at all their festivals, displayed mementoes of +their +dead. I cannot write any more--I will light the candle--I must work.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There is a deaf mute who lives down in the village and works +at coarse +wood carvings. He has neither learned to read nor to write, nor has he +ever had any religious instruction. He knows nothing at all; but he +does know the church festivals, the holidays, and Shrove Tuesday +especially. On those days he will plant himself, with his umbrella, in +front of the church, and watch the peasants as they go by. If he sees +one who pleases him, he walks up to him, takes off his coat and sits +down at the table, and, without saying a word, they give him food and +drink for three days.</p> + +<p class="normal">And thus he happened to come to our house. Sometimes he +cries, and +cannot tell why, but he endeavors to express himself by dumb motions. +The little pitchman declares that he cries because he can't eat any +more.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have tried to make myself intelligible to him, but we do +not +understand each other.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(Ash Wednesday.)--To-day, every one in the house is silent +and +thoughtful. Every brow was strewn with ashes, while they repeated: +"Mortal! remember that thou art dust."</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! mine is a long Ash Wednesday, after a mad carnival!</p> + +<p class="normal">In my mind's eye, I often behold the picture of the Egyptian +princess. +Her garments have fallen from her nude form and, with loosened hair, +she kneels in prayer by her open grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">When wilt thou receive me, all-merciful mother earth?</p> + +<p class="normal">I am reminded of the grandeur of Antigone's answer to Creon, +who has +just announced to her the sentence of death:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew that I should die; thou only tellest me when."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I shall quietly bear the consequences of my actions, relying +on myself, +looking for no aid, either material or spiritual, from without.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When the people have finished repeating the Ave Maria during +the +tolling of the vesper bell, they say "Good-evening" to each other. It +is a beautiful custom, and deems to say that they have returned from +heaven unto those whom they love on earth.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When there is no one by, Walpurga always addresses me as +"Countess," +and treats me with the deference she deems me entitled to.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything seems reversed. At one time, I used to address +<i>him</i> +familiarly in private, and in public--</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! that one memory forever thrusts itself in my way!</p> + +<p class="normal">If I were to become sensitive, it would be the most terrible +thing that +could happen to me. Perhaps I am so, already. The sensitive being is as +one unarmed among those who are fully armed, as one unveiled where all +the rest are masked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will, I must be strong!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga brought me some flower-pots to-day, with rosemary, +geranium +and oleander.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had brought them from the place of a great doctor who, +he says, +lives at some distance from here, in the valley. His gardener is +allowed to sell plants, and Walpurga brought them to me, saying: +"You've always had flowers about you, and these will last through the +winter."</p> + +<p class="normal">These few plants make me happy. The flower does not ask what +sort of a +pot it is in, so long as it gets its share of sunshine and rain. What +enjoyment do those who dwell in the palace have, of the hot-house +flowers? They neither planted nor tended them: they are strangers to +each other.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei came to me to-day and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard, if I've ever wronged you--though I don't know that +I have--I +beg you to forgive me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What makes you ask me that question?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because to-morrow we go to confession and communion."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tears that fall upon these pages are my confession, a +confession +that I cannot frame in words.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Why was I obliged to cross the threshold of evil before +entering this +circumscribed and yet peaceful existence? Why not pure and free, proud +and strong?</p> + +<p class="normal">I have somewhere read that Francis of Assisi, returning, +early in the +morning, with the merry fellows who had been his comrades in the +drinking bout of the night before, was suddenly seized by the Holy +Spirit and, renouncing the world, led a holy life ever afterward.</p> + +<p class="normal">And must it always be through paths of sin?</p> + +<p class="normal">But far sadder is the question: Why were you, O queen! +obliged to +suffer thus?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I often wander about the fields in the pouring rain, and +feeling like a +prisoner. What keeps me here? what lures me hence?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I lead the life of a prisoner, confined by walls and iron +gratings +formed by my own will.</p> + +<p class="normal">I endure all the pain of exile!</p> + +<p class="normal">I live in a state of torpor. Why must I wait for death?</p> + +<p class="normal">It often seems to me as if I were lying at the edge of a +precipice, and +yet cannot awake and rise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whither should I go?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The thought sometimes flashes across the desert waste that +fills my +soul, and drags me along, like a powerless rider mounted on some +enchanted steed: "You know nothing of the world you have left behind +you: those who are about you conceal what knowledge they may possess, +and you dare not ask."</p> + +<p class="normal">How would it be if the queen were dead, and he who once loved +you and +whom you loved in return--ah, so deeply!--were doubly alone and +forsaken, and grieving because of thee? Let him have but the faintest +token that you are still alive, and he will come for you, and, mounted +on a white palfrey, you shall again enter the palace as queen. All will +be expiated, all will be forgiven. You will be a friend to the people. +You know them, for you have lived and suffered with them--This thought +often seizes me and envelops me, as it were, in an enchanted net. I +cannot rid myself of it, and I seem to hear voices and trumpet tones, +calling me hence. I have not yet quieted the wild brood that dwells in +my soul.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Mysterious demons slumber within our souls. At the faintest +call, they +raise their heads and crawl from their hiding-place. They have cunning +eyes and can readily change their shapes. They can appear as virtues, +and, borrowing priestly robes, can speak the language of sympathy: +"Have pity on yourself and others." They make a show of their power and +love of action, and say: "You can bestow happiness on one and on many. +You can do great and good service to one and to the multitude."</p> + +<p class="normal">I annihilated them. I held the light up to their eyes, and +they +vanished.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thou livest, queen! Friend whom I have so deeply injured, +thou livest! +I do not ask, nor do I wish to know, whether thou art dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thou livest, and my only wish is that thou mightst know of +the life of +repentance that I am now leading, and how little compassion I have for +myself.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The Greek drama, "Prometheus Bound," occurs to me. Prometheus +was the +first anchorite. He was fettered from without; we fetter ourselves by +vows or the rules of an order.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am neither a Prometheus, nor a nun.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There is but one thing, which the outer world might afford +me, that I +still long for, and that is the music of a large orchestra. +Fortunately, I often hear it in my dreams. How strange! While sleeping, +my soul plays on all instruments, and performs great orchestral works +which I never entirely succeeded in committing to memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">We lead a dual life after all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Freedom and labor are the noblest prerogatives of man. +Solitude and +industry constitute my all in all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga has never referred to the warning she once gave me. +With a +rude hand, she snatched me from the edge of the precipice and, in +return, I scolded and deceived her, while deceiving myself. She +represses everything that might remind me of that scene.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To-day, Jochem confided to me the one grief that clouds his +life: "They +lead old oxen and cows to the slaughter-house," said he; "old horses +and old dogs they shoot, and old men they feed to death--that's all the +difference."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The dwelling-house on our farm has been neglected and is +sadly in need +of repair; but Hansei is not inclined to begin building at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must make shift with the old house," he says, "the work +must be +done first." And, besides this, he has a certain dread of what people +may say. The house had been good enough for those who had been there +before him--why shouldn't it be good enough for him?</p> + +<p class="normal">Even the farmer, on his lonely estate, is not perfectly +independent. He +who cares for the opinion of others, must allow it to affect his +actions.</p> + +<p class="normal">These are the chains that make slaves of us all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(March 1st.)--Joy and happiness have entered the house. New +light has +awakened in me, too, as if my life were something more than mere +darkness. Walpurga has a boy. Hansei's happiness is complete, and he +never mentions the boy except as "the young freeholder."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The christening is over. I felt sorry that I was unable to +accompany +them to church, but I could not.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have laid the peasant's garb aside. It was in place while I +was a +fugitive, but now I have no further need of it. I wear dresses of +simple calico, like those worn by many of the country people who employ +themselves with housework. All that I have retained is my green hat, +which I find quite useful, as it helps to hide my face.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have laid aside many outer garments; how many inner ones +must I still +put off?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Fear and anxiety are gradually leaving me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have been at the village, and for the first time. The +houses stand +apart, on the mountain meadows. Viewed from above, they almost look +like a scattered flock of sheep.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The rushing of the waters and the rustling of the forests +sound so +strangely at night, and yet the rushing and rustling are unceasing. How +vain, how small is the child of man!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how delightful it is to be awakened by the song of the +finch, and +to find all nature refreshed by the invigorating morning air!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(April 19th.)--A heavy fog all day. The mist forms a veil +which hides +nature's death and awakening from view.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The nightingale by yonder brook, sings all day long and +through the +night. What unwearying power! What an inexhaustible fount of song!</p> + +<p class="normal">While I write, its song seems to come nearer, as if it knew +that I long +for it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I see every opening bud, and wait to see the ferns unfold +their leaves. +Even the rough maple has a delicate blossom. Everything is blooming or +singing. There is music, even in the cackling of the hens. The world is +full of infinite variety.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how delightful to watch for every green leaf, and for the +opening +of every bud. Nature's greatest charm is that she is never in haste. +She can wait, and all we need do is--to wait upon her.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At first, we attempt to note every stage of growth, but we +soon find +that an impossibility.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It needs but a single rainy day, and all the buds burst. +Bright spring +is with us once again. Spring produces a sort of mental unrest which +seems to move in a course parallel with the impulse at work in nature.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The drooping birch is laden with rich clusters of blossoms, +and its +branches are swayed to and fro in mute yet melodious movements.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The best self-forgetfulness is to regard the things of this +world with +love and attention.--Perhaps attention already presupposes love, and +that of the most unselfish kind.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A cuckoo comes quite close to the house at early morning and +utters its +cry.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(Whitsuntide.)--The preparations for the festival afford much +pleasure, +more perhaps than the festival itself. What kneading and baking, and +what joy at the successful completion of the festal cake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Joy which we have prepared for ourselves is perfect joy. And +now comes +the festival. Trees and human beings seem blooming with life, and +yonder forest is borne toward us in the Whitsuntide favors they bring +into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei has a new suit of the style worn in this section of +the country. +When he walked over the farm to-day, the kindly "good-morning" which he +bestowed upon every one seemed full of happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am very sorry that I am again unable to accompany them to +church. The +festal feeling reaches its climax in church-going, but, even at home, +the air is laden with the fragrant odor of the birch and holiday cake.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(May 24th.)--We have had a furious spring storm, accompanied +by thunder +and lightning. The trees swayed to and fro and bent as if they would +break.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's bad," said my little pitchman, "though it's good for +the rye. A +storm in springtime brings cold weather, while one in midsummer makes +the days warmer than before."</p> + +<p class="normal">How well this symbolizes precocious passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The bright sunshine has returned. I have been out of doors. +Millions of +blossoms are strewn about the ground and, in the forest, lay many dead +young birds. They had ventured out of their nests too soon; the rain +had wet their young wings and they could not return. Besides that, the +nest no longer contained room for them. Forsaken and hungry, there was +nothing left them but death!</p> + +<p class="normal">Nature is terrible. It labors long and patiently to bring +forth a being +which it suddenly and wantonly suffers to die.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Sundays go hardest with me. One is used to look for something +unusual +on that day. We put on a particular dress and expect the world to do +the same. On that day, more than on all others, I feel that I am in a +strange world.</p> + +<p class="normal">The brook murmurs and the birds sing, just as they did +yesterday. What +right have I to ask them to sing me a different song to-day?</p> + +<p class="normal">Nature has no moods; they belong to man alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this lies a heavy burden.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In former days, while watching the forms and colors of the +clouds, I +was obliged to look up into the sky. But now I see them resting on the +earth below me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I can pass hours, watching the passing clouds and their +ever-changing +forms as reflected on the mountains. The earth itself was fashioned +from such fluid masses. No artist can realize the extent of this +cloud-world, or its wealth of form. Before our thoughts attain fixed +shape, they, too, must pass through this nebulous state, in which, +however, we are unable to perceive them.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Singing birds, in great variety, have clustered at the edge +of the +forest. The notes of the lark, the yellowhammer, the green finch, the +blackbird, the thrush, the red-tail, and the titmouse are heard all at +once. Only a few of the birds that build their nests deep in the +forest, sing there.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In springtime, forest rills become brooks. In summer, naught +is +visible, save the dry bed of the stream. It is the same with our own +lives.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When old Jochem hears me rejoice because spring has come, he +always +says: "What does it signify? In a few weeks, the days will begin to +shorten again."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">If human beings, like the trees, bore visible blossoms, these +blossoms +would assume a different shape and color, with each succeeding year. +The blossoms of my soul were once so bright; but now--</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">For the first time in my life, I have seen a pair of eagles +soaring in +the air. What a life theirs must be! They hovered far overhead, and +described a circle in their flight. About what were they circling? Then +they soared still higher and vanished in the empyrean.</p> + +<p class="normal">The world still contains spirits whose flights are as free +and as bold +as that of the eagle. There is no creature that soars above the king of +birds, no enemy that can approach him. But man sends forth the fatal +ball and thus exerts an influence in regions which the eye alone can +pierce.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>He</i> too was filled with pride when he had shot an eagle. And +why? +Because it was a proof of his power, and he adorned my hat with the +token of his victory. Ah, woe is me!</p> + +<p class="normal">Why does this grief constantly return to me?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We women are never alone in nature. This is only another +proof of the +deep truth that lies in the old tradition. Man, created first, was +alone; but woman, who came afterward, never existed alone. This repeats +itself through the history of all nations, and a perplexing mystery is +at last revealed to me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In the world of fashion, just as in the park, the traces of +footsteps +are effaced by obsequious servants. There must be nothing to remind us +of yesterday.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet their life is to form a part of history.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To cease evil, is not doing good.</p> + +<p class="normal">I would like to accomplish some great deed. But where?</p> + +<p class="normal">Within myself alone.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman is quite a changed being when among scenes +of +nature. He does not love nature. To use his own words, it merely amuses +him. He delights in the most trifling peculiarities of bird-life, and +how well he knows all the birds!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(Many rainy days.)--I long for the sun, and am almost dying +for the +want of it. I feel as if I were fading, as if perishing with thirst--I +cannot live without the sun. It is my debtor for the lovely May days of +which I have been deprived. I must have them; they are my only comfort.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">If I remain thus dependent upon the weather, permitting every +cloud to +darken my mind, and every shower to chill me with the feeling that I am +forsaken, it were far better I were lying at the bottom of the lake, +and that the boatman were telling those whom he was ferrying across: +"Far below us, lies a young maid of honor."--I have once before bade +farewell to the sun, and I mean to be independent of it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There are beings who know nothing of rain and sunshine, and +yet live.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there are, also, others who are filled with dew-forming +power--but +they are the calm, self-contained, powerful natures, whose life is an +inner, rather than an outer, one.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(June 12th.)--After many hot days, there was rain last night. +The drops +are still glittering on every leaf and flower. Oh, the delightful +morning that has succeeded the nocturnal storm! To have fully enjoyed +such a morning is worth the trouble of living.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Jochem has a lark in a cage--he must have something shut up +with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lark affords me great delight. There are but few of them +up here, +for we have nothing but meadow land. They love to hover over the fields +of grain down in the valley.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">After the midsummer solstice, the woods become silent. The +sun now +merely ripens, and has ceased to call forth blossoms and song. The +finch alone keeps up his merry lay.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">From my window, I can see the white foal grazing in the +meadow. He +knows me. When I look up, he stands still for a while and looks at me, +and then dashes hither and thither at a furious rate. I have named him +Wodan, and when I call him by that name, he comes to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have sketched the foal, and am now carving it in birch. I +think I +shall succeed, but wood is obstinate, awkward stuff, after all. I lose +my patience on slight provocation. I must try to overcome this.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Yesterday was a year since I lay at the foot of the rock. I +could not +write a word. My brain whirled with the thoughts of that day; but now +it is over.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I don't think I shall write much more. I have now experienced +all the +seasons in my new world. The circle is complete. There is nothing new +to come from without. I know all that exists about me, or that can +happen. I am at home in my new world.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Unto Jesus the scribes and pharisees brought a woman who was +to be +stoned to death, and he said unto them: "Let him that is without sin +among you, cast the first stone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus it is written.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I ask: How did she continue to live? She who was saved +from being +stoned to death; she who was pardoned, that is, condemned to live? How +did she live on? Did she return to her home? How did she stand with the +world? And how with her own heart?</p> + +<p class="normal">No answer. None.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must find the answer in my own experience.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">"Let him that is without sin among you, cast the first +stone." These +are the noblest, the greatest words ever uttered by human lips, or +heard by human ear. They divide the history of the human race into two +parts. They are the "let there be light" of the second creation. They +divide and heal my little life, too, and create me anew.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Has one who is not wholly without sin, a right to offer +precepts and +reflections to others?</p> + +<p class="normal">Look into your own heart. What are you?</p> + +<p class="normal">Behold my hands. They are hardened by toil. I have done more +than +merely lift them in prayer.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Since I am alone, I have not seen a letter of print. I have +no book and +wish for none, and this is not in order to mortify myself, but because +I wish to be perfectly alone.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">She who renounces the world, and, in her loneliness, still +cherishes +the thought of eternity, has assumed a heavy burden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Convent life is not without its advantages. The different +voices that +join in a chorale sustain each other, and when the tone at last ceases, +it seems to float away on the air and vanish by degrees. But here I am +quite alone. I am priest and church, organ and congregation, confessor +and penitent, all in one, and my heart is often so heavy, as if I must +needs have, another to help me bear the load. "Take me up and carry me, +I cannot go further!" cries my soul. But then I rouse myself again, +seize my scrip and my pilgrim's staff and wander on, solitary and +alone; and while I wander, strength returns to me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">For the first time in a year, I saw a carriage driving up the +white +road that leads through the valley. Those who were sitting in it, could +not know how my eyes followed them. Whither go ye? who are ye?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I must write again. I believe that I at last know the full +meaning of +the word "gemüthlich." It includes careful thought for the comfort of +others even in the merest trifles, and requires one to put himself in +another's place. It is the heart, expressing itself in poetry; it is +feeling, clothing itself in the garb of fancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">True culture includes this feeling; for what is culture but +the power +to put one's self in another's place, and "to see ourselves as others +see us"?</p> + +<p class="normal">My opinion is still unchanged. Hansei seems dull and awkward, +and yet +he has far more of the best culture than many a one who is decorated +with orders and epaulettes and is regarded as one of the most charming +of cavaliers.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I constantly keep thinking that there is something in me +which I have +not yet discovered. It gives me no rest. Is it an idea, a feeling, a +word, or a deed? I know not, but I feel that there is something within +me that seeks a vent. Perhaps death may come before I discover it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Old Jochem still remembers a few verses from the hymnbook, +and keeps +repeating them to himself, but in such perverted shape that they are +sheer nonsense. I offered to teach him the verses correctly, but this +made him very angry, and he told me that I was trying to teach him +something new, and that it would not answer. His nonsense seems dear to +him. He does not understand it, and the air of mystery thus imparted to +it renders it far more impressive.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">One who has never experienced the feeling, cannot know what +it is to +long for a few words of conversation with your equals. It is a +consuming thirst. Any one who can speak my language would serve my +purpose. I cannot endure this strain. I feel as if I were in a strange +land, and were vainly listening for the beloved accents of my native +tongue. It is well for me that I can work.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">As long as I had Walpurga with me in the palace, I could +speak to her +freely on various subjects. When I came to her, it was a change, a +stepping out of the sphere in which my thoughts were accustomed to +move. But here, where I have her and nothing else, it is different. It +is not pride--for what have I to do with pride? Is it alienation, or is +it sullen listlessness?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal"><i>Naïveté</i> pleases us only for a short time. Wisdom always +remains +attractive--such wisdom as mother Beate's or Gunther's. Yes, I long for +him most of all.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wisdom is cultured <i>naïveté</i> or, to speak more correctly, the +<i>naïveté</i> +of genius. It is the rosy apple; <i>naïveté</i> the blossom from which it +sprang, still dwells in the fruit, as its core.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night and day, the various elemental influences, clear +perception and +the mysterious forces of nature:--all these help to perfect the finest +fruit.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I cannot look upon work as the noblest thing in life. The +perfect man +is he who does nothing, who cherishes himself--; such is the life of +the gods, and what is man but the god of creation?</p> + +<p class="normal">My heresy thus expresses itself. I have confessed and +repented of it. +But in the confessor's chair sits one who is in the right when he says: +"Very well, my child! And so the noblest and most exalted life is +simply existence, void of effort. But, since no one can live unless +some other being labors for him, it follows that all must do something. +Nothing can be had without pay. The one class has not been sent into +the world merely to exist, nor the other merely to labor."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">How happy I might become if there were no past. A life +hereafter, +filled with memories--how sad the thought! And yet without memories, +would it be a second life?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">True joy at last dwells with us. Whenever we partake of +anything, +Walpurga always says: "We planted this ourselves; on such a day, we set +our beans. I put them in Burgei's hand, and she dropped them on the +garden beds."</p> + +<p class="normal">And thus it seems to be with all things. The past is being +renewed to +us.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have found it difficult to go over the same task, again and +again. +But the constant repetition is what constitutes labor. Without that, it +is mere amusement.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nature constantly repeats herself, and we must serve her by +imitating +her. She repeats herself through her laws; man, through his duties.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have, nevertheless, indulged in variations, and not without +success. +While walking through the stable, I observed the cow lowing and turning +toward her sucking calf. I have carved the figures in wood.</p> + +<p class="normal">I should like to imitate every object in nature--to create +the world +anew, as it were, so that men might see all things as I see them.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thank Thee, Eternal Spirit, for bestowing these gifts upon +me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The chief aim of life is not joy, nor is it repose. It must +be labor. +Perhaps there is no chief aim, after all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Love and labor are the body and soul of mankind. Happy is he +in whom +they are united. I have forfeited love--nothing is left me but labor.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My white foal! It looks at me, and I look at it in return. +Free and +uncontrolled, it scampers about the field, and yet I seize it and send +it out into the world, so that others, too, may delight in the pretty, +playful animal.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have sketched it in various positions. Its every movement +is replete +with strength and grace.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have carved the figure of my white foal, and have completed +it with +incredible rapidity. My friends are astonished, and so am I. I look +upon it as a success.</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman--why should I dislike to mention +it?--carried the +figure down to the dealer. It grieved me to part with my work, but the +little magic horse must, and does, support me. It was sold at a good +price, and I received a large order, besides.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Sometimes, I find myself wondering what Countess +Brinkenstein, pious +Constance, Schnabelsdorf, or Bronnen, would say if they were to see me +now; and at such moments, I am obliged to look around, in order to +satisfy myself that they are not present.</p> + +<p class="normal">So long as I cannot govern my imagination, I am not free. +Fancy is the +most powerful of despots.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Our fountain gushes and bubbles the whole night through, and +when the +moonlight rests upon it, it is lovelier and more peaceful than ever. +The earth bounteously gives forth its healing waters. They flow +unceasingly. All that we need do is to go to the spring and drink. My +favorite seat is near there. Its waters sometimes suddenly increase in +volume and swiftness, as if they were bringing me a special message. +Perhaps it is all caused by the currents of air, and I may be mistaken +after all. One easily gives way to reverie when by the spring.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Gundel, the little pitchman's daughter, affords me much much +pleasure. +The honest, kind-hearted, simpleminded creature is now full of joy; she +loves, and is loved in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the farm hands is a native of Hansei's birthplace. He +was once +in the cuirassiers, and this faithful, but rough and ill-favored lad, +is Gundel's lover. A girl whom no one has noticed, whose life has been +constant drudgery, is invested with new importance, both in her own +eyes and in those of others, as soon as she becomes the object of a +man's love. All that she does is regarded as good and pretty, and she +is at once lifted up out of her lowly and forgotten state.</p> + +<p class="normal">Love is the crown of every life, a diadem even on the +lowliest head.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Gundel goes about her rough work--to draw water, or to +feed the +cattle--she seems radiant with newborn happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although I have said nothing, she notices that I am +interested in her, +and she often ask whether there is anything she can do for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I wish that riches were again mine, so that I might make +these lovers +happy.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">How foolish is the desire to be ever original. Nature +constantly +repeats herself. The rose of to-day is like that of yesterday.</p> + +<p class="normal">Men determine for themselves--and in this lies their torment.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have not yet put vanity away from me. I am still moved to +delight +whenever a happy expression flows from my pen. But is this really +vanity? I think not. Although alone in my cell, I adorn myself for my +own sake. Beauty has become a necessity to me. I must be surrounded by +objects of beauty, and must also possess it in myself. Uncouthness does +not offend me, but ugliness, affects me just as discords do. In the +so-called cultivated world, a rude expression excites a deprecatory +"Ah!" while elegant vulgarity is smiled upon.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am obliged to read old Jochem's bond to him, at least once +a week. +Although he knows it by heart, he insists upon hearing it again and +satisfying himself that it is all right, and properly signed and +sealed. He does not suffer it to leave his hands. I am obliged to read +it while he holds it. He trusts no one.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man almost seems to regret that he has nothing to +complain of, +and is constantly urging me to prepare a memorial to the king, so that +he may have it at hand when required. How strange that the king should +always seem to him the personification of right and justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He has much to tell me about the late king, under whom he +served. He +describes him as a perfect gentleman, and says that he often hunted in +this region. He has been informed that the present king is not much of +a hunter, and that he sticks to the priests, who, in return, grant him +absolution. He always concludes by asking whether I have ever seen the +king, and, although I have answered "No" a hundred times, he keeps on +repeating the same question.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was right, after all! I feel as if I ought to crave +his pardon. +It is a disgusting sight to behold the old pensioner at his meals; and +if one does not intend to have him at table for the remainder of his +life, one had better not begin with him. Hansei's objection was kind +and clever, not rude and ill-natured. Kind resolves that cannot be +fully carried out, had better not be attempted.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I spoke of this to Walpurga to-day, she answered me, +through her +tears, saying: "I'd a thousand times rather hear you praise him than +me."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It is not until humanity becomes a duty that we can truly +know whether +its exercise is a pleasure or a sacrifice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally enough, I have treated Jochem kindly, have often +had him +visit me, and have tried to entertain him. Now he will not leave me to +myself, and robs me of my only possession--solitude. Although it cost +me an effort, I was obliged to insist upon his only visiting me during +certain hours. But even that is irksome, for I am no longer perfect +mistress of my time. When the bell in the valley tolls the hour of +twelve, the old man comes and sits with me. Our conversations are not +very fruitful or suggestive. His stock of ideas is but a limited one, +and topics that are not related to them fail to excite his interest. +Besides that, he coughs a great deal, and is always asking me to tell +him about my father. He seems to forget that I have already told him +that I never knew my father. It was the saddest thing I ever said, but +I did not know my father while he lived. I understood him not, although +he attempted to reveal himself to me. From the depths of my soul, I cry +out to him: "My poor father! you tried to perfect yourself, but your +last action, although it was meant to arouse me, was the act of one who +was in fetters. I now accomplish what you falteringly began. While +laboring for you, my love for you has become full and complete. You are +now near to me, and have become what you longed to be--my preserver."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have at last made it a rule that the old man shall only +come when I +send for him. I could not do otherwise. And this I find almost worse +than to have fixed hours for his visits, for now I am often obliged to +stop and ask myself: "Isn't it time to call the old man? He won't +disturb me now." He thus engages my thoughts more than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must learn to bear with him patiently, and Jochem will +surely +improve. When I say to him: "I can't talk now," he is satisfied. All +that he asks is to be permitted to sit there in silence.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">How well one sleeps when tired with work. How good it is to +have hunger +and fatigue, when one is safely able to satisfy their demands.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the great world, they eat and sleep, but are never tired +or hungry.</p> + +<p class="normal">I never knew how much I used to talk, and how necessary +conversation +had become to me. But now that I have learned how to be silent, and +live alone with my own thoughts, I do know; I now see that the presence +of others exerted an electric influence upon me, overcharging my +nature. I was never unreal, but was more than I really am. I made +others cheerful, but how rarely was I so!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Labor is the consoling friend and companion of solitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">He who has not lived alone, does not know what labor is.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am often reminded of Dante's: "There can be no greater +suffering +than, in one's misery, to remember happier days." But why does he not +tell us what kind of happiness he means? It must always be delightful +to remember innocent joys, though the unhappiness that follows be ever +so great.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Francesca refers to happiness allied with guilt. And I +know that +she is right.</p> + +<p class="normal">I still remember my father's parting advice: "Indulge only in +such +pleasures as it will afford you pleasure to look back upon."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">What strange, hidden springs flow through one's soul. Ever +since the +sad saying of Dante's occurred to me, all my thoughts have been +translating themselves into Italian.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It often seems to me as if it were sinful thus to bury myself +alive. My +voice is no longer heard in song, and much more that dwells within me +has become mute.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is this right?</p> + +<p class="normal">If my only object in life were to be at peace with myself, it +would be +well enough--but I long to labor and to do something for others. Yet +where and what shall it be?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I first heard that the beautifully carved furniture of +the great +and wealthy is the work of prisoners, it made me shudder. And now, +although I am not deprived of freedom, I am in much the same condition. +Those who have disfigured life should, as an act of expiation, help to +make life more beautiful for others. The thought that I am doing this +comforts and sustains me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My work prospers. But last winter's wood is not yet fit for +use. My +little pitchman has brought me some that is old, excellent and well +seasoned, having been part of the rafters of an old house that has just +been torn down. We work together cheerfully, and our earnings are +considerable.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Vice is the same everywhere, except that here it is more +open. Among +the masses, vice is characterized by coarseness; among the upper +classes, by meanness.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter shake off the consequences of their evil deeds, +while the +former are obliged to bear them.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The rude manners of these people are necessary, and are far +preferable +to polite deceit. They must needs be rough and rude. If it were not for +its coarse, thick bark, the oak could not withstand the storm.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have found that this rough bark covers more tenderness and +sincerity +than does the smoothest surface.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Jochem told me, to-day, that he is still quite a good walker, +but that +a blind man finds it very troublesome to go anywhere; for, at every +step, he is obliged to grope about, so that he may feel sure of his +ground before he firmly plants his foot on the earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is it not the same with me? Am I not obliged to be sure of +the ground +before I take a step?</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is the way of the fallen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! why does everything I see or hear become a symbol of my +life?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Our life here is like that of plants. Our chief care is as to +the +weather. Rain and sunshine affect us as they do the plants that require +their aid. Hansei often complains that he does not understand the +weather signs hereabouts. In his old home by the lake, he could always +tell how the weather would be. His want of knowledge on this subject +prevents him from feeling quite at home here. Our little pitchman, +however, is a most reliable weather-prophet, and has thus come to be +looked upon as quite an important personage. I am his docile scholar +and he is quite proud of me. Although he is quite intimate with me, and +often indulges in pleasantry, he never fails to treat me with great +respect.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who know nothing of etiquette, often make up for the +want of it +by their tact. I congratulated the little pitchman last week. It was on +the occasion of his birthday, and when I shook hands with him, his face +grew scarlet. He thanked me heartily, and kept saying that when he got +to heaven, he would bespeak good quarters for me, and that his old +woman wouldn't get angry if he possessed both her and myself in the +next world. He is always happy when serving me. When he builds a fire +in my stove, he ogles every log, as if it ought to feel it an honor to +be permitted to help keep me warm.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The census troubled me greatly to-day. After dinner, Hansei +produced +the blank which he was required to fill, and handed it to Walpurga, +with the words: "Do you write, or let her"--meaning me--"write her +name, her age, and where she comes from?"</p> + +<p class="normal">We were in great tribulation, until Walpurga, at last, solved +the +difficulty by saying that there was no need of telling everything.</p> + +<p class="normal">The remark was quite opportune and afforded a convenient +excuse to +Hansei, who was greatly annoyed by another schedule, in which he was +expected to state the annual yield of milk and of butter, the number of +chickens on the farm, etc., etc. Hansei was angry at the officials, and +felt quite sure that they meant to impose another tax. His wrath saved +me, but defrauded the state out of one soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">The people hereabouts look upon the state and its +functionaries as +their natural enemies, and have no scruples as to deceiving them.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">For the first time in my life, I have seen a tree felled.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was filled with awe when I saw it topple for a moment, +before the +final crash. It reminded me of the fate of a man who is, at one blow, +hurled from sunny heights into the depths of misery.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei is having a path cut through the forest. It passes by +my window, +and the clearing will afford me a fine view. He was quite happy when I +told him of this.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was at the capital. On his return, he unwrapped a +large parcel +and, with conscious pride, showed us what sensible presents he had +bought. They were the pictures of the king and queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">In his kindness of heart, he offered to let me hang up the +pictures in +my room, and was quite provoked to find that his wife wanted to keep +them for herself. I satisfied him at last by saying: "The sitting-room +belongs to us all."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the pictures seemed to be looking at me constantly, and +made it +unpleasant for me to remain in the room. Walpurga noticed this and, to +my great relief, removed them to her bedroom. Hansei does not take +notice of such matters.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's portrait represents him in the dress of a citizen. +Is it a +sign that--?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei at last reveals his plan. It is quite a clever stroke +of his to +begin by cutting roads through the forest, so that the beams can be +brought down from far up the mountain, and thus fetch him thrice as +much money as if they were cut into smaller logs.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(April 3d.)--At first, there is so much to observe. The whole +world +seems like a young child, or like the first verdure of spring. Later, +one grows accustomed to it all, and it seems as if things were always +and everywhere alike. It seems to me that life would be insupportable, +if the world were ever new and left us no repose.</p> + +<p class="normal">Habit, our second mother, is a good mother, too.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">They have fastened a rope to the feet of my white foal, so +that it +cannot run away. It can now only move about slowly. The freedom and +grace of its movements are gone, even before it is put in harness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how many human beings have a like fate!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I love to watch the rain calmly descending upon the earth. If +I were +not obliged to work, I could remain by my window for hours, lost in +reverie and looking out and listening, for it seems to me as if I were +endowed with a million eyes and could see every drop as it falls on the +half-open buds. But here, we are all constantly at work. I am ashamed +to sit here with my hands in my lap. The rain in springtime is soft and +beautiful, lending voice, form and substance to the air, and to every +tiny rill.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Formerly, I always required a spyglass, where I no longer +need it.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is because we do not live in the open air, that we become +near-sighted.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The rose may be improved by cultivation, and the thorns +growing on its +stalk may become different from what they were; but they are thorns, +nevertheless.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(April 15th.)--I have heard the yellow-hammer, for the first +time this +year. In springtime its notes are far more rapid and short than in +summer.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(April 23d.)--The first swallow has come. Now may we softly +lull +ourselves to rest in the consciousness that sweet spring is with us +once again. The uncertain and anxious fluttering from one fair day to +another, is at an end.</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman says: "Swallows and starlings come and go +in the +night." The idea is quite suggestive.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(End of April.)--We have had a shower. Oh, what fragrant +odors it +awakened in flowers, grass and trees! And this fragrance floats off +into infinite space, while we short-lived children of man imagine that +it all exists for us. Everything that exists, exists for itself alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>immortelle</i> is one of the earliest plants to shoot forth +its +leaves. It grows by the edge of the forest, and will thrive even in +poor soil.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(May 1st.)--We have had a cold, rainy day, with hail. Toward +evening, +when the rain had ceased and the drops on the trees and bushes sparkled +in the golden sunlight, I heard the cuckoo, for the first time this +year. He flew from forest to forest, from mountain to mountain, crying +everywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">I now know why they say: "Go to the cuckoo."<a name="div2Ref_note04" href="#div2_note04"><sup>4</sup></a> The cuckoo +has no nest, +no home of its own and, according to popular tradition, is obliged to +sleep on a different tree every night. "Go to the cuckoo," therefore +means: "be restless and fugitive; be at home nowhere."</p> + +<p class="normal">When I told the grandmother of my discovery, she said: +"You've hit it +exactly. You manage to get some good out of everything. You've won it."</p> + +<p class="normal">She meant that I had won the game of life.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My kind little pitchman has given me an unexpected treat. He +has +arranged a seat for me, up by the maple tree on the projecting rock. +But he cut away the bushes, and thus destroyed the privacy of my +favorite haunt. Nevertheless, I find it pleasant to sit there. No human +being is perfectly satisfied with what another may do for him, but we +may be grateful, for all; and gratitude is the soil on which joy +thrives.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(First Sunday in May.)--On Sunday afternoons, when I may not +work, I +long to drive through the park in a caleche which is easy on its +springs; not to be always walking or obliged to be doing something. To +move through the world in the springtime, seated on soft cushions and +drawn by fleet horses, or, what is still better, to ride along the +turfy forest paths, while guiding and controlling a strong power--I can +never forget that.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At night, when I look up into the vast, starry vault, with +its myriad +glittering orbs, I find it difficult to sit or to walk. I think of the +nights when, lying back in my carriage, I drove out into the wide world +and looked up at the stars. How free everything was then! I am still +much affected by trifles.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">There are days when I cannot endure the forest, when I do not +wish for +shade. I must then have the sun--nothing but light and sunshine. At +such times, I walk along the hot and shadeless meadow paths.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I now have a window-shelf filled with flower-pots. How +different when +one has to wait for the flowers to come up, instead of receiving them +in full bloom from the gardener.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The evenings are my enemy--always heavy and dull. Morn is my friend, +for then everything is bright. How different it once was!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The mental state of those who are out in the world may be +likened to +the physical condition of Baroness Constance. There is a constant +ringing in her ears, and she knows nothing of holy repose or perfect +silence. It is not until one ceases to know anything of the world, or +to care for it, that this mental ringing in the ears ceases, and holy +repose and calm are vouchsafed us. Every sound which then enters is as +a marvel.