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diff --git a/34868-8.txt b/34868-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac222db --- /dev/null +++ b/34868-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29030 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hammer and Anvil, by Friedrich Spielhagen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hammer and Anvil + A Novel + +Author: Friedrich Spielhagen + +Translator: William Hand Browne + +Release Date: January 6, 2011 [EBook #34868] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAMMER AND ANVIL *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/3626115 + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + + BY COPYRIGHT ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AUTHOR. + + * * * * * + + _THE NOVELS OF_ + + FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN. + + _12mo, cloth, uniform in size and style, per vol._, $2.00. + + JUST PUBLISHED. + + _I.--PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS_. + + _II.--THROUGH NIGHT TO LIGHT_. + + _III.--THE HOHENSTEINS_. + + The above translated by Prof. SCHELE DE VERE. + + _IV.--HAMMER AND ANVIL_. + + Translated by WM. HAND BROWNE. + + IN PRESS. + + _V.--IN RANK AND FILE_. + + _VI.--ROSE, AND THE VILLAGE COQUETTE_. + + + * * * * * + + + CRITICAL NOTICES. + + +"Such a novel as no English author with whom we are acquainted could +have written, and no American author except Hawthorne. What separates +it from the multitude of American and English novels is the perfection +of its plot, and its author's insight into the souls of his +characters.... If Germany is poorer than England, as regards the number +of its novelists, it is richer when we consider the intellectual value +of their works. If it has not produced a Thackeray, or a Dickens, it +has produced, we venture to think, two writers who are equal to them in +genius, and superior to them in the depth and spirituality of their +art--Auerbach and Spielhagen."--_Putnam's Magazine_. + +"The name is suggested by a passage in Goethe, which serves as a +motto to the book. Spielhagen means to illustrate what Goethe speaks +of--natures not in full possession of themselves, 'who are not equal to +any situation in life, and whom no situation satisfies'--the Hamlet of +our latest civilization. With these he deals in a poetic, ideal +fashion, yet also with humor, and, what is less to be expected in a +German, with sparkling, flashing wit, and a cynical vein that reminds +one of Heine. He has none of the tiresome detail of Auerbach, while he +lacks somewhat that excellent man's profound devotion to the moral +sentiment. There is more depth of passion and of thought in Spielhagen, +together with a French liveliness by no means common in German +novelists.... At any rate, they are vastly superior to the bulk of +English novels which are annually poured out upon us--as much +above Trollope's as Steinberger Cabinet is better than London +porter.--_Springfield Republican_. + +"The reader lives among them (the characters) as he does among his +acquaintances, and may plead each one's case as plausibly to his own +judgment as he can those of the men whose mixed motives and actions he +sees around him. In other words, these characters live, they are men +and women, and the whole mystery of humanity is upon each of them. Has +no superior in German romance for its enthusiastic and lively +descriptions, and for the dignity and the tenderness with which its +leading characters are invested."--_New York Evening Post_. + +"He strikes with a blow like a blacksmith, making the sparks fly and +the anvil ring. Terse, pointed, brilliant, rapid, and no dreamer, he +has the best traits of the French manner, while in earnestness and +fulness of matter he is thoroughly German. One sees, moreover, in his +pages, how powerful is the impression which America has of late been +making upon the mind of Europe."--_Boston Commonwealth_. + +"The work is one of immense vigor; the characters are extraordinary, +yet not unnatural; the plot is the sequence of an admirably-sustained +web of incident and action. The portraitures of characteristic foibles +and peculiarities remind one much of the masterhand of the great +Thackeray. The author Spielhagen In Germany ranks very much as +Thackeray does with us, and many of his English reviewers place him at +the head and front of German novelists."--_Troy Daily Times_. + +"His characters have, perhaps, more passion, and act their parts with +as much dramatic effect as those which have passed under the hand of +Auerbach."--_Cincinnati Chronicle_. + + + +The N. Y. Times, of Oct. 23d, in a long Review of the above two works, +says: "The descriptions of nature and art, the portrayals of character +and emotion, are always striking and truthful. As one reads, there +grows upon him gradually the conviction that this is one of the +greatest of works of fiction.... No one, that is not a pure _egoiste_, +can read _Problematic Characters_ without profound and even solemn +interest. It is altogether a tragic work, the tragedy of the nineteenth +century--greater in its truth and earnestness, and absence of _Hugoese_ +affectation, than any tragedy the century has produced. It stands far +above any of the productions of either _Freytag_ or _Auerbach_." + + * * * * * + + _LEYPOLDT & HOLT, Publishers_, + + 25 BOND ST., NEW YORK. + + + + + + + HAMMER AND ANVIL + + + _A Novel_ + + + BY + + FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN + + + _Author's Edition_. + + + + + NEW YORK + LEYPOLDT & HOLT + 25 Bond Street + 1870. + + + + + + + HAMMER AND ANVIL + + + A NOVEL + + + BY + FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN + + + FROM THE GERMAN + BY + WILLIAM HAND BROWNE + + + _Author's Edition_. + + + + + NEW YORK + LEYPOLDT & HOLT + 25 Bond Street + 1870. + + + + + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by + LEYPOLDT & HOLT, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States + for the Southern District of New York. + + + + + + +STEREOTYPED BY PRESS OF +DENNIS BRO'S & THORNE, THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY +AUBURN, N. Y. _81, 83, and 85 Centre Street_, + NEW YORK + + + + + + + HAMMER AND ANVIL. + + + PART FIRST. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + +We were standing in a deep recess at the open window of our class-room. +The sparrows were noisily chattering in the school-yard, and some +scattered rays of the late summer sun glanced past the old gray walls +down to the grass-grown pavement; from the class-room, which was +high-ceilinged, sunless, and ill-ventilated, came the buzzing sound of +repressed talk from our schoolfellows, who were all in their places, +bent over their Sophocles, and watching for the arrival of the "old +man," who was looked for every moment. + +"At the worst, you can shuffle through somehow," I was saying, when the +door opened and he came in. + +_He_--Professor Lederer, Provisory Director of the Gymnasium, and +Ordinarius of the first form,[1] "the old man," as we used to call +him--was in reality not exactly old, but a man past the middle of the +forties, whose small head, already turning gray, rested upon a stiff +white cravat, and whose tall and extraordinarily lean figure was +buttoned up, from one year's end to the other, summer and winter, in a +coat of the finest and glossiest black. His slender hands, of which he +took extreme care, with their long and tapering fingers--when twitching +nervously, as they had a habit of doing, close under my eyes--had +always a sort of fascination for me, and more than once I could +scarcely resist the temptation to seize one of those artistic-looking +hands and crush it in my own coarse brown fist. + +Professor Lederer always paced the distance from the door to his desk +in twelve measured, dignified strides, head and eyes a little drooped, +with the austere look of intensest meditation; like a priest +approaching the sacrificial altar, or a Caesar entering the senate--at +all events like a being who, far removed from the modern plebeian +sphere, walked day by day in the light of the sun of Homer, and was +perfectly aware of the majestic fact. So it was never a judicious +proceeding to try to detain this classical man upon this short journey, +and in most cases a prohibitory gesture of his hand checked the +attempt; but the sanguine Arthur was so sure that his request would not +be refused, that he ventured it, reckless of further consequences. So, +stepping out in front of the professor, he asked for a holiday for the +day, which was Saturday. + +"Certainly not," said the professor. + +"To go sailing," urged Arthur, not in the least deterred by the +stern tone of the professor, for my friend Arthur was not easily +abashed--"to go in my uncle's steamboat to examine the oyster-beds +which my uncle planted two years ago. I have a note from my father, you +know, professor," and he produced the credential in question. + +"Certainly not!" repeated the professor. His pale face flushed a little +with irritation; his white hand, from which he had drawn his black +glove, was extended towards Arthur with a classical minatory gesture; +his blue eyes deepened in hue, like the sea when a cloud-shadow passes +over it. + +"Certainly not!" he exclaimed for the third time, strode past Arthur to +his desk, and after silently folding his white hands, explained that he +was too much excited to begin with the customary prayers. And presently +followed a stammering philippic--the professor always stammered when +irritated--against that pest of youth, worldliness and hankering after +pleasure, which chiefly infected precisely those upon whom rested the +smallest portion of the spirit of Apollo and Pallas Athené. "He was a +mild and humane man," he said, "and well mindful of the words of the +poet, that it was well to lay seriousness aside at the proper time and +place; ay, even at times to quaff the wine-cup and move the feet +in the dance; but then the cause should be sufficient to justify the +license--a Virgil must have returned from a far-off land, or a +Cleopatra have freed the people from imminent peril by her voluntary, +yet involuntary death. But how could any one who notoriously was one of +the worst scholars--yes, might be styled absolutely the worst, unless +one other"--here the professor gave a side-glance at me--"could claim +this evil pre-eminence--how could such a one dare to clutch at a +garland which should only encircle a brow dripping with the sweat of +industry! Was he, the speaker, too strict? He thought not. Assuredly, +no one could wish it more earnestly than he, and no one would rejoice +more heartily than he, if the subject of his severe rebuke would even +now give the proof of his innocence by translating without an error the +glorious chorus of the _Antigone_, which was the theme of the morning's +lecture. Von Zehren, commence!" + +Poor Arthur! I still see, after the lapse of so many years, his +beautiful, but even then somewhat worn face, striving in vain to hold +fast upon its lips the smile of aristocratic indifference with which he +had listened to the professor's rebuke, as he took the book and read, +not too fluently, a verse or two of the Greek. Even in this short +reading the scornful smile gradually faded, and he glanced from under +his dropped lids a look of beseeching perplexity towards his neighbor +and Pylades. But how was it possible for me to help him; and who knew +better than he how impossible it was? So the inevitable came to pass. +He turned the "shaft of Helios" into a "shield of Æolus," and blundered +on in pitiable confusion. The others announced their better knowledge +by peals of laughter, and a grim smile of triumph over his discomfiture +even played over the grave features of the professor. + +"The curs!" muttered Arthur with white lips, as he took his seat after +the recitation had lasted a couple of minutes. "But why did you not +prompt me?" + +I had no time to answer this idle question, for it was now my turn. But +I had no notion of making sport for my comrades by submitting to be +classically racked; so I declared that I was even less prepared than my +friend, and added that I trusted this testimony would corroborate the +charge that the professor had been pleased to bring against me. + +I accompanied these words with a threatening look at the others, which +at once checked their mirth; and the professor, either thinking he had +gone far enough, or not deigning to notice my insolent speech, turned +away with a shrug of the shoulders, and contented himself with treating +us with silent contempt for the rest of the recitation, while towards +the others he was unusually amiable, enlivening the lesson by sallies +of the most classical and learned wit. + +No sooner had the door closed behind him, than Arthur stood up before +the first form and said: + +"You fellows have behaved meanly again, as you always do; but as for +me, I have no notion of staying here any longer. The old man will not +be back any more to-day; and if the others ask for me, say I am sick." + +"And for me too," cried I, stepping up to Arthur and laying my arm on +his shoulder. "I am going with him. A fellow that deserts his friend is +a sneak." + +A moment later we had dropped from the window twelve feet into the +yard, and crouching between two buttresses that the professor might not +espy us as he went out, we consulted what was next to be done. + +There were two ways of getting out of the closed court in which we now +were: either to slip through the long crooked corridors of the +gymnasium--an old monastery--and so out into the street; or to go +directly through the professor's house, which joined the yard at one +corner, and thence upon the promenade, which nearly surrounded the +town, and had in fact been constructed out of the old demolished +town-walls. The first course was hazardous, for it often happened that +a pair of teachers would walk up and down the cool corridors in +conversation long after the regular time for the commencement of the +lessons, and we had no minute to lose in waiting. The other was still +more dangerous, for it led right through the lion's den; but it was far +shorter, and practicable every moment, so we decided to venture it. + +Creeping close to the wall, right under the windows of our class-room, +in which the second lesson had already begun, we reached the narrow +gate that opened into the little yard of the professor's house. Here +all was quiet; through the open door we could see into the wide hall +paved with slabs of stone, where the professor, who had just returned, +was playing with his youngest boy, a handsome black-haired little +fellow of six years, chasing him with long strides, and clapping his +white hands. The child laughed and shouted, and at one time ran out +into the yard, directly towards where we were hidden behind a pile of +firewood--two more steps of the little feet, and we should have been +detected. + +I have often thought, since that time, that on those two little steps, +in reality, depended nothing less than the whole destiny of my life. If +the child had discovered us, we had only to come forward from behind +the wood-pile, which every one had to pass in going from the gymnasium +to the director's house, as two scholars on their way to their teacher +to ask his pardon for their misbehavior. At least Arthur confessed to +me that this idea flashed into his mind as the child came towards us. +Then there would have been another reprimand, but in a milder tone, for +the professor was a kind man at the bottom of his heart; we should have +gone back to the class-room, pretended to our schoolmates that our +running away was only a joke, and--well, I do not know what would have +happened then; certainly not what really did happen. + +But the little trotting feet did not come to us; the father, following +with long strides, caught the child and tossed it in the air till the +black curls glistened in the sunshine, and then carried it back, +caressing it, to the house, where Mrs. Professor now appeared at the +door, with her hair in papers, and a white apron on; and then father, +mother, and child disappeared. Through the open door we could see that +the hall was empty--now or never was the time. + +With beating hearts, such as only beat in the breasts of school-boys +bent on some dangerous prank, we stole to the door through the silent +hall where the motes were sparkling in the sunbeams that slanted +through the gothic windows. As we opened the house-door, the bell gave +a clear note of warning; but even now the leafy trees of the promenade +were beckoning to us; in half a minute we were concealed by the thick +bushes, and hastening with rapid steps, that now and then quickened to +a half run, towards the port. + +"What will you say to your father?" I asked. + +"Nothing at all, because he will ask no questions," Arthur replied; "or +if he does, I will say that I was let off; what else? It will be +capital; I shall have splendid fun." + +We kept on for a while in silence. For the first time it occurred to me +that I had run away from school for just nothing at all. If Arthur came +in for a couple of days in the dungeon, he, at all events, would have +had "splendid fun," and thus, for him at least, there was some show of +reason in the thing. His parents, too, were very indulgent; his share +of the danger was as good as none, while I ran all the risk of +discovery and punishment without the least compensation; and my stern +old father was a man who understood no trifling, least of all in +matters of this sort. So once again, as many times before, I had helped +to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for somebody else. However, what +did it matter? Here, under the rustling trees, after our brisk race, it +was more pleasant than in the stifling class-room; and for me, in those +times, every silly, venturesome frolic had a pleasure in itself. So I +felt it a special piece of magnanimity on the part of my usually +selfish friend, when he suddenly said: + +"Look here, George, you shall come too. Uncle charged me particularly +to bring as many friends as I could. I tell you it will be splendid. +Elise Kohl and Emilie Heckepfennig are going with us. For once I shall +leave Emilie to you. And then the oysters, and the champagne, and the +pineapple punch--yes, you certainly must come." + +"And my father?" I said; but I only said it, for my resolution to be +one of the party was already taken. Emilie Heckepfennig--Emilie, with +her little turned-up nose and laughing eyes, who had always shown me a +decided preference; and recently, at forfeits, had given me a hearty +kiss, to which she was in no wise bound, and whom Arthur, the coxcomb, +was going to leave especially to me! Yes, I must go along, happen what +might. + +"Can I go as I am, do you think?" I asked, suddenly halting, with a +glance at my dress, which was plain and neat, it is true--I was always +neat--but not exactly the thing for company. + +"Why not?" said Arthur. "What difference does it make? And, besides, we +have not a minute to spare." + +Arthur, who was in his best clothes, had not looked at me, nor +slackened his pace in the least. We had not a minute to spare, that was +true enough, for as slipping through some narrow alleys we reached the +harbor, we heard the bell ringing on board the steamer that was lying +at the wharf just ready to start. The sturdy figure of the captain was +seen standing upon the paddle-box. We pushed through the crowd on the +wharf, ran up the gang-plank, which they were just hauling in, and +mingled with the gay throng on deck, as the wheels began to turn. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +"How you startled me!" said Frau von Zehren, seizing her son by both +hands. "We began to think, what was really impossible, that Professor +Lederer had refused you permission. You see now, Zehren, that I was +right." + +"Well, it is all right now," replied the steuerrath.[2] "The young +ladies were inconsolable at the prospect of your absence Arthur--or am +I saying too much, Fräulein Emilie and Fräulein Elise?" and the +steuerrath turned with a polite wave of his hand to the young ladies, +who tittered and nodded their dark broad-brimmed straw-hats at each +other. + +"And now you must speak to your uncle," he went on; "but where is your +uncle, then?" and he ran his eye over the company that was moving about +the deck. + +The Commerzienrath Streber came bouncing up. His little, light-blue +eyes glittered under bushy gray brows, the long peak of his +old-fashioned cap was pushed back from his bald forehead, the left +sleeve of his loose blue frock-coat, with gold buttons, had slipped +half off his shoulder, as he hurried along on his little legs, cased in +yellow nankeen trousers: + +"Where has that rascal John put the----?" + +"Allow me, brother-in-law, to present my Arthur----." + +"Very good," cried the commerzienrath, without even giving a look at +the presentee. "Aha! there the villain is!" and he made a dart at his +servant, who was just coming up the companion-way with a tray of +glasses. + +The steuerrath and his lady exchanged a look, in which "the old brute," +or some similarly flattering expression, was plainly legible. Arthur +had joined the young ladies and said something at which they burst out +laughing and rapped him with their parasols; I, whom nobody seemed to +notice, turned away and went on the more quiet forward deck, where I +found a seat upon a coil of rope, and leaning my back against the +capstan, looked out upon the bright sky and the bright sea. + +In the meantime the boat had left the harbor, and was moving down with +the coast on our larboard, where the red roofs of the fishermen's +cottages shone through the trees and bushes; while on the narrow strip +of level beach here and there figures were seen, seafaring folks +probably, or sea-bathers, who were watching the steamer go by. To our +right the shore receded, so that it was only just possible to +distinguish it from the water; before us, but at a still more remote +distance, gleamed the chalk-coast of the neighboring island over the +blue expanse of sea, which now began to roughen a little under a +fresher breeze, while countless flocks of seabirds now flew up from the +approach of the puffing steamer, and now, with their cunning heads +turned towards us, sported on the waves and filled the air with their +monotonous cries. + +It was a bright and lovely morning; but though I saw its beauty, it +gave me no pleasure. I felt singularly dejected. Had the _Penguin_ +that, with a sluggishness altogether at variance with her name, was +slowly toiling through the water, been a beautiful swift clipper, bound +for China or Buenos Ayres, or somewhere thousands of miles away, and I +a passenger with a great purse of gold, or even a sailor before the +mast, with the assurance that I should never again set eyes on the +hateful steeples of my native town, I should have been light-hearted +enough. But now! what was it then that made me so low-spirited? The +consciousness of my disobedience? Dread of the disagreeable +consequences, now, to all human foresight, inevitable? Nothing of the +sort. The worst could only be that my stern father would drive me from +his house, as he had already often enough threatened to do; and this +possibility I regarded as a deliverance from a yoke which seemed to +grow more intolerable every day; and as the idea arose in my mind, I +welcomed it with a smile of grim satisfaction. No, it was not that. +What then? + +Well, to have run away from school with an ardor as if some glorious +prize was to be won, and then, in a merry company, on the deck of a +steamboat, to sit away by myself on a coil of rope, not one of the +gentlemen or ladies taking the slightest notice of me, and with not +even the prospect that the waiter, with the caviar-rolls and port wine, +would at last come round to me! This last neglect, to tell the honest +truth, for the moment afflicted me most sorely of all. My appetite, as +was natural for a robust youth of nineteen, was always of the best, +and now by the brisk run from school to the harbor and the fresh +sea-breeze, it was sharpened to a distressing keenness. + +I stood up in a paroxysm of impatience, but quickly sat down again. No, +Arthur certainly would come and take me to the company; it was the +least that he owed me, after I had been so obliging as to run away +with him. As if he had ever yet paid me what he owed me! How many +fishing-rods, canary birds, shells, fifes, pocket-knives, had he not +already bought of me, that is, coaxed and worried me out of, without +ever paying me for them. Ay, how often had he not borrowed my slender +stock of pocket-money, whenever the amount made it worth his while; for +which sometimes even a couple of _silbergroschen_ sufficed. + +Curious, that just now, on this bright sunny morning, I should take to +reckoning up this black account! It was certainly the first time since +the beginning of our friendship, which dated at least from our sixth +year. For I had always loved the handsome slender boy, who had such +sunny hair and gentle brown eyes, and whose velvet Sunday jacket felt +so soft to the touch. I had loved him as a great rough mastiff might +love a delicate greyhound that he could crush with one snap of his +jaws; and so I loved him even now, while he was flirting with the +girls, and chattering and laughing with the company like the _petit +maître_ he was. + +I grew very melancholy as I watched all this from my place, where +nobody could see me--very melancholy and altogether disspirited. I must +have been very hungry. + +We were now just rounding a long headland, which ran out from the +western coast. At its farthest low extremity, in a spot entirely +surrounded by water, separated by a wide interval from the row of +houses on the dune, and shadowed by a half-decayed oak, stood a +cottage, the sight of which called into my mind a flood of pleasant +memories. The old blacksmith, Pinnow, lived there, the father of my +friend Klaus Pinnow. Smith Pinnow was by far the most remarkable +personage of all my acquaintance. He possessed four old double-barreled +percussion guns, and a long single-barreled fowling-piece with a flint +lock, which he used to hire to the bathers when they took a fancy to +have a little shooting, and sometimes to us youngsters when we were in +funds, for Smith Pinnow was not in the habit of conferring gratuitous +favors. He had, besides, a great sail-boat, also kept for the bathing +company, at least of late years, since he had grown half blind and +could not venture longer trips. The rumor ran that formerly he used to +make very different voyages, of by no means so innocent a character; +and the excise officers, my father's colleagues (my father had lately +been promoted to an accountantship) shook their heads when Smith +Pinnow's by-gone doings happened to be referred to. But what was that +to us youngsters? Especially, what was it to me, who owed the happiest +hours of my life to the four rusty guns, and the fowling-piece, and +Smith Pinnow's old boat, and who had had the best comrade in the world +in Klaus Pinnow? Had had, I say, for during the last four years, while +Klaus was an apprentice to the locksmith Wangerow, and afterwards when +he became a journeyman, I had seen him but seldom, and, indeed, for the +last half year not at all. + +He came at once into my mind as we steamed past his father's cottage, +and I perceived a figure standing on the sands by the side of the boat +which was drawn up on the beach. The distance was great, but my keen +eyes recognized Christel Möwe, Klaus's adopted sister, whom sixteen +years before, old Pinnow's wife--long since dead--had found the morning +after a storm, lying on the beach among the boxes and planks driven +ashore from a wreck, and whom the old blacksmith, in an unwonted +impulse of generosity, as some said, or to raise his credit with the +neighbors, according to others, had taken into his house. The wreck was +a Dutch ship from Java, as they made out from some of the things cast +ashore; but her name and owners were never discovered--probably from +the negligence of the officials charged with the investigations--and +they named the little foundling Christina, or Christel, Möwe [_Gull_], +because the screams of a flock of gulls in the air had attracted +Goodwife Pinnow to the spot where the child was lying. + +A noise close at hand caused me to look round. Two paces from me a +hatchway was opened, and out of the hatchway emerged the figure of a +man who was standing on the ladder, but whose head rose high enough +above the deck to allow him to see over the low bulwarks. His short +stiff hair, his broad face, his bare muscular neck, his breast open +almost to the belt, his shirt which had once been striped with red, and +his trousers which had once been white--were all covered with a thick +black deposit of coal-dust; and as he was blinking with his small eyes +almost shut in order to see more keenly some distant object, he would +have presented an unbroken surface of blackness, had he not at this +moment expanded an immense mouth into a joyous grin, and displayed two +rows of teeth of unsurpassed whiteness. And now he raised himself a few +inches higher, waved his great black hand as a greeting towards the +beach, and all at once I recognized him. + +"Klaus!" I called out. + +"Hallo!" he cried, starting, and quickly bringing his small eyes to +bear upon me. + +"That was a mighty affectionate salute of yours, Klaus." + +Klaus blushed visibly through his rind of soot, and showed all his +teeth. "Why, in the name of ----, George," cried he, "where do you come +from, and what has brought you here?" + +"And what has brought you here?" + +"I have been here ever since Easter. I have had it in my mind for some +time to come to see you and inquire after your health." + +"You foolish fellow, why do you put on that respectful tone with me?" + +"Oh, you belong to the great folks now," replied Klaus, jerking his +thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the quarter-deck. + +"I wish I were below with you, and you would give me a good thick slice +of bread and butter. Hang the great folks, as you call them." + +Klaus looked at me in astonishment. + +"Well, but why in the world----" he began. + +"Why am I here? Is that what you mean? Why, because I am a fool and an +ass." + +"Oh, no," remonstrated Klaus. + +"Yes, I am--a complete ass. I wish all my friends were as good as you +are, Klaus." Here I gave a glance towards the perfidious Arthur, who +was strutting about among the guests with the parasol of the perfidious +Emilie, while she had set his little straw-hat in a coquettish fashion +on her curls. + +"I am wanted below," said Klaus, with a friendly grin; "Good-by." And +down the ladder he went. + +"Was that a chimney-sweep?" asked a clear voice behind me. + +I turned hastily round, rising from my seat. There stood a charming +little lady of eight, in a little white frock with ribbons of +cornflower blue at the shoulders and streaming from her straw-hat, +whose great cornflower blue eyes first stared with intense curiosity at +the hatchway through which my black friend had vanished, and then +turned inquiringly to me. + +At this moment the hatch was raised again, and Klaus's head +emerged--"Shall I really get you a slice?" + +"Oh, mercy!" cried the little lady. Klaus vanished instantaneously, and +the hatch shut down with a bang. + +"Oh, mercy!" cried the little maid again. "How it frightened me!" + +"What frightened you, _ma chère_!" asked another voice. The voice was +extremely thin, and so was the lady to whom it belonged, and who had +just come out of the deck-cabin. So also was the worn dress of +changeable silk that fluttered about her figure, and the reddish locks +that drooped on each side of her pale face. + +This lady was Fräulein Amalie Duff, and the little maid with the +cornflower eyes and ribbons was her pupil, Hermine Streber, the +commerzienrath's only child. Of course I knew them both, as indeed I +was pretty well acquainted with everybody in our little town, as soon +as they were out of long-clothes; and they might well have known me, +for I had been two or three times with Arthur in his uncle's large +garden at the town-gate, and a fortnight before had even had the honor +to swing the little Hermine in the great wooden swing, from which, if +you swung high enough, you could catch a sight of the sea through the +tops of the trees. Fräulein Duff, moreover, was a native of the little +Saxon town which was the birthplace of my parents; and when she +arrived, some months before, she brought various messages and greetings +from the old home, which unhappily came too late for my good mother, +who had been resting in the churchyard for fifteen years. She had +frequently condescended indeed no longer ago than the afternoon of the +swinging to bestow her instructive conversation upon me; but she was +very near-sighted, and I could not take it amiss that she applied her +gold double eye-glass to her pale eyes, and with a sweeping reverence, +which in the dancing-school is called, I believe, _grand compliment_, +inquired: "Whom have I the honor to----?" + +I introduced myself. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +"O ciel!" cried Fräulein Duff, "_mon jeune compatriote!_ A thousand +pardons!--my near-sightedness! How is your respected father, and your +amiable mother? Dear me! how confused I am! But your sudden appearance +in this retired corner of the world has quite unnerved me. I was about +to say--the company are asking for you. How did you manage to elude +observation?--they are looking for you everywhere." + +"Yet I might have been found easily enough," I said, probably with a +touch of wounded pride in the tone, which did not escape the quick ear +of Fräulein Duff. + +"Ah, yes," she said, conveying a look of intelligence into her pale +eyes. "'Who solace seeks in solitude'--alas! too true. + + "'For gold all are longing, + Round gold all are thronging--'" + +"Not so wild, _ma chère_! The dreadful creature will tear your dress!" + +These last words were addressed to the little Hermine, who had begun to +romp on the smooth deck with a pretty little spaniel that had run to +her barking and jumping. + +"You have a feeling heart," continued the governess, turning again to +me; "I see it in the pained expression of your mouth. Your soul shrinks +from noisy joys; this boisterous merriment is odious to you. But we +poor ones must submit to the inevitable--or I, at least must. Would I +be here if it were not so? Upon this tossing bark, in terror for my +life? And all for what purpose? to assist at a cannibal feast! Innocent +oysters, which men tear from the maternal bosom of the sea to devour +alive! Is that a fit spectacle to be exhibited to a child?" and +Fräulein Duff shook her thin locks with an expression of the deepest +solicitude. + +"It remains yet to be seen whether we shall find any," I said, with +something like a sneer. + +"Do you think so? The other gentlemen doubt it, too. The water of the +Baltic is not salt enough. True, we are informed that the Romans +propagated them in fresh-water lakes near Naples--but why parade my +modest bit of learning before a young scholar like yourself? The good +commerzienrath! Yes, yes; despise reason and learning who will!--but +here he comes himself. Not a word of what we have been saying, my young +friend, I beseech you!" + +I had no time to assure the pale lady of my discretion, for nearly the +whole company came crowding on the forward-deck, in the wake of the +commerzienrath, who had the fat Mrs. Justizrath Heckepfennig upon his +arm, to look at a three-master that was just passing us under full +sail. In the next moment I was in the midst of the crowd, and the ice, +in which I had been sitting, so to speak, was broken. Arthur, whose +delicate face was already flushed by the wine he had been drinking, +clapped me on the shoulder and asked where upon earth I had been +hiding. The perfidious Emilie held out her hand and murmured: "Had you +then entirely forgotten me?" and--as just at that moment a salute was +fired from some small mortars on board the steamer--fell, with a little +scream, into my arms. The three-master, that was just returning from +the West Indies, belonged to the commerzienrath's fleet. They knew that +she would arrive to-day; and it was by no means disagreeable to the +commerzienrath to be able to carry his guests, on their way to his +oyster-beds, past the finest of his ships. He mounted the paddle-box, +speaking-trumpet in hand, and roared, at the pitch of his lungs, +something which, amid the universal hurrahing and the explosions of the +mortars, was perfectly inaudible to the bronzed captain of the ship, +who shrugged his broad shoulders as a sign that he could not catch a +word of it all. What difference did it make? It was a splendid sight; +and the commerzienrath upon the paddle-box, trumpet in hand, was the +chief figure in it. That was enough for him; and as the _Albatros_ with +her wide wings swept by, and the short legs of the _Penguin_ began to +paddle again, and he descended from his pedestal to receive the +congratulations of the company, his little clear eyes sparkled, his +nostrils expanded, and his loud laugh rang like the crowing of a cock, +exulting in the proud consciousness that he is the master of the +dunghill. + +The rest of the poultry freely acknowledged this superiority: there was +cackling and clucking, bowing and scraping, and no one more obsequious +than Arthur's father, the steuerrath, who kept constantly at the side +of the great man, saying, in his smooth voice, flatteries, which the +other received as a matter of course--something to which he was well +accustomed, especially from that quarter--with an indifference which to +most others would have been insulting. It is quite possible that +the steuerrath did not find this behavior on the part of his rich +brother-in-law altogether pleasant, but he was too much a man of the +world to give any outward sign of his inward emotions. But his spouse +was not quite so successful in her self-command, who, as born Baroness +Kippenreiter, had an unquestionable claim to respectful attention, and +a right to be dissatisfied if this were withheld. So she sought to +indemnify herself for the humiliation by the extremest possible +condescension of manner towards the other ladies, Mrs. Burgomaster +Koch, Mrs. Justizrath Heckepfennig, Mrs. Bauinspector Strombach, and +the rest of the feminine _élite_ of our little town, though even this +satisfaction could not roll away the clouds from her aristocratic brow. + +I had hardly begun to feel at ease in the company, which happened +quickly enough, when my natural vivacity, which bordered on rudeness, +returned and impelled me to a hundred pranks, which were decidedly not +in the best taste, though certainly not instigated by any intention to +offend, and which I carried on all the more recklessly, as I perceived +I had all the laughers on my side. I could blush with shame even now, +when I think of my shallow attempts at wit, and how poor in invention +and clumsy in execution were the comic imitations to which I must needs +treat my respectable audience, because forsooth I had a sort of +celebrity in the town for this sort of thing, (my masterpiece, I +remember, was a lover bent on regaling his mistress with a serenade, +and incessantly disturbed by barking dogs, mewing cats, scolding +neighbors, and malicious passers-by, and finally taken up by the +watch,) what foolish flippancy and want of tact in the speeches that I +made at the table, and with how many glasses of wine I repaid myself +for all my ridiculous exertions. + +And yet this lunch under an awning on deck of the steamer that was now +anchored in the calm, smooth sea, was the last real merry-making that I +was to have for many long years. I do not know if it was this that +keeps it so bright in my memory, or rather the youth that then glowed +in my veins, the wine that sparkled in the glasses, the bright sunshine +that glistened on the sea, and the sweet air that swept so softly over +the water that it did not suffice to cool the flushed cheeks of the +maidens. It was rather all together--youth, sunlight, sea-breeze, +golden wine, rosy cheeks; and ah! the oysters, the unlucky oysters, +that had had two years in which to multiply like the sand of the sea, +and which the sea-sand and sea-currents had buried and swept away, all +to a few empty shells! What an inexhaustible theme were these empty +shells, displayed with humorous ostentation in a splendid dish in the +centre of the table! how every one tried his wit on them, and what a +malicious joy each felt that the millionaire's obstinate conceit had +had a lesson, and that not all his millions could extort from nature +what she had determined to refuse! + +But the old fellow bore it all with the utmost good-humor; and after he +had bewailed his ill-luck in a humorous speech, suddenly a loud clamor +arose on the forward-deck, and the sailors dragged forward great +barrels of oysters, which they declared they had just taken up. Then +there was no end to the exultation and cheers to our magnificent host, +who once more had shown that his sagacity and foresight were even +greater than his conceit and his obstinacy. + +I do not know how late the feast was protracted, while the ladies +promenaded the deck; it was certainly kept up far too long for us +youngsters. Very queer stories were told, in which the commerzienrath +particularly distinguished himself; we laughed, we shouted--I must +volunteer songs, which were received with storms of applause, and I was +not a little vain as my powerful bass drew even the ladies to the table +again, and did my best, when both ladies and gentlemen joined in unison +in the glee, "What it means I cannot tell," to carry through a second +voice (in thirds), keeping my eye all the while on Fräulein Emilie--an +attention which naturally set the other young ladies to giggling and +nudging each other, and occasioned Arthur such pangs of jealousy, that +afterwards, as we were walking up and down the deck, with our cigars, +he called me to account for it. + +By this time it was evening, for I remember that, while talking with +Arthur, I noticed on the coast of the island, which we had neared on +our return, an old ruin, standing picturesquely on a high and steep +cliff, and glowing in the light of the setting sun. The sight of this +ruin gave an unpleasant turn to our discussion, which had already grown +sharp. This tower happened to be the sole remnant of the ancient +Zehrenburg, the ancestral seat of Arthur's family, which, in former +times, had enjoyed large possessions on the island. Arthur pointed with +a pathetic gesture to the ruddy walls, and demanded that I, here and +now, with my eye upon the castle of his ancestors, should renounce +forever all pretensions to Emilie Heckepfennig. "A plebeian like +myself," he said, "was in duty bound to give way to a patrician." I +maintained that there were no such things as plebeians or patricians in +affairs of the heart, and that I would never consent to a pledge which +would entail perpetual wretchedness on both Emilie and myself. + +"Slave!" cried Arthur, "is it thus that you repay me for the +condescension that has so long tolerated your society?" + +I laughed aloud, and my laughter still further exasperated Arthur's +drunken passion. + +"My father is Steuerrath von Zehren," he cried, "and yours a miserable +subaltern." + +"Let us leave our fathers out of the question, Arthur; you know I will +not endure any insult to mine." + +"Your father----" + +"Once more I warn you, Arthur, leave my father's name alone. My father, +at the very least, is as good as yours. And if you say another word +about my father, I'll fling you overboard," and I shook my fist in +Arthur's face. + +"What's the matter here?" asked the steuerrath, who suddenly appeared. +"How, young man, is this the respect that you owe to my son--that you +owe to me? It appears that you are disposed to add the crown to your +disgraceful behavior all day. My son has invited you into his company +for the last time." + +"Invited me, indeed!" I said. "We ran away, both of us!"--and I burst +into a shout of laughter that quite justified the steuerrath's +qualification of my behavior. + +"How!" he exclaimed. "Arthur, what does this mean?" + +But Arthur was not in condition to give an intelligible answer. He +stammered out something, and rushed toward me, apparently with the +intention of striking me, but his father caught his arm and led him +away, speaking very earnestly to him in a low tone, and as he went he +threw a furious look at me. + +My blood, already excited, was now boiling in my veins. The next thing +I remember I was walking arm-in-arm with the commerzienrath--I have +never been able to understand how I did it--and passionately +complaining to him of the crying outrage I had received from my best +friend, for whom I was at all times ready to sacrifice fortune and +blood. The commerzienrath seemed as if he would die with laughing. +"Fortune and blood!" he cried; "as for the fortune"--here he shrugged +his shoulders and blew out his cheeks--"and as for the blood"--here he +nudged me with his elbow in the side. "Full blood, capital blood, of +course. I have had one of the breed myself; a Kippenreiter! Baroness +Kippenreiter! My Hermann, at all events, is of the half blood. There +she runs; is she not an angel? Pity she was not a boy: that's the +reason I always call her Hermann. Hermann! Hermann!" + +The little maid came running: she had on a red scarf, which her father, +after kissing her, wrapped closer around her delicate shoulders. + +"Is she not an angel--a pride?" he went on taking my arm again. "She +shall have a count for a husband; not a poor, penniless sprig of +nobility, like my brother-in-law, nor like his drunken brother at +Zehrendorf, nor the other, that sneaking fellow, the penitentiary +superintendent at What-d'ye-call-it. No, a real count, a fellow six +feet high, just like you, my boy, just like you!" + +The short commerzienrath tried to lay his two fat hands upon my +shoulders, and tipsy emotion blinked in his eyes. + +"You are a capital fellow, a splendid fellow. Pity you are such a poor +devil; you should be my son-in-law. But I must call you _thou_: thou +mayst say _thou_ to me, too, brother!" and the worthy man sobbed upon +my breast and called for champagne, apparently with a view of solemnly +ratifying the bond, of brotherhood after the ancient fashion. + +I have my doubts whether he carried this design into effect: at all +events I remember nothing of the ceremony, which could scarcely have +escaped my memory. But I remember that not long after I was in the +engine-room with a bottle of wine, hobnobbing with my friend Klaus, and +swearing that he was the best and truest fellow in the world, and that +I would appoint him head-stoker in hell as soon as I got there, which +would not be long coming as I must have a settlement with father this +evening, and that I would let myself be torn in pieces for him at any +time, and that I would be glad if it were done right at once, and that +if the great black fellow there did not stop swinging his long iron arm +up and down I would lay my head under it, and there would be an end of +George Hartwig. + +How the good Klaus brought me out of this suicidal frame of mind, and +how he got me up the ladder again, I cannot say; it must have been +managed somehow, for as we steamed into the harbor I was sitting on +deck, watching the masts of the anchored ships glide past us, and the +stars glittering through the spars and cordage. The crescent moon that +was standing over the spire of the church of St Nicholas seemed +suddenly to drop behind it, but it was I that dropped, as the _Penguin_ +struck the timbers of the wharf, on which there was again assembled a +crowd of people, not hurrahing, however, as when we started, but, as it +seemed to me, strangely silent; and, as I made my way through them, +staring at me I thought in a singular manner, so that I felt as if +something terrible must have happened, or was on the point of +happening, and that I was in some mysterious way the cause of it. + +I stood before my father's small house in the narrow Water street. A +light was glimmering through the closed shutters of the room to the +left of the front door, by which I knew that my father was at home--he +usually took a solitary walk around the town-wall at this hour. Could +it be so very late, then? I took out my watch and tried to make out the +time by the moonlight--for the street-lamps were never lighted in +Uselin on moonlight nights--but could not succeed. No matter, I said to +myself, it is all one! and grasped resolutely the brass knob of the +front door. To my feverish hand it felt cold as ice. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +As I closed the door behind me, old Frederica, who, since my mother's +death, had been housekeeper for my father, came suddenly out of the +small room on the right. By the light of a lamp burning dimly on the +hall-table I saw the good old woman throw up her hands and stare at me +with wide, frightened eyes. "Has anything happened to my father?" I +stammered, seizing the table to support myself What with the warm +atmosphere of the house after the fresh night-air, and my alarm at +Frederica's terrified looks, my breath failed me, the blood seemed to +rush to my head, and the room began to go round. + +"Wretched boy, what have you done?" piteously exclaimed the old woman. + +"In heaven's name, what has happened?" I cried, seizing her by both +hands. + +Here my father opened the door of his room and appeared upon the +threshold. Being a large man and the door small, he nearly filled up +the doorway. + +"Thank God!" I murmured to myself. + +At this moment I experienced no other feeling than that of joyful +relief from the anxiety which seemed on the point of suffocating me; in +the next, this natural emotion gave way to another, and we glared at +each other like two foes who suddenly meet, after one has long been +seeking the other, and the other nerves himself for the result, be it +what it may, from which he now sees there is no escape. + +"Come in," said my father, making way for me to pass into his room. + +I obeyed: there was a humming noise in my ears, but my step was firm; +and if my heart beat violently in my breast, it was certainly not with +fear. + +As I entered, a tall black figure slowly rose from my father's large +study-chair---my father allowed no sofa in his house--it was Professor +Lederer. I stood near the door, my father to the right, by the stove, +the professor at the writing-table in front of the lamp, so that his +shadow reached from the ceiling to the floor, and fell directly upon +me. No one moved or spoke; the professor wished to leave the first word +to my father, and my father was under too much excitement to speak. In +this way we stood for about half a minute, which seemed to me an +eternity, and during which the certainty flashed into my mind that if +the professor did not immediately leave the room and the house, all +possible chance of an explanation between my father and myself was cut +off. + +"Misguided young man," at last began the professor. + +"Leave me alone with my father, Herr Professor," I interrupted him. + +The professor looked at me as if he could not believe his ears. A +delinquent, a criminal--for such I was in his eyes--to dare to +interrupt his judge in such a tone, and with such a request--it was +impossible. + +"Young man," he began again, but his tone was not as assured as the +first time. + +"I tell you, leave us alone together," I cried with a louder voice, and +making a motion towards him. + +"He is mad," said the professor, taking a hasty step backwards, which +brought him in contact with the table. + +"Sirrah!" exclaimed my father, stepping quickly forward, as if to +protect the professor from my violence. + +"If I am mad," I said, turning my burning eyes from one to the other, +"so much the greater reason for leaving us alone." + +The professor looked round for his hat, which stood behind him on the +table. + +"No; remain, remain," said my father, his voice quivering with passion. +"Is this audacious boy again to have his insolent way? I have too long +been culpably negligent; it is high time to take other measures." + +My father began to pace up and down the room, as he always did when +violently agitated. + +"Yes, to take other measures," he continued. "This has gone on far too +long. I have done all I could; I have nothing to reproach myself with; +but I will not become a public by-word for the sake of a perverse boy. +If he refuses to do what is his plain duty and obligation, then have I +no further duty or obligation towards him; and let him see how he can +get through the world without me." + +He had not once looked at me while he uttered these words in a voice +broken with passion. Later in life I saw a painting representing the +Roman holding his burning hand in the glowing coals, and looking +sideways upon the ground with an expression of intensest agony. It +brought at once into my mind the remembrance of my father at this +fateful moment. + +"Your father is right"--commenced for the third time the professor, who +held it his duty to strike in while the iron was hot--"when was there +ever a father who has done more for his children than your excellent +parent, whose integrity, industry and virtue have become a proverb, and +who through your fault is now deprived of the crowning ornament of a +good citizen; that is, a well-disciplined son, to be the stay of his +declining years. Is it not enough that inevitable fate has already hard +smitten this excellent man--that he has lost a dear consort and a son +in the bloom of youth? Shall he now lose the last, the Benjamin of +his old age? Shall his unwearied solicitude, his daily and nightly +prayers----" + +My father was a man of strictest principles, but far from devout, in +the ordinary acceptation of the word; an untruth was his abhorrence, +and it was an untruth to say that he had prayed by night and day; and +besides, he had an excessive, almost morbid modesty, and the +professor's panegyric struck him as exaggerated and ill-timed. + +"Let all that pass, Herr Professor"--he interrupted the learned man +rather impatiently--"I say again, I have done my duty. Enough! let him +do his. I want nothing of him--nothing--nothing whatever--not so much +as"--and he brushed one hand over the other; "but this I will have, and +if he refuses----" + +My father had worked himself into a rage again, and my apparent +composure only further exasperated him. Strange! Had I fallen to +prayers and entreaties, I know that my father would have despised me, +and yet, because I did what he himself would most assuredly have done +in my position, because I was silent and stubborn, he hated me at this +moment as one hates anything that stands in one's way, and which yet +cannot be spurned aside with contempt. + +"You have been guilty of a heavy offence, George Hartwig"--the +professor began again in a declamatory tone--"that of leaving the +Gymnasium without the permission of your teachers. I will not speak of +the boundless disrespect with which, as so often before, you rejected +the precious opportunity offered you of acquiring knowledge: I will +only speak of the terrible guilt of disobedience, of insolent defiance +of orders, of the evil example that your disgraceful conduct has +presented to your class-mates. If Arthur von Zehren's facile temper has +at last been warped into confirmed frivolity, this is the evil fruit of +your bad example. Never would that misguided boy have dared to do what +he has done to-day----" + +As I knew the misguided boy so much better than he, I here broke +into a loud, contemptuous laugh, which drove the professor completely +beyond his self-control. He caught up his hat, and muttering some +unintelligible words, apparently expressing his conviction that I was +lost beyond all possibility of reformation, was about to leave the +room, when he was detained by my father. + +"One moment, Herr Professor," he said, and then turning to me--"You +will instantly ask pardon of your teacher for this additional +insolence--instantly!" + +"I will not," I replied. + +"Instantly!" thundered my father. + +"I will not!" I repeated. + +"Once more, will you, or will you not?" + +He stood before me his whole frame quivering with anger. His naturally +sallow complexion had turned of an ashy gray, the veins of his brow +were swollen, his eyes flashed. His last words had been spoken in a +hoarse, hissing tone. + +"I will not," I said for the third time. + +My father raised his arm as if to strike me, but he did not strike; his +arm slowly descended, and with outstretched hand he pointed to the +door: + +"Begone!" he said, slowly and firmly. "Leave my house forever!" + +I looked straight into his eyes; I was about to say something--perhaps +"Forgive me, father; I will ask _your_ forgiveness;" but my heart lay +like a stone in my breast; my teeth were clenched like a vice; I could +not speak. I moved silently towards the door. The professor hurried +after me and seized my arm, no doubt with the kindest intentions; but I +saw in him only the cause of my disgrace. I thrust him roughly aside, +flung the door to after me, ran past the old housekeeper--the good old +creature had evidently been listening, for she stood there wringing her +hands, the picture of despair--and out of the house into the street. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +I ran for a short distance like a madman, when suddenly my limbs began +to totter under me; the moonlit roofs, the lighted windows in some of +the houses, danced wildly before my eyes; the fumes of the wine I had +been drinking, repressed for a while by my mental excitement, now rose +again to my brain; I had to lean against a wall to keep myself from +falling. + +I had probably remained for a few minutes in a state of partial +insensibility when the voices of some maids, who were bringing water +from the adjacent fountain, recalled me to consciousness. I roused +myself, and staggered down the street. Soon my strong natural +constitution began to assert itself; my steps grew firmer, and I began +to consider what I should do, and first of all, whither I should go. +The idea of seeking lodgings at an inn I rejected at once; I had never +yet passed a night from home; and besides, my whole stock of money did +not exceed one _thaler_--my father always kept me on a very meagre +allowance of pocket-money--and I had an indistinct notion that I should +have to make this slender sum go a long way. Had I not quarreled with +Arthur and parted from him in anger, I should probably have gone to +him; but as it was, I felt it impossible to present myself at his house +as a supplicant; and, besides, by this time he was most likely sleeping +off his intoxication, and his parents had never been friendly disposed +towards me. The commerzienrath! He had embraced me, called me _thou_ +and _brother_: he would assuredly receive me with rapture, have me +shown to a magnificent chamber, with a grand four-post curtained +bed---- + +But while I was indulging in the picture of my brilliant reception at +the commerzienrath's, I was hastening steadily in the opposite +direction, towards the harbor. I passed some low taverns in which +sailors were roaring out coarse songs. How if I went in and joined the +drinkers, and to-morrow went out into the wide world a sailor, like my +brother Fritz? That would be a way to be revenged upon my father! To +lose two sons--both in the same way! And then to perish at sea, and my +corpse to lie at the bottom of the ocean, where my brother's bones had +long been lying! "Shame upon you, George!"--I said to myself--"shame! +The poor old man!" + +How if I turned back? The professor had certainly long since left +the house. My father was alone in his room. I would go to him and +say--"Strike me if you will, father; I will not resist; I will not move +an eyelid!" + +But I did not return, nor even slacken my pace; I had already left the +town behind, and was now in the wide street of the suburb, on both +sides of which stood the little cottages which at this season were +chiefly occupied by the bathing-guests. Here and there they shone +through the dark trees; some of them had lamps burning in glass globes +at the doors, and under trellises, and in the little gardens sat +cheerful groups; song and laughter and the merry voices of children +came up on the pleasant evening air; a light breeze just stirred the +tops of the trees over my head, and fire-flies twinkled in the bushes. + +The moist, warm breeze from the sea seemed to refresh me; how pleasant +it must be, I thought, over there beyond the houses; and on the +instant, Smith Pinnow's cottage came into my mind. The very thing! +there I was sure of a shelter. The old man would give me a bed, or at +least a shake-down in the forge; or there was the old woman's great +arm-chair--certainly she could not sit crouching in it all night as +well as all day. Pity Klaus was not at home; but then the pretty +Christel was there. Christel had always been a favorite of mine; +indeed, at one time I had fancied myself really in love with her, and +her charms had attracted me to the hut at least quite as often as the +old man's four double-barrels and the long single-barrel, or the mulled +wine which he used to sell in the winter to the skaters that thronged +the beach. + +Strange light-heartedness of youth! At this moment all the mischief I +had done, my father's grief, my own serious position, were all +forgotten; or, if not forgotten, they were only the dark background +upon which shone brightly and cheerily the picture of the old ruinous +hut with the glowing forge-fire, and above all the pretty figure of the +brisk Christel moving lightly about. What was the school--what was my +father's house and all the rest of my slavery to me now? At other +times, when I had been out at this hour, I was haunted with anxiety how +I should get in without the knowledge of my father, who went to bed +punctually at half-past nine: now my father had himself driven me from +his house. No need now to pull off my boots at the door, and creep +softly up the creaking stair to my chamber; I was a free man and could +do what I chose, and come and go at my pleasure. + +The wide street and the suburbs were now behind me; I strode along +the well-known path, on my left a little meadow, on my right a +potato-field, here and there a solitary tree, blackly defined against +the clear starlit sky, and on either side the water, whose hollow sound +I heard plainer and plainer as the tongue of land narrowed, especially +towards the west, the windward quarter, where lay the open sea. I +noticed for the first time that I had no cap. I had either lost it +or left it by the lamp on the hall-table; so much the better, the +sea-breeze could play freely around my heated temples and in my loose +hair. + +A pair of wild swans flew high above me; I could not see them, but +heard their peculiar wailing cry--two simple notes that rang strangely +through the silence of the night. "Good speed!" I called out to them: +"Good speed, my good comrades!" + +A strangely happy feeling, mingled of sadness and joy, came over me, +such as I had never known before. I could have thrown myself upon the +earth and wept; I could have leaped and shouted in exultation. I could +not then comprehend what it was that so singularly possessed me. Now I +know well what it was: it was the sense of delight that must thrill +through the fish when he darts like an arrow through the liquid +crystal, the bird when he sweeps on expanded pinions through the air, +the stag when he bounds over the wild plain; the rapture that thrills +man's breast when in the full glow of youth and vigor he feels himself +one with the great mother, Nature. The fore-feeling of this delight, +the longing to taste it, are what drives the man from the narrow round +of circumstances in which he was born, out into the wide world, across +seas, into the desert, to the peaks of the Alps, anywhere where the +winds blow free, where the heaven broadens grandly above, where he must +risk his life to win it. + +Does this after-thought excuse the insolent obstinacy of which I had +been guilty towards my father; and the terrible rashness with which I +staked my whole future on a cast of the die? Assuredly not. I will +excuse nothing, extenuate nothing; but simply narrate what happened to +me and within me during these events and those that followed; only +giving an explanation here and there when circumstances seem to require +it. Let the story tell its own moral; only this will I add, for the +consolation of thoughtful souls, that if, as cannot be gainsaid, my +conduct deserved punishment, this punishment was dealt out to me +speedily, and that in no stinted measure. + +But at the time the haggard form with the lame foot was still too far +behind to cast the shade of her terrors upon me; two other figures, +however, as I hastened with a quickened pace over the heath, appeared +in sight, who had assuredly nothing spectral about them, for they were +standing in a close embrace. They sprang apart, with a cry of alarm +from a female voice, as, turning sharply around a hillock, I came +directly upon them. The maiden caught up a great basket, which she had +set upon the ground, having just had other employment for her arms, and +her companion gave an "Ahem!" which was so loud and so confused that it +could only have proceeded from a very innocent breast. + +"Good evening," I said; "I trust----" + +"Good Lord! is it really you?" said the man. "Why, Christel, only think +it's him!"--and Klaus caught Christel Möwe, who was about taking to +flight, by her dress, and detained her. + +"Oh! I thought it was _him_!" stammered Christel, whose mind did not +seem entirely relieved by the discovery that if they had been espied it +was by a good friend. + +Although the position in which Klaus and Christel evidently stood to +each other did not exactly require an explanation, still I was somewhat +astonished. As long as Klaus lived with his father, from the +commencement of our friendship, I had never detected in the good +fellow's heart anything more than brotherly affection for his pretty +adopted sister; but then that was four years ago. Klaus was but sixteen +when he went to work with locksmith Wangerow; and perhaps this +temporary separation had aroused the love which otherwise would have +calmly slumbered on, and possibly never awakened of itself. This was +confirmed by what the lovers themselves told me, as we walked slowly on +together towards the forge, often stopping for a minute at a time when +the story reached a point of particularly critical interest. One of +these points--and indeed the most serious--was the strongly and even +violently expressed aversion of old Pinnow to the engagement. Klaus did +not say so, but from all that I gathered I surmised that it was not +altogether impossible that the old man himself had cast an eye upon his +pretty adopted daughter; at least I could see no other reasonable +explanation of the fact that year by year, and day by day, he had grown +more morose and rancorous towards Klaus, and at last, after much +snarling and storming over his gadding about, and his shameful waste +of time, had ended by forbidding him the house, without the good +fellow--as he solemnly asseverated, and I believed him--having ever +given him the slightest cause of complaint. Therefore they--the +lovers--were under the necessity of keeping their meetings secret, a +proceeding not without considerable difficulties, as the old man was +extraordinarily watchful and cunning. For instance, he would send the +deaf and dumb apprentice, Jacob, to the town to make the necessary +purchases, although he was certain to make some blunder or other; and +to-day he would not have sent Christel, had he not heard that Klaus had +some late work to do on board the steamer, that would prevent his +coming ashore. + +As I had a sincere affection for the good Klaus, who had been my +comrade in many a merry frolic by land and water, and was no less fond +of the rosy, soft-voiced Christel Möwe, I felt the liveliest sympathy +with them; and improbable though it may seem, their love, with its +sorrows and its joys, and the possibility of its happy termination, lay +at this moment nearer my heart than the thought of my own fortune. My +mind, however, recurred to my own situation, when, as we reached a +slight elevation in the path, the forge, with the light of the +kitchen-fire shining through its low window, appeared close at hand, +and Klaus asked if we should now turn back. He then for the first time +learned that it was no mere evening stroll that had brought me so far +from the town across the heath, and that my intention was to ask his +father for shelter for a day at least, or perhaps for several days. At +the same time I briefly explained to him the cause that compelled me to +so singular a step. + +Klaus seemed greatly affected by what he heard; he grasped me by the +hand, and taking me a little aside, asked in an agitated whisper if I +had well considered what I was about? My father, he said, could not +mean to deal so harshly with me, and would certainly forgive me if I +returned at once. He himself would go and prepare the way, and let the +storm spend its first wrath upon him. + +"But, Klaus, old fellow," I said, "you are no better off than I. We are +comrades in misery: your father has forbidden you his house, just as +mine has done with me. What difference is there between us?" + +"This difference," Klaus answered, "that I have done nothing to give my +father the right to be angry with me, while you tell me yourself that +you--don't take it hard of me--have been playing a very ugly trick." + +I answered that, be that as it might, home I would never go. What +further I should do, I did not know: I would come on board the steamer +to-morrow and talk the matter over with him; it was very likely that I +would need his assistance. + +Klaus, who saw that my resolution was taken, and who had always been +accustomed to adapt himself to my plans, gave my hand another hearty +grasp, and said: "Well, then, till to-morrow." + +His good heart was so full of what he had just heard that he was going +off without bidding Christel good-by, had I not, laughing, called his +attention to this highly reprehensible oversight. But he did not get +the kiss I had hoped for him; Christel said I had been very wicked; and +so we departed, Klaus going back towards the town, and soon +disappearing in the darkness, and Christel and I keeping on to the +forge, where through the window the fire was now blazing brighter than +before. + +"How does the old man come to be working so late?" I asked the girl. + +"It just happens so," she answered. + +I put other questions, to all of which I received but the briefest +possible answers. Christel and I had always been the best friends in +the world, and I had ever known her as the brightest, merriest +creature. I could only suppose that she had been seriously offended by +my bit of sportiveness. As it was never my nature, unless when overcome +with passion, to wound the feelings of any one, least of all a poor +girl of whom I was really fond, so I did not for a moment hesitate to +frankly ask her pardon, if I had offended her, saying that what I had +done was with the best intention in the world, namely, that her lover +should not, through my fault, leave her without a good-by kiss. +Christel made me no answer, and I was about placing my arm around her +trim waist, in order to give more emphasis to my petition for +forgiveness, when the girl suddenly burst into tears, and in a +frightened tone said that I must not go with her to "his" house; and +that it was anyhow of no use, for "he" would certainly give me no +lodging there. + +This declaration and this warning would have made most persons +hesitate. The forge was in such a lonely place, the reputation of the +old smith was far from being a good one, and I was sufficiently versed +in robber-stories to recall the various romantic situations where the +robber's daughter warns the hero, who has lost his way, against the +remaining members of her estimable family, and at the same time reveals +her love for him in a style equally discreet and intelligent. But I was +never subject to those attacks of timidity to which imaginative persons +are so liable; and besides, I thought, if the old man is jealous of his +son--and this I set down as certain--why may he not be so of me?--and +in the third place, a little cur at this moment rushed, furiously +barking, at my legs, and simultaneously appeared a stout figure at the +open door of the forge, and Smith Pinnow's familiar voice called out in +his deep bass: "Who is there?" + +"A friend--George Hartwig," I answered, tossing the little yelping +brute with my foot into the bushes. + +Christel must have given the old man an intimation of what I wanted as +she pushed by him into the house, for he said at once, without moving +from his post in the doorway, "I can give you no lodging here; my house +is not an inn." + +"I know that very well, Pinnow," I answered, stepping up and offering +my hand; "but I thought you were my friend." + +The old man did not take my hand, but muttered something that I did not +catch. + +"I shall not return home, you maybe sure of that," I continued. "So, if +you do not mean that I shall lie here in the bushes, and join your dog +in howling at the moon, you will let me in, and mix me a glass of +grog--half-and-half, you know; and take a glass or two yourself: it +will do you good, and put better thoughts in your head." + +With these words, I laid my hand on the shoulder of the inhospitable +smith, and gave him a hearty shake, in token of my friendly feelings. + +"Would you attack a weak old man in his own house?" he exclaimed in an +angry tone, and in my turn I felt on my shoulders two hands whose size +and steely hardness were, for "a weak old man," quite remarkable. My +blood, which the cooler night air had by no means yet lowered to the +desirable temperature, needed but little provocation; and besides, here +was too favorable an opportunity to put to the proof my much-admired +strength; so I seized my antagonist, jerked him at a single effort from +the threshold, and hurled him a couple of paces to one side. I had not +the slightest design of forcing an entrance into his house; but the +smith, who feared that this was my intention, and was resolved to +prevent it at all hazards, threw himself upon me with such fury that I +was obliged in self-defence to exert my whole strength. I had had many +a hard tussle in my time, and had always come off victorious; but never +before had I been so equally matched as now. Perhaps it was from some +small remains of regard for the old man who now assaulted me, in sailor +fashion, with heavy blows of his fist, that I refrained from repaying +him in the same coin, but endeavored to grapple with him. At last I +felt that I had him in my power: seizing a lower hold, I raised him +from the ground, and the next moment he would have measured his length +upon the sand, when a peal of laughter resounded close at hand. +Startled, I lost my hold, and my antagonist, no sooner felt himself +free, than he rushed upon me again. Unprepared for this new attack, I +lost my balance, stumbled and fell, my antagonist above me. I felt his +hands of iron at my throat, when suddenly the laughter ceased. "For +shame, old man!" cried a sonorous voice, "he has not deserved that of +you;" and a pair of strong arms tore the smith from me. I sprang to my +feet and confronted my deliverer, for so I must call him, as without +his interference I do not know what would have happened to me. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +He was, as well as I could distinguish by the faint light of the moon +that was now partly obscured by clouds, a man of tall stature and +slender frame; so alert in his movements that I took him to be young, +or at least comparatively young, until, at a sudden turn he made, the +flickering glare of the fire through the open door fell upon his face, +and I saw that his features were deeply furrowed, apparently with age. +And as now, holding my hand, he led me into the forge, which glowed +with a strong light, he seemed to me to be neither young nor old, or +rather both at once. + +It is true, the moment was not precisely favorable to physiognomical +investigations. The stranger surveyed me with large eyes that flashed +uncannily out of the crumpled folds and wrinkles that surrounded them +from head to foot, and felt my shoulders and arms, as a jockey might +examine a horse that has got over a distance in three minutes that it +takes other horses five to accomplish. Then, turning on his heel, he +burst into a peal of laughter, as the smith turned upon the deaf and +dumb apprentice, Jacob, who all this time had been blowing the bellows, +quite indifferent to what was going forward, and gave him a push which +spun him around like a top. + +"Bravo! bravo!" cried the stranger, "that was well done! Easier +handling him than the other--eh, Pinnow?" + +"The other may thank his stars that he gets off so easily," growled the +smith, as he drew a red-hot bar from the coals. + +"I am ready to try it again at any time, Pinnow," I cried, and was +delighted that the stranger, with an amused look, nodded his +approbation, while with affected solemnity he cried: "For shame young +man, for shame! a poor old man! Do you consider that a thing to boast +of?" + +The smith had seized his heavy forge-hammer, and was plying the glowing +bar with furious strokes until the sparks flew in showers, and the +windows rattled in the frames. + +The stranger stopped his ears. "For heaven's sake, man," he cried, +"stop that infamous noise! Who in the devil's name can stand it, do you +think? Do you suppose that I have your plebeian ears? Stop, I say, +or----" + +He gave the smith a push, as the latter had just before done to his +apprentice, but the old man stood more firmly than the young one. With +a furious look he raised his hammer--it seemed as if the next moment he +would bring it down on the stranger's head. + +"Have you gone mad?" said the stranger, casting a stern look at the +enraged smith. Then, as the latter slowly lowered the hammer, he began +speaking to him in an undertone, to which the old man answered in a +muttering voice, in which I thought I could at intervals distinguish my +own name. + +"It may be," said the stranger; "but here he is now, and here he shall +stay." + +"Excuse me," I said, "I have not the least idea of thrusting my company +upon you: I would not have set my foot in the house, had not----" + +"Now _he's_ beginning again," exclaimed the stranger, with a laugh of +half vexation; "will you ever come to your senses, you two? What I want +is peace and quiet, and above all, some supper; and you shall keep me +company. Hallo! Christel! Where is the girl? You, Pinnow, take off your +leather apron and come in too." + +With these words he opened the low door on the right of the forge-fire, +which led from the forge into the living-room. I had often enough been +in the latter, and indeed I knew the whole place well: the living-room +was a moderately large apartment, but only half as high from floor to +ceiling as the forge; the sleeping-rooms lying above it, which were +reached by a steep stair, or sort of ladder, in a corner of the room, +passing through a hole in the ceiling. There was also a door, reached +by two steps, which led into a small side-room, where the smith's +mother slept. This old woman, a prodigy of age, was now crouching in +her easy-chair in her usual corner, close to the stove, which was +heated from without. In the middle of the room stood a heavy oaken +table, and on the table the great basket which Christel had brought +from the town. Christel herself was apparently searching for something +in a closet at the further end of the room. + +"Now, Christel," said the stranger, taking a light to look into the +basket, "what have you brought? That looks inviting. But bestir +yourself, for I am hungry as a wolf--and you too," turning to me--"are +you not? One is always hungry at your age. Come this way to the window. +Sit down." + +He made me sit on one of the two benches that stood in the recess of +the window, seated himself on the other, and continued in a somewhat +lower tone, with a glance at Christel, who was now, with a noiseless +despatch, beginning to set the table:---- + +"A pretty girl: rather too much of a blonde, perhaps; she is a +Hollander; but that is in keeping here: is not the old woman nodding +there in her easy chair just like a picture by Terburg? Then old +Pinnow, with the face of a bull-dog and the figure of a seal, and Jacob +with his carp's eyes! But I like it; I seldom fail, when I have been in +the town without my carriage, as happens to-day, to look in here, and +let old Pinnow set me over; especially as with a good wind I can get +across in half an hour, while by the town-ferry it takes me a full +hour, and then afterwards as much more before I reach my estate." + +The stranger spoke in a courteous, engaging manner, which pleased me +exceedingly; and while speaking, repeatedly stroked with his left hand +his thick beard, which fell half-way down his breast, and from time to +time glanced at a diamond ring on his finger. I began to feel a great +respect for the strange gentleman, and was extremely curious to know +who he was, but could not venture to ask him. + +"What an abominable atmosphere in this room!" he suddenly exclaimed; +"enough to make one faint;" and he was about opening the window at +which we were sitting, but checking himself, he turned and said: "To be +sure! the old woman might take cold. Christel, can't you get the old +lady to bed?" + +"Yes, sir; directly," said Christel, who had just finished setting the +table, and going up to the old woman, screamed in her ear, +"Grandmother, you must go to bed!" + +The old woman received this intimation with evident disfavor, for she +shook her head energetically, but at last allowed herself to be raised +from her crouching position, and tottered from the room, leaning on +Christel's arm. When Christel reached the steps that led to the side +room she looked round. I sprang to her assistance, and carried the old +lady up the steps, while Christel opened the door, through which she +then disappeared with her charge. + +"Well done, young man," said my new acquaintance, as I came back to +him; "we must always be polite to ladies. And now we will open the +window." + +He did so, and the night air rushed in. It had grown darker; the moon +was hidden behind a heavy mass of cloud that was rolling up from the +west; from the sea, which was but a few paces distant, came a hollow +roaring and plashing of the waves breaking on the beach; a few drops of +rain drove into my face. + +The stranger looked out intently at the weather. "We must be off +presently," I heard him say to himself. Then turning to me: "But now we +will have some supper; I am almost dying of hunger. If Pinnow prefers +grumbling to eating, let him consult his taste. Come." + +He took his seat at the table, inviting me by a gesture to place myself +beside him. I had, during the day, eaten far less than I had drunk, and +my robust frame, which had long since overcome the effects of my +intoxication, now imperatively demanded sustenance. So I very willingly +complied with the invitation of my entertainer; and indeed the contents +of the basket which Christel had now unpacked were of a nature to tempt +a far more fastidious palate than mine. There were caviare, smoked +salmon, ham, fresh sausage, pickles; nor was a supply of wine wanting. +Two bottles of Bordeaux, with the label of a choice vintage, stood upon +the table, and out of the basket peeped the silvery neck of a bottle of +Champagne. + +"Quite a neat display," said the stranger, filling both our glasses, +helping himself first from one dish and then from another, and inviting +me to follow his example, while chatting at intervals in his pleasant +fashion. Without his questioning me directly, we had somehow come to +speak of my affairs; and, unsuspicious and communicative as I was, +before the first bottle was emptied I had given him a pretty fair +account of my neither long nor eventful life. The occurrences of the +past day, so momentous for me, occupied rather more time in the +recital. In the ardor of my narration, I had, without observing it, +filled and drunk several glasses of wine; the weight that had laid upon +my spirits had disappeared; my old cheerful humor had returned, all the +more as this meeting with the mysterious stranger under such singular +circumstances, gave my imagination room for the wildest conjectures. I +described our flight from the school, I mimicked Professor Lederer's +voice and manner, I threw all my powers of satire into my sketch of the +commerzienrath, and I fear that I smote the table with my fist when I +came to speak of Arthur's shameful ingratitude, and the outrageous +partiality of the steuerrath. But here my talkative tongue was checked; +the melancholy dimness of my father's study spread a gloom over my +spirits; I fell into a tragic tone, as I swore that though I should +have to go on a pilgrimage to the North Cape, barefoot, as I was +already bareheaded, and beg my bread from door to door--or, as begging +was not my forte, should I have to take to the road--I would never more +set foot in my father's house again, after he had once driven me from +it. That what I was in duty bound to bear from a parent had here +reached its limits; that nature's bond was cancelled, and that my +resolution was as firmly fixed as the stars in the sky, and if any one +chose to ridicule it, he did it at his peril. + +With these words I sprang from the table, and set down the glass from +which I had been drinking, so violently, that it shivered to pieces. +For the stranger, whose evident enjoyment of my story had at times +encouraged me, and at others embarrassed, when I came to my peroration, +which was delivered with extreme pathos, burst into a paroxysm of +laughter which seemed as if it would never end. + +"You have been kind to me," I exclaimed; "true, I think I could have +held my own without your assistance; but no matter for that--you came +to my help at the right moment, and now you have entertained me with +food and drink. You are welcome to laugh as much as you please, but I, +for my part, will not stay to listen to it. Farewell!" + +I looked round for my cap; then, remembering that I had none, strode to +the door, when the stranger, who in the meantime had also risen from +his seat, hastened after me, caught me by the arm, and in the grave but +kindly tone that had previously so charmed me, said: + +"Young man, I entreat your pardon. And now come back and take your seat +again. I offer you the word of a nobleman that I will respect your +feelings, even if your expression of them takes a somewhat singular +form." + +His dark eyes gleamed, and there were twitchings in the maze of +wrinkles that surrounded them. + +"You are jesting with me," I said. + +"I am not," he replied, "upon the word of a nobleman. On the contrary, +you please me extremely, and I was several times on the point of +interrupting your story to ask a favor of you. Come and stay awhile +with me. Whether you are reconciled with your father, as I hope, or if +the breach be past closing, as you believe, at all events you must +first have a roof over your head; and you cannot possibly stay here, +where you are evidently not wanted. As I said, I will feel it a favor +if you will accept my invitation. I cannot offer you much, but--there +is my hand! Good! now we will pledge good fellowship in champagne." + +I had already forgiven my mysterious but amiable acquaintance, and +pledged him in the sparkling wine with all my heart. With merriment and +laughter we had soon emptied the flask, when the smith entered. He had +thrown off his leather apron, donned a sailor's jacket, and wrapped a +thick muffler round his muscular neck. It now struck me for the first +time that he had not on the great blue spectacles which for several +years I had never seen him without, and which he wore on account of his +alleged near-sightedness: and it now occurred to me that he was not +wearing them at the time of our quarrel. Still, I might be mistaken on +that point; but I had no time to reflect upon so unimportant a matter, +for my attention was at once fixed by some words exchanged in a low +tone between the smith and the stranger. + +"Is it time?" asked the latter. + +"It is," replied the smith. + +"The wind is favorable?" + +"Yes." + +"Everything in order?" + +"Except the anchor, which you would not let me finish." + +"We can do without it." + +"Not well." + +The stranger stood for a few moments in thought; his handsome face +seemed suddenly to have grown twenty years older; he stroked his beard, +and I noticed that he was observing me from the corner of his eye. He +then caught the smith by the arm and led him out of the door, which he +closed behind him. Outside the door I heard them talking, but could +make out nothing, for the stranger spoke in a subdued voice, and the +smith's growling speech was at all times difficult to understand; +presently, however, the dialogue grew louder, and, as it seemed, more +and more vehement, especially on the part of the smith. + +"I will have it so!" cried the stranger. + +"And I say no!" maintained the smith. + +"It is my affair." + +"And my affair as well." + +The voices sank again, and presently I heard the outer door creak. They +had left the forge; I stepped to the open window and saw them go to the +little shed close to the beach, by which Pinnow's boat was usually +drawn up on the sand. They disappeared in the shadow of the shed; then +I heard a chain rattle, and a grating on the sand; they were launching +the boat. All was then still: the only sounds audible were the stronger +roaring of the sea, mingled with the rush of the wind in the leaves of +the old oak, which threw its half-decayed boughs over the forge. + +I heard a rustling in the room, and turned quickly round. It was +Christel; she stood behind me, looking with an intense gaze, as I had +just done, through the window into the darkness. + +"Well, Christel!" I said. + +She placed her finger on her lips, and whispered, "Hush!" then beckoned +me from the window. Surprised rather than alarmed, I followed her. + +"What is the matter, Christel?" + +"Don't go with them, whatever you do. And go away from here at once. +You cannot stay here." + +"But, Christel, why not? And who is the gentleman?" + +"I must not tell you; I must not speak his name. If you go with them, +you will learn it soon enough; but do not go!" + +"Why? What will they do to me, Christel?" + +"Do? They will do nothing to you. But do not go with them." + +A noise was heard outside; Christel turned away and began clearing the +table, while the voices of the two who were returning from the beach +came nearer and nearer. + +I do not know what another would have done in my place; I can only say +that the girl's warning produced upon me an effect precisely opposite +to that intended. True, I well remember that my heart beat quicker, and +that I cast a hurried glance at the four double-barrels and the long +fowling-piece that hung in the old places on the wall; but the desire +to go through with the adventure was now fully awaked in me. I felt +equal to any danger that might beset me; and, for the matter of that, +Christel had just said that no harm was intended to me. + +Besides--and this circumstance is, perhaps, the real key to my conduct +that evening--the stranger, whoever he might be, with his partly +serious and partly jocose, half-sympathetic and half-mocking language, +had somehow established a mysterious influence over me. In later years, +when I heard the legend of the Piper of Hameln, whom the children were +irresistibly compelled to follow, I at once recalled this night and the +stranger. + +He now appeared at the door, dressed in a coarse, wide sailor's jacket, +and wearing a low-crowned tarpaulin hat in place of his cloth cap. +Pinnow opened a press in the wall, and produced a similar outfit for +me, which the stranger made me put on. + +"It is turning cold," he remarked, "and your present dress will be but +little protection to you, though I trust our passage will be a short +one. So: now you are equipped capitally: now let us be off." + +The smith had stepped to Christel and whispered her a few words, to +which she made no reply. She had turned her back upon me since the men +had entered, and did not once turn her head as I bade her good-night. + +"Come on," said the stranger. + +We went through the forge, where the fire had now burnt down, and +stepped out into the windy night. After proceeding a few steps, I +turned my head: the light in the living-room was extinguished; the +house lay dark in the darkness, and the wind roared and moaned in the +dry branches of the old oak. + +The noise of the sea had increased; the wind had freshened to a stiff +breeze; the moon had set; no star shone through the scudding clouds +which from time to time were lighted with a lurid gleam, followed by a +mutter of distant thunder. + +We reached the boat which was already half in the water, and they made +me get on board, while the stranger, Pinnow, and the deaf and dumb +Jacob, who had suddenly made his appearance out of the darkness, and +was, as well as I could make out, also in sailor's dress and +fisherman's boots--pushed off. In a few minutes we were flying through +the water; the stranger stood at the helm, but presently yielded it to +Pinnow, when the latter with Jacob's assistance had finished setting +the sails, and took his seat beside me. + +"Now, how do you like this?" he asked me. + +"Glorious!" I exclaimed. "But I think, Pinnow, that you had better take +in another reef; we are carrying too much sail, and over yonder"--I +pointed to the west--"it has an ugly look." + +"You seem to be no greenhorn," said the stranger. + +Pinnow made no reply but gave the hasty order: "Take in the foresail," +at the same time putting up the helm and letting the boat fall off the +wind. It was not a moment too soon, for a squall striking us an instant +after made her careen so violently that I thought she would founder, +though luckily she righted again. The jib was taken in altogether, and +the foresail now hoisted only half-mast high, and under this canvas we +flew through the waves, upon whose whitening crests played the pale +glare of the lightning at ever shorter intervals, and still louder and +louder followed the roll of the thunder. + +After a while the squall abated as rapidly as it had come up, and the +stars began to shine here and there through the clouds. I came aft--I +had been helping Jacob to handle the sails--and took my seat again by +the stranger. He passed his hand over my jacket: + +"You are wet to the skin," he said. + +"So are we all," I answered. + +"But you are not used to it." + +"But I am nineteen." + +"No older?" + +"Not two months." + +"You are a man." + +I felt more pride from this short speech than I had ever felt shame +during the longest diatribe of Professor Lederer, or any of my other +teachers. There were few things which I would not have been willing at +that moment to attempt had the stranger required it; but he offered no +compact with the powers of darkness, nor anything of the sort, but only +advised me to lie down in the boat and be covered with a piece of +canvas, as the trip was likely to last longer than had been expected, +the wind having hauled round another quarter; I could be of no more +service now, and "Sleep is a warm cloak, as Sancho Panza says," he +added. + +I protested, affirming that I could keep awake for three days and three +nights together; but I yielded to his insistence, and had hardly +stretched myself on the bottom of the boat, when sleep, which I had +thought so far, fell upon me heavy as lead. + +How long I slept I do not exactly know; but I was awakened by the +grating of the keel upon the sand of the shore. The stranger helped me +up, but I was still so heavy with sleep that I cannot remember how I +got ashore. The night was still dark; I could distinguish nothing but +the gleaming crests of the waves breaking on a long level beach, from +which the land rose higher as it ran inward. When I had recovered my +full consciousness the boat had already pushed off; my unknown friend +and I were following a path that ascended among trees. He held me by +the hand, and in a friendly, pleasant manner pointed out the various +irregularities of the path, in which he seemed to know every stone and +every projecting root. At last we reached the top of the cliff; before +us lay the open country, and in the distance a dark pile, which I +gradually made out, in the dawning light, to be a mass of buildings, +with a park or wood of immense trees. + +"Here we are," said the stranger at last, as, after passing through a +silent court-yard, we stood before a great dark building. + +"Where?" I asked. + +"At my house," he responded, laughing. We were now standing in the +hall, and he was trying to light a match. + +"And where is that?" I asked again. I could not myself have told how I +found the boldness to put this question. + +The match kindled; he lighted a lamp which was in readiness, and the +light fell upon his long dishevelled beard and haggard face, in which +the rain and surf seemed to have deepened every wrinkle to a fold and +every fold to a furrow. He looked at me fixedly with his large deep-set +eyes. + +"At Zehrendorf," he replied, "the house of Malte von Zehren, whom they +call 'The Wild.' You don't regret having come with me?" + +"That I do not," I answered him with energy. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +On awaking the next morning, it was long ere I could arrive at a clear +consciousness of my situation. My sleep had been disturbed by frightful +dreams, which had left an oppression upon my spirits. It still seemed +to me that I heard my father's voice, when a part of my dream recurred +to my memory. I had been fleeing from my father, and came to a smooth +pond, into which I threw myself, to escape by swimming. But the smooth +pond suddenly changed into a stormy sea, upon whose waves I was now +tossed towards heaven, and now plunged into the abyss. I was paralyzed +with terror; and strove in vain to call to my father for help, while my +father did not see me, although he ran up and down the shore, within +reach of me, wringing his hands and breaking into loud lamentations +over his drowned son. + +I passed my hand repeatedly over my brow to drive away the frightful +images, and opened my eyes and looking around, found myself in the room +into which my host had conducted me on the previous night. The light in +the great bare apartment was so dim, that I thought at first it must be +very early; but my watch had stopped at nine, and on examination I +discovered that this greenish twilight was produced by the thick +foliage of trees whose branches touched the solitary window. At this +moment a ray of sunlight found its way through some aperture, and fell +upon the wall in front of me, upon which I at first thought the most +singular and fantastic figures were painted, until closer observation +showed me that the dark hangings had here and there detached themselves +from the lighter ground, and hung in irregular strips, which seemed the +strange garments of grotesque forms. + +Altogether the appearance of the room was as inhospitable as it well +could be: the plaster in several places had fallen from the ceiling, +and lay in white fragments upon the floor, which was laid in parquetry, +but now cracked in all directions. The whole furniture consisted of a +great canopied bed, the curtains of which were of faded green damask; +two high-backed chairs, covered with similar materials, one of which +possessed its normal complement of legs, while the other, which in +years had not yet learned to stand upon three, was propped against the +wall; and finally, a pine washstand painted white, in singular contrast +to the great oval mirror in a rich antique rococo frame, which hung +above it; although it is true that the gilding on this piece of +magnificence was in many places tarnished by age. + +I made these observations while putting on my clothes, which in the +short time I had slept by no means dried as thoroughly as I could have +desired. But this was but a trifling discomfort: the thought that +troubled me was, how should I dress myself the next day, and after? +upon which followed the associate reflection:--what was going to become +of me altogether? + +The answer to this question was by no means clear; and after some +consideration I hit upon the idea that it would be as well, before I +came to a decision--which in any event was not a matter of such instant +urgency--to consult my friendly host upon the subject. Singular enough! +up to this day I had always rejected the advice of those whose position +and knowledge best qualified them to give it, and had always maintained +that I knew best what I had to do; and now I found myself looking with +a sort of superstitious reliance to a man whom I had but just learned +to know, and that under circumstances by no means of a nature to +inspire confidence, and whose name was in evil repute, far and near. It +was in this fact, possibly, that lay the greatest attraction for me. +"The Wild Zehren" had held a place in my boyish imagination by the side +of Rinaldo Rinaldini and Karl Moor; and I had keenly envied my friend +Arthur, who used to tell the wildest stories about him, the possession +of such an uncle. + +Of late years he had been less talked about: I once heard the +steuerrath, in a public garden, in the presence of my father and +others, thanking God that the "mad fellow" had at last shown some signs +of reformation, and the family might consider itself relieved from the +perpetual fear that sooner or later he would come to some bad end. At +the same time some allusions were made to a daughter, at which several +of the gentlemen whispered together, and Justizrath Heckepfennig +shrugged his shoulders. Later, Arthur told me that his cousin had +eloped with a young tutor, but had not gone far, as his uncle gave +chase to the fugitives and caught them before they reached the ferry. +She was very beautiful, he said further, and on that account he the +more regretted that his father and his uncle were on such unfriendly +terms, for, owing to this disagreement, he had never seen Constance (I +remembered the name) but once, and that was when she was a child. + +All this and much more in this connection came into my mind while I +finished my simple toilet before the dim mirror with the tarnished +rococo frame; and as I thought of the pretty cousin, I felt chagrin at +the tardy development of the beard that had begun to sprout on my upper +lip. I caught up the sailor's hat which I had brought with me when I +landed, and left the room to look for Herr von Zehren. + +Pretty soon it became evident that this very natural intention was not +so easy of accomplishment. The room which I left had, luckily, only two +doors in it; but that which I entered had three, so that I had to make +a choice between two, not including that which led into my chamber. +Apparently I did not hit upon the right one, for I came upon a narrow +corridor, very dimly lighted through a closed and curtained glass door. +Another which I tried, opened into a hall of stateliest dimensions, the +three windows of which looked out upon a large park-like garden. From +this hall I passed into a great two-windowed room looking upon the +court, and from this one happily back to the one adjoining my chamber, +from which I had set out. I had to laugh when I made this discovery, +but my laughter sounded so strangely hollow as to check my mirth at +once. And indeed it was no wonder if laughter had a strange sound in +these empty rooms, which seemed as if they had heard few sounds of +merriment in recent times, however joyous they might have been in years +by-gone. For this room was just as bare and cheerless as that in which +I had slept; with just such ragged hangings, crumbling ceilings, and +worm-eaten, half ruinous furniture, which might once have adorned a +princely apartment. And so was it with the other rooms, which I now +examined again more attentively than at first. Everywhere the same +signs of desolation and decay; everywhere mournful evidences of +vanished splendor: here and there upon the walls hung life-size +portraits, which seemed to be spectrally fading into the dark +background from which they had once shone brilliantly; in one room lay +immense piles of books in venerable leather bindings, among which a +pair of rats dived out of sight as I entered; in another, otherwise +entirely empty, was a harp with broken chords, and the scabbard of a +dress-sword, with its broad silken scarf. Everywhere rubbish, dust and +cobwebs; windows dim with neglect, except where their broken panes +offered a free passage to the birds that had scattered straw and dirt +around--to a plaster cornice still clung a pair of abandoned swallow's +nests; everywhere a stifling, musty atmosphere of ruin and decay. + +After I had wandered through at least a half dozen more rooms, a lucky +turn brought me into a spacious hall, from which descended a broad +oaken staircase adorned with antique carved work. This staircase also, +that once with its stained windows, its dark panels reaching almost to +the ceiling, its antlers, old armor, and standards, must have presented +an unusually stately and imposing appearance, offered the same dreary +picture of desolation as the rest; and I slowly descended it amazed, +and to a certain extent confounded, by all that I had seen. More than +one step cracked and yielded as I placed my foot upon it, and as I +instinctively laid my hand upon the broad balustrade, the wood felt +singularly soft, but it was from the accumulated dust of years, into +which, indeed, the whole stair seemed slowly dissolving. + +I knew that I had not come this way the previous night, when my host +conducted me to my chamber. A steep stair, as I afterwards learned, led +from a side hall directly to that dark corridor which adjoined the room +I had occupied. I had, therefore, never before been in the great hall +in which I was now standing; and as I did not wish to go knocking in +vain at half-a-dozen doors, and the great house-door that fronted the +stairs, proved to be locked, I succeeded with some difficulty in +opening a back-door, which luckily was only bolted, and entered a small +court. The low buildings surrounding this, had probably been used as +kitchens, or served other domestic purposes in former times; but at +present they were all vacant, and looked up piteously with their +empty window-frames and crumbling tile-roofs to the bare and ruinous +main-building, as a pack of half-starved dogs to a master who himself +has nothing to eat. + +I was no longer a child: my organization was far from being a +susceptible one, nor did I ever lightly fall into the fantastic mood; +but I confess, that a strange and weird sensation came over me among +these corpses of houses from which the life had evidently long since +departed. So far I had not come upon the slightest trace of active +human life. As it was now, so it must have been for years, a trysting +place and tilt yard for owls and sparrows, rats and mice. Just so might +have looked a castle enchanted by the wickedest of all witches; and I +do not think that I should have been beyond measure astonished, if the +hag had herself arisen, with bristling hair, from the great kettle in +the wash-house, into which I cast a glance, and flown up through the +wide chimney upon one of the broom-sticks that were lying about. + +This wash-house had a door opening upon a little yard surrounded by a +hedge, and divided by a deep trench, bridged by a half-rotten plank; +which yard, as was evident from the egg-shells and bones scattered +about, had formerly been a receptacle for the refuse of the kitchen, +but grass had grown over the old rubbish-heaps, and a pair of wild +rabbits darted at sight of me into their burrows in the trench. They +might possibly preserve some legend of a time when the trench had been +full of water, and these burrows the habitations of water-rats, but at +such a remote period of antiquity that the whole tradition ran into the +mythical. + +Hearing a sound at hand which seemed to indicate the presence of a +human being, I pushed through the hedge into the garden, and following +the direction of the sound, found an old man who was loading a small +cart with pales, which he was breaking with a hatchet out of a high +stockade. This stockade had evidently once served as the fence of a +deer-park; in the high grass lay the ruins of two deer-sheds blown down +by the wind: the stags who used to feed from the racks, and try their +antlers against the paling, had probably long since found their way to +the kitchen, and why should the paling itself not follow? + +So at least thought the withered old man whom I found engaged in this +singular occupation. When he first came upon the estate, which was in +the life-time of the present owner's father, there were forty head of +deer in the park, he said; but in the year '12, when the French landed +upon the island and took up quarters in the castle, more than half were +shot, and the rest broke out and were never recovered, though a part +were afterwards killed in the neighboring forest which belonged to +Prince Prora. + +After giving me this information, the old man fell to his work again, +and I tried in vain to draw him into further conversation. His +communicativeness was exhausted, and only with difficulty could I get +from him that the master had gone out shooting, and would scarcely be +back before evening, perhaps not so soon. + +"And the young lady?" + +"Most likely up yonder," said the old man, pointing with his axe-handle +in the direction of the park; then slipping the straps of his cart over +his decrepit shoulders, he slowly dragged it along the grass-grown path +towards the castle. I watched him till he disappeared behind the +bushes; for a while I could still hear the creaking of his cart, and +then all was silent. + +Silence without a sound, just as in the ruinous castle. But here the +silence had nothing oppressive; the sky here was blue, without even the +smallest speck of cloud; here shone the bright morning sun, throwing +the shadows of the aged oaks upon the broad meadows, and sparkling in +the rain-drops which the night's storm had left upon the bushes. Now +and then a light breeze stirred, and the long sprays, heavy with rain, +waved languidly, and the tall spires of grass bent before it. + +It was all very beautiful. I inhaled deep draughts of the cool sweet +air, and once more felt the sense of delight that had come over me the +evening before, as the wild swans swept above me, high in air. How +often, in after days, have I thought of that evening and this morning, +and confessed to myself that I then, in spite of all, in spite of my +folly and frivolity and misconduct, was happy, unspeakably happy--a +short lived, treacherous bliss, it is true, but still bliss--a paradise +in which I could not stay, from which the stern realities of life, and +nature itself, expelled me--and yet a paradise! + +Slowly loitering on, I penetrated deeper into the green wilderness, for +wilderness it was. The path was scarcely distinguishable amid the +luxuriant weeds and wild overgrowth of bushes--the path which in +by-gone days had been swept by the trains of ladies fair, and by which +the little feet of children had merrily tripped along. The surface grew +hilly; at the end lay the park, and over me venerable beeches arched +their giant boughs. Again the path descended towards an opening in the +forest, and I stood upon the margin of a moderately large, circular +tarn, in whose black water were reflected the great trees that +surrounded it nearly to the edge. + +A few steps further, upon a slightly elevated spot, at the foot of a +tree whose gigantic size seemed the growth of centuries, was a low bank +of moss; upon the bank lay a book and a glove. I looked and listened on +all sides: all was still as death: only the sunlight played through the +green sprays, and now and then a leaf fluttered down upon the dark +water of the tarn. + +I could not resist an impulse of curiosity: I approached the bank and +took up the book. It was Eichendorf's "Life of a Good-for-Nothing." I +had never seen the book, nor even heard of the author; but could not +refrain from smiling as I read the title: it was as though some one had +called me by name. But at that time I cared little for books: so I +replaced it, open, as I had found it, and picked up the glove, not, +however, without another cautious glance around, to see if the owner +might not be a witness of my temerity. + +This glove, I at once divined, belonged to Arthur's beautiful +cousin--whose else could it be? The inference was simple enough; and, +indeed, the circumstance of a young lady leaving her glove on the spot +where she had been resting, had nothing in it remarkable. But the fancy +of a youth of my temperament is not fettered; and I confess that as I +held the little delicate glove in my hand, and inhaled its faint +perfume, my heart began to beat very unreasonably. I had walked, times +without number, past Emilie Heckepfennig's window in hope of a glance +from that charmer; and had even worn on my heart, for weeks together, a +ribbon which she once gave me as I was dancing with her; but that +ribbon never gave me such feelings as did this little glove; there must +have been some enchantment about it. + +I threw myself upon the bank of moss, and indulged my fancy in the wild +dreams of a youth of nineteen; at times laying the glove on the seat +beside me, and then taking it up again to scrutinize it with ever +closer attention, as though it were the key to the mystery of my life. + +I had been sitting thus perhaps a quarter of an hour, when I suddenly +started up and listened. As if from the sky there came a sound of music +and singing, faint at first, then louder, and finally I distinguished a +soft female voice, and the tinkling notes of a guitar. The voice was +singing what seemed the refrain of a song: + + + "All day long the bright sun loves me; + All day long." + + +"All day long," it was repeated, now quite close at hand, and I now +perceived the singer, who had been concealed from me hitherto by the +great trunks of the beeches. + +She was coming down a path which descended rather steeply among the +trees, and as she came to a spot upon which the bright sunshine +streamed through a canopy of leaves, she paused and looked thoughtfully +upwards, presenting a picture which is ineffaceably imprinted upon my +memory, and even now after so many years it comes back to me vividly as +ever. + +A charming, deep brunette, whose exquisitely proportioned form made her +stature appear less than it really was; and whose somewhat fantastic +dress of a dark green material, trimmed with gold braid, admirably +accorded with her striking, almost gypsy-like appearance. She carried a +small guitar suspended around her neck with a red ribbon, and her +fingers played over its chords like the rays of sunlight over the +lightly waving sprays. + +Poor Constance! Child of the sun! Why, if it loved thee so well, did it +not slay thee now with one of these rays, that I might have made thee a +grave in this lonely forest-glade, far from the world for which thy +heart so passionately yearned--thy poor foolish heart! + +I was standing motionless, fascinated by the vision, when with a deep +sigh she seemed to awake from a reverie, and as she descended the path +her eyes and mine met. I noticed that she started lightly, as one who +meets a human being where he only expected to see the stem of a tree: +but the surprise was but momentary, and I observed that she regarded me +from under her drooped lids, and a transient smile played round her +lips; in truth, a beautiful maiden, conscious of her beauty could +scarcely have seen without a smile the amazed admiration, bordering on +stupefaction, depicted in my face. + +Whether she or I was the first to speak I do not now remember; and +indeed I clearly retain, of this our first conversation, only the +memory of the tones of her soft and somewhat deep voice, which to my +ear was like exquisite music. We must have ascended together from the +forest-dell to the upland, and the sea-breeze must have awakened me to +a clearer consciousness, for I can still see the calm, blue water +stretching in boundless expanse around us, the white streaks of foam +lying among the rocks of the beach perhaps a hundred feet below, and a +pair of large gulls wheeling hither and thither, and then dipping to +the water, where they gleamed like stars. I see the heather of the +upland waving in the light breeze, hear the lapping of the surf among +the sharp crags of the shore, and amid it all I hear the voice of +Constance. + +"My mother was a Spaniard, as beautiful as the day, and my father, who +had gone thither to visit a friend he had known in Paris, saw her, and +carried her off. The friend was my mother's brother, and he loved my +father dearly, but was never willing that they should marry, because he +was a strict Catholic, and my father would never consent to become a +Catholic, but laughed and mocked at all religions. So they secretly +eloped; but my uncle pursued and overtook them in the night, upon a +lonely heath, and there were wild words between them, and then swords +were drawn, and my father killed the brother of his bride. She did not +know this until long afterwards; for she fainted during the fight, and +my father contrived to make her believe that he had parted from his +brother-in-law in friendship. Then they came to this place; but my +mother always pined for her home, and used to say that she felt a +weight upon her heart, as if a murder were resting on her soul. At last +she learned, through an accident, the manner of death of her brother, +whom she had devotedly loved; and so she grew melancholy, and wandered +about day and night, asking every one whom she met which was the road +to Spain. My father at last had to shut her up; but this she could not +endure, and became quite raving, and tried to take her own life, until +they let her go free again, when she wandered about as before. And one +morning she threw herself into this pool, and when they drew her out +she was dead. I was then only three years old, and I have no +recollection of her looks, but they say she was handsomer than I am." + +I said that could hardly be possible; and I said it with so much +seriousness, for I was thinking of the poor woman who had drowned +herself here, that Constance again smiled, and said I was certainly the +best creature in the world, and that one could say anything to me that +came into one's head; and that was what she liked. So I was always to +stay with her, she said, and be her faithful George, and slay all the +dragons in the world for her sake. Was I agreed to that? Indeed was I, +I answered. And again a smile played over her rosy lips. + +"You look as if you would. But how did you really come here, and what +does my father want with you? He gave me a special charge on your +account this morning before he set out; you must stand high in his +favor, for he does not usually give himself much care for the welfare +of other people. And how come you to have a sailor's hat on, and a very +ugly one at that? I think you said you came from school; are there +scholars there as large as you? I never knew that. How old are you +really?" + +And so the maiden prattled on--and yet it was not prattling, for she +remained quite serious all the time, and it seemed to me that while she +talked her mind was far away; and her dark eyes but seldom were turned +to me, and then with but a momentary glance, as though I were no living +man, but an inanimate figure; and frequently she put a second question +without waiting for an answer to the first. + +This suited me well, for thus at least I found courage to look at her +again and again, and at last scarcely turned my eyes from her. "You +will fall over there, if you do not take care," she suddenly said, +lightly touching my arm with her finger, as we stood on the verge of a +cliff. "It seems you are not easily made giddy." + +"No, indeed," I answered. + +"Let us go up there," she said. + +Upon what was nearly the highest part of the promontory on which we +were, were the ruins of a castle, overgrown with thick bushes. But a +single massive tower, almost entirely covered with ivy, had defied the +power of the sea and of time. These were the ruins of the Zehrenburg, +to which Arthur had pointed yesterday, as we passed on the steamer; the +same tower on which I was to fix my gaze as I renounced in his favor +all pretensions to Emilie Heckepfennig. This I had passionately refused +to do--yesterday: what was Emilie Heckepfennig to me to-day? + +The beautiful girl had taken her seat upon a mossy stone, and looked +fixedly into the distance. I stood beside her, leaning against the old +tower, and looked fixedly into her face. + +"All that, once was ours," she said, slowly sweeping her hand round the +horizon; "and this, is all that remains." + +She rose hastily, and began to descend a narrow path which led, through +broom and heather, from the heights down to the forest. I followed. We +came to the beech-wood again, and back to the tarn, where her book and +guitar still lay upon the bank. I was very proud when she gave me both +to carry, saying at the same time that the guitar had been her +mother's, and that she had never trusted it to any one before; but now +I should always carry this, her greatest treasure, for her, and she +would teach me to play and to sing, if I stayed with them. Or perhaps I +did not mean to stay with them? + +I said that I could not tell, but I hoped so; and the thought of going +away fell heavy upon my heart. + +We had now reached the castle. "Give me the guitar," she said, "but +keep the book: I know it by heart. Have you had breakfast? No? Poor, +poor George! it is lucky that no dragon met us; you would have been +hardly able to stand upon your feet." + +A side-door, that I had not previously noticed, led to that part of the +ground-floor inhabited by the father and daughter. Constance called an +old female servant, and directed her to prepare me some breakfast, and +then she left me, after giving me her hand, with that melancholy +transient smile which I had already noted on her beautiful lips. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +The breakfast which the ugly, taciturn old woman--whom Constance called +"Pahlen"--set before me after about half an hour, might well have been +ready in less time, for it consisted only of black bread, butter, +cheese, and a flask of cognac. The cognac was excellent; but the +remainder of the repast far from luxurious, for the bread was sour and +mouldy in spots, the butter rancid, and the cheese hard as a stone; but +what was that to a youth of nineteen, who had eaten nothing for twelve +hours, and whose silly heart, moreover, was palpitating with its first +passion! So it seemed to me that I had never had a more sumptuous +repast; and I thanked the old woman for her trouble with the utmost +politeness. "Pahlen" did not seem to know what to make of me. She +looked askance at me two or three times, with a sort of surly +curiosity; and to the questions that I put to her, replied with an +unintelligible grumbling, out of which I could make nothing. + +The room in which I now found myself--it was the same into which Herr +von Zehren had conducted me on our first arrival--might, in comparison +with the deserted apartments of the upper story, be called habitable, +though the carpet under the table was ragged, several of the carved +oaken chairs were no longer firm upon their legs, and a great antique +buffet in one corner had decidedly seen better days. The windows opened +upon a court, into which, my breakfast once over, I cast a look. This +court was very spacious, the barns and stables that enclosed it of the +very largest dimensions, such as are only found on the most +considerable estates. So much the more striking was the silence that +prevailed in it. In the centre of the space was a dove-cot built of +stone, but no wings fluttered about it, unless perhaps those of a +passing swallow. There was a duck-pond without ducks, a dunghill upon +which no fowls were scratching--one peacock sat upon the broken +paling--everything seemed dead or departed. Here was no hurrying to and +fro of busy men, no lowing of cattle or neighing of horses--all was +vacant and silent; only from time to time the peacock on the paling +uttered his dissonant cry, and the sparrows twittered in the twigs of +an old linden. + +As Constance did not return, and as Pahlen, to my question about the +dinner hour, responded by asking me if I now wanted dinner too, I came +to the conclusion that for some hours at least I would be left to my +own devices. I therefore walked into the court, and then perceived that +this part of the castle was an addition, which formed a continuation to +the main building, and had probably served as the manager's house. In +the castle the shutters on the ground floor were closed, and secured +with massive iron bars, a fact which did not by any means tend to give +the old pile a more cheerful appearance. That a manager's house had +long been a superfluous appendage, the surroundings plainly showed. In +truth, there was nothing here to manage; the buildings, which at a +distance still presented a tolerable appearance, proved, when near, to +be little better than crumbling ruins. The thatched roofs had sunk in +decay and were overgrown with moss, the ornamental work had dropped +away, the plaster peeled off in patches, the doors hung awry on their +rusted hinges, and in many places were entirely wanting. A stable into +which I looked had been originally built to accommodate forty horses; +now there stood in a corner four lean old brutes that set up a hungry +neighing as they saw me. As I came out again into the court, a wagon, +partly laden with corn and dragged by four other miserable jades, went +reeling over the broken stones of the pavement, and disappeared in the +yawning doorway of one of the immense barns, like a coffin in a vault. + +I strolled further on, passing one or two dilapidated hovels, where +half-naked children were playing in the sand, and a couple of fellows, +more like bandits than farm-hands, were lounging, who stared at me with +looks half shy half insolent, and reached the fields. The sun shone +brightly enough, but it lighted up little that was pleasant to the eye: +waste land, with here and there scattering patches of sparse oats, +overgrown with blue cornflowers and scarlet poppies, a little rusted +wheat, an acre or so where the rye--late enough for the season--still +stood in slovenly sheaves, and where a second wagon was being laden by +two fellows of the same bandit appearance as the men at the hovels, and +who stared at me with the same surprised and skulking looks, without +answering my salutation. At some distance appeared through the trees +and bushes the roofs of farm-buildings, evidently upon another estate, +to which belonged, doubtless, the far better cultivated fields which I +had now reached. Further to the right, above a larger collection of +houses, arose the plain white steeple of a church. But I did not care +to push my exploration further: an impulse drew me back to the park, +which I reached by a circuitous route on the other side, for I wished +to avoid the castle and the grumbling old Pahlen. + +I had hoped here to meet Constance again; but in vain did I listen more +than an hour under the trees and among the bushes, watching the castle +until I knew by heart nearly every broken tile upon the roof, and each +separate patch--and they were not few--where the rains of so many years +had detached the plaster and laid bare the stones beneath. No one was +to be seen; no sound was audible; while the afternoon sun gleamed upon +the window-panes, save when the shadow of a passing cloud swept over +them. + +My spirits began to yield to the depressing influences of this scene of +sunlit desolation. I felt as if the silence, like an invisible magic +net, was folding around me closer and closer, until I scarcely ventured +to move--scarcely to speak. In place of the careless audacity, which +was my natural temperament, a deep sadness took possession of me. How +came I here? What was I to do here--what did I want here, where no one +troubled himself about me? Was not all that had happened to me since +yesterday only a dream, and had I not merely dreamed the beauteous +maiden with the dark eyes and strange smile? + +A sense as of home-sickness came over me. I saw in fancy the town with +the narrow, crooked streets running between the old-fashioned gabled +houses; I saw my little room, to which I would have returned from +school by this time to fling my wearisome books upon the table and then +fly to my friend Arthur, who I knew had arranged a boat excursion in +the harbor. I saw my father sitting at the window of his bureau in the +excise-office, and crept close to the wall to avoid being seen by him. +How had my father borne my departure? Was he anxious about me? +Assuredly he was; for he still loved me, notwithstanding our mutual +alienation. What would he do when he learned--as sooner or later he +must learn--that I was with the wild Zehren? Would he allow me to stay? +Would he command me to return? Perhaps come for me himself? + +As this thought came into my mind, I looked uneasily around. It would +be intolerable to have to go back to the stifling class-room, to be +scolded again, like a boy by Professor Lederer, and never more to see +Fräulein von Zehren Constance! Never would I endure it! My father had +driven me from his house; he might take the consequences. Rather than +go back, I would turn bandit--smuggler---- + +I do not know how the last word came upon my lips, but I remember--and +I have since often thought of it--that when I had uttered the word half +aloud, merely as a heroical phrase, without attaching any distinct +meaning to it, I suddenly started as if some one had spoken it in my +immediate vicinity; and at the same moment the adventures of the +previous night and what I had since observed, arranged themselves in a +definite connection, just as one looking through a telescope sees +heaven and earth blended together in dim confusion, until the right +focus is attained, when a distinct picture stands before him. How could +I have been so blind--so destitute of ordinary apprehension? Herr von +Zehren over at Pinnow's, the strange connection that manifestly existed +between the nobleman and the smith, Christel's warnings, Pinnow's +behavior towards me, and the night sail in the terrible storm! And then +this uncared-for house, this ruinous farm-yard, these desolated fields, +this neglected park! The solitary situation of the place, upon a +promontory extending far into the sea! I had learned already from +frequent conversations between my father and his colleagues in the +excise-office, how actively smuggling was carried on in these waters, +what a flourishing business it was, and how much might be made at it by +any one who was willing to peril his life upon occasion. All was clear +as day; this, and no other, was the solution of the mystery. + +"You must be mad," I said to myself again, "completely mad. A nobleman +like Herr von Zehren! Such doings are for the rabble. Old Pinnow--yes, +yes, that is likely enough; but a Herr von Zehren--shame upon you!" + +I endeavored with all my might to shake off a suspicion which was +really intolerable; and thus afforded another proof that we all, +however free we think ourselves, or perhaps have really become, still +ever in our feelings, if not in our thoughts, are bound by other +imperceptible but none the less firm ties to the impressions of our +childhood and early youth. Had my father been a king and I the +crown-prince, I should probably have seen the Evil One embodied in the +person of a revolutionist; or in a runaway slave, had I been the +descendant of a planter; so, as I had for a father a pedantically rigid +excise-officer, to my conceptions the most hideous of all stigmas was +affixed to the smuggler's career. Yet at the same time--and this will +seem surprising to no one who remembers the strange duplicate character +of the devil in the Christian mythology--this murky gate of Tophet, by +which my childish fancy had so often stolen at a timid distance, was +invested with a diabolical fascination. How could it be otherwise, when +I heard tell of the privations which the wretches often endured with +such fortitude, of the ingenuity with which they knew how to baffle the +utmost vigilance of the officers, of the fearlessness with which they +not seldom confronted the most imminent peril? These were perilous +stories to reach the ear of an adventurous boy; but far too many such +were talked over in our town; and what was the worst of all, I had +heard the most terrible and most fascinating from the lips of my own +father--naturally with an appendix of indignant reprobation always +tacked on in form of a moral; but this antidote was, of a surety, never +sufficient entirely to neutralize the poison. Had not Arthur and I, +shortly before an examination in which we had the most confident +assurance that we should cut but a poor figure, for a whole day taken +earnest counsel together over the question whether we, in case we +failed--or better yet, before standing the trial--should not turn +smugglers ourselves, until we actually were scared at our own plans? +That had been four years ago; but, although in the meantime the +vehement antipathies and sympathies of youth had been moderated by +maturer reason, still the thought of having fallen into the hands of a +smuggler had even now the effect of making my heart beat violently. + +"You must be mad--stark mad! Such a man--it is not possible!" I +continually repeated to myself, as I hurried along the path I had +followed that morning--for indeed I then knew no other--through the +park into the forest, until I again reached the tarn with the bank of +moss. + +I gazed into the calm black water; I thought of the unhappy lady who +had drowned herself there because she could not find the way back to +Spain, and how strange it was that her daughter should select precisely +this spot for her favorite resting-place. Behind the bank lay her other +glove, for which we had looked in vain in the morning. I kissed it +repeatedly, with a thrill of delight, and placed it in my bosom. Then +leaving the place hastily I ascended the cliff, and passing the ruined +tower, went out to the furthest extremity of the promontory, which was +also its highest point. Approaching the verge, I looked over. A strong +breeze had sprung up; the streaks of foam lying among the great rocks +and countless pebbles of the beach had grown broader; and here and +there upon the blue expanse flashed the white crest of a breaker. The +mainland lay towards the south-west. I could have seen the steeples of +my native town but for a cliff that intervened, rising abruptly from +the sea, and now of a steel-blue color in the afternoon light. "And +this is all that remains!" I said, repeating the words of Constance, as +my eye, in turning, fell upon the ruined tower. + +I descended and threw myself down upon the soft moss that grew among +the ruins. No place could have been found more fit to inspire fantastic +reveries. The wide expanse of sky, and beyond the edge of the upland a +great stretch of sea, and the nodding broom around me! In the sky the +fleecy clouds, on the water a gleaming sail, and in the broom the +whispering wind! How luxurious to lie idly here and dream--the sweetest +dream of sweet love that loves idleness: a dream, of course, full of +combats and peril, such as naturally fills a youthful fancy. Yes! I +would be her deliverer; would bear her in my arms from this desolate +castle, a dismal dungeon for one so young and so fair--would rescue her +from this terrible father, and these ruins would I erect again into a +stately palace; and when the work was done and the topmost battlements +burned in the evening-red, would lead her in, and kneeling humbly +before her, say, "This is thine! Live happy! Me thou wilt never see +more!" + +Thus I wove the web of fancy, while the sun sank towards the horizon, +and the white clouds of noon began to flush with crimson. What else +could I have done? A young fellow who has just run away from school, +who has not a _thaler_ in his pocket, and a borrowed hat on, and who +scarcely knows where he shall lay his head--what else can he do but +build castles in the air? + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +As I entered the court through a little door in the park-wall, there +stood a light wagon from which the horses were being unharnessed, and +by the wagon a man in hunting-dress, his gun upon his shoulder--it was +Herr von Zehren. + +I had planned to assume towards my host a sort of diplomatic attitude; +but I never was a good actor, and had had, besides, so little time to +get up the part, that the friendly smile and cordial grasp of the hand +with which Herr von Zehren received me, completely threw me out, and I +met his smile and returned his grasp with as much fervor as if I had +all day been waiting for the moment when I should see my friend and +protector: in a word, I was entirely in the power of the charm with +which this singular man had, from the first moment of our meeting, +captivated my young and inexperienced heart. + +But in truth a maturer understanding than mine might well have been +ensnared by the charm of his manner. Even his personal appearance had +for me something fascinating; and as he stood there, laughing and +jesting with the setting sun lighting up a face which seemed really to +have grown young again from the excitement of his day's sport, and as +he took off his cap and pushed the soft fine locks, already touched +with gray, from his nobly-formed brow, and stroked his thick brown +beard, I thought I had never seen a handsomer man. + +"I came to your bedside this morning," he said, in a sportive manner; +"but you slept so soundly that I had not the heart to waken you. Though +if I had known that you could handle a gun as well as you can rudder +and halyards--and yet I might have known it, for fishing and shooting +and--something else besides--go together, like sitting by the stove and +sleeping. But we will make up for it: we have, thank heaven, more than +one day's shooting before us. And now come in and let us talk while +supper is getting ready." + +The room which Herr von Zehren occupied was in the front part of the +building, just in the rear of the dining-room, and his sleeping +apartment immediately adjoined it. He entered the latter, and conversed +with me through the open door, keeping all the while such a clattering +with jugs, basins, and other apparatus of ablution, that I had some +difficulty in understanding what he was saying. I made out, however, +that he had this morning written to his brother, the steuerrath, +requesting him to apprise my father where I was now staying. My father +certainly would not be sorry to hear that I had found shelter in the +house of a friend, at least until some arrangement could be effected. +In similar circumstances, he said, a temporary separation often +prevented a perpetual one. And even should this not be the case here, +at all events--here his head dipped into the water, and I lost the +remainder of the sentence. Under any circumstances--he was saying when +he became again intelligible--it would be as well if I mentioned to no +one where it was that we had happened to meet. We might have met upon +the road, as I was about to be ferried over to the island. What was to +prevent a young man, whose father had just driven him from his house, +from going, if he pleased, as far as the blue sky spread overhead? and +why should he not meet a gentleman who has a vacant place in his +carriage, and asks the young man if he will not get in? This was all +very simple and natural. And in fact this was the way he had stated the +circumstances in his letter to his brother this morning. He had given +old Pinnow his cue yesterday evening. And besides, the question of +where and how was really nobody's affair. He added some further remarks +with his head inside his wardrobe, but I only caught the word +"inconveniences." + +I felt relieved from a load of anxiety. My frightful dream of the +morning, of which I had not thought during the whole day, had recurred +to my memory in the dusk of the evening twilight. For a moment an +apprehension seized me that my father might think I had made away with +myself; but it was but for a moment, for youth finds it so unlikely +that others will take things more seriously than it does itself. One +point, however, was clear: that I must give some account of myself to +my father. But at this thought the old misery came back; I could, in +any event, no longer stay here. And now I suddenly saw a way of escape +from this labyrinth. The steuerrath, being his immediate chief, was, as +I well knew, looked upon by my loyal and zealous father as a kind of +superior being; indeed he knew upon earth but four other beings +higher than himself; the Provincial Excise-Director, the General +Excise-Director, His Excellency the Minister of Commerce, next to whom +came His Majesty the King--which latter, however, was a being of +distinct and peculiar kind, and separated, even from an excellency, by +a vast chasm. If, therefore, Herr von Zehren wished to keep me with +him, and the steuerrath would use his influence with my father--but +would he? The steuerrath had never liked me much; and besides, the +evening before, I had deeply offended him. I expressed my doubts on +this point to Herr von Zehren. "I will make that all right," he said, +as, rubbing his freshly washed hands, he came out of his chamber. + +"And now then," he went on, stretching himself luxuriously in an +easy-chair, "how have you spent the day? Have you seen my daughter? +Yes? Then you may boast of your luck--many a time I do not see her for +days together. And have you had something to eat? Poor fare enough, I +warrant; the provision is but indifferent when I am at home, but +execrable when I am away. Moonshine and beefsteak are two things that +do not suit together. When I want good fare, I must go from home. +Yesterday evening, for example, at old Pinnow's--wasn't it capital? +Romantic too, eh? Friar Tuck and the Black Knight, and you besides as +the Disinherited Knight. I love such little adventures above +everything." + +And he stretched himself at ease in his great chair, and laughed so +joyously that I mentally asked his pardon for my suspicions, and +pronounced myself a complete fool to have had such an idea enter my +brain. + +He went on chatting: asked me many questions about my father, my +family, the past events of my life, all in a tone of such friendly +interest that no one could have taken it amiss. He seemed to be much +pleased with my answers; nor did I take offence again when, as he had +done the evening before, he broke into loud laughter at some of my +remarks. But when this happened, he was always careful to soothe my +sensitiveness with a kind word or two. I felt assured that he meant +well towards me; and to this day I have remained in the conviction that +from the first moment he had conceived a hearty liking for me, and that +if it was a mere caprice that drew him towards a young man who needed +assistance, it was one of those caprices of which none but naturally +generous hearts are capable. + +"But what keeps our supper so long?" he cried, springing up impatiently +and looking into the dining-room. "Ah! there you are, Constance!" + +He went in; through the half-open door I heard him speaking in a low +tone with his daughter; my heart beat, I could not tell why. + +"Well, why do you not come?" he called to me from the dining-room. I +went in; by the table, that to my unaccustomed eye seemed richly +spread, stood Constance. The light of the hanging lamp fell upon her +from above. Whether it was the different light, or the different +arrangement of her hair, which was now combed upwards, so as to rest +upon her head like a dark crown, with a golden ribbon interwoven in it, +or her different attire--now a plain blue close-fitting dress, cut low +at the neck, which was covered by a wide lace collar, worn somewhat +like a handkerchief--whether it was all these together, and in addition +the changed expression of her face, which had now something +indescribably childlike about it, I cannot say; but I scarcely +recognized her again; I could have believed that the Constance I had +seen in the morning was the older, more impassioned sister of this fair +maidenly creature. + +"Last half of the previous century," said Herr von Zehren--"Lotte, eh? +You only want a sash, and perhaps a Werther--otherwise superb!" + +A shadow passed over the face of Constance, and her brows contracted. I +had not entirely understood the allusion, but it pained me. Constance +seemed so fair to me; how could any one who saw her say aught else but +that she was fair? + +Gladly would I have said it, but I had scarcely the courage to look at +her, let alone speak to her; and she, for her part, was silent and +abstracted; the dishes she hardly touched; and indeed now I cannot +remember ever to have seen her eat. In truth, the meal, composed of +fish and pheasants which Herr von Zehren had brought in from his day's +shooting, was of a kind only suited to his own appetite, which was as +keen as a sportsman's usually is. During supper he drank freely of the +excellent red wine, and often challenged me to pledge him; and indeed +he directed his vivacious and genial conversation almost exclusively to +me. I was fairly dazzled by it; and as there was much that I only half +understood, and much that I did not understand at all, it sometimes +happened that I laughed in the wrong place, which only increased his +mirth. One thing, however, I saw clearly; the constrained, not to say +hostile, relations between father and daughter. Things of this kind are +easily perceived, especially when the observer is as well prepared as +was I to catch the meaning lurking under the apparent indifference of a +hasty question, and to mark the unnecessarily prolonged pause which +preceded the answer, and the irritated tone in which it followed. For +it had not been so long since my father and I had sat together in the +same way; when I used to thank heaven in my heart if any lucky chance +relieved us sooner than usual of each other's presence. Here I should +have been a disinterested spectator had I not been so inordinately in +love with the daughter, and had not the father, by his brilliancy and +amiability, obtained such a mastery over me. So my heart, shared +between them both, was torn asunder by their division; and if a few +hours before I had formed the heroic resolution to protect the lovely +and unhappy daughter from her terrible father, I was now fixed like a +rock in my conviction that to me had fallen the sublime mission to join +these two glorious beings again in an indissoluble bond of love. That +it would have better become me to go back to the door of a certain +small house in Uselin, where dwelt an old man whom I had so deeply +wounded--of that I never for a moment thought. + +I breathed quick with expectation as a carriage came rattling over the +broken pavement of the court and stopped at the door. It was a visitor +whom Herr von Zehren had said he was expecting; a fellow-sportsman and +the owner of an adjoining estate, who brought with him a friend who was +staying at his house, and who had been out with them shooting. +Constance had at once arisen from the table, and was about to leave the +room, in spite of her father's request, uttered in a tone that almost +made it a command, "I beg that you will remain!" when the gentlemen +entered. One was a tall, broad-shouldered, fair young man, with +handsome, regular features, and a pair of large, prominent blue eyes +that stared out into the world with a sort of good-natured +astonishment. My host introduced him to me as Herr Hans von Trantow. +The other, a short, round figure, whose head, with its sloping brow, +and almost deficient occiput, was so small as to leave scarce a hand's +breadth of room for his close-cropped, stiff brown hair, and whose +short turned-up nose, and immense mouth, always open, and furnished +with large white teeth, gave their possessor a more than passing +resemblance to a bull-dog--was called Herr Joachim von Granow. He had +been an officer in the army, and on his succession, a few months +before, to a handsome fortune, had purchased an estate in the +neighborhood. + +Constance had found herself compelled to remain, for the little Herr +von Granow had at once turned upon her with an apparently inexhaustible +flood of talk, and the bulky Herr von Trantow remained standing +immovable so near the open door that it was not easy to pass him. From +the first moment of seeing them I felt a strong antipathy to them both: +to the little one because he ventured to approach so near to Constance, +and to talk so much; and to the large one, who did not speak, indeed, +but stared steadily at her with his glassy eyes, which seemed to me a +still more offensive proceeding. + +"We have had but a poor day's sport," said the little one in a +squeaking voice to Constance; "but day before yesterday, at Count +Griebenow's, we had an uncommonly splendid time. Whenever a covey rose +I was right among them; three times I brought down a brace--right and +left barrels; and that I call shooting. They were as jealous of me--I +expected to be torn to pieces. Even the prince lost his temper. 'You +have the devil's own luck, Granow,' he kept saying. 'Young men must +have some luck,' I answered. 'But I am younger than you,' said he. +'Your highness does not need any luck,' said I. 'Why not?' 'To be a +Prince of Prora-Wiek is luck enough of itself' Wasn't that a capital +hit?" and he shook with laughter at his own wit, and shrugged his round +shoulders until they nearly swallowed his little head. + +"The prince was there, then?" Constance said. + +It was the first word she had uttered in reply to the small man's +chatter. Perhaps this was the reason that I, who had been standing by, +taking no interest in what was said--Herr von Zehren had left the room, +and Herr von Trantow still held his post at the door--suddenly gave all +my attention to the conversation. + +"Yes indeed; did you not know it?" said the little man. "To be sure, +your father does not come to the shooting at Griebenow's; but I +supposed Trantow would have told you." + +"Herr von Trantow and I are not accustomed to keep each other _au +courant_ of our adventures," answered Constance. + +"Indeed!" said Herr von Granow, "is it possible? Yes; as I was going on +to say, the prince was there: he is going to be betrothed to the young +Countess Griebenow, they say. At all events, he has fixed his quarters +at Rossow; the only one of his estates in this part of the country, you +know, that has anything like a suitable residence, and then besides it +lies very handy to Griebenow. A capital opportunity--if a prince ever +needs an opportunity. But that is only for us poor devils--ha! ha! +ha!"--and the little fellow's head again nearly disappeared into his +shoulders. + +I was standing near enough to hear every word and observe every look, +and I had clearly perceived that as Herr von Granow mentioned the young +prince, Constance, who had been standing half-turned away from the +speaker, with an inattentive, rather annoyed expression, suddenly +turned and fixed her eyes upon him, while a deep blush suffused her +cheeks. I had afterwards sufficient reason to remember this fact, but +at the moment had not time to ponder over it, as Herr von Zehren now +returned with the cigars for which he had gone; and Constance, after +offering Herr von Granow the tips of her fingers, giving me her hand +with great apparent cordiality, and saluting Herr von Trantow, who +stood, as ever, silent and motionless at the door, with a distant, +scarcely perceptible bow, at once left the room. + +As the door closed behind her, Herr von Trantow passed his hand over +his brow, and then turned his large eyes on me, as he slowly approached +me. I returned, as defiantly as I was able, his look, in which I +fancied I read a dark menace, and stood prepared for whatever might +happen, when he suddenly stopped before me, his staring eyes still +fixed upon my face. + +"This is my young friend of whom I was speaking to you, Hans," said +Herr von Zehren, coming up to us. "Do you think you can manage him?" + +Von Trantow shrugged his shoulders. + +"You see I have laid a wager with Hans that you are the stronger of the +two," our host continued. "He is counted the strongest man in all this +part of the country; so I held it my duty to bring so formidable a +rival to his notice." + +"But not this evening," said Hans, offering me his hand. It was just as +when a great mastiff, of whom we are not sure whether he will bite or +not, suddenly sits on his haunches before us, and lays his great paw on +our knees. I took it without an instant's hesitation. + +"Heaven forbid!" said Herr von Zehren to Trantow's remark. "My young +friend will make a long stay with me, I trust. He wishes to learn the +management of a country place; and where could he sooner attain his +object than upon such a model estate as mine?" + +He laughed as he said it. Von Granow exclaimed, "Very good!" the silent +Hans, said nothing, and I stood confused. Von Zehren, in our previous +conversation, had made no allusion to my staying with him as a pupil. +Why had he not done so? It was one of the happiest of ideas, I thought, +and one that at once cleared away all the difficulties of my position. +As for his "model estate," why might I not succeed in changing this +ironical phrase to a real description? Yes; here I had a new mission, +which went hand in hand with the other: to reconcile father and +daughter, to reclaim the ruined estate, to rebuild the castle of their +ancestors--in a word, to be the good genius, the guardian angel of the +family. + +All this passed through my mind as the gentlemen took their seats at +the card-table; and with my brain still busy with the thought, I left +the room, under the pretext of wanting a little fresh air, and strolled +about the now familiar paths among the dark shrubbery of the park. The +moon was not yet up, but a glimmer on the eastern horizon showed that +she was rising. The stars twinkled through the warm air that was +ascending from the earth. There was a rustling and whispering in bush +and copse, and a screech-owl at intervals broke the silence with her +cry. From one of the windows on the ground-floor of the castle came a +faint light, and the breeze brought to my ear the notes of a guitar. I +could not withstand the temptation, and crept with hushed breath, +startled at the least noise that my footsteps made, nearer and nearer, +until I reached the stone balustrade which surrounded the wide, low +terrace. I now perceived that the light came from an open casement, +through which I could see into a dimly-lighted room. Thick curtains +were dropped before the two windows to the right and left. From the +place where I stood I could not see the occupant, and I was hesitating, +with a beating heart, whether I should venture to advance, when she +suddenly appeared at the open casement. Not to be discovered, I +crouched close behind a great stone vase. + +Her fingers glided over the strings of her guitar, trying first one +note and then another, then striking an uncertain chord or two, as if +she were trying to catch a melody. Presently the chords were struck +more firmly, and she sang: + + + "All day long the bright sun loves me, + Woos me with his glowing light; + But I better love the gentle + Stars of night. + + From the boundless deep above me + Come their calm and tender beams, + Bringing to my wayward fancy + Sweetest dreams. + + Sweetest dreams of love unending, + Bitter tears for love undone; + For the dearest, for the fairest, + Only one. + + Falsest-hearted, only chosen-- + Soon the short-lived dream was o'er-- + He is gone, and I am lonely + Evermore." + + +The last words were sung in a broken voice, and she now leaned her head +against the casement-frame, and I heard her sobbing. My agitation was +so great that I forgot the precaution which my situation demanded, and +a stone which I had dislodged from the crumbling edge of the terrace +rolled down the slope. Constance started, and called with an unsteady +voice, "Who is there?" I judged it more prudent to discover myself, and +approached her, saying that it was I. + +"Ah, it is you, then," she said. + +"I entreat you to forgive me. The music of your guitar attracted me. I +know I ought not to have come: pray forgive me." + +I stood near her; the light from the room fell brightly upon her face +and her eyes, which were lifted to mine. + +"How kind you are," she said in a soft voice; "or are you not dealing +truly with me?" + +I could not trust myself to answer, but she knew how to interpret my +silence aright. + +"Yes," she said, "you are my trusty squire, my faithful George. If I +were to say to you: watch this terrace tonight until the break of day, +you would do it, would you not?" + +"Yes," I answered. + +She looked in my face and smiled. "How sweet it is--how sweet to know +that there is one creature upon earth that is true to us!" + +She gave me her hand; my own trembled as I took it. + +"But I do not ask anything of the kind," she said; "only this one +thing, that you will not go away except by your own determination, and +not without my permission. You promise? That is so kind of you! And now +go; good-night!" + +She lightly pressed my hand before letting it go, and then re-entered +her room. As I turned away I heard the casement close. + +I stood under one of the great trees of the park and looked back +towards the house. The moon had risen above the trees, and the great +mass of buildings stood out in bolder relief against the dark +background; a faint light occasionally appeared and vanished in one of +the windows of the upper story. The light from Constance's window came +towards me with that magic lustre which shines upon us once in our +lives, and only once. + +The lawn before me lay in deep shadow; but just as the first rays of +the moon began to illuminate it, I thought I perceived a figure, which, +coming from the other side, was slowly approaching Constance's window. +In this there was nothing to excite suspicion, for it might be one of +the laborers; but it is the duty of a faithful squire to make sure in +any case; so without a moment's hesitation I started across the lawn to +meet the figure. Unluckily I stepped upon a dry twig and it snapped. +The figure stopped instantly, and began to retreat with swift, stealthy +steps. He had but little start of me, but the thick coppice which +closed in the lawn on that side, and was the limit of the park, was so +near that he reached it a few moments before me. I distinctly heard +some one pushing through the branches, but with my utmost exertions I +could not reach him. I began to think that my ear had led me in a wrong +direction, when suddenly a loud crashing and clattering close at hand +proved that I was on the right track. The man was evidently clambering +over the rotten paling which fenced in the park on this side. Now I +knew he could not escape me. On the other side lay a wide open space, +and I had never yet met the man whom I could not overtake in a fair +race. But at the instant that I reached the paling, I heard a horse's +feet, and looking up saw a rider galloping across the open in the clear +moonlight. The horse was evidently one of great power and speed. At +each stride he cleared such a stretch of ground, that in less than half +a minute horse and rider were lost to sight; for a brief space I still +heard the sound of the hoofs, and then that also ceased. The whole +adventure passed in so little time, that I might have fancied I had +dreamed it all, but for the evidence of my heart beating violently with +excitement and the exertion of the chase, and the smarting of my hands, +which were torn by the thorns and briers. + +Who could the audacious intruder be? Certainly not an ordinary thief; +doubtless some one who had been attracted by the light from Constance's +window, and not to-night for the first time; it was plain that he had +often followed that path in the dark. + +That it was a favored lover, I did not for a moment suppose. Such a +surmise would have seemed to me an outrage, and upon one, too, whose +dreamy eyes, whose melancholy song, and whose tears rather told of an +unhappy than of a requited attachment. But they surely told of love. +Not that I was presumptuous enough to indulge in any hope, or even +wish; how could I dare to lift my eyes to her? I could only live and +die for her, and perhaps another time break the neck of the rash mortal +who had dared under cover of the night to approach her sanctuary. + +This idea somewhat solaced my dejection, but my former happiness had +departed never to return. It was with a heavy sense of anxiety and +apprehension that I re-entered the room where the gentlemen were still +at the card-table. + +They had commenced with whist, but were now engaged at faro. Von Zehren +held the bank, and seemed to have been winning largely. In a plate +before him lay a great heap of silver, with some gold, and this plate +lay on another which was filled with crumpled treasury notes. The two +guests had already lost their ready money, and from time to time they +handed over bills, which went to swell the pile of notes, and received +in exchange larger or smaller sums, which evinced a strong proclivity +to return to the source from which they sprang. Herr von Trantow +appeared to bear his ill-luck with great equanimity. His good-natured +handsome face was as passionless as before, only perhaps a shade or two +deeper in color, and his great blue eyes rather more staring. But this +might very well be the effect of the wine he had been drinking, of +which they had already emptied at least half-a-dozen bottles. Herr von +Granow's nerves were less fitted to bear the slings and arrows of +outrageous fortune. He would at times start up from his chair, then +fall back into it; swore sometimes aloud, sometimes softly to himself, +and was plainly in the very worst of humors, to the secret delight, as +I thought, of Herr von Zehren, whose brown eyes twinkled with amusement +as he politely expressed his regret whenever he was compelled to gather +in the little man's money. + +I had taken my seat near the players, in order better to watch the +chances of the game, of which I had sufficient knowledge from furtive +school-boy experiences, when Herr von Zehren pushed over to me a pile +of bank-notes which he had just won, saying, "You must join us." + +"Excuse me," I stammered. + +"Why so punctilious about a trifle?" he asked. "There is no need for +you to go to your room for money; here is enough." + +He knew that my whole stock of cash did not amount to quite a _thaler_, +for I had told him so the previous evening. I blushed crimson, but had +not the courage to contradict my kind host's generous falsehood. I drew +up my chair with the air of a man who has no wish to spoil sport, and +began to play. + +Cautiously at first, with small stakes, and with the firm determination +to remain perfectly cool; but before long the fever of gaming began to +fire my brain. My heart beat ever quicker and quicker, my head and my +eyes seemed burning. While the cards were dealing I poured down glass +after glass of wine to moisten my parched throat, and it was with a +shaking hand that I gathered up my winnings. And I won almost +incessantly; if a card was turned against me, the next few turns +brought me in a three-fold or a five-fold gain. My agitation almost +suffocated me as the money before me increased to a larger sum than I +had ever before seen in a heap--two or three hundred _thalers_, as I +estimated it in my mind. + +Presently my luck came to a pause. I ceased winning, but did not lose; +and then I began to lose slowly at first, then faster and faster. Cold +chills ran over me, as one after another of the large notes passed into +the banker's hands; but I took care not to imitate the behavior of Herr +von Granow, which had struck me so repulsively. Like Herr von Trantow, +I lost without the slightest change of countenance, and my calmness was +praised by my host, who continued encouraging me. My stock of money had +melted away to one-half, when Hans von Trantow declared with a yawn +that he was too tired to play any longer. Von Granow said it was not +late; but the candles burnt to the sockets, and the great clock on the +wall, which pointed to three, told a different story. The two guests +lighted fresh cigars, and drove off in their carriages, which had long +been waiting at the door, after having arranged a shooting expedition, +in which I was to join, for the following day. + +My host and I returned to the room, which reeked with the fumes of wine +and the smoke of cigars, where old Christian, for whom the difference +between night and day seemed to have no existence, was busy clearing +up. Von Zehren threw open the window and looked out. I joined him; he +laid his hand upon my shoulder and said: "How gloriously the stars are +shining, and how delicious the air is! And there"--he pointed back into +the room, "how horrible--disgusting--stifling! Why cannot one play faro +by starlight, inhaling the perfume of wall-flowers and mignonette? And +why, after every merry night, must repentance come in the form of an +old man shaking his head as he counts the emptied bottles and sweeps up +the ashes? How stupid it is; but we must not give ourselves gray hairs +fretting about it--they will come soon enough of themselves. And now do +you go to bed. I see you have a hundred things on your mind, but +to-morrow is a new day, and if not--so much the better. Good-night, and +pleasant rest." + +But it was long ere my host's kind wish was accomplished. A real +witch-sabbath of beautiful and hideous figures danced in the wildest +gyrations before my feverish, half-sleeping, half-waking eyes: +Constance, her father, his guests, the dark form in the park, my +father, Professor Lederer, and Smith Pinnow--and all appealing to me to +save them from some danger or other;--Professor Lederer especially from +two thick lexicons, which were really two great oysters that gaped with +open shells at the lean professor, while the commerzienrath stood in +the background, nearly dying with laughter:--and all whirling and +swarming together, and caressing and threatening, and charming and +terrifying me, until at last, as the gray dawn began to light the +ragged hangings of the chamber, a profound slumber dispersed the +phantoms. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +If, according to the unanimous report of travellers by that route, the +road to hell is paved with good intentions, I am convinced that several +square rods of it are my work, and that the greater part of it was laid +down in the first fortnight of my stay at Zehrendorf. There could, +indeed, scarcely have been a place where everything essential to this +easy and pleasant occupation was provided in ampler abundance. Wherever +one went, or stood, or turned the eyes, there lay the materials ready +to hand; and I was too young, too inexperienced, and I will venture to +add, too good-hearted, not to fall to work with all my energy. Of what +unspeakable folly I was guilty in undertaking to set right the +disordered and disjointed world in which I was now moving, after I had +already shown that I could not adjust myself to the correct and orderly +world from which I came--this thought did not seize me till long +afterwards. + +No; I was thoroughly convinced of my sublime mission; and I thanked my +propitious star that had so gloriously brought me from the harsh +slavery of the school and of my father's house, where I was pining +away; from the oppressive bonds of Philistine associations which +hampered the free flight of my heroic soul, into this freedom of the +desert which seemed to have no bounds, and behind which must lie a +Canaan which I was gallantly resolved to conquer--a land flowing with +the milk of friendship and with the honey of love. + +True, the letter which soon arrived, with a great box containing my +personal chattels, from my father to Herr von Zehren, for a while gave +me pause. The letter comprised but very few lines, to the effect that +he--my father--was fully convinced of the impossibility of ever leading +me by his road to any good end, and that he was compelled to give me +over, for weal or woe, to my own devices; only hoping that my +disobedience and my obstinacy might not be visited upon me too heavily. +Herr von Zehren showed me the letter, and as he observed my grave look +upon reading it, asked me, "Do you wish to go back?" adding +immediately, "Do not do it. That is no place for you. The old gentleman +wanted to make a draught-horse out of you, but, tall and strong as you +are, that is not your vocation. You are a hunter, for whom no ditch is +too wide, and no hedge too high. Come along! I saw a covey of some two +dozen over in the croft; we will have them before dinner." + +He was right, I thought. I felt that my father had given me up too +soon, that he might have allowed me one chance more, and that, as it +was, he had forfeited the right to threaten me in addition with the +retribution of heaven. And yet it pained me, when an hour or so later +Herr von Zehren, who had used up all his wads, took my father's letter +from his pocket, and tearing it up, rammed it down both barrels of his +gun, with the jesting phrase that necessity knows no law. I could not +help feeling as if some misfortune would happen. But the gun did not +burst, the birds dropped, and nothing remained of the letter but a +smouldering scrap which fell in some dry stubble, and upon which Herr +von Zehren set his foot as he thrust the birds into his game-bag. + +If I had any doubt left whether I was right in setting myself upon my +own feet, as I phrased it, a letter which I received from Arthur was +only too well adapted to confirm me in my notions of my finally-won +liberty. + +"A lucky dog you always were," he wrote. "You run away from school, and +they let you go, as if it was a matter of course; while me they catch +as if I were a runaway slave, cram me in the dungeon for three days, +every hour cast up to me my disgraceful conduct, and in every way make +my life a perfect misery to me. Even my father carries on as if I was +guilty of heaven knows what; only mamma is sensible, and says I mustn't +take it too much to heart, and that papa will have to come round, or +the professor will not let me go into the upper class, and there will +be more botherations. It is really a shame that I, just because my +uncle, the commerzienrath, wills it so, must go through the final +examination, while Albert von Zitzewitz, no older than I, is at the +cadets' school, and has a pair of colors already. What has my uncle to +do with me, anyhow? Papa says that he will not be able to support me +during my lieutenancy without the help he expects from my uncle; and +that is likely too, for things get tighter with us every day, and papa +went quite wild yesterday when he had to pay sixteen _thalers_ for a +glove-bill of mine. If mamma did not help me now and then, I don't know +what I should do; but she has nothing, and said to me only yesterday +that she did not know what would happen at New Year, when all the bills +came in. + +"Now you might help me out of all this trouble. Papa says that Uncle +Malte never looks at money when he happens to have any, and anybody +that would hit the lucky moment might get as much from him as they +pleased. You, lucky fellow, are now with him all the time, and you +might watch your chance, for the sake of an old friend, and slip in a +good word for me. Or better, tell him that you have some old debts that +you are worried about, and wouldn't he lend you fifty or a hundred +_thalers_, and then do you send it to me, for you can't want it, you +know. You'll never come back here, whatever happens, for you cannot +imagine the way people here talk about you. Lederer prays an extra five +minutes every day for the strayed lamb--that's what he calls you, you +old sinner. Justizrath Heckepfennig said that if ever it was written in +a mortal's face that he would die in his shoes, it is in yours. In +Emilie's coterie it was resolved to tear out of all their albums the +leaves on which you had immortalized yourself; and at my uncle's, day +before yesterday, there was a regular scene about you. Uncle said at +the table that you must take powerfully long strides if you meant to +outrun the ---- and here he made a sign, you understand, at which +Hermine began to cry terribly, and Fräulein Duff said it was a shame to +talk that way before a child. So you see you have a pair of firm +friends among the females. You always did have, and have still, the +most unaccountable luck in that quarter. Don't break my pretty cousin's +heart, you lucky dog! + +"P. S.