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother is quiet and alert, just as occasion may +require. She +is not one of the ever busy and excited ones, and yet she is never +idle. With her great knowledge of human nature, she yet retains her +kindly feelings toward all. She has thought much and yet is <i>naïve</i>. +She treats me with affectionate frankness, and says that she has, all +her life, wished to have a clever person about her--one who had learnt +something and with whom she could talk about everything. And she does +this to the letter. I am obliged to explain a thousand things to her, +and she is sincerely grateful for any information I can give her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I like to get my kindling-wood ready in time," said she +to-day. +Translated into our language, this means that she likes to think over +things beforehand.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there are so many dark doors which we pass with closed +eyes.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">While watching the foal to-day, I could not help thinking +that the +first man who tamed a beast--that is, subdued it so that it would bear +him and support him--was the first to assert the power of humanity. +Other animals can kill each other, but not one of them can guide +another life to its own advantage. There are no new species of beasts +to be tamed now. Men are, in truth, becoming poets. They condense the +intangible forces and say to steam, to light, and to the electric +spark: "Come and do my bidding."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have bought some sugar with which to feed my white foal. It +is a +great pleasure, and to-day I could not help thinking that, if any one +saw us, it must have been a pretty picture.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, how vain and trifling I still am!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Every large and extended estate, be it this very farm, or the +court at +the capital, has its vassals, its servants, its parasites, its willing +subjects. The world is the same everywhere.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Peasant life is not the elegant world, but there must be plow +horses as +well as carriage horses.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To live out of one's self, to give full sway to one's native +temperament, to remain unmoved by external influences:--thus may one +learn to know himself and that which is highest. It is in the desert +waste that God reveals himself to the individual heart. The bush burns +and yet is not consumed.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Whenever I look at the mountains, I am impressed anew with +their +sublimity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The world below me is covered by a sea of mist from which the +mountain +peaks here and there protrude. With every day, as it were, I behold the +first day of creation.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am beginning to understand the idea of the sublime. It is +the awe of +greatness, not the awe of fear. I feel as if dwelling in a temple.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Solitude often makes one dull and torpid. I sometimes +experience this +even in myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">On a rainy Sunday, Hansei will often stand looking out of the +window, +for hours at a time. I feel satisfied that his first thoughts are of a +horse, a cow, the sale of his wood, or of some acquaintance. At last, +he falls into a sort of waking dream, and thinks of nothing at all. One +awakes from this childlike lying down and gazing into the world, as +from strengthening and refreshing sleep. It is indeed only another form +of elementary existence.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Judging by my notes, I, at one time, thought this merely a +station in +my journey, where one is detained by interests or adventure; but now I +see that I am at the goal.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will lay down my load, as the grandmother advised me to do, +and break +the chests to pieces. I shall remain here for the rest of my life. And +now that I have firmly resolved to remain--even if I were discovered +to-morrow, and the whole world heaped its scorn upon me--I have a happy +feeling of being at home. I am here, and here I shall remain.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was not reminded of all this until to-day, when my little +pitchman +said: "You look so pleased, so--I don't know how, but--you never looked +so before."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, my dear little pitchman, you are right; it was not until +to-day +that I felt myself truly at home. I have struck root, like the cherry +sapling before my window.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The old pensioner said to me to-day: "Behold, my child, age +takes much +from us; but I can still dream as beautifully as I did in my youth."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Of all the flowers, I find the heaviest dew on the rose. Is +that +because of the rich perfume? Does the perfume form dew? No green leaf +ever has so much dew upon it, as the leaf of a flower.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I often feel tempted to tell the story of Leah to the whole +household, +Jochem included.</p> + +<p class="normal">It often annoys me, when I think that I do not impart all I +have to my +friends; but how much more it would annoy me, if I were misunderstood +by them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even in our day, art and religion are far asunder.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter can be imparted to all; the former cannot.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It is impossible to interest the masses in refined pleasures. +During +the week, they have nothing but hard work; and on Sunday, they find +recreation at ninepins, or in dancing in heavy boots. They require rude +pleasures and a rude faith.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(On Sunday, while the bells are ringing.)--Art does not enter +into the +life of the masses. For them, plastic or dramatic art, or the higher +order of music or literature, do not exist.</p> + +<p class="normal">The only idea they have of another life, over and above the +trivial +present, is embodied by the church, and yet that which is best in all +religions is the poetry they contain.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">What must become of one who, for years, does not read a +serious book, +or does not read at all, and thus takes in no great or well worked-out +ideas? If he be rich and noble, his life becomes vain play; if he be +poor and lowly, it becomes vain labor. And, for this reason, nature has +given us song and history, has established religion which offers its +jewels to all, so that every one may drink of the fermented wine of all +knowledge and all art. But new wine must always be added, or--</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(July 30th.)--The whole world was veiled in mist, and the sun +was +hidden from view. It seemed as if the artistic creative eye were +brooding over the form it was about to usher into life. And then the +cloud-flakes were rent asunder. For a moment, the mountain world was +free. The mists disappear; but new ones arise from the earth.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Out in the world the fear of being ridiculed prevents people +from +expressing enthusiastic admiration of moonlight. When the whole world +is illumined its soft glow, and no sound is heard save the murmur of +the sparkling brook, I am filled with ecstatic delight.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Temptation returns, and says: "You offend against nature by +wasting +your rich gifts on tasks that others could accomplish as well as you. +Go out into the worlds and consider your present life merely as a state +of transition."</p> + +<p class="normal">No! I shall remain!</p> + +<p class="normal">When I stand on the mountain and gaze out into the world, I +often ask +myself: "Art thou still the same Irma? What vestige is left of thy past +glittering life?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing but the heavy burden that oppresses my soul.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Weather-talk is considered a bore, and yet there is no +subject more +important. Plants and animals feel the changes, for they determine +their fate from day to day. And are there not men whose whole life is +bound up in the question: "Will the day be clear or cloudy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The cloud that, like a girdle, encircles yonder peak, has +rested there, +motionless, the whole day; and thus, too, there are days when a mist +seems to be resting upon one's soul, enveloping our inner being in +darkness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Play of the features is distinctively a human attribute. The +human face +reveals changing emotions; that of the beast does not.</p> + +<p class="normal">The beast, moreover, has always but one and the same tone. +The bark of +a dog is ever the same, be it in joy or anger; the only change is in +the temper. Or is it only to our ears that these tones seem alike?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">If a human being were to utter such inharmonious and +disconnected tones +as those produced by the mavis overhead, it would drive me to +distraction. But why do these tones not affect me in the same way? Why +do they almost please me? Because they are natural to the bird. But +man, having the power to choose, must see to it that his tones are +melodious.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">What is all our knowledge? We do not even know what +to-morrow's weather +will be. There is no infallible indicator of the changes in this most +essential condition of life. Nor do the farmers, although they are so +fond of talking on the subject, know anything about it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Harvest time is the dramatic turning-point of the year. At +that time, +all is haste and suspense, and men and women are alike uncongenial.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">One need but listen to the pensioner, to learn how thoroughly +corrupt +the world is. His expletives have all the force of cudgels. He is +constantly trying to sound me in regard to Hansei and Walpurga, and +would like me to tell him of their faults. It worries him to hear them +well spoken of.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A remark of Gunther's occurred to me to-day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are all passionate; the difference between individuals +being only a +difference in rhythm. He who goes downstairs at one bound, may break +his neck; he whose descent is gradual and careful, will remain +uninjured."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I never look at the clock. With me, life is no longer divided +into +hours. I hear the bell in the valley at morning, noon and evening, and +regulate my actions accordingly. The clock is in the church tower. The +church tells us the time of day.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Old Jochem is ill. The physician who attends him is quite a +jovial +character, and maintains that Jochem would live many years longer if he +had only been able to feed his anger and keep his lawsuits, for these +furnished him with excitement and amusement, at the same time. As long +as he had these, there was still something left to fight for in the +world and some one to abuse, and it was this that had kept him up. Now +that his life was a peaceful one, he would, in all likelihood, die of +<i>ennui</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You smile," said the physician to me. "Believe me, I am +quite serious. +An infant in the cradle that does not cry, and a chained dog that does +not bark, have neither life nor energy and will surely die."</p> + +<p class="normal">He may be right, to a certain extent.</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel under restraint when with the physician; for he +regards me with +such a strange, scrutinizing air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Thou good God! The grass is coming up! But they'll bury +me in the +earth and I'll never come up again!" was Jochem's lament.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The old man is dead. This very night he passed away in his +sleep. No +one was with him at the time.</p> + +<p class="normal">He died like a forest tree which has lost its power of +absorbing +nourishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Little Burgei now sleeps with me. My friends will listen to +nothing +else, and will not suffer me to be alone at night.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am filled with dread. A corpse lies on the floor above. +Beside it, is +a solitary lamp that is left to burn until the dead man is buried. And +yet I feel that I must conquer this feeling of dread! Yes, I shall.</p> + +<p class="normal">It still moves me deeply to think of how the old man +remembered me. He +sent for me yesterday; and, when I went up to his bedside, he said: +"Irmgard, you were a stranger and yet were kind to me--I'd like to +leave you something. I've been thinking the matter over and find that I +still have something to give you. It's the best of all that I own. It +would do me no good to have it buried with me, and it will be of great +benefit to you, for there's a charm in it. Here it is--take it--it's +the bullet that struck me on the third rib. Take good care of it. He +who bears with him a bullet that has once hit a man, is in no danger of +sudden, unexpected death. You can rely on that! And now I've something +to ask you: Tell me, what was your father's name? You've told me that +he's dead. When I get to heaven, I'll hunt him up and tell him that +you're quite a good girl; a little bit queer, perhaps, but right good +for all. I'll tell your father that, and it'll be good news for him."</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not tell him the name--how could I? All I could do +was to thank +him for giving me what had been so precious in his own eyes. And, +strange to say, when I take the bullet in my hand and look at it, it +agitates me greatly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I will now prepare myself to follow the old man to his grave.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I was at the churchyard while the old man was buried. I shall +lie +there, too, some day.</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel as if death might be conquered by the will. I am +determined to +live; I will not die. Is force of will the hidden thing within me, that +I am ever seeking? And yet, I have no will. No one has. All our life, +all our thoughts, are simply the necessary result of events and +experiences, of waking perception and nocturnal dreams. Like the +beasts, we may change the scene; but, the greater one, the prison that +confines us, we cannot change. We cannot quit the earth. The laws of +gravitation and attraction hold our souls fast as well as our bodies. +Far above me, move the stars, and I am nothing more than a flower or a +blade of grass clinging to the earth. The stars look down at me and I +look up to them, and yet we cannot join each other.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A reigning prince has visited our farm. His highness +Grubersepp, of +whom Walpurga has often spoken to me, has arrived, bringing his little +son, or--to speak more correctly--his two black horses and his son with +him. The house is all bustle, and every one seems as proud and happy as +if a reigning prince had actually come.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grubersepp looked at me with a curious air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that prim-looking girl," said he to Hansei, while +pointing backward +with his thumb, "one of your wife's relations?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; my wife--" Hansei muttered something--I saw that it +went hard +with him to tell a lie, and, above all, to the great farmer to whom he +was showing his property.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the peasants, it is just the same as elsewhere. Only +the great +ones know each other. But their intercourse is beautiful and +impressive, and, although they exchange no friendly words, they serve +each other by friendly actions.</p> + +<p class="normal">The family have been made happy, for Grubersepp has said that +the farm +was in good order; and when Grubersepp says that, it is as much as if +the intendant should say: "divine."</p> + +<p class="normal">During the two days Grubersepp spent here, there was no rest +in the +house; that is, every one was busy thinking of him. Now everything is +running in its accustomed groove, and every face is radiant with joy. +No matter how well satisfied one may be with himself, it is something +quite different to receive words of approval from the lips of another, +and especially so, when the words of commendation come from a man so +exalted as Grubersepp.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am still trembling with fright. I was in the woods to-day. +I was +sitting on my bench, and saw some one walking among the trees. Now and +then he would stop to gather a flower or pick up a stone. He came near +and--who was it?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Gunther, the friend for whose presence I had so often +longed. He +asked me, in his deep, clear voice: "Child, does this road lead down to +the village?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt as if choking, and could not utter a word. I pointed +to the +footpath and, in fear and trembling, arose from my seat. He asked me: +"Are you dumb, poor child?"--This saved me. I am dumb; I cannot speak. +Without uttering a word, I fled from him and, when I found myself +alone, I wept longer than I have for many years. I wanted to hurry +after him, but he had gone. I could not support myself. My limbs gave +way under me. At last I was calm--all is over--all must be over.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have had long and troubled days. My work did not go as +smoothly as it +should have done, and much went amiss with me. The world without has +aroused me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I thank fate that I have learned to use my eyes. Wherever I +look, I see +something that delights me and gives me food for thought. The noblest +joys and the most widely diffused are those the eye affords us.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am delighted to find that the little pitchman knows every +bird by its +song. The proverb says: "A bird is known by its feathers." That is a +matter of course, for few know them by their song. Their plumage is +permanent; their song is fleeting and fitful. The former is fixed; the +latter is not.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I now listen, with perfect unconcern, to the groaning of the +forest +trees, which so alarmed me during that night of terrors. And how +strange! as soon as a bird begins to sing, the groaning ceases. What +causes this?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have received fresh orders, and am all right again. But my +little +pitchman keeps ailing. At first, it almost vexed me, but I conquered +the selfish habits that tyrannized over me. I have served him +faithfully, in requital for the services he has done me. I nursed him +carefully, and now he is quite well again.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am not so selfish, after all; for I have gained the +friendship of +good human beings. But I cannot do good to those who do not concern me. +I belong to myself and to an infinitely small circle; beyond that I +cannot go.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I sit here in silence and solitude, and look at the one +room in +which I live and hope to die, I sometimes give way to horrible fits of +depression. Here is my chair, my table, my workbench, my bed. These are +mine until I am laid in the grave; but there is not one human soul that +belongs to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel so oppressed, at such moments, that I would like to +cry out +aloud, and it is with difficulty that I regain my composure. Work, +however, aids me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">For one brief hour, I have imagined myself possessed of +omniscience.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was yesterday morning, during the hour from eleven until +twelve. A +light sun-shower passed over us, and then all grew bright again, and, +in my mind's eye, I saw how thousands of beings were spending that +hour. I saw the laborer in the forest, the king in his cabinet, the +sewing-woman in her garret, the miner in the shaft, the bird on the +tree, the lizard on the rock. I saw the child sitting in school, and +the dying old man drawing his last breath. I saw the ship, the coquette +rouging herself, and the poor working-woman weeding in the fields. I +saw all--everything. I passed one hour of infinity.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now I am fettered again--a small, isolated, miserable, +stammering +child. The one great thought of eternity passes like a fugitive through +my mind, and finds no resting-place there. I must again hold fast to +trifles.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall return to my workbench.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have read, somewhere, that the Arabians wash their hands +before +prayer; when in the desert, where they can find no water, they wash +them in sand and dust. The dust of labor purifies us.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The masses should have no books, but should talk with, and +listen to, +each other.</p> + +<p class="normal">Books serve to isolate man; that which is told us by word of +mouth is +far more potent.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The teachings--or, rather, the experiences--of a ruined +worldling have +two things in their favor. She who has gone astray has become observant +of everything, and is, therefore, the best guide. And, besides that, it +seems to me that those who receive a precept from the lips of one who +is perfectly pure have no, choice left them; for purity is the highest +authority, and its teachings must be accepted. But when a ruined being +speaks to us, every word must be tested. It will not do to reject it at +once; and this is well, for it makes one free.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The swallows are departing. They gather in flocks which, like +thick +clouds, darken the air and, with lightning speed, they move in their +zig-zag course. How they can keep together in such irregular movements +passes our comprehension. When, or by what means, do they signify to +each other when a sharp turn is to be taken?</p> + +<p class="normal">The thought of flying suggests a sphere of life of which we +can form no +conception. And yet we imagine that we understand the world. What is +fixed, we may comprehend; at least, the portion that is fixed.--Beyond +that, all is conjecture.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I overheard Franz, Gundel's lover, saying to her: "A woman +who looked +just like Irmgard was once with the queen at the military maneuvers; +and she wore the uniform of our regiment, and rode up and down the +line."</p> + +<p class="normal">If the soldier were to recognize and betray me?</p> + +<p class="normal">How the confused feelings that fill the human heart seem to +play at +hide and seek with each other. With all my misery, it is not without a +certain feeling of triumph that I learn that my image has impressed +itself on a thousand memories.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have not yet accustomed myself to go out alone, and it +often seems to +me as if a servant must be walking after me. Ah! what an artificial +life we all lead.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have spent a whole day alone in the woods. Oh, how happy I +was! I lay +on the ground listening to the rustling of the leaves overhead, and the +prattling of the brook below. If I could but end my days here like a +wounded doe--for I am one, and drops of blood mark my track.--No, I am +well again. I was once in the world; that is, in another world; and now +I lead a new life.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman knew my father. During one summer, he +worked in our +forest, gathering pitch, and my father, who understood everything, went +up to him and taught him how to boil the pitch in order to obtain a +better and purer article than he would otherwise have got.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, what a man he was! I only wish you'd known him," said +the little +pitchman to me. "He was so good. Many a one has told me, since then, +how he used to help everybody. He knew all about everything. He taught +me that you can get the best turpentine from the larches. He never +liked to give anything to people, but he wasn't stingy. He helped all +who'd work, and showed them how things might be done with less trouble +and with greater profit, and that was better than giving them money. +Every year he would lend them some money, so that they could buy a pig, +and when they'd sold it, they had to pay him back. They often laughed +at him and gave him a nickname, too, but it was an honor to him. +Yes--and would you believe it?--he had a great misfortune. His children +deserted him."</p> + +<p class="normal">How these words rent my heart!</p> + +<p class="normal">During the whole evening, the terrible mark on my forehead +burned like +fire.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">This is the anniversary of my return to the summer palace.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that time, I dreamt that a star had fallen down on me, and +that a +man, with averted gaze, was saying: "Thou too, art alone!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There are depths of the soul, which no safety-lamp ever +enters, and +where all light is extinguished. I turn away--for naught dwells there +but the angry storm-wind.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My thoughts go back to my childhood. I was three years old +when my +mother died. I have nothing to remind me of it, except that the moving +about and pushing in the next room greatly frightened me. Oh mother! +why did you die so soon? How different I would have been--</p> + +<p class="normal">I? Who is this I? If it could have been different, it were +not I. It +was to be thus.</p> + +<p class="normal">They put black clothes on me and my brother, and I only +remember that +father went with us. He said that it would be better if we did not +remain with him, and that it was not well for us to grow up in +solitude. He kissed us at parting. He kissed me and my brother, then he +kissed me once more. It seemed as if he wished to retain my kiss for +the last.</p> + +<p class="normal">What are the memories of my childhood? A silent convent, my +aunt the +lady abbess, and my friend Emma. I remember this much, however: when +strangers came, they would turn to me and say: "Oh, what a pretty +child! what large brown eyes!" Emma told me that I was not pretty, and +that the visitors were only laughing at and mocking me; but my mirror +told me that I was pretty. I frankly said so to Emma and she confessed +that I was. My father came--he had been in America--and he looked at me +for a long while. "Father, I am pretty, am I not?" said I to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my child, you are, and much is required of one who is +beautiful. +Beauty is a heavy charge. Always bear yourself that others may justly +feel proud of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not know what he meant at the time, but now I +understand it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not remember how the years passed by. I went back to +father. +Bruno, who was intended for an agriculturist, entered the army against +father's wishes. Father, absorbed by his work and his studies, lived +entirely for himself, and left us to do as we pleased. He was proud of +this, and often said that he did not wish to exercise his authority +over us, and that he meant to allow us to develop our characters freely +and without restraint. I returned to the convent, and remained there +until my aunt died.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there--forgive me, great and pure spirit!--there lay your +great +error. You cast aside your paternal majesty and meant to live in love +alone. And we? Bruno would not, and I could not. And thus, while you +were lonely, we were miserable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno went to court. He was handsome, gay and full of life. +He +presented me at court, also. Father had allowed me to follow my own +choice, and there my troubles began. I knew that I was beautiful, and I +had the courage to think differently from others. I had become the free +nature which my father had meant me to be; but to what purpose?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When I look over what I have written, I cannot help thinking +of how +much one has lived and labored during a year, and how small the yield +is, after all. But then flowers, too, require a long time before they +blossom, and fruit ripens but slowly; many sunny days and dewy nights +have helped to perfect them.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A rainbow! Rest and peace are intangible. They exist nowhere +except in +our own imagination and in the view we take of things around us. Now I +understand why the rainbow that followed the deluge was described as a +token of peace. The seven colors have no real existence. They only +appear to the eye that receives the broken rays at the proper angle of +refraction. Rest and peace cannot be conquered by force; they are free +gifts of the heaven within us--smiles and tears meeting like the rain +cloud and the sunshine.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am often oppressed with a fear that I shall lose what +culture I +possess, because of my having no one with whom I can speak in my own +language, and--I hardly know how to express myself--in whom I can find +my own nature reflected. And yet, that which makes man human is +possessed by those about me, as much as by the most cultured. This +being the case, whence this fear? and of what benefit is culture? Do I +still mean to use it in the world? I do not understand myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our fashionable culture cannot supplant religion, because, +while +religion makes all men equal, education produces inequality. But there +must be a system of culture that will equalize all men, and that is the +only right and true system. We are, as yet, at the threshold.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have a great work before me, and am determined to succeed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei put little Peter on the white horse and let him ride a +few +steps. How happy the little fellow was! and how Wodan looked around at +father and son! I retained the scene in my memory, and am now working +at the group--Hansei, Peter, and the white foal, all together. If I +only succeed! I can scarcely sleep for thinking of it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The group has proved a success, although not so great a one +as I had +wished for. The human figures are stiff and without expression; but the +horse is full of life, and every one in the house is delighted with my +achievement.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei wishes me to accompany him when he goes out hunting, +so that I +may copy stags, deer, and chamois. Those, he thinks, are the best +subjects, after all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have tried to copy the animals in the forest, but did not +succeed as +I did with the horse. I can only hold fast to that which has no fear of +me and which I, therefore, love. I shall stick to my horses and cows.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">All the mountain summits that I see, have such strange and +yet +appropriate names. Who bestowed them upon them? And who accepted them? +What names could we invent nowadays? The earth and language have both +become rigid and unyielding. I think I once heard the same thought +expressed one evening, while we were at tea with the queen.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The carnival is a great festival--the very realization of +jollity. +Peasants from the village come to visit us. They often come on Sundays, +but I never heard them speak of anything but cattle, the crops, or the +price of grain. I sometimes remain in the room to listen to them, for I +love to hear the sound of human voices.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stories they tell each other seem simple, but, after all, +none +better are told in the <i>salon</i>.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Why did I not live out my life in purity? I was intended for +a noble +and beautiful existence.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My white foal is running about, while I sit here modeling it. +The power +of giving permanent shape to impressions received by the eye is the +prerogative of man alone. We have words for everything about us and can +imitate all objects, and, over and above that, we have music and pure +thought. What rich stores of knowledge and delight are at man's +disposal.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We have passed three sad, sorrowful days. The grandmother was +ill. The +whole household was in alarm. Hansei feared the worst and did not +venture to leave the farm. It was a comfort to me to find that my +nursing did the grandmother so much good.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, proud as he is of being a great farmer, was so +anxious to do +something for the mother, that he chopped the wood with which to make a +fire in her room, and carried it in, himself.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">He always told the doctor to spare no expense. Nothing was +too dear, or +too good for the grandmother.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor explained the grandmother's illness to me, just as +if I were +a physician.</p> + +<p class="normal">She often sent Uncle Peter out into the woods to me. It was +still raw +out there, and we soon returned.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother is well again, and is sitting in the spring +sunshine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, one must have been out of the world, to be grateful for +coming +back again," said she. "One who doesn't get away doesn't know what it +is to come back." She had much to tell me about the deaths of her five +children. "This one would have been so old, and this one so old," she +kept on saying. In imagination, they had grown up with her. Then she +told me of her husband's death: how he had been dragged into the lake +by the driftwood, and drowned; and how Hansei had remained with them +afterward. "He was a strange man," she always said of her husband, "but +good-hearted."</p> + +<p class="normal">During his sister's illness, the little pitchman was in great +despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was the pride of our family," he kept on saying, as if +she were +already dead. But now he is the happiest of us all, and when the +grandmother sat on my bench under the maple tree, for the first time, +he said: "I'll get a golden seat in heaven for making that bench. The +king hasn't got a finer place than that, and he can't get any one to +paint bluer skies or greener woods for him than we can see from here."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am quite distressed by what the little pitchman tells me. +He brings +me word that the man who purchases my work intends to pay me a visit. +He has just received an order to furnish carved wainscotings for the +palace at the king's new hunting-seat, and wishes to see me about them.</p> + +<p class="normal">How shall I avoid meeting him?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The good mother has helped me out of my trouble. She received +him when +he came, and told him that I would see no one. She would not consent to +tell a falsehood, a point on which Walpurga would have had less +scruples.</p> + +<p class="normal">I now have the working designs, and beautiful woods with +which to carry +them out, for I have undertaken to execute a portion of the order.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It matters little what manner of life one leads, so long as +there is +self-awakening and self-consciousness. All arts, all science, merely +exist in order that our own consciousness may be acted upon and aroused +by that of others. He who can do this unaided is fortunate. He who +awakes of himself when it is time to go to work in the morning, has no +need of a watchman to call him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei has become a juryman. Walpurga is quite proud of it, +and when he +took leave of us, it was with a certain air of pride and importance. +The idea of appealing to the conscience of the people for the verdict +of justice, is a beautiful one.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei has returned, and had many terrible stories to tell.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems to me as if our lives and destinies were nothing +more than +shadows playing on the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was deeply affected when he said to us:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, all my sins came back to me, and I felt as if I were +doing +penance when I pronounced judgment on others. It's nothing but good +luck that prevents us from falling into sinful ways and keeps us off of +the anxious bench."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(Sunday, May 28th.)--The grandmother is dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">I cannot write of it. My hand seems as if paralyzed.</p> + +<p class="normal">She kissed my eyes and said: "I kiss your eyes, and hope they +may never +weep again."</p> + +<p class="normal">Two hours before her death, she said to Hansei:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Make a sled for Burgei. She is so anxious to have one. It'll +please me +if you do. You needn't fear, she won't harm herself. I beg of you, do +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, grandmother!" replied Hansei, with thick voice, +and deeply +affected by the thought that, even then, the grandmother's only care +was for Burgei's pleasure.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The fear of death lies heavily upon me, and yet I feel an +inward sense +of freedom. I have beheld a beautiful end. My hand closed her eyes in +death. I had not believed that I could do it. There was a time when I +could not, when I lay on the floor feeling as if I were buried far +under the earth, and beside me lay my father, cold in death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother's death has relieved me of all fear. I am +able to +assist Walpurga. Her lamentations are excessive. "Now I'm an orphan +like you!" she cried, throwing herself on my bosom. Then she cried to +the dead one: "Oh mother! how can you be so cruel as to leave me? Oh +God! and there's the bird still hopping about its cage. Yes, you can +jump about! but mother never will again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She took a cloth and covered the crossbill's cage with it, +saying: "I'd +like to let you fly, you dear little creature, but I can't. Mother +loved you so much that I can't let you go." And then, addressing the +corpse, she said: "Oh mother! can there ever be sunshine when you're +not here? Yes, the clock ticks and keeps on going, and can be wound up. +But, oh! the hours that will come and go without you! God forgive me +for the many hours I was away from you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The door of the clothes-press suddenly flew open and startled +Walpurga. +Regaining her self-command, she said: "Yes, yes; I'll wear your clothes. +I'll wear them for the sake of good. No evil thought shall enter my +heart, no evil word pass my lips. Help me, so that I may always be +yours! Oh God! there's no one left to say 'child' to me! I remember how +you said: 'So long as you can say, father, and mother, there is yet a +love that bears you in its arms. It's only when the parents are gone, +that one is set down on the cold ground.' I'll hold fast to all you've +told me to do, and so shall my children. And, Irmgard, you remember +many other wise sayings, don't you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the burden of Walpurga's lament, and I could only +reply:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and hold fast to one thing she said: 'One may sin even +in +speech.' Don't give way to your grief."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga took down her mother's prayer-book and read the +prayer for the +soul of the departed.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that, she handed me the book, and what I read there +filled me +with gratitude and devotion. When our feelings are most violently +agitated, we cannot give definite shape to our ideas. We, too, sing +melodies that have been arranged by others. Our lips repeat the words +of poets who have sung and suffered for us; for the poet's heart, in +truth, contains the New Jerusalem of civilization. The great gulf that +separates man from the beast, the plant, or the stone, is the +possession of sympathy, by means of which men are enabled to +anticipate, or to follow, each other's emotions. From the beginning +until now, humanity has been chanting an undying melody in which my +voice, too, forms a part. An everlasting sun, of whose rays I am one, +has been lighting the path from generation to generation. The silent +mountains outlast the races of men and no new one is added to their +number; but, from generation to generation, new watch-towers of thought +arise from the soul of humanity.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A happy death is the greatest good. Wondrous power of +religion! Over +the couch of the sick, there are bell-pulls, reaching into heaven, by +which the patient is enabled to draw himself up and support himself. He +imagines them there, even in their absence, and, supported by faith, +thinks that he is holding fast to them.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">After the grandmother's death, a strange feeling of quiet +rested on the +house. It was a great comfort to Walpurga to know that there were so +many people at the funeral.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, they all honored her; but they really didn't know her. +You and I +knew her. Do you remember, Hansei, when the potatoes were stolen from +the field, and she said; 'If one only knew who stole them,' and I said: +'Mother, would you inform against them?' 'You foolish thing,' she +answered, reproachfully, 'how could you think I'd mean that? What I +mean is: if we only knew who the people are that stole our potatoes +during the night. They must know that we have but little, ourselves; +and they must be very unfortunate people, whom we ought to help as much +as we can afford to.' Yes, she said that; was there ever another +creature who'd think of such a thing? That's the way the saints must +have been who thought so kindly of all. She had no fear of the sick, +nor hatred of the wicked. Her only thought was, how much they must have +suffered before they got so sick or so wicked. If I could only grow to +be like her. Remind me of it all, Irmgard, when I get cross and scold. +You'll help me, won't you? to become like my mother, so that, some day, +my children will think of me as I do of her. Ah! if one were only +always as good as one can be. Yes, she was right when she used to say: +'Wishing in the one hand and blowing into the other, amount to about +the same thing.'"</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I shall now return to my work. At such times, there is +hardship and yet +comfort in labor. Hansei and Walpurga are obliged to work. They cannot +afford to give themselves up to grief, for too much depends on them. Be +it with king or beggar, poet or peasant, the key-note of the highest +emotions is always the same.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga's lament was pitched in the same key as that of Lear +for +Cordelia, and yet how different. To a father who loses his child, the +future is dead. To a child losing a parent, the past is dead. Ah! how +weak is language.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I was quite alarmed by something that Hansei said to-day. Has +doubt +entered even these simple hearts? And they do their duty in this world +without a firm belief in a future state.</p> + +<p class="normal">In his funeral sermon, the preacher had said: "Behold the +trees! A few +weeks ago, they were dead. But with the spring, they return to life." +"The pastor oughtn't to have said that," remarked Hansei; "not that +way, at any rate. He might convert children by that, but not us. What +does he mean by talking about trees in that fashion? The trees that +still have life in them will get new leaves in the spring, but the dead +ones won't; they'll be cut down and others will be planted in their +place."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We all of us have a strange feeling of loneliness--a feeling +that +something is missing. Uncle Peter is the most inconsolable of all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I must wander about the world alone; I haven't brother +or sister +left. She was the pride of our family," he repeats again and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Heretofore, he always slept in the garret, with the servants; +but now +Hansei has placed the old pensioner's room at his disposal. He is quite +proud of it, but often complains, saying: "Why did I have to wait so +long for all this? How stupid it was of my sister and me. We might have +moved in there. Could we have found a prettier place? Oh, how nicely we +would have lived there, and you could have gone along with us. Oh, how +stupid old age is. We don't see the good nests till the trees are bare +and there's nothing more left in them. 'One gets nothing to eat, till +there are no teeth to bite it with,' as my sister used to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">He always uses the words: "As my sister used to say," when he +is on +the point of making a statement which he does not wish contradicted, +and I imagine he really thinks his sister did say it. He inherited her +closet and, before opening it, he always knocks at the door.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman is a good bee-master. He knows how to take +care of +bees and he calls them the poor man's pasture cattle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since my sister's death," said he to me to-day, "I've had +nothing but +bad luck with my bees. They won't have anything more to do with me."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have written nothing for months. For whom are these pages? +Why do I +torment my mind by recording every trifling incident or passing +emotion? These questions unsettled and perplexed me, but now I am calm +again. For months I have done nothing but work.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems to me that I must soon die, and yet I feel that I am +in the +fulness of my strength. I am often rendered uneasy by the thought that +people trifle with my supposed madness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">At last I feel that my rest here was never complete, and that +it might +have been disturbed at any moment. But now, let what will come, I shall +remain.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A storm! To us who note the sun, the moon, and every change +of weather, +a storm is quite a different affair from what it is to those who only +look to see what weather it is when they are idle, or have a pleasure +party in prospect.</p> + +<p class="normal">One feels as if transported back to the time of creation, as +if all +were chaos once more; for the voice of the Infinite is heard in the +thunder, and His glory blazes forth in the lightning.</p> + +<p class="normal">At a public gaming-table, while the thunder was pealing and +the +lightning flashing, and the frivolous throng had withdrawn from the +game, I once saw a lady of noble birth who insisted upon going on with +the game after all the others had been frightened away. The croupiers +were obliged to keep at their work. This lady gives elegant +entertainments, and a servant who stole a silver spoon from her, was +sent to gaol. How low, to steal a spoon--! But what of her mistress?</p> + +<p class="normal">There is, of course, one circumstance that I must not omit to +mention. +Every morning, before repairing to the gaming-table, she attends mass.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To be killed by lightning, must surely be the most beautiful +death of +all. On a lovely summer's day, to be suddenly struck down by the great +marksman!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have seen a man who moves in the polite world. He is a +musician; +young, good-looking, lively, and with delicate, well-cared-for hands. +The storm had overtaken him, and he passed the night in our farmhouse. +While here, he told us:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am already blind in this eye, and my physician tells me +that I shall +lose the other in less than a year, and so I have determined to see the +great, vast, beautiful world. He who has not seen the Alps, does not +know how beautiful our earth is. And so I take it up within me once +more. I fix the sun, the mountains, the forests, the meads, the +streams, the lakes and, above all, the human face, in my memory. Yes, +child," said he to me, "I shall preserve my memory of your face, for +you are the loveliest peasant girl I have ever seen. I shall learn your +face by heart, just as I have learnt poems, so that I may repeat them +to myself and call them back to me when darkness and solitude close in +around me."</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt quite constrained, but he was exceedingly cheerful. +Now and +then, he cast a curious glance at the bandage over my brow. What may he +have thought of it?</p> + +<p class="normal">I should like to have told him that I had once, at Gunther's +house, +sung a song of his, but he did not mention Gunther's name.</p> + +<p class="normal">I cannot find words to describe the impression that this +handsome young +man made upon me. He seemed so full of power, and without the least +trace of weakly sensibility. He comes from the north, and possesses +somewhat of the austere beauty of the northern races. He has breathed +the salt sea air, and that is what makes him so sturdy, as they call it +there. Such natures impress and arouse me; one cannot remain languid, +brooding or self-complacent, while in his society.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, what cannot a strong will do! How the human mind wrestles +with the +powers of nature and conquers them!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">To-day, I have wept for the first time since the +grandmother's death. I +now feel light and free again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young musician has left, and I could hear him sing while +on his way +down the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal">If I could still be aught to another human being--I could +feel doubly +as kind toward one who could neither see my brow, nor praise my beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is over--</p> + +<p class="normal">What strange shadows does the game of life project, even unto +us up +here!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">This visit has satisfied me that there is a large share of +vanity still +remaining in Walpurga. She could not help gradually directing the +conversation to the subject, and, at last, told the stranger that she +had been the crown prince's nurse, and had lived at the palace nearly a +year. There is something in her that reminds me of the man who has many +orders of merit, and who, like a general in citizen's dress, goes about +without his medals and decorations. He modestly deprecates being +addressed as "your excellency," but nevertheless enjoys it. The one +year spent in the atmosphere of the court, has not been without its +effect upon Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, who felt kindly toward the stranger, and evinced +great pity for +him, was evidently annoyed by his wife's ostentation; but, with his +usual great self-command, refrained from expressing his annoyance. But +to-day, when they were going to church, Hansei asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wouldn't you like to have a ribbon around your neck and wear +a picture +of yourself and the crown prince, so that no one may ever forget what +you once were?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not think that Walpurga will ever again allude to her +brilliant +past.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The grandmother's death and funeral afforded me an +opportunity to +become better acquainted with the village schoolmaster. He has a +tolerably fair education, but delights in making a display of it, and +is fond of using big words, in order to impress the listener and to +imply: "You don't quite understand me, after all." But the hearty +feeling with which he entered into our grief, has raised him in my +esteem, and I have frankly let him know as much. And so one day he said +to me: "Your skill in wood carving is as good as a marriage portion. +You can earn much money by it." I had no idea what he meant by the +remark.</p> + +<p class="normal">Last Sunday, however, I was enlightened.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came here, dressed in a black coat and white cotton +gloves, and made +me a formal offer of marriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could not be induced to believe that I would never marry, +and he +urgently repeated his offer, saying that he would only desist if I +really loved another.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga fortunately came to the rescue. The good man seemed +as if +utterly crushed by his rejection, and went away. Why must I fill yet +another heart with pain? Of my own, I do not care to speak.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have not yet done with the schoolmaster's suit.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga asked me why I wished to remain so lonely. As long +as I did +not care to return to the great world, I might as well make this good +man happy, and would be able to do much good to the children and the +poor of the village. I have thus come to know myself anew. I am not +made for beneficence. I am not a sister of mercy. I cannot visit the +sick, unless I know and love them. I could nurse the grandmother, but +no one else. I dislike peasant rooms, and the dull, heavy atmosphere of +these abodes of simplicity. I am not a beneficent fairy. My senses are +too easily offended. I do not care to make myself better than I am; +that is, I should like to make myself better, but all one can do is to +improve the good traits that already exist, and that one good trait I +do not possess. I must be honest about the matter. I could find it +easier to live in a convent. This confession does not make me unhappy, +but melancholy. The desire to enjoy life, and to commune with myself is +so strong.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Franz, Gundel's betrothed, had been summoned to join his +regiment.</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman has just returned from the town, and +brings me news +that "there'll be war with the French." He tells me, too, that our +business will become poor, that the people do not care to buy, and that +our employer offers only half the usual price; and so I will be working +for stock.--I, too, must help to bear the world's burden.</p> + +<p class="normal">How strange it seems that I no longer know anything about my +country +and the age in which we live. One consolation is left me. In such +warlike times, they will not seek the lost one.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We are all, unconsciously, on heights from which the graves of our +beloved dead are invisible. Were they ever present, there would be +neither work nor song in this world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Self-oblivion or self-knowledge--about this, everything +revolves.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Even in hottest summer, I can always see the snowcapped +mountains +before me. I do not know how to express it, but they always inspire me +with strange and confused emotions. I pay no regard to the date or the +seasons, for I have them all at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">In my heart there is also a spot on which rest eternal snows.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have now been here between two and three years. I have +formed a +resolve which it will be difficult to carry out. I shall go out into +the world once more. I must again behold the scenes of my past life. I +have tested myself severely.</p> + +<p class="normal">May it not be a love of adventure, that genteel yet vulgar +desire to +undertake what is unusual or fraught with peril. Or is it a morbid +desire to wander through the world after having died, as it were?</p> + +<p class="normal">No; far from it. What can it be? An intense longing to roam +again, if +it be only for a few days. I must kill the desire, lest it kill me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whence arises this sudden longing?</p> + +<p class="normal">Every tool that I use while at work, burns my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must go.</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall obey the impulse, without worrying myself with +speculations as +to its cause. I am subject to the rules of no order. My will is my only +law. I harm no one by obeying it. I feel myself free; the world has no +power over me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I dreaded informing Walpurga of my intention. When I did so, +her tone, +her words, her whole manner, and the fact that she, for the first time, +called me "child," made it seem as if her mother were still speaking to +me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Child," said she, "you're right! Go! It'll do you good. I +believe that +you'll come back and will stay with us, but if you don't, and another +life opens up to you--your expiation has been a bitter one, far heavier +than your sin."</p> + +<p class="normal">Uncle Peter was quite happy when he learned that we were to +be gone +from one Sunday to the Sunday following. When I asked him whether he +was curious as to where we were going, he replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's all one to me. I'd travel over the whole world with +you, wherever +you'd care to go; and if you were to drive me away, I'd follow you like +a dog and find you again."</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall take my journal with me, and will note down every +day.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(By the lake.)--I find it difficult to write a word. The +threshold I am +obliged to cross, in order to go out into the world, is my own +gravestone.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am equal to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">How pleasant it was to descend toward the valley. Uncle Peter +sang, and +melodies suggested themselves to me, but I did not sing. Suddenly he +interrupted himself and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the inns, you'll be my niece, won't you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you must call me 'uncle' when we're there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, dear uncle."</p> + +<p class="normal">He kept nodding to himself, for the rest of the way, and was +quite +happy.</p> + +<p class="normal">We reached the inn at the landing. He drank, and I drank, +too, from the +same glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are you going?" asked the hostess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the capital," said he, although I had not said a word to +him about +it. Then, in a whisper, he said to me:</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you intend to go elsewhere, the people needn't know +everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">I let him have his own way.</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked for the place where I had wandered at that time. +There--there +was the rock--and on it a cross, bearing, in golden characters, the +inscription:</p> + +<p class="center">Here perished<br> +<span class="sc">Irma, Countess von Wildenort</span>,<br> +In the twenty-first year<br> +of her life.<br> +<i>Traveler, pray for her and honor her memory.</i></p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I know not how long I lay there. When I revived there were +several +people busying themselves about me, and, among them, my little +pitchman, who was quite violent in expressing his grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was able to walk to the inn. My little pitchman said to the +people:</p> + +<p class="normal">"My niece isn't used to walking so far. She sits in her room +all the +year round. She's a wood-carver, and a mighty clever one, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">The people were all kind to me. Guests were constantly coming +and +going. Some of them told the little pitchman that the beautiful +monument out yonder was a great advantage to the inn; that, during the +summer, it was visited by hundreds of persons; and that, every year, a +nun from the convent came there, attended by another nun, and prayed at +the cross.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And who put up the monument?" asked the little pitchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The brother of the unfortunate one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, it was the king," said others.</p> + +<p class="normal">The conversation often dropped off, but always began again +anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some said that the place must be haunted, for a beautiful +creature +known as Black Esther had drowned herself at the same time. She was a +daughter of Zenza, who was now crazed and lived on the other side of +the lake; and who could tell whether the beautiful lady--for she was +very beautiful--hadn't drowned herself, too. To this the hostess +angrily answered that the countess had had many gold chains and +diamonds about her, and a diamond star on her forehead; that the horse +which had thrown her had been seen; that her brother had wanted to +shoot the horse, but it had been bewitched and, from that day, would +eat nothing and at last dropped down dead. Others said that the +Countess's father had commanded her to drown herself, and that she had +been an obedient child and had done so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus I had a glimpse of a legend in process of formation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why was the father supposed to have commanded that?" +inquired the +little pitchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because she loved a married man. It won't do to talk of +that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why won't it?" whispered a sailor. "She and the king were +fond of each +other, and, to save herself from doing wrong, she took her life."</p> + +<p class="normal">How can I describe my emotions, while listening to their +conversation?</p> + +<p class="normal">Years hence, perhaps, some solitary child of man may cross +the lake and +sing the song of the beautiful countess with the diamond star on her +brow.</p> + +<p class="normal">I do not remember how night came on, and how I at last fell +asleep. I +awoke and still heard the song of the drowned countess. Its sad, deep +strain had filled my dream. All that I had experienced seemed but as a +vision. I looked out of my window--I looked across the lake and beheld +the golden characters in the rosy dawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was I to do? Should I turn back?</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman was quite happy when he saw me so fresh +again. The +hostess offered me a picture of the monument, saying that every visitor +bought one. My uncle bargained with her, got it for half the price she +had asked, and then presented it to me. I carry the picture of my +gravestone with me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt irresistibly drawn toward another grave--my father's. +While my +hand rested on the mound, an inner voice said to me: "You will be +reconciled."--I expiate and atone for my sin.</p> + +<p class="normal">How the memories awakened by these different spots agitated +me. I +cannot write about it--my heart is breaking! Besides this, it is filled +with fear. I shall be brief. I am unable to continue my recital. I +shall never again look at these pages.</p> + +<p class="normal">We went to the Frauensee and crossed over to the convent. +Among the +nuns, I saw my beloved Emma, who makes a yearly pilgrimage to my +gravestone. For the first time in many years, I prayed with her. What +difference does it make whether one still lives or is dead, as long as +the thought--</p> + +<p class="normal">My hand trembles while I write, but I will....</p> + +<p class="normal">I had left the convent and was returning across the lake, +when the +thought flashed upon me: "I expiate in freedom! That is my only pride. +My will holds me as fast as the bolts of the convent gate would do, and +I--I--work--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything was carried out just as I had determined. I saw +the whole +world once more and bade it adieu.</p> + +<p class="normal">We journeyed to the capital. The city noises and the rapid +driving +alarmed me.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I again heard the rustling of a silk gown, for the first +time, the +sound quite affected me. I felt as if impelled to accost the first lady +I met in a fashionable bonnet and veil. These people seemed to belong +to me. I felt as if returning from the lower regions into sunlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">I stopped to read the placards that were posted up at the +corners of +the streets. Am I still living in the same world?</p> + +<p class="normal">There is music, singing, etc. One amuses the other. No one +finds life's +joys within himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">All things in this world are related to each other. Thou hast +lost the +connecting link.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was sitting in a small inn, while I looked on at the +bustling life of +the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw the houses here and there--and it seemed as if I beheld +the ghost +of a part of my life. If the people knew-- There are streets here with +which I am not acquainted. Men pass without a thought for each other. +City folk all look ill-humored; I have not met one sunny, happy face.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I went to the picture-gallery. What delights the eye there +feeds upon! +And besides these, there is the intoxicating wealth of color and the +solemn stillness of the place itself. I saw my old teacher and heard +him saying to a stranger: "A work of art does not derive its great +historical character from the importance of the subject, or the size of +the picture. What is required of the artist is that he should be filled +with, and, at the same time, transport the beholder to, the scene that +he attempts to depict. The same subject can be conceived in various +ways, and may be executed either as a light, <i>genre</i> piece, or in the +grand and more enduring historical style."</p> + +<p class="normal">While I passed through the rooms, I felt like one +intoxicated. All my +old friends greeted me. They are clothed in undying colors, and have +remained faithful and unchanged. The power of nature and of art +lie in their truthfulness. But they do not speak; they merely exist. +No--nature alone is mute; art lends its voice. It is not by the lips +alone that the human mind expresses itself. I felt as if the Maria +Ægyptica must suddenly turn toward me and ask: "Do you know me now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I grew dizzy and fearful.</p> + +<p class="normal">While in the Raphael gallery, environed by the highest beauty +earth has +ever known, conceived as only the clearest eye could conceive it, I +felt as if in another world.</p> + +<p class="normal">A happy thought occurred to me: Art is the first liberator of +humanity, +evoking a second, joy-creating life, and--what is even a greater +boon--revealing the highest realm, where every one who is called may +enter. The poor son of the people says: "I and my spirit shall dwell in +this lofty, this blessed abode." He reigns there eternally, surrounded +by his ancestors in art. There dwells immortality; or, better still, +death never enters there. The paternal mansion of free, creative art +contains infinite space, and is an eternal home. Let him who has lived +happily, enter there.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I stood before the palace. The windows of the room that I +once occupied +were open. My parrot was still there in its golden cage, and called +out: "God keep you! God keep you!" But it does not add my name, for it +has forgotten it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">On the table before me there lay a newspaper, the first that +I had seen +for years. It was long before I could summon resolution to read it, but +I did so at last and read as follows:</p> + +<p class="normal">"His majesty the king has departed for the sea baths, where +he will +remain for six weeks. Prime minister Von Bronnen," (Von Bronnen +minister!) "Count Wildenort, master of the horse," (my brother!) "and +privy councilor Sixtus, the king's physician, are of his suite."</p> + +<p class="normal">How much these few lines conveyed to me! There was no need of +my +reading any further. Yet there was another paragraph, saying:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her majesty the queen, accompanied by his royal highness the +crown +prince, has removed to the summer palace."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I walked about the city and looked into the shop windows and +at the +many objects which I no longer require. In one of the windows, I found +some of my carvings on exhibition. "That's our work!" exclaimed the +little pitchman, who boldly went into the shop and inquired as to the +price, and also asked by whom they had been done. The price named was a +high one, and the merchant added: "These works of art"--yes, he spoke +of them as works of art--"are made by a half-crazy peasant girl, who +lives in the Highlands."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at my little pitchman. He was terribly afraid. His +glance +seemed to implore me not to lose my senses while away from home. His +fear was not without good grounds, for, in spite of my self-control, my +faithful guide must have found much that was strange in my behavior.</p> + +<p class="normal">I bought several small plaster casts of gems of Greek art; +and now I +have types of undying beauty ever with me. It required clever +management to effect such unusual purchases, and I only ventured to +attempt it during the twilight hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw many familiar faces, but always quickly averted mine. I +would so +gladly have spoken to Mademoiselle Kramer. She has become quite aged. +She was carrying a book with the yellow label of the circulating +library. How many thousands of books the dear old woman must have read! +She reads book after book, just as men smoke cigars.</p> + +<p class="normal">I went to Gunther's house. The courtyard gate was open. There +is now a +factory there, and the lovely trees have all been felled.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the head of the figure of Victory at the arsenal, there +sat a pigeon +with glossy plumage--Although without eye-glasses, I could see the +figure quite distinctly.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The evening afforded me pure delight--the purest I ever knew, +or, as I +firmly believe, ever will know.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mozart's "Magic Flute" was performed at the theater.</p> + +<p class="normal">I went there with my little pitchman. We sat in the uppermost +tier. I +saw no one, although the crowded house must have contained many whom I +knew. All my senses were held captive by music's magic spell.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is past midnight. My little pitchman and I are stopping at +a +teamster's inn. I cannot rest until I put my feelings into words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mozart's "Magic Flute" is one of those immortal creations +that dwell in +purest ether, in a region beyond the passions and struggles of mankind. +I have often heard the text objected to as puerile, but, at that +height, all action, all understanding, all personages, all +surroundings, must needs be allegorical. All that is hard and narrow is +cast aside, and man becomes a bird, his life pure and natural, full of +love and wisdom. The childlike or childish character of the text is +singularly true to nature. It is only the <i>blasé</i> who can find it dull +and insipid.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is Mozart's last dramatic work, and in it he appears at +his best, in +all the fullness of his genius, as if already transfigured. His various +figures pass before him in review, created anew, as it were; less fixed +and individualized, but all the more pure and ethereal. Using the word +in its best sense, there is something supernatural in the way in which +he has here gathered and combined the chords that else were scattered, +into one harmonious whole.</p> + +<p class="normal">The opening chorus of priests is the march of humanity, and +the "O +Isis!" is full of the sunshine of blissful peace. This is the fabled +paradise--a life above this, in the free ether, beyond the reach of +storm or tempest; a region to which music alone can transport us.</p> + +<p class="normal">For hours, I felt as if thus transported, and know not how I +descended +again. Thoughts without number hover about me. This music breathes a +spirit of noble, self-conscious repose, and is free from all oppressed +humility. It is a life that can never fade; nay, it is the odor of +ripened fruit.</p> + +<p class="normal">This last work of Mozart's has a companion piece in Lessing's +last +work: "Nathan the Wise." In both of them the soul wings its flight far +beyond the disjointed, struggling world and dwells in the pure region +beyond, where peace and piety have become actual existences, and where +the vexations of narrow, circumscribed, finite humanity provoke but a +smile. The great treasure of humanity is not buried in the past; it +must be dug out, fashioned and created from the future.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nathan" and the "Magic Flute" abound with precious gems. +They prove +that happiness is not an illusion, but they speak in a language +unintelligible to him who does not bear within himself a sense of +things above this life.</p> + +<p class="normal">To have lived such hours is life eternal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The song of the three boys is full of divine bliss. If the +angels in +Raphael's Sistine Madonna were to sing, such would be their melodies, +and in this register would their voices move.</p> + +<p class="normal">I would like to hear such sounds at my dying hour, for that +would be an +ecstatic death.</p> + +<p class="normal">If such ecstasy could only continue without interruption.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the opera was over, I sat in the park for a long time. +All was +dark and silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Filled with this music, I would gladly fly back to my forest +solitude, +have nothing more to do with the world, and silently pass away. After +these, no other tones should fall upon my ear and disturb me.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I was obliged to return to the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">And here I sit, late at night, the whole world resting in +sleep and +self-oblivion, while I am awake in self-oblivion.</p> + +<p class="normal">O ye eternal spirits! Could one but be with you and utter a +word, a +sound, that should pass into infinity! In yonder gallery, eyes that +never close, look down upon the coming and departing generations. And +here there are undying harmonies and imperishable words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh ye blessed spirits, ye who through art create a second +world! The +world confuses and perplexes us, but ye make everything clear as the +light of day. Ye are the blessed genii who ever offer mankind the wine +of life in the golden chalice which, though millions drink from it, is +never emptied.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is with deep pain that I depart from the realm of color +and that of +sound. This, and this only, is indeed a deprivation.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">And now for the last halting-place.</p> + +<p class="normal">We wandered on in the direction of the summer palace. We +walked up and +down before the park railing. Up by the chapel, and under the weeping +ash, I could see the court ladies sitting on the ornamented chairs and +busy with their embroidery. Ah, there is many a one there, no better +than I am, and yet she jests and laughs, is happy and respected. Aye, +there lies the misery. We are constantly blunting our moral sense and +saying to ourselves: "Look about you; others are no better than you +are."</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently they all arose and bowed profoundly. The gates were +opened +and the queen drove out, the prince sitting beside her. She looked at +me and the little pitchman, and greeted us. My eyes failed me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I know not. Did I see aright? The queen looked cheerful.</p> + +<p class="normal">The prince has become a fine boy. He has kept the promise of +his +infancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">My little pitchman conversed with a stone-breaker, who was +working on +the road. He was loud in his praises of the queen and her only child, +the crown prince. So she has only one child--</p> + +<p class="normal">I was so weary that I was obliged to rest by the wayside. In +former +days, I had so often proudly passed by the spot where I was now +sitting. No matter! It is well that it is so. The little pitchman was +delighted when I told him that our path now lay homeward. He must have +felt quite alarmed about me, and must have thought to himself: "The +folks who say that you're not quite right, were not so far out after +all."</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Those who see me not, think me dead; those who do see me, +think me +crazed.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had determined that, in case of discovery, I would tell all +to the +king and queen, and, after that, quietly return to my retreat.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is better thus.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We returned home. When I reached the foot of the mountain on +which we +live, and had begun to ascend it, I asked myself: "Is this your home?" +And yet, absence makes it seem like a new home. The life I lead here is +a real life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Since I have noted down this thought, I feel as if a weight +were lifted +from my heart. While writing, I often feel as giddy as if standing on +the edge of a precipice; but I shall remain firm. I will not look at +these pages again. But now work begins once more, and my head will +cease to be filled with thoughts of repentance. The next minute is +ours; the passing moment is scarcely so; and the past one not at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is much work awaiting me. I am glad that it is so. +Walpurga and +the children are quite happy to have me with them again.</p> + +<p class="normal">During my absence, Walpurga had my room painted a pale red. +It is in +wretched taste, and yet I must needs show myself grateful. She thought +that I would not return.</p> + +<p class="normal">These people constitute my whole world, and yet I could leave +them any +minute. Will it be thus when I, too, leave the world?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Courageously to forego the world--I think I have read the +expression +somewhere; but now I understand it. I feel it within myself and am +carrying it out; not timidly, not sadly,--but courageously.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am no longer sad. The calm satisfaction with which I resign +the world +emancipates me.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I look at life, I ask myself: "Why all these struggles +and all +these barriers, until we come to the last barrier of all, unto death +itself?" The great heroes of history and my little pitchman--not one of +them had the odds of fortune in his favor. No destiny is completely and +purely fulfilled.</p> + +<p class="normal">Old Jochem said his prayers every day, and would often pass +whole hours +thus employed; yet he would curse mankind and his own fate. And I have +known ladies of quality, who, after listening in rapt ecstasy to the +music of Beethoven, would dispute and wrangle after the most vulgar +fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Courageously to forego." The words are ever haunting me. +Thanks for +this precept, kind spirit, whoever thou mayst be! To live out the day +and not allow it to be darkened by the knowledge that night must come, +to forego with courage--that is the sum of all.</p> + +<p class="normal">I never would have believed that I could live without joy, +without +pleasures; but now I see that I can. Joy and pleasure are not the +conditions upon which my life is based.</p> + +<p class="normal">We have it in our power to attune the mind to cheerfulness; +that is, to +calmness and clearness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">How many years was it that Hermione, of the "Winter's Tale," +remained +hidden? I have quite forgotten.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I am constantly reminded, while at work, of various passages, +of the +solos, the great choruses, and even the instrumental accompaniments, in +Mozart's "Magic Flute." They fill the silent air with their sounds, and +bear me aloft.</p> + +<p class="normal">Above all, the appeal, "Be steadfast!" with the three short +notes, d, +e, d, and the trumpet-blast that follows, is ever sounding in my ears +like some spiritual watchword. The highest truths should be conveyed by +music alone, and would thus become more forcible and enduring. Be +steadfast--</p> + +<p class="normal">I am again trying to solve the enigma of life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Man may not do all that he can, or to which he feels +impelled. Since he +is human, he must recognize the limit of his rights before he reaches +the limit of his powers.</p> + +<p class="normal">At court they often discussed the saying: "Right before +might." I have +melted down the phrase in the alembic of thought. I have coined it +anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">How beautiful is the legend of paradise! The first human pair +were +placed there; as far as their powers went, everything, with a single +exception, was permitted to them--and the fruit tempted them. But there +is no paradise. The beast alone possesses what may be termed paradise. +It is free to do whatever it can. As long, however, as there is a +prohibition which man, as a moral being, must know, there can be no +paradise, for perfect freedom is at an end.</p> + +<p class="normal">What I mean is this: self-consciousness is gained by +overstepping the +barrier. It is eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. From that +moment, man's joys are no longer provided for him. He must create them, +either from within himself or from his surroundings. Now he begins to +wrestle with nature, and his life becomes one of deeds. Work, whether +directed to self-perfection or intended to benefit the world, is a +second creation.</p> + +<p class="normal">My every thought seems as if it were an inarticulate, +stammering +attempt to express the words of knowledge.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little world around me and the so-called great world that +still +lives in my memory, now seem to me as if illumined and rendered +transparent by the golden sunlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">To perceive the barriers, and thus recognize the necessity of +law, is +liberty. I am free at last.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I did well in going out into the world again. Or do I merely +think so +because I feel that I have done right? I am a freer being now. I have +ceased to be the poor soul that longed to return to the world. My life +is no longer a hell. I could now return to the world without fear. Now +that I can courageously forego it, I do not feel the privation. Oh, how +presumptuous we are to imagine that others need us! I, too, no longer +need any one.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The telegraph wires are being put up between here and my +forest view. +The busy doings of the great world are now to pass by me. I can see men +on the ladders, fastening the wires to the high poles.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga tells me that my voice is quite hoarse, but I feel +quite well. +Perhaps it is because I speak so little, sometimes passing whole days +without uttering a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cool, pure breezes that I inhale every morning are like a +refreshing draught, and the blue of the sky is far deeper up here.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Gunther once told me that I am of an unrhythmic temperament. +He was in +the right. If I were not, I would now express my deepest thoughts in +melodious words. I feel so happy, so free, that my thoughts could find +proper expression in poetry alone.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Although Hansei has now been in possession for a long while, +he seems +grateful for everything. It makes him happy to know that he is able to +buy fine cows and pretty bells for them, and this gratitude for his +good fortune lends an inner tenderness to his rough exterior.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(August 28th.)--After long, sunless days of deathlike torpor, +the sky +is bright and clear again. The snowy peaks, the green hills and the +valleys are bathed in sunshine. I feel as if I must fly away and soar +through space; but I remain here and work; for, as my work was faithful +to me in dark days, so shall I remain faithful to it in bright ones. I +shall only wander forth when evening comes and work is at an end. This +is Goethe's birthday. I think Goethe would have been friendly toward +me, if I had lived in his time and near him.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is pleasant, after all, that we know the hour of his +birth. It was +at noon. I write these lines during the very hour, and my thoughts are +of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">What would he have counseled me to do with my lost life?</p> + +<p class="normal">Is it a lost life?--It is not.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Franz has returned from the target-shooting and was the hero +of the +occasion. What shouts of joy and triumph! He gained the first prize, a +fine rifle. The target, riddled with bullets, is displayed before our +house.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A falling leaf in autumn--how many bright summer days and +mild nights +were required to perfect it? What was it while it hung on the tree? +What is it now, when it falls to the ground?</p> + +<p class="normal">And what is the result of a whole human life, when summed up +in a few +sentences?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">How many feet is our farm above the level of the sea? I do +not know, +and Hansei would smile to think of one's asking such a question. We +perform our duty on the little spot of earth on which we dwell. Its +effect flows out into the great sea of humanity and of history, without +any interference of ours. The brook goes on in its course, driving the +mill-wheels, irrigating the meadows, and is at last swallowed up in the +ocean, whence come the clouds and storms that again feed the brook.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">In spite of all that I grew up to, all that, in a course of +years, I +have practiced, acted, or thought, I cannot help regarding myself as a +block of wood--even now, I know not what will become of me, or who will +hew me into shape.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have a beautiful task on hand--a piece of work that will +remain and +be a constant pleasure to me--work for our own house.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the additions were made to the dwelling, I succeeded, +with the +assistance of the carpenter, in giving greater symmetry to the dwelling +itself. The piazza running round the house received a more open roof, +and the balustrade a more pleasing form.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei has often said that the forest clearing would make a +beautiful +meadow. Yesterday he came home and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have it! I'm having the trees on the hillside felled, and +have left +four fine trunks standing. They form a square and I'll have a hut built +there, and then we'll have a mountain meadow of our own. The farm can't +thrive without one. It's far up, to be sure--about two hours' walk; but +we can see the clearing from here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And just think of it," said Hansei, who was delighted with +his plan, +"where the trees have been cut down in front, you can see ever so far, +way off to the lake where we used to live. To be sure, it's nothing +more than a little sparkling spot of blue, but it looks at one so +kindly, just like a faithful eye from home, or like one who has known +you from childhood. It was beautiful at our home, but it's more +beautiful here; so don't let us sin by being ungrateful."</p> + +<p class="normal">I have made the drawing for the shepherd's hut. My little +pitchman is +quite clever in cutting everything. We are working at our Noah's ark, +and are as merry as apprentices.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am also carving a horse's head in life size, for the gable +of the +roof.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and I have just returned from where the new shepherd's +hut is +being built.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the invigorating mountain ascent of to-day, I feel as +if I had +been present at the dawning of creation; a new road, a new dwelling, +and a spot where human being had never been before. I feel as if +experience had nothing more in store for me; as if all earthly burdens +had fallen from me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">When, after a day of great exertion and mountain climbing, +one awakes +on the following morning, the fatigue has passed away. One feels +refreshed and invigorated, and satisfied with the test to which he has +subjected himself; for it has proved his power of endurance and his +ability to impose tasks upon himself. For a while, I had left my past +and possessed nothing but myself. Now that I have returned to familiar +scenes, they welcome me again. I can easily realize the calm +peacefulness of those who thus picture to themselves the awakening to +the eternal life.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The shepherd's hut is empty. The walls are bare, except where +the +picture of our Saviour hangs in the corner, waiting for the beings who +are to come there. It is, and ever will remain, a blessing that men can +thus bear with them, to desert wastes and lonely heights, the image of +pure and perfect man. It is this which enables a more perfect +civilization and a great history to take possession of the modern +world.</p> + +<p class="normal">If only the pure knowledge of the pure spirit always went +with it.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(October.)--Now that winter approaches, my thoughts are +always of the +lonely shepherd's hut upon the mountain. I am always there in my +dreams, alone and undergoing strange experiences. I think I must move +up there next spring. I feel that life will be incomplete until I have +spent a whole summer with plants and beasts, with mountain and brook, +with the sun, the moon and the stars.</p> + +<p class="normal">Art thou still dissatisfied, insatiate heart, always longing +for +something else? What can it be? I must and will have rest!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">He who needs nothing but himself to be happy, is happy +indeed.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Here, once again, I am like the first human being that walked +the +earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Man, of himself, is pure and unsullied, and out of him flows +the world. +There lies the secret which I shall not name.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">It makes me happy to think that I am to go still higher; +further up the +mountain, where it is even quieter and more lonely than here. I feel as +if something were calling me there. It is neither a voice nor a sound. +I know not what it is, and yet it calls me, draws me, allures me, with +its: "Come! come!"--Yes, I am coming!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I know that I am not dying. I would sooner doubt that I am +living. The +world is no longer an enigma to me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">From my mountain height I look down on those I have wronged. +They are +my father, my queen, and, worst of all, myself!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Of all things in this world, untruth is the surest to avenge +itself. +When I wrote to the king, from the convent, I vaunted my truthfulness +and yet, at the same time, I was thoroughly untruthful. I aimed at +bringing about an act of freedom and yet, at heart, my only desire was +to write to him and impress him by my love of liberty. I felt proud of +my opposition to popular opinion, and hoped thus to show him that I was +his strong friend. He declined my proffered advice, and yet it was I +who again opened the convents.</p> + +<p class="normal">Falsehood avenges itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Purity and freedom can only exist where there is perfect +truthfulness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">If I could only find words to express the delight with which +to-day's +sunset filled me. It is night, and as surely as the sun shone on my +face, so surely does a ray of sunlight shine within me. I am a ray of +eternity. Compared with it, what are days or years? What is a whole +human life?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I never rightly knew why I was always dissatisfied, and +yearning for +the next hour, the next day, the next year, hoping that it would bring +me that which I could not find in the present. It was not love, for +love does not satisfy. I desired to live in the passing moment, but +could not. It always seemed as if something were waiting for me without +the door, and calling me. What could it have been?</p> + +<p class="normal">I know now; it was a desire to be at one with myself, to +understand +myself. Myself in the world, and the world in me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The vain man is the loneliest of human beings. He is +constantly longing +to be seen, understood, acknowledged, admired and loved.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could say much on the subject, for I, too, was once vain. +It was +only in actual solitude that I conquered the loneliness of vanity. It +is enough for me that I exist.</p> + +<p class="normal">How far removed this is from all that is mere show.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Now I understand my father's last act. He did not mean to +punish me. +His only desire was to arouse me, to lead me to self-consciousness, to +the knowledge that, teaching us to become different from what we are, +saves us.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I understand the inscription in my father's library: "When I +am alone, +then am I least alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes; when alone, one can more perfectly lose himself in the +life +universal. I have lived and have come to know the truth. I can now die.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">He who is at one with himself, possesses all.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">What will people say?--These few words represent the world's +tyranny, +the power that perverts our nature and temperaments, and account for +our mental obliquity of vision. These four words rule everywhere. +Walpurga is swayed by them, while Hansei has quite a different +standard, the only true one. Without knowing it, he acts just as +Gunther would have done.</p> + +<p class="normal">Man's first and only duty is to preserve his peace of mind. +He should +be utterly indifferent as to "what the people will say." That question +makes the mind homeless. Do right and fear naught! Rest assured that +with all your consideration for the world, you can never satisfy it. +But if you will go on in your own way, indifferent to the praise or +blame of others, you have conquered the world, and it cheerfully +subjects itself to you. As long as you care for "what the people will +say," so long are you the slave of others.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I believe that I know what I have done. I have no compassion +for +myself. This is my full confession.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have sinned--not against nature, but against the world's +rules. Is +that sin? Look at the tall pines in yonder forest. The higher the tree +grows, the more do the lower branches die away, and thus the tree in +the thick forest is protected and sheltered by its fellows, but can, +nevertheless, not perfect itself in all directions.</p> + +<p class="normal">I desired to lead a full and complete life and yet to be in +the forest, +to be in the world and yet in society. But he who means to live thus, +must remain in solitude. As soon as we become members of society, we +cease to be mere creatures, of nature. Nature and morality have equal +rights and must form a compact with each other, and where there are two +powers with equal rights, there must be mutual concessions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Herein lies my sin.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>He who desires to live a life of nature alone, must withdraw +himself +from the protection of morality, I did not fully desire either the one +or the other; hence I was crushed and shattered.</i></p> + +<p class="normal">My father's last action was right. He avenged the moral law, +which is +just as human as the law of nature. The animal world knows neither +father nor mother, so soon as the young is able to take care of itself. +The human world does know them and must hold them sacred.</p> + +<p class="normal">I see it all quite clearly. My sufferings and my expiation +are +deserved. I was a thief! I stole the highest treasures of all: +confidence, love, honor, respect, splendor.</p> + +<p class="normal">How noble and exalted the tender souls appear to themselves +when a poor +rogue is sent to jail for having committed a theft! But what are all +possessions which can be carried away, when compared with those that +are intangible!</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who are summoned to the bar of justice are not always +the basest +of mankind.</p> + +<p class="normal">I acknowledge my sin, and my repentance is sincere.</p> + +<p class="normal">My fatal sin, the sin for which I now atone, was that I +dissembled, +that I denied and extenuated that which I represented to myself as a +natural right. Against the queen, I have sinned worst of all. To me, +she represents that moral order which I violated and yet wished to +enjoy.</p> + +<p class="normal">To you, O queen, to you--lovely, good, and deeply injured +one--do I +confess all this!</p> + +<p class="normal">If I die before you--and I hope that I may--these pages are +to be given +to you.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We cannot take nature for our only guide. He who follows its +law has no +share, no inheritance in the world of history. He knows nothing of the +beings who lived before him, and who helped to make the world what it +is. With him, the world is barren; with him, it dies. He who follows +naught but nature's law and persuades himself that he is thus doing +right, denies humanity and, at the same time, denies that the human +race has a history which is not represented by himself alone, but has +existed before him and now exists without him. In spite of gloss and +varnish, he who denies humanity is but a savage. He stands without the +pale of civilization. All that he does, or wears, or enjoys, of the +fruits of culture, is but a theft. He should sing no song but that +which is natural to him, like the bird which brings its plumage and its +song into the world with it, and has no special garb or tones; for +there all is species, all is the law of nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this alone lies the truth.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Above all right and all duty, is love, leading lover and +beloved to the +pure unfolding of their natures.</p> + +<p class="normal">Woe to those who desecrate its divine mission!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">My father's fate is also clear to me, now. He wished to live +for and +perfect himself; and yet he had children whose love and affection he +claimed. His death was one of the terrible consequences of the life he +had led. That, however, does not make me innocent, and he dealt justly +toward me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have no desire to offer excuses for anything I have done. I +mean to +be perfectly truthful. That is my only happiness, my only pride.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Your worth depends upon what you are; not upon what you have.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have found the center about which my mind revolves.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">During the last few days, it has seemed to me as if my +father's +terrible punishment had never been executed, as if it were only the +guilty presentiment of my own imagination.</p> + +<p class="normal">What has induced this sudden thought that will not leave me?</p> + +<p class="normal">I know! I know! Whatever may have happened is now atoned for! +There can +be a renewed life, a deliverance achieved by ourselves, and I feel that +this has been vouchsafed me. I am once more free! I can return to the +world and remove the bandage from my brow!</p> + +<p class="normal">To the world! What is the world? I have it within me. I am in +the +world, and the world is in me. I am!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have sung again for the first time. Oh, how much good it +did me! No +one heard me but myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">No bird sings for itself; it sings for its mate. Man alone +can sing and +think for himself. He alone possesses self-consciousness.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The calm of morn, which is always so dear to me, now seems to +last +during the whole day.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Yonder brook often seems to roar much more loudly than at +other times. +It is because a sudden wind catches it and bears the sound-waves toward +me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(At work.)--When the material on which we work is hard and +unyielding, +we learn to make a virtue of necessity. I often chance upon changes in +the fiber or grain which necessitate new beauties or deformities. I +often bring out touches which I did not intend, and those that I did +intend become quite different from what I had expected, just because +the wood is master, as well as my hand. Varnish, blessed friend in +need, covers both beauties and defects.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">We create nothing. We merely shape and discover that which +already +exists and which, without our assistance, cannot release itself from +chaos.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, I feel as if I at last understand the whole world and all +of art +and work. I feel that my longings for the infinite are satisfied.</p> + +<p class="normal">I now know the cause of the clashing between our lofty +thoughts and our +lives of petty detail.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, Walpurga, the king, the queen, Gunther, Emma--what +are they +all? Mere drops in the ocean of humanity. When I think of myself as a +part of the whole, I forget them all. That destroys love for +individuals; desire and enjoyment cease, and, with them, passion and +heartache.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what am I? What still remains to me? We can conceive the +great and +complete whole, while our love can only be for the individual, for that +which is nearest to us. And the nearest of all is God, the great idea +of universal law.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga is quite anxious about me. She often comes to me, +and it seems +as if she wished to say something. She looks at me so strangely, and +yet says nothing. She tells me, again and again, how lovely it will be +at the shepherd's hut, and how quiet and happy I will be up there. She +wishes the mountains were already cleared of snow. She would like me to +be away from here, and says that I would soon become strong. And yet I +do not feel ill, but she always says: "You shine so!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel as if I had settled my accounts with the world. I am +perfectly +calm, and it may be that this feeling casts its radiance about me. I +could no longer fear the world. I could again live among human beings, +for I feel myself free. Nothing more can wound me.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I feel a desire for more perfect solitude. Shall I find +greater +seclusion, profounder silence, up there? It seems as if I were ever +hearing the words, "lonely as death." (mutterseelenallein.) Oh, thou +blessed, German tongue! What a blessing it is that, without effort, I +bear the rich stores of my mother-tongue within me, and that, when +thoughts gush forth from every nook and cranny of the brain, I have +some word-vessel at command with which to receive the idea. It seems to +me as if I must be always speaking and writing and rejoicing because of +this possession.</p> + +<p class="normal">I must break off. Our most mysterious, our deepest thoughts, +are like +the bird on the bough. He sings, but as soon as he sees an eye watching +him, he flies away.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I can now accurately tell the season of the year and, often, +the hour +of the day by the way in which the first sunbeams fall into my room and +on my workbench in the morning. My chisel hangs before me on the wall, +and is my index.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">The drizzling, spring showers now fall on the trees--and thus +it is +with me. It seems as if there were a new delight in store for me. What +can it be? I shall patiently wait!</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">A strange feeling comes over me, as if I were lifted up from +the chair +on which I am sitting, and were flying, I know not whither!</p> + +<p class="normal">What is it? I feel as if dwelling in eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything seems flying toward me; the sunlight and the +sunshine, the +rustling of the forests and the forest breezes, beings of all ages and +of all kinds--all seem beautiful and rendered transparent by the sun's +glow.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am!</p> + +<p class="normal">I am in God!</p> + +<p class="normal">If I could only die now and be wafted through this joy to +dissolution +and redemption!</p> + +<p class="normal">But I will live on until my hour comes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Come, thou dark hour, whenever thou wilt! To me, thou art +light!</p> + +<p class="normal">I feel that there is light within me. O Eternal Spirit of the +universe, +I am one with thee!</p> + +<p class="normal">I was dead, and I live--I shall die and yet live.