--Papa once told me that Constance gets a small sum of money +every year from an old Spanish aunt of hers. She certainly has no use +for it. Maybe you could coax something from her--at all events, you +might look into the matter a little." + +As soon as I had read this letter, which offered me such an opportunity +of heaping coals of fire on the head of my still-loved friend, I +resolved to help him out of his difficulties with a part of the money I +had won on that first evening; but this intention, which I cannot +maintain to have been in any sense a good one, was destined never to be +carried into execution. For the same evening Herr von Zehren gave his +guests their revenge at Hans von Trantow's, and I lost not only all the +money I had won with such palpitations, to the very last _thaler_, but +a considerable sum besides, which my obliging host, who was again the +winner, had forced upon me. This ill fortune, which I might have +foreseen if I had had a grain more sense, struck me as a heavy blow. In +spite of my frivolity, I had always been scrupulously conscientious in +my small money-matters; had always paid my insignificant debts +cheerfully and as promptly as possible; and as we were driving home at +daybreak after this unlucky evening, I felt more wretched than I had +ever done before. How could I ever be in a position to pay such a +sum--especially now that I had resolved never again to touch a card? +How could I venture in broad daylight to look into the face of the man +to whom I was already under so many obligations? + +Herr von Zehren, who was in the best of humors, laughed aloud when, +after some urging on his part, I confessed to him my trouble. "My dear +George," said he--he had taken to calling me George altogether--"don't +take it amiss, but you really are too absurd. Why, man, do you really +think that I would for one instant hold you responsible for what you +did at my express request? Whoever lends money to minors, does it, as +everybody knows, at his own risk, and you certainly remember that I +forced the money upon you. And why did I do it? Simply because it gave +me pleasure, and because I liked to see your honest, glowing face +across the table, and to compare it with Granow's hang-dog look and +Trantow's stony stare. And when a young fellow that is my valued guest, +to please me, accompanies me out shooting, or to the faro-table, and he +has no money and no gun, it is right and fair and a matter of course +that I should place my gun-room and purse at his disposal. And now say +no more about the trifle, and give me a cigar if we have any left." + +I gave him his cigar-case, which he had handed over to my keeping, and +murmured that his kindness crushed me to the earth, and that my only +consolation was in the trust that an opportunity might yet offer of my +repaying the obligation in some way or other. He laughed again at this, +and said I was as proud as Lucifer, but he liked me all the better for +it; and as for the possibility of my repaying the obligation, as I +called it, he was a man in whose life accidents and lucky hits and +mishaps and chances of all kinds had played so important a part, that +it would be a wonder if, among all the rest, the chance I so longed for +did not turn up. So until then we would let the matter rest. + +In this airy way he tried to quiet the twinges of my conscience, but he +only succeeded in part; and I went to sleep, and awaked a couple of +hours later, with the resolution to set decisively about the execution +of another resolution, namely, in my capacity of pupil to devote myself +to the neglected estate; to acquire, with the utmost possible dispatch, +a complete insight into all matters of rural economy, and by the help +of this knowledge and of untiring diligence, and the exertion of all +my faculties, to change this ruined place in the shortest possible +time--say one or two years--into a paradise, and so relieve my kind +host from the necessity of winning at the card-table the resources +which he could not win from his fields. + +I at once devoted my attention to the forlorn-looking stables, to the +cattle-sheds, only tenanted by a few wretched specimens of the bovine +genus, and to a score of melancholy sheep; so that Herr von Zehren, who +had an acute sense of the comic, could never get done laughing at me, +until an incident occurred which gave him an opportunity of speaking a +serious word with me, which to a certain extent damped the ardor of my +economical studies. + +That old man whom I met in the park on the first day after my arrival +(whose real name was Christian Halterman, though he always went by the +name of Old Christian), in his capacity of under-bailiff, and in +default of a master who paid any attention to the management, and of a +head-bailiff, a post that was not filled--was the wretched chief of the +whole wretched establishment. Such orders as were given emanated from +him; though it required no extraordinary perspicuity of vision to see +that of the whole bandit-looking gang that called themselves laborers, +every man did just what pleased him. When the old man, as I had once or +twice seen, fell into an impotent rage, and more to relieve his wrath +than in the hope of any effectual result, scolded and stormed in his +singular, creaking, parrot-like voice, they laughed in his wrinkled +face and kept on their own way, or sometimes even openly insulted him. +Their ringleader in this insolence was a certain John Swart, commonly +called "Long Jock," a great, tall, broad-shouldered fellow, with long +arms like an ape's, whose physiognomy would probably have appeared to +Justizrath Heckepfennig more unprepossessing even than mine, and of +whose matchless strength the others told all sorts of wonderful +stories. + +I came one morning upon this man, quarrelling again with Old Christian. +The subject of dispute was a load of corn which the old man wanted +thrown off, and which the other refused to touch. The scene was the +straw-littered space before the barn-door, and the spectators a +half-dozen fellows who openly sided with Long Jock, and applauded every +coarse jeer of his with whinnying laughter. + +I had observed the whole affair from a distance, and my blood was +already boiling with indignation when I reached the spot. Thrusting a +couple of the laughers roughly aside, I confronted Long Jock and asked +him if he intended to obey Old Christian's order or not. Jock answered +me with an insolent laugh and a coarse word. In a moment we were both +rolling in the trampled straw, and in the next I was kneeling upon the +breast of my vanquished antagonist, and made the unpleasantness of his +position so apparent, that he first cried aloud for help, and then, +seeing that the rest stood scared and motionless, and that none could +deliver him out of my hand, begged for mercy like a craven. + +I had just allowed him to rise, badly bruised and half strangled, when +Herr von Zehren, who from his chamber-window had been a witness of the +whole scene, came hurrying up. He told Long Jock that he had got no +more than he richly deserved, and that he would do well to take a +lesson from it for the future; reproved the others, but as I thought by +no means so severely as their conduct demanded, then took my arm and +led me a little aside, until we were out of hearing of the men, when he +said, "It is all very well, George, that these fellows should know how +strong you are; but I do not want to turn them against me by any +repetition of the proof." + +I looked at him in surprise. + +"Yes," he went on, "you would have to repeat the process on a thousand +other occasions, and not even your strength would suffice for such +Herculean labor." + +"Let us try that," I said. + +"No; let us by no means try that," he answered. + +"But the whole estate is going to ruin in this way," I cried, still +under excitement. Herr von Zehren shrugged his shoulders, and said, +"Well, it has not very far to go--two or three steps at the farthest. +And now you understand, George, the word is, Things as they are! As for +the men, they are no bees in point of industry, but they have this much +of bees about them, that when they are meddled with they are very apt +to sting. So be a little more cautious in future." + +He said it with a smile, but I perceived very clearly that he was +thoroughly in earnest, and that the paradise I had been planning must +be renounced. A paradise in which these brigand-looking malingerers +slouched about at their pleasure, presented too glaring a contradiction +to escape even my inexperienced eyes. + +I cannot say that it cost me much to give up my plans of radical +reformation. I had chiefly thrown myself into them because I hoped thus +to free myself of my load of obligation to my host. If he did not +choose to be paid in this way, it was clearly no fault of mine; and +when he reiterated to me every day that he wanted nothing of me but +myself, that my company was inexpressibly delightful to him, and, so to +speak, a godsend, whose value he could not sufficiently prize--how +could I help believing assurances that were so flattering to me, and +how could I withstand the allurements of a life that so exactly +corresponded with my inclinations? + +Fishing and bird-catching--there is associated with these words an +ominous warning, whose justice I was destined to have a long time and a +desperately serious occasion to verify; but even now I cannot condemn +the fascination that clings to those occupations at which the proverb +is aimed. Fish cannot be caught without gazing at the water, nor birds +without gazing into the sky; and then the gliding waves and the flying +clouds get a mysterious hold of us--or at all events did of me, from my +very earliest youth. How often as a boy, coming home from school, did I +go out of my way to sit for half an hour on the outermost end of the +pier, and yield to the lulling influence of the light lapping of the +waves at my feet. How often at my garret-window have I stood gazing +over my wearisome books at the blue sky, where our neighbor's white +pigeons were wheeling in ethereal circles. And I had always longed just +for once to be able to listen to my fill to the plashing waves, and +gaze my fill at the drifting clouds. Then as I grew older, and could +extend the range of my excursions, I enjoyed many a happy hour, +many a boating-trip, many a ramble into the forest, many an expedition +after water-fowl on the beach with one of Smith Pinnow's rusty +fowling-pieces; but these at best were only for a few hours at a time, +which were far from sufficient for the exuberant energies of youth, and +were bought at the price of too much incarceration at home and at +school, too much care, trouble, vexation, and anger. + +Now for the first time in my life I enjoyed in full measure all that I +had longed for all my life: forest and field and sea-shore, unlimited +space, and freedom to wander through all these at my pleasure from the +earliest dawn until far in the night, and a companion besides than whom +no fitter could be desired by a youth whose ambition it was to excel in +these profitless, ruinous arts. The "Wild Zehren's" eye was perhaps not +so keen nor his hand so steady as they had been ten or twenty years +before, but he was still an excellent shot, and a master in everything +belonging to field-sports. No one knew better than he where to find the +game; no one had such well-trained dogs, or could handle them so well +as he; no one could so skilfully take advantage of all the chances of +the chase; and above all, no one was so delightful a companion. If his +ardor during the sport carried all away with him, no one could so +happily choose the resting-place in the cool edge of the forest or +under the thin shade of a little copse by the side of a brook, or so +charmingly entertain the tired party with mirth and jest and the most +capitally-told stories. But he always seemed most charming to me when +we two together were on a long tramp. If in a large company of +sportsmen he could not conceal a certain imperious manner, and the +better success of another filled him with envy which found vent in +acrid sarcasms, there was no trace of all this when he was with me. He +taught me all the arts, adroit expedients, and minor dexterities of +woodcraft, in which he was so well skilled, and was delighted to find +me so apt a scholar; indeed he often laughed heartily when I brought +down a bird which he had marked for his own gun. + +And then his talk, to which I always listened with new delight! It was +the strangest mingling of excellently-told sporting stories and +anecdotes, acute observations of nature, and biting satire upon +mankind, especially the fairer half of it. In the life of the Wild +Zehren, women had played an important and disastrous part. Like so many +men of ardent passions and fierce desires, he had probably never sought +for true love, and now he charged it as a crime upon the sex, that he +had never found it; not even with that unhappy lady whom he had carried +off from her home under such terrible circumstances, and who brought +him nothing but her parents' curse, beauty which faded but too soon, +and a narrow, bigoted spirit, uncultured and perhaps incapable of +culture, which already bore in itself the germs of madness. + +That he, at that time in his fortieth year, who had seen so much of the +world, and had such wide experience, should perceive and acknowledge +that the whole was his own fault, that he had to attribute to himself +all the misery and misfortune ensuing upon so wicked and insensate a +union--all this never occurred to him for a moment. He was the man more +sinned against than sinning; he was the victim of his generosity; he +had been cheated out of his life's happiness. How could a man have +domestic habits who never had any enjoyment in his home? How could he +learn the charm of a calm and peaceful life at the side of a woman +restlessly tormented night and day by madness and superstition? + +"Yes, yes, my dear George, I once had fine plans of my own: I meant to +restore the old castle, laid waste in the time of the French invasion, +to its ancient splendor; I thought to regain all the possessions that +once belonged to the Zehrens; but it was not to be. It could not be, in +the years when I was still young and full of hope; and do you think now +to make a careful, economical proprietor of me, now that I am grown old +and half savage? You buoyant, hopeful young---- See! there he goes! +That comes of talking. No; don't shoot now, he is too far. To heel, +Diana, old girl! So frivolous in your old days? Be ashamed of yourself! +Yes; what I was going to say to you, George, was--beware of the women. +They are the cause of every man's misfortunes, just as they have been +of mine. Take my brothers, for instance. There is the steuerrath, whom +you know: the man was predestined to a fine career, for he is as fond +of the shining things of this world as any thievish magpie, cunning as +a fox, smooth as an eel, and being a man without passions of any sort, +unpretentious, and so could easily hold his own. If he absolutely must +marry, then, at a time when he made no pretensions, it should have been +some plain sensible girl, who would have helped him make his way. +Instead of this, when he was a mere penniless barrister, he lets +himself be caught by a Baroness Kippenreiter, the oldest of two +surviving daughters of an army-contractor, made a baron, I believe, by +the King of Sweden, who wasted in speculation the fortune that had +ennobled him, to the last farthing, and finally blew out his brains. +And now the steuerrath must take the consequences. A Baroness +Kippenreiter will not seal her letters with a coat-of-arms twenty years +old, and have the richest man in the province for a brother-in-law, for +nothing. If such a thorough plebeian could rise to such distinction and +to the dignity of commerzienrath, her husband, sprung from the oldest +family in the province, must die prime minister at the very least. The +lithe fox with no pretensions would have found his way into the +poultry-house; but when with hunger and debt he is changed into a +howling and ravenous wolf, he is hunted off with kicks, clubs, and +stones. One of these days they will put him off with a pension, to be +rid of him once for all. + +"Then there is my younger brother Ernest. He is a genius; and like all +geniuses, modest, magnanimous as Don Quixote, full of philanthropic +crotchets, unpractical to the last degree, and helpless as a child. He +should have taken a wife of strong mind, who would have brought order +into his genial confusion, and had the ambition to make something out +of him. He had the stuff in him, no doubt; it only wanted fashioning. +And what does he do? When a first lieutenant, twenty years old--for +already, when he was little more than a boy, he had distinguished +himself in the war for freedom, and came back covered with orders, so +that attention was drawn to him, and he had a fine career before +him--what does he do? He falls in love with an orphan, the daughter of +a painter, I believe, or something of that sort, who had served as a +volunteer in his battalion, and on his death-bed left her in his +charge--the generous soul! He marries her; farewell promotion! They +give our lieutenant, who is bent on a _mésalliance_, an honorable +discharge, with the rank of captain; make him superintendent of the +prison; and there he sits now, for these twenty-five years, in Z., with +a half-blind wife and a swarm of children, old and gray before his +time, a wretched invalid--and all this for the sake of a stupid young +goose, whom the first tailor or cobbler would have suited just as well. +Women! women! Dear George, beware of women!" + +Had Herr von Zehren, when he talked to me in this way, any special +object in view? I do not think he had. I was now so much with him, we +often set out so early, so seldom returned at noon, and usually came +home so late at night--as a consequence I saw so little of Constance, +and that almost invariably in his presence, when I felt so embarrassed +and ill at ease on account of the constant hostilities between father +and daughter, that I scarcely ventured to raise my eyes to her face--it +was not possible that he could know how I admired the beautiful maiden, +how I found her more lovely every time I saw her, and how my heart beat +when I merely heard the rustle of her dress. + +Then there was another reason which contributed to his unsuspiciousness +on this point. Fond as he was of having me with him, and sincerely as +he admired my aptness for everything connected with sport, and my +remarkable bodily strength, which I liked to display before him, still +he scarcely looked upon me as a creature of his own kind. Poor as he +was, leading a problematical existence as he had done for many years, +he could never forget that he sprang from a most ancient race of +nobles, who had once held sway over the island before the princes of +Prora-Wiek had been heard of, and when Uselin, my native place, +afterwards an important Hanseatic town, was a mere collection of +fishers' huts. I am convinced that he, like a dethroned king, had in +his heart never renounced his pretensions to the power and wealth which +had once been his ancestors'; that he considered that Trantow, Granow, +and a score of other titled or untitled gentlemen who held estates in +the neighborhood that had once belonged to the Zehrens, had come to +their so-called possession of these estates by some absurd whimsy of +fortune, but had no genuine title which he recognized, and that +wherever he hunted, it was still upon his own ground. This mystical +_cultus_ of a long-vanished splendor, of which he still fancied himself +the upholder, gave his eye the haughty look, his bearing the dignity, +his speech the graciousness, which belong to sovereign princes whose +political impotence is so absolute, and whose legitimacy is so +unassailable, that they can allow themselves to be perfectly amiable. + +Herr von Zehren was an enthusiastic defender of the right of +primogeniture, and found it highly unreasonable that younger brothers +should bear and transmit the nobility that they were not permitted to +represent. "I have nothing to say against a councillor of excise, +nothing against a prison superintendent," he said, "only they ought to +be called Müller or Schultze, and not Zehren." For the nobility of the +court, the public offices, or the army, he cherished the profoundest +contempt. They were only servants, in or out of livery, he maintained; +and he drew a sharp distinction between the genuine old and the +"new-baked" nobility, to the former class of which, for example, the +Trantows belonged, who could trace back an unbroken pedigree to the +middle of the fourteenth century; while Herr von Granow had had a +shepherd for great-grandfather, small tenant-farmer for grandfather, +and a land-owner, who had purchased a patent of nobility, for his +father. "And the man often behaves as if he was of the same caste with +myself! The honor of being permitted to lose his contemptible money to +me, seems to have mounted into his foolish brain. I think before long +he will ask me if I am not willing to be the father-in-law of a +shepherd-boy. Thank heaven, in that point at least I can rely upon +Constance; she had rather fling herself into the sea than marry the +little puffed-up oaf. But it is foolish in her to treat poor Hans so +cavalierly. Trantow is a fellow that can show himself anywhere. He +might be put under a glass-case for exhibition, and nobody could find a +fault in him. You laugh, you young popinjay! You mean that he was not +the man that invented gunpowder, and that if he keeps on as he is +going, he will soon have drunk away what little brains he has. Bah! The +first fact qualifies him for a good husband; and as for the second, I +know of a certainty that it is pure desperation that makes him look +into the glass so much with those staring eyes of his. Poor devil: it +makes one right heartily sorry for him; but that, you see, is the way +with every man that has anything to do with women. Beware of the women, +George; beware of the women!" + +Was it possible that the man who held these views and talked with me in +this way, could have the least suspicion of my feelings? It could not +be. I was in his eyes a young fellow who had fallen in his way, and +whom he had picked up as a resource against ennui, whom he kept with +him and talked to, because he did not like to be alone and liked to +talk. Could I complain of this? Could I make any higher pretensions? +Was I, or did I desire to be, anything else than one of my knight's +retinue, even if for the time I happened to be the only one? Could I +have any other concern than for the fact that I could not at the same +time devote the same reverential service to my knight's lovely +daughter? + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +Since that memorable walk with her through the wood to the ruins on the +promontory, I had not again been alone with Constance for a long time. +During the three rainy days I saw her at the dinner table, and perhaps +about as often at supper when we returned from shooting; but always in +the presence of her father, and usually of Herren von Trantow and +Granow, our companions of the field and the card-table. On these +occasions she scarcely lifted her lovely eyes from her untouched plate, +while the tall Hans stared at her after his fashion, the short Granow +chattered away as usual, undisturbed by her chilling silence, and Herr +von Zehren, who in his daughter's presence always seemed in a +singularly irritated mood, loosed at her more than one of his keen +sarcastic shafts. These were for me sad and bitter hours, and all the +bitterer as I, with all my desire to be of service, felt myself so +utterly helpless, and what was worst of all, thought I observed that +she no longer excepted me from the aversion which she openly manifested +towards her father's friends. In the first days of my stay at the +castle it was entirely different. In those days she had always for me a +ready friendly glance, a kind word occasionally whispered, a cordial if +hasty pressure of the hand. This was all now at an end. She spoke to me +no more, she looked at me no more, except at times with a look in which +indignation seemed mingled with contempt, and which cut me to the +heart. + +And had I been short-sighted enough to mistake the meaning of these +looks, a word dropped by old Pahlen would have opened my eyes. + +I hit upon the idea of asking permission to occupy, instead of my +present room in the front of the house, one of the empty apartments +looking on the park. Into this I carried from time to time various +articles of furniture, most of them still valuable, which were lying +about in the dilapidated regions of the upper story, until I had +brought together an accumulation which presented a very singular +appearance. Herr von Zehren laughed heartily when one day coming to +call me to dinner, as I in my new occupation had forgotten the hour, he +caught me hard at work arranging my worm-eaten and tarnished treasures. + +"Your furniture does not lack variety, at all events," he said; "for an +antiquary the rubbish would not be without interest. Really, it is like +a chapter out of one of Scott's novels. There, in that high-backed +chair, Dr. Dryasdust might have sat; you must set that here, if the old +fellow does not tumble over as soon as you take him from the wall. So! +a little nearer to the window. Isn't that a splendid piece! It comes +down from my great-grandfather's time. He was ambassador at the court +of Augustus the Strong, and the only one of our family, so far as I +know, who as head of the house ever entered public service. He brought +from Dresden the handsome vases of which you see a potsherd there, and +a decided taste for Moorish servants, parrots, and ladies. But _de +mortuis_--Really the old chair is still right comfortable. And what a +magnificent view of the park, just from this place! I shall often come +to see you, for it is really charming." + +In fact he did come once or twice in the next few days, while a heavy +rain kept us all in the house, to smoke his cigar and have a chat; but +when the weather cleared up, he thought no more about it, and I was +careful enough, on my part, not to recall my museum to his +recollection. For I had only arranged it in order to be nearer to +Constance, and to have a view of the park, about whose neglected walks +she loved to wander. I could also see a strip of the terrace that lay +under her windows, but unfortunately only the outer margin, as the part +of the castle in which she lived fell back from the main-building about +the breadth of the terrace. But still it was something: the faint light +which in the evening fell upon the balustrade came from her room, and +once or twice I caught an indistinct glimpse of her form, as she paced +up and down the terrace, or leaning upon the balustrade gazed into the +park, over which night had already spread her dusky veil. And when I +did not see her, I heard her music and her songs, among which there was +none I loved better than that which I had heard the first evening, and +now knew by heart: + + + "All day long the bright sun loves me, + Woos me with his glowing light; + But I better love the gentle + Stars of night." + + +In truth I also loved them well, the stars of night, for often and +often when the pale light had vanished from the balustrade, and the +song I so loved had long ceased, I still sat at my open window gazing +at the stars, which shone in all the splendor of a September night, and +listening to the solemn music of the wind in the ancient trees of the +park. + +In the meantime the happiness which only young hearts, or such as have +long retained their youth, can appreciate, was, as I have said, but of +brief duration. The singular change in Constance's manner towards me, +plucked me from my heaven; and I tortured my brain in the effort to +discover what cause had brought me into her disfavor. But think +as I might, I could find no key to the mystery; and at last I +resolved--though a foreboding of evil warned me against it--to have +recourse to Pahlen, who, if any one, could solve me the enigma that +weighed so heavily upon my foolish head. + +This ugly old woman had lately been rather more obliging. I had +soon discovered that she was extremely fond of money, and I did not +hesitate now and then, under one pretence or another, to slip into her +wrinkled brown hands two or three of the _thalers_ that I won at the +card-table--for naturally enough I had abandoned my resolution to play +no more. The glitter of the silver softened her stony old heart; she no +longer growled and grumbled when I ventured to speak to her, and once +or twice actually brought coffee to my room with her own hands. When I +thought that the taming process was sufficiently advanced, I ventured +to ask her about the subject nearest my heart--her young mistress. She +threw me one of her suspicious looks, and finally, as I repeated my +question, puckered her ugly old face into a repulsive grin, and said: + +"Yes; catch mice with cheese; but you need not try that game; old +Pahlen is too sharp for you." + +What was the game that I need not try? + +As I could not find a satisfactory answer to this question, I asked the +old woman on the following day. + +"You need not make as if you did not know," she said, with a kind of +respect, inspired probably by my innocent manner, which she naturally +took for a masterpiece of deception; "I am not going to betray my young +lady for a couple of _thalers_. I have been sorry enough, I can tell +you, that I helped to clear up this room for you, and she has +complained bitterly enough about it." + +"But, good heaven," I said, "I will cheerfully go back to my old room +if the young lady wishes it. I never thought it would be so extremely +disagreeable to her if I caught a sight of her now and then. I could +not have supposed it." + +"And that was all you wanted?" asked the old woman. + +I did not answer. I was half desperate to think that--heaven knows how +involuntarily--I had offended her whom I so deeply loved; and yet I was +glad to learn at last what my offence was. Like the young fool I was, I +strode up and down the great room, and cried: + +"I will quit this room this very day; I will not sleep another night in +it; tell your young lady that; and tell her that I would leave the +castle this very hour, only that I do not know what to say to Herr von +Zehren." + +And I threw myself into the old worm-eaten, high-backed chair, at +imminent risk of its destruction, with the deepest distress evident in +my features. + +The tone of my voice, the expression of my countenance, probably joined +with my words to convince the old woman of my sincerity. + +"Yes, yes," she said, "what could you say to him? He certainly would +not let you go, although for my part I do not know what he really wants +with you. Do you stay here, and I will speak with my young lady." + +"Do, dear, good Mrs. Pahlen!" I cried, springing up and seizing one of +the old woman's bony hands. "Speak with her, tell her--" I turned +suddenly red, stammered out some awkward phrase or other, and once more +adjured her to speak with her young lady. + +The old woman, who had been watching me all the while with a curious, +piercing look, remained thoughtful for a few moments, then said curtly +she would see what could be done, and left me. + +I remained, much disturbed. The consciousness that the old woman had +penetrated my secret, was very painful to me; but I consoled myself +with the reflection that if she was really, as she seemed to be, +Constance's confidante, I certainly need feel no shame to take her into +my confidence also; and finally, what was done was done, and if +Constance now learned for the first time that I loved her, that I was +ready to do or to suffer anything for her sake, she would certainly +forgive me what I had done. What had I done, then? How could she, who +at first received me so kindly, who in jest which seemed earnest chose +me for her service, who on that evening exacted of me the promise not +to go until she gave me permission--how could she feel offence at what +at the very worst she could but regard as a token of my love and +admiration? + +Thus, under my inexperienced hands, the threads of my destiny were +wound into an evermore inextricable clue; and with violent beatings of +the heart I entered an hour later the dining-room, where to-day, +besides our usual guests, three or four others were assembled. They +were waiting for the young lady's appearance to take their places at +the table. After dinner they were to go out for a little shooting. + +As was usual with her, Constance subjected her father's impatience to a +severe trial; but at last she appeared. + +I do not know how it happened that this time I, who always, when guests +were present, took my seat at the foot of the table, happened to be +placed next to her. It was certainly not intentional on my part, for in +the frame of mind in which I was, I would have done anything rather +than obtrude my presence upon my fair enemy. So I scarcely dared to +raise my eyes, and in my excessive confusion loaded my plate with +viands of which every morsel seemed about to choke me. How joyfully +then was I surprised, when Constance, after sitting for a few minutes +in her accustomed silence, suddenly asked me, in a low friendly tone, +if I had not time to fill her a glass of wine. + +"Why did you not ask me, _meine Gnädigste_?"[3] cried Herr von Granow, +who sat on the other side of her. + +"I prefer to be served in my own way," answered Constance, almost +turning her back upon the little man, and continuing to speak with me. +I answered as well as I could, and as she continued speaking in a low +tone, I imitated her example, and leaned towards her in order better to +catch her words; and thus, as I looked into her dark eyes, I forgot +what she had asked me, or answered at a venture, at which she laughed; +and because she laughed I laughed also, and all this together made up +the most charming little confidential _tête-à-tête_, although we were +speaking of the most indifferent things in the world. I took no notice +of anything else that was passing; only once I observed that Hans von +Trantow, who sat opposite us, was staring at us with wide-open eyes; +but I thought nothing of it, for the good fellow's eyes usually wore +that expression. + +Much sooner than I could have wished, Herr von Zehren rose from the +table. Before the house were waiting a lot of barefooted, bareheaded +boys, with creels on their backs; the dogs were barking and leaping +about the men, who were arranging their accoutrements and loading their +guns. Constance came out with us, which she had never before done, and +called to me as we were about starting, "I cannot wish _them_ good +luck, and would not wish _you_ bad." Then, after including the rest in +a general salutation, she gave me a friendly wave of the hand and +re-entered the house. + +"Which way are we going to-day?" I asked Herr von Zehren, as I came to +his side. + +"It was long enough discussed at dinner. Your attention seems to have +been wandering." + +It was the first time that he had ever spoken to me in an unfriendly +tone, and my countenance probably expressed the surprise that I felt, +for he quickly added: + +"I did not mean to wound you; and besides it was no fault of yours." + +We had reached a stubble-field, and the shooting began. Herr von Zehren +posted me on the left wing, while he kept upon the right; thus I was +separated from him and did not once come near him during the rest of +the day. This also had never before occurred. He had hitherto always +kept me by him, and was delighted when, as often happened, more game +fell to our two guns than to those of all the rest. My shooting was +this day poor enough. The happiness which Constance's unexpected +friendliness had given me, was embittered by her father's unexpected +unkindness. The birds which my dog Caro put up--Herr von Zehren had +given me one of his best dogs--flew off untouched while I was pondering +over the unhappy relations between father and daughter, and how I could +not show my affection for the one without offending the other, and what +was to become of my favorite scheme of reconciling the two. + +I was quite lost in these melancholy reflections when Herr von Granow +joined me. It was already growing dusk, and the day's sport was +virtually over, only now and then we heard a distant shot among the +bushes of the heath. No order was now kept, and I soon found myself +alone with the little man as we ascended a slight hill. + +"What has happened between you and the old man?" he asked, hanging his +gun across his shoulders and coming to my side. + +"What do you mean?" I inquired. + +"Well, it struck me in that light, and not me only; the others noticed +it too. I can assure you that he looked once or twice across the table +at you as if he would eat you." + +"I have done nothing to offend him," I said. + +"That I can well believe," continued the little man. "And this +afternoon he scarcely spoke a word with you." + +I was silent, for I did not know what to say. + +"Yes, yes," pursued my companion; "but do not hurry so, nobody can keep +up with you. You are in an ugly position." + +"How so?" I asked. + +"Don't you really know?" + +"No." + +Herr von Granow was so convinced of his superior acuteness, that it +never occurred to him that my ignorance might be feigned in order to +draw him out. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "You are still young, and at your years one is +often deaf and blind to things which we who know the world seize at the +first glance. The old man and the young lady live together like cat and +dog; but really, when one thinks of it, neither has such great cause to +love the other. She leads a wretched life through his fault. He would +gladly be rid of her, but who is going to take her off his hands? I +have considered the matter from all sides; but it can't be managed--it +really can't." + +I was in doubt, when my companion began to talk in this way, whether I +should strike him to the earth for his impudence, or burst into loud +laughter. I took a side-look at him; the little man with his short +trotting legs, his foolish face scarlet from his exertions, and his +half-open mouth--I could not resist, but fairly shook with laughter. + +"I do not see what you are laughing about," he said, rather surprised +than offended. "The little comedy which she played for you and the rest +of us this afternoon, can hardly have turned your brain, if I may so +express myself. And it is just upon that subject that I would like to +give you some information. + +"What can you mean?" I asked. + +My merriment was at an end, and I was serious enough now. A comedy +which she had played for me? "What can you mean?" I asked again more +urgently than before. + +Herr von Granow, who had been walking at a little distance from me, +trotted up close to my side, and said in a confidential tone: + +"After all, I cannot think hard of you about it. You are still so +young; and I often do not know myself on what footing I am standing +with the girl. But this much is clear: out of pure obstinacy against +her father, and perhaps a little calculation to raise her own value, +and perhaps, too, because she thinks it will make no difference anyhow, +but mainly out of mere stubbornness and self-will, has she put on these +airs of a princess, and behaves as if for her I and the rest had no +existence. If she suddenly began to coquet with you in my--I should say +in our presence, that really signifies nothing; it is but a little +pleasantry that she allows herself with you, and which has no further +consequences; but it must provoke the old man, and it did provoke him. +You did not observe it, you say, but I can assure you he bit his lip +and stroked his beard as he always does when anything vexes him." + +The little man had no notion what a tumult he was stirring up in my +breast; he took my silence for acquiescence and for acknowledgement of +his superior wisdom, and so proceeded, in delight at being able to +speak of such interesting topics and to have secured such an attentive +listener. + +"I fancy that the whole conduct of the young lady puts a spoke in his +wheel. Do you know how much I have lost to him during the six months +that I have been here? Over eight hundred _thalers_. And Trantow nearly +twice as much; and all the rest are cursing their ill-fortune. He has +had a wonderful run of luck, it is true; it is not always so; but then +when he loses one must take it out in his wine and his cognac, and you +can imagine the prices he rates them at. Well, one wants something at +least for one's money; for the sake of such a pretty girl one lets a +couple of hundreds go, and does not watch the old man's hands too +closely. But it used to be all quite different; she used to join in the +play, and smoke cigars with the gentlemen, and go out shooting and +riding--the wilder the horses the better she liked it. It used to be a +heathenish life, Sylow says, and he ought to know. But since last +summer, and that affair with the prince----" + +"What affair was that?" I asked. I was consumed with the desire to hear +everything that Herr von Granow had to tell. I no longer felt the +contumely which this man was heaping upon my kind host and upon the +maiden I adored; or if I did, I thought that the reckoning should come +afterwards, but first I must hear all. + +"You don't know that?" he inquired, eagerly. "But, to be sure, who +could have told you? Trantow is mute as a fish, and the others don't +know what to think of you. I hold you for an honest fellow, and do not +believe that you are a spy, or leagued with the old man; his looks at +dinner were too queer for that. You won't tell him what I have been +saying to you, will you?" + +"Not a word," I said. + +"Well then, this is the story. Last summer the old man was at D----, +and she was with him. At a watering-place people are not so particular; +any one who chose might go about with him. The young Prince Prora was +there too; he had persuaded his physicians that he was unwell and +needed sea-bathing, so he was sent there with his tutor. The old prince +was at the Residence, just as he is now, and the young one made good +use of his liberty. I had just bought my place here, was no sooner on +it than I caught a devilish rheumatism on these infernal moors; and so +I went there for a week or so and saw something of it, but the most was +told me by others. Naturally enough there was high play; but the +highest was in private circles, for at the _Spielsaal_ they only allow +moderate stakes. The prince kept constantly in the old man's company, +some said for the sake of the play, others, to pay his court to the +young lady; and probably both were right. I have often enough seen them +sitting and walking together in the park of an evening; and they were +gay enough, I can testify. Now they say that the old man had bad luck, +and lost twenty thousand _thalers_ to the prince, which he had to pay +in two days. Where was he to get the money? So, as they say, he offered +the prince his daughter instead. Others say he asked fifty thousand, +and others again a hundred thousand for the bargain. Well, for any one +who had the money, it may be that was not too much; but unluckily the +young prince did not have the money. It will be two years before he is +of age, and then, if the old prince is still alive, he will only get +the property of his deceased mother, of which not much is ready cash, I +take it. In a word, the affair hung fire; and one fine day here comes +the old prince, who had got some wind of the matter, tearing over from +the Residence, read the youngster a terrible lecture, and offered +Zehren a handsome sum to go out of the country with Constance until the +young prince was married. Now the thing might have been all arranged, +for all that Zehren wanted was to make a good hit of it, if he and the +prince could have kept from personally appearing in the business. But +Zehren, who, when he takes the notion, can be as proud as Lucifer, +insisted upon arranging the affair with the prince in person, and so +the scandal broke out. There was a terrible scene, they say, and the +prince was carried for dead to his hotel. What happened, nobody exactly +knows. But this much is certain: the late princess, who was born +Countess Sylow--I have the facts from young Sylow, who is related to +the count--fell in love with Zehren when he was a young man staying +with the prince at the Residence and attending the court balls, and +only married the prince because she was compelled to it. The prince +either knew it then, or found it out soon afterwards, and they led a +miserable life together. It is probable that Zehren and he, in their +dispute, raked up some of these old stories; one word led to another, +as always happens. Zehren is like a madman when he gets into a rage, +and the prince has none of the coolest of tempers--in a word, the thing +came to an explosion. Zehren left the place; and the prince a day or +two later, with a pair of blue marks on his throat left there by +Zehren's fingers, they said." + +"And the young prince?" + +"What did he care? All pretty girls are the same to him; he knows how +to enjoy life. I wonder if he holds fast this time. He has already been +over three weeks at Rossow. I should feel rather queer about staying in +this part of the country after what has happened. I would not for my +life meet Herr von Zehren if I knew that my father had given him deadly +offence." + +"What does he look like?" + +"Oh, he is a handsome young fellow; very slender, elegant, and amiable. +I fancy Fräulein von Zehren owes her father small thanks for having +broken off the affair, for I will say for her honor that she does not +know what the scheme really was. True, others say that she knew it very +well, and was perfectly satisfied with the arrangement." + +I listened with intensest interest to this narrative of my companion's, +as if my life depended upon its result. This then was the mystery: it +was the young Prince of Prora who was the "chosen one" of her song. Now +I remembered how she blushed when Granow that evening alluded to the +prince, and at the same time I recalled the dark figure in the park. +Had I only got him in my hands! + +I groaned aloud with grief and anger. + +"You are tired," said the little man, "and besides I see we have +strayed considerably out of our way. We must keep to the right; but +there are two or three ugly places in the moor, and in the dusk I am +afraid we shall not be able to get through. Let us rather go round a +little. Heaven knows how little you big fellows can stand; there was a +Herr von Westen-Taschen in my regiment, a fellow, if anything, bigger +than you, only perhaps not quite so broad across the shoulders. +'Westen,' I said to him one day, 'I'll bet you that I can run'--but, +good heavens, what is that?" + +It was a man who suddenly arose out of a little hollow, in which we had +not noticed him--probably could not have seen him in the dusk--about +twenty paces from us, and disappeared again instantly. + +"Let us go nearer," I said. + +"For heaven's sake no," whispered my companion, holding me fast by my +game-pouch. + +"Perhaps the man has met with an accident," I said. + +"God forbid," said the little man. "But we might, if we did not keep +out of his way. I beg you come along." + +Herr von Granow was so urgent, and evinced so much anxiety, that I did +as he entreated me; but after we had gone a short distance I could not +refrain from stopping and looking round as I heard a low whistle behind +me. The man was going across the heath with long strides, another rose +from the same spot and followed him, then another and another, until I +had counted eight. They had all great packs upon their backs, but went, +notwithstanding, at a rapid pace, keeping accurate distance. In a few +minutes their dark figures had vanished, as if the black moor over +which they were striding had swallowed them up. + +Herr von Granow drew a deep breath. "Do you see?" said he, "I was +right. Infernal rascals that run like rats over places where any honest +Christian would sink. I'll wager they were some of Zehren's men." + +"How do you mean?" I asked. + +"Oh, well," he went on, "we all dabble in it a little about here, or at +least make our profit of it. In the short time that I have been here, I +have found out that there is no help for it, and that the rascals would +burn the house over your head if you did not look through your fingers +and stand by them in every way. Only the day before yesterday, as I was +standing by my garden-wall, a fellow comes running across the lawn and +says that I must hide him, the patrol is after him. I give you my word +I made him creep into the oven, as there was no other hiding-place +handy, and with my own hands heaped a pile of straw before the door; +and when the patrol came up, five minutes later, said I had seen the +fellow making for the wood. Upon my honor I was ashamed of myself; but +what is one to do? And so I would not say anything against the old man, +if he only would not carry things to such extremes. But he drives it +too far, I tell you, he drives it too far; it must take a bad turn; +there is but one opinion about that." + +"But," said I, taking the greatest pains to speak as calmly as +possible, "I have been already about three weeks here, and I give you +my honor" (this phrase I had lately caught) "that as yet I have not +seen the slightest thing to confirm the evil repute in which, as I hear +to my great uneasiness, Herr von Zehren stands, even with his friends. +Yes, I will admit that when I first came here, some such fancies came +into my head, I cannot tell how, but I have long driven so disgraceful +a suspicion from my mind." + +"Suspicion!" said the old man, speaking with even greater vivacity, and +taking shorter and quicker steps; "who talks of suspicion? The thing is +as clear as amen in the church. If you have observed nothing--which +really surprises me, but your word of course is sufficient--the reason +is because the weather has been so bad. Still, the business is not +altogether at a stand-still, as you have yourself just now seen. I +declare, one feels very queer to think one is sitting in the very +middle of it all. And last Thursday I had to take a lot of wine and +cognac from him, and Trantow as much more a couple of days before, and +Sylow still more, but he, I believe, divides with somebody else." + +"And why should not Herr von Zehren dispose of his surplus stock to his +friends?" I asked, incredulously. + +"His surplus stock?" cried Herr von Granow. "Yes, to be sure there was +a great deal left over from the last vintage; he has enough in his +cellars, they say, to supply half the island. And that is a heavy load +for him to carry; for he has to pay the smuggler captains in cash, and +the market at Uselin has grown very poor, as I hear. Lately they have +got very shy there. Since so many have taken to dabbling in the +business, no one thoroughly trusts another. Formerly, I am told, the +whole trade was in the hands of a pair of respectable firms. But all +that you must know much better than I; your father is an officer of the +customs." + +"True," I answered, "and I am so much the more surprised that, among so +many, I have never heard Herr von Zehren's name mentioned--supposing +your suspicion to be founded on fact." + +"But don't keep always talking about 'suspicion,'" cried the little +man, peevishly. "It is there just as it is everywhere else, they hang +the little thieves and let the big ones go. The gentlemen of the +custom-house know what they are about. A couple of _thalers_ or +_louis-d'ors_ at the right time will make many things smooth; and when +one has, like the old man, a brother councillor of excise, Mr. +Inspector will probably not be so impolite as to interfere with the +councillor's brother." + +"That is an insult, Herr von Granow," I cried in a fury; "I have +already told you that my own father is an officer in the customs." + +"Well, but then I thought that you and your father were not on the best +terms," said Herr von Granow. "And if your father has driven you off, +why----" + +"That concerns nobody!" I exclaimed, "unless it be Herr von Zehren, who +has received me into his house, and been kind and friendly to me +always. If my father has sent me away, or driven me off, as you call +it, I gave him cause enough; but that has nothing to do with his +integrity, and I will strike any man dead, like a dog, who asperses my +father's honor." + +As Herr von Granow did not and could not know in how many ways all that +he had said had lacerated my tenderest feelings, my sudden wrath, which +had been only waiting an opportunity to burst forth, must have appeared +to him terrible and incomprehensible. A young man, who had probably +always appeared to him suspicious, and now doubly so, of whose bodily +strength he had seen more than one surprising proof, speaking in such a +voice of striking dead--and then the desolate heath, the growing +darkness--the little man muttered some unintelligible words, while he +cautiously widened the distance between us, and then, probably in fear +of my loaded gun, came up again and very meekly declared that he had +not the slightest intention to offend me; that it was not to be +supposed that a respectable officer like my father had knowingly placed +his son with a notorious smuggler. And that, on the other side, the +suspicion that I was a spy in the pay of the authorities, could not +possibly be reconciled with my honest face and my straightforward +conduct, and was indeed perfectly ridiculous; that he would with all +his heart admit that everything that was said about Herr von Zehren was +pure fabrication--people talked so much just for the sake of talking. +Besides, he, who had only recently come into the neighborhood, could +least of all judge what there might be in it; and he would be extremely +delighted, and account it an especial honor, to receive me as a guest +at his house, there where we could now see the lights shining, and +where the others must have arrived long ago, and to drown all +unpleasantness in a bottle of wine. + +I scarcely comprehended what he said, my agitation was so extreme. I +replied curtly that it was all right, that I did not believe he +intended to offend me. Then asking him to excuse me to Herr von Zehren, +I strode across the heath towards the road which I knew so well, which +led from Melchow, Granow's estate, to Zehrendorf. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +The following morning was so fine that it might well have cheered even +a gloomier spirit than mine. And in my fatigue I had fallen so promptly +asleep when I laid my tired head upon the pillow, and had slept so +soundly, that it required some consideration upon awaking to recall the +circumstances that had caused me so much agitation the previous +evening. Gradually they recurred to my memory, and once more my cheeks +burned, and I felt, as I always did when under excitement, that I must +rush out into the free air and under the blue sky; so I hurried down +the steep back-stair into the park. + +Here I wandered about under the tall trees, which waved their light +sprays in the morning breeze, along the wild paths, and among the +bushes brightened with the sunlight, at intervals listening to some +bird piping incessantly his monotonous autumn song, or marking some +caterpillar swinging by a fathom-long filament from a twig overhead, +while I bent my thoughts to the task, so difficult for a young man, of +obtaining a clear view of my situation. + +I had told Granow the evening before but the simple truth: so long as I +had been upon the estate nothing had occurred to confirm his suspicion. +During the whole of this time I had scarcely left the side of Herr von +Zehren. No strangers had come about the place; there had been no +suspicious meetings; no goods had been received, and none sent out, +except a barrel or two of wine to the neighbors. To be sure, the people +on the estate looked as if they were accustomed to anything rather than +honest industry, and especially my tall friend Jock could not possibly +have a clear conscience; but the cotters on the various estates around +were all a rough, uncouth, piratical-looking crew, as indeed many of +them had been fishermen and sailors, and were so still when occasion +offered. That the gang which we had seen crossing the heath did not +belong to our people, I was convinced when I passed the laborer's +cottages, and saw Jock with two or three others lounging about the +doors as usual. + +And then, granting that Herr von Zehren was really all that evil +tongues called him, still he did nothing more or worse than his +neighbors. They all dabbled a little in it, Granow had said; and if all +these aristocratic gentlemen made no scruple of filling their cellars +with wine that they knew to be smuggled, the receiver was as bad as the +thief, and Herr von Zehren was here, as always and everywhere, only the +bolder man who had the courage to do what the others would willingly +have done if they dared. + +And, after all, I was bound to him by the firmest ties of gratitude. +Should I go away for a mere suspicion, the silly gossip of a prating +tongue, and abandon him who had always been so kind, so friendly to +me?--who had given me his best--no, his second-best gun and dog; whose +purse and cigar-case--and ah, what exquisite cigars he had!--were at +all times at my service? Never! And even if he really were a smuggler, +a professional smuggler--but how could I find out once for all whether +he was or not? + +Most simply, by going directly to himself. I had justification for +doing so. My honesty was questioned by his friends; they did not know +what to think of me. I could not allow this to go on unnoticed. Herr +von Zehren could not expect that I should, on his account, incur the +dishonoring suspicion of being either a spy or an accomplice. But +suppose he were to say: "Very well; then go. I do not detain you." + +I seated myself upon a stone-bench under a spreading maple at the edge +of the park, and resting my elbow upon the half-fallen table, and +leaning my head upon my hand, gazed at the castle which threw its +shadow far over the lawn, now golden in the morning sun. + +Never had the ruinous old pile seemed so dear to me. How well I +knew each tall chimney, each tuft of grass growing upon the gray +moss-covered roof of tiles, the three balconies, two small ones to the +right and left, and in the middle the great one upon which the three +glass doors opened from the upper hall, resting upon its massive +pillars with the fantastic voluted capitals. How well I knew each +window, with the weather-beaten wooden shutters that were never closed, +and the most of which, indeed, were past closing. Some were hanging by +a single hinge, and one belonging to the third window to the right +always slammed at night when the wind was from the west. I had a dozen +times resolved to secure it, but always forgot it again. The two +windows at the corner to the left were those of my room, my poetic room +with the precious old furniture, which to my eye had such an imposing +effect that I felt like a young prince in the midst of all this +magnificence. What happy hours had I already passed in this room! Early +mornings, when, joyous in the anticipation of the day's sport, I sang +as I dressed myself and arranged my ammunition; late evenings when I +returned home with my friend, heated with wine and play and jovial +discourse, and sitting at the window, inhaled the fragrant aroma of my +cigar, or drank in large draughts the pure, cool night-air, while +thoughts crowded one another in my mind, foolish and sentimental +thoughts, all turning to the fair maiden who doubtless had been +slumbering for hours in her chamber by the terrace. + +What was it that the shameless slanderer had said of her? I scarcely +dared to recall his words to my mind. I could not comprehend how I +could have borne to listen to them, or how it was that I let him escape +unchastized after so desecrating the object of my idolatry. The +miserable creature! The conceited, upstart, envious little oaf! Little +blame to her that she would have nothing to do with such a lover as he, +or the rest of her country squires. And for this they now breathed +their venomous slanders against her: said that she would have sold +herself--she, the lovely, the noble, the pure, for whom a king's +throne would have been too low! Was there any head more worthy of a +diadem--any form more fit to be folded in the mantle of purple? Oh, I +desired nothing for myself; it was enough for me if I might touch the +hem of her vesture. But the others should honor her as well as I. No +one, not if he were prince or king, should dare to approach her without +her permission. If she would only, as she had jestingly said that +night, let me keep watch at her threshold! + +Thus humbly I thought of her in my full, young heart, that was breaking +with love and longing. And I did it in the most assured conviction, in +the firmest faith, of the nobility and purity of her I loved so dearly. +I can truly say there was no drop of blood in my veins that did not +belong to her. I would have given my life for her had she asked it of +me, had she taken me for the true heart that I was, had she dealt +honestly with me. Was it a presentiment of the brief space of time that +I was still to cherish the simple faith that there is a spark of virtue +in every human breast that nothing can entirely extinguish, that made +me now bow my head upon my hands and shed hot tears? + +I suddenly lifted my head, for I fancied I heard a rustling close +behind me, and I was not mistaken. It was Constance, who came through +the bushes hedging the path to the beech-wood. I sprang suddenly in +confusion to my feet, and stood before her, ere I had time to wipe the +traces of my tears from my cheeks. + +"My good George," she said, offering me her hand with a gentle smile, +"you are my true friend, are you not?" + +I murmured some indistinct reply. + +"Let me sit here by you a little while," she said; "I feel somewhat +tired; I have been up so long. Do you know where I have been? In the +forest by the tarn, and afterwards up at the ruin. Do you know that we +have never again gone there together? I was thinking of it this +morning, and was sorry; it is so beautiful up on the cliffs, and +walking with you is so pleasant. Why do you never come there to bring +me home? Don't you remember what you promised me: to be my faithful +George, and kill all the dragons in my path? How many have you killed?" + +She glanced at me from under her long lashes with her unfathomable +brown eyes, and abashed I looked upon the ground. "Why do you not +answer?" she asked. "Has my father forbidden you?" + +"No," I replied, "but I do not know whether you are not mocking me. You +have shown me lately so little kindness, that at last I have hardly +dared to speak to you or even to look at you." + +"And you really do not know why I have lately been less friendly +towards you?" + +"No," I answered, and added softly, "unless it be because I am so much +attached to your father; and how can I be otherwise?" + +Her looks darkened, "And if that were the reason," she said, "could you +blame me? My father does not love me; he has given me too many proofs +of that. How can any one love me who is 'so much attached to my +father?'"--she spoke the last words with bitterness--"who perhaps +reports to him every word that I say, and to the watchers and +tale-bearers by whom I am surrounded adds another, so much the more +dangerous as I should have expected from him anything but treachery." + +"Treachery--treachery from me?" I exclaimed with horror. + +"Yes, treachery," she answered, speaking in a lower tone, but more +rapidly and passionately. "I know that Sophie, my maid, is bribed; I +know that old Christian, who skulks about, day and night, watches me +like a prisoner. I am not at all sure that old Pahlen, who shows some +devotion to me, would not sell me for a handful of _thalers_. Yes, I am +betrayed, betrayed on all sides. Whether by you--no; I will trust your +honest blue eyes, although I had really good reason for suspecting +you." + +I was half distracted to hear Constance speaking thus; and I implored +her, I adjured her, to tell me what horrible delusion had deceived her, +for that it was a delusion I was ready to prove. She should, she must +tell me all. + +"Well then," she said, "is it delusion or truth that on the very first +evening of your stay here, by order of my father, who brought you here +for that purpose, you kept watch under my window, when afterwards you +pretended to me that it was my music that had attracted you?" + +I started at these last words, which were accompanied with a dark +suspicious look. That dark figure then had really been stealing to a +rendezvous; and he had been there since, else how could she know what +had happened? + +"You need make no further confession," said Constance, bitterly. "You +have not yet sufficiently learned your lesson of dissimulation. And I, +good-natured fool, believed that you were my faithful George." + +I was near weeping with grief and indignation. + +"For heaven's sake," I cried, "do not condemn me without a hearing. I +went into the park without any special intention; without an idea that +I should meet him--any one. If I had known that the man whom I saw from +this point come out of the shrubbery yonder, came with your permission, +I should never have intercepted him, but would have let him go +unmolested where, as it seems, he was expected." + +"Who says that he came by my permission, and that he was expected?" she +asked. + +"Yourself," I promptly answered. "The fact that you are informed of +what none but he and I could know." + +Constance glanced at me, and a smile passed across her features. +"Indeed!" she said, "how skilful we are at combinations! Who would have +believed it of us? But you are mistaken. I know of it from him, that is +true; but I did not expect him, nor had he my permission. More than +this: I solemnly assure you that I had no idea that he was so near. +'And now?' your look seems to inquire. Now he is as far as he ever was. +He wrote to me by a medium--no matter how--that he made an attempt to +see me on that evening, in order to communicate something which he did +not wish me to learn from another. I answered him by the same way that +I had already learned it through another, and that for the sake both of +his peace and my own, I entreated him to make no attempt to approach +me. This is all, nor will there ever be more. It is not my custom to +ask of those that love me, to sacrifice for me their futures and their +lives. And that would be the case here. That person can enter into no +engagements without his father's consent, and my father has taken care +that this consent shall never be given. He will only be free after his +father's death. Before this happens years may pass. He shall not +sacrifice those years to me." + +"And he consents to this," I cried, indignantly; "he does not rather +renounce his title and inheritance than give you up? He does not rather +allow himself to be torn to pieces than renounce you? And this man +possesses millions, and calls himself a prince." + +"You know, then, who it was?" asked Constance, apparently alarmed, +adding with bitterness: "To be sure, why should you not? Of course you +are my father's confidant, and told him the whole adventure at once, as +in duty bound." + +"I never breathed a word of it to any living creature," I answered, +"nor has Herr von Zehren ever in my presence uttered the name of the +prince." + +"What need of the name?" she retorted. "Things can be plainly told +without mentioning names. But, whatever he may have told you, he never +told you that Carl is my betrothed; that our union was prevented by his +fault alone; that he has ruthlessly sacrificed my happiness to a +haughty caprice, to revenge himself upon the father of my betrothed at +the cost of us both; and that far from offering me an at least +tolerable existence in requital for the brilliant future out of which +he has cheated me, makes my life a daily and hourly torment. He killed +my mother, and he will kill me." + +"For God's sake, do not talk in that way," I cried. + +"This life is no life; it is death--worse than death," she murmured, +letting her head sink upon the table. + +"Then you still love him who has abandoned you?" I said. + +"No," she replied, raising her head; "no! I have already told you that +as it is, so it must remain. I have freely and entirely renounced him. +I am too proud to give my heart--which is all I have to give--to one +who does not give me all in return. And, George, can one give more than +his heart?" + +I would have answered, "Then, Constance, you have my all;" but my voice +failed me. I could but gaze at her with a look in which lay my whole +heart--the full heart of a youth, overflowing with foolish, faithful +love. + +She pressed my hand, and said, "My good George, I will--yes, I must +believe that you are true to me. And now that we have had our talk out, +and are good friends again, let us go to the house, where old Pahlen +will be expecting me to breakfast." + +She had fallen at once into the tone in which we had commenced the +conversation, and continued: + +"Do you go shooting to-day? Are you fond of shooting? I used to go +sometimes; but that is long ago--so long ago! I used to be a good +rider, and now I think I could not keep my seat in the saddle. I have +unlearned everything; but chiefly how to be gay. Are you always +cheerful, George? I often hear you singing in the morning such charming +merry songs; you have a fine voice. You should teach me your songs; I +know none but sad ones." + +How enchanting this prattle was to me! But as her recent unkindness had +made me silent and reserved, so now the unlooked-for kindness she +showed me produced the same effect. I went by her side, with a half +confused, half happy smile upon my face, across the wide lawn to the +house, where, on reaching her terrace, we separated, after exchanging +another pressure of the hand. + +In three bounds I had ascended the steep stair, flung open violently +the door of my room, but stopped upon the threshold with some surprise, +as I saw Herr von Zehren sitting in the great high-backed chair at the +window. + +He half turned his head, and said: + +"You have kept me waiting long; I have been sitting here fully an +hour." + +This did not tend to restore my composure; from his chair one could see +across the lawn directly to the seat under the maple. If Herr von +Zehren had been sitting here an hour, he had certainly seen with his +keen eyes much more than I could have wished. I returned his salutation +with great embarrassment, which certainly did not diminish when he +said, with a gesture towards the seat: "Mary Stuart, George, eh? Sir +Paulet the cruel jailor with the great bunch of keys? Enthusiastic +Mortimer--'Life is but a moment, and death but another'--eh? Faithless +Lord Leicester, who has the convenient habit of taking ship for France +as soon as heads are in danger!" + +He filliped the ash from his cigar, and then with one of those +instantaneous changes of humor to which I had grown accustomed, began +to laugh aloud, and said: + +"No, my dear George, you must not turn such a look of indignation upon +me. I am really your friend; and, as I said to you yesterday, it is no +fault of yours, and I frankly ask you to forgive me if I yesterday for +a moment made you suffer for what you are entirely innocent of. She has +to play her comedies; she has done it from a child. I have indeed often +feared that she gets it from her unhappy mother. Many a one has +suffered from it, and I not the least; but you I would willingly save. +I have often enough warned you indirectly, and now do it plainly. What +are you about?" + +I had, at his last words, hurried across the room and seized my hat, +which hung by the door. "What are you about?" he cried again, springing +from his chair, and catching me by the arm. + +"I am going," I stammered, while my eyes filled with tears that I +vainly endeavored to repress, "away from here. I cannot bear to hear +Fräulein Constance thus spoken of." + +"And then it would be such a happy opportunity to get away from me +too," said he, fixing his large dark eyes upon mine with a piercing +look; "is it not so?" + +"Yes," I answered, collecting all my firmness, "and from you too." + +"Go then," he said. + +I moved towards the door, and was feeling for the latch, for my eyes +were blinded with tears. + +"George," he cried, "George!" + +The tone cut me to the heart; I turned, and seizing both his hands, +exclaimed: + +"No; I cannot do it. You have been so good to me; I cannot leave you of +my own will." + +Herr von Zehren led me gently to the great chair, and paced several +times up and down the room, while I buried my head in my hands. Then he +stood before me and said: + +"What did Granow say to you yesterday? Did he slander me to you as he +has slandered you to me? Did he warn you against me, as he has warned +me against you? No; do not answer; I do not want to know. It is +just as if I had been there and heard it all. Every one knows how +double-tongued old women talk." + +"Then it is not true?" I exclaimed, starting from the chair. +"Certainly, certainly, it is not true; I never believed it. I did not +believe that miserable creature yesterday--not for one moment." + +"And now only, for the first time?" said he, turning his piercing look +again upon me. But I did not again lower my eyes; I met his gaze +firmly, and calmly answered: + +"I will not believe it until I hear it from your own lips." + +"And if I confirm it, what then?" + +"Then I will implore you to have nothing more to do with it. It cannot +end well, and it fills me with horror to think that it might end +terribly." + +"You think," he said, and a bitter smile contracted his features, "that +it would not be a pleasant thing to read in the papers: 'To-day Malte +von Zehren of Zehrendorf was condemned to twenty years' hard labor, and +in pursuance of his sentence was conveyed to the penitentiary at S., +the director of which, as is well known, is the brother of the +criminal?' Well, it would not be the first time that a Zehren was an +inmate of a prison." + +He laughed, and began to speak with vehemence, sometimes pacing the +room, and then stopping before me. + +"Not the first time. When I was young--it may now be thirty years ago, +or more--there stood in their cursed nest, in a waste place between the +town wall and the ramparts, an old half-rotten gallows, and on the +gallows were nailed two rusty iron plates, upon which there stood +half-defaced names, and one of these names was _Malte von Zehren_, with +the date 1436. I recognized it by the date; and one night, with the +friend of my youth, Hans von Trantow--the father of our Hans--I +wrenched it off, cut down the gallows, and pitched it over the rampart +into the fosse. Do you know how my ancestor's name came there? He had a +feud with the Peppersacks there in the town, and they had sworn, if +they caught him, to hang him on the gallows. And though he heard of it, +and knew that there would be no mercy for him, he slipped into the town +in disguise, during the carnival, for the love of a townsman's pretty +daughter. You see, my dear George, the women--they are at the bottom of +all mischief. And they caught him too, early next morning, as he was +stealing away, flung him into the dungeon, and the next day he was to +be hanged, to the delight of all the good townsfolk. But a page who +accompanied him, and who had escaped, carried the news to Hans von +Trantow, and Hans sent off a score of riders to all cousins and +kinsfolk over the whole island, and that night they crossed over in +twenty boats, two hundred of them, with Hans at their head, forced +their way into the town, broke into the dungeon and rescued my +ancestor, the good fellows, and then set the old nest on fire at its +four corners and burned it down. So as the townsmen had lost Malte von +Zehren, they contented themselves with nailing his name upon the +gallows. + +"And what was the origin of the feud? The Sound-dues, which the Lords +of Zehren had levied for centuries, and which the Peppersacks now laid +claim to. By what right? I ask you now, by what right? At a time when +their pedlars' nest was a mere cluster of hovels inhabited by wretched +fishermen, the Zehrens were living as lords and masters in a +block-house surrounded by a rampart, as men used to do in the earliest +times; then in a castle of stone, with towers and battlements, and as +far as the eye can reach from up yonder over forests and coves into the +island, no hearth smoked in house or hut at which vassals and retainers +of the castle did not warm themselves; and as far as the eye can reach +from up there over the sea, no sail swelled and no pennon flew that did +not pay tribute to the castle. Do you think, young man, that things +like these can be forgotten? Do you suppose that I can learn to feel +myself under one law with a crew that crawled before my ancestors +in the dust? or to acknowledge any master over me? _By the grace of +God_--and what is that? Where were these fellows 'by the grace of God' +four or five hundred years ago? I could sit where they sit now, with +just as good a right; my escutcheon instead of theirs would flaunt on +every gate and guard-house, and in my name would tolls and taxes be +levied. And now 'sdeath! here I sit, a Lord Lack-all, in this box of +stone, which before long will fall in over my head, and not a foot of +the soil on which I tread can I call my own. See there--" he stepped +to the open window, and pointed out with a hand trembling with +emotion--"you once asked me why I did not turn those into money. There +are thousands upon thousands in the forest, and I answered that I had +not the heart to have the old trees hewn down. It was the truth; I +could not do it; and the only right that I have over them is that I can +keep them from being cut down as long as I live. Not a tree belongs to +me--not a sapling--not enough to serve for my coffin; every twig +belongs to that mountebank, your Cr[oe]sus, who calls himself +commerzienrath, and is well named Streber [Striver.] I see the +stockfish still, distorting his crooked mouth as he counted down the +pittance on the table and crammed the contract into his pocket. He +thought: 'It will not last him long, and then he will blow out his +brains.' It has not lasted long; and he may have been as correct in his +other anticipation. + +"But I cannot imagine what talkative demon possesses me this morning; I +believe that I have been infected by that old washerwoman, Granow. Or +perhaps it is because I have to make up for yesterday evening. In +truth, George, I missed you exceedingly. Trantow, the good fellow, +brought me home out of pure compassion, because he saw what a trial it +would be to me to smoke my last cigar alone. And I tell you it cost me +dearly that you were not with me. It went hard with me, George, +terribly hard. Old hawk as I am, they plucked me until the feathers +flew; but we will pay them back this evening. We shall meet at +Trantow's, where I have always been lucky; but you are not to quit my +side. And now drink your coffee, and come down in half an hour; I have +a letter or two to write; the steuerrath wants to be once more +delivered from his thousand-and-one embarrassments; but this time I +cannot help him, at all events not today; he must wait awhile yet. In +half an hour then, and afterwards we will go down to the beach. I feel +a little feverish to-day, and the sea-breeze will do me good." + +He went, and left me in a singular frame of mind. I felt as if he had +told me everything, and yet, when I thought it over, it was no more +than what he had often said to me before. I felt as if I had bound +myself to him body and soul, and yet he had taken no promise from me. +But this was just the thing which made me feel more than ever attached +to this singular man. If he was magnanimous enough not to take me with +him upon his ship, which he saw was driving to destruction, could I +stand calmly on the safe shore and watch him struggling and sinking in +the waves? + +My youthful fancy kindled at his romantic story of the knight who had +been at feud with my native town. I wished that I had been there; I +fancied myself playing the part of the page who made his way out at +risk of his life to bring help and rescue to his beloved lord. Should +my thoughts be more mean, my actions more craven than those of that +boy? And were we not in similar circumstances? Was not my knight at the +last extremity? Had not the Peppersacks taken his all?--left him +nothing of all the heritage of his ancestors--him, that kingly man? How +he had stood before me, the tall noble form with flashing eyes, and +anguish imprinted in his pale, deeply-furrowed face with its flowing +beard. This man to have planned to sell his daughter! And a creature +like the commerzienrath should one day be lord here in his stead! The +creature with his close-shaven fox-face, his blinking, thievish eyes, +and his clumsy, greedy hands; the man who had foredoomed me to the +gallows. Yes, they had dealt with me no better than with my knight. +They had driven me out of the town, and now, thank heaven, I had a +right to hate them as I had always despised. + +Thus my foolish brain was heated more and more. The charm of adventure, +the inward delight in this uncontrolled life, which I called liberty, a +monstrous confusion of the conceptions of right and duty, gratitude, +hot blood of youth, passionate first-love--all held me spell-bound in +this charmed circle, which was a world to me. All drew me with +irresistible force to the man who seemed to me the perfect ideal of a +knight and a hero, to the lovely maiden who so far exceeded my wildest +dreams. And the fact that these two, to whom I clung with equal love, +stood opposed to each other, only tended to confirm the dream of my own +indispensability. In their several ways, each had been equally kind to +me, had shown me equal confidence. The fulfilment of my most ardent +wish, that of seeing them reconciled, had never appeared so near as +this morning, when I paced my room and looked out of the windows at the +blue sky, in which great white motionless clouds were standing, and +upon the park whose majestic groups of trees and broad expanses of +grass were magically lighted by the splendor of the sun. + +How could I have believed that these white clouds would so soon spread +into a sable pall and obscure that sun--that I had seen my paradise in +its magic radiance for the last time? + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +The confidence with which Herr von Zehren had looked forward to that +evening, which at the very least was to repair his former ill-fortune, +was after all a deceitful one. It may be that an incident which +occurred just previously, deprived him of that coolness which this +evening he more than ever needed. For on our way up from the beach, +where we had shot a brace of rabbits among the dunes, as crossing the +heath we drew near to Trantowitz, a cavalcade of ladies and gentlemen, +attended by a couple of liveried servants, came galloping by. My +attention was entirely attracted by a slender young man riding a superb +English horse, who, at the moment he passed me, was leaning over to one +of the ladies with a charming smile on his pale face, on which a downy +moustache just darkened the upper lip. The lady gave her horse a sudden +cut with the whip, and they shot on in advance. I gazed for a moment +after the company, and was turning to Herr von Zehren with the +question: "Who are they?" when I checked myself in surprise at the +change in his countenance. We had just been chatting pleasantly +together, and there now lay in his looks an expression of the blackest +wrath, and he had unslung his gun and half raised it to his shoulder, +as if he would send a shot after the retreating party. Then he flung it +hastily over his shoulder again, and walked a short distance silent at +my side, until he suddenly broke out into the most furious execrations, +which I had never before heard from him, though he could be angry +enough upon occasion. "The hound!" he exclaimed, "he dares to come here +upon the soil that belongs to my friend Trantow! And I stand quietly +here and do not drive a charge of shot through him! Do you know who +that was, George? The villain who will one day be lord of a hundred +manors which by right are all mine, whose ancestors were my ancestors' +vassals, and whose scoundrelly father came to me to tell me in my own +apartment that he desired to marry his son according to his rank, and +that he trusted we could come to some satisfactory arrangement. I +clutched him by his accursed throat, and would have strangled him if +others had not come between us. The thing has been gnawing at my heart +incessantly, ever since I heard that the villain was going about the +neighborhood here. And now you know why Constance and I are upon so +unfortunate a footing. Heaven knows what fancies she is nursing; and it +drives me mad to see that her thoughts still cling to the miscreant who +has offered her the grossest insult that man can offer to woman; who +has tarnished my ancestral escutcheon, and should fight me to the +death, but for----" + +He checked himself suddenly, and walked silently by my side, gnawing +his lip. Not noticing the irregularities of the wretched road, he +stumbled once or twice, and this stumbling, combined with the +expression of his face, in which the wrinkles deepened to furrows +whenever he was under strong emotion, gave him the appearance of a +broken old man consumed by impotent anger. Never before had he appeared +so much in need of help, so worthy of compassion, and never before had +I pitied him so, or so yearned to assist him. At the same time I +thought that so favorable an opportunity to clear up the +misunderstanding that evidently existed between father and daughter in +reference to their relations with the prince, would not easily again +occur. So I plucked up a heart and asked: + +"Does Fräulein Constance know how much she has been insulted?" + +"How? What do you mean?" he asked in return. + +I told him what I had been speaking of with Constance that morning; how +little suspicion she seemed to have of the outrage that had been +offered her; that on the contrary she had expressly told me that she +had been betrothed to the prince, that their predetermined union had +been prevented by Herr von Zehren's fault alone, and that she had +renounced freely and utterly all thought of the possibility of their +marriage. But the audacity with which he had attempted to approach her, +the correspondence which had taken place between them, I kept to +myself, feeling that this would only awaken anew the wrath of the Wild +Zehren, and render him deaf to all reason. + +But it was all to no purpose. He listened to me with every sign of +impatience, and when I paused for breath in my eagerness, he broke out: + +"Does she say that? What will she not say? And that too now, after I +have told her not once, but a hundred times, what was asked of me, how +my honor and my name were trampled in the mire! She will next +asseverate that the Emperor of China has been a suitor for her hand, +and that it is my fault that she is not now enthroned in Pekin! Why +not? _Turandot_ is as pretty a part as _Mary Stuart_. Prepare yourself +soon to see her in Chinese attire." + +It was easy to perceive how little mirth lay in these mocking words, +and I did not venture to press further so painful a theme. We came, +besides, in a few minutes to Trantowitz, where Hans received us at the +door with his good-natured laugh, and led us into his living-room, +(which, besides his chamber, was the sole habitable apartment in the +great house,) where the other guests were assembled. + +The evening passed like so many others. Play began before supper, and +was resumed after that meal, during which the bottle had circulated +freely. I had resolved not to play, and could the more easily keep this +resolution, as all the rest, with the exception of our host, whom +nothing could move from his accustomed equanimity, were entirely +absorbed by the unusually high play, and had not time to pay any +attention to me. + +So there I sat, in the recess of a window, at a little distance from +the table, and watched the company, whose behavior now, when I was not +a participant in it, seemed strange enough. The fiery eyes in the +flushed faces; the silence only broken by the monotonous phrases of the +banker, or a hoarse laugh or muttered curse from the players; the +avidity with which they poured down the flasks of wine; the whole +scene wrapped in a gray cloud of cigar-smoke which grew denser every +moment;--it was far from a pleasant sight, and strange, confused, +painful thoughts whirled through my weary brain, as I sat watching the +fortunes of the play, and listening at intervals to the rustling of the +night-wind that bent the old poplars before the house, and drove a few +rain-drops against the windows. Suddenly I was aroused from a half doze +by a loud uproar that broke out among the players. They sprang from +their chairs and vociferated at each other with wild looks and +threatening gestures; but the tumult subsided as quickly as it had +arisen, and they sat again bending in silence over their cards, and +once more I listened to the wind in the poplars, and the dashing of the +rain against the panes, until at last I fell asleep. + +A hand upon my shoulder aroused me. It was Herr von Zehren. The first +look at his pale face, from which his eyes were flashing wildly, told +me that he had been losing again, and he confirmed it as we walked back +the short distance to Zehrendorf through the black tempestuous night. + +"It is all over with me," he said; "my old luck has abandoned me; the +sooner I blow out my brains the better. To be sure, I have a week yet. +Sylow, who is a good fellow, has given me so much time. In a week +perhaps all may be managed; only to-morrow the draft falls due, and of +course my brother cannot pay it. I must see about it, I must see about +it." + +He spoke more to himself than to me. Suddenly he stopped, looked up at +the black lowering clouds, then walked on, muttering between his teeth: + +"I knew it, I knew it, as soon as I saw the villain. It could not but +bring me ill-luck; his accursed face has always brought me misfortune. +And now to have to see how they quaff the foam from the beaker of life, +while they leave us the bitter dregs! And I cannot have revenge--cannot +take his life!" + +We had reached a piece of woods near the house, which was really a +projecting corner of the forest, but was considered as part of the +park. The road here divided; the broader fork led along the edge of the +wood; and the narrower, which was only a foot-path, ran directly +through the trees. This was the nearer way, but also the rougher and +darker, and Herr von Zehren, who in his present ill-humor had more than +once grumbled at the darkness and the bad road, proposed that we should +not take our usual path through the park. + +"I should like to find out," I said, "if the buck whose tracks we saw +day before yesterday, is belling in the south forest again. We cannot +hear it from here, but in there we ought to hear it." + +"You go through, then," he said, "but do not stay too long." + +"I expect I shall be at the other side before you." + +It was not so dark in the woods as I had feared; at times the moon +shone pretty bright through the scudding clouds. I reproached myself +for leaving Herr von Zehren alone at this hour, and had thoughts of +turning back; but, impelled by the hunter's ardor, I pushed on, slowly +and cautiously, often stopping and listening, while I held my breath, +to see if I could catch any sound of the buck in the woods. Once I +thought I heard a faint bellow, but I was not quite sure. If so, it +must be very distant, and in a different quarter from where we expected +the buck to be at this hour. It might be another. I was anxious to find +out, and stood still again to listen. Suddenly I heard a noise behind +me like the trot of a horse coming along the path in which I was. My +heart stopped for an instant, and then began to beat violently. Who +could be the rider, in the dead of night, upon a path lying alongside +the main road to the castle? + +The sound of the horse's hoofs, at first faint, had grown louder, and +then suddenly ceased. In its place I now distinctly heard the steps of +a man coming through the woods towards the place where I was standing, +a little out of the path, in the dark shadow of some high trees. It +could be no one but _he_. My heart, that was violently beating, cried +to me that it could be no one but he. I tore the gun from my shoulder, +as Herr von Zehren had done at the sight of the man he hated. Then, as +he had done, I threw it back over my shoulder, so that I had both arms +free. What did I need for such a fellow but those two arms of mine? + +And just then I saw him plainly before me, as the moon slipped from +behind a black cloud, and threw through the trees a clear light exactly +upon the place where he was passing: the same slender form, and even in +the same riding-dress--a low-crowned hat, close-fitting coat, trimmed +with fur, and boots of soft leather reaching half-way up the thigh--one +bound, one clutch--I had him in my hands! + +The surprise must have paralyzed him at the moment, for he uttered no +cry, and scarcely made a movement. But this was only for a moment, and +then with an exertion of strength for which I had not given him credit, +he strove to free himself from my grasp. So might a leopard, caught in +the hunter's net, struggle frantically, leap, rend with his claws, and +waste his strength in convulsive efforts. The struggle lasted perhaps a +minute, during which time no word was spoken on either side, nor was +any sound audible but our panting. At last his struggles grew weaker +and weaker, his breath began to fail, and finally, yielding, he panted: + +"Let me go!" + +"Not so soon!" + +"In my breast pocket is a pocket-book, with probably a hundred +_thalers_ in it; take them, but let me go!" + +"Not for a million!" I said, forcing him, as his strength was utterly +exhausted, down to his knees. + +"What do you want? Do you mean to murder me?" he panted. + +"Only to give you a lesson," I said, and picked up his riding-whip, +which had fallen while we were struggling, the silver handle of which +caught my eye as it glittered in the moonlight. + +"For God's sake, do not do that," he said, grasping convulsively the +hand in which I held the whip. "Kill me on the spot; I will not move +nor utter a cry; but do not strike me!" + +Such a request in such a tone could not fail to make a powerful +impression upon a heart like mine. I no longer beheld in my antagonist +the enemy of the Wild Zehren his daughter's lover. I saw in him only a +boy who was in my power, and who would rather die than undergo +disgrace. Involuntarily the hand with which I grasped him by the breast +unclosed; indeed I believe I lifted him to his feet. + +Scarcely did he feel himself free, when he hastily stepped back a few +paces, and in a tone the lightness of which was in strong contrast with +the terror he had first felt, said: + +"If you were a nobleman, you should give me satisfaction; but as you +are not, I warn you to be on your guard: I do not always travel without +arms." + +He slightly touched his hat, turned upon his heel, and walked back by +the way he had come. + +I stood as if rooted to the spot, and gazed after the slender figure, +which soon vanished in the dark shadows of the forest. I knew that with +a bound or two I could overtake him, but I felt not the slightest +impulse to attempt it. The young prince had rightly judged the young +plebeian. I would as lief have hewn off my hand as to raise it again +against a man whom I had in a manner pardoned. And then I thought of +what Granow had said, that were he the prince, he would not like to +meet Herr von Zehren, and how very nearly this meeting had taken place, +and that too at a moment when it would have given the Wild Zehren +delight to shed his enemy's blood, and his own afterwards. + +And now I heard a slight neigh, and then the gallop of a horse. + +"Thank heaven!" I cried, drawing a deep breath, "it is better so, and +it will be a lesson to him." + +I thought no more of the buck. I scarcely listened when he began to +bellow, at no great distance from me. I hurried on at a run to make up +for the time I had lost, and in deep anxiety lest Herr von Zehren +should have heard the gallop of the horse, for it was not possible that +he could have heard anything that had happened in the wood. + +But my anxiety was without cause. The Wild Zehren was too safely +plunged in reflections over his misfortune for his senses to be as +acute as they usually were. He did not even ask me about the buck; and +I was glad that I was under no necessity of speaking. Thus we walked +silently on until we reached the castle. + +In the hall we were met as usual by the sleepless old Christian. +Letters had come by express: he had laid them on his master's +writing-table. + +"Come in," said Herr von Zehren, "while I see what they are about." + +We entered. "This one is for you, and so is this," he said, handing me +two of the letters from the table. + +The first letter was from my friend Arthur. It read: + +"You have not sent me the money I asked you for; but that is the way: +when we have anything, our friends may look out for themselves. I only +write to you now, in order through you to entreat my uncle to do +something to help papa. Our affairs must be in an awful state, for the +merchant G.--you know whom I mean--from whom I borrowed twenty-five, +saw papa about it to-day, and I did not get the smallest scolding. +Mamma howls all day long. I wish I was a thousand miles away. + +"P. S.--Papa has just come from Uncle Commerzienrath with a terribly +long face. It is plain that the old Philistine will do nothing for us. +I tell you Uncle Malte must help us, for we are in a terrible strait." + +The second letter was from my father. + +"My Son:--In renouncing your filial obedience to me, you compelled me +to abandon all control over you. I have vowed not to restore you to +your place as my son, until you acknowledge your misconduct and entreat +me to do so; and this vow I will keep. To the choice that you have made +for yourself, I have offered no opposition, have allowed you perfect +freedom of action, for which you have always hankered, and am resolved +to do this for the future. But all this cannot prevent me from wishing, +with all my heart, that it may be well with you in the path that you +have chosen for yourself, though I doubt it much; nor can it keep me +from warning you where warning seems necessary. And this is now the +case. Things have reached my ears concerning Herr von Zehren, which I +trust in heaven may be founded upon error, but which are of such a +nature that I think with horror of my son being in the house of a man +under such suspicions, even if false. What I have heard I cannot reveal +to you, as the information has reached me in the line of my official +duties. + +"I know that notwithstanding your disobedience, you are incapable of a +base action, and that therefore you are so far safe, even if those +suspicions are true, which God forbid. Still I entreat you, if you have +any regard left for my peace, to leave the house of Herr von Zehren at +once. I add what is scarcely necessary, that for the obedient son I +shall be, what I have always been, his strict but just father." + +I had read this letter twice through, and sat still gazing at the +writing, incapable of clear reflection, when Herr von Zehren aroused me +by asking: "Well, George, and what have you there?" I handed him both +letters. He read them, paced the room a while, and then stopping before +me said: + +"And what do you propose to do?" + +"The opportunity is a good one," he went on, seeing that I hesitated to +answer. "I have a letter from the steuerrath which compels me to start +for the town within the hour. I will take you with me; it is now twelve +o'clock, and in three hours we can be there; you can ring up the old +gentleman; sleep an hour or two in the garret of which you have so +often told me; thank God to-morrow morning that you are clear of the +Wild Zehren, and--go back again to school." + +He spoke the last words with a slight contempt, which galled the most +sensitive part in the heart of a young man, that of false pride. + +"I will go with you wherever you go!" I exclaimed, starting up. "I said +so this morning, and I now repeat it. Tell me what I shall do." + +Herr von Zehren again paced the room for a few moments, and then paused +before me and said in an agitated voice: + +"Remain here--for a day or two at all events, until I return. You will +do me a service." + +I looked at him interrogatively. + +"If you return now to-day," he continued, "that will only have the +effect of confirming the rumors of which your father writes. The rats +are leaving the house, they will say, and justly. And just now it is of +importance to me that people shall say nothing, that as little +attention as possible shall be directed to me. Do you understand, +George?" + +"No," I answered; "why now especially?" + +I looked fixedly at him; he bore the scrutiny, and after a while +answered, speaking slowly and in a low voice: + +"Ask no further, George. Perhaps I would tell you if you could help me; +perhaps I would not. They say of me that I use men and then throw them +away when they can be of no further service to me. It may be so; I do +not know that the most deserve any better treatment. With you, at all +events, I would not thus deal, for I like you. And now go to bed, and +let the Wild Zehren play out the game. Perhaps he will break the bank, +and then I promise you it will be the last of his playing." + +At this moment the wagon drove up; while reading my father's letter, I +had not heard the order to old Christian to have the horses put to. +Herr von Zehren looked through his papers, put some in his pocket, and +locked others in his cabinet. Then old Christian helped him on with his +furred cloak, he put on his hat, and stepping up to me, offered me his +hand. + +I had watched all his movements in a sort of stupefaction. + +"And I cannot help you?" I now asked. + +"No," he replied, "or only by waiting quietly here until I return. Your +hand is cold as ice; go to bed." + +I accompanied him to the door. His hunting-wagon was waiting, and long +Jock, who usually filled the office of coachman, was on the front seat. + +"The wagon will only take me to the ferry, and then return," said Herr +von Zehren. + +"And Jock?" I asked in a whisper. + +"Goes with me." + +"Take me in his place," I asked, imploringly. + +"It cannot be," he said, with his foot upon the step. + +"I entreat you," I urged, holding him by the cloak. + +"It cannot be," he repeated. "We have not a minute to spare. +Good-night! Drive on!" + +The wagon drove off; the dogs yelped and barked, and then all was still +again. Old Christian hobbled across the yard with his lantern, and +vanished into one of the old buildings. I stood alone before the house, +under the trees, in which the wind roared. The rain began to fall in +torrents; shivering I returned to the house and carefully secured the +door. + +The light was still burning in Herr von Zehren's room. I went to get it +and also my letters that were lying upon his table. As I took them I +espied a paper on the floor, and picked it up to see what it was. A few +words were written upon it, and I had read them before I thought what I +was doing. The words were these: + +"I am ruined if you do not save me. G. will give me no more time; St. +is immovable; the draft will be protested. I put myself in your hands. +You have held me above water too long to let me drown now. The moment, +too, is as favorable as possible for the matter you know of. I can and +will take care that no one sees our cards. But whatever is done, must +be done at once. I have not always the game in my hand. Come at once, I +adjure you, by what is most sacred to you--by our ancient name! Burn +this at once." + +The paper was not signed, but I recognized the writing immediately. I +had seen it often enough in the documents on my father's table, and I +could at once have affixed the signature with its pretentious flourish, +which I had often enough tried to imitate. + +This paper Herr von Zehren must have dropped while hastily thrusting it +with the others into his pocket. + +I looked at it again, and was once more trying to unriddle its +enigmatical contents, when the candle, already burned to the socket, +gave signs of going out. "Burn this at once!"--it was as if a voice had +uttered this command close to my ear. I held the paper in the flame; it +blazed up; the candle went out at the same moment; a glowing scrap of +tinder fluttered to my feet, and then all around me was thickest +darkness. + +I groped my way from the room, through the dining-room to the hall, up +the narrow stairway to my chamber, and after searching in vain for a +match, threw myself dressed upon my bed. + +But in vain did I, tossing restlessly upon my couch, endeavor to sleep. +Every moment I started up in terror, fancying in my excitement that I +heard a voice calling for help, or a step hurrying towards my door, +while I kept racking my brain in the vain attempt to devise some plan +for rescuing the two so dear to me from the ruin which I had a +presentiment was impending over them, whose coming the elements +themselves seemed to announce in thunder; and execrated my cowardice, +my indecision, my helplessness. + +It was a fearful night. + +A terrible storm had arisen; the wind raved about the old pile, which +shook to its foundations. The tiles came clattering down from the +roofs; the rusted weather-cocks groaned and creaked; the shutters +banged, and the third shutter to the right made frantic efforts now or +never to get loose from the single hinge by which it had hung for +years. The screech-owls in the crevices of the walls hooted dismally, +and the dogs howled, while the gusts of wind dashed torrents of rain +against the windows. + +It seemed as if the ancient mansion of Zehrendorf knew what fate was +awaiting its possessor and itself. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +My first sensation, as I awaked late, was a feeling of thankfulness +that it was day; my second was one of shame at having been so +powerfully affected by the terrors of the night. When but a small boy, +I used to think that I cast the most odious reproach upon an adversary +when I termed him a coward, and this morning I felt that the same +stigma might be justly affixed to myself. But that comes, I said to +myself while dressing, from not looking things in the face and telling +people the truth. Why did I not frankly say to Herr von Zehren, I know +the object of your journey? He would then have taken me with him, and I +should not have to sit here like a child that is kept in the house when +it rains. + +I opened a window and looked out, in a gloomy frame of mind, and the +scene that met my eyes was far from cheerful. The wind, which blew from +the west, drove swirling masses of gray mist through the gigantic +trees, which tossed their mighty arms about, as if in torment, above +the wide lawn which had so often charmed me with its long waving grass, +and which now was a mere morass. A flock of crows flew up with harsh +cawings into the stormy air, which hurled them about at its pleasure. +At this moment the wind flung to a shutter with so much violence that +fragments of the rotten wood flew about my head. I tore away from the +hinge what was left of it, and threw it down. "I'll not be troubled by +you tonight, at all events," I said, fastening the window again, and +then I determined to take the rest in hand. Leaving my own room, I made +the round of the upper story. As I opened the door of the room where +the pile of books lay, a dozen rats sprang down from the window-sills +and dived into their hiding-places. The rain had driven in through some +broken panes, and the gray rascals had been enjoying the welcome +refreshment. "You have not quitted the house yet, it seems," I said, +recalling Herr von Zehren's words; "should I be more cowardly than you, +you thievish crew?" + +I climbed over the pile of books to the nearest door, and wandered +through the empty rooms, securing all the shutters that had any +fastenings left, and lifting from their hinges and throwing down those +that were past securing. The one belonging to the third window, which +had been the principal object of my expedition, had terminated its +afflicted existence in the night. + +On my way back I entered the hall with the great staircase, where in +the dim light that fell through the dull panes covered with dust and +cobwebs, it looked more ghostly than ever. A suit of armor which was +fastened to the wall at some height from the floor, it required no +great stretch of fancy to turn into the corpse of a hanged man. I +wondered if it was the armor of that Malte von Zehren whose name, in +default of himself, the honest burghers of my native town had affixed +to their gallows. + +I do not know what put it into my head to descend the staircase and +wander about the narrow passages of the lower story. My footsteps +sounded eerily hollow in the vacant corridors; and the chilly damp from +the bare walls, like those of a vault, seemed to strike doubly cold to +my feverish frame. Perhaps I had an idea of punishing myself for my +terrors of the past night, and of demonstrating to myself the +childishness of my apprehensions. Still it was not without a start and +a decidedly uncomfortable feeling that I suddenly came upon an opening +in the wall at a spot which I had often before passed without +perceiving any sign of a door, through which opening I caught sight of +a yawning black chasm, at the bottom of which a faint glimmer of light +was perceptible. Peering more closely into it, I could make out the +commencement of a flight of steps. Without a moment's hesitation I +began, at peril of my neck, to descend a narrow and very steep stair, +slowly groping my way with both hands touching the wall on each side of +me, until the faint glimmer at the bottom suddenly disappeared. As I +reached the floor of the cellar it became visible again, but not now an +uncertain glimmer, but a distinct light moving about a short distance +from me, and apparently proceeding from a lantern in the hand of a man +who was exploring the cellar. As I moved faster than the man, whose +shuffling footsteps probably covered the sound of mine, I speedily +overtook him, and laid my hand upon the shoulder of--old Christian, for +he it was. He stopped with a half cry, luckily without dropping his +lantern, and looked round at me with the utmost terror in his old +wrinkled face. + +"What are you doing here. Christian?" I asked. + +He still stared at me in silence. "You need not be afraid of me," I +said: "you know I am your friend." + +"It is not for myself," the old man answered at last. "I dare not bring +any one down here; he would kill me." + +"You did not bring me down here," I said. + +Christian, whose feeble old limbs were yet trembling from his first +fright, now sat down upon a chest, and placed the lantern by him. While +he was recovering himself, I took a survey of the cellar. It had a low +vaulted ceiling, supported at various points by strong columns, and was +evidently of considerable extent, though how considerable I could not +determine, as the extremities were lost in darkness. + +Against one of these columns not far off stood a desk with a great +lantern over it, and on the desk lay a large thick book, like a +merchant's "blotter." Near this were chests of tea, with Chinese +figures marked on them--evidently original packages--piled up to a +great height, and everywhere that I looked were empty boxes and casks, +piled in a certain business-like order. Many a year must have passed +ere all these boxes were emptied and all these casks drained; many a +dollar must have been lost and won in the process, and many a human +life must have been risked, and probably lost too. At that time not a +year passed that the smuggling in this region by land and water did not +cost more than one life; and how many did it cost whose loss was not +known? Peter, for instance, who was shot by the coastguard in the +woods, and dragged himself, mortally wounded, to his hut; or Claas, +who, flying hastily across the morass, missed his footing and sank; +whose kindred found it prudent to say as little about the matter as +possible. + +Many things of this sort I had heard from my father and his colleagues, +and they recurred to my mind as I looked around this vast cellar, which +wore in the pale light from the old man's lantern much the appearance +of a gigantic church-vault, in which mouldering coffins that had done +their service were piled up around, and the damp chilly vapor in which +might be fancied to proceed from fresh graves dug in lightless space +beyond the columns. + +This then was the foundation of the house of the Von Zehrens. That +high-born race had dwelt over this vault, and lived upon these heaps of +decay. No wonder the fields lay fallow, and the barns were tumbling to +ruin. Here was the sowing and the harvest--an evil sowing, which could +bring no other than an evil harvest. + +I will not maintain that precisely these thoughts passed through my +mind in precisely this order, while I stood by the old man and let my +gaze wander through the recesses of the cellar. I only know that my old +feeling of horror for that traffic into whose secret adyta I had +penetrated, returned upon me with full force, and with the clearly +defined sensation that I now pertained to it and was one of the +initiated, and that it was foolish and to a certain extent offensive in +the old man to wish to make any secret to me of matters and relations +which I so thoroughly fathomed and so well understood. + +"Well, Christian," said I, taking a seat opposite the old man, and +lighting a cigar at his lantern as a mark of my perfect composure, +"what will we get this time?" + +"Tea or silk," muttered he; "if it were wine, brandy, or salt, he would +have ordered the wagons." + +"To be sure, he would then have ordered the wagons," I repeated, as if +this were a mere matter of course. "And when do you expect him back? He +told me to-night that he could not possibly determine." + +"Most likely to-morrow; but I will open the great door anyhow, as we +cannot be certain." + +"Of course we cannot be certain," I said. The old man had arisen and +taken up his lantern, and I arose also. + +We kept on, and came into another space filled with the scent of wine, +where casks were piled on casks, as the old man showed me by holding up +his lantern as high as he could reach. + +"This all lies here from last year," he said. + +"Yes," I answered, repeating what Granow had said; "the business is bad +just now; the people in Uselin have grown shy since so many have taken +to dabbling in it." + +The old man, who was taciturnity itself, did not answer, but it seemed +that I had attained my aim of gaining his confidence. He nodded and +muttered an assent to my words, as he shuffled along. + +The cellar seemed to have no end; but at last Christian stopped and +placed the lantern upon the ground. Before us was a broad staircase, +above which was an apparatus of strong beams, such as is used for +lowering casks and heavy boxes. The staircase was closed above by a +large and massive trap-door, covered with plates of iron, and secured +by immense bolts. These the old man pushed back with my help. + +"So," said he, "now they can come whenever they please. + +"Whenever they please," I repeated. + +We returned silently by the way we had come, and ascended the steep +stair at the entrance. The old man pressed a spring, and the opening in +the wall was closed by a sliding door which was fitted so artistically, +and was so exactly of the same tint of dirty gray, that none but one of +the initiated could have discovered its existence, to say nothing of +opening it. + +Old Christian extinguished his lantern, and went before me to the end +of the corridor, after which we separated in the smaller court-yard. He +passed through a small gate into the main court; I remained behind and +looked cautiously around to see if any one was observing me; but there +were only the crows, who, perched upon one of the low roofs, with heads +on one side, were scrutinizing all my movements. This little court had +looked poorly enough in the sunshine, but now in the rain its +appearance was inexpressibly forlorn. The buildings huddled together as +if trying to shelter themselves as well as they could from the wind and +the rain, and yet seemed every moment in danger of tumbling down from +sheer dilapidation. Who would look here for the entrance to the secret +cellar? And yet here somewhere it must be. I had noticed the direction +and extent of the subterranean space, for I wanted to know all, since I +already knew so much. I wished to be no longer kept in the dark as to +what was going on around me. + +My conclusion was verified: in the miserable old servant's kitchen, +from which a wide door led to the inclosed space with the heaps of +refuse, under a pile of old barrels, boards, half-rotten straw, heaped +together, as I now perceived, with a careful imitation of carelessness, +I detected the same trap-door which the old man had bolted in the +cellar. Here upon the outside it was secured with a massive iron bar, +and a lock, the key of which doubtless Herr von Zehren carried about +him. I replaced the rubbish, and stole away as furtively as a thief, +for the proverb says truly that "the concealer is as bad as the +stealer," not only before the law, but even more surely before his own +conscience. + +I turned into the park and strolled about the walks. A heavy drizzle +was still falling, but the fog had lifted a little, and was rolling +away in heavy gray masses over the tops of the trees. I stood at the +stone table under the maple whose spreading boughs afforded me some +shelter, and gazed steadfastly at the great melancholy house, that +to-day, since it had disclosed to me its secret, wore quite another +look in my eyes. Could she know what I now knew? Impossible! It was a +thought not to be harbored for a moment. But she must learn it as soon +as possible--or no! she must rather leave this place, where ruin was +threatening her. Away--but whither? to whom? with whom? What a +wretched, pitiful creature was I, who could offer her nothing but this +heart that beat for her, these arms which were strong enough to bear +her away as easily as a child, and with which I could do nothing but +fold them over my breast in impotent despair. Happen what might, she +must, must be saved. Her father might sacrifice me to his vengeance, +but she must escape free! + +Some one came from the terrace--it was old Pahlen. She appeared to be +looking for me, for she beckoned to me from a distance with her bony +hands, while her gray hair, flying loose in the wind from under her +dirty cap, would have given her to any one else the appearance of the +witch that had brewed the bad weather. But to me she was a most welcome +apparition, for from whom could she come but from _her_? I ran to meet +her, and scarcely gave her time to deliver her message. A few moments +later, with a heart beating high, I entered Constance's apartment +through the casement-door. + +It was the first, and was to be the last time that I entered it, and I +can scarcely give an accurate description of its appearance. I have +only a very dim recollection of large-leaved plants, an open piano, +music, books, articles of dress, all scattered about, of two or three +portraits on the walls, and that the entire floor was covered with a +carpet. This last feature particularly struck me. Carpets covering an +entire room were a rarity at that time, especially in the good town of +Uselin. I had only heard of such luxury by report, and I hardly knew +where to place my foot, although the carpet, I believe, was extremely +threadbare, and in places even torn and worn into holes. + +But these, as I have said, are but dim recollections, from which stands +out, clearly and ineffaceably, the picture of Constance. She sat upon a +divan near the window, and at my entrance dropped a piece of embroidery +into her lap, at the same time extending her hand with her peculiar +sweet melancholy smile. + +"You are not angry that I sent for you?" she asked, motioning me to +take my place by her side--thereby placing me in no slight +embarrassment, for the divan was low, and my boots not as clean as a +young man could wish who is for the first time received in a carpeted +chamber by the lady of his heart. "I wished to make a request of you. +Pahlen, you can go; I have something to speak of with Herr George +alone." + +The old woman gave me one of her suspicious looks, lingered, and only +went after Constance had repeated her order in a sharper tone. + +"See, this is the reason I sent for you," Constance began, with a +gesture of the hand towards the door by which the old woman had +departed. "I know how good you are, and how true a friend to me; since +yesterday I have new proof of it, though for a while I was weak enough +to hold you no better than the others. But these others! They do not +know, and cannot, and must not know. Such treasures must be kept +secret; they are too precious for the coarse world. Do you not think +so?" + +As I had no idea on what it was that she desired my opinion, I +contented myself with fixing my eyes upon her with a look of respectful +inquiry. She dropped her eyes again to her work, and continued in a +voice not quite so steady: "My father has gone away, I am told; do you +know whither, and for how long a time? But even if he had told you, it +would make no difference; my father is not accustomed to bind himself +by any such announcements. He will go for a stay of three weeks and be +back in three days; he will start to be gone three days, and I will +look for him in vain for as many weeks. There is no probability that he +will this time make any exception to his rule; and whether he really +makes a long or short stay, we must take measures accordingly. It is +not cheerful to be all alone in this desolate and comfortless house, +especially when there is such a terrible storm as there was last night. +It is so pleasant to know that there is some one near at hand in whose +faith and strong arm--they say you are so very strong, George--we can +always trust; but still, so it must be. You feel that as well as I do, +do you not, George?" + +This time I knew what she meant: I must go away from here, must leave +her alone, just now, at the very time when I was tormenting myself to +devise some plan to get her away; at the very time when my mind, not +yet recovered from the effects of the terrible night and the adventures +of the morning, was filled with a gloomy presentiment that calamity was +impending over both the house and its inhabitants. I neither knew how +nor what to answer, and looked at Constance in helpless confusion. + +"You think it very unfriendly, very inhospitable of me," she said, +after a pause, as if awaiting my answer; "it would be both more +hospitable and more friendly if I myself went away for the time to +visit some female friend; and I admit that any other lady would do so; +but I am so poor as to have no female friend. My father has taken good +care of that. So long as you have been here, has a solitary lady +entered this house? Have you ever heard me speak of a friend, of an +acquaintance of my own sex? 'Constance von Zehren only associates with +men;' that is the way I am spoken of; but heaven knows how entirely +without fault of mine. Do you wish, my good faithful George, to give +evil tongues the opportunity to make my reputation worse than it +already is? Or do you think, with the others, that it cannot be worse? +No; sit still. Why should not friends, as we are, speak calmly of such +things, and calmly consider what is to be done on such an occasion? +Now, what I have thought, is this: You have friends. There is Herr von +Granow, who regularly pays court to you; there is Herr von Trantow, our +good neighbor, who would be so glad to have you with him for a few +days. And then you are quite near me; I can send for you if I want you; +and you know that if ever I need a friend I will turn to no one sooner +that to the only friend I have." + +She offered me her hand with an enchanting smile, as if to say: "So +that matter is settled, is it not?" + +Her smile and the touch of her dear hand completed the confusion into +which her words had thrown me; but I collected myself with a desperate +effort and stammered: + +"I do not know what you will think of me for allowing you to speak so +long on a subject which of course I could not but understand at once; +but I cannot tell you how hard it is for me just now to go away from +you--to leave you just now. Herr von Zehern expressly charged me to +remain here and wait his return, which would happen in a few days, +perhaps to-morrow. He no doubt did that--even though he did not say as +much--with the best intentions; that you might have some one near you, +and might not be left alone in the desolate old house; that----" + +I did not know how to continue, Constance fixed her eyes upon me with +so peculiar an expression, and my talent for fiction having always been +of the poorest. + +"My father has never shown this tender consideration before," she said. +"Perhaps he thinks that the older I grow, the more I need watching. You +understand me. Or can you have forgotten our discourse of yesterday?" + +"I have not forgotten it," I cried, springing hastily from the divan. +"I will not again become an object of your suspicion. I now leave you, +and forever, if you wish it; but others who are assuredly no worthier +than I, shall not enjoy an advantage over me; and if they still venture +to thrust themselves into your neighborhood, or lurk around like a fox +around a dove-cot, they do it at their own peril. I shall not be so +considerate as I was that evening." + +"What do you mean? Of whom are you speaking?" exclaimed Constance, who +had also arisen at my last words. She had turned quite pale, and her +features had assumed a new expression. + +"Of whom am I speaking?" I said; "of him who, on that evening when I +kept watch at your window, ran from me like a craven; and who last +night, as I was coming with your father from Trantowitz, and took the +way through the woods alone, tried to conceal himself under the trees; +whom I spared out of pity, for I knew that had I betrayed the pitiful +wretch, Herr von Zehren would have shot him dead like a dog. Let him +take care I do not meet him again in the night or by day either: he +will see how much I respect his princeship!" + +Constance had turned away while I thus gave vent in anger to the +despair I felt at leaving the beloved maiden forever. Suddenly she +turned her pale face again upon me, with eyes flashing with a strange +light, and exclaimed, holding out her hands as if in supplication: + +"That I should hear this from you!--from you! How can I help it if that +man--supposing you were not mistaken, which yet is quite possible--is +driven restlessly about by his evil conscience? It is unhappy enough +for him, if it be so; but how does that concern me? And how can any +danger from that quarter threaten me? And were he now--or at any time +and anywhere--to come before me, what would I, what could I say, but +'We can be nothing to each other, you and I, now nor at any future +time.' I thought, George, you knew all this without my telling you. How +can I wonder that the others so misjudge me, when your judgment of me +is so false, so cruelly false?" + +She resumed her seat upon the divan and buried her face in her hands. I +lost all control of myself, paced the room in agitation, and finally, +seeing her bosom heaving with her emotion, threw myself in despair at +her feet. + +"My dear, good George," she said, laying her hands on my shoulders. "I +know well that you love me; and I, too, am very fond of you." + +The tears rolled down my cheeks. I hid my face in her dress, and +covered her hands with kisses. + +"Stand up, George," she whispered, "I hear old Pahlen coming." + +I sprang up. In truth the door opened slowly--I think it had never been +entirely closed--and the ugly old woman looked in and asked if she had +been called. + +Yes, she had been called. Herr George, who was going to visit Herr von +Trantow for a day or two, had probably some orders to give. + +"Farewell," she said, turning to me, "farewell, then, for a few days." +And then bringing her face nearer to mine, and sending me a kiss by the +movement of her lips, she softly whispered, "Farewell, beloved." + +I was standing outside the house; the rain, that had re-commenced, was +beating into my burning face; I did not feel it. Rain and storm, +driving clouds and roaring trees, how lovely it all was! How could it +be possible that the world should be so fair--that mortal could be so +happy that she loved me! + +When I reached my own room, I gave vent to my rapture in a thousand +idiotic ways. I danced and sang, I threw myself into the old +high-backed chair and wept, then sprang up again, and at last +remembered that I had all that I should need for a stay of but a day or +two, ready packed in my game-bag, and that she would expect that her +orders would be promptly obeyed. Yes; now--now I was ready to go. + +And throwing my gun over my shoulder, and calling my dog Caro, who lay +moping under the table, I left the castle. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +Striding along the road to Trantowitz, under the rustling willows, +scarcely seeing the way before me in my excitement, I several times +barely escaped falling from the slippery path into the deep ditch in +which the rain-water was now running in a torrent. More than once I +stopped to look back to the castle where she was. Caro, who was moodily +trotting after me, also stopped on these occasions and looked at me. I +told him that she loved me, that we were all going to be happy, that +all would turn out well, and that when I was a great man I would lead a +joyous life, and would take good care of him as long as he lived. Caro +gave me to understand, by a slight wag of his tail, that he was fully +satisfied of my good intentions, and even to a certain extent moved; +but his brown eyes looked very melancholy, as if on so dismal a day he +could not form a very clear picture of a joyous future. "You are a +stupid brute, Caro," I said; "a good, stupid brute; and you have no +notion of what has happened to me." Caro made a desperate attempt to +look at the matter from its brightest side, wagging his tail more +violently, and showing his white teeth; then suddenly, as if to show +that his well-trained mind, usually occupied with hunting matters +alone, felt this to be a day when all discipline was relaxed, ran, +furiously barking, at a man who was just approaching around a +plantation of willows on the left of the road. + +It was a man who had partly the appearance of a sailor, and partly that +of a working-man of the town, and whose innocent broad face beamed with +so friendly a smile as he caught sight of me, that Caro became at once +conscious of the impropriety of his behavior, and came to heel ashamed, +with drooping ears, while I, who had recognized the traveller, hastened +towards him with extended hand. + +"Why, Klaus, what in the name of wonder brings you here?" + +"Yes, I thought I should surprise you," answered Klaus, giving me a +cordial grasp of his great hard hand, and showing, as Caro had before +done, two rows of teeth which rivalled the dog's in whiteness. + +"Were you coming to see me?" I asked. + +"Of course I was coming to see you," Klaus answered. "I arrived in the +cutter an hour ago. Christel is with me. Our old grandmother is dead; +we buried her yesterday morning. She has gone to a better place, I +hope. She was a good old woman, although she had grown very infirm of +late, and gave poor Christel a great deal of trouble. But that is all +over now. What I was going to say is this: my father has been so good +as to bring me over here himself, and Christel is with me too; she has +come with me to Zanowitz to take leave of Aunt Julchen [Julie], +father's sister, you know. My father is from Zanowitz, you know." + +"To be sure," I said. + +"You have been there once or twice yourself," Klaus went on. "Aunt +Julchen always saw you, but you never took notice of her. I suppose you +did not recollect her; she used often to come to my father's. And then +you have become such a great man now"--and the honest fellow's admiring +looks wandered over my hunting-dress, my high boots, and Caro, who +pretended not to hear a word of this conversation, and with pricked-up +ears was staring into the ditch as if he had never seen a water-rat +dart into its hole before in all the days of his life. + +"Never mind about that, Klaus," I said, shifting the sling of my gun a +little higher on the shoulder. "So you are going away? And where are +you going, then?" + +"I have got a place as locksmith in the machine-shops of the Herr +Commerzienrath at Berlin," said Klaus. "Herr Schultz, the engineer on +the _Penguin_, you know, has given me a first-rate recommendation, and +I hope to do no discredit to it." + +"That I am sure you will not," I said in a cordial, friendly, but +rather patronizing tone, while I considered with some embarrassment +what I should do. Here was Klaus had come to see me, and I could not +keep him standing in the open road, under the dripping willow. How the +good fellow would have stared if I had taken him into my poetical +room!--but that was not possible now. My embarrassment was increasing, +and it was a great relief when Klaus, taking both my hands, said: + +"And now, good-by; I must go back to Zanowitz. Karl Peters, who has +been loading corn for the Herr Commerzienrath, sails in half an hour, +and takes me with him. I would have liked to stay a little while with +you, but you have something else on hand, and so I will not keep you +any longer." + +"I have nothing whatever on hand, Klaus," I answered, "and if you have +no objection I will go with you to Zanowitz, and take the opportunity +to say good-day to Christel. When is the wedding to be, Klaus?" + +Klaus shook his head as we walked on together. "The prospect is but a +poor one," he said. "We are too young yet, the old man thinks, although +the proverb says: 'Early wooed was never rued.' Don't you think so?" + +"Decidedly I do!" I cried, with an earnestness that extremely delighted +Klaus; "I am two years younger than you, I believe, but I can tell you +this: I would marry, if I could, upon the spot; but it all depends upon +the circumstances, Klaus, upon the circumstances." + +"Yes, of course;" answered he, with a sigh; "I could very well support +her now, for I shall work upon a fixed contract, and can do well if I +please, and Christel would not sit with her hands in her lap; but what +good is all that if the old man will not consent? He is Christel's +guardian, and she owes him everything, even her life, for she would +have perished miserably on the beach, poor little creature, had father +not sent mother down to the strand to gather drift-wood, and had mother +not found her there and brought her home. And you see all this has to +be taken into account; and although he is not at all kind to her, and I +cannot tell why he has treated me so badly all these years, yet still +it is written: Honor thy father and thy mother. And as I have no mother +any more, I must honor my father doubly. Don't you think so?" + +I did not answer him this time. In my coat-pocket lay the letter of my +father, in which he commanded me to leave Herr von Zehren at once and +return home. I had not obeyed his orders, because I could not leave +until Herr von Zehren's return; but now I could go--oh yes, I could go +now! I cast a glance back at the castle, which loomed darkly through +its dark masses of trees, over the heath, and sighed deeply. + +Klaus crossed the wet road to my side, and said to me in a low +mysterious tone, although over the whole heath, as far as the eye could +reach, there was no human being in sight: + +"I beg your pardon; I did not mean to hurt your feelings." + +"That I am sure of, Klaus," I answered. + +"For you see," he continued, "I know that you and your father are not +on good terms, but he is such an excellent man, that he certainly +wishes no harm to any human creature, and least of all to his own son; +and as for what people say about you, that you are leading so wild a +life here, and--and--I don't believe a word of it. I know you better. +Oh yes, you might be a little wild, of course, you always were that; +but wicked? God forbid! I would sooner believe them if they said I was +wicked myself." + +"Do they say that of me?" I asked, contemptuously. "And who says so, +then?" + +Klaus took off his cap, and rubbed his sleek hair. + +"That is hard to say," he answered, with some hesitation. "If I must +tell you honestly, they all say so, my Christel of course excepted, who +is your fast friend; but the rest don't leave a good hair on your +head." + +"Out with it," I said; "I don't care for it, so let us hear it all." + +"Well, I can't tell you," answered Klaus. + +It was some time before I could get it out of the good fellow. It was +quite terrible for him to be compelled to admit that in my native town, +where everybody knew everybody else, and took the greatest interest in +his fortunes, I was unanimously considered a castaway. The firemen on +board the _Penguin_ had spoken of it, and the old pensioned-off +captains leaning over the parapet of the pier, and meditatively chewing +their quids, talked the matter over. Wherever Klaus, whom all knew to +be a great friend of mine, came, everybody asked him if he had not +heard what had become of George Hartwig, how he was going about in the +very worst region of the whole island, and playing the buffoon for +noblemen with whom he was leading the most shameless life; that he +would lose more money in gambling in a single night, than his poor +father made in a whole year, and heaven only knew how he came by it. +But the worst of all was something which Klaus only mentioned after +again solemnly assuring me that he did not believe a word of it. He had +been the evening before to take leave of Justizrath Heckepfennig, who +was Christel's godfather, and at whose house he was a frequent visitor. +The family were just at tea. Elise Kohl, Emilie's dearest friend, was +there too, and they had done Klaus the honor to offer him a cup of tea, +after he had said that next day he was going to Zanowitz and meant to +look me up. The justizrath urgently dissuaded him from doing so, adding +that his long-fixed conviction that I would die in my shoes, had +recently received a confirmation, which, however, he was not free to +disclose. That then the girls had sat in judgment upon me, and decided +that they could forgive me everything else, but could never forgive me +for being the lover of Fräulein von Zehren. They had heard of it from +Arthur, who of course knew; and Arthur had told such things about his +cousin that a girl of any self-respect could hardly listen to them, and +which it was quite impossible to repeat. + +Klaus was terrified at the effect which his account produced upon me. +In vain did he repeat that he did not believe a word of it, and had +told the girls so at the time. I vowed that I renounced now and forever +so faithless and treacherous a friend, and that I would sooner or later +be most bitterly avenged upon him. I gave vent to the most terrible +threats and maledictions. Never would I again, with my own consent, set +foot in my native town; I would rather cause an earthquake to swallow +it, if it stood in my power. Up to this time I had felt twinges of +conscience as to whether I had not acted too rashly in leaving my +father for so trifling a cause; but now should my father a hundred +times command me to return, I would not do it. And as for Herr von +Zehren and Fräulein von Zehren I valued a hair of either of their heads +more than the whole town of Uselin, and I was ready to die for both of +them here on the spot in these water-boots of mine, and the devil might +afterwards beat the boots about the justizrath's old mop of a head. + +The good Klaus was stricken dumb with horror when he heard me utter +these frightful imprecations. It is quite probable that the idea struck +him that my soul was in a more perilous state than he had hitherto +supposed. He did not say this, however, but presently remarked, in his +simple way, that disobedience to a father was a very serious thing; +that I well knew how much he had always thought of me, in spite of all +that people said, and that he had always been disposed, and was still +disposed to agree with me in everything; but that here I was clearly in +the wrong; and that if my father had really ordered me to return home, +he could not see, for his part, what should prevent me from obeying +him; that he must confess to me that my disobedience to my father had +been troubling him ever since he heard of it, and that he could go away +with an easier mind, now that he had frankly told me this. + +I made him no answer, and Klaus did not venture to continue a +conversation that had taken so unpleasant a turn. He walked silently by +my side, giving me a sorrowful look from time to time, like Caro, who +trotted with drooping ears by my other side; for the rain was falling +still more heavily, and my aimless wandering in such weather over the +wet dunes, was a mystery to Caro which grew darker the more he pondered +over it. + +Thus we arrived at Zanowitz, where the poor mud-hovels were scattered +about over the undulating sandy dunes, as if they were playing +hide-and-seek. Between the dunes the open sea was visible. This had +always been a sight that I loved, when the sun shone brightly on the +white sand and the blue water, and the white gulls wheeled in joyous +circles over the calm sea. But now all was of a uniform gray, the sand, +and the sky, and the sea that came rolling in in heavy waves. Even the +gulls, sweeping with harsh cries over the stormy waters, seemed gray +like the rest. It was a dreary picture, the coloring of which +harmonized with the frame of mind in which my conversation with Klaus +had left me. + +"I see Peters is getting ready to sail," said Klaus, pointing to one of +the larger vessels that were rocking at anchor a short distance from +the beach. "I think we had better go down; father and Christel will be +down there waiting for me." + +So we went down to the strand, where they were about pushing off one of +the numerous smaller boats drawn up upon the sand. A crowd of persons +were standing by, and among them old Pinnow, Christel, and Klaus's Aunt +Julchen, a well-to-do fisherman's widow, whom I remembered very well. + +Poor Klaus was scarcely allowed a minute to say good-by. Skipper +Peters, who had to deliver in Uselin the same day the corn he had +shipped for the commerzienrath's account, swore at the foolish waste of +time; Pinnow growled that the stupid dolt would never have common +sense; Christel kept her tearful eyes riveted on her Klaus, whom she +was to lose for so long a time; Aunt Julchen wiped the tears and the +rain from her good fat face with her apron; and the deaf and dumb +apprentice Jacob, who was among the rest, stared uninterruptedly at his +master as if he now saw his red nose and blue spectacles for the first +time. Klaus, looking very confused and very unhappy, said not a single +word, but taking in his left hand a bundle which Christel had given +him, he offered his right to each in turn, and then springing into the +boat, seized one of the two oars. A couple of fishermen waded out and +pushed the boat off; the oars were laid in the rowlocks, and the skiff +danced over the waves to the cutter, on which the mainsail was already +hoisted. + +When I turned again, Christel had gone, and the fat aunt was just about +following her. The poor thing no doubt wished to shed her long pent-up +tears in quiet, and I thought that I should be doing her a kindness if +I detained her father awhile upon the beach. But Herr Pinnow was in no +haste to leave, as it seemed. With his blue spectacles over his eyes, +which I knew to be sharp as a hawk's, he gazed into the foaming waters, +and exchanged with the Zanowitz sailors and fishermen such remarks as +naturally fall from old sea-rats on the beach watching the departure of +a vessel. + +These were in truth faces by no means adapted to inspire confidence, +these high-boned, lean, weather-beaten, sunburnt visages, with +light-blue blinking eyes, of the men of Zanowitz; but I had to say to +myself, as I stood by and observed them one by one, that the face of my +old friend was the most unprepossessing of all. The wicked, cruel +expression of his wide mouth, with thick close-shut lips, that even +when he spoke scarcely moved, had never so struck me before; perhaps I +saw him to-day with different eyes. For indeed, since yesterday +evening, the suspicion which had repeatedly entered my mind, that old +Pinnow was deeply implicated in Herr von Zehren's hazardous +undertakings, had been aroused anew. In fact I had come to an almost +positive conclusion that he would take an active part in the expedition +on hand; and I had been much surprised to hear Klaus say that his +father had ferried Christel and himself over. So, whatever his +connection with Herr von Zehren might be, he was not with him this +time, and that fact partially relieved my uneasiness. + +The smith seemed not to have forgotten our quarrel on that evening. He +steadily pretended not to see me, or turned his broad back upon me +while he told the others what a quick passage he had made, and that he +would not have ventured out in such weather, and with his weak eyes +that grew weaker every day, had not Klaus been in such haste. And even +though it should blow less hard this evening, he would rather not take +back Christel with him; she could stay at his sister's, and in her +place he would take some active young fellow from here on board to help +him, for as for that stupid blockhead, Jacob, he could not be relied +on. + +The tobacco-chewing men of Zanowitz listened to him and assented, or +said nothing, and did their part in thinking. + +To remain on the beach with the wind driving the rain and spray into +one's face, was by no means comfortable, so I turned away from the +group and walked up the shore. I knew where Aunt Julchen's cottage +stood, and I thought I would look in and say a few friendly words to +Christel if I could. But as if he suspected my intention and was +determined to thwart it, old Pinnow, with a pair of fellows of much the +look of gallows-birds, came after me; so I gave up my design for the +time and went through the town, and ascended the dunes, intending to +cross the heath to Trantow. + +I had just crossed the summit of the highest dune, which was called the +white one from the peculiar brilliancy of its sand, and from which one +commanded an extensive prospect up and down the shore, when I heard my +name called. I turned and perceived a female figure crouching in a +little hollow under the sharp ridge of the dune, upon the side that +looked away from the village and the sea, and beckoning eagerly to me. +To my no little surprise I recognized Christel, and at once hastened to +her. When I came up, she drew me into the hollow, and intimated to me +with gestures rather than words that I must sit still and keep the dog +quiet. + +"What is all this for, Christel?" I asked. + +"There is no time to be lost," she answered, "and I must tell you in +two minutes. At three o'clock this morning Herr von Zehren came to see +'him;' they thought I was asleep, but I was not, because I had been +crying about grandmother, and I heard everything. This evening a +Mecklenburg yacht laden with silk will arrive. Herr von Zehren has gone +by extra-post to R. to tell the captain, who is waiting for him there, +to set sail. He will return himself with him on the yacht. Then they +planned how to get the goods off the yacht; and 'he' offered, as the +coast was clear, to take them off himself with his boat. Always before, +the goods have been concealed in Zanowitz, and he took off such as were +intended for Uselin from Zehrendorf, later, as opportunity offered. +When Herr von Zehren objected that it might attract notice if he had +his boat out without any apparent reason, and in such bad weather, 'he' +said that Klaus had been wanting to go see his aunt before he went +away, so he would take him over, and carry me along too, that there +might be no possibility of suspicion. Then they called in Jock Swart, +who had been waiting in the forge, and told him to come over here at +once and have ready for to-night twelve of the surest men from +Zehrendorf and Zanowitz, to accompany him on board--as carriers you +know. Jock went, and after about a quarter of an hour Herr von Zehren +went too, and then after another quarter of an hour, Jock came back +again. I wondered at this, for Herr von Zehren had told him expressly +and several times over, not to lose a minute, but to set out at once; +but 'he' must have given him a sign, or had some previous understanding +with him. Then they put their heads together and talked so softly that +I could not make out what they said, but it must have been something +bad, for 'he' got up once or twice and came and listened at my door to +see if I was awake. Then he went away, but Jock stayed. About an hour +later, just as day was beginning to break, he came back with another +man--the customs-inspector Blanck. He had not his uniform on, but I +knew him at once, and would have known him anyhow by his voice. So now +the three whispered together, and after a little while went away. About +six 'he' came back alone, and knocked at my door, for I had been afraid +to come out, and asked if I was not going to get up to-day? Klaus would +soon be there, he said, and we were to come over here together, and I +was to bring some things with me, as very likely he would leave me here +with my aunt." + +While Christel was telling me this, she looked cautiously from time to +time over the ridge of the dune to see if the coast was clear. + +"I did not know what to do," she went on, "for I could not tell Klaus; +he is like a child, and knows nothing about it all, and must not know; +and I thank God he is away. I put it into his head to go and see you, +for I thought very likely you would come down with him, as you did, and +I wanted to tell you, if possible, to see if you could do anything. +Herr von Zehren has always been so good to me, and the last time he was +here said he would take care of Klaus and me, and that I need not be +afraid of 'him,' for 'he' knew very well, and he had moreover told +'him,' that if he did me any harm he would shoot him dead. And since +then 'he' has left me in peace; but he swears horribly at Herr von +Zehren, and vows that he will be even with him, and now his plan is to +bring him to the gallows." + +She had begun to cry, but wiped away the tears with her hand, and went +on: + +"I can do nothing more. See if you can do anything; and do not be +uneasy on my account, even if 'he' learns that it was my doing." + +Her face suddenly flushed to a deep crimson; but the brave girl was +determined to say all that she had to say, and she added: + +"I have been talking with my aunt, and my aunt will keep me with her, +and as she has a great number of friends here, he will not venture to +give her any trouble. And now I must go back; run quickly down the +dune; they cannot see you below there; and good-by!" + +I pressed her hand and hurried down the high bare dune, which was +surrounded by a number of other lesser ones confusedly heaped together +and overgrown with beach-grass and broom, between which I was tolerably +safe from observation. Still I kept on in a crouching attitude, and did +not raise myself to an erect posture until I had gone a hundred paces +or so over the heath, where concealment was no longer possible. When I +looked back to the white dune, Christel was nowhere to be seen; she had +evidently seized a favorable moment to slip back unobserved into the +village. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +Caro probably saw no reason, as I rather ran than walked along the +narrow path leading over the heath to Trantowitz, to be more satisfied +than before with his master's proceedings. I no longer spoke to him as +I had been doing. I had no eye for the unfortunate hares which he +routed out of their damp forms to relieve his extreme dullness of +spirits, nor for the flocks of gulls that had been driven inland by the +storm. I hurried on as if life and death depended upon my reaching +Trantowitz five minutes earlier or later; and yet it was but too +certain that Hans, when I had taken him into my confidence, would be as +much at a loss as myself. But Hans von Trantow was a good fellow, and a +devoted friend of Herr von Zehren, as I well knew. And then he loved +Constance; for Constance's sake, even if he had no other reason, he +must help me to save Constance's father, if any rescue was now +possible. + +And so I tore along. Under my steps jets of water sprang from the +marshy soil into which I often sank to the ankles; the rain dashed into +my face, and the gulls screamed as they wheeled above my head. + +From Zanowitz to Trantow was a half-hour's journey, but it seemed to me +an age before I reached the house, a bald and desolate-looking building +even in the sunshine, and now doubly forlorn and cheerless in the rain. +In front of the one-storied dwelling with its eight tall poplars, whose +slender summits were wildly swaying in the storm, stood Granow's +hunting-wagon and horses. That detestable fellow was there, then; but +no matter for that; I must speak with Hans von Trantow alone, if I had +first to pitch Herr von Granow out of the door. + +Entering, I found the gentlemen at breakfast; a couple of empty bottles +on the table showed that they had been sitting there some time already. +Granow changed color at my entrance. It is probable that with my heated +and agitated face, my clothes saturated with rain, and my hunting-boots +covered with the sand of the dunes and the mud of the moor, I presented +a rather startling appearance, and the little man had not, in reference +to me, the clearest conscience in the world. Trantow, without rising at +my entrance, reached a chair and drew it up to the table, then gave me +his hand, and nodded his head towards the bottles and the dishes. His +good-natured face was already very red, and his great blue eyes rather +glassy; it was plain that the empty bottles were to be set chiefly to +his account. + +"You have certainly not been out shooting in this horrible weather?" +asked Herr von Granow, with sudden friendliness, and politely placed +bread, butter, and ham before me, which, in spite of all my anxiety, I +attacked with energy, for I was nearly famished, and the hot air of the +room had given me a sensation of faintness. + +"We have been sitting here these two hours," he went on, "and were just +deliberating how we should spend the day. I proposed cards, but Hans +will not play; he says he means to give it up. Gambling is a vice, he +says." + +"So it is," muttered Hans. + +"Only when he wins, you understand," said Granow, laughing at his own +wit. "He considers it vicious to take from other people the money which +they very likely need. He has no need of money himself; have you Hans?" + +"Got no use for it," said Hans. + +"There, you hear him yourself; he has got no use for it. He must marry, +that's the thing for him; then he will find out a use for his money. We +were just now talking about it." + +Hans's red face took a somewhat deeper shade, and he cast a shy look at +me. It struck me that I had myself been one of the subjects of their +conversation. + +"He will not find it so easy as you who have only to ask and have," I +said. + +"I do not understand you," said the little man, with evident +embarrassment. + +"I mean that this is what you told me yourself the day before +yesterday," I answered. "You even mentioned names; but it can't be +managed; it really can't, although Herr von Granow has considered the +matter from every side." + +I uttered the last words in an ironical tone, turning to Hans as I +spoke. Hans, whose head was never particularly clear, could catch no +glimpse of my meaning at all; but Herr von Granow understood me +perfectly. + +"A jest should not be taken more seriously than it is meant," he said, +pouring himself out a glass of wine with a hand that visibly shook. + +"Or better, one should not venture to jest upon certain subjects at +all," I retorted, following his example. + +"I am old enough not to need any admonitions from you," said the little +man, with a pitiful attempt to assume an intimidating tone. + +"And yet you have not yet learned to bridle your tongue," I replied, +looking him steadily in the face. + +"It seems you intend to insult me, young man," he cried, setting down +hastily the glass of which he had only tasted. + +"Shall I make that fact clear to you by throwing this glass in your +face?" + +"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" cried Hans. + +"Enough!" exclaimed the little man, pushing back his chair and rising; +"I will bear these insults no longer. I will have satisfaction, if this +gentleman is entitled to be dealt with in that way." + +"My father is a respectable officer in the customs," I answered; "my +grandfather was a minister, and so was my great-grandfather. Yours was +a shepherd, was he not?" + +"We shall meet again," cried the little man, rushing out of the room, +banging the door after him. In another moment we heard his carriage +rattling over the pavement of the court. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +"Now, what is the meaning of all this?" asked Hans, who had never moved +from his chair during the whole scene. + +I broke into loud laughter. + +"It means," I replied, "that Herr von Granow is a blackguard who has +had the audacity to defame a lady whom we both respect, in a manner +which deserves far more serious treatment; but besides this, I wanted +to get him away--I must speak to you. You must help me--you must help +him----" + +I did not know how to begin, and in my excitement I strode wildly up +and down the room. + +"Drink off half a bottle at once," said Hans, meditatively; "that is a +specific for clearing the brain." + +But without having recourse to this specific, I was presently calm +enough to tell him what it was that so agitated me. I related to him +everything from the beginning; my first suspicion of Herr von Zehren, +which had been completely lulled until Granow's loquacity had aroused +it again; then Herr von Zehren's half admission of the previous +evening, and the circumstances of his departure--keeping silent, +however, about the letter of the steuerrath, which was not my +secret--and then my exploration in the cellar this morning, and finally +Christel's disclosure. I wound up by saying: "Herr von Trantow, I do +not know what you think of his conduct, but I know that you have a +great regard for him, and that," I added, coloring, "you deeply respect +Constance, Fräulein von Zehren. Help me if you can. I am resolved to +risk everything rather than let him fall into the snare which clearly +has been set for him." + +Von Trantow's cigar had gone out while I was speaking, nor had he made +the slightest attempt to re-kindle it--an evidence of the rapt +attention with which he was listening to my statement. As soon as I +paused, he stretched out his great hand to me over the table, and was +about to say something, but perceived that both our glasses were empty, +so replenished them instead, and leaning back in his chair, sank into +the profoundest meditation. + +"I do not think it probable," I proceeded, warmed by his speechless +sympathy, "that they will capture him; for I am convinced that he will +defend himself to the last extremity." + +Hans nodded, to intimate that he had not a doubt of it. + +"But to think of their bringing him to trial, of their throwing him +into prison? Herr von Trantow, shall we suffer that, if we can prevent +it? Only yesterday he told me how one of his ancestors, also named +Malte, when a prisoner in Uselin, was rescued by the strong arm, and at +the sword's point, by one of yours, named Hans like yourself, upon a +message brought by a faithful squire. The whole story has come round +again. I am the faithful squire, and you and I will cut him out as they +did then." + +"That we will!" cried Hans, smiting the table with his heavy fist so +that the bottles and glasses rang. "If they shut him up, we will blow +up the prison." + +"We must never let it get to that point," I said, smiling +involuntarily, despite my anxiety at Hans's blind zeal. "We must warn +him beforehand; we must get to him before anything happens; we must +frustrate the whole plan founded upon Pinnow's and Jock's villainous +treachery. But how? How can it be done?" + +"How can it be done?" echoed Hans, thoughtfully rubbing his head. + +We--or rather I, for Hans contented himself with playing the attentive +listener, and incessantly replenishing my glass, with the view, +apparently, of assisting my invention--designed a hundred plans, of +which each was less practicable than the previous one, until I hit upon +the following scheme, which, like all the others, had the fullest and +promptest adhesion of the good Hans. + +If their plan was to seize Herr von Zehren _flagrante delicto_, as +Christel's revelation indicated, it was most probable that, as was +their usual plan of operations in similar cases, they had laid an +ambush for him. This ambush could only be posted upon a road that he +must of necessity take, or upon one to which he was purposely enticed. +In the latter case we could form no conjectures of its disposition; but +in the former we might assume with tolerable assurance that the ambush +would be stationed in the neighborhood of the castle. In every event +our aim must be to reach him as soon as possible. But to effect this +but one plan was practicable; we must set out at once with Pinnow, and +as he was not likely to take us voluntarily as passengers, we must be +prepared to compel him to it. How this was precisely to be done, we +could leave to chance; the all-important thing was that we should be in +Zanowitz at the right time. Pinnow would certainly not sail before +night-fall, as the smuggler-yacht would unquestionably come in under +cover of the darkness, and then would approach as near the shore as +possible. When we were once on board, it would be time to think about +the rest. + +We next took another point into consideration. That our scheme was not +to be accomplished without force, both Hans and I were thoroughly +aware. Nothing could be done with guns in the darkness, nor would +cutlasses or hunting-knives be sufficient against Pinnow and his men, +who all carried knives. We must trust to pistols. + +Hans had a pair; but one pair was not sufficient. I remembered that +there was another pair hanging in Herr von Zehren's chamber, and these +we must get. I thought little of Constance's prohibition from entering +the house before her father's return; here were heavier interests at +stake; this was a matter of life and death. Indeed it was a question if +it would not be judicious to give Fräulein von Zehren a hint at least +of the state of affairs; but we concluded not to do so, as she could +not possibly help us, and would only be alarmed to no purpose. But we +thought it prudent to take into our counsel old Christian, who could be +relied upon in any case. We could arrange a pre-concerted signal with +him, a light in one of the gable windows, or something of that sort, by +which he could let us know at a distance, in case we got back +unmolested to Zehrendorf, whether the coast was clear about the castle. + +By the time we had got so far with our deliberations, it I was two +o'clock, and we had until dusk at least three hours, which were to be +got through with with as much patience as we could muster--a hard task +for me, who was in a burning fever of impatience. Hans showed himself +the most amiable of hosts. He brought out his best cigars and his best +wine; he was more talkative than I had ever known him; the prospect of +an adventure of so serious a character as that which we had in view, +seemed to have had the good effect of arousing him out of his usual +apathy. He recounted the simple story of his life: how he had early +lost his parents, how he had been sent to a boarding-school at the +provincial capital, where he was prepared for the gymnasium, in which +he remained until his seventeenth year and rose to the fourth class. +Then he became a farmer; took his estate in hand as soon as he was of +age, and had been living upon it six years--he was now in his +thirtieth--quietly and placidly, using his weapons only against the +creatures of the forest and the field, raising his wheat, shearing his +sheep, smoking his cigars, drinking his wine, and playing his cards. +There was but one romantic feature in all his prosaic life, and that +was his love for Constance. It was in the year that he came to live +upon his estate, that she came back to her father; and to see +Constance, to love her, and to love her still more devotedly long after +he had been convinced of the hopelessness of his passion, to drown this +hopeless passion in wine, so far as was in his power--this was the poor +fellow's fate. He accepted it with perfect resignation, convinced that +he was not the man to make his own fortune, any more than he had been +able, when at school, to do his own exercises. Why and for whom should +he plague himself with work? He had all that he wanted in the present, +and there was no future for him to look forward to. He was the last of +his race, and had not even a kinsman in the world. When he died, his +estate, as a lapsed fief, reverted to the crown. The crown then might +see what was to be done with the ruined barns and stables and with the +dilapidated house. He let decay and weather work their will. He only +needed a room, and in this room we were now sitting, while Hans went on +with his recital in his monotonous way, and the rain beating against +the low windows kept up a melancholy accompaniment. + +A conversation in which there was a continual reference to Constance, +even if her name was not actually mentioned, had a strangely painful +charm for me. Although Hans did not breathe a syllable of complaint +against the fair girl, it was plain from his story that she had at +first encouraged his bashful attentions, and only altered her behavior +to him after her meeting with Prince Prora at the watering-place two +years before. And Hans was evidently not the only one who had received +encouragement. Karl von Sylow, Fritz von Zarrentin--in a word, almost +every one of the young noblemen who formed Herr von Zehren's circle of +acquaintance, had earlier or later, with greater or less right, held +himself to be the favored one. Even Granow, although from the first he +was made the butt of his companions, might boast that he was favorably +looked upon by the young lady during the earlier months of his +residence; indeed Hans still considered Granow's chance by no means +desperate, for the little man was very rich, and she would only marry a +rich man, he added, with a deep sigh, as he filled his glass once more. + +At Hans's last words I sprang from the table and threw open the window. +I felt as if I must suffocate, or as if the low ceiling with its bent +beams would fall in upon me. + +"Is it still raining?" Hans asked. + +"Not at this moment," I said. But one of those thick fogs of which +several had passed over in the course of the day, was drifting in from +the sea. + +"Real smugglers' weather," said Hans. "The old man ought to be ashamed +of himself to drag his friends out on such a day. But that cannot be +helped. Shall we not drink another bottle? It will be cursedly cold +to-night." + +I said I thought we had already drunk more than enough, and that it was +high time to start. + +"Then I will get ready," said Hans, and went into his chamber, where I +for a long time heard him rummaging among his water-boots. + +I had always considered myself pretty cool in moments of danger; but in +Hans I had met my master. While he was overhauling the things in his +room, I heard him through the half-open door whistling to himself as +cheerily as if we were going out to shoot hares, instead of an +adventure of life and death. To be sure, I said to myself, his is a +case of hopeless love, and Herr von Zehren is merely a friend, +neighbor, and equal, whom he feels it his duty to assist against the +hated police. That Hans, in combating for a cause that did not really +concern him, was doing much more, or at least acting far more +disinterestedly than I, did not occur to me. + +And now he came out of his room, if not the wildest of all wild +warriors, yet in appearance one who would be very appropriately +selected for an adventure that demanded a strong and bold man. His long +legs were incased in immense boots; over a close-fitting jacket of silk +he had put on a loose woollen overcoat, which he probably wore when +hunting in winter, and which could be drawn close with a belt or +allowed to hang loose, as at present, he having buckled the belt under +it around the jacket, and thrust his pistols into the belt. With a +jolly laugh he displayed his equipment and asked me if I would not have +an overcoat also, as he had another; an offer which I gladly accepted. + +"We look like two brothers," said Hans; and in fact we might easily +have been mistaken for brothers, as we both had the same stature and +breadth of shoulders, and were dressed almost precisely alike. + +"If there are not too many of them," said Hans, "we can easily manage +them." + +"A half-dozen to each of us, or so," I said, and laughed; but I was +very far from a mirthful feeling as we closed the door after us, and +Caro, whom we had left behind, broke out into a dismal howling and +whining. Poor Caro, he was in the right that morning when he reminded +me with his woebegone looks that we should never praise the day until +the evening. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +It was four o'clock when we set out, and already it was growing dusk as +we took the foot-path through the stubble-field to Zehrendorf. No clear +judgment of the weather was to be drawn from the appearance of the sky +and clouds, as the whole atmosphere was filled with watery mist, +through which every object took a singularly strange and unnatural +appearance. We pushed on rapidly, sometimes side by side and sometimes +in single file, for the path was narrow and very slippery from the +incessant rains. We were just deliberating what we should say to +Constance, in case we should unfortunately meet her, when we saw upon +the road bordered with willows, which was but a few hundred paces +distant from the foot-path, a carriage drawn by two horses coming from +the castle in such haste that in less than half a minute it had +vanished in the mist, and we could only hear the trampling of the +galloping horses and the rattling of the carriage over the broken +causeway. Hans and I looked at each other in astonishment. + +"Who can that be?" he asked. + +"It is the steuerrath," I answered. + +"What can bring him here?" he asked again. + +I did not answer. I could not tell Hans of the letter that proved the +direct or indirect complicity of the steuerrath, nor explain how likely +it was that he would attempt to warn his brother that the affair had +taken a wrong turn. What information could he have brought? Might it +still be of service to the unfortunate man whose movements were dogged +by treachery? + +"Let us hasten all we can," I cried, pressing on without waiting for +Hans's answer, and Hans, who was a capital runner, followed closely +upon my heels. + +In a few minutes we had reached the gate which opened on this side into +the court. At the gate was a stone-bench for the accommodation of +persons waiting until the gate was opened, and upon this bench sat or +rather lay old Christian, with blood trickling down his wrinkled face +from a fresh wound in the forehead. As we came up he seemed to be +recovering from a partial swoon, and stared at us with a confused look. +We raised him up, and Hans caught some water in his hollow hand from a +neighboring rain-spout and sprinkled it in his face. The wound was not +deep, and seemed to have been inflicted with some blunt instrument. + +"What has happened, Christian?" I had already asked half-a-dozen times, +before the old man had recovered his senses sufficiently to answer +feebly: + +"What has happened? She is off; and he struck me over the head with the +butt of his whip as I was trying to shut the gate." + +I had heard enough. Like some furious animal I rushed to the house. The +doors were all standing open: the front door, that of the dining-room, +and that of Herr von Zehren's chamber. I ran in, as I heard hammering +and rattling inside. Old Pahlen was kneeling before Herr von Zehren's +escritoire, scolding furiously to herself while trying her best, with a +hatchet and crowbar, to force the lock. She had not heard me enter. +With one jerk I dragged her to her feet; and she started back and +glared at me with looks flaming with impotent rage. Her gray hair hung +in elf-locks from under her dirty cap, and in her right hand she still +clutched the hatchet. The horrible old woman, whose vile nature was now +openly shown, was a hideous object to behold; but I was not in a frame +of mind to be checked by any sight, however repulsive. + +"Where has she gone?" I thundered at her. "You must know, for you +helped her off." + +"Ay, that I did," screamed the old hag, "that I did; and may Satan +fetch my soul for doing it! The thankless, worthless creature promised +to take me with her, and now leaves me here with shame and abuse in +this robber's den; but she'll live yet to come to it herself when he +flings her out into the street, the----" + +"Another word, woman, and I strike you to the floor," I cried, raising +my fist threateningly. + +The old woman burst into a screech of laughter. "Now _he_ begins!" she +cried. "And didn't they make a fine fool of him, the stupid blockhead! +Thought he was the man, to be sure, while the other one was with her +every night. Lets himself be sent out of the way, for the other to come +in his coach and carry off the pretty lady." And the old wretch burst +again into a screech of horrible laughter. + +"Be that as it may," I said, struggling to keep down the rage and +anguish that were tearing my heart, "you have been rightly served, at +all events; and if you do not want me to have you hounded off the place +for a thief, as you are, you had better take yourself off at once." + +"Oh, indeed!" screamed the hag, planting her arms a-kimbo, "he carries +matters here with a high hand, to be sure! I a thief, indeed! I only +want my money. I have had for this half-year no wages from the whole +beggarly lot, the smuggling gang!" + +She had received from me, during the two months of my stay at +Zehrendorf, more than her whole year's service could amount to; and I +had myself seen Herr von Zehren pay her wages but a few days before, +and add a handsome present besides. + +"Begone!" I said. "Leave the place this instant!" + +The old woman caught up the hatchet, but she well knew that she could +not intimidate me. So she retreated before me out of the room, and out +of the house, screaming out all the time the vilest abuse and the most +furious threats against Herr von Zehren, Constance, and myself. I +closed the great gate after her with my own hands, and then looked for +Hans, who was just coming out of the lodge, into which he had been +taking old Christian. + +Hans was deathly pale, and did not look at me as he came to my side. He +had heard enough from old Christian to make it unnecessary for him to +seek from me any further particulars of Constance's abduction; and he +probably did not care to let me see how hard the blow had struck him, +which hurled into the mire the image of his idolatry, and so cruelly +destroyed his solitary illusion, the last glimmer of poetry in his +cheerless life. I seized his hand and wrung it hard. + +"What now?" I asked. + +"Suppose I ride after him and knock out his brains," said Hans. + +"Excellent!" I replied, with a forced laugh; "if he had carried her off +by force; but as it seems she went with him quite willingly--come on; +the thing is not worth thinking over a moment longer." + +"You have not loved her for six years," said poor Hans. + +"Then saddle Herr von Zehren's bay and ride after him," I said; "but we +must come to a decision at once." + +Hans stood irresolute. "By heavens, I should like to help you," he +said. + +"Ride after the rascal and punish him, if you want to," I cried, "I am +perfectly satisfied. But whatever is to be done must be done at once." + +"Then I will!" said Hans, and went with long strides to the stable, +where he knew Herr von Zehren's horse stood, a powerful hunter, but now +past his prime, and much neglected of late since Herr von Zehren had +given up riding. + +There was on the place a half-grown youth who did odd jobs, and was +much cuffed about by the others. He came up now and said that Jock had +been there an hour before and taken with him Karl, who was cutting +straw in the barn-loft, and Hanne, who was sitting in the lodge, and so +he was left to do Karl's work. Of what else befell, he in his dark loft +had seen and heard nothing. + +To entrust to this simple, scarcely more than half-witted youth the +part which Christian should have taken in our plan would have been +folly; but as he was an honest fellow, we could trust him to take care +of the old man and keep guard over the house. I ordered him to go the +rounds from time to time with the dog, whom I unchained, and under no +pretext whatever to let in the old hag whom I had driven off the place, +and from whom I expected mischief. Fritz promised to observe my orders +faithfully. Then I hastily caught down Herr von Zehren's pistols, which +were hanging, loaded, against the wall. + +When I came out into the court again, I saw Hans just galloping out of +the gate. A wild jealousy seized me. Why could I not be at his side? +The composure, the indifference, which I had just exhibited--all was +mere sham; I had but a single desire, to revenge myself on him and on +her; but I must leave it to Hans; he had loved her for six years! + +Thus I raged in spirit as I hastened at a rapid rate through the fields +and meadows, and finally across the heath to Zanowitz. Strive as I +might to fix my thoughts upon the immediate exigency, they perpetually +reverted to what had just taken place. A weight as of a mountain lay +upon my heart. I remember more than once I stood still and shrieked +aloud to the gray, cloudy sky. When I reached the dunes, however, the +necessity of devising some definite plan of operations brought me back +to my senses. + +The weather had somewhat cleared up in the meantime, and the wind had +hauled; the rain had ceased, and the fog had lifted; there was more +light than an hour before, although the sun had set by this time. +Looking down from the height of the dunes upon Zanowitz I saw the dark +sea, where the waves were still tumbling, though not so heavily as in +the morning, cutting with a sharp horizontal line against the bright +sky. I could still distinguish, though with difficulty, the larger +vessel in the roadstead, but could clearly make out the row of boats +drawn up to the beach, as well as a little yawl that came rowing +towards a group of men assembled on the strand. If these were the last +of Pinnow's party I had not a minute to spare. + +It was also possible that this group of dark figures might be +functionaries of the custom-house; but I was satisfied that the +probability of this being the case, was but small. Zanowitz was crowded +with smugglers, and Pinnow could hardly venture upon open treachery. +Not that any attempt would have been made to resist by violence an +expedition of the officials conducted by him; but from the moment in +which he appeared in that capacity, he would be marked out for +vengeance, and his life would not be worth an hour's purchase. However +the treachery might have been concocted, the traitors had assuredly +taken care to conceal their own share in it from all other eyes. + +But I had no time for much consideration on these points; and indeed +did not pause to reflect, but ran down the dunes. As I neared the group +a man came out from it and advanced to meet me. He had turned up the +wide collar of his pea-jacket, and pulled the brim of his sou'-wester +as far as possible over his face, but I recognized him at once. + +"Good evening, Pinnow," I said. + +He made no reply. + +"I am glad to have met you," I went on; "I heard this morning that it +was possible you might sail for Uselin this evening, and I wanted to +ask you to take me along with you." + +He still gave no answer. + +"You will have to take me, whether you like it or not," I proceeded. "I +have made every preparation for the trip. Look here," and I threw back +my overcoat and drew one of my pistols half out of my belt, "they are +both loaded." + +He still kept silent. + +"Shall I try them on you to see if they are loaded or not?" I asked, +drawing one from my belt and cocking it. + +"Come on," said Pinnow. + +I lowered the hammer of the pistol, replaced it in my belt, and then +walked on Pinnow's right, keeping a little behind him. Presently I +said: + +"Do not expect to find any protection among the men down there. I will +keep close to your side, and upon the first word you let fall, tending +to raise them against me, you are a dead man. How many have you already +on board?" + +"Ten men," muttered Pinnow. "But I do not know what you want with me; +go with us or stay behind as you please; what the devil do you suppose +I care?" + +"We shall see," I answered, drily. + +We now joined the group, which consisted of my long friend Jock, the +men Karl and Hanne, and the deaf and dumb Jacob who had rowed the yawl +over. + +"He is going with us," said Pinnow, laconically, to his men, as he lent +a hand himself to push off the yawl. + +I thought that I perceived a look of alarmed surprise pass over the +brutal features of Jock at seeing us. He looked at his accomplice for +an explanation of the mystery, but Pinnow was busy with the yawl. The +two others were standing apart; they evidently did not know what to +make of it all. + +"There are only four wanted," said Pinnow. + +"Very good," I said. "You, Karl and Hanne, go home and keep perfectly +quiet, do you hear?" + +"I can go home too," said Jock, surlily. + +"One step from the spot," I cried, levelling the pistol at his head, +"and you have stood on your long legs for the last time. Get on board!" + +Jock Swart obeyed. + +"You next, Pinnow!" + +Pinnow obeyed. I followed. + +We had about twenty minutes rowing before we reached the cutter, for +the surf was heavy, and the cutter was anchored pretty far out on +account of her deep draught. This frustrated a plan which occurred to +me at the last moment, namely, to put the whole party on shore, and go +out to the yacht with Pinnow and Jock alone. But I saw that in the +rowing back and forwards that would be necessary, at least an hour +would be lost, and it was all-important to have speech of Herr von +Zehren as speedily as possible. What might not happen in an hour? + +We reached the cutter that was dancing at her anchor upon the waves, +like an impatient horse tugging at his halter. We pulled alongside, and +I sprang on board among the dark figures. + +"Good evening, men," I said. "I am going along with you. Some of you +know me, and know that I am a good friend of Herr von Zehren; and +besides, Pinnow and Jock Swart will answer for me." + +The two that I named accepted the sponsorship by their silence; but I +believe that it was unnecessary. I had often been with Herr von Zehren +in Zanowitz--indeed we had been there but the day before--and had +probably occasionally spoken with every one of the men. They all knew +my intimate association with him, and could see nothing remarkable that +I should take part in an expedition made for the account of one who +was to a certain extent my patron as he was theirs. No one answered +me--these people were not in the habit of wasting speech--but they +willingly received me among them. My impression that Pinnow and Jock +Swart were the only traitors, was confirmed. So in every sense he was +now in my power. If I told the men what I knew, the two accomplices +would probably have flown overboard; for the Zanowitz men were not to +be trifled with in these matters. + +I said as much to Pinnow as I took my place beside him at the helm. + +"Do what you please," he muttered, putting a quid of tobacco into his +wide mouth. + +Although Christel's information was so positive, a doubt came over me +as I marked the imperturbable calmness of the man who knew that his +life was every moment at risk. Had Christel's hearing deceived her in +her excitement? Had the good Hans and I unnecessarily mixed ourselves +up with this lawless crew, who were plying, in darkness and mist, their +perilous trade? + +By this time the cutter, a capital sailer, was flying through the +waves. The sky had grown much clearer; there was still light enough to +see pretty plainly at two or three hundred yards distance. But it was +bitter cold, and the surf that dashed, often in heavy masses, over the +deck, by no means added to the comfort of the situation. The small +craft was crowded with the fourteen men that were on board. Wherever +one looked, there lay or crouched a dark figure. Pinnow sat at the +helm. As I kept my post at his side, and had thus an opportunity +to watch him closely, I grew more dubious with every minute whether +there was not some mistake in the whole affair. There sat the +broad-shouldered man, moving not a muscle of his face, except when from +time to time he slowly turned his quid from one cheek into the other, +or fixed his sharp eyes upon the sails, or turned them out to sea. When +we tacked, a man[oe]uvre which was performed almost every minute, and +he called "Luff!" for us to stoop and let the boom pass over our heads, +his voice rang always firm and clear. Was it possible that a traitor +could have so sure a hand, so sharp an eye, and could chew his tobacco +with such equanimity? + +"How far do you think we shall have to go before we find the yacht?" I +asked. + +"We may come up with her at any moment," Pinnow growled; "and very +likely we may see nothing at all of her." + +"How so?" + +"If they should have caught sight of one of the coastguard boats, they +would stand out to sea again." + +"How long will you look for her?" + +"One hour; so it was arranged." + +"Between you and Herr von Zehren, or between you and Inspector Blanck?" + +Pinnow squirted his tobacco-juice overboard and growled: + +"For the last time I tell you that I do not know what you want. The +foolish wench Christel, I suppose, has made you believe that I am +playing false; but she is more likely to have done it herself. I should +be sorry if she gave up her old foster-father in order to get rid of +him; but what will such a wench not do?" + +These words, that the smith grumbled out in his surly way, made a +strong impression upon me. Had I not but an hour before had proof +what a girl would do to carry out her will? And Pinnow was only her +foster-father. Could she have invented a plausible tale to set Herr von +Zehren and myself against the old man? Could she have herself +perpetrated the treachery that she ascribed to him, and have given the +information to the officers, in order in this way to be rid of one whom +she had good reason for wishing out of the way? And had her conscience +smitten her at the last moment, when she reflected that his ruin would +involve that of Herr von Zehren, to whom she owed a debt of gratitude? +Was her story to me but an attempt to save him through my means? + +I admit that a minute's calm reflection would have sufficed to convince +me of the extreme improbability of this idea; but how could I calmly +reflect in the situation and in the frame of mind in which I then was? + +A wild merriment seized me, and I laughed aloud. Was it not a thing to +laugh at, that of us two conspirators, Hans was galloping after the +pretty pair over the wretched road through mist and drizzle, without +the shadow of a reasonable ground for such a race; and was it not just +as ridiculous, that I, who with such extravagant zeal and blindness, +had been running from the morning until now, through storm and rain, +tortured by countless anxieties, was a mere puppet, moved by a string +whose end was held by two girls' hands, the one of which I, in my +gratitude, had passionately kissed, and the other at least pressed +cordially. Truly it would have been better if we had both stayed by our +bottle in the warm room. + +"Look there!" said Pinnow, touching my shoulder, while at the same +moment he gave the word, "Luff!" in a peculiar, long-drawn, suppressed +tone. + +I perceived at but a few hundred yards distance a trimly-rigged +schooner of moderate size, and I recognized at a glance one of the +vessels of the coast-guard, named the Lightning. I had too often been +on board her, and had sketched her too often under every possible +arrangement of sails, to be deceived in her. + +"That is the _Lightning_," I exclaimed. + +At the same moment that the cutter went about, the _Lightning_ also +altered her course and bore down on us. + +"Boat ahoy!" came through a speaking trumpet over the dash of the +waves. + +My heart seemed to stop beating; my hand lay on the butt of my pistol. +If Pinnow laid the cutter to, his treachery was proven. + +"Boat ahoy!" came over the water again. + +"Haul aft the foresail!" ordered Pinnow. + +I breathed again. Pinnow's order was equivalent to _sauve qui peut_. + +"Boat ahoy!" came their hail for the third time, and almost in the same +moment there was a flash on board the _Lightning_, and the report of a +musket, deadened by the distance and the plashing of the waves, reached +my ear. + +"Shake out that reef in the jib!" ordered Pinnow. + +I took my hand from the pistol. There was now no doubt that Pinnow was +doing his utmost to escape the pursuing vessel. My heart leaped with +joy; the man at my side, of whom I had once been so fond, though he had +never deserved my affection, was at all events no traitor. What would I +have done if I had known that this was all a carefully arranged plan, +in carrying out which the cold-blooded old villain was not in the least +disturbed by my clumsy interference; that this meeting with the +schooner was preconcerted in order to lead the latter upon the right +track? That the flight and pursuit were merely feigned, to conceal the +treachery from the other smugglers, and that the three or four blank +cartridges that were fired from the schooner had the same object? What +would I have done if I had known all this? Well for me that I did not +know it; at least no blood of a fellow-creature cleaves to my hand. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +The cutter now flew gallantly along under a press of canvass that laid +her lee-bulwarks nearly under water, while the _Lightning_ fell astern, +and in brief time was lost to our sight. + +A sort of life had come into the silent and almost motionless crew of +the cutter. They raised their heads and exchanged remarks upon the +incident, which to them was nothing so unusual. Every one of these men +had at some time or other been brought into dangerous contact with the +revenue service. The liberty, and possibly the life of every man there +had at some time or other hung by a single thread. So no one exhibited +any special excitement, but Smith Pinnow least of all. He sat at the +helm just as before, casting keen glances at the sails and into the +dusk, chewing his tobacco, and otherwise not moving a muscle. He did +not say a word to me, as if it was not worth the while of an old sea +dog to speak to so young a fellow about things which he did not +understand. I felt a dryness in my throat that compelled me to cough +once or twice, and I buttoned my overcoat closer over my pistols. + +And now another vessel loomed through the dusk, and this time it was +the long-looked-for yacht, a tolerably large craft, with but a single +sail, but a full deck. In a few minutes we were alongside of her, and +immediately the bales of goods, which were all in readiness, were +lowered from the deck of the yacht, and taken on board by the crew of +the cutter, who were now alert enough in their movements. The whole +went on with extraordinary silence; hardly now and then could be heard +a suppressed exclamation, or an order uttered half aloud in the gruff +voice of the captain of the yacht. + +I was one of the first to board the yacht, but I looked around in vain +for Herr von Zehren. I was already congratulating myself that he was +not on board, when he suddenly emerged from the hatchway that led to +the cabin. His first glance fell upon me, and he came towards me with +an unsteady gait, caused, as I supposed, by the motion of the vessel. + +"And what in the devil's name has brought you here?" he cried with a +hoarse voice; but I had no time to give him any explanation. The cutter +had now all her lading on board, and the captain of the yacht coming +up, said, "Now, be off with you!" He had just learned that a revenue +schooner was about, and had no desire to risk his vessel and the rest +of his cargo. "Be off!" he repeated, in a rough tone. + +"To-morrow evening, then, at the same time," said Herr von Zehren. + +"We'll see about it," said the captain, and sprang to the helm, for the +yacht, which had already weighed her anchor, and whose mainsail was now +half-mast high, began to come round to the wind. + +A scene of confusion followed. The yacht's man[oe]uvre had been +performed without any consideration for the cutter alongside, and came +very near sinking our little craft. There was a burst of oaths on both +sides, a tremendous grinding and cracking, a perilous leap from the +deck of the yacht to that of the cutter, and we pushed off, while the +yacht, which had already caught the wind, went on her course with full +sails. + +All this had taken place so rapidly, and, besides, the bustle and +confusion of such a number of men on so small a craft, as they set the +sails and stowed the cargo in the fore-hold, were so great, that some +time passed ere I could get to Herr von Zehren's side. + +He was still swearing at the villain of a captain, the coward who was +running from a miserable revenue-schooner that he could run down and +sink in five minutes. Catching sight of me he asked again, "What has +brought you here?" + +I was somewhat embarrassed how to answer this question. My suspicion of +Pinnow had entirely vanished, and Pinnow sat close beside us at the +helm and heard the question put in a loud tone. I contented myself with +saying: + +"I was afraid some misfortune might happen to you, and wanted to be +with you!" + +"Misfortune!" he cried. "Stupidity, cowardice, that is the only +misfortune! The devil take the stupid poltroons!" + +He sat down by Pinnow and talked with him in an undertone. Then turning +to me, he said: + +"You sent two of the men home; you should not have interfered with +them. I need their services; every back is now worth a thousand +_thalers_ to me. Or did you propose to carry a pack yourself?" + +He said this in an irritated tone that roused my indignation. If I had +acted injudiciously, I had done all for the best; and to be rebuked for +my faithful service in the presence of Pinnow, it was too much. I had a +sharp answer at my tongue's end, but I gulped down my anger and went +forward. + +He did not call me back; he did not come after me to say a friendly +word as he had always before done, whenever in his hastiness he had +wounded my feelings. Presently I heard him rating two of the men in a +shrill voice, for what, I could not understand; but this shrill tone +which I had never before heard from him, told me at once that what I +had feared was the truth; he was intoxicated. + +A horrible feeling of disgust and wretchedness came over me. For the +sake of this man, who was gesticulating there like a maniac, I had done +what I had; for his sake I was here among this abandoned crew as +accomplice of a crime which from boyhood had always seemed to me one of +the most detestable; for his sake I had well-nigh become a murderer. +And even now I had in my pocket my father's letter, in which the old +man had given me such a solemn warning, and commanded me, if I had any +regard for his peace, to return to him immediately. + +I felt for the letter, and my hand came in contact with the pistols in +my belt. I felt a strange impulse, here upon the spot, in the midst of +the smuggler-gang, and before the eyes of their drunken leader, to blow +out my brains. At this moment I thought of the good Hans who was +risking himself for a cause that was not a whit better. And yet he may +thank heaven, I said to myself, that he is not on this expedition. + +"Boat ahoy!" suddenly rang over the water as before, and the +_Lightning_ again loomed out of the dusk, and a couple of shots were +fired. + +This was the signal for a chase which lasted probably an hour, during +which the cutter, while seeming to make every effort, by countless +dexterous and daring evolutions, to escape her pursuer, drew ever +nearer and nearer to that part of the coast which had been agreed upon +between Pinnow and the officers, about half a mile above Zanowitz, +where the depth of the water would allow her to run almost immediately +upon the beach. From here one could proceed to Zehrendorf by a +wagon-road which ran along the strand to Zanowitz, and from there over +the heath; or one could go directly across the heath; but in the latter +case there was a large and very dangerous morass to be crossed, which +could only be done by secret paths known to the smugglers alone. It was +ten to one that Herr von Zehren would choose the way over the moor +instead of that along the coast, from the spot to which the cutter had +apparently been driven. + +While the chase lasted, I did not move from the spot in which I was, +fully determined to take no active part in the affair, happen what +might. Herr von Zehren made my passive part an easy one; often as he +came near me, he never once took any notice of me. During this hour of +excitement his intoxication seemed to have increased; his behavior was +that of a raging madman. He shrieked to Pinnow to run the schooner +down; he returned the fire of the officers with one of Pinnow's old +guns, which he had found in the cabin, although the _Lightning_ +prudently kept at a distance which would have been too great for even a +rifle of long range; and as the cutter, after a long tack out to sea, +on which she distanced the schooner, stood in again and reached the +shore unmolested, he leaped out into the shallow water, and his men had +all to follow him, after each had been loaded with one of the heavy +packs which were made up for this purpose. There were eleven carriers +in all, as Pinnow offered the services of the boatmen he had brought +from Zanowitz, saying that he could get along with the deaf and dumb +Jacob alone; and thus the place of one of the two men whom I had sent +home was filled. But there still remained a twelfth pack, which lay +upon the deck, and would have been left, as there was no one to carry +it, had I not managed to get it on my shoulders by laying it on the +gunwale of the boat, and then springing into the surf, which reached to +my knees. I was resolved that if I parted from Herr von Zehren that +night, he should not be able to say that I had caused him the loss of a +twelfth part of his property, won with so much toil and care, with the +risk of the liberty, and lives of so many men, and at the price of his +own honor. + +A boisterous laugh resounded behind me as I left the cutter. It came +from Pinnow; he knew what he was laughing about. The cutter, lightened +of her lading, was now afloat, and as I gained the beach and turned, +she was slowly standing out to sea. He had done his shameful work. + +At this moment it flashed upon me, "He is a traitor, after all!" I do +not know whether it was his laugh of malicious triumph that again +aroused my suspicion, or what suggested the thought, but I said to +myself, as I closed the file which was headed by Herr von Zehren and +Jock Swart, "Now it will soon be decided." + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +We had passed the dunes, and were marching in single file across the +sandy waste land on the other side. No word was spoken; each man had +enough to do in carrying his heavy pack; I perhaps the most of all, +although none of the men, unless it might be Jock Swart, equalled me in +strength; but in such things practice is everything. And then in +addition to my pack, which probably weighed a hundred-weight, I bore +another burden from which the others were free, and which pressed me +far more heavily--the burden of shame that my father's son was bending +under this bale of silk, of which the revenue was defrauded, because I +would not cause a loss of property to the man whose bread I had been +eating for two months. And then I thought with what happiness my heart +beat high when I left Zehrendorf in the morning, and that I was now +returning deceived by the daughter, insulted by the father, +contaminated by the defilement of the base traffic to which I had lent +myself, and that this was the end of my visionary splendors, of my +adored liberty! But the end had not yet come. + +Without a moment's rest we kept on, the wet sand crunching under our +feet, when of a sudden a word was given at the head of the file and +passed on in an under-tone from man to man until it came to me, who +being the last could pass it no further--"Halt!" + +We had reached the edge of the moor. It could be entered on this side +only by a narrow strip which was passable; then came a stretch of dry +land, a sort of island, surrounded by the morass on every side, which +closed in again at its opposite extremity, perhaps two thousand paces +distant, and there was again only a narrow path which a heavily laden +man could pass without sinking into the morass. After this came the +heath, which extended from the lands of Trantowitz and Zehrendorf on +one side to the dunes of Zanowitz on the other, and which I had already +crossed three times to-day. + +The place where we halted was the same where I had stood with Granow +three evenings before. I recognized it by two willows which grew +on the edge of the hollow from which I had first seen the band of +night-prowlers emerge. This hollow lay now a little to our left, at +perhaps fifty paces distance; and I could not have distinguished the +willows in the increased darkness, but for the extraordinary keenness +of my sight. On account of this darkness the men had to close up in +order not to deviate from the narrow path, and this was the reason that +a momentary halt had been ordered. + +But it was only for a moment, and again we struck into the moor upon +the narrow causeway: to the right and left among the rushes gleamed a +pale phosphorescent light from the stagnant water which lay around in +great pools, and the ground on which we were treading oscillated in a +singular manner, as we crossed it in a sort of trot. + +The path had been safely passed, and the men were marching more slowly, +when my ear caught a clicking sound like the cocking of a gun. The +sound was behind me; that I had plainly heard; and I knew besides that +none of our party was armed. I stopped to listen, and again I heard the +same sound; and presently I distinguished upon the spot where we had +just passed, a figure emerge between the tall rushes, followed +immediately by a second and a third. Without thinking to throw the +heavy pack from my shoulders, and indeed without being conscious of it, +I ran to the head of the file and touched Herr von Zehren, who with +Jock Swart was leading the march, upon the shoulder. + +"We are pursued!" + +"Nonsense!" said Herr von Zehren. + +"Halt!" cried a powerful voice behind us. + +"Forward!" commanded our leader. + +"Halt! halt!" it was repeated, and half-a-dozen shots were fired in +quick succession, the bullets whistling over our heads. + +In an instant our whole party was scattered, as is the custom of +contrabandists when they are hotly pressed, and, as in the present +instance, they are not prepared, or not disposed to offer resistance. +On all sides, except in the direction of our pursuers, I saw the men, +who had at once cast off their packs, stealthily slipping away, some +even creeping off on all-fours. In the next moment Herr von Zehren and +I were alone. + +Behind us we heard the ring of iron ramrods in the barrels. They were +re-loading the muskets that had been fired. This gave a brief pause. + +Herr von Zehren and I were standing together. "How many are there?" he +asked in a whisper. + +"I cannot make out," I answered, in a similar tone; "I think more are +coming up. There can hardly be less than a dozen." + +"They will not advance any further in the darkness," he said. + +"They are coming now," I urged. + +"Halt! Who goes there!" came again from the pursuing party, who were +not more than a hundred paces off, as well as could be judged in the +darkness, and again a bullet or two whistled above our heads. + +"I entreat you!" I said, taking his arm to urge him forward. + +He let me fairly drag him a few steps. Then suddenly he seemed to awake +as from a dream, and with his old voice and old manner said to me: + +"How the devil did you come by this? Off with it!" and he flung down +violently the pack from my shoulders. + +"I have carried it the whole way," I murmured. + +"Shameful!" he muttered; "shameful! But it all comes from---- My poor +boy! my poor boy!" + +The effect of the spirits he had drunk, to deaden as far as possible +his feelings of shame, had entirely passed away. He was again all that +he could be at his best moments, and at once my old love for him +returned. My heart began to throb with emotion. I was again ready to +give my life for him. + +"Let us make haste," I said, seizing his cold hand. "It is high time, +by heaven!" + +"They will not venture any further up here," he replied, "even if they +have a guide. One man cannot guide them all. But there is treachery at +work. Did you not say something of the sort to me?" + +"Yes; and the traitors are Pinnow and Jock Swart." + +"Jock was the very one that advised this route." + +"Exactly." + +"And the villain was the first one to make off." + +"He was in haste to join his new friends." + +We thus spoke in short detached sentences, while we hurried almost at a +run over the open space, where the darkness, which was now intense, +offered the only security--but an ample one, it is true--against +pursuit. A light rain began to fall; we literally could hardly see our +hands before our faces. Nothing was to be seen or heard of our +pursuers. + +"The blundering dolts came too late," said Herr von Zehren; "they +clearly planned to catch us on the narrow path. If our rascals had not +run off, we might now go on comfortably." + +"We cannot go back to Zehrendorf," I said. + +"Why not?" + +"If Jock Swart has betrayed us, as I would take my oath he has, they +will certainly search Zehrendorf." + +"Let them try it once," cried the Wild Zehren; "I will send them home +with broken heads. No, no; they will not venture that, or they would +have tried it long ago. At Zehrendorf we are as safe as in Abraham's +bosom." + +Just as he said these words there was a sudden gleam of light in the +distance ahead of us, like a faint flash of lightning. Before I could +frame any conjecture as to its cause, it flashed out once more, this +time more vividly, and not vanishing again. The light increased every +moment, rising higher and higher against the black sky with a steadily +widening glare. + +"Trantowitz is on fire!" cried Herr von Zehren. + +It was not Trantowitz; it could not be Trantowitz, that lay further to +the left and much lower. At Trantowitz there were not the lofty trees +whose summits I could now distinguish in the glow which burned now red +and now yellow, but ever brighter and brighter. + +"By heaven it is my own house!" said Herr von Zehren, He rushed forward +for a few paces, and then stopping, burst into a loud laugh. It was a +hideous mirth. + +"This is a good joke," he said; "they are burning the old nest down. +That is smoking the old fox out of his den with a vengeance." + +He seemed to think that this also was the work of his pursuers. But I +recalled the threats which old Pahlen had uttered when I drove her off +the place. I remembered that among the rest she had said something +about "the red cock crowing from the roof." + +But however the fire had originated in which the old castle was now +rapidly consuming, it could not have occurred at a more critical moment +for the castle's master. Although we were fully a mile distant, the +flames, which now towered above the gigantic trees of the park, cast +their light to our very feet; and as the awful glare was caught up and +reflected by the black clouds, now changing to a lurid crimson, a +strange and fearful light spread over the whole region. I could clearly +see Herr von Zehren's features: they were, or appeared to me of the +paleness of death. + +"For God's sake let us hasten to get away from here," I said to him. + +"The hunt is about to begin," he said. + +The hunt had begun already. The pursuing party, who had beset the +narrow pass, and had probably no other orders than to cut us off there, +were now, by the strangest accident, enabled to continue the pursuit, +and they made the best use of the opportunity. Spreading out like +skirmishers, without venturing too dangerously near to the morass on +either side, they pressed rapidly on, rousing from their hiding-places +the fugitives, some of whom were stealing across the open space to the +narrow outlet, and others crouching to the earth or lurking in hollows, +in hope that the pursuit would be given over. Here and there a flash +pierced the dusky glow, and the report of a musket rang out; and +everywhere I saw the figures of pursuers and pursued flitting through +the uncertain light, and heard wild cries of "Halt!" "Stand!" and a +loud halloo and laughter when one was caught. + +The blood seemed frozen in my veins. To be hunted down, and shot down +in this fashion, like hares at a battue! + +"And no arms," muttered Herr von Zehren, through his clenched teeth. + +"Here!" cried I, tearing the pistols from my belt and placing one in +his hand. + +"Loaded?" + +"Yes!" + +"Now then, _en avant!_" + +At a rapid run we had nearly reached the outlet-pass, distinguishable +to those who knew the localities by a dead oak and a clump of hazels, +when I caught the gleam of musket-barrels above the bushes. It was as I +had dreaded: the outlet was beset. + +"I know another way," whispered Herr von Zehren. "Perhaps it will bear +us, and if not----" + +I did not let him finish--"On! on!" I cried. + +We turned sharply to the right and entered the tall rushes that +bordered the morass. But they had already caught sight of us; there was +a cry of "Halt!" and shots were fired at us; and some came rapidly +running towards us. + +"It must be here," said Herr von Zehren, parting the high rushes and +plunging into them. I followed closely behind him. + +Slowly and cautiously, crouching almost to the earth, we crept forward. +It was a desperate attempt. More than once I sank to the knees in the +black morass. I had made up my mind, in case I stuck fast in it, to +blow out my brains. + +"We shall do it yet," said Herr von Zehren in a whisper to me over his +shoulder. "We have passed the worst now. I know it well. I was here +after snipe last spring, and the villain Jock was with me. So: now we +are through." + +He pushed through the rushes, and at the same moment three men, who had +separated from the rest, and must have been lying for some minutes in +ambush a few paces from the outlet, sprang upon us. The foremost man +was long Jock Swart. + +"Dog!" hissed Herr von Zehren through his clenched teeth. He raised his +pistol, and long Jock fell to the ground a dead man. + +At the same moment, I also fired, and one of the others reeled and fell +with a loud cry. The third shot off his piece, and ran at full speed +back to the morass. The wounded man then rose to his feet and limped +off with considerable celerity, but with loud cries of pain. + +Herr von Zehren, in the meantime, had stepped up to the fallen man. I +sprang to his side, and seized the man, who was lying on his face, by +the shoulders to raise him up. As I lifted him his head fell heavily +forward. A cold shudder ran through me. "My God!" I exclaimed, "he is +dead!" + +"He would have it so," said Herr von Zehren. + +The body of the dead man slipped from my hand. I arose, trembling in +every limb; my brain began to swim. Here stood a man with a discharged +pistol in his hand; there lay another like a log upon the ground, and a +red glow, as if from the open gate of hell, fell upon them both; the +smoke of powder filled the air, and the rushes of the morass gave a +hissing sound as of a thousand serpents. + +However deeply the fearful sight and the feeling of horror with which I +gazed upon it, imprinted themselves upon my memory, I remained +stupefied and aghast for but a single moment. Then all other feelings +were lost in the one thought: He must be saved; he must never fall into +their hands! I believe I could have caught up the unhappy man in my +arms and borne him off, had he resisted; but he offered no resistance. +I now know that he was not flying to save his life; I now know that he +would not have stirred one step from the spot, had he known that I had +the leather pouch with ammunition for the pistols in my pocket; but he +supposed that he was weaponless, and he was resolved not to be taken +alive. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +At the edge of the morass, where we now were, there was a hollow, in +which, among the deeper marshy spots overgrown with long reed-grass, +there were higher patches, like islands, covered with thick clumps of +alders, hazels, and willows. For any other, who did not know every foot +of this wild region, it would have been impossible to find any way +here; but the old huntsman, who was now the fox upon whose track the +hounds were following hard, was not for a moment at fault either in the +direction to be taken, or the pathless way that was to lead us through +this wilderness. I have never been able to comprehend how a man of his +age, hard pressed as he had already been, and wounded besides, as I +presently learned, was able to overcome such difficulties as nearly +vanquished my youthful strength. Whenever, since, I have seen an old +thoroughbred, broken down under the saddle or in harness, who still, +when his generous blood is roused, by his fire, his strength, and +endurance, puts his younger rivals to shame, my mind reverts to the +Wild Zehren in this night of terror. He burst through almost +impenetrable thickets as though they were standing grain, he bounded +over wide chasms like a stag, and did not check his rapid course until +we came out of the hollow upon the dunes. + +Here we took breath, and held a brief consultation which way we should +next pursue. To our right lay Zanowitz, and could we reach it safely, +certainly some friend or other would help us across the sea, or at the +worst I was sailor enough to handle a sail-boat alone; but it was only +too probable that the village and its vicinity were already beset with +soldiers sent to capture any of the fugitives who might seek refuge +there. To attempt to cross the heath between Zehrendorf and Trantowitz +and reach the house of some one of Herr von Zehren's friends, would +have been mere madness now that the whole sky was reddened with the +still increasing conflagration, and the heath illuminated with a light +that almost equalled that of day. But one chance was left us; to keep +to the left along the strand as far as the promontory, there ascend the +chalk-cliff in the vicinity of the ruined tower, and so reach the +beech-wood of the park, which was but the continuation of the forest +which bordered the coast for about eight miles. + +"If I can only get so far," said he; "my arm begins to grow very +painful." + +Now for the first time I learned that he was wounded in the arm. He had +not known it himself at first, and then supposed he had only struck it +against some sharp projecting bough, until the increasing pain showed +what was really the matter. I asked him to let me examine the wound; +but he said we had no time for anything of that sort, and I had to +content myself with binding up the arm as firmly as I could with his +handkerchief, which indeed did but little good. + +Here among the dunes I remembered for the first time that I had +ammunition in my pocket, and by his direction I reloaded the pistols. A +shudder came over me when he handed me his, and I touched the cold wet +steel. But it was not blood, though in the red light it looked like it: +it was but the moisture from the damp atmosphere still heavy with rain. + +We emerged from the dunes upon the strand, in order to proceed more +rapidly over the hard sand. The light was now, when apparently all the +buildings were involved in the conflagration, so strong that a dull +crimson glow, reflected from the reddened clouds, was thrown far out to +sea. Even the lofty and steep chalk-cliffs under which we were +presently passing, looked down upon us strangely in the strange light. +There seemed something unearthly and awful in it; despite the +considerable distance at which we were, notwithstanding that hills and +woods lay between, notwithstanding that we were passing under the +shelter of cliffs more than a hundred feet high, the light still +reached us and smote us, as if what had been done, had been told by the +earth to the heavens, and by the heavens to the sea; and earth, sky, +and sea called out to us--For you there is no escape? + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +Some feeling of this kind must have been in the breast of the unhappy +man at my side, for he said once or twice, as we clambered up the +ravine, up which a steep path led between thick bushes from the strand +to the top of the cliffs, "Thank God, it is dark here at least!" + +During the ascent he had several times complained of his arm, the pain +of which had now grown intolerable, and at last he was scarcely able to +move forward, although I supported him as well as I could. I hoped that +when we reached the top, and he had rested a little, the strength of +which he had already given such extraordinary proof, would return; but +no sooner had we gained the plateau than he sank fainting into my arms. +True, he instantly recovered and declared that it was but a momentary +weakness, and that the attack was over; but still he could hardly +stand, and I was glad when I succeeded at last in getting him to the +ruin, where an excavation, half filled with rubbish, between the walls, +offered at least some protection from the east wind, which blew sharp +and bitter cold over the ridge. + +Here I begged him to sit down, while I descended the ravine, where +about half-way from the top there was a tolerably abundant spring, at +which we had made a short pause in our ascent, to get him some water, +as he complained of a burning thirst. Fortunately, on account of the +rain, I had put on in the morning the oil-skin hat which I had on at my +arrival at Zehrendorf, but had not since worn, as Constance expressed +such a dislike to it. This hat now served me for a bucket, and I was +glad when I succeeded with some difficulty in filling it to the brim. I +hurried back as fast as I was able without spilling the precious fluid, +full of anxiety for the man to whom my heart drew me all the more +powerfully, as calamity smote him with such terrible blows. What would +become of him if he were not able soon to continue the flight? After +what had happened at the edge of the morass, no exertion would be +spared to take us; and that an amply sufficient force could be +employed, was but too certain. The second pass had been beset by +soldiers; that I had plainly seen. How long a time would elapse ere +they came up here? If we were to escape, we must be at least six or +eight miles from here before morning, and I thought with a shudder how +he had twice fainted in my arms, and the wild words in which he had +asked for water "that was not burning: it must not be burning." Perhaps +he might revive after quenching his thirst. I had so firm a faith in +the inexhaustibility of his strength. + +Thus I tried to encourage myself as I hastened carefully to the ruin +with the water in my hat, and from dread of stumbling scarcely cast a +glance in the direction of the beech-wood, over which the flames were +still glowing. While still at some distance, I thought I heard Herr von +Zehren's voice calling my name, then resounded a shrill laugh, and as I +rushed up in terror, I saw the unhappy man standing at the entrance to +the excavation, his face turned to the fire, gesticulating wildly with +his uninjured arm, and now pouring out execrations, now bursting into +frenzied laughter, or calling for water "that was not burning." I drew +him in deeper between the walls, and made him a kind of bed of the +heath that grew thickly around, over which I spread my coat. Upon +recovering from a brief swoon into which he again fell, he drank deeply +of the water, and then thanked me in a voice the gentle tone of which +singularly contrasted with his previous shrill vociferations, and +deeply moved me. + +"I fancied," he said, "that you too had abandoned me, and I must perish +miserably here like a wounded stag. Is it not strange that the last +Zehren who is worthy of the name, here, from the ancient fortress of +his ancestors, now a pile of ruins, must watch the house that later +generations built, consumed by the flames? How did it take fire? What +do you suppose? I have many other questions to ask you, but I feel so +strangely--such strange fancies pass through my head. I never felt thus +before; and my arm too is very painful. I think it is all over with the +Wild Zehren--all over, all over! Let me lie here, George, and die +quietly. How long will it be before the fire eats its way through the +subterranean passage, and the old Zehrenburg flies into the air?" + +Thus reason and madness contended in his fevered brain. Now he spoke +connectedly and intelligently of what was next to be done, as soon as +he had recovered his strength a little, and then he suddenly saw Jock +Swart lying before him on the ground, and again it was not Jock but +Alfonso, the brother of his wife, whose heart his sword had pierced. +And yet--and I have often reflected upon this, while pondering over the +singular character of this man--these terrible memories recurring in +his delirium were accompanied with no words that indicated the +slightest remorse. On the contrary, they had been rightly dealt with, +and so should it be with all that ventured to resist his will. If they +had burned his house, all castles and villages for leagues around +should be ravaged by the flames. He would see if he could not punish +his vassals as he thought fit, if they dared to rise in revolt. He +would chastise them until they howled for mercy. Such utterances of his +haughty spirit, exalted to madness by the fever that was raging in his +veins, contrasted frightfully with the utter wretchedness of our +position. While in fancy he was charging through burning towns that his +wrath had given to the flames, his frame was shivering with ague, and +his teeth chattered audibly. The cold, which grew ever keener towards +daybreak, seemed to pierce to my marrow; and as often as the unhappy +man, whose head rested upon my lap, ceased for a while his ravings, my +head sank forwards or sideways to the cold wall against which I was +leaning; and with ever more painful exertions I strove against the +weariness which oppressed me with leaden weight. What would become of +us if my strength gave way? Indeed what would become of us as it was? +We could not remain thus. I was afraid that he would die in my arms if +I could get no assistance. And yet how could I go for help without the +risk of abandoning him to his pursuers? And how could I leave him now, +when he was wanting to dash his head to pieces against the stones, and +was craving to drink up the sea to assuage his consuming thirst? + +During the night I had several times gone to the spring for water, and +when I brought it he was always very grateful. Indeed, towards daybreak +he grew much quieter, so that I indulged the hope that after all we +should soon be able to get away. At last, overcome by exhaustion, I +fell asleep, and must have slept some time, for the dawn was already +glimmering when I was awakened by the touch of a hand on my shoulder. +Herr von Zehren stood before me; I looked at him with horror. Now I saw +what he had suffered in that fearful night. His healthy bronzed face +was of a clayey pallor, his large brilliant eyes were dull and deeply +sunk in their sockets, his beard dishevelled, his lips white, and his +clothes torn and covered with dirt and blood. It was no longer the man +that I had known, but more like a spectre. + +A faint smile played about his pale lips, and there was a touch of the +old vivacity in the tone of his voice, as he said: "I am sorry to have +to awaken you, my poor boy, but it is high time." + +I sprang to my feet and put on my coat, which he had carefully laid +over my shoulders. + +"That is, it is high time for you," he added. + +"How so?" I asked, in alarm. + +"I should not get far," he replied, with a sad smile; "I just now made +a little trial; but it is impossible." + +And he seated himself on a projecting piece of the wall, and leaned his +head upon his hand. + +"Then I also stay," I said. + +"They will soon follow us up here." + +"So much the more reason for my remaining." + +He raised his head. + +"You are a generous fool," he said, with a melancholy smile; "one of +those that remain anvils all their life long. What advantage in the +world could it be to me, that they caught you with me here? And why +should you give up, and let yourself be caught? Are you brought down to +nothing, and less than nothing? Are you an old wounded fox, burnt out +of his den and with the hounds on his track? Go, and do not make me +entreat you any more, for it hurts me to talk. Good-by!" + +He reached me an ice-cold, trembling hand, which I pressed with tears +in my eyes, and said: + +"How can you ask it of me? I were the vilest wretch alive to leave you +thus. Happen what may, I remain." + +"It is my will that you leave me--I command you." + +"You cannot--you must yourself feel that you cannot. You cannot command +me to cover myself with disgrace." + +"Well then," said he, "I will make a confession to you. It is true that +it so happens that I cannot get away; but were I in condition to +escape, I would not and will not do it. I will not have a hue and cry +raised after me, and placards posted as if I were a vagabond or common +criminal to be hunted through the land. I will await their coming +here--here where my ancestors beat back so many an attack of the +shopkeepers. I will defend myself to the last; they shall not take me +from this place alive. I do not know what I might do, if I were +altogether alone in the world. Probably this would then not have +happened. I have paid dearly for the folly of trying to help my brother +in his distress. And then I have a daughter; I do not love her, nor she +me; but for this very reason she shall not be able to say that her +father was a coward, who did not know when it was time to die." + +"Do not think of your daughter!" I cried, losing all my self-control. +"She has rent the single tie by which you were still bound to her." And +briefly and in hurried words I told him of Constance's flight. + +My intention was to tear away at all costs every pretext that he might +allege for not doing what he considered unworthy a Zehren. It was most +inconsiderate in me to make such a disclosure to him at such a moment; +but my knowledge of human nature was then very slight, and my faculties +were confused by the anguish of the last thirty-six hours, and my fear +and distress for the unhappy man at my side. + +And it seemed that my design had succeeded. He arose, as soon as I had +finished my hurried recital, and calmly said: + +"Is it then so with me? Am I a vagabond, and my daughter dishonored? My +daughter a harlot, who throws herself into the arms of the very man +whose hand she cannot touch without dishonoring me? Then may I well do +what others would do in my place. But before we set out, get me another +draught of water, George. It will refresh me; and I must not fail soon +again. Make haste!" + +I caught up the hat, joyful that I had at last persuaded him. When I +had gone a few paces he called me back again. + +"Do not mind my giving you so much trouble, George. Take my thanks for +all." + +"How can you speak so?" I said. "Step back out of the cold wind; I +shall be back in five minutes." + +I started off at a run. There was no time to be lost; streak after +streak of pale light was appearing in the east; in half an hour the sun +would rise. I had hoped that by this time we would have been leagues +away in the depth of the forest. + +The spring in the ravine was soon reached, but it gave me some trouble +to fill the hat. In the night I had trampled the earth around it, and +stones had rolled in, which nearly blocked it up. While I was stooping +over it and clearing away the obstructions, a dull report of fire-arms +reached my ear. I started and felt involuntarily for the pistol which +was still in my belt. The other I had left with him. Was it possible? +Could it be? He had sent me away! + +I could not wait for the water; I was irresistibly impelled to hasten +back. Like a hunted stag I sprang up the side of the ravine, and +bounded over the plateau to the ruin. + +All was over. + +Upon the very spot where I had parted from him, where I had last +pressed his hand, he had shot himself. The smoke of the powder was +still floating in the excavation. The pistol lay beside him; his head +had fallen sideways against the wall. He breathed no more--he was quite +dead. The Wild Zehren knew where a bullet must strike if the wound was +to be mortal. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +I was still sitting, stupefied and incapable of reflection, by the dead +man, when the first rays of the sun, which rose with tremulous lustre +over the sea, fell upon his pallid face. A shudder ran through me. I +arose and stood trembling in every limb. Then I ran, as fast as my +tottering feet would bear me, along the path that descended from the +ruin to the beech-wood. I could not now say what my real intention was. +Did I simply wish to flee from this place of terror, from the presence +of the corpse whose glazed eyes were fixed upon the rising sun? Did I +wish to get assistance? Did I design to carry out alone the plan of +escape I had formed for both, and thus save myself? I do not now know. + +I reached the park and the tarn, the water of which looked blackly +through the yellow leaves that yesterday's storm had swept from the +trees. In this water had drowned herself the wife of the man who had +borne her from her far-off home over her brother's corpse, and who was +now lying dead in the ruins of the castle of his forefathers. Their +daughter had thrown herself into the arms of a profligate, after +deceiving her father, and playing a shameful game with me. This all +came at once into my mind like a hideous picture seen in the black +mirror of the tarn. As if some pitiless god had rent away the veil from +the pandemonium which to my blinded eyes had seemed a paradise, I saw +at a glance the two last months of my life, and what they really were. +I felt a nameless horror, less, I think, of myself, than of a world +where such things had been, where such things could be. If it be true +that nearly every man at some time in his life is led or driven by +malignant demons to the verge of madness, this moment had come for me. +I felt an almost irresistible impulse to throw myself into the black +water which legend represented to be of unfathomable depth. I do not +know what I might have done, had I not at this moment heard the voices +of men who were coming down the path that led from the park. The +instinct of self-preservation, which is not easily extinguished in a +youth of nineteen, suddenly awaked within me. I would not fall into the +hands of those whom I had been since the previous evening making such +prodigious exertions to escape. In a bound I sprang up the bank that +surrounded the tarn, leapt down on the other side, and then lay still, +buried in the thick bushes and fallen leaves, to let them pass before +recommencing my flight. In a minute more they were at the spot I had +left. They stopped here, where the path branched off towards the ruin, +and deliberated. "This must be the way," said one. "Of course; there is +no other, you fool," said another. "Forward!" cried a third voice, +apparently belonging to the leader of the party, "or the lieutenant +will get there from the beach sooner than we. Forward!" + +The patrol ascended the path towards the ruin, and I cautiously raised +my head and saw them disappearing among the trees. When I thought them +at a sufficient distance, I arose, and struck deeper into the wood. The +impulse to self-destruction had passed; I had but one desire, to save +myself; and the almost miraculous manner in which I had just avoided a +peril from which there seemed no escape, filled me with new hope, as a +losing player feels at the first lucky cast. + +When we boys played "robbers and soldiers" in the fir-wood around my +native town, I had always managed to be of the robber party, and they +invariably chose me their captain. The duties of this office I had +always so discharged that at last none were willing to take the part of +soldiers. The boast that I had so often made in our merry sports, that +no one could catch me unless I allowed myself to be caught, was now to +be tested in deadly earnest. Unfortunately just now, when life and +liberty were at stake, the most important thing of all was wanting, the +fresh and inexhaustible strength that carried me through my boyish +exploits, and which now by reason of the terrible mental emotions of +the last twenty-four hours, and the excessive physical exertion I had +undergone, was well-nigh broken down. To my other sufferings, I was +tormented with gnawing hunger and burning thirst. Keeping always in the +thickest of the forest, I came upon no spring nor pool of water. The +loose soil had long since absorbed the rain of the previous day, and +the slight moisture that I was able to suck from the dead leaves only +increased my sufferings. + +My intention had been to traverse the forest, which bordered the coast +for about eight miles, in its whole length, in order to place as much +distance as possible between me and my pursuers, before I made the +attempt to leave the island at any point to which chance might conduct +me. I had trusted that I should be able to accomplish this distance at +the latest by noon; but I was compelled to admit to myself that in the +condition in which I was, and which grew worse every minute, this was +no longer to be thought of. I had also formed no just conception of the +obstacles that impeded me. I had often before been in this forest, but +only for short distances, and I had never been compelled to keep to a +certain direction, and at the same time anxiously guard against every +possibility of being seen. But now, unless I made long detours, I had +to break through dense thickets scarcely penetrable even by the deer, +or again take a circuit which took me far out of the way, to avoid some +open space where there was no sufficient concealment. Then I had to +bury myself in leaves and bushes while I listened to discover whether +some sound that I heard really proceeded from human voices, and +to wait thus until all was again silent. More than once I came upon +forest-paths, where double caution was necessary; and with all I felt +my strength constantly diminishing, and looked forward with terror to +the moment when it should fail me altogether, and I should sink, +probably to rise no more. And to lie here dead, with wide-open, glazed +eyes, like what I had seen--by this time they had probably found him +and carried him down, and then in some fashion or other they must bury +him--but how long would I lie here in the depth of the forest before I +was found, unless it were by the foxes? + +But why did I fly, after all? What had I then done to deserve such +extremity of punishment? What could they do to me worse than the +torments I was now suffering? And what was this? Here was a path that +in half an hour would bring me out of the forest. Possibly I might then +at once come upon the soldiers. So much the better; then there would be +an end of it. + +And I really went some distance along the path, but suddenly I stopped +again. My father! what would he say when he saw me led by soldiers +through the town, and the street-boys shouting after me? No, no; I +could never bring that upon him; better that the foxes should devour me +than that! + +I turned again into the forest, but ever more agonizing grew the strain +upon my fast-failing powers. My knees tottered; the cold sweat ran from +my face; more than once I had to stop and lean against a tree, because +all became dark before my eyes, and I feared that I should faint. Thus +I dragged myself for perhaps half an hour more--it was by my +calculation about two in the afternoon--when my long agony found +an end. In the edge of a small clearing which I had just reached, +stood a little hut, lightly constructed of branches and mats of straw, +looking almost like a dog-kennel, and which probably had been built by +wood-cutters or poachers. I crawled in, buried myself in the straw and +leaves with which the floor of the hut was deeply heaped, and which +happily were tolerably dry, and fell at once into a sleep which was +almost as heavy as death. + +When I awaked it was quite dark, and it was some time ere I could +recollect where I was and what had happened; but at last I recovered +full consciousness of my desperate situation. I crept out of the hut +with great difficulty, for my limbs felt as if they were broken, and +the first steps I took gave me excruciating pain. This, however, +presently passed off. My sleep had somewhat refreshed me; but my +hunger, the cravings of which had aroused me, was now so torturing that +I resolved to appease it at every hazard, especially as I felt that +unless this was done, I must of necessity soon give way again. But how +was this to be done? At last I hit upon a plan to which nothing but my +desperation could have prompted me. I determined to keep to the left +through the woods, until I reached the open country, which I calculated +must happen in about an hour. I would then strike for the nearest +farm-house, and there either by fair means or foul get something to +appease my hunger, and perhaps also a supply for the next day. + +Accident seemed to favor the execution of this plan. In a few minutes I +came upon a sort of road, which I followed, although it did not run in +the direction that I desired. But how great was my astonishment and my +alarm, as, in far less time than I had hoped, I emerged from the woods, +and by the starlight distinguished a region of country which I could +not by any possibility mistake. There on the right were the cottages +belonging to Herr von Granow's estate, Melchow; further on, embosomed +in stately trees, was the proprietor's house, and from a slight +eminence rose the white steeple of the new village church. Further to +the left, lower down in the valley, lay Trantowitz, and still further, +but on higher ground, had Zehrendorf stood. Indeed, as if to leave me +not an instant of doubt that I had got back to the old well-known +district of country, there suddenly sprang from the immense pile of +ruins where the castle had stood, a flame so high and so vivid that the +steeple of Melchow church glowed with rosy light. But there must either +have been little fuel left for the fire, or else in the day there had +been ample provision made for its extinction, for the flames sank again +immediately, the bright light vanished, and there only remained a +feeble glow, as from the embers of a burnt brush-heap in a field. + +So at the sacrifice of all my strength, I had wandered about the whole +day in a circle, and now at night-fall found myself not far from the +spot from which I had started in the morning. This was not very +consolatory, but it was ridiculous; and I laughed--not very loud nor +cheerfully, it is true, but still genuine laughter. And at the same +moment the fancy seized me that perhaps my good genius had led me here +against my wishes. Where would I be less likely to be looked for than +exactly here? Where had I better friends than here at Trantowitz, for +example, where everybody at the house and in the village knew me; where +I could knock at any door and be sure to find help and relief. Besides, +the circumstance that during the entire day I had met no human +creature, to a certain extent assured me that the pursuit towards the +last had not been so hot, and finally I was at the point of starvation, +and had no choice left me, so I pushed on, almost carelessly, over the +fields to Trantowitz, for the first time since we had separated, +thinking seriously of the good Hans, and wondering what had become of +him. Had he overtaken the fugitives? Had there been a scene, as in that +night when the Wild Zehren was pursued and overtaken by the brother of +his mistress, and their blades crossed in the uncertain light of the +Spanish stars? Had blood flowed for the daughter, as well as for the +mother? Had Hans fallen a victim in his bad cause, or had he been +victorious? If so, what then? Were the officers of justice after him as +they were after me? Had they caught him, perhaps red-handed? Was he now +sitting behind bolts and bars? + +I grew very sad at heart as this idea struck me. Hans behind bolts and +bars was a melancholy picture--one could as well fancy a polar bear +fireman on a steamer. + +Without observing where I was going, I had approached the house nearer +than was necessary to reach the village. From the field a path led +across a dry ditch into a wilderness of about two acres extent, of +potatoe, cabbage, and salad-beds, blackberry thickets, and stunted +fruit-trees, which Hans, by a singular delusion, called his garden, and +prized highly because he here in winter shot the most hares from his +chamber-window. Towards this chamber, famous in all the country round, +my eyes involuntarily turned, and to my great astonishment I perceived +a faint glimmer of light in it. The window was open, and the light, as +I discovered upon a nearer approach, came from the sitting-room, the +door between the two not being closed. I listened, and heard the +clatter of a knife and fork. Could Hans be at home again already? I +could not resist the temptation, clambered through the window into the +chamber, looked through the door, and there sat Hans, just as I had +seen him the previous morning, behind a couple of bottles and an +immense ham, from which he raised his blue eyes at my entrance and +stared at me with a look of astonishment rather than alarm. + +"Good evening, Herr von Trantow," I said. + +I was about to say more, and explain how I had come, but involuntarily +I clutched a just-opened bottle with shaking hand, and drained it +before I set it down. Hans gave a nod of approval at my prompt recourse +to his universal specific. Then he arose without a word, went out and +closed the shutters of both windows, came in and bolted the door, took +a seat opposite to me, lighted a cigar, and waited in silence until my +ravenous hunger was appeased sufficiently to allow me to converse. + +"Suppose in the meantime you tell me what happened to you," I said, +without raising my eyes from my plate. + +Hans had but little to tell, and told that little in the fewest +possible words. He had galloped a couple of miles or so along the road +to Fährdorf--the only one which the fugitives could possibly have +taken--when he observed that his horse, who had so far exhibited no +signs of fatigue, began to fail. After riding another mile at a more +moderate pace, he was convinced of the impossibility of continuing the +pursuit. "The road was very bad," Hans said; "I am a heavy rider, and +the poor brute had probably had neither feed nor water for twenty-four +hours." So he dismounted and led the horse at a walk the nearest way to +Trantowitz, where he arrived safely at nightfall. "By the time I had +saddled my Wodan and ridden to Fährdorf," he said, "they were far away. +And then--it is always the way with me that I can never manage to do +what other men would do in my place; and----" Here he drained his +glass, refilled it, leaned back in his chair, and enveloped himself in +a cloud of smoke. + +The good Hans! he had meant all for the best--even his plan of smashing +the skull of our happy rival. How could he help it if on this occasion, +as so often before--always in his life indeed--he rode a slow horse? He +could not founder the animal in a cause which really did not concern it +in the least. + +About eight o'clock, while he was sitting in his room, he saw the light +of the fire, and saddled Wodan and hurried to it, followed by all his +wagons. Men came over with wagons and fire-engines from the other +estates; but it was not possible to save anything; old Pahlen, who no +doubt had no difficulty in eluding the vigilance of the stupid +stable-boy, had done the work too well--the flames burst from all parts +of the building at once. "I rode home," he went on, "and went to bed, +and waked up this morning. I don't know why, I had much rather never +have awaked again." + +Poor Hans! + +This morning, for the first time, he had learned from his men what had +happened; how the night before, the officers of the customs, with the +assistance of half a company of soldiers, had hunted down the +smugglers; and that they had caught four or five, who would all be +hung. And a soldier had sunk in the morass, one of the custom-house men +had been wounded, and Jock Swart shot dead. Herr von Zehren had been +found dead this morning at the ruin. That it was a lucky thing for him +not to have lived to learn that his daughter had run away, and that the +old Pahlen, whom the stable-boy Fritz and Christian Halterman had +caught in the act, had set fire to his castle and burned it to the +ground. And they would have hanged him, just as they meant to hang +George Hartwig, the son of customs-accountant Hartwig at Uselin, who +had been the captain of the smugglers, as soon as they caught him. + +Hans filled my glass again, and invited me by an expressive look to +empty it at once, as if so I could best afford him the consolatory +assurance that they had not hanged me so far. + +Now it was my turn to relate. Hans listened, silently smoking; but when +I described the death of the Wild Zehren, and how I had last seen +him--dead, with his pale face turned to the rising sun, the first beams +of which fell in his glazed eyes--he sighed deeply, rocked his great +head from side to side, and drank deep draughts of wine. + +"And now, what do you advise me to do?" I said, at last. + +"What is your own idea?" asked Hans. + +That my position was a most serious one, even Hans perceived. I had +forced Pinnow, pistol in hand, to take me with him; I had taken the +most direct and most active part in the expedition; I had fired upon +the officers; I had accompanied Herr von Zehren in his desperate +flight. In the eyes of the law these were far from being meritorious +performances; and the less I came into contact with the law henceforth, +the better it would be for me. + +"And yet," I said, "would that this were my greatest trouble; but my +father would never outlive the shame of having a son in the +penitentiary; and therefore I am resolved to fly, though it were to the +uttermost parts of the earth." + +Hans nodded approbation. + +"What if I went to America?" + +So brilliant an idea as this, which at a blow removed all the +perplexities of the situation, secured the instantaneous adhesion of +Hans. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +But the most dazzling ideas are frequently found to have their dark +side when it comes to putting them in execution. The financial question +Hans thought he had settled when he went to his desk, which was +not--and apparently could not be--locked, took out a box, and poured +its contents between us on the table. There were from four to five +hundred _thalers_ in gold, silver, and treasury notes, mixed up with +invitations to hunting-parties, receipted and unreceipted bills, +dance-cards (apparently from an earlier time), samples of wool, +percussion-caps, and a few dozen buckshot, which rolled upon the floor +and awaked Caro, who had been asleep under the sofa, and now crept +forth, yawning and stretching, as if he considered that buckshot +belonged to his department. + +Hans said that he had at the moment, so far as he knew, no more in the +house; but if it was not sufficient, he would search his coats, in +which he had from time to time found quite considerable sums between +the cloth and the lining. + +I was much affected by Hans's kindness; but even were I to avail myself +of it, how was the flight to be accomplished? Hans had heard--and it +appeared only too probable--that search was being made for me +everywhere. How could I, without being seized, make my way to Bremen +or Hamburg or any other port from which I could get a passage to +America--at least so long as the pursuit was still hot? + +After much consideration, Hans hit upon the following plan, the +inspiration to which sprang from his generous heart. I was for a while +to remain concealed in his house, until the first heat of the pursuit +was over. Then--always supposing that he was himself unmolested--we +would undertake the journey together, I being disguised as his coachman +or servant. The question now arose about the passport, without which, +as I knew, no one was allowed to go on board the ship. Here also the +inventive Hans found an expedient. A certain Herr Schulz, who had been +his overseer, had intended to emigrate the previous spring, and +procured the necessary papers, but had died before his project was +accomplished. These papers Hans had kept, and after some searching we +found them. It appeared from their contents that the emigrating +overseer was not nineteen, but forty years old; not six feet without +his shoes, which was my stature, but only four and a half; and +moreover, he was distinguished by being very deeply pitted with the +small-pox. Still, Hans was of opinion that they would not look into the +matter so closely, and a hundred _thaler_ note would reconcile all the +little discrepancies. + +It was two o'clock by the time we had matured this ingenious plan, and +Hans's eyes were growing heavy with weariness. As he insisted that I +should sleep in his bed, I was obliged to leave him the sofa in the +sitting-room, on which he had scarcely stretched himself when he began +to snore. I covered him with his cloak, and went into his chamber, +where, tired as I was, I still took time to avail myself of the simple +apparatus for ablution that I found there, to my great comfort. Then +dressing myself again, I lay down on Hans's bed. + +I slept soundly an hour or two, and as I awaked at the first gray +glimmer of dawn, a resolution with which I had lain down, arose clear +to my mind. I would go: the good Hans should not on my account be +brought into any more serious troubles. The longer I remained with him, +the greater was the probability that his complicity, which it was just +possible might remain concealed as things were, would be discovered, +and it would then appear in a so much more serious light. Besides, I +had in truth but little faith in the availability of the pass of the +deceased overseer of four feet and a half high; and finally, as a youth +of no craven spirit, I was possessed with the conviction that it was my +duty to take the consequences of my action, as far as possible, upon my +own head alone. + +So I softly arose from the bed, wrote a few words of gratitude to Hans +for all his kindness, filled my game-bag with the remains of the +supper, stuck the note in the neck of a wine-bottle on the table, in +the assurance that Hans would not overlook it there, gave a parting nod +to the brave fellow who still lay in the same position upon the sofa in +which he had fallen asleep two hours before, patted Caro, who wished to +accompany me, and signified to him that I could not take him, took my +gun, and went out by the same window at which I had entered. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Food, drink, and sleep had completely restored my old strength, and I +was now in a condition to play my part in the game of "robbers and +soldiers" more successfully. + +The following days--there were three or four of them--form a strange +episode in the history of my life; so that it often seems to me that I +cannot really have lived them, but must have read the whole in some +story-book. Yes, after so many years--there are thirty of them now--the +remembrance of those days comes before me like some story about the bad +boy who lost himself in the woods, and to whom so many uncomfortable +things happened there; and yet who drank so much sweet pure air, and +bathed in so much golden sunshine, that one would give who knows how +many stations in the monotonous turnpike of his orderly life, could he +but once experience such romantic suffering and happiness. + +As if heaven itself was disposed to be good to the bad boy who, +whatever his errors, had erred but through youthful folly, and perhaps, +all things considered, was not after all so utterly bad, it sent him +two or three of the loveliest autumn days for his adventurous flight. +The recent rains had cleared the air to a crystalline transparency, so +that the remotest distance seemed brought near at hand. A flood of +bright but indescribably soft sunlight streamed from the cloudless sky, +and penetrated into the inmost recesses of the forest, where from the +huge old trees the yellow leaves silently floated down to the others, +with which the ground was already strewn. Not a sound was audible in +the sunny wilderness except the melancholy chirp of a yellow-hammer in +the thicket, or the hoarse cawing of a crow who regarded with disfavor +the gun which I was carrying, or the faint cry of cranes that, careless +of what was going on below, were winging high in air their proud flight +to southern lands. + +Then again I lay in the heart of the forest upon some hillock, perhaps +a "giant's barrow," as they were traditionally called, and watched sly +Reynard steal out of his Castle Malepartus among the great stones, to +bask in the morning sun, while a few paces farther off his half-grown +cubs chased each other and rolled over and over in merry romp; or I +marked in the evening light a herd of deer crossing a clearing, the +stag in front with head proudly held aloft, and only lowered +occasionally to pick a peculiarly tempting tuft of herbage, while the +does came peacefully grazing after. + +Again I stood on the heights, close to the verge of the steep +chalk-cliff, and looked longingly out over the blue sea, where on the +farthest horizon a little cloud marked the spot where the steamer which +I had been watching for an hour had disappeared, while in the middle +distance glittered the sails of a pair of fishing-boats. The speck of +cloud vanished, the white sails dwindled away, and with a sigh I turned +back into the forest, scarcely hoping now that I should succeed in +getting off the island. + +Twice already I had made the attempt. Once at a small fishing village +that lay at the head of a narrow cove in a recess of the shore, and was +the picture of isolation and loneliness. But the men were all out +fishing; only a very old man and a couple of half-grown youths were at +home with the women and children. If the catch was a good one, it might +be two days before the men came back; and it was not likely then that +any one would take me so far. So said the old man, when I asked; while +a pair of red-haired children stood by staring at me with open mouths, +and an old woman came up and confirmed the man's statement, while the +sun sank below the horizon, and a cool breeze blew down the cove +towards the darkened sea. + +It was the second day of my wandering. The first night I had passed in +a sheep-fold: I thought I might venture for once to sleep under a roof; +and the good wife to whom I made the proposal willingly gave up to me +the chamber of her son, who had sailed away three years before, and not +been heard of since. I might, very likely, have spent days in this +retired nook without being discovered; but the necessity of my getting +off the island was too pressing, and early on the next morning I set +out to try my fortune elsewhere. + +My next trial was made in a large village. There were boats enough and +men enough there, but no one would take me; not even though I offered +ten dollars, half the money I had, for the short passage to the +Mecklenburg coast, where I might consider myself tolerably safe. I do +not know whether, as was possible, they knew who I was, or merely saw +something suspicious in the wild-looking young man with a gun on his +shoulder who asked a passage to another country; or whether, as I +seemed in such extreme haste, and appeared to have money, they merely +wished, by delay and apparent reluctance, to extort a higher fare. But +after an hour had been spent in parleying, and Karl Bollmann said he +was willing to take me, if Johann Peters would lend his boat; and +Peters, for his part, was ready to go, but only in Bollmann's boat; and +Christian Rickmann, who was standing by with his hands in his pockets, +said he would take me with his boys, but not for less than thirty +dollars; and all then held a whispering consultation together, during +which the whole population, women and children included, gathered +around--I thought it prudent not to await the result, but turned +abruptly away, and strode off towards the dunes. A half-dozen followed +me, but I showed them my gun, upon which they kept back. + +The same day I had another proof that the pursuit for me was still kept +up, which indeed I had never doubted. It was towards evening, when +reconnoitring from the edge of the woods a piece of open country that I +had to cross, I caught sight of two mounted patrols on the road, +talking with a shepherd who had driven his flock upon the strip of +heath between the road and the woods. I observed that they several +times pointed to the forest, but the shepherd's answers seemed +satisfactory, for they presently rode away in the opposite direction, +and disappeared beyond some rising ground. When I thought them far +enough, I came out of my concealment and joined the shepherd, who was +knitting a long black stocking, and whose simple face gave a sufficient +guaranty of the security of the step. He told me, in answer to my +inquiries, that the patrol were on the track of a man who had committed +a murder. He was a tall young man, they had said, and a desperate +villain; but they would have him yet. + +The lively imagination of the stocking-knitter had probably had +sufficient time in the interval between the departure of the patrol and +my appearance, to paint the portrait of the fugitive from justice in +the most frightful colors. At all events he did not recognize me, but +took me at once for what I gave myself out to be: a huntsman, who was +stopping on a visit at one of the neighboring estates, and not knowing +the country well, had lost his way. He gave me minute directions how to +find my way, thanked me for the coin I put in his hand, and dropped his +knitting in astonishment as he saw me, instead of following his +directions, strike across the heath into the forest. + +The vicinity of the patrol had startled me, in fact, and I had +determined to pass this night in the woods. It was a bad night. Warm as +it had been in the day, it grew cold at nightfall, and the cold +steadily increased as the night advanced. In vain did I bury myself a +foot deep in the dry leaves, or try by brisk walking backwards and +forwards to gain a little warmth. The dense mist that arose from the +earth soaked my clothes through, and chilled me to the marrow. The long +hours of the autumn night crept on with dreadful slowness; it seemed as +if it would never be day. And in addition to these physical and almost +intolerable sufferings of cold, hunger, and fatigue, the recollection +of what I had recently gone through presented itself to me in ever more +frightful pictures the longer the night lasted, and the more hotly the +fever burned in my veins. While, half dead with fatigue, I staggered +backwards and forwards in a clear space between the trees, I saw myself +again on the moor at Herr von Zehren's side, with Jock Swart lying dead +at our feet, while the flames of the burning castle wrapped us in an +awful glare, so fearfully bright that it seemed the whole forest was +burning around me, while yet my limbs shivered and my teeth chattered +with cold. Then Herr von Zehren sat before me as I had last seen him +sitting, with the rising sun shining in his glazed eyes; and then again +it was not Herr von Zehren, but my father, or Professor Lederer, or +some other, but all dead, with glassy eyes open to the sun. Then again +I became conscious of my real situation, that it was dark night around +me, that I was excessively cold, that I had sharp fever, and that +despite the risk of discovery I must resolve to kindle a real fire +instead of the frightful visionary one which I still saw in my feverish +hallucination. + +I had provided myself against this necessity with a large piece of +touchwood which I had broken out of a hollow tree and placed in my +game-bag. By its aid I succeeded after a while in kindling a pile of +half-dry wood, and I cannot describe the delicious sensation that +thrilled through me as at last a bright flame sprang up. The cheery +light drove back the fever-phantoms into the darkness from which they +had sprung; the luxurious warmth expelled from my veins the icy cold. I +dragged together great quantities of fuel; I could not sufficiently +luxuriate in the sight of the curling smoke, the leaping flames, and +the glittering sparks. Then I seated myself at my forest-hearth, and +resolved in my mind what I should do to escape a situation which I +clearly saw I could not long endure. At last I hit upon a plan. I must +make the trial to get away at some one of the points from which there +was a regular communication with the main-land, and which I had, on +good grounds, hitherto avoided; and the attempt must be made in +disguise, as otherwise I should be recognized instantly. The difficulty +was, how to obtain a suitable disguise; and here a happy thought struck +me. I had noticed in the chamber in which I had slept the previous +night, a complete sailor's dress hanging against the wall; very likely +the kind old woman would sell it to me. If thus disguised I could get +off the island, I was pretty confident that by a night-march I could +reach the Mecklenburg frontier; and once there, I would let chance +decide what was next to be done. + +At early dawn I began to put this plan into execution; and although I +had a walk of eight or ten miles to the lonely fishing village, I +reached it just after sunrise. The good old dame would not hear of any +sale; I needed the things, and that was enough; perhaps some one in +some strange land might do as much for her son, if he was alive--and a +tear rolled down her aged wrinkled cheeks. My clothes and my gun--for I +had left my pistol at Hans's--she would keep for me; I should have them +any time that I came for them. I do not I know for what the kind old +creature took me; but no doubt she thought that I was in distress; and +she helped me thus because I said that this was the only way to help +me. The worthy soul! Later in my life it was in my power in some +measure to repay her kindness, if indeed a kind deed can ever be +repaid. + +So I set out at once upon my way, which took me, through many perils, +directly across the island to a point where I determined to wait until +evening before entering Fährdorf, which I could reach in an hour. +Relying upon my sailor's dress, which fitted me perfectly, and, as I +thought, completely disguised me, I had chosen the ferry which led most +directly to Uselin. In this way, it was true, I should have to go +through my native town; but it was probable that just there I should be +least looked for; and at that time, I confess it, it took but a little +to rouse in me the old daring spirit which had already played me so +many an unlucky trick. With a grim satisfaction I imagined myself +pacing at night through the silent streets, and even considered whether +I should not write on the door of the _Rathhaus_[4] the old saying of +the Nuremburgers, and sign my name to it. + +At nightfall I entered Fährdorf. I had missed the boat; but the next +one, which was the last, sailed in half an hour. As I had seen through +the window of the tavern that the large tap-room was almost empty, and +as I must of necessity strengthen myself for my night-journey, I +entered it, took my seat at the farthest table with my face to the +wall, and ordered some supper of the bar-maid. + +The girl went to get it for me. On the table, beside the candle which +she had lighted, lay a beer-stained copy of the Uselin Weekly News of +the previous day--another cleaner copy is now lying beside the page on +which I am writing. I took it up, and my first glance fell upon the +following announcement: + + + NOTICE. + +Frederick William George Hartwig, former pupil of and fugitive from the +Gymnasium in Uselin, strongly suspected of smuggling, of violent +resistance to officers of the Government, and of murder, has still, +notwithstanding every exertion on the part of the authorities, evaded +arrest. As it greatly concerns the public welfare that this apparently +most dangerous person should be brought to justice, he is hereby +summoned voluntarily to surrender himself; and all persons who may have +any knowledge of the place of concealment of the aforesaid Hartwig, are +called upon to give notice thereof without delay to the undersigned. We +also urgently and respectfully request the various authorities, both +here and abroad, to keep a strict watch for the aforesaid Hartwig, +(description at foot), to arrest him promptly, should he be discovered, +and forward him to us at our expense, under the assurance of the +readiest reciprocity on our part in a similar case. (Signed) +Heckepfennig. + +District of * * * + +Uselin, November 2, 1833. + +I will not copy the description that followed. The reader could learn +from it nothing except that at that time I rejoiced in dark-blond, +curly hair ("sorrel-top" the boys used to call me when they wanted to +tease me), stood six feet without my shoes, and, as a well-finished +specimen of humanity, had no special marks, or at least none in the +eyes of Herr Justizrath Heckepfennig. + +But in truth, at this moment so critical for me, I scarcely noticed the +description of my person; the Notice occupied all my thoughts. When, +the evening before, the shepherd said that the man whom the patrol were +after was charged with murder, I did not believe it for a moment. He +was such a simple-looking fellow, that I thought the patrol had been +telling him a frightful story to scare him, or to enhance their own +importance. But here it stood in large clear letters in the _Weekly +News_, which, as but few other papers had ever fallen into my hands, +was always to my uncritical youthful mind invested with a certain +magisterial authority--I might almost say, bore the stamp of +infallibility. "Suspected of murder!" Was it possible? Was I then +looked upon as the murderer of Jock Swart? I, who had thanked God when +I saw the man at whom I had fired, limping briskly off? I, whose only +consolation in these last days of suffering, was that at the worst no +man's death weighed upon my conscience? And here it was proclaimed to +all the world that I was a murderer! + +The bar-maid brought the refreshment I had ordered, and I think advised +me to waste no time, as the ferry-boat would soon start. I scarcely +heard what she said, but left my supper untouched, and sat staring at +the paper, which I had hastily turned over as the girl entered, as if +my printed name might betray me. But on the other side it again +appeared in a paragraph headed _City Items_. The paragraph ran thus: + +"Yesterday evening, in some unaccountable way, a rumor got afloat that +George Hartwig, whose name is now in everybody's mouth, had taken +refuge in the house of his father, Customs-Accountant Hartwig, and was +there in hiding. An immense crowd, of probably more than a hundred +persons, assembled in consequence in the Water street, and tumultuously +demanded that the young criminal should be given up to them. In vain +did the unhappy father, standing on his threshold, protest that his son +was not in his house, and that he was not the man to obstruct the +course of justice. Even the vigorous exertions of those dauntless +public servants, officers Luz and Bolljahn, were ineffectual; only the +eloquent appeals of our respected mayor, who had hurried to the spot at +the first news of the disturbance, succeeded at last in dispersing +the excited crowd. We cannot refrain from earnestly warning our +fellow-citizens of the folly and lawlessness of such proceedings, +although we willingly admit that the affair in question, which +unhappily seems to assume even more serious proportions, is of +a nature to strongly excite the minds of all. But we appeal to the +men of intelligence--that is to say, to the great majority of our +fellow-citizens--and ask them if we cannot repose the fullest +confidence in the authorities? Should we not be convinced that the +public welfare is in better keeping in their hands than in those of a +thoughtless, ungoverned mob? And in reference to the occurrence of +yesterday, we earnestly appeal to the good feeling of all well-meaning +persons. Let them remember that the father of the unhappy George +Hartwig is one of our most respectable citizens. He would, as he +declared, and as we for our part firmly believe, be the last to +obstruct the course of justice. Fellow-citizens, let us respect this +assurance; let us respect the man who gave it. Let us be just, +fellow-citizens, but not cruel. And before all, let us take care that +the reputation of good-order and of a law-abiding spirit which our good +old town has so long enjoyed, be not lost through our fault." + +The well-known signal summoning the passengers on board, now sounded +from the wharf, and at the same moment the girl came in again and told +me I must make haste. + +"But you have not eaten a bit!" she exclaimed, and stared at me with +surprise and alarm. I suppose that I looked very pale and agitated. I +muttered some reply, laid a _thaler_ on the table, and hurried from the +house. + +Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the boat was crowded with +passengers. On the forward-deck were standing two saddled horses, which +could only belong to the mounted patrol; and I soon discovered their +riders, who were the same that I had seen talking to the shepherd, as I +gathered from their conversation with a couple of peasants. They were +complaining bitterly of being recalled, for they were sure, they said, +that they would have caught the villain, who must be somewhere hidden +on the island, though six more besides themselves, two on horseback and +four on foot, had searched it through in every direction. Now the +others would gain the reward, while they were sent for to keep order in +the town, which was no affair of theirs; there were Bolljahn and Luz to +attend to that duty. + +I sat quite near them, and could hear every word they said; and I +thought what delight it would give the brave fellows if I were suddenly +to stand up and say, "here's the villain." But I could not afford them +that pleasure; what I had resolved to do, must be done voluntarily. So +I kept quiet, and it never occurred to the wise servants of the law +that the young sailor who was listening to them with such apparent +interest was the man they were looking for. + +The wind was fair, and the passage quick; in half an hour the boat +reached her wharf. The horses pawed, the patrolmen swore, the +passengers crowded out of the boat, and went up the wharf with their +luggage. At the upper end of the wharf, just by the gate, stood fat +Peter Hinrich, the landlord of the sailor's tavern, and asked me if I +would not lodge in his house. I said I had a lodging engaged elsewhere. + +So I passed through the ruinous old port-gate, which was never shut, +and entered the Water street. When I arrived at the small house, I +paused for a moment. All in the house was dark and silent, and it was +dark and silent in the street; but only two days before there had been +commotion enough here, and there upon the threshold my father had stood +and said that he was not the man to obstruct the course of justice. He +should not incur the suspicion of having concealed his son in his +house; he should see that his son had still some regard for his +father's good name, and that he had the courage to face the +consequences of what he had done. + +The exhortations of the _Weekly News_ had not been in vain. The little +town seemed as if life had departed; the energetic Luz and Bolljahn, +with the best will in the world, could have found no field for their +activity. My steps resounded along the empty alleys, which struck me as +being singularly narrow and crooked. Here and there was light in the +windows; but folks went early to bed in Uselin, and the authorities +could therefore extinguish the street lamps at a very early hour, +especially when, as now, the new moon over St. Nicholas's church looked +sadly down through driving clouds upon the empty market-place. + +I stood in the market-place before the house of Herr Justizrath +Heckepfennig. It was one of the stateliest mansions in the town. How +often had I passed it when I came out of school at mid-day, and cast a +glance of respectful longing at the left-hand corner-window in the +second story where Emilie used to sit behind a vase of gold-fish, and +always happened, just as I passed by--a little dim window-mirror gave +her faithful notice--to have her attention attracted by something in +the market. Now I again looked up at the window, but with very +different feelings. There was a light in the room, which was the usual +sitting-room of the family. The justizrath used to smoke his evening +pipe there. I had a presentiment that the visit that he would presently +receive would cause it to go out. + +The good people of Uselin did not usually fasten their street-doors +until they went to bed; but whether it was that the recent disturbances +so energetically and successfully contended with by the officers Luz +and Bolljahn had rendered greater precautions advisable; or whether the +justizrath, in his double capacity of wealthy man and officer of the +law, insisted upon a stricter rule in this matter--in any case his door +was fastened, and it was some time before my repeated ringing was +answered by a female voice that called through the keyhole in rather a +quavering tone to know who was there. My reply, "one who wishes +urgently to speak with the Herr Justizrath," did not seem by any means +entirely to satisfy the portress, who could be none other than the +pretty housemaid Jette. A whispering followed, from which I inferred +that Jette had brought the cook with her; then a giggling, and finally +the answer that she would tell her master. + +I was patrolling up and down before the house in my impatience, when a +window opened in the sitting-room above, and the Herr Justizrath in +person, putting out his head a very little way indeed, repeated the +question of the housemaid, and received the same answer. + +"What is your business?" asked the cautious man. + +"I come from the island," I replied at a venture. + +"Aha!" cried he, and closed the window. + +For some days the justizrath had done nothing but give audience to +people who professed to be able to throw some light upon the great +mystery. A sailor or fisherman just from the island, and who urgently +desired to speak with him at ten o'clock at night, could come with but +one object: to make some important communication which might bring some +illumination into the obscurity of this mysterious affair. I for my +part believed that the justizrath had recognized me by my voice, and +that his exclamation meant: "So! here you are at last!" I was soon to +learn how greatly I was mistaken. + +The door was opened, and I hastily entered. Scarcely had the light of +the candle which Jette was holding up in her hand, fallen upon my face, +when she gave a loud scream, dropped candlestick and all, and ran off +as hard as she could, while the cook followed her example, at least so +far as screaming and running went. The cook, who was an elderly female, +ought to have had more sense; but still she only knew me by sight, and +for a long time had heard nothing but horrors about me, so I cannot +blame her. But the conduct of the pretty Jette admitted of no defence. +I had always been very friendly to her, partly on her mistress's +account, and partly on her own; and she had always freely acknowledged +it, coquettishly smiling whenever I met her, saluting me with her +deepest curtsey whenever I entered the house, and now--but I had now +something else to think of than the ingratitude of a housemaid. I +passed through the dark hall, ascended the stair I knew so well, and +knocked at the door of the justizrath's study, which adjoined the +sitting-room, and to which he had doubtless betaken himself to receive +his late visitor. + +"Come in!" said the justizrath, and I entered. + +There he stood, just as I expected to find him, a tall, +broad-shouldered figure, wrapped in his loose flowered dressing-gown, +his long pipe in his hand, his low, narrow forehead wrinkled into deep +folds as he fixed his little stupid eyes with a look of curiosity upon +me at my entrance. + +"Well, my friend, and what do you bring?" he asked. + +"Myself," I answered, in a low but resolute voice, stepping up nearer +to him. + +My presentiment that he would let his pipe go out was fulfilled by his +simply letting it drop upon the floor; and without saying a word he +caught up the skirts of his flowered dressing-gown in both hands, and +fled into the family-room. + +There I stood by the broken pipe, and trampled out the glowing ashes +which had fallen upon the little carpet by the writing-table. While +engaged in this certainly not criminal occupation, I was startled +by a cry for the watch from the adjacent window that opened on the +market-place. It was the voice of the justizrath, but it had a very +hoarse and lamentable sound, as if some one had him by the throat. I +stepped to the door of the sitting-room and knocked. + +"Herr Justizrath!" + +No answer. + +"Frau Justizrath!" + +All silent. + +"Fräulein Emilie!" + +A pause, and then a frightened little voice that I had so often heard +laughing, and with which I had sung so many a duet in parties by land +and water, piped feebly out: + +"What do you want?" + +"Tell your father, Fräulein Emilie, that if he does not at once stop +calling the watch, and does not immediately come into his study, I +shall go away and not come back." + +I said this in a tone in which resolution and politeness were so +blended, that I was sure it could hardly fail of its effect. I could +hear a whispered discussion within. The women seemed to be adjuring the +husband and father not to adventure his precious life in so manifest a +peril, while the husband and father sought to calm their terrors by +heroic phrases, such as, "But it is my duty," or, "It might cost me my +place!" + +At last, assisted by these weighty considerations, duty triumphed. The +door slowly opened, and by the side of the flowered dressing-gown I +caught a glimpse of the cap of the Frau Justizrath, and of the +curl-papers of Fräulein Emilie, whose golden ringlets I had always +supposed a beautiful work of nature. But so many great illusions of +mine had been dissipated in the last few days, that this small one +might well go with the rest. + +Hesitatingly the justizrath closed the door behind him, hesitatingly he +came a few paces nearer, stopped and tried to fix me firmly with his +eye, in which, after some difficulty, he almost succeeded. + +"Young man," he began, "you are alone?" + +"As you see, Herr Justizrath." + +"And without weapons?" + +"Without weapons." + +"Without any weapon?" + +"Without any weapon." + +I unbuttoned my sailor jacket to convince my questioner of the truth of +my statement. The justizrath evidently breathed more freely. + +"And you have come----?" + +"To surrender myself to justice." + +"Why did you not tell me so at once?" + +"I do not think you gave me time." + +The justizrath cast a confused glance at his broken pipe on the floor, +cleared his throat, and seemed not to know exactly what was to be done +in such an extraordinary case. There was a pause of silence. + +The ladies must have inferred from this pause that I was engaged in +cutting the throat of the husband and father; at least at this moment +the door was flung open, and the Frau Justizrath, in night-gown and +night-cap, came rushing in and fell upon the neck of her spouse in the +flowered dressing-gown, whom she embraced with every mark of mortal +fear, while Emilie, who had followed close behind her, turned to me, +and with a tragic gesture of supplication, raised both her hands as +high as her curl-papers. + +"Heckepfennig, he will murder you!" sobbed the nightgown. + +"Spare, oh spare my aged father!" moaned the curl-papers. + +And now the door leading into the passage opened. Jette and the cook +were curious to see what was going on, though at the peril of perishing +in the general massacre, and appeared upon the threshold wailing aloud. +This mark of courageous devotion so touched the night-gown that it +burst into a flood of hysterical tears, and the curl-papers tottered to +the sofa with the apparent intention of swooning upon it. + +Here the justizrath showed, for the second time, how great emergencies +bring out the strength of great characters. With gentle firmness he +freed the flowered dressing-gown from the embrace of the night-gown, +and said in a voice that announced his resolve to do and dare the +worst: "Jette, bring me my coat!" + +This was the signal for a scene of indescribable confusion, out of +which, in about five minutes, the victim of his devotion to duty +emerged victorious with coat, hat, and stick: a sublime sight, only the +effect was a little damaged by the hero's feet being still covered with +embroidered slippers, a fact of which he was not aware until it was too +late, when we were standing on the pavement of the market-place. + +"Never mind, Herr Justizrath," I said, as he was about to turn back. +"You would not get away again, and we have but a few steps to go." + +In fact the little old _Rathhaus_ was at the other side of the by no +means wide square, and the pavement was perfectly dry, so that the +victim of fidelity had not even to fear a cold in the head. + +"Herr Justizrath," I said, as we crossed the market-place, "you will +tell my father, will you not, that I gave myself up voluntarily, and +without any compulsion; and I will never mention to any one a word +about the broken pipe." + +I have spoken many foolish and inconsiderate words in my life, but few +that were more foolish and more inconsiderate than this. Just as I was +touching the point which I might say was the only thing in the whole +affair to which I attached importance, namely, to show my pride to the +father who had disowned me, I failed to perceive that I gave mortal +offence to a man who would never forgive, and had never forgiven me. +Who can tell what other turn the affair might have taken, if, instead +of my unpardonable stupidity, I had intoned a pæan to the heroic man +who knew how to guard himself from a possible and indeed probable +attack, and then did his duty, happen what might. But how could I know +that, young fool that I was? + +So we reached the open hall of the _Rathhaus_, where in the day time an +old cake-woman used to sit in a chair sawed out of a barrel, before a +table where plum-buns and candies lay upon a cloth not always clean, +that was constantly fluttering in the wind that blew through the hall. +The table was now bare, and presented a very forlorn appearance, as if +old Mother Möller, and not only she, but all the cakes, plum-buns, and +candies of the world, had departed forever. + +A desolate feeling came over me; for the first and only time this +night, the thought occurred to me that perhaps after all I had better +make my escape. Who was to prevent me? Assuredly not the slippered hero +at my side; and as little the old night-watchman Rüterbusch, who was +shuffling up and down the hall, in front of his sentry-box, in the dim +light of a lantern that swung from the vaulted roof. But I thought of +my father, and wondered if his conscience would not smite him when he +heard the next morning that I was in prison; and so I stood quietly by +and heard the night-watchman Rüterbusch explaining to Justizrath +Heckepfennig that the matter would be very hard to manage, since the +last few days so many arrests had been made, that the guard-house was +completely full. + +The guard-house was a forbidding-looking appendage to the _Rathhaus_, +and fronted on an extremely narrow alley in which footsteps always made +a peculiar echo. No townsman who could avoid it ever went through this +echoing alley; for that gloomy appendage to the _Rathhaus_ had no +door, but a row of small square windows secured with iron bars and +half-closed with wooden screens, and behind them here and there might +be seen a pale, woe-begone face. + +A quarter of an hour after the conversation between Herr Justizrath +Heckepfennig and night-watchman Rüterbusch had come to a satisfactory +conclusion, I was sitting behind one of these grated windows. + + + + + + PART SECOND. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +This little alley by the _Rathhaus_, in which footsteps gave such a +singular echo, had never, even within the recollection of the most +ancient crow on the neighboring steeple of St. Nicholas's church, +enjoyed such a reputation for uncanniness as in the last two months of +this year, and the first two of the next. It was also observed that in +no previous winter had the snow lain so deep in it, and it grew dark +much earlier in the evening than had ever before been known. And Mother +Möller, the old cake-woman in the _Rathhaus_ hall, who always hitherto, +in the winter season, packed up her wares at the stroke of five, now +did it regularly at half-past four, because, as she affirmed, just as +it grew dark there was "what you might call a kind of corpsy smell +about," and her old table-cloth flapped about in a way no natural +table-cloth would do. On the other hand Father Rüterbusch, the +night-watchman, asseverated that for his part he had not observed +either in the hall or the alley anything out of the common, not even +between twelve and one o'clock, which was the fashionable hour with +ghosts, let alone at other times. Yet people were more disposed to +accept the views of the old cake-woman than those of the still older +night-watchman; as the first, though she took a nap now and then, still +on the whole was more awake than asleep; while in regard to the other, +the regular customers of the _Rathhaus_ cellar, who had to pass his +post at night, maintained precisely the contrary. By these assertions +they deeply wounded the good heart of Father Rüterbusch, but did not +confute him. "For, d'ye see," he would argue, "you must know that a +sworn night-watchman never goes to sleep, on any account; but it may +happen that he pretends to be asleep, in order not to mortify certain +gentlemen who would be ashamed if they knew the old man had his eye on +their doings. And mark you, I am willing to be qualified to what I say, +upon my oath of office; and none of them can say that. And even if many +of them, for instance Rathscarpenter Karl Bobbin, come and go the same +way every evening, that is to say every night, for nigh on to twenty +years now, a habit is not an office, mark you; and I for my part have +never heard, for example, that the customers of the cellar ever took +any oath or were qualified in any manner, shape, or form; and yet it +was only last Easter I celebrated my jubilee, for it was then fifty +years I had held this place, and I went to school with Karl Bobbin's +father, who was never of any account, for that matter." + +However, be that as it might, during the winter of '33-'34, there was +but one opinion of the matter in Uselin; and that was, that if there +_was_ anything queer about the Rathhaus alley, nobody need wonder at +it, as things were. + +Things were certainly bad enough, and worse for no one than for me, +who, as was admitted on all hands, was by far the chief figure in the +great smuggling case; for into such proportions, thanks to the +inquisitorial genius of the justizrath who had charge of the +investigation, a thing which to my eyes was of extreme simplicity had +now been developed. + +As if it was of the least importance how the case looked in _my_ eyes! +As if anybody gave himself the trouble to inquire what _my_ thoughts or +wishes were! But no; I will do Justizrath Heckepfennig and co-referent +Justizrath Bostelmann no injustice. They gave themselves the very +greatest trouble; but they had no desire to find out where the truth +lay, and where I told them it might be found. + +"Why had I left my father?" they asked. + +"Because he ordered me out of his house!" + +"A fine reason, truly! Angry fathers often tell their sons to be gone, +without the idea ever seizing the sons to start off into the wide +world. There must be something more behind. Perhaps you wanted to be +sent off?" + +"To a certain extent I admit it." + +"Perhaps you admit it unqualifiedly?" + +"I admit it unqualifiedly." + +"Very good. Actuary, please to take down the reply of the prisoner, who +admits without qualification that he wished to be sent off by his +father. And when and where did you first make the acquaintance of Herr +von Zehren?" + +"On that evening at Smith Pinnow's." + +"Had you never seen him before?" + +"Never, to my knowledge." + +"Not even at Smith Pinnow's? Pinnow declares that Herr von Zehren was +so often at his house, and you also so often, that it is incredible +that you never met before." + +"Pinnow lies, and knows that he lies!" + +"You still persist then that your meeting with Herr von Zehren was +entirely accidental?" + +"Entirely." + +"How much money had you about you when you left your father?" + +"Twenty-five _silbergroschen_, as well as I can remember." + +"And had you any prospect of obtaining anywhere a permanent position?" + +"None." + +"You had no such prospect, had but twenty-five _silbergroschen_ in your +possession, were anxious that your father should send you off, and yet +you persist in asserting that your meeting on that same evening with +the man who took you at once into his house, and with whom you stayed +until the final catastrophe, was purely accidental! You are sharp +enough to see how extremely improbable this is; and I now ask you for +the last time, if, at the risk of casting the strongest suspicions on +your veracity, you still persist in that statement?" + +"I do." + +Justizrath Heckepfennig cast a look at Actuary Unterwasser as much as +to say: Can you conceive such impudence? Actuary Unterwasser smiled +compassionately, and sadly shook his head, and scratched away with his +pen over his paper, as if his shocked moral sense found some relief in +getting such inconceivable things at all events down in black and +white. + +Thus it went on with I do not know how many interrogations and +examinations; summary examination, examination in chief, articular +examination. Often I could not tell what they were aiming at, and what +was the object of all the long-winded interrogatories, and short +cross-questions, in which last Justizrath Heckepfennig considered +himself particularly great. I complained bitterly of this to my +counsel, Assessor Perleberg, saying that I had told--or, as they +preferred to express it, confessed--everything to the gentlemen. + +"My dear sir," said the assessor, "in the first place it is not true +that you have confessed everything. For instance, you have refused to +say who was the person whom caller Semlow saw, about four o'clock on +the evening in question, with you on the path leading to Zehrendorf. +And in the second place, what is confession? In criminal jurisprudence +it has but a very subordinate value. How many criminals cannot be +brought to confess at all? and how many confessions are false, or are +afterwards recanted? The real object of the examination is the +detection of guilt. Consider, my dear sir, your entire so-called +confession might be a fabrication. It has often happened before, the +criminal record--" + +It was enough to drive a man desperate. Years after, my counsel became +a great beacon and luminary of jurisprudence; and indeed he was such at +that time, though he was not then a professor, a privy-councillor, and +a man of wide reputation, but an obscure assessor of the superior +court, a very learned man, and of wonderful acuteness--a world too +learned and too acute for a poor devil like me. With his "in the first +place," and "in the second place," he would have prejudiced a jury of +angels against innocence herself, to say nothing of a college of +learned judges who could not avoid the conclusion that a man whose +defence required so extraordinary an expenditure of learning and +acumen, must of necessity be a very great criminal. I can still see him +sitting on the end of the table in my cell, which was fastened with +iron clamps to the wall, jerking his long, thin legs, and flourishing +his long, thin arms, like a great spider who finds a broken mesh in his +web. It was probably a hard task for so learned a spider, into whose +web a clumsy blue-bottle had blundered and was floundering about in his +awkward way, to extricate him with scientific nicety. And now for the +first time I began to find out how far-spreading this web was, and how +many flies, besides myself, were entangled in its meshes. + +There were very careless flies that under the masks of respectable +citizens and honest tradesmen of my native place and the neighboring +towns, had for years carried on an extensive business in smuggled +goods, and defrauded the revenue of thousands upon thousands. This sort +of flies was very dirty and disgusting. For as soon as one had caught +its foot in the web, and found itself entangled, it turned traitor to +its companions, and did not rest until all were fast in the web. + +Then there was another and honester species, though it was far from +wearing so honest an appearance. These were my old friends, the +weather-beaten, tobacco-chewing, silent men of Zanowitz and the other +fishing villages on the coast. They had by no means had so good a time +of it as the gentlemen in the counting-houses and behind the counters. +They had had to fight with wind and storm, to keep watch and ward, to +suffer hunger and cold, and carry their lives in their hand, and all +for small gain, many of them for only just enough to keep wife and +children from starving; and yet, though four of them had been taken +prisoners in that terrible night on the moor, the examiners could draw +nothing from them. No one betrayed his comrade; no one knew who had +been the man at his side. "The night was dark, and in the dark all cats +are gray; every man had enough to do to look to himself. If Pinnow has +said that this man and that man was there, why he can probably make +oath to it." In vain did the justizrath ask the most ingenious +questions, in vain did he wheedle and threaten--they had to let go a +dozen or two that were very strongly suspected, and console themselves +with the reflection that at all events they had four who had been taken +in the act. + +Yes, it was a very peculiar sort of flies who had thus been caught with +the others in the web of law; a tough, rough sort, very inconvenient +for the guardians of the flesh-pots of an orderly government, but still +honest after their fashion, and not the sneaking crew that the others +were. + +These two species of flies had for a long time played into each other's +hands, but without any proper system, and consequently at great +disadvantage, until, about four years before, the business had taken a +sudden and enormous expansion. For some one, who hitherto, like all the +proprietors along the coast, had obtained his wine, his brandy, his +salt, his tobacco, from the smugglers in small quantities, had hit upon +the idea that what was needed was an intermediary between the supply +and the demand; a middleman who should provide a sort of warehouse or +magazine for the smuggling trade, and thus afford the furnishers an +opportunity of getting rid of larger quantities at once, and the +purchasers the means of procuring their supplies as they needed them, +and at convenient times. + +This plan, founded on the soundest commercial principles, begotten of +necessity, and joyfully welcomed by the naturally adventurous spirit of +the man, he carried out with the audacity, the judgment, and the +energy, which so highly distinguished him. The solitary position of his +estate upon the long promontory, with the open sea on one side and a +narrow strait on the other, was as if it had been made for the very +purpose. If before the dealings were in boat-loads, now whole ships' +cargoes were received at once, or in a couple of nights, and stored in +the cellars of his castle, from which they were gradually delivered to +the purchasers, the neighboring proprietors, and the tradespeople in +the small towns of the island and the little seaports of the mainland. + +This part of the business was chiefly undertaken by Smith Pinnow. Smith +Pinnow had been long known to be a smuggler, had been frequently +overhauled by the officers of justice, and more than once punished, +when of a sudden he found that he was going blind, had to wear great +blue spectacles, and could only in very fine weather, with the help of +his deaf and dumb apprentice Jacob, take some of the bathing-guests at +Uselin out in his cutter for an hour or two's sail. This affliction +befel the worthy man just at the time that the great smuggler-captain +on the island, whose attention had been drawn to so highly qualified an +assistant, one night paid a visit to the forge, and took him, so to +speak, into his service. From that time forth the two acted in concert; +and by the time the four years had passed, the smith had amassed so +much money that he would never have thought of betraying his chief, had +not jealousy got the upper hand of the old sinner. "If you do not leave +the girl in peace, I will shoot you down like a dog," the Wild Zehren +had said; and Smith Pinnow was not the man to quietly put up with such +a threat, especially when he knew in what deadly earnest it was +uttered. + +From that time a rumor, of which no one knew the source, spread abroad +in the city, but especially in the offices of the customs, that the +Wild Zehren at Zehrendorf was the soul of the whole smuggling trade, +which was carried on with such activity for leagues up and down the +coast. At first no one gave credit to the rumor. To be sure the Wild +Zehren was a man whose name was used as a bugbear to frighten children +with in Uselin; and no doubt things were known or believed of him which +people hardly ventured to whisper--he had stabbed his brother-in-law, +he had horribly maltreated his wife and afterwards drowned her in the +tarn in the woods, and more of the same sort--but these were things +that were to be expected of the Wild Zehren, while smuggling--no, it +was not possible! A man of the most ancient nobility, and whose brother +moreover was the highest officer of the Revenue Department in the +province! + +This was the general opinion. But now and then there would be a voice +heard, but very softly indeed, remarking that however different the +brothers might be in disposition, mode of life, and even in person, +they resembled each other at least in this, that both were deeply in +debt; and similar causes might very well produce similar effects. If +the Wild Zehren's undertakings had been accompanied with such +extraordinary good fortune during these years, the reason probably was +that the custom-officers had no clue to his movements, while he, for +his part, was perfectly well informed when and where there was no risk +of meeting any of them. + +The matter might still have been long quietly argued _pro_ and _con_, +had not an unlucky chance happened to give effect to Smith Pinnow's +treachery. In the same night when Pinnow and Jock Swart, who could +have turned traitor to his master from no other cause than sheer +black-heartedness, lodged their information with Customs-revisor Braun, +the provincial customs-director arrived in Uselin. The revisor, who +belonged to the party that distrusted their chief, did not go to the +latter, as he would certainly have contrived to render the denunciation +harmless; but went straight to the director, who at once laid his plans +with great skill and forethought, to strike a strong blow at the +smugglers, in which he succeeded but too well. + +Was the steuerrath guilty? There was no direct proof of the fact, if it +was a fact. The steuerrath had always declared that for a long time he +had broken off all personal intercourse with his brother, whose +conduct--though in truth he was greatly reformed of late--was of a +nature to compromise a faithful public officer. And in truth, the Wild +Zehren had in the last year never been seen with his brother, nor even +in the city. If, notwithstanding, there had been any personal +intercourse between them, their meetings must have been kept extremely +secret. Any letters he might have received from his brother, the +steuerrath would of course have destroyed; and if the Wild Zehren was +less cautious, he was now dead, his castle burned to the ground--who or +what was there to bear witness against the steuerrath? + +I was the only one who could have done it. I remembered well the +expressions which Herr von Zehren had always used in speaking of his +brother; I knew that this last expedition had been made chiefly on that +brother's account. I had held in my hands the proof of his guilt, +and--destroyed it. + +It seemed as if something of the sort was suspected. Suddenly the name +of the steuerrath made its appearance in the examinations to which I +was subjected, and I was closely questioned as to what I knew of the +relations between Herr von Zehren and his brother. I firmly denied all +knowledge of anything of the kind. + +"My dear sir," said Assessor Perleberg, "why do you wish to screen the +man? In the first place, he does not deserve to be spared, for he is a +bad subject, take him as you will; and in the second place, you thus do +yourself irreparable injury. I will tell you beforehand, you will not +get off with less than five years, for in the first place----" + +"For God's sake let me alone!" I said. + +"You grow less reasonable every day," said Assessor Perleberg. + +And he was quite right; but it would have been a marvel had it been +otherwise. + +I had been confined now for nearly half a year in a cell but half +lighted by a small grated window, and which I could traverse with four +steps lengthways and with three across. This was a hard trial for a +young man like me, but harder, much harder, were the mental sufferings +that I endured. The confidence in humankind which had hitherto filled +my heart, was all now gone. That no one visited me in my prison, I +could lay to the account of Justizrath Heckepfennig, who felt it to be +his duty to see that so dangerous a man held no communication with the +outer world; but that men to whom I had done nothing, or at the worst +had perhaps at some time or other, in my clumsy way, ruffled their +pride a little, should set their hearts upon trampling a fallen man +still deeper into the dust--this I could not forgive; this it was +that filled my soul with bitterness unspeakable. Ten witnesses were +called to prove my previous good character; and of these ten there was +but one, and that one the man whom of all others I had most deeply +wounded--Professor Lederer--who ventured to say some words in my +behalf, and to put up a timid plea for lenity. All the rest--old +friends of my father, neighbors, fathers whose sons had been my friends +and companions--all could hardly find words to express what a miscreant +I had been all my life long. And good heaven! what had I done to them? +Perhaps I had filled the pipe of one with saw-dust; I had caught a pair +of pigeons that belonged to another; the son of a third I had sent home +with a bloody nose--and this was all. + +I could not comprehend it, but so much of it as I did understand, +filled me with inexpressible bitterness, which once even broke out into +indignant tears when I learned through my counsel that Arthur--the +Arthur whom I had so dearly loved--when interrogated as to his +association with me, declared that for years I had talked to him about +turning smuggler, and had even attempted to persuade him to join me; +that I had always been on the most intimate terms with Smith Pinnow, +and that if he were asked if he believed me capable of the crime laid +to my charge, he must answer unequivocally Yes. + +"That ruins you," said Assessor Perleberg. "You will not get off under +seven years; for in the first place----" + +I brushed away the tears that were streaming down my cheeks, burst into +a wild laugh, and then fell into a paroxysm of frantic rage, which +finally gave place to a stony apathy. I still felt a kind of interest +in the sparrows that I had taught to come every morning and share my +ration of bread; but all other things were indifferent to me. I +learned, without feeling any special interest in the news, that +Constance was already deserted by her princely lover, who had yielded +to the entreaties and threats of his father; that Hans von Trantow had +disappeared and no one knew what had become of him, but the general +opinion was that he had met with some accident in the forest or on the +moor; that old Christian had never recovered from the effects of his +young mistress's flight, his master's death, and the burning of the +castle, and had been found one morning lying dead among the ruins which +he could never be prevailed on to leave; and that old Pahlen had +escaped from the jail at B. in which she had been confined. I heard all +this with indifference, and with similar apathy I received my sentence. + +Assessor Perleberg, with his "first place" and "second place," had been +perfectly right. I was condemned to seven years' imprisonment in the +prison at S. + +"You may think yourself lucky," said Assessor Perleberg. "I would +have condemned you to ten years and to hard labor; for in the first +place----" + +It was no doubt a mark of youthful levity that I had no ears for the +very learned and instructive exposition of my counsel, and that too +when it was my last opportunity. But I was really thinking of something +quite different. I was thinking what the Wild Zehren would have done +had he been alive and learned that they had shut up his faithful squire +in prison and placed his own brother as jailor over him. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +It was an evening of May, as the wagon in which I was conveyed, +escorted by two mounted gendarmes, drew near the place of my +destination. On the left of the road, which was lined with stunted +fruit-trees, I saw numbers of laborers working on the new turnpike +which was to connect my native town with the provincial metropolis; on +the right, open meadow-land stretched away to the sea, which was +visible as a wide dark-blue streak. On the other side of the water, +from a low beach of sand, green fields sloped upwards to a moderately +high upland which was crowned with woods. This was the island, which +here lay much nearer the mainland than it did near Uselin, and which I +now beheld again for the first time. Before me, still more than a mile +distant, I could perceive two towers rising high above a range of hills +that we were slowly approaching. + +My feelings were strange. During the whole journey I had been looking +through the rents in the cover of the little wagon, but only watching +for an opportunity of escape. But however determined I was to seize the +very first that presented itself, there was none, not even the +slightest. The two gendarmes, of whom one was one of those who had +hunted me in vain upon the island, rode on the right and left close +behind the wagon without exchanging a word, their moustachioed faces +looking straight between their horses' ears, or turned sideways towards +the wagon. There was not the slightest doubt that the first movement +that looked like an attempt to escape would bring the butts of their +carbines to their shoulders. To make the attempt in the presence of two +well-armed, well mounted, and thoroughly determined men, would have +been to seek, not liberty, but death. + +And none of the chances had happened which I had imagined possible. We +had passed no bridge over which I might have leapt into a torrent, we +had entered no crowded market-place in which I might have sprung into +the throng, and perhaps found shelter with some compassionate soul. +Nothing of the kind; we travelled the seven or eight miles of the +journey at a walk, or a short trot, without a single halt, and without +an interruption of any kind, and now before me rose the towers in whose +shadow lay my prison. + +And yet at this time I no longer felt the wrath and burning indignation +which had filled my breast the whole time that I was in custody under +examination. The two hours in the open air had done me inexpressible +good. It had been raining for some time before, and I had held out my +hands to catch the drops; I had inhaled with delight the fresh air that +blew into the wagon. Now the sun had again broken through the clouds, +and, as it was near its setting, cast long ruddy streaks over the green +sprouting fields and the sparkling meadows. Birds sang and twittered in +the trees by the wayside; just before us in the east stood a brilliant +rainbow with one foot on the mainland, and the other on the island. All +nature seemed so calm and gentle, so free from hate or anger; on the +contrary all things wore so mild a beauty and breathed such sweet +peace, that I who from a child had sympathized with every mood of +nature, could not close my heart to her soft solicitations. My heart +sang with the birds; it floated on the moist pinions of the gentle +breeze that bore blessings over the fields and meadows; it bathed in +the bright hues of the bow of hope, which sprang from earth to heaven +and back to earth again. The feeling that I was, as it were, a part of +all these, and yet was sitting a prisoner in the jail-van, begat in me +such a sense of pity for myself as I had never before experienced. I +covered my face with my hands and wept. + +The sun had now set; the eastern and western skies were glowing with +the most splendid hues as the van rolled through the town-gate, rattled +up two or three narrow, badly-paved streets, and stopped at last at a +gateway in a high dead-wall. The gate slowly opened, the van rolled +across a wide yard shut in on all sides with lofty blank walls and +tall, gloomy-looking buildings, to the gate of the tallest and most +forbidding of these, and there stopped. I had reached the place where I +was to spend seven years because I had endeavored to guard my friend +and protector from the results of a crime which I myself abhorred. + +Seven years! I was determined that it should not be so long. I had read +the adventures of Baron Trenck, and knew that it was possible to pierce +thick masonry and undermine great fortress-walls. What he had succeeded +in doing, I thought I could not fail to accomplish. + +So my first proceeding, when the door closed behind the surly warden, +was to examine my cell as closely as the faint remains of daylight +would allow. If all the prisoners were so well lodged, there were +certainly many of them that fared much worse when at liberty. The walls +of the small room were simply whitewashed, it is true; but so were +those of my garret at home. There was an iron bedstead with what seemed +a very comfortable bed, a clothes-press, at the solitary window a large +table with a drawer, two wooden chairs, and, to my surprise, a great +arm-chair covered with leather, which strongly reminded me of the one +in my room at Castle Zehrendorf. + +Yes, I was again the guest of a Zehren, though this time he was only +the superintendent of a prison. It seemed as if the Zehrens were +inextricably woven into my life. They had brought me but little good +fortune; and the proud lustre that had formerly seemed to me to illume +the name, had greatly paled in my eyes. The steuerrath, in whom the boy +had beheld the incarnation of the highest earthly authority, what +was he in the eyes of the prisoner but a liar and hypocrite who had +ten-fold and a hundred-fold deserved the misfortunes he had brought +upon men who were better than he? And the man here, who, sprung from +such a family, had been willing to undertake such an office as his, +must be even worse than the hypocrite and liar. I would let him feel +the full measure of my contempt when I met him; I would tell him that +if he chose to be a jailor, he ought at least to renounce the name +which his noble brother had borne, who preferred dying by his own hand +to falling into the hands of those who would have brought him here, +behind this triply-bolted door, and these windows with massive bars of +iron. + +The window was by no means so high as those in the guard-house, and I +looked with curiosity through the bars. The prospect might have been +worse. True, a high and perfectly blank wall shut out the view to the +left, but on the right I could see into a court planted with trees, in +which at no great distance was a two-storyed house presenting a gable +covered entirely with vines. Behind the house there seemed to be a +garden: at least I could catch glimpses of fruit-trees in blossom. All +this had a very lovely and peaceful appearance in the dim light of the +spring evening; and the shrill twittering of the swallows that skimmed +in flocks past my window, might have made me forget that I was a tenant +of a prison, had I not been painfully reminded of it by the sharp angle +of one of the bars against which I had pressed my forehead. + +I seized the bar with both my hands, and shook it with my whole force. +Six months of confinement had not deprived my muscles of their +strength, as I well perceived. I felt as if with one wrench I could +bring away the whole grating. Did I deceive myself, or did it yield +a little? I was not mistaken; either the screws were loose, or the +wood-work decayed; I could not at the moment determine which; but this +seemed no grating that could hold me. My heart beat with the exertion +and the joyful surprise. I had vowed to myself that they should not +keep me seven years! But caution! it was not the grating alone that +made a prisoner of me. Were the grating away, there was a depth of at +least thirty feet to the stone pavement of the court. And were I safely +down, there were doubtless other difficulties to overcome, and a +baffled attempt at escape might make my position incalculably worse. + +I heard a rustling in the passage. Footsteps drew near and came to my +door. I sprang back from the window and stood in the centre of the +room, when there was a rattling of keys on the outside, the door +opened, and a man of tall stature entered, passing the turnkey, and the +door was closed after him. He stood for a moment at the threshold, and +then approached me with a peculiar light step. From the ruddy evening +clouds there still fell a pale rosy light into the room; in this rosy +glow I always see him again when I think of him--and how often do I +think of him, with the deepest emotions of gratitude and love! + +Over the table at which I am writing these words, hangs his portrait, +painted by a beloved hand. It is a most perfect likeness. It would +recall to my memory every feature, every line, were it possible that I +could forget them. And now, did I close my eyes, he would stand before +me again as he stood on that evening, in the rosy sunset light, and not +less clearly would I hear his voice, whose soft, deep tone I then heard +for the first time, and whose first word was one of pity and sympathy. + +"Poor youth!" + +How deeply must the prison air have poisoned my heart, that these words +and the tone in which they were spoken did not move me! Alas, it is one +of my most painful recollections that this was so; that I rudely +repulsed the hand of the noblest of men, and deliberately wounded the +kindest heart on earth. But the narrative of my life would have no +worth, if my faults were not honestly set down. And I have often +thought that I might not have learned to love him so well had I been +less obdurate at first, had I not given him the occasion to heap upon +me all the wealth of his benevolence and love. And yet I err in this. +Jewels of the costliest price, of the purest water, need no dark foil. + +"Poor youth!" he said again, and held out his white and almost +transparent hand; but let it fall again, when, instead of taking it and +pressing it with reverence to my lips, as I should have done had I +known him, I folded my arms and stepped back. + +"Yes," he said, and his voice sounded, if possible, still gentler than +before, "it is very hard, very cruel, the fate which has befallen you +for a crime which, whatever it may be in the eyes of the judge who must +follow the stern letter of the law, in the eyes of others merits a +milder name, for at least it does in mine. I am the brother of the man +for whose fault you are suffering." + +He seemed to expect an answer from me, or at least some word of +acknowledgement, which I would not give. I would not do my jailor the +favor to help him in his attempt to show himself in another light than +that in which I saw him. + +"It is a strange caprice of fortune," he continued, after a short +pause, always in the same gentle manner, "that one brother should to a +certain extent be the instrument of punishing you for the injury which +another has done you--a chance for which I am thankful, and which I +think I shall rightly employ by--but of this another time. To-day the +gloomy shadow of the first dreary impression a place like this must +make upon a spirit like yours, lies too heavily upon you; though I +could speak with the tongues of angels, I could find no entrance to +your heart, which is closed by anger and hatred. I have merely come to +perform a duty which my office and I may say my heart prescribes. And +this also is my duty, so that you may freely answer me without feeling +that your pride is making concessions. Have you any wish that it is in +my power to grant?" + +"No," I answered, "for you could hardly give me a day's shooting over +the heaths of Zehrendorf." + +A sad smile played around the superintendent's delicate lips. + +"I have heard," he said, "that you used to hunt much with my brother, +and that you are yourself a skilful hunter. The hunter's nature is a +peculiar one. I think I understand it, for I was born with the hunter's +instincts; but there is no room for its exercise in these court-yards +and gardens. I seldom have a holiday, and still more rarely avail +myself of it; and in this respect I enjoy, and indeed desire, but +little advantage over my prisoners. So it would be a hard trial for me, +if with the old passion I still possessed my former vigor; and thus I +may almost count it a piece of good fortune that at the Battle of +Leipzig I was shot through the lungs, so that it would avail me nothing +though I had the range of the boundless hunting-grounds of America. I +have since learned to confine my activity within narrower limits. My +favorite recreation is the turning-lathe. It is light work, and yet +often proves too heavy for an invalid like myself I shall probably soon +give it up, and must choose some still lighter work. But I should not +like to find myself condemned to absolute inactivity. You do not now +know, but you will soon learn, how great a blessing to a prisoner is a +mechanical occupation which fixes his wandering thoughts upon some near +and easily obtainable result which shapes itself under his hand. And +now I will leave you. I have still two visits to make, besides my +evening round through the building. One thing more: the old man who +will wait upon you, is, despite his rough ways, a thoroughly good +man, whom I have known for many years, and who has rendered me in my +life the most important services. You can trust him absolutely. Now, +good-night, and good sleep to you, and dream of the freedom which I +hope you will sooner regain than you now think." + +He gave me a friendly nod, and left the room with the slow, light step +with which he had entered. I looked after him with fixed eyes, and +passed my hand over my brow; the silent cell seemed to have become +suddenly darker. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +I was still standing on the same spot, endeavoring to collect my +thoughts, when the door again opened, and the old turnkey who had first +received me, entered with a lighted candle, which he placed upon the +table. Then returning to the door, he took from some female whose form +was barely perceptible, a waiter upon which was a collation, and even a +bottle of wine. He laid a snow-white napkin over one corner of the +great oak table, placed everything neatly and orderly, took a step back +and cast a satisfied look at his work, then an angry one at me, and +said with a voice which strikingly resembled the growl of a great +mastiff: "There!" + +"It seems this is for me," I remarked, indifferently. + +"Don't see who else it could be for," growled the old man. + +The roast meat on the dish had a very appetizing odor; for half a +year I had not tasted a drop of wine; and what was more, I did not +feel towards the surly turnkey the aversion that I felt towards the +gently-speaking, courteous superintendent; but I was resolved to accept +no favors from my jailor. + +"I owe this to the kindness of the Herr Superintendent?" I asked, +taking my seat at the table. + +"This and more," said the old man. + +"For instance?" + +"For instance, that one has our best cell, with a look-out into the +garden, and not one looking into the prison-yard, where neither +sunlight nor moonlight ever comes." + +"Thanks," said I, "anything else?" + +"That one can wear his handsome town-clothes, instead of unbleached +drilling; which is not such a bad rig, though, after all." + +"Thanks," said I; "anything else?" + +"And that one has Sergeant Süssmilch for warden." + +"With whom I have the honor?" + +"With whom one has the honor." + +"Much obliged." + +"Well you may be." + +I looked up to get a better view of the man whose relation to me was so +fraught with honor and advantage. He appeared to be above fifty years +of age, of short, compact build, who seemed to stand remarkably firmly +for his age upon his short bowed legs. From his broad shoulders hung a +pair of quite disproportionately long arms, with great brown hairy +hands, which evidently had not lost their strength of grasp. From his +furrowed and wrinkled face, which might once have been good-looking, +twinkled under gray bushy eyebrows a pair of clear, good-humored eyes, +which in vain tried to look fierce and cruel. His smooth, close-cropped +gray hair lay thick above his bronzed forehead; and beneath his great +hooked nose, like an eagle's beak, a heavy moustache drooped on either +side far below his firm chin. Sergeant Süssmilch was, in later years, +long my true friend; in hours of trial he rendered me priceless +services; he taught my eldest boys to ride; and when, five years ago, +we carried him to his last resting-place, we all heartily sorrowed over +him; but at this moment I was considering what amount of resistance he +would be likely to offer in a contingency which I deemed very probable, +and thought that I should be sorry to have to take the life of the old +fellow who was so delightfully surly. + +"If one has looked at Sergeant Süssmilch long enough, one will do well +to fall to the supper, which is getting no better by standing," he +said. + +"It may stand there for me," I answered. "I have no appetite for the +Herr Superintendent's roast meat and wine." + +"Might as well have said so at once," growled Herr Süssmilch, +commencing to replace the things on the waiter. + +"Who the deuce was to know what your custom here is," I said in a sulky +tone. + +"The custom here is that one has to work when he wants to eat." + +"That is not true," I said. "I am not condemned to labor: I was +sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, and should by rights have been +sent to the fortress, where decent people go." + +"Meaning one's self?" asked Herr Süssmilch. + +"Meaning one's self." + +"One is altogether mistaken," he replied, having by this time cleared +away the things. "In the prison one is compelled to work, unless one +has a father or some one who will pay for his keep. In this case one +has a father, and gets from him ten _silbergroschen_ daily." + +"Herr Süssmilch," I cried, stepping up to the old man, "I take for +granted that you are telling me the truth; and now I give you my word +that I will rather starve in the dungeon like a rat, than take a penny +from my father." + +"One will be of another way of thinking to-morrow." + +"Never." + +"Then one will have to work." + +"We shall see about that." + +"Yes, we shall see." + +Süssmilch went, but stopped at the door, and remarked over his +shoulder: + +"One wants, then, the ordinary diet, such as every one receives when he +comes here?" + +"One wants nothing at all," I said, turning my back upon him. + +"No light, then, for that is extra too." + +I made him no answer. I heard the old man go to the table, take the +light, place it on the waiter, and move to the door. There he paused, +apparently to see if I would change my mind. I did not move. He +coughed; I took no notice. The next moment I was alone in the dark. + +"To the devil all of you, with your smooth ways and your rough ways!" I +muttered to myself "I want the one as little as the other, and I will +be under obligations to no one--no one!" + +I laughed aloud, seized the grating of the window and shook it, and +then ran up and down the dark room like some wild animal. At last I +threw myself in my clothes upon the bed, and lay there in gloomy +desperation brooding over my fate, which had never before seemed to me +so intolerable. I wrought myself up to a pitch of wild hatred against +all who had had any share in my ruin, against my judge, my counsel, my +father, the whole world; strengthening myself in my resolution not to +abate my obduracy, not to ask the slightest thing of any one, not to be +grateful to any one, and above all to win my liberty, cost what it +might. + +Thus I lay for long hours. At last I slept and dreamed of a flowery +meadow over which were fluttering gay butterflies which I tried to +catch but could not, for whenever I touched them they turned to red +roses. And the red roses, when I attempted to pluck them, began to +flash with light and ring with music, and flashing and ringing they +floated up to heaven, whence they looked smiling down upon me as the +faces of blooming maidens. It was all so strange and sweet and fair, +that I lay upon the grass, laughing with bliss. But when I awaked I did +not laugh. When I awaked Süssmilch stood at my bed-side and said: "Now +one will have to work." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +For a fortnight I had been doing the very hardest work which at the +time was to be had in the establishment, which combined in itself the +features of a work-house, jail, and penitentiary. I was not compelled +to do this either by the letter of the law which prescribed that +prisoners should be employed in accordance with their capabilities, nor +by order of the superintendent, who on the contrary had allowed me to +choose whatever work I preferred. Indeed he proposed to me to draw up +certain lists, and make out certain accounts which happened to be +needed in the office, and for which the materials should be sent to my +cell. For exercise I might find pleasant and healthful work in the +large garden, which was about to be extended. + +I replied--and in this I spoke the exact truth--that I was but a poor +hand at accounts, and that I understood nothing of gardening. I should +prefer, if I were allowed any choice in the matter, the very hardest +work that could be found. The Herr Superintendent had himself remarked +that work of this sort was the most suitable to a man of my +constitution. I had at first denied this; but had more maturely +considered the matter and found that the superintendent was right. +Indeed I must confess that I felt an irresistible desire to split wood, +to break stone, or to handle great weights. + +In this, too, I spoke but the truth. My powerful frame was really +suffering from the compulsory inactivity. But there were other reasons +besides this which really prompted my request. Though I scarcely knew +it myself, most of my decisive steps were taken with reference to my +father. It was in a spirit of defiance to him that I had left his +house; it was in defiance to him that I had given myself up to justice; +and it was in defiance that I rejected his provision for my support and +demanded the hardest work. He should not have it in his power to say +that I ever, even in prison, was a burden to him; he should know that +his son was treated no better than a common criminal, which indeed he +was in his eyes. + +And as little should the soft-speaking superintendent be able to say +that he had dealt out to the young man who came of such respectable +parents, mercy instead of justice. + +And finally, heavy work which would have to be done in the open air +must offer better chances for the execution of the plan over which I +was brooding day and night, the plan either by cunning or force, or +both combined, to obtain my liberty. + +Now it is true that the work in the garden which was proposed to me +perhaps offered still greater facilities for my purpose. The watch that +would be kept there would hardly be very strict, especially for me, +whom for some reason or other the superintendent seemed so particularly +disposed to favor; but here a feeling arose within me which would +probably appear singular to most men in my position, and yet of which I +have no cause to feel ashamed. + +I was not willing to abuse any confidence that might be placed in me. I +had never done this in my life before; and I would not learn it now, +not even though a prisoner, not even to win the liberty for which I so +wildly longed. If they set me to work with the common criminals +condemned to hard labor, they would probably treat me and watch me as +one of them; and if they neglected this, so much the worse for them who +made the distinction at their own risk, and so much the better for me +who did not ask to be spared, and consequently was under no obligations +to spare any one. + +These thoughts passed through my mind as I appeared before the +superintendent on the following day--this time in his office--and +presented my request to him. + +He looked searchingly at me with his large gentle eyes, and answered: + +"Whoever enters this place as a prisoner, is an unhappy man, who as +such alone is entitled to my compassion. If your fate touches me more +nearly than the rest, the reason is so clear as to need no explanation. +You have rejected the sympathy which I proffered you, but have not +offended me. From what I know of you, from your attitude during your +trial, this was what I had to expect. Whether you do well to reject the +provision which your father is willing to make for you, I greatly +doubt, as by so doing you but widen the breach between you; and in any +circumstances one owes a father so much, that one can, without shame, +accept even a humiliation at his hands. But this matter I must leave to +your own feelings. If you wish to be treated as a common pauper +criminal, who has to work for his maintenance, I had planned, as you +know, work for you better suited to your capacities and your education. +You say that what you desire is hard, laborious work. It may be so: you +are a man of very unusual bodily strength, and the confined air of a +prison is poison to both your mind and body. You have been deeply +embittered by the long term of your preliminary detention, which +appears to have been unprecedentedly rigorous. You will again, I am +convinced, become the generous, good-natured, noble fellow which you +are by nature, and which in my eyes you still are, when you have +expanded this deep chest with pure fresh air, and your torpid +circulation has been quickened by active work. You need, moreover, a +strong counterpoise to the passions that are raging within you. So, all +things considered, I am willing to grant your request. Süssmilch shall +show you your duties. But I tell you beforehand, it is convicts' work, +and you will find yourself in very bad company; so much the earlier +will you remember the difference between you and them." + +He gave me a friendly look and wave of the hand, and dismissed me. A +feeling which I could not explain brought tears to my eyes as I turned +from him to the door, but I forced them back and said to myself: That +is all very fine; but I do not wish to be good, I wish to be free. + +At the extreme corner of the prison wall, upon a slight elevation, +there was a new infirmary to be built. Design, plans, specifications, +had all been prepared by the superintendent himself, who was an +excellent architect, and the work was to be done by the convicts. They +were now digging the foundations. It was a heavy piece of work. An old +tower, forming part of the city wall, had once stood upon the spot the +ruins of which in the lapse of centuries had first crumbled to rubbish, +and then become consolidated into a compact mass which had to be broken +up with the pick until the old foundation-wall was reached, which was +to serve in part for the new building. + +About twenty men were employed on this work. Sergeant Süssmilch had the +general supervision of it, and indeed, I being the only prisoner under +his immediate charge, had nothing else to do, the convicts from the +penitentiary being under the charge of two overseers. The most of these +convicts, of whom the majority were young men, and all strong and well +fitted for such work, looked as any men would look dressed in coarse +drilling, working under the eyes of a pair of stalwart overseers, and +forbidden to smoke, to whistle, to sing, or to speak in a low tone. +This latter prohibition first struck me upon hearing Süssmilch give to +one who had attempted to open a private conversation with his neighbor, +in a very emphatic tone the warning: "One has no secrets here; one can +talk loud or hold his tongue." + +This warning was most frequently given to one particular convict, with +the additional remark that he had every reason to be careful. + +This was a fellow of Herculean frame, the only one that had what might +be called a thorough gallows-face, and who owed his precious life only +to the circumstance that a murder of which he was most vehemently +suspected, could not quite be brought home to him in the eyes of the +judges. He was named Kaspar, and his fellow-convicts called him +Cat-Kaspar, because he was believed to possess the mysterious faculty +of seeing in the dark as well as in broad daylight, and, +notwithstanding the gigantic breadth of his shoulders, of creeping +through holes only large enough to allow the passage of a cat. + +From the very first day I had made a conquest of this richly-gifted +man. While the others watched me with suspicious side-glances, never +spoke a word to me, and visibly avoided me, Cat-Kaspar sought every +opportunity to be near me; made furtive signals with his eyes, first +looking at me and then at the overseers, and gave me in every way to +understand that he wished to enter into more intimate relations, and +especially that he wished to speak with me. + +I confess that I felt the strongest abhorrence for the man, whose +nature was plainly enough indicated by a low forehead almost covered by +his hair, a pair of evil, poisonous eyes, and a great brutal mouth; and +any one would have felt the impulse to shun him even without the +knowledge that his hands were stained with blood. But I mastered this +instinctive aversion, for I said to myself that this man would have +decision enough for any venture, and dexterity and strength enough to +carry out any plan. So I also sought an opportunity to get near him, +but did not succeed until we had been working together for a fortnight. +I had hardly effected this, when I made the discovery that Cat-Kaspar, +in addition to the accomplishments of which I had heard, possessed +another, which I afterwards found out to be easily acquired. This art +consisted in a most perfect imitation of a yawn, and while holding the +hand to the open mouth, forming by means of the tongue and teeth +certain sounds which, when closely listened to, could be detected to be +words. Thus for the first time I heard, to my no small astonishment, +from the midst of the most natural yawn in the world, the words: "The +great stone--help me." + +What he meant I learned a few minutes later. + +They had recently been hauling stone for the foundations, and a +particularly large one, through the clumsiness of the wagoners, had +rolled into the foundation at a place where it was not needed. It +seemed a matter of impossibility to get it out again without erecting +apparatus for the purpose. Sergeant Süssmilch swore at their cursed +stupidity, which would now cause an hour or more of unnecessary work. +Cat-Kaspar, after he had given me the mysterious hint, suddenly raised +his voice and said: + +"What is the great difficulty, Herr Süssmilch? I will undertake it, +single-handed." + +"Yes, if a big mouth could do it," growled Herr Süssmilch. + +The rest laughed. Cat-Kaspar called them a pack of toadies, and said +that it was an easy thing to crack jokes and laugh at an honest fellow +who was not allowed to show what he could do. + +Cat-Kaspar knew his man. The honest sergeant turned red in the face; he +pulled his long moustache, and said: + +"In the first place, no arguments; in the second place, one may show +now what he can do." + +In an instant Cat-Kaspar had seized an immense crowbar and sprung into +the foundation. + +The stone lay upon the incline covered with planks by which the rubbish +and earth were hauled away, and a giant, by means of a lever, might +perhaps have rolled it up. Cat-Kaspar certainly exhibited very +surprising strength. Thrusting his bar under the stone, he raised it so +far that it required but little more to turn it over. The exertion of +strength was really so astonishing, that the men hurrahed, and the +attention of even Sergeant Süssmilch and the two overseers was riveted +on the performance. Suddenly Cat-Kaspar's strength seemed to fail him; +he looked as if in peril every instant to be crushed between the stone +and the bank of earth. + +"Help me, some one!" he cried. + +I did not imagine that all this was a mere stratagem of the cunning +rascal. Snatching a second crowbar, and without waiting for the +sergeant's permission, I leapt down, thrust the bar under the stone, +clapped my shoulder to it and heaved with all my strength, and the +stone rolled over. + +"Hurrah!" shouted the men. + +"Slowly, comrade," said Cat-Kaspar, as I was exerting myself further to +help him with the stone, "slowly, or we will get up too soon." + +He had no need to yawn now; the excitement of both convicts and +overseers was such that the regulations were for the time forgotten; +and then we were at least fifteen feet below them, and only our backs +were visible. Cat-Kaspar took advantage of his opportunity. While we +were heaving at the stone, shoulder to shoulder, he kept bandying +coarse jokes with those above, and in the intervals addressed me in +rapid, broken sentences. + +"Will you join us.--never have such another chance--two fellows at +least, such as you and I, must take it in hand--there are ten more of +them--but two must begin--no one has the courage but myself--and you +too, I hope--to-morrow is the last day--through the gate across the +bridge over the rampart to the outer harbor at the strand--only follow +me--I'll bring you through--if any one offers to stop us, kill him--the +scoundrel Süssmilch first of all. If you betray us----" + +"Work, and stop gabbling!" called out the sergeant. + +"I can do no more!" said Cat-Kaspar, throwing down his crowbar. + +He had gained his object, and had no desire to expend his strength +further, at no advantage to himself. + +"Come out!" ordered the sergeant, well pleased to have been right, and +indeed doubly right, since the two strongest men of the gang had +not been able to accomplish what Cat-Kaspar had undertaken to do +single-handed. + +Order was restored, and the work proceeded as usual. I did the work of +two, to conceal the excitement into which the assassin's words had +thrown me. His plan at once seemed tolerably plain, and I comprehended +it thoroughly when I found an opportunity to take a look around from +the highest point of the site from which one could see over the wall. +Immediately adjoining the place where we were working was a gate in the +wall, which during the progress of the work was frequently used, and +the key to which the sergeant carried in his pocket. A short bridge, +which had in the centre a gateway defended by _chevaux-de-frise_, +led from the gate over a wide moat which in former times had been +the town-fosse, as our prison-wall had once been part of the +town-wall. Beyond the moat was a high bastion, with a walk shaded with +walnut-trees at its foot, and on it stood two cannon, but I had never +observed any sentry near them. To the right of the bastion was a much +lower rampart, over which from my position it was easy to see; and +beyond this I caught sight of the pennons of ships, which must be in +the outer harbor of which Cat-Kaspar had spoken. Between the pennons +glittered a bit of blue sea; indeed I could catch a glance of the +island beyond, whose low chalk-cliffs shone bright in the sunset. + +I had seen enough, and hastened to descend in order to awake no +suspicion. The evening-bell rang, our work was over for the day; with +the sergeant at my side I retraced the now familiar way by the garden, +past the house to my cell. + +This night no sleep visited my eyes. All night long I revolved in my +mind the possibilities of flight. That Cat-Kaspar's plan was feasible, +I was now convinced; and equally so that this cunning, bold fellow was +the very man to carry it out. The place could not have been better +chosen; a high bastion, an outer harbor with ships and boats, a +deserted strand beyond, and over there the island, which I could reach +in any event by swimming. Once there, I knew now how to get away, and +how easily it could be done. My clothes were still in the old woman's +keeping, and there also were my gun and my game-bag. Then farewell +preliminary detention and imprisonment; farewell judges and counsel, +superintendents and turnkeys! I should be a free man and could mock you +all--and you too, worthy citizens of my native town, who had dealt so +generously with me, and my father--well, my father might look to it how +he reconciled to his conscience his treatment of a son whom his +severity had driven from his house, whom he and he alone had made a +criminal. + +I had not been a criminal yet, but I knew that I should soon be one; +indeed I felt myself one already. I even now felt the taint of my +associations with Cat-Kaspar. It was plain enough that without real and +deep crime--without _murder_--our plan could not be executed. The +sergeant kept the keys of the gates in his pocket, and he was not a man +to yield, especially in such a case. Then the other two overseers were +there, who were clearly no chicken-hearts. The three would resist as +long as life was in their bodies. They must be despatched at the very +first attack, in order that terror should be added to confusion, if our +flight was to succeed. + +I sprang up from my bed with a wildly-beating heart. Cat-Kaspar counted +on my assistance first of all, and he was right; unless we two began +the attack simultaneously, there was no chance of success; one man +alone would have none to second him; so one of the guards, probably the +sergeant, must fall by my hand. + +By my hand--how easy it was to think and to say this; but would not my +courage fail me at the moment? True, I had fired at the officer in the +moor, but then not only my own liberty, but that of my protector, +benefactor, and friend was at stake, and thankful had I been that my +bullet went astray. Now my associate was not the man I so loved and +admired, but Cat-Kaspar; the thing to be done now was not to fire a +pistol at a dark figure that suddenly springs up threatening in the +way, but to perpetrate a deliberate murder; it was to kill a +comparatively unarmed man with a spade, a pick, or a crowbar, or the +first tool that came to the murderer's hand. And I had done everything +in my power to hate the man, and could not do it. Through all his +roughness there shone so much genuine kindness, that it often seemed to +me that he had put on this prickly garb because he knew how soft he was +by nature. If my relations to him were none of the best, whose fault +was it but mine who had so rudely repulsed all his advances? He had not +retaliated; he had never wavered in his rough but sincere good-will; if +I overlooked his surly fashion of speech, he had treated me, not as a +keeper his prisoner, but as an old faithful servant, who can take many +liberties, might treat a young master who has behaved badly, and who +has been entrusted to him to bring back to reason. Often during the +work I found his clear blue eyes looking at me with a strange +expression as if he were saying constantly to himself: "Poor youth! +poor youth!" and as if he would like to throw down his measuring-rod, +seize my pick, and do the work in my place. Once or twice he had said, +as we were returning from work, "Well, hasn't one had enough of it +yet?" and again, "One shouldn't be too obstinate and grieve the captain +so." (The sergeant never called his former officer the "superintendent," +except where it was absolutely necessary.) "How grieve the captain?" I +asked. "One will not understand it," the old man replied, and looked +quite sad and dejected. + +I would not understand it--he was right in that. + +But does any one understand less because he pretends unconsciousness? +Whatever the reason might be that drew the superintendent's sympathy to +me and my fate, I could not close my eyes to the fact that this +sympathy existed, and that it was expressed in the sincerest, in the +most winning manner, I still heard his words and the tone in which they +were spoken, a tone which so vividly brought back to my memory the +voice of the man who had been and still was my hero. The oftener I saw +the superintendent--and I saw him nearly every day--the more I was +struck by his resemblance to his unfortunate brother. It was the same +tall form, but toil and sickness, and probably grief and care, had +broken down the proud strength; it was the same noble face, but nobler +and gentler; the same great dark eyes, but their looks were more +earnest and sad. Even when his lips were silent, these eyes greeted me +with kindness; and in this frightful night, while I was struggling with +the tempter, I saw them still, and their soft sad looks seemed to ask: +"Have you a heart to plan such a deed?--a hand to execute it?" + +But I will, I must be free! my spirit cried out. What care I for your +laws? If you have brought me to despair, you can only expect from me +the actions of a desperate man. From my school here--from one prison to +another! I shook off one tyranny because I found it intolerable; should +I patiently bear this which oppresses me so much more heavily? Shall I +not meet force with force? What would the Wild Zehren do were he alive +and knew that his dearest friend was here in a dungeon? He would strive +to set me free, though he had to burn down the prison or even the town, +as those faithful fellows did, who delivered his ancestor! What he +would do and dare, that would I. At the worst it could but cost my +life; and that life should be thrown away when it was no longer worth +having--the Wild Zehren had taught me that. + +Thoughts like these agitated me as if a hell had been let loose in my +breast. Even now, after so many years, now when with a joyous and +innocent heart I feel grateful for every sun that rises bringing me +another day of earnest work and calm happiness--even now my heart +palpitates and my hand trembles as I write these lines, which bring so +vividly before me the terrors of that night, and of the time when I +sought for any means of escape from the labyrinth in which I wandered +in despair. + +Let no one cast a stone at me that I strayed so far from the right +path. Well for thee, be thou who thou mayst, whose brow falls into +severe judicial folds upon reading this--well for thee if the happy +temper of thy blood has preserved thee from the blind fury of raging +passions, if a judicious education has early given thee a clear view of +life, and kindly smoothed thy path before thee. Then thank thy +beneficent stars that have granted thee all this, and perhaps kept thee +from going widely astray. For when is this not possible? It is a peril +to which all are exposed. Then devoutly pray that thou mayst not be led +into temptation, that no such night may come to thee as that through +which I suffered; a night in which it is not only dark without, but +within; a night which, when thirty years have passed, you will still +shudder to think of. + +When the dawning light entered my cell, it found me with burning +temples, and shivering with chill. I probably looked pale and haggard, +for the sergeant's first word when he saw me was, "Sick: no work +to-day." + +I was sick; I felt it but too plainly. I had never felt thus in my life +before. Was this the hand of fate, I thought, which forbade our +designs? If I did not go to work to day, the attempt would not be +made. Cat-Kaspar reckoned on my strength, courage, and decision. My +example--the example of one who was to a certain extent a volunteer, +and whom they all felt to be their superior--must exert an irresistible +influence upon them. Cat-Kaspar fully calculated upon this, and he +neither could nor would venture without me. + +"No work to-day," said the sergeant. "Look as miserable as a cat. +Overdid it yesterday. Not got seven senses like a bear." + +This last mysterious phrase--a favorite one with the sergeant--was +beyond my comprehension; but its meaning could only be a friendly one, +for his blue eyes rested upon me as he spoke with an expression of +sincere solicitude. + +"Not at all," I said. "I think I shall feel better out of doors: the +prison air does not suit me." + +"Doesn't suit anybody that I know of," growled the sergeant. + +"And me first of all," I said; "so badly that I have a strong +inclination to go away pretty soon." + +I looked the old man fixedly in the eye. I wanted him to read my +intention in my looks. But he only smiled and replied: + +"Not many would stay if all went that wanted to--Would go away myself." + +"Why do you not?" + +"Been with the captain now five-and-twenty years. Stay with him till I +die." + +"That may happen any day." + +Again I looked at him steadily in the face. This time the expression of +my look struck him. + +"Look like a bear with seven senses. Got a robber-murderous-gallows +look,"[5] said he. + +"What I am not, I may be yet," I said; "what if I were to throttle you +this moment? I am thrice as strong as you." + +"No stupid jokes," said the sergeant. "Not a bear; and an old soldier +is no toothpick." + +In this way the worthy Herr Süssmilch disposed of the matter. As I +would neither remain in my cell nor see the prison-doctor, we started +for the work-place. + +On the way I had to stop more than once, for everything grew dark +before my eyes, and I thought that I was about to die. The same +sensations returned several times during the day, which was unusually +hot. A fierce fever was raging in my veins, a terrible malady was +swiftly coming on me, or indeed had already come. + +Dr. Snellius said to me afterwards, and indeed repeated the remark to +me but a few days ago, over our wine at table, that he cannot to this +day understand how a man in the condition in which I must have been, +could not only remain upon his feet all day long, but do hard work. He +said it was the strongest proof he had ever met, of how far an intense +will could prevail _contra naturam_, against the course of nature. "To +be sure," he added, clapping me on the shoulder, "only blacksmiths can +do it; tailors die in the attempt." + +How dreadfully I suffered! When the dream-god has a mind to play me a +malicious trick, he places me in a deep excavation into which pour the +rays of a pitiless sun; he claps a pick into my hand, with which I +smite furious blows upon a soil hard as rock, but the soil is my own +head, and every blow pierces to my brain; and then he fills the +excavation with fiends in the shape of men, who are all working like +myself with picks or with spades, shovels and barrows, and these fiends +have all flat, brutal faces and evil eyes that they keep fixed upon me, +giving me signs of intelligence and readiness for the devilish work I +am to do. And among them rises from time to time a head that has eyes +more evil than all the rest, and the head opens its horrible mouth to +yawn, and from the distended jaws come the words: "Sunset soon--ready, +comrade--I take Rollmann, you sergeant--smash skulls!" + +But the most dreadful part is to come. + +It is half an hour before sunset. In half an hour the bell will ring to +stop work. This is the last day; the excavation is done and the +foundation-stones are brought. Tomorrow regular masons will take the +work in hand. Some of the convicts will help them, but others will be +employed elsewhere; it is the last evening on which the eleven of whom +I am to be the twelfth will be together. Now or never is to be the +time, and the signal has been already given. + +Cat-Kaspar commences a dispute with his neighbor, in which the others +join, one by one. The quarrel gets hot; the men appear to grow furious; +while the overseers, with the sergeant at their head, endeavor to +separate them, and threaten them with solitary confinement on bread and +water for such unheard-of insubordination. The rioters pay no +attention; from words they come to blows, and pushing and striking, +they get into a confused mêlée, into which they endeavor to involve the +overseers. + +This prelude has lasted but a few moments, and it can be continued no +longer, lest the unusual noise should bring other officers upon the +spot, and so the whole plan be defeated. + +Whether I was drawn into the mêlée, or whether I sprang into it +voluntarily, I cannot say--I find myself in the midst. I do not know if +I am helping the overseers to drag the men apart, or if I am trying to +increase the confusion; but I shout, I rave, I seize two by their necks +and hurl them to the ground as if they were puppets; I behave like a +madman--I am really mad, though neither I nor the rest know it; even +Cat-Kaspar does not perceive it, but rushes up to my side and shouts: +"Now, comrade!" + +At this instant I see a man of tall stature emerge from the garden-gate +and hasten towards us. It is the superintendent. A maiden of about +fifteen, of whose slender figure I have more than once caught a glimpse +through the garden-gate, holds him by the hand, and seems to endeavor +to detain him, or else to share the danger. Two boys appear at the +gate, and hurrah loudly; they have no idea of the terrible seriousness +of the affair. + +The tall superintendent confronts us. He draws his left hand gently +from the hand of the maiden and presses it upon his weak chest, which +is laboring with the exertion of his rapid walk. The other hand he has +raised to command silence, as he is not yet able to speak. His usually +pale cheeks are suffused with a feverish glow; his large eyes flash, as +if they must speak, since his lips cannot. + +And the raging, furious crew understand their language. They have all +learned to look up in reverence to the pale man who is always grave and +always kind, even when he must punish, and whom no one has yet known to +punish unjustly. They are prepared for everything except this, that at +the last moment this man should confront them. They feel that their +plan has failed: indeed they abandon it. + +One does not. One is resolved to win the game or lose all. In truth, is +not the chance now better than ever? Let yonder man once lie prostrate, +who or what could restrain him and the rest? + +Giving a yell more horrible than ever issued from the throat of the +fiercest beast of prey, he swings high his pick and rushes upon the +superintendent. The maiden throws herself before her father. But a +better defender is still swifter than she. With one bound he springs +between them and seizes the miscreant's arm. The pick, in descending, +grazes his head, but what is that to the torments that have been raging +in it for hours? + +"Cursed hound!" roars Cat-Kaspar, "have you betrayed us?" and swings +his pick again, but has hardly raised it when he is lying upon the +ground, and on his breast is kneeling one to whom the delirium of fever +has now given the strength of a giant, and whom in this moment no +living man could resist. + +In a moment it is all over. For an instant he sees the horribly +distorted face of Cat-Kaspar--he feels hands striving to wrench his +hands from the man's throat, and then a black night swallows up all. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +A black night which is but a long, long continuation of the dreadful +dream, until at last it is broken by rare gleams of soft, dim light, at +which the forms of fear grow faint and give way to more friendly +shapes. These also melt into deep night, but it is not the old terrible +gloom, but rather a blissful sinking into happy annihilation; and +whenever I emerge from it the figures are clearer, so that I sometimes +now succeed in distinguishing them from each other, whereas at first +they melted indistinguishably into one another. Now I know that when +the long gray moustache nods up and down before my face, there is +always an honest, good-natured old mastiff there, who growls out of his +deep chest; only I never get sight of the mastiff, and sometimes think +that it is the long gray moustache itself that growls so. When the +moustache is dark, I hear a soft voice, the sound of which is +inexpressibly soothing to me, so that I cannot refrain from happy +smiles, while when I hear the mastiff I would laugh aloud, only I have +no body, but am a soap-bubble which floats out of the garret-window in +my father's house, into the sunny air, until two spectacle-glasses +which have no moustache, are reflected in it. These spectacle-glasses +perplex me; for although they never have a moustache, they are +sometimes blue, and then they are a woman; but when they are white they +are a man and have a creaking voice, while the blue glasses have the +softest voice--softer even than that of the dark moustache. + +I cannot make out how all this is, and puzzle myself over it until I +fall asleep, and when I awake some one is leaning over me who has a +dark moustache and brown eyes, and exactly resembles some one that I +know, although I cannot recall where and when I have seen him. But I +feel both glad and sad at the sight of this unknown acquaintance, for +it seems to me that I owe him boundless gratitude for something--I know +not what. And this feeling of gratitude is so strong that I draw his +hand, which he has laid upon mine, very slowly and softly, for I have +little or no strength, to my lips, and close my eyes, from which happy +tears are streaming. I have something to say, but cannot recall it, and +fall to thinking it over, and when I again open my eyes the form is +gone, and the room vacant and filled with a dim light, and I look +around in surprise. + +It is a moderately-large, two-windowed room; the white window-curtains +are pulled down, and on them I can see the shadows of vine-branches +waving to and fro. I watch the motion with delight; it is an image of +my thoughts that float and waver thus without being able to fix +themselves on any point. I look again into the room, and my eyes find +an object on which they rest. It is a picture which hangs directly +opposite to me on a plain light-gray wall; it represents a young and +beautiful woman with a child in her arms. The eyes of the young mother, +who is calm and almost sad, as though she were pondering over some +wondrous mystery, are mild and gentle; while those of the boy, under +his full brow, have a dignity beyond his years, and look out into the +far distance with an air of majesty as if their glances comprehended +the world. + +I can scarcely turn my eyes from the picture. My admiration is pure and +artless; I have no knowledge of the original; I do not know that it is +an exquisite copy in crayons of the most celebrated painting of the +Master of masters; I only know that never in my life have I seen +anything so beautiful. + +Under this picture hangs a little _étagère_ with two rows of +neatly-bound books. Under the _étagère_ stands a bureau of antique form +with brass handles, and on it lie drawing-materials, and, between two +terra-cotta vases, a little work-basket with ends of red worsted +hanging over its edge. + +Between the windows and the bureau, evidently set on one side, is an +easel, upon which is a drawing-board with the face inwards; and on the +other side of the door a cottage piano, the upper part of which has a +peculiar, lyre-shaped figure. + +I do not know what it is that suddenly brings to my mind Constance von +Zehren. Perhaps it is that the lyre-shaped instrument reminds me of a +guitar; and indeed this must be the reason, for in nothing else does +the room bear any resemblance to Constance's. As there all was neglect +and confusion, here all is orderly and cheerful; no torn threadbare +carpet covers the white floor upon which the windows throw squares of +sunlight, and the shadows of the vine-branches play, but fainter than +upon the curtains. No, I am not at Castle Zehren. In all that castle +there was no apartment like this, so bright, so cheerful, so clean; and +now I remember Castle Zehren is burnt down--to the very ground, some +one told me--so I cannot be at Castle Zehren; but where am I, then? + +I turn my eyes to the beautiful young mother of the picture, as if she +could answer me; but looking at her, I forget what it was that I had +intended to ask. I have only the feeling that one can sleep peacefully +when such eyes are watching him; and I wonder that the fair boy does +not rest his head upon the shoulder or the bosom of his mother, close +his great thoughtful eyes, and sleep sweetly--oh! so sweetly! + +The long sweet sleep wonderfully strengthens me. When I awake, I at +once raise my head, rest myself upon my elbow, and stare with surprise +at the brown furrowed face, the blue eyes, the great hooked nose, and +the long gray moustache of Sergeant Süssmilch, who sits at my bed-side. + +The old man, on his part, looks at me with no less surprise. Then a +pleasant smile shoots from the moustache through a pair of the deepest +furrows up to the blue eyes, where it stays and blinks and twinkles +joyously. He brings three fingers of his right hand to his forehead, +and says, "_Serviteur!_" + +This comes so drolly from him that I have to laugh, for I can laugh +now, and the old fellow laughs too, and says, "Had a good nap?" + +"Splendid," I answer. "Have I been sleeping long?" + +"Pretty well. To-morrow it will be eight weeks," he replies cheerily. + +"Eight weeks," I repeated, mechanically; "that is a long time;" and +thinking of this, I pass my hand over my head. My head was naturally +covered with very thick, curly, soft auburn hair, inclining to red; but +I now feel nothing but short bristles, as of a brush, a brush too in +which time has made considerable ravages. + +"This is very strange," I said. + +"Soon grow," said the sergeant, encouragingly. "Shaved me bald as a +turnip after this"--he pointed to a deep scar on his right temple, +running up into his thick gray hair, and which I now noticed for the +first time--"and yet I had a crop afterwards like a bear----" + +"With seven senses," I added, and had to laugh at my own wit. It seems +that I have a child's head on my broad shoulders. + +The old man laughed heartily, then suddenly grew serious and said: + +"Now keep still, and go to sleep again like a----" + +He did not finish his favorite simile, apparently in fear lest he +should set me to laughing again; but I laughed in spite of his +precautions, and while doing so pulled up the sleeve of my shirt, which +struck me as singularly loose. But it was not that the sleeve was +wider, but my arm thinner; so thin that I could scarcely believe it to +be mine. + +"Soon get strong again," said the sergeant. + +"I have been very sick, then?" + +"Well," said he, "it was very near tattoo; but I always said: weeds +won't die," and he rubbed his hands with satisfaction. "Talk enough +now," he added, in a tone of authority. "Strict orders, when awake, to +allow no discussion, and report fact; which shall be done forthwith." + +The sergeant is about rising, but I take one of his brown hands and beg +him to stay. I feel myself quite strong, I say; speaking does not +fatigue me at all, and of course hearing does not; and I should like to +hear how I came into this condition, who the persons are that have been +about me, and whose faces I have seen floating through the mist of my +dreams; and if there has not been a great good-natured mastiff that +guarded me, and had a way of growling deeply. + +The old man looks at me attentively, as if he thought all was not yet +quite right under my bristly, half-bald skull, and that it was high +time he made his report. He placed my hand upon the coverlid, and said, +"So! so!" smoothes the pillow, and again says, "So! so!" so to please +him I shut my eyes and hear how he rises softly and goes away on +tiptoe; but the door has hardly closed behind him when I open my eyes +again, and apply myself resolutely to the task of solving the questions +which I had addressed to the old man. + +As when we look down from a high mountain upon a sea of mist, we note +bright points emerging, one by one--a sunlit corn-field, a cottage, a +bit of road, a little lake with grassy shores, until at last the whole +landscape lies plain before us, except a few spots over which gray +wreaths of vapor still float, which more slowly than the rest roll up +the ravines--just so before my mental vision dissolved the night of +oblivion which during my illness had covered the recent events of my +life. Now I again remembered that I was in prison and how I came there; +that the old man with the gray moustache was not my friend and nurse, +but my keeper; that I had had thoughts of killing him, if necessary, to +gain my liberty; and so everything that had happened, up to that last +frightful day; but that was confused and obscure--as confused and +obscure as it has ever since remained in my memory to this hour. Dark +and painful; but strange to say, this painful feeling was turned +exclusively against myself. The hate, the bitterness, the rancor, the +desperation, the frenzy--all the demons which had dwelt in my soul, +were gone, as though an angel with flaming sword--perhaps the Angel of +Death, who had hovered over me--had driven them away. Even the remains +of pain melted away in thankfulness that the most fearful of all had +been spared me--that I could look upon my white, wasted hands without a +shudder. + +As I lay here, pondering these things, and my eyes rested upon that +fair young mother, who bore her boy so securely upon her strong, +faithful arm, my hands involuntarily folded, and I thought of my own +mother so early lost--far too early for me--and how all would have +happened differently if she had ever encircled me with her protecting +arms; if in my young sorrows and doubts I could have sought refuge, +counsel, and consolation upon her faithful breast. And I thought too of +my father, who was so lonely now, whose hopes I had so cruelly +blighted, whose pride I had so deeply wounded; and I thought of him for +the first time without animosity, with only a feeling of deepest pity +for the poor old forsaken man. + +"But he will live," I said to myself, "and I am not dead; and all shall +be well again. No, not all. The lost past cannot be recalled; but the +future still is mine, even in a prison." + +In a prison. But was this a prison in which I was?--this pleasant room +with windows barred only by nodding vine-branches; a room in which +everything spoke of the peacefully cheerful life of its fair +inhabitant. + +How I came to this idea I do not know, but I could not rid myself of +it; and there were the ends of red worsted hanging from the little +work-basket. What had a workbasket to do in the room of a man? + +I thought and thought, but could arrive at no conclusion; the streak of +mist would not move. Indeed it rather widened and spread to a thin +veil, which threatened gradually to envelope the whole prospect. I did +not care; I had seen it once and knew that I should see it again; knew +that I should hear the voices again which now fell faintly on my ear as +if from a vast distance, among which I could distinguish the muttered +growl of my faithful mastiff, and the soft voice that accompanied the +eyes whose gentle light had shone through my darkness. + +When I again awaked, it was really night, or at least so late that the +little astral lamp by my bedside was already lighted, and by its feeble +glimmer I saw some one sitting by my bed whom I did not recognize, as +his head was hidden in his hand. But when I moved, and he raised his +head and asked, "How are you now?" I knew him at once. The low gentle +voice I would have recognized among a thousand. And now, strangely +enough, without having to give a moment's thought to the matter, but +just as if some one had told me everything in my sleep, I knew that the +house in which I had been for the last eight weeks, and in which I had +all this time been tended as carefully as if I had been one of the +family, was the house of the superintendent, of the man who certainly +not to-day for the first time was watching by my bed, and who spoke to +me in a tone of affection, as might a kind father to his son. + +Leaning over me, he had taken my hand while he went on speaking; but I +could only half hear his words for another voice that cried out within +me, loud and ever louder, in the words of Scripture: "I am not worthy!" + +I could not silence this voice. "I am not worthy!" it continually +cried, until at last I exclaimed aloud: "I am not worthy!" + +"You are, my friend," said the soft voice; "I know that you are, even +though you know it not yourself." + +"No, no, I am not," I said, in great agitation. "You do not know whom +you are caring for; you do not know whose hand you are holding in +yours." + +And now, following that irresistible impulse which urges every nature +that is upright at heart to refuse at all hazards gratitude which it is +conscious of not deserving, I confessed my grievous fault; how I had +been resolved to run every risk to gain my liberty; that I had not, it +is true, invited the overtures of the ruffian, but nevertheless had +permitted them; how I had known of the plot and of the hour when it was +to be carried out, and that I did not know why in the last moment the +courage to do my part in it had failed me so that I turned my hand +against the man whom I had voluntarily admitted as my comrade, and +whose accomplice I must necessarily consider myself. + +The superintendent allowed me to speak to an end, only retaining with a +gentle pressure my hand, whenever I attempted to withdraw it. When I +ceased speaking, he said--and even now, after so many years, on awaking +in the night, I fancy I hear his voice: + +"My dear young friend, it is not what our fancies, intentions, desires, +represent to us as possible or even necessary, not what we believe we +can do or ought to do, not what we have resolved to do, but it is what +at any given moment we really do, that makes us what we are. The coward +believes himself a hero until the moment of trial convicts him of +cowardice; the brave man fancies that he will prudently avoid all +perils, and plunges headlong into danger as soon as a cry for help +reaches his ear. You believed yourself capable of lifting your hand +against a defenceless man, and when you saw him attacked by a murderer, +you sprang to his assistance. And do not say that you did not know what +you were doing; or if you really did not know, you were following the +irresistible promptings of your nature, and were just at that moment +your real self. I and mine will evermore see in you the man who saved +my life at the peril of his own." + +"You would make me out better than I really am," I murmured. + +"Even were that so," he answered, "few have my opportunity for knowing +that the surest, often the only way to make a man better, is to take +him for better than he is. Would to heaven that this secret of my craft +were always as easy of employment as with you. And if I can help, as I +joyfully trust I can, in refining the noble metal of your nature from +the dross with which it may yet be mingled; if I can help to enlighten +you in regard to yourself, to light up the path of your life which lies +but dark before you, and from which you believe you have--and perhaps +really have--wandered; in a word, to make you what you can be, and +therefore ought to be--that would be but dealing you out justice in +return for the sharp injustice which has brought you here; and I might +thus repay the debt of gratitude which I owed you before you set foot +in this house, let alone before you preserved for my children their +father's life." + +The soft light of the lamp fell upon his beautiful pale face, which +seemed to beam upon me with mild radiance like a star out of the +surrounding gloom; and his gentle voice came to my ear like the voice +of some good spirit that in the stillness of the night speaks to some +needy and stricken soul. I lay there without moving, without turning my +eyes from him, and softly begged him to speak on. + +"It is perhaps selfish in me to do so," he said, "if I now seize the +moment when your soul awakes to fresh life, and is disposed to look +with trusting child-like eyes upon the world it has regained, to teach +you to know me, and, if possible, to love me, as I know and love you--I +repeat it, not now for the first time. I knew you before you came here. +You look at me with surprise, and yet nothing could be more simple. I +always deeply loved my eldest brother, although in reality we only +passed our childhood and boyhood together, and were then separated, +never again to associate, nor indeed even to see each other, for the +last fourteen years. For, whatever the world and his passions may have +made of him, his was originally the fairest, noblest, bravest soul that +ever was bestowed upon man. You can imagine what a blow to me was the +news of his death; with what painful care I strove to learn everything +connected with his death and its cause; how eagerly I seized an +opportunity that offered to read the reports of the trial in which the +name and actions of my unfortunate brother figured so conspicuously, +and in which you were yourself so unhappily involved. From these +reports I first learned to know you, I have long been accustomed to +inspect reports of this kind, and know how to read between the +lines of the text. Never was this skill more necessary to me than in +this case; for never has the juristic understanding--or rather +imbecility--divested of all psychological insight, committed grosser +wrong than in your case; never did the hand of a dauber produce from an +easily-outlined, sun-clear, youthful face, a more hideous caricature in +black upon black. In almost every feature with which the accusation +furnished it, I thought I could perceive and prove exactly the +contrary. And had it not been my dearly-loved brother whose fault you +were to expiate--if the whole trial had been foreign to me, instead of +touching me nearly, and in a thousand painful ways, I would have made +your cause my own, and tried to save you, if in my power. But I could +do nothing for you; I could only exert all my influence to have you +brought here instead of to N., where it was originally intended to send +you. + +"You came, I saw you as I had pictured you to myself; I found you just +as I had thought. There may have been some apparent difference, but +that was not the youth who, to rescue my brother, had rushed upon ruin; +who had given himself up to justice that men might not say his father +was his accomplice; who during the trial had knowingly damaged his own +cause by obstinately refusing all information implicating others; whose +manly candor in all other points would have touched any heart but the +shriveled heart of a man of acts and processes. This was a man who had +been wronged under the forms of law, whose clear soul had been darkened +by the gloom of a dungeon. + +"It was worthy of you that you attempted no concealment of your feeling +of hatred, that you proudly rejected what was offered you here, which +others would have greedily seized. Let me be brief The malady that had +been so long incubating, which nothing but your unusually strong +constitution was able to withstand so long, at last declared itself. In +the frenzy of your disturbed mind you wished to show: 'This is what you +have made out of me!' and the result showed that you had remained what +you always were. You were carried away for dead from the place; a +physician hastily called in gave some hope, but said that only the most +unremitting care could save you. Where could you receive that care but +here? Who could more faithfully watch over your life than he who owed +you his own? What, in such a case, were to me the rules of the house, +or the talk of men? We carried you into the first room, which happened +to be the best for our purpose. We--that is, my wife, my daughter, who +is older than her years, the faithful old Süssmilch, the physician, +whom you will learn to love as he deserves, and myself--we have fought +faithfully and bravely with the death that threatened you; and the +women wept, and the men shook each other by the hand when your strong +nature triumphed over its enemy, and the physician said to us--a week +ago--'He is saved.' And now enough; perhaps too much for to-day. If +from our conversation you have received the impression, and will bear +it with you into your sleep, that you are among friends that love you, +that is all I wish. I hear Süssmilch coming; I wanted to relieve him +to-night, but he says he cannot leave his prisoner. And now good night +and good rest." + +He passed his hand softly over my brow and eyes, and left the room. My +soul was filled with his words. No man had ever spoken to me like this. +Was it really myself? Had my gloomy soul departed during my long +sickness, and given place to a purer, brighter spirit? Be it as it +might, it was sweet--almost too sweet to last. But I would keep it as +long as I could, as one holds fast the refrain of some lovely melody. I +did not move, I did not open my eyes, when I heard by a slight rustling +in the room that my faithful guardian was making his preparations for +the night. + +How could I do otherwise than rest sweetly, so richly blessed; than +rest calmly, so faithfully guarded? + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +In the shady garden, especially reserved for the use of the +superintendent and his family, there was at the farthest corner a +little garden-house, which stood upon the old city-wall, and in the +family rejoiced in the pompous name of _Belvedere_, because from it a +charming view might have been had, over the ramparts, of a large part +of the strait and a still larger part of the island, if one could only +have opened the windows. But the window-frames were very old, and +rotten and warped with age; the sashes were narrow, and the regular +pattern they once presented could scarcely now be discerned in the +small, lead-set panes of stained glass which had once belonged to an +adjacent chapel, now in ruins. The house was to a certain extent a +ruin, as the wood of which it was built had not entirely resisted for +so many years the influences of the sun, the rain, and the sea-breeze; +and it was in consequence but seldom used, far more rarely than the +space immediately in front of it, which was, in reality, the summer +residence of the family, where they passed the best part of the time in +fine weather. + +This spot fully deserved their preference. On a level with the +garden-house and the crest of the wall, and thus considerably higher +than the rest of the garden, it was reached by a refreshing breeze from +the near sea, while but rarely did a ray of the noon sun pierce the +thick foliage of the old plane-trees that surrounded it. The spaces +between the trunks of these trees were filled up with the green wall of +a living hedge, which added to the cosy, secluded character of the +spot, and threw into bold relief the figures of six _hermæ_ of +sandstone. Two round pine tables, painted green, stood on either side, +with the needful chairs, and invited to work or to reverie. + +Of the two persons who were sitting here one fine afternoon in August, +about a fortnight after I had been able to leave my room, the one was +occupied--if day-dreaming may be called an occupation with the other; +while the other was really diligently at work. The dreamer was myself; +and a light covering, which, despite the warmth of the day, was thrown +across my lap, seemed meant to indicate that I was still a +convalescent, to whom dreaming is allowed and work forbidden; while the +other was a young maiden of about fourteen years, and her work +consisted in drawing a life-size head _à deux crayons_ upon a +sketching-board. During her work she frequently raised her eyes from +her sketching-board to me, and if I must name the subject of my dreams, +I must confess that it was these eyes of hers. + +And indeed one did not need to be twenty years old, and a convalescent, +and in addition precisely the one upon whom these eyes were so often +fixed with that peculiar look at once decisive and doubtful, piercing +and superficial, which the painter casts upon his model--I say one did +not need to be either of these, let alone all three at once, to be +fettered by these eyes. They were large and blue, with that depth in +them which has a surface on which play every emotion of feeling, every +glancing light and passing shadow, and which yet remains in itself +something unfathomable. Once already, and that not so long before, I +had looked into eyes that were unfathomable, at least for me, but how +different were these! I felt the difference, and yet was not able +precisely to define it. I only knew that these eyes did not confuse and +disquiet me, did not kindle me into a flame to-day to chill me as with +ice to-morrow; but that I could gaze into them again and again as one +gazes into the clear sky, full of blissful calm, and no wish, no desire +awakens within us, unless it be the longing to have wings. + +What possibly may have caused these large deep eyes of the maiden to +appear larger and deeper, was the circumstance that they were by far +the chief beauty of her face. Some said the only beauty; but I could +not at that time agree with this opinion. Her features were indeed not +perfectly regular, and certainly not at all what is called striking, +but there was nothing ignoble about them; on the contrary, all was +refined and full of character, at once bright and thoughtful, designed +in soft yet well-marked lines. Especially did this apply to the mouth, +which seemed to speak even when the lips were shut. And this bright, +intelligent, rather pale face was inclosed by two thick plaits of the +richest blond hair, which, as was then the fashion, commenced at the +temples and were carried under the ears to the back of the head--almost +too heavy a frame, one would have said, for the delicate head, which +was usually inclined a little forward or to one side. This attitude, +combined with her usual seriousness of expression, gave the maiden an +appearance of being several years older than she really was. But work +and care soon brush away the first lustre of youth; and she, though +hardly more than a child, knew what work was but too well, and over her +young life care had already cast its gloomy shadow. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +At this moment, however, a smile played over her serious face. She +looked over her sketching-board at me and said: "You can get up, if you +wish." + +"Have you finished?" I asked, availing myself of the permission, and +going behind her chair. "Why, you are still at work on the eyes. How +can you have so much patience?" + +"And you so much impatience?" she asked in return, quietly going on +with her drawing. "You are just like our little Oscar. When he has +planted a bean, five minutes afterwards he digs it up again to see if +it has grown at all." + +"But he is only seven years old." + +"Old enough to know that beans do not grow so fast as that." + +"You always find fault with Oscar, and after all he is your pet." + +"Who says so?" + +"Benno told me so yesterday, in strictest confidence. I was not to tell +you." + +"Then you ought not to have told me." + +"But he is right." + +"No, he is not right. Oscar is the smallest, and therefore I must look +after him the most. Benno and Kurt can get along without me." + +"Except their exercises, which you correct for them." + +"Now take your seat again." + +"I may speak, may I not?" + +"Certainly." + +I had taken my seat, but several minutes passed while I sat silently +watching her work. A ray of the evening sun, which pierced the thick +foliage of the great plane, fell upon her head and surrounded it with +an aureole. + +"Fräulein Paula," I said. + +"Paula," she answered, without looking up. + +"Paula, then." + +"Well?" + +"I wish I had a sister like you." + +"You have a sister." + +"But she is so much older than I, and never cared much for me; and now +she of course will have nothing more to do with me." + +"Where did you say that she lives?" + +"On the Polish frontier. She has been married, these ten years, to an +officer in the customs. She has a number of children." + +"Then she has enough to do with them; you must not be angry with her." + +"I am not angry with her; I hardly know her; I believe I should pass +her by if I met her on the street." + +"That is not well; brothers and sisters should hold together. If I +thought that ten or twenty years hence I should meet Benno or Kurt or +my little Oscar on the street and they would not know me, I should be +very unhappy." + +"They would know you, even if fifty years had passed." + +"I should be an old woman then; but I shall never be so old." + +"Why not?" + +"By that time the boys will have long been men, and will have wives and +children, and my father and my mother will long have been buried, and +what should I then do in the world?" + +"But you will marry too." + +"Never," she replied. + +Her voice was so serious, and her great blue eyes that looked over the +board at my forehead, which she was then drawing, had so grave an +expression, that I could not laugh, as I at first felt disposed to do. + +"Why?" I inquired. + +"When the boys can do without me, I will be too old." + +"But you cannot always go on correcting their exercises." + +"I do not know; it seems to me as if I should always do it." + +"Even when they are learning Latin and Greek?" + +"I learn Latin with them now; why should I not learn Greek too?" + +"Greek is so desperately hard; I tell you, Paula, the irregular +verbs--no human creature can learn them unless it be gymnasium +professors, and I never can believe that they are exactly men." + +"That is one of your jokes, which you must not let Benno hear: he wants +to be a teacher." + +"I think I will get that notion out of his head." + +"Do not do so. Why should he not be a teacher if he has a liking for +it, and talent enough? I do not know anything more delightful than to +teach any one something which I believe to be good and useful to him. +And then it is a good position for one in Benno's circumstances. I have +heard it said that when one makes no great pretensions, he can soon +secure a modest sufficiency. My father, it is true, has other views: he +would like Benno to be a physician or naturalist. But these are +expensive professions to learn; and although my father always takes a +hopeful view--but I am not sure that he always does." + +Paula bent her head over her sketching-board, and went on with her +drawing more assiduously than ever; but I saw that once or twice she +raised her handkerchief to her eyes. It gave me pain to see it. I knew +what anxiety, and that too well-founded, Paula felt for her father's +health, whom she loved devotedly. + +"Fräulein Paula," I said. + +She did not correct me this time--perhaps did not hear me. + +"Fräulein Paula," I said again, "you must not cherish such gloomy +thoughts. Your father is not so ill: and then you would not believe +what a race the Zehrens are. Herr von Zehren used to call the +steuerrath a weakling, and yet he might take an undisputed place among +those who account themselves robust men; but Herr von Zehren himself +was a man of steel, and yet he once told me that his youngest brother +was a match for two like him. And you see a strong constitution is +everything, Doctor Snellius says, and so I say too." + +"To be sure, if _you_ say so----" + +Paula looked up, and a melancholy smile played about her beautiful +lips. + +"You mean that a miserable scarecrow, such as I sit here, has no +business to be talking about strength?" + +"O no; I know how strong you were before you were ill; and how soon you +would be strong again, if you would take proper care of yourself, which +you do not always do. For example, you ought never to be sitting here +without some wrappings, and you have let the coverlid fall off your +lap; but----" + +"But----?" said I, obediently drawing up the coverlid over my knees. + +"I mean that it is not quite right to say that a strong constitution is +everything. Kurt there is certainly the strongest of the boys, and yet +Oscar can read, write, and cipher as well as he, though Kurt is nine +years old, and Oscar only seven." + +"But you see Oscar is your favorite." + +"That is not kind of you," Paula said. + +She said it gently and pleasantly, without a trace of offence, and yet +I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. I felt as though I had struck a +defenceless child. + +"No, it was not at all kind," I said, with warmth; "it was a very +unfeeling speech; I do not know how I could say it. But clever boys +have always been held up to me as models, and the comparison always +carried with it so many disagreeable allusions to myself, that the +blood always rises to my head when I hear them talked about. It always +makes me think how stupid I am." + +"You ought not to call yourself stupid." + +"Well then, that I know so little; that I have learned so very little." + +"But that is nobody's fault but yours--that is, supposing it to be +really the case." + +"It is the case," I answered. "It is frightful how little I know. To +say nothing at all about Greek, which I maintain to be too hard, and +only invented by teachers on purpose to torment us, my Latin does not +amount to much, and that is certainly my fault, for I have seen how +Arthur, who I don't believe is a bit cleverer than I am, could get +along with it very well when he tried. Your English books, in which you +read so much, might all be Greek for me; and as for French--perhaps I +can still conjugate _avoir_ and _être_, but I doubt it. And yesterday, +when Benno could not get his exercises right, and asked me, and I told +him he must get them right himself--I don't mind telling you that I had +not the slightest notion how to begin them--and when he afterwards got +them right by himself, I felt shamed by a boy eleven years old; just as +I have felt ashamed before Dr. Busch, our professor of mathematics, +whenever, as he always did, he wrote under my work, 'Thoroughly bad,' +or 'Quite remarkably bad,' or 'Very well copied,' or some such +maliciousness." + +While I thus remorsefully confessed my shortcomings, Paula looked +steadily at me with her great eyes, from time to time shaking her head, +as if she could not believe her ears. + +"If this is really so----" + +"Why do you always say 'if,' Paula? Little as I have learned, I have at +least learned to tell the truth, and I would never attempt a falsehood +with you." + +The maiden blushed to her blond tresses. + +"Forgive me," she said; "I did not mean to wound you; although I can +scarcely believe that you--that you spent so ill your time at school. I +only meant to say that you must make it good again; you must make up +for that lost time." + +"Easily said, Paula! How am I to begin? Benno knows more French, +geography, and mathematics than I, and he is only eleven years old, and +next month I am twenty." + +Paula pushed the drawing-board away from her upon the table, and leaned +her head upon her hand, apparently in order better to ponder over so +desperate a case. Suddenly she raised her head and said: + +"You must speak to my father." + +"What shall I tell him?" + +"All that you have told me." + +"He will not be able to help me either." + +"He will, be sure. You do not know how much my father knows. He knows +everything--understands everything." + +"That I well believe, Paula; but how can that help me? He can give me +no part of his knowledge, even if he were so kind as to wish it." + +"True, he cannot do that; you must work yourself; but how to work the +best, and how to succeed the soonest, he knows, and will tell you if +you ask him. Will you?" + +"Yes, I will; but----" + +"No--no 'buts.' I am not to say 'if,' so you must not say 'but.' Will +you?" + +"Yes." + +As to utter this "yes" required some determination on my part, I spoke +it in a firm loud voice. Paula folded her hands and bent her head, as +if she were inwardly praying that my resolution might be blessed. +Everything was calm around; only a bird twittered, and the red +sunset-rays glanced through the twigs. It may have been a remnant of +weakness which still clung to me, but a strange and solemn feeling +possessed me. It was as though I were in a temple, and had just +pronounced a solemn vow by which I broke away from my entire past, and +devoted myself to a new life and to new obligations. And while thus +thinking I gazed with fixed eyes at the dear maiden, who sat still, her +hands folded, her thoughtful head bent--gazed until the tears came into +my eyes, and trees, sunlight, and maiden were lost behind a misty veil. + +At this moment clear voices came ringing from the garden; it was +Paula's brothers, who had finished their task in the house, and now +were joyously hurrying to their favorite spot where they were certain +of finding their sister. Paula gathered up her drawing materials, and +was spreading a sheet of tissue-paper over her drawing, when the boys +came bounding up the hill at full speed to us. + +"I am first!" cried little Oscar, springing into his sister's arms. + +"Because we let you," said Kurt, jumping upon my knee. + +"Let's see, Paula," said Benno, laying his hand upon his sister's arm. + +Paula threw back the tissue-paper. Benno looked attentively at the +drawing, and then carefully compared it with the original. Kurt jumped +down from my knee to examine his sister's work too. Even Oscar stuck +his curly head from under her arm to see what was going on. It was a +charming group, the three boys clustered around the sister, now turning +their bright eyes upon me, and then fixing them on the picture. + +"That is Uncle Doctor!" said Oscar. + +Paula smiled and gently stroked the pretty boy's blond curls. + +"You are silly," said Kurt; "he wears spectacles." + +"It is well done, Paula," said Benno, with the air of a connoisseur. + +"Do you think so?" she asked. + +"Yes; only he is not so good-looking." + +"Now you have all seen it," said Paula, in a tone of decision. "Benno, +carry it into the Belvedere." + +"I will carry it!" said Kurt. + +"No, I!" cried Oscar. + +"Have you not heard that I am to carry it?" said Benno. "You are too +little." + +"O yes, you are the big one!" said Kurt, scornfully. + +"Hush, hush!" said Paula. "No disputes about it. He who is older is +bigger, and cannot help it; and he who is younger is smaller, and +cannot help it either." + +"No, Paula," said Kurt, "that is not so, George is younger than father, +and bigger too." + +"Here comes father," said Paula, "and mother with him; and now be +quiet." + +The superintendent came up the path; his wife held his arm, and he was +leading her slowly. Her eyes were covered with a broad green shade. +Behind them, now on the left and now on the right side of the path, +turning his uncovered head first in one way and then in another, with a +hat and stick that he kept changing from hand to hand, came a short +compact figure with a disproportionately large head, whose perfectly +bald surface shone in the light of the evening sun. + +This was Dr. Willibrod Snellius, resident physician and friend of the +family. + +I had arisen, and advanced a few paces to meet them. + +"How are you now?" asked the superintendent, giving me his hand; "has +your first long stay in the open air done you good?" + +"We will ask about that early to-morrow morning--hm, hm, hm!" said the +doctor. + +Doctor Snellius had a habit of accompanying his remarks with a peculiar +nasal sound which was half a grunt and half a snort, and always just an +octave below his ordinary voice, which was very thin and of an +unusually high pitch. This shrill voice was the trial of his life to +the doctor, who was a man of great taste; and by the deep, growling +sound he emitted from time to time, he strove, according to his own +explanation, to convince himself that he was really a man and not a +cock, as his voice would indicate. + +"But you ordered it yourself, doctor," said the superintendent. + +"Can I know from that that it will do him good?--hm, hm, hm!" said Dr. +Snellius. "It was a medicine like another. If I always knew what effect +my prescriptions would have, I would die Baron Willibrod Snellius of +Snelliusburg--hm, hm, hm!" + +"Any one to hear you would think that all your science was mere +illusion," said Frau von Zehren, taking her seat upon a chair which +Paula had placed for her. + +"You have certainly but slight reason to consider us wizards, _gnädige +Frau_!" + +"Just because I do not so consider you, I do not expect from you what +is probably impossible." + +Frau von Zehren removed the disfiguring shade and raised her eyes with +a look of thankfulness to the foliage of the trees which kindly +softened the daylight for them. How lovely must those eyes have been +while they were yet radiant with youth and happiness! How fair this +face before sickness had wasted its beauteous features, and far too +soon--for Frau von Zehren was hardly forty years of age--whitened the +luxuriant hair! Pale and wasted as she was, she was still beautiful--at +least to me, who, short a time as I had been near her, had already +learned her angelic goodness, and how with the inexpressible devotion +with which she clung to her husband and her children, her heart was +full of sympathy for all who suffered or sorrowed. + +"We shall soon have a visit from your friend Arthur," said the +superintendent to me, drawing me a little to one side; "but I think you +said he had not dealt with you in the most friendly manner." + +"He has not," I answered. "I should speak falsely to say otherwise. But +what brings him here?" + +"He passed his examination at Easter, and is ordered to the battalion +stationed here, with the rank of ensign. We shall probably see his +parents also; and it may be the commerzienrath, if he condescends to +manage his affairs in person. The matter in question is the inheritance +of my brother, or so much of it as has thus far escaped the hands of +justice and of his creditors, among whom, as you know, the +commerzienrath holds the first place. The affair is rendered more +difficult from the fact that all his papers were destroyed when the +castle was burned. Constance has sent from Naples a formal renunciation +of the inheritance, and so there remain really only my brother and the +commerzienrath, as I for my part prefer to have nothing to do with the +whole affair; indeed I will add that if it were not a duty to meet with +dignity what is inevitable, I should look forward to the meeting with +great repugnance. What will not be brought up at such a conference? +What do you want, my child?" + +Oscar must needs show his father an unlucky beetle that had run across +his path. I remained sitting in the garden-house, sunk in painful +reflection such as had not entered my mind since I had risen from my +bed of sickness. Arthur! Constance! Arthur, who had so cruelly turned +against me; Constance, who had so shamefully deceived me! The +steuerrath, whom I knew to have been the cowardly accomplice of his +brave brother; and the commerzienrath, who had traded in the +recklessness of the Wild Zehren, and, in all likelihood, had hastened, +if not brought about his ruin. What a tumult of emotions did not these +names arouse within me! How hateful appeared to me all my past, into +which these names and these persons were forever interwoven!--hateful +as the island even now appeared through a dingy sulphur-yellow pane of +the window at which I was standing. And now, as I turned away with a +sigh, my glance fell through the open door upon the space under the +plane-trees, filled with the pure bright evening light, and upon the +persons that were moving in it. The superintendent and the doctor were +walking, the latter first on the right and then on the left, and both +in animated conversation; the two eldest boys were playing about the +knees of their mother, who, sitting in her easy-chair, laughed and +sported with them; Paula had taken the tea-things from the maid, and +was setting the table, as they were about to take tea in the open air, +as was their custom in fine weather. How deftly she did it all; how +silently, that the gentlemen might not be disturbed in their +conversation, and that no clatter of plates should annoy her mother's +sensitive nerves! And how with it all she had time to chat with the +little Oscar, who kept close at her side, and to look if I was not +exposing myself too much to the wind! Yes, the bright peaceful present +was fairer than my dark stormy past; and yet it seemed as though a +shadow was cast across this also. If Arthur came here; if, as was to be +expected, he was received into the family as a kinsman; if, with his +plausible address, he wormed his way into the confidence of these +unsuspicious people, and won their favor with his insinuating +manners--if he, who as a mere boy had practised the wiles of the rake, +should dare--and his insolence would dare anything--to pay his +insidious court to Paula, his cousin! I must still have been very +weak, for I trembled at this thought from head to foot, and started +violently as I perceived some one coming up the garden path towards the +plane-trees. I thought for a moment it must be he whom I had once loved +so dearly, and now so hated. + +But it was no dandy ensign glittering in his new uniform, but a lean +man dressed in black, wearing an extremely narrow white cravat, and a +low-crowned hat with very broad brim, and whose sleek dark hair, +unfashionably long, was seen, when he took off his hat in a polite +salutation, to be parted in the middle, and combed back behind his +ears. I knew the gentleman well; I had seen him often enough crossing +the prison-yard with slow pace and bowed head, entering this or that +cell, and after a while coming out again, always in the same attitude +of humility. Indeed I already enjoyed the happiness of a personal +acquaintance, as he had one day unexpectedly entered my sick-room, and +begun to talk about the welfare of my soul; and I should more +frequently have enjoyed this felicity, had not Dr. Snellius, who came +in, put a stop to it by giving him to understand that at the time the +question was not that of the welfare of my soul, but that of my body, +which was not likely to be benefited by such exciting topics. Indeed +this difference of opinion led to a rather lively dispute at the door +of my room, and, as it seemed, they came to pretty hard words; so that +it was clearly a proof of the placable disposition of the Deacon and +Prison-Chaplain Ewald von Krossow, that he now, after bidding the +family good evening, politely saluted the doctor, and even offered me +his hand. + +"How are you, my friend?" he asked, in his soft voice. "But how can it +be other than well with you, since I find you still in the open air, +though it is already growing somewhat chilly. This is no impeachment of +your better knowledge, doctor. I well know that _præsente medico nihil +nocet_." + +The doctor gave a scrape with his right foot, like a cock who is +preparing for battle, and crowed in his sharpest tones: + +"It was unfortunate, then, that when Adam ate that unlucky apple, there +was no doctor by. The poor fellow would probably be living now. Hm, +hm!" + +He glared wrathfully through his spectacles at the chaplain to see if +his shot had told, but the chaplain only smiled. + +"Still sitting in the seat of the scorner, doctor?" + +"I must stay where I am; I do not belong to those who are never +squeamish about pushing for a good place." + +"But to those who are never at a loss for a sharp answer." + +"Sharp only for souls as soft as butter." + +"You know that I am a minister of peace." + +"But you may change your service." + +"And that it is my office to forgive." + +"If you hold your office from above, probably the necessary +understanding for it has not been forgotten." + +"Doctor!" + +"Herr von Krossow." + +This conversation was hardly meant for my ears, at least on the +chaplain's side, who spoke throughout, even to his last exclamation, in +the gentle, deprecatory tone of wounded innocence, and now, with a +pitying shrug of the shoulders, turned away and joined the others. + +That game-cock, the doctor, whose antagonist had so unexpectedly +quitted the field, wore an air of blank surprise for a moment, then +burst into a hoarse crowing laugh, shook his arms like a pair of wings, +and turned suddenly to me, as if he felt the greatest desire to turn +his baffled pugnacity upon me. + +"You would be acting more sensibly to go to your room." + +"I have only been waiting for your orders." + +"And now you have them; and I will see to their prompt execution +myself." + +He took my arm and hurried me so rapidly away, that I had hardly time +to bid the company good-night. His ire had not evaporated: he snorted, +he grunted, he clicked with his tongue, and growled at intervals: "The +scamp--the scamp--the scamp!" + +"You seem to have no very high opinion of our chaplain," I said. + +"Don't you grow ironical, young man!" said the doctor, looking up at +me. "High opinion! high fiddlesticks! How can there be but one opinion +of such a fellow?" + +"Yet the superintendent is always friendly to him." + +"Because he is friendly to every one; and besides it does not occur to +him that this is not a man but a snake. Yes, that is easy enough to do, +when other honest folks are left to do the rudeness." + +"That is no great trouble for you, doctor." + +"Young man, I say, do not exasperate me. I tell you the thing is no +trifling matter; for if I cannot drive the fellow away, he will sooner +or later oust us all, and his kind friend the superintendent, the very +first. He has done you an ill turn already." + +"Me?" + +"Yes, you, the superintendent, myself. He would like well to kill three +birds with one stone." + +"Tell me about it, doctor, I beg you." + +"I would tell you without your asking. Sit down in your easy-chair and +make yourself comfortable: it is likely to be the last time you will +sit in it." + +We had reached my room; the doctor pushed me into the easy-chair, while +he stood before me--sometimes on one leg, sometimes on the other, but +rarely on both at once--and spoke as follows: + +"The case is simple, and therefore plain. To this pietistic, +aristocratic, beggarly mawworm, who has had himself appointed +prison-chaplain to let the light of his Christian humility shine before +men, the humanitarian superintendent and the materialist doctor are an +abomination. To a fellow like that, humanity is a democratic weakness, +and matter he does not respect, unless it is eatable. With the deceased +pastor Michaelis, a man of the good old rationalistic school, we lived +as if we were in paradise; he and Herr von Zehren, or rather Herr von +Zehren and he, in the twenty years that they worked together, made the +establishment what it is; that is, a model, in every sense of the word; +and during the five years that I have been here I have done all in my +power to imbue myself with the spirit of these men, and I believe that +I have indifferently well succeeded. Now for this half year, since +Michaelis is dead, and this pietistic snake has wormed himself into our +paradise, our peace has gone to the deuce; the snake crawls into every +corner, and leaves the track of his slimy nature wherever he goes. The +officers are demoralized, the prisoners mutinous. Such a plot as that +which Cat-Kaspar hatched--thank heaven we are rid of the rascal; he +is transferred to-day to N., where he ought to have been sent at +first--would formerly have been impossible. Cat-Kaspar was a pet of Mr. +Chaplain, who saw in him a precious, though not over-cleanly vessel, +whose purification was his allotted task; and he begged the scoundrel +out of the solitary confinement in which the superintendent had +judiciously placed him. So it goes on; divine worship _publice_, +prayers _privatim_, soul-saving exhortations _privatissime_. The Judas +intrigues against us wherever and whenever he can, flatters the +superintendent to his face, swallows down my rudeness, and thinks, 'I +shall have you both soon,' like the owl when he heard the two +bulfinches singing round the corner. And he thinks he has us by the +wings already. You know, the president of the council, who is just such +another mawworm, is his uncle, and uncle and nephew are hand and glove. +The president, who is the superintendent's immediate superior, would +have removed him long ago, if Minister von Altenberg, one of the last +pillars left standing from the good old times, and Herr von Zehren's +friend and patron, did not support him, though with but a feeble arm, +it is true; for Altenberg is advanced in years, in ill health, and may +die any day. In the meantime they work as they can, and collect +materials to be water to the mill of the next excellency. And now +listen: Assessor Lerch, my good friend, was with the president +yesterday. 'My dear Lerch,' said the president, 'you perhaps can give +me some information. There is another complaint against Superintendent +von Zehren.' 'Another, Herr President?' asked Lerch. 'Unhappily, +another. I have hitherto taken no action in these matters, though I +have not disregarded them; but this case is so flagrant that I must +take it in hand and report it to his excellency. Only think, my dear +Lerch, Von Zehren has been guilty of the--folly, I will call it, of +allowing the young man who gained such an unhappy notoriety in +connection with the smuggling case in Uselin----' and now it all comes +out that the superintendent, immediately after the catastrophe--out of +which the denouncer had spun a pretty story, you may suppose--did not +send you to the mouldy old infirmary, where you would infallibly have +died, but took you into his own house, kept you here, and still keeps +you, though you have been a convalescent for three weeks now; that he +associates with you as with his equal; that he has brought you into his +family, and indeed made you a member of it, so to speak. Why need I go +into all the particulars? hm, hm, hm!" + +The doctor had crowed up to the very highest note of his upper +register, and had to grunt at least two octaves lower to obtain his +usual satisfactory reassurance. + +"And you really hold that man as the denouncer?" I cried, angrily +springing from my chair. + +"I know it. Would I otherwise have been so rude today?" + +I could not help laughing. As if growler needed any special provocation +before he made free with the calves of an intrusive clodhopper! But the +affair had a serious side. The thought that Herr von Zehren, to whom I +owed such limitless gratitude, whom I so revered, should through me be +brought into so unpleasant a position, was intolerable. + +"Advise me, help me, doctor!" I besought him earnestly. + +"Yes, advise, help--when I always told you that this state of things +could not go on. However, you are so far right: the thing must be +helped. And in truth there is but one expedient. We must be beforehand +with the viper, and so for this time we shall draw his fangs. I know +the superintendent. If he had an idea that they wished to take you from +him, he would let his hand be hewn off before he would give you up. Now +this evening do you complain of headache, and again to-morrow evening +at the same time. Your room is on the ground-floor; at this moment +there is not another vacant. Intermittent--quinine--a higher, more airy +apartment--day after to-morrow you will be back in your old cell. Let +me manage it." + +So I let Doctor Willibrod Snellius manage it; and two days later I was +sleeping, if not under lock and bolt, at least behind the iron gratings +of my old cell. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +I stood behind these iron gratings on the following morning, and looked +sadly out of the window. Strangely enough, I had not thought the +evening before that these gratings could produce any unpleasant +sensations in me now, and yet such was the case. They served as a grave +reminder to me of what lately I had almost forgotten, that I was, after +all, a prisoner. "It makes no difference," the superintendent said, +when I took leave of him, and all had vied to make a family festival of +the last day that I was to spend under their roof; but be that as it +might, there _was_ a difference. My breakfast was not now as appetizing +as it had been when I sat at it under the high trees of the quiet +garden with Frau von Zehren and Paula; and even though I could go, if I +chose, into the garden, which seemed to give me a friendly greeting, I +must after a certain time return here again. + +I looked around the cell, and now first remarked what pains they had +taken to make me forget where I was. There was the picture of the +Sistine Madonna with the child, which I had grown to love so during my +illness, and which was hung opposite my bed, just as it had hung in +Paula's room. There stood upon the bureau the same two terra-cotta +vases, and in each a couple of fresh roses. There was the easy-chair in +which Dr. Snellius had falsely predicted that I had sat for the last +time, and over the back hung a cover of crotchet-work on which I had +seen Paula engaged the previous evening. There hung the same _étagère_ +with the same neatly-bound books; Goethe's _Faust_, Schiller's and +Lessing's works, which Paula had so often urgently recommended me to +read, and into which I had as yet hardly looked. They had done all they +could to make my prison as endurable, as pleasant as possible; but did +not the very pains they took show that it was a prison, and that the +episode of my apparent freedom was at an end. Yes, they had been kind, +inexpressibly kind to me, under the friendly smiling mask of Samaritan +compassion to one sick unto death--a mask that must be laid aside, as +soon as a Pharisee passed that way and looked askance upon the moving +sight. No, no; I was and remained a prisoner, whether my chains were +decked with roses or not. + +Why had I not been able to break these chains? True, as I had begun, it +was impossible; but why did I begin so clumsily? Why did I not keep to +myself, calmly trusting in my own strength and my own craft, and in +some lucky chance that must have offered sooner or later? Now, as +things had happened, after I had incurred such a debt of gratitude to +these people, after I had grown so attached to them, I was twice and +thrice a prisoner. For the tempting pottage of friendship and love, I +had bartered the first inalienable birthright of man, which is the very +breath of his soul--the right of liberty. Seven years! Seven long, long +years! + +I strode up and down my cell. For the first time since my sickness I +felt something of my former strength; it was but a remnant, but enough +to bring back a part of my old roving humor, of my old restlessness. +How would it be then when I felt myself all that I had ever been? Would +it not, combined with the knowledge that nothing held me but my own +will, drive me to frenzy? Would it not have been better if they had +left me in my old slavery, with the dream that some day I should be +able to break their bonds, even if this dream was never verified? + +"Here is a young man who wants to speak with us," announced the +sergeant. Since my sickness when "we" had come through so much +together, he frequently used in speaking to me the same plural which he +employed with all who, in his opinion, had acquired an entire claim on +his honest heart; for example, the superintendent and all his family, +including the doctor, and now myself. + +"What sort of a man!" I asked, while a joyous shiver ran through me. As +long as I had been in confinement this was the first time that any one +had come to see me; and somehow I connected the extraordinary event of +a visitor with the thoughts that had been passing through my mind. + +"Looks like a sailor," answered the sergeant. "Says he has news of our +dead brother." + +This sounded extremely improbable. My brother Fritz had been dead for +five years; he had fallen from the foreyard overboard one stormy night, +and was drowned. The ship had returned in safety; there was no mystery +of any sort connected with his death; and if any one now brought me +intelligence of his end, there must be some other purpose involved with +it. + +"Can I speak with him, Süssmilch?" I asked, in the most indifferent +tone I could assume, while my heart seemed to rise in my throat. + +"We can speak to whom we like." + +"Then let him in; and, Süssmilch, if he is a sailor he would like a +glass of something; perhaps you could get me something of the kind?" + +What superfluous trouble a man with an evil conscience gives himself +and others! I must needs lie, always a trial to me, to get the old man +out of the way; and the honest Süssmilch, who had not a thought of +being present at my interview with the stranger, had to go down two +flights of stairs into the cellar. + +"But we mustn't touch a drop ourselves," said the old man, warningly. + +"Have no fear." + +He went, after first introducing the visitor--a broad-shouldered +deeply-bronzed man in sailor dress who was an entire stranger to me. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +I gazed in mute astonishment at the stranger, whose looks and manner +were, to use the mildest expression, very singular; but was really +frightened when he, so soon as the door had closed behind the sergeant, +without a word and with the haste of a man completely out of his +senses, but still with the dexterity of a clown in a circus, began to +tear off his clothes, and to my utter amazement appeared in precisely +the same dress as that which now lay in its various elements at his +feet, while a triumphant smile disclosed two rows of the whitest teeth +in the world. + +"Klaus!" I exclaimed, in joyous amazement. + +The white teeth were now visible to the very last grinder. He seized +both my extended hands, but remembered at once that such friendly +manifestations did not belong to his part, and hurriedly whispered: + +"Into them, quick! They will fit--folds will open out of +themselves--only quick before he comes back!" + +"And you, Klaus?" + +"I stay here." + +"In my place? + +"Yes." + +"But they will find it out in five minutes." + +"Still you have time to get out; and getting out and getting off is one +and the same thing to you." + +"And do you suppose that you can do such a thing without being +punished?" + +"At the worst, they can but shut me up in your place, and that will not +be for long. With the locks I can easily deal, and here"--he showed me +a watch-spring-saw, which he drew out of his thick hair--"with this I +will cut that grating through in a quarter of an hour." + +"Klaus, all that cannot have come out of your own head." + +"No, out of Christel's; but I beg you make haste." + +I kicked the sailor-dress, which still lay upon the floor, under the +bed, for I heard the sergeant coming along the corridor. He knocked at +the door, and when I opened it, handed me a bottle of brandy and a +glass. + +"But we are no bear, and won't drink a drop ourselves, will we?" + +Klaus stared in astonishment when he saw the dreaded keeper turned into +so obliging an attendant. + +I closed the door again, and then fell on the good fellow's neck. The +tears stood in my eyes. + +"Dear, good Klaus," I cried, "you and Christel are the kindest hearts +in the world, but I cannot accept your generous offer. I would not have +accepted it under any circumstances; and as it is, it is not to be +thought of. I could go away from here at an moment, but I will not, +Klaus, I will not." + +Here I embraced Klaus again, and gave free course to the tears which I +had been repressing. I felt as if now for the first time I knew what a +prisoner was, since I had declared that I wished to be one, and thus +made myself one of my own choice. Klaus, who naturally had no +conception of what was passing within me, constantly endeavored, while +casting uneasy glances at the door, to persuade me to let him take my +place; he would wager his head that he would be out in twenty-four +hours. + +"Klaus, Klaus!" I cried, clapping him on the plump cheeks, "you want to +deceive me. Confess now, you have no expectation of getting out so +soon." + +"Well, anyhow," he answered, very shame-facedly, "my wife thought----" + +"Your wife, Klaus! your wife!" + +"We have been married these two months." + +I thrust Klaus into the easy-chair, sat down before him, and begged him +to tell me everything. It would be the greatest kindness he could do +me, I said, if he could tell me that all was going well with him; that +I was by no means in so evil a straight as he imagined in his true +heart of friendship; and I gave him in brief words a sketch of my +adventures in the prison, my attempt to escape, my illness, and my +friendly relations with the superintendent and his family. + +"You see," I concluded, "that in every sense I am well taken care of; +and now I must know how things have gone with you and Christel, and how +you managed so soon to become man and wife. Only twenty-two, Klaus, and +married already! How do you expect to get on? And your Christel has let +you come away? Klaus, Klaus, I don't like the look of that." + +I laughed at him, and Klaus, who now at last perceived that nothing +could come of his plan to rescue me, laughed also, but not very +heartily. + +"There it is," said he. "How will she look when I come back without +you." + +"'Without _thee_,'[6] I said, Klaus. I am not going to put up with any +breach of our old brotherhood now, or I shall think you too proud to be +on terms of _thee_ and _thou_ with a prisoner. And how will she look +when you come back without me?" + +"There it is," said Klaus, "how will she, indeed! We are so happy; but +one or the other of us was always saying, 'and he is shut up there!' +and then there was an end of all our happiness, especially because in a +manner it is Christel's fault that you are here; for that morning at +Zanowitz----" + +"Klaus," I interrupted him, "do you know then that for a while I +believed that Christel herself gave the information to get rid of your +father?" + +"No," said Klaus, "she did not do that, thank God; though more than +once she was quite desperate and thought of killing herself." + +He wiped his forehead with his hand; I had touched a painful subject. +We sat awhile without speaking, when Klaus commenced again: + +"One good result it has had: 'he'"--Klaus had already adopted +Christel's habit of never calling 'him' by his name--"'he' of course +had to give up the guardianship of Christel, and as a person of damaged +reputation, could not interfere much with me. Aunt Julchen in Zanowitz, +with whom Christel stayed after that day, fitted Christel out, and we +might have lived like angels, if--" and Klaus, with a melancholy look at +me, shook his big head. + +"And you are still in Berlin, in the commerzienrath's machine-shops?" I +asked, to give his thoughts another direction. + +"Of course," he said, "I have been promoted already; I am now foreman +in my shop." + +"And you earn plenty of money?" + +"So much that we don't know what to do with it." + +"Your Christel is an excellent housekeeper----" + +"And washes and irons to that extent that our whole house smells of +nothing but soap and flat-irons." + +Klaus showed his teeth; I pressed his hand in token of sympathy with +his happiness, though I had never been especially ravished by the +perfumes he so highly prized; but now more urgently than ever I desired +to know how this happy young pair ever made up their minds so cruelly +to risk their good fortune. + +"I told you already," answered Klaus, "that we never were quite +happy. Wherever we went or stood, and above all when we were in +real good humor about anything, the thought always came up: if he +could only be here! And four weeks ago yesterday, when we had some +_Bierkaltschale_[7]--no, no, we could stand it no longer." + +"Some _Bierkaltschale_?" I asked, in some surprise. + +"Yes; don't you know how you always used to have some made for you at +the forge, in the summer-time, when you wanted to give yourself a +treat? Christel often made it for you. Well, then, just four weeks ago +we were drinking some--they have an excellent beer for it in Berlin, +much better than ours, that was always a little bitter--and I was +enjoying it, when Christel on a sudden let the ladle fall and began to +howl, and I knew at once what she was thinking of, and then I began, +and we kept on drinking and howling, and when we had finished, we both +said together: It can't go on this way! So then we put our heads +together----" + +"As you did that evening when I met you on the heath?" + +"And contrived a plan at last," continued Klaus, who would have turned +red at my indiscreet remark, had the color of his complexion allowed +it, "that is to say, Christel contrived it. She had read just such a +story, only the prisoner was a king's son, and his deliverer was a +knight, who disguised himself as a priest--of course that wouldn't do, +but a sailor would do, Christel said, for here in the workhouse there +was sure to be many a tarpaulin, and of course there would be some +coming to see them. And anyhow, Christel said, a sailor's dress was the +best disguise in a sea-port. So we practised the whole thing----" + +"You practised it?" + +"To be sure; it wasn't so easy; we went through it every night for a +week when I came home from work, until Christel said at last she +thought it would do at a pinch." + +"It went capitally, Klaus!" + +"Yes, but what good has it done?" asked Klaus, with a regretful look at +the bed under which the disguise was lying, "when I had my ears bored +to put these rings in? and when Christel every morning rubbed my face +with bacon----" + +"With bacon?" + +"I must look like a sailor from the other side, Christel said, and for +that there is nothing so good as to rub your face with bacon and then +scorch it at a furnace." + +"You look like a mulatto, Klaus." + +"So Christel said; but what good would it do if I looked like a negro, +when you won't come out?" + +"It does this good, Klaus," I cried, catching the faithful fellow round +the neck, "that you two have given me one of the happiest moments of my +life, and which I should not have had had I taken your generous offer. +God bless you both for your love to me; and when I am free again and am +a rich man, I will repay it with interest. And now, my dear good +fellow, you must go; I have to go and see the superintendent. And do +you hear, Klaus, you go right back without wasting a minute. And one +thing more: if your eldest is a boy----" + +"He is to be named George; we settled that some time ago," said Klaus, +showing his very farthest grinders. + +I put Klaus out of the door, and was pacing up and down the room, +somewhat agitated by what had just passed, when I bethought me of the +disguise which I had pushed under the bed, and which, in our +excitement, we had quite forgotten. I now drew it out, and could not +resist the temptation to try on the jacket of rough cloth. It was as +Klaus had said. In the sleeves, the back, and the skirts, there were +folds so dexterously made and caught with stitches, that I had only to +give a smart pull and they came out; and although I was a head taller +and six inches wider across the shoulders than Klaus, the garment +fitted me as if it had been made for me. So was it with the waistcoat +and the trousers: all were so accurately made that--now that my illness +had left me much thinner than I had been--I could very conveniently put +them on over the clothes I was wearing. + +Just as I had finished doing so, some one knocked at the door. It could +only be the sergeant or the superintendent, who usually came at this +hour. I seated myself at the table with my back to the door and called, +"Come in!" + +It was the sergeant. + +He thrust in his head and began: "We are to go to the captain at eleven +o'clock to-day, because----" here he checked himself, as it looked odd +that the strange sailor sat there so still and I was nowhere to be +seen. He came into the room and asked: "Where are we, then?" + +"Gone to the devil!" I answered without turning round, imitating as +well as I could the broad _Plattdeutsch_ which Klaus had used as a part +of his stratagem. + +"No stupid jokes!" said the old man. + +"And now it is my turn!" I cried, rushing past the astonished sergeant +out at the door, which I flung to, and turned the key. + +There lay the long corridor before me: not a soul was to be seen. It +was an easy thing to run down the steps and into the house-yard, and +from this by a side-gate which I knew was never closed at this hour, to +get into the adjoining alley. To find out Klaus's lodging would be an +easy matter; probably I should reach it before him--in ten minutes we +could be out of the town, and---- + +"Good morning, Herr Süssmilch, how are we?" I asked, opening the door +again. + +The sergeant was standing just where I had left him; and to judge from +the confounded look of his honest face, had not been able to comprehend +what it all meant. I pulled off the broad-brimmed hat, made him a low +bow with a scrape of the right foot, and said: "Have the honor to place +myself again under your worshipful charge." + +"After that, one can take a toothpick for a barn door!" exclaimed the +old man, who began now to get a glimmering of the real state of the +case. "That codfish of a smoke-dried flounder! Isn't it enough to turn +a body into a bear with seven senses?" + +"Hush!" I cried, "I hear the doctor coming. Not a word, my good +Süssmilch!" and I pushed the old man out of the door, by which Doctor +Snellius entered in his usual hasty fashion, with his hat in his hand. +He started when he saw me, gave a glance round the room, looked at me +again, and went out without saying a word. + +I pulled off my sailor-dress in a moment, thrust it under the bed, and +called after him in my natural voice: + +"Why do you go away, doctor?" + +He turned back instantly, came into the room, sat down upon a chair in +front of me, and stared steadily at me through his round spectacles. I +fancied he looked paler; and feared that perhaps I had carried the jest +too far, and offended my irascible friend. + +"Doctor----" I began. + +"Something very singular has just happened to me," he interrupted me, +always with the same fixed look. + +"What is the matter, doctor?" I inquired, startled at his looks and the +unaccustomed gentleness of his tone. + +"Nothing at this moment; but I have just been the subject of a most +remarkable hallucination." + +"Of what, did you say?" + +"A hallucination. A complete and perfect hallucination. When I first +entered your chamber, my friend, I saw, standing before me, a sailor of +just your height, or possibly an inch or an inch and a half shorter, +but of your breadth across the shoulders, in a rough sailor jacket, +gray trousers, wide straw-hat like the traders to the West Indies wear; +with exactly no, not exactly, but very nearly your features. I saw the +figure as plainly as I see you at this moment--it could not have been +more distinct. The illusion was so perfect that I supposed they had put +you in another room, and went to ask Süssmilch what he meant by giving +our healthiest room to the first comer. Do not smile, my friend; it is +no laughing matter--at least for me. It is the first time that anything +of the kind has happened to me, though my frequent congestions of the +head might have prepared me to expect it, I know that I shall die of +apoplexy; and even if I had not known it before, I should know it now." + +He took out his watch and examined his pulse. + +"Strange to say, my pulse is perfectly normal; and all this morning I +have felt unusually well and cheerful." + +"My dear doctor," I said, "who knows what you saw? You learned men have +such singular notions, and out of the merest gnat you will make a +scientific elephant." + +"Scientific elephant is good," said the doctor; "nobody would have +expected such an expression from an unscientific mammoth like you--very +good! but you are mistaken. That may apply to others, but not to me. I +observe too coolly to commit gross blunders. I have told you already +that my pulse is normal, exactly normal, and all my functions in +perfect order; therefore the thing must have a deeper psychological +cause, which just now escapes my perceptions; for the psychological +cause----" + +"Then at all events you have a psychological cause," said I, who was +mischievous enough to be delighted at the serious scruples of my +learned friend. + +"I have; and I will tell it to you, even at the risk of more of your +malicious grins. I was dreaming all night long of you, you mammoth, and +always the same dream, though in different forms, namely, that you +either were escaping, or had escaped, or were about to escape from +here. Sometimes you were lowering yourself by a rope from the window, +or clambering over the roofs, or leaping down from the wall, or any +other neck-breaking trick that one might expect from a fellow of your +physical and moral peculiarities; and you were every time in a +different dress, now a chimney-sweep, now a mason, a rope-dancer, and +so forth. As soon as I awaked, I asked myself what this dream could +mean, and I said to myself--True, George Hartwig is now again in his +prison, but the exceptional position in which he stands still +continues, and so does the danger for our valued friend the +superintendent, which lies in an arrangement which we must acknowledge +to be not merely irregular, but contrary to the rules. For every +creature is only content in the element to which it is born. The frog +would spring from a golden chair into his native swamp; and the bird +escapes when he can, though you cram his cage with sugar. Will it not +be so with this youth, who of all men must most long for liberty? May +he not in a moment of weakness forget what consideration he owes to +Herr von Zehren, that the latter to a certain extent risks his position +on his account, and in this moment of weakness and forgetfulness make +his escape? And do you know, young mammoth, I determined that, as I +also had some claim upon you, I would privately and in all friendship +ask you to give me your word that if such a temptation seizes you, you +will only think of your own honor. This was what I had in my mind when +I came up the corridor, and I was in some degree undecided, for I +thought he will have taken this resolution already, and to give his +word to me will be superfluous. But now, after this singular projection +of my dream into reality--a _memento mori_ to me, moreover--I beg you +earnestly to give me your word. Hm, hm, hm!" + +I had ceased to laugh, long before he had reached this conclusion; and +now, while the worthy doctor tuned down his voice, extended him my +hand, and said with emotion: + +"With all my heart I give you my word, although it is true that I have +given it to myself, and that not ten minutes ago. And as for the +hallucination, you may make your mind easy, doctor; here lies your +_memento mori_." + +With these words I pulled out the sailor's dress from under the bed, +slipped on the jacket, and put on the hat, to make the proof more +convincing. + +"So you did really think of escaping, then?" said the doctor, adroitly +dropping the hallucination, in order at least to preserve the dream. + +"No," I answered, "but others tempted me, and I strove with them, and +they fled leaving this garment behind them." + +"Which you may hang as a votive offering on the temple-wall," replied +Doctor Snellius, thoughtfully; "for though I do not know how it +happened, I see this much, that you have escaped a great danger; and +now--now for the first time you belong to us." + +There was a saying in the prison that one could tell a lie to any one, +but not to the superintendent. + +Superintendent von Zehren had a way of looking at the person with whom +he was speaking, to which none but a front of brass could have been +callous. Not that one could read in his glance the endeavor to be as +comprehensive and as penetrating as possible; his eye had in it nothing +of the spy or the inquisitor; on the contrary, it was large and limpid +as the eye of a child, and just in this lay the power which few men +could resist. As he sincerely wished well to every one with whom he +spoke, and on his own part had nothing to conceal, this large, clear, +dark eye rested steadily upon one, with the gaze of the sun-bright +gods, who do not wink like weak mortals living in twilight and +concealment. + +When, with this look fixed upon me, he asked me about the man whom he +had sent to me that morning, I told him at once who the man was, and +what was his object in coming. And I further told him in what frame of +mind he had found me, and how strong the temptation had been, but that, +even without the assistance of the good doctor, I had conquered it, I +might venture to say, at once and for ever. + +The superintendent listened to my narrative with all the signs of the +most lively interest. When I ceased, he pressed my hand, and then +turning to his writing-table, handed me a paper, which he said he had +just received, and which he desired me to read. + +The paper was an inquiry from the president, couched in polite but very +decided phraseology, as to the facts referred to in a certain anonymous +charge which had reached him, and the superintendent was called upon at +once to put an end to an arrangement which compromised his position and +character, and to treat the young man in question with the severity +which the dignity of the law, of the judges, and his own, alike +demanded. + +"You wish to know," said the superintendent, as I laid down the paper +with an inquiring look, "what I intend to do. Exactly as if I had never +received this. I do not desire to know whether Doctor Snellius, whose +friendship for me often gives him a sharper insight in matters that +concern me, than I have myself, was playing a little comedy when he +hurried you off so abruptly yesterday, but I am very glad it so +happened. For it would have wounded my pride to be compelled to +sacrifice you, to whom I am so much attached, to a pitiful bit of +chicanery. According to the letter of the law, they are right in +insisting that a prisoner cannot be a guest in the superintendent's +family; and this point I should have had to yield; but beyond this I am +fully determined not to yield a single step. To decide in what kind of +work a prisoner shall be engaged, and how he shall employ his hours of +recreation, is my incontestable right, which I will not suffer to be +curtailed by a hair's breadth, and which I will maintain through all +the tribunals, even though it should be brought before the king. And I +am not sorry that this has happened, since it gives us an occasion to +speak of our mutual relations, and to have a clear understanding of the +way we shall pursue in future. If you are disposed to hear what I think +on the subject, we will go into the garden. My lungs suffer to-day from +the confined air of a room." + +We stepped from his office into the garden. I offered him my arm, as my +strength was now sufficient for this service, and we walked in silence +between the flower-beds, from which the warm south wind wafted us the +perfume of wallflowers and mignonnette, to the grateful shade of the +plane-trees. The superintendent took his seat upon one of the benches, +motioned to me to place myself at his side, and after a silent glance +of gratitude at the leafy crowns of the noble trees that afforded the +refreshing coolness, he said: + +"If we are to believe the jurists, by whose words the students +everywhere swear, Punishment is the right of Wrong. This definition, by +its simplicity, recommends itself to the logicians at their desks, but +I doubt extremely whether the Founder of the Faith would have been +content with it. He did not declare that to be stoned was the right of +the guilty woman; on the contrary, by summoning him who was without sin +to cast the first stone, he showed that under the smooth logical +surface of the legal code there lay a deeper principle, which only +reveals itself to the eye that can see and the heart that can feel. To +such an eye and such a heart it soon is clear that every wrong which is +to be punished in order that it may have its right, is, if not always, +almost always, a wrong at second, third, or hundredth hand; and thus +the punishment rarely reaches the one who may have deserved it. So the +justest judge, whether he will or not, resembles the sanguinary general +who orders every tenth man to be led off to execution, not because he +is guiltier than the other nine, but because he is the tenth. + +"But this is not apparent to the logician, who smiles with satisfaction +if he does not come into conflict with his principle of Identity and +his principle of Contradiction; nor to; the judge who has before him +but an isolated fact, torn from its connections, and who has to give +judgment when he has not all the parts in his hand, not to mention the +visible and invisible threads upon which these parts are necessarily +strung. They both are like the crowd which judges a picture by its +effect alone; while the connoisseur knows how it came into existence, +what colors the painter had upon his palette, how he blended them, how +he handled his brush, what difficulties he encountered, and how he +overcame them, or why it was that he failed of his aim. And as the only +true criticism is creative, which takes the secrets of art as the +starting-point of its judgment, so that none but an artist can be a +real critic, even so men's actions can only be judged by those to whom +the old wise word applies, that nothing human is alien to them, because +they have experienced in themselves and in their brethren the whole +misery of humanity. But for this are necessary, as I said before, the +feeling heart and the seeing eye, and an ample opportunity for training +and using both. + +"Who has a better opportunity for this purpose than the superintendent +of a prison? He and the physician, when their views coincide and they +strive together towards the same ends, alone can know what the most +conscientious judge has no means of learning, how the man whom mankind +have thrust out from among them for a time or forever, became what he +now is; how, born thus, and of such parents, brought up in such +associations, he acted thus and not otherwise at such a critical +moment. Then when the superintendent, who is of necessity the confessor +of the criminal, has learned his life in all its details, and the +physician has discovered the defects with which he has suffered for +years, when they consult upon his case, the question only is if he can +be helped and how; and in the so-called prison they see, respectively, +but a reformatory and an infirmary. For--and this is a point of +infinite importance, which physiology will yet compel jurisprudence to +acknowledge--nearly all who come here are diseased in the ordinary +acceptation of the word; nearly all suffer from organic defects, and in +almost every case the brain lacks the proper volume which a normal man +needs for normal activity, for a life which shall not bring him into +conflict with the law. + +"And how could it be otherwise? Almost without exception they are +children of want, of wretchedness, of moral and physical malformation, +the Pariahs of Society which in its brutal egotism sweeps by with +garments gathered up for fear of defilement, or thrusts them away with +cruel violence from its path. The right of wrong! Insolence of +Phariseeism! A time will come when this invention of the philosophers +will be placed on a level with that other of the theologians, that +death is the atonement for sin, and men will thank God that at last +they have awaked from the night of ignorance which gave birth to such +monsters. + +"That day will come, but not so soon. + +"We are still deeply sunk in the mire of the Middle Ages, and no man +can yet see when this flood of blood and tears will have passed away. +However far the glances of a few brighter intellects may reach into the +coming ages, the progress of humanity is unspeakably slow. Wherever we +look abroad into our own time, we behold the unbeautiful relics of a +past that we had believed to be overthrown long ago. Our systems of +government, our nobility, our religious institutions, our official +arrangements, the organization of our armies, the condition of the +laboring classes--everywhere the scarcely hidden relation between +masters and slaves; everywhere the critical choice whether we will be +hammer or anvil. All our experience, all our observation seems to prove +that there is no third alternative. And yet no greater misconception of +the real state of the case is possible. Not hammer _or_ anvil, hammer +_and_ anvil is the true word, for every man is both, and both at once, +in every moment of his life. With the same force with which the hammer +strikes the anvil, the anvil strikes the hammer; the ball is thrown off +from the wall at the same angle under which it impinges upon it; the +elements which the plant has appropriated in its growth, it must +exactly restore in its decomposition--and so throughout all nature. But +if nature unconsciously obeys this great law of action and reaction, +and is thereby a cosmos and not a chaos, then should man, whose +existence is subordinated to precisely the same law, acquire an +intelligent knowledge of it, and endeavor intelligently to shape his +life in conformity with it; and his worth increases or diminishes +exactly in proportion as he does this or neglects it. For though the +law remains the same, whether the man knows it or knows it not, +yet for himself it is not the same. Where it is known, where the +inseparableness, the unity of human interests, the inevitableness of +action and reaction, are recognized, there bloom freedom, equity, +justice, which are all but varying expressions for the same law. Where +it is not known, and he fancies in his blindness that he can with +impunity make a tool of his fellow-man, there flourish rankly slavery +and tyranny, superstition and priestcraft, hatred and contempt, in all +their poisonous luxuriance. What man would not naturally wish rather to +be hammer than anvil, so long as he believes that the choice lies open +to him? But what reasonable man will not cheerfully renounce the part +of hammer, when he has learned that the part of anvil will not and +cannot be spared him, and that every blow that he gives smites also his +own cheek; that the serf corrupts the master as well as the master the +serf, and that in politics the guardian and the ward are rendered +equally stupid. Would that the consciousness of this might at last +penetrate to the mind of the German peoples, who stand so sorely in +need of it! + +"So sorely in need! For I must say it that at this moment, hardly +twenty years after our war of freedom, that fundamental principle of +human existence is probably by no enlightened nation so thoroughly and +universally ignored as by us Germans, fond though we are of calling +ourselves the intellectual flower of the nations, the people of +thinkers. Where is the young plant of humanity subjected with more +intolerable schoolmasterly pedantry to a too early, too strict, and +incredibly narrow training? Where is its free, beautiful development +more systematically hindered and maimed than it is with us? The +shameful wrongs that we perpetrated by aid of school-benches and +church-benches, the drill-sergeant's stick, the Procrustes-bed of +examination, the many-rounded ladder of official hierarchy--to think of +them sends the blush of shame to the cheeks and the glow of indignation +to the brow of those who can perceive it; it is justly the +inexhaustible theme of derision for our neighbors. The frenzy of +ruling, the slavish desire of being ruled, these are the two serpents +that have coiled around the German Hercules, and are crushing him; they +it is that are everywhere impeding the free circulation, and producing +here a condition of hypertrophy, and there of atrophy, that cruelly +injure the body of the nation; they it is that, injecting their venom +into the veins of the people, poison its blood and marrow, and degrade +the race itself; they it is, finally, that we have to thank for the +fact that our penitentiaries and jails can no longer contain the +multitude of the prisoners. For it is not an exaggeration if I say that +nine out of ten that come here would never have come had they not been +made anvils by force, in order that the lords of the hammer might have +something to vent their courage on. And as the natural right of every +man to maintain himself in the way most suitable to his powers and +capabilities has been impeded in them as much as possible by hindering +them systematically from becoming sound strong members of the +commonwealth, they have finally been brought here to the workhouse. The +workhouse is at bottom nothing but the last consequence of our +conditions, the problem of our life reduced to its simplest terms. Here +they must accomplish a strictly prescribed task in a strictly +prescribed manner; but when were they ever allowed freely to choose +their work? Here they must be silent; but when were they ever allowed +to speak freely? Here they must pay implicit obedience to the lowest +overseer; but without having read Shakspeare, do they not know that a +dog in office is obeyed? Here they must walk, stand, lie down, sleep, +wake, pray, work, idle, at the word of command; but are they not +admirably trained for it?--are they not all born workhouse men? My +heart aches when I think of it; yet how can I help thinking of it +especially at this moment when I see you before me, and ask myself: how +comes this youth with the frame of a strong man, and the frank blue +eyes of a child, in this abode of vice and crime? + +"My dear young friend, I would that the answer were more difficult. +Would that it were not the same formula by which I can calculate the +equation of your life also. Would that I did not know that the +unnaturalness of our relations is like a poisonous simoon that withers +the grass and even strips the leaves from the oak. + +"I have endeavored from what I before knew of you, and from what you so +frankly have confided to me of your earlier life, of your family +affairs, of the life and customs of the citizens of your native town, +to form a background upon which I might design your portrait. And how +cheerless it is, lying in the dim light in which all things now seem to +lie with us! Everywhere littleness, narrow-mindedness, restrictions, +blind adhesion to old formulas, pedantic ceremoniousness, everywhere +the free outlook into life shut out by high walls of prejudice. You +have told me that you besought your father to let you go to sea, and +that he steadfastly insisted that you should be a man of learning, or +at least follow an official career. It was certainly not, as you +accused yourself, a mere inclination to idleness or a hankering after +adventures that again and again prompted this wish; and assuredly your +father, whatever his reasons, did not do well so obstinately to reject +it. He had lost one son at sea--very well; there is another sea, the +sea of happy, active, energetic life, in which all faculties have their +free play. This he should not have forbidden you; and this was really +the sea for which you longed, of which the ocean with its storms was +but the image, though you took it for the reality. + +"Your father did not do well; yet we cannot reckon with him, rendered +gloomy by domestic misfortune, too soon left alone in the world, and +irritated by his son's resistance. But what can we say of your pedantic +teachers, not one of whom could comprehend a youth whose character is +openness itself? What of your worthy friends who raised a hue and cry +over the profligate who was leading their sons into mischief, and who +held it a devout work to widen the breach between father and son? Many +an honest German youth has been in your case, my friend; brought up +under such desperately stringent social restrictions, that he thanks +heaven, when, in the far west of America, under the trees of the +primeval forest, he hears no more about social order. True, in your +flight from the oppressive narrowness of your father's house, you did +not get so far as the American forests, but unhappily, only as far as +the woods of the Zehrenburg, and this filled up the measure of your +misfortunes. + +"For there you met with one towards whom you must have felt yourself +drawn by an irresistible attraction, as his nature in many points had a +wonderful resemblance to your own; one whose ruin had been mainly due +to the wretchedness of our social relations, and who had made a +wilderness around; him in which he could move in accordance with his +unfettered will, which he called liberty. A wilderness in the moral as +well as the literal sense; for as I learn from what you have told me of +his discourses, and as the result has shown, in throwing away prejudice +he also cast overboard judgment, with precaution, discretion, with +scrupulousness, consideration, with the faults of the German character +the virtues of all; and all that at last remained to him were his +adventurous spirit and a kind of fantastic magnanimity which at times, +as you have yourself experienced, could be more fantastic than +magnanimous. + +"But be that as it may, he was a man with whom you were at once struck, +because he was the exact opposite of all men whom you had hitherto met, +and who still possessed chivalrous qualities enough for a youth so +inexperienced to see in him his ideal. And then the free life upon the +broad heaths, the lofty cliffs, the far-reaching shore--how could this +do other than intoxicate and confuse a brain yet clouded with the dust +of the school-room? + +"But this freedom, this independence, this energetic life, were all but +a glittering reflection, the Fata-Morgana of a Hesperian shore, which +was destined to vanish, leaving behind a guard-house and a +penitentiary. + +"To make this prison a Hesperian garden to you, is not in my power, my +friend; nor would I do it if it were. But one thing I hope to effect, +and that is, that here, where the errors that warped your early +training can no longer reach you, you may come to yourself, learn to +know yourself, your aims, and the measure of your powers--that in a +workhouse you may learn how to work." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +I will not maintain that the excellent man said all that I have put +into his mouth in the last chapter, in these identical words, or upon +this particular morning. It is probable that I have thrown into +connection his remarks upon more than a single occasion, and perhaps +have added a phrase or a figure of my own. But hardly more than this; +for I too deeply absorbed his philosophy, which descended upon my +thirsting soul like the fruitful shower upon a parched field; and while +I attempt to repeat his thoughts, his image stands so lively in my +memory, that I fancy I hear the words issuing from his lips. + +And at this time I enjoyed the happiness of his converse every day and +often for hours at a time. It was not in my power to keep the promise I +had made to Paula, for her father did not wait for me to put the +question to him. I had told him our conversation, however, at which he +smiled. + +"She wants to make a learned man of you," he said. "I wish to make +nothing of you; I wish you to become what you are capable of becoming; +and to find out your capabilities we must experiment a little. One +thing is certain: you can become a first-rate hand-worker. You have +shown that already; and I am well satisfied that you have gone through +this brief course, for the first touches of the artist follow the last +of the craftsman, and it is well that he should understand the +handiwork upon which his art rests; not only because only thus is he +able to see rightly and help with counsel and hand wherever help is +needed, but only then is it truly his work, and belongs to him as a +child to a parent not only spirit of his spirit, but also flesh of his +flesh. Then how much more sharply does the eye see where the hand has +been busy? Here is the ground-plan of the new infirmary; this is the +foundation which you yourself helped to clear out, and for which you +yourself helped to bring the stones. This wall will be built upon that +foundation; it is of this height and this thickness; without a +calculation you are satisfied that such a foundation can support such a +wall. Do you not feel a pleasure in the neat, firm drawing in which a +single line represents the work of an hour, or perhaps of many days? +Paula has told me that you have an accurate eye and a sure hand. I need +copies of these plans: would you like to make them for me? It is +work suited to a convalescent; and the use of compass, ruler, and +drawing-pen, I can show you in five minutes." + +From this day I worked in the superintendent's office, copying simple +outlines or the design of a front, or engrossing specifications, with a +pleasure which I had never imagined could accompany work. But who then +ever had such a teacher--so kind, so wise, so patient, who so well knew +how to lead the pupil to confidence in himself? How grateful to me was +his praise; and how I stood in need of it. I who at school had always +been blamed and scolded, who looked on it as a matter of course that my +work was worse than that of any of the others, and who had come to +consider myself as destitute of all capacity. My new teacher taught me +that my capacities were only dormant, and that I could perfectly well +understand anything that I thought worth understanding. Thus I had +resigned myself in mathematics to make no progress beyond the first +rudiments, and now to my astonishment I discovered that these uncouth +symbols and crabbed formulas were composed of simple ideas and figures, +and constructed with a logical consequence which I had no difficulty in +perceiving, and in which I felt inexpressible delight. + +"It is singular," I said on one occasion, "that when I was with Herr +von Zehren I thought there could be nothing on earth more delightful +than shooting over a wide heath on a sunny autumn morning; but I now +find that to correctly employ a difficult formula gives more pleasure +than a good shot that brings down an unlucky pheasant." + +"The whole secret," replied my teacher, "lies in giving free play to +our powers and our talents in a direction which is agreeable to our own +nature. For in this manner we feel that we _are_; and every creature at +every moment seeks for nothing further. But if we can so contrive it +that our activity, besides giving us the proof of our existence, turns +to the advantage of others--and happily that is almost always in our +power--so much the better for us. Would to heaven my unfortunate +brother had caught a sight of this truth." + +Of course, especially in the earlier period of my imprisonment, our +conversation frequently turned upon "the Wild Zehren." + +"As a boy he bore that name," said the superintendent; "everybody +called him 'the Wild One,' and it was hardly possible to give him +another name. In his fiery nature lay an impulse that he could not +resist, to put forth his exuberant strength even to excess, to venture +whatever was most hazardous, and to attempt even the impossible. You +can judge the field that our paternal estate offered to such a boy. To +dash on the wildest horses down the steep heights, to put out to sea in +a crazy boat during a raging storm, to roam over the perilous moors by +night, to climb the giant beeches of the park to bring down a bird's +nest, to dive into the tarn in search of the treasure which they say +was thrown into it in the time of the Swedish invasion--these were his +favorite sports. I have no idea how often he found himself in danger of +death; but in truth it might be said to be every moment, for at any +moment the impulse might seize him to do something which put his life +in peril. Once we were standing at an upper window and saw an +infuriated bull chasing one of the laborers around the court. Malte +said, 'I must take that fellow in hand,' sprang down twenty feet into +the court as another might arise from a chair, and ran to meet the +bull, whose rage had however spent itself, so that he allowed the +daring boy to drive him back to the cattle-yard. It was a mere chance +here that he did not break his bones and was not gored; but as chance +always stood his friend, he grew more and more reckless and daring. + +"Chance, however, is a capricious deity, and unexpectedly leaves its +greatest favorites in the lurch. A far worse enemy to my brother were +the circumstances in which he grew up. The only thing he had been +taught, was that the Zehrens were the oldest race on the island, and +that he was the first-born. From these two articles of faith he +constructed a sort of religion and mystical cultus which was all the +more fantastic that his pompous fancies contrasted so glaringly with +the threadbare reality. + +"Our father was a nobleman of the old lawless school, and of the wild +ways of his class in the eighteenth century: a man of all men least +fitted to form the character of a haughty, audacious boy like my +brother. Our mother had lived at courts, and in this unwholesome sphere +frittered away her really remarkable gifts. She yearned for the +vanished splendors of her former life; the solitude of a country life +wearied, and the rudeness with which she was surrounded, shocked her. +Their life was not a happy one: as she knew she was no longer beloved +by her husband, she soon ceased to love her children, in whom she +fancied--whether rightly or wrongly is of no consequence--that she +perceived only the traits of their father. Our father's regard was +confined to his first-born alone; and when a wealthy, childless aunt +asked to be allowed to take charge of the second son, Arthur, he +willingly consented. Indeed I believe he would have been glad to be rid +of me also, the youngest son, only no one was willing to take me. Thus +I grew up as I best could; sometimes I had a tutor and sometimes I had +none; no one cared for me; I should have been left entirely alone, had +not my eldest brother, after his fashion, taken me under his charge. + +"He loved me, who was ten years his junior, with passionate devotion, +with a wild, and, as it now appears to me, a touching tenderness. +Strong as I afterwards grew, I was a frail and sickly child. He, the +dauntless, shielded me from every shadow of danger; he watched and +guarded me as the apple of his eye; played with me, when I was well, +for half-days at a time; watched, when I was sick, night after night by +my bed. I was the only one who could control 'the Wild One' with a +word, a look; but what could such influence avail? It was a thread that +snapped, when the youth of twenty, after a scene of unusual violence +with our father, left suddenly the paternal house, to enter it no more +for ten years. + +"He was sent to travel, as the customary phrase then ran; but the +always insufficient remittances which he received from our father, +whose means were daily diminishing, soon ceased altogether. He had to +live as he could; and as he could not live at his own expense, he lived +at the expense of others, like many a noble adventurer, to-day a +beggar, to-morrow rolling in gold; to-day the comrade of the lowest +rabble, tomorrow the companion of princes; with his irresistible power +of fascination, conquering all hearts wherever he came, yet himself +fixed nowhere, and roaming restlessly from one end of Europe to the +other. He was in England, Italy, Spain, and longest in France; in the +wild life of Paris he found his natural element, and he revelled in the +arms of French ladies, whose brothers and husbands were devastating his +native land with fire and sword. + +"For five or six years we had heard nothing of him; our mother had +died, and we had not known where to send him the news of her death; our +father, broken before his time, was tottering to his grave; the +devastation of our estates by the enemy, who had penetrated even to us, +did not move his apathy--he drank the last bottle of wine in his cellar +in a carouse with French officers. I could not endure all this with +patience. I challenged the French colonel, a Gascon, who, seated at my +father's table, with a guitar in his hands, was singing ribald songs +insulting to the Germans. He laughed, and made his men take the sword +from the boy of seventeen--it was a dress-sword which hung on the wall +by a blue scarf as an ornament, and which I had snatched in my fury--to +punish his presumption by having him shot the next morning. + +"In the night appeared a deliverer whom I had least reason to expect. +At the rumors of an uprising in Germany--at that time the first _Frei +corps_ was organizing--the Wild One had hurried back from the arms of +his paramours and the _salons_ of the Faubourg St. Germain, and his way +had led him to our native place, where just then the flames of war were +most fiercely burning. He could not reach the _Frei corps_, which was +in the citadel, so he turned to the island with the plan of stirring up +a guerrilla warfare against the invaders. He came just at the right +moment to snatch his brother from certain death. With a few trusty +followers hastily collected, he broke into the prison under +circumstances of the most daring audacity, and carried me away. + +"From this time we were together for five years, and first as simple +volunteers, then as officers of the line, shared perils and hardships +like brothers. I was a good soldier, but my brother's name was known +throughout the whole army, and again he was called 'the Wild Zehren,' +as if to such a man that was the only fitting epithet. Innumerable were +the stories told of his courage and foolhardiness. The general opinion +was that he was seeking death; but he was not thinking of death--he +only despised life. He laughed when he heard others talking +enthusiastically of the regeneration of Germany; how we would rid our +native soil both of foreign and native tyrants, in order to establish a +kingdom of fraternity and equality in the liberated land. At that time +he often had the old phrase of 'hammer and anvil' on his lips, which, +as he said, expressed his philosophy in the simplest terms. +'Fraternity! equality!' he scoffed--'away with such empty phrases! This +is a world of the strong and the weak; of masters and serfs. You have +so long been the anvil under that giant hammer Napoleon, that now you +want to play hammer yourselves. See how far you will bring it. Not far, +I fear. You have only talents for the part of anvil.' + +"'Why did you come to help us fight Napoleon?' I asked. + +"'Because I was bored in Paris,' was his reply. + +"But he did himself injustice. He was something more than the _blasé_ +cavalier of fortune which he pretended to be; he had squandered in a +life of wild adventures the treasures of a heart dearer than Plutus' +mine; but a fragment of this heart was yet left him, and in this +fragment lived--if not genuine patriotism and philanthropy, at least +the generous impulse to side with the oppressed and resist the +oppressor, whether he be a brilliant conquerer or a stupid native +prince ruling by the grace of God. + +"And now that the conquerer was chained to the rock of St. Helena, and +he saw the heroes of so many battles taking their old accustomed yoke +once more upon their patient necks; when he saw that the whole proud +torrent of liberty was wasting in the sand of loyal obedience, then he +broke his sword, which he had gloriously carried through twenty +battles, bestowed a curse upon both despots and slaves, and said that +now, as before the war, the world was his home; the only home for a +free-born man in a slavish age. + +"I know well that his reasoning was strained and unsound; but there was +a kernel of truth in it. The result has proven this; the incredibly +vapid, idealess time in which we live, a time barren of thought and of +deeds, a real age of the Epigoni, has completely confirmed his +prediction. And now again he wandered, a homeless adventurer, through +the land, only with the difference that before with insolent power he +had sported with men, whom he now coldly preyed upon because he +despised them. 'I endeavored to purchase with my blood a letter of +indulgence for my past: it has been refused me. What now is the present +or the future to me?' How often have I thought upon this expression of +his to me at the moment of our parting. It has always remained with me +a key to his enigmatical character. + +"Again for years I heard nothing more of him. Our father was dead; our +estate sequestered; my second brother, Arthur, whom his aunt had +deceived in his expectations, was toiling in thankless public service; +I, who had set my heart upon the regeneration of the public, and +thought that I could see that the work must be begun at the very +beginning, that is, at the bottom, had managed to obtain this place +through my patron, Altenburg; had been here, a crippled man, for four +years, and was still studying the rudiments of my vocation; Malte was +nowhere heard of. Suddenly he reappeared, and with a wife who had +followed the adventurer to his home. He declared his intention to take +the paternal estate in hand. I afforded him every facility; Arthur sold +his rights for a sum of money, the receipt of which, by the way, he +still denies. The creditors were glad to get at all events something, +and one of them at least consoled himself with the thought that +'omittance was no quittance,' and the hope--which has not deceived +him--that the Zehren estates were as secure to him under the new master +as under the old. + +"We did not meet at his return; just at that time I could not well +leave this place, and he, on his part, felt no desire to renew the old +friendship. When we parted, I was about to contract a marriage, in +which the first-born of an ancient line saw a criminal _mésalliance_; +now for some years I had been holding an official post; and to hold any +post, but especially such a post as this, was in his eyes throwing +one's self away, trampling under foot the inborn right of a knight of +the hammer, and making one's self a plebeian anvil. That I refused the +compensation he had offered me for my interest in the estate, wounded +him deeply. By so doing, in his eyes, I renounced my obedience and +subordination to the first-born, the chief of the family. He could not +forgive me that I had no more need of him; that I had no debts which he +must plunge himself into debt to pay; in a word, that I was not like my +brother Arthur, who was much more compliant in this point--too +compliant, I fear. + +"On the other side, what I heard of him--and he took care never to let +men's tongues rest about him--confirmed me in the sad conviction that +between him and me a gulf had opened, not to be crossed by even the +sincere love I still felt for him. I heard of the wild life he was +living with the noblemen of his neighborhood, now impoverished by the +war; of the drinking and gaming bouts, of mad exploits of which he was +the originator. At this time a dark rumor got abroad that he was +conducting the smuggling traffic, which during the war had flourished +greatly, being then encouraged by the government, but now was strongly +repressed. But the worst rumors were those that spoke of the wretched +life he led with his unhappy wife. He ill-treated her, it was said; he +had imprisoned her in a cellar; it was unaccountable that the +authorities did not interfere. + +"I could not bear to hear these things, of which I did not believe a +word, for the charges were in too glaringly contradiction to the +naturally noble and generous nature of my brother. But I felt a natural +hesitation to mix myself up in these affairs, until a letter which I +received brought me to a decision. The letter was written in bad +French, and the very first words informed me that the unhappy woman who +wrote it must be out of her right mind. 'I hear you know the road to +Spain,' it began, and ended with the words, 'I entreat you to tell me +the road to Spain.' In an hour after receiving it I set out, and, after +so many years, saw my father's house and my brother again. It was a +painful meeting. + +"My father's house a ruin, my brother a shadow--worse, a caricature--of +his former self. Ah, my friend, the hammer-theory had shown itself +cruel to its staunchest maintainer. How had the clumsy anvil beaten out +the delicate hammer! How ignoble he had grown in the common world which +he so deeply despised! 'Only despise reason and knowledge,' Goethe +makes the Spirit of Lies say, 'and I have you then safe.' And I say, +only despise men, and you will see how soon you grow despicable to +others and to yourself. + +"I told him why I had come; he led me in silence into the park, and +pointed to a woman, who, in a fantastic dress, flowers and weeds in her +glossy-black, half-dishevelled hair, in her hands a guitar with half +its chords broken, was wandering under the trees and among the +shrubbery, sometimes raising her dark eyes, as if in ecstacy, to +heaven, and again dropping them, as in despair, to the earth. + +"'You see,' he said, 'it is a lie that I have imprisoned her. Many +another would do it, for it is not a pleasant thing to afford the +public such an exhibition.' + +"Take her to her native place," I said. + +"'Try it,' he answered. 'She would leap out of the carriage; she would +throw herself into the sea. And if you took her there in fetters and by +force, what would be her fate? She would be thrown into the dungeon of +a convent, where they would try with hunger and blows to exorcize the +devil who tempted her to give her heart to a heretic. Though I love her +no longer, I once loved her, or at least she has been mine; and no +priest's ungentle hand shall touch what has once belonged to me.' + +"I said how terrible it was to hear him speak thus of his wife, the +mother of his child. + +"'Who says that she is my wife?' was his reply. + +"I looked at him amazed and shocked; he shrugged his shoulders. + +"'That does not suit your citizen virtue,' he said. 'I would have made +her Frau von Zehren, notwithstanding her father is a hidalgo of very +doubtful lineage, had the child been a boy. What do I want with a girl? +She cannot continue our race; let it then end with me.' + +"It was indifferent to him whether these words wounded me or not; he +had no desire to wound me; he really looked upon the superintendent of +a prison, who had married a poor painter's daughter, as not a Zehren. + +"I besought him to give me the child, if, as he said, she was nothing +to him. I would bring her up with my Paula, who was then just born. +Here she must perish both morally and physically; and there might be a +time when he would long for a child, whether son or daughter, +legitimate or illegitimate. + +"'Then my last hour must have come,' he answered, turning away from me +with a contemptuous gesture. + +"What was here to be done? I was not here to hunt with my brother, or +to join him in his carouses and gaming parties, to which he invited me, +with ironical politeness. I spoke with the poor lunatic, who did not +understand me, and had no idea that she had written to me, as to many +others whose names she had learned by chance. I shook hands with old +Christian, who had always been fond of me, and was now the only one who +remembered me, and begged him to watch over the poor forsaken creature. +I wandered once more through the park and greeted the scenes of my +boyish sports; once more saw the sun set behind the house where my +cradle had stood, and came sorrowing away. Thus might a tree feel that +is torn from the earth with all its roots. But, thank heaven, if man is +driven from his home, he can win himself a new one; and when the gates +of our childhood's paradise are closed behind us, another world opens +to us which we must conquer and possess in the sweat of our brows, but +which for this reason alone is truly ours." + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +It was certainly not with the intention of stimulating me--for that was +no longer needed--that my teacher in his discourses ever returned to +the same theme, that free, voluntary labor, consecrated by love, the +labor of all for all, was the completion of wisdom, the proper aim and +highest happiness of mankind. This was the last result of his practical +philosophy, to which of necessity all his reflections tended, whether +their subject was the destiny of the individual or the race. And as +these discourses were almost always carried on in intervals of repose +from work, from which we came and to which we were about to return, +they might be called significant arabesques to the earnest, and--as it +now looks to me--moving pictures presented by the unresting, thoughtful +master, and the industrious, eager student, in their combined +occupation. + +This occupation was strictly regulated. It so happened that during my +convalescence, an old clerk of the office, who had long been ailing, +died. As it was a fixed principle with the superintendent that all work +should be done by inmates of the establishment, so far as that was +practicable, he had, in spite of the opposition of President von +Krossow, by means of an immediate application to the king, supported by +his friend, Minister von Altenburg, obtained liberty to leave the +clerk's place unfilled, and to give his work, as a special favor, to +me, for which I also received certain emoluments, reduced to the +proportion of other sums paid for prison-work. Deacon von Krossow +congratulated me, with anything but cordiality, on my "promotion," but +Dr. Snellius crowed loudly with joy, and in the family the great event +was celebrated as a festival. As for me, this arrangement had lifted a +load from my breast. I had now no longer to fear that the generous man +who had already done so much for me, would be involved in serious +inconveniences by his kindness. In the president's circle they had even +talked of investigations, removal from office, of pensioning off at the +very least. Now, as my relation to him bore an official character, this +danger was disposed of, and I could look with a light heart through the +open window by which my work-table stood, into the leafy garden, where +the bees were humming around the flowers, where the birds sang in the +trees, and among the flowers and under the trees Frau von Zehren took +her morning walk, leaning on her daughter's arm, or in the afternoon, +after school-hours, the boys played or worked in their flower-beds. + +For each one, even Oscar, had his bed, which he had to keep in order; +and it was always a fresh pleasure to me to see the little men with +their watering-pots and other implements, which they handled with the +skill of practiced gardeners. And yet the pleasure which this sight +gave me, was not without a touch of sadness. It always brought to my +mind my own youth, and how joyless and fruitless it had been in +comparison with this, which unfolded itself before me in such fullness +of beauty. Who had ever taught me to employ thus usefully my youthful +strength? Who, to bring a significance even into my sports? Alas, large +and strong as I was, I might have been nourished by the crumbs that +fell from this bounteous table. For I had scarcely known my mother, and +the deeply melancholy disposition of my father, who was naturally +grave, and had been rendered still more gloomy by the loss of his +deeply-loved wife, was to a vivacious high-spirited boy at once +mysterious and terrible. Later I well understood what then I had but +imperfect glimpses of--how deeply and sincerely he desired my welfare, +and strove, according to his conscience and knowledge, to be a good +father to me; but like Moses, my excellent father was slow of speech, +and there was no obliging Aaron at hand to explain to me the reasons of +his stern commands. My brother and sister were considerably older than +myself. I was eight years old when my brother Fritz, then sixteen, went +to sea, and only ten when my sister, who was twenty, was married. My +brother was a lively, gay young fellow, and troubled himself about me +as little as he did about anybody or anything else in the world; my +sister had my father's sternness, but without his feeling. After she +was called to take the place of a mother to me, she treated me always +with pedantic strictness, and often with petty cruelty. So I took +refuge with the old serving-woman who lived in a state of hostility +with her, and who, to reward me for my partisanship, told me stories of +robbers and ghosts; and when Sarah married, and with her parting kiss +proceeded to give me a farewell lecture, I told her in the presence of +my father, her husband, and all the wedding-company, that I wanted +neither her teaching nor her kiss, and that I was glad that in future I +should see and hear of her no more. This was held up as an instance of +the most frightful ingratitude on my part; and Justizrath Heckepfennig, +who was also present on this occasion, pronounced for the first time +his deliberate conviction, which subsequent experience was only too +strongly to confirm, that I "would die in my shoes." + +No one can blame me, if while I looked through the window at my little +friends, the wish arose in my mind that I had also been so fortunate, +that I had had a father at once so wise and so kind, so gentle and +tender a mother, such merry companions in work and play, and above all +such a sister. + +At first she always brought to my mind some old child's story, but I +could not remember precisely what it was. It was not little Snow-white, +for little Snow-white was a thousand times fairer than the fairest +queen, and Paula was not really beautiful; it could not be little Red +Riding-hood, for she, when you came to look at it, was a little stupid +thing who could not tell the wicked wolf from her good old grandmother, +and Paula was tall and slender, and so very wise! Cinderella? Paula was +so neat that no cinders could ever be seen about her, and she had no +doves at her command to help her gather the peas; on the contrary, she +had to do everything for herself. I could not make it out, and +concluded at last that it was no special personage of whom she reminded +me, but rather that she was like one of the good fairies whom one does +not see either coming or going, and only know that she has been here by +the gift she has left behind; or like the friendly little goblins who, +while the maids sleep, clean up parlor and kitchen, garret and cellar; +and when the sleepers awake, they see that all their work is done +already, and far better than they could have done it themselves. + +Yes, she must be a fairy, who, out of the abundance of her kindness to +those whom she befriended, had taken the form of a slender blue-eyed, +blonde maiden. How otherwise could it be that from early morning to +late evening she was always busy and yet never weary; that she was +always at hand when wanted; that she had ready attention for every one, +and that never the shadow of ill-humor passed across her sweet face, +much less an unkind word from her lips? True, her look was serious, and +she rarely spoke more than just what was needful, but her seriousness +had no admixture of gloom, and once or twice I even heard her playfully +chatting with a half-loud gentle voice, such as the fairies have when +they speak the language of mortals. + +I confided my discovery to my friend, Dr. Snellius. + +"Keep away from me with such nonsense!" cried he. "A fairy, indeed! It +is Lessing's old fable of the iron pot that must needs be taken off the +fire with a pair of silver tongs. What does she do, then, that is so +extraordinary? She is the housekeeper, the teacher of the children, her +father's friend, her mother's companion, and the nurse of both. All +good girls are all this: there is nothing so unusual in it; it all lies +in system and order. But a fantastic head of twenty years naturally +cannot see men and things as they really are. Do you marry her. That is +the best means of discovering that the angels with the longest azure +wings are but women after all." + +I passed my hand through my hair, which was now perceptibly regaining +its former luxuriance, and said thoughtfully: + +"I marry Paula? Never! I cannot imagine the man who would be worthy to +marry her; but this I know certainly, that I am not he. What am I?" + +"For the present you are condemned to seven years' imprisonment, and +have therefore fully that amount of time for considering what you will +be when you are released. I trust that you will then be a worthy man, +and I do not know what girl, nor what seraph is too good for a worthy +man." + +"But I know another reason, doctor, why I shall not be able to marry +her then." + +"What is that?" + +"Because by that time you will have married her yourself." + +"What a grinning, gnashing mammoth! Do you suppose a girl like that +will marry an apoplectic billiard-ball?" + +Whether the doctor was provoked at the contradiction into which he had +fallen in scouting, as regarded himself, the possibility which he had +just maintained in reference to me--or whatever the cause may have +been, the blood rushed so violently to his bald head, that he really +bore a striking resemblance to the remarkable object to which he had +just compared himself, and his crow rose to such an extraordinary +height of pitch, that he did not even make the attempt to tune himself +down. + +These sayings of the doctor haunted my memory for several days. I was +struck with the thought that a worthy man was good enough for any girl, +and therefore that in this respect there was no reason why I should +not, sooner or later, marry Paula. But then again, I knew not how, my +old notions returned, and when I saw her arranging and ordering all +things with her heavenly patience, I said to myself--It is not true +that all girls, even the so-called good ones, are like Paula; and it is +an absurd idea of the doctor that I can ever be worthy of her. + +The clear atmosphere, the splendid sunsets, the dry leaves that here +and there fluttered down from the trees, announced the approach of +another autumn. It was the season that I had spent the year before at +Castle Zehrendorf; these were the same signs that I had then so closely +observed, and they awakened in my soul a crowd of memories. I had +believed that these memories were deeply buried, and I now found that +only a thin covering had been spread over them, which every light +sighing of the melancholy autumn breeze sufficed to lift. Indeed it +often seemed to me that the wounds which had been inflicted on me a +year before were about to open once more. I again lived over all that +time, but it was as when a waking man, in full consciousness, calls +back a vivid dream. What in a dream, with the incomplete activity of +our intellectual faculties, seemed to us natural and reasonable, +appears to us, when awake, as a strange phantasm; and what then +tormented us as incomprehensible, we can now clearly understand, +because we can supply the vacant steps which our dreaming fancy has +leaped lightly over. I had only to compare my position at that time +with the present, to see how wild a caricature my fancy had drawn. Then +I imagined myself free, and was really involved in a net of the most +unhappy, the most repulsive circumstances, as a fly in the web of a +spider; now I slept every night behind bars of iron, and felt as calm +and safe as when one steps from a swaying boat upon the steady land. +Then I believed that I had found my proper career, and now I saw that +that life was only a continuation, and to a certain extent the +consequence of a youth spent without plan or aim. And in what light now +did the persons in whose destinies I had taken such a passionate +interest, now appear to me, when I compared them with those whom I had +learned to love so cordially--when I compared, for instance, the Wild +Zehren with his wise and gentle brother? And, as I had begun to draw +comparisons, that dejected, sleepy giant, Hans von Trantow--where now +was the good Hans, if he was not dead? and there were those who +insisted that he was safe enough, and they knew very well where he +was--had to take his place by the side of the little, intelligent +Doctor Snellius, always full of life and motion; and even poor old +Christian was compared with the vigorous old Sergeant Süssmilch. But +most vividly was the comparison forced upon me between the beautiful, +romantic Constance, and the pure, refined Paula. + +A sharper contrast could scarcely be imagined; and for this reason +perhaps the image of the one always called up that of the other. I felt +for Paula, notwithstanding her youth, a greater respect than I had ever +felt for Constance, who was several years older, and far more +beautiful. True, with the latter at first I had had a certain +bashfulness to overcome in myself, but this bashfulness was of a very +different nature, and I had so completely overcome it, that when I left +the castle that morning, I was resolved to marry her, in spite of my +nineteen years. And what surprised me was the fact that I could not +think of Constance, who had so cruelly betrayed me, and whom I believed +myself to hate, without the wish that I might see her once more, and +tell her how much I had loved her, and how deeply she had wounded me. +Where was she now? When last heard of, she was in Paris. + +Was she still there, and how was she living? That she had been +abandoned by her lover, I knew already; I had laughed aloud when I +first heard of it. Now I laughed no longer; I could not think, without +a feeling of the deepest pity, of her who had been so atrociously +wronged, who now perhaps--yes, beyond a doubt--was wandering homeless +and friendless about the world; an adventuress, as her father had been +an adventurer. And yet she could not be altogether vile; had she not +with pride and scorn renounced every claim upon her father's +inheritance? Did she not know that her father had never deigned to make +her mother his wife? Had she perhaps known it before? And if so, did +not this fact suffice to explain the hostile position she maintained +towards her father? Could she love the man who had plunged her mother +into such unbounded wretchedness--who had never been to her what a +father should be, and who, if the reports of his gaming companions were +to be believed, had only used her as a bait to allure the stupid fish +to his net? Could one judge her so severely--her who had sprung from +such parents, grown up in isolation and amid such associations, exposed +from childhood to the clumsy attentions or the impertinent +familiarities of rude country squires--if she had violated duties whose +sacredness she had never comprehended?--if she had been sacrificed by a +profligate who approached her with all the temptations of wealth and +his exalted rank, and with the whole magic of youth? Unfortunate +Constance! Your song of the "falsest-hearted, only chosen" was cruelly +prophetic. Your chosen one had indeed proved false-hearted to you. And +the other, your faithful George, who was to kill all the dragons +lurking in your path, you scorned his service; and the mistrust which +you felt in the strength and wisdom of the squire who had devoted +himself to you, was but too well justified. Would he ever see you +again? + +I know that she had refused to be present at the family conference +which was soon to be held. And yet, as the day drew nearer, the thought +more frequently recurred to me, that she might still change her mind, +uncertain and impulsive as she was, and suddenly stand before me, just +as my friend Arthur one evening, as I was returning with Paula from the +Belvedere, appeared before me in all the splendor of his new ensign's +uniform. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +The day had been rainy and disagreeable, and my frame of mind was as +dull and gloomy as the weather. In the morning the superintendent had +had an attack of hemorrhage. I was for the first time alone in the +office, and often looked over from my work to the place that was vacant +to-day, and again listened, when a light swift step came along the +corridor from the room where the superintendent was, to the nursery, +where the little Oscar had been lying for a week with some infantile +ailment. I was always hoping that the light swift step would stop at my +door; but the fairy had today too much to do, and with all, I thought, +had probably forgotten me. + +But she had not forgotten me. + +It was towards evening. As I could no longer see, I had put by my work, +and was still seated upon the office stool, with my head resting on my +hand, when there came a light tap at the door. I hurried to open it--it +was Paula. + +"You have not been out of the room the whole day," she said; "the rain +is over; I have half an hour to spare; shall we walk in the garden a +little?" + +"How are they?" + +"Better, much better." + +She answered promptly, and yet her voice did not have a reassuring +sound; and she was singularly silent as side by side we ascended the +path to the Belvedere. I concealed my solicitude, as well as I could, +by encouraging words. The little one, I said, was now out of all +danger; and it was not the first attack of the kind which the +superintendent had had, and from which he always soon recovered his +usual strength. This was Dr. Snellius's opinion too, I added. + +While I thus spoke, Paula had not once looked at me, and as we now +reached the summer-house, she entered it hastily. I remained behind a +moment to look at the clouds which the sunset was coloring with hues of +marvellous beauty, and called Paula that she might not miss the +splendid sight. She did not answer; I stepped to the door. She was +sitting at the table, her face buried in her hands, weeping. + +"Paula, dear Paula!" I exclaimed. + +She raised her head and strove to smile, but it was in vain; again she +covered her face with her hands and wept aloud. + +I had never seen her before in this state, and the unusual and +unexpected sight distressed me inexpressibly. In my deep emotion I +ventured for the first time gently to smooth down her blond hair with +my hand, speaking to her as to a child whom I was trying to soothe and +comfort. And what was this maiden of fifteen but a helpless child to +me, who stood by her now in the plenitude of my fully restored +strength? + +"You are very kind," she sobbed, "very kind! I do not know why just +to-day I see everything in so gloomy a light. Perhaps it is because I +have borne it so long in silence; or possibly it may be this gray, +cheerless day; but I cannot keep my mind clear of dreadful thoughts. +And what will become of my mother and the boys?" + +She shook her head mournfully, and looked straight before her with eyes +dim with tears. + +It had begun to rain again; the bright tints of the clouds had changed +to a dull gray; the evening wind rustled in the trees and the dry +leaves came eddying down. I felt unutterably sad--sad and vexed at +heart. Here again was I in the most wretched of positions; compelled to +witness the distress of those I loved, while powerless to relieve it. +It might be that Constance and her father had not deserved the sympathy +I had felt for them; but I still had endured the grief and the pain; +and this family--this--I knew well were worthy that a man should shed +his heart's blood in their service. Alas, again I had nothing but my +blood that I could give! To give one's blood is perhaps the greatest, +and assuredly the last sacrifice that one man can bring to another; but +how often does it prove a coinage that is not current in the market of +life. A handful of money would bring rescue--a piece of bread--a +blanket--a mere nothing--and yet with all our blood we cannot provide +this. + +And as I stood, leaning in the door of the summer-house, now glancing +at the gentle, weeping girl, and now at the dripping trees, my heart +swelling with sorrow and helpless indignation, I vowed to myself that +in spite of all, I would yet raise myself to a position where, in +addition to my good will, I should also have the power to help those +whom I loved. + +How oft in my after life have I recurred in memory to this vow! It +seemed so utterly impossible; the object I proposed to attain seemed so +far away; and yet that I now stand where I do I chiefly owe to the +conviction that filled my soul at that moment. So the shipwrecked +mariner, battling with the waves in a frail and leaky skiff, sees but +for a moment the shore where there is safety; but that moment suffices +to show him the course he must steer to escape destruction. + +"I must go in," said Paula. + +We walked side by side along the path leading down from the Belvedere. +My heart was so full that I could not speak; Paula also was silent. A +twig hung across the path, so low that it would have brushed her head; +I raised it as she passed, and a shower of drops fell upon her. She +gave a little cry, and then laughed when she saw me confused at my +awkwardness. + +"That was refreshing," she said. + +It sounded as if she were thanking me, though I had really startled +her. I could not help seizing the dear maiden's hand. + +"How good you are, Paula," I said. + +"And how bad you are," she replied, looking up in my face with a +radiant smile. + +"Good-evening!" a clear voice exclaimed close at hand. + +The speaker had stepped out of a hedged path that opened at +right-angles to the one in which we were walking, and now stood facing +us in a gay uniform, his left hand on the hilt of his sword, three +white-gloved fingers raised in a foppish salute to the peak of his cap, +gazing curiously at us from his brown eyes, and a half-mocking, +half-vexed smile upon his face, which in the pallid evening light +looked paler and more worn than ever. + +"Allow me to present myself," he said--his three fingers still raised +to his cap--"Arthur von Zehren, ensign in the 120th. Have been at the +house already; learned to my regret that my uncle is not perfectly +well; my aunt is not visible; would at least not neglect to pay my +_devoirs_ to my charming cousin." + +He said all this in a drawling, affected tone, without looking at me +(who had released Paula's hand at once) or taking the slightest notice +of my presence. + +"I am sorry that it has happened so unfortunately, Cousin Arthur," said +Paula. "We did not look for you before next week." + +"That was my original plan," replied Arthur; "but my colonel, who is so +good as to take a special interest in me, hastened the issue of my +commission, so that I was able to leave yesterday, and present myself +here to-day. Papa and mamma send kind remembrances to my uncle and my +aunt; they will be here the beginning of next week; hope uncle will be +quite restored by that time. Am curious to see him; they say he is very +like my grandfather Malte, whose picture hangs in the parlor at home. +Would not have known you, dear cousin; you have not the family face; +brown hair and eyes is the Zehren style." + +The path was not wide enough for three to walk abreast; so the two went +on before, and I followed at a little distance, but near enough to hear +every word. I had lately been thinking of my former friend with very +mixed feelings; but now as he strutted along before me at the side of +that dear child, pouring his insipid chatter into her ear, calling her +_thou_ and _cousin_, and just now, either accidentally or +intentionally, touching her with his elbow--my feelings were very +unmixed indeed. I could have wrung Master Ensign's dainty little brown +head round in his red collar with extreme satisfaction. + +We reached the house. + +"I will see if you cannot speak with my mother for a few minutes at +least," said Paula; "please wait an instant here; you have not spoken +to your old friend yet." + +Paula ran up the steps; Arthur saluted her--three fingers to his +cap--as she went, and then remained standing with his back to me. +Suddenly he turned upon his heel so as to face me, and said in his most +insolent tone: + +"I will now bid you good-day; but I request you to observe that before +third parties we have no acquaintance--I presume I need not enter into +details why this is so." + +Arthur was a head shorter than I, and he had to look up in my face +while he pronounced these severe words. This circumstance was not in +his favor; rudenesses are much best said from above; and it struck me +so ludicrously that this little fellow, whom I could have tumbled over +with a light push, should puff himself up to this extent before me, +that I laughed aloud. + +An angry flush crimsoned Arthur's pale cheek. + +"It seems you mean to insult me," he said; "happily in my position I +cannot be insulted by a person like you. I have already heard on what +footing you stand here; my uncle will have the choice between me and +you. I do not imagine that it will be a difficult one." + +I no longer laughed. I had loved this youth with more than brotherly +affection; I had, so to speak, knelt and worshipped him; I had rendered +him a vassal's faithful service; had good-naturedly accompanied him in +all his follies, and taken--how often!--their punishment upon myself. I +had guarded and protected him in every danger; had shared with him all +that I possessed, only his share was always by far the larger--and now, +now, when I was in misfortune and he luxuriating in the sunshine of +prosperity, now he could speak to me thus! I could scarcely understand +it; but what I did understand was inexpressibly odious to me. I gazed +at him with a look before which any other would have lowered his eyes, +turned my back upon him and went. A peal of derisive laughter resounded +behind me. + +"Laugh away!" I said to myself; "he laughs best who laughs last." + +But when I thought of Paula's behavior during this interview, I felt +that it might well have been different. I thought she might have taken +my side more openly. She well knew how Arthur had abandoned me as soon +as I fell into misfortune; how he had had no single cheering word for +his old companion when in prison; yes, had even openly renounced me, +and blackened my name with calumny like the rest. + +"That was not right--that was very ill done of Arthur," she had said to +me more than once; and now--I was very dissatisfied with Paula. + +I was now to have opportunities enough for dissatisfaction; for in +truth, all things taken together, the time which followed was an +unhappy time for me. Arthur presented himself on the following day, and +was received by the superintendent in his sick-room, and by all the +family, in the most friendly manner. I, who had always stood so much +alone, possessed in but slight degree the family feeling, the respect +for the claims of kindred, and could not comprehend that the mere +accident of the identity of name and origin could in itself have such +importance as was manifestly conceded to it here. "Dear nephew," said +the superintendent and Frau von Zehren; "Cousin Arthur," said Paula; +and "Cousin Arthur," shouted the boys. And in truth, Nephew Arthur and +Cousin Arthur was amiability itself. He was respectful to his uncle, +attentive to his aunt, full of chivalrous politeness to Paula, and +hand-and-glove with the boys. I observed all from a distance. The +superintendent still had to keep his room; and I took that for a +pretext for working more diligently than ever in the office, which I +quitted as seldom as possible, and where I buried myself in my lists +and drawings, in order to see and hear nothing of what was going +forward. + +Unhappily, I still heard and saw too much. The weather had cleared up +again, and a lovely latter-autumn, peculiar to this region, followed +the stormy weather. The boys had holiday, the family scarcely left the +garden, and Cousin Arthur was always of the company. Cousin Arthur must +have had precious little to do; the colonel deserved arrest for letting +his ensigns run wild in this fashion! + +Alas, imprisonment had not changed me for the better, as I sometimes +flattered myself. When before had even a feeling of envy or of grudging +arisen in my soul? When had I ever disavowed my motto, "Live and let +live?" And now my heart beat with indignation whenever, raising my +eyes, I saw Arthur in the garden stroking the little moustache that +began to darken his lip, or heard his clear voice. I grudged him his +little dark moustache; as a prisoner I could wear no beard, and mine +would anyhow have been of a very pronounced red. I grudged him his +clear voice; my own was deep, and had grown very rough since I had left +off singing. I grudged him his freedom, which, in my eyes, he so +shamefully abused. I almost grudged him his life. Had he not wretchedly +darkened my own life, which of late had been so pleasantly lightened, +and was he not joyously basking in the sunshine from which he had +expelled me? + +And yet I had no real ground to complain. The superintendent, who +recovered from his attack less rapidly than we had hoped, but +occasionally came into the office, was as sympathizing and kind as +ever; and after I had persistently, for one or two weeks, declined +under various pretexts the invitations to join them in the garden, I +had no right to be surprised if Frau von Zehren and Paula at last grew +weary of troubling themselves about me, and the boys preferred their +lively cousin Arthur, who taught them their drill, to the melancholy +George, who no longer played with them. In my eyes, however, they had +simply abandoned me; and I should have fallen into mere despair, had I +not possessed two friends who held fast to me, and secretly or openly +espoused my cause. + +These two friends were Doctor Snellius and Sergeant Süssmilch. + +As for the sergeant, Master Ensign had got into his black book on the +second day. In his familiar fashion, he had clapped him on the +shoulder, and called him "Old fellow." "One is not an old fellow for +such youngsters as that," said the honest sergeant, as, his face still +red with anger, he told me of the affront he had just received. "One +might have a major's epaulettes on the shoulders to-day, if one had +chosen--will let the youngster see that one is not a bear with seven +senses." + +The doctor too had his complaint of the insolence of the new-comer. He +was walking in the garden one evening, his hat in his hand as usual, +when Arthur must show his wit in various allusions to the baldness of +the worthy man, and finally asked him in the politest manner, if he had +never tried Rowland's Oil of Macassar, whose extraordinary virtues he +had frequently heard celebrated. + +"What do you think of that?" asked the doctor. "I replied to him that I +made all the jests upon my bald head myself, and desired no +competition. You will say that was rude--or you will not say it, for +you like this glib-tongued, insinuating, slippery specimen of his +charming species as little as I do. And the Jack-Pudding will not be at +the end of his part so soon, either. Our humane friend holds it his +duty to practise a truly Arabian hospitality to a kinsman, especially +if he be poor; and the steuerrath, I hear, is in a miserable strait. My +only consolation is that this pitcher too will go to the well until it +breaks." + +"How about the family conference?" I asked. + +"Will be solemnly opened to-morrow. _Humanus_ has invited them all to +take up lodgings with him. Our half-pay friend has accepted, naturally; +but what I am surprised at is, that so has the other, the Cr[oe]sus, +and not only for himself, but for his golden daughterkin and her +governess. There are one--two--five persons, who will shortly enliven +our solitude in the most charming manner. My notion is that one or two +deserve to remain here forever." + +Thus crowed Doctor Snellius, then hopped on another leg and tuned +himself down. I, for my part, was not a little excited at the report of +the speedy arrival of the long-expected guests. Already had Arthur's +presence placed a restraint upon me; what would it be when all these +came? How should I meet the steuerrath?--how the commerzienrath? The +one that had so shamefully abused the generosity of his nobler brother, +and the other that had traded so skilfully in the embarrassments in +which his incautious nature had involved him. My aversion to the pair +was of ancient date, and but too well founded. But why should I in any +way come in contact with them? If I did not come to them, they would +hardly hunt me up. To be sure, there was the little Hermine! Had she +still the same corn-flower blue eyes as on that morning on the deck of +the _Penguin_? And the sententious governess, did she still wear those +yellow locks? It was a bright sunny day when I last saw them both; but +the sun had set too soon, and the evening closed in rain--in rain and +dark mist, through which the face of my father, pale with anger, looked +threateningly at me. + +"Why do you sigh?" asked Doctor Snellius, who in the meantime had been +examining a ground-plan on which I had been working for the last few +days. "Your progress is perfectly fabulous; I should never have +believed that so neat and charming a piece of work could come from the +hands of a mammoth. Good-by, mammoth!" + +The good doctor shook my hand cordially and hopped out of the room. I +gazed sadly after him, as sadly as if I had really been a mammoth, and +knew that I was doomed to lie for thirty thousand years under snow and +ice, and to be afterwards exhibited, stuffed, in a museum. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +My wish and my hope to be allowed to keep out of sight during the +family conference, were to be frustrated in the most singular manner. I +was appointed to play a part, and no insignificant one, in the family +drama. + +The guests had arrived, and were comfortably accommodated in the +superintendent's not very roomy house. In the evening all had met at +the table. Doctor Snellius also being present. Early the next morning +he came to me, to disburden his full heart. + +The worthy doctor was under considerable excitement. I perceived that +at his first word, which was pitched a full third higher than usual. + +"I knew it," he said. "It was perfect idiotcy to invite this swarm of +locusts; they will utterly devour my poor _Humanus_, who has not so +many green leaves left. What sort of a company is this? You have not +told me a hundredth part of the evil that even a lamb-like disposition +such as mine can, and must, and will say of these people. People! It is +scandalous how we misuse that word. Why people? Because they go upon +two legs? Then the revolting creatures that Gulliver saw in the land of +the noble horses, were people too. But the English skeptic knew better, +and called them Yahoos. And such are our dear guests, or there is no +such thing as natural history. The commerzienrath with his great +paunch, and his cunning, blinking eyes, is one. I could but look at his +short clumsy fingers; I believe the fellow has worn them off handling +his gold. And the steuerrath is another, though he makes desperate +efforts to appear a human being. He has long fingers, very long; but +does a human being ever twist such long fingers about in that fashion, +curve his back with such a cat-like pliancy, and wear such a white, +smooth, smiling, false thief's face? As for the gracious born Baroness +Kippenreiter, any one will believe at her first word that she has held +a high place in the republic of those fascinating creatures, and only +came to Europe by the last ship. She cannot deny her nature; her Yahoo +origin grins unmistakably from her long yellow teeth. Hm, hm, hm!" + +"And Fräulein Duff?" I asked. + +"Duff?" cried he--"Who is Fräulein Duff?" + +"The governess of the little Hermine." + +"Of the little beauty whom I was called to attend? Her name is Fräulein +Duff? A very good name! Might be _Duft_ [perfume], and would then be +still more suitable. Mignonnette blooming in pots, and dried between +flannel-jackets in a bureau-drawer; faded ribbons, tarnished leaves of +albums, and a little ring of gold which did not even snap when the +faithless lover deserted his Elvira. Is not her name Elvira? It must +be. Amalie, you say? Certainly an error of the press; nothing about her +to remind one of _The Robbers_--unless it be her long, languishing +ringlets, which assuredly are stolen." + +"Why were you called into the little girl?" + +"She had eaten too many apple-tarts on the road. As if such a thing +could hurt a little millionairess! Oh, if it had been black bread, now! +I said so to the sorrowing father. 'In all her life she never tasted a +crumb of black bread,' the monster replied, patting his protuberant +paunch. 'Who never ate his bread with weeping,' sighed the governess, +and added, 'that is an eternal truth.' The deuce only knows what she +meant." + +The doctor went to visit his patients; I started for the office, +keeping close to the wall, and slipped into the house through the +back-door, for fear of being noticed by some one of the guests. But no +one saw me. + +However, in the course of the day I caught sight of them from my +window. First, the commerzienrath, taking his morning promenade through +the garden, a long pipe in his mouth. He seemed to be pondering over +important things. From time to time he stopped, and gazed long into +vacancy. Doubtless, he was calculating. I observed how with his stumpy +fingers he was multiplying, and then wrote the product in the air with +the end of his pipe-stem. Once his face puckered into a grin of +delight; what could he have reckoned out? + +The next was the steuerrath. He went an hour later, with his brother, +through the garden. The steuerrath was speaking very animatedly; he +several times laid his right hand upon his breast, as if in +asseveration. The superintendent's eyes were dropped; the subject of +the conversation seemed to distress him. When they came near my window, +he looked across with apparent uneasiness, and drew his brother behind +a hedge. Apparently he did not wish me to witness his brother's +gesticulations. + +I had bent over my work again with the painful feeling that I was a +superfluity and in the way, when suddenly the door leading from the +office into the garden was opened, and the steuerrath hastily entered. +I was startled, as even a man of courage is startled when unexpectedly +a serpent glides across his path. The steuerrath smiled very +benignantly, and held out to me his white well-kept hand, which he +again withdrew with a graceful wave, as I showed no disposition to take +it. + +"My dear young friend," he said, "must we meet again _thus_?" + +I made him no answer; what could I answer to a phrase in which every +word and every tone was a lie? + +"How would I deplore your fate," he proceeded, "had not fortune brought +you here to my brother, who without doubt is one of the noblest and +best of men alive, and who even now, while we were walking there, has +said so many kind and affectionate things of you. I was impelled to +offer you my hand, although I had a presentiment that you, like your +father, would turn from one whom in truth fortune has bitterly enough +persecuted." + +And the victim of fortune threw himself into an arm-chair, and covered +his eyes with his long white hand, the ring-finger of which was adorned +with an enormous signet. + +"I do not reproach him for it: Heaven forbid! I have known him for so +many years. He is one of those strict men, whose horror of dereliction +to duty is so great, and at the same time so blind, that in their eyes +an accused person always appears a guilty one." + +The last observation was too just for me not to admit it inwardly; and +probably my look expressed as much, for the steuerrath said with a +melancholy smile: + +"Yes, you can sing a sad song to that tune! Well, well, I will not +chafe the wound which pains you more than all the rest; but in truth +you have only early learned what sooner or later we must all learn, +that we can least expect a correct construction of our views and +intentions, and even of our position, from those who stand in the +closest relation to us." + +In this too there was truth; and I could not refrain from looking in a +more friendly manner at the man. + +"I have just now had proof of this. My brother Ernest is, as I have +already said, one of the best of men; and yet what trouble does it not +give him to place himself in my situation. To be sure, he has always +lived with so much regularity that he does not know what it is in one +night to lose the half of one's receipts, which are anyhow dealt out in +such stinted measure; he does not know what it is to have to compromise +with one's creditors--to risk one's own subsistence and that of others, +alas! and what is bitterest of all, to be dependent on the good-will of +a hard-hearted man of money!" + +Here the white hand wiped a tear which seemed to have accumulated in +the inner corner of his right eye, and then resignedly glided to his +lap, while a mild smile stole over his aristocratic features. + +He rose and said: + +"Forgive me; but an unfortunate one feels himself irresistibly +attracted to the unhappy, and you have always been a friend of my +house, and the best companion of my Arthur. You must not take it ill of +the poor youth, if pride in his new sword has turned his head a little. +You know him; hardly once in ten times does his heart know what his +tongue is saying; and he has already owned to me that in the notion +that he owed it to his dignity as an ensign, he behaved very foolishly +to you. You really must forgive him." + +He smiled again, nodded to me, was about to offer his hand again, but +remembered that I had refused it before, and withdrew it, smiled again, +but very sadly, and went to the garden door, which he opened softly and +softly closed behind him. + +I looked after him with a mingled feeling of astonishment and contempt. +Was this soft-speaking man, who in my presence could weep over his +position, the same to whom as a boy I had looked up as to a superior +being? And if his case was so desperate--and as far as I could learn it +might very well be so--I might have behaved in a more friendly manner +to him, might have afforded him a word of sympathy, above all, need not +have repulsed his offered hand. + +My face burned; it was the first time I had ever rudely repelled a +supplicant. I asked myself again whether imprisonment had not corrupted +me; and I was glad that I had kept so silent in regard to the relations +between the steuerrath and his deceased brother, and especially that I +had faithfully guarded the secret of that letter, even from the +superintendent, in whom, in all other respects, I place unbounded +confidence. Had the steuerrath a suspicion that I could have revealed +something had I chosen? and had he come this morning to thank me for my +silence? + +The steuerrath appeared at once to me in an entirely different and much +more favorable light We feel a certain inclination towards persons whom +we have laid under obligation, if they are acute enough to let us +perceive that they are penetrated by the feeling of that obligation. + +I would also let Arthur see that I had forgiven his folly. + +The steuerrath is right, I thought; not once in ten times does he know +where his tongue is running to. + +As I formed this magnanimous resolution, there came another knock--this +time at the door that led into the hall, and I came very near laughing +aloud when upon my calling "Come in!" the commerzienrath presented +himself on the threshold; not this time in dressing-gown and slippers, +with his long pipe in his hand as before, but in a blue frock-coat with +gold buttons, a wide black neckcloth, out of which projected fiercely, +at least four inches, the long points of his high-standing collar, a +flowered waistcoat loose enough not to incommode his prominent paunch, +nor interfere with the display of his neatly-ironed frill, black +trousers which were not so long but that one might see how firmly his +two flat feet stood in the shining boots. In this very costume did this +man pervade all the recollections of my earliest youth; and perhaps it +was because then, in my childish innocence, I had laughed at his +grotesque appearance, that now, when to say the least such behavior was +far more unbecoming, I was again seized with an impulse to laughter. + +"How are you now, my dear young friend?" said the commerzienrath, in +the tone with which one inquires into the state of some one on his +death-bed. + +"I thank you for your kind inquiry, Herr Commerzienrath; I am quite +well, as you see." + +"You are a tremendous fellow," cried the commerzienrath, taking his +tone from me at once. "But that is right; we can live but once; one +must take things as they come. I said as much to your father only +yesterday, when I met him upon the street. 'Good heavens!' I said, 'why +do you make such a terrible matter of it? We have all been young once; +and young men will be young men. Why have you stopped his allowance?' I +asked. 'He is not condemned to hard labor; he has not forfeited the +right to wear the national cockade; he is only imprisoned. That might +happen to any one; and you,' I said, 'are such an honorable man that it +would be an honor to us all to play Boston with you, even if you had +four sons in the penitentiary.'" + +The commerzienrath's head sank again upon one side; it is possible that +at his last words my face assumed a grave expression. + +"To be sure," said he, "there are many that take it more easily. There +is my brother-in-law. I would not be in his shoes although his father +was a nobleman of the empire and mine only an ordinary needleman. The +investigation let him off, but it was with a black eye. Any one would +suppose he had had enough of intriguing for his life-time; but he +cannot keep out of it. Great heavens, it is a shame, the amount that +his family has cost me already. Would you believe it, that I had to pay +for my wife's trousseau out of my own pocket? Then the one at +Zehrendorf and his drafts! By the way, did he ever tell you that he had +assigned all Zehrendorf to me, years ago? Try to think; he must have +mentioned it to you on some occasion or other. He was not one of those +that keep their mouths close shut. And there's the steuerrath! What +have I not already done for the man; and now these pretensions of his! +Indemnification! A man must live; and if one has not a son, who +naturally could not be set to earn his own living, still one has a +daughter that one does not want to let starve. You must try to get out +of here, my boy. The girl asks after you ten times a day. You have +bewitched her, you rascal you!" + +And the commerzienrath, who had arisen and was standing by me with his +hat and stick in his hand, gave me a little poke in the ribs. + +"The Fräulein is very kind," I said. + +"Look there now, how you blush!" said the commerzienrath; "quite right; +I like that. Respect for the ladies; don't be an idle coxcomb; a fellow +of that sort is worth nothing all his life. But you must not call my +Hermann Fräulein; Fräulein Duff will never allow that; she must be +called Fräulein herself, though she would give her two little fingers +if she did not need to be called Mamsell or Fräulein any longer." + +The commerzienrath winked as he said this, puffed out his cheeks, and +gave me another little poke. + +"I shall hardly have the opportunity," I said. + +"Pooh!" said the commerzienrath, "don't be tragic. We are to ourselves +here. I spoke with my brother-in-law to-day about it; you must +take supper with us this evening. Hermann--you know I call her +Hermann--wants particularly to see you. Adieu!" + +And he kissed the tips of his clumsy fingers and left the room, giving +me another wink as he passed out at the door. + +What was the meaning of these visits? What did the ceremonious +steuerrath and the purse-proud commerzienrath want with me, a prisoner? +I might have racked my brain in vain for a solution of the enigma, had +not the superintendent, who came into the office that afternoon, let +fall a word which gave me the key to the mystery. + +"I wish the next three days were over," said he. "You would not +believe, my dear George, how repulsive to me are all these +transactions, which have no material interest for me. They really only +want me to act as umpire, and flatter me in the hope of influencing my +decision beforehand. And if I could only decide--but how is that +possible in this case where the parties themselves do all they can to +obscure the matter? They count upon you, my dear George, as you are the +only one who was near my unhappy brother in the latter part of his +life, and thus may possibly be able to give information on some points +that need to be cleared up. And now come with me into the garden. +Snellius and you must help me to entertain the company. My poor wife +and I will really not be able to go through with it." + +Smiling as he said these words, he took my arm and let me assist him +down the steps into the garden and up the path to the Belvedere, from +which even at a distance there reached us the joyous clamor of +children. It was the first time since my misfortunes that I had gone +into society. I had learned while in prison many things of which I was +proud, but also one of which I was ashamed, namely, the agitation that +overcame me as I heard nearer and nearer the voices of the speakers, +and saw the dresses of the ladies glancing through the hedge, already +thinned by the autumn winds. + +I had cause to be content with my reception: the boys rushed at me, and +Kurt cried that I must play with them, for Cousin Arthur kept with +Hermine and Paula, and that was tiresome; and Hermine anyhow was only +ten years old, and did not need to be so proud. + +"Hermine is not proud, but you are too wild," said Paula, who was +holding Hermine's hand, while Arthur kept a little in the background +and twirled his little sprout of a moustache with visible +embarrassment. + +I caught up the boys and tossed each in succession high in the air, to +conceal my confusion as well as I could, while I kept my eyes fixed +upon Hermine. It was really not possible to find anything more dainty +and charming than this beautiful creature, in her white dress, which +again was trimmed with cornflower blue ribbons, as when I saw her on +the steamer. And her great blue eyes looked as eagerly at me, and her +red lips were half parted, as if she had suddenly caught sight of the +prince of a fairy-tale. + +"Is that he?" I heard her whisper to Paula, "and can he really conquer +lions?" + +I did not catch Paula's answer to this singular question, for I had now +to turn to Frau von Zehren, who sat between her sister-in-law and +Fräulein Duff on the bench. Frau von Zehren looked paler than usual, +and her poor blind eyes turned with an appealing look towards me, while +a painfully-confused smile played about her lips. + +She offered me her hand at once, and half arose from the bench, but +remembered that she must remain sitting, and smiled yet more sadly. + +I wished the born Baroness Kippenreiter, with her long yellow teeth, +and the governess, with her long yellow ringlets, who were both staring +at me through their eye-glasses, a thousand miles away. + +The superintendent had now joined us, and said: "Will you not take my +arm awhile, Elise? You will be chilled; the ladies will certainly +excuse you." + +"Oh, allow me to walk with our dear friend," cried the born +Kippenreiter, springing up with decision. The superintendent slightly +shrugged his shoulders. + +"You are not one of the most robust yourself, dear sister-in-law," he +said. + +"I am strong whenever duty calls," cried the born Kippenreiter, drawing +Frau von Zehren away with her. + +"That is a grand expression!" sighed Fräulein Duff. "Happy he who can +say that of himself!" and the pale governess shook her yellow locks in +a dejected way, then turned her dim eyes on me, and lisped: + +"Richard--ah, just as in the old story! Alas that the Blondel is +wanting! But do not despair; faithfully seek, and thou shalt find at +last; that is an immortal truth." + +"How are you, Fräulein Duff?" I asked, merely to say something. + +"And still this charming quality of taking an interest in the welfare +of others, with all his own misfortunes! That is beautiful! that is +great!" whispered the governess. "I must, indeed I must, make an +attempt to creep into your heart----" + +She laid the tips of three fingers upon my arm and pointed shyly with +her parasol in the direction which the company, who had now left the +place under the plane-trees, had taken. + +"And how do you live here?" she again whispered, as we descended into +the garden. "But why need I ask--calm and free from care as William +Tell. Life here is an idyll. Do not talk to me of a prison! The whole +world is a prison; no one knows that better than I." + +"I should have thought, Fräulein Duff, that the education of so +charming a creature----" + +"Yes, she is charming," replied the pale lady, with a flush of real +emotion, "lovely as a May morning, but you can understand--the +undisturbed happiness of life--that this child should have such a----" + +She looked cautiously around, and then continued in a hollow voice: + +"Only think! he calls her Hermann, and asks three times a day why she +is not a-- _Fi donc!