</p> + +<p class="normal">Everything has been forgiven and blotted out.--There was dust +on my +wings.--I soar aloft into the sun and into infinite space. I shall die +singing from the fullness of my soul. Shall I sing!</p> + +<p class="normal">Enough.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I know that I shall again be gloomy and depressed and drag +along a +weary existence, but I have once soared into infinity and have felt a +ray of eternity within me. That I shall never lose again. I should like +to go to a convent, to some quiet, cloistered cell, where I might know +nothing of the world, and could live on within myself until death shall +call me. But it is not to be. I am destined to live on in freedom and +to labor; to live with my fellow-beings and to work for them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The results of my handiwork and of my powers of imagination, +belong to +you; but what I am within myself, is mine alone.</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">I have taken leave of everything here; of my quiet room, of +my summer +bench; for I know not whether I shall ever return. And if I do, who +knows but what everything may have become strange to me?</p> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<p class="normal">(Last page written in pencil.)--It is my wish that when I am +dead, I +may be wrapped in a simple, linen cloth, placed in a rough, unplaned +coffin, and buried under the apple-tree, on the road that leads to my +paternal mansion. I desire that my brother and other relatives may be +apprised of my death at once, and that they shall not disturb my grave +by the wayside.</p> + +<p class="normal">No stone, no name, is to mark my grave.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BOOK VIII.</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Gunther received his dismissal. Sated with his experience of the world, +he withdrew from its distracting and bustling turmoil. Old and +endearing associations made it no easy matter for his family to +transfer their affections to a new home--and yet the change was brought +about without impairing their unity of feeling and affection. Those two +pure gods, love and science, followed Gunther beyond the mountains, and +his heart was free from rancor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their home circle now was once more perfect. As if returning +from +a journey around the world, Gunther again found himself at the +starting-point--for he knew that he and his would find a free and +self-dependent life the source of the most ennobling and beautiful +influences.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally enough, they missed the presence of a cultured +circle, its +refining influences and the opportunity it affords for an interchange +of ideas. But he felt that they would stand the test, and would prove +that they could give up all this without greatly missing it. +Immediately after his dismissal, he received a most flattering offer of +a professorship at one of the great universities. He declined the +proffered position. It had been a long cherished idea of his, to +improve his knowledge of certain branches of science and to complete +certain scientific labors, of which he had thus far merely sketched the +outlines. It often grieved him to think that he might quit the world, +incomplete in himself and leaving much unfinished work behind him. Life +at court, with its constant changes and interruptions, renders +connected thought impossible. To mount guard every morning, in full +armor; to be ready, at a moment's call, to discuss even the most +important subject, in a light conversational manner:--such a life, if +persisted in for a number of years, will, in spite of every effort to +the contrary, tend to injure one's inner nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately for Gunther, scientific studies and home +influences always +lent him new vigor. But he was often alarmed lest he should fritter +away his life and gradually lose his individuality. To a certain +extent, he was perfectly willing to be uniformed; he even admitted that +it was both necessary and pleasing, since it represented a remnant of +that mental and political discipline which combines and utilizes +individuals who were otherwise incongruous and scattered. But, at the +same time, Gunther endeavored to prevent any change in himself. He +would often, and with special stress, remark that he who suffers any of +his essential traits to be thus changed has been subdued and killed by +the world, and has ceased to exist as himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">When, with each succeeding day, he presented himself at +court, he came, +as it were, from a strange and distant sphere. And it was this which +accounted for the severe and almost unbending manner, so often observed +in him. He was, nevertheless, forbearing toward the superficiality and +the mere desire to please, which he encountered at court, for he well +knew that where strength of character or depth of culture do not feed +the spring of life, there must needs be some provision for every +passing hour, and also an inevitable tendency to make all life center +about the daily affairs of a small and exclusive circle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's so-called inflexibility also lay in the fact that +he never +misplaced the center of gravity, and thus, when the prop seemed +withdrawn, he could yet stand his ground firmly and had no need to seek +for strength from without. And now, when the sudden, but by no means +unexpected, rupture took place, it was easy enough to lay aside the +privy councilor and remain the doctor. He had soon mastered every trace +of ill-feeling produced by his great and sudden fall. He regretted to +leave his many friends at the capital and the queen especially. He knew +that he could still have been of great benefit to her; "but then," said +he to himself, "it will be far better for her to seek and gain strength +from herself, and without the aid of others."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus Gunther left the capital, and, in doing so, realized a +life-long +wish to return to his native town.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had almost attained his seventieth year, and looked upon +the remnant +of life yet accorded him as a peaceful evening of rest--the reward of a +well-spent manhood. He desired, as far as possible, to close his +accounts with knowledge, in order that night should not overtake him, +while so much was as yet incomplete.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some years ago, Gunther had built a modest house in his +native town, +and had intended it as a summer retreat for his family, while his +children were still young. And now this house was to serve as a +resting-place for the remainder of his life. Madame Gunther and the +children had cheerfully taken leave of their old associations. They +bade farewell to friends who were near and dear to them. But their life +lay in their home, and this home, with all its visible and invisible +treasures, accompanied them to their new abode.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's sister was the only relative he possessed in the +little +Highland town. She was an active, bustling hostess. The father, who had +been a country physician, died while Gunther was studying at the +university. Wilhelm had ever been the idol of the family, and the +sister--as well as the mother, up to the time of her death--had always +regarded him as a sort of daring and successful navigator. With the +assistance of her grown-up sons and daughters, the sister had put their +new dwelling to rights. Gunther's charming home soon became the center +of attraction in the little town, and was, in its way, almost as +important as the royal palace at the capital.</p> + +<p class="normal">Esteem and gratitude were the invisible sentries who guarded +the house. +The respectful manner in which visitors entered it proved that naught +but good-breeding dare cross that threshold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's sister, the hostess of the Rose, reaped new honors, +and when, +within a short time of each other, her two sons and one daughter became +betrothed, it was deemed an inestimable piece of good fortune to become +connected with the family of the privy councilor. Every stranger who +visited the town was speedily informed of this eminent citizen and of +his charming household.</p> + +<p class="normal">A peaceful atmosphere reigned in Gunther's house. It seemed a +very +temple of science and beauty. It was difficult to decide whether it was +more delightful in summer or in winter. In summer there was, of course, +less chance to know how familiar its inmates were with all that tends +to adorn home life. If the gardens in the neighborhood were less neatly +arranged, their seats less comfortable and cozy, the points from which +views could be obtained less artistically chosen--their hedges and +trees were of just as bright a green and the prospect just as fine. But +in winter, when man adorns his home, and when he has naught about him +but the little world which he has himself shaped and arranged, then and +then only, can we see what a lovely home may be created by those whose +light and warmth are derived from themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">If a half-frozen traveler, descending from the snowy +mountains, had +been at once conducted to Gunther's home, he would have imagined that +he had landed upon an oasis of civilization.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Salve</i>! was the inscription over the doorway. +Architecturally, the +building was an improvement on the usual country-house. The roof +projected considerably, for it was necessary to prevent the snow from +piling itself before the windows; but this projecting roof was +decorated with tasteful carvings. The steps were covered with winter +plants, the walls were decorated with plaster copies from the +Parthenon, the rooms were neatly arranged, and every piece of furniture +properly placed. There were also finely engraved copies of the choicest +paintings, and, alternating with them, statuettes of the great men of +all ages. On every hand, there were marble, plaster, or bronze works of +art which had been sent to the celebrated physician by his admirers, +and principally by those of the fair sex. Two stuffed bears, which had +been sent to him by a Russian princess and served as foot-stools, had +been quite the talk of the town.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rooms were never excessively warm. The temperature was a +comfortable one, in which men and plants could thrive. Large +leaf-plants were placed at the windows and in the corners of the room. +There was also a marble bust of Gunther, made by Irma's teacher, years +ago. It was standing on a console and was surrounded by flowers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther was famous as a ladies' doctor, and was thus in +correspondence +with many ladies of the higher classes. During the summer, some of +these would occasionally visit the little town, for the sake of +consulting him, and would sometimes prolong their stay beyond the time +intended. The hostess of the Rose had fitted up two houses adjoining +her own, and had put them in charge of two of her children, subject, of +course, to her own careful supervision. And here the invalid visitors +dwelt, while under treatment. Gunther gave a large share of his +practice to a young physician who had married the second daughter of +his sister, but retained the general superintendence in his own hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little town blessed its distinguished and beneficent +citizen. The +best of everything always found its way to Gunther's house. Choice +fish, the best game, early vegetables, and the finest fruit were +brought there, and Madame Gunther was at some trouble to prevent people +from overstocking the house. Even their servants were held in honor. +Since they moved into the town, they had not once changed their +domestics, who were constantly endeavoring to make themselves more +useful and obliging. Even the dog and the mule which Gunther had +procured for his mountain trips, were regarded with pleasure by the +citizens.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was in the early spring. Madame Gunther and her two daughters were +sitting by the window and working. A light-haired little girl, nearly +five years old, was playing on the floor, and the three ladies often +regarded it with affectionate glances. Aunt Paula seemed to be her +favorite, and most of the child's questions were addressed to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Change of residence had made no alteration in Madame Gunther. +She was +still as dignified and refined as of yore, and, as her friends at the +capital had been wont to say, every dress she wore seemed as if she had +put it on for the first time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The professor's widow had grown somewhat stouter, and Paula, +who had +grown in height, was the youthful image of her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I call grandfather now?" asked little Cornelia, who +noticed that +the round table in the center of the room had been set for the second +breakfast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet, but right soon," replied Paula.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther was still in his working-room. It was furnished +simply, +provided with a small but choice library, and embellished with +appropriate bronzes. Gunther's dress, while at his work-table, was as +scrupulously neat as if he expected to be summoned to court at any +moment. He invariably rose at five o'clock, all the year round, and had +done a full day's work when others were just commencing the day. It was +only in unavoidable and exceptional cases that he allowed himself to be +disturbed during the morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wrote a great deal. It was rumored at the capital that he +was +engaged in preparing his memoirs, and he might, had he cared to do so, +have had much to tell; for who was so familiar as he with the secret +history of the last and the present government? But he felt it his duty +to write of other matters. He endeavored to construct a science of +life, using the combined results of the study of nature and practical +knowledge of the world, as a basis. A slight glow would mantle his +cheeks, and his eyes would involuntarily gaze into the far distance, +when some difficult problem, which had hitherto eluded his grasp, +became clear to his mental vision. At such moments, he would, as if +impelled by an inner force, rise from his seat, and his chest would +heave with emotion, at the thought that he was laying bare the secret +springs of character and habit, with as much indifference to side +considerations as if he were engaged on a physiological preparation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The view from Gunther's windows, each of which consisted of a +single +plate of glass, extended to the distant mountains. Far up the heights, +there was a small clearing, scarcely visible to the naked eye. Naught +was noticeable but a small break in the woods, and, although it was +known that the freehold lay there, its broad acres were out of sight. +Irma had been sitting up there, working and brooding over her troubles, +for nearly four years, while Gunther, in the mean while, had been +sitting at his oaken table, writing his "Contributions to the Science +of Life." His glance often rested on the distant heights, but he little +dreamt that, while he was calmly gathering the fruits of his +experience, another soul up there was spending its strength in the vain +endeavor to solve the enigma of life.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he dwelt on the difficulty of assigning to nature and +education +their relative share in determining conduct and character, hundreds of +varied pictures would present themselves to his imagination. In all +these investigations, the dead and living were as one. The only +question he asked himself was: To what extent do they exemplify the +eternal idea? Eberhard's form would often appear to him; sometimes, in +all the dewy freshness of youth; at others, in its last, sad aspect. +Irma was also summoned by the spirit of knowledge and, although never +mentioned by name, was made to illustrate the present disturbed state +of the public mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">That day, many of Gunther's thoughts had been of Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a gentle knock at the door. His grandchild entered, +and +Gunther's countenance brightened at the sight of her. For hours, his +thoughts had been of grand abstractions, of past memories, and of +general laws, and now, blithe and cheerful childhood saluted him. He +went into the sitting-room with his granddaughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The family seated themselves at the table. Letters and +newspapers were +left untouched until after the meal was finished.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did Adolph set out punctually?" enquired Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">He received a full and explicit answer. Gunther's son, who +owned the +chemical works at the capital, had been visiting his parents for +several days. He had left that morning, but Gunther had said "good-by" +the evening before. It was a peculiar, but well-weighed custom of his, +to avoid the excitement of the hour of parting. They had many visitors, +for their house was, in the best sense of the word, a hospitable one; +but Gunther would suffer nothing to disturb him during the morning +hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a merry breakfast party. Paula remarked that spring +had surely +come, for the wood-carver who lived in the neighborhood had thrown his +old felt shoes out of the window, and that this was even a surer token +than the coming of the swallows.</p> + +<p class="normal">After breakfast, Gunther took up his letters, carefully +examining the +address and postmark of each, and arranging them in the order in which +they were to be read.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first one he opened bore the seal of the state +department. It was +from Bronnen, who, since his elevation to the highest office under the +government, had kept up a regular correspondence with his old friend +Gunther, and had, indeed, twice visited him in his new home.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's face brightened while he read the letter. After he +had +finished it, he quietly laid it aside and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Friend Bronnen intends to pay us a visit shortly."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paula turned away quickly, and bent down to kiss her little +niece. +Although Gunther was still reading, her movement did not escape his +notice. After he had looked through the rest of his letters, he took up +the newspapers. He was in a thoughtful mood, and would now and then ask +Paula to read certain passages aloud to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One often wishes," said he, "--that is, I have often heard +others +express the desire--to be able, after death, to look down upon the +world again. It is a mere phrase, however, which seems deep only to +those who have not weighed it properly. All that we possess, see, or +understand, lies in the world in which we live and move."</p> + +<p class="normal">The remark seemed a singular one, and Paula was about to +follow it up +with a question, when a sign from her mother hinted that she had better +not. The idea had evidently separated itself from a chain of reasoning +which had engaged the mind of the solitary philosopher.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will have to answer several letters for me," said +Gunther to +Paula, who acted as his secretary. "Come along!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was about to leave the room, when a special messenger +arrived with a +letter for him. It was written in blue ink and was from the queen. +Gunther opened it and read as follows:</p> +<br> +<p class="right">"... <i>April 5th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your letter seems laden with fresh mountain breezes. If I +were not +afraid lest you might deem it inconsistent with the dignity of the +subject, I should request you to give me the summary of your philosophy +of life, in an epistolary form. What cannot be given in that way, has +not yet acquired communicable shape. In a letter we have the effect of +the personal presence of the writer. And believe me, for I know of what +I speak, you cannot imagine how much your ideas lose in impressiveness, +when you thus, as it were, put them away from yourself and cause it to +seem that another might have said the self-same thing. A letter has a +voice of its own, and, while I write, I am reminded that your friend +Horace wrote letters in verse and that the apostles also availed +themselves of the epistolary form.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your remark that the myriad forms of life which you have +from time to +time beheld, now throng about your bark as if it were Charon's, has +made me quite uncomfortable. I cannot imagine that you are only leading +us into the realms of darkness. The problem before you is the knowledge +of life. I must have misunderstood your meaning. I suppose that you are +treating each group or epoch as if it were an individual, and that, +with delicate touch, you note its every pulsation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is quite charming to think that you can even find place +for my +modest doings in the grand march of human development. I am well aware +that my interest in beneficent institutions is episodical and +incomplete; and yet my whole heart is enlisted in their behalf. And +this I owe to you. We know how small and imperfect our life is, but we +must aim at greatness and perfection, and can best contribute to it by +faithfully discharging the small duties that lay near at hand. Working +for others rescues one from introspection, and thus expands the mind. +When busied with self-contemplation, we are apt to put either too +flattering, or too disparaging an estimate upon ourselves. It is only +by what we are able to accomplish that we can really measure our value. +I often ask myself whether I should ever have realized all this, if I +had remained possessed of perfect happiness. My bent lay in another +direction. I had a taste, and perhaps some talent, for the cultivation +of the beautiful, and aimed to adorn life with festivals. Fate has +decreed otherwise, and it is well. There should be no feasting, while +there is so much suffering to alleviate. I felt so happy while wearing +the one crown--and now I must bear the other willingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was, at first, pleased with your remark that the lists of +the +members of beneficent institutions are the only true church record of +modern times; but, on second thought, I could not help finding that you +free-thinkers are terrorists as well. The church has rights, too, as +long as she is willing modestly to place herself side by side with +other educational and charitable institutions, and accord them equal +rights with herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As patron of various charitable institutions, I have been +brought into +personal contact with ladies of the middle class, and find many of them +exceptionally cultured and well-bred. As you can readily imagine, it +cost quite an effort to get some burgher names to be used for more than +mere show. Minister Bronnen has been of great assistance to me. My +committee for the blind asylum includes a charming Jewess, Madame ----, +who is just as modest as she is firm and decided in character. I think +you once mentioned her to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At the last examination of the blind, I was quite indignant +at the +clergyman, who referred to their fate as a wise dispensation of +Providence. The only way in which I could show my displeasure at this +piece of unctuous barbarism, was to ignore his presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I read much religious history, and when I review past ages, +I feel as +if sitting by the waterfall which we have so often looked at together. +The stream flows unceasingly and, though the water is ever changing, +its source and its channel are ever the same. Its waves and its eddies +remain in the same place; the rocky masses, where they were on the day +of their creation. In time, the rocks become covered with mosses and +flowers, and in the course of many thousand years, new channels become +hollowed out by the gradual action of the waters or by some sudden +convulsion of nature. Such is the course of history. We are mere drops +flowing down the foaming, bubbling stream.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I observe that I have left several of your inquiries +unanswered. You +express a wish to learn my views of the various charitable +institutions. But here I experience both the advantages and the +disadvantages of my position. I am never quite sure whether my visit +has not been announced in advance and prepared for. The advantage of my +position, however, is, that the poor and unfortunate are rendered happy +by my very presence, or by a few words from me. Yes, the first duty of +those who are so highly favored, is to be kind to the unfortunate. But +there is one thought that ever disturbs me. It is both right and +necessary, and perhaps expedient, that these children should be +educated and cared for in common--but this method unfortunately +deprives them of that which most strengthens the young soul:--solitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You find that I have become cheerful, and you hope that it +may be +something more than a passing mood. I myself believe that the key-note +of my inner life has changed from a minor to a major mood, but the +great dissonance still remains. Do not, I beg of you, imagine that I +encourage this feeling. I have a right to claim that the great precept: +'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,' expresses my inner nature. I +understand it thus:--if there be aught in your desires and efforts +which might harm yourself or the world, be unmerciful toward yourself, +and, instead of regarding it as an essential element of your being, +pluck it out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, my friend, I cannot find the offense. I must bear the +one great +sorrow of my life. How often I long for deliverance! He, too, suffers, +and doubly, because of his guilt. The thought often overwhelms me, and, +even now, while I write these lines, I shudder--for the shadow of death +stands between us. How can it be exorcised?"</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>April 6th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have not yet thanked you for that which is best in your +letter. That +you, too, are delighted with the free and consistent changes in the +government, affords me great comfort. I read much that is good about +the new rule, but I read and heard just as much in praise of the old, +and there are many who maintain that there has been no break, and that, +although the key is changed, the tune is still the same.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What makes human beings take such a pride in never changing?</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, never mind; as long as the good and the right are +brought about, +it matters not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Those who form our immediate circle look upon the disbanding +of the +guard as an actual revolution. I have just begun to realize that it +formed a privileged caste, which, although we scarcely knew of its +existence, had come to be looked upon as a matter of course.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you remember my once asking you whether there are any +really happy +beings on earth? Your life is the answer to my question, and your +greatest happiness lies in the fact that you have no false part to +perform, nothing which is opposed to your judgment and convictions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I now see my error in regarding your mode of thought as the +philosophy +of solitude. You hold fast to the harmony of life. But I have not yet +rid myself of a fear lest that which is real should, as it were, become +volatilized, causing the living forms of the vast human multitude to +disappear. In that case, the spirit alone would remain, or, if I +understand aright, would lose itself in matter, when all individuality +and all participation in actual life would cease.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot help interesting myself in individual inmates of +these +institutions. I can help the cause as a whole, but I can only love +individuals.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am greatly comforted by one piece of information you give +me:--that, +in all history, there is no age that was satisfied with itself. We +fondly dream of a golden age, but the golden age is to-day or never.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But now as to matters that concern us more nearly. You ask +me to tell +you of my little Woldemar. I do so with pleasure, but must be careful +not to weary you with a thousand and one of his little sayings and +traits. I follow your advice and endeavor to interest myself in his +questions, instead of teaching him that which he does not care to know. +He is quite decided, both in his likes and dislikes. I think that this +is well, and let him have his own way. His disposition, is, to a marked +degree, that of the king; he is quite fond of music. I think it good +for him that he was, literally speaking, sung to while in his cradle, +although the songs were from the lips of such hypocritical specimens of +culture and simplicity. Ah, my dear friend, that one sad memory still +casts its dark shadow over all my thoughts and all that I behold."</p> + +<p class="right">"<i>April 7th</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now this tiresome letter is nearly at an end. We are +coming to +you, my dear friend. Woldemar and I, I and Woldemar.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told Woldemar, and he at once added in a decided tone:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But Schnipp and Schnapp' (his two ponies) 'must go, too.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be brief--the king has granted my request. For the +benefit of my +health, I may pay you a visit of four weeks during midsummer and take +Woldemar with me. Orders have already been given, and Minister von +Bronnen has, I understand, made all the necessary arrangements to have +the dairy-farm in your neighborhood prepared for a small suite.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This year, we shall walk together, on Goethe's birthday.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But my letter is long enough already, and I shall not begin +another +sheet. If, as I am willing to admit, you really possess a power over +your native mountains, let them be bright and cloudless, while +welcoming to you and yours, your friend,</p> + +<p class="right">"MATHILDE.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Postscript.--Bronnen has visited you. He had much to tell +me, and when +I inquired about your youngest daughter, his features seemed to betray +his emotion. Was I mistaken? Remember me to your wife and children. I +trust that the queen's presence will not embarrass them."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It seems as if, even in the quietest life, there are days in which the +whole world has, as it were, agreed that visits and interruptions +should never cease.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther was in his room, and had scarcely had time to compose +himself, +after reading the queen's letter. It was evident, he thought, that the +king designed to bring about a reconciliation between himself and his +consort, through the agency of the dismissed friend. Gunther was +willing to aid him in this, but not to have the even tenor of his life +interfered with. The queen's hint in regard to Bronnen accorded with +his own observations, and just then he could hear Paula singing--for +the first time this year by the open window--and her voice seemed +expressive of a bridal moon. He felt that Paula deserved to be happy, +and that her marriage with his exalted friend would best promote the +happiness of both. But he was firmly resolved, even in that event, +never again to leave his birthplace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Buried in thought, Gunther was sitting in his room.</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant announced the freeholder's wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No--Walpurga!" cried a voice, and before the servant could +bring the +answer, Walpurga had entered the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, dear Doctor, you're our neighbor! I heard, only a minute +ago, that +you were living here, and it's scarcely four hours' walk from our farm. +Yes, that's the way people live hereabouts: alone and away from each +other, just as if one were dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">She offered her hand to Gunther, but he was busily engaged in +gathering +up some papers, and inquired:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does your mother still live?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alas! no. Oh, if she had only lived to see Doctor Gunther +once more! +Who knows whether she wouldn't be living yet, if we could have called +you when she was sick."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga wept at the remembrance of her mother. Gunther +seated himself +and asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it you want?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How? What?" asked Walpurga, quickly, drying her tears. "And +you never +once ask how it fares with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're prosperous and have changed but little."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I sit down?" asked Walpurga, in an anxious voice. This +cold +reception from one who had always been so kind to her, affected her so +deeply that she could scarcely stand. She looked about her as if +bewildered, and at last said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And is there nothing more you want to ask me? Where I live +and how my +husband and children are?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga," said Gunther, rising from his seat, "lay aside +your old +acting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? acting? I don't know what you mean! What have I to do +with +acting?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That does not concern us now. Did you want to ask me +anything? or have +you anything to tell me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure; that's just why I came."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; but you seem so strange that my thoughts are quite +mixed up. +Hansei doesn't know that I've come here, and not another soul in the +world is to know about it but yourself. I can keep a secret; I have +kept one. I can be trusted."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know it," said the physician, in a hard voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know it? How? You can't know it, and I shan't tell you +all of it, +either. I might have told you, but after such a reception, I can't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do as you please; speak or be silent; but cut it short, for +I have +very little time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I'd rather come some other time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't receive you for mere talk. Tell me now what you have +to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then. Doctor--Oh, dear me, to think that you don't even +shake +hands with me. I can't get over it. But I see, that's the way it is +with great folk; it's all the same--thank God, I know where I'm at +home!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cease your empty talk!" said Gunther, interrupting her still +more +sharply. "What have you to tell me? Can I help you in any way?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Me? Thank God, nothing ails me. I only wanted to say that +under-forester Steingassinger lives out on the dairy-farm, and that his +wife is my friend and companion, Stasi. Early last winter, she told me +that the king was coming here this summer, and all I wanted to say was +that if he cares to pay me a visit at the freehold, he's quite welcome. +I might have said something more, but I see I'd better not. I'd rather +not break an oath."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the king wishes to pay you a visit, I will tell him what +you have +said."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And isn't our dear, good queen coming, too! I've often been +kept awake +at nights by anger and sorrow, when I thought that she doesn't concern +herself about me. And she promised me so solemnly that she would. I +can't understand how it is; but it's all right, I suppose. And how is +the little prince? And is it true that you are not in favor and have +been dismissed from the court? And is that why you are living here in +this little house?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther gave her an evasive reply, and said that he had other +matters +to attend to.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga arose from her seat, but could not move from the +spot. She +could not understand why she should be treated thus, and it was only +because she had previously made up her mind to do so, that she invited +Gunther to visit her, and asked permission to see Madame Gunther for a +few moments. She hoped that she, at least, would receive her kindly and +afford her some explanation of the Doctor's repellant manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go to her," replied Gunther, turning away and taking up a +book. +Walpurga left the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stopped in the passageway and asked herself whether she +was not +dreaming. She who had once been the crown prince's nurse was now +treated as if they had never known her. She, the freeholder's wife--her +pride rose, as she thought of her vast homestead--was sent away like a +beggar.</p> + +<p class="normal">She no longer cared to speak with Madame Gunther. Her lips +trembled +with grief at the thought of how wicked the great people were. And yet +they could praise this house, and she, too, had once praised it, as +though none but holy persons lived in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">She left the house, and, while walking through the garden, +met Madame +Gunther, who started back when she recognized Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you remember me?" asked Walpurga, holding out her hand +towards +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed I do," said Madame Gunther, without noticing the hand +that was +offered her. "Where do you come from?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"From my farm. I'm the freeholder's wife, and if you, Madame, +had come +to me, I wouldn't have let you stand out of doors in this way; I'd have +asked you to come inside, into my room."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I don't ask you," replied Madame Gunther, "I put nothing +in the +way of those who leave the straight path, but I do not invite them into +my house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when did I leave the straight path? What have I done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not your judge."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Anyone may judge me. What have I done? You must tell me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must not; but I will. You will have to answer to yourself +how all +the money was earned with which you bought your great farm. Good-day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She went into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga stood there, alone. The houses, the mountains, the +woods, the +fields--all swam before her, and her eyes were filled with bitter +tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had been looking out of the window, during Walpurga's +interview +with his wife, and, by the manner of the latter, felt satisfied that +the peasant woman had been told some unpleasant truths.</p> + +<p class="normal">He now saw Walpurga walk away; she would stop now and then, +and dry her +tears with her apron. The woman repents, at any rate, thought he +to himself, and she's only another proof of the far-reaching and +all-corroding effects of evil.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was long before Gunther could be made to believe that +Walpurga had +received a large sum of money in return for wicked services, but it had +been judicially proven that the farm had been paid for in new coin, +such as only passes through princely hands. And just because Gunther +had believed in Walpurga's simple true-heartedness, and had staked his +word upon it, he was all the more embittered against her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was resolved to clear up the matter as soon as the +opportunity +offered.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Proud and happy as Walpurga had been when she left home in the morning, +it was with a heavy heart that she returned at evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">She might well be proud, for no farmer's wife could present a +better +appearance. Franz, the late cuirassier, had broken in the foal. It was +harnessed to the little Bernese wagon and looked around as if pleased +when Walpurga came out, dressed in her Sunday clothes and accompanied +by Burgei. Hansei helped his wife into the wagon and then gave her the +child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come back safe and sound," said he, "and Franz, take care of +the +horse."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never fear!" was Franz's answer, and the horse started off +at a lively +gait, as if it were mere child's play to draw such a load.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei stood looking after his wife and child for a while and +then +turned about and went off to his work. He only nodded to Irma, who was +looking out of her window and waving a farewell to Walpurga. Walpurga +rode off, holding her hand to her heart, as if to repress the joy with +which it was overflowing.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was there better in the world than a well-arranged +household like +the one she was just leaving, and to feel, moreover, that the people +she met would know that she was well-to-do in the world? But Walpurga +was proud of something else which the people could not see.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had, with great circumspection, arranged quite a +difficult +affair.--On the following morning, Irma was to go to the shepherd's +hut, and all danger of discovery would be averted. It is no trifling +matter to keep such a secret a whole winter, for Irma had judged +rightly. Walpurga encouraged Irma's plan of spending the entire summer +in deeper solitude. Stasi, whose husband had heard it from the chief +forester, told her that the king intended to visit the neighboring +village during the following summer. She feared for Irma, and now her +fears had taken a still more decided shape. Stasi's husband had been +removed to the dairy-farm and had been ordered to arrange the forest +paths and drives, preparatory to the king's arrival.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was quite willing that his wife, instead of going to +the +neighboring village, should go to a more distant town, in order to +purchase the articles of use and comfort which it would be necessary +for Gundel and Irma to take with them to the shepherd's hut. This +afforded her an opportunity to fulfill her promise to visit Stasi in +her new home. He even consented that Burgei should go along. And thus +Walpurga drove off, her heart full of happiness, and with a kindly +smile of greeting for all whom she met on the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I only wish," said Franz, "that we could drive along the +lake, and by +our old village, for we all came from there; you and I, Burgei and the +horse."</p> + +<p class="normal">Franz had bestowed especial care upon his appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face beamed with joy, for he, too, cherished a secret +thought. He +intended to buy a silver ring to place on Gundel's finger, before she +went to the shepherd's hut.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be careful of that horse," replied Walpurga. "He's so very +young. What +a fine day it is. The cherries down here aren't in blossom yet, and the +sapling we brought from home is blossoming to-day, for the first time. +Didn't you see it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they drew near to the village in which Stasi lived, +Franz, who +drove about the country a good deal, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"This pretty brook flows from up near our new meadow. It +comes out of +the rocks scarcely a rifle-shot from there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga smiled at the thought that a stream that flowed far +through +the country, had its source on her own land. Yes, no one knows what +fortune may have in store for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Stasi was delighted at Walpurga's arrival, and was lavish in +her praise +of all that belonged to her friend. She declared that the king himself +had not a finer horse, a better-behaved servant, a lovelier child or a +better wife, than Hansei had. Wherever she took Walpurga, the laborers +who were clearing the roads, or building bridges, would stop for a +while to look at the farmer's handsome wife and the child who, both in +dress and feature, was the very picture of her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">Stasi prepared an excellent meal. Walpurga had brought, as a +gift, +enough butter and eggs to last for a great while. In the new +inspector's dwelling, as great honor was shown Walpurga as if she were +the queen herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last, Walpurga set about making her purchases, and showed +that she +was sensible and aware of what her position required. She always bought +the best of everything, and did not higgle long about the price.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had returned to the dairy-farm, and Walpurga was on the +point of +confiding a portion of her secret to Stasi, so as to put her on her +guard as to the king, when she heard of the distinguished man who, for +nearly four years past, had been living in the little town.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! why he's the best friend I have!" said Walpurga. +She handed +the child to Stasi and hurried off to Gunther's house. She felt as if +her heart would burst with joy, and was obliged to sit down before the +house, for a while, to get her breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">But while she walked back to the farm, she did not once raise +her eyes +from the ground. She could not. And what annoyed her most of all was +that she had told Stasi: "He's the best friend I have."</p> + +<p class="normal">They expected her to tell about her visit, but all she could +say was:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't ask me to tell you what great folks are. If I were to +begin I +couldn't get through before to-morrow, and I've got to go, or it'll be +dark before we get home."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga became quieter and sadder, the more Stasi and her +husband +praised Doctor Gunther. She dared not tell what had happened to her. +This is all you get, thought she, if you depend on the respect which +others are to show you. Long after she had left them, Stasi and her +husband spoke of how strange and changeable Walpurga was. But she was +glad that she was no longer obliged to look any one in the face. And +now, at this late day, she was reminded of something that she had long +since forgotten. "Oh, dear mother!" said she aloud to herself. "You +were right. Everything in this world must be paid for, and now the gold +is to be paid for--but how?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She seated her child upon her lap as though it was all that +was left to +her. She hugged and kissed it and, at last, it fell asleep, resting +upon her heart. She grew calmer, although she keenly felt the wrong +that had been done her, and wondered what might yet be in store for +her. When, while in her old home, the envy and enmity of the villagers +had annoyed her, she could easily console herself with the fact that +they were simple, ignorant people; but what could she say now? Was she +to experience her old troubles over again? And there was no one to whom +she could confide them; her mother was gone; she could not tell Hansei +and, least of all, Irmgard.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was twilight when she at last caught a glimpse of home. +Mustering up +all her courage, she said to herself:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The best thing I can do is to let suspicion rest on me until +I die, or +till she dies; for then no one will come near us, and I needn't have +any fear for my dear Irma, who has far more to bear than I have. Thank +God, I didn't betray my secret; and how lucky it is, she's now going up +into the wilds where no one will find her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Full of courage, she went into the house and told Hansei of +her visit +to Stasi, but nothing more.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have borne it alone, thus far," said she to herself. "I'll +do so, +hereafter."</p> + +<p class="normal">With great self-command, she assumed a cheerful air while +with Hansei +and Irma, and romped with her boy, for whom she had bought a little +wooden horse.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The evening of preparation was an unquiet one. Hansei, who +had much to +do, would again and again busy himself with the cow-bells, the tones of +which pleased him greatly. He had purchased a well-tuned set, and Irma +had praised them when he showed them to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went to bed early, for, on the next morning, they would +have to +rise long before daybreak.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, who had been asleep for some time, awoke and heard +Walpurga +crying and sobbing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake! what's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, if mother were only living!" said Walpurga. "If I only +still had +my mother!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't act so. Don't cry, now; it's sinful!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? A sin to mourn for my mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It all depends on how you mourn. I've often heard it said +that, so +long as grass hasn't grown over the grave, you may weep for the dead +without doing harm to them or the living. After that, there should be +no more weeping for the dead; for, as the old proverb says: 'It wets +their clothes in the other world.' Don't fall into sinful ways, +Walpurga. Your mother lived out her time, and thus it is in the world. +Parents must die before their children, and, although I trust that our +children won't forget us when we're gone, I hope they'll be able to +think of us without weeping. But now--why do you let me talk so much? +Am I right, or wrong? What makes you so silent?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; it's all right. But don't, I beg of you, ask me +anything +more now. My head is full of all sorts of thoughts. Good-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-night, and don't forget to say 'good-night' to your +idle +thoughts."</p> + +<p class="normal">A fleeting smile passed over Walpurga's face at Hansei's kind +words, +but in the next moment she was again a prey to sad despair and a +feeling of utter loneliness. She had wept for her mother, because she +alone could have shared Irma's secret with her; but now, when a new and +crushing burden oppressed her, there was no living one who could help +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She suddenly recalled the evening when she had stood in the +palace +yard, feeling as if she had been transported into the heart of the +enchanted mountain, and awed by the dimly lighted statues that seemed +to be staring at her. She had come away, bringing golden treasure with +her; but what had clung to it? Resentment at the injustice she had +experienced gnawed at her heart. "That's the way with the great folk," +she muttered, between her teeth. "They condemn without a hearing. I +could justify myself, but I won't do it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you'd rather Irmgard wouldn't move out to the hut?" +asked +Hansei, after a while.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, I thought you were asleep, long ago," answered +Walpurga. +"Good-night, again."</p> + +<p class="normal">She asked herself how it would be if Hansei were to learn +what was said +of her. How would he bear it? And wasn't it wonderful that, thus far, +nothing had been heard of it?</p> + +<p class="normal">All her pride in the good opinion of others' suddenly turned +into +shame. The peculiar gift she possessed of imagining what people were +saying and thinking, again tormented her, and everything seemed +confused, as if a half-waking dream.</p> + +<p class="normal">She determined to lighten her heart by pouring out her woes +to Irma. +She sat up in bed and felt for her clothes, but she quickly checked the +impulse. How could she inflict this on the penitent? Irma had +sufficient strength of mind to renounce everything, and even to let the +world regard her as dead. How trifling was Walpurga's trouble in +comparison with hers!--And was not the queen also an innocent sufferer? +Was not one obliged to suffer for another, all the world through?</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt as if suddenly endowed with a strength she had never +before +known. She was willing to suffer for Irma, and even to sacrifice her +own good name, for the sake of protecting the penitent.