_ I cannot utter it. Oh, it lacerates my heart that +such rough hands should clutch the delicate chords of this virgin soul! +The world loves to blacken whatever is bright and fair; who knows not +that? but at least her own father--but I am the last who should +complain of him. He has--you are a noble soul, Carlos; I cast myself +upon your breast--he has awakened hopes in me which would render giddy +a soul less strong than mine. To acquire a million is great; to throw +it away is godlike--and to be the mother of this child, I often think, +must be heavenly; but what will you say to my always talking of myself? +what will you say to your satirical friend?" + +"My satirical friend?" + +Fräulein Duff stepped a pace backward, shaded her eyes from the rays of +the evening sun with her transparent hand, and said with a coquettish +smile: + +"Carlos, you are playing false. Confess now you want to escape me by +this serpentine turning. There is but one here to whom this description +applies, but he is a giant--in intellect! It is immense--sublime! it +really overcame me! And you call such a giant your friend, and yet +complain that you are in a prison! Oh, my dear friend, who would not +willingly exchange his freedom for your imprisonment, to win +such a friend as this!" + +Fräulein Duff pressed her handkerchief to her eyelids, and then gave a +loud shriek as she felt herself seized fast from behind, and turning +saw Hermine's little spaniel, who had fastened his sharp teeth in the +skirt of her dress, and looked at her with a malevolent expression in +his great black eyes. At the same moment the whole company came up, so +that the governess had suddenly quite a concourse of spectators to her +combat with the little long-haired monster. I endeavored to release +her, and only made matters worse; Zerlina would not let go, and shook +and tore with all her strength; the boys pretended to help me, and +secretly urged her on; no one could keep from laughing, and the +commerzienrath literally roared. Nothing remained for Fräulein Duff, +under these circumstances, but to swoon away, and fall into the arms of +Doctor Snellius, who just then came up, attracted by the noise. + +"Do not be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen," said the commerzienrath, +"this happens three times every day." + +"Barbarian!" murmured the fainting damsel, with pale lips, and raised +herself from the arms of the doctor, who, despite the sublimity +attributed to him, wore at this moment a very sheepish look. Fräulein +Duff strove to cast, through the tears that dimmed her water-blue eyes, +an annihilating look at the mocker, declined the doctor's proffered arm +with the words, "I thank you, but I need no assistance to the house," +and hastened away, holding her handkerchief to her face, while Zerlina +capered around her little mistress with joyous barkings and triumphant +flourishings of her bushy tail. + +"I think she will lose her wits one of these days," said the +commerzienrath, as a sort of explanation of the scene which had just +occurred. + +"So much the more should you spare her, especially in the presence of +others," said the superintendent. + +I had seized this opportunity to make my escape from the company, and +was wandering about in the farther walks of the garden, when I saw +Paula and Hermine approaching at a little distance. Paula had laid her +hand on the little maid's shoulder, who, in her turn, had wound one arm +round her cousin's waist. Hermine was looking up in Paula's face, and +speaking with great animation, while Paula smiled in a friendly manner, +and said from time to time something which seemed to call forth +vehement opposition from the little maid. + +The lovely child of ten years, with her glossy brown hair, and her +great sparkling blue eyes, her bright little face beaming with +animation, and the slender maiden of fifteen, with the gentle smile on +her delicate lips--both these beautiful figures illuminated by the +ruddy glow of an autumn sunset--how often has this picture recurred to +my memory in later years! + +And now they caught sight of me. I heard Paula say: "Ask him then +yourself," and Hermine answered, "And so I will!" + +She let Paula go, came springing up to me, stood before me looking +fearlessly at me with her great eyes, and asked: + +"Can you conquer lions, or can you not?" + +"I think not," I answered; "but why?" + +"Yes or no?" she asked, giving the least possible stamp of her little +foot. + +"Well then, no!" + +"But you ought to," she replied, with an indignant look. "I wish it." + +"If you wish it, I will do my very best, the first chance that offers." + +"Do you see, Paula," said the little maid, turning to her with a +triumphant look. "I told you so! I told you so!" and she clapped her +hands and sprang about like a little Bacchante, and then ran scampering +over the flower-beds, Zerlina following her with loud barkings. + +"What did the child mean with her curious question?" I asked Paula. + +"It seems that Fräulein Duff keeps comparing you to Richard the +Lion-heart," replied Paula, with a smile. + +"With Richard the Lion-heart--me?" + +"Yes, because you are blond, and so tall and strong, and a prisoner; so +Hermine has taken it into her head that you must be able to conquer +lions. Whether she is in earnest or in jest, I doubt whether she knows +herself. But I wanted to thank you for joining us in the garden to-day. +It was kind of you; for I could see that you were not at ease in the +company." + +"And you, yourself?" + +"I must not ask the question. They are our relations." + +"Of course that excuses everything." + +I said this not without some bitterness, with a reference to her +friendship to Arthur; but I felt ashamed of myself when she raised her +sweet, gentle eyes to my face and innocently asked: + +"What do you mean?" + +Happily I was spared the necessity of an answer, for Doctor Snellius +came up at the moment, calling "Fräulein Paula! Fräulein Paula!" while +he was yet at a distance. + +"I must go in," said Paula; "there are many things to see to; and I beg +you do not look so angry. You have been of late not so friendly as +usual; are you displeased with me?" + +I had not the courage to answer "Yes!" when I looked into the earnest +fade that was lifted to mine. + +"Who could be that?" I said. "You are a thousand times better than all +of us." + +"That she is, God bless her!" said Doctor Snellius, who had caught the +last words. + +He looked after her as she hastened away, and a deep and sorrowful +shade passed over his grotesque face. Then with both hands he draped +his hat over his bald skull down to his very ears, and said in a tone +of irritation: + +"The devil take it! She is far too good; she is so good that she can +only meet with trouble. The time is past--if; there ever was such a +time--when all things worked together for good to the good man. One +must be bad--thoroughly bad; one must flatter, lie, cheat, trip up his +neighbor, regard the whole world as his private inheritance which by +neglect has fallen into alien hands, and which is to be won back again. +But to do this one must be brought up to it, and how are we brought up? +As if life were one of Gessner's idylls. Modesty, love of our +neighbors, love of truth! Let any one try it with this outfit! Is the +commerzienrath modest? Does he love his neighbor? Does he love the +truth? Not one whit And the man is a millionaire, and his neighbors +pull off caps when they meet him, and fame proclaims him one of the +noblest of human-kind, because from time to time he tosses a _thaler_ +that will not go into his crammed purse, into a poor man's hat. But you +will say he has his punishment in his own breast. Much of it! He +considers himself a thoroughly good man, a splendid fellow, full of +humor, and when at night he lies down in his bed to snore his eight +hours, he says, 'This you have honestly earned.' Away with your +starving, hectic honesty!" + +"I did not say a word in its favor, doctor." + +"But while I was declaiming you kept on smiling, as if you would have +said: 'But you are dishonest.' Do you see, that is just my vexation. +With this wretched bringing-up of ours, one is filled so with honest +notions that one cannot be a scoundrel, however good his intentions, +but has to keep honest, in spite of his better insight. And if we +cannot get over this, how can women?" + +The doctor looked fixedly in the direction in which Paula had +disappeared, and then took off his great, round spectacles, the glasses +of which seemed to have become dim. + +"You must not abuse the women, doctor," I said. "Fräulein Duff----" + +"Has made me a formal proposal," said Doctor Snellius, hastily putting +on his spectacles, "and here comes somebody who will make you one. +Beware of this Greek in uniform." + +The doctor clapped his hat upon his head and hurried away, without +returning the very friendly salute with which Arthur approached us from +a side path. + +"I am glad that he is gone," said Arthur, coming to my side and taking +my arm just as in old times; "I have something to say to you, or rather +I have something to beg of you; my father has already done it, it is +true; but it can do no harm if I repeat it. You know what I mean." + +"Yes," I answered. + +"I behaved like a fool, I know," the ensign continued; "but you must +really not think too hardly of me. I thought it was due to this thing +here----" and he gave his sword a kind of toss with his left leg. + +"Arthur," I said, stopping and withdrawing my arm, "I am not quite so +clever as you, but you must not consider me an absolute fool. You +separated yourself from me, long before you had that toasting-iron at +your side. You did it because you had no further use for me, because it +suited your purpose to join the hue and cry against me, because--" + +"Well, yes," interrupted Arthur, "I don't deny it. I was in such an +infernally dependent position that I had to howl with the wolves. If I +had spoken out my real feelings, Lederer would have surely plucked me +at the Easter Examination, and my uncle would never have paid for my +ensign's outfit." + +"And now," I said, "it seems the wind blows from another quarter, and +we must trim our sails accordingly." + +"Oh, hang it!" said Arthur, laughing, "you must not bring a fellow to +book in that way. I often say things that I cannot maintain. You always +knew that was a weakness of mine, and yet you used to like me. I have +not changed, and why are you angry with me all at once? You may believe +that I am still the same, notwithstanding my new caparison, which, by +the way, I am not likely to wear so very much longer. It cost no end of +trouble to get me the appointment; the colonel told me himself that he +only did it out of regard for my uncle, who was his comrade in the war +for freedom, and that on this account he would shut his eyes a little +to his duty, and take no notice of the reports that were afloat about +my father. But even as it is I am not out of the woods yet. Papa's +affairs are in such a frightful condition that no creditor is willing +to give him the least delay; and unless things now take a favorable +turn, he is ruined, and I of course with him; my name will be struck +off the list of candidates for promotion." + +"What is this favorable turn to consist in?" I asked. + +"Well, I don't precisely know myself," Arthur replied, decapitating +some weeds with the scabbard of his sword. "Uncle Commerzienrath has to +pay over to papa his share of the inheritance, left by my grandfather, +which papa has never received; and also what is coming to us from Uncle +Malte's estate. But the old Judas will pay nothing; he says papa has +been paid already five and ten times over. As I said, I don't +understand it; I only know that I never received a _groschen_ of cash +from my uncle, and I even envy my servant-fellow, who at least has +enough to eat." + +I took a side look at my old friend; he did look extremely pale and +thin. My own appetite had long since recovered its vigor, and not to +have enough to eat, struck me as a most serious misfortune. + +"Poor fellow!" I said, and took his arm again, which I had previously +let go. + +"But that is the least," continued Arthur, in a querulous tone. "'Your +father is always running in debt,' the colonel said; 'as soon as I see +that you are following in his footsteps, we shall have to part.' But I +ask you now, how with a couple of groschen a day can one avoid running +into debt? To-morrow I have to meet a little note which a villain of a +Jew swindled me out of. I spoke of it to papa and to mamma, and they +both say they have not money enough to take them home, not to speak of +giving me any. I must get out of the scrape as best I can. Very well; I +will get out of it, but in another way." + +And the ensign whistled softly, and assumed a look of gloomy +desperation. + +"How much do you need, Arthur!" I asked. + +"A mere trifle--twenty-five _thalers_." + +"I will give it to you." + +"You?" + +"I have about so much in the cashier's hands here; and if it falls a +little short, he will give me credit." + +"Will you really do that, you dear good old George?" cried Arthur, +seizing both my hands and shaking them again and again. + +"But don't make such a fuss about it," I said, trying with very mixed +feelings to escape the ensign's rather too exuberant gratitude. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +The two brothers Von Zehren, with the commerzienrath, were occupied for +an hour the next morning in a conference which was the object of this +family gathering. The session must have been a lively one. The room in +which they were was just above the office, and although the house was +solidly built, I had more than once heard the shrill voice of the +commerzienrath. I felt a sort of disquiet, as if my own fortunes were +the matter at stake. Had I not been, by the strangest combination of +circumstances, held as it were perforce in connection with this family? +I had taken an active part, as a friend and confident, in the most +important events connected with it; and my own fate had been entirely +determined by these events and my relation to various members of +the family. If Arthur had not wanted to have me with him at the +oyster-feast on board the _Penguin_ that morning--if I had not met +the Wild Zehren at Pinnow's that evening after the scene with my +father--if---- + +"The gentlemen upstairs would like to see us," said Sergeant Süssmilch, +thrusting his gray head in at the door. + +"Well!" said I, laying the pen from my hand, not without a little +quickening of my pulse. + +"Well, what?" asked the sergeant, coming in and latching the door after +him. + +"Well, I had hoped that they would not want me," I said, getting down +from my stool with a sigh. + +"Want you for what?" asked the veteran, stroking his long moustache and +looking at me half angrily. + +"It is a long story," I answered, adjusting my necktie at the great +inkstand on the table, which offered me a very distorted reflection of +myself. + +"Which one need not tell an old bear with seven senses, as he would not +be able to understand it," answered the sergeant, with a little +irritation in his tone. + +"I will tell you another time," I said. + +At this moment, in the upper room, two voices were raised so high, and +two chairs were simultaneously pushed back with so much violence, that +the sergeant and I gave each other an expressive look. The sergeant +came close to me and said in a confidential hollow tone: + +"Fling both those fellows down the steps, and when they get down to me, +I will pitch them out of the house." + +"We'll see about it," I answered, shaking the hand of the old Cerberus, +who had growled these last words apparently from the pit of his +stomach. + +When I opened the door of the room upstairs, a peculiar spectacle was +presented to my gaze. The superintendent alone, of the three gentlemen, +sat at the round table, covered with papers of all sorts. The +commerzienrath stood with one hand resting upon the back of his chair, +and with the other gesticulating vehemently at the steuerrath, who, +like one who is eager to speak, and whose adversary will not let him +get in a word, stamped about the room, stood still, raised his hand, +tried to speak, then shrugged his shoulders and stamped about the room +again. No one appeared to notice my entrance but the superintendent, +who beckoned me to him, and then called the commerzienrath's attention +to my presence, but it did not interrupt his harangue. + +"And so," he went on, "I am to lie out of my money for eighteen years, +not receiving a _groschen_ of interest, to have such chicanery played +on me at last! You are a man of honor, Herr Superintendent; a man of +honor, I say; and in the whole matter, from the beginning until now, +have behaved as nobly as possible, but that gentleman there----" and +he pointed his clumsy finger at the steuerrath with an energetic +gesture, as if there had been any possibility of mistaking the person +meant--"that gentleman, your brother and my brother-in-law, seems to +have a very peculiar way of looking at money-transactions. Oh yes, it +would suit me exactly to have my goods paid for two or three times +over, only there happen to stand certain passages in the law of the +country----" + +"Brother-in-law!" exclaimed the steuerrath, taking a stride towards the +speaker, and raising his hand in a threatening manner. + +The commerzienrath sprang with great agility behind a chair, and cried: +"Do you expect to intimidate me? I stand under the protection of the +law----" + +"Don't scream so, Herr Commerzienrath," I said, laying my hand upon his +right shoulder, and forcing him down into his chair. + +I had noticed that the superintendent's pale cheeks were growing redder +and redder at every word of the furious man, and the marks of pain +under his eyes were becoming more and more apparent. + +The commerzienrath rubbed his shoulder, looked at me with an expression +of astonishment, and was silent, just as a screaming child suddenly +stops its crying when something very extraordinary happens to it. + +The superintendent smiled, and availing himself of the sudden pause, +said: + +"I invited our young friend to come up, because I really did not know +how the question which is the matter of immediate dispute could be +better or more promptly decided; for no one can give us surer +information on this point than he. We want to know, George, what there +was in the house at Zehrendorf: the furniture, the plate, and so forth; +and we should like some account of the condition of the farm buildings, +and as correct an inventory as possible of the live stock and other +property, if you can inform us on this point. Do you think you can do +so?" + +"I will try," I said, and gave them as full an account as I could. + +While I spoke, the little gray eyes of the commerzienrath were fixed +immovably upon me, and I remarked that as I proceeded with the +description, his puckered face cleared up more and more, while the +steuerrath's grew longer and more confused in the same proportion. + +"You see, brother-in-law, that I was right," cried the commerzienrath, +"that----" + +"You agreed to leave the management of the matter to me," said the +superintendent; and then turning to the steuerrath: "It appears, +Arthur, that George's account agrees with the inventory which the +commerzienrath had taken three years before, except such trifling +differences as the lapse of time amply explains----" + +"And so," cried the commerzienrath, "the money which I lent your +deceased brother upon it, could scarcely have been too little. As my +brother-in-law has not yet given us the proof that the sum which the +deceased paid him, in the year 1818, through my hands, was not an +indemnification for his interest in the estate, he must consent to +admit that even during the life of his brother, I was the legal +proprietor of Zehrendorf, and that his pretensions are illusory, +entirely illusory----" + +And the commerzienrath threw himself back in his chair, puckered up his +eyes, and rubbed his hands as if with satisfaction. + +"I should have thought," began the steuerrath, with an appearance of +annoyance, "that these things were not precisely suitable to be +discussed in the presence of a third person----" + +I arose, with a look at the superintendent. + +"Excuse me, my dear Arthur," said the latter, "you not only were +willing but even desirous that we should call in our young friend here; +of course it was to be expected that in his presence many things----" + +"----would be spoken of, which would not be particularly agreeable to +the Herr Steuerrath," said the commerzienrath, turning over his papers +with a malicious smile. + +"I must entreat you, brother-in-law--" said the superintendent. + +"And I must further request," cried the steuerrath, "that these matters +be handled in a more becoming tone. If I pledge my word as a nobleman +that my deceased brother more than once assured me that he had parted +with only a small, the very smallest part of the Zehrendorf forest----" + +"So!" cried the commerzienrath; "is that your scheme? First it was the +house, then the inventory, now it is the forest--here is the bill of +sale." + +"I beg you," said the steuerrath, pushing away with the back of his +hand the paper which the commerzienrath extended to him across the +table; "I have already taken note of it. This bill, moreover, is not +indisputable." + +"It is the handwriting of our brother," said the superintendent, in a +reproachful tone. + +"But expressed in such general terms," replied the steuerrath, +shrugging his shoulders. + +"Was I to have every tree separately described?" cried the +commerzienrath. "It is unheard of, the way I am treated here. I do not +speak of you, Herr Superintendent. You are a man of honor, every inch +of you; but when I am told here every moment that I must respect the +word of a nobleman, and a paper like this is not of more validity, +which is a nobleman's word too, and written with his own hand----" + +The commerzienrath had fallen into a querulous tone. + +"Perhaps our young friend here can give us information on this point +too," said the superintendent. "Do you remember, George, to have heard +anything from the mouth of our deceased brother bearing upon the point +at issue?" + +The steuerrath cast a quick, anxious look first at me; the +commerzienrath stealthily watched me, and then the steuerrath, as if to +detect the signs of any secret collusion between us; the superintendent +fixed his large, clear blue eyes upon me with a look of inquiry. + +"Certainly I can," I answered. + +"Well then?" cried the commerzienrath. + +I told the gentlemen the expression which the Wild Zehren had used when +he came to my room the morning before his death, that of the whole +majestic forest no part belonged to him, not even enough to make him a +coffin. + +My voice faltered as I told this. That morning when I beheld for the +last time the lovely park glittering in the glorious sunshine, the +portrait of the strange man who knew himself utterly ruined, and gave +so passionate an expression to his knowledge--his attitude, his words, +the tone of his voice--all came back to me with irresistible force; I +had to turn away to hide the tears which sprang to my eyes. + +"The question is decided for me now, if it were not so before," said +the superintendent, rising and coming to me. + +"And for me too," cried the commerzienrath, with a triumphant look at +his adversary. + +"But not for me," said the steuerrath. "However disposed I am to place +the fullest confidence in the veracity, or, more accurately, in the +good memory of our young friend here, his recollections differ too +widely from what I have heard from my brother's lips for me to abandon +the ground I have taken. I am sorry to have to be so obstinate, but I +cannot help it. I owe it to myself and to my family. The last eighteen +years of my life are a series of sacrifices made to our eldest brother. +But a few days before his tragical end he appealed to me in the most +moving terms to advance him a considerable sum of money; I ran about +the whole town to get it for him; I came to you also, brother-in-law, +as you doubtless remember. You refused me--and, by the way, not in the +most delicate manner. I wrote to my unfortunate brother that I would +assist him, but he must wait. I adjured him to take no desperate +resolution. He did not regard my entreaties. Had that letter only not +been lost!" + +"You have no further occasion for me, Herr Superintendent?" I said, +and, without awaiting his answer, left the room, and hastened to the +office in a state of agitation, at which now I can but smile. What had +happened of so much consequence? A man, speaking of matters of +importance, had been guilty of an audacious lie. Later I discovered +that this is not of such rare occurrence, and in matters of business +lying has a sort of charter; but I was then very young, very +inexperienced, and, I may add, innocent, or my emotion at this moment +could not have been so violent. I stood in the presence of a thing to +me at once horrible and incomprehensible. I could not grasp it. I felt +as if the world was being lifted from its pivots. Once before something +like this had happened to me--when I heard of Constance's flight, and +learned that she had deceived me and lied to me; but there was then +still a kind of palliation for her in my eyes; the passion of love, +which I could understand. But this I did not understand. I could not +conceive how, for a few wretched hundred or thousand dollars, one could +calumniate the dead, defraud the living, and roll one's self in the +mire. But one thing became clear to me at that moment, and all my life +since I have held to the conviction that truth is not a mere form, by +the side of which another might have place, but that it is like nature, +the foundation and the essential condition of human existence; and that +every lie shakes and upheaves this foundation, as far as its influence +reaches. + +Since then I have discovered that this influence is not so extremely +wide; that as water naturally seeks its level, so the moral world +continually strives to keep truth erect, and to cancel the injurious +effect of falsehood. + +But on this morning this consolatory thought did not present itself to +calm the agitation in my heart. "Liar, hateful, disgusting liar!" I +murmured over and over to myself, "you deserve that I should have you +placed in the pillory; that I should reveal the real contents of the +last letter you wrote to your brother." + +I think that if this state of things had continued, I should not have +been able to resist the impulse to revenge Truth on her betrayer, +however foreign to my nature was the part of informer. But I now heard +the gentlemen coming down the stairs, and the next moment the +superintendent entered the office. His cheeks were now as pale as they +had before been flushed; his eyes were glassy, as those of one who has +just undergone an agonizing operation; he tottered to a chair, and sank +into it as I hastened to support him. + +After a minute he pressed my hand, assumed an erect position, and said, +smiling: + +"Thank you; it is over now. Excuse this weakness, but it has affected +me more powerfully than I had thought. Such a dispute about _yours_ and +_mine_ is always the most disagreeable thing in the world, even when +one looks upon it as a mere spectator; how much more then when the dust +raised is thrown directly into one's face! Well, the matter is ended. I +had proposed a compromise before, and they have agreed to sign it. My +brother, for a very moderate indemnification, gives up all his claims, +which your last words deprived, with me, of all remains of credit. He +calls himself a beggar; but alas! he is not one of those beggars who +might take their place by kings." + +The pale man smiled bitterly, and continued in a low tone, as if +talking to himself: + +"Thus the last remnant of the inheritance of our ancestors passes out +of our hands. The old time is past--it has lasted too long! I regret +the forest; one does not like to see the trees fall through whose +foliage the earliest morning-ray greeted our childish eyes, and under +whose branches we played our childish sports. And now they will fall; +to their new possessor they are but wood, which he will convert into +money. Money! True, it rules the world, and he knows it; he knows that +the turn has come for him and those like him, and they are now the +knights of the hammer. It is the old game in a somewhat different form. +How long will they play it? Not long, I trust. Then----" + +He raised his eyes to me with a long loving look----"then will come our +turn, ours, who have comprehended that there is such a thing as +justice, that this justice cannot be trifled with, and that we must +cleave to and desire with all our souls this justice, which is equity. +Is it not so, George?" + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +Doctor Willibrod and I had hoped that, now that their business was at +an end, the burdensome guests who had so long made the superintendent's +house their home, would take their leave; but our hope was to be only +partially fulfilled. + +"I do not wish to travel in the company of a man who has made me a +beggar," said the steuerrath. + +"Fudge!" said the commerzienrath, coming into the office that +afternoon, in travelling dress, to bid me good-by; "he has been a +beggar all his life. Would you believe it? five minutes ago he was +begging from me again; he has not the money to take him home, I must +advance him a hundred _thalers_. I gave them to him; I shall never see +them again. By the way, I must see _you_ again. Really I like you +better every time I see you; you are a capital fellow." + +"You will make but little capital out of me, Herr Commerzienrath." + +"Make capital? Very good!" said the jovial old fellow, and poked me in +the ribs. "We shall see, we shall see. Your very first movement when +you leave this place must be to my house. Will soon find something for +you; am planning all sorts of improvements on the estate--here the +commerzienrath shut his eyes--distillery, brick-yard, turf-cutting, +saw-mill--will find a place for you at once. How long have you still to +be here?" + +"Six years longer." + +The commerzienrath puffed out his cheeks. "Whew! that is an awful time. +Can I do nothing for you? Could I help you up there? A little cash in +hand, eh?" + +"I am greatly obliged to you, but cannot expect any advantage from your +exertions." + +"Pity, pity! Would have been so glad to prove my gratitude to you. You +have really done me a great service. The man would have given me much +trouble. Would a little money be of service to you? Speak freely. I am +a man of business, and a hundred _thalers_ or so are a trifle to me." + +"If we are to part as friends, not another word of that," I said, with +decision. + +The commerzienrath hastily thrust back the thick pocketbook which he +had half drawn out of his pocket, and for the greater security buttoned +over it one button of his blue frockcoat. + +"A man's free-will is his heaven. Come anyhow and bid my Hermine +good-by. I believe the girl would refuse to start if you do not come to +the carriage. Perhaps you will not do this either." + +"Assuredly I will," I answered, and followed the commerzienrath to the +space in front of the house, where already the whole family was +assembled around the great travelling-carriage of the millionaire. +While in his ostentatious way he was boasting of the convenience of the +carriage and the beauty of the two powerful brown horses, who were +lazily switching their long tails about, and at intervals bidding +farewell to the company with clumsy bows and awkward phrases, Hermine +was flitting from one to another, laughing, teasing, romping in rivalry +with her Zerlina, that seemed to be continually in the air, and kept up +the most outrageous barking. In this way she passed me two or three +times, without taking the least notice of me. Suddenly some one touched +my arm from behind. It was Fräulein Duff. She beckoned me, by a look, a +little to one side, and said hurriedly and mysteriously: + +"She loves you!" + +Fräulein Duff seemed so agitated; her locks, usually so artistically +arranged, fluttered to-day in such disorder about her narrow face; her +water-blue eyes rolled so strangely in their large sockets--I really +believed for a moment that "the good lady had quite lost her modicum of +wits. + +"Don't put on such a desperate look, Richard," she said. + + + "'From the clouds must fortune fall, + From the lap of the Immortals.' + + +"That is an eternal truth, which here once more is proven. She confessed +it to me this morning with such passionate tears; it rent my heart; I +wept with her; I might well do it, for I felt with her. + + + "'And I, I too was born in Arcady, + But the short spring-time brought me only tears.'" + + +Fräulein Duff wiped her water-blue eyes, and cast a languishing look at +Doctor Snellius, who with a very mixed expression of countenance was +receiving the thanks of the commerzienrath. + +"Both youth and man!" she whispered: + + + "'The rind may have a bitter taste, + But surely not the fruit.' + + +"Good heavens! what have I said! You are in possession of the secret of +a virgin heart. You will not profane it. And now, let us now part, +Richard. One last word: Seek truly and thou shalt find! I come, I +come!" + +She turned away, and waving the company a farewell with her parasol, +hurried to the carriage, in which the commerzienrath had already fixed +himself comfortably, while Hermine held her spaniel out at the door and +let it bark. Startled at Fräulein Duffs extraordinary communication, I +had kept in the background; the wild little creature had not a single +look for him whom, according to Fräulein Duff's report, she loved. She +laughed and jested, but at the moment when the horses started, a +painful spasm contracted her charming face, and she threw herself +passionately into her governess's arms to hide the tears that burst +from her eyes. + +"Rid of these," said Doctor Snellius; "hope to-morrow we shall send the +others after them." + +But the doctor's hope was not fulfilled on the morrow, nor yet on the +next day. Fourteen days passed, and the steuerrath and the born +Baroness Kippenreiter were still the guests of the superintendent. + +"I shall poison them if they don't leave soon," crowed the doctor. + +"One could turn to a bear with seven senses on the spot," growled the +sergeant. + +It was in truth a genuine calamity that had befallen the house of the +excellent man; and we three allies bemoaned it, each in his own way, +but none louder and more passionately than the doctor. + +"You will see," he said, "these people will take up their +winter-quarters here. The house is not large, but the hedgehog knows +how to make himself comfortable with the marmot; they are well cared +for, and as for the friendliness of intercourse--though they care less +for that--there is no lack of it. How can _Humanus_ have the patience? +He must have a Potosi at his disposal. For he suffers, very seriously +suffers, under the hypocritical spaniel-like humility of this brotherly +parasite, as does his angelic wife under the sharp claws and yellow +teeth of the born Kippenreiter. Good heavens! that we should breathe +the same air with such creatures--that we must eat from the same dish +with them! What crime have we committed?" + +"The born Kippenreiters would say the same thing of us." + +"You want to provoke me, but you are right. Doubly right; for the born +Kippenreiters not only say it but act accordingly, and forbid us, +whenever they can, the air that they breathe and the dishes out of +which they eat, without in the least caring whether we suffocate or +starve; indeed most likely with the wish that these events may come to +pass." + +"A contribution to the superintendent's hammer and anvil theory," I +said. + +The doctor's bald crown glowed a lively red. + +"Don't talk to me of this good-natured folly," he cried, in his +shrillest tones. "Whoever is weak or good-natured, or both--and he most +likely will be both--has been hammered by the strong and evil-disposed, +as long as the world stands; and he will continue to be hammered until +water runs up-hill and the lamb eats the wolf. Hammer and anvil! Old +Goethe knew the world, and knew better." + +"And what would you do, doctor, if some poor relations took up quarters +with you, and became burdensome to you in time?" + +"I? I would--that is a stupid question. I don't know what I would do. +But that proves nothing--nothing at all; or at the most only that I, +spite of all my rhodomontades, am only a wretched piece of anvil. And +finally--yes, now I have it! We are neither relations nor connections +of theirs; we have no consideration to observe, and we must drive them +off." + +"A happy thought, doctor!" + +"That is it!" said the doctor, and hopped from one leg to other. "I am +ready for anything--for anything! We must spoil their life here, +embitter it, drench it with gall: in a word, make it impossible." + +"But how?" + +"How? You lazy mammoth! Devise your own scheme. The born Kippenreiter I +take upon myself. She thinks that she has a diseased heart, because she +has a bad one. She is as afraid of death as if she had tried a week's +experiment in the lower regions. She shall believe me." + +On the very same day, Doctor Willibrod Snellius commenced his +diabolical plan. Whenever he was within hearing of the born +Kippenreiter he began talking of the circulation of the blood, of +veins, of arteries, of valvular defects, inflammation of the +pericardium, spasm of the heart. He knew, he said, that such +conversation must be wearisome to her ladyship, but he was writing a +monograph on the subject, and out of the fulness of the heart the mouth +speaks. Indeed he could not deny that it was not entirely without a +motive that he had drawn her attention precisely to this point. He +could not and would not positively assert, without a previous and +thorough examination, that the valves of her ladyship's heart were not +performing their functions regularly; but there were certain symptoms +of which probably she might have experienced one or another, and +prudence was not merely the mother of wisdom, but often the bestower +of, if not a long life, at least one lengthened by several years. + +The _gnädige_ was by no means a person to whom I felt an especial +inclination, and yet I sometimes felt a kind of pity when I saw how the +unhappy victim twisted and writhed under the knife of her tormentor. +How could she escape him? As a lady who piqued herself upon her +culture, she could not well avoid a scientific conversation; as a guest +of the house she owed consideration to a friend of the family; and in +reality this topic, which she dreaded as a child dreads goblins, had +for her a frightful fascination. She turned pale as often as Doctor +Willibrod entered the room, and yet fixed her small round eyes upon him +with the agonizing look of the bird that sees a serpent gazing into its +nest; she could not resist the attraction, and in a minute she had +beckoned the fearful man to her and asked him how far he had progressed +with his essay. + +"It is enough to drive one mad," said Doctor Willibrod; "soon she will +not be able to live without me and my tales of horror. I told her +to-day of the case of a lady, exactly of her age, her mode of life, +habit of body, and so forth, who, while conversing with her physician +about congestions of the heart, was struck with one; she smiles upon me +with pale lips, and is on the verge of fainting--I suppose she is going +to ring for her carriage--and what is the result? 'You must tell me +more about it to-morrow,' she says, and dismisses me with a gracious +wave of her hand." + +"She is sword-and-bullet-proof, doctor," I said. "You will not be rid +of her so easily." + +"But we _must_ be rid of her, rid of the whole pack," cried the doctor. +"I am resolved upon it as man, as friend, as physician." + +I laughed, but in my heart I was entirely of the doctor's opinion. The +presence of these people was a too intolerable burden for the family of +the superintendent. How could I avoid seeing it, when I had so attached +myself to these noble and good souls, that I had for everything that +concerned them the piercing eyes of the deepest and most reverent +affection? I saw how the superintendent's face wore every day a graver +look; how he forced himself to answer the everlasting "Is it not so, +dear brother?" or, "Is not that your opinion, dear brother?" I saw the +painful contraction which passed over the beautiful pale face of the +blind lady, when the harsh voice of her talkative sister-in-law smote +upon her sensitive ear; I saw how Paula bore these, in addition to her +other burdens, with silence and patience; but I also saw how heavy a +task it was. + +I was sitting one day in the office, pondering all this in my indignant +heart, as I cut up a quill under pretence of making a pen, when through +the window which I had left half open to admit one of the rare +sunbeams, my ear caught the hateful metallic voice of the born +Kippenreiter. + +"I am sure you will do me this kindness, dear Paula; I certainly would +not ask you, for I know how young girls are attached to their own +rooms, but mine is really too _triste_ with its perpetual outlook upon +the prison-walls; and then I am afraid it is damp, especially at the +present season of the year, and with my heart-complaint the least +rheumatism would be the death of me. I can count upon it, dear Paula, +can I not? Perhaps even to-day? That would be delightful!" + +"I can hardly arrange it to-day, dear aunt; I have to-day to----" + +"Well, then, dear child, to-morrow. You see I am content with anything. +And then there is another thing I want to mention, and that is the wine +we have at dinner. Between ourselves, it is not particularly good, and +does not agree with my husband at all. He is a little spoiled in this. +I know you have better in the cellar; we had some of it when we first +came; did we not now?" + +"Yes, aunt; but unfortunately there are only two or three bottles left, +which I am keeping for my father----" + +"Even if there are only two or three bottles, they are better than +none. Good heavens! there's that man at the window again! One cannot +take three steps here without coming across him." + +These last words were probably not intended for my ear, but my sense of +hearing was acute, and the voice of the _gnädige_ very distinct in its +metallic ring. That they referred to none other than myself was +unquestionable; for beside the fact that I was a man, and standing just +then at the window, the _gnädige_ had stared at me with her fixed round +eyes, in a very ungracious manner, and then turned sharply upon her +heel. + +But it made little difference to me that I displeased the _gnädige_, or +how much I displeased her; I thought only of the poor dear girl who +wiped the tears from her cheeks as she walked up the garden path +alone, after her aunt had left her. In a moment I was down from my +office-stool, out of the room, and had hurried to her side. + +"You must not give up your room to her, Paula," I said. + +"You heard, then?" + +"Yes; and you must not do it. It is the only one that has a good light, +and----" + +"I will not be able to paint much this winter; there is too much to +do." + +"Do you really take it for granted that they are going to remain here +all winter?" + +"I know nothing to the contrary. My aunt spoke of it just now." + +Paula tried to smile; but great as usually was her self-control, this +time she could not succeed. Her mouth twitched painfully, and her eyes +filled again with tears. + +"It is only on my parents' account," she said, excusing herself. "My +father just now needs rest so extremely, and you know how my mother +suffers when she has to entertain them for hours at a time. But you +must not give any hint of it, George; not even the least." + +And she laid her finger impressively on her lips, and her great blue +eyes looked up anxiously at me. + +I murmured something which she probably took for acquiescence, for she +gave me a friendly smile, and hastened into the house, from which +resounded the shrill voice of the _gnädige_, who with the whole power +of her lungs--which were evidently in a healthy state--was calling out +of the window to the steuerrath, who was standing in the rear of the +garden among the yellowing leaves on the sunny espalier, and eating one +of the few peaches which the superintendent's unwearying care had won +from the ungenial climate. + +With long strides, betokening no good to the steuerrath, I walked up +the path directly to him. + +"Ah!" said he, without desisting from his occupation, "my wife has sent +you, I suppose. But see for yourself if there is another decent peach +on the whole espalier. And the trash is anyhow as sour as vinegar." + +"Then you should not have eaten it." + +"Well, at all events it is better than nothing; an official on a +pension learns that lesson." + +"Really!" + +I accompanied this explanation with a contemptuous laugh, which rudely +startled the steuerrath from the delusion that he was delighting me +with his genial conversation. He looked at me with the expression of a +dog who is undecided whether to fly from his enemy or seize him by the +leg. + +"Herr Steuerrath," I said, "I have a request to make of you." + +His indecision was at an end in a moment. + +"At any other time I will listen to you with pleasure," said he; "but +at this moment I am rather hurried----" + +And he tried to pass me, but I barred his way. + +"I can tell you in three words what I have to say: you must leave this +place." + +"I must--what?" + +"Leave this place," I repeated, and I felt the angry blood mounting to +my cheeks--"and that at once; in three days at the furthest." + +"Young man, I believe you have lost your senses," replied the +steuerrath, making an effort to assume a dignified look, which his +lips, pale with apprehension, woefully belied. "Do you know to whom you +are speaking?" + +"Give yourself no trouble," I said, contemptuously. "The times in which +you appeared to me I don't know what awe-inspiring wonder, are long +past. I have no further respect for you, not the slightest; and I will +not have you stay here any longer; do you hear? I will not have it!" + +"But this is unheard-of!" cried the steuerrath. "I will tell my brother +what insults I am exposed to here." + +"If you did that, I would----" + +I could not bring myself to pronounce it, I had so long kept it sealed +up in my breast. I had two more years of imprisonment for keeping it +secret; it was a poisoned weapon which I was about to use against the +miserable man; but I thought of the weeping face of the dear maiden, +and then I looked into the face of the evil man before me, distorted +with hate and rage, and I dragged out the words through my clenched +teeth--"I would mention the letter which you wrote him"--I pointed in +the direction of the island--"upon which he undertook his last +expedition--of the letter which proves you an accomplice, yes, the +chief criminal; and which would have ruined you had I not kept the +secret." + +The man, while I spoke, seemed to shrink into himself, as if he had +trodden upon a poisonous serpent; with straining eyes he watched every +movement of my hands, expecting every instant that I would carry them +to my breast-pocket and produce the fatal letter. "The letter you speak +of and which you have possessed yourself of by unlawful means, proves +nothing," he stammered--"proves nothing at all. It is indifferent to +me whether you show it to my brother, or to any one else--any one +else----" + +"I cannot show it to any one, for I have burned it." + +The steuerrath almost bounded into the air. His fright had never given +room for the thought that the letter might have been lost or destroyed. +How differently the affair stood now! + +A smile of defiance passed over his face, which once more began to +assume its natural color. + +"What are you talking of, and what do you want?" he cried, with a +hoarse voice that singularly contrasted with his usual oily speech. +"The devil only knows what kind of a letter it was that you saw--that +you pretend to have seen. The whole affair looks exceedingly like a +lie--and a very bungling one at that. Stand off, sir! don't dare to +touch me, or I call for help!--and you will have to your seven years, +seven years more. Do not dare to touch me, I say!" + +My looks were probably threatening enough, for he had retreated before +them to the wall, and squeezed himself, trembling, against the +espalier. I stepped up close to him' and said in a low tone: + +"I shall do you no harm, for--miserable wretch as you are--I still +respect in you your two brothers; the one whom you hounded on to his +death, and the other whose precious life you shall not embitter another +hour. If no one else believes my word that I read and burned that +letter, he will believe it--you know he will believe it. And if the +morning of the third day finds you here, he shall learn whom he has so +long been entertaining under his roof. You know him. He can pardon +much, and does pardon much; but to be the victim of such a shameless +lie as that which you have imposed upon him, upon the commerzienrath, +and all the world--that he will never pardon." + +The man knew that I was right; I saw it in his face, which grew +absolutely sharp and thin with alarm at being thus helplessly in my +hands. + +And it was high time; one minute later and my victory would at least +have been doubtful. For from the garden came help for the crushed one. +It was the born Kippenreiter, who came calling out to us from a +distance to save her two or three peaches. + +A prudent general undertakes no new battle which may jeopard an already +hard-won victory. I had not quailed before the wrathful looks of the +steuerrath; but at sight of the yellow teeth of the born, I felt +something which I should call fear, if the respect we owe to the sex +could ever allow such a feeling to enter the breast of a man. + +But be that as it might; when I heard the light-brown silk dress of the +_gnädige_ rustling close at hand, I considered the moment especially +suitable for hastening, as rapidly as I could with politeness, along +the paths strewn with dead leaves to my office, after first casting a +last impressive look upon my adversary, and saluting with a silent bow +his rustling reinforcement. + +Would my threat prove effective? + +I had given him two days respite, so the decision under all +circumstances must speedily be made. + +Strange enough! I was convinced that I had acted only from the most +disinterested motives, and yet my soul was filled with disquiet, and my +eye and ear were on the alert for any sign that might tell me what I +had to hope or to fear. The next day passed--as far as I could see, all +things remained as they were; Paula's room, the same in which I had +lain sick, was emptied of its furniture; I saw her easel and her +portfolios of sketches carried across the hall, and gnashed my teeth to +see it. + +But on the following morning the superintendent came into the office +with an unusually grave face, and after giving me some papers, with his +hand already upon the latch, turned and said: + +"Tell me, George--you are quite disinterested in the matter--have you +noticed anything in my behavior, or in that of any member of my family, +that could give my brother or his wife reason to suppose that they are +not welcome here?" + +I was drawing at the time, and had just then a very delicate bit of +pen-shading to do, so I could not raise my head from the drawing-board +as I answered the superintendent: + +"I have perceived nothing of the sort." + +"I should trust not," he said, and his voice had a grieved tone. "It +would give me pain, great pain, if I thought that if I thought that my +brother could say, or even think, 'He cared nothing for my misfortune; +he drove me away when his house was my only asylum.' For this, or very +near it, is the case. His pension is very small for a man accustomed to +his style of living; the compromise-money, even with our contribution, +is little enough; and, besides, he has debts and must work for his +living, and how was he to learn that in the wretched routine of +official life? They have certainly not brightened our home--truth +compels me to admit it--but he is my brother and my guest, and I would +rather he were not going." + +Perhaps his noble nature looked for some reassuring answer from me, +but the fine lines of my bit of shading happened just then to be +closer than ever, and I had to bend my head still lower over the +drawing-board. He sighed deeply and left the room. + +I drew a long breath as the door closed behind him, and the next +moment I saw, in the black mirror of the corpulent inkstand on the +office-table, my tall figure reflected in grotesque distortion, and +performing, with arms and legs, movements which apparently represented +a joyous dance of victory. + +"You are monstrously pleased at something, it seems," said a voice +behind me. + +In my fright I forgot one leg which I had elevated in the air, and upon +the other I made a pirouette which, had it been performed in public +before connoisseurs, would have brought down the house. + +Arthur afterwards became a connoisseur in these things, but he could +not have been one at this time, for his face, as he threw himself into +a chair, was by no means radiant with delight, and the tone of his +voice was as dolorous as possible as he went on, resting his curly head +upon his hand: + +"To be sure, you have every reason; you have gained your point; from +to-morrow you are again sole master here." + +I had by this time brought my other foot down to the floor, and took +occasion to plant myself firmly before my antagonist, for such I +considered Arthur. But I was mistaken. Arthur had not come to pick a +quarrel with me. + +"I have my own reasons," he said, "for preferring that the old people +should be away from here. The old man, you know, has become really +disreputable since his misfortune; he sponges upon the first man he +meets. By the way, I can pay you now the twenty-five you lent me the +other day. Last night I had a fabulous run of luck--we had a little +play at Lieutenant von Serring's quarters. Sorry I haven't the money +about me, but you shall certainly have it to-morrow. What I was going +to say is this: The old man carries it too far; sooner or later he +would have compromised me hopelessly. The colonel watches me +frightfully close. So no hostility, George! You have driven him +away--don't deny it; I have it from mamma. She is furious with you; but +I told her she might congratulate herself that you were so discreet and +said nothing more about that business of the letter. So I did not come +on this account, but merely to ask you how I stand with you." + +"What do you mean?" I asked, not without some confusion. + +"Let us have no quibbles about it, old fellow," said the ensign, +tapping the sole of his left boot with the point of his sword, which +lay across his right knee: "I have estimated you far too low. I see now +that you are cock of the walk here, and I wish to be on good terms with +you, not to quarrel. If uncle did not help me a little I should either +have to starve or quit the service, and my colonel, moreover, would +know why I can no longer visit here. You are a good fellow, and will +not ruin me." + +"That I certainly will not," I said. + +"And I am not such a bad fellow, after all," the ensign went on. "I am +a little wild, I know; but we are all so at our years, and so would you +be if you had the chance, which you certainly have not in this cursed +hole. But people can always get along with me, and they are all fond of +me here: my uncle, my aunt, the boys, and----" + +Arthur took his left foot from his right knee, and said: + +"Look here, George; I would not tell you if I did not have the fullest +confidence in your honor, notwithstanding--in short, I ask your word of +honor that you will say nothing about it. I fancy that--but, as I said, +you must keep it a secret--I fancy that I am not quite indifferent to +my pretty cousin: she said as much to me yesterday, and even if she had +not----" + +And the ensign twisted the blackish down on his lip, and looked around +the room apparently for a looking-glass, but there was none there. His +only substitute would have been the great inkstand, which at this +moment I would most joyfully have dashed to ten thousand pieces against +his pretty head. + +"Arthur!" cried Paula's voice in the garden; "Arthur!" + +The ensign gave me a look that seemed to say: Do you see now what a +lucky dog I am? and ran out of the door, which he neglected to shut +after him. + +I remained quite stupefied, and stared through the open garden-door at +the long walk which they were pacing up and down, she walking in her +usual composed manner, and he fluttering about her. Once they stood +still; she looked at him, and he apparently in protestation, laid his +hand upon his breast. + +An indescribable sense of pain entered my bosom. I knew this feeling +well; I had once before experienced it, at the moment when I heard that +Constance belonged to another; but it was not then so poignant as now. +I could have buried my face in my hands and wept like a child. I did +not for a moment think that Arthur very probably lied to me or to +himself, and perhaps both. His confidence, Paula's call, the walk in +the garden, always empty at this hour--all came in such rapid +succession, and agreed so well, that it was but too probable. And +Arthur was such a desperately handsome fellow, and could be so amiable +when he chose--I ought to know that best, I who had so dearly loved +him! And had not Paula been changed towards me ever since he had been +in the house? Was she not more reserved--less communicative? I had +noticed it for some time; it had pained me before I knew what had +produced this change--now I knew it! + +Vanity of vanities! What claims had I? To what could I pretend, an +outcast, condemned to long years of imprisonment? + +My head sank upon my breast. I humbled myself deep in the dust before +the fair and dear maiden, who ever floated before me like a heavenly +being. + +Then I sprang up indignant. Could she be all that I worshipped her for, +if she loved this man? + +Here was a terrible contradiction which apparently was easy to solve, +and which I infallibly would have solved, or rather would have +altogether escaped, had I been a grain wiser or more vain; but in +which, as I was neither wise nor vain, I involved myself for years. + +"Signs and wonders are coming to pass," said Doctor Willibrod, rushing +breathlessly into my cell one evening, where I sat in dejected +meditation before the stove, and watched the sparks that ran up and +down the glowing plates. "Signs and wonders! They are about to strike +their tents and shake off the dust from their feet. Hosanna!" + +The doctor threw himself into a chair and wiped his bald scalp, upon +which the drops of perspiration were standing. + +"Heaven is mighty in the weak," he went on in a tone in which his +internal excitement was perceptible. "Who would have believed that a +little David like myself would be able to pierce the brazen skull of +this Goliath of shamelessness; and yet such is the fact! The _gnädige_ +can endure the air here no longer; she made the last trial when she +moved into Paula's chamber. The trial did not succeed, and she must go. +Hosanna in the highest!" + +"Did she tell you so herself?" + +"She did indeed; and her spouse confirmed it, and spoke of +hypochondriacal notions to which even the most sensible women are +subject, and to which a gallant husband must make some concessions. +Finally he drew me on one side, and on the score of temporary +deficiency of funds, borrowed a hundred _thalers_ from me to enable him +to start at once." + +"You will never see them again." + +"The hundred, or the distinguished travellers?" + +"Neither." + +"Pleasant journey to them, and may they never cross our path again!" + +The doctor sank into a devout silence; I think that something like a +hymn of praise arose from his heart. + +"Do you know, they are going!" resounded a deep voice behind us. It was +the sergeant, who came in with a lighted lamp. + +"Carriage to be ordered at Hopp's livery-stable to-morrow morning at +the stroke of nine," continued the veteran. "Eight would not be too +soon, one would think." + +And he joyously rubbed his hands, and declared that he felt like a bear +that itched in all his seven senses. But suddenly the laughter vanished +from the thousand wrinkles of his face, and leaning over the back of +the doctor's chair he said in a suppressed voice: + +"Now we must drive away the young one, doctor; clean away! the brood is +worse than the old ones, in my opinion." + +"In my opinion too," said Doctor Snellius, springing up. "I have given +the old ones their dismissal; you must do it for the youngster, +mammoth; by heaven must you!" + +I made no answer; my gaze was fixed on the glowing plate, but I saw it +as through a veil which had somehow fallen over my eyes. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +And as if through a veil I see the years as they come and go, the +following years of my imprisonment. Though a veil which time has woven +with invisible spirit-hands, but not so thick but what every form and +every hue is more or less distinguishable as I gaze backward. + +Clearest of all is the fixed background in this long act of my +life-drama. Even now, after so many years, I can almost always, by +closing my eyes, recall the scene to its minutest details. Especially +are there two lights under which I see it most clearly. + +The one is a clear spring morning. A blue sky spreads above, the +pointed gables of the old buildings soar as high into the free air as +if the idea of a prison only existed in the dull brain of a +hypochondriac who had not yet quite had his sleep out; about the +projections of the gables and upon the high roofs twitter the sparrows; +and even now, I cannot tell why, but the twittering of sparrows in the +early morning makes the world for me a couple of thousand years +younger; I fancy the scamps could not have been more joyously and +impudently noisy about the hut of Adam and Eve in Paradise. The sun +ascends higher; his beams glide down the old ivy-covered walls into the +silent court; and the gatekeeper, who is just crossing it with a great +bunch of keys, and is a crabbed old fellow usually, whistles quite +cheerily, as if even he, who best knew, in this fresh morning-world +could not believe in locks and bolts. + +The other light is an evening in late autumn. Over in the west, behind +the level chalk-coast of the island, the sun has set; the heavy clouds +hanging over the horizon still glow with a thousand tints of sombre +purple. Cooler blows the wind from the sea, and louder comes the noise +of the waves, although looking from the Belvedere, out over the +rampart, one cannot see the surf. Now the wind begins to rustle in the +tall trees of the garden, and companies of dry leaves flutter down to +those which rustle under my feet as I walk back to the house. I would +be, on this as on every evening, welcome in the family circle; but I +could not bear to have so many eyes looking kindly into mine. My eyes +have been gazing gloomily--yes, with despair--at the evening clouds, +and the old demon has awakened in me and whispered: Two more years, two +long years; when one leap would take you down there, and the first +skiff carry you into the wide world. And you will go back to your +prison, to the narrow walls where nothing detains you but your own free +will. Your free will! That has long since ceased to be free! You have +sold it--go! go! pass the house--back to your cell; away out of this +fading world of vapor, and get behind lock and bolt! + +Sunshine of spring mornings, mist of autumn evenings; but far more +morning sun than evening mist! Yes, when I think well upon it, I must +admit that altogether morning sun was the rule, and evening mist only +the exception. For how any portion of our life--or, indeed, how the +background upon which this portion is defined--shall appear in our +memory, really depends upon the fact of its having been bright or +gloomy in our souls at that time. And in my soul at this time it was +growing gradually brighter and brighter, like the increasing light of +dawn; one knows not how it is, but what was lying before us confused +and indistinguishable, now stands in the fairest order. + +The wish of my fatherly friend has long been accomplished: in the +workhouse I have learned to work. Work has become a necessity for me; I +count that day as lost on the evening of which I cannot look back upon +a vigorously prosecuted or a completed work. And I have acquired the +workman's faculty in every craft; the quick comprehension of what is to +be done, the accurate eye, the light forming hand. In the establishment +nearly all handicrafts are exercised; and I have tried them nearly all, +one by one, and for the most part soon surpassed the old gray-bearded +adepts. The superintendent likes to repeat that I am the best workman +in the establishment, which makes me at once both proud and humble: +proud, for praise from his lips is to me the highest honor I can attain +upon earth; humble, for I know that I owe it all to him. He has guided +into fixed paths the rude strength that knew neither aim nor limit, and +wished to spend its fury in the mastery of rough masses of stone; he +has, above all, taught me to regard the share of sound understanding +which nature has bestowed upon me, and which they did not know how to +deal with at the school, as a precious possession which may even take +the place of a bit of genius; or, as he often expressed it with a +smile, is perhaps a bit of genius itself. He has never tormented me +with things which he soon found out would not suit my brain; he soon +discovered that I could never express myself with clearness and fluency +in any other than my native German speech, and spared me the learning +of foreign languages, except so far as was absolutely necessary. He +knows that a sublime passage in the Psalms produces in me the deepest +emotion; that I can never satiate myself with reading Goethe, and +Schiller, and Lessing; but ne never urges me to go beyond this, and +discuss the literature of the day with him and Paula. But in recompense +he allows me to drink full draughts from the inexhaustible well of his +mathematical and physical knowledge; and his favorite recreation is to +have me model a machine, or portion of a machine, which his inventive +genius has devised, under his eye and guidance, in the little workshop +which he fitted up for himself many years ago. + +Under his eyes, for his hands are and must be idle the while. Already +any physical exertion, however light, covers his body with a cold +sweat, and might even seriously endanger his life. + +"I do not know what I should do without you," he says, looking at me +from his chair, with a sad smile on his face. "I live upon the +superflux of your strength: your arm is my arm, your hand is my hand, +your deep full respiration is my own. In the course of a year you will +leave me; so I have but one year to live; for a man without arm, hand +or breath is dead." + +It is the first time that so hopeless an expression has fallen from his +noble, pallid lips, and it gives me a painful shock. I have always seen +him so full of courage, so entirely occupied with the duties of the day +and the hour, living his life so completely, I look at him with alarm, +and for the first time I really see the devastations which these six +years have wrought in his form and in his face. + +Six years! I have to think to convince myself that they are really six +years, so little has changed in all this long time! So little? When I +consider it, perhaps not so little either. The grape-vines, which only +nodded over the window when I lay sick in Paula's chamber six years +ago, have now climbed over almost the whole building; the great +honeysuckle-arbor behind, where the peaches were trained against the +wall, which I had at that time built and planted with the boys, has +grown to a dense luxuriance, and is a favorite resort of Paula's, who +from here can see the house, which cannot be done from the Belvedere. + +The summer-house at the Belvedere has got rather a bad name, which +would not have happened had not Benno by this time grown six years +older, and read _Faust_, and so of necessity must have "a high-vaulted, +narrow, Gothic room," which he can "cram full of boxes, instruments, +and ancestral chattels;" for which purpose the ruinous summer-house +with its pointed windows of stained glass seems to him by far the most +suitable locality. Benno is now convinced that his father, who +preferred to see in him the future physician or naturalist, is quite +right; and Paula, who wished to make a philologist out of him, +altogether wrong; and Benno must know, for he is at the glorious age of +seventeen, in which there are but few whom we do not overtop by a head +at least, in an intellectual point of view. + +By so much he overtops his younger brother Kurt, in a literal sense; +and Kurt has definitively abandoned the idea of rivalling his senior, +who has in so marked a degree the high slender stature of the Zehrens, +and will evidently be even taller than his tall father. But Kurt has no +cause to complain: he has the deep chest, the long powerful arms, and, +under thick curly hair, the broad brow, of the workman. He is very +modest and unpretending; but his look is singularly fixed and piercing, +and his lips firmly compressed when he is pondering over a mathematical +problem, or trying to learn some dexterous manipulation at the lathe, +in which he always speedily succeeds. + +Kurt and I are great friends, and as nearly inseparable as possible; +and yet to tell the honest truth, the twelve-year-old Oscar is my +darling. He has the large luminous brown eyes of the Zehrens, which I +used so to admire in my friend Arthur when he was a boy; he has +Arthur's slender figure and graceful manners--I often seem to see in +him Arthur again, as he looked fourteen years before. That ought not, +really, to be any recommendation to me; but when he comes bounding to +me, throwing back his long locks, and with joy and life sparkling in +his great eyes, I cannot help spreading my arms to him. Often I ask +myself if it really is this likeness which makes Oscar still keep his +place as his sister's favorite. Paula, it is true, still says, as she +used to say, that there is nothing of the sort; that Oscar is the +youngest, and therefore needs her most, and the fact that he happens to +have so decided a talent for painting and drawing, and so is peculiarly +her pupil, is a mere chance, for which she is not responsible. + +Just so Paula spoke six years ago: I distinctly remember that summer +afternoon when she made that large chalk-drawing of me under the +plane-trees--as distinctly as if it had been but yesterday. And when I +look at Paula, I cannot believe that I have known her for six years, +and that she will be twenty next month. Then she looked older than she +really was, while now she looks just as much younger. She is perhaps a +very little taller, and her figure is fuller and more womanly, but in +her sweet face is so much childlike innocence, and even her movements +have still the bashfulness, sometimes almost awkwardness, of a very +young girl. But when any one looks into her eyes, he cannot venture to +take her for any other than she really is. These eyes do not blaze with +bold fire; their glances are not shy or languishing like those of a +boarding-school girl fresh from a secret reading of her favorite +gilt-edged poet--they are luminous with a calm, steady, vestal fire, +unmindful of the world, and yet compassing the world, as the artist's +eye must beam. + +And Paula has become an artist in these six years. She has had no +teacher, except a decayed genius who was in the workhouse for a short +time, and afterwards was supported by the superintendent's charity to +the time of his death, which happened long ago. She has attended no +academy, has hardly seen a work of art, except two or three fine old +family-portraits, and a magnificent engraving of the Sistine Madonna, +which adorn the walls of the superintendent's house. What she is, she +has become of herself, by means of her wondrous eye, which looks into +the heart, not merely of men, but of all things; by means of her hand, +which could not be so delicate and slender if her soul did not flow to +its very finger-tip, and render it a plastic instrument; and by means +of her diligence, whose energy and unweariedness appear absolutely +incomprehensible when one reflects what a weight of labor, besides, +rests upon these tender shoulders. But she devotes every leisure moment +to her beloved art; and she knows how to find leisure at times when +others would solemnly declare that they did not know whether they were +on their heads or their feet. The wealth of her collection of studies +of all kinds, sketches, designs, copies, is wonderful. There is not an +interesting head among the prisoners or convicts that has escaped her. +To sit to the young lady is an honor and favor much sought after and +much envied throughout the whole establishment, and proud is the man +who can boast of it. But her chief model is the old Süssmilch, whose +grand head with its short gray locks, and furrowed energetic face, is +really a treasure to an artist's eye. The old fellow figures under all +possible characters: as Nestor, Merlin, Trusty Eckart, Belisarius, Götz +von Berlichingen--even as Schweizer out of _The Robbers_; mere studies +all for great historical pictures of which the brave girl is dreaming +in the future. In the meantime but one of these has appeared upon +canvas: Richard the Lion-heart, sick in his tent and visited by an Arab +physician. The scene is from Scott's _Talisman_. In the background is +an English yeoman, who looks sorrowfully at his sick lord, and a young +Norman noble, who, with hand on his sword, fixes a keen and suspicious +look upon the physician. Richard the Lion-heart is myself, as she +sketched me, when a convalescent, at the Belvedere; in the Arab +physician, a singular, fantastic, gnome-like figure--Dr. Willibrod +declares he discovers his own likeness, though the Arab wears no +spectacles, and his head, though bald without doubt, is wound about +with the green turban of the Hadji; the yeoman is Sergeant Süssmilch, +drawn to the life, though he has accommodated himself to another +costume; the knight, with short brown hair and bright brown eyes--a +handsome, graceful, youthfully elastic figure--is Arthur. + +Is it an accident that just this figure is most fully elaborated, +almost to completeness, and that it is made so lovely? + +I have no means of answering this question, except what I draw from my +own foreboding soul. Arthur, who has long been a lieutenant, and has +been stationed this spring at the military school in the capital, has +often visited the house, it is true, but the frequency of his visits +diminished with every year, and I could not say that he had sought to +draw any nearer to Paula. But there must have been some reason that +towards me, who had done him no injury, who always treated him in a +friendly manner, however little heart I had sometimes for it, he became +constantly more and more reserved, and at last avoided me as far as +possible. The money which he owed me, and which in the course of years +had increased to a sum by no means insignificant for my circumstances, +could not be the cause, for I had given it to him willingly and +cheerfully--he is always in difficulties, and resolved to blow out his +brains--never asked for repayment, but always assured him that I was in +no hurry for it; no, it cannot be the money. Does he fear a rival in +me? Good heavens! I can hardly be a dangerous rival. Who could fear a +prisoner, whose future is a book with seven seals, and scarcely +containing one pleasant chapter? Can he never forgive me that Paula is +always as kind and friendly to me as ever? Have I not deserved that, +who do all I can for her, and read her lightest wish in her eyes? + +I do not know; as little do I know if it is chance that Paula, from the +hour that Arthur went to Berlin, painted no more on the picture. And +yet for this purpose she needs him least of all, for his knightly copy +only lacks a few touches. I ponder the reason over and over. And as I +venture once to ask Paula about it, she answers, not without some +hesitation, which is a rare thing with her: + +"I have lost all pleasure in the picture." + +This leads to a question which seems even worse than the first, and +which I had better leave unmeddled with, if I were prudent. + +But I am not prudent, and cannot get it out of my head; and as my head +can make nothing of it, I lay it before Doctor Willibrod in a quite +casual manner, as if nothing really depended upon the answer: + +"Tell me, doctor, why has Fräulein Paula lost all pleasure in her +picture?" + +"Who says that?" asked the doctor. + +"She herself." + +"Then ask herself." + +"If I wished to do or could do that, I would not need your opinion." + +"Why should I have any opinion in the matter?" cries the doctor. "What +does it concern me why Paula does not choose to work on the thing any +longer? Since nature herself has not thought fit to finish me, I do not +care whether I am finished in the picture or not." + +I see that I make no progress in this way, so I venture to hint that +perhaps Arthur's absence has had an influence upon Paula's feelings in +the matter. + +"Does the cat come to the porridge at last?" crows Doctor Willibrod. +"Oh, he thinks that we have not long seen how he licks his paws! And +the porridge is so sweet--so sweet! just like the thought that such a +girl can give her heart to such a fellow. 'It is impossible,' says +Master Tom, and his whiskers bristle with distress. Why, impossible? +What is impossible? Is the life of her father anything but a protracted +sacrifice? Is she not her father's daughter? When one is once well +under way, a little more or less makes no difference; and the lamb +offers itself up to save the wolf. Oh, it is a merry business, that of +saving wolves! But still merrier is it to stand by and look patiently +on--not to seize a club and rush in--oh by no means! but merely to ask +from time to time: 'Don't you think, respected sir, that the wolf will +eat the Iamb at last?' Get away from me all of you that wear human +faces!" + +Doctor Willibrod crows so high, and looks so exactly like the +apoplectic billiard-ball we have heard of, that I am sorry to have +begun the conversation, and that too so unskilfully. I now recollect +that lately the doctor has always seemed curiously excited whenever in +any way Paula's name happened to be mentioned. Often he speaks of her +in such a way that one would think he hated her, if one did not know +that he worships her. If any one reproaches him with it, he lays the +blame on the heat of the weather. The fiend himself, who is used to a +warm climate, might perhaps keep cool in such a temperature, he says, +but no one can blame mere men if they now and then lose their wits a +little at eighty degrees in the shade. + +And really during the latter part of the summer the heat has grown +absolutely intolerable. Day after day the sun traverses a cloudless +steel-blue sky, and its beams prostrate everything they touch. +The grass has long been burnt up; the bastion and ramparts are +yellow-brown; the flowers have prematurely withered; the foliage +rustles from the trees before the time. All living things creep about +with heavy gaze fixed upon the earth, and the air quivers as above a +heated oven. The health of the town has been seriously affected, and we +are glad that the boys who now have holiday, are on a visit to some +friends of the family at a neighboring country-place. The state of +things in the prison is by no means satisfactory to the superintendent +and the doctor, who vie with each other in attention to the sick, +though the doctor steadily maintains that it is the height of folly to +risk one's skin for the sake of other people. + +"And then beside, when, like _Humanus_, one has but half a lung, and a +blind wife and four children, and not a shilling of capital--what will +come of that?" + +I remember that the doctor put this question to me in this very same +conversation, and that I repeated it to myself an hour later as I stood +alone before the Belvedere, and, without either seeing or hearing, +stared out at the evening sky, which I could see from over the rampart +extending down to the sea. I did not see that over the sky, which for +weeks together had shown not the slightest haze, a vapor had now spread +itself through which the evening light had a ghastly, pallid look; I +did not hear that strange wailing sounds were passing through the air; +I did not even turn round when a deep voice close at my ear growled out +the very question which I was occupied in trying to solve: + +"What will come of that?" + +It was the old Süssmilch, who coming to my side pointed with his right +hand to the sulphurous glare in the west. + +"A storm, what else?" I replied, scarcely noticing what I said. + +I felt that the oppressive sultriness, which was weighing down my soul +as well as all nature, must expend itself in a storm. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +And there came a storm such as had not raged along this coast--which +yet throughout the year heard many a fierce gale sweep over its low +beach of sand and chalk--within the memory of man. + +It was about midnight, when I was awakened by a crashing as of thunder, +making the old house quiver to its foundations, and followed by a +rattling and clattering of falling tiles, and of slamming doors and +shutters, like the crackle of musketry following the heavy discharge of +a battery. + +This was the storm that had so long been announcing its coming. My +first thought was of those in the house in the garden. With a single +bound I was out of my bed and dressed, as the sergeant thrust his gray +head in at my door. + +"Already up?" said he; "but this is enough to rouse a bear with seven +senses. _He_ will be awake, too." + +The old man did not say who would be awake; between us two it was not +necessary. + +"I was just going to him," I said. + +"Right," said the old man. "I will stay here the while. Somebody will +be needed here who has his head on his shoulders. It is a most +diabolical state of things; worse than eight years ago; and then the +men would not be kept in their dormitories. A little more and we should +have had murder done." + +During this brief conversation, the tremendous shocks had been twice +repeated, and, if possible, with still greater violence. Add to this a +howling and an uproar--we had to speak almost in a shout to make +ourselves heard. This was in the room--what must it then be outside? + +This I learned a minute later, as I crossed the prison court. A pitchy +darkness lay like a thick black pall over the earth; not a star, not +the faintest gleam of light. The hurricane raged between the high walls +like a beast of prey that finds himself for the first time in a cage. +Despite my strength and the momentum of my heavy frame, I had to +struggle with the monster that flung me this way and that. Thus I +fought my way through the thick darkness, among the tiles that came +clattering from the roofs, to the superintendent's house, out of the +windows of which here and there a light was visible. + +In the lower hall I met Paula. She was carrying a lighted taper in her +hand, and its light fell upon her pale face and large eyes, which +filled with tears as she saw me. + +"I knew you would come," she said. "It is a fearful night. He insists +on going over to the prison; and he has been so very unwell lately. I +dare not ask him to stay. Indeed, he must go if his duty commands. It +is very kind of you to come." + +The tears that had glistened in her eyes now slowly rolled down her +pale cheeks. + +"Do not laugh at me," she said, "but for several days I have felt as if +some misfortune were about to happen." + +"We have all felt so, dear Paula. It is merely a bit of egotism to +fancy that a thunder-storm which is now hanging over thousands and +thousands is to smite precisely us." + +I meant to say this very courageously; but my voice quivered, and at +the last words I was forced to turn away my eyes. + +"I will go to your father, Paula," I said. + +"Here he comes now," said Paula. + +The superintendent stepped out of his room. Before he had gently closed +the door, I caught a glimpse of a white figure which he seemed by +gentle words and gestures to be urging to remain in the room. It was +Frau von Zehren. Had she also the feeling that some calamity was +impending? Perhaps even more strongly than we. Who among us who see, +hears the faint spirit-voices that whisper and murmur through the night +of the blind? + +A deep melancholy lay upon his features; but it instantly gave place to +a surprised smile as he saw us both standing there. It was as when one +walks through a dark rocky ravine whose sombre shadows spread a gloom +over his face, and suddenly, at a sharp turn of the dusky path, he sees +the open valley at his feet, and a wide flood of golden sunlight +streams all about him. + +"See there, both my dears ones!" he said. + +He extended both hands to us. + +"Both my dear ones," he repeated. + +Did he really see us? Did he, out of the rocky gorge, catch a gleam of +sunny vales in the future? I have often asked this question of myself, +when thinking of the happy spirit-like look with which at this moment +the father saw his beloved daughter at the side of the man who was dear +to him as a son. + +But this was but for a moment, and the present then resumed its rights. + +"You will go with me, George," he said; "I must go through the prison. +It cannot be but that the excitement which has been growing on us all +lately has also seized the poor prisoners. And with them excitement +means howls, and shrieks, and gnashing of teeth. Do you remember that +September night, eight years ago, Paula? It was not so terrible as +this, and the men were like maniacs." + +Paula nodded assent. "I remember it well, father," she said. "How could +I help it? You suffered so much from the consequences afterwards. Here +comes Doris with the lantern," she hastily added, while a flush of +shame suffused her cheeks at having for a moment attempted to dissuade +her father from his duty. + +She took the great lantern with its two lighted candles from the hands +of the frightened girl, and gave it to me. The superintendent gave her +a kind look from his large grave eyes, buttoned up his coat, fixed his +hat firmly on his head, and turning to me said: "Come, George." + +We stepped out into the raging, thundering night. In my left hand I +carried the lantern; my right arm I gave the superintendent. I had +thought that I should have to carry or almost to carry him, as he had +been completely prostrated by the heat of the last few weeks; and +indeed his first steps were heavy and tottering as those of a man who +has for the first time risen from his bed after a long illness. All at +once he let go my arm and stood firm and erect: + +"Do you hear, George? I said so!" + +We were just passing under the windows of one of the great dormitories, +in which fully a hundred prisoners were shut up at this hour. The +light-colored wall was faintly defined against the darkness; from the +windows came a feeble light; the storm raged against the wall and +whistled shrilly through the gratings; but louder than the howling and +whistling of the storm were the horrible noises that came from the +interior of the building. Such sounds might come from lost souls in the +night of Tartarus. + +"Light! light!" was the cry. "We want light!" + +"Quick, George!" said the superintendent, hastening on before me with +such rapid strides that I had difficulty in keeping up with him. We +passed through the open door into the wide hall, where we found the +sergeant in lively dispute with the inspector and half-a-dozen +overseers. + +"He will tell you that I am right," I heard the brave old man cry. "One +must be a bear with seven senses; not able to tell a tooth-pick from a +barn-door! In the name of three million devils, light all the +lanterns!" + +"Yes; light all the lanterns," said the superintendent, coming up. + +The men stepped respectfully back, only the Inspector said sullenly: +"There is no reason for breaking the regular rule of the house, Herr +Superintendent; and the men know that there is no reason; but they take +advantage of the chance--that is all." + +"Perhaps not quite all, Herr Müller," said the superintendent. "We two, +you and I, have not been sitting with a hundred others in a locked room +in the dark--or as good as in the dark--and in a night like this when +it is as if the end of the world had come. Fear, like courage, is +contagious. Follow me, you and Süssmilch, and two others to light the +lanterns." + +He did not name me: he may have thought it a matter of course that I +would follow him. We turned into the corridor and reached the door +which led to the great ward, the windows of which we had passed. +"Light! light!" they were still shrieking inside, and heavy blows fell +upon the oaken door, which cracked at intervals as if they were trying +to burst it open. + +"Open!" said the superintendent to the turnkey. + +The man cast a stealthy look at the inspector, who looked sullenly at +the ground. + +"Open!" repeated the superintendent. + +With hesitation the man placed the key in the lock, and drew the heavy +iron bar from the staples. With hesitation he threw back the first and +then the second bolt. As he laid his hand upon the third, he gave a +furtive glance at the superintendent, upon whose lips played a smile. + +"Why, your heart is usually in the right place, Martin," he said. + +In an instant Martin had thrown back the bolt; the doors were opened. +The frightful spectacle that was then presented to my eyes I shall +never forget, though I should attain the age of the most patriarchal +raven. + +Three or four feet behind the door was another, a grating of iron, +reaching as high as the ceiling; and behind this grating was a +frightful entanglement of men piled upon one another, conglomerated +together--here a pair of arms thrust out, there a pair of legs, as out +of a heap of corpses, flung together into a promiscuous grave upon a +field of battle; with the difference that this mass moved, writhed +internally, and out of it, here and there and everywhere, glared living +eyes, terrible, fierce, desperate, maniac eyes. + +"Men!" cried the superintendent, and his usually soft voice rose with a +power that overbore the tumult, "are you not ashamed of yourselves? +Would you rush upon destruction to avoid a danger which nowhere exists +but in your own heads, and in the darkness around you?" + +Was it the courageous voice? Was it the look of the man? Was it the +effect of the strong light which was thrown upon the mass from the +lanterns of the turnkeys? the coil disentangled itself, arms found +their way to bodies, legs stood again upon their feet, even the eyes +lost their frenzied glare, and here and there a man, either dazzled or +ashamed, cast them down. + +"Make room for the door to be opened, men!" said the superintendent. + +They fell back: the grating was opened; the superintendent entered, and +we followed. + +"Now see, children, how foolish you are," he continued, in a friendly +tone. "There you stand in you shirts, freezing, shivering--you really +ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Get to bed again, or else dress +yourselves and sit up; I will have your lanterns lighted, so that each +one of you can see what a chicken-heart his neighbor is, and what a +bold fellow he is himself." + +The men looked at one another, and over more than one face that had +been distorted with terror there came a smile. In the rear two laughed +out loud. + +"That is right," said the superintendent, "laugh away; no devil can +hold his own against an honest laugh. And now good-night, children, I +must look after the others." + +By this time the overseers had let down and lighted the four great +lanterns that were drawn up to the ceiling. A cheerful brightness +filled the large room. Outside, the storm was raging and howling as +before; but a kindly word falling into these dark spirits had appeased +the storm within. + +"Let us see after the others," said the superintendent. + +And we traversed the echoing corridors, in which this night the +noise from without overpowered the sound of our steps. Wherever +we came we found the prisoners in a state of the most fearful +excitement--excitement beyond all proportion to the causes which +produced it; everywhere the same; sometimes vented in wild curses, and +sometimes in the most piteous supplications; but everywhere the cry of +the poor wretches for light, only more light in the fearful night. But +everywhere the superintendent succeeded in quieting the wild creatures +with his calm words, except the occupants of one ward, who either would +not or could not be quieted. This ward lay in a wing of the building +which was more exposed to the violence of the blast than any other, and +here, in consequence, the storm burst with all its fury. The terrific +detonations, like peals of thunder, with which the tempest burst +against the ancient walls, the furious howling with which it whirled +around the angles, after striving frantically for minutes together to +sweep the obstruction out of its path; the wailing, lamenting, gasping, +sobbing tones that came, no one knew how or whence--all was frightful +enough to fill the soul of even a free man with secret horror. And even +while the superintendent was speaking to them, a chimney on one of the +higher buildings adjacent was blown down, and in falling broke through +the roof of this wing, sending clattering down hundreds of tiles, +increasing the uproar, if not the danger. The men demanded to be let +out; they _would_ come out at every cost; they were resolved not to be +buried alive. + +"But, children," said the superintendent, "you are safer here than +anywhere else; there is not another part of the building so strong as +this." + +"Very well for him," muttered a square-built, curly-headed fellow; "he +can go home and sleep in his soft bed." + +"Give me your mattress, friend," said the superintendent. + +The fellow looked at him in amazement. + +"Your mattress, friend," he repeated. "Lend it to me for to-night: I +will see if it is so hard, and if it is such dreadful sleeping here." + +A deep silence suddenly succeeded the wild tumult. The men looked at +each other in confusion; they did not know whether this was jest or +earnest. But the superintendent did not move from the place. He stood +there silent, thoughtful, with head depressed; no one, not even I, +ventured to speak to him. All eyes were turned to the audacious fellow, +who looked as if he had been condemned to death, and was about to be +led to execution. His mutinous spirit was broken; silently he went and +took up his mattress and brought it to the superintendent. + +"Lay it there, my friend," said the latter. "I am tired; I thank you +for providing me a resting-place." + +The man spread out the mattress upon the floor; the superintendent laid +himself upon it and said: + +"Now lie down, all of you. You, Herr Müller, go to the infirmary and +see if I am needed there. You remain with me, George." + +The inspector went, with the turnkeys; the door was closed and locked; +we were alone. + +Alone among about eighty convicts, for the most part the worst and +fiercest criminals in the whole prison. + +The lanterns that hung from the ceilings cast a dim light over the rows +of beds which were arranged along the walls, and in three long lines, +extending the length of the ward. The men had either lain down, or were +crouching upon their beds. The man who had given his mattress to the +superintendent might have done the same, for there were some half-dozen +of vacant beds in the ward; but he seemed afraid to occupy any one of +them, and crouched upon the bare floor in a dark corner. I stood with +folded arms against the stone pillar which supported the centre of the +roof, looked at the strange spectacle before me, and listened to the +storm which raged without with unabated fury. The superintendent lay +quite still, his head supported by his hand. He slept, or seemed to +sleep; and yet I fancied that from time to time a shiver shook his +frame. The room was warm, but we had been thoroughly drenched by the +rain in crossing the court; he had no covering, and had just risen from +a sick bed. What will be the end? I sighed in the depth of my heart. + +Suddenly a man near me, who had several times turned his head towards +the superintendent, arose from his bed, walked softly with bare feet to +me, and whispered: + +"He must not lie there in that way; it will be his death." + +I shrugged my shoulders: "What can we do?" + +And then another came up, and another rough voice whispered: + +"He must go home. Why should he lie here freezing for the sake of that +shock-headed rascal? It shall not be our fault." + +"No, it shall not be our fault," murmured other voices. In a moment a +crowd has collected around me, and increases every moment. Not one of +these men was sleeping, any more than myself. All had the same thought +in their rude hearts. They want to repair their misbehavior, and do not +know how to go about it. One finds a way at last: + +"He shall go himself and beg him." + +"Yes; that shall he!" + +"Where is he?" + +"Back yonder." + +"Bring him along!" + +They rush to the corner where the fellow is crouching, a dozen strong +hands lift him to his feet; they drag him to the superintendent, who +raises himself from his hard couch as they approach. The light of the +nearest lantern falls full in his pale face, shadowed by his dark hair +and beard. A happy smile plays about his mouth, and his large eyes beam +with strange light. + +"I thank you," he said, "I thank you. The hours which your kindness +bestows upon me shall be devoted to you. But one thing more, children! +This man here is myself: what you do to him, you do to me." + +The man had sunk upon his knees before him; he laid his hand, as in +blessing, upon his bushy head; and then we turned to the door. I cast a +look back: not one of the men had moved from his place. All eyes are +fixed upon the superintendent, who is leaving the ward, supported by my +arm. But I doubt whether all see him; for in many eyes are glistening +tears. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +It was two o'clock when we re-entered the house. At the first touch of +the bell Paula appeared in the hall; but the superintendent only gave +her an affectionate smile and a pat on the cheek, and kept on to his +chamber, whither I followed him. He did not speak to his daughter, +because he could not speak. His face was of a corpse-like paleness, and +deep red spots burned in the hollows of his cheeks. With a motion of +his hand he asked my assistance, and I helped him to undress. As soon +as he was in bed he turned his eyes upon me with a look of gratitude, +and then closed them in death-like exhaustion. + +I took my seat by his bedside, and could not avert my eyes from the +pale, noble face. A sublime calm lay upon it; even the red spots had +vanished from the cheeks; no movement betrayed that in this breast, +that scarcely moved, a heart was beating, that under this lofty brow +dwelt a spirit; I felt as though I was watching by a corpse. + +Thus solemnly and slowly passed the hours of that night. In all my life +I have never met with a stronger contrast than that of the calm face of +that sleeping man with the wild fury of the storm that raged without +with unabated violence. Well might he sleep; the mightiest pinion of an +earthly storm could not soar to the blessed heights where his spirit +was floating. + +Involuntarily my thoughts recurred to the night when the smuggler, who +had just become a murderer, lay wounded in my arms in that hollow in +the ruin, writhing, cursing God, himself, and all the world. And that +man was the brother of this? It seemed incredible that one mother could +have brought forth two such different beings; that the same sun could +shine on two men so unlike; and then again it seemed to me that both, +the wild one and the gentle, the hater and the friend of men, were one +and the same person; as if I had once already seen the pale face before +me; as if it were the same face upon whose brow, pallid in death, the +morning sun shone, as it rose ruddy out of the sea after that night of +horror in the ruin on the cliff. + +But these thoughts were but the wild fancies of one overcome by +weariness. I must indeed have really slept for a while, for as I raised +my head again the gray twilight was glimmering through the lowered +curtains. The superintendent was still lying there as he had lain all +night, his eyes closed and his white hands folded over his breast. I +softly arose and crept out of the room. I had to breathe fresh air; I +felt that I must try to shake off the weight that pressed upon my +heart. + +As I crossed the silent hall I was surprised to see that the hand of +the great clock at the foot of the stairs pointed to eight. I had +supposed, from the dim light, that it was not more than five or six. +But as soon as I stepped out of doors, I saw why it was no lighter. The +black pall which had lain over the earth in the night was now changed +to a gray one--a pallid twilight, that was neither night nor day. And +the fury of the storm was still unabated. As I turned the sheltering +corner of the house, I had to plant myself firmly on my feet in order +not to be dashed to the earth. Thus, crouching down, I made my way +through the garden, now a scene of devastation. There lay trees torn up +by the roots, and others broken off but a few feet from the ground. The +path was strewn with branches and twigs, and the air filled with +whirling leaves. Only the old plane-trees at the Belvedere still +resisted the storm, and their majestic boughs were lashed wildly about +by the blast. I made my way to the Belvedere, the only spot from which +one could obtain a view, though but a limited one, of the stormy +quarter. I feared that the old summer-house would not have been able to +resist the tempest; but there it still stood--doubtless the high +bastion had protected it. I hurried into it for shelter; and as I +hastily threw open the door I saw Paula standing at one of the narrow +windows, on the side facing the sea. + +"You here, Paula?" I cried in alarm. "You here in this weather, when +the house may come down at any moment!" + +"How is my father?" asked Paula. + +"He is sleeping," I said. "You have not slept." + +I saw that by her pale cheeks and the dark circles round her eyes. She +looked away from me, and pointed out of the window at which we were +standing, which now was but a window-space, for the storm had blown in +all the stained panes except one in one corner. + +"Is that not terrible?" she said. + +And it was terrible indeed. Sky and sea of a leaden gray, and between +sea and sky whirling white specks like snowflakes driven by a November +wind. These white specks were gulls, and their dismal cries reached us +at intervals. Upon the high bastion, opposite us, the storm had beaten +down the tall grass which used to nod so lightly in the wind, as flat +as if heavy rollers had passed over it; and over the long, low rampart +from time to time appeared streaks which at first I could not account +for. Could they be the crests of waves? The thing seemed impossible. +The rampart, as I knew, was more than twelve feet high, and in front of +it was a wide sandy beach, on which a popular bathing-establishment had +been erected. Over the rampart a glimpse of the sea might always be +caught, but it was at a considerable distance; but these streaks, if +they were waves, were not dancing out at sea; I saw plainly how they +rose, fell, tumbled over, and beaten to foam and spray flew over the +rampart. It was the surf, and the surf had risen to the crest of the +rampart! + +"What will come of it?" asked Paula. + +It was the very question which I had asked myself yesterday evening at +this identical place, though in another and very different sense. I was +then only thinking of her who now stood before me, and looked up to me +with large, terrified eyes; but in my spirit, confused by the sleepless +night I had passed, nature and human destiny mingled inextricably +together: + +"Paula," I said. + +She glanced up to me again. + +"Paula," I repeated, and my voice trembled and my hand sought hers, "if +the storm of life ever rages around you as that is raging--will you +turn to me for help and protection? Will you, Paula? say!" + +A bright flush reddened her pale cheeks; she drew her hand, which I did +not venture to detain, out of mine. + +"You are one of those good men, George, who desire to help all, and +upon whom, therefore, all think they have claims." + +"That is not an answer, Paula," I said. + +She opened her lips to speak; but I was not to learn if the unfavorable +construction I had given her words was the right one or not, for at +this moment a blast smote the summer-house, tearing off the roof, and +driving in the remaining sashes, that fell in shivers around us. I +caught Paula around the waist and sprang with her out of the house, +which fell with a crash the instant we had quitted it. Paula gave a +shriek of terror, and clasped me convulsively. My heart bounded with +joy when I thus held the dear maiden in my arms; but she released her +hold immediately. + +"What weaklings we women are, after all!" she said. "You men must think +that we exist for no other purpose than to be protected by you." + +As she said this there was an indignant expression in her large eyes +and her brow; but her lips twitched with hardly-repressed weeping. + +What was passing in her thoughts at that moment? + +I did not learn this until years later. + +We went--or rather, struggled--back to the house. No further word was +spoken between us, nor did she take my arm, which I, for my part, did +not venture to offer her. Would she have rejected the arm of another as +well? I asked myself. + +With a sadness that I had never felt before, I was sitting an hour +later in the office. How could I work with this disquiet in my heart, +with this weight upon my brain, and on such a day as this? But "first +do your work, everything else will come in in its place," was the word +of the superintendent, and in accordance with this word I seated myself +at my work, and copied lists and examined accounts without making a +single error in my figures. I had well spent my long apprenticeship: I +could now say that I had learned to work. + +It was noon when I went to the superintendent to place the papers I had +prepared before him for his signature. When I reached the ante-room of +his cabinet I stopped, for through the half-opened door I heard some +one speaking within. + +"It is a grand opportunity," said an unctious voice, which of late +years had been less frequently heard in the superintendent's house--"a +glorious time, a time of the Lord, who reveals himself in storm and +tempest, to awaken the heart of sinful man from its obduracy. Let us +rightly understand this time, Herr Superintendent, and not let the Lord +appeal to us in vain." + +"You will excuse me if I do not share your view, Herr von Krossow. I +have this night had an example of the frenzy to which superstitious +terror drives these wild souls. If you wish to explain to the men these +phenomena of nature, I am most willing to aid you in the undertaking; +but I see no advantage in a general prayer-meeting, and must therefore, +I regret to say, decline to permit it." + +The superintendent said this in his calm, convincing manner, but it did +not seem to convince his antagonist. A brief pause succeeded, and the +soft voice began again: + +"I forgot to mention that the president, from whom I have just come, +and to whom I imparted my intention, entirely agreed with my views, and +even expressed the wish that the bells might be rung in all the +churches, and the congregations assembled for prayer. He cannot fail to +feel it very sensibly if here--just here--his authority is--what shall +I say?--disregarded." + +"I am afraid," replied the superintendent, "that many more will find +themselves to-day compelled to refuse the customary respect to the +authority of the president; I fear that the bells will be rung, not to +call the people to the churches, but to summon them to work. Unless the +storm soon abates there will be much work and hard work to do before +night." + +At this moment, through the roar of the storm, was audible a lamentable +tone as if coming from the clouds, followed by other dismal sounds of +wailing and crying, and suddenly the door leading into the hall was +thrown open, and the doctor rushed breathlessly in. + +"It is as we expected," he panted, hurrying past me into the +superintendent's room, into which I followed him in excitement which +had something better in it than mere curiosity. + +"It is as we expected," he repeated, taking off his spectacles and +wiping from his face the wet sand and other drift with which he was +covered from head to foot. "In an hour, or two hours at most, the water +will be over the rampart, unless a breach first happens, which is to be +feared, in more than one place." + +"What precautions are being taken?" + +"They are sitting with hands in their laps--is not that enough? I +hurried to the chief of police and to the president to entreat them to +send every man that could use his arms to the rampart, and to order +back the battalion, which marched out to parade two hours ago, because +no countermand arrived--can you conceive such madness!--and is now +struggling and buffeted upon the road, unless the storm has blown them +all into the ditches long ago, which is more probable. Under all the +circumstances they cannot be far, and would soon be back if a couple of +mounted couriers were sent after them. They are more wanted here than +in the ditches. All this I laid before the gentlemen. What do you +suppose the chief of police answered me? He had been a soldier himself, +and knew that an officer must obey his orders. It was not to be +supposed that the battalion would be recalled at his request. And the +president--that pretended saint--what is it? O, Herr von Krossow, you +here? I am sorry that you have had to hear the opinion I have of your +uncle; but it is out now, and I can neither help myself nor him. I +cannot see that the sanctity is anything but a pretence, which in such +a calamity talks of the judgments of God, and that it is vain to kick +against the pricks." + +"I shall not fail, as in duty bound, to notify my uncle of the friendly +opinions which are so frankly expressed of him here," said Herr von +Krossow, seizing his broad-rimmed hat with hands that trembled with +rage, and hastening out of the door. + +"A pleasant journey to you!" cried the pugnacious doctor, running a few +steps after him, like a cock whose adversary has left him master of the +arena. "A pleasant journey!" he called once more through the open door, +which he then, snorting wrath and scorn, flung furiously to. + +"You have lost your place here," said the superintendent, seriously. + +"At all events, the fellow will know my opinion of him," crowed the +doctor. + +"What does that matter?" asked the superintendent. "But that you should +be physician here matters much, and to me most of all. We must try to +repair this in some way." + +The superintendent walked up and down the room with slow steps, his +hands clasped behind his back, as was his custom; the doctor stood +first upon one foot and then upon the other, looking greatly ashamed +and confused. + +"What is it?" asked the superintendent of a turnkey, who entered at +that moment with an agitated face. + +"There is a crowd of people here, Herr Superintendent." + +"Where?" + +"At the gate." + +"What kind of people?" + +"Mostly from the Bridge-street, Herr Superintendent. They say they will +all be drowned. And since the prison stands so much higher----" + +Without a word the superintendent left the room and crossed the court. +We followed. He had on a short silk coat he usually wore in the house, +and was without hat or cap. As he strode on before us, the storm, which +was furious in the court, dishevelled his thin, dark hair, and the ends +of his long moustache fluttered like pennons in the wind. + +We reached the gate which the growling porter was ordered to open. The +previous evening the opening of a prison door had exhibited to me a +frightful spectacle, and I now had to behold a most moving and pitiable +one, which has remained no less indelibly impressed on my memory. + +There were outside probably fifty persons, mostly women, some men, both +old and young, and children, some even in the arms of their mothers. +Nearly all were carrying in their hands, or had placed upon the ground, +some of their little possessions, and these apparently the first that +came to hand, caught up in haste and alarm. I saw a woman with a great +wash-tub on her shoulders, which she clutched as firmly as if it would +fall to pieces if let go; and a man carrying an empty bird-cage, which +the wind was whirling about. The gate was no sooner open than they all +rushed into the yard as if pursued by furies. The turnkey wished to +oppose their entrance, but the superintendent took him by the arm. + +"Let them in," he said. + +We had stepped on one side, and let the mad torrent pour by us, and it +now spread over the court, and in part rushed up to the door of the +building. + +"Halt!" cried the superintendent. + +They all stopped. + +"Let the women and children enter," he said, to his subordinates, "also +the old and the sick. You men may go in to warm yourselves, but in ten +minutes you must all be here again. This is no time for men to be +sitting behind the stove." + +Here came new guests through the open gate. + +"Let them in--let all in!" said the superintendent. + +A young woman with a child in her arms, who had rushed in after the +others, went up to the superintendent and said: + +"I want my husband! Why do you keep him locked up? I can't carry all +the brats at once! If I don't find the rest, you may drown this one +too!" + +She was just going to lay the child on the ground, when she suddenly +turned upon the doctor, who was standing by, pushed the child into his +arms, and sprang out of the gate. The woman had wonderfully long blond +hair, which had fallen loose, and as she rushed off in frantic haste it +fluttered behind her in a thousand strings. + +"Get rid of your little burden," said the superintendent, smiling, to +the doctor. "You must take command here in my place. Look after the +women and children, my friend, and see that the men are through with +their dinner in a quarter of an hour; then let them come out here, all +of them, without exception, but the sick." + +The doctor cast an inquiring look at his chief. Suddenly a light seemed +to flash across his grotesque physiognomy, and holding the wailing +child close to his breast, he ran with his queer tripping steps into +the house to carry out the orders he had just received. + +"Stay here, George," said the superintendent to me, "and talk to the +people, as thou knowest how. I shall be back in ten minutes." + +He went: I remained staring after him. What was the meaning of this? +For the first time he had called me _thou_. His eye had been steadily +fixed upon me; it was not a trip of the tongue, and yet he had not +spoken it intentionally; I felt this instinctively; I felt, indeed I +knew, that it was because at this solemn moment the little barriers +which conventional life had thrown up between us, in this man's eyes, +shrivelled up into nothing. And I knew what was in his mind: I knew +that he was preparing himself for a battle of life and death, and that +he had gone to take farewell of his family. A shudder ran through me; +my breast swelled high; I raised my head proudly. + +"Good people," I said, "take courage: he will help you if a man can." + +They crowded around me, bewailing their great peril; how the water had +been rising since yesterday midnight at the rate of nearly a foot an +hour; that had now been going on for twelve hours, and the rampart +in the lowest part was only twelve or thirteen feet high; that the +Bridge-street and Sweed-street next to it were but very little above +the ordinary level of the sea, and if the rampart gave way, all were +lost. Master-Pilot Walter, who understood these things well, had always +said something would happen; but there was no money for anything +of the sort--that was all spent on the bastions and casemates on the +land-side. + +"And they have clapped my two boys into uniform," said an old man, "and +now they are out on the road and cannot help us." + +"But _he_ will," I said. + +The old man looked at me incredulously. + +"He is a good gentleman," he said; "every child knows that; but what +can he do?" + +Here the superintendent came again out of the house, and at the same +time out of three several doors which opened from the different wings +of the main-building streamed forth the convicts, and work-house men, +about four hundred in number, all more or less stalwart men, in their +gray working-jackets, the most already provided with spades, picks, +axes, ropes, and whatever else likely to be of service, that they had +been able to find in the establishment. The men were headed by their +overseers. + +Thus they came on in military order and step. "Halt! Front face!" +commanded the overseers, and the men halted in three companies, steady +as a battalion under arms. + +"This way, men!" cried the superintendent, in a sonorous voice. The men +obeyed. All eyes were fixed upon him, who stood with his head bent down +as if reflecting. Suddenly he looked up, his eye flashed around the +circle, and with a voice that rose strong and clear above the storm, he +cried: + +"Men! Each one of us has had some one hour in his life which he +would give much to be able to recall. To-day a great good fortune is +granted you: every one of you, whoever he may be and whatever he has +done--every one of you may now buy back that hour, and become again +what he once was, before God, himself, and all good men. You have been +told what you are wanted for. It is to risk your lives for the lives of +others--for the lives of helpless women and children! I make you no +vain promises; I do not say what you are about to do will make free men +of you; on the contrary, I tell you that you will return here just as +you left. Neither freedom nor any other reward awaits you when the gate +closes behind you this evening after your work is over--nothing but the +thanks of your superintendent, a glass of stiff grog, and a comfortable +rest upon your beds, such as an honest fellow deserves. Will you stand +by me on these conditions? Whoever will, let him raise his right hand +and give a hearty Aye!" + +Four hundred right hands flew up, and from four hundred throats came +the shout AYE! + +At once the crowd, which had been joined by the fugitives from the +town, was divided into three companies, of which Süssmilch was to +command the first, I the second, and a convict named Mathes, formerly a +ship-builder, and a very active, intelligent man, the third. The +overseers had fallen into the ranks with the rest. + +"Every man is his own overseer to-day!" said the superintendent. + +Thus we marched out of the gate. + +The short street upon which the principal prison-gate opened was soon +traversed, but at the old and rather narrow gate at the end of the +street we met with a singular resistance, which, more than anything +hitherto, exhibited the might of the storm. The old gate was in fact +only an open arch in the wall, and yet it took us longer to get through +it than if we had had to burst heavy doors of oak plated with iron, so +violently did the blast press through the narrow opening. Like a giant +with hundred arms it stood without and thrust back like a helpless +child each one that endeavored to force his way; only our combined +exertions, holding each other's hands and clinging to the rugged +surface of the arch, enabled us to force the pass. Then we hastened +along the way, between the high bastion on one side and the town-fosse +with the prison-buildings on the other side, until we reached the place +where our help was needed. + +It was that low rampart which immediately joined the bastion, over the +crest of which I had so often cast a longing eye from the Belvedere +towards the sea and the island. Its length was perhaps five hundred +paces, and then came the harbor with its high stone breakwaters +reaching far out into the sea. At the first sight I perceived why this +place was exposed to such terrible peril in a storm like this. The sea, +driven in by the force of the storm, was caught between the high +bastion, that rested upon immense foundations of solid masonry, and the +long breakwater, as in a _cul-de-sac_, and as it could escape on +neither side, it spent all its force upon the barrier that here barred +its way. If the rampart gave way, the whole lower part of the town was +gone. No one could avoid seeing this who looked from the rampart into +the narrow streets on the water-side, where the ridges of the roofs for +the most part scarcely reached the height of the rampart, so that one +could see over them into the inner harbor which lay on the opposite +side of the harbor-suburb, where now the masts of the ships were +swaying like reeds in the wind. + +I think that I did not take more than a quarter of a minute to have a +distinct comprehension of the situation as I have just described it, +and indeed no more time was allowed me. My senses and feelings were too +powerfully seized by the sight of the danger we had come to contend +with. I, who had passed my whole life upon the coast, who had been +tossed for days together by the waves in small or large craft, who had +watched, from the shore at least, many a fierce storm with unwearied +attention and sympathetic terror--I thought that I knew the sea; and +now saw that I no more knew it than any one knows a bomb, who has not +seen one explode and scatter death and destruction around. Not even in +my wildest fancies had I ever approached the reality. This was not the +sea which was an expanse of water forming greater and smaller waves; +this was a monster, a world of monsters rushing upon us with wide-open +jaws, roaring, howling, ravening for prey; it was no longer anything +definite or distinguishable--the destruction of all form, of all +color--chaos that had broken loose to engulf the world. + +I believe there was not one of the whole company who was not similarly +affected by the sight. I can see them now standing there--the four +hundred as they had rushed to the crest of the rampart, with pale +faces, their terrified eyes now turned upon the howling chaos, then +upon their neighbors, and then upon the man who had led them here, and +who alone was able to say what was to be done, what could be done. + +And never had a hesitating crowd a better leader. + +With the true eye of love that thoughtfully gazes into the past, I see +him in so many situations, and always do I behold him noble and good; +but at no moment better and nobler than in this, as he stood upon +the highest point of the rampart, one arm wound round the strong +flag-staff which he had hastily erected, as firm upon his weakened +limbs as the bronze statue of an ancient hero! And hero-like was the +look of his eye which in one glance took in the danger and the remedy; +hero-like was the gesture as he raised his hand, and hero-like was the +voice which in clear incisive tones gave the needful orders. + +One detachment was ordered into the low streets to bring up all the +empty casks, boxes and chests they could find; another to go with +spades, baskets and wheelbarrows upon the bastion, where there was +earth in abundance; another into the adjoining glacis with ropes and +axes to fell the trees which for years had been awaiting the enemy +which--though in an unlooked-for form--had now come; another into the +neighboring dock-yards to summon the ship-builders to help us, and to +procure, either by persuasion or force, twenty or thirty large beams +which we absolutely needed. Before half an hour had elapsed, the work, +so well directed, was in full activity. At one place, baskets of earth +were lowered into the rents which the sea had made in the rampart; at +another, posts were driven in and wattled with boughs; at another, a +wall of timbers was built up. And all worked, and hurried, and dug, and +shovelled, and hammered, and wheeled, and dragged great loads, with a +diligence, with an energy, with a cheerful, dauntless courage, that +even now the tears start to my eyes as I think of it; when I think that +these were the men whom society had spurned out; the men who, perhaps +for the sake of a few _groschen_ or a childish craving, had become +common thieves; the men whom I had so often, with disgust, seen sulkily +slouching across the prison court to their work; the men whom the storm +of yesterday, beating against the walls of their prison, had driven to +a frenzy of terror. There lay the town at their feet; they might rush +into it, rob, burn, and murder to their heart's content--who was to +hinder them? There lay the wide world open before them; they had only +to escape into it; who could restrain them? Here was a work more +difficult and more toilsome than any they had ever done; who was it +that compelled them to it? This was the storm before which they had +yesterday trembled in its most appalling form; why did they not tremble +now? Why did they go, jesting, laughing, into the very jaws of death, +when they had to secure and bring in a great mast which had been +drifted in from the harbor, and which the waves were driving like a +battering-ram against the rampart? Why? I believe if all men answered +this why as I answer it, there would no longer be masters and serfs; no +longer would men sing the sad old song of the hammer that would not be +an anvil, for--but wherefore answer a _why_ that only the world's +history can answer? Wherefore lay the secrets of our hearts before a +world which passes by indifferent, unnoticing, or only noticing to +mock! + +Whoever looked on at this work--how these men let the skin be +torn from their flesh and the flesh from their bones in their terrible +work--did not laugh; and those who looked on were the poor people of +the water-streets--women and children for the most part, for the men +had to help in the work--who stood below sheltered by the rampart, and +with frightened and astonished faces looked at the gray-jackets, whom +they had usually only watched with timid, suspicious glances as they +passed through the streets in small parties led by overseers from +out-door work. To-day they were not afraid of the gray-jackets; to-day +they prayed that heaven's blessing might go with the food and drink +that they brought to strengthen and refresh those who were exhausted +with the toil. No, they were not afraid of the four hundred; gladly +would they have seen their numbers doubled and tripled. + +But there were men living far out of the reach of the danger, whose +lives or property were nowise at stake, and who thus were in a position +acutely to feel the irregularity and illegality of these proceedings. + +I remember that, one after the other, the Chief of Police von Raubach, +President von Krossow, the Lieutenant General and Commandant of the +Fort, his excellency Count Dankelheim, came storming our leader with +entreaties, commands, threats, to place his dreaded brigade under locks +and bolts again. I remember that they came together in the evening to +make a combined attack, and I have still to smile when I recall the +cheerful calm with which the good, brave man repelled the assault. + +"What would you have, gentlemen?" he said. "Would you really prefer +that hundreds should lose their lives and thousands their property, +rather than that a dozen or a couple of dozen of these poor rascals +should decamp and gain the liberty which they have honestly earned +to-day? But I shall bring them back when the danger is over. Before +that time no man shall move me from here, unless he does it by force; +and happily no one of you is able to do that, gentlemen! And now, +gentlemen, this interview must terminate; night is coming on; we have +at most only a half hour to make our preparations for the night. I have +the honor to wish you good day!" + +With these words he waved his hand towards the three high +functionaries, who made an extremely poor figure as they stole off, and +then turned all his attention where he was needed. + +Where he was needed at this moment more than ever; for just now, at the +approach of night, it seemed as if the storm had rallied all its force +for a last and decisive assault. + +I feared that we should have to succumb; that our desperate toil of six +hours was all in vain. The giant-waves no longer were hurled back; +their crests were torn off and flew far over the rampart into the +streets. Shrieking with terror, the crowd below fled in all directions; +scarcely one among us workmen could hold his place on the summit: I saw +desperate fellows, who had played with the danger hitherto, now turn +pale and shake their heads, and heard them say: "It is impossible: +nothing more can be done." + +And now came the most terrible act in this awful drama. + +A small Dutch ship which had been moored in the roadstead broke loose +from her anchors and was hurled about in the frightful surf like a +nutshell, now tossed aloft, now engulfed in the trough of the sea, but +driven with every wave nearer the rampart we were defending. We saw the +despairing gestures of the crew, who were clinging to the spars and +rigging: we almost fancied that we heard their cries for help. + +"Can we do nothing--nothing?" I cried, turning to the superintendent +with tears of anguish in my eyes. + +He shook his head sadly. "This one thing, perhaps," he said, "that when +she is thrown up thus high we may try if we can grapple her so that the +surf may not sweep her back. If it does not succeed they are lost, and +we with them, for she will make a breach in the rampart which we cannot +possibly fill. Let them drive in strong posts, George, and make fast +one end of our thickest rope to them. It is but a feeble possibility; +but there is still a chance. Come!" + +We hastened to the spot on which the ship, now but a few hundred feet +distant, was driving. The men had left the crest of the rampart, and +were sheltering themselves as well as they could; but now, when they +saw their leader himself take an axe in his hand, they all came up and +worked with a sort of fury, compared with which all that they had +hitherto done was child's play. + +The posts were planted, and the rope fastened. Four of the strongest +men, of whom I was one, stood upon the rampart watching the right +moment. + +And what we thought scarcely possible, succeeded! An enormous wave came +rolling up bearing the vessel with it. The wave breaks--a deluge bursts +over us, but we stand firm, clutching the posts with the grip of +desperation; and as soon as we can see again, there lay the ship like a +stranded whale, high upon the rampart. We spring to it; a hundred hands +are busy at once making fast the ropes to the masts; a hundred others +in releasing the pale men--five of them from the yards. All is done +before the next wave breaks. Will it carry off our prize? It comes, and +after it another, and another; but the ropes hold; each wave is weaker +than the last; the fourth does not reach the crest; the fifth falls far +behind. In the fearful incessant thunder, which for so many hours has +been deafening our ears, there comes a sudden pause; the pennons on the +rocking masts of the ships in the inner harbor, which have been flying +towards the east, now droop, and then fly out to the west; the wind +hauls, the storm is over, the victory is ours! + +The victory is ours. Every one knows it in a moment. A cheer, that +seemed as if it would never end, bursts from the throats of these rude +men. They grasp each other's hands; embrace each other--Hurrah! and +Hurrah! again and again! + +The victory is ours; but it is dearly purchased. + +When I looked for him--him whom all had to thank for all--he was no +longer standing on the spot where I had seen him last. But I see the +men running to the place, and I run with them; I outstrip them all, +driven by a fear which gives me wings. I force my way through the +assembled crowd, and find all with bowed heads gazing at a man who lies +upon the ground, his head upon the knees of the old sergeant. The man +is pale as death, and his lips are covered with bloody froth, and all +around him the earth is drenched with fresh blood--his blood--the +heart's blood of that noblest of living men. + +"Is he dead?" I hear one of the men ask. + +But the hero could not die yet: he has one duty more to perform. He +summons me with a look, and I bend over him as he moves his lips, from +which no sound now issues. But I understand him. I clasp both arms +around him and raise him up. Thus he stands erect, leaning upon me, the +lofty kingly form. They can all see him--the men whom he has led here +and whom he is going to lead back. He glances at his hand, which hangs +helpless, white as wax, at his side; I raise it, and it points in the +direction of the way that we had come at noon. There is not one who +dares disobey this dumb, solemn command. They assemble, fall into rank +and file; the sergeant and I bear their dying leader; and thus we +return in long, slow, sad procession. + +Night has come on; and but a few occasional gusts rush by to remind us +of the frightful day we have all passed through. The convicts are +sleeping upon the pillow of a good conscience, which the superintendent +had promised them. Their superintendent sleeps too, and his pillow is +as soft as death in a good and great cause can make it. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +It was a year after these events that a solitary traveller was +ascending the slope of one of the hills of the heath which surrounded +the town of Uselin on the land side. He journeyed slowly, like one who +is wearied with a long march, and laboriously dragged his feet through +that coarse sand with which the sea loves to bestrew its threshold. But +the traveller was not by any means weary; he had journeyed but few +miles that day, and for him twice the exertion had been but child's +play. The little bundle which was slung from a stick over his shoulder +could not overburden him; and yet he went slower and slower as he +approached the three pines which crowned the summit of the hill; indeed +he stopped from time to time and pressed his hand upon his heart, as +though his breath failed him for the few steps that were yet to be +taken. And now he stood on the summit under the pines; the stick with +the bundle slipped from his grasp, and he stretched out his arms toward +the little town which from the strand glittered in a light blended with +the glitter of the sea. Then he threw himself--tall and powerful man as +he was--upon the heather under the pines, weeping and sobbing like a +child, but presently half raised himself, and lay for a long time, +propped by his elbow, steadily gazing at the little sea-port at his +feet, with its peaked gables and steep roofs reddened by the sunset. + +What thoughts were passing through the mind of this solitary man? What +emotions were filling his heaving breast? + +Many a poet who has carelessly brought his hero into a similar +situation probably finds the answer to this question no such easy task; +but fortunately for me I myself am the wanderer lying under the pines, +and since that time not so many years have flown that the place, the +hour, and what they brought me, could have escaped my memory. + +What did they bring? + +A host of memories from the years when the man was a light-hearted boy, +and all that he saw around him now but the scenes of his wild sports: +the town, from the depth of the half-filled-up fosse to the tops of the +spires; the gardens, fields, meadows and heaths that surrounded it as +far as these very hills; the harbor with its ships, and the glistening +sea on which he loved to row in a frail boat when the towers, as now, +glowed ruddy in the evening light. + +Hither and thither strayed my looks, and everywhere they encountered +objects that greeted me as old acquaintances; but they did not dwell +long upon any one; just as when we search a well-known book for some +especial passage, turning leaf after leaf, and every line that meets +the eye is familiar, and yet we can not light upon the place we are +looking for. + +But in truth it was so small and lowly, the old one-storied house with +the painted gable on the narrow harbor-street, and the street lay so +low, covered by the larger houses of the higher part of the town,--how +could I expect from this spot to distinguish the little house with the +narrow gable? + +And yet for what other purpose had I made the journey hither, the +sixteen miles from the prison--my first journey after regaining my +freedom--but to see that house, and, if fortune would permit, perhaps +through a crack in the shutter to catch a glimpse of its occupant? For +to go to him, to gaze into his eyes, to throw my arms about his neck, +as my heart yearned to do--this, after what had happened, I dared not +hope. In the short notes with which he had answered my letters, there +had never been, during all the seven years of my imprisonment, one +single word of love, of comfort, of forgiveness. + +And my last letter, written a week before, in which I congratulated him +in advance on his sixty-seventh birth-day, told him that this would be +the day of my liberation, and asked if I--now another, and, I hoped, a +better man--might venture to come to him on that day--this letter, +which I had written with wet eyes and a trembling hand, had never been +answered. + +The red glow had at last vanished from the high roofs and peaked +gables, from the fluttering pennons of the ships in the outer harbor, +and from the two church-towers; a light mist arose from the meadows and +fields which stretched from the hills upon the heath to the city. The +mail-coach came along the road lined with stunted fruit trees; and I +watched it as it slowly passed tree after tree, until it disappeared +behind the first houses of the suburb. Here and there upon the narrow +foot-path between the fields were seen the figures of laborers moving +toward the town, and these also disappeared. The twilight faded +away; denser grew the mists in the hollows; nothing living was +to be seen except a brace of hares sitting up on their haunches in a +stubble-field, and a great flock of crows, which came croaking from the +pine-forest where I used to play "Robbers and Soldiers" with my +comrades, their black bodies flapping distinct against the lighter sky, +as they bent their course to the old church-towers. + +The hour had now come. + +I arose, hung my bundle once more over my stick, slowly descended the +hill and took my way through the misty fields to the town. In an +obscure spot in the suburbs I stopped again for awhile--it was not dark +enough for me yet. I neither feared nor had reason to fear any one. +Even before my great enemy, Justizrath Heckepfennig, or those +redoubtable public servants Luz and Bolljahn, had I met them, I need +not have cast down my eyes, or stepped aside; and yet it was not dark +enough. + +Now the night breeze rustled louder in the half-stripped boughs of the +maple against which I was leaning, and looking up I saw a star +twinkling through the sprays--now it would do. + +How hollow sounded my footsteps in the empty streets, and how heavily +beat my heart in my anxious breast! As I passed the _Rathhaus_, Father +Rüterbusch, the night-watchman, was standing, bare-headed and without +his weapons, at his post, and looking pensively at the empty table and +barrel-chair of Mother Möller's cake stand, while above us the clock in +the tower of St. Nicholas's church struck eight. Was Mother Möller +dead, that Father Rüterbusch thus gazed at the empty barrel, and had +not even a glance for his old acquaintance from the guard-house? + +Dead? Why not? She was an old woman when I last saw her--just the age +of my father, as she told me once when I was spending my pocket money +at her stall. As old as my father! A chill wind blew through the hall; +I shivered from head to foot, and with a rapid stride, almost a run, I +hurried over the little market-place down the sloping streets leading +to the harbor. + +Here was the Harbor-street, and here was the house! Thank heaven! A +light was glimmering through the shutters of both windows on the left. +Thank heaven once more! + +And now would I do and must do what on that other evening I wished to +do and should have done, and yet did not: go in and say to him "forgive +me!" + +I grasped the brass knob of the door--again it felt cold as ice to my +hot hand. The door-bell gave a sharp clang, and at its summons appeared +at the door of the right-hand chamber--just as on that evening--the +faithful Friederike. No, not just as on that evening; her little +figure, bent with age, was dressed in black, and a black ribbon +fastened the snow-white cap with its broad ruffle, which formed a ring +of points around her wrinkled face. And out of the wrinkled face two +eyes, red with weeping, stared at the strange visitor. + +"Rike," I said--it was all that I could utter. + +"George! good heaven!" the old women cried, tottering towards me with +uplifted hands. + +She grasped both my hands, and gazed at me, sobbing and speechless, +with quivering lips, while the tears streamed down her furrowed cheeks. +She had no need to speak: I did not ask what had happened: I only asked +"When?" + +"A week ago to-day," sobbed the old woman. "He did not even live to see +his birth-day." + +"What did he die of?" + +"I do not know. Nobody knows. Doctor Balthasar says he cannot +understand it. He has never been quite well since you have been away; +and kept growing worse and worse, though he would never own it; and two +weeks ago he took to his bed, and kept perfectly still, looking always +just before him, only that sometimes he would write in his house-book, +and that on the very evening before; and when I came in the morning he +was dead, and the book was lying on the bed, and I took it myself and +showed it to nobody when they came and sealed up everything. I thought +I ought to keep it for you: he used so often to say your name to +himself when he was writing. What he wrote I don't know; I cannot read; +but I will get it for you." + +She opened the door into my father's room. It was neat as +ever--painfully neat, but even more uninhabitable. The white slips of +parchment, fastened with seals over the keyholes of the secretary and +the old brown press in the corner, had a spectral look to me. + +"Why is the lamp burning on the table?" I asked. + +"They are coming this evening." + +"Who are coming?" + +"Sarah and her husband, and the children, I believe. Did you not know?" + +"I know of nothing--nothing whatever. And there still lies my +letter--unbroken! He never read it!" + +I sank into the chair that stood by the writing table. I had never sat +in this chair, had scarcely dared to touch it. A king's throne had +seemed less venerable to me. This thought at once struck me, and was +followed by many, many other painful thoughts: my head sank into my +hands: gladly would I have wept, but I could not weep. + +The old woman returned with the book of which she had spoken. I knew it +well; it was a thick quarto volume, bound in leather, with clasps, and +I had often seen it in my father's hands of an evening when he had done +his work; but never had I ventured to cast a look into it, even had I +had the opportunity, which but rarely happened, as my father always +kept it carefully locked up. Now it lay open before me: one after +another I turned the thick leaves of the rough coarse paper, their +pages covered with the neat, pedantically straight hand-writing of my +father, which I knew so well. The hand had not changed, although the +entries extended over more than forty years, and the ink on the first +pages was entirely faded. Only upon the last did this steady strength +seen to fail. The traces of the pen grew ever more angular, feebler; +they were but the ruin of what had formerly been; the last word was +just legible and no more. It was my name. + +And everywhere upon the first leaves, those of some twenty-seven years +back, stood my name. + +"To-day a son has been born to me--a sturdy little fellow. The nurse +says she never saw in her life so stout a babe, and that he is like St. +George. So he shall be called George, and shall be the joy of my life +and the staff of my old age. May God grant it!" + +"George comes on finely," was on another page. "He is already larger +than the Herr Steuerrath's Arthur, who is not small either. He seems to +have a good head of his own. Though only three years old, it is +wonderful what ideas he has. He must soon go to school." + +And again on another: + +"Clerk Volland is full of praise of my George. 'He might get on better +with his learning,' the old man says; 'but his heart is in the right +place; he will be a fine man some day. I shall not live to see it, but +you will, and then do you remember that I said so.'" + +And so it went on, page after page--"George that splendid fellow! My +noble boy, George!" + +Then came other times. George's name was not now in almost every line, +and George was no longer the splendid fellow and noble boy. George +would not do right, neither in school, nor at home, nor on the street, +nor anywhere. George was a good-for-nothing! No, no; that was too much +to say; only he could do better if he would, and he certainly would do +better--he certainly would! + +Then came many pages and George's name was not mentioned at all. Many a +family event was noted; my mother's death; the terrible news of my +brother's loss; that his daughter Sarah had again--for the third--for +the fourth time--presented him with a grandson or a grand-daughter; +that he had been promoted to an accountant's place; that his salary had +been raised; but George's name appeared no more. + +Not even upon the last leaves, which again had references to "him;" +that "he" was so well liked by all in the prison, and that the Herr +Superintendent von Zehren had asked today again if "he" was not yet +found worthy of his father's forgiveness. + +"I have tried to-day to write to him what the feelings of my heart are; +but I cannot bring myself to it. I will tell him all when he comes +back, if he cares for the love of an old broken man; but write it I +cannot." + +And upon the last page were the words: + +"It is not true! It certainly is not true. Six years and a half he has +behaved well, yes, exemplarily, and in the second half of the seventh +to become worthless at once! I hear little good of the new +superintendent. The one that is gone was a noble-spirited man, and he +was always full of praise of him--no, no, whatever they may say of him, +my boy is not worthless, not worthless!" + +And last of all: + +"In a week he will be free; he will find me upon a sick bed if he finds +me at all. For his sake I wish it; for it would be a great sorrow to +him to see me no more. I have thought all these years that my boy did +not love me, or he would never have given me so much pain; but I had +just now a dream that he was here and I held him in my arms. I said to +him, George----" + +I stared with burning eyes at the blank which followed, as if there +must appear upon it the words which my father had said to me in his +dream; but gaze as I might, the words appeared not, and at last I saw +nothing more for the flood of tears that burst from my eyes. + +"You must not cry so, George," said the good old woman. "I know he +always loved you more than the rest--very much more. And if he died of +grief and heart-break on your account, why he was an old man, and now +he is dead and with our Heavenly Father, and he is well there, much +better than here, though the good Lord knows that I have had no other +thought these twenty years than to make it all right with him." + +"I know it, I know it, and I thank you a thousand times," I cried, +seizing her brown withered bands. "And now tell me, what are you going +to do, and what can I do for you?" + +She looked at me and shook her head; it probably seemed strange to her +that George, just out of the prison, should offer to do anything for +her. + +I repeated my question. + +"Poor boy," she said, "you will have enough to do to provide for +yourself, for what he has left does not amount to much; he was too +good; he would help everywhere that he could, and he bought a place in +the Beguines for me, for the year or two I may still be spared. This +will come out of it, and Sarah made fuss enough when she heard it. They +thought they would get it all'; but it is to be divided equally between +you both. I have that from his own mouth, and I can swear it, and will +swear it, if they raise any dispute, because he left no will." + +At this moment there was a loud ring at the front door. + +"Good heavens!" cried the old woman, clapping her hands together, +"there they are already!" + +She hurried out of the room, leaving the door open after her. I +remembered that I had never loved my sister--that I had parted from her +with unfriendly feelings long years before, and that in the interval I +had by no means learned to love her--but what difference did that make +now? Now, when she and I had lost our father, when we might lean and +take each other's hand across his grave? + +I went into the little hall, which was nearly filled by the +newcomers--a tall, lean, pale woman in black; a short, fat, red-faced +man, in the uniform of an officer of the customs; and so far as I could +make out at a glance, a half-dozen children, from ten or twelve years +old to an infant, which the tall, pale woman clutched more firmly as I +appeared at the door, and looked at me with a hostile rather than a +startled look in her large cold eyes. The short, fat man in uniform +stepped between me and the group of mother and children with a confused +expression in his face, and, rubbing his plump hands in an embarrassed +manner, said: + +"We were not expecting you--ahem!--brother-in-law ahem! but we are very +glad to meet you here--ahem! My dear wife will only put herself to +rights a little--ahem! In the meantime, suppose we go into our late +father's room, where we can talk over matters undisturbed. Don't you +think so, my dear?" + +The little man turned upon his heel to face his dear wife, who, instead +of answering, pushed the children before her into old Friederike's +little room. He turned back to me, rubbed his hands with still more +embarrassment than before, and said again "Ahem!" + +We entered my father's room. I took my seat in his chair, but my +brother-in-law was too disturbed in spirit to be able to sit down. He +paced up and down the room with short quick steps, stopping for a +moment every time he passed the door, with his head thrust forward a +little on one side, listening if his dear wife had called him, and +every time, to fill up the pause with propriety, he said "Ahem?" + +It was a long detail that the little man went into during his restless +wandering from door to stove and from stove to door, and what he said +was as clumsy and awkward as himself. It seemed that he and his dear +wife had cherished a half hope that I would never be discharged from +prison, especially since I had been detained half a year over my time +for alleged breaches of discipline. He rejoiced exceedingly, he said, +that his fears and those of his dear wife had not been justified; but +that I must admit that it was a hard thing for a public officer to have +a brother-in-law who had been in the House of Correction. Did I think, +now, that an officer with such kindred was likely to gain promotion? It +was frightful, unpardonable, so to speak, and if he could have foreseen +it---- + +The little man suddenly gave me a furtive look. I was standing +perfectly still, looking steadily at him, was a giant in comparison +with him, and had just come out of prison. It seemed to strike him that +it was not altogether prudent to take this tone with me, so now there +came a long litany of the dolorous life that a petty subaltern with a +large family has to lead on the Polish frontier. True, in conformity +with the wishes of his dear wife, who wanted to nurse her old father, +he had procured his removal to this place; but now the old gentleman, +who no doubt would have taken it kindly of them, must needs die, and +living here was so much more expensive, and then the journey had cost +so much with all these children, and the baby was only sixteen weeks +old, and though the inheritance was left, still _two_ was a heavy +divisor when the dividend was not large, and---- + +I had heard enough, and more than enough. + +"Do you know this book?" I asked, laying my hand on the cover of my +father's diary. + +"No," replied the little man. + +"Give me this book, and I make no other claim upon my father's estate. +It is his diary, which has no interest for you. Do you consent?" + +"Certainly--that is, ahem! I don't know whether my dear wife--we must +first see about it--," answered my brother-in-law, rubbing his hands in +an undecided way, and looking askance at the book out of his little +puffy eyes. + +"Then see about it" + +I now commenced on my side pacing up and down the room, while the +husband of his dear wife seated himself at the table, to submit this +mysterious book to a closer inspection. + +It seemed to excite no especial interest in him by the ordinary process +of reading; so he tried another plan with it, taking it by the two +covers and letting the leaves hang down, which he shook vigorously for +half a minute. As this proceeding also led to no result, he gave up the +matter as hopeless, laid down the book again, and said "Ahem!" + +"Are you agreed!" I asked. + +"Yes, certainly--to be sure--so to speak--of course; that is, we must +put it down in writing--only a couple of lines--just by way of a +memorandum--we might have it afterwards drawn up by a notary----" + +"Whatever you wish, whatever you wish," I said. "Here then!" + +The little man glanced at the paper and glanced at me, while I tied up +the book in my bundle, and took bundle and stick in my hand. Either he +did not know what to make of me, or--as from the expression of his +countenance was more probable--considered me simply insane; in either +case he was beyond measure glad to be rid of me. + +"Off so soon?" he said. "There's my dear wife, won't you----" + +He checked his invitation to see his dear wife. I muttered something +that might pass for an excuse, left the room, pressed old Friederike's +hand as I passed through the hall, and stood in the street. + +I have but a dim recollection of the hour that followed. It is not a +dream, and yet it seems like a dream, that I went to the grave-yard in +the mill-suburb, roused up the old sexton, who was just going to bed; +that I kneeled by a recent grave, and afterwards gave the old man, who +stood by me with a lantern, money to cover the hillock next morning +with fresh sods; that I went back again, and near the gate passed the +villa of the commerzienrath, where all the windows were illuminated, +and I could see couples gliding past them in the dance to a music which +I could not hear, and that I thought the little Hermine might be among +the dancers, and then remembered that the pretty child would now be +seventeen years old, if she were still alive. + +I felt an irrepressible sadness; it seemed as if all the world had +died, and I was the only living being left, and the shades of the dead +were dancing round me to inaudible music. + +Thus I went back with unsteady steps to the town, and passed along the +empty silent streets towards the harbor, mechanically following the way +which I had always taken when a boy. + +The sea-breeze blew in my face, and cooled my fevered brow, and I +inhaled deep draughts of the invigorating air. No, the world was not +dead, nor was I the only living being left; and there was a music, a +delicious music, sweeter to me than any other: the music of the wind +whistling through spars and cordage, and the waves plashing upon the +harbor-bar and before the prow of the ship. Yes, there were still those +who loved me, and whom I with all my soul could love again. + +Upon the wharf, where the steamboat for St. ---- was now lying at her +moorings, there was standing a crowd of people. It struck me that I +could best commence my journey to the capital by this steamer. + +Considering this, I was standing at the head of the pier, when a +litter, such as is used to transport the sick, was carried past me +towards the crowd. The litter was without the usual cover, which had +probably been forgotten in their haste, or, as it was night, not +considered necessary. + +"What is the matter?" I asked the men. + +"The fireman of the _Elizabeth_ has broken his leg." growled one in +reply, in whom I now recognized my old friend, officer Luz. + +"And we are to take him to the hospital," said the other, who was no +other than the redoubtable Bolljahn. + +"Poor fellow!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes," said Luz, "and his wife has just been brought to bed." + +"And they had eight already," growled Bolljahn. + +"No, seven," said Luz. + +"No, eight," said Bolljahn. + +The group upon the pier began to move. + +"There he lies now," said Luz. + +"No, eight," said Bolljahn, who was not the man to drop a disputed +point so soon. + +They had brought the man out of the ship to the pier. He was a +remarkably large and powerful man, whom six found it no easy task to +carry, and who, strong as he was, groaned and cried with pain. The two +men put down the litter; the bearers set about lifting the man into it, +very awkwardly as it seemed, for he screamed with anguish. I thrust a +couple of gapers aside and came up. They had laid him upon the ground +again; I asked him how he wanted to be placed, and took hold myself +with the others, showing them what to do. + +"Thank God!" murmured the poor fellow, "here is one man with some +sense." + +They carried him off, and I went a little distance with them to see how +they got on. Was he warm enough? Yes he was. Did they carry him well? +Well, they might shake him a little less. + +"Here is something for you too," I said, putting a piece of money into +the hand of each of my old acquaintances, "and now carry him as if he +were your brother or your child;" and then I bent over the injured man +and whispered something in his ear that it was not necessary for Luz +and Bolljahn to hear, and gave him something which it was equally +unnecessary for them to see; and then I turned again to the group which +was standing by the gang-plank of the steamer, discussing the +remarkable accident. + +At this moment the captain came out upon the gang-plank, and called to +the group: + +"Will any one of you take Karl Riekmann's place for this trip? I will +pay him good wages." + +The men looked at each other. "I can't, Karl," said one, "can't you?" +"No, Karl," said the one addressed, "but can't you, Karl?" "Neither can +I," said the third Karl. + +"I will," said I, stepping up to the captain. + +The captain, a short, square-built man, looked up at me. + +"Oh, you will do," he said. + +"I think so." + +"Can you go on board at once?" + +"There is nothing to detain me here." + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +A gray foggy morning succeeded to the cold windy night. It was six +o'clock when the _Elizabeth_ left the wharf, and I had been busy with +the fires since three. I soon fell into the work, and scarcely needed +the instructions of the lumpish, growling engineer. I had to laugh once +or twice involuntarily when the man, seeing me attend to this or the +other matter about the engine without directions, stared at me with a +look half of surprise and half of vexation. I had told him that I was +an entire novice at this work, and this was the literal truth; but I +had not told him, nor was there any necessity that I should, that I had +thoroughly studied marine steam-engines with the best of teachers, and +had familiarized myself with even the minutest parts on an excellent +model. And if in a few hours I had mastered the work of a regular +fireman, in even a less time I had acquired the appearance of one. To +save my own clothes I had laid them in part aside, and put on a working +blouse of my unlucky predecessor, which fitted me perfectly; and what +with handling the coal and the effects of a stream of smoke which drove +into my face for quite ten minutes from the refractory furnace while I +was making up the fires, even my friend Doctor Snellius, who piqued +himself so greatly upon his physiognomical memory, would not have +recognized me. But I cared little for this, for happily I had other +things to occupy my attention. + +I say happily, for it was ill with me in both head and heart. The death +of my father, who had died without my being able even once to press his +stern honorable hand, the meeting with my sister who put her children +out of my way as if they were endangered by my presence, the prospect +of the future which looked all the darker the more I thought over +it--all this would have completely overwhelmed me had not the honest +furnace been there in which the coals glowed so splendidly and the +flames danced so merrily, while the sturdy engine worked on manfully +and unresting. Only free work can make us free, my teacher had said to +me. I had believed him at his word, but to-day for the first time I +comprehended it, as I felt how the hard work which I had here to +perform lightened more and more the load upon my heart, and the clouds +passed away from my brow. + +A kind of joyful pride took hold of me as I felt myself at home here; +and I thought of that day eight years' before when I took that fateful +trip on the _Penguin_ and visited my friend Klaus in the engine-room, +and to my wine-heated brain the engine appeared a machine only fit to +crush the life out of me. The good Klaus! He had trouble enough with me +that day, and care enough about me; and I should give him both trouble +and care now if I should go to him to learn with his help to be a good +workman. Some care I should give him, not much; I had found out this +morning that I could stand more firmly on my own feet than I had +supposed. + +Far more firmly than my present superior, the bearded engineer, stood +upon his. He stood by no means firmly, the honest fellow, and his +watery eyes as well as the sleepy expression of his far from handsome +face, and the vulgar perfume of alcohol which he diffused about him, +made it obvious that his unsteady gait was not altogether due to the +rolling of the boat. The worthy man was not exactly drunk--a regular +engineer is never drunk, even though he sits up to two or three in the +morning in a tavern drinking Swedish punch with his colleagues from the +Swedish mailboat--but neither was he sober; so far from it that I on my +side began to look at my superior with suspicious looks when, standing +by his lever, he sank into deep meditation, which often bore a striking +resemblance to a peaceful slumber. + +"A warming-plate wanted on the forward deck; quick, Herr Weiergang!" +called the steward down to the engine-room. Herr Weiergang nodded at +me: it was a matter that concerned me especially. I knew what was +wanted. I had been often enough on steamboats in rough weather when the +motion of the boat rendered it impossible for those ladies who readily +suffered from sea-sickness to remain in the cabin, and the sharp +north-east wind and the spray made the exposure upon deck disagreeable +and sometimes intolerable. Intolerable, if the honest fireman were not +at hand with plates of iron cast especially for this purpose, which he +has heated on the boiler and obligingly places under their half-frozen +feet. + +To-day I was the honest fireman. It struck me rather oddly; in all my +life I had never done this service; had never dreamed that I should +ever have to perform it. Had I to do it then? Certainly: I had +undertaken the duty of the injured man, and this was part of his duty. +So in five minutes I was on deck, holding a well-heated iron in my +hands, which I had protected by a bunch of oakum. + +It was now about noon, and the first time I had been on deck. The +atmosphere was gray and dense with mist; one could scarcely see a +hundred paces ahead. The wind was contrary, so that, though it was not +violent, the boat pitched heavily, and a cold fine spray from the waves +that broke against the bow swept continually over the deck. + +The deck was nearly deserted, or at least seemed so, as the ten +or twenty passengers were crouching in every corner, behind the +paddle-boxes, the deck-cabin, and wherever any projection offered a +little shelter. + +"Here, my friend, here!" cried a voice that had a familiar sound to me, +and turning suddenly around, I gave so violent a start that I had +nearly dropped the plate. There stood a man, who, though he had now a +gray old-fashioned overcoat with wide sleeves over his blue frock-coat +with gold buttons, and wore his cap not pushed back from his forehead, +as usual, but pulled down over his eyes--could be no other than my old +friend Commerzienrath Streber. + +"Here, my friend!" he cried again, and pointed with his right hand, +while with his left he held fast to the capstan, to a lady crouching +with her back towards me upon a low chair behind a great coil of cable +at the bow of the vessel. The lady drew a large plaid cloak, lined with +some soft and fine material, close around her slender figure, and +turned her face, which was framed in a swan's-down hood, towards me. + +It was a sweet lovely girlish face, upon whose cheeks the sea-breeze +had kissed the delicate pink to a bright glow, and whose deep-blue +brilliant eyes contrasted singularly with the gray water and the gray +air. It had been seven years since I saw this face last. The child had +become a maiden; but the maiden had still the face, or at least the +mouth and eyes of the child, and by this mouth and these eyes I knew +her. I started involuntarily and had to grasp the plate firmly to save +it from falling on the wet deck, while I felt the blood rushing to my +cheeks. It was certainly a severe trial to appear before the maiden who +had been my little friend in other days, in such a costume, and with a +face embrowned with soot. + +But this dress and this sooty covering were what saved me; she looked +up at me with a little surprise but without recognizing me. + +"Lay it here, my friend," she said, leaning back a little in her chair, +and raising the edge of her skirt a little, so that I had a glimpse of +the daintiest little feet in the world, resting on their heels to keep +them from the wet deck. + +I kneeled, and did what was required, no more and no less; perhaps +rather less than more, for she said: + +"You can bring me another by and by, if you have time; you do not seem +to have time just now." + +"Yes; and bring one for me at once!" cried the commerzienrath. + +"And for me, if I may venture to ask," cried a thin voice from a corner +between the deck-house and the mast, where out of some half-dozen +shawls and wrappings peeped out a red nose, and in the wind fluttered a +yellow curl which could belong to no one but Fräulein Amalie Duff. + +"And for me!" "And for me!" cried a half-dozen other voices from as +many other piles of mufflings, whose owners, with the promptness of +desperation, had comprehended the advantage of a hot iron plate on a +wet deck. + +"But for me first!" screamed the commerzienrath, getting alarmed at the +competition. "You know who I am, don't you?" + +I did not deem it necessary to assure the Herr Commerzienrath that I +knew him more than well enough, and hastened away from the deck, which +was getting hotter to me than my furnace. I went below in a very +unenviable frame of mind, and the thought that presently I must go on +deck again brought great beads of perspiration to my forehead; but when +I thought the matter over I found that my agitation was merely +occasioned by very ordinary vanity. I hated to appear before the pretty +girl as a sooty monster--this it was and nothing more; and while I was +thus thinking as I stood by the boiler, the plates upon it had long +reached the needful temperature, and the steward had called down three +times to know if I was not ready with those confounded irons. + +"Be ashamed of yourself!" I said to myself; "the poor things up there +are freezing because you happen to have on a ragged blouse, and a patch +or two of soot on your face. Shame upon you!" + +And I was ashamed of myself, and went up the ladder and boldly marched +direct to the place where the poor half-frozen governess was crouching +in her wet wrappings. + +Raising her water-blue eyes to me with the expression of helpless +misery, she said, while her teeth chattered with cold, "You good man, +you are my preserver!" + +"Why do you not stay in the cabin?" I asked. I had no need to speak +in _Platt-Deutsch_, or to disguise my voice, which either the sharp +north-easter, or my embarrassment, or both together, made unnaturally +deep and rough. + +"I should die down there!" moaned the poor creature. + +"Then sit over there by the paddle-box, where you have some shelter. +You have here the worst place on the whole deck." + +"O you good man!" said the governess. "It is indeed an eternal truth +that there are good men in every clime." + +I had to bite my lips. + +"Can I assist you?" I said. "If you do not mind my working-dress----" + +"'Among monsters the only feeling breast,'" murmured the governess, +hanging on my arm. + +"Where are you going, dear Duff?" cried a joyous voice behind us, and +Hermine, who had sprung from her seat, came running up, apparently to +help her friend, but if this was her intention, she could not carry it +out for laughing. She clapped her hands and laughed until her white +teeth glittered between her red lips. "Pluto and Proserpine!" she +cried. "Düffchen, Düffchen, I always said they would carry you off from +me some day!" + +And she danced about the wet deck in wild glee, just as she had danced +with her little spaniel about the deck of the _Penguin_ eight years +before. + +"Are you ever coming to me, you fellow?" cried the commerzienrath, who, +squeezed into a corner, had watched my attentions to the governess with +very ill-pleased looks. + +"There are two ladies here yet," I said. + +"But I called you first," he cried, stamping with impatience. + +"Ladies must always be served first, Herr Commerzienrath," smilingly +remarked the captain, who was coming aft from the forward deck. + +"O, you can talk: you are used to this abominable cold," growled the +commerzienrath. + +I went below again, but not to stay long. The cry for warm plates had +grown general, and a hard job I had of it to satisfy the impatient +clamors from all quarters. The weather had in the mean time grown +rougher, and the fog increased in density. I observed that the +captain's jovial face grew graver and graver, and once I heard him say +to a passenger who had the appearance of a seafaring man: + +"If we were only well out of the cursed channel once. With this wind +the largest ships can come in; and we can not see a hundred paces +ahead." + +I knew enough of seamanship fully to comprehend the captain's +uneasiness; and I had another anxiety of my own besides. + +My superior, namely, the engineer Weiergang, had visibly with every +hour sunk deeper and deeper into meditation upon the felicities +attending the copious indulgence in Swedish punch; and though he still +mechanically stood at his post and performed his duties about the +engine, where now, as the vessel was going steadily ahead, there was +but little to do, I still did not leave the engine-room without +considerable uneasiness. How easily might it happen that the narrowness +of the channel should render a complicated man[oe]uvre necessary, and +was the nodding figure there in a condition to carry it out? + +I had gone on deck with another plate, intended for no other than the +blue-eyed, vivacious beauty. She had resumed her old place at the bow, +and gave me a friendly nod as I approached. + +"I give you a great deal of trouble," she said. + +"No trouble at all," I answered, with a bow. + +"Are you from Uselin?" she asked, while I arranged the plate. + +"No," I muttered, about to take a hasty departure. + +"But you speak our _Platt_." she said quickly, and looked sharply at me +with a surprised expression. + +I felt that the coating of soot on my cheeks must be very thick indeed +to hide the flush which I felt burning in my cheeks. + +"Ship in sight!" suddenly shouted the man at the foretop. + +An immense dark mass loomed out of the gray fog. A feeling of terror, +not for myself, seized me. I, too, shouted with my whole strength, +"Ship in sight!" and following an impulse which flashed upon me like +lightning, I bounded across the deck to the hatch leading to the +engine-room, while the captain upon the paddle-box was shouting through +his trumpet like mad--"Stop her! Back her!" an order which evidently +was not obeyed, for the boat rushed through the water with undiminished +speed. + +How I got down the steep ladder I do not know. I only know that I flung +the drunken engineer out of the way, pushed the lever to the other +side, and simultaneously threw open the throttle-valve and let on the +full head of steam. + +A mighty shock followed, making the whole boat quiver as it struggled +in the waves, produced by the reversed wheels. The push I had given +him, and, perhaps still more the violent jar of the boat, had awakened +the drunken engineer. In his confusion he rushed upon me like a madman +to force me from my post, so that I defended myself against him with +difficulty. + +It was a terrible moment. Every instant I expected to feel the crash of +the collision. + +But a minute passed, and with it passed the danger, for I knew that by +this time the collision must have taken place, if we had not escaped +it: and now resounded through the speaking-trumpet the order, "Stop +her!" + +I placed the lever in the middle and closed the throttle-valve. My +prompt execution of an order which he had plainly heard brought the +engineer at once to his senses. Now for the first time he seemed to +understand what I had kept shouting to him while we were struggling +together; a deathly pallor overspread his bearded face, as some one +came rapidly down the ladder. + +"Don't ruin me," he murmured. + +It was the captain, who wanted to see what upon earth was the matter +below. Upon his good-natured honest face was still the trace of terror +at the peril we had just escaped. + +"What is the meaning of this, Weiergang?" he cried to the engineer. + +"I was--I had--" he stammered. + +"Seeing to the fire," I put in. + +"And so--" he began again-- + +"We will look into this another time," said the captain, looking +fixedly at the unfortunate man. + +The captain knew his man. He saw that the man, whatever might have been +his previous condition, was now thoroughly sober and fit for duty. + +"We will look into it later," he repeated, and then turning to me, +said: + +"Come on deck with me." + +I followed the captain, but not without first casting a glance at the +engineer, whose meditations upon the effects of Swedish punch were now +at an end, and who, in desperation at the frightful results of his +indulgence, cast a supplicating look at me. + +"What was the matter?" the captain asked me. + +I held it my duty to tell him the whole truth, accompanying it with an +entreaty that the man might be forgiven. + +"He has always been the soberest fellow in the world," said the +captain. "This is the first time he has ever behaved so." + +"Then I trust it is the last time," I replied. + +"I cannot comprehend it," said the captain. He spoke with me as if I +was his equal. + +"You have done me a great service," he continued. "Who are you? It +seems to me I must have seen you before; and the ladies on deck have +the same fancy." + +"Never mind about that, captain," I said. + +This brief dialogue took place while we were going up the ladder. The +captain could not any further indulge the curiosity that had visibly +seized him; he had too much to do. + +My first glance, as I reached the deck, was involuntarily directed +towards the ship which had so nearly been our destruction, and which +now was disappearing in the fog astern of us; my next sought Hermine, +who, with her maid, was busy recovering the governess, who had fainted. +A sense of satisfaction, almost exultation, filled my breast. Thus +might a general feel who has won a battle that he might have lost +without disgrace. + +The poor governess was not the only victim of the terror with which the +frightfully imminent peril had filled the passengers of the +_Elizabeth_. Here and there sat a lady with a face as white as that of +a corpse; even the men looked pale and agitated, and were just +beginning to talk over the occurrence. And, in fact, the situation must +have been in the highest degree alarming. The approaching ship--a +merchantman of the largest size--had been so negligently steered that +the _Elizabeth_, though her engines were reversed and the full head of +steam turned on, only escaped the collision by a few feet. Then the +shock that shook the boat, the cracking and creaking of the planks, the +crash of some half-dozen of the paddles that snapped at once--one did +not need Fräulein Amalie Duff's susceptibility of nerves to be +overwhelmed at such a moment. + +Even now the state of things was not agreeable. The large steamer +rolled in the heavy sea all the more violently now the engine had been +stopped, on account of the injury to the wheels. Happily the wind was +favorable, and sail was quickly made, so that we were able to control +her with the helm. All the spare hands were busy repairing the paddles +as far as possible, and I had learned enough of the carpenter's craft +to lend a hand at once. I was not sorry in this way to avoid the +inquisitive eyes of Hermine, and of Fräulein Duff, who possessed the +talent of recovering from a swoon as promptly as she had fallen into +it, and was now engaged in a conversation with her pupil and friend, +which it could scarcely be doubted had some reference to me. + +"Look as much as you please," I said to myself "I am, in spite of all, +no worse than many another upon whom you have cast or will cast your +beautiful eyes." + +And yet I was glad, as she seemed about to come over to the place where +I was standing, that I could creep into the open paddle-box, where +things looked queer enough. As there was a heavy sea running we were +obliged to confine our repairs to the merest make-shift. + +In an hour the work was done, and we were ordered to the forward deck, +where the bowsprit of the passing ship had carried away a part of the +bulwarks. + +I congratulated myself, when I crept out of the paddle-box, that the +deck was nearly deserted, and especially that Hermine was nowhere to be +seen; but as I passed the forecastle she suddenly appeared before me +with her governess. The meeting was not accidental, for the duenna at +once stepped back, but the young lady remained standing, and, looking +up with her great blue eyes into mine, asked boldly: + +"Are you George Hartwig, or are you not?" + +"I am," I replied. + +"How came you here? What are you doing here? Are you a sailor, or +fireman, or what? And why? Can you do nothing better? Is this a fit +place for you?" + +These questions followed each other so rapidly that I contented myself +with answering the last. + +"Why not? It is no disgrace to be a fireman." + +"But you look so--so black--so sooty--so frightful. I cannot bear such +black men. You used to look much, very much better." + +I did not know what to answer to this, so I merely shrugged my +shoulders. + +"You must come away from here!" said the young beauty, vivaciously. +"This is no place for you." + +"And yet it was very well that I was here to-day," I said with a touch +of pride, of which I felt ashamed as soon as I had said it. + +"I know it," she answered. "The captain told us. It is like you; but +for that very reason you should not stay here. You are destined to +something better than this." + +"I thank you, Fräulein Hermine, for your kind interest," I answered +gravely; "but what I am destined to, the result must show. In the mean +time I must pursue my way, wherever it leads me." + +She looked at me partly in displeasure, and partly, as it seemed to me, +with compassion, and added quickly: + +"You are poor: perhaps that is the reason you are here and look +so--so--not nice. My father must help you: he is very rich." + +"I know it, my dear young lady," I replied: "but just for that reason I +do not desire his help." + +A bright glow suffused her cheeks; her blue eyes flashed, and her red +lips quivered. + +"Then I will detain you no further." + +She turned quickly from me and hastened away. + +I was still standing in the same place, when Fräulein Duff came +suddenly from behind the corner of the forecastle, where she had been +an attentive if an invisible witness of our interview. Her watery eyes, +in which sympathetic tears were now standing, were raised to mine, and +she whispered in her softest tones, "Seek faithfully, and you will +find!" Then prudently avoiding a reply on my part, she hurried after +her young lady. + +An hour later we touched at the wharf of St. ----. + +I was below in the engine-room, where there was now enough to do, to my +great satisfaction. I heard the noises upon deck, as the passengers +hastened to leave the ship on board which they had passed so unpleasant +a time. She also was leaving it--perhaps at this moment. It was very +improbable that I should ever see her again. Why should I, indeed? + +The question seemed a matter of course, and yet I sighed as I asked it +of myself. + +My leave-taking of the engineer was brief, but not unfriendly. He had +already told me that he had "made it all right with the captain." He +seemed at bottom a worthy man, and I parted from him with a mind at +ease. + +I had hoped to slip away from the boat unperceived, but the captain +called to me as I was crossing the deck with my bundle. He told me that +he had learned that I was the son of the late Customs-Accountant +Hartwig in Uselin, whom he had known well. He had also heard of my +misfortunes, but they were no affair of his. I had this day done the +owners, and himself personally, an important service, and it was his +duty to thank me for it, and to ask me if his owners and himself could +not in some way testify their gratitude. + +I said, "Yes; you can if you will take something more than common care +of the man whose place I have filled today, and who would have done +what I did had he been here." + +The captain saw that it was no use to press me further; so he promised +faithfully to comply with my request, and shook my hand heartily, +saying that it would give him the greatest pleasure to meet me again. + +This had occupied some time, and yet a carriage and horses, which I had +noticed on the arrival of the steamer, were still standing on the +wharf. Just as I approached them, however, they started off; but I +caught a glimpse of a youthful face in a swan's-down hood vanishing +from the window, from which it had been looking at something or some +one on the wharf. + +The luxurious carriage rolled away, and I gazed after it with a sigh. +Not that I coveted the carriage with the two high-mettled bays. The +distance from St. ---- to the capital was more than eighty miles, it +was true, and I was obliged to economize the little sum I had saved up +in the prison: but I knew that I could walk without much fatigue +twenty-five or thirty miles a day, and I felt fresher and stronger than +ever. It was therefore scarcely the carriage with the mettled bays for +which my sighing heart was yearning. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +I had travelled during the day a long distance upon an interminable +turnpike-road where the rows of poplars on each side stretched away +until they met at the horizon in an acute angle which never widened, +never came nearer, and whose unattainability was enough to drive the +most patient traveller to desperation. The autumn rains had made the +roads heavy and slippery to the feet. All the morning the wind had +rustled with a melancholy sound in the half-leafless poplars, and about +noon it had commenced to rain, and wet and dreary looked the sandy +heaths and desolate fields on either side the road, while every human +creature and every animal that I met wore a cheerless and dejected +aspect. I had already given up the expectation of reaching the city +that evening, so I felt it as an unhoped-for piece of good fortune when +I saw a reddish-yellow glare of misty light rising above the horizon, +which a solitary wanderer whom I had overtaken explained to be the +reflection of the city-lights. And now indeed my enemies, the poplars, +began to give place to suburban houses. The suburb was long enough, it +is true, but houses can not hold out as long as poplars; and--"There is +the gate," said at last my companion, and bade me good evening. + +There was the gate. It was by no means imposing, and did not attract +much attention from me. This, however, was excited by an accumulation +of buildings immediately, to the left of the gate, which by their size, +and the ruddy light shining through colossal windows, I inferred to +belong to a large manufactory. A high iron railing divided the +courtyard from the street, and in this railing was a wide gate, one +side of which was standing open for the egress of the workmen, who were +coming out, first one by one, then in groups, and finally in a compact +throng. Outside the gate, they scattered in various directions, while +some remained in groups about the gate, talking with animation. I heard +the words "day's wages," "piece work," "quitting service," +"notification," frequently repeated; but I could not catch the +connection, and did not feel at liberty to ask any questions. Nearer to +the railing, with her back toward me, was standing a young woman +holding in front of her a little boy, who stood upon the stone +foundation of the railing and held fast to the bars, gazing eagerly +into the yard, down which dark figures were still coming, though in +fewer numbers. + +"What factory is this?" I asked, stepping up to the young woman. + +She turned her head and answered, "The machine-works of Commerzienrath +Streber. Keep still, George; your father will be along directly." + +The feeble light of a street-lamp fell upon her pretty round face. The +commerzienrath's machine-works--George, whose father was coming +directly--the good-natured bright eyes--the full, red lips--I could not +be mistaken. + +"Christel Möwe!" I said; "Christel Pinnow! is this really you?" + +"Bless my heart alive!" exclaimed the young woman, hastily putting down +the child from the railing; "is it you, Herr George? See, George, this +is your godfather;" and she held up the boy as high as she could, that +he might have a better view of so important a personage, "How glad +Klaus will be!" + +She put the boy down again, who no sooner felt himself at liberty than +he began to try his best to climb up to the railing again. I took him +in my arms. "Are you a giant?" asked the little man, patting my head +with his hands. + +At this moment a square-built, grimy figure came up, apparently rather +surprised to see his wife in such familiar conversation with a strange +man, who had moreover his George in his arms; but before either +Christel or I could say a word he tore his black felt cap from his +head, waved it in the air like a conquering banner, and shouted, +"Hurrah! here he is! George has come!" + +It was long since any human lungs had emitted a cry of joy on my +account, and it was probably owing to this novelty that at the good +Klaus's exuberant greeting my eyes filled with tears, so that the whole +scene--the factory, the houses, the street-lamps, the passing +carriages, the black workmen, and even the little group of friends at +my side--swam for a moment in a misty veil. + +This emotion passed in a few moments, and we went on together, Klaus +holding the little George on one arm, and clinging to the great George +with the other, while Christel walked before, every instant looking +over her shoulder at us with a smiling face. + +Happily the distance through the crowded street was not long, and we +soon reached a large and, to my eyes, stately house, the inside of +which corresponded but poorly to its exterior. The hall was dimly +lighted, and the floors black with dirt from innumerable footsteps that +seemed to have traversed it the same day. The yard into which we passed +was surrounded by lofty buildings, behind whose windows, feebly lighted +here and there, there did not prevail that peace which a lover of quiet +would have preferred. The stone staircase which we ascended to one of +these rear-buildings was very steep, and, if possible, worse lighted +and dirtier than the hall we had just entered. Persons passed us at +every moment, who seemed far more reckless of the rules of politeness +than was pleasant. I felt rather uncomfortable as we climbed from one +landing to another, following Klaus, who gave no signs of halting, and +at last in desperation I asked if we would not soon be there. + +"Here we are!" said Klaus, knocking at a door, which was immediately +opened from within, and from which, as it was opened, issued that +penetrating odor which arises in an apartment where all day long the +process of ironing freshly-starched linen is kept up. Any illusion as +to the origin of this odor was the less possible, as the irons were at +this moment in operation in the hands of two young women, who, as well +as the third who had opened the door for us, cast glances of curiosity +at the new arrival. + +"So it goes on the whole day," said Klaus, with a glance of profoundest +admiration at his wife, who had joined the ironers; "the whole +day--only in the evening she allows herself a quarter of an hour to +fetch me home from the works." + +"You are a lucky fellow, Klaus," said I, in vain trying to draw a full +breath in this atmosphere. + +"Am I not?" replied Klaus, showing all his teeth, which had lost +nothing of their glittering whiteness; "but that is not much yet. You +must first see her babies!" + +"And yours, Klaus?" + +"And mine, of course," Klaus answered, in a tone which implied that it +really was not worth while to allude to so unimportant a particular. +"You must first see them!" + +"I know one already." + +"Yes; but the others! Her very image, every one! It is really +ridiculous--really ridiculous," he repeated, with another glance of +admiration at his little plump wife. + +"You don't know what you are talking about, you stupid fellow," said +the latter, turning sharply around, and laying a hand that bore traces +of hard work, and yet was both white and small, on the mouth of her +Klaus. "Let us go into the sitting-room. You must excuse me for keeping +you here so long." + +We went into the room, but Klaus did not rest until his wife had taken +us into the chamber, where, beside two large beds, stood four little +cribs, in which were sleeping four charming children, for my little +namesake had by this time been put to bed by one of the young women. + +"Isn't that too lovely!" said Klaus, drawing me from one blond head to +another; "and all boys--all boys; but that just suits me: a girl I +should expect to be exactly like _her_, and that is a simple +impossibility--a simple impossibility." + +Here Christel pushed me out of the bedroom, as she had before pushed me +out of the kitchen. + +"You stay here," she said to her husband, "and wash yourself, and fix +yourself up decent, you great bear, as you ought when we have such a +visitor." + +Klaus showed his teeth with delight at his Christel's jest. + +"Whatever I do, pleases him," said Christel, shutting the door with +mock-disgust at his black face. + +"Better that than if it were the other way," I said. + +"Yes: but sometimes he carries it too far. I often am ashamed, and +wonder what people think of it. And he gets worse every year; I really +don't know what I shall do when the children are older; I often think +they will lose all respect for their father." + +While Christel thus unbosomed her secret woe, she was neatly and deftly +setting the table, while I, standing before the stove, in which a +cheerful fire was burning, thought of by-gone times: of that evening +when I met the Wild Zehren first at Pinnow's forge, and how Christel +had set the table and waited, and how she afterwards besought me not to +go with him. Had I then followed her counsel! All would have been +different. Perhaps better, perhaps not. But so it had happened, and---- + +"You must put up with what we have," said Christel. + +"That I will, Christel, that I will!" I said, seizing both her hands +and pressing them with a warmth which seemed a little to startle her. + +"How wild you are still," she said, looking up at me with her blue eyes +in surprise, but with no mixture of displeasure. "Exactly as you used +to be." + +"You don't like me any the less on that account, Christel, do you?" + +She shook her head smiling: "Those used to be lively times." + +"In winter, over the mulled wine," I said. + +"And in summer, over the _kaltschale_," she replied. + +"Especially when the old man was not at home," I added. + +"Yes, indeed," she said; but her countenance took a serious expression, +and she continued, looking at me gravely, "you know it then?" + +"Know what, Christel?" + +"That he----" + +She laid her finger upon her lips and drew me, with an uneasy look at +the chamber-door, further back into the room. + +"He must not hear it--he has not got over it yet, though it is now more +than three months ago." + +"What was three months ago, Christel?" I asked in some alarm, for the +young woman had turned quite pale, and cast uneasy glances first at me +and then at the bed-room door. + +"I hardly know how to tell you," she said. "He lived at last entirely +alone, for no one would have anything to do with him, and even the deaf +and dumb Jacob left him. Nobody knew exactly how he lived; and for a +week no one had seen him, until one day the collector came for the +house-tax, and--and found him hanging in the forge, over the hearth, +where he must have been hanging nobody knows how long." + +"Poor Klaus!" I said. "He must have felt it deeply, in spite of all." + +"Indeed he did," said Christel. "And no one knows how he came to his +death; whether he did it himself, or whether it was done by others; for +they swore--at that time, you know--that they would settle with him one +day." + +"Very likely, very likely," I said. + +"Here I am again," said Klaus, coming in in his best coat, and with a +face as red as cold water, black soap, and a coarse towel, all applied +in haste, could make it. + +The supper, at which Christel's young assistants joined us, was soon +over, and after the cloth had been removed, the girls dismissed, and +Christel had mixed us a glass of grog, for which she had not forgotten +her old recipe, Klaus and I fell into such discourse as naturally +arises between old friends who have not seen each other for many years, +and have gone through many experiences in the interval. I had to +narrate to Klaus the story of my imprisonment from that time in the +first year when he paid me that memorable visit, which was within a +hair of bringing him into contact with the criminal law. Not that I +could tell him, or even desired to tell him, everything, good fellow as +he was. We do not admit our friends, even the most intimate, behind the +inmost of the seven walls with which we prudently surround the citadel +of our soul; but enough came to discourse to arouse the interest of the +good Klaus to the highest pitch, and quite passionate was his sympathy +when I came to speak of the last period of my imprisonment, when I fell +into the hands of the new superintendent and his accomplice, the pious +Deacon Von Krossow, and in seven worse than lean months had to expiate +the seven years of fatness which I had hitherto enjoyed. + +"The wretches! The villains! Is it possible? Are such things allowed?" +the good Klaus kept muttering. + +"Whether it is allowed or not, my dear Klaus, I cannot say; but that it +is possible is only too certain. Under the most frivolous pretexts in +the world I was deprived of my place as secretary, and treated as an +unusually ill-disposed and contumacious prisoner; and as all that did +not satisfy their vengeance, I was ordered seven months of disciplinary +punishment beside." + +"And what did the good old overseer whom I saw with you that day say to +that?" + +"Sergeant Süssmilch? He would have sworn terribly, I promise you, if he +had seen it. Fortunately, he went away with the family of Herr von +Zehren a week after the death of the latter." + +"I would never have done that," said Klaus with emphasis; "I would never +have left you alone in their robber-den." + +"But he had other claims upon him, of longer standing, Klaus." + +"All the same: I would not have left you." + +Then I told how I had been discharged at last, how my first visit had +been to my native town, and the reception I met with there. + +"Poor George! poor George!" said Klaus, over and over again, shaking +his big head in sympathy. + +"But you have had a harder trial still, poor fellow," I said. + +"Who told you that?" asked Klaus, quickly. + +"She did," I answered, pointing to the room in which Christel had been +for the last five minutes busied in a vain attempt to quiet the wails +of her youngest. + +"Hush," said Klaus, "we must not speak of it so that she can hear; it +is different with us men, but a little woman like that--it always has a +dreadful effect upon her, poor thing: I am frightened whenever any +legal paper comes in about the adjustment of the estate--you +understand." + +"Your father left a very respectable sum, did he not?" + +"God forbid," said Klaus. "They must have robbed him, or else he buried +it; and either is very possible, for at last he did not trust in any +human creature, and had little reason to, God knows. And he always had +a secret way in everything. Just think; we believed that Christel had +floated to land, as naked and destitute as a fish flung up by the tide, +without the least possibility of discovering the name of the ship in +which she was wrecked, much less her own. And what does she find in the +great cupboard, opposite the door, you know, but a bundle of papers in +a tin case, which evidently belonged to the same ship; these papers +were the captain's, and his name is written in them, with the name of +the ship, and how he was married, and that his young wife had given +birth to a child at sea; and there was a slip of paper besides, saying +that the ship could not now be saved, and that it was impossible to +save their lives, so he would fasten the child and the papers, which he +had put in a tin case, to a piece of cork, and trust them to the sea +and to God's mercy. So there is no doubt that my Christel is this child +of the Dutch captain, whose name was Tromp--Peter Tromp, and his ship +_The Prince of Orange_, and he was on his way home from Java. But I am +not the least surprised at it all," Klaus concluded; "I should not be +surprised if I she had turned out to be the daughter of the Emperor of +Morocco----" + +"And had come down from the sky in a chariot drawn by twelve peacocks," +I said. + +"No; not even then," replied Klaus, with immense emphasis, after a +moment's reflection. + +"And what have you done with the papers?" I inquired, with a smile. + +"I have had them translated; nothing else." + +"But that is not right," I said. "The papers might possibly lead to the +discovery of a rich uncle, or something of the sort. Such things have +happened before, Klaus." + +"That is just what Doctor Snellius says." + +"Who says?" I asked in astonishment. + +"Doctor Snellius," Klaus repeated. "Your old friend in the prison. He +is now the physician to the factory: did he never write to tell you?" + +"No; or else the letter was intercepted, which is very possible. So he +is your doctor, eh?--the doctor of the factory, I mean." + +"Well, yes; I call him so, because he is always sent for when anything +happens; but in truth he is, I believe, the doctor of all the poor in +this part of the city." + +"He must have a heavy practice, then." + +"Heaven knows he has; but he will never grow rich with it, for he never +takes a penny unless they can well spare it, which is not often the +case, and frequently he gives them medicine besides. Ah, he has a noble +soul; though he always seems as if he were going to eat you up, and the +children scream whenever he comes in the door." + +"And he is your doctor too, then?" + +"Oh yes, of course: that is, we have really only called him in +once--the last time--very much against Christel's will, who insisted +that----but that you will not understand; a married man's cares, you +know; and she was quite right, as it happened----" + +"As always, Klaus." + +"As always." + +"And why do you not make some investigations about those papers?" + +Klaus scratched his ear. + +"Well, I don't know," he said. "We feel somehow--we are living so +happily now, and I always think things can not be better; more likely +worse. If she really had a rich aunt--we always suppose it is an +aunt--and she should leave her property to Christel, what in the world +should we do with all the money? I can't think, for my part." + +"Suppose, for example, you lent it to me: I should know what to do with +it." + +"Yes, that is true," cried Klaus, "I never thought of that. That would +be something for you, sure enough. To-morrow morning I will advertise +in all the papers: I'll bring the aunt if she lives a hundred thousand +miles off." + +"But suppose it is an uncle?" + +"No, no, it is an aunt," said Klaus, with an air of assurance. + +"So be it!" said I, arising. "And now let us take a little walk. I must +take a look at my new home." + +There is probably no time in the twenty-four hours better fitted to +impress a provincial with the greatness of a large city than the +twilight of a gloomy autumn evening. In men of any liveliness of +imagination the reality usually falls short of the fancy, but in an +hour like this the reality and the fancy--what we perceive and what we +imagine--blend indistinguishably together, and the barriers of the +actual world seem broken down. + +Such an evening was it when I strolled with Klaus through the streets +of the city, which seemed enormous and gigantic in my eyes. Even now I +can sometimes in the evening, and for a moment, behold it in the same +light and with the same feelings as then. Coming from a region +inhabited by workmen, we crossed in our walk one of the most brilliant +quarters to reach the city proper, and returned through large squares, +surrounded by magnificent palaces, to our own gloomy region again. And +everywhere was the throng of hurrying crowds on the narrow sidewalks, +and the rattle and thunder of vehicles, and the endless rows of lamps +up and down the interminable streets, and the blaze of light from the +shops illuminating the streets so that the figures of men, wagons and +horses were strangely reflected from the wet pavement. Then the +imposing masses of tall buildings, rising above one another like +mountains; the sight here of a bronze equestrian statue upon a +pedestal, high as a house, riding aloft through the night, and then of +a giant figure pointing down at us with a drawn sword; wide bridges +with balustrades peopled with white marble forms, and under whose +arches rolled a black flood upon which quivered the reflections of a +thousand lights; a glance into the shops where to uninitiated eyes the +treasures of Arabia and the Indies seemed heaped up by fairy hands; +dark yards, where, late as it was, mighty casks and chests were being +piled by leather-aproned men--I walked, and stopped to gaze, and went +on, and stopped again, staring, astonished, but not confounded, and +altogether strangely happy. Was this the sea of ever-rolling life, +engulfing itself and ever producing itself anew, towards which my +teacher's prophecy had directed me--the sea whose mighty billows, if he +had foreseen truly, where to be my home? Yes: this it was: this it must +be. I felt it in the courageous beatings of my heart, in the power with +which I clove this surge of men, in the delight with which I listened +to the roar of this surf. + + + + + + PART THIRD. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +In the machine-works of the commerzienrath a great boiler was being +riveted. Three sooty workmen, with shirt-sleeves rolled above the +elbows, and hammers in their strong hands, were waiting for the red-hot +bolt which a fourth was bringing in the jaws of a pair of pincers from +an adjacent forge. The bolt vanished into the boiler, and appeared in a +few seconds through the rivet-hole; the cyclops grasped their hammers +firmly, and, striking in measured cadence, finished the rivet-head. +This hammering produced a tremendous noise. + +And if any one had told a spectator, uninitiated to the craft, that in +the hollow of the boiler upon which the heavy hammers fell with such +deafening clangor, there lay a man upon his back who received the rivet +in a pair of pincers, and with these exerted all his strength in +resistance, while the hammers were ringing on the rivet-head, the +uninitiated spectator would scarce have believed it, and he could not +fail to consider the man in the hollow of the boiler as one of the most +miserable and most to be pitied of mortals. + +The riveting was finished, the hammers at rest; the man with the +pincers crawled out of the belly of the monster. I need scarcely tell +the reader who this man with the pincers was. Nor am I ashamed thus to +appear before him, for he has very likely seen me in similar costume, +though it is true that at this moment I present a rather frightful +appearance. The lower part of my face, my neck and breast, are covered +with blood, which during the last hour has been running from my nose +and mouth. But the three with the hammers only laugh; and one, the +foreman, says: + +"Next time remember to keep your mouth open, comrade, no roast pigeons +will fly into it." + +Rather a poor joke, it must be owned; but the rest laugh, and I laugh +too: for as the prudent proverb advises us to "howl with the wolves," +so I have rarely been able to refrain from joining in any laughter, +even when, as at present, it was at my own expense. + +But despite the ardent zeal with which I entered into my new calling, I +was not sorry that this work inside the boiler was but a temporary +task, for which the foreman of my shop had lent me because another shop +happened to be shorthanded, very unwillingly, and only at the order of +the foreman of the works. To say that he did it very unwillingly sounds +like a brag from one who like myself had only been a fortnight in the +shop, and whose only work yet had been of the roughest sort, such as +handling the sledge. Nor was it any merit of mine that the heavy sledge +which others handled with difficulty was as light in my hands as an +ordinary fore-hammer, and that my blow could easily be distinguished +among the four or five that followed in regular cadence the foreman's +stroke upon the glowing iron. It was no merit of mine; and yet in +this place, where bodily strength played so important a part, it +counted as a high one, even the highest. My foreman was proud of me; +my fellow-workmen, in the most literal sense, looked up to me with +admiration; and Klaus, whenever my name happened to be mentioned, +showed all his white teeth, then shut his lips tight, held up his +forefinger, and nodded mysteriously. I had strictly forbidden Klaus to +indulge in these mysterious gestures, and Klaus had solemnly promised +to avoid them, but in spite of all it was not his fault if all the two +hundred hands in the establishment did not have the same exalted +opinion of me with which his honest soul was overflowing. + +"I declare," said Klaus--whenever I imparted to him some bit of +information from my theoretical knowledge of machinery, or from my +mathematical acquirements--"you know more about these things than any +man in the works, the head-foreman and the engineers not excepted, and +you deserve to be at least Chief of the Technical Bureau." + +"You are a simpleton, Klaus," I said. + +"But it is true, for all," answered he doggedly. + +"No, Klaus, it is not true. In the first place, you far over-estimate +my knowledge, and in the second place, one can be a very good theorist +and at the same time a wretched bungler in practice. But I want to be +both a good theorist and a skilful workman, and I must give many a +stroke of hammer and of file before I get to be that. Just remember, +Klaus, what a time it took you to rise from the common job-workman, who +was glad if he could dress his round pliers decently, to the skilful +machinist who can fit the straps on a connecting-rod as well as the +best--" + +"Yes," said Klaus, "but then you and I----" + +"Forging is done everywhere at a fire, Klaus, and every piece must be +hammered until it is finished; and so must a good machinist until he is +finished; and there is much to be done before I can say that of myself, +if I ever can." + +"I am of a different opinion, then," answered the obstinate Klaus. + +"Then be so good as to keep that opinion to yourself," I said, very +earnestly. + +I had good reasons for enjoining the honest Klaus to a silence which +was so burdensome to him; for, beside the fact that he really had a +ridiculously exaggerated opinion of me, his imprudence might be of +serious inconvenience to me, and indeed might close against me the way +which I was firmly resolved to tread. I wished to work my way up from +the ranks in the calling to which I had devoted my life, remembering +the saying of my never-to-be-forgotten teacher, that the true artist +must understand the hand-work of his art. So for the present I was what +I desired to be--a hand-worker, a laborer in the roughest work--and +every one took me for just that, which was precisely what I wished. + +My past history I had veiled under a simple story, which found ready +belief with the simple fellows around me. I was the son of a seafaring +man in Klaus Pinnow's native town. We had known each other from our +boyhood; I had made up my mind to be a smith like him, and had worked +awhile as an apprentice with his father. But ten years ago I had +gone to sea, and had voyaged about the whole world as sailor, as +ship's-carpenter, and, as ship's-blacksmith, and only returned home a +short time before with the determination of quitting the sea for the +future, and earning an honest living on land, for which purpose I was +now learning the smith's craft regularly, which I had practiced as an +apprentice. + +I was seldom under the necessity of corroborating this story by +accounts of my past adventures; and if now and then, when we were off +work, some one more curious than the rest spoke of my travels, I +understood enough of navigation and voyages, and had mixed too much +with captains and mates, and read too many tales of the sea, not to be +able to play the part of Sindbad for half an hour. One of my principal +stories, the scene of which was laid somewhere in the Malay +Archipelago, in which there was plenty of hot work and plenty of +pirates knocked in the head, had procured me in the shop the nickname +of "The Malay," which I bore until--but I must not anticipate. + +I was all the more readily believed to be what I gave myself out for, +as I conformed my habits exactly to those of the common workman. I was +dressed neither better nor worse than the rest; I ate my breakfast from +my hand, as did the others; I dined at a cheap cook-shop, in which some +fifty other workmen took their dinners. The only luxury which I allowed +myself out of the little money which I had brought from the prison was +a better lodging than workmen of my class were accustomed to or could +afford; and this deviation from the rule was due as much to necessity +as to any consideration of comfort or taste. I could not, if I wished +to prosecute my theoretical studies, live in a quarter where the +streets were noisy until deep in the night with the rattling of +vehicles, and too often with the uproar of drunken workmen in conflict +with the police, and where, in the overcrowded houses, the ticking, +pulsating, clattering clock of human life never stood still a moment. + +For several days, during which I was Klaus's guest, I had looked about +for a suitable lodging; and at last I found one. + +Adjoining the factory was a large lot of ground, which was covered in +the most singular way with buildings, some half-finished and others +only commenced. According to the account of the old man who, in a +half-finished porter's lodge, exercised a sort of guardianship over the +place, the whole had been intended as an establishment to compete with +Streber's. But the projector of the scheme had failed, the property was +put up at auction and bought in by a wealthy creditor, who thought the +best thing he could do with it for the present was to leave all things +as they were. + +"You see," said the old man, "he hopes that in two or three years the +ground will be worth three times as much as it now is; and perhaps also +that the commerzienrath must of necessity take the thing off his hands +at any price, since it is of the utmost importance to him to keep a +rival from starting up, so to speak, under his very nose. And then the +commerzienrath has to put up new buildings, for they are so crowded +they can hardly work, and where is he to build if not just on these +lots? But he thinks it over, and my employer thinks it over, and now +they have both been thinking it over for these two years. Recently he +has been here again and looked over the place for the twentieth or +fiftieth time, I believe; but it did not seem that he had come to any +determination. Well, it is all one to me; and if you, sir, would like +one of the rooms in the garden-house, your beard may be grown two +inches longer before you have to move out." + +The satirical old porter pleased me well, and the garden-house still +better. True it was a mere boast when the man spoke of "one of the +rooms," while in reality it had but one in which a human being could +possibly live, while the others, without doors or windows, seemed +rather to be a caravanserai for homeless cats: an appearance which I +found afterwards to be fully borne out by the facts. The little house, +which was probably originally intended for the residence of the owner +or manager, was planned in a very pleasing Italian style. An easy +flight of stairs led to the rooms referred to, in which, to judge from +the spots of ink on the unscrubbed floors, and several three-legged +drawing-tables, and other similar bits of ruinous furniture, the +architect of the building must have had his office; on the other side +was a balcony. In front of the stairs a grass-plot had been designed, +but at present it was only a plot without the grass; and similarly a +great free-stone basin in the centre lacked the Triton and the water; +and the trellis, which ran up between the windows, as high up as the +projecting eaves, lacked its Venetian ivy. But I cared nothing for +these deficiencies; on the contrary I regarded them as pointing to a +better future, and they harmonized thus with my own frame of mind, +which also looked from a barren present to richer and fairer days to +come. Then this ruinous lodging had the real practical advantage of +suitable cheapness, and also that of securing me the quiet which was so +necessary to my studies; and, to tell the whole, the old man had told +me that the young lady who had accompanied the commerzienrath, and must +have been the old gentleman's daughter, had clapped her hands when she +saw the garden-house, and said it was charming, and she would like to +live in it. + +"She'd soon get out of that notion," said the old growler. "She did not +look as if the owl was her house-builder, and Skinflint her cook; but +for one of our--I mean of your--sort, it will suit very well." + +"It suits me exactly," I said; "and now, when can I move in?" + +"When you please; no one has been before you, so you will not have to +wait for the tenant to move out." + +So on the same evening I took possession of my new lodging, with the +assistance of the good Klaus, whose head scarcely stopped shaking the +whole time. + +What did I want with such a tumble-down old ruin, where I might be +murdered and not a dog bark? And how could I fancy such furniture: two +worm-eaten high-backed chairs, an arm-chair about a hundred years old, +a table with clumsy twisted legs, and a looking-glass with tarnished +gilt frame? To be sure, I had bought the rubbish cheap enough of a +dealer in second-hand furniture, but for very little more he would have +given me things of a very different sort; but somehow I had always had +a strange sort of taste in those matters, and he remembered that I used +to have a lot of just such useless rubbish in my own room in my +father's house in Uselin. + +So the good Klaus grumbled and scolded, and even Christel was seriously +out of humor with me for some days. She had discovered a room in her +own house, on the courtside, up two pair of stairs, beautifully +furnished, and having only the inconvenience that to get to it one had +to go through the kitchen and the landlady's room. And the landlady was +a particularly respectable tailor's widow of eighty-two, with an +excellent unmarried daughter of sixty, who would certainly have taken +the very best care of me. + +The honest Klaus and the good Christel! I could not help them; I could +not for their sakes change my nature, to which this striving for +freedom and independence was an absolute necessity. In my garret in my +father's house, in my room at Castle Zehrendorf, even in my prison +cell, I had ever felt too deeply the luxury and poetry of solitude to +be able to dispense with it now that I was a man. + +And now again I was alone in my room in the half-finished garden-house, +among the ruins of buildings, large and small, that never would be +completed. In the evening, when I looked up from my books, no sound +reached me but the hollow unceasing rumble of vehicles, like the +distant roll of the sea, or the bark of the shaggy poodle that by day +kept the old man company in the porter's lodge, and in the evening and +all night long traversed the spaces between the ruins and the ruins +themselves, in, as it seemed to me, an interminable hunt after cats. + +And when occasionally, to cool my heated head, I stepped out upon the +balcony, all again was deserted, vacant, and dark around, only here and +there the light of a solitary lamp, and sometimes a red pillar of flame +which rose from one of the furnace-chimneys of our works into the night +sky, and reddened the edges of the dark clouds which a sharp November +wind drove before it. Then, when I returned to my room, how cheerful +looked my modest lamp, before which lay open my book with figures and +formulas; how cosily the old carven oak furniture, which had so moved +the spleen of the good Klaus; and above all, with what pleasure I +contemplated the two small antique vases of terracotta upon the +mantel-piece, and the beautiful copy of the Sistine Madonna, which hung +on the wall facing my worktable. The picture and the vases had been +taken from my cell when the new superintendent came, but upon my +release I had demanded them with so fixed a determination that they did +not venture to withhold them: so I had packed them carefully in a box +and placed them in the hands of a person whom I could trust, to be +forwarded to me whenever I should have fixed myself somewhere. This +very day they had arrived, and to-night, for the first time, again I +enjoyed the pleasure of gazing at them. + +And while I contemplated these precious relics I reproached myself +earnestly that I had never prevailed upon myself to visit or give any +token of my existence to the dearest friend I had in the world, in the +same city with whom I had now been living a fortnight. It seemed so +entirely contrary to my nature not at once to obey the impulse of my +heart, and that so urgent an impulse--not to hasten without delay to +her with whom I had lived in closest friendship so many years of my +life, and whose heart I was convinced beat as warmly for me as ever. We +had not kept up a very lively correspondence during the year of our +separation, but we had agreed when we parted that we would not write +except upon some especial emergency, as anything like a correspondence +carried on under the eyes of the new superintendent and Herr von +Krossow seemed an impossibility. An emergency of this kind occurred, +when the baseness of this well-matched pair procured me a seven months' +addition to my term of incarceration: I wrote to her, simply +acquainting her with the fact, and she answered with but a word: +"Endure." + +No, this was not the cause of my reluctance; and indeed it had but one, +which I was unwilling to admit, even to myself I knew how the dearest, +noblest girl had to work and to care for herself and for those dear to +her. For a year it had been my dearest wish--indeed it often seemed to +me the single aim and object of my life--to attain a position that +would enable me to lift this load from her frail shoulders. And now, +when she perhaps more than ever needed a friend, a supporter, I must +appear before her in a condition in which, even if I needed no +assistance myself, I was utterly unable to afford it to others. That +might have been foreseen; as things were, it was inevitable, and +yet---- + +But will she, then, will she ever accept my assistance? I interrupted +the course of my thoughts as I paced up and down my room with my hands +behind me, a habit I had caught from my father. Has she not given me a +hundred proofs how jealous she is of her independence? And has she not +given me especially to understand, even at our parting, that if she +should require a support it should not be my arm? + +I called to mind the last days that I had spent with Paula and her +family. There were not many of them, for they had urged Frau von Zehren +to make room for her husband's successor with an insistance that was +really indecent. This successor, a major on half-pay, and a special pet +of the pietistic president, had long waited for the place, and, so to +speak, had been standing at the door. The brutality with which he took +possession at once of the superintendent's house, without the least +consideration for the bereaved family, was really unexampled. He had +given the afflicted lady the alternative of removing with her family to +one of the prison cells, which he magnanimously offered to have cleared +out for their occupation, or of taking refuge in one of the wretched +taverns of the town. Frau von Zehren, of course, had not hesitated a +moment as to what was to be done; and thus within three days after the +death of my benefactor all the old familiar faces had vanished from the +house in which he had lived so long. All had gone. Doctor Snellius, in +the very first hour in which he had the questionable honor of being +presented to the new superintendent, spoke his mind to him in full; and +when Doctor Snellius spoke his mind to any one whom he had reason to +despise and abhor, you might rest assured that the individual addressed +would not have the slightest ground to complain of any obscurity in the +doctor's expressions. + +Immediately upon his heel followed old Sergeant Süssmilch; and although +the register of the old man's voice lay fully two octaves lower than +the doctor's, yet the melody which both sang must have been the same; +at all events the result in both cases was identical, namely, Major D. +foamed with rage, then stamped with his feet, and ordered the insolent +fellow to be put in the dungeon immediately. Happily, the old man had +been prudent enough to ask for and to obtain his discharge before he +thoroughly eased his heart to his new chief, who therefore, rage as he +might, had no authority over the old man, and on Sergeant Süssmilch +threats were thrown away. + +How gladly would I have followed these enticing examples, and spoken my +mind also to the new superintendent. Probably in my whole life I have +never exercised such constraint over myself as in those days, when I +saw this miserable creature occupying the place which that noble man +had left; and in all likelihood I should not have succeeded, and should +have plunged myself into far worse misfortune, had not a voice +perpetually sounded in my ear which was more potent with me than the +impulse of my heart. And this voice said: "You have already endured +much, poor George; bear this also, though it be the hardest of all, and +if you cannot control yourself, call to mind him who loved you as his +own son." + +I sat down to my book again and turned the leaves; but this night I +could not fix my attention on even the simplest things. Old well-known +algebraic formulas wore a quite strange appearance, and seemed to form +themselves into the words: If he loved me as his son, and she was the +best beloved of his children, should she and I not also love each +other? + +"Are you going to keep your light burning all night?" called the voice +of the old watchman from below. "It is now one o'clock, and I am to +wake you at five, and a nice job I will have of it!" + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +In another shop of our establishment several men had been wounded, more +or less dangerously, by the slipping of a belt. In our shop we had +heard the news of the accident just before dinner, and the men were +standing about the yard inquiring the particulars and talking it over. +I had joined one of the groups, and was listening attentively, when I +saw a little man pushing through the crowd, with his hat in his hand, +and whose great bald skull emerging here and there between these dark +figures resembled the full moon sailing through black clouds. This +skull could only belong to one man. I hastened in pursuit, and overtook +it by the gate at the moment when it was covered with a felt hat, which +had not improved in appearance since I last saw it. I followed the felt +hat a few steps in the street, and then with a stride placed myself +beside its wearer. + +"Permit me, doctor," I said. + +Doctor Snellius brought his round spectacles to bear on me, and stared +at me with a look of the profoundest astonishment. + +"It is no hallucination, doctor," I said; "this is really myself." + +"George, mammoth, man, how come you here, and in this questionable +shape?" cried the doctor, holding out both his hands. + +"Hush, doctor," I said, "I am here incognito, and must deny myself the +pleasure of embracing you." + +"Don't tell me you have run away, and that too after I expressly +forbade you," said the doctor, in a low, anxious tone. + +I set his mind at rest on this point. + +"Heaven be thanked!" he said; "not forgetting also to thank me, or +rather her. How did you find her?" + +"I have not yet seen her, doctor." + +"And you have been here two weeks? Shameful! incredible! Where is my +lantern, that I may dash it to pieces, for now I give up forever the +hope of finding a man. Go! I will never see you again." + +"When shall I come to see you, doctor?" + +"Whenever you will, or can: shall we say this evening? eh? A glass of +grog in the old fashion, half-and-half, eh?" + +And over a glass of grog, half-and-half in the old fashion. Doctor +Snellius and I faced each other that very evening, in his more roomy +lodging, and talked of by-gone times, of what we had gone through +together, as two old friends talk who meet for the first time after +long separation. + +The doctor gave me a drastic description of his great scene with Major +D., and how Herr von Krossow had come in, and how he had said that it +was true that three made a college, but for the whole world he would +not make a college with those two, and that he begged to take leave of +them at once and forever. I answered, laughing, that I now could +understand the vindictiveness with which I was persecuted by Herr von +Krossow, whom I had never offended. + +"You are mistaken, my dear fellow," said the doctor. "The reptile had +other and better reasons for turning his fangs upon you. I can tell you +now that there is no danger of your wringing the miscreant's neck. So +now listen; but mix yourself a glass first--you will not get it down +without a good swig. This it was: he had once before paid his court to +her--to Paula von Zehren; and as he received one mitten, he thought he +might venture to apply for the other. For this purpose he selected as +the fittest time those days of grief and distraction immediately after +her father's death, nor did he forget to remind her that the new +superintendent was his good friend, and the president his cousin, and +that through these two he held the fortunes of Paula and her family, so +to speak, in his hands; for her mother's claim to a pension was, as she +knew herself, open to dispute; but the thing could be managed; and +although he had no property of his own, he had good connections, and by +no means bad prospects, especially under the new king, who was in truth +an anointed of the Lord. What do you think of that?" crowed Doctor +Snellius, springing up and performing a grotesque dance through the +room. + +The doctor's statement filled me with astonishment and indignation. I +had had no idea that the sanctimonious deacon had dared to raise his +hypocritical eyes to Paula; and this suggested the thought that I might +probably have been equally dim of sight in another quarter. I sank into +a gloomy silence; but the doctor must have read my thoughts in my face +through his great round spectacles. + +"You are thinking that it cost her no great effort to dismiss the +priest when her heart was already in the possession of the knight? I +know we often spoke of it and made each other uneasy, but it was all +nonsense, I assure you, all nonsense. Paula no more thinks of marrying +the young Adonis than an old satyr like me." + +The doctor gave me a side-glance at these words, and smiled +sardonically as I involuntarily murmured a heart-felt "Thank heaven!" + +"Don't rejoice too soon, though," he went on, and his smile grew ever +more diabolic; "we must not praise the day before the evening, and you +know my doctrine, that with men anything is possible. Arthur is really +a most fascinating youth, and now he has worked himself into the +diplomatic career, he may well die our Minister to London. It is the +same trade, and that they understand--ah! don't they understand it? +especially the old man, who really is a genius in the noble art. From +his tailor, whom he cajoles until the man gives him credit again, up to +the king, whom he without hesitation petitions for a subsidy that will +enable him to pay his debts and push his Arthur in his new career, no +man is safe from him--no man. I warn you button up your pockets when +you meet the gentleman on the street." + +"He lives here, then?" + +"Of course, he lives here. The soil here is not so soon exhausted, and +a great man like the Herr Steuerrath needs a wide field everywhere. Oh +these brows, these brows of brass!" + +"Why do we talk so much of such a crew?" I asked. "Rather tell me +something about _her_. How does she live? How does she get on with her +painting? Has she made great progress? And has she found sale for her +pictures?" + +"Made progress? Find sale?" cried the doctor. "Pretty questions, +indeed! I tell you she is in a fair way to make her fortune. They +fairly fight over her pictures." + +"Doctor," I said, "I do not think this is a proper subject for +jesting." + +The doctor, who had spoken in his shrillest tones, tuned down his voice +a couple of octaves by an energetic "ahem!" and said: + +"You are right; but it is no jest--merely a lie. As I see, however, +that I have not made any progress in the art of lying, it is probably +best for me to tell you, or rather show you, the truth. Come with me." + +He lighted two candles that stood under the looking-glass, and led me +into an adjoining room, which he had first to unlock. + +"I have put them here," he said, pointing to the wall, which was hung +with large and small pictures, "because they are not safe from the boys +anywhere else. Now what do you think of them?" + +Taking the candles from the doctor, and letting the light fall upon the +pictures, I saw at once that they were all by Paula's hand. I had too +long watched her studies, and too deeply entered into her way of seeing +and of reproducing what she saw, to be liable to any error. + +There were three or four heads, all idealized, the originals of which I +fancied that I recognized; two or three genre-pieces--scenes from the +prison, which I had already seen in the first draught; and finally a +landscape--a great reach of coast with stormy sea--the sketch of which +I remembered perfectly. At this time I understood but little of +painting, and least of all did I know how to justify my opinion when +formed. Now I can say that I really perceived a decisive improvement in +these pictures--an improvement both in the technical execution and in +the freer and broader style of treatment: especially did the heads +strike me as exhibiting remarkable power, and I enthusiastically +expressed my opinion to the doctor in the best words I could find. + +"Yes," said he, leaning his head first on one side and then on the +other, and contemplating the pictures with melancholy pride, "you are +right; perfectly right. She is a genius; but of what use is genius when +it has no name? The world is stupid, my friend; incredibly stupid: it +can discover anything grand or beautiful soon enough when the one or +two enlightened heads that a century produces have given their +testimony to it, one after the other; then the thing is an article of +faith that the boys recite from their benches and the sparrows chatter +upon the roofs. But when the gentlemen have to pass judgment upon the +work of an author whose name they have never before heard, or the +picture of an artist who comes before them for the first time, then +they are at the end of their lesson and do not know what to think. How +long would these pictures have travelled from one exhibition to +another, or hung in the dealers' shops, if I had allowed them to hang +there? So they have all travelled into my possession, and not to +America, England, and Russia, as the good Paula believes. But do not +look so seriously at me. My part of Mæcenas did not last long; her last +picture at the Artists' Exposition--you know it, and are in it +yourself--Richard the Lion-heart sick in his tent, visited by an Arab +physician: well, that picture, as I hear, has been bought by the +commerzienrath--your commerzienrath--strange to say, for the man knows +just as much about paintings as I do about making money, and Paula, by +my advice, fixed its price at a considerable sum. You see I am now +superfluous. _Sic tansit gloria!_" + +The doctor sighed deeply, and then preceded me with the two candles in +his hands, casting flickering lights upon his broad skull. + +We took our seats again behind the glasses of grog. The doctor seemed +disposed to drown the deep melancholy that had possessed him by +doubting the strength of his potations, while I sat in deep meditation. +The fact that the commerzienrath had bought Paula's picture set me to +pondering. I knew of old how absolutely indifferent the man was to +everything connected with art, and that the relationship had in any way +moved him to the purchase was the unlikeliest thing in the world. It +was therefore no very chimerical conclusion that the daughter had more +to do in the affair than the father; and I confess that as I reckoned +up the probabilities of this supposition the blood rushed to my cheeks. +In fact the hypothesis stood or fell on a certain point, which was yet +uncertain. I drew a long breath, took a deep draught from my glass, and +asked: + +"Has King Richard still any likeness----" + +"To you, my most esteemed friend; to you? Do not vex yourself with any +doubts on that score," answered Doctor Snellius with a promptness that +seemed to indicate that our thoughts had met in the same point. "The +only fault I have to find with it is just this, that Paula seems to +have fancied that she had only to take you as you were, and there was a +king ready made. Have the goodness not to take credit to yourself for +what is merely her poverty of invention." + +"I think I have not yet given you any reason to hold me exceptionally +vain," I said. + +"No; heaven knows you have not; you deserve rather to descend to +posterity in the character of St. Simon Stylites than as Richard +C[oe]ur de Lion." + +"You say that as bitterly as if you were seriously dissatisfied with +me." + +"And so I am, my good sir," cried the doctor. "What kind of a crochet +is it to live by the labor of your hands, when you can live by your +head? Do you know, sir, that our departed friend said to me, not long +before his death, that you had the most remarkable talent for +mathematics he had ever known, and that you could at any time take +charge of the highest class in a public school? Do you suppose that +your head grows acuter just in proportion as your hands grow coarser? +You will say, like the tailor to Talleyrand, _il faut vivre_; and a +journeyman blacksmith will make a living easier than a teacher of +mathematics. Well, have you no friends that could help you? Why did you +not come to me at once? Why did you leave it for chance to decide +whether we should meet or not?" + +I endeavored to calm his irritation, showing him that I had taken my +present course, not from necessity but conviction; but he would not +yield the point. + +"Why did you take the trouble to make a virtue of necessity? Necessity +was your adviser, necessity and your confounded pride to boot. You +would have set out in quite another way, if you had had any capital to +back you." + +"But you see I have none, doctor." + +"Don't you contradict me, you brainless mammoth! A friend who has +capital that he places at our disposal is a capital of our own. I am +your friend, I have capital, and I place it at your disposal. Who knows +if in this I do not accomplish a work more pleasing to heaven than if I +followed my old father's wishes and employed it in assisting orphan +asylums and other such childish undertakings. You are an orphan; so in +helping you I follow the words if not the intention of that pious man, +and shall be perfectly easy in conscience on that score." + +"But I shall not," I replied, laughing. + +"Don't laugh, you monster!" cried the doctor. "You don't seem +to comprehend that my proposition is perfectly serious. Take my +money--there are fifty thousand _thalers_, or thereabouts--go into +partnership with the commerzienrath; or better, found a rival +establishment, and hoist him out of his saddle: in a few years you will +be the first manufacturer and machinist of Germany, and----" + +While the doctor thus spoke in feverish excitement the blood had rushed +to his head in a really alarming manner. He suddenly checked himself, +and it was not until long after that I learned what it was that +required such an effort to suppress. It may be that my head, in +consequence of my long sitting behind the grog, was by no means +perfectly clear; at all events only thus can I explain the obstinacy +with which I still contradicted the doctor and maintained that my sense +of independence would never allow me to use the capital and assistance +of another as the foundation of my fortune. + +"Do you know what you are proclaiming in this?" cried the doctor in his +shrillest tones, and wrathfully smiting the table--"that you will +remain a beggar, a miserable beggarly fellow, as every one has done who +was fool enough to try to drag himself out of the swamp by his own +hair? No, no, my good sir; the art is to let others work for you. +Whoever does not understand this, is and remains a beggar." + +"What would our best friend have said if he had heard you talk thus?" + +"Has he not in life and death proven the truth of it?" crowed the +pugnacious doctor. "Do you call it living as a reasonable man, to leave +the dearest we have on earth in poverty at our death? And what are the +great results of all his long, self-sacrificing, heroic labor for the +general good? He fancied, this high-priest of humanity, that his +example would suffice to bring about an entire reform of the prison +system. And now an old pedant of a king has but to shut his sleepy +eyes, and the foundation of his edifice gives way; and as soon as he +himself commits the folly of dying, it falls to ruin like a house of +cards. If that be not folly I do not know how loud the bells must +jingle." + +"I know somebody whose cap is quite as well furnished," I said, looking +the doctor full in the eyes. "What do you call a man who--as the only +son of a rich old father who loves the son and lets him follow his own +course, even though he does not comprehend it, with the certain +prospect of a considerable inheritance--performs for years the +laborious work of a prison-surgeon for the most trivial pay; who, after +he has come into the possession of this estate, continues to labor as +the physician of the poorest of the poor, and finally, because the +weight of his wealth is too burdensome, throws it into the lap of the +first man he meets, to die the same irreclaimable beggarly fellow that +he has lived?" + +"Did I ever pretend to be anything else?" asked my antagonist, not +without some mark of confusion. "Oh yes, as if it were only the +simplest thing in the world to be a child of prudence. To produce that +result requires generations, for shrewdness must be bred in families, +like the long legs of race-horses. Take the commerzienrath, who is a +classic example how shrewdness grows and thrives when it is once +properly grafted on a family stock: the man's grandfather was a +needleman, who kept a little shop by the harbor-gate in S.; my own +grandfather knew him well. He was a disreputable old fellow, who sold +nails and needles in his front shop, and lent money on pawns in the +back room. Then came his son, who was at least a head above his father, +and could read and write, and calculate much better than the old man. +He settled in your town and bought shares of ships, and finally whole +ships, and paved the way for his son, who is the biggest of the lot. +His flourishing period came in Napoleon's time. Napoleon and the +blockade and the smuggling business made a rich man of him. Yes, +smuggling--the same smuggling that cost your friend his life. When the +Herr Commerzienrath was a smuggler, smuggling was a kind of patriotic +work, and the poor devils who risked and lost their lives at it were +martyrs of the good cause. God only knows how many men's lives he has +on his conscience. And when afterwards the people who had got into the +way of the business would not quit it, and indeed could not, or they +would have starved, he was safe enough; he had brought his sheep +out of the rain and could laugh in his sleeve. Then came the time of +army-contracts, and that again was a good time for him; and thus +this leech kept sucking and gorging himself with the blood of his +fellow-creatures. Everything that he undertook succeeded; the +needleman's grandson and broker's son has become a millionaire, has +married a woman of noble birth, has titles, orders--all that the heart +can desire. Look you, there is a child of prudence, whom I recommend to +you as an example." + +"That I may lose your and every worthy man's friendship?" + +"What good is my friendship to you? My friendship at best is worth but +fifty thousand _thalers_. You are quite right not to put yourself out +of your way for such a trifle. Marry Hermine Streber--then you will +know why you were a beggarly fellow." + +"It seems that one falls into this category by having either a great +deal of money or none at all," I said, hiding under a loud laugh my +embarrassment at his brusque suggestion. + +"Certainly," said the doctor, still heated. "Extremes meet, and for +this reason I consider your destiny inevitable. The question only is, +how to deal with the old man; with the daughter the business is half +done, or more than half. Your meeting on the steamer was capital; and +now this Richard the Lion-heart in effigy, as long as she has him not +in _propria personæ_----" + +"Doctor," I said, rising, "I think it must be time to say good-night." + +"As you please," replied the doctor. "You know with such remarkable +exactitude what is good for you that most likely you know this too." + +The doctor had also arisen and was now walking up and down the room +making frightful faces. + +"Doctor," said I, stepping before him. + +"Go!" he cried, passing round me in a curve. + +"I am going," I said, and I went. + +But I halted at the door and looked back once more at the singular man, +who had thrown himself again into his chair and was watching me angrily +through his round spectacles. + +"Doctor, you said to me once that you could not well carry more than +four glasses, and this evening you have drunk six. So I will ascribe +the unfriendly way in which you dismiss me--for what other reason I +cannot imagine--to the fifth and sixth glass; and now good-by." + +I left the room without his making any attempt to detain me, and as I +closed the door behind me I heard him burst into a peal of shrill +laughter. + +"This comes from a man's not keeping within his measure," I said to +myself, excusing him. + +But as I reached the street below, and the frosty night air blew upon +my heated face, I began to perceive that I had not exactly kept within +my own measure. My gait as I traversed the empty, badly-lighted +streets, now swept by a sharp December wind, was less steady than +usual, and strange thoughts passed through my head, and I had curious +fancies, whose origin could only be traced to the glasses I had +emptied. And once I had to laugh aloud, for I imagined I heard the +voice of the short, fat commerzienrath saying quite distinctly: "My +dear son, we must mind what we are about or we shall not get home at +all, and our Hermine will be alarmed." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +As the next day was Sunday, I had leisure to reflect upon the singular +behavior of the doctor the evening before; but either the affair was in +itself too complicated, or else my memory had suffered from the effects +of my strong potations, and I could arrive at no satisfactory +conclusion. That the strange man loved me much, after his fashion, I +had innumerable proofs, and his anger on the previous evening had been +rather that of an elder brother, who sees that the younger, whom he +loves, is straying from the right way. + +But what upon earth had I done amiss, then? It could not be possible +that the doctor could seriously reproach me with my determination to +make my own way in the world. He himself had trusted to his own +resources very early in life, and with the toughest perseverance +carried out his own plans. + +Assuredly the fact that I had chosen the lot of a workman could be no +crime in the eyes of a man whose heart beat so warmly for the poor, and +who devoted his whole life to the relief of poverty and misery. The +cause of his wrath must lie elsewhere; and after long pondering I came +around to the point, that the picture of Paula's, upon which I figured +as Richard the Lion-heart, had been the starting-point of our dispute. +Had he taken it amiss that Paula held fast to her model? Did he grudge +me the honor of being painted by her? Was he vexed that this picture +was not in his possession, but in the hands of a man whom he so hated +and despised as the commerzienrath? These were all questions worth +considering. I concluded at last that my supposition must be correct, +and resolved that this very day, before I called on Paula, I would have +a look at the cause of our quarrel. + +So about noon I set out for the academy, in the halls of which the +great exhibition of paintings had been open now for some weeks. It was +my first visit to an exhibition of the sort. My knowledge of pictures +up to this time was restricted to a few old discolored saints in the +churches of my native town, the engravings and family portraits in the +superintendent's house, and the pictures which I had seen growing under +Paula's hand. Still, as I had over and over contemplated and studied +these few with never-ceasing delight, and had for years been witness of +the development of a genuine artist nature, I had, perhaps, if no more, +at least no less enthusiasm for beauty than the hundreds that flooded +the exhibition-rooms. I cannot describe the feeling with which I, now +following the throng, and now separated from it, wandered through the +lofty rooms. I had never seen anything like this. I could not have +conceived it possible. Were there then so many men who knew how to +handle pencils and colors that the walls of this labyrinth of rooms +were hung from ceiling to floor with the works of their skill? And was +the world so gloriously rich? Was the sky that bent above the sunny +bays of the South in truth of so marvellous a blue? Did snow-clad +mountains really tower so majestically into the luminous ether? Was the +twilight thus mysterious in the pine-fringed gorges of our own +mountains? Did such infinite multitudes of birds indeed hover over the +enormous rivers of Africa? Did the palaces of Italian cities rise thus +gorgeously above the narrow canals along which black gondolas were +noiselessly gliding? Were there halls in princely mansions whose marble +floors thus clearly reflected the luxurious furniture and the forms of +the guests? Yes; all these things that I here saw depicted really +existed, and much more which my eager fancy added, half in dreaming. +For the more I looked, examined, and admired, the stronger came over me +a sense of having seen all this before; yes, seen so clearly that I +could tell the artist what he had done well, and where he had fallen +far short of the lovely reality. Often I felt really angry with a +stupid painter who had seen so dimly, and so poorly represented what +little he saw. In a word, in the briefest space of time I had become a +finished connoisseur of the noble art of the painter, with the solitary +drawback that I could in no case have told how the artist should go to +work to make his picture better; but perhaps this was a special +qualification for the office of critic. + +I had probably wandered thus for an hour through the rooms, when +stepping into one of the last, which was remarkably brightly lighted by +a skylight, I started with sudden and extreme surprise. Looking over +the heads of the crowd that filled the hall I seemed to see myself. And +it was myself, or at least my counterfeit in Paula's picture, the +picture which I had come on purpose to see, and which I looked for so +far in vain. A particularly large group was collected before it, +looking with eager and admiring eyes at Paula's work, while from many +fair lips came the words, "Charming!" "how beautiful!" "what depth of +feeling!" It was a queer sensation to me to see myself thus lying upon +a bed, in a rich robe of fine linen, and scarcely concealed by a light +drapery. The blood suffused my cheeks; I expected every instant to see +the crowd turn from the picture to me to compare the copy with the +original. But it was probably no easy thing to discover in the tall, +healthy young man, in plain citizen's dress, standing back in a window +niche, the original of the lion-hearted king, glorified by legend, in a +picture on public exhibition. At all events no one made the discovery, +and I was left to contemplate the painting at my leisure. + +Now I observed for the first time that the picture was of far larger +dimensions than the study which I knew. It was, in fact, a new picture, +which had been completed since I last had seen Paula. So much the more +wonderful, as it seemed to me, was the striking likeness to the +original. Here were my curled reddish locks, my rather broad than high +forehead, my large blue eyes, which found it so difficult to take an +expression of anger. Even the feverish flush which lay upon the sunken +cheeks of the royal Richard might at this moment have been seen upon +those of the man in the window. In other respects the design remained +the same, only the young knight who had the lineaments of Arthur had +perhaps withdrawn a little more into the background, so that the +broad-shouldered yeoman with the features of Sergeant Süssmilch came +better into view. An admirable figure was the Arab physician, _alias_ +Doctor Willibrod Snellius, the most singular personage that could be +imagined, in the garb of a dervish, and one whom one could not help +liking, notwithstanding his ugliness, so that the generous confidence +of the king became at once intelligible. + +This then was the picture which Paula had painted and Hermine bought. +Was there not here a two-fold reason for a little pride and even +vanity? Must not the original be very firmly implanted in the artist's +heart when she could make from recollection alone so true a likeness? +Must not the original be somewhat interesting to the purchaser, when +she was willing to pay such a price for the copy? These were foolish +thoughts, and I can affirm that they vanished as soon as they arose, +and the next moment I was heartily ashamed of them. Vexed with myself I +aroused myself from my foolish dreaming and turned my gaze once more +upon the picture, in front of which the eager crowd of gazers had +increased. + +Among the new spectators I noticed a lady in a rich and becoming +toilette, leaning on the arm of a slender and rather foppishly dressed +gentleman. The lady attracted my attention by her elegant figure and +the vivacious manner in which she gesticulated with her little hand in +its dainty kid glove, and spoke with great animation to her companion, +who was evidently more interested by the spectators than by the picture +itself. As her back was towards me I could only from time to time catch +a glimpse of her face when she glanced over her shoulder at her +companion. But the glimpse that I caught affected me powerfully, +without my being able to explain the cause: a dark eye-brow, a fleeting +glance from the corner of the eye, the contours of a brunette's cheek +and of a rounded chin. Yet I could not turn my gaze from the lady. I +even made one or two attempts to catch sight of her face, but she +always turned it to the other side. The gentleman then seemed to +propose that they should go: they were about leaving the room, when in +the moment that they crossed the threshold the lady turned her head +once more towards the picture, and I came very near uttering an +exclamation of surprise? Was it not Constance? + +"Did you see the Bellini?" a young officer near me asked an +acquaintance who approached and accosted him. + +"That lady with the gray-silk dress. Cashmere shawl, and jaunty hat? Is +she the Bellini?" + +"Yes, indeed. Is she not a charming creature?" + +"Superb! And who was the gentleman with her? Baron Sandstrom, of the +Swedish embassy?" + +"Do you suppose he would let himself be seen here with the Bellini? +What are you thinking of, baron? It was Lenz, the tenor of the Albert +Theatre." + +"The man that brought her on the stage?" + +"The same. She has a wonderful talent, they say. Well, we shall see +what there is in it." + +"See? You would not go to the Albert Theatre, baron?" + +"Why not, when a Bellini is in question?" + +"You are a gay fellow, baron." + +"I can return the compliment, if it is one." + +And the two young men separated, laughing. + +I breathed deeply. "Thank heaven!" I murmured. "Thank heaven that it +was an actress and not Constance von Zehren. I would not meet her on +the arm of such a fop and hear a pair of such fellows speak of her +thus." + +It did not, in the first moments of my surprise, occur to me that I had +only to follow the lady in order to catch another look at her; and now, +as I hastily traversed the rooms she was no longer to be seen. Again I +breathed deeply, with a sensation of relief, when I had convinced +myself of the inutility of further search, and said to myself: "It is +better that I should not see this Fräulein Bellini again." And while I +said this I felt my heart beat violently, and my eyes still wandered +searching through the crowd. They were strange recollections which the +face, at once known and unknown, of this lady, had awakened within me; +recollections from a time in which the impressions once received +remained forever. + +These memories did not leave me until I traversed the long streets of +the city, many of them new to me, on my way to Paula's residence, which +I had the doctor carefully describe to me the previous day. Being +Sunday, the shops and stores were closed, but the streets were still +full of life. It was a clear, cold forenoon in the beginning of +December. A little snow had fallen in the night, just enough to give a +silvery glitter to the roofs and bring into handsome relief the +projections and ornaments of the façades. Numerous pedestrians hastened +along the streets; showy horses in handsome carriages pawed vigorously +upon the frosty pavement, and even the wretched jades in the rickety +_droschkies_ trotted rather better than usual. The sight of this +cheerful life scattered the evil dreams that had tried to master my +soul, I felt myself so young and strong in the midst of a vast, +powerful stream which drove me along but did not overpower me. All was +new, fair, and rich; who could know to what glorious shores the current +would bear me? And even now I saw a fair harbor and a beloved form +beckoning to me, and I hastened my steps until I arrived, out of +breath, at a large, handsome house in one of the most fashionable +suburbs, and, on asking the porter if Frau von Zehren was at home, was +shown up two flights of stairs. + +"But the ladies are not at home," said the man. + +"No one?" + +"One of the young gentlemen may be." + +"I will see." + +"Can I take any message?" + +"No; I wish to see them." + +The porter closed his window, not without a sort of suspicious look at +the tall stranger, who did not appear to be a gentleman of fashion, and +I hurried up the two carpeted flights of stairs, and drawing a deep +breath I pulled the bell over which was a brass plate with the name +"Frau von Zehren," and under it "Paula von Zehren." + +"Which of the boys shall I see?" I asked myself, and in fancy I saw the +friendly faces of Benno, Kurt, and Oscar, at the door; but a step +approached which could belong to neither of the boys. The door was +opened and the old furrowed brown face of the sergeant looked at me +inquisitively out of its clear blue eyes. + +"Good day, sergeant." + +The sergeant in his surprise very nearly let fall the bunch of brushes +he had in his hand. + +"Thunder and lightning, are we here at last? Won't the _gnädige Frau_ +and the young gentlemen be glad!--and the young lady too! Come in!" + +And he pulled me in and closed the door behind us, and then led me into +a room in which the furniture greeted me as old acquaintances. + +The old man pressed my hands, exclaiming over and over: + +"How splendid we are looking! I believe we are bigger than ever. And +how we must have been working to make our hands so hard! We have had +hard times, eh? But we have held up bravely, that is the main thing. +How long since we got out of that cursed hole?" + +Thus the sergeant questioned me, and pushed me into an easy-chair; and +he was quite indignant when I told him that I had already been over two +weeks in the city. + +"It is not possible!" he cried. "Two weeks without coming to us, and we +have been expecting you every day! It is not possible! It is enough to +turn a man into a bear with seven senses!" + +"Every one for himself first, old friend," I said. "Suppose I had come +here first of all, and Fräulein Paula had asked what the tall George +was going to do?" + +The sergeant scratched his curly gray head. "To be sure, to be sure!" +he said. "Self is the man. With a woman or a girl, of course, it is +quite different; and so one had to bring them away at once that they +might have some one to rely on on the way, and here, upon first moving +in, some one to look after things; for women are women and men are men. +Am I not right?" + +"Doubtless, Süssmilch, doubtless. So you have been here, of course, +ever since?" + +"Of course," said the old man, who had taken a seat opposite to me, but +sat upon the extreme edge of the chair, as if to show that he knew how +to keep within the bounds himself had fixed. "And apart from other +things, can they ever get on without my head?" + +"And without your hands?" + +"Not of so much consequence, though they come into play sometimes too," +the old man replied, arranging the brushes between his fingers, "but +the head" and he thoughtfully shook this interesting and important part +of his person. + +"I have just seen it at the exhibition," I said, a light suddenly +flashing upon me in regard to the part the old man's head really played +in the family arrangements. + +"Does pretty well, don't it?" said the sergeant; "but the monk is +better still." + +"Who?" + +"The monk. To be sure nobody knows what we are painting. But you must +see it." + +The old man sprang up with youthful alacrity and led me into a large +and high apartment adjoining, which was Paula's studio. Sketches and +designs of all kinds were hanging and leaning upon the walls, with +heads, arms, and legs in plaster, a couple of sets of ancient armor, a +lay figure draped with a long white mantle, and near the window, which +reached to the ceiling, an easel with a picture from which the sergeant +removed the covering. + +"Here's the place to stand," he said. "Is not that splendid?" + +"Splendid indeed!" I exclaimed. + +"Was I not right that my head is quite another thing here?" said the +old man, pointing proudly to the work. The scene was from _Nathan the +Wise_, and represented the monk about to sound the intentions of the +templar. Both figures stood out clear and plastic, with such animation +in their looks that one might almost catch the words from their lips; +the grand simplicity in the good weather-beaten face of the pious +brother who had once been a squire, and had many a valiant lord and +accomplished many a hard service, none of which had ever been so hard +to him as this commission of the patriarch. On the other side the +templar, young and slender, his head thrown defiantly back, his lips +compressed with an expression of discontent, and his blue eyes bent +upon the poor monk. In the middle distance a portion of Nathan's house, +and the palms that surround the Holy Tomb; behind these the domes and +slender minarets of Jerusalem, with the haughty crescent sharply +defined against the southern sky, where the eye lost itself with +delight in the immeasurable distance. + +"The young gentleman has something from us; here, for instance, and +here," said the sergeant, pointing with his finger at the eyes and +mouth of the templar, and then looking again at me; "but I said at once +that it is not so good as King Richard; by far not so good," and the +old man shook his head gravely. + +"But the Fräulein cannot paint me always," I said; "that would at last +become too monotonous. With you it is different: such a head as yours +is not to be met with again." + +"Yes," said the sergeant. "It is curious: one never believed it; in +fact one hardly knew he had a head; but that's the way they all talk +that come here, and they want me in all their studios; and Fräulein +Paula did lend me once or twice, but in the other pictures one looks +like a bear with seven senses, and don't know himself again." + +"And how is she?" I asked. + +"Oh, well enough, if we did not have to work so much; but from morning, +as soon as it is light enough, until evening when it is too dark to +tell one color from another, working here in the studio, or copying in +the museum--no bear could stand it, let alone such a good young lady +who has not yet got over her father's death, and secretly weeps for it +every day. It is a real pity." + +The old man turned away, laid the brushes in the box, and passed the +back of his hand quickly over his eyes. + +I stood with folded arms before the picture, which no longer pleased me +when I thought that she worked on it unresting from morning till night, +while grief for the loss of her beloved father still dimmed her eyes. +It would be a great thing to have fifty thousand _thalers_ and be able +to say: "You shall not have so hard a life of it; you shall not lose +your beautiful eyes like your poor mother." + +"How is Frau von Zehren?" I asked. + +"Well enough in health," answered the sergeant, moving back the easel; +"but she has scarcely a glimpse of light; and the doctor, who ought to +know best, told her, when she asked him, that there was no hope that +she would ever see again." + +"And Benno and the others?" + +A bright gleam passed over the old man's brown face, + +"Ah," said he, "there we have our pleasure, and with each one more than +the other, Benno has been a student now for a month, and Kurt will soon +enter. Yes, we are happy in these. And our youngster too! He is going +to be a painter, and has begun of course upon my head, and not done so +badly for his fifteen years. Look for yourself, if it is not----" + +At this moment there was a ring at the door. The old man stepped to the +window and looked out. + +"I thought it was they. You see we all went out walking, because the +day is so fine; but it is too soon yet for them to be back; it must be +some one else; I will see;" and the old man put back the drawing-board +on which Oscar had sketched his first head from the life, and left me +alone in the studio. + +I heard a voice in the passage which I thought I recognized as Paula's, +and then the door opened, and Paula entered. + +At first she did not observe me, and I saw at a glance that the +sergeant had said nothing of my arrival. Advancing quickly she looked +eagerly at the covered picture on the easel. The fresh air of the +winter day had reddened her cheeks, her lips were slightly parted. I +had never seen her so fair, nor could I have believed it possible. +Suddenly she perceived me; she stopped, gazed at me with fixed eyes and +a frightened look. "Paula," I said, hastily coming forward, "dear +Paula, it is really I." + +"Dear George!" + +She stood before me, and I took both her hands, while she looked at me, +smiling and blushing. + +"Thank heaven, George, that you are here at last. I have had no quiet +hour since I knew that you were free again, and on the way here: I +could not imagine where you were staying; I even feared something had +happened to you. What have you been doing, and what adventures have you +had, you bad boy? I know of one already, and that from the fairest +mouth in the world." + +Paula had seated herself upon a low chair near the picture, and looked +up to me with smiling eyes. + +"You need not be so confused," she said, mischievously. + +"With a sister, you know, it makes no matter. I am in the exclusive +possession of all Benno's tender secrets, and lately Kurt has honored +me with his confidence. He is smitten with the twelve-year-old daughter +of the geheimrath who has recently moved into the rooms below, and vows +that Raphael never painted such a head. Why should I not be your +confidante also, especially since you are my eldest brother--or are you +not?" + +I was surprised to hear Paula, who usually weighed every word, +chattering after this fashion. A great change must have taken place in +her since we had parted. It was no longer the Paula who in the shade of +the high prison walls had developed under my eyes from a child to a +maiden, and whom I thought I knew as I knew myself. What had loosened +her tongue in this way? And whence had she the free carriage which I so +much admired in her, as she now sat in a graceful posture in the low +chair, while a beam of sunlight touched her head which seemed +surrounded with an aureola? + +"But you don't answer me," she resumed; "and really you have no cause +to be ashamed of what you have done. Hermine says that without you the +boat would have been lost, and probably the ship also. You may judge +how proud I was when I heard it. And what do you think was my first +thought?--that my father could have heard it too." + +Paula's large eyes filled with tears, but she quickly suppressed her +emotion and said: + +"Yes, I was proud of you, and happy in the thought that you should +commence life with such a noble deed, a deed worthy of yourself. And +now you must tell me what you have been doing all this time, and you +must expect to pay the penalty if I am not entirely satisfied with you. +Sit here in this chair. We have a quarter of an hour yet before my +mother and the boys come back. An idea about the picture there had come +into my mind, but it is better so." + +I gave the dear girl an exact account of all that had happened to me +since my discharge. She listened with the closest attention, and only +once smiled when I took pains to prove that I should have entered the +machine-works in any event, and that the fact that the commerzienrath +was my employer was far from agreeable to me. + +"But neither the commerzienrath nor Hermine know anything about it." + +"No," I answered; "and that is one comfort." + +"Which will not last long, for they will soon learn it." + +"From whom will they learn it?" + +"From me, for one. Hermine has adjured me by sun, moon, and stars, to +give her notice of the runaway as soon as he is found; and the tears +were standing in her beautiful eyes, and Fräulein Duff laid her hand +upon her shoulder and said, 'Seek faithfully, and thou wilt find!' I +can assure you, George, it was a moving scene." + +Paula smiled, but so kindly that her banter, if she was bantering me, +did not wound me. On the contrary I was thankful to her, very thankful. +I had considered over and over how I should tell her of my strange +meeting with Hermine without embarrassment, and now under her kindly +hands all was smooth and straight, which my clumsy fingers would have +hopelessly entangled. I was grateful to her--very grateful. + +And now Paula told me of Hermine, and how amiable and good she had been +to her, and had spent the three days she had stayed in Berlin almost +exclusively in her company, and had at once fallen in love with the +picture at the exhibition--here Paula smiled again very slightly--and +could not reconcile herself to leaving it, after she had bought it, for +a whole month at the exhibition. She further related how the notice +which _Richard the Lion-heart_ had excited had already brought her new +commissions, and that her _Monk and Templar_ was already sold for a +handsome sum to a Jewish banker; and how her studio had since been +visited by very distinguished persons, indeed more frequently than was +agreeable, and she had had to lock up her portfolios of sketches +because they began unaccountably to disappear. + +"You can judge," she went on, "how inexpressibly happy all this makes +me. Not that I think myself entitled to be proud--I think that I well +know my defects and how great they are--but it is a sweet consolation +to me to be at ease about the future of my mother and brothers, and +that the boys can now go boldly forward in the paths they have chosen, +without being compelled anxiously to consider every step--all the boys, +from the youngest to the oldest, is it not so, George?--from the +youngest to the oldest." + +She looked full into my eyes, and I very well understood what she +meant. + +"I do not anxiously consider every step, Paula," I said. "I know that I +am in the right path; why should I then be anxious?" + +"I have boundless confidence in you," replied Paula; "both in your +clear-sightedness and your energy. I know that you will make your way; +but one can make his way with greater or with less labor, and in longer +or in shorter time; and your sister desires that her brother, who has +been so cruelly cheated of so many years of his life, may lose no +moment, and may encounter no obstacle which his sister can remove from +his path." + +"I thank you, Paula," I said; "from the whole depth of my soul I thank +you; but you will not be angry with me for trusting that the hour may +never come when you will have to work for me; for that I may ever be +able to care for you and yours--this, my clearest hope and most +cherished desire, I see that I must now renounce." + +"How can you speak so?" said Paula, gently shaking her beautiful head. +"True, I deserve it for my own wilfulness. You must consider me a +foolish girl who allows herself to be dazzled by the false glitter of +success. But believe me, it is not so. I know very well that I may be +let fall just as quickly as I have been lifted, far above my desert. +And then I may fall sick, or my invention may fail me: I cannot go on +forever painting you and old Süssmilch; and a girl has so little +opportunity to make well-grounded studies, and to extend the narrow +circle of her experience. And then what would become of the boys, of +me, of all of us, if we had not our eldest to look to?" + +"You are jesting with me now, Paula." + +"Indeed I am not," she said, earnestly. "I have only too often felt how +my powers are no longer sufficient for my brothers, and that young men +need to be guided by a man, and not by a woman, who does not know where +the limit lies to which a youth may go, nay, must go, if he is to +become anything. Good friend as the doctor is, I cannot rely on him in +this point, for he is an eccentric, and an eccentric is no fitting +model for a young man. For this reason I have been all the time wishing +for you. You know the boys so well, and they are so fond of you. I know +no one to whom I would so willingly intrust them." + +"But, Paula, a workman in a machine-shop, a mere common journeyman +blacksmith, is no pattern for students and young artists." + +"You will not--yes, you will always be a workman, but not always a +journeyman: you will become a master, a great master in your craft. And +the day is no longer distant; at least it is much nearer than you +think. You do not know your own worth." + +Paula said this with a slightly elevated voice, and with flashing eyes. +I was so in the habit of giving full confidence to her words, and it +had so prophetic a sound, that I did not venture to express the slight +doubt that arose in my mind as to its fulfilment. + +At this moment came a ring at the bell. "It is my mother and the boys," +Paula said hurriedly and softly. + +"They do not know that you have been two weeks at liberty; my mother +could not comprehend how you could let so long a time elapse without +coming to see us, after you had once reached the city. You must not let +her know that it has been so long." + +At this they came rushing in at the door: Oscar, my favorite, Kurt, my +second favorite, and Benno, who had always been my third favorite, who +came with his mother on his arm; and there was rejoicing, and shaking +hands, and kisses, and exultations, and perhaps some tears, though I am +not sure. Of course I must spend the day with them. And in the evening +nothing could keep them from seeing me home, that they might bring +their sister word where and how I was living: and then I went back with +them a piece of the way until they were out of the workmen's quarter, +and in a part of the town which they knew better; and when I returned +it was very late, and I fell asleep at once and had a long dream about +the picture which Paula had painted, and Hermine had bought, and the +fair Bellini, who resembled Constance von Zehren, had so much admired. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +To be sure, if I had any fancy at this time for indulging in dreaming, +I had to do it at night, for by day I had no leisure for such vagaries. +By day I was taken possession of by work--hard jealous work, that kept +me busy from the early morning to late at night--now thrusting the +heavy hammer into my hand and giving me a mass of iron to conquer, and +then placing in my fingers the pen with which I covered page after page +with long rows of figures and complicated formulas. Altogether it was a +pleasant time, and even now I think of it with pleasure tempered with +sadness. In our memory the brightest light always lies upon those +periods of our lives in which we have striven forward most eagerly, and +I was now, in all senses, a striver, and there was no day in which I +did not mount at least one round of the steep ladder. Now it was some +bit of technical dexterity that I caught from my fellow-workmen; now a +new formula which I had calculated myself; and at all times the +delightful sensation of rising, of progressing, of increasing powers, +the joyous consciousness that a far heavier burden might lie upon my +shoulders without danger of my sinking under it. It was a happy, a +delightful time; and whenever I think of it, it is as if the perfume of +violets and roses were floating around me, and as if then the days must +all have been days of spring. + +And yet it was not spring, but a rough severe winter, in which +the icy sky lay gray and heavy above the snow-piled roofs and the +filthy factory-yards, while the sparrows fluttered about all day, +seeking in vain for food, and at night the famishing crows expressed +their sufferings in incessant cawing; and day by day we saw pale, +hollowed-eyed, ragged figures, in ever-increasing numbers, wandering in +the stormy streets, or crouching at night in the dim light of the lamps +upon the steps of the houses, or where any projecting masonry offered +them a little shelter. + +I now walked the streets more frequently, for, notwithstanding the +distance at which my friends lived, no week passed in which I did not +spend at least one evening with them. Then Benno, who was now studying +chemistry and physics, and had occasion to repair some deficiencies in +his mathematics, came twice a week to my room to work with me, and I +then accompanied him back half the way, and sometimes the whole +distance. It had been discussed whether I had not better take another +lodging, nearer to them; but Paula decided that it was best for me to +live where my work was; and one Sunday forenoon she came with her +brothers to pay me a visit, and convince me that I by no means lived +entirely out of her reach, as I had maintained. She pronounced my +inhabiting the lonely ruinous court of the machine-works, which her +hope looked to in the future, perfectly absurd; and the fitting-up of +my room with the old worm-eaten rococo furniture of the previous +century a crackbrained fancy; but she observed it all with the warmest +interest, and did not conceal that she was touched by the sight of the +terra-cotta vases on the mantel-piece, and the copy of the Sistine +Madonna on the walk. + +"Stay here," she finally said; "not because this lodging is convenient +for you, and is really original enough; nor because the fitting-up does +honor to your taste, wanting only a set of curtains, which I will make +for you, and a piece of carpet by your writing-table, which I undertake +to provide; for these are trifles. What determines my opinion is the +feeling that you belong here; that this place belongs to you already, +as if like a conqueror you had taken possession of this desolate +province, and planted your standard first of all. The rest will surely +follow. I fancy that I see these heaps of stone already growing up into +stately buildings, the fire leaping from the tall chimneys, and these +vacant courts alive with busy workmen; this house changed to a handsome +villa, and you ruling and directing the whole as master and owner. Stay +here, George; the place will bring you good fortune." + +Words like these, from Paula's lips, had for me the force of +irresistible conviction, as the words of a consecrated priestess might +have for her trusting worshippers. Not that I always cheerfully and +willingly acquiesced in her views; it would have been, for example, far +more pleasant to me if Paula had said: "Your lodging is very well +situated for your purposes, it is true; but I would rather have you +nearer to me; I see you now once a week, and I could then see you +twice, or perhaps every day." And then I upbraided myself that I did +not value Paula's desire to advise me always for the best, higher than +all else; but still I could not help wishing that this advice, however +good, had not seemed quite so easy for her to give. + +When I was thus brought to reflect upon my relations with Paula it +could not escape even my inexperience that these relations were +different from what they used to be. One circumstance especially proved +this fact. The boys and I had from the first used to each other the +familiar "thou;" but between Paula and myself the formal "you" had +never been laid aside, not even in those trying days after the death of +her father, when we had hand-in-hand to face the storm which had burst +over us all. Even then, when our hearts were moved to their lowest +depths, and our tears were mingled, the brotherly "thou" had never +risen to our lips. And now she used it to me from the very moment of +our meeting. The evening before I would have deemed it impossible; now, +that it was really so, I could scarcely believe it. Did I feel that the +very thing which made our intercourse easy and unrestrained was at the +same time a strong fetter with which Paula bound my hands? Was it with +that intention or, not? I did not know nor hope ever to know. + +Of course I did not go about tormenting myself with this enigma. +Guessing riddles was a kind of work in which I had no skill, so for the +most part I enjoyed unalloyed the happiness which the friendship of +this noble-hearted girl, and of her amiable family afforded me. Every +moment spent in their society was precious to me, nor could I anywhere +have found more purifying and ennobling influences. + +I do not recall a single instance of the slightest misunderstanding +occurring between the members of this family, or even of one raising +the voice in momentary irritation. In affectionate devotion to their +mother, in chivalrously tender love for their sister, the brothers were +literally one heart and one soul; and if even a shadow of +misunderstanding threatened to fall between them, one word of Paula's, +yes, often a mere glance from her loving eyes, sufficed to banish it. +Now as ever was Paula the good genius of the family, the honored +priestess to whose keeping was committed the sacred flame of the +hearth, the helper, the comforter, the adviser to whom each turned when +he needed aid, consolation or counsel. And with what maidenly grace she +wore this priestly crown! Who that did not know her could have divined +that this delicate creature was not only the moral support of the whole +family, but that this small, slender, diligent hand also provided their +daily bread? Yet this was the fact: indeed it could hardly now be +doubted that she would soon be able to raise her family to a +comparatively brilliant position. Her _Monk and Templar_ had been +purchased by one of the wealthiest bankers at an unusually high price, +and there was already another picture upon her easel which had been +bought at an even higher price before it was begun. + +A picture-dealer--not the one who used to buy at a trifling price those +pictures of Paula's which he afterwards sold to Doctor Snellius for +handsome sums, but one of the first in the city, came to Paula and +asked if she could paint a hunting piece. Just at that time there was a +run on hunting-pieces: Prince Philip Francis had brought them into +fashion, and the nobility had run mad about them, so the Jewish bankers +naturally began to take an interest in hares and foxes. Paula answered +that she had not yet painted a picture of this kind, and did not feel +warranted to undertake the commission; but the dealer was so +importunate, and the price he offered so high--"what do you think of +it?" Paula asked me. "Do you think I can do it?" + +"How can you doubt it?" I replied. "The landscape and the figures will +give you no trouble, and as for the technical part, I can help you, if +you have any difficulty with it." + +"You have told me so many things about your hunter's life with Uncle +Malte," said Paula, "and one scene has especially fixed itself in my +memory. It was in the earlier time of your stay at Zehrendorf, and you +were sitting at breakfast with my uncle on the heath, in the shadow of +a tree which grew on the edge of a hollow; my uncle was enjoying the +repose of the bivouac, when suddenly a hare came in sight on the edge +of the mound. Flinging bottle and glass away, you seized your gun, when +the hare turned out to be a lean old wether grazing on the heath. Would +not that make a picture!" + +"You might try it at all events," I said. + +She tried it, and the attempt, as I had never doubted, succeeded +capitally. Even one who took no interest in the somewhat humorous +character of the incident must at least have been captivated by the +beauty of the landscape. The autumnal sunlight on the brown heath, to +the left the white dunes between which here and there glistened the +blue sea,--all this was painted with a delicious freshness that one +felt invigorated even by looking at it. And the little scene which +comprised the action of the picture was so clearly rendered that no one +could fail to understand it--the elder hunter, lying in the grassy bank +with his hand under his head, only taking the short pipe from his mouth +to laugh at his companion, who with flashing eyes and in the greatest +excitement has half-risen to his knee, and a few paces off the silly +sheep's face looking over the heath, and saluting his over-hasty friend +with a bleat of insulting confidence;--it was enough to bring a smile +upon the face of the gloomiest hypochondriac. Naturally the elder +hunter gradually assumed the features of the Wild Zehren, and the young +novice day by day grew into a likeness of me. + +"I ought not, really, to have introduced you again into one of my +pictures," said Paula, "for two reasons: first, that you may not grow +vain, and secondly that people may not think me barren of all +invention. But in fact I cannot picture the scene to myself without +you, any more than I can without my poor uncle; and I fear if I were to +leave you both out the picture would be a poor one. You must give me +one or two of your Sunday mornings. Of course I know your face well +enough, and could paint it, I think, with any expression; but the +action of a person throwing down a glass with his left hand, and +reaching for his gun with his right, half-raised on his right knee +while the left is still extended, is too complicated for me to paint +without a model." + +Thus it came that for several successive Sunday mornings I spent +delightful hours in Paula's studio. The time never seemed long to us. I +had so frequently gone over the ground of Paula's landscape that I +could describe to her every bush, every tuft of grass, every +peculiarity of the surface, and every effect of light upon the sandy +dunes or the bushy heath. And while I was able thus to be really of use +to the dear girl, it was a sweet reward to me to hear from her own lips +that, if the picture turned out a good one, as she almost believed it +would, it was in great measure owing to me. Then we had so many things +to talk about: my progress in my trade, my increasing knowledge of the +steam-engine, were topics of which Paula could never hear enough. Or +else the question was discussed whether Kurt, who was now in his +sixteenth year, ought to remain longer at school, or commence learning +his trade, and if Streber's works were the right place, and Klaus, who +was now a master-workman, the right master for this richly-gifted +pupil. This led us again to speak of Klaus, what a good-natured and +excellent fellow he was, and of Christel, whether any one would respond +to her inquiry in the Dutch newspapers, and if so, whether this some +one would be a Javanese aunt, as Klaus and Christel firmly maintained, +or a Sumatran uncle. + +So we were chatting together one morning, Paula at her easel, while I +was pacing backwards and forwards at the farther end of the room, with +my hands behind my back. The winter sun shown so brightly that the +light had to be lessened at the high window near which the easel stood, +while at the others it streamed brilliantly in, in clustering beams in +which the motes were dancing. Frau von Zehren was out walking with her +sons. A Sabbath stillness pervaded the house, and when Paula ceased +speaking I felt like Uhland's shepherd, who "alone upon a wide plain +hears the morning bell, and then all is silent, near and far." + +Suddenly the hall-bell rang. + +"I had hoped we should not be troubled with any visitors to-day," I +said with some annoyance. + +"Eminence must pay its penalty," said Paula, jestingly. "Let us only +hope they will not stay too long." + +At this moment the girl opened the door. I stopped my walk, and stood, +stark with amazement, in the background, as I saw two gentlemen enter, +one of whom was Arthur von Zehren, while the other, whom with a polite +bow he had motioned to precede him, awakened in me some faint +recollection which I could not precisely define. + +"I have the honor," said Arthur, after apologizing to his cousin, with +that grace of manner that always belonged to him, for not having called +upon her immediately after his return--"I have the honor to present to +you Count Ralow, whose acquaintance I was so fortunate as to make in +London, and who is a great connoisseur, and an equally great admirer of +your talents." + +"My friend has not described me quite correctly," said the count, +bowing respectfully to Paula. "I am by no means a great connoisseur; +but he is quite right in calling me a great admirer of your talents. I +have seen your picture at the exhibition, and been charmed with it, +like all the world; and as your cousin was presumptuous enough to offer +to present me to you, I could not forego a piece of such singular good +fortune." + +The young man, whose glance now fell for the first time upon the +picture, suddenly started back, but rather with the gesture of one who +is unpleasantly startled than of one who is agreeably surprised. And +well might he be startled, when he suddenly recognized in the hunter by +the willow-tree the Wild Zehren, the man who had only needed an +opportunity to bathe his hands in the blood that flowed in the veins of +Prince Karl of Prora-Wiek. + +It had been now eight years since I had seen him, and in my whole life +I had only seen him twice: once in the dim light of an autumn afternoon +as he flew by me at a rapid gallop, and the second time in the dark +forest by the glimmering moonlight; but the slender figure and the +pale, refined face had impressed themselves indelibly upon my memory. + +"Beautiful!" said the prince. "Admirable! superb! This sunlight, this +heath--I know all this--know it perfectly. I tell you, Zehren, even to +the minutest details it is nature itself! Is it not?" + +Arthur did not answer, for if the confusion of the prince at the first +sight of the picture had surprised him, he entirely lost his presence +of mind when he caught sight of me in the background, where I had been +standing motionless the whole time. I think there were few men whom +Arthur von Zehren would not have preferred to meet in his cousin's +studio just then. + +"Is it not so, Zehren?" the prince repeated, rather impatiently. + +"Certainly; it is perfectly superb: I said so before," replied Arthur, +evidently in doubt whether it would not be best to overlook me +altogether. + +But as his hesitation did not prevent him from casting uneasy glances +at me, which caused the eyes of the prince to turn in the same +direction, the result was that the latter perceived, at the end of the +studio, a tall, broad-shouldered, plainly-dressed young man, with curly +blond beard and hair, whom he had already seen in the character of King +Richard in the picture at the exhibition, and now again saw in the +hunting-piece on the easel. Whom could he suppose that he had before +him but one of those persons who go from studio to studio, now as a +model for Joseph, and now for Pharaoh? And though it is probable that +the prince was by no means addicted to minute observation of models in +artists' studios, at this moment any opportunity of diverting attention +from the unlucky picture was too welcome not to be seized at once. + +"Ah! here is our original for King What's-his-name! A splendid fellow, +whom I should like to see in the regiment of my cousin, Count +Schlachtensee; don't you say so, Zehren?" + +The unlucky Arthur's part of second-fiddle was a hard one to play +to-day. But it was impossible for him, now that I had been brought +directly into the conversation, to pretend, not to know his old +schoolmate, apart from the fact that Paula would hardly have forgiven +such a piece of insolence; and he perceived, moreover, by my looks that +I was malicious enough to enjoy his confusion. Indeed I fear that I +even indulged in a smile whose significance could not escape him, so he +had no alternative--it was highly exasperating, but he really had no +other--but to turn to me with as pleasant a smile as he could force to +his whitened lips, and while toying with his eyeglass, so as to have no +hand free to offer me, to accost me in an affectedly condescending +tone: + +"Ah! see there! are we at last out of the--ahem--again? Congratulate +you--congratulate you with all my heart--upon my honor--ahem!" + +The young prince's looks grew by no means brighter during this singular +salutation of his second. The expression of my face, which he now +observed more closely, and Arthur's evident embarrassment, showed that +there was something wrong here; and at this moment he happened to catch +a glance exchanged between Paula and myself, which probably seemed +another mesh in the net which was here being drawn over his princely +head. But now it seemed to Paula high time to interpose and put an end +to this singular scene. + +"You would have sooner had the pleasure," she said, turning to Arthur, +"of meeting your old schoolmate, if you had found your way to our house +earlier during the fortnight that you have been here; George has been +in the city three months. This gentleman"--she went on, turning to the +prince--"is my oldest and dearest friend, who stood faithfully by me at +a time of great trial, and who now devotes a few hours of his valuable +time to aid my imperfect invention with his advice. I esteem it an +honor to introduce to you Herr George Hartwig." + +At hearing my name the prince changed color and bit his lip, though he +made a great effort to accost the lady's oldest and dearest friend with +a polite phrase. Doubtless he had heard my name too often from +Constance and others, and the associations connected with it were of +too peculiar a character for more amusing and more agreeable +experiences to obliterate it entirely, even from the defective memory +of the young prince. A dim recollection of a tall figure before which +he had once crouched in a dark forest--and then the circumstance that +this man with the broad shoulders and the memorable name stood by the +side of the Wild Zehren in the picture by the hand of Paula von +Zehren,--all this suddenly fitted into one combination. The prince had +to find the meaning of it all, however pleasant it might have been to +have been spared the whole riddle. + +Just at this disagreeable moment, that is to say just at the right +time, the Prince of Prora-Wiek remembered what he owed to himself. The +signs of embarrassment vanished from his face and his manner; he looked +calmly at the picture and at me, comparing the copy with the original, +and said a number of pretty things to Paula, which, if not quite well +considered, and possibly not even well meant, sounded as if they were +both. He hastily glanced at the drawings on the walls, and turned over +the sketches in an open portfolio, declared that the light in the +studio was admirable, and the whole arrangement exquisitely original +and poetic, then remembered that he had been summoned to an audience of +the princess, for which he would be too late if he did not take his +leave at once, and went off with his companion. + +In half a minute we heard the prince's coupé, which had been standing +at the door, drive off, and we looked at each other and laughed, +laughed with great apparent enjoyment, and then suddenly became grave. + +"This is the great annoyance of our calling," said Paula. "Inquisitive +visitors cannot be refused admission; indeed we are expected to be +highly gratified if they come, and then chatter everywhere about our +skill and the subject of our last picture. But, as I said, it is an +annoyance at best; and Arthur might have been more considerate than to +present himself in this fashion after staying away so long. His only +apology is that he meant kindly, and thought he was bringing me a +distinguished and wealthy patron. Certainly, if one may judge by the +exterior, this Count Ralow must be both very distinguished and very +rich." + +"The inference is correct this time, at all events," I said; "and if +you want the proof--it was the young Prince Prora." + +"Impossible!" said Paula. + +"I am sure of it," I replied. "I have seen in the papers that the +prince has lately visited England, where Arthur says he made the +acquaintance of this Count Ralow. But I should have recognized him +without that; and besides, I now remember that the Princes of Prora are +also Counts von Ralow." + +"I am glad to hear it," said Paula, "though I should have preferred to +make the acquaintance of the prince under his proper title." + +"I consider this incognito a piece of rudeness. Why can he not call +upon you as he does upon the princess? But the real impertinence lies +in his coming here at all. The former lover of Constance had no +business to present himself to Constance's cousin. I felt all this +strongly enough at the time, Paula; but I also felt that your house and +your apartment were not the place to discuss these matters." + +"I thank you for your considerateness," said Paula, taking my hand in +hers. "I saw in your eyes that you were placing a restraint upon +yourself about something. Men best prove their respect for women when +they do not suffer any storms of this kind to break loose in their +presence; and as to this matter, I beg of you to dismiss it from your +thoughts. You have suffered far too much from it already; it is time +you had rid yourself of it once for all." + +"Yes, if that were only possible," I said; and then I told Paula, what +I had never mentioned to her before, about my meeting at the exhibition +with the beautiful Bellini, who had so striking a resemblance to +Constance. "I have certainly no reason to cherish any love for +Constance," I said; "on the contrary, I can meet her seducer without +the slightest feeling of hatred or revenge; and yet the image of that +beautiful woman follows me everywhere, and it could not be otherwise +had I seen Constance herself. Now why is this?" + +"Constance was your first love," Paula answered, "and that makes a +difference with men." + +"With men, Paula? Do you mean that with women it is otherwise?" + +"I do mean that," she replied. "A woman's first love differs from a +man's, and exceeds it. Exceeds it in proportion as a man is more to a +woman than a woman to a man." + +"What kind of new philosophy do you call that?" + +"It is no new philosophy: at least it is as old as my thoughts upon +these matters, which is no very great age, it is true." + +A faint flush tinged her usually pale cheeks, but it seemed that +altogether she was not displeased that we had fallen upon this theme, +and she continued with some animation: + +"A man's life is more full of change, richer in deeds and events, than +a woman's; and for this reason individual impressions, even the +strongest, do not remain so long with them. They have so many new and +more important things to record on the tablet of their life that they +are obliged from time to time to efface the old writing with the sponge +of forgetfulness. With us women it is altogether different: we do not +willingly efface a word which sounds sweetly to our ears, much less a +line, much less a whole page of our poor life. And then even when a man +has an unusually tenacious memory, he can not act and choose as he +will: the stronger and manlier his nature, the more does he act and +choose as he must. And he must choose suitably to his age and +circumstances--to use another phrase, suitably to his development. The +man of twenty-five differs from the youth of nineteen far otherwise +than the woman of twenty-five differs from the girl of nineteen; and +the man of thirty-five again is another man. If the man of twenty-five +or thirty-five should make the same choice as the youth of nineteen--I +mean such a choice as youth makes, romantically unselfish and +inconsiderate--he would commit a folly, in my eyes at least." + +"How did you come to be so selfish and practical, Paula?" I inquired, +in laughing astonishment. + +"One grows so, I suppose," she said, taking up palette and brushes, and +beginning to work. + +"It may be as you say," I said, "when one, as has been your case, +passes through a marked process of development; so that the laws which +you have just laid down as governing us men are very possibly +applicable to yourself. I knew you when you were but fifteen, and you +were then a beginner in your art; now, at two-and-twenty, you are an +artist, and at five-and-twenty you will be a distinguished one. In your +case it is intelligible enough that the Paula of to-day has no longer +those romantic illusions--to the future Paula, alas, I cannot venture +to raise my thoughts." + +"You are jesting, and cruelly too," she said; "and your good face has +not the expression that I could wish it to wear at this moment." + +"I do not jest at all," I answered emphatically. "I perfectly +understand that your claims upon life must rise higher with every +year--I might say with every picture you produce." + +"Are you really speaking in earnest?" + +"Perfectly so; do you not wish to become a great artist?" + +"Assuredly," she replied; "but is that within a woman's power? How many +out of the hundreds and thousands of inspired girls and women who have +turned to the easel or the desk have become great artists? Upon the +stage they may; but I have often questioned whether the dramatic art be +a true art, or rather a half-art, in which half-talents can reach the +highest eminence. And those who are called actors of genius, what are +they in comparison with men of true genius in art, in literature, in +music? As far beneath them as I am beneath Raphael. And what have I +produced so far? Two or three passable heads; a striking scene or so, +which I took directly from the life; recollections from books; Richard +C[oe]ur de Lion, the Monk--where in these is an original invention, a +single trace of real genius? And what is this picture here? What have I +done towards it? Little more than mix the colors; the rest is all of +your invention. You told me how the sunlight falls in the sandy dunes, +how the wind waves the heads of the heath-flowers; you----" + +"But Paula, Paula, you talk as if I were painting your picture, and as +if you could paint no picture without me." + +"And I have painted none without you: there you see my miserable +poverty." + +I could not see with what expression she pronounced these words, for +she had bent her face down to her easel. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +Since her success at the exhibition Paula had been overwhelmed with +invitations, and she had accepted one for this day from the banker +Solomon, the purchaser of the _Monk and Templar_. So I was left with +Frau von Zehren and her sons. Yet Paula was present with us all, and +with none more than her poor mother who was bereft of the pleasure of +seeing her daughter's works. + +"But all that she has she has from you, mother," said Benno; "and she +knows that herself better than any of us." + +"Then she has it from her grandfather," said Frau von Zehren. "He was +really a great artist: what I might have done I cannot say. +Unfortunately it was never granted me to develop the talent that I had; +but how can I say unfortunately? If it is true, as you say, that +Paula's talent is mine, then her success is my success, and thus I +perform the miracle of becoming a great painter with blind eyes." + +A gentle smile played about the refined lips of the still beautiful +woman, and as shortly afterwards I retraced my steps homewards through +the dark streets her face continually recurred to my memory. She must +in her youth have been even more beautiful than Paula, though Paula's +beauty had wonderfully increased. How superbly indignation and shame +contended in her features as that coxcomb of a prince strutted about +her studio without the slightest idea of how impertinent he was, and +probably fancying all the time that he was making himself unspeakably +agreeable. + +This meeting with the prince who had been my favored rival with +Constance, and with Arthur, whom I had so long believed to be the +favored lover of Paula, gave me much matter for reflection, more indeed +than was advantageous for the progress of my work, to which I had +applied myself on my arrival home. As I recalled the refined and +handsome but sadly worn face of the young prince, his eyes now vacant, +now burning with unnatural fire, the twitchings of his brow and cheeks, +his manner, at once insinuating and supercilious, I felt more and more +indignant that Arthur should have dared to introduce such a man into +Paula's house. What, at best, could be his motive for seeking the +introduction? The gratification of ordinary curiosity. And at worst? I +ground my teeth to think of the horrible possibility. My only +consolation was that my fear that Arthur might have won, or yet win, +Paula's affections, now appeared in all its absurdity. Clearly such a +fop as he could never be dangerous to such a girl as Paula; though fop +as he was, he was wonderfully handsome, the perfect model of an elegant +gentleman in irreproachable kid gloves and varnished boots; a little +vacant, perhaps, about the mouth, adorned with a slight black beard, +and a little hollow under the large dark eyes that had lost all their +brilliancy. It is possible that for certain women this rendered him all +the more dangerous; but what had Paula in common with such? + +Then my thoughts wandered from the prince, whom I had seen again so +unexpectedly, to the fair Bellini who so singularly resembled +Constance; and I pushed back my chair, stepped to the window, which +Paula's kindness had furnished with dark curtains, and leaning my +heated brow against the glass looked out, in dreary musing, into +the yard, across which I observed a figure coming through the +freshly-fallen snow, directly to the house. My thoughts involuntarily +recurred to the figure I had once seen stealing by moonlight across the +lawn to Constance's window. Was it the prince? What brought him to me? +The figure came to the stair that led up from the yard, and began to +ascend the steps. I took the lamp from the table to give light to the +visitor, whoever he might be. As I opened the door of my room he was +just entering the house, and the light of my lamp fell brightly on the +face of Arthur von Zehren. + +"Thank heaven that I have found you at last, and without breaking my +legs or my neck!" he cried upon seeing me. "How can any man in his +senses live in such a place? But you always were an original. And +really you seem comfortably fixed for a machinist, or whatever it was +that the fellow at the gate called you,"--and Arthur, who had entered +the room as he spoke, threw himself into the arm-chair which I had +pushed near the fireplace, and held his gloved hands over the coals. + +I remained standing by the fire, and said: "What procures me the +pleasure of seeing you for the second time today?" + +"The pleasure does not seem to be overwhelming, to judge from your +tone; and in fact I should scarcely have come had not the prince--I +mean to say, had not I--what was I going to say? oh, yes--had a bit of +business to settle with you. While you were--you know where--you were +several times so obliging as to help me out of some small difficulties. +I took exact note of it all, for a man who owes as many people as I do +must be particular in these matters to keep his creditors from +swindling him. Of course I had nothing of the sort to fear from you; +but out of mere habit I took a note of it, and this is the amount, +without the interest, which I cannot calculate, and therefore would +rather leave off--a hundred and sixty _thalers_. I happen to be in +funds just now, and it is a pleasure to me to acquit myself of my debt +to you." + +And rising from his chair he counted down a pile of treasury-notes on +the table. + +"Will you count them over?" he continued; "I have just come from a +dinner where we had famous champagne, and a charming little game +afterwards; and it is quite possible that I may have miscounted them." + +He looked at me with a smile that was meant to be sly, and balanced +himself unsteadily on his toes and heels: it was too evident that he +had come from a dinner at which the champagne had not been spared. + +"What I was going to say," he went on--"your lamp burns so dim that one +can hardly collect his ideas--going to say, was this: it was with the +very best motive that he sent me here. He is the noblest fellow +living--heart and purse--all genuine gold, as long as he has any. So +you need not have any scruple, old fellow. And I was going to say--oh, +in what relation did you ever stand to the prince? He told me himself +that he was under an obligation to you; but what it can be is a +mysterious enigma to me--a mysterious enigma," he repeated, leaning +back in the arm-chair into which he had thrown himself again, and +warming his feet alternately at the fire. + +"You do not seem to be in a condition to solve enigmas," I said. + +"Because I have had a little wine, you mean? Oh, that is nothing at +all; on the contrary, but for that I should never have found my way +here, notwithstanding I took the precaution this morning to get your +address from Paula's porter. Was not that a happy idea? But one must +always be ready in matters of that kind when one wishes to be intimate +with men of high rank; and he takes an interest in you, too--a most +astonishing interest." + +I had by this time enough of his tipsy talk, and said: "I do not know, +Arthur, if you are in a condition to understand me. If you are, let me +tell you once for all, that I am fortunately in a position not to care +a single farthing whether Prince Prora takes an interest in me or not; +and you yourself, as far as I can see, would be doing yourself a +service by mixing yourself as little as possible in the prince's +concerns, in this direction at least." + +"Thank you," said Arthur, "but that I foresaw. You are a lucky fellow; +you need no one, and are sufficient for yourself. Always sober, always +prudent, always clear-headed, and always in funds; while a fellow like +me is forever in some devilish embroilment. But so it always has been +and always will be. I have often wished I had been the son of a carter, +had been beaten and knocked about, and forced to work for my bread, +instead of this glittering misery, in which I starve one day and live +in luxury the next. It is a misery, old fellow, a misery; but the best +thing is that one can blow his brains out whenever he chooses." + +I knew this declamation of old. It was the same, with but a slight +alteration of the words, which Arthur used to deliver in our +school-days when he had drunk too much of the bad punch at a boyish +carouse, and got to talking of his unpaid glove bills and his little +dealings with Moses in the Water-street. And it was the same Arthur, +too, the same frivolous, selfish, cold-hearted voluptuary, with the +soft voice and the insinuating manners; and I--I was just the same +good-natured fellow, whom a light word carelessly spoken could move as +if it came direct from the heart. And I had loved him in my young days, +when I wore a linen blouse and he a velvet jacket; we had played so +many merry pranks together, and so often basked in the afternoon +sunshine in field and wood, and in the boat at sea; and things like +these cannot be forgotten--at least I never could forget them. + +"Arthur," I said, "_must_ you then always be in trouble and distress? +Could it not be otherwise if you chose? A man like you, with so much +talent, so much tact, such engaging manners----" + +"And such a father!" cried Arthur, with a laugh that went to my heart. +"Do you suppose that one can do anything with such a father, who +compromises me every moment--every moment places me in the pillory, or +at least keeps me in perpetual fear that he will do it?" + +"I would never speak thus of my father, Arthur," I said. + +"I suppose not," he answered. "You never had reason to: if I had had +such a father as yours I would be a different man. But my father! Here +he runs from this man to that, and begs for me a sort of position in +our legation at London, and a few weeks later he goes round to the very +same men and begs for himself; and the result is that they don't want +in the London legation the son of a man whom they have to shut their +door upon at home; and if I had not in London made the acquaintance of +Prince Prora, who most kindly took an interest in me, I should not know +how to pay for my cup of coffee to-morrow morning." + +"Arthur," I said, "I believe you need the money more than I do. Suppose +you take it back to the prince, for it comes from the prince, as you +might as well confess--and say to him from me that I neither need it +nor desire it, and request that it may be given to you. As for our +little account, that we can settle when you really are in funds." + +"You dear old George!" cried Arthur, springing up and seizing my hand. +"You are the same dear fellow you always were; I intended it for you, +but if you don't need it--" and he hastily clutched up the notes which +he had so carefully counted, and thrust them into his breast pocket. + +"Cannot the prince open some definite career to you?" I asked. + +"The prince!" he replied. "Bah! you remind me of the game the young +girls used to play when we were children--Emilie Heckepfennig, Elise +Kohl, and whatever their names were--the game of the meal-pile, into +which a ring was stuck, and each one of the girls cut away in turn a +part of the pile, and then more, and then a little more, until down +fell the meal-pile, and the little snub-noses went to rooting in it for +the ring. That is the very image of the man: everyday one charming hand +or another cuts away a portion of the meal-pile that is called Prince +Karl of Prora-Wiek, and before long down the pile will tumble; it leans +over now, I can tell you," and Arthur buttoned up his overcoat, and +drew on again his right glove, which he had pulled off to count the +money. + +"I should be sorry to know that, if I were, as you are, a friend of the +young man." + +"Friend?" said he, lighting a cigar at the lamp. "Friend? pah! I am as +little his friend as he is mine. He needs me, because--well, he needs +me, and I need him; and whoever first ceases to need the other will +give him a friendly kick; only I imagine I shall need him longer than +he me, or than his lungs will hold out, which I suspect are more than +half gone already." + +Arthur had put on his hat, and as he stood before me, and the light +fell upon his handsome, pale, smiling face, I felt a sharp pang of +sorrow for him, which he probably perceived in my looks, for he began +to laugh heartily, and said: + +"What a doleful face you are making, as if I were on my way direct to +the gallows, and not to the Albert Theatre to see the fair Bellini who +makes her _début_ to-night. And afterwards a supper at Tavolini's with +her, if we can manage it. You see my life has its bright sides, for +all. Good-by, old raven!" + +And he nodded familiarly to me, and lounged out of the door, which he +forgot to close behind him. + +I closed it, and put fresh coals on the half-extinguished fire, trimmed +the light, and sat down at my table, and said as I opened my books: "It +is very singular that a young prince should take such an interest in a +poor blacksmith. Bah! I should be a fool to let such people move me +from my path." + +But though I strove to be wise, and to banish from my thoughts the +folly of the world, it kept drawing as by some magnetic power my +thoughts away from the dry formulas to bright life, of which I had +caught, as it were, a glimpse in the opening and closing of the door. +Gay enough was the scene; a table covered with half-emptied bottles and +the dainties of a dessert, and around the table a half-dozen jovial +faces ruddy with the wine, and mine among them, glowing with wine and +pleasure brighter than all the rest, since I was so much stronger than +they that I could have drunk them all under the table, and I sang a +bacchanalian song, and they all clapped and stamped, with cries of +_Bravo_! _Encore_! + +I passed my hand across my brow. What insane dream was this? What had +the solitary workman to do with things which had been invented only for +rich idlers? Here was the work to which I had devoted myself; it was a +jealous mistress, and I could, not divide my affection between it and +the fair Bellini. + +I sprang up, and I believe I struck my forehead with my clenched fist +without producing any perceptible result. There she stood in my +imagination just as she looked when, going out of the door, she turned +round to take another look at the picture--the woman who so resembled +Constance--the actress who made her first appearance to-night. And in +a box close to the stage would be sitting the young prince with his +boon-companions, staring through their opera-glasses at the fair +Bellini, while I sat here by the comfortless light of a lamp, in a +chilly room, with burning head and freezing hands, putting down upon +paper long rows of figures which would lead to no result. + +I do not know by what steps the evil thought that had arisen in my soul +suddenly mastered my will; I only know that a few minutes later I was +hastening through the dark snow-covered streets, and soon arrived, +breathless, at the ticket-office of the Albert Theatre. Every place was +taken the box-keeper assured me, but in the lowest proscenium-box on +the right there was a standing-place. + +"Give me that, then." + +The man looked at me with surprise; he had mentioned the fact as a mere +piece of information without the slightest intention of offering it to +me, whose place was evidently in the pit or gallery. He looked +doubtfully at me; but he had shown me the ticket and could not now deny +it, so he put the best face on it he could, and let the plebeian pass +to the aristocratic box. + +The box was entirely full with the exception of the place I had taken, +which was in the furthest corner, on the side that looked toward the +stage, so that I could see but a small portion of the latter, but could +look into the depth of one of the wings, and had a view of the opposite +proscenium-box, and of so much of the audience as occupied the extreme +places in the various tiers. + +When I took possession of this enviable place a couple of +elegantly-curled heads looked around to see the disturber, and then +exchanged remarks of a nature apparently not flattering to me; but as I +had not the look of one who could be unceremoniously shown the door +they left me unmolested, and I was allowed to give myself up to that +delight which a feeling heart can find in the contemplation of an empty +proscenium-box, and a side-scene in which a dozen painted ladies and +gentlemen in Spanish costume were apparently only waiting the +prompter's signal to step upon the stage. The signal was given. The +Spanish ladies and gentlemen marched in couples out of the wing, and I +observed one or two in the extreme foreground taking their places upon +chairs. Then I heard a tumult upon the stage, as if from a throng +crowding in, and the chorus broke forth-- + + + "Hail, Preciosa, maiden most fair; + Twine ye fresh flowers to garland her hair!" + + +During this chorus castanets clicked and tambourines resounded: there +was applause upon the stage, all crying "Hail to Preciosa!" and as if +the cry had found an echo, the whole house, from pit to gallery, burst +into a shout of "Brava! Brava!" and I saw the men applauding like mad, +and the ladies straining forward to see better, and it seemed as if +their rapture would have no end. At last they were quieted a little, +and one of the Spanish gentlemen upon the chairs in the foreground, who +was called--I think, Don Fernando--said to another: "By heaven, a +lovely girl!" and the other--Don Francisco--answered: "An enchanting +little beauty, indeed!" and at this the shouts and the bravas and the +applause burst forth again, as if the house were coming down, so that +the old gypsy mother could scarcely make herself heard when she +asked if it was the gentlemen's pleasure to hear a song from her +grand-daughter Preciosa. + +Don Fernando asked for "something describing the happiness of a child +in the arms of its loving parents." The voice of Don Alonzo, whom I +could not see--a voice vibrating as if with passion--pronounced it "a +cruel thoughtlessness to ask an orphan to sing of joys which heaven had +denied her." Don Fernando expressed his regret that he had hit upon so +ill-chosen a theme; but Don Francisco interrupted him with the words: +"Hush, she is about to sing; she begins--" Then a momentary pause, and +then---- + +I had followed all these preliminaries with an intense expectation +which could have been shared by none in the house. I knew nothing of +the piece, had never even heard of it, that I know, but a sort of +instinct revealed to me everything that, invisible to me, was going on +upon the stage; and I knew that the moment had now come in which she +who took the part of Preciosa would speak for the first time. But a few +seconds elapsed between the last words of the old Don Francisco and the +first words of Preciosa, and yet they seemed to me an age. A wondrous +intuition seized me that it was certainly _she_, and my heart beat +wildly at the thought, when the first sound of her voice reached my +ear, and my head sank against the side of the box as I involuntarily +gasped, "It is she!" + +The ear has a faithful memory, more faithful perhaps than that of any +other sense; and the ear it was that had drawn me into my passion for +Constance von Zehren when in the evening I stood at the open window and +listened to catch the sound of her voice when I might no longer see +her, though it were but a word to her old servant. And sometimes I +caught the notes of those songs which her deep, rich voice poured forth +with such matchless melody. Yes; it was herself, Constance von Zehren, +the daughter of the proudest of the proud, the kinswoman of Paula, an +actress here upon the stage of a suburb-theatre! + +How strangely the times had changed! A sadness seized me, and I could +have wept; I wished to be away, for it seemed to me a crime against the +memory of my unhappy friend that I should listen here to what would +have been so horrible to him; but I could not go; I stood as if +spellbound, my head leaned against the partition, without motion and +almost without breathing; I stood thus during Preciosa's improvisation, +and scarcely moved when the curtain fell and the storm of applause +broke forth more furious than ever. + +There was a movement in my box. A young lady, who found the high +temperature of the box more than her nerves could endure, had fainted, +or was about to faint, and was conducted out by two elder ladies, +followed by several young gentlemen of the party. In this way some +half-dozen seats were left vacant, which were at once taken by those +who remained. And thus it happened that when the curtain again rose, +besides the left wing I could now also see a part of the gypsy camp +under the Spanish cork-trees, and one or two members of the respectable +gypsy family, who were reclining about the great kettle under which a +fire was flickering. The captain and Viarda have determined to go to +Valencia. They are only waiting for Preciosa, who is wandering alone in +the woods. The gypsies scatter in various directions; for a moment the +stage is empty, and then I saw her as I had seen her before. + +As I had seen her on that autumn morning under the beeches of +Zehrendorf, through whose lightly-waving branches the golden sunlight +fell upon her; a slender, deep brunette, in a strangely fantastic dress +of green velvet with golden braidings, her beloved guitar by her side. +Just as she was then--as if the years that had flown had left no trace +upon her, nor been able to steal one of the dark roses from her cheeks, +or quench the lustre of her radiant eyes. And just as then my heart +palpitated, and I could scarcely breathe as she began to descend the +rocks under the lofty trees as she before came down the mossy bank to +the tarn where I was standing, and sitting upon a mossy bank at the +foot of the rocks, and raising her voice--that soft rich voice of which +my heart remembered every tone--she sang: + + + "Lone I am, but am not lonely; + When the moonbeams round me glide, + One loved presence hovers near me, + One dear form is at my side." + + +Just so I had heard her voice in those balmy moonlight nights, floating +to me from the glimmering park, and the memory of those happy days +completely overcame me. My throat seemed compressed, my heart beat +violently, hot tears burst from my eyes and hid her and everything from +my sight. + +The thunder of applause with which the public greeted the close of the +_romanza_ recalled me to myself. I saw that she bowed, and prepared to +obey their repeated calls; I saw the leader raise his baton, and heard +the first notes of the charming melody, + + + "Lone I am, but am not lonely----" + + +when suddenly a tumult occurred in the theatre. All eyes were turned +upon the lower proscenium-box on the left, directly opposite to me, +into which at this moment a party of young gentlemen, elegantly +dressed, and with heated faces, as if they had just been dining, +entered noisily, and seated themselves upon the two front rows of +chairs. In the left-hand corner a young man took his place, who seemed, +by the attentions the rest paid him, to be the most distinguished among +them. His right hand, in a yellow glove, hung indolently over the front +of the box, and his face was turned to one of his companions. The +threatening hisses of the audience did not disturb him as he conversed +half aloud, and he only turned his head when the singer suddenly +paused. At this moment I recognized Prince Prora, and plainly saw him +change color as he caught sight of Preciosa. She had recognized him at +the first glance, and the blood forsook her cheeks and her voice failed +her. Suddenly she arose from her seat, as if intending to hasten off +the stage; then stopped, as if about to faint, and pressed her hand +upon her heart. The audience imagined that their favorite--for this the +beautiful girl had at once become--was so deeply hurt by the rude +behavior of these aristocratic young gentlemen that she could not sing, +and they began to hiss more loudly--to cry "Silence!" and even "Turn +out the aristocrats! turn out the yellow gloves!" + +The young prince looked around with the expression of one whom the +matter did not concern in the least, but his companions felt called +upon to do more: they laughed loudly, bowed with ironical politeness, +and openly scorned the audience, who now seemed disposed to carry their +threats into execution. Several Hotspurs were clambering over the backs +of the seats towards the box, when suddenly the singer, who had been +standing with her eyes riveted upon it, gave a cry, dropped her guitar, +and would have fallen had not Don Fernando, in whom I recognized her +companion at the exhibition, rushed out of the wing and caught her in +his arms. At the same moment the curtain fell. I hastened out of the +box, not knowing what I was doing nor where I was going, and only +recovered myself when the icy-cold air of the winter night blew in my +burning face. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +I do not know how many hours I passed in wandering thus through the +streets: I have only a dim remembrance of great blocks of houses rising +dark into the gray of the night; of flakes of snow fluttering down from +this gray into the yellow light; of vehicles rolling past me almost +without sound, over the fresh-fallen snow; and figures that glided by +me with heads down, sheltering themselves as they best could from the +snow-storm. + +There were not many of these latter, for every one sought a shelter +from the bad weather. Those who were out in it were those who had no +choice, such as the unhappy creatures who with pale lips murmured to +the passers-by words intended to sound warm and inviting. + +One of these unfortunates I thought I saw before me, as wandering +through a wide street in the most distinguished quarter I reached one +of the small palaces, before the door of which just then drove up at a +sharp trot a carriage drawn by two fiery horses, and throwing around a +bright light from both its lamps. In the light of these lamps stood the +girl, crouching close to the wall, and I saw that at the moment when +the equerry sprang from the box and helped his master out of the +carriage she advanced a step and extended her arm from her cloak, as if +she wished to stop the latter as he descended. But he had pulled the +fur collar of his cloak up around his face, and as he rapidly hurried +up the steps did not see the girl. The door, which had given a sight of +a brilliantly-lighted hall, closed behind master and servant; the +coachman touched his spirited animals lightly with the whip, the +carriage rolled away and vanished into the open gate of an adjoining +building. + +No one remained without but myself, the poor girl, and the snow-flakes +still fluttering down from the darkness into the yellow light of the +lamps. The girl came towards me and passed me by. It was plain that she +did not see me, but I saw her as the light of one of the lamps struck +upon a face distorted by mental anguish. + +"Constance!" I exclaimed. + +She suddenly stopped and stared at me with her glowing black eyes. + +"Constance!" I repeated, "do you not know me? It is I--George----" + +"My dragon-slayer, who was to kill all the dragons in my path! Why have +you not killed that one--that one!" and she laughed a frightful laugh, +and pointed to the door which had closed on Prince Prora. + +Her cloak was loose and fluttering in the icy wind, and I saw she was +still in the costume of Preciosa. She must have rushed off the stage +into the street. The snow-flakes were driving into her fevered face. + +"Poor Constance!" I murmured, and wrapped the cloak closer around her +shoulders, drew her arm in mine, anxious first of all to lead her from +this place. She willingly followed me, and we walked thus through the +long, wind-swept streets, I looking down from time to time at the poor +girl, who clung even closer to me, and asking her in a compassionate +tone how she was, and whither I should take her. + +I had several times repeated these questions without receiving an +answer, when she suddenly stopped, and murmured with pale lips--"I can +go no further!" It seemed to me that she was on the point of fainting. +I was in the greatest embarrassment. There was not a public conveyance +to be seen anywhere in the street, and in our objectless flight we had +wandered far from the fashionable quarter where, upon my repeated +inquiries, she informed me that she lodged. But it so happened, I know +not how, that we had strayed into the neighborhood of my own lodging, +and I thought it the best, indeed the only thing I could do, to take +her there. "You can at least remain there long enough to warm yourself, +while I get a carriage to take you home." Without answering a word she +followed me. I had the key of the outer door, so that I did not need to +disturb the old watchman; and his dog, that came growling up to us, as +soon as he recognized me, leaped about me, wagging his tail. + +I congratulated myself that I had hit upon this expedient, for +Constance hung heavily upon my arm, and I had almost to carry her +across the yard and up the steps to my room. And when we had reached +the room, and by the dim light of the fire I had led her to the +arm-chair, and lighted my lamp, I saw that her eyes were vacant of +expression and half-closed, while a deep pallor overspread her whole +face. + +My confusion in a situation so new for me was less than I should have +supposed. I had no other thought than as promptly as possible to assist +one who was in such urgent need of assistance. I stirred the fire until +it blazed brightly; I took off her cloak, now saturated with the melted +snow, and wrapped her in a plaid; I folded a coverlid around her feet, +and warmed her cold hands in my own. Then it occurred to me that +probably a cup of tea, which I could prepare in a moment, would be of +service; so I got out the tea-things from my cupboard, boiled the water +in a tin kettle over my fire, and poured her out a cup of the +refreshing beverage, not forgetting first to add a little good cognac. +She drank it eagerly; I offered her a second cup, which she also drank. + +The warm drink seemed to have greatly revived her: she looked at the +pictures on the walls, at the furniture, and last at me, and said, +reaching out to me her small hand, in which the warm life began to +pulsate again, "How good you are! how good! You are the best creature I +have ever known. How much happier might my life have been had you come +to our house a few months earlier: you good, good George!" + +It was again the Constance of those old times: the same fascinating +prattle in the same soft melodious voice: and I, who knew so well what +confidence to place in all this kindness and gentleness, stood like the +great oaf that I was, my whole soul thrilled by the sweet, unforgotten +tones, and trembling from head to foot at the touch of her soft hand. +But my reason made an effort to obtain the supremacy once for all. I +drew my hand from hers, stepped back to the fireplace, and said, while +with great apparent calmness I was warming my hands behind my back: + +"You are very kind; but your kindness must not make me forget that I +have undertaken to see you safely home. If you are so disposed, and +feel sufficiently recovered, I will now go for a carriage." + +"You are still angry with me," she said, leaning back in the chair and +looking up to me under her long lashes. "Why are you angry? What have I +done to you? What have I done that another in my place would not have +done? For my love I gave reputation, home, myself: was I to bear so +tender a solicitude for the feelings of a youth, who scarcely knew +himself what those feelings were? Did you love me? Did you ever love +me?" she repeated, springing up and looking into my eyes. "You never +loved me. You could not else stand so calmly there, and you are not +worth the regret it cost me to play off that little deception on you. +Do you know that I was so childish as never entirely to get over it? +That your friendly face with its honest eyes looked continually in upon +my dreams, and drew from me tears of remorse? You, of all men, have +least right to be angry with me." + +And she threw herself back in the chair, and defiantly folded her arms +over her breast. + +"Who said that I was angry with you?" I replied. + +"You must be angry," she returned with a sort of violence. "I will have +you angry: should I wish you to despise me? There is no third case +possible. The third would be indifference; and I am not indifferent to +you, am I, George? Not indifferent, though you are now making an +amazing effort to appear so. When two persons have once stood as near +to each other as we two, and are connected by such recollections as +ours, they can never entirely lose each other in the desert of +indifference. Do you know that some weeks ago, when I saw a likeness of +you in the exhibition, I was startled as if I had seen a ghost, and +could not bring myself away from it, and afterwards I returned to it +again and again, and wept many tears at the thought of you? Then I saw +by the catalogue that it was painted by my cousin, and I made a pair of +you both, a happy pair, and blessed you in my inmost heart. Now indeed +I see that it is otherwise. What are you? What are you doing! How did +you come to this strange place?" and she looked again around the room. + +"I am a simple workman," I answered; "a blacksmith in a neighboring +machine-shop." + +"Blacksmith!--machine-shop!--what do you say? Who would have said this +that afternoon when I saw you setting out for the hunt with the others, +in high hunting-boots and a short velvet coat, with your gun and +game-pouch, so tall and stately, the tallest and stateliest of all! +What would my father have said? You always sided with him--perhaps you +do so still; but believe me, he did not deal well with me; and if I am +to blame, and am an outcast and accursed, it all, all falls upon his +head. Do you know that the old Prince Prora, when my father grew +indignant at his refusal, flung in his face the taunt: 'My son cannot +marry your bastard, nor can I fight with a smuggler!' My father sprang +at him and would have strangled him--as if that could restore his honor +or mine! And you see, George, of all this I knew nothing: I first +learned it from Kar--from _him_ when he proposed to abandon me in a +foreign country. Can a man know what it is to a girl, when she has +loved a man, be he worthy or unworthy--given herself to him wholly, +staked her all upon him, like a desperate gamester upon a single +card--to be thrust out by him into wretchedness, with mockery and +shame? Not into common wretchedness, such as seeks a subsistence by the +light of a poor working-lamp, or in the glare of the street-lanterns--I +was always surrounded by splendor and luxury, and the Marchese of Serra +di Falco was as much richer than he as sunny Sicily is fairer than our +foggy native island. And yet it was wretchedness--boundless, glittering +wretchedness--which no woman escapes who is deceived in her love, +whatever the compensation that may be offered her. I tried hate; but +hate is the twin brother of love, and they can not deny their common +parentage. There is but one remedy for love, and that is revenge. +Avenge me on him! You can do it; you are so strong; you have already +once had him in your power--that night when you met him in the woods. +He told me about it and asked who the giant was. Why did you let him +escape? Why did you not strangle him--brain him?--and then come to me +and say, 'I am your lover, for I am stronger than the other,' and take +me in your arms and carry me off? But you men never show us that you +are men, and you wonder then that we play with you! As if we could do +anything else with a creature that we do not see to be stronger than +ourselves, and often so much weaker! Show what you can be--what you +are! Crush the head of this serpent, and I will fall at your feet and +worship you!" + +While thus speaking she had let fall the plaid in which I had wrapped +her and had risen from the chair, and with her last words she sank upon +her knees, holding out her arms to me. The flickering light of the fire +played upon her fantastic gypsy dress, gleamed upon her dark hair which +hung in dishevelled locks over her cheeks and shoulders, and glowed +upon the face which had so fatal a beauty for me. The nameless charm +with which she had at first fascinated me overcame me with all the old +might: my heart beat as if it would burst from my bosom, and feverish +shudders ran over my whole body, but with a vehement effort I collected +myself, stretched out my ice-cold hand and raised her, and said: + +"You apply to the wrong person. Entrust your vengeance upon the prince +to one who has a nearer interest in it: to the young man, for instance, +upon whose arm you were leaning when I saw you in the gallery, and who, +this very evening, if I am not mistaken, was the personage in the play +whom Preciosa made happy with her favor." + +Constance had risen slowly, her eyes ever fixed upon mine, and began to +pace the room with hasty steps, pausing at intervals before me, and +speaking as she walked: + +"How base you men are; how horribly base and unfeeling! Was it for this +reason--to heap these cruel reproaches upon me--that you enticed me +here? Is this your hospitality? Do you think your fire has warmed me +too much, that you now drench me with ice-water? But your heart is so +cold only because your brain is so dull; because, for instance, you +cannot comprehend how a woman who, from childhood up, has been lapped +in visions of future splendor, and has seen her life's dream almost +realized, when this dream at once scatters like light mist, and she, +with her high-wrought feelings and pampered taste, with her cherished +pretensions to beauty and luxury, is about to be given over to a +coarse, commonplace existence--that such a woman of necessity must +catch at the wretched reflection of the brilliant reality that is +irrecoverably gone; that the beloved of princes can afterwards be +nothing else than a stage princess. And not even this pitiful +reflection does he leave me undisturbed! Again he forces himself upon +me, and embitters my poor triumph. But why do I speak of all this to a +man who understands it not, and can never understand it--who has chosen +the happy lot of a modest existence full of labor, and toil, and quiet +sleep?" + +I had thrown myself into the chair from which she had arisen, and she +stood before me, and went on in a strange, soft, trembling voice: + +"If I could only sleep! If I could only sleep! Could I but drink from +the fountain that daily flows for you, and will flow for that happy +woman whom some day you will bring to this peaceful hearth! Could I +banish the fever that here burns me, and here allows me no rest"--she +pointed with these words to her breast and her head--"no rest--none! Oh +to sleep thus, amid the perfumes of rosemary and violets--a sweet sleep +upon a strong, true heart!" + +And as I sat with bowed head, and heart filled with pain, I felt a pair +of soft arms wind about my neck, a swelling bosom pressed to mine, and +a pair of glowing lips that sought my own. Had the dream which the +enamored, passionate boy had dreamed become reality, or was I really +dreaming? And was it only as one who strives to arouse himself from a +dream that I pressed her to me, then sprang to my feet and let her +glide from my arms, and again caught her to my heart? + +The light which had been burning dimly now sank into the socket and +expired, but in the flickering glimmer of the fire I saw the outlines +of the lovely form that clung and pressed down to my breast, and as if +in a dream I heard a voice murmur at my ear: "to sleep sweetly upon a +strong, true heart!" + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +"Are you sick, my dear George?" said Doctor Snellius, entering my room +one evening. + +I had not seen the doctor since we last parted so unpleasantly, and the +visit of the man with the keen spectacles and the keen eyes behind them +was doubly disagreeable to one who wished to avoid the gaze of every +one. He must have noticed my embarrassment, for the tone of his voice +was unusually soft and gentle when he spoke again, after taking his +place by the fire. + +"I knew it from Klaus Pinnow, who perceived that something was amiss +with you, and from Paula, who has perceived nothing because you have +not been near her, and who sends me to you for this reason. What is it, +my friend? Your hand is hot, you look wretchedly, and you have decided +fever. What is amiss?" + +"I feel quite well," I answered--drawing my large hand out of the +doctor's, which was small and delicate as a woman's, and with it +screening my brow and eyes from the sharp spectacles--"perfectly well." + +"You must then have some mental trouble, some great distress, which +affects natures like yours more powerfully than severe sickness does +others. Is it so?" + +"You may be right there," I answered. + +"And can you not tell me what it is?" asked the doctor, drawing nearer +to me, and laying his small hand upon my other hand which rested on my +knee. + +"It is not worth talking about," I answered. "A curious +story--something like one which I have read somewhere or other--about a +young man who loved a beautiful woman who was a witch, and one night as +he stretched out his hand to take hers she had vanished--out of the +chimney--to the Blocksberg--to the devil, I suppose!" + +And I sprang up, paced the room for a few minutes in great agitation, +and then threw myself again into my chair. + +"The story is rather too mystical to build a diagnosis upon," the +doctor remarked, in a kind voice, drawing still nearer, and, as he +could not take my hand, laying his own familiarly upon my knee. + +"Then listen to this: A youth of nineteen loved a beautiful girl of +about the same age--loved her passionately, as one loves at those +years, especially, when solitude and romantic associations heighten the +charm. He was deceived by the girl, and finally shamefully betrayed; +and yet he never could forget her, and in the eight or nine years that +follows his heart palpitated in his breast whenever he thought of her. +And then an accident brought her to him again--just as he had expected +to find her--a lost girl, who had been the mistress of I know not how +many men. He cannot doubt it--indeed she tells him so herself--and yet +while she tells him his heart throbs violently, and in his soul he +longs to join the long train of his predecessors. And when she opens +her arms he hastened to sink upon her breast in which there beats no +heart. He plainly feels that no heart beats there; but a childish, an +insane pity seizes him: he will warm this chilled heart again with the +glow of his burning kisses, with his own heart's blood. And the phantom +drinks his heart's blood--one, two, three nights; and when he wakes in +the third, she has vanished as witches vanish, and the next night he +sees her at the theatre coquetting with a young dandy, who drives home +with her, while outside----" + +"Stands the poor man, and beats his head with his fist, and tears out +his hair by handfuls; we know all about that!" said Doctor Snellius, +and softly patted my knee. "We know all about that," he repeated, +touching me still more softly; "it is painful; but when a jaw-tooth +with three long roots is pulled out, that is painful too, and so is the +setting a broken arm. And I think the poor man whom I have just left is +not in a frame of mind to be envied. It is a poor workman in your +establishment; you doubtless know him; his name is Jacob Kraft, and he +works, if I am not mistaken, in your shop. Well, his wife, a dear good +woman, whom the young fellow had courted for many a long day, nine days +ago bore a dead child, and now she lies dead herself, and by her +bedside kneels poor Jacob and wishes that he had never been born. I do +not think the poor fellow's feelings are to be envied. And young Frau +Müller is not particularly happy either. Her husband left home this +morning, well and cheerful, to go to his work on the new tramway, had +his breast crushed in between two wagons, and will die to-night. +Besides, my friend, we must all die, and 'after nine it will all be +over,' as the manager of the theatre said when the pit hissed." + +"Dying is not so much," I said; "I have more than once in my life +wished to die, and thought it rather a greater thing that I did not, +but kept on living this cursed life." + +"And you did right, my friend," said the doctor. + +"I am not sure," I replied, "if those Romans of whom I heard at school +did not act both nobler and wiselier when they fell upon their swords +so soon as the game was lost." + +"Every one to his taste," said the doctor. "When a horse breaks his leg +we shoot him; but with a man, we set it again; or, if it cannot be +saved, cut it off and buckle on a leg of wood or cork, with which he +hobbles on the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage. You have no idea, +my friend, how little is really necessary to life: hardly more than +head and heart. Yes, scarcely even that. You have, no doubt, yourself +observed how many a man goes through life without a head; and that one +can live with half a heart, or a quarter, I can testify from personal +experience." + +The doctor said this in a low, dejected tone of voice, as if talking to +himself And he went on still, as if talking to himself, softly stroking +my knee, and looking into the fire. + +"Yes! with half a heart. It is not very easy or very pleasant living; +one sometimes feels as if the breast would be crushed, or as if we must +lie down just where we happen to be, and never rise up again. But we do +get up again, and do some good, if not to ourselves to another whose +shoe pinches him somewhere, and whom with our experience and our +cobbler's skill we may possibly help. For, my friend, there are very +few who are able to pull off their shoes, which in truth is not merely +the best but the only way to be rid of all pain. So these people must +be helped; and my life for many years has been but a pondering and +study how this may be done on a large scale; for in a smaller sphere, +as far as very limited private means can reach, I very well know what +is to be done, and do all I can. _Au revoir_, my dear George: I still +have a pair of old shoes to patch and a corn or two to trim." + +Doctor Snellius gave me a friendly slap on the knee, clapped his worn +hat on his bald head, turned in the door to give me an amicable nod, +and left me alone. + +A man not naturally ignoble is perhaps never more disposed or better +fitted to sympathize in other's misfortunes than when he himself has a +heavy sorrow. Thus the horrible treachery which Constance had practiced +upon me opened my eyes and my heart to the doctor's trouble. That the +singular man loved Paula I had never doubted; but as he always draped +his love in a humorous cloak, I, in my simplicity, had never seen how +strong and deep this love was. It seemed to me so evident that this +dwarfish figure, with the misshapen bald head and the grotesquely ugly +face, could never be loved by a beautiful slender maiden, as one looks +upon it as a matter of course that a man who goes on crutches cannot +dance upon the tight-rope. Now for the first time I saw what this man +must have suffered through all these years--the man who, not without +reason, and assuredly not without a reference to himself, said that a +man to live scarcely required more than a head and a heart. And then I +compared him, the stoical sufferer, with myself, and asked myself if +he, the pure, the good, the noble, did not better deserve Paula's love +than I, for this good fortune had always seemed to me a kind of +miracle, of which I had ever felt myself unworthy, but never so +unworthy as now. + +Perhaps more than one youth of eighteen, who may read these lines, will +smile compassionately, in the consciousness of his maturer experience, +at the man of twenty-eight, who took such a trifle so deeply to heart. +But he should consider that I had grown up among the simplest +associations, had been eight years in prison, and now since I had lived +in the city had employed all my time in carrying out my determination +to be a good machinist. How could I have accumulated the experience of +my wise censor? How could I know that love-troubles of this kind are to +a man of the world what scars are to a brigand--not only honorable in +his own eyes and those of his companions, but also in the eyes of the +fair whose grace and favor he counts upon winning? I was but a great +boy with all my twenty-eight years; I confess it with contrition, and +beg my wise friend of eighteen to have patience with me. + +Perhaps he will find this a difficult task, when he learns that I +carried my folly so far as to feel convinced that I had given myself to +the fair sinner, body and soul, forever, and that it was my duty +henceforth to live for her; to save her if I could, to perish with her +if I must; and that I felt myself nowise released from this obligation +and free once more, when she wrote me a delicate little perfumed +billet, saying that I was still as ever her good George, whom she loved +dearly, but that she could not live with me, and had no wish to be +saved by me, far less to perish with me. + +But in my own eyes I was and remained a condemned criminal, severed +from the companionship of the good and pure. Never for me should the +flame glow on the domestic hearth, never a pure woman make me happy +with her hand, never laughing children play around my knees. The curse +with which unkind Nature had smitten the good doctor--the curse of +never being loved as his heart yearned to be--I had in my folly invoked +upon myself; and thus nothing remained for me but, like him, to +renounce individual love, and, like him, to draw comfort and solace +from the overflowing fountain of love for suffering humanity. + +I was able to see, later, that the doctor, as wise as he was skilful, +judged pretty accurately of my condition, and took a far less tragical +view of it than I did. But the state of my thoughts and feelings at the +moment fitted very well with his purposes. For years he had looked upon +me as his pupil, and he might do so in more than one light. He had a +great scheme in view in which he counted on his pupil's assistance, and +this, in his opinion, was one step necessary to success. + +I had always known that the worthy man, although he constantly +maintained that while it was true that stupidity was a misfortune, it +was none the less true that misfortune was in most cases mere +stupidity--cherished a great love for the unfortunate stupids and the +stupid unfortunates. How great this love was, I was now to know. He +made me theoretically and practically acquainted with those social +questions with which the whole world is now occupied, but then were +only seen in their full importance by a few enlightened minds. He +showed me the state of things in England, in France, and at home, and +what might also be done in Germany upon the pattern of what had been +done in England and France. Then he spoke of benefit-societies, of +co-operative associations, and workmen's unions, of play-schools for +children and trade-schools for adults, and all the means that have been +devised to fight the universal enemy upon his own ground. At this time +there had been next to nothing of this sort done among us: which was +all the more unfortunate, as just at this time, with the springing up +of the first railroads, manufactures received a quite unlooked-for +expansion, the increased demand for labor brought an enormous influx of +workmen, and with this an enormous increase of those evils which even +under the old patriarchal relations it had not been possible entirely +to prevent. + +In my frame of mind at the time I was soon brought to enter into his +views with passionate ardor. An ordinary workman, as I was, in +brotherly intercourse with my fellow-workmen, I heard and saw +everything that went on among them. Where my knowledge was at fault, +Klaus, from his fuller experience, could supply the defect, and further +than either reached the keen vision of the doctor, who saw into the +darkest recesses which poverty and misery hide from the eyes of all but +the physician. So we three interchanged experiences, and many an +evening, after the heavy work of the day, sat around the doctor's table +in consultation over the projects which the doctor had so long been +nursing. + +Alas! it was little, very little that we could do. On the one side, we +had to contend with the stupidity of those who would rather go to ruin +than abandon their old routine; and on the other side, with the dull +selfishness of those who could not see why they might not prosper, even +if the others were ruined. + +"It is the old story of Hammer and Anvil," I said one evening to my two +friends. "The workmen have so accustomed themselves to the dull passive +part of the anvil that they can set nothing in motion, even when their +own interest manifestly requires it. The manufacturers, on the other +hand, think that as they are now the gentlemen of the hammer, they have +only to pound away upon the anvil which, heaven be thanked, has +remained patient so far." + +"Have I not always told you that it has been so as long as the world +has stood?" replied the doctor. "Now you see it for yourself." + +"But there must be some remedy discoverable!" I cried. "I cannot let go +the precious faith of our beloved friend." + +"Not in the way in which he sought it," returned the doctor, shaking +his big head. "He imagined that he could make men free by teaching them +the dignity and sanctity of labor. 'They were not willing to work when +they should have been; now they must whether they will or not; and my +task is to bring them to _will_ that which they _must_. They were not +free when they were at liberty; I would make them truly free while +they are in captivity, that from bondage they may come forth as free +men'--such speeches as these, how often have we heard from his lips? +And he firmly believed it all, noble enthusiast that he was, because he +did not know the world, did not know that labor is a commodity in the +market of the world, which, like every other, is subject to the great +laws of supply and demand; and that these may stand so adjusted that +the free diligent workman may find himself in a pass where neither his +freedom, his diligence, nor his work is worth a farthing. So the cause +of Anvil _versus_ Hammer is appealed to a higher court, where it will +be decided according to the great laws of history and political +economy, with a verdict--as our friend had correctly discovered--, that +both parties were guilty and liable for the costs of the suit." + +"That may quiet our anxiety as to the final result," I said; "but if I +rightly understood our friend, the better man might in himself compose +this difference, as he is conscious that at every moment he at once +acts and suffers, gives and receives, bears and is borne--in a word, is +both Hammer and Anvil." + +"Very fine and honorable for him who so penetrates himself with this +truth that it influences all his actions," replied the doctor. "But the +common good is less dependent upon this than it seems; and lucky that +it is so, for so soon as the individual has power, for instance riches, +he is seized with a damnable itching to abuse it. What then is to +become of poor humanity?" + +"And yet you abused me that I did not clutch with both hands at your +offer to intrust all your fortune to me, which I should have cheated +you out of forthwith, as a good start on my way to a million." + +"That is a very different matter," said the doctor, in some confusion. + +"I do not see why," I answered. "What security have you that I can +resist temptation better than another? Or do I, with my broad +shoulders, look as if I would go through the needle's eye easier than +our worthy commerzienrath?" + +"Do not compare yourself with that monster," cried the doctor in a +rage. "Did I never show you the letter in which he answered my request +that he would take an interest in our projects? Here, you can skip that +part--a coarse joke about people who count their chickens before they +are hatched---but here: 'Co-operative associations? Stuff and nonsense! +There is a shop at every corner. Beneficial societies for the +sick?--burial societies? I want healthy workmen, and have always had as +many as I wanted, and more too. The sick are your affair, not mine, +respected Herr Doctor; and as for dying, it is not likely that either +of us can hinder that?'" + +"He is a fool!" cried the doctor, tearing the letter in fragments +and stamping upon it; "a fellow with no bowels; no better than a +caterpillar in human form!" + +"But so is every one who has a million, doctor." + +"Oh, you always have an apology for him," crowed Doctor Snellius. + +In this he was not altogether wrong: I could never feel as indignant +with the man as I should have felt with another. For, after all, the +man in the blue frock-coat with gold buttons, and the yellow nankeen +trousers, was a figure that belonged to the days of my childhood, upon +whom, be he what he might, there ever lay a light from the sun that had +shone upon those days. And what this is, is known to every one who has +had a childhood; which, unhappily, is more than many can say of +themselves. Let this sun but once shine upon any one, nay, upon any +lifeless thing, and they are invested with a charter that at all times +we willingly respect. And then there was another reason or two for my +looking upon the rich commerzienrath in another light than did my good +but bitter friend. To be sure, when I thought of it, I could not +comprehend--nor have I comprehended to this day--how this man could be +the father of the lovely, blue-eyed Hermine; but so he was, like an +uncouth, rough, prickly, and not over-clean shell, in which lay this +precious pearl, and which had to be grasped if one wished to enjoy the +sight of the pearl's beauty. This was easier for me, as I had always +seen shell and pearl together; that is, I had always seen the best side +of the shell, the smoothest and most agreeable side, which it turned +towards the daughter pearl within. Another reason was, the old cynic +seemed to me a kind of original in his way, and I had always had a +liking for that class of men. + +I had not seen him since our meeting on board the steamer, although he +had been once or twice in the city and had visited the works. The +winter he had spent, according to his custom, in Uselin, but with the +opening of spring had taken up his residence at Zehrendorf, where his +various new arrangements urgently required his presence. Hermine was +with him, who for years had spent her summers in the country, having an +intense delight in country life and pleasures. As a matter of course, +Fräulein Amalie Duff accompanied her young lady. + +All this I learned from Paula, who indeed was the only person who kept +me informed of what went on in the Streber family, as she kept up a +pretty active correspondence with Hermine. Whether or not I was honored +with a passing mention in their letters I could never rightly learn. +Sometimes I thought so, and again I thought not; and I did not like to +ask Paula directly. I had wished indeed to ask her not to mention to +Hermine that I was employed in her father's establishment, but I had +never done so, because it seemed to me like a bit of childish vanity to +request that I should not be spoken of to a girl who, very possibly, +never asked about me. But I almost believed that Paula had divined and +complied with my unspoken wish, and that they knew nothing of me. Even +if I were entirely indifferent to Hermine, I was well assured that I +occupied no small place in the kind heart of her duenna, and that she +certainly would never cease seeking faithfully for her "Richard" until +she found him. But over all these things there hung a mist, which was +only to be lifted for me later, perhaps too late. Once or twice, it is +true, I was struck by the warmth with which Paula, especially lately, +spoke of Hermine. "She is a charming creature," she once said, "with +the happiest advantages; and she will develop into a noble woman if she +finds the right kind of a husband." And again: "Happy the man who wins +this treasure! But he must be a man worthy the name, for I fancy the +keeping will be a harder task than the winning." + +Did Paula know that after that memorable meeting on the steamer, as the +wanderer plodded his lonely way towards the great city, the blue eyes +of Hermine were his lodestars? When she thus praised the fair girl to +me--and she knew what weight her praises bore--did she wish to show me +clearly the folly of certain fancies which might have arisen in my +mind? But what ground had I given her for believing me capable of this +folly? Just here there was a secret, like a dark cloud, between Paula +and myself; and it was not the only one, nor, unfortunately, the +darkest. I had dropped no hint--how could I?--of my unhappy meeting +with Constance: it was the only wound which her pure hand might not +touch; a wound which must secretly bleed until it closed of itself. But +such a secret wound, which one carefully hides, pains us thrice as +much, and is thrice as long in healing; and the worst is, that with it +we have an evil conscience, and shrink from the touch of the hand that +is dearest to us, always dreading that at some time, unwares, it will +make the cruel discovery. + +Thus it was now between Paula and myself. I had never visited her so +rarely, never been so cautious in my speech with her--indeed there were +times when the unwavering kindness of this lovely and amiable girl was +really painful to me. I trembled lest the conversation should turn upon +Constance, or lest Paula should learn that Constance and the Bellini +were one and the same person. Certainly, if no one else did, the young +Prince Prora knew the secret; and so, probably, did Arthur. + +But my uneasiness seemed groundless; neither the prince nor Arthur +repeated their visit, and I only learned from rumor that the prince, +after throwing the whole residence into uproar by his extravagances and +caprices, had been sent into the country by his father, and that Arthur +had accompanied him. About the same time the newspapers, which then +occupied themselves much more with matters of this sort than in our +agitated times, reported that the manager of the Theatre Royal had at +once engaged the young artist who had excited so much admiration at the +Albert Theatre, but that in high circles it was thought unfit that a +star, however brilliant, should be transferred from a comparatively +humble sphere to the lofty heights of a royal stage without a becoming +process of transition, and that on this account they had given Fräulein +Bellini leave of absence of several months, to be applied to filling +certain deficiencies in her _repertoire_, and to careful cultivation of +her eminent talent, for which purpose she had at once undertaken a +journey to Paris. Others added: In the company of the _premier +amoureux_ of the Albert Theatre, Herr Lenz, who also had been engaged +for the Theatre Royal; or, as others again said, had to be engaged +because the Bellini, as self-willed as she was beautiful, made that +gentleman's engagement a condition of her own. In this connection the +papers gave the interesting information that Herr Lenz's real name was +Herr von Sommer, and that he was the son of a high functionary--of +the minister, according to some--of a small neighboring state. The +origin of the fair Bellini was also surmised to be traceable to +high-quarters, but they were not at present able--others phrased it +that it was not altogether discreet--to lift the mysterious veil. + +When I heard this I drew a long breath, like a man frightened by a +ghost, when he hears the clock strike one. The spectre may come again +the next night, but for twenty-three hours at least he will be +undisturbed. I might be sure of not meeting her for several months; in +the evening, when I returned from Paula's house, I could pass through +the street in which she lived without seeing her range of windows +lighted, or carriages with lighted lamps and footmen in livery standing +at the door. Yes, the cold, cruel, ghostly winter night was at an end: +once more it was morning, once more it was spring. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + + +It was spring once more; the first spring for nine years that I had +greeted as a free man. True that fair season had not debarred me the +sight of her loveliness in the prison: I recalled with pleasure the +bright mornings which I had spent in the superintendent's large garden, +and how I had stood at the Belvedere and looked over the high bastion +to the reach of sea which flashed a greeting to me under the bright +sky. But this pleasure was never without a dash of sadness, like the +greeting of a dear friend, who from the deck of an outward bound +steamer waves a farewell to us who are standing on the shore--"God be +with you!"--"And with you!" A parting word, a regret that we cannot go +with him, and then silent and earnest we return to our silent, earnest +work. + +All was different now; different and far fairer, though I missed the +great garden with its trees and flowers, and the sea I loved so well. +But, on the other hand, there were no walls here nor bolted doors; and +it was no passing greeting that I exchanged with the spring at a +distance, but a clasp of the hand and a kindly embrace. We met in the +evening, when, after my work was done, I rambled for an hour in the +remotest parts of the great city park, regions to which seldom any one +extended his wanderings, and where the nightingale sang undisturbed her +sweet song in the budding bushes. And we met again when I stood on my +balcony before sunrise and looked eastwards, where over the crowd of +roofs and chimneys the eastern sky was bordered with purple clouds; and +an hour later, as I went to work, when the first rays fell upon the +pointed gables of the smoky old factory buildings, and the sparrows +twittered so merrily on the eaves and in the crannies of the walls, and +the earliest swallows darted over the yard, alert and busy as if the +thick black laver of coal-dust that covered it was a sheet of the +clearest water. + +Yes; spring is here once more. I feel her warm breath playing around my +cheeks and in my hair, and her kiss upon my brow, and I said to myself: +"All must come right yet! All the snow which was piled up in the long +winter nights is melted away, and the ice which then froze is melted; +should not the frost which fell upon my heart in those winter nights +also vanish away? Kind, gentle spring, and stern, earnest labor, what +could resist you both when you go hand in hand? and what heart not beat +more courageously that you two have filled?" + +So I threw myself into the expanded arms of spring, and I caught the +hard, honest hand of labor, and felt almost all my old strength and +confidence once more. Almost all--assuredly, I thought, it could not be +long before all were restored. + +There was work enough in our establishment, and there would have been +much more if the commerzienrath could have resolved to undertake the +building of locomotives. The matter was one of extreme importance; +indeed in my opinion it involved the question of the very existence, +or, at least, of the prosperity of the works. If our establishment in +this branch of industry did not comply with the requirements of the +time, its well-earned reputation was at an end. Rival establishments, +that were perhaps less favorably situated than ours, would throw +themselves with all their energy into the new movement, and outstrip +us, possibly for ever; for in the great departments of industry, if +anywhere, not to progress is to retrograde irretrievably. Strangely +enough, the man usually so intelligent and enterprising shrank from a +resolution which to be sure was not to be carried out without great +exertions, great alterations, and some temporary sacrifices. New +machinery would have to be procured, the steam-power increased, the +staff of the office and the force of workmen enlarged; new buildings +would have to be erected, and this could not be done without bringing +to a decision that long-pending question of the purchase of the ground +on which my lodging stood. All this demanded ample funds, clear +insight, and prompt decision. + +Now with the commerzienrath there was, at least according to general +opinion, no lack of money; but he seemed by no means so well furnished +with the two other necessary qualities. All who understood anything of +the matter--the manager of the works, a plain but intelligent man, with +whom I had several times been brought into contact in matters +concerning the workmen, and always found him friendly, the young chief +of the Technical Bureau, the head-foreman, even Klaus himself--all were +impatient and dissatisfied with their employer, who still held back +from saying a decisive word, though every month of delay was an +irreparable loss. But probably no one was more impatient and +dissatisfied than I. I had carefully studied the recent brilliant +history of railways in England and Belgium, and was convinced that the +system would expand with us into colossal proportions, with an immense +demand for locomotives. Then the locomotive had always been a favorite +study of my beloved teacher, whose genius had already invented, even +with the limited means at his command, and introduced in his models, +the most important improvements which would be demanded by the growth +and development of this branch of industry. It had been my good fortune +to be allowed to help him in his theoretical studies and in the +construction of his models, and my brain glowed as I saw that what had +been planned and devised in the quiet closet of the thinker would now +become a reality. So must a racer feel when he sees before him the +course which he is to run, and yet is held back from the start, however +he may champ the bit and paw the ground. I pondered and pondered how it +might be possible to overcome this fatal resistance. At last I hit upon +this plan: I would draw up a memorial, in which I would set forth in +detail the reasons which rendered an enlargement of the establishment +an absolute necessity, and at the same time a plan for carrying out +this extension. This paper was to be sent to the commerzienrath, and it +was to be hoped that it would not be without its effect upon him. The +doctor, to whom I communicated my plan, did not exactly disapprove it, +but by no means entered into it with the warmth that I had hoped. To be +sure he was not qualified to comprehend the theoretical necessity of +the case, nor did he share my passion for the locomotive; but it was +impossible that he could be blind to the fact that I would open a way +to give bread to hundreds and hundreds of workmen, and this was really +the chief object with him. Instead, he again pressed me to accept his +offer, and even to set up an establishment with his money, and we had +very nearly had another quarrel when, for the second time, I felt +myself obliged to decline his generous offer. + +But how could I rob him, whose whole life was a sacrifice for the poor +and miserable, of the means which he so generously and judiciously +employed, if my enterprise failed, as well might happen? No! my plans +were to be realized, if at all, with other money than the doctor's. But +where was I to get it without stealing it, or waiting for the coming of +the Javanese aunt, whose speedy arrival was an unconditional article of +faith with Klaus and Christel? So my thoughts were compelled to revert +to the commerzienrath, and one evening I began to write my memorial, +which I completed in a few nights. + +But no sooner was it finished than a new and weighty consideration +presented itself. If I signed the paper with my name, my incognito was +at an end; and, even if I did not sign it, it came to about the same +thing, for it could only be the production of some one thoroughly +acquainted with the establishment, and the commerzienrath would of +course inquire for the author, and after creating much talk it would +sooner or later be traced to me, when I should probably find that by a +useless secrecy I had injured the cause I was advocating. + +It was a perplexing dilemma, and I went about as in a dream, ever +pondering over the unlucky memorial which lay finished upon my table, +and might just as well have been left unwritten. + +"But you must come to some decision," said Paula, "and here there can +really be no question what that decision should be." + +From a very intelligible feeling of shyness I had refrained from +telling Paula what it was that lay so heavy on my mind; but Kurt, who +worked in the establishment under Klaus's direction, and almost every +evening, when he came from work, spent an hour with me, could not be +kept ignorant of what I had in hand, and he had told all to his sister. + +"You must not be angry with Kurt for it," said Paula; "he cannot +imagine that you would wish to keep anything secret from your sister." + +"Have you then no secrets from me?" I said. + +"What do you mean?" she asked, with a look in which I thought I +detected traces of confusion. + +I did not wish to press my question, for this would have brought me to +the ticklish point which I had so carefully avoided--whether there was +any mention of me in the correspondence between Paula and Hermine; so I +muttered something unintelligible in reply, and brought the +conversation back to my plans, my hopes, and wishes in reference to the +works. + +"You have lately kept me so uninformed as to what is going on in your +world that I am quite in the dark. Let me read your memorial; give it +to Kurt this evening to bring home." + +This was on a Sunday, and the next week there was much work to do in +the factory, for me especially. A large machine of peculiar +construction had been built, intended to operate in a chalk-quarry, +which the commerzienrath had opened at Zehrendorf among his other +industrial undertakings there. I was employed in mounting the machine. +All went smoothly on: the bed-plate had been laid exactly level, and +some little unevenness left in planing corrected; the fly-wheel was +hung, the journals adjusted, and the bolt-holes drilled; the machine +was at last so far finished that all that remained to be done was the +arrangement of the guiding-apparatus, and the regulation of the +piston-rod. This was also set right; but when the foreman took hold of +the flywheel to set the machine in motion to try it, it became evident +that the driving-rod did not work with a true motion. The foreman and I +looked at each other anxiously; we most carefully compared the +dimensions of the various parts by scale with those of the plan, but +there was no error discoverable. + +"This is a confounded piece of business!" said the foreman. + +"What is the matter?" asked the head-foreman, Roland, who came up at +the moment. + +Head-foreman Roland was a man of Cyclopean stature, whose left leg had +once been broken in some machinery, giving him a limping gait, of which +he was rather proud after once hearing that the god Vulcan, the patron +of his craft, had the same infirmity. Head-foreman Roland had moreover +so good an opinion of himself that under the projecting thatch of his +thick moustache, around the left corner of his mouth, there was usually +playing a consequential smile, which from time to time glided into the +dense forest of his bushy beard and whiskers, where it continued its +course unseen. + +When the matter was explained to him he looked first at the foreman and +then at the two workmen, each in turn, let the consequential smile play +under the thatch, and said: "There must be some mistake in the +execution; give me the plans." + +These were handed him, and he began to compare measurements, just as we +had done before he came up; but the longer this comparison lasted, and +brought no lurking error to light, the feebler grew the smile, and it +had vanished entirely in the forest depths when a quarter of an hour +later he went with the plans in his hands to the Technical Bureau, +muttering in a surly tone that there must be some blunder in the cursed +plans. + +This had been my own idea at first, but I had changed my opinion. A +suspicion began to dawn upon me that the drawings might be all correct, +and the measurements exactly followed, and that the cause of the +trouble lay deeper. + +So I stood with my arms crossed upon my breast while the foreman, with +the other workmen, and some few more who had come up to look on, as +work was now over for the evening, exchanged opinions on the subject. +Some thought that the thread of a screw on one of the shafts had been +cut to an erroneous angle, and others had other suggestions to make. + +"The thing must be simple enough," said Herr Windfang, of the Technical +Bureau, who now entered with the troubled head-foreman. + +There was nothing Cyclopean about Herr Windfang; on the contrary, he +was an elegant young gentleman, with a touch of dandyism about him. + +"It must be simple enough," he repeated; "try it again." + +I cannot tell how many times they tried it, but the abominable +driving-rod persisted in its false movement. + +"Give me the drawings," said Herr Windfang. "Ah, here they are. The +error must be in the work." + +While they were once more making the comparisons and measurements, +which the foreman and myself and then Herr Roland had made in vain, I +had studied the matter further, and was so convinced of my view that +when Herr Windfang, very much out of countenance, looked at Herr +Roland, and Herr Roland, with a faint gleam of a smile playing in the +left corner of his mouth, looked at Herr Windfang, I could no longer +keep silent, and said: + +"It is no use to compare measurements: the dimensions all agree: we +shall not get at the error in this way, for it is an error of +construction, and lies in the guiding movement." + +So bold a speech could not fail to turn the eyes of all present upon +me. Young Herr Windfang measured me with his eyes from head to foot, a +process which, as he was of rather small stature, occupied some time; +the familiar smile came out of the forest of Roland's whiskers, and +played quite gaily under the thatch of his moustache; for, if the +matter was as I said, the fault fell neither upon him nor any one of +his subordinates, but went back to the Technical Bureau--a very +gratifying thing, under the circumstances, for the worthy head-foreman. +The foreman, who had a high opinion of me, nodded, as if to say: There +you have it. The workmen looked at each other and smiled. + +"Why do you say that, sir?" asked Herr Windfang, coming up to me, and +taking another hasty measurement of me. + +"Because I am convinced of the fact," I answered. + +"That is a piece of arrogance on your part, sir!" cried the engineer. + +"You and the other gentlemen are not infallible, like the pope!" I +retorted. + +Here the men laughed loudly. + +"We will speak of this matter again," said Herr Windfang. + +"We will indeed," was my reply. + +The irascible young man hurried out of the building in a rage, but the +head-foreman shook me by the hand and said: "Thank you, Hartwig; you +took him down handsomely;" and the men accompanied me across the yard, +loudly taking my part, and giving me to understand that my cause was +their own. Klaus and Kurt, who had come out of another shop, now joined +me. They had heard of the little skirmish I had had with the Technical +Bureau, and wanted to know the facts. I did not go into details, for I +was eager to get home to maintain the gauntlet I had thrown. I had all +the designs of the machine, in the construction of which I had helped +throughout; the necessary works of reference were in my possession; my +lamp was trimmed, and a little fire burning on my hearth, as the nights +were still chilly. + +So I spent all the cool spring night measuring, calculating, comparing, +constructing, and when the first rosy morning clouds rose over the +throng of roofs and chimneys I had found what I was seeking, and fixed +it in irrefragable formulae and figures. There it lay upon my table in +a careful drawing, with the measurements all noted, and there it stood +fast in my head, and from my head a sense of triumph hurried to my +heart, which began to beat violently. But I checked my rising pride by +remembering that I owed it all to _him_, and I fancied I saw the face +of my beloved teacher smiling upon me, and tears sprang to my eyes. +Then I went back to my room and slept an hour or so, as deeply and +sweetly as I ever slept in my life. + +"How is it, Malay?" asked my comrades when I appeared among them. + +"How is it, Hartwig?" asked the head-foreman, who was again standing +before the unlucky machine, without a smile this time. + +"How is it, George?" asked Klaus and Kurt, coming over from their shop. + +"I will show you," I said. I went up to the machine and gave a sort of +little lecture, in which I set forth the result of my night's work in a +way, as I think, both clear and connected, for they all listened with +the most eager attention; and their faces grew brighter and brighter as +I proceeded, until, when my demonstration was finished, Kurt clapped +his hands, Klaus looked around with inexpressible pride, the men nodded +to each other with expressive looks, and head-foreman Roland, with a +really sunny smile under the thatch, shook my hand as he said: + +"Go ahead, my son, go ahead; we will give it to them." + +"Malay, you must come to the manager," said the office-messenger, +coming up. + +My audience exchanged expressive looks. + +"Go ahead, my son!" said Herr Roland; "give it to them!" + +The Manager, Herr Berg, a worthy, modest man, but of no great breadth +of views, was alone in his office, which adjoined the Technical Bureau. + +"I have heard, Hartwig," he said, "that you think you have discovered +the error in the new machine. Although this appears rather more than +doubtful to me, still men in your place now and then hit upon things +which others search after in vain for days. I worked up from the ranks +myself, and know that. What do you believe to be the difficulty?" + +"I do not now _believe_ it, Herr Manager; I now _know_ it," I answered. + +I said this firmly, but quite modestly, and took my calculation and +drawing from my pocket and began to explain them to the manager. The +matter was a tolerably complicated one, and so were the calculations, +while the formulæ that I had employed were by no means simple. In my +eagerness I never thought that while I was displaying my knowledge so +lavishly I was dropping the incognito I had maintained so long and so +strictly, and was first made aware of it by the singular manner in +which the manager was looking at me. He stood there, looking as much +amazed as did Menelaus when before his eyes and in his hands the +wondrous "Old Man of the Sea" changed into a tawny mountain lion. + +"How in the name of heaven did you learn all that?" he cried at last. + +"You have yourself just told me, Herr Manager, that you rose from the +ranks, and you then must know what can be done with industry and +attention." + +Herr Berg looked at me with an expression in which it was plainly +visible that he did not know precisely what to make of me, but like a +sensible man he repressed his surprise, and asked me to leave the +drawing and the demonstration with him awhile, upon his pledge that no +one should have sight of them but himself. If my views were correct I +should have the full credit for them, and in the meantime the gentlemen +of the Technical Bureau would hand in their statement. + +One, two, three days passed before they did this, however, and by this +time the whole establishment was in a fever of expectation. From the +head-foreman down to the last hand who wielded the heavy sledge, all +knew that "the Malay" had found the defect in the new machine, and that +the gentlemen of the Technical Bureau had been working over it for +three days and had not found it yet, and that Klaus Pinnow had said he +would bet his head that Malay would win, and that young Herr von +Zehren, in Klaus Pinnow's shop, had said to Herr Windfang, who was a +great friend of his, that it was a piece of extreme folly for Klaus to +wager his head against the Technical Bureau, as the latter, though it +consisted of six heads, had none to stake against it. + +Saturday came. The unlucky machine stood there untouched, an obstinate +sphinx that had yielded her riddle to no one but myself. We had taken +in hand another job, but the men did not work with their usual spirit. +It is an inborn peculiarity of man that he does not willingly undertake +anything new until the old has been completed. + +"You will have the goodness to come to the manager, Herr Hartwig," said +the office-messenger, coming in. + +The men looked up from their work, surprised to find that the "Malay" +had suddenly become a "Herr Hartwig." They exchanged looks; each one +felt that now the decision had arrived, and head-foreman Roland, who +happened to be crossing the yard, limped solemnly up to me, offered me +his Cyclops-hand, and said: "Go ahead, my son; give it to them; give it +to them well!" + +Equipped with this benediction I entered the manager's room, who rose +from his desk at my entrance, came forward and shook me by the hand. He +seemed a little nervous, and his honest face expressed considerable +confusion. + +"I congratulate you, Herr Hartwig," he said. "You were right. For these +three days I have had no doubt of it; but, to be sure, when one has +made the egg stand upright, another knows how it is done. And then I +was not quite certain that I would have found it out myself, so it was +but fair that I should let the gentlemen of the Technical Bureau first +try their hands. They have been long getting at it, and your +calculation is just three times as simple as theirs. I have already +combed their heads for them a little, and there they sit with them +hanging down." + +The modest man let his own head hang a little also as he finished. + +"Well, Herr Manager," I said, "the error has been discovered, and that +was the main question; _who_ discovered it is a matter of little +consequence." + +"Excuse me, Herr Hartwig," he answered, "but I disagree with you here. +To the manager of such an establishment as this it cannot be a matter +of indifference whether the work of the Technical Bureau is done +by its staff, or in the machine-shop, for the main thing is that +every man shall stand in the place where he belongs, and after this +example"--here he laid his hand upon my drawing, which was on the +table--"no other proof is needed that you are altogether in a false +position." + +"But, Herr Manager," I replied, "that is entirely my own fault, and as +a man makes his bed so must he lie." + +"Yes," said the manager, "that is my comfort; but I had much rather +that you had been candid with me from the first. I might then be able +to send back with a protest the snub which the commerzienrath has sent +me to-day. There--read for yourself." + +I took the paper which the manager offered me, and glanced over a +letter four pages long, in which all possible reproaches were heaped +upon poor Herr Berg because he had had so long in the works a man like +myself, whose mathematical and technical genius had long been known to +him, the commerzienrath, and had not reported the fact at once--"and +even granting that you considered yourself bound to conceal matters of +the highest importance, it was, at the very least, your duty and +obligation to give my young friend a position corresponding to his +talents and abilities; or did you fear that perhaps this position +would, in that event, be no other than your own place, Herr Manager? + +"But that is shameful!" I cried, throwing down the letter. + +The worthy man shook his head. "His meaning is not so bad as his +words," he said, "and if it were, we are used to it. Read further." + +"I do not wish to read any more." + +"But you must: the most important is to come: see here----" + +"Under these circumstances there is but one reparation to my young +friend possible. This consists, first, in placing him at once in the +Technical Bureau; secondly, in asking him, in my name, to oversee on +the spot the erection of the machine at the chalk-quarry at Zehrendorf. +I have also written him to this effect myself." + +"Now," said the manager, with a good-humored smile, "as for the first +point, you have already, by your work, won yourself a place in the +Technical Bureau; and as for the second, you will do me a special +favor, which perhaps you owe me on account of that snub--you understand +me--to undertake the business at Zehrendorf. I had intended to send +Herr Windfang. The alterations in the machine will occupy a week at +least, and, as I know the commerzienrath, I shall risk my position by +this delay, unless there is a friend who will speak a good word for me. +And now go home; you will have much to attend to, and you must be off +by the last train; but I will come round to see you first." + +The manager shook hands with me heartily, and I went home in a rather +singular frame of mind. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +And my perplexity was still further heightened when on reaching home I +found a letter from the commerzienrath lying on my table: + + +"My Dear Young Friend: + +"Oh, these women, these women! I just now learn for the first time what +you have kept from my knowledge half a year--that you have so long been +working, like Samson among the Philistines, in my establishment. Did I +not, when I last saw you in the house of our never-to-be-forgotten +friend, entreat you again and again to let me know as soon as you +recovered your liberty? Why have you not done so? why have you hidden +your light so long under a bushel? You always had a great inclination +that way, but so much the more is it now time that you should let it +shine before men--and, just now, before me. Therefore come here as soon +as possible; I have a multitude of things to talk over with you about +matters here, as well as at the works, which last--as I now, +unfortunately, know for the first time--you thoroughly understand. +[These words were underscored.] You will here pass some pleasant days +among none but good old acquaintances, of whom none is older nor a +better friend of yours than your obedient servant, + + "Philip August Streber." + + +I laid the letter, which was written in a large, round business-hand, +somewhat tremulous in places, upon the table, and paced my room in +extreme astonishment. How upon earth did the man know that I was here? +that I understood these things? Who could have told him? There was but +one explanation possible. But why---- + +"But why torment myself about the matter?" I cried, took my hat, and +set out for Paula's house. + +"We are a little nervous this morning," my old friend whispered to me +at the door of Paula's studio. + +"Don't you know what it is?" I asked in the same tone. + +The worthy man shook his head, the head which in his opinion was +playing so important a part in the history of modern art, and said: + +"One would have to have seven senses, like a bear, to know what is in +the hearts of the dear creatures." + +With these words he opened the door. + +Paula was alone, as Süssmilch had told me. She hastily laid pencils and +palette aside, and came to me with her hand extended. I saw at the +first glance that she had been weeping, and, although her cheeks were +flushed at this moment, she looked to me pale and unwell. + +"You were expecting me, Paula?" I asked, holding her hand in my own. + +"Yes," she answered; "and as you come at an unusual time, I suppose you +know why I was expecting you." + +"It was your doing, Paula, was it not?" I said. + +"Yes," she replied. + +She looked me full in the eyes. Her look had that strange, half-sad, +half-indignant expression which I had only observed once, on the +morning of that fatal day when she disengaged herself from my arms in +which I had clasped her to save her from the falling Belvedere. It was +a recollection which filled me with an indefinite fear, and so confused +me that my glances fell before the maiden's large luminous eyes. + +At this moment I heard her draw a long breath, and as I looked up the +strange expression had vanished from her eyes, and her voice was soft +as ever, as, taking my hand and leading me to a small sofa, she said: + +"Come, let us sit down and consult what is to be done right calmly and +wisely, as brother and sister should do." + +"Did they know then all the time that I was here?" I asked. + +"Yes," she answered; "and I would have told you all if you had asked +me; but you did not ask; it was a little secret which you, quite +unnecessarily, seemed to think yourself bound to keep; a harmless game +of hide-and-seek, such as every one plays now and then. She played the +same game: I was on no account to let you know that she was resolved, +at any price, to have _Richard the Lion-heart_, and that she inquired +after you in every letter, I told her that I would say nothing about it +so long as you did not ask. But the commerzienrath, I believe, really +did not know, although we cannot altogether trust him. For that he now +writes for you so eagerly as you tell me, is no proof: he needs you +just now." + +"Did you send him my memorial?" I asked. + +"That was dreadful, was it not?" said Paula, smiling with pale lips; +"but I had to do what you hesitated at doing, and perhaps could not do +yourself: I had to do it, even at the risk of your displeasure, for it +was a matter in which, as it seemed to me, your whole future was at +stake." + +"My whole future?" + +"Scarcely less. Indeed rather more; for you must know that I am proud +of you, George, and convinced that you only need the means to +accomplish really important things in your profession. The +commerzienrath has these means. You must teach him to employ them; you +are the only one who can, for I have long known that he has taken the +exact measure of your talents with that acuteness of insight which is +peculiar to men of his stamp. And now he has in his hands the proof of +what you can do. Then you have the advantage that he is personally +well-disposed toward you, so far as such an egotist may be said to be +capable of unselfish, genuinely human interest in any one. In a word: +the opportunity is a more propitious one than you are likely ever to +have again." + +"You send me away, Paula," I said, "out of these dear old associations +into others altogether new and strange, from which it is scarce +possible that I can return as I departed, while it is quite as +improbable that I shall find again what I leave. Have you well +considered all this? And if, as I must suppose, you have considered it, +then----Paula, I wish it were less easy for you to send me away." + +"Who says that it is easy for me?" asked Paula, quickly rising and +taking a few steps across the room. These steps, by chance apparently, +brought her to her easel, and she remained standing before it with her +face averted from me. + +"I mean," I said, "that I wish you found it harder to do without me, if +not on your own account for the sake of your mother and your brothers; +that, in a word, I were to them what you are now. But, Paula, you have +always been so proud; and in truth you have now more reason than ever." + +Paula had found something to do at her easel, and some little time +passed before she answered: + +"You men are strange creatures: everywhere you wish your influence to +be felt; even what you approve does not come to pass satisfactorily +unless it is your doing. But this is only a transient feeling of yours, +which I can well understand----" + +"I do not know whether you quite understand it," I said in a low tone. + +"Perfectly, perfectly," she said, bending lower over her easel; "when +any one is as much attached to another as you are to us, he desires to +be always giving, and feels it a heavy loss if this comes to be out of +his power. But I really do not see why we sadden ourselves so +unnecessarily. You are not going to be carried away from us forever. +You are only moving out of a narrow, wretched channel, unfit for so +proud a ship, into the broad ocean. Of course you will of necessity +often forget us a little, or perhaps entirely; for the man who wishes +to do anything great and complete must have his arms free: he cannot +and must not drag the toys of his childhood or the idols of his youth +with him through life. I wish that you would see that clearly, George; +bring yourself to see it clearly in this moment, of which I repeat that +I consider it a decisive one; since now, for the first time in your +life, after long years of apprenticeship, you enter on the rights of a +master--can for the first time show yourself as you are. At a decision +like this, all subordinate interests must stand back: all, George; even +we--our mother, your brothers, your sister." + +I could not see her face, which she still held down, but there were +tears in her voice. + +I approached her, but she turned her face away. + +"Paula!" I said. + +I wished to say more; to tell her all; to tell her that if I were to +lose her by my decision, whatever else I might win by it seemed +inexpressibly worthless to me; that---- + +"Paula!" I said once more, but I said it at her feet, with hot tears +streaming from my eyes. I strove for words, but they would not come. + +A soft hand passed gently over my hair, and it seemed to me--I was not +sure then, nor am I now--but it seemed to me that she lightly touched +my brow with her lips. Then I heard her voice, and its tone was calm, +sweet and clear: + +"George, my brother, you must not thus distress your poor sister. Now +go and bid our mother farewell. She has long foreseen the approach of +this moment, and has impatiently longed for it. In her lives, far more +than in us, George, the spirit of the war for freedom. She knows, from +her own experience, that a man must give up home and goods and wife and +children, and all that is dear to him, to devote his life to a great +and good cause. Come, George!" + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +A lively breeze was blowing in my face as the carriage in which I was +jolted along the road from Fährdorf to Zehrendorf, a bad one in the +best of times, but now, in the spring, at its worst. The driver on the +box had wrapped himself close in a horse-blanket and sat huddled +together, while the strong horses had as much as they could do to drag +the light vehicle through the deep miry ruts. It was about eight in the +evening, and the moon was an hour high, but only from time to time did +a glimpse of her disc peer out through the heavy clouds, throwing a +deceitful light, quickly succeeded by darkness, over drenched fields +and meadows, with pools of water glistening here and there over the +wide expanse of barren heath. + +And as lights and shadows chased each other over the wide expanse, so +alternated in my soul the memories of joy and grief that I had +experienced here. The days that I had spent here came all back, and +passed by me with faces beaming with smiles, clouded by grief, or +distorted with pain. And there were far fewer of the smiling days than +of those with sad and gloomy looks; and at last--for during the whole +journey it had seemed to me almost a wickedness that I should dare to +return to this spot--this feeling overcame me so strongly that I could +scarcely refrain from calling to the driver to stop, that I could go no +further to-night. + +"We shall reach the top directly," said the man, giving his tired +horses a cut with the whip. + +I do not know why he thought it necessary to offer me this consolation; +perhaps he had thought that the groan which escaped me was extorted by +the badness of the road. + +But he was right. I knew that as well as he did. The light below us, +which seemed to shine out of the earth, came from a little house +leaning against the foot of the hill, and those broad white patches, +which contrasted so singularly with the black hills, were the great +chalk-quarries belonging to Prince Prora, to which the house belonged; +and not far from us, on the ridge which we were slowly climbing, was a +piece of woods--part of the same woods in which I fled from my pursuers +for four days. + +The sturdy horses stretched to their work, and now we were on the +ridge. Down the other side we went, over a hard sandy road, and the +wind came sweeping on its mighty pinions from over the sea, making the +driver wrap himself still closer in his blanket. But I drew long deep +breaths, and drew in full draughts of deliciousness that I had wanted +so long. + +Heartily I greeted the loved sea-breeze, that friend of my childhood. +Long had I pined for it in the narrow streets of the city, where only a +mockery of it blew in fitful puffs and with malicious pranks, and +whistled shrill and spitefully around the corners. How often had this +mighty sea-wind filled my young heart with inexpressible gladness; and +now it chased the dark memories from my soul as it swept away the black +clouds from the sky, so that the whole broad expanse of the plateau +reaching back from the promontory lay in clear moonlight before my +eyes. That great cluster of buildings, with a garden like a park, and +short white church-steeple, is Herr von Granow's estate; and that lower +down, only distinguishable as a dark patch, is Trantowitz; and beyond +Trantowitz, in the direction of the wind, lies Zanowitz among the white +dunes at whose feet chafes the everlasting sea. Melchow, Trantowitz, +Zanowitz--what memories were attached to these names and these places! +But the glad mighty wind would not suffer them. It comes rushing on in +vast, regular impulses like the strokes of an eagle's wings, and amidst +its rush I fancy I can hear a rough honest voice saying: All that could +happen, and you thought you could never endure it, yet you have not +been crushed, but stand firm upon your feet, and still carry your head +erect between your broad shoulders; and all this is so because I have +blown around you from your childhood, and you have drawn me into your +blood until your heart beats strong and dauntless within your breast, +even though you know that those lights shining on that height to the +left come from the windows of the new castle which the new master of +Zehrendorf has built in the place of the old which you saw sinking in +flames on that terrible night. + +Not quite in the place of the old one: the old castle had been built +upon the higher ground, so that it looked proudly out over the whole +land. The new possessor did not wish a haughty site, but one sheltered +from the north and east winds, so he did well to fix his habitation +somewhat lower. + +"And where are the magnificent old trees of the park, which reached to +the old house, and here joined the forest?" I asked. + +"They are cut down," said the driver; "the whole park is cleared away; +there is hardly enough left to make a coffin of." + +I do not know what suggested this melancholy expression to the taciturn +man, but it struck me strangely. Did not the Wild Zehren once, when we +were standing at the window and looking out into the park, say that not +enough of it belonged to him to make him a coffin, and that it all +stood only to be cut down and turned into money by his successors? And +now it had all come to pass, and that light was shining from the new +home which the new master had built on the ruins of the old. + +Away, gloomy thoughts! Blow harder, thou glad, strong sea-wind! Gallop, +you stout horses, down the hard, smooth road! And now, rattling through +the gate, we enter the court before the great, stately house, and as we +stop at the door servants come out with lights. + +They come rather incited by curiosity than obsequiousness, which last, +had it been present, would have suddenly cooled at the unpretending +garb of the visitor and the limited amount of his luggage. Indeed, as I +crossed the lower hall I caught sight, in a tall mirror, of the face of +the servant who preceded me carrying my portmanteau, and who, by dint +of thrusting his tongue into his right cheek, was making a frightful +grimace, undoubtedly intended to express his disgust at having to carry +such a disgraceful old mangy sealskin portmanteau--I had borrowed it +from Klaus--up the brilliantly lighted staircase of the great house of +Zehrendorf. The honest fellow's feelings were apparently much hurt by +the incongruity of the visitor's appearance with the service he had to +render, and he found a neat way of exhibiting the fact by tossing the +question to me over his shoulder, as he rather flung down my +portmanteau than set it down: "I suppose you are a countryman of our +Mamselle?" + +"Who is your Mamselle?" I asked in a tone of perfect good humor, for I +confess to my shame that the contemptuous manner of the man, far from +offending me, afforded me considerable amusement. + +"Why, the old scarecrow with the----" and he made an undulatory wave of +his hand down from his shoulder, a bit of pantomime in which a lively +imagination could see the fluttering of long tresses. + +"You mean Fräulein Duff, I suppose, friend--what is your name?" I +asked. + +"William Kluckhuhn," answered he. "You can call me William, for short." + +"Thank you. And why do you suppose me to be a countryman of Fräulein +Duff, friend William?" + +"Well, the old girl made a great fuss about you to me. I was to show +you every attention, and you were to have this room which looks on the +garden, and is really our young lady's room, and which she, heaven +knows why, took a notion three days ago to make a guest-room. It seemed +a little queer to us, for you are, after all, a workman in the master's +factory in Berlin, as the master himself said at the table today. I am +from Berlin myself, you must know, and we know there that a hand in a +machine-shop is not exactly the Great Mogul. But what are we to do? +After all, we have to dance to the old girl's piping, or she will abuse +us to our young lady, and she reports it to the master, and then there +is the deuce to pay, of course." + +"So that is the way it goes, eh?" I said, laughing; "from Fräulein Duff +to your young lady, and from her to the Herr Commerzienrath." + +"Well, sometimes it goes the other way," said the philosophic William; +"but this is not so bad, for we can hold our own with the old +scarecrow; that is an eternal truth." + +As I heard the pet phrase of my good friend from the impudent lips of +this ironical rascal I had to look another way to avoid laughing. + +"Well, and I was to ask you if you wanted any supper. Tea will be +served down-stairs in half an hour. But you will get nothing with it +but stale biscuit and thin sandwiches, and she thought you would be +hungry." + +"So I am, my friend," I replied, "and you will oblige me if you will +bring me a bit of cold chicken, with a glass of wine, or whatever you +happen to have handy. And one thing more, friend William. I am not a +countryman of Fräulein Duff, but you will particularly oblige me if in +future you never mention that lady in my presence in other than a +respectful manner. Now you can go; and you will have the goodness to +ask the Herr Commerzienrath if I shall wait upon him before tea." + +I said these words in an impressive manner, not with the intention of +humbling my friend in livery, but simple because, as a guest of the +house, I considered it my duty. The facetious William gave me a look in +which astonishment was blended with suspicion, and in his heart, I +fancy, he thought that the old proverb, "Do not trust appearances," +might also be a scrap of an eternal truth. + +While he went to do what I had told him I cast a look of some curiosity +round the room which three days before had been that of the beautiful +capricious girl. I could hardly believe it, and yet it did not look +like a guest-room--certainly not like one intended for so unpretending +a guest as myself. A thick soft carpet of a Persian pattern covered the +whole floor. The curtains of the windows and lambrequins of the doors +were of heavy damask, also of a bright fantastic pattern, and looped +with rich cords and tassels. The whole decoration and furniture were in +harmony with this, to my eyes, oriental magnificence. A very low broad +divan occupied nearly three sides of the room, while on the fourth, +where the windows were, low chairs were standing in the recesses, and +between the windows stood a costly cabinet of rosewood, inlaid with +mother-of-pearl. From the ceiling hung by gilt chains a lamp in a red +globe, diffusing, with the two wax candles that were burning upon the +table, a soft rosy light throughout the apartment. + +On drawing a curtain, behind which I thought there was a door, I +discovered a deep alcove, with a wide low bed, with silken pillows and +coverlids. I dropped the curtain again. + +Again I examined the room, in ever increasing surprise at the singular +reception which had been provided for me here. Upon the rosewood +cabinet stood a vase with fresh flowers--hyacinths and crocuses. As I +bent over the vase to inhale their perfume my eye was caught by a blue +ribbon entwined among them which had letters embroidered upon it in +gold thread, and upon examining it more closely I read the words "Seek +faithfully and thou shalt find." + +A sudden change came over my feelings at this discovery, and I broke +into a fit of laughter, but checked myself suddenly and dropped the +mysterious ribbon again into its fragrant hiding-place, as William +Kluckhuhn entered with a large salver, from the contents of which he +arranged an excellent collation upon one of the small tables standing +before the divan. + +"Well, when does the Herr Commerzienrath wish to see me?" I asked, as +William, his napkin under his arm, stood before me at the respectful +distance of three paces. + +"The Herr Commerzienrath will have the honor to meet the Herr Engineer +at tea," replied William Kluckhuhn. + +I took a closer look at the man, his style of expression and even the +tone of his voice had undergone such a change. Was I then suddenly +promoted to the rank of engineer? Something must have happened to him +that had wrought a revolution in his views of the new guest. + +I pondered on what it might be, but it was a superfluous trouble. +William Kluckhuhn was not one of those who can keep a secret hidden in +the depths of their souls. + +He cleared his throat in an emphatic significant manner, and observed: + +"The _gnädige Fräulein_ will not be down to tea." + +"Ah," I said in an indifferent tone, which was belied by the sudden +beating of my heart. + +"Yes," went on my communicative friend, "I was just now in the parlor +to ask the Herr Commerzienrath when he wished to see the Herr +Engineer--" William Kluckhuhn laid a strong accent upon the last word. +"'At tea, of course,' said the commerzienrath. 'I wish to receive him +quite familiarly.' 'Do you not wish first to have some private +conversation with him?' said the _gnädige Fräulein_. The _gnädige +Fräulein_ had risen quite suddenly from the piano-forte at which she +had just been playing and singing, and turned to the door where I +was--standing. 'Good heavens, no,' said the commerzienrath. 'Where are +you going?' 'To my room,' said the _gnädige Fräulein_; 'I have been +suffering with headache all day.' 'Then you will not be down again, I +suppose,' said the Herr Commerzienrath. The _gnädige Fräulein_ said +nothing, for she had already gone past me out of the door; and +I can tell you, Herr Engineer, she had a pair of cheeks like my +shoulder-knots here," and he pointed with his finger to the +dark-crimson knot on his left sleeve. + +"This is all very remarkable," I said. + +"It is, indeed," said William, elevating his eye-brows as high as his +long forehead would allow, and drawing down the corners of his mouth +into a horse-shoe curve, "very remarkable. And so it seemed to the +others, for they looked at one another, so----" and William Kluckhuhn +stretched his little eyes as wide open as he could get them, and stared +at me so that I thought for a moment he was going out of his senses. + +"Who are the others?" I asked. + +"Well, the master himself, and Mamselle--I mean Fräulein Duff, and the +Herr Steuerrath and his lady----" + +"They here too?" I asked, not very agreeably surprised. + +"They have been here for three weeks," answered William; "but the day +is yet to come when any one of us has seen this from them--" and he +made a gesture with the right forefinger and thumb over the palm of his +left hand. "And they all looked queer, and the Herr Commerzienrath +looked very angry, but restrained himself, which is not his usual way, +and said: 'That is unfortunate: but it is not to be helped. I must +invite the Herr Engineer to tea.' _Apropos!_--excuse me, but it is a +word we use in Berlin--why did not the Herr Engineer tell me at first +that he was the Herr Engineer?" + +"Very well, William," I said. "You can take away now, and when it is +time, come and call me." + +When the talkative William had left me I sprang up from the divan and +paced the room in an excitement which I had carefully concealed from +the servant. The information which he had just given me afforded me +more matter for reflection than I could deal with at the moment. A +singular scene must have occurred, or it would never have made so deep +an impression upon the by no means susceptible William Kluckhuhn. And +why had Hermine's headache grown so intolerable all at once? And why +had my old friends, the steuerrath and the born Kippenreiter, seemed so +much disturbed! + +To all this I could give but one explanation; for a second, that might +also have been possible, my modesty rejected at once. The pretty girl +had been angry with me ever since our meeting on the steamer. But if +this were so, why all those inquiries about me of Paula? Whence came +the interest which she manifestly took in my fate? I saw her again +before me as I had seen her on the steamboat, her red lips closely +compressed, and her blue eyes darting indignant flashes at me. She had +told me that I must let her father help me, since her father was rich; +and I had replied that for that very reason I did not wish to be helped +by him. Was not that the exact state of the case? Did I want anything +from him? Had I not rather come to give the rich man some advice of +which he seemed to be greatly in want? advice which, if he followed it, +was to make him richer than he had ever been? No, I did not come into +this house as an asker of favors. I could hold my head proudly erect, +as beseems a free man; and if it was meant as an irony upon my humble +position that I was here assigned this splendid apartment, I had only +to consider myself worthy of the attention, and the solecism vanished. + +"Will you please to come now?" said William Kluckhuhn, appearing at the +door. I had intended to put on my best suit of clothes, which, with the +necessary supply of linen, and a few papers and drawings, formed the +entire contents of my portmanteau, but the radical state of mind into +which I had happily wrought myself scorned such trivialities, and it +was a gratification to me to follow my guide just as I was down the +wide staircase to the lower hall, and to a door which he obsequiously +threw open for me, and through which, without the least confusion, I +entered a large parlor, richly furnished and brilliantly lighted by +lamps standing on various tables. + +At one of these tables, at the further end of the room, sat the +company, consisting of the commerzienrath, his brother-in-law the +steuerrath, the steuerrath's lady, and Fräulein Duff. The +commerzienrath came to meet me with outstretched hand, crying in his +loud voice that he was unspeakably delighted to welcome his dear young +friend to his house. + +"To be sure I have had you in my house a long time already," he went +on, after he had grasped my hand--"a half year already, and I never +knew it! It is outrageous; but these girls never will learn reason. For +the merest nothing they will make a secret of things that we would +cheerfully pay a thousand _thalers_ to know." + +He said this with so much warmth that if I had ever doubted whether he +had really known that I was in his establishment, that doubt now +entirely disappeared. He had known it all along, but had no interest in +appearing to know it until I could be of real profitable use to him. + +Perhaps it was this observation that made me receive so coolly the +friendly protestations of the rich man; but I had to smile, and I felt +real pleasure when now the kind-hearted Fräulein Duff put down the +tea-pot, at which she had been officiating, and came gliding towards me +with a coy smile upon her thin lips, and her eyes lifted to express the +emotions of her soul. She held out her hand with the fingers bent and +drooping, in precisely the style of a tragedy-queen who expects it +kissed by a loyal vassal. But the good lady was thinking of nothing of +the sort; it was merely her way of offering her hand; and I took the +thin pale hand and pressed it cordially, though cautiously. The +sensitive nature of the excellent Fräulein felt at once the sincere +good-feeling that my pressure implied, and she returned it with nervous +force, her pale eyes filled with tears, and she whispered up to reach +my ear: "Do not be annoyed, and do not be angry with her; it is not +hate, it is maidenly coyness; do not despair--wait and trust--seek +faithfully----" + +Fräulein Duff had not time to complete her favorite phrase, for the +commerzienrath turned again to me and drew me to the table, by which +the steuerrath and his lady had been standing straight as candlesticks +from the moment I entered the room without moving from their places, +like a pair of wax-figures in a cabinet. + +"You have no idea how glad my brother and sister-in-law are to see you +again!"' said the commerzienrath, malicious joy sparkling in his small +glittering eyes. + +"Delighted!" said the steuerrath, offering me two fingers of his long +white hand, which I did not take. + +"Delighted!" said his lady, with a fixed look at the lamp on the table. + +I was not especially glad myself, so I did not say so, but I looked +closely at the amiable pair, whom time had certainly not passed by +without leaving marks upon them. The steuerrath's high forehead was now +bald to the crown, and deep ugly furrows were ploughed in his long +smooth aristocratic face. His eyes seemed to me smaller and more +expressionless, and his mouth larger. + +Still more rudely had the ungallant years dealt with the born +Kippenreiter. Her hair indeed was thicker and more lustrous than of +old, but the unkind suspicion that she owed this gratifying luxuriance +to the beneficent skill of the _perruquier_ was confirmed at a second +glance. Nor had her face been deprived of the ingenious resources of +art: her hollow cheeks were flushed with a bloom too delicate to be +altogether natural, and her thin pale lips disclosed two rows of teeth +of irreproachable whiteness. In a word, the Born had made herself +younger by twice the number of years that had passed since I last saw +her, only the expression of her small piercing eyes, which could not +possibly be worse, had remained the same, and the wide red ribbon of +her cap, which she tied in a large bow under her chin, apparently to +hide her hollow cheeks, nodded at every word she spoke in the old +exasperating way. + +They had taken their seats again at the tea-table. The commerzienrath +led the conversation in a style less adapted to the gratification of +his brother-in-law than to his own entertainment and my instruction. So +I learned in five minutes that the young Prince of Prora was residing +at Rossow again, and that Arthur was keeping him company in his exile. + +"For it is an exile," cried the commerzienrath to his brother-in-law, +"you may say what you please; I know it from Justizrath Heckepfennig, +whom, as his _Justitiarius_, the old prince had to summon to the family +council, in which the question was handled in all its length and +breadth, whether his son should or should not be declared a +spendthrift. The old prince at last yielded so far as to grant his son +a probation of half a year more, which he is to pass in the country, +while they make some arrangement with his creditors. A nice position +for a prince, is it not?" + +"Crowned heads are seldom happy," said with a sigh Fräulein Duff, who +had taken her seat by us with some work in her hands. + +"I thought that princes only wore hats," remarked the commerzienrath +with a sardonic grin, "though of such matters a poor plebeian like +myself is incompetent to judge: you understand those things better, +brother-in-law." + +"Doubtless, doubtless," replied the latter absently. + +"No doubt you are thinking of your amiable son," continued the +commerzienrath, "and whether, for a young man of his stamp, a better +companion could not be found than a young prince who is in a fair way +to ruin himself. I can easily understand that the thought causes you to +make a face like a tanner who sees his hides floating down the stream." + +"Excuse me, brother-in-law, but I was not thinking of Arthur at that +moment," replied the steuerrath, "but whether the negotiations for +the sale of Zehrendorf, which you have recently opened with his +highness--and which, by the way, would seem to indicate that you give +his highness credit for more acuteness and business knowledge than your +words imply--will come to any result." + +"What has that to do with his wisdom or his folly?" cried the +commerzienrath. "Yes, so far that the greater fool he is the dearer +will I be able to sell it to him. But I am not sure that I shall have +my daughter's permission to sell, for she has set her heart upon not +letting it pass into other hands. To be sure she has noble blood in her +veins--is that not so, sister-in-law!--and naturally looks at the +matter in a different light from a poor _roturier_ like myself. I might +have sold it long ago to Herr von Granow, among others, who made me a +very handsome offer, who, as one of our nearest neighbors, can put it +to the best advantage. But Hermine insists that Frau von Granow is too +vulgar a person--of course she is not a Born Anything, sister-in-law, +for the Born can never be vulgar, can they, sister-in-law?--but what I +was going to say is this: Hermine insists that I shall not give her +such a successor as that. But good heaven! she will find nobody she +thinks worthy of it, unless it be Herr von Trantow." + +"How is he?" I exclaimed. + +"O, very well. He eats and drinks and sleeps: why should he not be +well? He is a great favorite of my Hermine; and I believe she could +find it in her heart to marry him if she could only see him sober +once." + +At such horrible words Fräulein Duff could only clasp her hands and +cast a look at me, while the steuerrath and his wife exchanged a look +of intelligence with the quickness of lightning. I observed a slight +encouraging twinkle of the steuerrath's eyelashes, upon which followed +a slight attack of coughing on the part of the Born, and then the +following observation: + +"There is an old proverb, my dear brother-in-law, which always comes to +my mind when I hear sportive allusions, such as that which you have +just uttered." + +"You mean that 'we shouldn't paint the devil on the wall?'" exclaimed +the commerzienrath; "but you need not be uneasy on that score, for even +if the devil does not come, neither will your Arthur; no, not by a +great way!" and the commerzienrath broke into a boisterous laugh at his +own wit. + +"I am conscious of my innocence of all covetous plans of that sort, +brother-in-law," replied the Born, whose cheeks at the moment had no +need of any supplementary carmine. + +"So!" cried the commerzienrath. "Well that is a very good thing. Are +_you_ conscious of _your_ innocence too, brother-in-law? If your son +can say as much, then you are all three conscious, and no one can ask +more of you than that. Besides, sister-in-law, the Trantows are so old +a family, that, for this reason, if for no other, you should think +twice before you compare the last descendant of their race with Old +Nick." + +"If family antiquity is in question," said the steuerrath, "you must +know, brother-in-law, that while it is true that the Trantows trace +back their pedigree to the fourteenth century, the Zehrens----" + +"I know! I know! I have heard it a hundred thousand million times!" +cried the commerzienrath, hastily, rising from his chair. "You are a +frightfully old family; yes, sister-in-law, frightfully old! But +content yourselves; old as you are, you may grow a year or two older +yet. And now come with me to my room, my young friend, and let us have +at least a little sensible talk." + +He preceded me, through another parlor as brilliantly lighted as the +first, into a smaller room, which, to judge by the comfortable +horsehair-covered furniture, bookcases with docketed papers, and other +tokens, was his own especial apartment, which he had fitted out exactly +to his own taste. + +Several eminently bad copies of celebrated old masters, with sundry +still worse originals of modern date, animal-pieces and landscapes, +covered the walls, and corresponded exactly in artistic merit with +several busts of the reigning sovereigns and other princely personages, +placed appropriately or inappropriately, just as it happened. A lamp +hung from the ceiling over a round table, upon which were various +papers, a lighted candle, and an open box of cigars. + +"Now, my dear young friend," cried the commerzienrath, throwing himself +into a chair and stretching out his legs, which time had made still +leaner, in a fashion meant to express supreme comfort, "help yourself; +here is something superior, just from Havana, brought me by one of my +captains a week ago; duty-free as I have them, they are 'worth a +hundred and twenty _thalers_, between brothers. So! Now what do you +think of that ridiculous old ass of a steuerrath and his scarecrow of a +wife? They have been sponging upon me now for three weeks, but I show +them no quarter; was it not good fun?" + +"I cannot say that I found it so, Herr Commerzienrath." + +"No? Why not? You must be hard to amuse." + +"On the contrary, Herr Commerzienrath, no one loves a bit of harmless +fun more than I do; but I cannot find it harmless when the host--you +must excuse my plain speaking--makes fools of his guests, be they who +they may." + +"So, so! This is something new!" said my host, and fixed an evil look +upon me. + +"Yet it is a very old doctrine, Herr Commerzienrath, known and +practiced in the earliest times, and, as I am told, still sacredly +observed at this day by even the rudest nations--unless indeed they are +cannibals." + +"Cannibals is good! Cannibals! very good indeed!" cried the +commerzienrath, throwing himself back in his easy-chair and laughing +obstreperously, as though he had not but the moment before been on the +point of quarrelling with me. "Capital! How do you like the cigars? I +want your honest opinion." + +"By no means so superior, if you insist upon a candid expression of my +opinion." + +"Not--not superior? Well, young man, you must be hard to please. Such a +cigar as this nothing superior! When and where did you ever smoke a +better?" + +And the commerzienrath, with an appearance of intense enjoyment, +exhaled the smoke slowly through the nostrils. + +"To tell you the candid truth, very often; but I must confess that I am +a little dainty in this particular point. Probably my old stay at +Zehrendorf made me fastidious." + +"I dare say," said my host, with a sneer. "He could afford it: he did +not have to pay duties as we do." + +"I thought you said, Herr Commerzienrath, that these cigars were duty +free?" + +He looked at me again as if strongly moved to ring for a servant to +turn me out the house. He did not ring, however, but said: + +"So! If you are such a judge of the weed, what do you estimate these to +be worth?" + +"Twenty thalers I should consider a full price." + +"They cost eighteen!" cried the commerzienrath, giving the table a +thump. "Why should a man set costly cigars before his guests until he +knows whether they can appreciate them or not? And now I will give you +some that----" + +"Are worth a hundred and twenty _thalers_, between brothers." + +"Exactly so! exactly so! you ironical fellow!" cried the little old man +as he sprang up and took from a cupboard a box containing cigars, of +which I am bound to say that I never smoked better, even with the Wild +Zehren. + +My amiable host had been brought into so good a humor by this bit of +comedy that he insisted on having in a bottle of Steinberg Cabinet, +from which he replenished my glass with great liberality while he only +sipped at his own, making pretence all the time of drinking glass for +glass with me, both from this and a second bottle which he had in, +in the course of the evening. I had seen the old gentleman behind a +bottle in my earlier days, and also when he was a visitor at the +superintendent's, and knew that he was what used to be called a +three-bottle-man; so if he was so abstemious now he had some especial +reason for it. Nor was this reason long concealed. It was soon evident +to me that he wanted to make me talk, and to get at my sincere opinions +upon a multitude of things, and the heavy wine of a noble vintage was +to assist my candor if it faltered. I have in later years too often +seen this man use the same stratagem, in similar cases, to leave me any +doubt of the accuracy of the observation I made on this occasion. + +There was also another man[oe]uvre, which I learned now for the first +time, in which this old man of business was a master. It was this: +leaning far back in his chair, his eyes half shut, he talked in an +apparently disconnected way of this and that, rambling from one topic +to another, until he suddenly, like a flash, touched upon the point +which he had still been approaching in all his gyrations without his +hearer perceiving it. He hid himself in a black cloud, so to speak, as +the cuttlefish eludes its pursuers--only with this difference, that +this cunning old pike, in the shape of a royal counsellor of commerce, +used this stratagem in order unexpectedly to snap out of his cloud at +an unsuspicious gudgeon. + +It was past midnight when William Kluckhuhn showed me to my room. He +lighted the two wax candles on the table before the divan, asked me if +he should extinguish the hanging lamp, to which I assented, and +inquired at what hour I wished to be called in the morning, to which I +could only answer that I had the habit of awaking at the proper time, +and then left me with a most respectful bow, which stood in ludicrous +contrast to the extremely free and easy way in which he had received me +but a few hours before. + +I had no thought of sleeping yet. My brain was swarming with thoughts +which the long conversation with the master of the house had excited in +me; my heart was full of tumultuous emotions, awakened by the novel +position in which I found myself; and, as well might happen in such an +hour, after a couple of bottles of heavy wine, and in an entirely new +situation, the events of the evening arranged themselves in a sort of +wild, fantastic dance, surrounding me with figures now graceful and now +grotesque--figures of which I could now and then fix one for a moment: +the commerzienrath, with his half-shut eyes and his sharp pikelike snap +at that point in the conversation towards which he had been +man[oe]uvring all the while; good Fräulein Duff, with the sentimental +quivering of her sallow eyelids; the steuerrath, with the white crafty +face and the white slender hand on which sparkled his immense +signet-ring; the born Kippenreiter, with the false teeth and the false +smile; and, lastly, her whom I had not seen, and yet in the eye of my +mind perpetually saw--her in whose room I was, who certainly had often +rested in this corner of the divan where I now was reclining--the +slight elastic form of the beauteous young maiden, with the saucy +twitch in the red lips, and the sunny light in the cornflower-blue +eyes. + +And, stranger than all this--behind this foreground of scenes and +figures, changing like the forms of a kaleidoscope, and shifting like +wreaths of mist, there arose a background of the circumstances with +which I had to do for the moment, and which I believed that I +penetrated in their most secret relations, as if an enchanter had given +me that magic unguent with which if one anoint his eyes he can see all +the treasures that sleep in the depths of the earth. Once before in my +life had I had a similar feeling: on that day after my arrival at +Zehrendorf when I strolled in the afternoon in the park and under the +softly-rustling trees, in the sight of the venerable castle over which +sunshine and shadow were chasing each other, I knew on a sudden that +the master of this park and this castle was a desperate smuggler. And +just so, or nearly so, I just now felt an intuitive conviction that +this new house stood upon as treacherous a foundation, which might at +any moment cave in and bury the proud and envied fortune of the man +under the ruins of a gigantic bankruptcy. And yet for such an inference +I had apparently no ground whatever. And even as before the thought +seemed to me just as extravagant, just as insane; but I did not +reproach myself as before; I rather sought in all earnestness to find +the points which had possibly given rise to a suspicion so ridiculously +at variance with the splendor of this room, the magnificence of the +house, with everything which from childhood I had heard of the wealth +of our provincial Cr[oe]sus. What could it have been? A peculiar quiver +in his voice as he spoke of the immense stock of corn in his warehouses +from the previous harvest, and of the unexampled fall in the price of +bread-stuffs owing to the altered position of affairs in England;--this +and the nervous excitability which he showed when I pointed out to him +the necessity of enlarging the machine-works in the city to double +their present extent, if he did not wish to be hopelessly distanced in +the competition with other establishments on the introduction of the +railway system into our country. A third point was his urgent wish, to +which he continually recurred, to sell Zehrendorf for as high a sum as +possible--he spoke of five hundred thousand _thalers_--to Prince Prora. + +The strange thought had almost taken my breath, so I went to the window +and looked dreamingly out upon the garden, whose gravelled walks and +dark beds and shrubbery were dimly defined in the pallid moonlight. + +"Why should it not be so?" I said to myself, holding with a sort of +pertinacity to my unreasonable fancy. "And if it were so, would it not +be a righteous Nemesis? Those old freebooter knights kept on their evil +courses so long, and despised the signs of the time so thoroughly, that +at last the time turned against them and flung them off, as a spirited +horse hurls from the saddle the rider who has lost his stirrups. And in +our time the dead ride fast, and this man here, the shop-keeper, who +has mounted the knight's charger, I reckon already among the dead. +Shameless rapacity and naked selfishness--have these not been the food +of the one as of the other? Have they not both borne as motto on their +shields: 'All for me--I for myself?' Has any one of them ever thought +of the poor people, except to press hard upon it, by way of feeling +that it is there? Ay, is it not more than mere chance that that +criminal traffic into which the freebooter threw himself merely to gain +his living, became the means by which the shopkeeper amassed his +riches? Has he not just told me, with a chuckle of satisfaction, how +adroitly his father and he availed themselves of the fabulously +advantageous opportunities afforded by Napoleon's continental embargo, +and how they had carried on the business for years and years, and made +thousands and thousands, and how they slipped out of it at the very +moment it began to grow hazardous? Is it not just, then, that the +shopkeeper who turned freebooter should have his part in the same fate +that befell the freebooter turned shopkeeper?--only that the lordship +of the former will not endure so long as that of the latter, and +rightly so, for 'the dead ride fast.'" + +I looked up to the night sky, where a keen night wind was driving great +masses of black cloud from west to east across the shining disc of the +moon now near the full. Strange fantastic figures; long trailing +dragons with expanded jaws, colossal fishes with greedy rows of teeth, +horrible crustacean shapes with long nippers and crooked crawling legs, +giants with heads towering high and bearing masses of rock in their +uplifted arms, cunning hunchbacked dwarfs with protruding gluttonous +paunches--monsters and deformities of all sorts, and not a single +bright fair figure. In a strange freak of fancy I seemed to see in +these frightful clouds the races of men who had held dominion upon +earth, and borne the sceptre and the trenchant sword, who had had no +pity for the oppressed multitude whose life they drained, until it was +like that attenuated green-gray film timidly floating under the giants, +which no sooner came into the bright neighborhood of the moon than it +dispersed and dissolved away. Should it go on so in unbroken succession +forever? Must race of oppressors follow race of oppressors without end: +the knights of the hammer ever smite upon the wretched anvil? Would +that time never come--that other time, that better time--which the eye +of my glorious teacher had seen in vision, to hasten whose coming he +had given his life, and to which I had devoted myself with all the +might of my soul? + +"It will come, be assured this time will come," I said. "Is it not come +even now? Is it not already within yourself, since you have recognized +that it will and must come? Is it not already in all those who think as +you, and have the power to give their thoughts form and color and flesh +and blood? + +"Ah, to have that power! Were it not a glorious thing to be master +here, and yonder in the great works, and in all his other factories and +stores? To be able to be a helper--a benefactor to thousands and +thousands--and not to be it! To be a monster with vast engulfing jaws, +like that hideous spectre up yonder in the clouds, because, as Doctor +Willibrod says, so soon as we attain power and wealth Fate hangs a +flintstone or a gold nugget in our breast instead of a heart!" + +I closed the window, lowered the curtain, and went towards my bed. But +the train of thought I had been following had escaped me, and I stopped +and surveyed once more all the magnificence of the luxurious room. + +"And to all this she has been accustomed from her childhood," I said to +myself. "Upon such soft carpets has her dainty foot always trod; her +hand has always touched fabrics of this voluptuous texture; she has +always breathed this perfumed atmosphere. And if shameless selfishness +should meet with such a fate as brutal arrogance--this house should +fall as fell that older one--it would be hard, cruelly hard for her. +The other called me once her George, her dragon-slayer. But she did not +wish to be rescued, and I, still half a boy, could not have rescued +her. With this one it might perhaps be otherwise; perhaps she would +rather be rescued than perish--and in any event, I am no longer a boy." + +And here my eye fell upon the little mangy seal-skin portmanteau which +William Kluckhuhn had carefully placed at the foot of the bed whose +voluminous curtains he had looped back, and I had to laugh aloud. For +it was ridiculous, when I possessed hardly more than was contained in +this little shabby wallet, a borrowed one at that, to talk of rescuing +a house like this--to worry my brains about the fate of men who lived +in a house like this! So I betook myself to bed, and, as I was just +falling asleep, awakened myself again by laughing at something--I did +not know what. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +But when I awoke the next morning at early dawn I knew what it was. It +was the embroidered ribbon which I had discovered the evening before in +the bunch of flowers, and in which my fancy, half asleep, seemed to +catch a delightful solution of all the enigmas that surrounded me here: +but now, with senses wide awake, I saw nothing in it but a bit of +sentimental silliness on the part of good-hearted Fräulein Duff. Still +a feeling of disquiet seized me that compelled me to get up and dress +myself hastily. A pair of sparrows that had their nest somewhere close +at hand under the eaves began an animated conversation, and then +stopped suddenly, finding that it was earlier than they had supposed. + +So I found it myself: when I stepped to the window, with the ribbon in +my hand, I could not distinguish the gold letters of the embroidery +from the blue ground of the silk. I was vexed at myself for my childish +curiosity. Had I come here to puzzle at riddles? + +But I held the ribbon still in my hand as the sky began to grow +brighter and the first rosy morning light tinged the eastern clouds. +Already I could distinguish the garden beds from the gravelled walks +beneath me, and in the beds even the yellow crocuses from the blue +hyacinths, and now again I looked at the magic ribbon and could plainly +read the motto I so well knew. + +"Anyhow," I said to myself, "whether it be meant in earnest or in joke; +whether it be the silly sentimentality of the duenna or a saucy jest of +the maiden, it is a good word and I will lay it to heart. I _will_ seek +faithfully: and as for what I shall find, I will not puzzle my brains +beforehand with guessing." + +I took the ribbon with me, that it might not meet the prying eyes of +William Kluckhuhn, and left the room. Passing through the roomy house, +where darkness and silence still reigned through all the carpeted +corridors and stairs, I sought and found a door leading from the lower +hall into the open air. + +It was a small side-door, like that which in the old house opened into +the neglected back-yard. The back-yard had disappeared, of course, and +everything else was so changed that I found myself in an entirely new +and strange region. But I soon discovered that it was not merely that +all things were here new and different, but that they were in perfect +contrast to the old. While the ruinous and obviously uninhabitable +old castle had towered aloft in great masses, bare of all ornament, +the new building presented itself of moderate size but judiciously +proportioned, evidently planned for comfort and convenience, and in a +neat if not altogether pure style of architecture. The court-yard, with +kitchen and other outbuildings which formerly had adjoined the castle, +was now removed to the distance of a hundred yards or so, and the house +had handsome grounds all around it, adorned with trees and shrubbery, +evidently of recent planting. The intention was to separate a small +blooming oasis, the centre of which was the house, from the rest of the +ground devoted to cultivation--a pretty device, which would only +require twenty years or so for its perfect realization. + +A new time had come altogether. In what brilliant newness glittered the +tiled roofs between the young poplars! To the right, where formerly +wide fallow lands had in vain waited for cultivation, broad fields, +green with young grain, now shone in the sunlight; and further to the +right--a strange and almost incredible sight in this region--further +still to the right was a cluster of red brick buildings, from the midst +of which sprang a gigantic chimney sending out a black cloud of smoke +against the bright morning sky. This was the distillery, built about +two years before, and for which we had delivered some machinery in the +course of the past winter. As I judged, the park must formerly have +extended to that spot; and now there was not a tree to be seen, not a +tree anywhere, as I satisfied myself by walking around the house until +I reached that part of the grounds which I had seen from my window. I +convinced myself that this must have been the place of the great lawn; +but in vain did my eye seek for the circle of magnificent beeches +surrounding this expanse of waving grass. As far as the hills which +one crossed to reach the promontory all the woods had been cleared +away, and the stumps, which were everywhere left standing, gave the +ground the look of a vast neglected graveyard. Here and there were +well-cleared spaces where they had begun new plantations, but the young +trees looked poorly, and by no means promised to yield such trunks as +those which were still lying in some places among the stumps, but +already cut into lengths. + +I went on along the well-kept road which ascended the hills towards the +promontory, following nearly the direction of the old path which led +through the forest to the tarn. This, then, must have been its place; +this circular hollow, at the bottom of which, nearly overgrown with +grass, were still some small pools of black water. The story used to +run that this gloomy tarn was of unfathomable depth, and now behold at +the deepest place it was not over thirty feet! They had simply cut the +bank on the side towards the coast and let the water off, in order to +obtain the compost formed by the leaves which for centuries had fallen +into it and sunk to the bottom. The manure was doubtless very +serviceable to the exhausted fields; but they had made a frightfully +ugly place of what used to be, in its mysterious loneliness and +seclusion, the sweetest spot in all the forest. A single one of the old +giants had been left standing midway up the slope. It was an immense +beech, the growth of centuries, which I believed I recognized again, +though it looked strangely standing there alone. And I was not +mistaken: upon its bark I found in letters nearly overgrown, but still +legible, my name and a date, the date of the day on which, in that +sunny autumn morning, I first saw Constance von Zehren under this very +tree. + +It was a singular chance that of all the stately trees just this one +had been left standing. + +A feeling of sadness begun to arise in my breast, but I suppressed it, +and looked up to the cheerful blue sky. That morning was fair, but the +leaves were already falling, and the winter that was to sweep away all +the beauty already stood at the door; while to-day the morning was as +fair, and it was spring, and the long sunny summer days were coming, +the days of work of which the harvest would not fail. + +"Yes," I said to myself, as I strode actively up the hill and along the +crest of the promontory, "yes, that world had to pass, with its +rustling forests, its mysterious dark lakes of ancient time, its +crumbling castles, its ruinous courts, and fields all lying fallow. +Even you had to go, old ruin of a tower, gray with antiquity, and make +way for this little pavilion, from whose windows there must be a lovely +outlook over the unchangeable sea." + +Here it was the tower had stood. A gay butterfly had alighted on the +spot where the fierce eagle had so long had its eyrie. I walked around +the pretty little building, of which the door was fastened and the silk +curtains of the windows lowered. On the south side the roof projected, +boldly, and under it were several tables and benches. + +While I sat here, leaning my head on my hand and gazing at the +landscape, the sun rose--rose out of the sea in a blaze of tremulous +light; but it was not this dazzling brilliancy that compelled me to +close my eyes. From this spot I had seen the sun rise once before, and +here, where I was sitting, sat a corpse with glazed eyes, on which lay +the everlasting night, staring sightless at all the splendor. + +Once more I resisted the sadness that threatened to unman me. This was +all past; it should not return to darken the day, the bright day, which +I had long been in the habit of meeting and welcoming as a precious +boon from heaven. + +I arose and went to the ravine which I had climbed with the Wild Zehren +that night by scarcely accessible paths, and where now a long flight of +stairs led easily down to the sawmill of which the commerzienrath had +spoken to me the evening before, and whose clatter I could now hear +coming up from the depths. It was a small but admirably planned +arrangement, and had done its duty so well that the whole Zehrendorf +forest, except a very trifling remainder, had been cut up by its saws. + +"I wish we had not gone ahead quite so fast," said the foreman, whom I +found in the mill; "for in cutting down the forest we cut off the water +also, so that we can only work one day out of three, and cannot begin +to fill the orders that come in from all quarters. Now the +commerzienrath has set the example, all are following it, and are +felling timber at such a rate that soon there will not be a tree to be +seen on this part of the island. I have often told the commerzienrath +what would be the result; but he would not listen to me, and now he +must suffer for it." + +"A small steam engine would help the difficulty, would it not?" I +asked. + +"Yes; but you see water is cheaper than steam. But the profits never +came in fast enough, so he killed the goose for the sake of the golden +egg. All that understood the matter advised him not to clear off all +the wood at once, but to leave enough to protect the undergrowth from +the winds that blow too strong up there on the height. Now nothing will +grow on the bare soil thoroughly dried by the wind, as you probably +noticed if you came over the ridge from the castle. No, no; you can't +treat nature as you please: she is not so patient as men." + +The foreman was a small man with a shrewd thoughtful face. He was born, +as he told me, on another part of the island, and knew the country and +the people well, but had not long been in this region. I introduced +myself to him as the person who was to set up the new machinery in the +chalk-quarry, and asked him his opinion of this undertaking. + +"It will not turn out much better than this," he replied, "though for +another reason. The quarry has always been a tolerably productive one, +but the commerzienrath took the notion that he had only to quarry +deeper and it would yield more abundantly. It has yielded in great +abundance--_water_, which will ruin the whole quarry if your machinery +cannot get the upper hand of it." + +"That is an ugly state of things," I said, seriously disturbed by what +he told me. + +"It is indeed," he answered. + +"And the kilns," I asked again, "can you give no better report of +them?" + +The man shrugged his shoulders. + +"There are several things to be said on that subject. The arrangements +are good enough, but immensely too expensive, and the transportation is +too heavy in winter upon our frightful roads. And even during the +summer they sometimes come to a stand-still, because all along the +coast here our communication with the sea is so bad; although the +commerzienrath has had a great breakwater built with the stones of the +old tower. You can see it from here--there where that line of surf is. +But we might get along if the commerzienrath knew how to make himself +liked among the people." + +"How so?" I asked. + +The man looked at me with some hesitation from under his bushy +eyebrows. + +"You may speak quite openly," I said. "But a few days ago I was no more +than an ordinary workman in the commerzienrath's machine-shops, and +have not lost my sympathy with my comrades in this short time." + +"Well," said he, "to speak freely, my notion of the matter is this: the +people about here, the seafaring men as well as the cotters, and those +in the villages on the coast and up the country, all look upon the +commerzienrath as a man who has pushed himself into a place where +better men than himself have sat and should sit. As to their being +better, there may be two sides to that question; but I am not speaking +my own thoughts, but those of the people. Then many of them remember +that the commerzienrath was not always the rich man he is now; and what +is the worst, two or three know very well how he got together such a +monstrous heap of money, for he worked for it himself, and risked his +skin in the year '10, and thereabouts, when there were queer doings +along this coast and up as high as Uselin and Woldom. Why, not so many +years ago there was a grand hunt made here after smugglers, of which +perhaps you may have heard something. Well, all that might have been, +and nobody think anything the worse of the commerzienrath for it, if he +were a man to live and let live, and who tried to make up for anything +he had done amiss, and did not bear too hard on the poor men. But he is +just the opposite of that. He grinds and drives them all he can, and +only thinks of how much work is to be got out of them, as they have got +to work. But he is mistaken. They work for him, it is true; but only +such of them as can get nothing else to do; and what sort of workmen +they are, and the kind of work they do, you know as well as I could +tell you." + +"I see," I said. + +A workman came up. New logs were to be laid for sawing, and the foreman +must be there. I shook his hand. He looked at me with his melancholy +eyes, and said with a smile: + +"You have' me now in your power if you choose to tell the +commerzienrath what you have heard from me. But it is no matter: in any +event I shall not stay here much longer." + +"I am sorry to hear you say so," I answered. "I trust on the contrary +we shall have many a friendly talk together, and hit upon more than one +good plan between us. Don't throw away your musket too soon; there is a +better time coming I fancy." + +The man looked at me in some surprise, but answered nothing, and went +into the mill, while I descended the stairs all the way down to the +strand. + +Here lay my sea, my dearly loved sea, which I had always greeted with +tears of joy when a dream carried me to the shore and it lay before me +in all its grandeur and beauty. Rolling in they came, the great +glorious waves with white breaking crests, flinging the foam of the +surf to my feet; and when they rolled back there was a fierce roar from +the millions of pebbles grinding together on the beach. Over the +chalk-cliffs above me a pair of gulls wheeled in lazy flight, and in +the offing glittered the sails of two fishing-boats which were bound +home after heavy night-work. With what anticipation I had looked +forward to seeing once more what I had not seen for so long, and I saw +it almost with indifference. + +But it was not my fault. My feelings were as strong as ever, and my +heart had not grown so much older in the eight or nine years; but I +could not drive away the anxious thoughts aroused by the words of the +honest intelligent foreman of the mill. + +How accurately his views tallied with the observation which I had made +during my morning walk! With what a sharp outline he had sketched the +portrait of the commerzienrath, just as I had always known him, and as +he appeared last night. Then he was full of boasting and bragging in +how short a time he had trebled and quintupled the value of the estate, +and all that he was doing for the people around. He had meant to show +Messieurs the noblemen, who in matters of farming were all some fifty +years behind the time, what a man of business like himself could make +out of a ruined estate. This was the only real interest he took in the +whole business, and if the young prince had a fancy to the property he +had better hasten his decision or he would come too late. + +Five hundred thousand _thalers_--half a million! How was such a sum to +be got out of it? The estate was of vast extent, it was true, and +exhausted and ruined as it was at the Wild Zehren's death, was still +worth a hundred and fifty thousand, and at this price the +commerzienrath took it at the settlement. Now when it was in a better +state of cultivation, when all the buildings were new, a handsome +residence built, and the various industrial arrangements, even if not +doing so well as was hoped, still enhanced the value of the property, +it might be worth twice the money; but on the other hand all the +valuable timber was cut down and sold--I could not raise it to that +price, reckon as I might; there was always more than the half that I +could not account for. If the commerzienrath's statements of his +affairs were all as loose as this--in just the same proportion he had +over-estimated the value of his machine-works in Berlin, in our talk +the previous night--if he only played the millionaire because perhaps +he had once been one; if he--I paused, looking out at the sea, and drew +a long breath. Again, in this clear morning, here in the fresh sea-air, +the gloomy presentiment came over me, that yesterday evening in the +close room I had held for the offspring of my excited fancy, heated +with the fiery wine; and once more, as yesterday, my thoughts reverted +to the fair girl, the wayward, envied heiress of wealth, which possibly +had no existence but in her father's idle boasting. + +"But, after all, what does it concern me?" I said to myself, as I waded +with rapid strides through the deep sand of the beach; "it does not +concern me at all; not the least." + +At my feet lay a large fish which the waves must just have flung +ashore. It seemed dead, but showed no marks of injury; its expanded +gills were still brilliantly red; probably the surf had dashed it +against a rock, or a blow from the paddle of a seal stunned it. I +carried it, not without wetting my feet, over the great stones, and +threw it into deeper water. It floated, turning up its white belly. +"Poor creature," I said, "I would fain have helped you; now the gulls +will eat you; your death furnishes them a feast." + +"And how did the dead fish concern me?" I went on philosophizing, as +after knocking the wet sand off my boots, I pursued my way. "Not in the +least, either. A man should have in his breast the heart of one of +these gulls, with sharp talons, and a strong keen beak, and hack gaily +into every prey that a favoring wave casts up on the strand. George, +George, be ashamed of yourself! But it all does no good; I cannot make +myself other than I am. But neither can I make others different from +what they are. The commerzienrath for instance: could I ever teach that +man the doctrines of my master? The doctrine of love--of mutual help? +Never. Or at least only if I could prove that his profit went with it +hand in hand: that he will work his own ruin if he makes rapacity the +ruling principle of his life. Did not my teacher predict all this to +me? The turn of this man and those like him is now come: they are +now the knights of the hammer: it is the old game in a somewhat +different form. And he added--and a bright light glowed in his splendid +eyes,--'It will not be long before our time comes, we who have +comprehended that there is a justice that cannot be mocked.' + +"'That time--our time--it will never come,' Doctor Willibrod used to +say, 'or only for him who can conquer it, and hold it fast by the +fluttering robe.'" + +A gull gave a hoarse cry overhead: I looked up and saw something white, +like the skirt of a dress, fluttering above the bushes fringing the +cliff which here was steep and at least fifty feet high. It was not a +dress, it was a veil which floated from the hat of a horsewoman, for +presently I saw the hat itself, then the head of the horse, and soon +the rider herself, or at least her head and shoulders for a moment, as +she leaned over to look down at the narrow strip of beach. + +It gave me a beating of the heart--it looked so very dangerous, +although I knew that it was not quite so dangerous as it seemed from +below: and I called out to her to take care; but she hardly could have +heard it. Her white veil had disappeared, and my heart beat still more +strongly--it was Paula's fault if I could not look on calmly and see +the fair Hermine fall fifty feet down a precipice, even though it were +into my arms. + +"How now," I cried, in scorn to myself, "is there anything more to +rescue or to protect? Cunning old commerzienraths, stupid dead fishes, +pretty capricious girls--it is all the same to you, if you can only +burn your fingers or wet your feet for your trouble. How long has it +been since you hastened along this beach with the Wild Zehren at your +side and the coast-guard on your heels? You might still see the +foot-prints if winds and waves had not effaced them; but stupid idiot +that you are, you can find the old track without that!" + +Thus I chided myself, and made up my mind to return at once to the +house and there to tell the commerzienrath that I--no matter for what +reason--had resolved to return, and nothing could induce me to stay. +And while I formed this resolution, which, if carried into effect, +would have changed the whole course of my life, and therefore was not +to be, I was already looking with awakening interest at the +arrangements at the chalk-quarry, which lay before me, in a moderately +deep ravine, as I turned a sharp angle of the cliff. It would have been +worse than unbecoming if I had so abruptly abandoned the work which I +had been sent for and had come expressly to carry out. + +So I ascended the wooden staircase which ran up the chalk-cliff until I +reached a small platform, where behind the watchman's hut was the +opening to the galleries which had been pushed horizontally into the +chalk, and which could not now be worked further because they had come +upon springs of water which they were in vain trying to master with +rude temporary pumping machinery. + +"And it is very doubtful whether your machines will do it," said the +old weatherbeaten overseer, who showed it to me. + +"But how did it happen?" I asked. + +"How did it happen?" echoed he, shrugging his shoulders--"Why you see, +behind the chalk, which comes just to here--" we were walking on the +top of the cliff, and took hold of a stake driven into the ground as a +mark--"there is a stratum of sand, old sea-sand and dune-sand, which +runs alongside the chalk at about the same depth, and at the other end +reaches the great morass where it sucks up the water like a sponge. We +all knew that very well, but the master would not believe it, and +thought we wanted to cheat him out of his profits when we advised him +to go no deeper on that side, when the chalk happened just there to be +especially fine. Now he has to suffer for it." + +Just the same thing that the foreman in the saw-mill had said, and both +seemed to be intelligent honest men, who took a sincere interest in the +prosperity of the works and were really grieved at their ill success. +Why had he not followed their advice while it was yet time? Why? For +the same reason that he had steadily opposed all Doctor Snellius's +proposition for the formation of beneficial and burial societies; for +the same reason that he had scornfully rejected the suggestions of our +manager to raise the wages of the workmen in proportion to the +increased cost of living. It was always the same reason: boundless +selfishness, which gazes on the one object of its desires with such +greedy eyes that it can see neither to the right nor to the left, and +is at last dazzled and blinded to its own real interests. + +"Now he has to suffer for it," the old man repeated, as if in +confirmation of my thoughts, then turned slowly away and descended the +wooden stair which led from the edge of the cliff down to the quarry. + +I remained alone, in profound thought, as if the creation of a new +world had been entrusted to me. And was there not a world to create +here, of which as yet only the foundation had been laid? Sawmills, +chalk-quarries, lime-kilns, the draining of the great morass--what +might not have been made of all these undertakings? Nay, what might not +still be made of them, if they were taken up in the right spirit and +with the right intention?--the intention of providing for the poor, +perishing, wretched people here, new and permanent sources of +subsistence. One had only to win their confidence by letting them see +that while they seemed to be working for their employer, they were +really working for themselves. + +"If I were but master here!" + +From the point where I stood, I could overlook a good part of the +country; my view extending to the left up as far as the heights of +Zehrendorf, and on the right descending to the great morass and along +the line of coast as far as Zanowitz, whose miserable huts were visible +here and there between the barren dunes. And I saw in fancy the waste +land waving with golden harvests, the great moor drained and giving +place to rich meadows on which grazed great herds of cattle, while +handsome fishing-smacks sailed out from the wretched village, now the +port of a rich and fruitful territory. + +Once before I had had a similar dream, and once before my eyes had +roved over this land and my fancy would have created a paradise, if +such a power resided in fancies or in wishes. Since then many a year +had passed; I was another man, richer in understanding and sagacity, +stronger in will; must it still remain only a longing wish? Must I +again, as so often before in my life, stand with empty hands before the +famishing who were crying for bread? + +And as I walked backwards and forwards on the cliff, thinking and +thinking how I should get away, for go away I must, suddenly the white +veil that I had before seen fluttering from the summit, now fluttered +over the bushes that edged the beach to my right. I heard the rapid +tread of a galloping horse on the sandy road behind the bushes, and in +the next moment the rider came round the corner upon a handsome black +horse, with an enormous yellow mastiff galloping by his side with an +almost equal length of stride. The instant the lady saw me, with a +quick firm hand she swerved the well-trained horse to one side, but the +dog came bounding to me with evidently hostile intentions. As I was +ready for him the moment he sprang at me, I clutched him by the throat +and one fore-leg, and hurled him to the ground. + +"Leo! Leo!" cried Hermine, urging on her horse with whip and rein. +"Here, Leo! Down, Sir!" + +But Leo had prudently decided to beat a retreat after the failure of +his attack. It seemed that in my haste I had handled him rather +roughly, for he limped slowly towards his mistress, whining and holding +up his right fore-paw. + +"Served you right," said she, bending down to pat him. "How could you +be so stupid as to attack that gentleman? Don't you know he can conquer +lions?" + +She said this in a tone through which there evidently enough pierced a +certain scorn, and a trace of contempt, or vexation, or pride, or all +together, lay upon her beautiful lips, as she now looked at me sharply +with her large clear blue eyes, as I bowed in salutation, and said: + +"You need not be surprised, sir: the dog has been trained to protect +his mistress. I do not know for what he can have taken you." + +These unfriendly words were also spoken in a very far from kindly tone, +and I am not sure that an elegant young gentleman who should be thus +treated by a beautiful girl would in all cases preserve the repose of +manner that marks his caste. + +But I only saw in the fair Amazon who behaved so haughtily, the pretty +blue-eyed girl of nine or ten years before, when we used to tease each +other; so I felt in nowise wounded by her behavior, and I fear that I +very calmly remarked that at the worst the dog could only have taken me +for a workman, and that I hardly supposed he had been trained to attack +a class of persons as useful as they were numerous. + +At this answer, which was probably not of the nature she expected, she +looked at me with an embarrassed indignant glance, and said, with more +temper than logic: + +"I do not know why you should be taken for anything else, since you +are always occupied with such useful and important matters that of +course you cannot care about your external appearance, as do we small +every-day people. The last time I had this pleasure, you looked, if I +remember right, like a chimney-sweeper; and now--for the sake of +contrast probably--you present yourself in the garb of a miller." + +I glanced down at myself, involuntarily, and perceived that in creeping +about in the narrow galleries of the chalk-quarry, I had rubbed my +broad shoulders and other projecting angles of my person against the +walls, and that with great white patches all over my clothes, I did +really present a singular and ludicrous appearance. I took off my hat, +and said with a profound bow, turning to the dog who was now sitting on +his haunches with an air of extreme despondency, holding up his damaged +fore-paw: + +"I most heartily beg pardon, and I solemnly promise that if I have the +happy fortune to meet you again, I shall appear as neat as it is +possible for soap and brush to make me, when I trust you will have as +little doubt of my friendly intentions as I have of yours." + +"Come, Leo! Come along if you can; or else stay where you are." + +She gave her horse, who had been impatiently tossing his head and +pawing the sand, so sharp a cut across the neck that he bounded with +surprise and went off at full gallop. The dog galloped after, as fast +as his available legs would carry him. + +I did not feel that in this odd rencontre, which almost seemed a +combat, I had come off second best. I believe I even looked after her +as she galloped off and her white veil quickly disappeared behind the +bushes, with a kind of triumphant smile, and muttered to myself, "'The +first best man'--in truth the man were not to be pitied who should be +the first and best for you!" + +It was time that I had returned to the house, where the commerzienrath +was certainly awaiting me by this time. So I walked rapidly back from +the cliffs, along a road too well known to me of old, which led between +the morass on the left and the heath on the right, in the direction of +Trantowitz, where quite near the house a path branched off through the +fields to Zehrendorf. I do not know how it happened, but my meeting +with the pretty girl who exhibited so much hostility to me, without +bringing me really to believe in its sincerity, had entirely restored +my good humor. + +All things that had seemed to me so gloomy and fraught with evil, now +appeared in a more cheerful light. Here was certainly a possibility of +doing good on a large scale; and I blessed my star that, as it seemed, +it had fallen to my lot to bring this possibility to a reality. The +commerzienrath, if not a good, was at least a shrewd man, who would not +act against the interests of others when he was shown that these +interests ran parallel with his own. And who was better prepared to +give him this proof than I--I, whose disinterestedness he must be +convinced of, and who, heaven knows why, rejoiced in his regard for me, +so far as such a feeling could be said to exist in his cold breast. It +is possible that he only liked me because he needed me, or thought he +did. Be it so: I must make myself necessary to him, and I believed I +could do this: and then let the fair Hermine treat me as superciliously +as she pleased, I stood firmly on my feet and could hold my head as +high as nature had placed it. + +So I strode valiantly along the narrow path to the gap in the alder +thicket which here grew between the moor and the heath; the same gap +through which I had fled with the Wild Zehren on that night nine years +before. Once more I battled with my sad recollections, for I had firmly +resolved to meet the present as it was, and let the past be past. How, +indeed, without this resolution, could I ever have brought myself to +return to this place? And the sun was shining so brightly in the blue +sky, and the birds singing so merrily in the branches whose buds were +now beginning to open, and in the bushes that were now in full leaf; in +the brown water of the ditches and pools long-legged water-beetles were +gaily rowing about, and in the distance, in the Trantowitz woods +apparently, resounded the call of the cuckoo. No; one could not be +melancholy on so bright a day; and when I thought of the pretty angry +face of the charming girl, I could not refrain from laughing so loud +that a man, who had been lying asleep in the young grass on the edge of +a trench under the overhanging boughs of an alder a few paces from me, +raised himself slowly on his elbow and stared at me, as I came round +the thicket, with great astonished blue eyes. I only needed one look at +these good-natured big blue eyes--"Herr von Trantow!" I cried--"Hans, +my dear Hans!" and I held out my hands to my old friend, who in the +meantime had risen to his feet, and offered me his great brown knightly +hand with a friendly smile. + +"How are you dear friend?" I said. + +"As usual," he answered. + +It was the old tone, but it was no longer the old Hans. His blue eyes +were more expressionless, his brown cheeks sunken, and his formerly +well-shaped handsome nose was red and swollen; and when we seated +ourselves side by side on the edge of the trench, and he took off his +cap, I saw that his thick dark-blond hair was greatly thinned. + +"I knew that you would come," he said, taking flint and steel from his +hunting pouch and lighting a cigar, after first supplying me: "I was to +go there to dinner to-day, but I do not know whether I should have +gone; so I am all the more glad that I have met you here. I had much +rather be here." + +And he puffed great clouds of smoke from his cigar and gazed at the +water in the trench, where the lively long-legged water-beetles were +busily rowing about. + +"Much rather," he repeated. + +"And are you still living as lonely as ever?" I asked. + +"Naturally," said Hans. + +"I do not find that so natural," I replied, with some animation, for +Hans's whole appearance and voice bespoke a carelessness and desolation +which cut me to the heart--"by no means natural. What! a man like you, +a dear, good, brave fellow like you, go mooning and wasting his life in +solitude because a coquette has chosen to lead him in her string for a +year or so? Yes, Herr von Trantow, a heartless coquette, who never was +worth the regards of an honest man and now--no, she is hardly worth our +compassion. I can tell you, I have learned that truth to my cost." + +"So have I," said Hans. + +"I know it." + +Hans shook his head as if to say, that is not what I mean. I knew of +old how to translate his gestures. + +"Have you seen her since?" I asked. + +He nodded. + +"Where and when?" + +"Eight or nine years ago, in--what do they call the hole?--Naples." + +"That was the time that you disappeared from here, and no one knew what +had become of you." + +"Yes," said Hans. + +"In Naples?" + +"Yes." + +It quite taxed the imagination to fancy Hans von Trantow in Naples, the +northern bear among the southern jackals, and a most urgent impulse +must it have been which drove him for the first and only time in his +life from the Penates of his ruined home, and his native heaths and +moors, out into the wide world. + +It was in December nine years before--I had then been a month in +detention under examination--that Hans had received a letter which +caused him to lay game-bag and gun aside--he was just going out +shooting--harness up his sledge and drive off to Fährdorf, where he +crossed the ice to Uselin, and from Uselin travelled day and night, +until after many hinderances--he at first thought he must look for +Naples in Turkey, and only found the right direction after extreme +difficulties and some lost time--at the end of about a month he happily +reached the city he was in search of. Here, after some trouble--for +the good Hans spoke and understood no language but his own honest +German--he discovered the hotel mentioned in the letter, and found her +whom he was looking for. But not as he expected to find her; not as the +letter had represented her. She had spoken of herself as "betrayed," +"forsaken," one who looked to him as her only refuge, her preserver +from the direst misery and a certain death. Hans had naturally taken +all this literally, and was somewhat astounded to find her in one of +the grandest hotels on the Toledo, in luxuriously furnished apartments, +and splendidly dressed, looking more lovely than ever, though not a +little confused--indeed, even turning pale--at sight of him. She had +probably not supposed that her appeal would receive so instantaneous a +response, and that she would have no notice beforehand, and in +consequence she was taken unprepared. So it had to be that a German +princess, who was really in Naples at the time, had interested herself +in her, and insisted that the daughter of so ancient and distinguished +a family should accept her assistance. But the favor of the great is +inconstant, and often clogged with conditions hard to be complied with +by a proud spirit. The princess had demanded, as the price of her +favor, that Constance should marry off-hand a certain young Baron, who, +it was said, had stood a little too high in the exalted favor of the +princess herself; and she, Constance, was one of those who may err, and +err grievously, but will never act against the voice of their heart. + +This story the fair Circe had told the true-hearted Hans, with many +tears and sighs, and blushes and smiles, and convulsive sobbings, and +he, who did not possess the sceptical spirit of the much-enduring man, +believed every word, and had returned to his modest lodgings, pondering +and racking his brain to find out what he could do to help her. + +To marry her was out of the question. A Trantow could take no woman to +wife who was not as chaste as he himself was brave; not though she were +a hundred times fairer and he had loved her a hundred times more +dearly. But to share with her what he had, to protect her and care for +her and do for her what in a similar case a brother might do for an +unfortunate but dearly loved sister--this Hans could do and would do; +and the next morning he went to lay his plans before her. But in the +night Circe had taken other counsel, and left her palace under the +protection of the aforesaid young Baron, who in reality stood in no +connection whatever with the high lady she had referred to, but in a +very intimate one with young Prince Prora, and since the young prince +had left Naples a month before, by his father's orders, in quite an +intimate relation to Constance herself, who had been transferred to him +as an equivalent for a considerable sum of money which the prince had +lost to him at play. So at least Hans was told--and much beside which +he neither asked nor wanted to know--by a German waiter at the hotel, +who seemed to have taken a very active, if not very creditable part in +the whole affair. As Hans had not come to Naples to lounge along the +Toledo, or visit Capri, or climb Vesuvius, he shook the dust from his +feet and set out on his homeward journey. But the good faithful fellow +did not get far. The unusual exertion and excitement of so long a +journey made in such furious haste, the change of climate and mode of +living, the fiery Italian wine, which from old habits he had drunk in +great quantity, and more than all else the deep grief at this second +atrocious treachery, which was far worse than the first, were too much +for even his strong constitution, and one day a compassionate +_vetturino_ brought to the gate of a monastery near Rome a traveller +who had fallen sick by the way, and who really seemed to have reached +the end of all his journeys. + +But it was not fated that the good Hans should exhale his free brave +soul in the narrow cell of a Roman monastery; despite the extremely +irrational treatment of Fra Antonio, the celebrated physician to the +convent, he recovered, and in six weeks could walk about the garden. +The garden was a very fine one, with a magnificent view of the Eternal +City, and the monks, if not particularly clean, were very kind and +hospitable, and very urgently pressed the worthy Hans to consider +whether it would not be for the welfare of his soul to return no more +to his barbarian home, but come rather to the bosom of the true Church, +to die perhaps, if it were heaven's will, some day in that very +monastery in the odor of sanctity. A singular proposal to the good +Hans, who in his life had never given a moment's thought to the present +or future welfare of his soul; but it was quite clear to him that +however salutary it might be for his immortal part, to follow the +counsel of the good fathers, he would have in doing so to renounce all +the comfort of his life. The convent wine was right good of its kind, +but it had a peculiar flavor to which he could never get accustomed, +any more than he could to seeing the trees in blossom at the end of +February, as if at this time there were no keen gusty north-east wind +in the world, and no pine-woods whose boughs bent with their weight of +pendent icicles; and when one night a comforting dream had conveyed him +to Trantowitz, and by the feeble light of the northern stars and of the +snow had let him shoot six hares in his cabbages out of his bedroom +window, there was no holding him any longer after he awoke; he shook +the brown dirty hands of his friendly hosts, one after the other, +received the Prior's benediction upon his heretical head, and returned +to his old home. + +All this Hans told me in his monotonous way, while we sat on the edge +of the trench. And the long-legged beetles shot back and forth in the +brown water, and the birds twittered in the branches, and the call of +the cuckoo came from the far-off woods. + +I felt very sad. I believe I should have been less affected if Hans had +exhibited the least emotion in the recital of the most eventful and +certainly most painful passage of his life; but of this there was not +the slightest trace. He felt no hatred towards Constance, no grudge +against the young prince, who was now living at Rossow in the immediate +neighborhood: in all that he said there lay a perfect resignation, an +utter hopelessness; and this it was that made me so sad. + +There was a rustling in the coppice behind us, and an old pointer +trotting up greeted first Hans and then me with a melancholy wag of his +tail. + +"God bless me! that is not Caro, is it?" I asked. + +"Yes it is," said Hans. "I believe he knows you." + +"Poor old fellow!" I said, patting the dog; "and does he still do his +duty?" + +"So, so," said Hans. "He has been of no use with pheasants for a long +time; and with ducks, that used to be his great point, he will not go +into the water any more, so that I usually have to get them myself. But +that is only natural: we are neither of us so young as we once were." + +Caro had seated himself on the edge of the trench, staring with +pricked-up ears at the beetles in the water, and evidently thinking of +nothing at all; Hans sat with his left elbow propped on his knee, +blowing thick clouds from his cigar, also staring into the trench, and +apparently thinking of nothing also. I felt sadder and sadder. The +contrast between the active life I had just been picturing to myself, +and the melancholy of this stagnant, purposeless existence, was too +great. + +"Suppose we go," I said, suddenly rising. + +"Very well," said Hans, slowly following my example. + +Not much was said between us as we crossed the heath, until we reached +the point where the path to Zehrendorf branched off near Trantowitz +whose buildings looked forlorner and more dilapidated than ever. + +"So you are going to live here always," said Hans, as we were about to +separate. + +"Always?" I said. "How came you to think that?" + +"I?" he said, in evident surprise that I should suspect him of +originating any idea--"I did not think it: Fräulein Duff told me so." + +"And did she tell you why I was to stay here always?" + +"Of course; and I wish you joy with all my heart." + +"Wish me joy of what?" I asked, taking with some hesitation his offered +hand. + +Hans blushed and stammered, "Excuse me: I had no intention of being +indiscreet; but I thought it was no secret, or at least none between +us." + +"In the name of heaven, what _are_ you talking about?" I asked, and I +think I turned even redder than Hans, if that were possible. + +"Why, are you not betrothed to Fräulein Hermine or about to be?" he +stammered out. + +I laughed loud; louder than any one who laughs honestly, and Hans, who +took this for an indirect confession, again seized my hand and said: + +"I wish you joy with all my heart: I do not know any one in the whole +world whom I would so gladly see win her as yourself. And the people +here need a good master." + +He pressed my hand again, and then went on, Caro trotting after him +with drooping head. I looked after them. "Indeed," I said to myself, +"it would be a better lot than has fallen to your share, you good +faithful fellow." + +I turned. There lay before me the new mansion and grounds of +Zehrendorf, and lower down, nearer to me, there crouched close to the +earth the same little dilapidated, dirty cottages that I remembered of +old; and in the fields, splendid in their vernal beauty, I saw working +the same care-worn, poverty-stricken men, and I thought of all I had +seen and heard this morning, and said to myself, "Yes, indeed, you need +a good master!" + +Then I walked slowly, almost hesitatingly, along the footpaths through +the green corn-fields to Zehrendorf. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +I had now been more than a week at Zehrendorf. A letter written in +those days now lies before me, a letter several pages long, upon which +there are spots as if tears had fallen upon the paper, and yet it is a +cheerful, even a merry letter, and these are the words of it: + +"Nobody knows better than you, dear Paula, that I did not come here to +amuse myself; but were I to say that in all these days I have done +little else than amuse myself, or at least seem to be doing it, I +should tell the honest truth. It really seems as if I were making up +for lost time by perpetrating all the follies I have left undone during +the last nine or ten years; and as taking my earlier exploits in that +line as a standard, their amount and magnitude can by no means be +insignificant, so my incentives to achieve them are proportionately +strong. They still tell here of my performances in choral singing in +our old parties on the water; of the dancing parties where I had ever +the most inventive head for new figures in the _cotillon_, of the walks +and drives in the pine-wood, where I was the leader in every frolic, +and where in the evening the darkness of the forest would be lighted up +by the fireworks that my friend and _protégé_, Fritz Amsberg, the +apothecary's hunchbacked apprentice, used to make for me as his +appointed tribute. Yes indeed, there are persons who remember only too +well my exploits in those days; and what is the worst, some of these +live in my immediate neighborhood, and are but too ready to say at all +times, fitting or unfitting, 'Don't you remember, George--excuse me for +calling you by the dear old name--don't you remember what a glorious +time we had at such a place, where you had arranged so and so?' Not +once in ten times can I remember it, and then only vaguely; and I +marvel at the extraordinary tenacity with which the female memory +retains certain things, which, with us men, the rougher waves of life +ruthlessly wash away. + +"Poor Emilie! What can have brought her here? Quite unexpectedly to me, +I can assure you, and by no means agreeably either; but her father, my +great enemy of old, is _Justitiarius_ to Prince Prora, and the +commerzienrath's solicitor; and as the prince and the commerzienrath +are still in treaty about Zehrendorf, nothing of course can be done +without the legal factotum of the two high contracting powers. Now +wherever the legal factotum is, Fräulein Emilie is not far off, +especially when in addition to business, a little innocent pleasure is +to be had, as here with us in the country, where business and pleasure, +whenever possible, go hand in hand. And now too, when the worthy lady, +the Frau Justizräthin, has acted so unmotherly as to leave Emilie 'a +helpless, unprotected orphan,' to use her own expression. And wherever +Emilie is, one has not to look far for our mayor's lovely daughter, her +bosom-friend, Elsie Kohl. Really I ought to be ashamed of making fun of +these poor girls, for in truth it is not their fault that they have +never been outside of the good town of Uselin and its three-mile +circuit of estates and domains, so that their conceptions of the world +and men's doings in it are not very comprehensive, but rather a little +confused; and especially is it not Fräulein Emilie's fault that she did +not find the person she was looking for--no, I ought not to laugh at +them; and yet never could I have believed that my risible faculties +could be brought into such play as happens when I look at the +pair--_the two Eleonoras_ somebody here has christened them--clasping +each other in a girlish embrace, as they swim into the parlor through +the door which William Kluckhuhn, with a malicious grin on his impudent +face, has obsequiously thrown open for them. The attitude has, +doubtless, been most carefully studied before the glass, or it could +not always be so exact down to the very minutest detail. Here you +have the group, which I recommend to you for one of your charming +saloon-pieces:--Emilie, as the smaller and bolder, is naturally the +second Eleonora, and is the worldly protector of the other who is a +head taller and even in my time had a little romance with a poetical +young schoolmaster who was a trifle out of his senses, so she has the +superiority over her friend which riper experience and early sorrows +bestow, especially as ten years ago she bewailed in elegiac verses her +hapless fate, to fade, in the bloom of her youth, to the silent tomb. + +"This sport of cruel destiny, the victim destined to an early grave, +clasps her right arm around the shoulders of her friend, gazing down +upon her with a loving look as if to say, Happy, guileless child! thou +canst sing and sport in life's bright morning! while the guileless +child looks up at her with two eyes, blue as two skies, at least, and +with a provoking smile on her saucy lips. It is a touching sight, I +assure you; and more than ever when one thinks that the combined ages +of the two Eleonoras amount to some sixty-two or sixty-three years; for +I remember quite distinctly that as a very little boy I would not play +with Elise any more because she was too old for me, and as for Emilie I +know certainly that she is exactly one year older than I am, for our +birthdays fell on the same day, and used often to be celebrated +together. + +"Yes, the tenacity of Fräulein Emilie's memory is great, but there is +one hour of her life of which she affirms that it is ever clouded in +her recollections with a thick mist. And this very hour is so clear to +me, that I can almost venture to name the exact number of curl-papers +that quivered around her head when she lifted both her hands to me and +supplicated me to spare her aged father, the same aged father who now +nods confidentially to me across the table, with his full glass in his +hand, and after dinner calls to me '_Prosit Mahlzeit_,[8] my young +friend! I would have liked to touch glasses with you, but I sat too far +off; but you must really let me take your hand, you must indeed!' upon +which follows a half embrace, if not a whole one. I assure you I +sometimes take hold of my head to convince myself that this is not all +an extraordinary dream. For you must know, Paula, that if I am not the +fool of these festivities, I am not far from being the king of them; +everything being done with reference to me, every one flattering me, +and every one competing for my favor--with a single exception, of +course. It is really edifying. There is my old friend, the little Herr +von Granow, who has grown so much fatter with time that even in his +best moments he can no longer lift his head from between his shoulders. +Least of all can he when his spouse is by, a stout buxom brewer's +daughter from S., who brought him a couple of hundred thousand +_thalers_, which he takes care to get the good of, and a pair of +slippers under whose heavy strokes they say the poor little fellow +weeps many a hot secret tear. But disagree as they may on other points, +the pair agree on this one of paying court to me in the most ridiculous +manner in the world. The little man recalls with emotion 'The bright, +the precious hours' that he once spent in my society, and sighing +wishes those happy days back again, and that too in the presence of his +over-buxom wife, who with a mock threat lifts a warning finger and +says: 'O, you bad, bad man! But indeed I can understand how for _such_ +a friend one could even sacrifice the peace of the domestic hearth.' + +"And then the steuerrath and the Born! I wrote you how they received +me. Well, since then a grand council must have been held, and the +decision come to to try other plans. The result is that the steuerrath, +so soon as he sees me, holds out his hand to me, saying 'Glad to see +you, George! You do not mind my calling the son of an old and too early +lost colleague and friend, by his first name!' at which words the Born +smiles benignant, and if the opportunity permits, takes my arm, draws +me on one side and holds a long consultation with me about the apple of +her eye, Arthur. Alas, the apple of her eye is giving her so much pain +again, and grieves her so that, if one believed her assurances, she is +often on the point of plucking it out of its aristocratic socket. But +one must'nt believe her assurances, and I never do. It is just the old +litany that I have known since I was a child: how Arthur is the best, +cleverest, handsomest, wittiest, charmingest youth in the world, and +has but one fault, that of hiding his thousand and one lights under the +bushel of his frivolity, where, as is natural, they cannot produce +their proper effect. Only that verse of the litany that referred to me, +has taken an altogether different form. They used to be quite certain +that I was at the bottom of all the unlucky scrapes that Arthur got +into: now they are perfectly assured that I and I alone can save this +stray lamb from the abyss. 'One who like you has borne the inevitable +with dignity, one who like you has won the hardest victory, that over +yourself, one who ----' well, I do not doubt that she is really anxious +about her son's future, and as far as I can see, she has every reason +to be; but so much the more do I doubt her good disposition towards me. +I know too well what she and the steuerrath want of me! I know too well +what Arthur, who comes over for awhile every day from Rossow, wants of +me, when he sets all the fountains of his amiability to playing, and +sprinkles me with a heavy spray of flatteries and protestations of +friendship. And the worst of all--or should I say the best?--is that I +know just as well what all the rest want; the little Herr von Granow, +for instance, who would like to have the great estate of Zehrendorf, +and wants me to speak a good word for him to the commerzienrath: +William Kluckhuhn, who has received warning from his master, and wants +me to ask that he may keep his place; and so they all have their +special interests in persuading poor George that, all things +considered, he is a young man of singular talents and remarkable +influence, whose favor is very well worth winning. + +"But seriously, dear Paula, it is a very curious position in which I +find myself here; and I really do not know if they would not turn my +head altogether, were not--well, were not a certain person here whose +especial task it seems to be to set it right for me again. Or that is +possibly the wrong expression: it would be more correct to say--to turn +it in the other direction:--I am by no means an important personage +whom any one need to consider; I am a quite obscure insignificant +person, whom her father, heaven knows by what caprice, has invited to +his house, and who therefore cannot exactly be shown the door, but who +must be given to understand that people of his class really belong to +very different society. I must be given to understand this by any and +every means, some of the queerest in the world. I will tell you more +about this when I come back: I fear the faces that they make here to me +would look by far less handsome on the paper than they are in reality, +and the little extravagances which they let themselves be drawn into, +would, on the contrary, seem almost insane. Or are they really out of +their senses? Sometimes it seems so to me, and I often cannot trust +myself to pass a judgment on them, and wish that I had Benno here, or +were myself Benno with his nineteen years, and his bright illusions. +For his brown, enthusiastic eyes, I fancy, the blue-eyed enigma would +be easier of solution than for an old lumpish fellow like me, with my +nearly thirty years, my rough hands, and sluggish brain. Well, they +will have to take the old fellow as they find him; and if they don't, +they may worry and sulk and make pretty faces or ugly ones as they +choose, it does not matter to me, does it, Paula?" + +So ran the letter, which I wanted to seem a right cheerful, even merry +one; and how well I attained my object the traces of the tears it drew +from Paula's eyes may testify. + +Well had she cause to weep over this letter! Had she deserved it at my +hands that I should intentionally and artfully seek to conceal from her +what really caused me so much inward emotion? And was not this letter +from beginning to end a clumsy unsuccessful attempt to mislead her as +to the real state of my feelings? How much of all this letter was the +honest truth? Scarcely anything. + +The whirl of amusements into which I was drawn here, had by no means +left me so sober as I pretended. It was as if with breathing the same +air I had breathed as a youth here ten years before I inhaled something +of the buoyancy and love of pleasure of those days. The handsome rich +house, the liberal easy life, the light joyous existence from day to +day, the life in the open air, the wanderings over the heaths, on the +cliffs, through the woods, and with all these the glorious spring +weather, with warm gales, the forerunners of summer, now and then +sweeping through the blossoms all this charmed and intoxicated me. No, +I was not the sober, cheerful, untroubled fellow, that I represented +myself to Paula, and tried to make the company believe me. I was not +sober, and far less was I cheerful and careless--quite the contrary. A +restless, passionate humor, now depressed and now over-excited, had +taken possession of me, to such an extent that sleep, my true comrade +from childhood, now forsook me, just as it forsook me at the +commencement of my imprisonment; and this perhaps was in part the cause +of another feeling of that old time often coming over me: the feeling +of one who knows that a decision involving his life or death, is now +hanging by a hair. + +What of all this had I written to Paula? But how could I write to her? +Could I write to her that I believed that I knew the reason why Hermine +kept playing, in ever strange and more fantastic form, the game which +she had commenced with me on my arrival at Zehrendorf? And if something +in me continually recoiled from giving the right explanation to +Hermine's singular conduct, could I really altogether shut my eyes when +all took pains to show me and make clear to me that they saw perfectly +well what I was determined not to see, or at least gave myself the +appearance of not seeing? Yes, it was a singular and unnatural position +in which I found myself, a position in which we write that kind of +merry letters to our friends over which our friends weep hot tears. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +I came back from the chalk-quarry, where I had been busy all the +morning with setting up the new machine. The work under my direction, +owing to good luck and the good will of the men, had succeeded so well, +and the phlegmatic old master miner had said at last, with a kind of +inspiration: "I believe we shall manage it yet!" I was in a very +cheerful frame of mind. The old delight in accomplishing anything had +possessed me once more, and while I strode rapidly through the fields, +revolving in my thoughts various plans and the means for their +accomplishment, I had again come to the conclusion that all might end +well yet if but the right will were here, and again I said to myself, +"what a chance for the master here!" + +But I did not say it as I had said it a week before. Then it was a wish +to which nothing personal was attached, and the goal appeared to me +utterly unattainable. Now my heart was as much excited, but it no +longer beat as freely as then, and the goal no longer seemed at an +inaccessible distance--indeed it sometimes seemed so near that I might +touch it with my hand. And when this thought came into my mind, and I +suddenly saw in fancy the fair young face with the angry cloud on the +white firm brow surrounded with its mass of clear-brown curls, and the +full, red, saucily-defiant lips, I stood gazing blankly at the green +wheat whose spears were nodding in the morning breeze, or at the +distant sea-horizon glittering beyond the edge of the cliffs, while I +saw all the time nothing but the sweet defiant face; and then I +breathed deeply, and bethought myself that the commerzienrath had sent +for me, and was probably expecting me with impatience. + +I found him in his room in such animated conversation with the +justizrath, that I could hear the voices of both talking together, +before William Kluckhuhn opened the door. They were both sitting at the +round table that was covered with ground plans, designs of buildings, +and specifications. + +"Are you here at last?" cried the commerzienrath to me in such a tone, +that I felt justified in looking over my shoulder at the door, and +remarking to him that William was no longer in the room. + +The commerzienrath cast at me one of those evil glances which one sees +in the eyes of an old tiger when he is undecided whether or not to +respect the steel rod in the hand of his keeper, and then cried in the +most pleasant tone: + +"Yes, yes, the rascal; I sent him for you an hour ago and now he brings +you at last. We cannot get along without you at all; at least I cannot, +though this gentleman can do better without you than with you." + +"Allow me, Herr Commerzienrath----" began the other. + +"No, I allow nothing," he replied; "and least of all that you shall +consider yourself my friend in this affair." + +"I am also the friend of the other party, so to speak," replied the +justizrath, pushing up with great dignity the stiff grizzled hair from +both sides of his head towards the crown, where it stood up in a comb, +something like that of a clown in a circus. + +"Then you should at least be impartial!" cried the commerzienrath. + +"Ask our friend here if he has ever known me otherwise," said the +justizrath, with a dignified look at me. + +"Oh, ay," cried the commerzienrath, "but fine words butter no parsnips, +and my parsnips get poorer the longer you keep them at the fire. A week +ago, that is before you came, the prince was willing to give four +hundred thousand _thalers_; after you have had three conferences with +him, he abated fifty thousand of his offer, making sixteen thousand six +hundred and sixty-six and two-thirds _thalers_ per conference. I am +much obliged to you! You have always been a dear guest to me, but I +never would have believed that you would be so dear as that!" + +Emilie's father made a movement as if he would fain wrap himself +up from the sharp arrows of his antagonist, in the old flowered +dressing-gown he used to wear at home; but bethinking himself that he +was in a black dress-coat, he pulled up his collar, felt to see if the +comb on the top of his head was in good condition, and looked at me +with a sly smile, as if to say: "Whoever expects to get the better of +Justizrath Heckepfennig, has got to get up early: you have found that +out, young man, eh?" + +"Yes, my dear friend, this is the way I am treated here," continued the +commerzienrath, turning to me, and, for a change, falling to a +lachrymose tone: "it is enough to drive a man out of his senses; and +none know it better than you, George, for you understand the whole +thing--which is more than I can say of some people--you know well that +the property is worth five hundred thousand _thalers_ between brothers, +now especially, when we have the certainty of draining the chalk +quarries." + +The commerzienrath accompanied these words with an expressive look at +me, meaning, "Now George, keep up the ball!" + +"And indeed that is a very reasonable price," he went on, "when we +consider that in this way we have found a plan for draining the great +morass, by carrying the pipes to the sand-bed which came so near +ruining the chalk-quarry, and which is a drain-trench provided by +nature itself for the water of the swamp." + +Here the commerzienrath gave me a furious look, because I had not yet +come to his assistance. + +Now this last plan he had mentioned, was one I had suggested myself, +and I considered it therefore my duty to remark here that it was true I +had the strongest hopes of the success of the scheme referred to, but +that it could only be demonstrated by trial, and even were it perfectly +successful, the land thus gained would at furthest only compensate for +the forest, which was apparently lost beyond recovery, and thus the +original value of Zehrendorf would in this respect remain unaltered. + +"What in the devil do you mean, sir!" cried the commerzienrath, +springing up and storming about the room. "Did you come here for +_this_? What do you mean?" + +"I came, Herr Commerzienrath, at your own request," I replied calmly, +while in violent excitement he paced the room with quick short steps, +still darting venomous looks at me, until suddenly he threw himself +back in his easy chair, crying: + +"What a fellow this George Hartwig is! O what a fellow! What answers +the man has! Came here at my request! What a fellow, what a fellow!" + +And the old gentleman slapped me on the knee, and said, resuming a +serious tone: + +"But to come back to our business, the fact is that I can have five +hundred thousand from Von Granow any day. Is that not so, George? Did +he not say so to you yesterday evening?" + +Herr von Granow had said nothing of the sort to me, but on the contrary +that he was ready to negotiate on any reasonable terms, but that the +commerzienrath's demands were simply unreasonable, not to say +ridiculous. + +As I could not do the commerzienrath the favor to tell a falsehood, and +would not afford the justizrath, who seemed to be waiting for it, the +pleasure an admission of the truth would afford him, I arose from my +chair, saying that if I could be of no other service to them, I would, +with their permission, go to my own room where I had a little work to +do. + +"No, no; stay here, stay here!" cried the commerzienrath eagerly; "I +must speak with you on matters of importance. And as for us, my dear +old friend, go now and tell his highness whatever you choose; but if +you tell him that we cannot succeed in draining the chalk-quarry, I +shall send him George here, who will open his eyes on that point. And +now farewell, my old friend, and come back at noon punctually. I have +found a couple more bottles of '22 Hock, that you will like I know, +gourmand that you are!" + +And the commerzienrath poked the corpulent justizrath in the ribs with +his thumb, in a jocular fashion, and in this way poked him, so to +speak, out at the door, then turned shortly on his heel, came with +quick steps and stood before me, and cried in a rage that sent the +blood to his bald temples: + +"Now will you tell me,--are you going to help me in this business, or +are you not?" + +"First tell me, Herr Commerzienrath,--will you take another tone with +me, or will you not?" I answered. + +"Bah! leave your fooleries! We are alone now. I have no notion of +playing blindman's-buff with you, do you understand me, sir?" + +"Not in the least," I answered; "or only so far that I have no notion +of being a minute longer the guest of a man who knows so little--or +rather, who is so entirely ignorant of what is due to a guest." + +I said this in a very calm tone, but I was far from feeling the +calmness that I assumed. On the contrary, the thought that in this +moment the grand plans I had been cherishing, were probably dissolving +in smoke; that this angry, foolish, selfish old man was trampling into +the earth the young green crop of my fairest hopes,--this thought made +my heart beat, and gave my last words a bitterness unusual to me. + +The commerzienrath's sharp ears must have heard that he had driven me +to the limit of my patience, for as I laid my hand on the knob of the +door I felt myself held fast by my coat-tails, and turning round, saw +the face of the queer old man lifted to me with such an extraordinary +grimace, that, sad as I felt, I had to burst out laughing. + +"Ay, that is right, laugh away, bad man, and sit down again. Yes; that +was all that was wanting, that you should run away from me. A nice mess +I should have had at dinner-time after that! No, no, sit down. It is +necessary that I should talk with you, and I will speak as if you were +my own son. Heaven has not thought fit to grant me one, so I must look +to others, who, naturally enough, cannot pardon an old man's little +infirmities of temper." + +I had soon returned to a placable mood, and the commerzienrath need not +have adopted quite so lamentable a tone. But he kept it up, while he +went into a long explanation how he had taken Zehrendorf originally in +the hope of selling it to advantage; that the proper time had now +arrived, and he needed the money, imperatively needed it, and that it +was absolutely necessary that I should help him to close the bargain +with the prince. I understood the matter better than either he, the +justizrath, or the young prince, and the last had written to him +repeatedly, and even this morning again, that he would rather treat +through me than the justizrath, who was an old ass--"and heaven help +him!" the commerzienrath here cried, "an old ass he most truly is: he +is indeed!" + +"What has put it into the prince's head to mix me up in the matter?" I +asked, in amazement. + +"Because he takes an interest in you, as everybody else does, you +confounded fellow! Now will you? say, will you?" + +"Herr Commerzienrath," I said, after a short pause in which I had +striven to concentrate upon one point the thoughts that were whirling +in my brain, "I will own to you that it grieves me to think that +Zehrendorf should pass into other hands, into the hands of a master of +whom I know not but that he may let all that has been called into +existence here with so much labor and cost, fall to neglect and ruin, +so that the poor people about here may sink into a worse condition than +that in which you found them. For in spite of everything, your new +undertakings have drawn many here who cannot get away again so easily, +but must remain here to suffer and to increase the sufferings of the +rest. Now I have frankly told you, more than once, Herr Commerzienrath, +that I by no means consider you the good master that I wish for +Zehrendorf; and if, despite this, I had rather see you here than +another, it is simply because for your own interest you will have to +try to complete what has been begun, and I have not yet given up the +hope of making you a convert to my views. Still, since you say that you +are compelled to sell the property, and your resolution seems fixed, I +will help you in the matter, but only under two conditions. The first +is, that you authorize me, as your friend, but also as a man of honor, +to take the negotiation into my own hands, that is to say, to aim at a +good, or we will say the best price, but not to make demands which the +prince can only consent to if he is a fool, and which, if he is not a +fool, he will reject with contempt. One moment's patience, Herr +Commerzienrath!--I said I had two conditions. The second is, that so +soon as I have effected the sale of Zehrendorf, you will agree to the +plan for extending our works in the city, and will place at my disposal +the sums which I have calculated as necessary for that purpose." + +"Are you clear out of your senses, sir!" cried the commerzienrath, +smiting with his fist the arm of his chair, "to say such things to me +here, in my own house, in my own room, as if you were a Pacha of three +tails, or I don't know what, instead of being----" + +"Your most obedient servant," I said, rising, and making him a polite +bow. + +"Eh! what?" he exclaimed, "Do you want to frighten me? You are not +going, I know; why all these fooleries?" + +"And you will agree with me at last, so why all this noise?" I replied +laughing. + +"But I tell you for the hundredth time that if I sell Zehrendorf ever +so well, I need the money for other things than your cursed factory!" +shouted the commerzienrath. + +I looked him steadily in the eye, and said, "Do you know what I have +lately dreamed, Herr Commerzienrath? It is that you are really very far +from being the rich man you are generally believed to be." + +"You confounded fellow! you humorous dog! you funny rascal!" cried the +commerzienrath. "I suppose you will tell me next that I have stolen the +boots I am wearing. Couldn't you lend me five _thalers_ for a day or +two? you----" + +And he poked me in the ribs with his thumb, and held his sides with +laughter at his capital joke. + +"If you are a rich man, then," I continued very seriously, and it cost +me no effort to be serious now--"then say yes, and the thing is +settled." + +I held out my hand, and he struck his own into it, laughing still like +mad. + +"The thing is settled then," I said, drawing a deep breath. + +"Settled," he said. +"And I shall hold you to your word, Herr Commerzienrath," I said: "You +may count surely upon that." + +"And I count upon you," he answered, still holding my hand fast in one +of his own, while with the other he gave me little raps upon the +knuckles. "If you were not a man to be relied upon, would I have taken +so much pains about you, do you suppose? you--Oh! murder!" + +In my excitement I must have pressed the old man's hand a little too +hard, for he gave a loud outcry and made a horrible grimace: I begged +his pardon, and he laughed and shook his hand, and again cried "Murder! +you man of iron! you confounded fellow!" and poked me out at the door, +with his thumb, just as he had poked out the justizrath. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +I had spent the rest of the forenoon in my room, in order to finish a +calculation necessary to the proper adjustment of the machine at the +quarry. But I had not got beyond the statement of the problem. The new, +almost certain prospect of being able to carry out my great wish to +enlarge our works, almost made me dizzy. In fancy I saw the space of +ground where my lodging was, covered with buildings; I saw the flames +springing from the great furnaces and smoke pouring from the tall +chimneys; I heard the clang of hammer on anvil, and saw the crowd of +dingy workmen thronging the wide yards in the evening, and scattering +in the streets of a new quarter where in cleanly houses cheerful homes +awaited them, where they could rest from the toils of the day. And a +change had passed over the desolate house in which I lived; fresh green +sward surrounded it, a Triton spouted a jet of water high into the air +from the old basin of sandstone into which it fell plashing back, where +a host of goldfish played merrily, or darted back from the margin at +the approach of a pair who came up hand in hand and bent over the water +to see their own faces reflected. But the reflection quivered and +broke, so that only now and then could be seen two bright blue eyes and +two full red lips, nor was it clear whether the eyes flashed with anger +or with love, or whether the lips were pouted to a scornful word or to +a kiss. + +"Dinner will soon be served, Herr Engineer," said William Kluckhuhn, +entering. "Can I assist the Herr Engineer to dress?" + +William regularly came with this polite offer of his services, although +I just as regularly declined them. But to-day he would not take any +dismissal, and helped me on with my best coat so actively, and brushed +and touched me up with such zealous pertinacity, that I had to ask him +if he had any request to make of me. + +"Oh, no," he answered; "but you were so kind as to get me back into +favor with the master, who was in the wrong altogether, for even if I +drank champagne----" + +"Very well, William," I said. + +"So I only wanted to tell you," he went on in a confidential tone, +"that they have had a terrible quarrel, and I very plainly heard----" + +"But I do not wish to hear it, William." + +"But you need not mind my telling you, for if I listened at the door a +little bit, that was not your doing, and it was not my doing that the +door was ajar, and I plainly heard our lady say that she would never +forgive it you----" + +"Well," I muttered. + +"And when she said it, she looked----" + +"So you could see too?" + +"O, the door was pretty wide open," William answered, shrugging his +shoulders, "and I made a rattling with the plates on purpose, but the +Fräulein was in such a rage----" + +And William here made a face, apparently intended to represent the one +he had seen through the crack of the door, but so absurdly incredible +that I burst out laughing. + +"Very good," he said; "I wanted to give you the hint; for when she is +angry----but you can laugh." + +And William sighed deeply and looked at me in a supplicating manner. +"Well?" I said. + +"And I wanted to beg you," he went on, "that if--ahem! you know what I +mean--you would be so good as to help me and my Louise too, for we have +been waiting now six years, and it is easy for you, Herr Engineer. Is +it not, now, Herr Engineer?" + +"William, I firmly believe you have taken leave of your senses," I +answered, and strode past him out of the room with a look intended to +express majestic indignation. + +But William's ears had served him faithfully, as I presently learned at +table. The company was small; no one besides the inmates, except +Arthur, who had come over in the justizrath's carriage from Rossow, and +greeted me as usual with excessive friendliness. The two Eleonoras, +owing to the warmth of the day, appeared in virgin white, and as a +group, of course. Hermine kept us waiting awhile. The commerzienrath +drew me aside and whispered to me that the prince had sent him word +that he must be quite satisfied about the chalk-quarry before the +negotiation went any further, and that he would send over his carriage +this afternoon to bring me to Rossow. + +I had no time to answer this communication, which for more than one +reason was unacceptable to me, for at this moment Hermine entered and I +saw plainly that she had been weeping, although she tried hard to +appear as gay and careless as possible. The day was so charming--so +delicious! and to-morrow it would be finer still, and the party to the +Schlachtensee would be too delightful! The company was to be the very +nicest that could be; all young people, not an old one among them. +After dinner they would go over to Trantow to pick up Hans, who could +not be dispensed with, then to Sulitz, where Herr von Zarrentin and his +charming wife would join them; then arrive between five and six at the +coast-village Sassitz; a stroll through the dunes and the beech forest +as far as the Schlachtensee; supper, with pine-apple-punch, and +moonrise there; return through the wood to the cross-roads at the +Rossow pines, where their carriage and horses would be ready for them; +return of the whole company without exception to Zehrendorf; and wind +up all with tea and punch, and, if possible, a dance for such as were +very nice. + +"Bravo! bravo! That is a plan!" cried Arthur, enthusiastically clapping +his hands. + +"I knew it would have your approval, dear Arthur," said the fair +designer, stretching her hand to him over the table, with her sweetest +smile; "you understand these things, and I count upon you especially." + +"I did not count upon _you_," she added, turning suddenly to me. + +"I neither said, nor supposed anything of the kind, Fräulein Hermine," +I replied. + +"That is the very reason why one cannot count upon you in such things. +You don't think about them. Of course! How can any one whose mind is +occupied with matters of so much more importance?" + +Hermine was never particularly amiable in her behavior to me, but her +conduct to-day was so pointedly unkind, and her vehemence too void of +any visible cause, not to strike the most indifferent spectator, not to +mention the steuerrath and the Born, who were very far from +indifferent, and now cast meaning looks at Arthur, as if urging him to +strike while the iron was hot. Arthur was evidently quite disposed to +follow their counsel, but did not precisely know how to go about it; so +he contented himself with giving Hermine a languishing look, and +curling his little black beard. The others seemed to gather from +Hermine's last words, and still more from the excited tone in which she +had spoken, that there was something unusual in the air. Fräulein Duff, +who had been all the time looking remarkably pale and agitated, raised +her eyes, as if in despair, to the ceiling, while the justizrath +riveted his gaze on a dish of salad, and drummed lightly on the table; +Emilie looked at her friend Elise, and Elise at Emilie, Emilie's look +inquiring "Does an innocent child like me need to understand these +things?" and Elise's replying "Sport peacefully, sweet cherub! Leave +this to us experienced ones!" Even William Kluckhuhn, who stood waiter +in hand at the sideboard, pulled a long face, as if the turn things had +taken was not altogether to his satisfaction, and the commerzienrath +alone was so busy with the other waiter, who was uncorking under his +eyes a bottle of the famous hock, that he had not the least idea as to +the cause of the sudden silence that had fallen upon the company. He +looked up in the most unconscious manner in the world, and asked +innocently--"I beg your pardon, but what were you speaking about?" + +The peculiar expression which I had noticed in so many different shades +on the faces of the guests, grew several tints deeper. The silence was +more profound; the second waiter John, who was in the act of uncorking +the '22 hock, stopped with the cork half-drawn, and the plates which +William was handling rattled nervously, as the steuerrath pouring out +with unsteady hand a glass of wine, replied: + +"Our dear Hermine was remarking that in the innocent amusements which +youth loves, one could not count upon our excellent George--you will +excuse me, George, for calling you by the old familiar name--because +our young friend has so many other, and, we will admit, more important +things on his mind." + +The commerzienrath poured out with his own hands the precious wine into +the large hock-glasses--only a thumb's breadth deep, as otherwise one +lost the perfect bouquet--and probably took advantage of this pause to +collect himself, so that he was able to reply in a peculiar drawling +tone: + +"More important things? Is not that a wine! More important things--the +very flower of the Rhine!--on his mind? I should think so: we made a +bargain this morning; he is to sell Ziehrendorf for me and I am to buy +for him that piece of ground adjoining the works in Berlin. I should +think it likely that such a thing as that would be on any one's mind." + +I was astonished beyond measure to hear the commerzienrath, whom I knew +to be a very cautious man, mention an affair which we had only agreed +upon a few hours before, and which I considered a strict business +secret, thus openly before all his guests, and especially in the +presence of the justizrath, to whom my intervention in the matter was +anything but flattering--I was so amazed, I say, at this +unbusinesslike, incomprehensible proceeding of the usually so shrewd +old man, that I felt a flush of confusion rising hot in my face. + +Again silence fell upon the room; the peculiar expression in the +countenances of the guests deepened another tone, and now it was +Hermine's voice that broke the silence: + +"Have I not told you, Emilie, that Herr Hartwig is a frightful +aristocrat? He cannot bear to see so old an estate in any other than +noble hands. That sort of thing is not for us plebeians. What does it +matter that we have to leave a place that we have grown fond of in +these seven years? We must take what we can get and be thankful that we +are anywhere at all." + +There was a quiver in the tone of her voice, and her eyelids reddened +as if she restrained her tears with difficulty; the silence grew more +oppressive, and there was no need for the commerzienrath's raising his +voice so high as he said: + +"So it is: God's service goes before lord's service, and our George has +the notion that he serves God with every additional farthing that he +can make those poor devils of workmen earn; and if he has but few +good words for lord's service, woman's service is his downright +abomination." + +"That is not your device, Arthur!" said the steuerrath, in an +encouraging tone. + +"_Noblesse oblige_," said the Born, with emphasis. + +"_Mon c[oe]ur aux dames!