</p> + +<p class="normal">She thanked fate that Doctor Gunther had treated her +unkindly. How +would it have been if a friendly reception on his part had induced her +to betray a portion of her secret?</p> + +<p class="normal">The elements that mingled in Walpurga's character were now in +agitation, now in repose; the quiet life at home, the unquiet one at +court, vanity, honor, humility, a desire to appear of consequence--all +these were in a constant ferment. But at last all was clear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have you done for Irma, after all?" she asked herself. +"Nothing; +you've only let her live with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">For Irma's sake, she was willing to submit to disgrace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It isn't what people think of you, but what you really are, +that's +most important," thought she to herself, and breathed freely once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she, at last, calmly rested her head on her pillow, she +felt as if +her mother's hand were stroking her brow.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was a mild spring night.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was sitting by the spring and looking up at the starry +heavens. +She felt strangely at the thought of again wandering forth, for on the +following morning she was to start for the shepherd's hut, there to +spend the summer. How would it be with her when she again sat here in +the night, listening to the stream rushing by?</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment she heard whispering. It seemed to come from +the dark +stable, the door of which was open.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Gundel; our mistress is just as changeable as April +weather. On +the way from home, she was as jolly as she could be, and on the way +back, she was just as glum as if she'd been beaten. She went to see the +great doctor. Something must have happened to her. But what does she +matter to us, after all? She bought pots and pans, but I got something +better. Let's have your hand. There! I put this little silver ring on +your finger and make you fast to me, in soul and body, for life. Now +you may go wherever you choose; you're mine, all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hearty kisses were heard, and Gundel at last said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you'll come up to the meadow to see us, once in a while, +won't +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I will!" And then there was more soft and +unintelligible +whispering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, just look!" said Franz, suddenly; "there's cousin +Irmgard, and +she's heard every word of what we've said."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's no harm; she knows all about it, and so I'll have +something to +talk with her about, all summer. Come, let's go to her. You'll see how +kind she is."</p> + +<p class="normal">They went to Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">She took them both by the hand and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let your love be as pure, as fresh, as inexhaustible as this +spring." +She dipped her hand into the spring, which glittered in the moonlight, +and sprinkled the two lovers with water.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's as good as if it came out of a holy water pot," cried +Franz. +"Now everything will be all right. I've no fear. You, spring, and you, +elder-tree, are witnesses that we both belong together, and will never +leave each other. Good-night."</p> + +<p class="normal">Franz went back into the stable and closed the door. Gundel +accompanied +Irma to her room and slept on the bench, for her father, the little +pitchman, had already gone before them to the shepherd's hut and had +taken her bed and various household articles with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was long before Irma fell asleep. She felt as if she could +not help +living over, in anticipation, the many days and nights she was to spend +upon the mountain. She was restless, and lay there thinking, until at +last her thoughts became confused and bewildered.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last, she asked in a soft voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gundel, are you still awake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes, and I'm sure Franz is awake, too. He isn't as well +off as I +am, and has no one to talk to as I have. Oh, how thankful I am to you! +I'll make things as pleasant and as comfortable for you as I can. Oh, +what a good, honest soul Franz is! Do you hear the cows lowing? They +can't rest, either. I feel as if I could already hear the bells that +they're going to wear to-morrow, and I think they must know all about +it, too. Oh Irmgard, if you only had a sweetheart, too. I know how it +will be with you. It'll be just as it says in the story--and you +deserve it, too. There was once upon a time a king who rode through the +forest and found a beautiful girl tending the flocks; and he put her on +his horse, took her home with him, gave her clothes of gold, and put a +diamond crown upon her head. And then the queen--Oh, the bells, the +queen--come, White-spot, the bells--come, come, come--and so--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gundel slept, but Irma lay awake and looked out into the +moonlight. The +whole world seemed a marvel, and vague fairy pictures filled her mind. +She smiled, and her eyes sparkled until they were at last closed in +sleep. But the smile rested on her features, although there was none to +see it, save the moon, calmly looking down from on high.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">We often experience sadness and hesitancy in carrying out projects +which have been wisely conceived and hopefully determined on. And thus +it proved when the time came to set out for the shepherd's hut.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was before daybreak. Irma stood at the open hearth in +Walpurga's +room, and shivered with the cold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although Irma had overcome all longings since her return from +her short +visit to the world, a new and deep feeling of homelessness had come +over her, just as if this was the first day of her solitude. She often +looked about her, as if she saw a figure approaching with a light +bundle under its arm--and that figure was herself, but oh! how changed. +She scarcely felt a desire for food or drink; nor did she care to +speak. She lived entirely in and from herself. But, although silent, +she was cheerful and kind toward every one.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman was the first to note this change, and he +was of +the opinion that a summer spent on the mountain meadows would prove of +great benefit to Irma, for he maintained that she was ill, although she +always seemed well and was ever at work.</p> + +<p class="normal">If everything had been specially arranged, Walpurga's purpose +could not +have been better served. Irma's wishes and the uncle's advice were in +accord. Besides this, there was danger of discovery, on account of the +king's visit to the neighboring village, and whatever danger lay in +this, Walpurga meant to avert from Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">The morning found Walpurga gay and cheerful, as if after a +hardly won +victory. Her eyes often rested on Irma, who was looking fixedly at the +open hearth-fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You'll see," said she to her, "you'll be quite a different +being up +there. I can hear you singing already, and then we'll sing together +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went on humming to herself the air,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">Oh! blissful is the tender tie</p> +<p class="t6">That binds me, love, to thee.</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">But Irma did not join in the song.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall support life as long as it supports me," said Irma, +as if +speaking to herself, and holding her hands before the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not long before the two women, who were thus standing +quietly by +the hearth, were called away to the stable outside. Everything was in +readiness. The little pitchman, who was conversant with all such +mysteries, had, on the previous day, arranged everything so that the +cattle might be well and hearty in their new abode. He had brought a +clod of earth and three ants from the meadow, and had mixed the earth +with some sweet-scented clover, St. Johnswort, lavender and salt, into +which mixture he dropped some oil of tar, and this was the last food +given the cattle. The little pitchman had returned from the meadow +during the night and, although he had not been asked to do so, had +prepared the mysterious fodder in order to oblige Hansei, who was not +yet quite familiar with the ways of this section of the country.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now that the cattle had swallowed the magic potion, they were +protected +against all witchcraft and sickness, and would be as much at home on +the meadows as if they had been born there. And now that day began to +dawn, the cows became unmanageable. Peter sprinkled every one of them +with holy water; but in spite of charms and holy water, these tame, +domestic creatures seemed to have been converted into wild beasts. All +was confusion within the enclosure that confined them, the cows were +bellowing and running about wildly, and, in the midst of the din, was +heard the shouting of the cowboys. The little pitchman bade them let +the cows have their own way and at last they were quiet. Gundel put the +wreath on the horns of the large brown bell-cow, and fastened the +leader's bell around her neck. The other cows were also provided with +bells. And now the leader was surrounded by the rest of the herd, who +glared at her furiously; but she seemed so proud and scornful that none +ventured to challenge her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now let's be off, for God's sake!" cried the little +pitchman, +opening the gate. The procession started. Franz came last of all, +holding the powerful red bull by its strong short horns and dragged by, +rather than leading it. As soon as the bull was out of the stable, he +stood still and looked about him with quite a dangerous air, and then, +tossing up his head, stepped off alone, in quite a dignified manner. +But as soon as he was outside of the gate, he bellowed loudly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although everything had been quietly arranged, there was yet +hurrying +at the end. Walpurga and Hansei accompanied Irma for a part of the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was silent. Her step was firm, and yet it seemed to her +as if her +will had nothing to do with this, and as if she were urged onward by +another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You look more cheerful already," said Hansei to Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">A nod was her only reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">They soon overtook the herd which had gone ahead. The +herdsman had +waited for them, for it would not do to drive the cattle through the +villages unless the <i>sennerin</i><a name="div2Ref_note05" href="#div2_note05"><sup>5</sup></a> were with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">They might have taken the other road. It lay back of the +village, and +was somewhat shorter; but why should they not for once show themselves +and their herds before they went into solitude? And so the cattle with +their beautiful bells were driven through the village, while cheers and +hurrahs resounded from all sides.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they ascended the mountain on the other side of the +village, and +struck the forest road which Hansei had cut, he could not refrain from +calling Irma's attention to what he had accomplished.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the heart of the forest, where the royal arms were carved +on the +boundary-stone--for it was here that the royal preserves began--Hansei +took leave of Irma. Walpurga, who had also said "good-by," still +accompanied her for a short distance. There was so much that she wanted +to tell Irma, and yet all she could say was: "Don't be afraid; I'll +come to see you next Sunday. If you find it lonesome, come back to us +again. Nobody forces you to stay up here; but if you can stay, you'll +find it'll do you good."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, whose heart was oppressed with her secret, bade +Irma a +hurried farewell and left her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei was sitting on the boundary-stone, waiting for his +wife. After +she had joined him, they walked on for some time in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It often seems to me as if it were all a dream," said he, at +last. +"We've been here four years this coming autumn, and she's been with us +all the time. I can't tell you how much I like her, and still I don't +know her; that is, I do know her, so to say, but I don't know her after +all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop a minute, Hansei," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood still. All was silent in the woods. A thick mist had +veiled +the mountains and the birds were mute. The only sound that broke upon +the ear was that of the bells of the distant herd ascending the +mountain. Walpurga drew a long breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei," said she at last, "you've stood a hard test. I +never would +have believed that any man could have done what you have. And now I +think I must open the door to you, at last."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" said Hansei, interrupting her, "not so fast. Did she +tell you +to do so, of her own accord? Say 'yes' or 'no'."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I don't want to know anything about her. You hold her +secret in +trust, and no one has a right to touch it. Of course, to be honest with +you, it has often puzzled me terribly. There's only one thing I want to +know; I'm sure she hasn't injured any one and she hasn't stolen, has +she? But no matter what she may have done, she's atoned for it all. +Tell me only this: Has she any such trouble on her conscience?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God forbid! She's harmed no one on earth but herself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right then; we'll say no more about it. Did you see how +the deaf +and dumb man in the village fell on his knees before her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I did; and I heard Babi, the root girl, say that the +crazy woman +from the farm would never come back again. Now Babi's crazy and Irmgard +isn't, but still it frightened me. I don't know--but it seems to me +that our home will seem empty, if we don't have Irmgard with us. She's +become one of us."</p> + +<p class="normal">When they had returned to the house and were sitting together +in the +front room, Hansei said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you remember how she advised me to place the table +differently, +and how she helped to arrange everything, and told uncle to shorten the +legs of the chairs, so that they might fit better to the table? I've +never seen a farmer's room that looked so beautiful as ours; and she +was a great help to you in everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had much to arrange about the house, and Walpurga +would often +come to him, with one of the children, and exchange a few words with +him, while at work. She did not care to be alone. She missed Irma, and +yet was happy to know that she was safe in her lonely retreat.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The day did not clear. At noon, the mist changed into heavy rain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder if it rains as hard up there, too; she'll be +terribly wet," +thought Walpurga to herself, and, indeed, it was raining just as +heavily up the mountain. Wild, rapid little streams ran across the road +and bubbled and splashed down the mountain side.</p> + +<p class="normal">With the aid of a mountain staff which Hansei had given her, +Irma +walked on courageously. To protect her against the rain, the little +pitchman had given her his great woolen rug, in which there was only a +hole to slip the head through. He managed to cover himself with empty +corn sacks. He walked at her side, and often said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I carry you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma walked on. The staff was of little use during the +ascent; but, now +and then, they had to go down a sharp declivity--a sink, as the uncle +called it--when she was obliged to plant it firmly and swing herself by +it. The little pitchman was always at hand, ready to catch Irma, in +case she should slip; but she had a firm step.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the herd were not yet used to each other, it was quite +difficult to +keep them together; but the little pitchman knew how to manage the +animals, and the bells, ringing merrily together, seemed like a +constantly ascending melody.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The cattle are well off," said the little pitchman, "they +can find +their fodder along the wayside. But the mistress has given me something +for ourselves. We'll soon reach the 'Witch's Table,' and there we can +sit under shelter, while we take a bite."</p> + +<p class="normal">They soon came upon a broad, projecting rock, resembling a +semicircular +table. Here there was dry and sandy soil, where only the lion-ant +dwelt, in his funnel-shaped cell. Gundel, Franz, the little pitchman +and Irma sat down under shelter of the "Witch's Table" and ate +heartily, while the cows, that grazed outside, were left in charge of +one of the cowboys.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The rain will last a long time," said Franz. The little +pitchman +called him to account, and said that no one could tell how long the +rain would last. He wanted to encourage Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">He caught a lion-ant and showed how clever the little +creature was; how +it made a pitfall in the fine sand and hid itself at the point of its +funnel-shaped cell, and how the common ant, unconscious of danger, +would come along and tumble into the pit, from which it could not get +out again, for the fine sand rolls away from under its feet, while the +rogue who is hiding blinds the captive by throwing sand in its eyes, +and then catches and eats it. "And strangest of all," said he, "next +year that gray worm will be a brown dragon-fly on the lake."</p> + +<p class="normal">He well knew that such a glimpse of nature was more pleasing +to her +than food or inspiriting words.</p> + +<p class="normal">With renewed vigor, they went still further up the mountain. +As if +invigorated by the herbage of the higher regions, the cattle became +livelier. At last they drew near the clearing where the new meadow lay. +The little pitchman instructed Franz to go on in advance and open the +stable door. Franz obeyed at once; soon after that his call was heard, +and the cows that had just reached the open meadow bellowed and rushed +forward. The rain and mist were now so thick that the hut could not be +distinguished until they were within a few steps of it. "That's lucky," +cried the little pitchman, "the swallows have already built their nests +on our cottage; now all is safe."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped forward, knocked at the door three times, opened +it, and +offered his hand to Irma with the words: "Let joy enter and sorrow +depart!" And thus they were home at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, what a comfort to have a sheltering roof over one's head! +Irma +often looked up, and, her eyes seemed to express the gratitude she felt +because of her being at last protected against the angry storm. Now +that she was snugly housed in the cottage, it seemed far more gloomy +out of doors than while they were trudging through the rain. There was +soon a cheerful fire on the large hearth, and the little pitchman, +muttering to himself, took something out of his pocket and threw it +into the flames.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since the world began," said he, "no fire has ever been +lighted here, +and no smoke has arisen to heaven. We're the first inhabitants. But the +swallows--yes, the swallows--that's lucky."</p> + +<p class="normal">He might have said much more, if he hadn't been called away +by Franz, +who came to tell him that a cow out in the stable had just calved.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was alone with Gundel. She quickly undressed herself and +dried and +warmed herself by the fire. But Gundel was called away, too, so that +she might know what to do on a like occasion in the future. And now +Irma, divested of her outer clothing, sat by the fire. She felt chilled +at first, but the sense of cold and of fear quickly left her. She gazed +calmly at the cheerful fire--a solitary child of man, alone on the +heights. She had completely forgotten where she was, until she heard +voices approaching. She quickly covered herself with the dried clothes. +The little pitchman entered and offered his congratulations on the fact +that they had been blessed with a splendid steer-calf on the very first +day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night came on. Franz took his departure. Gundel went with him +part of +the way and, until she returned, they could be heard calling to each +other through the drizzling rain. The inmates of the cottage soon +repaired to rest. The little pitchman and the cowboy slept in the +hay-loft over the stable. Irma and Gundel slept in the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they awoke, on the following morning, the day was still +veiled in +a thick mist. "We're in a cloud," said the little pitchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cows were grazing. The bells seemed scattered about, and, +in the +distance, had a dreamlike sound as of the humming of bees.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma had hoped to be alone, and here she was shut up in this +little hut +with its few inmates. The little pitchman had said that they were the +first dwellers on this bit of earth, and it seemed as if nature +resented their advances. The wind howled and drove the clouds before +it, but always brought fresh ones to replace them, and, now and then, +were heard the crash and roar of falling avalanches.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma endeavored to work, but to no purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">The second night and the second day found them still +enveloped in +impenetrable clouds. Even the cattle seemed to complain of it, their +lowing sounded so sorrowful.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was early on the third morning, when Irma awoke, feeling +as if +something had touched her. She arose. A soft gleam of light shone +through the crevice in the window-shutter. "The sun has awakened me," +said she to herself. She hurriedly dressed and went out of doors.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fresh and dewy air of morning revived her spirits. A cow, +grazing +near by, raised its head and looked at her, and then went on eating +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">A silver-gray light gradually dawned in the east, and that +wonderful +passage from Haydn's "Creation" flashed through Irma's mind. She +fancied that the tones assumed tangible, corporeal shapes, arising out +of the early-gray of dawn. By degrees, the gray changed into a golden +hue, and then faint streaks of red would flash through it, gradually +heightening in color, while down below, stretching into the distance, +like a dark and immeasurable stream, lay the darkness of night. At +last, rugged cliffs, peaks, and broad mountain ridges raised their +heads into the light, while their bases still lay veiled in night which +was gradually changing into dark gray. The rosy tint gradually extended +and gained in intensity until it covered the heavens. Meanwhile, the +giant forms of the mountains stood forth more clearly and at last, +dazzling the eyes, the sun appeared, bathing every height in purple and +golden hues, while the rolling clouds below appeared like mighty waves. +Bright day, warming and illumining the earth, had arisen. Millions of +odors arose from every tree, every blade of grass, and every flower. +The singing of birds was heard, and Irma opened her arms as if to +embrace infinity. She did not sink on her knees, but remained standing +upright. Involuntarily, her foot left the ground, as if she could not +help soaring away into infinite space. She pressed both hands to her +forehead, and when she touched the bandage, it seemed loosened of +itself and fell to the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sunbeam shone upon her brow and she felt that it was now +pure. She +stood there for a long while, gazing at the sunlight. Her eye was not +dazzled by its refulgence. Calm and peaceful harmonies filled her soul. +A child of man had witnessed the symbol of creation and had herself +been created anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now come, ye days that are still left me, be ye long or +short!--Where +and with whom I may have to spend them, it matters not; for I am free! +I am saved!</p> + +<p class="normal">All that I now do is only preparation for the journey. The +hour draws +near and, be it early or late, I am prepared for it. I have lived!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, Irmgard, how strange you look!" exclaimed Gundel, +coming out of +the hut, and carrying the milk-pail on her head. "Dear me, what a +forehead you've got, so white and so beautiful! Oh, how beautiful you +are! I never saw so smooth and beautiful a forehead before!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma accepted a glass of milk from Gundel, and then tucked up +her dress +and went out into the woods. It was not until high noon that she +returned to the cottage. During the whole day, she had scarcely uttered +a word.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the cottage, she found the little pitchman standing before +her +table, and arranging a great heap of aromatic herbs and roots.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just look," he cried, "I've found something already. Yes, I +know a +thing or two. I've been gathering clover and mountain parsley for the +apothecary. I know everything growing hereabouts that they can use, and +many a time has my sister said: 'In the spring everything's sweet and +good; and wherever the poison lies, it takes the summer heat to bring +it out.' Oh, she was a clever one! Many a time she's said: 'The best +things grow up among the clouds.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">After a short pause, he began again:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gundel's right; I must say, I didn't think you were so +handsome. But, +somehow, you don't look healthy; you must eat more; why, you hardly eat +anything."</p> + +<p class="normal">A grateful smile was Irma only reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know what I'd like to have been?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your father."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma answered him with a silent inclination of the head. Her +father's +spirit had been invoked, and it seemed as if he were speaking to her +through the lips of this poor, simple-minded man, who continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"God forgive me, but I can't help feeling, once in a while, +as if you +had dropped down from heaven, and had neither father nor mother; and +to-day you look so weak that my eyes fill with tears whenever I look at +you. Now, do eat a bit!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He went on chattering as confusedly as if he had been +drinking too +much, but the refrain was always the same: "Now do eat something!"</p> + +<p class="normal">To please the good old man, Irma forced herself to do so.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The days were bright and cheerful, the nights were glorious.</p> + +<p class="normal">The air was pure, the view was clear, and all troubled +thoughts seemed +to have lingered below in the crowded dwellings of men.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you could now sing again," said the little pitchman +to Irma; +"your voice isn't so hoarse as it was. But you need more sleep. When +one is old, sleep runs away of itself. Don't drive it away, as long as +it wants to stay with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman now seemed doubly careful of her, and +Irma +perceived that her voice was hoarse. She would sit down and rest +oftener than she had previously done. She would still roam through the +woods and valleys, wherever huntsmen or woodcutter dared venture, but +she would so often stop to rest herself that her wanderings resembled +the flight of some young bird which, at every short distance, is +obliged to stop. She now remembered that this weariness had been upon +her ever since her return from the capital. During the winter she had +paid no attention to it; but now she thought she could understand +Walpurga's motive in urging her to go up to the shepherd's hut. It was +because she was ill, and in the hope that she might become well again. +And yet she felt no pain. One day, while in the heart of the forest, +she tried to sing a scale, but found that she could not. Her head sank +upon her breast; and thus, after all--</p> + +<p class="normal">On Sunday morning Franz came, bringing joy with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, how nice it is," said Gundel, as soon as she found +herself alone +with Franz. Irma was quite near, however, and heard every word of what +she said. "Oh, how nice it is! I used to think my arms were only for +work, but now I can do something else with them; I can throw them +around somebody's neck and hug and kiss him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gundel, who was usually dull and sullen, had become active +and +sprightly. She was bustling about all day, scrubbing, washing, milking +the cows, making butter and cheese, and was always singing or humming a +tune to herself. With her, singing filled the place of thinking. She +was just like a bird that flutters about, singing all day long. Love +had awakened her soul, and the self-dependent position in which she now +found herself afforded a vent to her native cheerfulness of +temperament.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma regarded all that environed her as if she were a mere +looker-on, +taking no part in the life about her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Tradition tells us of good genii who descend to the earth, +remain there +long enough to look about them and put things to rights, and then +return to heaven. They have no share in the world's cares and troubles. +And thus it often seemed to Irma as if she were withdrawing herself +from human sight, conversation and sympathy, into the one great idea in +which she was wholly absorbed.</p> + +<p class="normal">She went into the hut, and with her pencil wrote these few +words in her +journal:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I desire my brother to give a marriage portion to Gundel and +Franz, +after my death, so that they may establish a household of their own."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thereupon she wrapped the journal in the bandage which she +had worn on +her brow, and, placing her hand on it, vowed that she would not write +another word in it. She had recorded enough of her self-questionings +and of what her eyes had beheld, to reconcile her with the friend whom +she had so deeply injured, as well as with herself. The days that still +remained to her, she desired to spend completely, and with herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Franz had brought word that Walpurga would not come that day, +as her +boy was unwell, but that she hoped to come without fail on the +following Sunday. Irma was almost pleased at the opportunity thus +afforded her to become accustomed to her present life, before being +obliged to converse with any one who knew her. She was now surrounded +by people to whom her past was unknown. They indulged her wish to be +alone, and only addressed her when she asked them a question.</p> + +<p class="normal">The second and third Sundays passed by, but Walpurga did not +come, +although she sent up some bread and salt. Irma scarcely cared to +conjecture the cause of her absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">How scornfully Irma had once repelled the thought of "a life +in which +nothing happens"; but now she realized it in herself, without the +slightest feeling, on her part, that it might have been otherwise. She +worked but little, and would lie for hours on her favorite spot on the +hillside.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nature shed its kindly influence upon her. She greeted the +dews of +early morn, and the dews of evening moistened her locks. Like +surrounding nature, she was calm and happy and without a wish. But in +the night, when she looked up at the starry skies which, from the +mountain height, were clearer and brighter, her soul soared into the +infinite. She gazed on the mountains, unchanged since the day of their +creation, peaks which no human foot had ever trod, which only the +clouds could touch and on which the eagle's eye had rested. Familiar as +she was with the life of plants and birds, she now scarcely regarded +them. They seemed part of herself, just as her limbs were part of her +body. Nature was no longer strange to her. She felt herself a part of +it. She had reached that state of calm content in which life seems a +pure chain of natural consequences, in which daily doubts and +questionings have ceased. The sun rises and sets, the grass grows, the +cows graze, and the law of life bids man work and reflect. The world +around thee is subject to law and so is thine own life. To man alone is +vouchsafed the knowledge of his duty, so that he may learn freely to +obey the dictates of his own nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">This thought illumined her soul with a light as clear as the +blue sky +above her. It caused her to forget that she had ever lived another +life, or had ever erred.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the fourth Sunday, Irma started out at an early hour and +walked as +far as the boundary-stone, where she waited for Walpurga and Hansei. +Now that they had sent word that they would surely come, Irma longed to +see Walpurga, the only being who knew her past and could confirm to her +who she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was sitting on the boundary-stone. She had taken off her +hat and +her brow was bare. She sat there with her head resting on her hand, and +wondering why, deep within the soul, there dwells a feeling that +resents the surrender of our personality and the desire to know who and +whence we are. To others, the galley-slave is only known by the number +he bears, but, as to himself, he knows who he is and can never forget +it. Why can we not freely lose ourselves in nature?</p> + +<p class="normal">Her head drooped still lower. Presently, she heard voices and +hurriedly +arose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Isn't that our Irmgard?" asked Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, it is!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga hurried up to her and held out her hand; but Hansei +stood as +if petrified. He had never before seen such a being. It always seemed +to him as if there were something superhuman about her. Her whole face +was radiant, her eyes larger, and the pure, noble forehead was as white +and smooth as marble. Walpurga, who had known Irma when at the height +of her beauty, now looked at her with a different feeling, for she was +suffering for her sake, in a way that Irma could little dream of. +Involuntarily, she pressed her hand against her trembling heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why don't you shake hands with me, Hansei?" asked Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I--I never saw you look this way before."</p> + +<p class="normal">A slight blush overspread her forehead. She passed her hand +over it. +Then she offered her hand to Hansei, who, in his excitement, pressed it +so violently that he hurt her.</p> + +<p class="normal">They walked on together toward the hut, and had gone but a +few steps +before they were joined by the little pitchman. He had, as was his +wont, stealthily followed Irma. He was concerned for her sake, for he +saw that something was the matter with her, and was, therefore, loth to +leave her alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She looks splendid, don't she?" said he to Hansei, who had +remained +with him while Irma and Walpurga walked on in front. "But she lives on +nothing but milk, just like a little child; and you can't make her +remember that, up here, the nights get cold all of a sudden. She always +wants to sit out of doors in the damp, night air. I often think she +must be an angel and that, all of a sudden, she'll spread her wings and +fly away--yes, you may laugh at it, but it ain't far from here up to +heaven. 'We're the Lord's nearest neighbors, up here,' as my sister +used to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei and the uncle went off to look after the cattle. +Besides the +calf born on the first day, two others had come and all were doing +well. It was a full hour before Hansei came to the hut, and his whole +bearing expressed his satisfaction with all that had seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Walpurga had examined everything in the hut, and +she, too, +had found cleanliness and order everywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the afternoon, their next neighbor, who lived at a +mountain meadow +about an hour's distance from Hansei's, paid them a visit and brought +her zither with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no small condescension, on the part of the +freeholder's wife, to +sing with Gundel and the neighbor. Franz joined in, and the little +pitchman was also able to take part. Hansei, however, could not sing a +note; but his want of ability added to his dignity--a wealthy farmer is +supposed to have given up singing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is the only place where you can sing, up here. You +can't do it +over there, where the road leads into the village," cried Gundel, after +the first song. "If you sing, or speak a loud word there, the echo +drowns it all."</p> + +<p class="normal">She ran to the spot and sang a few notes, which were echoed +again and +again from every mountain and ravine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought to sing, too," said Walpurga to Irma; "you've no +idea how +well she can sing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot sing," replied Irma; "my voice is gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then play something for us; you can play the zither +beautifully," said +Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">All joined in the request, and Irma was at last obliged to +play. The +little pitchman held his breath. He had never heard such beautiful +playing before, and not one, thought he, knew what Irma could do. She +soon modulated into the familiar melody, and the little pitchman was +the first to start the song:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">Oh, blissful is the tender tie.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">It was a happy, cheerful hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei now conducted his wife, Irma, and the little pitchman +to the +spot from which they could catch a glimpse of the lake near their old +home. It sparkled brightly in the sun, and Hansei remarked that it +seemed like the look of a human being who had known him from youth up.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was afraid lest the scene might awaken sad thoughts +in Irma, +and turned toward her; but she only said: "It pleases me, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei now described the whole neighborhood to Irma, told her +where +this and that place lay, and showed her the mountain where he had +planted so many trees. The forest itself could not be seen, but the +rocky peak which rose from it was visible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, meanwhile, drew her uncle aside, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Uncle, my mother's dead--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I know it, and you can't think more of her than I do. +Just ask +Irmgard how often we talk of her. It always seems to me as if she must +be in the next room. It isn't far to heaven from where we now are. She +can hear every word we say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, uncle; but let me finish what I was going to say. I've +got +something to tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">It went hard with the uncle to listen quietly, for he always +had so +much to say himself. Without noticing his repeated interruptions, +Walpurga continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Uncle, you're a sensible man--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"May be, but it hasn't done me much good in life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I want to tell you something--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; out with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm in trouble about Irmgard--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You needn't worry about her. I watch her as if she was the +apple of my +eye. Make yourself quite easy on that score."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, uncle, I know all about that; but there are some awful +wicked people in the world, and they'll follow you up to the very +mountain-tops--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I know; the gend'arme often--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Uncle, do listen to me patiently!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; I'm not saying a word."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, uncle, mother knew who Irmgard is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so do I. You needn't tell me anything about that. I know +her, out +and out. I'm not so stupid, depend on that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, uncle, that's all right. I wanted to confide something +to you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can trust me with anything. As to that matter, I can +call your +mother in heaven to bear me witness--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no need of that. Well, as I was going to say, +Irmgard has had +a sad life--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know all about it. When I was in the city with her, I made +up my +mind that there must be something or other of that kind. It may be that +they wanted her to marry somebody that she didn't like. May be she's a +left-handed child, or may be she's got a husband and left him. She +looked at the big houses in such a queer way--she always seemed as if +she wanted to creep out of sight."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was surprised at her uncle, who would not permit her +to say a +word, and suddenly it occurred to her: I was just like him once, and +thought that I must always keep chatting instead of listening to what +others had to tell me. She looked at her uncle for a long while and he, +taking it as a compliment, now told her, for the first time, of what he +had felt on that journey with Irma, and of all that he had seen while +with her--the lions, the serpents, the high priest and the "Magic +Flute" were all mixed together in inextricable confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga made up her mind that there was no need of divulging +her +secret, and contented herself by telling her uncle that he must never +leave Irma alone, and that if any stranger came--no matter who he might +be--he should take her secretly into the woods, so that no one should +see her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle promised to do as he was bid.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," he added, "what a strange world it is. Just think of +it! The +herbs I take to the apothecary in the next village are for the baths of +young Countess Wildenort, the daughter-in-law to the one I used to +know. While I was standing in front of the apothecary's the other day, +a man came riding by, on a beautiful, glossy black horse. Its legs +looked as if they'd been turned in a lathe. The man had a child sitting +in front of him on the horse, a boy about the size of our Peter, with a +blue frock, and wearing a feather in his hat, and the boy was so like +Irmgard it might have been her own child. And the apothecary said to me +that it was Count Wildenort, the son of the one I used to know. And so, +when he rode past, I said: 'Good-morning, Count?' He pulled up and +asked: 'How do you know me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I said: 'I knew your father, and he was a good man--' +And what do +you think he said? Not a word. He rode off without so much as thanking +me. They tell me he's not so good a man as his father was, and they say +his mother-in-law has him under her thumb, so that he daren't move. But +the child is beautiful and the very picture of our Irma. It's +wonderful, what strange things happen in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga trembled, and made her uncle promise that he would +never +mention Irma to a soul in the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle also promised that he would not let Irmgard know +anything of +the matter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Toward evening, Walpurga and Hansei went home again and, when +night +came, Franz returned also. The inmates of the shepherd's hut were once +more alone. Not a word was spoken among them, for they had talked and +heard enough during the day. All was silent. Not a sound was heard but +the tinkling cow-bells in the woods and on the green hillside, and the +stars shone overhead. Irma was seated on the spot from which the +distant lake was visible, and it was long before she retired to rest.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Irma now spent but a small portion of the day at the workbench. Her +work had become even more irksome than at first. Her eye was constantly +fixed on the vast and extended mountain prospect, toward which she +would ever return from her task with added zest.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman, who was quite diplomatic in his way, +begged Irma +to go with him while he went out to hunt plants and roots, for he said +that he was old and did not know but what he might sometime lose his +footing, and it would, in that case, be well to have some one with him +who could go for help.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that, Irma spent the greater part of the day with the +little +pitchman, wandering through the forest and over hill and dale. Her +greatest delight was whenever they reached the spot where the brook +arose. It flowed smoothly from a dark, rocky cavern and then boldly +galloped down the hill, striking against fragments of rock by the way, +now gliding over them, now forcing its way below them, until it reached +the first valley, where it formed a basin encircled by tall, silver +fir-trees. Thence it flowed through the table-land and, softly +murmuring, glided down over the second mountain into the valley below.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman plainly saw how much Irma liked to be +here. He even +thought that he had once heard her sing, and that her voice had been +audible above the rushing and roaring of the water, and it was a +strange coincidence that most of the herbs of which he was in search +could be found in the neighborhood. Now and then, he was fortunate +enough to discover a bird's nest, and would show it to Irma, who was as +delighted with it as though she were a little child. The animals here +seemed as yet to be without fear of man, and the little pitchman +maintained that the reason the little birds didn't fly away when Irma +looked at them, was because she had such kindly eyes. They flew about +her as if she were an old friend, and the mother bird in the nest +looked at her affectionately, and did not take wing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus Irma would spend whole afternoons, sitting by the spring +and, +scarcely conscious of what she was doing, would, now and then, throw +some flower which she had plucked into the brook.</p> + +<p class="normal">The brook flowed through the town in which Gunther lived. A +beautiful +boy was sitting on its banks, and a red-haired servant in livery was by +his side.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy ordered the servant to fish out a beautiful flower +that was +floating by. The servant clambered down the steep bank and, just as he +reached the edge of the stream, the boy threw a stone into the water, +so that it splashed, and the servant exclaimed: "My young master, +you've behaved badly again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is he at his wild tricks again?" said a tall and handsome +young man, +with a countenance that bore the marks of dissipation. "What are you +doing, Eberhard?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy looked startled and the servant said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, sir. My young master and I were only having a +little fun +together."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man took the boy by the hand and walked with him +through the +meadow and toward a beautifully situated country-house, while Fitz, the +groom, followed. The man in front was Count Eberhard von Wildenort, and +the boy with him was his son.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno had given strict orders that his boy should not go near +the +water. He had a great dread of that element, for it had brought such +terrible misfortune upon his family. But, as if by some evil influence, +the boy was always drawn toward the wild stream, and Fitz, who always +let him have his own way, secretly abetted and accompanied him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno looked back, shook his finger at Fitz, and then entered +the +garden of the country-house. His wife was there, sitting in a large +arm-chair. A little girl was playing on the gravel path, and a nurse +was carrying an infant in her arms. The matin bell was heard, and +presently the mother-in-law appeared at the garden gate. She was +followed by a servant who carried an embroidered cushion and a +prayer-book sparkling with jewels.</p> + +<p class="normal">The baroness greeted her family with the calm and satisfied +air of one +who had already fulfilled her highest duties. Bruno offered her his arm +and, Arabella following, they repaired to the breakfast table, which +had been set in the arbor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me!" said the Baroness. "What shall we do with +ourselves to-day? +It is lovely, and I don't think the weather will change. The apothecary +tells me there is a very pretty shepherd's hut a few hours distant from +here, the view from which must be exquisite. How would it be if we were +to send our servants up before us, to make arrangements for our dining +there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Permit me, gracious mother-in-law," replied Bruno, timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; make a suggestion! Don't leave everything to me. +What have +you to propose in this deadly-lively solitude, where we are thrown upon +the odious privy councilor, and the female philistines of his family. I +beg of you, do propose something."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In my humble opinion--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be so long coming to the point!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think it will be to your interest if I first go myself, to +see +whether the roads are fair and to prevent you from being disappointed; +for, although theatrical shepherdesses are, as a rule, very charming, +they are apt to be great frights <i>au naturel</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks! you're really amiable. When will you set out on your +reconnaissance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-day, if you desire it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He would like to get off and be a free, single man for one +day," said +the smiling Baroness to her daughter. "Oh, I know him! Shall we give +him a day?" she asked roguishly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're in a very good humor," replied Bruno. In spite of all +her +biting remarks, he was always studiously polite toward her. She had +thrice paid his gaming and other debts, for Bruno had not yet received +his sister's fortune, as the body had not been found. It was not till +next year--that is, five years after her death--that he would be +allowed to take legal possession of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, dear Bruno," at last said Arabella, who was deeply +pained by her +husband's position. "You'd better go by yourself. Leave Fitz here with +us. Eberhard has grown so used to him, that he doesn't care to play +with any one else."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno repaired to the apothecary's, where he was informed +that the +meadow belonged to the freeholder who lived at several hours' distance. +He started for the farm at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was sitting by the window, and playing with the +child in her +lap, when she saw a horseman approaching. She involuntarily raised her +hand to her eyes and leaned back, as if he were going to ride straight +over her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She saw him dismount and saw Hansei greet him and lead the +horse to the +stable; after that, Hansei and the stranger came into the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you, Count!" said Walpurga, composing herself and +advancing +toward him. "How kind of you, to pay us a visit."</p> + +<p class="normal">She extended her hand to Bruno, who went on twisting his +mustache, and +did not offer his hand in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! it's you, is it? I didn't know that you were the +mistress here. +And so this is the farm that you paid for with gold? You're shrewd, but +don't be alarmed. I shan't call you to account!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei observed that his wife was growing pale.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is this man? Who is it that talks to you in this high +and mighty +manner?" he asked, drawing himself up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be quiet!" said Walpurga. "He is one of the court gentlemen +and is +fond of joking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's it, is it?" muttered Hansei. "I want to say a word to +you, +sir--what may your name be?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Count Wildenort."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well then, Count, I didn't ask who you were, and I bade you +and your +horse welcome. And now I'd like you to tell me what you want and leave +my wife alone. In my house and home, I allow no jokes that don't please +me, and if the king himself were to come and try a joke that I didn't +like, I'd put him out! No offense, but every one must say what he +thinks. Now, sir, take a seat."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei put on his hat and pressed it down firmly, as if to +show that he +was master here.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bruno said, with a smile:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've a good husband, Walpurga."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That'll do," said Hansei, interrupting him. "What do you +wish, Count?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing out of the way. They tell me you have a shepherd's +hut on your +mountain meadow, and I hear it is the finest in all the Highlands."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes," said Hansei, grinning. "It isn't so bad and it's +very +nicely situated; but I won't sell it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't want to buy it. All I want is to spend the day up +there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, how do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are there good roads leading to it, and is the place clean? +Is there a +chance of coming back without bringing a herd along on one's body?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're right, Walpurga, he's quite funny," whispered Hansei +to his +wife, and then, turning to Bruno, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The roads are good, and if you don't mind going an hour's +distance out +of the way, you can ride almost to the very spot. I can show you the +way up if you wish it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly; my wife and mother-in-law would like to see the +place."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was alarmed at the danger that threatened Irma, but +quickly +collecting herself she said, as if jesting:</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Count; women can't go up there. Such as we are can do +it, of +course; but, even then, we have to turn our petticoats into breeches." +She laughed heartily, and Bruno laughed, too. He imagined his +mother-in-law in this costume. She had tried many in her life, but +never such an one.</p> + +<p class="normal">The only object of his errand had been to enable him, under +the pretext +of having received authentic information, to dissuade his mother-in-law +from her plan which, if carried out, would have subjected him to a day +of bitter slavery. He well knew that nothing would be right, and that +he would be obliged to swallow her reproaches and scoldings, just as if +it were his fault that they chanced now upon a swamp, now upon a hill, +and that while, at the shepherd's hut, they might feed their eyes on +mountains of ice, they could not have vanilla ices with which to +satisfy the palate. He knew all about these pleasure-parties, at which +he generally felt as if he must die of vexation. Walpurga found an +opportunity to tell her husband to use all the means in his power to +dissuade the count from visiting their mountain meadow. And so when +Hansei went out into the stable with the count, who was looking for his +horse, he laughed till he showed every tooth in his head while he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a relation of ours up there, and she's a little bit +out of her +mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga also came out into the stable, for she feared that +her husband +might betray something. Bruno asked her whether she knew what had +become of her friend.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga shook her head and wept.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," said she, "I can well say no one on this earth +suffered more for +her sake than I did."</p> + +<p class="normal">She wept so bitterly that Bruno offered to console her.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last he left.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was several days before Walpurga recovered from the +effects of her +fright. Again and again, it seemed to her that it might be better if +Irma were found out, for perhaps she was quite ill and might die before +her time. But if she were discovered, it would kill her at once. This +accounted for her uneasiness, while at the hut on the previous Sunday, +and for her having enjoined the greatest caution on the uncle. She was +constantly pursued by the thought that there would soon be an end to it +all. If one only knew how and what the end would be, and whether +anything could be done. She could do nothing. All she could do was to +let what would happen.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The trees in Gunther's garden were decked with green and the parterre +was filled with lovely flowers. The birds were singing, and the forest +stream that flowed through the grounds murmured as if regretful at +being obliged to leave the spot so soon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Within doors all was joy and happiness. Bronnen and Paula +were +betrothed. The love that had calmly grown and ripened, now suddenly +burst forth in all its glory. Bronnen wished to call Paula his own, +before the arrival of the court, so that she might then feel less +constrained and have an opportunity to accustom herself to the manners +of the court circle. It was not without fear that Madame Gunther +thought of her child entering the stirring life of the capital, a life +of which she had an unconquerable dread. Bronnen told the doctor and +his wife that he had found it easier to bring about reform in politics +than in court etiquette. It had hitherto been a time-honored and +unalterable custom that wives of the citizen class' could not be +presented at court, no matter what their husbands' rank might be. He +had not been able to effect a change in this until he had made it a +cabinet question. Gunther smiled at this explanation. He knew how +stubbornly etiquette resisted all attempts at innovation. Madame +Gunther, on the other hand, was quite alarmed at the idea that, both at +court and at the capital, Paula would be the first lady after the +queen. She would have been far better pleased if Bronnen's position had +been an humbler one; but she loved him with a maternal affection that +expressed itself in her every glance. She even went so far that Gunther +smilingly remarked: "You've become disloyal to your own country,--" for +she had asserted that a man so noble, so dignified, and yet both firm +and yielding in character, could only be developed under a monarchical +government. "In a republic," said she, "there is a certain want of form +and indulgence of personal inclinations. The self-respect which never +fails in the respect due to others was the peculiar fruit of courts, +and Bronnen had one talent which was especially calculated to place +every one at ease while with him. He was a good listener, and was +always willing to wait attentively until you had finished what you +wanted to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">The joy of the parents was, however, but a mild reflection of +that of +the betrothed. After Paula had, in all sincerity, confessed her fear +that she might fail to satisfy a man like Bronnen, she soon became calm +again, for she felt that there is a depth of love which, including all +that is highest on earth, embraces enduring happiness. The lovers +roamed through field and forest, and Bronnen was again and again +reminded of the pure and radiant sentiments which the refined and +elevated atmosphere of her home had firmly established in Paula. With +every new chord that he touched, he struck a rich store of thought and +found her gifted with an impressible and receptive mind. He rejoiced in +the destiny which had thus directed his choice, and in the conviction +that all individual improvement is achieved and perfected by mutual +effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther was with her husband in his study, and would, +now and +then, look out of the window at the lovers, who were walking in the +garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bronnen made a strange confession to Paula and me +yesterday," said +she. "If another had told me of it, I would not have believed it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He told us, with a voice full of emotion, that he had once +loved +Countess Wildenort. Did you know of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, but I can't find anything wrong in it. If she only could +have +controlled her impulses, she would have been worthy of the best of men, +and my dear Eberhard deserved to have such a man for his son."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell me," asked Madame Gunther, "I've never found the +slightest thing +to object to in him, but do you think it right of him to tell Paula of +this? It will make her still more anxious; she will compare herself +with the brilliant countess, and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let that trouble you," said Gunther, interrupting her; +"a heart +which, like our child's, is conscious of the full power of love, +possesses an inexhaustible fund of happiness which no rival, be she +ever so great and brilliant, can disturb. If it were possible, I would +think even more of him than I now do, for having told her of this. It +is not every man who is so fortunate as I have been, and whose first +love is his only love. Most of us are obliged to pass through +disappointment and loss, and he who, like Bronnen, has come out of the +ordeal, pure and unscathed, may praise his lot. The more I regard the +world from a distance, as it were, the greatest misfortune which has +befallen mankind is, that a life soiled by vice should go on parallel +with that which is termed regular and domestic, creating discord among +men, as well as in the individual mind. If the race is to be saved, a +great revolution must take place in the minds of men. We have watched +over our child so long and so faithfully that, in spite of all worldly +happiness, it would deeply grieve me to see her bestow her hand on a +man who, according to the counterfeit expression coined by society, has +led a fast life."</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther regarded her husband with a look of +unspeakable joy. "I +find that Bronnen has converted you from your aversion to the military +profession," she said, in a soft voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By no means," replied Gunther, "but Bronnen has not been +injured by +it. With resolute courage and an easy sway over others, he combines a +deep and earnest mind. It is almost miraculous that, just when I desire +to produce in my work the image of a pure and active man of the present +day, the very traits I seek are found in the man who, in the free +course of nature, is to belong to me. It seems as if mysterious +agencies provided us with that which the poetic eye endeavors to +portray to itself. Bronnen seems as if stepping forth from my work."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had never before spoken thus of his work. "Don't +misunderstand +me," he added; "I do not look upon any one as representing the ideal of +perfect manhood, but I can find some traits in every one, and many of +them in Bronnen. Humanity, as I find it in the actual world, is filled +with beauty; but, in truth, it is still more beautiful, and I am glad +to think that the next generation will be better than our own. And yet +we may truly say that the good we have achieved, lives on with them. +Their enthusiasm will be less than ours, but their moderation will +render it more enduring. But I do not care to go too far into this +subject, at present. All I wanted to say was, that the feeling of +discord, in modern times, arises from the fact that religion has +exalted faith above morals, that art has pursued a similar course with +beauty, and politics with freedom. And yet they are one and +inseparable, and must ever remain so. I trust that I may yet be able to +make this clear to the world, and thus contribute somewhat to the union +of true piety, beauty and freedom, with the morality which is, at +present, so graciously tolerated."</p> + +<p class="normal">Their conversation was interrupted, for Count von Wildenort, his wife +and mother-in-law were announced. The servant was instructed to ask +them to the garden saloon, and, shortly afterward, the visitors, +Gunther and his wife, Bronnen and his betrothed, were engaged in lively +conversation. Madame Gunther confined her attentions to the young +countess, who had greatly improved under Gunther's treatment, while +Baroness Steigeneck engaged the lovers in conversation. Madame Gunther +would often look at Bronnen and Paula as if she would fain brush away a +caterpillar crawling over them. Bruno addressed Gunther quite +cheerfully, and told him that during the royal visit he would probably +return by command of their majesties. This may have been intended as a +hint to Gunther to bring about such an order, for the baroness, greatly +annoyed by her exclusion from court, intended to return to her castle, +with her children and grandchildren, and then to visit some fashionable +watering-place. She was eager to reach the gaming-table.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were quite long in taking their leave, and expressed +their +gratitude for the pleasures they had enjoyed during their stay, as well +as their envy of those who could live here, as on some happy island. At +last they stepped into their carriage and drove off.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the visitors had left, Madame Gunther opened all the +windows, in +order that a current of fresh air might carry away the strong perfumes +of the baroness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen left the same evening. The family accompanied him for +a short +distance. He and Paula walked in front, Gunther and his wife behind. +The empty carriage followed after them, and Bronnen did not enter it +until he had taken leave of his friends. The parting was simple and +affectionate. They were full of the joyful memories of the day just +past, and looked forward to future happy days, for Bronnen intended to +return with the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the way home, Paula walked between her parents, her cheeks +glowing +with excitement. Gunther, however, left his wife and daughter before +reaching home, for he was obliged to repair to Count Wildenort's +lodgings, in order to give further directions to his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mother and daughter went on alone, and when Madame Gunther +looked at +her daughter, she saw that a silent tear was in her eye, although her +face was radiant with joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have a right to feel happy," said Madame Gunther, "you +will have a +husband fit to be compared to your father. I can wish you nothing +better than to enjoy such happiness as has been mine, and that the joy +I have had in my children, and in you especially, may some day be +yours."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah mother!" said Paula, "I can't realize how I could let him +go away +alone, nor, on the other hand, that I am to leave you and father and +sister. But Bronnen--" she always mentioned him by his surname--"says +that he hopes father will again return to the capital; that he might +select any post he pleases, for the king wishes it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think your father will consent. But let nothing of +that kind +distress you, my dear child. You may well be happy, for your happiness +is shared by us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Before reaching home, they saw several beautiful horses and +carriages +sent in advance of the queen, whose arrival was expected within the +next few days. The highway had suddenly become full of life, and the +little town was filled with wondering and delighted crowds. The court +was coming, and to Gunther they were indebted for all this. The wife +and daughter were respectfully greeted by all whom they met, and, even +in the distance, one could see the townsfolk pointing them out to the +recently arrived court servants, who also greeted them quite +obsequiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">Further on, they met a vehicle which seemed as if it belonged +to +fairyland. Two tiny bay ponies, with short-clipped black manes and gay +trappings, were harnessed to a little, low-wheeled carriage. As if +divining what was going on, the children appeared at the farmhouses and +rushed across the meadows and fields, to admire the crown prince's +fairy-like equipage, and followed it through the town, where the crowd +of joyous, shouting children grew larger and larger, until they at last +reached the dairy-farm.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paula looked on with a smile. She stopped with her mother +before a +house, the signboard on which announced that it was the new telegraph +office. Here, thought she to herself, the messages she would send, and +those she would receive after leaving her paternal home, would pass.</p> + +<p class="normal">The telegraph poles which Irma had seen the workmen putting +up near the +farm, had been erected on account of the queen's intended summer +sojourn in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Early on the following morning, the first telegram reached +the little +town. It was addressed to Paula and was as follows:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"I dedicate the electric spark to the service of love. I am well, and +send greetings to you, your father, mother and sister.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Bronnen</span>."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The school children were ranged under the fruit-trees on either side of +the road. Bells were ringing, music resounding, cannon firing, and the +rugged mountains echoed back the merry din.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the queen's entry.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sat in an open carriage drawn by four white horses. The +prince, a +boy with golden hair and fresh complexion, sat by her side. The +carriage stopped at the boundary line. A maiden dressed in the becoming +costume of the country, welcomed the queen in a poem of the +schoolmaster's composition, and presented her with a bouquet of Alpine +flowers. The queen graciously accepted the bouquet. She bowed in all +directions and held out her hand to the child. The prince followed her +example, saying in a voice loud enough to be heard by the town council +and all the catholic and evangelical ministers present: "God greet +you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Cheers resounded again and again, and their path was strewn +with +flowers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen drove through the little town, which was decorated +with flags +and garlands. On her arrival, she found that the court cavaliers who +had preceded her were in waiting, and that Gunther was among them. For +the first time since his return, he wore the marks of the various grand +orders to which he belonged. After passing under a triumphal arch, the +carriage stopped and the queen alighted.</p> + +<p class="normal">She held out her hand to Gunther, who would gladly have +kissed it; but +he turned to the prince and kissed him. He was so agitated that he +could not speak a word. At last he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I bid Your Majesty welcome to my home!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wherever you are, there is home," replied the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">She passed, leading her boy by the hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein, Lady Constance, and other court +ladies, also +exchanged greetings with Gunther. There were others, however, who were +more recently appointed and whom Gunther did not know.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen and her immediate suite soon reached the great +terrace, which +commanded a delightful view of mountain and valley. Gunther pointed out +the direction of the mountain range and the intervening valleys. He +also told her the names of the principal peaks and would, here and +there, add a few items of historical interest. He was presenting the +chiefs of his native home to the queen. Evening soon set in and the +lofty heights were bathed in the warm hues of the glorious sunset. They +were silent for a few moments, while they gazed up at the heights, and +little did they think of her who had been dreamily looking thence out +into the wide world, and who had just been startled by the echo of the +gun from the neighboring cliffs. There must be some joyous feast going +on down there, she thought, and she who had once moved among this +circle, and had not been the least admired in it, lived within herself, +in silence and solitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if the whole population of the town and the +outlying +neighborhood had gathered at the park railing, in order to catch a +glimpse of the queen. All that pertained to her, be it her horses, her +carriages, or her servants, inspired them with wonder and admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the sound of the evening bell, the men took off their hats +and, +after a silent prayer, all proceeded homeward.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was soon night. The party had dispersed, and the queen +asked Gunther +if there was not some way to get to his house without going through the +town. Gunther replied that the king had had a path made around the +hill.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen looked down. The king's thoughtful care pleased +her. Had he +been present at that moment, she would have spoken to him more kindly +than she had done for many a day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should like to visit your family," said the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall have the honor of bringing them to Your Majesty +to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The evening is so charming; let us go to them now."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen, attended by Gunther and numerous ladies and +gentlemen of the +court, took the new path that led to the doctor's dwelling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Had you not better send word to your ladies that the queen +is about to +visit them?" said Countess Brinkenstein to Gunther. Although the laws +of etiquette were sometimes relaxed during her visit to the country, +the informal manner in which the queen set about paying this visit +seemed opposed to all rules.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther graciously declined following out her suggestion.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was proudly conscious of the fact that, at whatever time +the queen +and her suite might enter his house, they would find his wife, his +house and his children prepared to receive them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clever Stasi, the inspector's wife, had, however, heard where +they were +going, and hurried to tell Madame Gunther who was coming.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the visitors arrived, the garden saloon was brilliantly +lighted +and, at the garden gate, they were met by Madame Gunther, who was +attended by both of her daughters. Their reception of the queen was +respectful and reverential, although it may not have been strictly in +accordance with that prescribed by court forms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could not wait," said the queen.--Her voice seemed clearer +and +brighter than before.--"I felt that I must see you to-day and offer you +my congratulations. You, I presume, are the affianced of Minister +Bronnen?" said she, addressing Paula.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paula bowed so correctly that Countess Brinkenstein could not +repress a +nod of approval. The queen extended her hand to Paula and kissed her on +the forehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall now see you often," she added, "and it will be +pleasant to +remember that I've known you in your home."</p> + +<p class="normal">She beckoned Madame Gunther to draw near, and, accompanied by +her, +walked about the garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so I see you to-day, for the first time," said the +queen. "I trust +that you do not look upon me as a stranger?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, it is the first time in my life that I address +a queen, +and I entreat you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your husband has been as a father to me, and I wish that +you, +too-- But let us leave it to the future to determine our impressions of +each other. Permit me, however, to request you to cast aside a little +of your Swiss prejudice against royalty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I am a citizen of your country."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am delighted that our first meeting is in your own house. +Do you +still sing much? I've been told that you used to sing beautifully."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I've left that to the younger voices of my +children. +Paula sings."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How charming! I have long regretted that none of the ladies +of our +more immediate circle sing well."</p> + +<p class="normal">Like a passing shadow, the thought of Irma flashed through +the queen's +mind. She was standing by the stream that flowed down from the mountain +meadow, and which here noisily rushed by.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen remained in the pavilion but a short time. When she +was about +to leave, she said to Madame Gunther:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you not accompany me part of the way?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I thank Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I shall see you to-morrow. Good-night. Let us be good +neighbors."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen left.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther well knew how the ladies of the court would discuss +his wife's +great breach of decorum in declining to comply with the queen's +expressed wish. But he did not say a word to his wife about it, for he +knew that he could permit her to have her own way. He felt sure that +she would always do what was right, and that, if she did disregard +certain conventionalities, she would nevertheless manage everything for +the best. Indeed, the very fact of her having gently repelled the +queen's exceedingly gracious advances, was doubly reassuring to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad," said Madame Gunther to her husband, when they +were +together in the drawing-room, "that Paula becomes introduced to court +life while yet in her father's house. The queen really impresses me as +a noble creature."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther assented, and added that Paula had already proven how +well she +had profited by Bronnen's advice. For Bronnen had told her that, in +order to be free at court, one must make its trifling forms a sort of +second nature, so that they can be practiced without special stress or +difficulty; and that, in fact, they must be mastered just as one +masters the grammar of his native tongue.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the silent moonlight night, Paula was heard singing, with +full voice +and passionate expression, the concluding verses of the song of +Goethe's, the song that Bronnen admired above all others:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">Crown of existence,</p> +<p class="t6">Joy without rest,</p> +<p class="t6">Love art thou.</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">On yonder heights, whither no voice from below reached, there +sat a +solitary one, and through her mind there passed a song of the same +master's--the song of songs, in which the soul is freed from all its +burdens, and is again united with enduring nature:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p class="t6">O'er hill and dale,</p> +<p class="t6">Thy splendor falls;</p> +<p class="t6">No longer care</p> +<p class="t6">My heart enthralls.</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">The court ladies at the dairy-farm kept up their talk until a +late +hour. Those who had not been permitted to accompany the queen envied +the others, who had enjoyed an early opportunity of meeting Bronnen's +affianced. What could there have been in the citizen's daughter to +tempt Bronnen, who might have had the hand of the highest in the land? +Some pronounced her awkward, others too confident, and doubts were +expressed as to her beauty. The younger ladies were jokingly informed +that, for many days to come, Doctor Gunther would have a parade of +sentiment and universal ideas, and this, too, <i>au grand serieux</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon shone brightly on the mountains and the valleys. +Everything +was hushed in slumber. The only sounds heard were the gurgling of the +springs, the murmuring of the stream and, now and then, a mountain cry +from the heights above.</p> + +<p class="normal">A bright day dawned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther visited the queen at an early hour. For the next few +weeks, he +had determined to sacrifice his quiet mornings. He was quite willing to +devote himself entirely to his friend, and looked forward to a +resumption of his wonted employments, after her departure.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was again sitting on the terrace, as he had been one +morning five +years ago; but this time, instead of looking at the distant mountains, +he was surrounded by them, and, as she had then done, the queen now +again appeared in a white morning robe and greeted him. But her whole +being had changed; her step was freer, her words more decided.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We shall make no programme of what we intend to do here," +said she, +as she walked up and down the garden with Gunther; "we'll take life as +it comes."</p> + +<p class="normal">She told him how pleased she was to have made the +acquaintance of his +wife and daughters, and that she thought he had done wisely, while at +the capital, in keeping his home life and his life at court, as far as +possible, distinct from each other. Memories of Irma again seemed to +cast a passing shadow over the bright morning, for the queen well knew +that Gunther had introduced her to his family. It seemed as if the +memory of Irma were not yet fully banished and buried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I trust Your Majesty will, nevertheless, permit me to draw +up a little +programme," said Gunther. "It has but one paragraph. Permit me to +explain it. I've never been able to express myself in writing on this +matter. I can only do so in person. I have to accuse myself of having +done you a great wrong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You? A great wrong?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, and it relieves me to confess it to you. Your Majesty, +I do not +inquire as to your present relations with your royal consort. The fact +that he has prepared all this for you, and the manner in which it has +been done, proves his delicate feeling."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I admit it willingly, but still I cannot--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am obliged to interrupt you, Your Majesty, for that which +I request +of you is that we shall never more speak of your relations to his +majesty. Long ago, when you were torn by an inner struggle, I believed +that if I could only induce you to encourage freer and more liberal +views, a clearer mental vision would better enable you to be just +toward others, and would be followed by returning love. And it was just +there that I was wrong, for I offended against a simple but fundamental +principle: feelings cannot be governed by thought. And were it +otherwise, the interference of a third party should always be rejected. +The attempted mediator only widens the breach. Husband and wife can +alone repair it. And now, Your Majesty, let us speak no more of this +matter, for thus only can we, without feeling embarrassed, meet each +other, or the king himself. Your own heart is your only confidant. +Follow its dictates, and do not be frightened back by any apparent +alienation or change of feeling! Will you grant me the favor I ask?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. And now not another word on the subject."</p> + +<p class="normal">They conversed freely and cheerfully, as if they had both +laid aside a +burden which had heavily rested upon them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The crown prince was brought in. Gunther was delighted with +his healthy +appearance, and promised him a playmate who was born on the same day as +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mamma, why haven't I a little sister?" asked the crown +prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">The color rose to the queen's cheeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Little Cornelia is to be your sister," she replied, and gave +orders +that they should take the prince to visit the child at the doctor's +house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's parting instructions to Madame von Gerloff were +that the +children should be shown the bird's nest in the rosebush. The prince +asked permission to take Schnipp and Schnapp with him, and the two +children were soon driving through the valley in the pretty little +carriage, a little groom managing the horses and a little outrider in +front. At noon, Madame Gunther and her daughters visited the queen. +Little by little, a common interest in their pleasures, aided by the +invigorating influences of nature, helped to bring about a uniform tone +of feeling, and thus to level distinctions which would be more closely +observed in city circles.</p> + +<p class="normal">The days sped by pleasantly. The queen felt no craving for +unwonted +pleasures; and every hour was complete in itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen, one day, told Madame Gunther that she was the +first +citizen's wife with whom she had been on terms of familiar intimacy, +and that she could not help admiring her clear, good sense.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must tell you something of my youth," replied Madame +Gunther, to +whom this condescending praise was quite a surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray do so," said the queen, encouragingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I was betrothed and happy. Wilhelm was +traveling during +his vacation and we often wrote to each other. One day, I received a +letter from him which offended my pride and, indeed, deeply wounded me. +I had indulged in excessive sensibility and, in reply, he quoted the +words of Lessing which Nathan addresses to the Knight Templar: +'Mediocrity, like ours, can be found in abundance everywhere!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And did that offend you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty; it offended me deeply. Gunther is without +a trace +of that false modesty which is all the more vain, the more modest it +appears. He stood so high in my esteem that I felt he had, by using +this expression, committed an offense against himself and, I may +confess it, against myself, as well. I did not regard myself as +mediocre, but as a highly gifted being. But from that time, I began to +perceive that most suffering arises from the fact that those who have +understanding, culture, and some talent, regard themselves as belonging +to a higher order of beings, privileged to disregard ordinary barriers +and to step beyond their allotted sphere of duty. To acknowledge myself +as mediocre and to shape my own actions, and my judgment of others, +accordingly, has ever been my rule in life; and I must beg Your Majesty +to regard me in the same way. There are thousands of women like me. It +is just as it is in singing. I've sung in a chorus, and know there are +many good voices who never aspire to solos."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen was silent. The words which Madame Gunther had +uttered in +perfect sincerity, might be applied in so many different ways--to +herself, to the king, and to her who was still unforgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last she looked up frankly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have a request to make of you," she said, with faltering +voice, +while she took out a breastpin with a large pearl. "Oblige me by +accepting this memento of this hour and of the truth which you have +just imparted to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," replied Madame Gunther, "I have never in all +my life, +accepted a present of this kind. But I can easily understand that you, +as a queen, are accustomed to experience the joy of bestowing gifts on +others and of thus making them happy. I accept it as a symbol, as if it +were an unfading flower from your garden."</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther wended her way homeward in a calm and +contented mood. +When she arrived before the house, she suddenly stopped. The windows of +the large drawing-room were open. Some one was playing the piano with +powerful, masterly touch and expression. It could not be Paula. Who +could it be?</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther's nephew, the young man whose song Irma had +sung years +before, and who, on a previous visit to his relatives, had sought the +freeholder's dwelling as a refuge from the storm, and had there met +Irma without knowing who she was, had now, as had been foretold him, +become totally blind. He had become a master of the piano, and bore his +sad fate with manly fortitude. The meeting between Madame Gunther and +her nephew was deeply affecting.</p> + +<p class="normal">That evening, she introduced him to the queen, who, as her +first act of +friendship to the doctor's wife, appointed him "pianist to the queen." +All that remained was to submit the appointment to the approval of the +king, who was expected to arrive in a few days.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king had arrived during the night. In order to avoid the pomp of a +reception, he came unannounced. He regarded himself as a guest of the +queen, for whom alone he had ordered the preparation of this modest +summer retreat.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following morning, Gunther, decorated with his orders, +repaired +to the farm.</p> + +<p class="normal">He felt that the tone of their little circle must suffer a +change by +the advent of any new-comer, even if possessed of a more yielding +disposition than that of the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had not seen the king since he waited upon him to +thank him for +the order he had conferred upon him. He was composed. One point in +favor of court forms is that they are fixed and unalterable, as well as +independent of passing moods.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther's path led along the slope of a projecting hill, and, +on the +way, his thoughts involuntarily recurred to Eberhard. The early hour, +the mountain air, and the close-fitting uniform--all were just as they +had been years ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eberhard had always maintained that unmeaning politeness is +only +disguised rudeness. He required that every word and act should come +from the depths of one's soul, and that, at every moment, life should +be truthful. During the years he had spent in solitude, Gunther came to +perceive that the concessions he had made to his surroundings had, to a +certain extent, involved failure to comply with this precept. He now +found his greatest happiness in being perfectly truthful toward himself +and the world, and for this reason, in the work in which he expected to +sum up the results of his life, he had expressed his feelings without +reserve or disguise.</p> + +<p class="normal">When his eye fell on the farmhouse, he paused to collect his +thoughts. +He was about to pay his respects to the man who had endeavored to +degrade him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king stood at the open window and, when he saw Gunther +approach, +was greatly agitated. If the dignity that befits kings had not +forbidden it, he would gladly have called out a welcome to the man whom +he esteemed so highly; and if kingly dignity requires this much, it +also possesses one great advantage--for while he who desires admittance +still waits, he who grants it maintains his natural freedom, or, in +other words, is at home while the other is as a stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther sent in his name, and was at once admitted. The king +advanced +to meet him, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Welcome, my dear privy councilor! I am heartily glad--" He +faltered at +the words and, as if changing his mind, added: "I am delighted to have +an opportunity to wish you joy! One scarcely knows whether to say that +you deserve such a son as Minister Bronnen or that he deserves such a +father as you. It's all the same, I suppose," he concluded, with a +smile which seemed somewhat forced.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I humbly thank Your Majesty--" Gunther also hesitated, for +it was a +long while since he had used this phrase--"for the interest you have +graciously manifested in me and mine."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and Gunther met under changed and mutually +embarrassing +circumstances, and congratulations on Bronnen's engagement seemed to +afford a convenient subject of conversation. It was, nevertheless, +followed by a pause, in which the two men, who had been separated for +two years, eyed each other as if each would again impress his memory +with the features which, for many years, he had seen almost daily. +Gunther had changed but little. His beard was short, thick, and of a +snowy white. The king's figure was fuller than it had been. His face +wore a deep and earnest expression which harmonized with his winning +and amiable deportment. His movements seemed to have gained, rather +than lost, in elasticity and vigor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hear," said the king, resuming the conversation, "that you +are +engaged on a great philosophical work, and I feel that we have reason +to congratulate ourselves thereat, for that will afford us an +opportunity to enjoy those fruits of your thought which, in our daily +intercourse, we are now deprived of."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I am reviewing my life and striking a balance. +In some +respects, there is more, in others, less than I had reason to hope for. +I live within myself, and am happy to think that, when I look out into +the world, I can perceive that those who are called for great purposes +can show a clear balance sheet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Growth is slow," said the king. "While driving through the +fields +yesterday, I thought to myself: how long it takes before the blade of +corn becomes the ripened ear. We cannot see how much it grows with each +day. We can only note the result."</p> + +<p class="normal">Smiling, and perfectly unconstrained, he added: "I am +imparting my +latest observations to you. It seems--it seems--as though it were but +yesterday, since we last met. Let us go into the garden."</p> + +<p class="normal">On the way, the king asked: "How do you find the prince?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has a well-built frame and, as far as I can judge, his +mental +development is normal and healthy."</p> + +<p class="normal">In consequence of the long years of separation and the +lingering +feeling of reserve, there were frequent breaks in the conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have again been living among the people," said the king, +"and has +your experience satisfied you that the popular mind (or, in other +words, popular simplicity in thought and manners) is the divinely +appointed corrective of the errors of a higher civilization?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther looked up as if amazed. Was the question an idle one, +or did a +deeper significance underlie it? Had the king not succeeded in +conquering his dislike of popular verdicts? Or did he--as a proof of +returning royal favor--merely intend to afford the man whom he had so +deeply injured, an opportunity to gratify his vanity by ventilating his +opinions?</p> + +<p class="normal">Quick as lightning, these thoughts flashed through his mind. +After a +short pause, he replied:</p> + +<p class="normal">"With Your Majesty's permission, let me, before proceeding to +answer +you, state the question more distinctly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray do so."</p> + +<p class="normal">A pause ensued, just as if they were trying and tuning inner +instruments which, coming from unequal temperatures, had not yet been +brought into harmony with each other; for although both men were calm +and self-controlled, their moods were not in accord.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If by the term 'popular mind,' you mean those views and +states of +feeling which are not based upon scientific laws or art traditions, but +which seem as fixed and unchangeable as the forces of nature; and if, +on the other hand, you apply the term 'corrective' to that which +separates us from all that is alien or effete, and leads us, as it +were, back to nature--I am prepared to answer your question as well as +I know how."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am entirely satisfied with the form in which you put the +question," +replied the king. "I often think that discussions are barren of +results, simply because the question was vaguely or imperfectly stated +at the start."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther nodded a smiling approval of these words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now for the answer," asked the king, all attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Although I may seem to wander from the point, I shall soon +return to +it. The event from which it dates, forms a turning point in the history +of mankind. Unlike all that went before, the central figure which later +generations have idealized, and from which they have drawn inspiration, +was not born on Olympic heights. Jesus was born in a manger, and yet +kings performed pious pilgrimages to the spot. The fact that the Spirit +which is innate with the pure man, could even be born in a manger, +among the dumb animals devoted to domestic use, is an enduring proof of +pure democracy, or of nobility in that which is lowly. If, however, the +manger were, henceforth, to be regarded as alone holy, or the forms and +surroundings of popular life be accepted as the only abode of the +eternal spirit, or the embodiment of holy nature itself, it would be a +perversion of truth, a new orthodoxy, another schism. This much always +remains; the spirit of truth appears everywhere--in the manger and in +the pillared temple, in the library of the student and on the royal +throne in the glittering palace. Buddha, who was one of the greatest +benefactors and regenerators of mankind, and who, in the realm of +caste, maintained the equality of human rights, was the son of a king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now to return to the question. Whenever a form of +civilization has +attained its highest development and begins to show its defects, the +idea of complete revolution suggests itself. None but violent methods +are thought of, and, while the only object to be gained is the bringing +about of regeneration, by means of strata which have not yet been +exhausted, and which bring new strength to bear, it is deemed necessary +to go back to the beginning of all things. But the lower strata cannot, +of themselves, effect this regeneration. What is required of them is to +be constantly sending fresh strength to those above them. The great +masses, considered as such, cannot renew civilization. All that they +can do is to furnish new material. It is only in a limited sense that +the masses are the bearers of the spirit of the people. Individual men, +who have ever preserved their childlike simplicity of soul, just as +they received it from nature, and through subsequent development have +retained it unimpaired, will now and then rise from among the masses. +But the scientific spirit must be united with this childlike feeling, +and then an epoch, or an individual, forms a node by which this +development is not interrupted but from which it seems to take a new +start, forming, as it were, a new growth on the old stem. It is not the +people, as a mass, but a certain man or circle that concentrates the +spirit of the people within itself, and renews the same individually."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is not that aristocracy?" asked the king, in a soft, almost +hesitating +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, I dread no term or idea that seems to be the +result of +logical consistency. Call it an aristocracy, if you will, but it is a +democratic one, ever renewing itself. For those who, from generation to +generation, represent the spirit of the people, are not taken from the +same sphere."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand," said the king, stopping in front of a +rosebush. "It is +just as here, where every year brings forth new shoots that bear the +roses. But pardon me, I interrupted you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have only to add," said Gunther, "that while the masses, +considered +as such, are the bearers of civilization, the highest development of +this civilization is brought about by the few who are called and chosen +for the task. To make my meaning clearer: He who is of average size, is +not tall, and he who possesses general culture has naught that +distinguishes or elevates him above the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But who measures and passes upon such claims to such +distinction?" +asked the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In science and art, it is the sense of being called to do +certain +things, the individual impulse and energy that give shape to ideas +which others have only imperfectly conceived, and which, when they have +once found utterance, the masses gladly accept as their own. In state +affairs, this call is conveyed by means of elections, which have never +before obtained to the same extent as at present. It is of great +advantage that the occasional call to vote is opposed, or rather, held +in check, by the call which is founded on historic claims. But, +whenever the latter fails to be at one with the former, it mistakes its +strength, and at last falls."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king walked on in silence, his eyes bent on the ground. +Everything +tended to prove that there is a united mind, or totality of thought, +which is and must be more powerful than any individual mind. There was +no longer the faintest suspicion that this conclusion was the result of +an idle question.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the king walked on in silence, the break in the +conversation +was not caused by an unresolved dissonance, jarring his soul's depths.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was lost in thought, for he had learned how to make a new +truth his +own by reflection, instead of dismissing it with light and trifling +conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I ask," said the king, in a voice that betokened great +diffidence--"may I ask whether the views which you have just imparted +to me, and which have furnished me with much food for future thought, +are to be more fully expounded in the work on which you are now +employed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then allow me, at once, to pass to a question that concerns +our little +life and that portion of history which we are to help make."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king folded his arms and continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me be frank with you. You have refused the position of +Minister of +Education offered you by Minister Bronnen. I can well imagine that you +do not care to sacrifice science to the labors of a bureau. Would you +perhaps prefer--excuse me," said the king, with an unconstrained +smile, "excuse me for using your favorite expression, I did it quite +unawares--might I offer you the position of President of the Academy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I humbly request Your Majesty not to consider me as +ungrateful, but I +have determined never again to enter the busy world. Besides that--Your +Majesty knows that I have no false modesty--I frankly acknowledge that +my long continued attention to work of a practical nature has, to so +great an extent, prevented me from keeping up my scientific studies, +that I could not do justice to the position so graciously offered me. I +beg Your Majesty to permit me to spend the rest of my life in +retirement. I have become an author and desire to remain one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should willingly accord you perfect liberty to express +your +sentiments regardless of consequences."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that very well, Your Majesty, and at once avail +myself of it by +telling you that liberty which is accorded us is not perfect liberty. +In any elevated position under the state, I would be obliged to respect +Your Majesty's wishes and also to have regard to my son's position. I +entreat you, therefore, to permit me to be an author and remain one; +nothing more."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king's features betrayed his displeasure. He had done his +utmost, +had shown by deeds how glad he would be to repair the effects of his +former hasty conduct, and here again he was met by the obstinacy he had +so often encountered. Did the man expect to hear the king say: "I +repent; pardon me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">An angry reply rose to the king's lips, but he checked +himself. Gunther +quickly saw what was going on, and esteem for the changed being who was +now standing before him, made his eye glisten.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king had not once mentioned the queen's name. He had not, +as would +have been so natural, asked him who had been her physician for many +years, what he thought of her appearance. Gunther was just on the point +of mentioning her, when the king, contracting his brows, asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you ever committed an act which you repented of?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty--my name is Wilhelm Gunther. My life has been a +hard +struggle and I have often stumbled. I have been young and have grown +old, and have come to see that all men receive their true deserts."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And has it proven so in your case?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Your Majesty, I thank you for asking me that question. +And now +let me confess.--What I am about to say is without the slightest tinge +of bitterness. When I regard a fact as accomplished, I have done with +it. I therefore speak of it without embarrassment, just as if I were +explaining the operation of some law of nature. Yes, Your Majesty, I +have richly deserved all that has happened to me. I was most graciously +dismissed from Your Majesty's favor, and it was but just that it should +be so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was not what I meant I had no desire to allude to it. +On the +contrary--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Permit me, Your Majesty, to explain the logical line of +justice as I +have understood it. Under deeply painful circumstances, I misconceived +my duty as a man, as the friend and servant of Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You?" asked the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I! And that I meant it for the best, is no excuse. We +all mean to +be good, but we have all of us an equal right to be wise. I endeavored +to lead the queen to an elevated plain, from which the petty events of +life would appear trifling and easily borne. It was a grievous error. +It was my duty to avoid all interference, unless I could avert the +impending conflict. You acted rightly and, at the same time, benefited +the queen by sending me away. Isolated from every influence, even that +of a friend, she could not but gain strength as she has done."</p> + +<p class="normal">A tear glistened in the king's eyes. He pressed his left hand +to his +heart, as if to repress a thought that he did not care to reveal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am happy," said he at last, "that my life has made me +acquainted +with such men as you and our dear Bronnen. We only partially make +ourselves what we are. Consciously or unconsciously, we are formed by +those with whom we associate."</p> + +<p class="normal">He pressed Gunther's hand in his, and Gunther was happy to +feel that +the king's heroic self-glorification was completely subdued--the king's +confession being a convincing proof of this.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Papa!" called a boy's voice from the terrace, "papa!"</p> + +<p class="normal">They turned in the direction from which the voice had come. +The queen, +surrounded by the ladies and gentlemen of her court, was sitting on the +terrace. With anxious eyes, she had followed every movement of the two +men. What might they be speaking of? Were these Elysian days to be +disturbed by the old and unforgotten wrong?</p> + +<p class="normal">And now, when she saw the king take Gunther's hand in his own +and hold +it for a long while, she embraced the prince, kissed him, and then +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Call papa."</p> + +<p class="normal">The two men turned around and with calm and happy +countenances, the +sight of which was even more refreshing than that of the beautiful and +lofty mountains, came upon the terrace. The king kissed the queen's +hand, and, for the first time in years, she pressed it against his +lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Gunther was taking his leave, the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Present my compliments to your wife. I shall pay you a visit +to-day, +before dinner."</p> + +<p class="normal">Madame Gunther was amazed when her husband informed her that +the king +was coming. In spite of all explanations, she could not understand how +her husband could thus forgive and forget the injury that had been put +upon him--for she could not help looking upon it as an injury and an +affront, even though Gunther did not so regard it. For the first time +in her life, he was unable to change her opinion. In Gunther's +forgiving mood, she thought she detected a spirit of submissiveness +which was only possible under a monarchy. Her old republican feelings +were aroused.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and the queen came. The king found Madame Gunther's +behavior +shy and reserved. He could not know that she still regarded him with +suppressed wrath. Was this the man, and ought there really to be one on +earth, who could appoint or dismiss Gunther at will? They were standing +by the stream that flowed through the garden, when the king said to +Gunther:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am told that the crown prince's nurse lives in this +neighborhood. +Will you not have her come here some time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her majesty the queen does not wish to see her," replied +Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you know why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It lies in the echo of certain sad memories," replied +Gunther; and +this passing allusion to Irma was the only time she was mentioned. In +the short pause that followed these words, the stream murmured louder +than before, as if it, too, had something to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the second evening after the king's arrival, Bronnen came, +accompanied by the intendant, and found the whole circle happy and +complete.</p> + +<p class="normal">A certain observance of form lent an added charm to country +life. With +constant freedom, there was yet the protecting presence of the +accompanying court circle and servants. Wherever they fixed their +resting-place, and wherever they lighted a fire in the forest, for the +little prince's amusement, a numerous body of servants was always +present, forming a ring to keep off intruding strangers. Paula's manner +was calm and composed. Her every movement evinced power and grace. She +neither thrust herself forward nor shunned observation. The knowledge +that she was in her own home lent charming confidence to her +deportment.</p> + +<p class="normal">During the evening, Gunther's blind nephew, whose appointment +as +pianist to the queen had been confirmed, played in a masterly manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the following morning he took his first leave of absence, +in order, +as he said with a smile, to look about the neighborhood and visit old +acquaintances.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king prepared to go hunting.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was in the morning. Gundel was telling her father how strange cousin +Irmgard was. She hardly ever spoke a word; she tasted scarcely anything +but a little milk, fresh from the cow: and she seemed so strange. She +would lie for hours out on the cliff where she could get a glimpse of +the distant lake. The little pitchman was also puzzled by Irma's +behavior. For some time past she had done no work, and had given up +going with him when he went out to gather herbs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'd like to ask the great doctor down there--the one I fetch +the herbs +for--what I ought to do," said he, "but Walpurga says I shan't. Besides +that, I don't see that there's anything the matter with our Irmgard. I +thought of trying something, but I don't know whether it would do any +good with a human being. Now if a beast gets sick, all you've got to do +is to cut out the sod that he's lying on and turn it, and then the +beast will get well again. I wish I knew whether that would help a +human being."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh father!" replied Gundel, "that's awful. I'm afraid +they'll soon put +the sod on our dear Irmgard. She's so good; and when you speak to her +it seems as if she has to stop to think of what you're saying, and make +up her mind what to answer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus they talked together, and then separated to go about +their work +for the day, while Irma lay on her blue rug, now looking out at the +wide world, now closing her eyes and thinking and dreaming to herself. +Her life was a voiceless calm, as if she were part of the animate and +inanimate world about her; as if she always had been and ever would +remain here: a child of man, to whom no flower, no living thing on +earth, nor bird soaring in the air was unknown. The mountains, the +clouds, the bright day, the starry night--all were dear and familiar to +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma, as was her wont, was lying on the mossy slope. She +gazed into the +distance, and then her eyes sought the ground to watch the busy life +stirring among the blades of grass and the mosses. Now and then, +she would unconsciously raise the mold with her finger and find +pine-needles which had accumulated for years and years, and, below +them, the <i>débris</i> of plants that had been decayed since the world +began; hers was the first human eye that rested upon them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cows often approached, and grazed near by without +disturbing her. +She could hear their breathing, and yet did not move. Now and then, the +leading cow would stand before her and, with head lifted on high, gaze +at the distant landscape. Then it would go on feeding, and, at times, +would keep the fodder in its mouth as if it had, while looking at the +prostrate form, forgotten that it wanted to eat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Awake or dreaming, a wonderful life opened up to Irma. The +more she +rested, the greater was her yearning for rest. Indescribable weariness +seemed to have seized upon her. Work and thought wearied her as they +had never done in all the years she had passed in the world. She often +tried to arouse herself, but could not. She found a peculiar pleasure +in this feeling of heaviness, in this resting on the ground. Hundreds +of songs and entire musical works passed through her mind. Myriad +thoughts arose and floated away with the light breath of air. Nothing +could be seized and retained.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was hot noonday. The heat was intense. There was not a +breath of +air, even up among the mountains, and the cows were resting in the +shade. Irma had walked out alone. The little pitchman had gone to town +to deliver some parcels of herbs. Irma wandered on further and further, +and at last reached the source of the brook. She was sitting by the +broad basin into which the water fell, and which reflected the dark +shadows of the overhanging trees. Irma bent forward and saw her image +reflected in the water. It was the first time, in many years, that she +had seen it, and she now greeted it with a smile. Not a breath of air +was stirring; not a sound was heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma looked about her, and then, hurriedly undressing +herself, plunged +into the water. She swam about, dived and rose to the surface again, +and a feeling of unexpected delight came over her. Only the sun that +shone through the branches for a moment, beheld that wondrous lovely +form.</p> + +<p class="normal">All was silent again. Irma had dressed herself and lay +dreamily at the +edge of the woods, while sweet melodies passed through her soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, she heard her name called again and again, and in a +loud +voice. She answered as loud as she could, and at last Gundel came up +and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard, come to the cottage right away. There's a gentleman +there +with a servant, and he wants to speak to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma, who had partly raised herself, lay down again. She felt +a heart +pang. What could it be? Had her time come? and must she again return to +the busy world?</p> + +<p class="normal">She arose to her feet and asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you know who it is?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, but he says he spent the night with us some years ago. +He's a +tall, handsome young man; but, poor man, he's stone blind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The blind man wandering?" thought Irma to herself, turning +toward the +hut.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you!" cried she, while still distant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, that's your voice," replied the blind man, stretching +out his +arms and opening and closing his hands. "Come! Come nearer. Give me +your hand!" He quickly drew off his gloves with his teeth, and his face +wore a strange expression. Irma drew near and took his delicate, white +hand in hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your hand trembles!" he exclaimed. "Does it frighten you to +see me +blind?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma could not speak, and nodded as if the blind man could +see what she +did.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun's rays fell directly upon the face of the unfortunate +one, and +his sightless eyes stared into vacancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've grown thinner than you were," said the blind man. +"May I pass +my hand over your face?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," replied Irma, closing her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're not as beautiful as you were two years ago. Your +eyelids are +hot and heavy. You must have been grieving. Can I help you? I'm not +rich, but I can still do something."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you. I've learned to help myself." Being addressed in +High +German, Irma had involuntarily replied in pure German, without a trace +of dialect.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stranger started, turned his head to the right and left, +and, while +doing so, stretched out his neck so far that it was almost unpleasant +to look at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Taking him by the hand, Irma led him to the bench in front of +the +cottage. She felt a tremor while holding this fine and delicate hand in +hers, but, gathering all her strength, she repressed it. She sat down +by the blind man, and asked him how he had happened to come there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You remember," said he, "that when I was with you last, I +knew what my +fate would be. I wrestled with myself for a long while and learned to +know how to bear it. We know that we must all die, and yet we can be +cheerful; and I knew that I must lose my sight and became cheerful, +too."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma heaved a deep sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you understand what I mean?" asked the blind man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed. Go on, I like to hear your voice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew it, and that's why I have come to you. I was down at +the farm, +but they were all out harvesting, and the child's maid told me that you +were up here and so I came to you. I walked a good part of this way +before, when I was overtaken by the storm, and I can now, in memory, +renew the pleasure with which I once beheld these mountains. What I +then told you I intended to do, has come to pass. I have all the +beautiful landscapes within me. I can see the sparkling sunlight, the +brook leaping over the rocks, the sparkling lake, and the trees +standing side by side in the peaceful forest. I kept constantly telling +my guide where we were. He was quite beside himself to think that I +knew it all so well. But the best of it all is that I have beautiful +human images in my mind. My greatest desire was to see you once more. I +say 'to see you,'--I mean, to hear you speak, but I see you when you +speak."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma replied, telling him how well she understood and +sympathized with +him; and when she spoke to him of the difficulty of walking, how the +groping foot first seeks the ground before the muscles are straightened +to take a step, the blind man asked, with surprise:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how do you know that?" He again stretched out his head +and bent it +back in the same unpleasant manner as before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I once knew a blind man who told me. It is terrible to think +that +you're obliged to depend upon a stranger. Blind Gloster implores his +guide not to forsake him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maiden! Who are you? Was it you who spoke? It was your +voice--or is +there some one with you? How do you know that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I read it once," said Irma, biting her lips till the blood +almost +came. "I read it once," she repeated, forcing herself to use the +dialect again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blind man's head bent low and he held his hands between +his knees. +A convulsive movement passed over his fine youthful features, as if +tears were ineffectually struggling to escape. He leaned his head back +against the wall, and at last said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you can read, and so intelligently. Could you--? No, I'll +not ask +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ask me what you will. I feel kindly toward you and have +often thought +of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you? You, too?" cried he hurriedly, while he moved his +head about +in the same strange manner as before. "Maiden!" said he, "give me your +hand once more. Tell me, could you give me this hand and let your eyes +be mine?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good sir," said Irma, interrupting him, "I should like to +feel that +your coming here and your going hence were for the best. I think that I +can and ought to tell you all. This is the second time I've seen you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've seen you but once, and yet I shall never forget your +face," said +the blind man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come with me. I'll lead you, and when we're alone I'll tell +you all +and prove how grateful I am for your kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There must be a spot somewhere hereabouts, from which a +glimpse of the +lake beyond the mountains can be obtained," replied the blind man. "Can +you lead me there?"'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly," said Irma, startled at this wonderful inner +life. She led +him, across the meadow, to the mountain side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down here," said she, "and I'll sit beside you. What I +am about to +tell you is for you alone. Remember, only for you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He raised his hand and exclaimed: "I swear!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You need no oath," replied Irma. "Know then that I am one +who has +vanished from the fashionable world. Ask not for my name. Life in all +its splendor was mine, and yet I walked in darkness. I was a wretched +worldling! I had sunk so low that I sought to destroy myself. If it +were only possible, I would gladly fly way with you--just as the birds +are flying--through the rosy, golden glow of evening, and vanish into +infinite space. But I've learned to know that life is a duty, and that +all we have and are in this world depends upon our finding the world +within ourselves and ourselves in the world. You now bear the world +within you, where none can take it from you. We can call nothing ours, +unless we possess it in that way. And when death comes at last, it +takes nothing from us, but simply gives us back to the world--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maiden!" suddenly exclaimed the blind man, "what are you +doing? Who +are you? No mortal speaks thus! Must I become superstitious? Must I +believe in angels? Is there some one with you? Who can it be? Who are +you? Give me your hand!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be calm: 'tis I," said Irma, offering him her hand, which he +kissed +again and again. She withdrew it, and, passing it over his face, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be calm. I've merely looked out into the world just as you +have +already done, and while we sit here--two children of the world and yet +forgotten by it--we are happy, for we belong to eternity. May you be +happy, and may your soul, on wings of music, soar far above all earthly +cares. Take my hand once more. Come, let me lead you hence."</p> + +<p class="normal">Without uttering a word on the way, he suffered Irma to lead +him toward +the cottage.</p> + +<p class="normal">When they reached it, he called for his guide and his +servant, in a +tone of authority.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you going already?" asked Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">Leaning on his servant's arm, he left the cottage without +answering +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She again offered him her hand with the words: "The world in +us, and +ourselves in the world!"</p> + +<p class="normal">His only reply was a nod, his features again twitched +convulsively, as +if he were trying to repress his tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had already proceeded as far as the edge of the woods, +when he +turned around and called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come here, maiden. I've something to tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went up to him and he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm a nephew of Doctor Gunther, who was formerly physician +to the +king, and now lives but a short distance from here, in yonder little +town. I live with him and am pianist to the queen. If you ever need +help, send to me, or to my uncle. He'll help you, I am sure. But, +depend upon it, I shall mention you to no one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Having said this, he hurriedly turned on his heel and, +leaning on his +servant, descended the mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma remained there, looking after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was Gunther alive? And in her very neighborhood?</p> + +<p class="normal">And now another being carried her half-disclosed life-secret +about with +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blind man entered the woods and soon disappeared from +view. Irma, +with eyes bent on the ground, returned to her resting-place, where she +remained gazing into the dim distance until night approached.</p> + +<p class="normal">Over in the woods she beheld a strange-looking, gray cloud +with white, +glowing edges. It stood as firmly as if it were a wall. Suddenly, as if +exhaled from the earth, a gust of wind arose, so violent that the trees +bent under its force.</p> + +<p class="normal">She hurried toward the cottage, and found that the little +pitchman had +returned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm afraid we'll have a storm to-night," said he. "The moon +isn't up +yet and doesn't rise till late, and that's a sign of bad weather."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went out again, in order to drive in the cows. The boy had +gone +after the goats, which had strayed off for some distance.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"How the wind blows!" exclaimed Gundel, quite of out breath. It had +required all her strength to close the door. "What a storm! There never +was such a gust before. Why, the wind's just as hot as if it were blown +out of an oven."</p> + +<p class="normal">She got up quickly and, filling a cup with water, emptied it +on the +fire that burned on the hearth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing?" cried Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We mustn't have a fire now," replied Gundel, and, after +that, they sat +there in the dark room, almost stifled by the smoke, for the storm +raged so wildly that they dared not open a window.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If father were only home," said Gundel; "I hope, for God's +sake, he'll +get home safe!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her last words were drowned by a sudden peal of thunder that +reverberated from the mountains, with a crash as if the whole world +were being destroyed. And now the wind raged and stormed more violently +than before. The firmly built hut seemed to totter, the roof trembled, +and one of the great boulders with which it had been secured fell to +the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me your hand!" cried Gundel, in the dark. "If we must +die--let's +pray." She prayed aloud, but the crashing thunder drowned her voice. +Suddenly the noise changed, and it sounded as if countless iron hammers +were descending on the roof; the rattling, pounding and rumbling +created a furious din.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's hail!" shrieked Gundel, putting her mouth to Irma's +ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">The thunder and hail continued, and, ever and anon, the +lightning would +flash through the smoke and darkness, causing the two girls to appear, +in each other's eyes, as if transported to the infernal regions. The +hailstones seemed to impel each other forward. Now they would descend +with mighty force; then the fury of the storm would abate and they +would fall more gently and steadily than before, as if the raging +mountain demon had stopped to take breath, before again venting his ire +on the mortals who had ventured to build a cottage on his lofty domain.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lowing of the cows and the ringing of their bells were +heard above +the rattling hail.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I opened the stable door, but the wind must have blown it +shut," +exclaimed Gundel; and, forgetting her own trouble, she hurried out. She +came back in a hurry, and, placing an inverted pail on her head, went +out again. Irma followed her example, and the two of them ducked their +heads while the great hailstones rattled against the pails. Gundel +tried to open the stable door, but the cows crowded about her so that +she was thrown to the ground. In the midst of the noise, Irma heard +Gundel's piercing cry. The bellowing, trembling leader cow was standing +near Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come along!" said Irma, seizing the cow by one of its horns. +It obeyed +her, and the other cows made way. Irma found Gundel, and, having helped +her up, the two opened the stable door, but were almost crushed to +death, for the cows all tried to get in at once. They each had but one +hand free, as the other was needed to hold the pail. They succeeded in +getting to the wall and, at last, when all the cows were in the stable, +the two girls waded through the hail with which the ground was thickly +covered, and regained the cottage. They groped about until they found +the hearth and sat down by it. And the two lonely, forlorn children sat +there in the dark, while the storm raged without.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel sure," cried Gundel, "that father must have found +shelter +somewhere. He knows every overhanging rock and--O God!" she suddenly +cried, "just think of the poor blind man, out in such weather! Has the +hail cut your hand and back, the way it did mine?" said she, crying, +and nestling close to Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I feel nothing," replied Irma, and it really seemed as +if physical +pain could not affect her. She, too, had thought of the blind man, and +also of the king whom filial ingratitude had turned out into the stormy +night. But hail or wind were not half so violent as her regret that, +yielding to pity, she had allowed a man to pass his hand across her +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is all lost again? Is all that has cost so great a struggle, +sacrificed? wofully asked an inner voice--and yet she felt conscious of +her purity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God! it's only raining now," said Gundel at last. She +struck a +light, and the two looked at each other, as if they had just emerged +from depths of darkness. The floor was wet with the water that had +dripped from their clothes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you at home?" exclaimed a voice from without. The door +opened and +the little pitchman entered, carrying a young kid in his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God you're safe and sound," he exclaimed, laying the +kid down by +the empty fireplace. With his sleeve, which was far wetter that either, +he wiped the water from his eyes and forehead. Then he took a bottle of +gentian brandy from the upper shelf and, after taking a drink, and +forcing Gundel and Irma to do likewise, he went on to say: "I've gone +through a good deal in my time, but never anything like this. I know +every tree and every rock for miles, but I seemed to have lost my way. +While I stood there in the midst of the storm, I heard a chamois doe +bleating pitifully, and I went up to her and there she stood, with the +young kid that had just been born. It had hardly come into the world, +before the hail tried to beat it to death. When the mother saw me, she +ran away, but came back again and placed herself over the young kid, so +that the hail shouldn't strike it, but her instead. I went near her, +but the mother ran away again. I picked up the young one and, just as +we were going on to look for shelter, I heard human voices. Two people +were calling to a third one, who was roaring and screaming. When the +lightning flashed, I saw that he was lying on the ground, unable to +move.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Honored master, just lean on us; we'll soon find shelter,' +I heard +them saying, and when the lightning flashed again, I saw that we were +near the Witches' Table. So I called out to them: 'The Witches' Table +is over yonder.' Then there was another flash, and I saw that the two +men who had been standing had also fallen down. They told me, +afterward, that they had been afraid of me, and I couldn't think hard +of them. In such a storm, and on such a night, one would almost believe +in anything. I went up to them, told them who I was, and offered to +lead them. It was hard work, though, to get along, for the blind man +went on as if crazed, and kept talking about a lost child. At last, +safe and sound, but dripping with water, we got under the Witches' +Table, and there we lay. And whenever it lightened we could see the +hailstones dancing on the rocks and beating against the trees. We +waited until it stopped hailing, and the blind man told me that the +next time I came down to the apothecary's, in the town, he would give +me a gold piece. The king's there and so is the queen. He promised to +see to it that I should get the medal for saving a life, and a pension, +in the bargain, for the rest of my days. And now, children, get to bed, +for you're soaking wet. What ails you, Irmgard? Why do you shiver so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman scolded Gundel for having let cousin +Irmgard sit +about in her wet clothes. Now and then the little kid would cry +piteously and shiver all over, so that the little pitchman brought down +his bed-cover from the hay-loft and wrapped the kid in it. Then, with +three fingers, he cleverly fed it with milk from a dish.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little kid was soon asleep, and, in the room within, Irma +was +sleeping too.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank God, you've had a good sleep," said Gundel, who was +standing at +Irma's bedside, late on the following morning. "How strange it seems! +The hail didn't hurt you a bit and just see how I look." She showed the +marks, but quickly added: "That's no matter; it'll soon be over. Just +look at the sky! Don't it look as if it never could do any harm. Over +by the stream, the lightning struck a tree and split it in two, and +places where it used to be dry are covered with water. If I didn't feel +it in every bone of my body, and couldn't see it, I'd hardly believe +there had ever been a storm. But we were lucky, after all. None of the +cattle were hurt, and the cowboy is here, too. He crept away, down the +valley, where there was no storm at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a clear, bracing morning. Here and there, there were +still some +large hailstones lying in the crevices of the rocks. The cows were +grazing on the meadow, and the cowboy was singing merrily. He was proud +that the goats were the best judges of the weather; while grazing, they +had moved down toward the valley, and that was the surest sign that a +storm was brewing.</p> + +<p class="normal">At noon, Franz came up from the farm. The torrents of water +that had +rushed down into the valley, had led them to suppose that something had +happened, and Walpurga had sent Franz to find out all about it. The +hot, midday sun soon dried up everything, and the waters did not long +remain on the heights. Irma went out to her favorite resting-place and, +spreading her blue rug on the ground, lay down.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, she heard the sounds of a bugle horn. What was it? +Was it +royalty, or a dream?</p> + +<p class="normal">The sounds were repeated. Irma's heart beat violently. +Something drew +near. She could hear it panting, as it forced its way through the +crackling brush. She looked up and saw a stag rushing through the +clearing near by, and the huntsmen pursuing and gaining upon it. Irma +passed her hand over her eyes--she looked once more-- It was the king +and his suite.</p> + +<p class="normal">Springing from his horse, the chief piqueur exclaimed: "The +stag broke +through here. Your Majesty. Here is the trail." He dipped his finger in +the blood and showed it to the king. The king looked around--did he +feel the glance directed upon him from the thicket? The glance that had +once made him so happy, but that had, for him, been so long +extinguished? He missed his stirrup; the horse reared wildly. Irma bent +down, with her face against the mossy turf. She felt as if the whole +hunt, as if all the horses' hoofs, were passing over her. She bit the +grass on which she lay. She dug her hands into the earth. She feared to +shriek aloud.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she got up, all was quiet. She stared about her. Had it +been a +dream? In the distance, she heard the report of a gun and the sound of +the bugle. The stag had fallen.</p> + +<p class="normal">If one could die in that way, thought Irma to herself, +sinking back on +the moss, and weeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">She arose. A storm-laden cloud had once more arisen within +her soul, +but it was for the last time. About her, all was clear and sunny. Hail +and storm and lightning were forgotten. She went back to the hut, and +often turned to look at the sun sinking in the west. And now, for the +first time, she repaired to rest before nightfall. She was shivering +with a fever-chill, and soon her cheeks were hot and red. She called +the little pitchman to her bedside and asked him to give her a sheet of +paper. Her hand trembled, while she wrote in pencil:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eberhard's daughter sends for Gunther."</p> + +<p class="normal">She told the little pitchman to hurry to town, to give this +paper to +the great doctor in person, and to conduct him to her at once. Then she +turned away and was calm again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll give you something good," said the little pitchman, +while, with +broad-brimmed hat on his head, and mountain-staff in his hand, he stood +before her. "You'll see, It'll do you good. I'll lay the kid down here +at your feet; that'll do both o' you good. Shall I?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma nodded assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman did as he said he would. The kid looked +up sleepily +at Irma, and she smiled on it in return. Both soon closed their eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wandering in the dark, the little pitchman descended into the +valley.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Down in the valley, it had been raining all day long. What had been +hail and thunder up among the mountains, had turned to rain, and +occasional gleams of blue sky served to show that there was fair +weather above.</p> + +<p class="normal">Toward evening, the storm cleared away. The queen, +accompanied by the +ladies of her court, among whom Madame Gunther and Paula were now +included, was sitting in the large music-room, the doors of which were +open. Paula had been singing to the queen, for the first time, and, on +account of her embarrassment, Madame Gunther begged that she might not +be asked to sing again that day.</p> + +<p class="normal">The relation between the queen and Madame Gunther was a +peculiar one. +The queen was charmed with her sincerity and thoroughness, but she +found it difficult to accustom herself to the presence of one who was +so independent of her. She was, at one time, tempted to regard this as +pettiness, for, on the very day that Madame Gunther had accepted the +breastpin, she had said to the queen: "Your Majesty, it will never do, +unless you accept a present from me in return," saying which, she gave +the queen a handsomely bound book, which a brother of hers, a physician +residing in America, had written, on the subject of slavery. The queen +accepted it with thanks, and Madame Gunther felt quite relieved, +although it frequently cost her an effort to translate, as it were, all +that she wished to say, in order to clothe it in the proper court +costume, for she took a pride in rejecting prescribed forms.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen inquired why they saw so little of the elder +daughter, the +professor's widow. Madame Gunther replied that, as Bronnen and their +nephew were visiting them, and as there was much to look after in the +house, Cornelia had gladly assumed these duties. It always seemed like +a new truth to the queen, or like tidings from some strange world, to +find that the daily wants of life required special attention and did +not provide for themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">The weather exerted a depressing influence on the spirits of +all. Here +in the country, and especially in this little dairy-farm, where they +missed many comforts, and where, on account of the small amount of +room, they were prevented from scattering and seeking various +diversions, the effects of the weather were all the more noticeable and +unpleasant.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their delight in anticipation of the morrow was all the +greater, as it +promised to be a bright day.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was agreed that they should all meet, at dinner, near the +second +waterfall, and that the king would join them there.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king was in his cabinet, engaged with Bronnen. The new +telegraph +was carrying many messages to and fro. Gunther, the intendant, Sixtus +and several other gentlemen were smoking their cigars and walking under +the drooping trees of the avenue, which the evening sun was now +lighting up with a thousand brilliant hues.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ladies in the music-room maintained that the Alpine glow +(Alpenglühen) could be seen that day. They naturally expected to see it +daily, although it is an exceedingly rare phenomenon.</p> + +<p class="normal">The night had come on, and the king was sitting at the +card-table, with +Gunther and two of the gentlemen-in-waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">A servant came in and informed Gunther that there was a man +outside +who wished to speak with him at once. Gunther gave his cards to the +ever-obliging intendant, and went out where, leaning on his great +Alpine staff, his broad-brimmed, crumpled hat in his hand, and his rug +thrown over him, stood the little pitchman. He kept his left hand in +his pocket, and when Gunther came up to him, he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here's a paper for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther read the note, and then rubbed his eyes and passed +his hand +across his face, as if to awaken himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who sent you?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I guess that'll tell you--our Irmgard."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther started at the mention of the name, here before the +very door, +when within sat the king and the queen--</p> + +<p class="normal">He went up to the lamp in the corridor, and read the note +again. There +it stood:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eberhard's daughter sends for Gunther."</p> + +<p class="normal">This man, who had a right to boast that he was always calm +and +composed, was obliged to support himself by the balusters, and it was +some time before he could utter a word. When he looked up, his glance +met that of the little pitchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who are you?" he asked, at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm from the freehold farm. Walpurga's my niece--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well; go outside and wait for me. I'll be there +directly."</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman went out, and Gunther summoned all his +self-command, in order to return to the card-room to excuse himself, +and say that he had been summoned to the bedside of one who was +dangerously ill. He scarcely knew how he could, without betraying +his emotion, mention this to those who were so directly concerned, +but he hoped to do so, nevertheless.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment, he fortunately met Paula and Bronnen, who had +been +walking in the garden and were just about to enter the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The very thing!" exclaimed Gunther, addressing them. "Paula, +send me +my hat; and you, dear Bronnen, present my excuses to their majesties, +and tell them I am required instantly, by one who is dangerously ill. +Pray do this without exciting attention; and, Paula, don't mention it +to your mother until you're on the way home. I shall be gone all +night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can't Dr. Sixtus go?" asked Bronnen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. Pray ask me no more. I shall be home early to-morrow +morning; but +if I don't come, I will meet you by the waterfall, at dinner-time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bronnen and Paula went into the house, and, a few moments +later, a +lackey brought Gunther his hat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther hurried off with the little pitchman. Only once did +he turn +back to look at the brilliantly lighted windows, and to think of those +who were sitting within, void of care and foreboding naught. How +startled they would be if they had heard the tidings that affected him +so powerfully. On the way to his house, he had but little to say to the +little pitchman. He did not care to question him more closely, for he +feared lest some answer might be overheard, and thus prematurely betray +the secret. He was still, in his own mind, endeavoring to devise some +plan by which all could be arranged and adjusted.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until they drew near the house, that Gunther +asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"What ails the patient? What does she complain of?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She don't complain of anything. She's got a hot fever, and +she has +been coughing for a long time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has she her perfect senses?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just the same as ever; but Gundel, my daughter, says she +sometimes +calls out in her sleep: 'Victory!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just wait here," said Gunther, when they reached the house. +"I'll send +you something to eat and drink; but tell no one who sent you here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Cornelia was sitting near the lamp and reading to her blind +cousin. He +had only told her of the terrors of the hailstorm; his heart-sufferings +he had kept to himself. He had been sleeping nearly all day, and now +felt refreshed. Cornelia was alarmed when she saw her father, but he +soon quieted her. His medicine-chest and some well-sealed packages of +refreshing and strengthening food, were soon in readiness, and were +packed upon the mule. Gunther rode off, the little pitchman walking +by his side. The face of the latter was scarcely visible, for his +broad-brimmed hat had not yet recovered from the effects of yesterday's +storm. It was not until they had left the town behind them, that +Gunther asked:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How far have we to go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It takes three hours on foot, but on horseback it's a full +hour more."</p> + +<p class="normal">When they entered the forest, Gunther halted and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come near. So you are Walpurga's uncle?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure. I'm her mother's own and only brother, for the +two others +died young."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you call the sick girl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irmgard; that's her name."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how long has she been with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ever since Hansei bought the farm. She came with us then +from the +lake. She was sick, and they say she's a little bit out of her mind; +but I don't believe a word of it. She's got her right senses; rather +too much than too little."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And don't you know her family name?" asked Gunther.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never asked," and the little pitchman, with great +volubility, went +on to tell all he knew of Irmgard's life and how, for years, she had +worn a bandage on her forehead, and had never taken it off until she +had gone up to the mountain meadow. He described her life so touchingly +that Gunther stopped and, taking the old man by the hand, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a good man."</p> + +<p class="normal">Uncle Peter did not dispute this, but maintained that, in all +the +world, there was no one so good as Irmgard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rapid rivulets crossed their path in many places, and the +little +pitchman told Gunther of the storm of the previous night; how terrible +it is when, all of a sudden, the air seems filled with stones that +pound away at one, and how he had helped the blind man, and also what +had been promised him. He would often take hold of the mule's bridle +and guide it down some steep descent, through a brook and then up the +hill again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You must have gone through a good deal yourself, Doctor," +said the +little pitchman. He would have liked his companion to entertain him by +the way. He thought that one sitting on the mule could talk far more +comfortably than he who was walking by his side. He could feel it in +his chest that to talk while going up hill, was no easy matter. As if +divining this, Gunther alighted when they reached a level place, and +made the little pitchman mount. After much persuasion, Uncle Peter at +last consented and got up; but as soon as they began to ascend again, +he dismounted, and insisted on Gunther's riding.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If our Irmgard wants to leave us now," said the little +pitchman, "I'd +willingly give her up to you, Doctor. She can play the zither +splendidly, and when she's well again, you can teach her anything. +Everything comes easy to her. But I hope she'll stay with us. She's shy +and doesn't like to go among people."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed as if he had divined Gunther's very thoughts, for +the doctor +had been asking himself how he could take Irma to his house, and yet +keep the court ignorant of her existence. In his mind's eye, he already +saw her sitting beside his wife and Cornelia, and he felt that he had +gained a daughter who would fill Paula's place.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was dark in the forest and the stars were gleaming +overhead. "It's +past midnight," said the little pitchman, when they reached the crest +of a projecting hill. "The moon's coming up over there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther looked back and saw the half-moon rising and looking +like a +ruin suspended in the vast firmament.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's some of our cows already," said the little pitchman, +and his +voice grew brighter. "That's Blackbird, with the ding-dong bell. She +always strays furthest of all; but we'll be home in less than half an +hour, at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">They went on in silence, and at last reached the hut. A ray +of light +shone through the opening in the closed window-shutter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll go in first and tell her the gentleman's here," said +the little +pitchman, softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther assented.</p> + +<p class="normal">He soon came out again and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's asleep, but her cheeks are as red as fire, and Gundel +says that +she often called out, in her sleep: 'Father!' and sometimes, 'Victory.' +She must be having pleasant dreams."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther entered the cottage. .</p> + +<p class="normal">At the sight of Irma he seemed as if paralyzed. "What's +that?" he asked +the little pitchman, when the kid at Irma's feet raised its head and +stared at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's a little chamois kid that I found yesterday. She's very +fond of +it," answered the little pitchman in a whisper.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther requested the little pitchman and Gundel to leave the +room, and +then sat down silently at Irma's bedside. He felt her pulse and touched +her forehead, and the little pitchman, who had lingered in the room, +asked: "How is she?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther shrugged his shoulders and beckoned him to go out.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman hurried up to the hay-loft, awakened +Franz, and +ordered him to hurry down to his master and mistress and tell them to +come up directly, for Irmgard was very sick.</p> + +<p class="normal">He lay down on the hay, feeling as if every bone in his body +were +broken. He had never before been so tired, but he could neither rest +nor sleep, and was soon standing in front of the cottage, listening at +the window.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Gunther remained with the patient. She moved now +and then, +but did not open her eyes. The kid at her feet was also sleeping again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had removed the light from the room, and now sat in +the dark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The day is coming, let me see the daylight!" cried Irma, +suddenly +starting up.</p> + +<p class="normal">A gray streak of light fell through the opening in the +shutter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me see the daylight," said Irma again, and the little +pitchman +outside opened the shutters. A flood of light poured into the chamber. +A radiant glow passed over Irma's countenance. She stretched out both +hands to Gunther. He clasped them, and she kissed his hands with her +feverish lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have achieved great results," said Gunther. "You have +shown a +power that I cannot but admire. Hold fast to it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thank you! Through you, my father returns to me. Lay your +hand upon +my forehead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I place my hand upon your forehead, and in your father's +spirit I +bless you, and with this kiss I kiss away all your burdens. You are +free!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma lay there quietly, and Gunther's hand lay on her brow, +while, out +of doors, the rosy tint of morn ascended higher and higher, and at last +the light flooded the room with its golden glow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther went out and brought a tonic draught for Irma. It +revived and +refreshed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that I am about to die," she said in a clear voice, +"and I am +happy that I have lived in consciousness and can die in consciousness."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave her journal to Gunther and told him that the wish +she had +there expressed, in relation to her place of burial, need not be +regarded; that the uncle knew which had been her favorite spot, and +that she wished to be buried there, with nothing to mark her grave.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had, before this, said that he had held many a dying +hand in +his--he had never sat by a death-bed like that of Irma's.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">"I knew it! I felt it must come!" cried Walpurga when Franz brought the +news of Irma's illness. "I knew she'd never come back!" she repeated +again and again, weeping, wringing her hands, and praying by turns.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That won't help any," said Hansei, laying his hand on her +shoulder. +"Get up; you're not like this at other times. Come, may be it isn't so +bad after all; and even if it should be, this is no time to cry and +weep; we must do all that can be done."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What can I do? What shall I do?" said Walpurga, turning her +tearful +face to Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">He helped her up and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Franz says there's a doctor up there, who has a medicine +chest with +him. And now let's eat something and then go up to her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh dear Lord, I can't walk three steps; I feel as if my +limbs were +broken."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you'd better stay here and I'll go up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you leave me here alone? What am I to do, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what. Go to bed; perhaps you can sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't want to go to bed; I don't want to sleep; I don't +want +anything. I'll go along, too, and, if I die on the way, I can't help +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk so! you wrong me and the children when you do," +Hansei was +about to say, but he made a rapid movement, as if to repress the words. +"There's no need of saying that," thought he; "when women, filled with +pity for themselves, begin to complain of their lot, they don't know +what they say."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei brought his wife her best clothes, for she was so +agitated that +she scarcely knew where they were, or how to put them on. Hansei proved +quite a clever valet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now you must put your shoes on yourself," said he, at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga could not help smiling through her tears. It was not +until +then that she perceived how kindly and faithfully he had helped her, +and, with a bright voice, she said: "Yes, so I can; you've helped me, +and now I feel that I can walk."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei had the meal brought in and, after placing his +mountain staff, +his hunting-bag and his hat in readiness, he sat down to eat. Walpurga +was also obliged to sit down, although she ate but little. One of +Hansei's great virtues was that he could eat heartily at any time. He +did full justice to the meal, and his manner seemed to say that when +one has satisfied his hunger, he is better prepared for any +undertaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before leaving, he cut off a large piece of bread and put it +in his +pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">The children were consigned to the care of the upper servant, +and one +of the laboring women was also charged to remain in the house. Hansei +and his wife started for the meadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had already gone some distance, when Burgei came running +after +them, crying: "I want to go along; I want to go to Cousin Irmgard."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no help for it. They were obliged to take the child +with +them, for they were afraid to let her go back alone and neither of them +cared to take her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're a naughty child, a very naughty child! And now I've +got to +carry you, a big girl like you," said Walpurga, taking the child in her +arms. Hansei nodded, with a pleased air. It was well the child was with +them, for then his wife, who was apt to go off into extremes, would not +become so violent if the worst should happen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga, who had at first thought that she could not walk +alone, now +carried the child and stepped out bravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let Burgei walk for a while, and when she gets tired again. +I'll carry +her," said Hansei.</p> + +<p class="normal">As long as the path was wide enough, the child walked between +its +parents, and when it grew narrower, they let her run on ahead. When +they found that they could get on but slowly, on account of the child, +Hansei took her up in his arms, where she soon fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga then softly whispered to Hansei:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must tell you now who our Irmgard is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I tell you I don't want to know. She must tell me +herself, if she +lives; and if she's dead, you can tell me then, just as well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead!" cried Walpurga, "Do you know more than I do? Did +Franz tell you +anything in secret?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Franz told me nothing but what you've heard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why do you talk about death in that way?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because one who's very sick can easily die. But do be calm."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes; I hardly know that we are in the woods, and I feel +as if I +couldn't see a thing. Stop a moment! There's a doctor up there. He +knows her, and others who know her will come, too. The man who came to +see us the other day is her brother, and now they'll go and take our +Irmgard away with them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she's in her right mind, and wants to go of her own free +will, we +can't say anything against it," said Hansei, "but this I do say, and no +one will move me from it. As long as she's so sick that she can't say +what she wants, I won't let them do a thing to her. I'm Hansei, and I'm +her protector; nothing shall happen to her--All I ask of you, is to +stand by me and not interfere. You know when I say a thing, I mean it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes, you're right!" said Walpurga. Hansei's resolute +words seemed +to infuse her with new strength, for she went up the steep mountain +path without the slightest difficulty. It almost seemed as if Hansei +had been carrying her as well as the child. Moved by this thought, she +suddenly said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you remember when you once wanted to carry me, at home by +the lake? +Oh, dear me, it seems as if we must have been very different beings +then, for we knew nothing at all of the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We're none the worse off, for knowing and having some of +it!" replied +Hansei, in a loud voice, and awakening the child. "There, now; run +along again," said he to Burgei.</p> + +<p class="normal">They rested for a little while. Hansei remembered the piece +of bread +that he had put in his pocket and, cutting off a bit of it, he said +while pointing toward the valley with his knife: "Our brook runs down +through there, and it's only an hour's distance from here to the little +town where Stasi lives."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only an hour from here?" exclaimed Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I'll walk over there. She's the best, the only help. +You go on +with the child, straight up to the hut. I'll soon follow you by way of +the town, and I'll bring something good with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wife! Have you gone mad? Don't make me crazy, too. Do you +want to run +off, when you're so near the dying one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I must tell you. The queen is down there and she alone +can help +her. God be with you, Hansei, and with you too, Burgei. I'll soon +follow after you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Away she ran, through the forest, along the stream, and +toward the +town.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where's mother? Mother! mother!" cried the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be quiet!" said Hansei. "Mother has another child down +there, and he's +a prince and will send you golden clothes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it an enchanted prince that mother is going to free from +a spell?" +asked the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, he's enchanted," said Hansei, endeavoring to quiet her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what was he changed into?" asked the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Into a cuckoo; but not another word now; be quiet."</p> + +<p class="normal">Filled with strange thoughts, the father and child went up +the +mountain. Hansei could not understand how, at such a moment, his wife +could leave her friend and go to the queen--. Perhaps they were bound +together in some way? He shook his head. Matters that he could not +disentangle, he always put away from him. The only thing was to see +what could be done for the sick one; that was the most important +matter. He squared his shoulders and was ready, if the physician +thought well of it, to carry Irmgard in his arms, all the way down to +the farm.</p> + +<p class="normal">The child ran along, looking about it with wondering eyes. +"He's +calling! he's calling!" whispered she. "My mother will free you."</p> + +<p class="normal">A cuckoo was really crying in the wood, through which the +noonday sun +was gleaming. His cry was sometimes near and then more distant, and at +last, uttering his peculiar note, he flew over the travelers' heads.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei, with the child, at last reached the shepherd's hut, +where the +uncle and Gundel, with sorrowful countenances, came forward to meet +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's still alive, but she can't last long," said the uncle, +wiping +away his tears with his sleeve. "The doctor won't let any of us go in +to her. But where's Walpurga?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She'll soon be here," replied Hansei. It was all he could do +to keep +off the cows, who knew their master and came up to him, as was their +wont, in order to get a handful of salt. But he had forgotten to bring +it with him, and all the salt they had up here was in the room that no +one was permitted to enter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei ordered the cowboy to drive the cows off for some +distance, so +that the sick one might not hear the sound of the bells. That was all +he could do for Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sat down sadly on the bench before the hut, and taking up +a piece of +carved wood which lay on the ground, he looked at it as carefully as if +it were marble and turned it again and again. He sat there for a long +time. Then he put Burgei in Gundel's charge, and, hoping to meet his +wife, went out alone along the road that led toward the little town. +But it was long before she came. He went further into the forest, and +was vexed, as he always was whenever he came up here, to think of +yonder fine trees that were his own property, but which could not be +felled, because no one could get up to the rocks on which they were. A +chattering magpie, sitting on the high branches of a beautiful pine, +seemed to be making sport of him. After he had again and again passed +his hand over his face, Hansei became conscious of the thoughts that +had engaged him in the midst of all this trouble. There was nothing +wrong in it--he was sure of that; but this was not the time to think of +such things, and, as if the trouble were now dawning on him for the +first time, he was overwhelmed with grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned back and went toward the hut. The doctor was just +coming out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are the freehold farmer, I suppose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; and you're the doctor?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How is she?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think she will die before evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei's eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle asked Gunther to allow him to fetch out the little +kid. He +granted his request. Stepping softly, he brought it out, gave it +something to drink and, carrying it back again, placed it at the sick +girl's feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She opened her eyes and nodded to me, but she didn't say a +word; and +then she closed her eyes again," said the uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei begged that he might be permitted to see Irmgard once +more. He +was allowed to look through the crevice in the shutter. When Gunther +again returned to the sick-room, Hansei, weeping as if his heart would +break, walked out along the road that led toward the town.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Uncle's right: she's become like an angel," said he to +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The calf that was born on the first day that they had come up +to the +shepherd's hut seemed conscious of its special claims on Hansei. In +spite of all he could do it kept running after him for salt. Hansei +succeeded in satisfying it, by giving it the last morsel of bread that +he had about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he reached the woods, he was obliged to sit down; and +there he +wept and would, now and then, look about him as if bewildered. How +could it be possible that the sun was still shining, the cuckoo crying, +and the hawk screaming, while she who was up there was breathing her +last--</p> + +<p class="normal">What could Walpurga want of the queen? "Her place is up +there," thought +he to himself, again and again.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Following the course of the brook, Walpurga had hurried down the +mountain-side. She soon saw the little town and the farmhouse, on the +roof of which a bright flag was fluttering.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga sat down on a rock by the stream, to recover her +breath and +rest for a few moments. A cuckoo flew over her head and up the +mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's a bad beginning," said she to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">She walked on toward the dairy-farm. Looking through the iron +railing, +she saw a boy playing about the garden. His hair fell over his +shoulders, in long, fair curls.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wore a light dress and a hat with a feather. She felt as +if her +heart must burst and, with convulsive grip, she held fast to one of the +iron rails of the fence in order to support herself. Then she walked on +toward the garden-gate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Frau von Gerloff--the prince--my child! my child!" she +cried, while +she rushed toward the prince and, kneeling down in the grass, kissed +and embraced him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy screamed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, that's his voice!" cried Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Startled for a moment, Frau von Gerloff stood there as if +rooted to the +spot. Then she approached and ordered Walpurga away. The servants also +advanced and ordered her to go. The prince nestled against Frau von +Gerloff, as if to hide himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was still kneeling in the grass, and could not rise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He don't know me any more, and I'm his nurse!" she cried, +looking +around confusedly at those about her. Her voice seemed to exert an +influence on the child. It turned its face toward her. It was flushed +with red and a tear still hung on his eyelashes, although his face was +wreathed in smiles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"God greet you!" said he. He had been taught this expression, +on +account of their sojourn in the country.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He can say 'God greet you'--oh, he can speak! Dear me, he +can speak! +Now just say, 'Walpurga,' child. Can you say, 'Walpurga'?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga," repeated the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen approached, attended by Countess Brinkenstein and +Paula. +Walpurga was about to hasten toward her, but the queen motioned her +away, and ordered Frau von Gerloff to remove the prince. The prince was +led out of the garden, but he looked back at Walpurga, who nodded to +him and quite forgot that she was in the presence of the queen, until +the latter said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have thrust yourself in here. You must certainly be +aware that we +did not desire to see you, and you know why."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't want to defend myself now. I've come for something +else," +urged poor Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" asked the queen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Breathing heavily, and with frequent pauses, Walpurga +hurriedly said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, one may be looked upon as wicked, or may not +be looked +upon at all, and yet be honest. You and I are both of us in good health +and can settle that some other time. But I have a few words to tell +you--quite alone. Dear queen! for mercy's sake!--you'll be glad of it +to your dying hour. Dear queen, you must die as well as the rest of +us--I beg you, for pity's sake, listen to me alone, only for one +minute! Send the others away, there's no time to lose!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen motioned Countess Brinkenstein and Paula to +withdraw. She was +alone with Walpurga, and the latter, with throbbing heart, said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma lives!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's dying; perhaps she's dead by this time!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't understand you. Are you mad?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, dear queen. Sit down here on this seat. You're trembling +all over. +I've been awkward about it, but I couldn't help it. But it doesn't +matter about me, now. Do with me what you choose--Irma lives--perhaps +only this day, perhaps not even that long. Dear queen, you must go with +me. You must go to her. It's all that's left her on earth--A single +word--a hand--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Countess Brinkenstein and Paula, who saw that the queen was +leaning +back, as pale as death, hurried to her assistance. As soon as she heard +the rustling of their dresses, she raised herself and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga, repeat what you have just told me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga repeated that Irma was still alive, and added that +she had +been concealed with her for nearly four years, and that Gunther was now +with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The two ladies seemed dumb with surprise, but Walpurga again +turned to +the queen and exclaimed:</p> + +<p class="normal">"For God's sake, don't lose a minute! Come with me. Stasi, +who once +turned a prayer for the queen to me, lives in there. Dear queen, if you +can't forgive others, how can they still pray for you? Just think how +you felt in that solemn night, dear queen. Stand up, put all else away +from you and hold fast to your good heart alone! Dear queen--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do not annoy her majesty," said Countess Brinkenstein, +interrupting +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Walpurga continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, when you die, neither court ladies, nor +anything else +can help you. Leave all behind you, for one short hour of your life! +Come with me alone, and ask me nothing more. She'll be dead before +night. This very day, you can perform a good deed which will last for +ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will--I must go to her!" said the queen, rising from her +seat and +walking toward the house. Her step was quick, her cheeks flushed with +excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty," said Countess Brinkenstein, remonstrating, +"the +gracious king is out riding, and will be at the waterfall at +dinner-time. Will Your Majesty not wait until then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," replied the queen, in a determined voice, as if the +question had +interrupted a train of thought. "I desire," said she, "to be permitted +to act upon my own responsibility."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your Majesty, there is no carriage-road to the mountain +meadow," +mildly added Countess Brinkenstein.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But there's a bridle-path almost all the way up to the +cottage," +replied Walpurga. "And there's Stasi's husband; he's a forester and +knows all the roads; I'll call him."</p> + +<p class="normal">She hurried to the inspector's office and brought him out +with her. He +confirmed her statement that they could drive for a good distance, and +that then they could ride.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen ordered him to precede them with saddle-horses. She +retired +to her apartments, and soon afterward, accompanied by Paula, Sixtus, +and Walpurga, drove up the mountain. Two lackeys were sitting upon the +rumble.</p> + +<p class="normal">The betrothed of the man who had once loved Irma, and the +wife of +him whose love Irma had returned, sat side by side, hurrying to her +death-bed. It was not until they were well on their way that they +regained their composure.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was but little that Walpurga could tell them about +Irma's simple +life, and she, therefore, made so much the more of the uncle's account +of how Irma had traveled to the capital with him, in disguise, and how, +at the summer palace, she had once more beheld the queen and the +prince. Her recital was frequently interrupted by tears, while she went +on to tell them how Irma had nursed her dying mother, and how her +mother, who had known all, had, on her death-bed, given Irma her +blessing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen held her handkerchief to her eyes and silently +extended her +hand to Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">The more Walpurga told them, the more pure and exalted did +Irma appear. +Turning to Paula, the queen said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is life in death--it must have required inconceivable +courage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are saints even in our days," replied Paula. "All that +olden +times knew of the great, the beautiful and the true, still exists in +the world, even though it be scattered and hidden from view."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the depth of her sorrow, the queen's eye beamed with +conscious +delight at the thought that, although Gunther was no longer with her, +that which was best in him was now beside her in his child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Walpurga was again obliged to tell them of that morning by +the lake. +And then she went on to speak of Irma's beautiful work, but she soon +noticed that the queen was not listening, and stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">They drove on in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">They reached the end of the carriage road, and now continued +the +journey on horseback.</p> + +<p class="normal">Soon after the queen's departure, the king and Bronnen +returned from +the chase. They felt refreshed and invigorated by the sport, and the +king inquired whether the queen had already repaired to the waterfall, +for she had expressed a desire to sketch there.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time in her life. Countess Brinkenstein was so +embarrassed that she almost lost her presence of mind. She, of course, +felt a proper sympathy for Irma, but as long as she had lived in +concealment she should have died in concealment. Why should she thus +agitate them all anew? She shook her head in deprecation of this +eccentric being who, long after one had mourned and forgotten her, was +not even decently dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">With faltering voice, she informed the king of what had +happened, and +scarcely ventured to tell him that on her own responsibility, and +contrary to all court regulations, the queen had gone away, attended by +no one but Paula and privy councilor Sixtus.</p> + +<p class="normal">For some moments, the king neither moved nor uttered a word, +but stood +there with his eyes bent on the ground. The very earth at his feet +seemed to tremble. Everything seemed unsteady as if in an earthquake, +and terrors and despair overwhelmed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">All that he had experienced, during long years of suffering +and +expiation, now rose before him again. He had striven and wrestled and +made sacrifices, and no one had thanked him for all this; least of all +his own heart, for he was burdened with guilt and yet anxious to do +good, and forced to acknowledge, in all humility, that the power to do +good was yet left him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Trembling with agitation, he pressed his clenched hand +against his +brow. His cheeks burned, while his limbs shook with a feverish chill. +God be thanked, she still lives! The guilt of death is lifted from my +soul; and she, too, will see what I have suffered, and what I have +become--</p> + +<p class="normal">During the last few moments, he had lived the secret torments +of past +years over again. He now looked about him, as if emerging from another +world. There had been no earthquake; the trees, the houses, the +mountains still stood in their old places. He looked at Bronnen and, +offering his icy cold hand, whispered almost inaudibly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so the presentiment that you expressed at the +hunting-seat, is +true."</p> + +<p class="normal">His voice was thick. He ordered fresh saddle-horses and a +second +carriage to be sent after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few moments later, Bronnen and he were following in the +wake of the +queen.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The queen rode up the mountain, while Walpurga walked on by her side. +The sun was already sinking in the west. Its slanting rays shone +through the tree-tops and on the road which Gunther and the little +pitchman had taken on the night before, and there were now but few +signs of the rivulets that had yesterday traversed the path.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen did not utter a word, but she often gazed at +Walpurga, and +many old memories and associations were awakened in her mind. There, +walking along beside me, is a woman who was brought from her home at my +request. In those days, when, with the king and Gunther, I was sitting +under the weeping ash, I was gentle and forgiving toward the fallen, +and Gunther said I deserved that thousands should pray for me. Did I +really deserve it then? Do I deserve it now? At that time, no one had +ever offended or injured me, and it was easy to appear forgiving. But +as soon as I was wronged, I gave way to scorn and hatred, and pride in +my own virtue, and encouraged myself in that feeling. He changed his +whole life, put all that was trivial and vain away from him, and +devoted his whole mind to faithful labors for the sake of his people, +while I became more and more austere and inflexible just because I was +so virtuous. Are you so virtuous, after all? What is the virtue that +lives for itself alone? And she who erred so bitterly; has she not +expiated still more bitterly? Sinner though she be, she stands far +above me. She died for my sake, and yet what has her death profited me? +I have left my husband to achieve his difficult work unaided and alone, +deserted him in the hour of greatest need. I have lived for myself +alone, for to live for my child was to live for myself. I have had +charity for the poor and helpless. But how as to my first duty? I could +not conquer myself--and am I the one who dares say that I am capable of +the highest, and "if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out?" Gunther was +right. No one can save you but yourself, for no one else can so often +tell you the truth.</p> + +<p class="normal">During the many years in which she has been striving to +perfect +herself, and in which he has strengthened himself in noble deeds for +his people, what have I been doing? It is I who have sinned. You shall +not die, Irma! You must still live, so that I can tell you that I am +lost if you die without having forgiven me.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen gladly gave way to these thoughts, for they +gradually +lightened the burden which had so long exerted a depressing influence +upon her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have we much further to go?" she asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fear again seized her. If Irma were dead! If it were too late +for the +meeting that would free them both!--She pressed her hand to her +throbbing heart, as if it too must cease to beat when the heart up +there had ceased to live. In her mind's eye, she beheld Irma, as if +glorified and transfigured, while she herself seemed so pitifully +small.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We'll soon be there," said Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">A voice above was heard, calling:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walpurga!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The sound was echoed again and again from the mountains.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's my husband," said Walpurga to the queen, and, in an +equally +loud voice, she called out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hansei!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He answered again from above.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hansei drew near, and when he saw the grand gentlemen, the +ladies on +horseback, and the liveried servants, he took off his hat and passed +his hand over his eyes, as if to satisfy himself that he saw aright.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How is it with her?" asked Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She's still alive, but she won't last long. I left about an +hour ago, +and who knows what may have happened since then? The doctor's with her, +though."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We can't ride any farther," said the inspector. The queen +and Paula +alighted. Sixtus and the servants followed, while they climbed the last +hill.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's the queen there, in the light silk shawl," said +Walpurga, +addressing Hansei with a significant gesture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's all the same to me," he answered. "Our Irmgard's better +than any +of them. What matters the queen? When death comes we're pretty much the +same all around. We'll all of us have to die one of these days, and +then it won't matter what we've been in these few years."</p> + +<p class="normal">Bestowing a hurried glance on Hansei, and beckoning Paula to +remain +behind, the queen hastened forward. She was unattended, but yet, at her +right and her left, before and behind her, were the spirits of fear and +of deliverance. Fear cried: "Irma is dead; you are too late--" and it +seemed as if this would arrest her steps and deprive her of her breath. +Deliverance cried: "Hurry on--why loiter? You are free, you bring +freedom with you, and shall gain freedom for yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">She put forth her hands, as if to wave off the powers that +were +contending within and about her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fear gained the mastery and, with a wailing shriek for help, +she cried +out:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Irma! Irma!" and "Irma, Irma," was echoed again and again +from the +mountains. The whole world was shouting Irma's name.</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was still lying within the room, and Gunther was sitting +at her +bedside. Her breathing was difficult. She scarcely ever turned her +head, and only now and then slightly opened her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther had taken Eberhard's note-book with him, and found an +opportunity to read these words of his to Irma: "May this serve to +enlighten me on the day and in the hour when my mind becomes obscured."</p> + +<p class="normal">When he read the words: "God yet dwells in that which, to us, +seems +lost and ruined," Irma raised herself, but she soon leaned back again +and beckoned him to proceed. He read: "And should my eye be dimmed in +death--I have beheld the eternal One--My eyes have penetrated eternity. +Free from distortion and self-destruction, the immortal spirit soars +aloft."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther stopped and laid the note-book on Irma's bed. She +rested her +hand upon it. After a while she raised her hand and, pressing it to her +brow, said, while she closed her eyes:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yet he chastised me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whatever he may have done to you, was not done with his +free, pure +will. A paroxysm, a relapse into mortality, affected it. In the spirit +of your father, and as surely as I hope that truth may dwell with me in +my own dying hour, I forgive you. You have achieved your own pardon. +Forgive him, as he has surely forgiven you. He would bless you now, as +I bless you. Remember him lovingly, for the sake of the love he bore +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma seized the hand which Gunther had laid upon her brow, +and kissed +it. Then, without turning around, and as if speaking to herself, she +said: "Stay with me," again and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">For hours, Gunther sat by her bedside. Not a sound was heard +but her +painful breathing, which was gradually becoming more and more +difficult.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now, when the mountains echoed her name again and again, +Irma +raised her head and looked to right and left. "Do you hear it, too?" +she asked. "My name--voices, voices everywhere! Voices--" The door +opened, and the queen entered the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! at last you are here!" gasped Irma, with a deep sigh. +Gathering +all the strength yet left her, she raised herself up and knelt in the +bed. Her long hair fell over her, her eyes sparkled with a strange +luster. She folded her hands and, stretching out her arms, she cried, +in heart-rending tones:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive me! Forgive me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive me, Irma! My sister!" sobbed the queen, clasping +Irma in her +arms and kissing her.</p> + +<p class="normal">A smile passed over Irma's face. Then, uttering a loud cry, +she fell +back and was no more.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen knelt at her bedside and Walpurga, who had stood in +the +background, stepped forward and closed Irma's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">All was hushed. Not a sound was heard, save the sobbing of +the queen +and Walpurga.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steps were heard approaching.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where? Where is she?" cried the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther opened the door and with both hands motioned to him +to be +silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead!" cried the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther nodded affirmatively. He beckoned to Walpurga, and +she left the +room with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king knelt down silently beside the corpse.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen arose and, placing her hand on her husband's head, +said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Forgive me, Kurt, as I am forgiven!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He seized the proffered hand, and, hand in hand, they stood +there for a +long while, gazing at Irma, on whose face there rested a gentle smile, +even in death. It seemed as if they could not turn away from the sight. +At last, the queen removed her white shawl and spread it over Irma.</p> + +<p class="normal">They left the hut. The sun was setting in purple glory, and +all about +them was hushed in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther approached the queen, gave her the journal wrapped in +the +bandage, and said: "This is Irma's bequest to Your Majesty."</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen went up to Walpurga, silently offered her hand, and +kissed +the child that she was carrying in her arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king offered his hand to Hansei and said: "I thank you; I +shall see +you again."</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman went up to the king and queen and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"May God reward you for having come to her. She deserved it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and queen walked away in the direction of the +forest. Their +retinue kept in the background.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The king and queen went into the forest.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were walking hand in hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night drew on. The wind rustled through the tree-tops.</p> + +<p class="normal">The queen stood still for a moment and then, impelled by the +ardent +love she had so long repressed, embraced her husband, kissing his eyes, +his mouth and his brow, and said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've asked the departed one to forgive me! She died with my +kiss on +her lips. I now ask you who still live, to forgive me. You have both +expiated--she, alone, by herself; you, alone, while at my side!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She took out an amulet which she had worn hidden next to her +heart. It +was the betrothal ring which the king had given to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take this ring, and put it on your hand," she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are united anew," replied the king, while he put the ring +on his +finger and embraced the queen. He clasped her in his arms and her head +rested against his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">With a firm step, they descended the mountain unto where +their +carriages were waiting for them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Followed by the servants, Bronnen, Sixtus, and Paula also +descended the +mountain.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king and queen were in the first carriage; Paula and +Sixtus in the +second. Bronnen went back with Gunther to the cottage.</p> + +<p class="normal">The newly espoused arrived at the dairy-farm. The first thing +they did +was to go to the crown prince's apartments and, while they stood at the +child's bed, the king said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"He sleeps, and his innocent, infant mind knows nothing of +our +differences. It is well for us that, with his dawning powers, he will +see in us only love and harmony, enduring unto death."</p> + +<p class="normal">During all that night, the king and queen sat by the lamp, +reading the +journal of the solitary worldling.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gunther and Bronnen had lingered in the hut above. Gunther +sat with +Walpurga for a while, holding her hand in his, while he told her that +her perfect innocence had now been brought to light. A silent nod was +her only reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cows gathered about the hut. Their bellowing and snorting +proved +that their unerring instinct told them of the presence of death, and +scarcely were they driven away, before they returned again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little pitchman dug a grave during the night. It was up +at the spot +where Irma had so often rested. He shed many a tear over his work, and +once, when he paused to take breath, said to himself: "When the kid is +old enough to run of itself, I'll let it go back into the woods."</p> + +<p class="normal">Irma was buried at early dawn. Hansei, the little pitchman, +Gunther and +Bronnen carried her, Walpurga and the child following after them. +Gundel and Franz had covered the sides and the bottom of the grave with +Alpine roses. Wrapped in the queen's white mantle, Irma was silently +laid to rest, just as the rosy dawn appeared in the east.</p> + +<p class="normal">Down in the valley, the king and queen had been reading +Irma's journal. +Day was breaking. They gazed at the rosy dawn and lifted their eyes to +the mountains--to where Irma was being buried on the heights.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note01" href="#div2Ref_note01">Footnote 1</a>: The familiar "thou."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note02" href="#div2Ref_note02">Footnote 2</a>: Kammer--meaning here the chamberlain and other +officers +composing the household.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note03" href="#div2Ref_note03">Footnote 3</a>: Church festival.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note04" href="#div2Ref_note04">Footnote 4</a>: "Geh zum Kukuk!"]</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note05" href="#div2Ref_note05">Footnote 5</a>: "He who goes up with the cattle into the +mountains, during +the good season, is a 'Senn.' In Switzerland, this is done by men; in +the Eastern Alps, in the Bavarian highlands, and in Austria, generally +by women--the 'Sennerin,' 'Almerin.'"</p> + +<p class="right">(<i>The Alps</i>--<span class="sc">H. Berlepsch</span>.)</p> + +<br> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">"The first great English novel that has appeared in the 20th +century."--Lewis Melville in <i>N. Y. Times Saturday Review</i>.</p> + +<h1>Joseph Vance</h1> + +<p class="continue">By <span class="sc">William De Morgan</span>. 4th Printing. $1.75.</p> + +<p class="normal">A notable novel of life near London in the fifties.</p> + +<p class="normal">From Mr. Melville's article in the <i>Times Review</i>: "It is +epic in its +conception, magnificent in its presentment.... 'Joseph Vance' is a book +for laughter and for tears, and for smiles mingled with an occasional +sob, that triumph achieved only by the best of humorists.... One of the +tenderest figures in modern fiction.... I write this before the +appearance of 'Alice-for-short.' ... 'Joseph Vance,' in my opinion, is +the book not of the last year, but of the last decade; the best thing +in fiction since 'Mr. Meredith and Mr. Hardy'; a book that must take +its place, by virtue of its tenderness and pathos, its wit and humor, +its love of human kind, and its virile characterization, as the first +great English novel that has appeared in the twentieth century." + +<hr class="W90"> + + + + +<h1>Alice-for-short</h1> + + +<p class="continue">By <span class="sc">William De Morgan</span>. 4th Printing. $1.75.</p> + +<p class="normal">The experiences, some of them decidedly dramatic, of a London +waif, the +artist who was kind to her, and of his family and friends.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Dial</i>: "'Joseph Vance' was far and away the best novel of +the year, +and of many years.... Mr. De Morgan's second novel proves to be no less +remarkable, and equally productive of almost unalloyed delight.... The +reader is hereby warned that if he skims 'Alice-for-short' it will be +to his own serious loss. The cream reaches to the dregs.... A story of +extraordinary interest.... A remarkable example of the art of fiction +at its noblest."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>N. Y. Times Review</i>: "He is no more afraid to set down the +little +language of lovers and children and mothers than he is to deal with +murder or suicide or ghosts.... These two novels of his seem to us to +prove not only that the English novel is not dead, but that it is safe +to develop on the lines laid down by the old masters." + +<hr class="W90"> + + + +<table style="width:80%; margin-left:10%"> +<colgroup><col style="width:33%; text-align:left"> +<col style="width:33%; text-align:center"> +<col style="width:33%; text-align:right"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"><p class="space">Henry Holt and Company</p></td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Publishers</td> +<td>(vi, '07)</td> +<td>New York</td></tr></table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h1>By MAY SINCLAIR</h1> +<hr class="W90"> + + + + +<h2>THE HELPMATE</h2> + +<h3>12mo. $1.50</h3> + +<p class="normal"><i>The Literary Digest</i> says: "The novels of May Sinclair make +waste +paper of most of the fiction of a season." This new story, the first +written since "The Divine Fire," will strengthen the author's +reputation. It has been serialized in <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, and <i>The +New York Sun</i> says of an early instalment:</p> +<div style="font-size:90%"> +<p class="normal">"Miss Sinclair's new novel, 'The Helpmate,' is attracting +much +attention. It is a miniature painting of delicacy and skill, +reproducing few characters in a small space, with fine sincerity,--the +invalid sister, the man with a past, and the wife with strict +convictions. The riddle is to find which one of the women is the +helpmate. In the vital situation thus far developed the sister is +leading in the race."</p> +</div> +<p class="normal">As the plot develops the canvas is filled in with other +characters as +finely drawn. The story grips the reader. Lovers of good literature and +of a good story will delight in its development.</p> + +<h2>THE DIVINE FIRE</h2> + +<p class="normal">The story of the regeneration of a London poet and the +degeneration of +a London critic. 15th printing. $1.50.</p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc">Mary Moss</span> in the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>: "Certain it is that in +all our new +fiction I have found nothing worthy to compare with 'The Divine Fire,' +nothing even remotely approaching the same class."</p> + +<h2>AUDREY CRAVEN</h2> + +<p class="normal">The story of a pretty little woman with the soul of a spoiled +child, +who had a fatal fascination for most men. 3d printing. $1.50.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Literary Digest</i>: "Humor is of the spontaneous sort and +rings true, +and the lancet of her wit and epigram, tho keen, is never cruel.... An +author whose novels may be said to make waste paper of most of the +fiction of a season."</p> + +<h2>SUPERSEDED</h2> + +<p class="normal">The story of two highly contrasted teachers in a girls' +school. 2d +printing. $1.25.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>New York Sun</i>: "It makes one wonder if in future years the +quiet +little English woman may not be recognised as a new Jane Austen."</p> + +<h2>THE TYSONS</h2> + +<h3>(Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson)</h3> + +<p class="normal"><i>Chicago Record-Herald</i>: "Maintains a clinging grip upon the +mind and +senses, compelling one to acknowledge the author's genius." + +<hr class="W90"> +<table style="width:80%; margin-left:10%"> +<colgroup><col style="width:50%; text-align:left"> + +<col style="width:50%; text-align:right"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><h2>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h2></td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Publishers</td> +<td>New York</td></tr></table> + + +<br> +<br> + +<h1>Hale's Dramatists of To-day</h1> + +<p class="right">Rostand, Hauptmann, Sudermann, <br> +Pinero, Shaw, Phillips, Maeterlinck</p> + +<p class="continue">By <span class="sc">Prof. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Jr.</span> of Union College. With gilt +top. +$1.50 net. (By mail, $1.60.)</p> + +<p class="normal">An informal discussion of their principal plays and of the +performances +of some of them. A few of those considered are <i>Man and Superman</i>, +<i>Candida</i>, <i>Cyrano de Bergerac</i>, <i>L'Aiglon</i>, <i>The Sunken Bell</i>, +<i>Magda</i>, <i>Ulysses</i>, <i>Letty</i>, <i>Iris</i>, and <i>Pelleas</i> and <i>Melisande</i>. The +volume opens with a paper "On Standards of Criticism," and concludes +with "Our Idea of Tragedy," and an appendix of all the plays of each +author, with dates of their first performance or publication.</p> +<div style="font-size:90%"> +<p class="normal"><i>Bookman</i>: "He writes in a pleasant, free-and-easy way.... He +accepts +things chiefly at their face value, but he describes them so accurately +and agreeably that he recalls vividly to mind the plays we have seen +and the pleasure we have found in them."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>New York Evening Post</i>: "It is not often nowadays that a +theatrical +book can be met with so free from gush and mere eulogy, or so weighted +by common sense ... an excellent chronological appendix and full index +... uncommonly useful for reference."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Dial</i>: "Noteworthy example of literary criticism in one of +the most +interesting of literary fields.... Provides a varied menu of the most +interesting character.... Prof. Hale establishes confidential relations +with the reader from the start.... Very definite opinions, clearly +reasoned and amply fortified by example.... Well worth reading a second +time."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>New York Tribune</i>: "Both instructive and entertaining."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Brooklyn Eagle</i>: "A dramatic critic who is not just +'busting' himself +with Titanic intellectualities, but who is a readable dramatic +critic.... Mr. Hale is a modest and sensible, as well as an acute and +sound critic.... Most people will be surprised and delighted with Mr. +Hale's simplicity, perspicuity, and ingenuousness."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>New York Dramatic Mirror</i>: "Though one may not always agree +with Mr. +Hale's opinions, yet one always finds that he has something interesting +to say, and that he says it well. Entertaining and generally +instructive without being pedantic."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>The Theatre</i>: "A pleasing lightness of touch.... Very +readable book." +</div> +<hr class="W90"> +<hr class="W90" style="margin-top:-9px"> + +<table style="width:80%; margin-left:10%"> +<colgroup><col style="width:50%; text-align:left"> + +<col style="width:50%; text-align:right"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><h2>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h2></td></tr> +<tr> +<td>Publishers</td> +<td>New York</td></tr></table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h1>THE NIBELUNGENLEID</h1> + +<p class="hang1">Translated into rhymed verse in the metre of the original by +<span class="sc">George +Henry Needler</span>, of University College, Toronto. Gilt top, 335 pp. 12mo. +$1.75 net (by mail $1.87).</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Prof. H. C. G. Brandt</i>, <i>Hamilton College</i>, <i>Clinton, N. +Y.</i>: "It is +the best English translation, without question. The translator shows +his good judgment when he retains the original strophe, the +characteristic last half-verse with its four ictus included. That a +Germanist could write an introduction of only 36 pages to such a +much-discussed epic will be a marvel to his fellows. But it contains +all the general reader wants and needs to know."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>N. Y. Evening Post</i>: "At last we have an English translation +of the +<i>Nibelungenlied</i> which is in every way worthy of the original."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>N. Y. Times Review</i>: "The book stands in no need of any +apology.... +The scholarly introduction deserves unqualified praise."</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Buffalo Commercial</i>: "This version, it is safe to say, is +the best +ever published in our language." + +<hr class="W20"> + + +<p class="hang1"><b>AUS DEUTSCHEN MEISTERWERKEN (Nibelungen, Parcival, Gudrun, Tristan und +Isolde)</b>. Erzählt von Sigmon M. Stern. With a full vocabulary, xxvii + +225 pp. 16mo. $1.20.</p> +<div style="font-size:90%"> +<p class="normal">A simple version <i>in German</i> of those great German legends +which every +educated person should know. Under Parcival, the legend of Lohengrin is +also told. The stories are broken up into short easy chapters, and +written in such simple German that no editorial matter, beyond a few +words of introduction, has been thought necessary.</p> +</div> +<p class="hang1"><b>WAGNER'S RING OF THE NIBELUNG</b><br> + +By <span class="sc">G. T. Dippold</span>. <i>Revised Edition</i>, 12mo. $1.50.</p> +<div style="font-size:90%"> +<p class="normal">The mythological basis is explained. (76 pp.) Then the +stories of the +four music dramas are given with translations of many passages and some +description of the music. (160 pp.)</p> +</div> +<table style="width:80%; margin-left:10%; font-weight:bold"> +<colgroup><col style="50%; text-align:left; vertical-align:top"><col style="50%; text-align:right"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td>HENRY HOLT & CO.,</td> +<td>29 W. 23d St., NEW YORK<br> +378 Wabash Ave., CHICAGO</td> +</tr></table> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Heights, by Berthold Auerbach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE HEIGHTS *** + +***** This file should be named 33294-h.htm or 33294-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/2/9/33294/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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