_" said Arthur, laying his delicate hand on his +heart and bowing to his cousin. + +The justizrath and his ladies said nothing, contenting themselves with +exchanging significant looks to the effect that this was a family +affair, and they have better avoid meddling in it. + +Again ensued an embarrassing pause, which was broken, just as the +situation seemed to have reached a climax, by William Kluckhuhn using +his pocket-handkerchief with an energy altogether unbecoming in a +decorous serving-man, even in moments of the most lively concern. +Fräulein Duff, who had held her thin hands spasmodically clasped over +her breast during the last words of the Commerzienrath with the pale +resignation of one whose only remaining hope is in a better hereafter, +broke out into a hysterical weeping, and Hermine suddenly rising and +pressing her handkerchief to her cheeks and forehead, begged that the +company would excuse her if her ill-humor had annoyed them, but that +her headache was so violent that she must retire to her room. + +I do not believe that any one of those present believed in this +headache, but this of course did not hinder the two Eleonoras from +springing from their chairs, and approaching the fair sufferer on +either side, in the intent to compose a touching group. But Hermine had +already seized the arm of her sobbing governess, and left the room with +a painful smile upon her lips, which seemed intended for all the +company except myself. + +Except myself, over whom her look had passed as if my chair were empty, +and the rest of the company seemed to entertain the same opinion. No +one had a word or look for me, and I have never forgotten it of William +Kluckhuhn that at this fateful moment he had the hardihood to step +behind my chair, and in a suppressed tone to ask: + +"Will the Herr Engineer take another glass of hock?" + +I took the glass, and sipped it slowly with the air of a connoisseur, +but I cannot say that I was able to do justice to the noble vintage. +With all the trouble I took to appear quite at my ease, I was greatly +pained and disconcerted. It is an extremely disagreeable thing to be +singled out in this way by a young lady before an entire company. + +Happily my strength was not tasked too hardly. The company rose from +table and hastily separated; I went out into the grounds to think it +all over in the soothing companionship of a cigar. + +One thing was at once perfectly intelligible: the behavior of the +company at this incident. They had let me drop at the instant they +thought they saw that my game was lost. I knew well that Arthur's +parents had never given up the hope that he would one day marry his +cousin, and that their fulsome flatteries and Arthur's deceitful show +of friendship were only meant to cloak their real aim, and perhaps to +obtain some influence over me, as they probably feared that open enmity +would only make their chance worse. + +As for the justizrath and the two Eleonoras, they merely swam with the +stream. They and the others--the conduct of all was explicable enough; +but the commerzienrath? Did it not look as if he had intentionally +provoked this scene at table, or at least offered the opportunity? He +was usually adroit enough in giving another turn to the conversation +when it did not please him. And if he really needed my assistance in +effecting the sale, why did he mention the matter to Hermine now when +all was still unsettled? Why, when he knew how averse she was from the +project, mention me to her as its originator or at all events its chief +promoter? Did he simply use me to screen himself? Such a man[oe]uvre +was exactly consistent with his character; he had a way of shifting +burdens that were uncomfortable for him, to the shoulders of others. Or +was this not all? Had the cunning old man tried his cuttle-fish +stratagem again, and hidden himself in a cloud of assumed carelessness? +He had noticed nothing, not he, of all that was going on around him, +and in which he was so much concerned, and thus quite innocently, +accidentally indeed, he placed "his young friend" in a quite untenable +position towards his pretty passionate daughter. + +The blood rose hot to my brow as I came to this conclusion, and a new +feeling rose within me and obtained a complete mastery of me. It had +always been an easy thing for me to forgive heartily those who had +injured me; so easy indeed that I often called myself a weakling, a man +with neither heart nor gall; why then was that which I usually found so +easy, so difficult for me now? Why did every oblique glance that had +been directed at me across the table, the neglect, the indifference +which had been suddenly exhibited, now all recur even in their minutest +details to my memory? And why did I feel as if I should suffocate at +that which I had hitherto borne with such apparent equanimity? I had +suddenly struck a new vein in my own nature, a vein from which a +bitter, black, poisonous stream flowed into the current of my healthy +blood. I felt as an actual physical change what was really only a +change in my disposition; the first violent emotion of ambition; the +hot desire for personal revenge; the humiliation, the disgrace, if this +were baffled; the desperate final resolution to emerge from the contest +as victor, to attain my aim in spite of all and everything. + +My aim! What was it then? The same which I had in view when I came +here, or another? Or this and that both at once? Well might I at this +moment have heard the warning voice of that stern wisdom which says +that we cannot serve God and Mammon. + +I had taken my seat upon a bench which stood in a thick copse of +bushes. It was a quiet secret nook. The birds twittered pleasantly, a +gentle breeze blowing over the garden brought sweet odors on its soft +pinions, and a warm reviving sun beamed from the clear blue sky. The +spot was so sweet and the hour so lovely that I had to yield to its +soft solicitations, resist them as I might. My blood began to flow more +calmly: I commenced to take an interest in a pair of finches that had +just set up housekeeping in a knot-hole of a tree, recently +transplanted here from the Rossow park, and were incessantly hurrying +in and out of their little door. It was a peaceful pretty picture; the +little creatures were in such a hurry, and were so unwearyingly busy, +and evidently out of mere love--the world after all was not so wretched +a place as it had just seemed to me. + +With these thoughts flitting through my mind, I must have closed my +eyes and fallen asleep; for I saw the bushes in front of me, and behind +which ran a walk, bend apart, and a face appear between them; a lovely +girlish face upon which the sunbeams and shadows of the leaves were +playing, and partly from this, and partly because I was dreaming, I +could not see clearly enough to decide if the light in the eye was +anger or love. When at last I opened my eyes fairly, I could see the +place in the bushes, but the sweet face was no longer there, but at the +same moment I heard ringing laughter with shouts and the cracking of a +whip, and mingled with the rest, piteous cries as of some one +entreating, then suddenly a loud shriek of terror, which caused me to +spring from the bench and hurry to the spot. + +It was a circular space surrounded with shrubbery, which was used as a +race-course and which I had myself used as a riding-school several +times during my stay here as I endeavored to improve my imperfect +horsemanship under the guidance of the coachman, Anthony, an old +cavalryman. My lessons had been taken secretly in the very early +morning, because I knew that Hermine, who was passionately fond of +riding, was in the habit of practising here for an hour or two in the +forenoon. Recently Anthony had told me that Fräulein Duff was also +taking lessons, at the request of her young lady, who had suddenly +taken into her head to have in her expeditions and visits in the +neighborhood, another escort beside her groom, whom she frequently +dispensed with anyhow. The thing appeared to me absolutely incredible, +although old Anthony, who had nothing of the quiz about him, assured me +with the most serious face that it was a literal fact; now I was to +have my doubts removed by the evidence of my own eyesight. + +In the middle of the track stood Arthur, who kept cracking a long whip +incessantly, Hermine, who was laughing in great amusement, the two +Eleonoras, in virginal white, clinging to each other as usual, and +Anthony, who plainly hesitated whether to obey Arthur's repeated +orders to keep away, or yield to the piteous supplications of Fräulein +Duff, and help that unhappy lady off the horse. It seemed that for the +first time they had let go the halter-rein, and the unskilful and +excessively timid rider had been seized with sudden panic. In her +desperation she had clasped both arms around the neck of the horse, a +small shaggy-maned animal not much larger than a pony, who on his part +plunged, kicked, and did his best to throw her entirely out of the +saddle, as she was already half out of it. The spectacle was certainly +indescribably ludicrous, but I could not bear to see for an instant my +good friend in this predicament without coming to her assistance, and +in a moment I had sprung to her side, caught the horse's head, and, as +she held out her arms to me, lifted her from the saddle. I wished to +place her gently on the ground, but in vain did I whisper to her to +control herself and not make a scene. As she had previously clung to +the horse's neck, so she now clung to mine, and seemed to find the +greatest pleasure in swooning in my arms and upon my breast. If a +situation of this sort under some circumstances is not destitute of +charms for the cavalier, it assumes another character when his fair +burden has fully reached those years when she can stand alone, and +becomes perfectly intolerable when the spectators instead of +commiserating him and hastening to his relief, only move their hands to +applaud like mad, and break into inextinguishable laughter. + +At least this was what Hermine and Arthur did, while of the two +Eleonoras the second only looked at the first to see if she might +laugh. + +"Duffy, Duffy," cried Hermine, "I have always told you to beware of +him!" + +"Fräulein Duff," exclaimed Arthur, "do you want to tighten the +curb-chain?" + +"May I?" signalled the second Eleonora more urgently, and the first +replied in the same way, "Laugh, thou innocent cherub!" and herself set +the example. + +"Come, let us leave them alone; they must have a great deal to say to +each other," said Hermine, and hurried off amid peals of laughter, and +the rest followed, all laughing like mad, even to the stolid old +Anthony, who led away the horse, joyously whinnying, which was probably +his way of joining in the general hilarity. The next instant I was +standing alone with my fair burthen in my arms, mortified, offended, +furious, as I had never been before, so that if a river had chanced to +be at hand, I believe I would have pitched the poor Fräulein into it +without a moment's hesitation. Happily the temptation was not presented +to me, and as the laughter of the departing company grew fainter in the +distance, Fräulein Duff recovered consciousness, and unclasping her +arms from my neck, murmured: "Richard, you are my preserver!" + +Richard was very far from being in the mood to fall in with the +sentimentalities of the poor governess, and indeed had at this moment +nothing like a lion-heart in his breast, but rather a little, spiteful, +vindictive heart; so he let his poor charge slide very unceremoniously +to the ground, and stood before her with gloomy brows and probably +wrathful looks, for she clasped her hands as if frightened and +whispered: + +"Richard, for heaven's sake grow not desperate: however clouds obscure +the sky, the sun still beams above!" + +"Fräulein Duff," I said, "I must confess that at this moment I am in no +temper for jesting, far less becoming the jest of others. You will +therefore excuse me if I bid you good day." + +I sought to extricate my hand from hers, in which I succeeded with some +difficulty. But I had scarcely taken three steps when I heard such a +lamentable crying and sobbing behind me that I could not help turning +round. And there she stood in her green riding-habit, the skirt of +which was wound round her feet like a serpent, and upon her pale yellow +dishevelled locks a tall hat crushed out of shape, with a green veil, +the strings of which were hanging over her face instead of behind. + +"Dear, good Fräulein Duff!" I said remorsefully. "Come! I know you +meant nothing but kindness." And I drew her arm in mine, and led her, +still softly weeping, away from the place of terror, trying with +friendly words to comfort her, until we reached the bench upon which I +had been sitting, and where I compelled her to sit down, as she was +completely overcome. Thus we sat awhile side by side, I staring +gloomily at the sand, and she sobbing more and more faintly, until at +last she lifted her tearful eyes to me and said: + +"How can I requite your kindness, faithful noble friend?" + +"By never alluding to it," I answered; "by never by a single word +reminding me of this ridiculous scene; which, however, I swear, shall +be the last in the wretched comedy which I have let them play with me +here so long." + +"Comedy?" said Fräulein Duff, pressing her handkerchief to her eyes +with one hand, while with the other she held me fast, as I had risen to +my feet--"You need calm, dear Carl--your blood is in a tumult--sit here +by me--away with these black fever-phantasies!" + +I had to laugh, angry as I was, and took my seat again by her side. + +"O!" cried Fräulein Duff, "you are joyous and good, and still you +understand human nature; and can you really be deceived in this +maiden soul which lies before me as clear and transparent as yonder +heaven;--yes as yonder heaven," she repeated, raising her arms +poetically aloft where in all the sunny clearness of a spring +afternoon, the bluest of skies peeped through the thick blossoming +branches to our secluded nook. + +"How can any one know that which under the best circumstances does not +know itself?" I returned. + +"You err, my friend," replied the governess. "You take the timid +flutterings of this chaste virgin soul for attempts at flight; and yet +it would only fly to you, the coy birdling, to you and you alone!" + +"In the name of heaven and all the blessed saints, Fräulein Duff, +hush! You drive me out of my senses, talking in that way!" I cried, now +effectually springing up, and pacing up and down as if demented, which +indeed I was; "I will hear nothing more of it and believe nothing more +of it, not even if I hear it from her own lips!" + +"You will so hear it," said Fräulein Duff. + +I broke into derisive laughter. + +"You will," she repeated; "only patience, Richard; only patience!" + +"To the devil with patience!" I exclaimed. + +"What shall be the wager, prince?" said the governess with a sly smile, +lifting the thin forefinger of her transparent hand. "I summon old +stories back to your heart; old stories. Don't I remember as if it were +but yesterday, how she cried when she was but an eight-year-old child, +and would not be comforted, when she heard that they had put in prison +the handsome tall youth who always swung her so high? how she named all +her dolls George, and used to put them in the parrot's cage and say +that was her lover who was now in prison, and Poll was the jailor and +wanted to snap off her lover's head with his crooked beak? And when +I--for, my friend, a faithful educator of youth must be like the good +gardener who grafts roses upon the thorny stock--when I tried to +substitute for this fantastic form of childish grief, a more poetical +one; when I told her of Richard, the Lion-hearted, the renowned in song +and legend, and of Blondel the faithful singer, then she saw her ideal +in this form alone, and wandered about, her cithern in her hand, until +she found him she sought. Chance, or rather I must say the god of love +so ordained it that she really saw him in prison, paler than of yore, +it is true, but ever fair and stately, and thus has she carried his +image in her heart for six, seven years, without being for one moment +unfaithful to her Richard. You laugh incredulously, O my friend! You +know not how adamantine is the soul of a true woman. Seven years! that +seems to you an eternity. My friend, I know hearts that have +loved--loved without hope--for five-and-thirty years!" + +And the good Fräulein pressed her handkerchief to her eyes and sobbed +aloud, but mastered her emotion presently and went on: + +"But that is nought to the purpose now; I will not burthen your good +heart, at this moment when its own destiny is pressing so heavily upon +it, with the tragedy of another life which has been darkened with +perpetual gloom by such a misunderstanding as now drifts over the +horizon of yours like a passing cloud; nor is 'misunderstanding' the +right word in your case: you understand each other as do the two birds +there"--and Fräulein Duff pointed to the bush where the pair of finches +were carrying on their courtship--"only you are human creatures with +human sensitiveness and human pride. Alas, and she is not at all what +she seems to be! How has she humbled herself to her love in her hours +of solitude! How often has she kneeled before me, her face buried in my +lap, and said that her beloved was high above her like a star, and that +she could never hope to be worthy of one so strong, so brave, so noble. +O my friend, she is proud of you! With what enthusiasm was she not +filled when dear Fräulein Paula wrote her how you had acted in that +night of the storm, and again 'there is no one like him, no one!' she +exclaimed, when you were our preserver on the steamer last autumn. Yes, +my friend, you are her religion; and she confesses you before all men, +only not before you. Was she not fixed upon having her Richard in a +picture at least, whatever her heartless father might say? Has she not +adored this picture as if it were the image of a saint, and even fitted +up her room in oriental style, that its surroundings might harmonize +with it? The same room you now occupy: no other was good enough for her +Richard; and her Richard must have it, let people shake their heads as +they might, or her tyrannical father bawl in his hateful way, and I +myself--I confess it--mildly remonstrate. My friend, to this--to such a +step which would be ludicrous were it not sublime--belong courage, +inspiration, all the intensest conviction of a great ideal love. The +world delights to darken all that's bright--if that be a poet's word it +is an eternal truth, and believe me, she herself has had her martyrdom +to bear; it is no pigmy's task to maintain one's self against such a +father. I will say no evil of him; I will say nothing of him, for where +should I begin and where end? And yet she has achieved the impossible: +the tiger fawns at the feet of the lamb." + +"I learned that to-day," I replied. + +"Remind me not," cried Fräulein Duff, "of that terrible hour, which was +yet only a further proof of her love. O smile not so sardonically! Has +it not been long her cherished hope, here, at this place which is so +dear to her, some day to realize with her Richard her dream of love? +And now to hear that she shall be driven from this paradise, and that +the angel with the sword is none other than the lord of the paradise +himself!" + +"But," I cried, "am I the one who drives her from it? How can she make +me responsible for a thing that she knows to be the cherished scheme +and urgent wish of her father, who probably intentionally provoked the +scene at the table to-day?" + +"Very possibly," replied Fräulein Duff. "Who can fathom the wiles of +this labyrinthine old man? Yes, if I rightly remember, she hinted at +something of the sort when we were alone in her room, and she relieved +her o'erburthened heart in a flood of tears." + +"From what we have just seen, the relief appears to have been pretty +effectual," I said. + +"My friend," replied the governess, "he jests at scars who never felt a +wound. Will you be less patient than I, who for all the wayward humors +of the lovesick child have only a tear of pity in a smiling eye?" + +"It is not given to every one to submit so cheerfully to tyranny as you +do, dear Fräulein." + +"I am exhausted," said Fräulein Duff, pressing her palm against her +brow. "All my evidences glide off from this serpent-smooth eccentric." + +"Then let us break off this conversation; besides, it is full time I +had started for Rossow." + +I had arisen, and the governess also arose, swung the long train of her +riding-habit boldly over her left arm, and said, leaning on my right: + +"Richard, do not go to Rossow: evil will come of it: trust me; I have +Cassandra's foreboding spirit." + +"I am, though from other motives, little inclined to go," I replied; +"but I am resolved to do my duty and keep the promise I made to the +commerzienrath, whether he asked it with a good or an evil intention, +and be the consequences what they may." + +"'I like the Spaniard proud,'" replied Fräulein Duff with an +enthusiastic look, "but it is not always the haughty one who brings +home the bride; the crafty one often reaches the goal. 'The monarch's +pampered minion seeks her hand--' do you not fear Arthur?" + +"To fear, in such cases, one must either hope or wish: I am not aware +that I have indulged in either feeling." + +Fräulein Duff in sudden terror drew her arm from mine, stopped and +exclaimed: + +"Great heavens, what do I hear! How am I to understand you? O Roderick, +by all our hopes of bliss hereafter I adjure you--do you not love her +then? Do you really love Paula, as that insidious Arthur is ever +whispering in her ear?" + +I was spared the necessity of answering this very ticklish question, +for at this moment William appeared, calling me, and saying that the +Rossow carriage had been waiting for me half an hour, and that he had +been looking for me everywhere. + +"Good-by, Fräulein Duff," I said. + +"And no answer? None?" cried the governess with a look of agonized +expectation. + +"This is my answer," I said, pointing to the carriage. + +Cassandra possibly found that oracular speeches are sometimes too hard +even for seeresses to unriddle, for as the carriage rolled out at the +gate I looked back and saw her standing where I had left her, her eyes +and hands raised to heaven, in the attitude of the Praying Child. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +But the deliverers of ambiguous oracles do not always find their +avocation an exhilarating one, as I at once discovered while the light, +elegant vehicle, drawn by two magnificent blood-horses, rolled over the +excellent new road which led from Zehrendorf past Trantowitz to Rossow. +It was a glorious afternoon; here and there in the clear blue sky stood +great white clouds, whose shadows agreeably diversified the otherwise +rather monotonous landscape; larks were singing gaily over the broad +fields of young grain waving in the soft west-wind, plovers flew over +the great heath, trenched in various parts by turf-cuttings between the +beech-woods of Trantow and the pine-forest of Rossow; and from the +distance came unceasingly the call of the cuckoo. The whole landscape +to its minutest details has remained imprinted on my memory, perhaps +because the bright laughing picture was in so marked a contrast with my +own gloomy and undecided feelings. The indiscreet question of the +governess had lifted the veil from a secret of my heart, which I had +hitherto carefully passed with averted face. Only lifted a little, not +removed. I had not the courage nor the strength to complete what I had +begun, and as in such moments of confusion one usually catches at the +first object that presents itself, in order to escape mere distraction, +I now clutched the determination not to let my heart, though it should +break in the effort, interpose a word in the affair I had undertaken. + +In this mood I looked forward to the approaching interview with a calm +that would have astonished myself had I reflected where and how I last +met the prince, and under what singular circumstances our previous +meetings had occurred. But I scarcely thought of this at all, or, if at +all, only to shake off the thought and say to myself: I have wandered +here into such a labyrinth, that one strange meeting more or less makes +no difference. Only forward! have done with it! for it is no longer +possible to turn back. + +The pines of Rossow--a beautiful piece of woods of fine stately +trees--had now closed around us; the road growing sandy, compelled the +driver to go at a slower pace, and I sprang from the carriage and +walked beside it with long strides, so that I soon left it behind. +The trees grew ever larger, the silence ever deeper, the mysterious +forest-twilight dimmer, until suddenly I stepped from under the last +trees and saw before me a well-proportioned small castle, gray with +antiquity, with tall spires on the turrets, numerous balconies and +other projections of various kinds, here and there thickly overgrown +with ivy, standing in a clear space surrounded by magnificent trees. +This was the hunting-lodge Rossow, the temporary residence of the young +banished prince. + +An old domestic with snow-white hair, who was sitting in the Gothic +portal, now approached me, and after respectfully inquiring the object +of my coming, and telling me that the prince had been expecting me some +time, led me through a small dark hall, singularly decorated with old +armor and weapons of all kinds, up several stairs to a Gothic door, +artistically ornamented with iron-work, which he threw open with a bow +and the whispered words, "His Highness has given orders to admit you +unannounced." I stepped into the room and stood before the young +prince. + +He was rising from a wide sofa upon which he had probably fallen asleep +while waiting for me; at least the expression of his handsome, pale, +refined face indicated confusion, and it was some moments before he +appeared quite to comprehend the situation. + +"Ah, yes," he said, at last; "Herr--excuse me, my memory for names is +so very bad--Hartig? Oh, excuse me Hartwig--so it is! Now this is very +kind of you to come; very kind indeed. I beg you will be seated. Do you +smoke? There are cigars; help yourself. Very kind of you indeed!" + +He had thrown himself back again in the corner of the sofa, and half +closed his eyes as if he wished to go to sleep again. I took advantage +of the opportunity to cast a hasty glance around the apartment. + +It was a large antique room, not very high, panelled in dark oak, with +a ceiling of oak, divided into compartments. Portraits, brown with age, +hung around the whole wall, to the solitary wide Gothic window, through +the small stained panes of which fell a dim and colored light. The +furniture, which was very numerous, was in a correspondingly antique +and venerable style: wide-backed chairs, cabinets and tables richly +inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory; and on the mantelpiece, between +elegant pitchers of beaten silver and goblets of cut-crystal, stood a +large clock, artistically inlaid, and covered with elaborate and +fantastic scroll-work, a master-piece of _rococo_. + +Upon a great bear-skin rug before the fire-place lay a handsome +long-haired wolf-hound, who at my entrance had raised his head a little +and then laid it between his fore-paws again. The clock on the mantel +ticked softly in the silence, a thrush twittered outside of the window, +the footsteps of the old domestic resounded on the stone hall, and +presently the young prince in the sofa corner opened his large weary +eyes and said: "What were we speaking of just now?" + +"We?" I asked, in some surprise. + +"Ah, to be sure," said the prince, "we have not yet spoken of anything. +You must excuse me; but really it would be no marvel if I forgot how to +speak altogether; for I have been sitting now two months already in +this frightful den, like an owl that dreads the daylight. I sometimes +look at my nails to see if they are not turning to talons. How +wearisome it all is! But now we will proceed to business. Will you have +the goodness to push the cigar-box over this way; and, if it is not too +much trouble, touch the bell there to your left?" + +I did as he requested, and the old servant entered with a bottle and +two glasses. + +"You need not wait," said the prince. + +The old man placed the waiter between us on the table, and left the +room. + +"Will you fill your glass?" said the prince; "and mine too, if you will +be so good--thank you. We shall need it in this dry business." + +But despite this thorough preparation, he seemed to be in no hurry. He +examined his nails as attentively as if he now really detected the +first sproutings of the owl's talons, then suppressed a slight yawn and +seemed to have the question as to what we had been talking about, once +more on his lips, but luckily bethought himself, and said, while +playing with a large signet on his finger: + +"I have always wished to see you sometime at my house; you must know +that I take an extraordinary interest in you." + +"Indeed?" I said. + +"Yes indeed, an extraordinary interest," the prince repeated. "I have +retained you in my memory from the time of our first meeting, which, to +tell you the truth, is but rarely the case with me. But you seemed to +me, and still seem, to be an original, and I take a peculiar interest +in originals." + +I bowed slightly, and took advantage of the pause to remark, "If it is +agreeable to you to hear from me what I think, from careful examination +of the chalk-quarry----" + +"You see, originals are very scarce," went on the young prince, as if I +had not spoken,--"incredibly scarce. No one knows that better than one +of our class, who are chased up and down through the world from our +youth up. Everlasting sameness: the same stereotyped faces, the same +stereotyped manners, the same stereotyped phrases. I could scarcely +name more than two or three persons who have produced upon me the +impression that I was talking with real human beings and not with +puppets. One of these is, as I said, yourself; another is an old +decrepit dervish whom I lighted on, if my memory serves me, in +Jerusalem, and who told me that after a search of a hundred and four +years he had found the philosopher's stone, and that the thing was not +worth finding; and the other was perhaps poor Constance von Zehren." + +I moved uneasily in my chair, and began again--"The chalk-quarry, about +which your Highness----" + +"She it was that brought about our acquaintance," went on the prince, +who again could not have heard me; "so it is but natural that my memory +reverts to her at this moment when I have the pleasure of conversing +with you so agreeably. She was a peculiar, a strangely organized being, +whose nature has been to me, up to this moment, a perfect riddle, and +probably will ever remain so. A mixture of apparently absolute +contradictions: proud, without self-respect; bold, even foolhardy, and +yet, if I may so express myself, of a catlike timidity; romantic, yet +calculating--in a word, I have never been able to comprehend how such +characteristics could exist together in one and the same soul. You, as +you have yourself known her, will admit the correctness of my judgment; +and perhaps will also agree with me in the opinion that one should +reflect long before one holds a man who has had the fortune--or +misfortune--to be drawn into too close an intimacy with a person of so +strange a nature--an intimacy which I may well call perilous--one +should reflect long, I say, before holding that man responsible for all +the consequences which this perilous intimacy may entail." + +The young man was still leaning back in the sofa-corner, playing with +his ring, a picture of ennui and indifference. I was in the most +painful position imaginable, and inly cursed the chance which had +brought the indolent man to speak upon this theme of all others. Or was +it then a chance? I fancied that I perceived in the tone with which he +spoke the last words, some signs of internal emotion; but I could not +be sure of it, and I was about to make a third and decisive attempt to +bring the conversation to business matters, when the prince began again +in a more animated tone: + +"It is not my fault that all happened as it did. I have, it may be, one +or two things upon my conscience which I had rather not have there when +I sit here all alone, and for very weariness cannot even sleep; but in +that affair I am really not the most culpable party. I was very young +when I first saw her; she was far the older of the two, if not in +years, at least in experience and worldly prudence. How she came by it +I know not--with women anyhow we rarely know how they come by it--and +she had it all, as I said, in a high degree. It was no slight +achievement to blind me to the ruin which lay plainly enough before my +eyes; the anger of the prince, my father, upon whom I am altogether +dependent, the certainty that I was throwing away the hand of a noble +and amiable lady who had been chosen for me: it was no trifling +achievement, I say, and yet she succeeded in bringing me to it. And +yet, upon my word as a nobleman, I would never have abandoned her, if I +had not heard a circumstance connected with Fräulein von Zehren--or at +least having reference to her--something of which she was altogether +innocent--absolutely and entirely innocent--which I cannot further +explain because it is not my secret, but which was of such a nature +that from the moment I learned it all thoughts, whether of a lawful or +illicit connection between us, became for me at once and forever +impossible. Strange things come to pass in life: things which at first +appall us like hideous spectres, but which one gradually becomes +accustomed to and learns to endure. Do you not think so?" + +The prince seemed to be half in slumber again as he put this question; +but somehow I could not entirely believe in this half-sleep; on the +contrary the impression grew stronger upon my mind that my +distinguished host was playing with very laudable skill, a well +concerted part. So his confidential communications only made me +distrustful, and with a reserve that was otherwise foreign to my +nature, I determined to wait and see whither this singular discourse +was really tending. The prince probably expected to produce a different +effect upon me, for he presently added, with eyelids half closed. + +"You once felt an interest in the lady of whom we are speaking, did you +not?" + +"Yes," I answered. + +"Your answer sounds as if you no longer felt that interest." + +"Not to my knowledge," I replied. + +"Indeed?" said the prince, opening his handsome wearied eyes wide for a +moment, and looking me full in the face; "Indeed? that is precisely the +opposite of what Zehren has informed me." + +"I do not think that Arthur--that Herr von Zehren--can give any +information concerning me, that has even the shadow of credibility," I +answered. + +"Very possible," replied the prince, "very possible: his veracity is by +no means beyond the possibility of doubt: indeed I frequently permit +myself to assume the exact opposite of what he pleases to tell me. For +example, I am perfectly convinced that he was decidedly in error when +he assured me that the charming young artist at whose house I had the +pleasure of meeting you, would be gratified by my attentions. The +reverse seems to have been the case." + +The prince looked at me as if he expected an answer, but I replied only +by an ambiguous gesture. + +"Nor am I any more sure of the final disposal of a certain +insignificant sum of money which I entrusted to him on the same day, if +I remember rightly, for a special purpose. I beg you! You need not say +anything--I am now satisfied. My friend Zehren is very little troubled +with over-scrupulousness"--the prince made a slight gesture of +contempt--"very little indeed. It is really high time that he had +settled himself: such men as he, in a desperate position, are +hopelessly ruined. Well, he has at present a capital opportunity for +settling himself: I congratulate him upon it!" + +I felt how at these words of the prince, which could only be +interpreted in one way, the blood rushed to my cheeks and brow; but I +controlled myself as well as I could, and only replied: + +"I think your highness just remarked that you were disposed in certain +cases to take for granted the precise opposite of what Arthur thinks +fit to inform you." + +"Indeed!" said the prince. "I should be sorry for that in this case. I +mean on his account; though I could not exactly congratulate the young +lady, whom I have not the honor to know, upon the match. But this time +I do believe the statement, because all the circumstances seem to +confirm it. I have had several interviews with the old man: he is a +horrible--what shall I say?--roturier, and like all the rest of his +class, greedy after respectable connections, and distinctions of every +kind. This very morning he intimated to me through the justizrath that +he would make more favorable propositions in the matter of the sale of +Zehrendorf, provided I would obtain for him from my father the title of +privy-councillor, or the order of the third class; he has contrived in +some way already to get the fourth. For such people it is the height of +happiness if they can marry a daughter, and especially an only +daughter, into an old family; and the Zehrens are an old family--there +is no disputing that fact. How the young lady views the matter, I do +not know; probably not differently from other young women in her rank +of life. Indeed, it would be a very serious matter if Zehren had +deceived me in this affair, and I should not readily forgive him. On +this representation I have paid his debts for him; and what is just now +more important for me, he has promised to use all his influence with +his prospective father-in-law to bring about the sale of Zehrendorf. +And on your account also, Herr Hartwig, I should regret it, for I +devised a plan which I think it would interest you to hear, and to +communicate which to you was the main reason for my requesting the +honor of an interview this afternoon. I had the idea, namely, that it +would be agreeable for you, and perhaps open you a future career, if I +asked you, after the purchase of Zehrendorf has been consummated, to +help me in its management, and in that of some other estates here. The +prince, my father, insists upon my undertaking the administration of +these estates, before he re-admits me to his favor. Now for more than +one cause I am very anxious for this reconciliation; but the condition +he attaches to it is less easy of accomplishment, and the acquisition +of a man of whom I have heard so much that was to his honor, who has +borne himself so well in many a trying situation, and--what I consider +of most importance--whom I have myself learned to know as a perfect +gentleman--the acquisition of such a man I should value highly, yes, +inexpressibly." + +For the first time during our conversation the prince had spoken with a +warmth which was not without an effect upon my susceptible nature, and +at his last words he bowed gracefully to me, and a kind and friendly +smile brightened his pale refined face. It was a noble and most +inviting offer that he made me; I felt that, and I also felt that under +other circumstances I would have accepted it without hesitation; but as +it was---- + +"You are a cautious man," said the prince, after politely waiting a +little while for my answer. "You are thinking, 'Will Prince Prora keep +the promise he makes me? and will he be able to keep it?' On this point +I think I can satisfy you. The prince, my father, must be no less +desirous of this reconciliation than I am myself; he would eagerly +welcome the first advances from my side, and reward me with princely +magnanimity for the first results that I was able to produce. I believe +even that he would at once place all our estates in this part of the +country under my charge. This at the beginning would be a field of +action which I should think would be satisfactory to your ambition--you +are a little ambitious are you not? As for myself, you would have every +reason to be content with me. I am by nature rather indolent, and my +training has not done much to eradicate that natural fault; I should +give you uncontrolled authority, or, at least you would always find me +inclined to agree with whatever was reasonable. Under no circumstances +would I be a hard landlord; and as you are unfortunately not in the +position to--how shall I express it? you understand what I mean--why +should you not give me your service as freely--more freely, I flatter +myself--than to that horrible plebeian over yonder? whose affairs, +moreover, as I learn on good authority, are by no means in the most +prosperous condition." + +While the prince was speaking, I had been putting to myself the +question with which he concluded, and answered myself that in reality I +could see no reason why my activity could not work as effectively for +good in this new field as in the old. And yet I could not bring myself +to accept the offer. It is so hard for one to renounce a favorite +dream. + +"I see my proposition appears somewhat to embarrass you," said the +prince, a little piqued, as I fancied, by my hesitation. "Well, I will +not urge you: think the matter over; you have my word, and I will let +it stand for a few days. I am here for the purpose of practising +patience, as it seems. Then in a few days I promise myself this +pleasure again." + +He bowed to me from his sofa-corner as if to intimate that the +conversation was at an end, when the rapid tramp of a horse was heard +under the window. + +"Who can that be?" said the prince, and touched the silver bell on the +table. But in the same instant the old servant entered followed by an +equerry with a sealed letter in his hand. The old man was very pale and +the equerry very red, but both had such agitated faces that the prince +exclaimed hastily, "What upon earth is the matter?" + +"A letter from his high--I should say from Herr Chancellor Henzel," +said the old man, taking the letter from the courier's hand and handing +it to the prince without thinking to place it upon the salver which he +was holding in his other hand for this purpose. He must have been +informed of the contents of the letter by the messenger. + +The prince broke open the large seal, and I remarked that while he +hastily ran over the contents of the letter, his hands began to tremble +violently. Then he looked up and said with a voice which he evidently +tried to keep as steady as possible: + +"His highness has had an attack of apoplexy. Saddle Lady, or better, +Brownlock, he is faster. Albert can take Essex and come with me. Be +quick about it!" and he stamped impatiently. + +The equerry hurried out of the door, and the old servant ran through +another door which I had not observed, into an adjoining room, probably +to pack up such things as were necessary for his master to take. + +As the prince, who was pacing the room with unsteady steps, did not +seem to notice that I was still there, I was about trying to slip away +unperceived, when he suddenly stopped before me, and looking at me with +an attempt to smile, said: + +"Now see how hard it is for one in my position to become an orderly +man. I am just about making the attempt, and I am called away in +another direction. Now, farewell, and let me soon hear from you. +Remember, you have my word, and I shall now probably need you more than +ever. Farewell!" + +He gave me his hand, which I pressed warmly. + +Five minutes later, as I was going back on foot through the pine +woods--I had declined the carriage which had been kept harnessed for +me--I heard horses behind me. It was the young prince, with a groom +following him. As he flew by me at full gallop, he waved his hand in +friendly salutation, and in the next instant both riders had +disappeared among the thick trunks and the trampling of their horses +grew fainter and ceased to sound in the dim forest. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +The following day was unusually hot and close for the time of year. At +sunrise gray storm-clouds had appeared in the east, and hung +threatening in the horizon, while the sun in all his splendor was +ascending the bright sky. I, who from childhood had always been +peculiarly sensitive to atmospheric changes, felt uneasily the electric +tension of the air. On my brow I had a sense of constant pressure, a +singular disquiet agitated my nerves, and my blood seemed to course +laboriously through my veins. To be sure these feelings of mine were +not due to the weather alone. + +Something else was in the air; something that gave me more uneasiness +than the threatened storm, something that I could not define; the +obscure feeling of the intolerable position in which I found myself +here, and that in some way it must be brought to an end--if it had not +come to an end already. + +However that might be, I had time enough to-day to think it all over. + +No one was here to disturb my reflections: Zehrendorf seemed +uninhabited. The excursion to the Schlachtensee which had been arranged +the day before, had been carried out at about ten o'clock, not without +some trifling variations of the original programme. Whether it was +because the last attempt to make a horsewoman of Fräulein Duff had +failed so lamentably, or from some other reason, Hermine had given up +her intention of going on horseback with her governess and Arthur, and +the whole company had gone in three carriages. The steuerrath and the +Born had also joined the party; which was another variation from the +programme, introduced on account of the two Eleonoras, who had +unanimously protested--they were always unanimous that they could not +possibly share in an excursion to last the whole day, that was composed +of young people only. The two dignitaries had vehemently resisted the +honor proposed to them, but yielded at last, of course. How could they +do otherwise? Not easily again would they find such another opportunity +to forward their favorite scheme. + +A third variation had also taken place, which, if I could credit +Fräulein Duff, I had brought about. True, appearances seemed to confirm +her statement, but only appearances. + +When I returned to Zehrendorf from my visit to Rossow, as I went to my +own room I had to pass through the parlor where the whole company were +assembled. Hermine was sitting at the piano playing a noisy piece, +which she suddenly stopped as, after silently bowing to the company, I +had my hand on the knob of the door to pass out. Involuntarily I turned +at the sound of the discord with which she closed, and in the next +moment I saw her standing before me, with pale features and a strange +light in her large blue eyes, and with quivering lips saying something +which she had to repeat before I could understand it. They hoped I had +taken the jest of to-day as it was meant, and not deprive their little +party to-morrow of the pleasure of my company, on which they had +certainly counted. + +The company who had been hitherto conversing with especial animation, +and had scarcely appeared to notice my presence, were suddenly silent, +and this was probably the reason that I heard my own answer with +startling distinctness, almost as if it was not I but another who had +spoken with an altogether strange voice: + +"I thank you, Fräulein: but you were perfectly right; I cannot be +counted upon on these occasions." + +Next I found myself outside in the hall, trembling in every limb of my +strong body, with sharp pain in my heart and a burning desire to cry +out aloud, and then I pressed both hands upon my breast, and said to +myself, with deeply-drawn breath and trembling lips, "Thank heaven, it +is all over." + +To this thought I held fast all the long night while I paced sleepless +up and down my carpeted room, or stood at the open window cooling my +burning brow in the night air, or throwing myself upon the divan to +sink into painful thought. + +All over; all over! despite the note that Fräulein Duff sent about +midnight to my room by the hands of my now devoted William, and in +which in her queer fantastic way she assured me that Hermine had been +looking forward for two weeks to this excursion only because she was to +make it with me, and indeed had planned it with no other view; and she +asked whether the good should give place to the evil, and whether love +did not believe all things and endure all things, especially when it +might be convinced that what occasioned its severest sufferings were +themselves but love-torments? + +Love? Was this, could this be love? Love, she said, endured all things +and believed all things. True: but it also is not puffed up, does not +behave unseemly, and thinks no evil. Is this love? Is it not rather +selfishness, vanity, caprice, the caprice of a spoiled child which now +kisses its doll and the next moment flings it on the ground, for which +the whole world is only a bright soap-bubble that for its especial +pleasure glitters in the sunshine of its fortune? Well, this may be +love--one kind of love; but I do not fancy this kind and will not have +it, and it is all over. + +Had I not known another kind of love? A firm, deeply-rooted, beneficent +love that brought blessings wherever it was given. If this love had +never been bestowed on me, did I any the less know that it existed? And +if she had never loved me as she was capable of loving, and would some +day love another, had I not tasted a drop at least of this pure +fountain of living water, and drunk from this single drop courage and +refreshment, far more than from all this torrent which rushes so +exuberantly to-day, and to-morrow will have vanished without a trace +into the sand--the sand of her selfishness and caprice? No! it must all +be over, and it was all over. + +Thus all night long thoughts whirled and burned in my head and heart, +until day broke--a bright day, but heavy with brooding storm--and found +me feverish and exhausted; but I aroused myself with a strong +resolution and said to myself: + +"So be it! Let all be over and past! Perhaps it is well that all has +happened thus, and that I am given back to myself and to my duties." + +And I remained in my room until it was time to go to the chalk-quarry, +where the machine was to be operated to-day for the first time. At +about ten o'clock I returned to report to the commerzienrath, as he had +requested, that all had succeeded beyond our expectations, and that our +prospect of mastering the water had now become a certainty. + +In the meantime the excursionists had started, as William, who remained +behind to wait upon me, informed me, together with a multitude of +details, which the rascal's hawk-eyes were quick to catch, and his +indiscreet mouth eager to blab. The young lady had seemed in the very +gayest humor, until Leo, her mastiff, could not be induced, either by +caresses or threats, to go along with them. "He has been treated too +badly of late," said William, "and we notice--I mean an animal notices +anything like that." And at the last moment Herr and Frau von Granow +drove up, though they had not been invited, and they could not avoid +asking them to go along. + +"I tell you, Herr Engineer, the whole thing looked more like a funeral +than a pic-nic party. But the two young ladies--" here William +Kluckhuhn grinned--"you ought to have seen them, Herr Engineer! All in +white with green ribbons--real snow-drops, I tell you!" + +I was little in the mood to hear William's report to the end, and +interrupted it by asking for the commerzienrath. + +"Gone to Uselin with the old justizrath to keep some appointment, and +will hardly be back before evening." + +This news somewhat surprised me. The commerzienrath had known nothing +the previous evening of this appointment which would keep him all day, +for he had appointed this very morning for an interview with me in +which very important business was to be discussed. For the report which +I had brought him of the precarious condition of the old prince had +thrown our prospects of selling Zehrendorf into the dim distance, and +indeed rendered them very improbable. What would the young prince, if +he succeeded his father and came into full possession of all the +property, care for one estate more or less? + +"In reality, the old man cares very little about it," the +commerzienrath always said; "but the young one is to win his spurs by +the purchase, and show that he can manage business of the sort. The +young man knows this very well, and for that reason he will take down +the hook, however uninviting the bait may be; you may rely upon that." + +Thus the commerzienrath had reckoned: very falsely as affairs now +stood. My yesterday's intelligence had visibly caused him great alarm. +It was extremely odd that he had to go to the city just to-day. + +Or did he merely wish to get out of my way, now that he had so +perfectly gained his point of bringing me into disfavor with Hermine? +Did he need me no more, now that the machine was set up and the +negotiation with the prince virtually fallen through? + +Very possible; very possible; but perhaps I needed him still less; +perhaps I was in a position to bid him farewell before he gave me a +dismissal. This absence of the man, which seemed like a flight from me, +came at this moment as a warning to accept the tempting offer of the +young prince. What had I thus far attained from the commerzienrath in +furtherance of my own aims? Abundance of promises, a flood of +compliments--and that was all, and so it would evidently remain, +especially if he did not sell Zehrendorf, and was thus released from +his promise to me about the factory: yes, and very probably even though +the sale were still effected. + +For there were but few things that the commerzienrath held sacred, and +I had good reason to believe that his word was not one of them. Thus he +had promised me not to dismiss the foreman of the saw-mill, to whom he +had already given notice; and as I passed the mill this morning it was +not running, and a workman told me that the master had been there the +previous evening while I was at Rossow, and after a short conversation +dismissed the foreman on the spot. + +There was an instance; but it was merely the most recent; I had caught +him more than once in these breaches of his word. No, indeed, the man +did not seem a likely proselyte to my religion of humanity! + +And the prince? The more distinctly I recalled to memory the +particulars of our yesterday's conversation, the more vividly his face +arose before me, so much the more did I believe that I discovered the +stamp of an honorable and kindly nature in his features, and felt +confident that it would well repay me to attach myself to him. It is a +hard matter to remain entirely unmoved when any one approaches us with +marked good will, especially when our well-wisher is a person of high +rank and great influence. Now I cannot say that either then or at any +time I should have considered a prince's favor the height of earthly +felicity; but neither can I deny that, at that time at least, the +reverence for dignities in which I had been brought up, helped to place +this behavior of the young prince in its most favorable light. I +thought that I had now found the key to the conduct which yesterday had +seemed so enigmatical; and I highly prized the delicacy with which he +had cleared out of the way what he knew lay as a stumbling-block +between us, before he disclosed his real object. He had made no +allusion to the scene in Zehrendorf forest nine years before; but he +had never forgotten that I had then spared him, and why I had done so, +and had attempted in this way to cancel the obligation. + +I had to admit to myself that, all things considered, the procedure was +noble and chivalrous on his part. So he had explained to me the reason +of his visit to Paula's studio, and to a certain extent apologized for +his conduct there; and if his attempt on the same day to clear scores +with me was premature and unbecoming, he had more than compensated for +it in my eyes by his present magnanimous and important proposal. + +For it was both. Magnanimous, when I considered the open loyal way in +which he made it, with no man[oe]uvrings, no bargaining nor chaffering; +important, when I admitted to myself, as I had to do, that if it was +really his wish to provide me with a wider field of operations, he was +fully in a position to realize his promises. Granting that the +commerzienrath was what he pretended to be--though on this point my +doubts had rather increased than diminished--but granting that he was +the wealthy and influential man he was generally thought, what was his +wealth and influence compared with those of a Prince of Prora-Wiek? As +a schoolboy I had known, like every one else in the town, and I believe +every inhabitant of our province, that upon the island alone the prince +owned a hundred and twenty estates; then the small town of Prora, the +residence--in which there was now probably agitation enough in +consequence of its lord's sudden illness--which stood entirely upon the +prince's land; then the hunting-castle Wiek with its leagues of forest; +the _Grafschaft_ of Ralow on the mainland near Uselin, where the +townsfolk used to make excursions to the park in the summer; the +magnificent palace at the residence, which I had often passed +with strange emotions; the domains in Silesia with the celebrated +iron-works, the value of which alone was estimated at several +millions--what was the Cr[oe]sus of Uselin in comparison with this real +Cr[oe]sus, whose revenues for two years probably amounted to as much as +the commerzienrath's whole capital? + +True, I had looked forward to a far different career. My passion for +mathematical science, my advances in the machine-builder's art, my hope +some day to be actively helpful in promoting the development of +railroad industry, the plans I had so often devised with worthy Doctor +Snellius for the good of the working classes--it was no pleasant +thought to have to give up all this. But had I then to give it up? Was +it not in reality the same thing whether I worked here or there, in +this manner or in that, so that I only worked and strove in the noble +spirit of my unforgotten teacher and of my truehearted friend? +Assuredly I might in that spirit accept the prince's offer, and Paula +would not be dissatisfied with me, for her thoughts and wishes, like +those of her noble-hearted father, were only bent upon goodness in +every form. I felt that it would not be difficult for me to show her +how in this sphere I would have full opportunity to become more worthy +of her than I had ever been. And then--I had always endeavored to hide +it from myself, because it too rudely touched a painful spot in my +heart; but now in this sleepless night it and many another thing stood +in sharp conviction before my mind--she had not only let me go because +a wider field of usefulness opened before me; she had even sent me +away, because she had compassion with me, because she knew that my +deep, devoted, reverential love found no echo in her heart; and as a +kindly nature never takes away anything without offering, if possible, +some indemnity, she had offered my loving heart, that yearned for a +return of affection, the fulfilment of all my wishes in a lovely +fascinating form, in the form of the beautiful wayward Bacchante who +had played with me as she had played with tigers, leopards, and other +forest-creatures which she was accustomed to yoke to her chariot. What +did Paula's innocent heart know of this dangerous sport? What did she +know of the arts of caressing with one hand while the other plies the +lash?--of delighting at one moment in the free gambols of the favorite, +and the next moment barring it into a narrow cage? What did Paula know +of all this? + +Had she known it, would she not be the first to called me back and say: + +"You may and must sacrifice yourself, if nothing less will avail; but +you may not throw yourself away; and as for my wishes and yours, they +are all past and gone." + +Thus it fermented and worked in my heated brain and my swelling heart +all day long, while the sun rolled on his glowing path through the sky, +and behind him clomb the gray vaporous clouds which had lowered on the +horizon at his rise. I had looked up instinctively at the sky from time +to time, as I wandered restlessly through the fields and the heath, +tormented by my thoughts, and oppressed by the threatening storm, and +so possessed by the emotions within me and the ominous preparations +without, that I had lost my consciousness of place and time, found +myself now in the evening twilight on the road to Trantowitz, the same +road along which I had driven to Rossow, and which was also the road by +which the excursionists would return, without knowing how I had got +there or why I had come. Certainly not to visit Hans, who was with the +party. Still I pushed on, until I reached the ill-kept broken hedge +which divided Hans's famous garden, with its stunted fruit-trees, its +neglected grass, and its waste potato and cabbage patches, from the +road. Looking over the hedge, I thought that at the further end of this +melancholy croft I saw a tall figure which could be no other than the +good Hans himself. I pushed through the hedge--an operation attended +with no difficulty--and went towards the figure. It was Hans, as I +thought. + +"I thought you were with them," I said. + +"Not I," he answered, returning my grasp. + +"But you were invited?" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"And how then are you here?" + +"Well, when I saw them coming this morning, I got out of that +window"--he pointed to the window of his bed-room--"and stayed in the +woods until the coast was clear. And you?" + +"I did not care to go, either." + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Hans. + +We strolled for a long time silently, side by side, up and down the +grass-grown paths. The twilight had now grown so dim that color could +no longer be distinguished. The air was inexpressibly sultry and +oppressive, heat-lightnings flickered every now and then in the east, +and from the Trantowitz woods, an angle of which reached down near us, +came the song of the nightingale in long-drawn wailing tones. + +"It is suffocating!" I said, turning into a sort of ruinous arbor that +we had reached in our walk, and throwing myself upon one of the +mouldering benches in it, I pulled off my coat and waistcoat. + +Hans made no reply, but silently proceeded to his bedroom window, +through which I saw his gigantic figure disappear, and re-appear after +the lapse of a few minutes. He rejoined me with a couple of glasses in +his hand and two bottles of wine under his arm, which he set down on +the old table, drew two more bottles out of his coat pockets and laid +them on the sand, pulled out his hunting-knife and uncorked the first +pair, and then pushing one over to me, remarked: + +"Drink off the half or the whole of that and you will feel better." + +That was just the old Hans exactly, with his universal specific against +all slings and arrows of outrageous fortune! Alas, it had proved but a +poor panacea to the good fellow, and would probably be of little +service to me, but I could not help feeling how kindly he meant it, and +my hand trembled as I poured the wine for both, and my voice was +unsteady as I clinked glasses with him, saying: + +"To your health, dear Hans, and a better future to both of us." + +"Don't know where it is to come from for me," said Hans, draining his +glass at a draught, and filling both again. + +"Hans, my dear good fellow," I said, "please don't speak in that dismal +tone: I cannot stand it this evening: I feel every moment as if my +heart was about to break." + +Hans was about to push the bottle to me again, but remembered that +I had already declined his universal specific, so he handed his +cigar-case to me across the table. + +In a minute two bright points were glowing in the dark arbor, throwing +a faint glimmer upon the rickety table with the bottles, and upon the +faces of two men that leaned over it in a long confidential +conversation. + +"It is so," said one at last. + +"You will find yourself mistaken, as I was," replied the other. + +"I think not. How long ago was it--yesterday, I believe--or it might +have been the day before; I don't keep any reckoning of the days--I met +her on the road to Rossow, and we rode together two or three miles, and +the whole time she was talking of nothing but you." + +"She must have been sadly in want of a topic of conversation." + +"And she cried, too, poor thing! I was sorry for her, and have ever +since had it on my mind to tell you that you must really bring the +matter to a close." + +A long silence followed. The third bottle was uncorked, the bright +points still glowed, while the darkness sank ever deeper, and the +noiseless sheet-lightning flickered from moment to moment. + +"But you are not drinking," said Hans. + +I did not answer: in fact I had scarcely heard him. I was hardly +conscious that he was there or where we were. In the darkness that +surrounded us I saw her eyes beaming; in the rustling of the wind in +the leaves I heard her voice. And the large blue eyes gazed +reproachfully upon me, and the voice seemed to tremble, and the sweet +lips quivered as they had done yesterday when she asked me to accompany +them. + +"Where are you going?" asked Hans. + +I had arisen and stood at the entrance of the arbor, gazing with +burning eyes into the darkness. On the western horizon there was still +a thin pale streak, but elsewhere the sky seemed to cover the earth +like a black opaque pall. There was a deep silence; only from time to +time strange moans and whispers seemed to pass through the air, and at +intervals the nightingales in the woods sent forth a plaintive sobbing +sound, as if bewailing the overthrow of a beautiful world full of light +and love. Now and then an electrical flame clove the darkness, and +flickered strangely along the edges of the low heavy clouds; but no +thunder followed to break the oppressive stillness, and no refreshing +rain came down to revive the exhausted earth. + +"Where are you going?" asked Hans again. + +"Where do you suppose they are now?" + +"Who can tell? Certainly they have not got back, for they must pass +this way." + +"On the heath, between your beechwoods and the Rossow pines, the way +must be hard to find in this darkness." + +"It is indeed," said Hans. "I once rode around there for two hours +without getting out of one place, and the night was not as dark as +this. To be sure, we had been drinking pretty freely at Fritz +Zarrentin's. Hallo! what are you about?" + +I was on the point of rushing out; and when Hans spoke I grasped at my +head, which felt as if it would burst. + +"They may be at that very place now," I muttered. + +"Don't go without me!" cried Hans, as I set off on a run. + +I stopped: he came behind me and patted me two or three times gently on +the shoulder with his great broad hand, saying: "So then, so!" as if he +were quieting an excited horse. I caught his hand and said, "come +along, Hans." + +"Of course," he said; "but we must have two or three fellows with +lanterns, or we can do nothing." + +"That will keep us too long!" + +"Not five minutes." + +Hans strode by my side across the cabbage patch, and to avoid all +detours went directly to, and through, his bed-room window and through +his sitting-room, and I followed close at his heels, for I knew the way +of old. Once in the yard, Hans began to pull with all his might at the +cracked alarm-bell which hung there in a sort of ruinous belfry, and +whose unmelodious clank used to summon the men to or from work. They +came fast enough at the well-known signal from their quarters and from +the stables, and before five minutes were over we had left the yard and +taken the path to the Trantow beeches, followed by a squad of men with +stable-lanterns. + +The last bright streak had faded from the western horizon, and the +darkness was so intense that in the woods it seemed no darker than it +had been in the open field. The oppressive sultriness of the atmosphere +had increased, if possible, and now the thunder began to mutter, and +the tops of the trees to toss about in the rising wind. The +nightingales had hushed in expectation of the impending storm. Leaving +the men with the lanterns far behind, I hurried through the wood, +followed closely at first by Hans, who presently stopped, however, +calling to me that there was no use for such frantic haste, as we could +do nothing without the lanterns. I knew that very well, but I was urged +on by an impulse that I could not withstand. What I meant to do, I +could not precisely have told, nor did I pause to consider; I only +hurried forward wildly as if life and death were at stake. How I got +through the woods, by a wretched path, in the pitchy darkness, without +breaking arm or leg, or dashing my skull against a tree, is more than I +can explain at this hour. + +Whether it was the blue gleam of the lightnings which flashed at +intervals through the clear spaces in the wood, or the peculiarity of +my eyes which could always distinguish objects a little, even in the +deepest darkness, or the excitement, which in certain moments seems to +awaken dormant faculties within us, I cannot say; I only know that in +an incredibly short time I had traversed the woods, and by the +cessation of the rustling, by the stronger blast of the wind in my +face, by the altered sound of the thunder, and by the brighter glare of +the lightning, I perceived that I was on the heath. This heath was +about a mile wide, bounded on three sides by the Rossow pine woods and +the Trantowitz beeches, and on the fourth side, to my left, joining the +great moors on the coast, which ran up into it in various places in +narrower or wider strips. No tree grew over this whole broad expanse; +the single mark which arrested the eye was a hillock, overgrown +with bushes and surrounded by large stones--doubtless an ancient +barrow--which stood about midway of the distance, and served as a +boundary to mark the commencement of the moor. One could hardly speak +of a road here, for the way changed with every season of the year, even +with every change of the weather; travellers rode, drove, or walked, +wherever they found it most practicable. More than one accident had +happened here; and even in my time a man who tried to cross the heath +by night with an empty wagon had driven into one of the broad deep +turf-pits and been drowned with his team. + +While I ran rather than walked across the heath, the details of this +accident, which I had long forgotten, came all back to my recollection. +I remembered the man's name, and that he was betrothed to a young woman +in Trantowitz, a pretty fair-haired creature, who could not be +comforted for the loss of her lover, and had been seen weeks afterwards +sitting on the mound with eyes fixed on the spot where he had perished. +It struck me that the poor pretty creature had had a slight likeness to +Hermine. + +A wild terror seized me, and I suddenly stood still, listening into the +night with a wildly-beating heart. I thought I had heard a faint cry at +no great distance. But from what direction? Before me? to the right? or +to the left? Or was I mistaken altogether, and had my excitement +deceived me and changed the wailing sounds of the wind to human calls +for help? There it was again! This time I was not mistaken, and I +caught the direction from which the cry came. It was exactly before +me--no, it was on my right--no, on my left. Certainly now it was to the +right. Then I heard it again nearer, and again from another direction, +as if the ghosts of those who had perished all over the desolate heath +had all arisen from their marshy graves and were calling to each other. +Nor could I see a single step before me: even the lightning had ceased +for some minutes: it seemed as if I could touch the darkness with my +hand. I cast a desperate glance around, and saw to my unspeakable joy +the lights of the lanterns approaching, though still at some distance. +I called with all the power of my lungs for them to make haste; then +hurried blindly forward, and started terrified back, as suddenly, in +the glare of a vivid flash of lightning, I saw just before me the +gigantic spectrally white figure of a rearing horse. I had come upon +one of the carriages, which had been abandoned by its occupants, +leaving the coachman who had bravely stood to his post, and strove in +vain to unharness the horses. + +"Where are the others?" I cried, hastening to help the man without +rightly knowing what I was doing. + +"God knows," he answered. "I have had my hands full here." + +"Here come men with lanterns." + +"It is high time. Stand still, you devil's imp!" + +Now Hans came up with several of the lantern-bearers. The horses stood +still, shivering with terror, and snorting from their distended +nostrils great clouds of steam in the lantern-light. + +On the back seat of the carriage lay a figure stretched at full length. +The light of the lantern fell on a pale haggard face--it was Arthur. + +"What has happened to him?" I asked. + +Hans asked no question: he knew what had happened when a young man, who +has never learned to control himself; lies stretched upon the back seat +of a carriage in his return from a picnic, and not all the turmoil of +the unchained elements can awaken him from his stupid sleep. + +"Never mind about him," said the driver; "he is safe enough." + +"One of you must stay here," I said to the men with lanterns. "Forward, +the rest!" + +We went on, the men, of whom there were five or six, holding up their +lanterns, and shouting all together at intervals, calling all who might +hear to try to get to us. + +We were answered from different points; it was now plain that the whole +company was widely scattered. The carriages alone had kept somewhat +together; and a minute later I came upon another which had been +overturned and dashed to pieces by the maddened horses, so that we had +no difficulty in getting them clear of what remained of the harness. +Then we found the third, which had turned a little to one side and +stalled, sunk up to the axle in a marshy place, and the driver had +released the horses by cutting the traces. + +It was a strange and weird-looking scene. The lightning flashed so +incessantly that we seemed enveloped in its awful glare. Then the +shouts and cries of the frightened excursionists who came hurrying up +from all sides, the swearing of the coachmen and grooms, the snorting +and struggling of the scared horses, and amid all, the mutterings and +long roll of thunder, the whistling and shrieking of the gusts of wind +that every now and then swept with frightful fury over the heath, and +seemed to hold up the rain, of which only occasional heavy drops smote +me in the face; the whole company, so far as they were now collected, +resembling a party about to be led to execution, the men with agitated +features, and the women pale as death, and all bearing abundant traces +of their wanderings about the heath and the miry ground. + +But if it had been difficult to get them together, I now found that it +was impossible to keep them so. All were for pushing on at once, Why +waste a moment here? All were together. In an instant the rain would +pour down in torrents, the lanterns be put out, and what would become +of them then? + +"Forward, my friends, forward!" screamed the steuerrath, and Herr von +Granow also shouted "Forward! forward!" and in the next moment all had +started. + +Amid the indescribable confusion, the calling, shouting, hurrying up +and down of so many persons, I had found it impossible to make sure +whether really all, as they said, were together; but I knew that I had +not seen her whom alone I was looking for, nor had I seen Fräulein +Duff. I had imagined for some reason--perhaps I had heard some one say +it--that both ladies were in the fourth carriage, which was behind the +others, and reported to be safe; but as the company set out, with the +lanterns in front, this fourth carriage came up. + +It was the commerzienrath's great family carriage. I sprang to it and +looked in. There was a pile of cloaks and shawls which had been left +behind in the hurry, and Fräulein Duff, leaning back in the corner, and +looking at me, who was half wild with anxiety, with eyes from which +extreme terror had banished all expression. In vain did I try to get +from her where she had left Hermine. She only muttered, as if +delirious, "Seek faithfully and thou shalt find," and then broke into +hysterical weeping. + +Now Anthony, who had in the meantime been adjusting the traces, told me +that the young lady had sprung from the carriage not ten minutes +before, just as the lanterns came near. He did not know why, for the +young lady had not been nearly so much frightened as the rest, and had +a little before said to Fräulein Duff that she might be sure she would +not forsake her. He thought she went over towards the left, but he was +not sure, for he had had hard work to manage the horses, that had been +quiet enough all along, but now could not be kept still. + +With this he mounted his seat and started to follow the others. I +called to him and ordered him to stop; but either he did not or would +not hear me, or else he could not hold the horses any longer--be that +as it might, the next minute I was alone, while the company with the +lanterns, under Hans's guidance, kept their way across the heath +towards the woods. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +I was about to hurry after them, and compel them to give me some +assistance, when a flash of lightning of unusual vividness showed me +the hillock or "giant's barrow" which lay about a hundred paces from +where I stood, and which I had not perceived before. Whether I expected +to get a wider range of vision from its top, or whether it was an +instinctive impulse, or both, I do not know, but in the next moment I +was at the foot of the hillock among the great stones. Another dazzling +flash, and a shudder seized me, and my hair began to rise on my head. +There, on the top, by the hazel-bushes that were bent and lashed by the +storm, surrounded by a spectral light, stood with loose-flying hair the +unhappy girl looking out for her lover who was drowned in the morass. +In an instant the pitchy darkness closed again, and a crash of thunder +drowned my sudden cry. Had I lost my senses? And instantly, while yet +the thunder crashed and the thick darkness surrounded me, it flashed +upon me like a heavenly revelation, and my heart gave a great throb, +and I gave a shout of joy, and in a moment I was at the top and had +found her and lifted her in my arms and shouted again, and she wound +her arms around me and clung to my breast, so close! so close! and I +kneeled before her and she leaned over me and said: + +"Quick, quick, here in the dark where I do not see you; I love you! I +love you!" + +"And I love you!" + +"None but me?" + +"None but you!" + +"None but me! none but me! And if the earth should open now and swallow +us both--none but me?" + +"None, none!" + +Again came a flash illuminating everything for a moment with the +brightness of day, and she laughed and rejoiced aloud and threw herself +into my arms crying: + +"Now I see you: now I can look at you! Oh how lovely this is! How +beautiful you are! Now carry me down the hill as far as the stones. Now +let me go, my strong one, my hero, everything to me!" + +"Let me carry you further; I can do it easily." + +"I know you can: else would I love you so much? But now let me go; you +must not think me a weakling." + +I let her glide from my arms upon one of the great stones: she laid her +hands upon my shoulders, and I saw for a moment her sweet defiant face +and her eyes that flashed as if with indignation, as she said in a firm +voice: + +"Never forget that I am not weak like other women; and if you had not +come to look for me here--yes, if you had not found me, I would have +drowned myself here in the morass; and I _will_ drown myself the moment +you cease to love me. And now come!" + +She threw herself on my breast and glided from my arms to the ground, +and we went hand in hand over the heath, the incessant lightnings +showing us the pathless way, while the thunder rolled, and the rain +which had been delaying so long came down first in heavy warm drops, +and then in torrents. What cared we for the storm and the rain? What +cared we that we were alone upon the heath? + +This was, indeed, our crowning joy: for me, to know that I had both the +right and power to protect her, and that I had in truth the strength, +had there been need, to carry my beloved to Trantowitz and to +Zehrendorf; for her, to be thus protected by him she had loved so long, +who now was all her own, and all had happened just as her wayward heart +and romantic fancy desired. And now all came from her lips, in broken +confused phrases, in thoughts and fancies that gleamed and vanished +like the lightnings around us, now awakening one memory and now +another, just as the objects around us momently flashed out the +darkness and vanished into it again; the brown heath, the glimmering +moor-water, and in the forest the bushes to the right and left and the +gigantic trunks of the trees whose great boughs were wildly tossed +hither and thither by the blast, with a crashing and groaning and +roaring as if the world were coming to an end. But the wilder the +uproar about us, the more she exulted, and laughed with delight when in +the noise we could no longer understand each other's words. She even +grew angry when after we had nearly traversed the woods, two lanterns +appeared moving rapidly in our direction. + +"Let us run off," she said, seriously, and then clapped her hands, and +we now heard "Hallo! Hallo!" in the good Hans's powerful voice. + +"It is he!" she cried; "my good Hans, my dear Hans, my best Hans! He +shall hear it first. No one has a better right." + +And now came up Hans, who had hurried on ahead of the two grooms, +holding his lantern high to let the light fall on our faces, and again +shouting "Hallo!" with all the strength of his lungs, but this time for +joy that he had found us so happily--so happily that he set his lantern +on the ground and shook both Hermine's hands and then mine, and then +hers again and then mine again, all the time saying "So, so! that is +right! so, so!" as if we were a pair of young headstrong horses, with +which he had had great trouble, but had brought to reason at last. + +The two grooms had now come up. "Poor fellows," said Hermine, "they +must have pleased faces too. Give me quick what you have; and you too +Hans, give me all you have, both of you!" + +I emptied my purse--there was not much in it--into her hands, and Hans +rummaged his pockets and found some crumpled notes which she took and +gave the two men who stood open-mouthed, not knowing what to think. A +couple of _thalers_ fell on the ground, and the men said "It would be a +sin to leave the good money lying there," so commenced to look for it, +while we three hastened on, and Hans informed us that the whole company +was at his house, and that he had harnessed up his farm-wagons--the +only vehicles he had--to take them to Zehrendorf, whither he had sent +already a messenger on horseback to have preparation made. + +"We will both go, will we not, George?" said Hermine. "Everybody will +open their eyes, of course. It will be a droll sight, and I am just in +the humor for it. O, I am so happy, so happy!" + +It was indeed a droll sight that presented itself to us as we entered +the ruinous old mansion of Trantowitz. In the wide bare hall, in Hans's +narrow sitting-room, even in the sanctuary of his bed-room, in the +kitchen, which was entered from the hall, the unlucky excursionists +were rambling and pushing about, calling, scolding, crying, laughing, +according as they were more or less able to accommodate themselves to +the situation. To the more able belonged without question Fritz von +Zarrentin and his little wife, who were altogether the jolliest, most +comfortable, and at the same time most good-natured people in the +world, though in the storm they had not distinguished themselves by +their courage any more than the rest. But now Fritz, who was in the +kitchen brewing a bowl of punch with the assistance of the cook, +boasted of the heroic deeds he had performed in the course of the +evening, and his brisk little merry wife busied herself about the +ladies, who were all in the very worst of humors, and to say the truth, +in pitiable plight. + +The Born Kippenreiter sat in Hans's high-backed chair, like a queen who +had been hurled from her throne by a storm of revolution, her false +hair plucked off, and the rouge all washed from her cheeks. Upon the +sofa sat the two Eleonoras, locked in each other's arms and weeping +freely on each other's bosom, without any one, themselves probably +included, having the least idea of what it was about; unless it was for +their soaked straw hats and drenched clothing, which had changed the +virginal whiteness of the morning, for a color to which no name could +be assigned. The stout Frau von Granow was standing before Fräulein +Duff, who was crouching half insensible upon Hans's boot-box, proving +to her that on such occasions it was the first duty of every one to +look out for himself; and that if Fräulein Hermine was really drowned +in the morass, nobody of any sense would lay the slightest blame upon +her, the governess. + +"No, Duffy, not the slightest blame!" cried Hermine, who, coming in +with us at this moment through the door which was standing open, had +caught the last word. "Duffy! dear, darling Duffy!" + +And the excited girl fell on the neck of her faithful old governess, +and embraced and kissed her with a flood of passionate tears. + +If a sensitive nature like Fräulein Duff's had needed any further +explanation of the meaning of these caresses and these tears, she found +it now in the appearance of a tall form that stood in the doorway and +looked at the group with flashing eyes. She reached out both arms to +him, and cried out, oblivious of by-gone troubles: + +"Richard, did I not tell you, 'Seek faithfully and you will find?'" + +This speech, which the worthy lady had delivered in the tone of a +herald announcing the result of a tournament, fell like a bombshell +among the company. The two Eleonoras unclasped each other and looked +in each other's face, and the second let her head fall upon the +shoulder of the first, murmuring something of which I only caught the +words--"the traitor!" + +This was perhaps, all things considered, a moving picture, but a +frightful one was offered us by the Born. The foreboding of imminent +misfortune had been lying upon her low wrinkled brow, her hollow rouged +cheeks, in her glassy snake-like eyes; she had seen it coming on all +day. In vain had she tried with her maternal arms to protect her dear +son against the shafts of ill-temper which the proud angry girl +launched against him; in vain had Arthur tried to quaff from the bowl +of pine-apple punch fresh courage in so sore a strait, and new +fortitude to sustain him under his trials--the bolt had fallen, and the +wreck was here before her eyes, before the eyes of the Born Baroness +Kippenreiter, the mother of the most charming of sons, the aunt of this +ungrateful creature. It was too much! The dethroned queen sprang to her +feet, trembling in every limb, hurled--she was speechless with +indignation--a crushing look at Hermine, who threw herself, laughing, +into my arms, and tottered to the room where the bowed-down father was +watching by the bed of his hopeful heir, whose wretched soul was not in +a condition to comprehend what he and his house had irrevocably lost. + +Away sad visions, and disturb not the bright memory of that happy +evening. I will not banish you altogether--nay, I know that I cannot if +I would; but crowd not upon me thus! Strive not to make me believe that +it is for you that we live. You must be it is true, and well for him +that comprehends it, and keeps in his firm breast a fearless laugh to +mock you away when you will not be thrust aside. You must be; but it is +not for the sake of the black earth that clings to its tender roots +that we take up the rose of love, bear it home in our bosom, plant it +in a calm sunny place, and watch and tend and treasure it as best we +can. Who knows how long we can! + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Who knows how long we can! Perhaps not long; perhaps but a short, far +too short a time. It is a melancholy word, but unhappily the right word +to open the record of this part of my life which I begin with a +hesitating hand. It was not my intention, when I determined to write +this narrative, to cast any further gloom upon the spirits of my +readers, who have in all likelihood themselves borne their own share of +life's sorrows. It was not my aim to dampen their courage in life's +battles, when I related how the youth had erred by his folly, and how +he suffered the penalty; I rather hoped to infuse into them the spirit +of delight in active life, the faculty of enduring and forbearing; and +thus we may together live over in memory the hard fortune which was yet +to be the lot of the man. The reader, who has by this time perhaps +grown to be my friend, may follow me without fear on my path of life. + +And first into the room of the commerzienrath, which I entered the +following morning at ten o'clock with a heart possibly not perfectly at +ease, but not at all fearful. But I would not have advised any timid +person to cross this man's path this morning, as he ran up and down his +room like a madman, then stopped before me and surveyed me with +infuriated looks, again raged about the room, and then stopped and +cried: + +"So! You want to marry my daughter, do you?" + +"It is a wish which had nothing alarming about it ten years ago, Herr +Commerzienrath. Do you not remember, on the deck of the _Penguin_, the +day we went out to the oyster-beds?" + +"Do not try any impertinence with me! I ask you once more; you--you +have the audacity to aim at being my son-in-law?" + +"Excuse me, Herr Commerzienrath; your first question was whether I +wanted to marry your daughter." + +"That is the same thing." + +"You are quite right; and therefore you would perhaps do better Herr +Commerzienrath, to consider me now your son-in-law--or we will say, +son-in-law that is to be--and treat me accordingly." + +I said this in a very grave firm tone, which I knew from experience +seldom failed of its effect upon the really pusillanimous nature of the +man. Instinctively he stepped back a couple of paces out of my reach, +seated himself in his chair, adopted a sneering tone instead of his air +of contemptuous indignation, and said in his driest business voice: + +"I understand then, Herr George Hartwig, that you do me the honor to +ask the hand of my daughter Hermine. The first points then to be +considered, are the nature of your pretensions, the position you occupy +in the world, and, in a word, your personal relations generally. You +are, as far as I know, the son of a subaltern official, a young man who +in his youth did no good, and for a horrible crime was punished with +eight years----" + +"Seven years, Herr Commerzienrath----" + +"Counting the preliminary detention, and disciplinary punishment, eight +years in the penitentiary----" + +"Imprisonment, Herr Commerzienrath----" + +"Who, thanks to the remissness or connivance of the authorities----" + +My papers are all in order, Herr Commerzienrath---- + +"Learned the rudiments of blacksmithing for a few months in my factory, +and now with the respectable capital of----" + +"Fifty _thalers_ cash, and a hundred and sixty _thalers_ outstanding +debts which I shall never collect----" + +"And, I may add with future prospects corresponding; for as to what you +told me day before yesterday of his highness's proposition to you, I do +not attach any weight to them at all--you then, such a man as this, +with such a past, such a position, such means, and such prospects, +desire to marry the daughter of Commerzienrath Streber." + +"To have your permission to address her, Herr Commerzienrath." + +"My future father-in-law shot from under his bushy brows a searching +look at my face, which probably assured him that his attempt to +humiliate me availed as little as his former attempt to intimidate. He +had to open another register. He rested his bald forehead in his hand, +enveloped himself in a thick black cloud of silence, from which he +suddenly snapped at me with the sharply spoken question: + +"But if I were really not the millionaire, not the wealthy man you and +every one have hitherto considered me--how then, sir; how then?" + +The commerzienrath had sprung to his feet, and was standing before me, +as I had taken my seat fronting him, with his hands on his back, +bending forward, and his keen eyes piercing into mine. + +"The circumstances would then be, as far as I am concerned, precisely +what they were before; especially as your vaunted wealth has long been +a matter of serious doubt with me, Herr Commerzienrath." + +His piercing glances plunged into watery and uncertain mist, as he +threw himself back in his chair, smote the arms of it with his hands, +broke out into a crowing laugh ending in a coughing-fit, and between +laughing and coughing cried: + +"That is too good!--this young fellow--matter of serious doubt with +him--long been so--it is too good! really too good!" + +The coughing fit became so alarming that I sprang up and began to pat +the old man's back. Suddenly he seized my hands and said in a +lamentable lachrymose tone: + +"George, my dear boy, it is my only, child! You do not know what that +is; the comfort, the joy of a feeble old man who may die to-morrow! And +you will not even wait those few hours? Oh, it is cruel, cruel! Have I +lived to see this!" + +Cassandra hit the mark indeed when she said that "it was hard to fathom +the wiles of this labyrinthine old man." He had kept his grand stroke +for the last. If I could not be intimidated or humiliated, I might +perhaps be melted; and I was really touched, and said, while I pressed +the stumpy withered hands I was holding in my own--"I will not rob you +of your child." + +"You really will not? God bless you!" cried the commerzienrath, +springing from his chair as if touched by a galvanic battery. "You are +a man of your word: I have always known you such. I hold you to your +word." + +"When you have heard the whole of it, Herr Commerzienrath. I say, I +will not rob you of your child, because Hermine, though my wife, will +not cease to love and to honor her father as she now does, and because +you will gain a good son in me, whom you will have great need of if you +are no longer wealthy, and in the other case perhaps still more. I +think that I have already proven to you that I know other things +besides the rudiments of blacksmithing, and perhaps enough to make up +for my deficiency of fortune." + +The "labyrinthine old man" gave me a look in which I plainly read that +he had reached the end of his windings. It is very likely that at no +time had he a serious intention flatly to reject my proposal, for I +think I can safely say that as he had always lacked courage to offer +any determined resistance to his proud wilful daughter assuredly he +would not have had it now, when she confronted him with the triumphant +knowledge that she was beloved with a love equal to her own. But it was +not in the nature of the man to grant anything, be it what it might, as +a man of an honorable spirit would do, frankly and squarely, without +chaffering and higgling. So he had chaffered and higgled, and continued +doing so, and hiding his real thoughts and wishes from me, until, when +I parted from him after an hour's conversation, I was more in the dark +as to all that I wished to know, and as to the state of his affairs, +than I had been before. But one point I had attained and made clear +beyond any possibility of a doubt, that Hermine was to be my wife; and +as this, as every one will admit, was the main point, I thought I was +not acting very inconsiderately if I took all the other contingencies +very lightly indeed. + +It had never been difficult for me to do this, even in the gloomiest +passages of my life, and how could it be so now when I was so happy? +How could the envious, hypocritically-friendly glances of others +embitter my happiness when I saw the light of love and joy in Hermine's +wonderful blue eyes? And yet such glances were not wanting, nor the +phrases with which they are usually accompanied. + +"I always knew it, and have often enough said to your late excellent +father, my dear friend and colleague, that you would win distinction +some day. Yes, yes, dear George--I may still call you by that old +familiar name, may I not?--my prophecy has come to pass, though +otherwise than I had expected. Well, well, so it had to be; and +probably, all things considered, it is well that it is as it is. You +have always been a good man whose hand was ever open to the distressed. +You will not withdraw this generous hand from an old man who looks to +you as his last hope?" And the steuerrath applied the finger on which +glittered the immense signet to the inner corner of his left eye, and +passed his cambric handkerchief over his pale aristocratic face. + +"I have always held you up as a pattern to my Arthur," said the Born: +"Do you not remember the times when you both went to school together +and the teachers were always full of your praises? Ah! I can see you +now, two wild high-spirited boys, always clinging faithfully together, +and each ready to go through anything for the other. 'That it might +always be so!' I often sighed from the depths of a mother's heart, for +I felt how greatly my good easy-natured Arthur would need his strong +thoughtful friend. My presentiment has become a reality. May heaven +have heard my prayer; may you, dear George, never forget what he has +once been to you; may you never forget the companion of your happy +youth!" + +And the Born pressed convulsively both my hands, and raised her face as +near as possible to mine, as if she wished to afford me an opportunity +once for all to gain a thorough knowledge of her whole apparatus of +false hair, teeth, colors, expression and looks. + +"I heard yesterday what a lucky fellow you are, as you have always +been," said Arthur. "Lucky in everything, but luckiest of all with +women. You could always turn them round your finger, you scamp. Don't +you remember the dancing-lessons, and Annie Lachmund, Elise Kohl, and +Emilie? Ha! ha! ha! Emilie! Don't you remember the quarrel we had about +her on the _Penguin_? Poor girl! There she goes, arm in arm with Elise, +bewailing the shipwreck of her hopes. I shall have to take up with the +poor thing myself: an ex-lieutenant, ex-secretary of legation, who is +also _ex_ in pretty much everything else, must naturally be content +with anything." + +And Arthur laughed bitterly, smote his brow with his fist, and added +that though he might not be worth much, he supposed he was worth as +much powder as would end his miseries. + +Emilie Heckepfennig had been for departing the next morning and fleeing +the sight of the traitor, but remained notwithstanding, either because +the scene of her ill-fortune had more attractions for her than she was +disposed to admit, or else because the justizrath, who had not yet +returned from Uselin, had written to her that she must on no account +leave until he returned. So in the meantime the lorn maiden went about +as if she was to serve the most sentimental of artists as a model for a +resignation, leaning perpetually upon the arm of her friend, so that +one could not enough admire the physical strength of the latter lady, +who, as well known, had been pining into the grave for twenty years. At +times she looked at me with the eyes of a dying gazelle, and at others +cast me a look in which was plainly written "You will repent it some +day." + +That I did not misinterpret the meaning of this glance, I was convinced +by a conversation to which the justizrath in a mysteriously +confidential way invited me a few days after his return. The worthy man +shook my hand again and again, assured me that my great _coup_, as he +phrased it, would make no alteration in his friendship, then rubbed up +the crest of hair which stood erect upon his head like a cock's-comb, +assumed an important air--I knew this air well from the time of my old +examination--and said: + +"Young man! Excuse me--I mean, my dear young friend! Young as you are, +life has already taught you that everything has two sides; and that all +is by no means gold that glitters. If you will allow an old and true +friend of your family to give you a counsel which it is my most sincere +belief you will do well to follow, and which in any event is honestly +meant, accept the proposal that his highness has made you, under any +condition! under any condition!" + +He wished to leave me after saying this, but I held him back and said: +"You must feel, Herr Justizrath, that I am compelled to ask you for a +more definite explanation of advice which strikes me as rather +singular, coming from you." + +"Ask me nothing more," said the justizrath, with a deprecatory gesture. + +"You have asked me in your time so many things, and so much more than +was agreeable to me, that a little retaliation may be allowed me, I +think," I answered smiling. + +"Would you ask an old lawyer to reveal business secrets intrusted to +him professionally?" said the justizrath, and the cock's-comb trembled +with the conflict of his feelings. + +I was resolved not to be put off in this way, and I said: + +"I will meet you half-way, Herr Justizrath. I have reasons for +believing that the commerzienrath's affairs are far from being so +prosperous as is commonly believed; and if you are so discreet as to +withhold the grounds of advice which can only have one interpretation, +the prince did not exercise the same reticence when he made me the +offer you allude to." + +The justizrath looked as if he was himself a sacrifice to his own +inquisitorial genius, and saw no escape but in making a full and free +confession. + +"I will tell you but a single fact," he said. "Last Friday the +commerzienrath went with me into the city to raise money on his paper +to the extent of about a hundred thousand _thalers_, and I ran with +these from post to pillar, until at last Moses in the Water street took +them at a very short date for a very high discount. _Sapienti sat_, as +we Latinists say!" + +And the justizrath brushed his comb with both hands to its most +imposing height, and moved toward the door, but stopped when he had +reached it, came back a few steps, and said with the air of a man who +can not tear himself from the grave where all his hopes lie buried: + +"Do not think the worse of me that I have allowed myself to be seduced +into a breach of confidence which is equally foreign to my position, my +age, and I may add, my character. I have only told you what you will +probably soon learn from other sources, and in any event must know +before long; and George"--here the justizrath sighed, and then +painfully smiled--"George, what you may not forgive to the hard-pressed +man of business, you will perhaps forgive the father. I also have but +one daughter, and am, heaven be thanked, a wealthy man." + +The wealthy man who also had an only daughter, went out of the door at +the moment that William entered it with a letter which the postman had +just brought, the seal of which I broke with trembling hands. + +"My dear George, my brother: Then it has at last come to pass what I +have so long desired and hoped; and, since your happiness would hardly +be perfect without it, let me add my wreath to the rest. I have +entwined in it all the kind and loving wishes that one human soul can +cherish for another, all the blessings that spring from the depths of +my heart for you, for you, my friend, my brother, _our_ brother, for +the young ones too now come to their eldest and bow before him, now +that he is crowned as he deserves. Wear it proudly, your beauteous +crown, and may never a hand touch it less holy than that of her who now +lays her hand on my shoulders and bends her face over the paper that +her eyes can no longer see, and says softly to me--'He still remains to +us what he always was.'" + +This letter also bears traces of tears, but they were my eyes that wept +them, and they were tears of joy. And when I raised my grateful looks +towards heaven, the cloud had vanished, the one cloud that had darkened +my sky, and all was as bright as the vernal heavens that stretched in +splendor over land and sea. + +Happy, radiant days were these, which now seem to me as if there had +been no night at all and no darkness, but ever day and light and bliss. +There were not too many of these days, and it was perhaps well that it +was so. Which of us mortals, however great his powers, can long feast +with impunity at the table of the gods? + +But many or few, ye shall be held sacred in memory, ye happy hours, and +sacred shall be held whatever was associated with you and enhanced your +sweetness. The bright sun, the rustling woods through which I walked at +the side of the beloved one, the twilight fields through which we +strolled, the sky larks that singing soared into the blue ether until +they were lost to sight, and the sweet nightingales that tried to +persuade me that they were happier than we. + +Yes, all shall be sacred and precious in memory, for the memory is all +that is left to me of those happy days. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +Upon these happy days, whose number I cannot even give--for who counts +days like these?--followed others that were as full of unrest and +intervals of gloom, as those were of calm and sunlight. + +We were all in Berlin: the commerzienrath, my betrothed, Fräulein Duff, +and myself; the commerzienrath staying at a hotel with the ladies, I in +my old den once more in the ruinous court, where my presence was now +more necessary than ever. To be sure, it was not so in the eyes of +Hermine, who laughingly maintained that as the rubbish had lain there +so long already, it might well lie awhile longer; but I thought +differently. There was really no time to be lost. I had partly +persuaded and partly forced the commerzienrath, by long and urgent +conversations, to agree to undertake my favorite scheme. The plan of +the building had been long complete in my head, and now, with the help +of a skilful architect, was complete upon paper. There was both less +and more to do than I had thought; but we had arrived at the conclusion +that we could get through with the main part of the work by autumn, and +be able to work in the new buildings in the winter, always supposing +that the necessary funds did not fail us. In reference to this last +critical point, I was only half informed; by no fault of my own, +however, as despite all my efforts I had not been able to bring the +commerzienrath to a clear statement of his affairs. Even now I cannot +think, without a feeling of pain and shame, of the interminable debates +I had with him upon this point, from which I sometimes left him full of +confidence and hope, and at other times weighed down with doubts and +cares. Could he command the necessary funds? Of course he could, and it +was ridiculous to doubt it for a moment. Had he really maturely +reflected upon a determination which involved so much? Of course he +had. Did I take him to be in his dotage, or suppose that he did not +understand his own wishes? That was a ticklish question to which, for +very intelligible reasons, I did not care to answer "yes" to his face, +and yet to which, in my own breast, I could scarcely find another +answer. It was plain that he was no longer the man he had been, the man +he must have been to hold the threads of a hundred heavy and important +undertakings at once, and draw his profit and advantage from all. In +some moments he seemed to have a consciousness of the change that had +come over him, but he then did not complain of himself but of the times +which had changed, so that his old theories were no longer applicable. +His old theories, and he might have added his old practices and his old +tricks. All his life long the man had been a partisan of fortune, a +buccaneer upon the high seas of traffic and life, a free-lance upon the +long caravan route to El Dorado, a gamester at the green-table of +chance, who had often staked copper pence for gold pieces, and, favored +by fortune and time, gathered in gold pieces for copper pence. And now +the time, as he clearly felt, had changed, and his luck had left him. +He did not deny that he had suffered great losses, but took care never +to state how great these losses really were. He had never insured +either his ships or their cargoes, and, as he said, had always found +his advantage in doing so. But lately two had gone down with all on +board, and though he attached no great importance to this latter +feature of the calamity, he felt severely the loss of the cargoes, +which were unusually valuable. Then again a sudden fall in the price of +breadstuffs had reduced by one-half the value of his immense stocks in +his warehouses at Uselin, and then the failure of his hope of selling +Zehrendorf, as the young prince, whose father still lay very ill at +Prora, seemed to have given up all thoughts of it, and for which Herr +von Granow, who had before been all agog to purchase, now declined to +make any offer--as I suspected, at the instigation of the justizrath, +who seemed to know more of his client's affairs, and to be less +scrupulous in using his knowledge, than was by any means favorable to +the interests of the latter. Other things were also added. The long and +tortuous channel leading between the island and the firm land to +Uselin, had, in consequence of the disgraceful neglect of the +authorities, silted up to such a degree that it was now only passable +for vessels of very light draught, and the danger of its complete +closure seemed scarcely avoidable. Thus the traffic of the town, the +greater part of which had been in the hands of the commerzienrath, was +as good as destroyed; the large docks which he had repaired at his own +private expense in part, his immense warehouses and other buildings, +had partly become entirely worthless, and the remainder greatly +depreciated in value. For several years trade had turned to the much +more favorably situated town of St. ----, and now, since this town had +been connected with the capital and the interior by the railroad, +Uselin could no longer contend with its more fortunate rival. The +commerzienrath quite lost his self-control every time he came upon this +topic; he declared railroads to be an invention of the devil, and +asseverated that it was a sin and a shame to ask him to assist with his +own funds the diabolical system that was ruining him. When I pointed +out to him that the bane might be made the antidote, that he must turn +the altered position of affairs to his own advantage, and that he was +in a situation to do this on the largest scale if we only carried +resolutely out my plan for extending our works, he caught at this idea, +which had seemed so hateful a moment before, with the greatest +enthusiasm, but only to go over the same ground the next day. + +These were trying weeks, and the dark shadow which they threw still +darkens in my memory the sunshine which, heaven be thanked, even at +this time brightened so many of my hours. + +With what unalloyed pleasure do I recall my return to the works, which +really resembled a triumphal procession! Now I reaped the reward of +having been always, whatever the changes of my fortune, on brotherly +terms with my comrades of the hammer and file, that I had omitted no +opportunity of promoting their welfare and being serviceable to them +with head and hand. No distinction nor success in later days--and my +life has not been passed without a share of both--has ever made me so +proud as the certain knowledge that among all these men with the +knotted callous hands and the grave faces furrowed with toil and too +often with care, there was not a single one who grudged me my good +fortune, and that by far the most rejoiced in it with all their hearts. +I still see them before me--and often has the memory brightened my +hours of dejection--their friendly eyes lighted with sincere pleasure, +as they looked at the "Malay" going, escorted by the manager, through +the shops, and presenting himself to them privately in friendly +confidence as their new chief. I still hear the cheers they gave when a +day or two later I had them officially assembled and made them a +speech, in which I said in few words what filled my heart to +overflowing. And when the triple cheer had died away, with what +importance the head-foreman cleared his throat as he commenced a reply, +in which the worthy man's favorite theme, "Go ahead!" was treated with +the boldest license of speech, and the peroration of which was lost +without a trace in the primitive forest of his whiskers and in the +emotion he could not master. And was it not the good Klaus whose voice +intoned another outburst of cheering, compared with which the first +both in length and vehemence, was mere child's play? I have to laugh +even now when I think of the confusion in which I was plunged when an +hour later the Technical Bureau, in white cravats and gloves, waited +upon me in a body, and its speaker, Herr Windfang, compared me to the +Khalif of Bagdad, who for a long time had lived unknown among his +faithful subjects, and at last took the lofty station which belonged to +him of right. + +Yes, these are bright and happy memories, all the brighter and happier +that the following years, so far from belying the promises made then by +sanguine hope, fulfilled them all in abundant measure. At this very +day, when I look at the assembled force of workmen in the +establishment, I see for the most part the dear well-known faces of +that time, not grown any younger, it may be, by the lapse of years, but +none the less dear to me. And those whom I no longer see--all but very +few--have been drawn off by that great rival whom we name Death. + +"But what sort of a bridegroom is a man who has nothing but blast +furnaces, pigs of iron, and frightful things of that sort in his head?" +said Hermine, "and who knits his forehead into such ugly wrinkles! Let +me smooth them out"--and she passed her hand over my brow and eyes--"If +I had known all this, I would never have fallen in love with you, you +sooty monster!" And she threw herself in my arms and whispered in my +ear: "Tell me at once that you love your old ugly workmen more than you +do me, so that I may know what I have to do." + +"You have to go with me through the works to-day, and to be nice and +kind to the ugly men, and to me more than all." + +"And why to you?" + +"That they may see how happy I am." + +"What is that to them?" + +"It is a great deal to them." + +"But what?" + +"It is the certainty that when they come to me to represent their +distresses, they will find a man who is ready to help if he can." + +"I never knew anybody with such odd notions. When shall we go?" + +"At once." + +So we went through every part of the whole establishment, Hermine +opening great eyes of wonder and sometimes clinging tight to my arm, +but she was very kind and friendly to the men, only a little cool and +distant with the gentlemen of the Technical Bureau--so cool and distant +that Herr Windfang's beautiful speech, which he had known by heart for +a week, stuck fast in his throat. + +"Why were you so ungracious to the poor fellows?" I asked. + +"Poor fellows?" said Hermine, pettishly pouting. "They did not look +that way to me; and Herr Windfang, or whatever his name is, struck me +as a complete coxcomb. I did not promise to be gracious to men of his +stamp." + +"But they belong to us." + +"Nobody belongs to us. We belong to one another, you to me and I to +you: remember that once for all, if you please!" + +I laughed, but afterwards had some serious reflections on a peculiarity +of character in my betrothed, which struck me not for the first time +this morning. She interpreted the expression that we belonged to each +other, quite literally, and when she appeared to make an exception to +it, it was only in appearance, and always in favor of persons who were +really in need of help, and to whom she could condescend as a princess +to her subjects. Towards such she could behave with proud, but +perfectly irresistible kindness. + +I shall never forget how, upon the occasion of a little tour that we +made through the island in these first happy days, and in which we +visited the lonely village on the coast which had played so memorable a +part in my flight--how she sat by the old sailor's widow, patted her +brown wrinkled hands, wiped the tears from her brown wrinkled face, and +consoled her with the assurance that her son would yet come back in +spite of all; told her stories, which she invented at the moment, of +sea-faring men who had returned laden with riches after being supposed +lost for ten or twenty years; and how in the meantime she must look +upon us two as her children, and that we would take care of her and +make her comfortable in her old age. So too when we went to Uselin she +was friendly beyond all my expectation to my sister, who had recently +increased her family for the seventh time. She gave presents to all the +children, who were very far from being either pretty or amiable, +offered to be godmother to the new-comer, and contrary to her custom +did not ridicule even the blundering attempts at politeness and clumsy +obsequiousness of my brother-in-law. + +"Poor people," she said: "Seven children and such a little house and +such a little father. How did you ever manage to grow so big in that +house, George, without knocking a hole in the roof with your hard head? +And your father was quite as tall as you, and had every bit as hard a +head. I don't wonder that you two could not get along together in such +a nutshell of a house. But we must take care of them, George; don't +forget that." + +And then again my good Klaus and his Christel with her four children--a +fifth was expected soon--had occasion to rejoice in her kindness, +though in a different fashion. She had not shrunk from climbing the +three interminable flights of stairs, and getting Christel to initiate +her into the more recondite mysteries of the washing and ironing arts, +nor from listening to Klaus's long enumeration of his wife's virtues. +"Even if I were not compelled to like Klaus for his faithfulness to +you, he would have captivated me by the way he worships his pretty +plump wife. There, George; here's a pattern for you to follow. For him +the world began with the moment when the waves cast up his Christel, +who must have been then just as fat and white and nice as she is now, +on the beach; and if she should be so unfeeling as to die before +him, he would lie down and die too. And so will I do, if you should +die--" she added, and looked at me with compressed lips, and angrily +contracted brows. + +Towards the poor, towards all who were dependent or seemed so, her +proud nature could be kind and condescending; but all who wished to win +her favor must make no pretensions to my affections, claim no place in +my heart which she desired to dwell in and occupy alone. The lightest +apprehension that any one besides herself might take possession of what +was hers alone, filled her with an alarm which the vivacity of her +nature could seldom long conceal, and which found vent sometimes in +gloomy anger, sometimes in hot passionate tears. But how could I, +beloved by this proud beautiful creature, complain of what after all +was but an excess of that in which others daily exhibited so lamentable +a deficiency? No; no word of complaint shall my pen enter in these +records of my life, as none ever passed your lips, you good and noble +hearts that loved me well, but withdrew to one side lest an unguarded +look might seem to accuse her or myself. + +Hermine felt this and understood it; and said sometimes, when Paula or +Doctor Snellius visited us so very seldom, and her cheeks flushed while +she said it: + +"I ought to be ashamed to come thus between you and your friends; it is +ungenerous, it is mean, I know; I know it, George, but I cannot help +it; I cannot spare a crumb that falls from the table of our love. If I +could only live with you on some lonely island, in the farthest seas, +and some day an earthquake came and the island sank in the waters, and +no one even knew of the spot where we had been so happy! But here among +all these people for whom you have to care, who take an interest in you +or you in them, for whom you must work, and, worse still, those who +have no claim of any sort upon you, and take a cruel pleasure in coming +about us, and questioning us, and watching us, as if we were on the +world for no other purpose. I already think with horror of Uselin, and +the curious looks of all the population, no one of whom can spare +himself the treat of seeing the great clever George marry the little +stupid Hermine. And then the celestial weeping of the two Eleonoras, to +one of whom you are a traitor, you monster! or Duffy's tears of joy +when she hears from the good pastor's mouth what she has known for +eight or nine years! It is frightful! Couldn't we slip into some church +about twilight and be married by a pastor, who would see us both for +the first, and, as far as I am concerned, for the last time, and get +for witnesses two or three old men or women who might happen to be +about, who would not know us the next day, if they should meet us on +the street?" + +I cannot say that this wish of Hermine's was very strongly opposed to +my own feelings--rather the contrary. But my father-in-law declared +that he felt it incumbent upon him as the first citizen of Uselin, that +his daughter's marriage should take place in that town. He held to this +with an obstinacy which he was not wont to display to his daughter; and +so we had to yield the point. + +Nor can I say that the fateful day proved by any means so terrible as +we had fancied it. The discourse of the good pastor, who was the same +that had officiated at my confirmation, and must even then have been an +aged man, was very long and very rambling, it is true; the St. Nicholas +church looked as bald and bare as ever, and the hundreds of eyes that +were all fixed immovably upon us, all with the identical look as if we +were presently to be executed before them, made the bleak space by no +means more comfortable; the great dinner at the commerzienrath's villa +was pompous and ceremonious to the last degree, and the healths and +speeches a little flat and stupid--all these facts I admit; but then on +the other hand it was the church among the timber-work of which I had +performed so many neck-breaking gymnastic feats, and from whose belfry +I had so often gazed longingly over land and sea into the blue +distance; and among the indifferently-curious faces there was here +and there one that I should have been sorry to miss on this day; and +then the day itself, one of the brightest days of summer, was so fair, +the sky so blue, with great white motionless clouds, the air so +crystal-clear, that the old town looked really young in the splendid +sunlight, and the threadbare uniforms of Luz and Bolljahn, those +energetic guardians of the peace, who had held the youth of the streets +assembled in front of the church in check in a most masterly manner, +seemed absolutely new; and in the harbor, where all the ships had run +up their colors, the bright pennons fluttered so gaily in the fresh +east wind; and upon the wide expanse of waters the wavelets were +dancing so merrily, beyond the strait the white chalk-cliffs of the +island glittered so brightly, and upon the island was Zehrendorf, for +which we started as the sinking sun began to tinge with red the edges +of the white clouds. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +Perhaps that isolated life which is the ideal of a young married pair, +when from any causes its realisation by an abode upon a desert island +is found to be impracticable, can nowhere be better realised than in a +very large, populous city. It all depends upon one's possessing the +secret of creating an isle here, past whose shores the restless tides +of social life roll away. The thorough mastery of this art is greatly +facilitated to the adept, when the great world, as often happens, has +no special motive to trouble itself about him; the heart of the mystery +lies in the other and harder condition, that he shall not trouble +himself about the world. + +The first of these conditions had already been very satisfactorily +fulfilled in my case. The world had interested itself amazingly little +about the young machinist while he pursued his laborious but valuable +studies in the ruinous house standing in the ruinous court. He +resembled at all points Lessing's wind-mill which went to nobody and +nobody came to it, and which simply ground the corn that was thrown +into the hopper. But now the case was very different; that court was no +longer a wilderness of rubbish. The ruins had been cleared away, or +built up into stately buildings; the wall which had separated the two +lots was pulled down and the old factory united with the new into a +single great arena for industry and activity. This was a great change, +which was much discussed, gladly welcomed by some, scornfully +criticised by others, but which still made scarcely so much talk as the +change in my own fortunes. + +From the obscure chrysalis of an ordinary machinist, had been developed +that splendid butterfly, the ruling chief of this great new +establishment, and this enviable butterfly was the son-in-law of a +millionaire, the husband of a young wife whose striking beauty excited +the envy of women, the admiration of men, and attracted the attention +of all wherever she appeared. To so notable a metamorphosis even the +_blasé_ public of a metropolis could not be indifferent, and when so +remarkable a person, over whose past life there circulated the most +various and scarcely credible legends, determines to baffle the +curiosity directed to him from all sides, he must understand and +practise arts undreamed of by him in his former obscure pupa-state. + +I cannot say that in the practice of an art so new to me I always +succeeded, or was at all times favored by fortune. + +After spending a fortnight at Zehrendorf, we had returned to the city +and rented a set of apartments by no means expensive, but still +pleasant and roomy, the only objection I had to which was that they lay +too far from the factory, but which by no means suited Hermine, who had +always been accustomed to having a house of her own. Now, as I knew and +shared Hermine's wish in this respect, I thought I would please her, +and at the same time realize a favorite dream of my own, if with the +assistance of my good friend the architect, I very quietly, but with as +much expedition as possible, restored the house I had so long occupied, +to its original design, and by help of the old plan, turned it into a +charming little villa. I had to use an infinity of stratagems to keep +the secret a month, and I felt really childlike, as after returning +from a winter trip with Hermine to Zehrendorf, I found everything +complete and according to my wishes. In the joy of my heart I embraced +my friend the architect who had shown himself so tasteful a decorator, +and blessed the day when I should bring Hermine from her hated city +lodgings to this little paradise. + +"You dear boy," said Hermine, as on the day after her return I showed +her with triumph my new creation, "you dear boy, that is all very +pretty and nice, and in the summer, for a couple of weeks or months +which we have to pass in this wretched town and not in Zehrendorf, +it will be a very nice place to stay; but now, in the middle of +winter--no, George, it will never do! It makes me shiver to think of +it. And then the great bare buildings around, and the tall chimneys +that look as if they would topple over on our heads every minute--that +one does lean a little--just look at it--I could not sleep here a +single night in peace. And you are already too fond of the horrible +noise and confusion around us here, so that the thought will come into +my head that you might change into some frightful great machine +yourself. No, you must mix more among men, go into society; you must +begin at last to have a little pleasure of your life, you poor, +overworked man! And you can do this better in our old lodgings; so I +think we will spend the winter there. The rent is paid in advance, +anyhow, and we must be economical, as all young beginners should. Have +I not heard that out of your own distinguished mouth, sir? And now put +down your distinguished mouth and give me a kiss, and that settles the +matter." + +Of course that settled the matter; for I had really planned the whole +for Hermine's sake rather than my own. And if she really wished to make +a pleasure-trip or two from our lonely island upon the sea of city +life, I was certainly not the man to say no. Indeed I saw perfectly +that in my present position I was in duty bound to perform certain +social duties, if not for my own pleasure, at least in the interest of +my business, and that I had already some derelictions in this respect +to make good. + +So I returned without a sigh to our city-lodgings, and while we were at +dinner we drew up, with much merriment, a list of the influential +persons upon whom, as Hermine said, we would make our first social +experiment. + +I cannot say that this experiment was crowned with very brilliant +success. True we were most kindly met, and I for my part took all +possible pains--and as I flattered myself, not unsuccessfully--to play +the agreeable host; and Hermine had really no need to take pains to be +the most charming of the company. Upon this point there seemed, so far +as a young husband can judge in such a matter, to be but one opinion. +The gentlemen were full of sincere admiration of her beauty, her +manners, and whatever else is attractive in a young and charming woman; +and if the admiration of the other sex was not altogether so sincere, +they knew how to give it so enthusiastic an expression that it needed a +much readier wit than I could boast of to find always a fit answer to +all the handsome things that were whispered to me about my wife. + +"What makes you so charming?" I used to say to her sometimes, when we +came home after one of these social experiments, and Hermine was +walking up and down our sitting-room in her full evening dress, as she +had a way of doing, stopping now and then to strike a few chords on the +piano, while I leaned back in the rocking-chair smoking my beloved +cigar. + +Then she would suddenly stop, and begin to take off the company we had +just left, in the most amusing and wittiest style of caricature. There +was Privy-Councillor Zieler, our banker, who kept perpetually glancing +down at three family-orders at his button-hole, which had been +graciously bestowed on him by three small princely houses in return for +his services in negotiating a loan for them; there came his lady +rustling along in the heaviest of satins, her snub nose turned up to +the chandeliers, in whose light the diamonds that decked her bosom +glanced so splendidly; and behind the corpulent mamma floated the +sylph-like daughter, all gauze and Ess. Bouquet and fond memories of +the three court-balls at the three princely houses. Here was the +Railroad Director Schwelle, who would not talk before supper, in order +not to excite himself, had no time to talk during supper, and after +supper was in no condition for talking. Here were the two Misses +Bostelmann, the intellectual daughters of our host--a wealthy +contractor for building-stone--between whom Hermine had sat awhile, +during which time the one entertained her unremittingly with Heine, +while the other, with equal persistence and enthusiasm discoursed of +Lenau. + +"Heine--Lenau; Lenau--Heine! It was enough to drive one wild!" cried +Hermine. "And that they call pleasure! Would you venture to maintain +that doctrine, Sir?" + +"I made no assertion of the kind, Madam!" + +"Indeed! And why then do you drag your poor little wife among these +horrible people, and rob her of the happy hours that she might spend in +a delightful tête-à-tête with her monster of a husband? Is that right? +Is that the love that you vowed to me in the St. Nicholas church at +Uselin before all the assembled population? Heine--Lenau; Lenau--Heine! +Oh!" + +I laughed, and then suddenly became grave, and the remark rose to my +lips that it was perhaps not difficult to prove that we could find no +pleasant people to live with, if we did not choose to live with those +that we really liked. + +And where were at this time the people who were really dear to me? + +The good Fräulein Duff, Hermine's most faithful friend, was with her +relations in Saxony. She had only gone on a short visit, for eight +weeks at the furthest, and the eight weeks had lengthened to as many +months. Where was Paula? Eight hundred miles away, under another sky, +which I trusted shone as brightly on her as she deserved. It had been +now five months since Paula, with her mother and her youngest brother, +Oscar, and accompanied, as a matter of course, by old Süssmilch, had +taken a journey to Italy. + +"Had to go," said Doctor Snellius. "What would you have, sir? It was an +unavoidable necessity. An artist like Paula cannot possibly develop +her talents here, in this small, petty, narrow, dark land of fog. +Sunshine, light, air, those were what she needed. Venice, Rome, Naples, +Capri--what do I know? I was never there; shall never go there; +wouldn't know what to do there; but she knows well, and we shall know +it and see it at the next Exposition, when people will make pilgrimages +to her pictures as if they were miracles. Her mother too, that angel of +a woman, will feel the benefit of a residence in a milder climate, and +as for that young fellow Oscar, a young crocodile like him cannot be +put into the water too soon. It is only in the water that one learns to +swim, sir! Only in the water, even when one is born a crocodile, that +is, has such an incredible talent as that youngster has. It will cost a +fabulous sum, to be sure; but she can afford it now, thank heaven, and +after all it is golden seed which will bring forth fruit a hundred and +a thousand fold. She felt some hesitation on this point, but I +persuaded her into it, and she writes me in her last letter--where did +I put it? I want to show you what she says; well, it is no matter; I +will show it to you the next time, if you remind me--anyhow she writes +me so happily, so very happily, that it even made me happy. God bless +her!" + +This was the way the doctor talked to me, shortly after Paula's +departure, which happened early in October, when I had been married +three months, during a journey which I had to make to St. ---- on +business, and on which Hermine accompanied me. "For you know," said the +doctor, "in such cases one must take advantage of an opportunity, as +Nature does, when for example she separates soul and body by a stroke +of apoplexy or paralysis of the heart while the patient sleeps, or when +the band connecting both has been sufficiently loosened by long +sickness, so that the parting is scarcely painful, and sometimes is +even longed for. It would perhaps have been a hard trial for poor +Paula to leave you, had she gone from your presence direct to the +railroad-car; but it happened that you were not there, and whether +there are eighty or eight hundred miles between you makes very little +difference." + +"When she separates soul and body." This was one of the physiological +illustrations which the doctor was fond of introducing into his +discourse, but it struck me strangely. I looked him fixedly in the eye, +and by an energetic effort he tuned down his voice a couple of octaves, +and continued in a more indifferent tone: + +"And then a temporary separation will not only be beneficial to them, +but it will be a good thing for the boys that stay behind. It is time +Benno and Kurt were cutting loose from their sister's apron-strings. +Young men must learn to think and care for themselves, and to stand +upon their own feet. I know that from my own experience. Had my old +father sent me to Bonn or Heidelberg, instead of shutting me up here +for four years under the shadow of his church-steeple in the old +worm-eaten superintendent's house, I might have spread my wings +better, and would not have been the cross-patch I am now; that is, if +any man who has been christened Willibrod--Willibrord it should be +correctly--out of love for an ancestor who has been in his grave these +two hundred years, has any chance left to be anything but a cross-patch +and oddity." + +The letter in which Paula wrote to the doctor how happy she felt in +that far-distant land, I never succeeded in getting a sight of. The +next time he had forgotten it; and after awhile I grew used to the +doctor's regularly wanting to show me the letters which Paula wrote him +from Venice, Rome, and Naples, and as regularly leaving them at home. + +I do not know why it was that I always felt a singular confusion +whenever the doctor began one of his fruitless searches for Paula's +letter, and why I always tried to get him upon another subject as soon +as possible. Not that I had any doubt of Paula's alleged happiness. The +short and unfrequent letters which she wrote to Hermine and myself +conveyed no intimation to the contrary; but I was by no means quite +assured as to the source from which that happiness flowed, and the +letters, whether addressed to myself or to Hermine, had all the same +physiognomy, in which I could only here and there recognize a trace of +the beloved features of Paula. And the longer the separation lasted, +the shorter and fewer were these letters, so that they were nearly as +brief and rare as the doctor's visits. + +"It must be so," said the doctor, as I once assailed him with friendly +reproaches on this point; "a young married pair is like a young plant, +which thrives best when put under a bell-glass, and meddled with as +little as possible. Men call Love a goddess;[9] but to me it appears a +god; a stern, inapproachable, jealous god, that will endure no rivals, +and who puts to the sword all colleagues that he may find in his chosen +realm, be they lovely Astartes or hideous Mumbo-Jumbos. And he is quite +right to do so; the human heart is a stubborn, cross-grained affair, +and takes a frightfully long time in learning merely to spell through +the ten commandments." + +The doctor always said things of this sort in a very kind tone, the +same that I heard him use in speaking to his patients, and was at all +times full of friendliness and attention, even more towards my wife +than myself. Indeed a peculiar relation seemed to have been established +between Hermine and him. She, with her usual impulsiveness, had at +first made no secret of the dislike with which she regarded my old +friend, and often enough ridiculed, even in his presence, his odd +eccentric ways. But the man who on other occasions had the keenest +arrows in his quiver ready for any aggressor, let him be who he might, +and who did not lightly grant quarter to an antagonist, on no occasion +used his powerful weapons against her; and this gentleness which +nothing could change, and which was assuredly not always easy for the +hot and caustic temper of the man, succeeded at last, however she might +resist, in touching and captivating Hermine. Perhaps this happy result +may have been in part owing to the fact that lately she had received +the doctor not only as my friend, but as her medical adviser. + +"He is really too good!" she said more than once, looking thoughtfully +at the door through which the odd figure of my old friend had just +vanished. + +"There is not much the matter with your wife," said the doctor to me, +when I expressed some uneasiness at Hermine's altered looks. "But she +has been used from childhood to freer exercise and fresher air than can +be had in a city like this." + +"I would with pleasure take her to Zehrendorf," I said; "but now it is +winter; and how can I possibly leave here?" + +"Well, as it is an impossibility, we will not rack our brains any more +about it," replied the doctor. "We must do the best we can. Sometimes +mental activity may, to a certain point, make up for the deficiency of +physical. It is a pity that your wife was so soon satiated with the +bustle of society. Why do you not take her sometimes to the theatre or +the opera? She is so great a lover of music." + +"I do not care to go to the opera any more," said Hermine, after we had +tried it a few times. "They sing badly and play worse. Now could you +call that a _Zerlina_? And that _Don Juan_! You might have waited for +me long enough, if you had been such a stick of a lover as that! And +with such monstrous self-conceit to boot! _Masetto_ was really the +better man." + +"Try the theatre once," said the doctor. + +I looked him full in the eyes. + +"The Bellini has been back a week," he added, and brought his round +spectacles to bear upon me. We looked at each other awhile in silence. + +"Your wife does not know that Fräulein Bellini and a certain other lady +are one and the same person?" he presently asked. + +"No," I answered. + +"And you are not willing to tell her? Not willing to tell her what I +know, who am your friend, and what very probably others know, who are +not your friends?" + +"It is a peculiar sort of thing, doctor." + +"There are many peculiar things, especially in a new married life." + +"Which one would do more wisely to keep to himself." + +"Not in all cases," replied the doctor. "Whatever can be communicated, +should be, always; and there is but little, hardly anything, which a +young husband should not tell his wife. In a river crawling sluggishly +between sandy shores to the end of its course, every stone lies +unmoved; but a stream bursting fresh and joyous from the mountain will +roll and whirl along heavy masses of rock, its young strength sweeping +everything before it. Think it over, my dear friend." + +I had thought it over, but I could not bring myself to follow the +doctor's advice. It was not cowardice that kept me silent, but rather a +feeling of shame that I could not overcome, and a fear of the +consequences upon a character so peculiar as Hermine's, and in her +present state of health. And yet the revelation hovered more than once +upon my lips, but crept back again to my heart, that beat uneasily when +in almost every number of the papers I came across the ominous name, +and Hermine once or twice said casually. "We ought really to see this +Bellini they talk so much about." + +They did indeed talk much about her. "Are you a Bellinist or an +anti-Bellinist?" was the question in all _salons_: "the Bellini is a +marvel," "the Bellini is nothing at all," said the papers. I did not +know which party was right, nor wish to know; and right glad was I that +Hermine seemed as little curious in the matter as myself, until one +day, when I had replied, in answer to her question, that I was +disengaged that evening, she startled me by saying: + +"Then we will go this evening and see the Bellini." + +"If you wish," I answered, with the determination of a man who sees +that he has met a fatality that is too strong for him. + +And we went to the theatre and saw Ada Bellini as Juliet in +Shakespeare's tragedy. I cannot assert that I felt any inclination to +join in the enthusiastic applause that was lavished upon the actress by +the crowded house, nor in the hisses that were occasionally heard, but +only to be overwhelmed by fresh plaudits. Nor can I say that in the +course of the evening I found myself able to pass a critical judgment +upon the artist. However attentively I watched the stage, I saw little +more than if I had gazed at vacancy, dreaming of times long past, and +wishing at intervals that this evening also belonged to past time, I +remember that once arousing from this unpleasant reverie and looking at +Hermine, I caught her eye fastened upon me with a mysterious +expression; but she only jested at my indifference as we drove home, +and declared that the question of Bellinist and anti-Bellinist was +settled for her. + +"With what result?" I asked, lighting my cigar from the lamp. + +"And are you going to smoke now, you unfeeling man? Do you suppose that +Romeo would have poisoned himself if he had had a cigar in his pocket +with the fatal flask? Much good may your cigar do you, dear Romeo: +Juliet will bid you good-night." + +This evening for the first time I smoked my nightly cigar alone; and +never did I smoke one in deeper reflection. + +"The doctor was right," I said to myself, as I threw the stump into the +dying coals on the hearth, and rose with a sigh from my easy-chair; +"perfectly right. I must wait for a favorable opportunity." + +But as it usually happens in such cases, a week passed, two weeks +passed, and the opportunity did not occur. Nor did the necessity seem +very urgent, as Hermine had not spoken again of going to the theatre. +She still felt unwell, and the doctor's visits were more frequent than +formerly. + +"Have you told your wife yet who the Bellini is?" he asked me one day. + +"Not yet." + +"She knows it." + +"Impossible!" + +"She knows it; I give you my word upon that." + +"Has she said so to you?" + +"No." + +"How then----?" + +"How then? A physician, my dear fellow, has sharp ears, and a physician +who is the friend of the family, as he should always be, has them +doubly sharp. He hears between the words that are spoken; and I can +only repeat to you that I have heard between the words of your wife, +and learned that she knows the Bellini to be Constance von Zehren, and +that she knows more beside. Whether she knows all, and whether she +knows the real truth, is only known to the person that told her." + +"And that is----?" + +"Our common friend Arthur." + +"Arthur has not been in the city for eight weeks." + +"Our postal system forwards with admirable fidelity all letters +intrusted to it, even anonymous ones." + +"But good heaven, doctor, what interest could Arthur have----?" + +"Revenge is sweet," said the doctor. + +"In this case it would be stupid too, for----" + +"It is often stupid too." + +"For the steuerrath lives almost exclusively upon my father-in-law's +purse, and I bought a considerable place for Arthur only yesterday, and +upon the table there lies a letter in which he asks me again for a +large loan of money." + +"All that makes no difference. And my dear George, don't take to +moping. You are a man, and there is no occasion here for despair. We +must not take things harder than they are; the really hard ones cannot +be made any lighter so, and with this latter article I should think you +were already sufficiently supplied." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +And in this the good doctor was perfectly right, in a wider sense than +he had himself any idea of. + +It was not merely that without sufficient experience I had to a certain +extent to find my way in a vast domain of industry, at that time +scarcely explored by us Germans. I shared that plight however with all +my rivals, who, however great their experience in other branches, in +the construction of locomotives were as much novices as I was myself. +And any advantage that they might have over me in more extended +knowledge, could perhaps be equalized by diligence. In this point, in +truth, I had no slight confidence in myself; indeed I was conscious +that notwithstanding the load which now rested upon me was far from +being a light one, I could still take additional weight upon my +shoulders. But a man who carries a heavy burden must at least see +clearly the way that he has to follow, or all his strength and +endurance cannot preserve him from stumbling and possibly falling. So +was it here. I was confused in all my plans, hampered in my movements, +and checked in my resolutions, because at all times I had to look +around for the man who should stand at my back and upon whom I was +forced to rely, and who often in the most critical moments was no more +to be found. + +Not to be found, in the literal sense of the words. The commerzienrath +had always been a restless man, as could hardly have been otherwise +with the multiplicity of business that he had in various places, and +with his maxim that nothing was well done unless you do it yourself. "I +am," he used to say in confidential moments over a bottle, "like Cæsar, +or whatever the fellow's name was, with whom to come, to see, and to +conquer, were all one. To come, to see, to conquer--that is the art of +success!" + +And now he came and went more frequently than ever; to-day in Uselin, +to-morrow in St. ----, then here again, and the next day in hot haste +to Zehrendorf, where my following letter did not reach him, because in +the meantime he was at St. ---- again, or heaven knows where. This had +now become a regular thing; and I made besides the unpleasant discovery +that he was always hardest to find and had covered his tracks most +carefully, precisely when he was most needed. Was this his old +cuttle-fish man[oe]uvre which he was so fond of using in conversation, +now applied in a practical form? was it more than this? + +Yes, the commerzienrath came and went enough, but the seeing and +conquering by no means corresponded. His blue eyes were now too often +dimmed by a watery mist, and however grand his vauntings, his +appearance was by no means that of a conqueror. The impression that had +struck me when I first saw him again at Zehrendorf, that the +commerzienrath had become an old man, was now most painfully confirmed, +and not to me only, his old business friends were struck with the +change that had taken place in him. + +"Your father-in-law has grown strangely irritable of late," said the +banker Zieler. "The commerzienrath ought to give himself more rest," +occasionally remarked the Railroad Director Schwelle. "My honored +patron, the Herr Commerzienrath, is in a very bad humor to-day," +whispered to me the landlord of the hotel where he used to stop, for he +never stayed at our house; and even the waiters privately shrugged +their shoulders when the old man over his bottle stormed at them like a +madman for some real or fancied neglect. + +No; the man with the blinking watery eyes, and the petulant temper, +doubly noticeable and disagreeable in a man of his years, did not look +like a conqueror, nor was he one. + +Long as our intimate relations had now continued, I knew of no triumph +that he had won. It was assuredly no triumph for the Cr[oe]sus of +Uselin that he had been compelled to close his vast grain-trade, nor +was it any triumph that even after this retreat in good order, as he +termed it, no order could be brought into our financial arrangements. +On the contrary, we were more pressed for ready money than ever; so +hardly pressed that I struggled from one embarrassment to another, and +was really often brought to the verge of despair. Not only was I most +seriously hampered in my business operations by the perpetual +uncertainty in which my father-in-law kept me, I also was harassed by +the equally painful feeling that I had not been able to introduce a +single one of those improvements in the condition of my workmen over +which, in by-gone hopeful times, the doctor, Klaus, and I had so often +laid our heads together, and drained so many a glass of grog. A chief +who does not know how he shall meet his pecuniary obligations the next +day is in no position to make concessions to his workmen to which he is +not pledged, to which he is not bound by the letter of any contract, +only by the voice in his own heart pleading for the poor. There were +even times--and I think of them now as one recalls a peculiarly +frightful dream--when I felt that I would close my heart against a cry +of distress, even against a timidly murmured complaint, and when the +example of my rivals, who had lowered the daily wages a _groschen_, +seemed one that I ought to follow. I remember that at these times it +was as if a gray veil had been spread over the world, that neither food +nor drink were pleasant to me, that I tossed sleepless upon my bed as +if I had a murder upon my conscience, that I went to and fro by the +most unfrequented streets, and if I met an acquaintance, pulled my hat +over my face and crossed to the other side. Once, as the load upon my +heart was almost unbearable, I hastened to my friend, as the tortured +patient hastens to the physician, and poured my sorrows into his +faithful breast. He listened to me with kindness, and said: + +"I have seen this coming, my dear George; so it is nothing which lies +outside of human calculation, and consequently need not be despaired +of, for the fault may be repaired by time and endurance. He who desires +to preserve the freedom of his resolutions must not attach himself to +any point on which others have fastened their unclean and dishonorable +webs, and where there cannot fail to be confusion and entanglement. +Wealth which, like your father-in-law's, has not been acquired with +perfectly clean hands, cannot be kept without some soil. He who wishes +to remain impartial in the cause of Hammer _versus_ Anvil--no one can +keep free from participation in it--must not place himself decisively +on either side; and to a certain extent you have done this. Your +father-in-law is a knight of the hammer, and you--you are his +son-in-law, that is, the first of his followers, revolt as much as you +may against this unpleasant truth. And my friend, I see, as things now +are, no escape from this labyrinth but one, and that is that the case +shall be brought as soon as possible before that higher tribunal of the +great laws of economy, and there be decided promptly and finally, that +you may become the free man you were before. This sounds very hard, +very cruel; but my dear friend, you cannot take it amiss of a disciple +of Hippocrates if he holds fast to that saying of his master: _Quod +medicamenta non sanant, ferrum sanat; quod ferrum non sanat, ignis_." + +The higher tribunal to which the doctor had referred me, was to decide +for the Hippocratic fire-method in my case, sooner than perhaps the +doctor himself expected. + +When the commerzienrath complained to me again and again how hard it +was just now to raise the very considerable amount of funds which I +needed for the works, I had repeatedly and urgently entreated him to +undertake seriously the sale of Zehrendorf. Heaven knows how hard it +was for me to press this upon him. Zehrendorf had grown more dear to me +than I can express. There was scarcely a clod on which my foot had not +rested, no tree, no bush, that I had not become attached to. The +prospect of being able to spend a day at Zehrendorf made every labor +light, and bore me over many a care; the hope of passing my old days in +the place where for the first and only time in my life I had been +really young was dearer to me than any other. And I knew that Hermine +felt the same. There she had dreamed her dream of love, and there it +had become reality. Had she not been most seriously offended with me +when her father intentionally gave her to believe that I was the +originator of the project? Had I not breathed freely, and had she not +loudly exulted when the sudden sickness of the old Prince Prora cut +short the negotiations; and should I now be really the man who was to +deprive her and myself of this treasure? Not I! It was the +circumstances that were stronger than I; circumstances which I had not +caused and was not responsible for, but which I could not allow to +remain as they were, or the responsibility would really fall upon me. +This I knew perfectly well; so I urged the matter upon my father-in-law +again and again. + +Strange to say, he now most obstinately resisted my urgency, as if the +project had not been of his own devising. Did he really fear the +unfavorable conjuncture of events? Did he really believe that he could +retain the property? Did he fear what malicious tongues would say, +remembering that when he closed his grain business he gave it out that +he was tired of work and was going to retire to his countryseat for the +rest of his old age? Was it simply despotic obstinacy, and an old man's +waywardness? I did not know; and could not even say with certainty. At +such times I consoled myself with the thought that perhaps the storm +would blow over; his affairs must be in a better condition than I +thought: perhaps he has grown a miser in his old days, and is holding +back his hoarded treasures; for it is impossible that he can be as +short of money as he pretends: what could he possibly have done with +it? + +"Your father-in-law has had an unlucky day to-day," said the banker +Zieler to me, as coming from the Exchange one day, he met me on the +street. + +"How so, Herr Privy-Councillor?" + +"Well, he had to pay a difference of a hundred thousand _thalers_ upon +a speculation he had made for a rise in alcohol: a curious +miscalculation in so experienced a man of business." + +A hundred thousand _thalers_ at a moment when I was perplexed to raise +a thousand, and in an operation of which he had never spoken to me, and +which lay entirely outside of his regular business! I could not +altogether keep my face from indicating the alarm that this piece of +news caused me, and the councillor must have seen it, for he added with +a smile: + +"Well, well, your father-in-law can afford himself these little +amusements. I have the honor to wish you a very good day." + +I did not take this view of it: I wrote at once to Uselin and entreated +him to let me know if the information, which I had received from a very +good source, was really true; and I concluded with pressing him once +more to give me at last a clear insight into his affairs, since as a +man of honor I could no longer endure the present condition of things. + +In answer came a long letter, full of complaints of my want of +confidence, and of the hard fate of an old man who was deserted by his +children, and crammed with wordy boastings about his fifty years' +experience in business, about his well-proved good-fortune, and ending +with the recommendation than in any event I should write to the prince +at once, and ask him if he was still thinking of the purchase of +Zehrendorf, or not. + +I let the rest of the letter pass, and held to the single fixed point +that it contained. I wrote at once to the young prince, who was still +with his sick father in Prora, and received in reply an autograph +letter to the effect that he had been intending to come to the city, +and would carry out this intention at once. He would arrive on Friday +at four o'clock, and would be very glad to see me an hour later at the +palace, where we could talk over the matter at length. + +And so it was to be then. My heart felt heavy at the thought, but I +suppressed the emotion and repeated the doctor's aphorism: "what +medicines and iron cannot cure, must be cured by fire." + +In this half-dejected, half-resolved mood, I went at the appointed day +and hour to the palace of the prince. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +The prince received me with politeness which I might almost call +cordial. He had arrived half an hour before, and the journey through +the cold winter's day seemed to have done him good; he looked fresh and +youthful as I had never seen him before, and in his whole bearing there +was such elasticity, such vivacity in his discourse, that I could +scarcely recognize in him the wearied dreamer in the old hunting-lodge +of Rossow. I could not refrain from congratulating him on this change, +which I attributed to his improved health. He seemed pleased to hear +it, and said it was high time for him to have outgrown childish +distempers. + +"I have always resolved," he said, "that when the time came, it should +find me a man; and I believe that the time has come. May God long +preserve the life of the prince, my father; but by all human reckoning +his days are numbered. It may justly be demanded of me that an event +which influences the destinies of thousands shall not find me +unprepared." + +The prince said these words very earnestly. He had been walking up and +down the room, and stopped before a portrait which represented a young +and very handsome man in a rich and fantastic dress. + +"Strange," the prince went on, "that life can play with us thus! +See here; this is the portrait of the prince, my father, in his +twenty-eighth year. He wore that dress at a masked ball at court, and +created an immense _furore_, and the late queen insisted that he should +have his portrait taken in it for her. This is a copy of the original. +Do you not find----" + +He suddenly checked himself threw himself into an easy chair, giving me +a sign to be seated, and continued: + +"But I did not come to talk with you about myself and my affairs. Your +own have changed very much since we last met. Why sir, you are a great +diplomatist! To let me talk and talk, and make you heaven knows what +well-meant proposals, without indicating by word or look that you were, +so to speak, over the mountain, at the foot of which I thought we both +were standing! How you must have laughed in your sleeve! And poor +Zehren! He pretended to be as much astonished as I was myself. But I +believe he knew perfectly well how things stood, for though I have +always considered him half fool, I have a strong suspicion that he is +whole knave. I should be glad if anybody will take him off my hands; he +is sometimes a real annoyance to me, and yet I do not want to send him +away. I have been thinking that if I buy Zehrendorf from you, I might +make him the bailiff of it, or rent the estate to him; but it has +occurred to me that you might not like that arrangement. Am I right?" + +"Your highness," I replied, "Arthur is certainly not the proper +person for such a trust. In his hands all the excellent and most +useful improvements that have been made at such heavy expense, +would go to ruin. I confess that if I believed it to be your serious +intention--instead of being, as I am sure, only the suggestion of your +generous heart--I would even now at the twelfth hour endeavor to retain +Zehrendorf in my father-in-law's possession, greatly as I desire, on +other grounds, to effect a sale of it." + +"You are right--it was only an idea," said the prince. "But why do you +accord me this so flattering preference? You know that I have no longer +the same interest in obtaining the property, that I had last spring, +and that in consequence you will find me hard to deal with." + +"But easier than Herr von Granow, at all events." + +A pleasant smile played about the prince's refined lips. + +"You may be right there," he said. "That fellow is a fox, despite his +bulldog-face. He has sounded me once or twice through Zehren and the +justizrath, to find out if I have still any thoughts of buying +Zehrendorf. It seems that he wants to get all competitors out of the +way, to be the only one upon the field, and then at the right moment, +of which the justizrath will no doubt give him the sign, step in and +secure the place for a song. No, sir, you shall not fall into the dirty +hands of that rascal if I can help it." + +"I thank your highness," I answered. + +"I have to thank you," the prince replied, "that you again give me an +opportunity to discharge an old debt that I owe you. Since you wrote to +me I have reflected much upon your position: indeed I may say that at +no time have you been entirely out of my mind, thanks to the good +friends of your father-in-law. You yourself probably do not know how +much is said about him, and how deeply he is sunk in general +estimation. I am very sorry to say this; and I say it only because I +feel it is due to you as the person nearest concerned, to let you know +what others perhaps have not the courage to tell you, or conceal from +you from malicious motives. The commerzienrath's credit seems to me +greatly shaken; there is talk of immense losses that he has lately +incurred; they say he speculates on 'Change and in all sorts of +hazardous enterprises. I can assure you he is considered half insane +and more than half ruined; though it is true that others maintain the +old man was never clearer-headed than now, and never richer; and that +if he plays the fool and the bankrupt, it is only one of his old +feints, which have always been successful. What is your own opinion?" + +I felt that the prince's kind advances to me deserved to be met with +all sincerity, and so I stated to him in detail, as well as I could, +the singular position in which I found myself placed with the +commerzienrath, the subterfuges, equivocations and concealments of +which he had been guilty to me; that I believed that while he was not +yet the ruined man his enemies declared him to be, if he kept on in +this way he would of necessity ruin himself sooner or later. + +The prince listened to me attentively, here and there interposing +questions which, if they indicated no great familiarity with business, +showed a clear understanding and rapid comprehension. We had come back +to the original point, the sale of Zehrendorf, and had already agreed +upon the principal conditions, when the old white-headed servant, whom +I had already seen at Rossow, entered and standing by the door gave his +master a sign. + +"Ah," said the prince, "is it already so late? That is unfortunate. I +have to go to the theatre: her Royal Highness the Princess, my +patroness, who was informed of my arrival, has sent me word that she +wishes to speak with me a moment, in her box, and learn the state of +the prince, my father. But perhaps we can combine the useful with the +agreeable. I should like to know how soon I can command the requisite +funds, and Henzel"--this was the prince's banker--"will be at the +theatre also. I know that the great Mæcenas of all singers and +actors--actresses and ballet-girls not forgotten--never misses a first +representation. I shall find an opportunity to speak with him. The best +thing would be for you to come too: we might then arrange all the +preliminaries this evening, and have a draft of the conveyance made +to-morrow morning by my solicitor. Will you come?" + +"I have the evening at my disposal," I said. + +"A proud word for a young husband!" said the prince, laughing. "But why +not bring your wife along? I have long desired the pleasure of making +her acquaintance. I could not do it at Rossow, for I had pledged myself +not to go more than a mile from the castle. Well, what do you say? You +seem to hesitate and look confused. Sir, those old times are past: you +need never more feel any hesitation in presenting Prince Prora to a +virtuous lady!" + +"I have not the least doubt of that, your highness," I replied; "but my +wife--I really do not know----" + +"Ah, indeed!" said the prince. "I understand. Well, you can see. _Au +revoir_, then, and bring your lady if possible." + +The prince gave me his hand as we parted. I had neither said yes or no, +because I did not wish to accept his suggestion, and of course could +not with any show of reason decline it off-hand. + +"But what a miserable thing it is when a man does not know whether to +say yes or no," I said to myself, as I went through the darkening +streets to my not very distant lodging; "a thing to which I am not yet +used, and must not learn to be." And while I thus spoke, I was on the +point of crossing the street to a corner where I saw by the light of a +streetlamp a play-bill pasted up, but I checked myself. "No, no," I +muttered, "you must not give your cowardice a respite; for cowardice it +is, and nothing else." + +So I reached home, where Hermine was expecting me with impatience. I +had told her of my appointment with the prince, but not of its object, +not reflecting that this concealment of an affair which was about to be +decided at once, could only increase her secret uneasiness. I perceived +this as I caught her eyes bent anxiously upon me. Should I not now tell +her at once all that I had hitherto so carefully concealed from her? A +confusion that embarrassed my reason, and a fear that seemed to weigh +down my heart, suddenly seized me, I wished to free myself from this +painful embarrassment, as one strives to escape from a room in which he +feels himself suffocating; and as in such a case he takes the first +mode of escape that offers, though it be a leap through a window, I +said, as if reciting a lesson: + +"The prince wishes to see me at the theatre; he has a communication to +make to me which can not well be postponed until to-morrow. He +expressed the wish that you would accompany me, if you can. He has been +very kind to me, and I feel myself under great obligations to him. I +should be glad to show him an attention, if you have no objection." + +"Ah, she plays to-night then!" said Hermine, her lips quivering and +brows contracting darkly. + +"What is that to me--what is that to us, Hermine?" + +I opened my arms, and my wife lay upon my breast. The whole long +pent-up passion burst forth at once: she sobbed, she laughed, and +cried: "Yes, yes, what is that to us? what is that to us?" + +Her sweet face that lately had looked so pale and often so sad, now +beamed with life and happiness: I thought I had never seen her so +beautiful. + +"You will create a _furore_," I said, playfully. + +"So I mean," she answered. "There is no art in being fair when one is +so happy." + +And she threw herself again into my arms, and then hastened into her +dressing-room, from which she presently returned in a simple charming +toilet, such as she well knew how to make. + +"Do you think I can let the prince see me so?" she asked, archly. + +"Yes; any king in the world!" + +"Even when----?" + +"Even when----!" + +The distance to the theatre was short, yet in this short drive I had +time to tell her everything that had passed between the prince and +myself; the negotiations about Zehrendorf, and the causes which +rendered the sale necessary. And the fair creature agreed contentedly +to everything. Ah, the doctor was indeed right when he said: "A young +husband can tell his young wife everything;" but I was also right that +he must choose a fitting opportunity. + +We reached the theatre. The prince had told me that there would be +places in his box for us, and it was well that it was so, for the house +was full. A new piece was played, the work of a young poet who had a +considerable reputation at that time, a conversation-piece, in which +Constance had no part, as I convinced myself by a glance at the +play-bill. It was not yet late, but pit and galleries were already +filled, and the boxes were filling up. The prince was not there yet, +and only appeared towards the close of the overture, accompanied by an +officer of high rank, whom he presented as his cousin, Count +Schlachtensee. He looked exceedingly handsome and distinguished in +evening dress, with a blue ribbon around his neck, to which was +attached the star of some foreign order set in brilliants; and +exhibited the most perfect and engaging courtesy towards Hermine, to +whom he apologized for his late arrival, and then seated himself beside +her, conversing very pleasantly for a few moments, until he perceived +that the royal princess who had summoned his attendance, had entered +her box, when he left us. + +Lieutenant-colonel Count Schlachtensee, when his cousin had departed, +seemed not quite to know what to do, until he hit upon the happy idea +of offering me his opera-glass, which I politely declined. So he +applied it to his own eyes, fixing it upon a box opposite to us so long +that I involuntarily turned my own looks in the same direction. +Directly fronting us was a lady who at the moment had her head turned +to a gentleman sitting behind her, but in whom I at the first glance +recognized Constance. I do not know what effect this discovery would +have had upon me, had I not just before had that precious understanding +with Hermine: even as it was my heart beat violently as I observed that +my wife also turned her glass in that direction; but I breathed freely, +and murmured a "thank heaven!" from the bottom of my heart, when she +lowered her glass again, and looked at me with an indescribable arch +smile. As the curtain rose she fixed her attention upon the stage +without ever casting another glance at the woman whose form had no +doubt floated lately often enough through her melancholy reveries. +Constance on the other hand seemed to take less interest in what was +going on upon the stage. I observed her glass fixed almost constantly +upon us when she was not engaged in conversation with her companion, +who had now taken his seat by her side, and in whom I recognized the +actor Von Sommer, who went by the name of Lenz, or else turned to a +couple of younger gentlemen, in elegant dress and of aristocratic, +though foreign appearance--two Wallachian noblemen as I afterwards +learned--who were behind her chair, and evidently belonged to the +party. It was plain that they were talking of us, and in no friendly +manner; and I thought that more than once I perceived the pale face of +Herr Lenz contract with a bitter smile, while the others, who kept +their glasses steadily levelled at us, sometimes laughed openly. + +Whether it was the too conspicuous interest which the beautiful actress +and her party took in the lady in the opposite box, or whether it was +Hermine's charming appearance, the public, between the acts, followed +the example set them, and their unpleasant curiosity increased still +further when the prince returned and resumed his place by Hermine. +Persons stood up in the pit to see better: they looked from Hermine to +Constance and from Constance to Hermine, and evidently instituted very +interesting comparisons between the two, both beautiful, though with +beauty so widely different. No doubt the prince had observed Constance, +but in vain did I secretly watch his face for any mark of the +impression which this unexpected and unfortunate meeting must have made +upon him. Not in vain had he moved from his early youth in circles +where it is the first law to keep the features under perfect control. +He laughed and jested in the most natural and easy manner with Hermine, +named to her various distinguished persons in the proscenium-boxes whom +he knew, turned to speak with his cousin and myself, and behaved as if +altogether he was enjoying himself greatly. + +This scene was repeated in the second _entr'acte_, but this time a +chamberlain of the princess came to our box, charged by her to learn +from the prince the name of the lady whose beauty and grace, as he +said, had charmed her highness. + +The prince told us this, laughing, as the stately gentleman left us, +and said it was not unlikely that her highness might summon us to her +box, and that I should hold myself in readiness for a councillor's +title, or the order of the fourth class. + +I confess that though I did not altogether believe this peril so +imminent, a feeling ever more strongly impressed me that some serious +disaster was close at hand, as if floating in the hot atmosphere of the +place. I also thought that I perceived that the heat, animated +conversation, and the fact that she was the object of general +observation, had too much excited Hermine, so after exchanging a look +with her, at the conclusion of the third act, I begged to take leave of +the prince, especially as the banker Henzel had not arrived, and thus +nothing could be done in the matter of our business. The prince rose at +once and offered Hermine his arm to conduct her into the lobby, into +which a great crowd was now pressing from all the box-doors, out of the +intolerably hot theatre. + +There was a good deal of crowding, and we were soon separated from the +prince, who had taken leave of Hermine at the moment when Constance +pressed by me on the arm of Herr Lenz, and followed by the two +Wallachians. She saluted me in a manner that masked a stinging mockery +under a show of great cordiality: but the pale face of her companion +was turned towards us for a moment, and his eyes, which appeared to be +looking for some one, had a fixed and ominous expression. He pushed on +through the crowd as rapidly as he could with the lady, towards the +place where I had last seen the prince. Other persons then came between +us, and I lost sight of the party; Hermine, who was busy taking care of +her dress, had luckily not seen Constance; and she now asked me to help +her to get out as quickly as possible. We had descended the stair a few +steps, when suddenly there was a tumult behind us in the lobby. Hermine +stood still, and leaned half-fainting upon my arm; and during this +delay, the tumult became louder. There was a buzz of many voices +speaking at once, and then loud words, apparently from persons in +authority who were striving to restore order. A gentleman came hurrying +past me, and I stopped him: + +"What is the matter?" + +"Prince Prora has just been most outrageously insulted by Lenz the +actor!" + +The gentleman hurried on. + +I looked at Hermine: she had not heard it, she had fainted. I carried +her down the stairs, placed her in a carriage and drove home, where she +arrived in a rather weak state, but otherwise completely restored. I +must not be uneasy about her, she said; and she had had a delightful +evening, for which she thanked me a thousand times. And now she would +go to bed, and I must positively go back to the theatre, that the +prince should not think she kept me tied to her apron-string. + +I pretended to yield to her wishes, and promised to go back. But in +reality I had already determined to do this if possible. Suppose it +were true, what the gentleman on the steps had told me! and how could I +doubt it? Then the disaster which I had felt impending in the sultry +atmosphere of the theatre, had come to pass. I remembered the scene in +the Zehrendorf wood, so many years before, and how the boy preferred to +die, to receiving a blow from my hands, of which there would have been +no witness but the moon. Would the man feel differently? Would he not +risk everything to avenge an insult offered him, the Prince of Prora, +before the eyes of a crowd of spectators? + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +But I scarcely had quitted my house when I reflected that after what +had happened, it was scarcely possible that the prince could still be +in the theatre, and I turned my steps towards his palace. It was about +nine o'clock; the evening was cold and raw, though we were at the +beginning of March; the snow was blowing about in the wind and eddying +around corners; pedestrians were hurrying along with pulled-up collars +and bent heads; and I could not help remembering the evening a year +before, when I saw the unhappy girl in the yellow light of the lamps at +the door of the palace, which I now reached all out of breath. For the +revenge which had then blazed in her dark eyes and breathed from her +mouth, the revenge to which she had in vain endeavored to entice me, +for this sweet, this terrible revenge she had found the right man at +last. + +I was possessed with the feeling that all this had to come so; that a +destiny long-appointed, which neither I nor any one could baffle, had +now reached its accomplishment. I asked myself--What brings me here? +What do I mean to do? I could find no answer to this question; not even +when I stood in the ante-chamber and besought the old servant, who had +been called, to lead me at once to his master. + +"I can admit no one," the old man replied. + +He seemed greatly agitated, his voice trembled as he spoke, and his +withered hand, which he raised as if to keep me off, trembled visibly. + +At this moment the door leading to the room in which the prince had +received me in the afternoon opened, and Count Schlachtensee came out +and passed us with the same fixed look I had observed on him in the +theatre. Evidently it was not pretence; he really did not see me. So +what I had feared, was now rushing down. I could not restrain myself +longer, and regardless of the old servant, rushed through the door +through which the count had come, traversed a second large ante-chamber +towards the inner room, through the open door of which I saw the prince +sitting at a writing table. + +"This to Herr Hartwig at once!" he said, holding out to me a letter in +his left hand, while he leaned his head on his right. + +"I am he," I said, taking the letter, and holding his hand firmly in +mine. + +His hand was cold, and the face which he now turned to me was pale as +death; only on the right cheek glowed a crimson spot, as if branded +there. + +"You here?" he asked, in surprise. "That is very well; now I can tell +you what is in the letter, which I will ask you to take care of. It is +a written memorandum of our agreement to-day, with the addition of a +request to the prince, my father, to carry out this agreement, whatever +happens." + +I still held his hand, and endeavored in vain to speak a word. If I had +needed any explanation of the irresistible sympathy with which this man +inspired me, I had it now in my very hands. And this man must be the +sacrifice of a base piece of treachery! This man, who through all +temptations had preserved so pure his native generosity and kindness of +heart, must be entangled in the snare which his rash youthful foot had +touched years before! + +This, or something like this, was what I said to him when I found words +at last, and I added that I could not endure the thought, and eagerly +asked if there were no possible way--none--to escape from the toils? + +"Sit down," said the prince, bringing me to the fireplace in which a +comfortable fire was burning, offering me an easy chair and taking +another himself "Did I not say that you were an original? For none but +a man who has preserved to his thirtieth year a considerable share of +the innocent philosophy of his childhood, could hit upon the idea of +asking a prince of Prora if it is not still possible to carry patiently +through his whole life an insult offered him before a score of +witnesses." + +He said this in a very friendly manner, and with an attempt to smile, +but his pale lips quivered and the spot on his cheek glowed a deeper +red. + +"I am no child," I said; "but it may well be that a man who has lived +so solitary a life as mine, is an incompetent judge of the customs and +principles that rule the great world. I only know that in my heart a +voice cries: this must not be! Must it be then? Are those laws which I +confess I do not understand, as inflexible as fate?" + +"Yes; it must be," the prince replied. "I also have considered it--not +for my own sake, but for the sake of those to whom I would gladly have +been something--but it must be." + +"And your rank----?" I began. + +"Does not excuse me," he answered, with a smile like that of a teacher +who dissipates the crude and futile objections of a pupil, "I am not a +sovereign prince, though my ancestors were sovereigns. I am a nobleman +like other noblemen, and subject to the same laws. My antagonist is +noble too: the house of Sommer-Brachenfeld, of which he comes by direct +descent, is an ancient race, nearly as ancient as my own." + +"But a notorious profligate, a miserable adventurer like this man--has +he not dispossessed himself of the right of being challenged to the +field by a prince Prora?" + +"I fancy not," the prince replied, still with the same good-natured +smile. "The man is an adventurer, it is true; but I saw in Ireland a +fellow who descended from the legitimate kings of the green isle of +Erin, and who was a keeper of hogs; and in Paris, in a _cafè chantant_, +I saw the genuine scion of an ancient ducal house, who was singing +indecent songs to the guitar before an audience of men in blouses and +women of the streets. Now an actor at a Royal Theatre is quite a +respectable person. And again, have I been no profligate in my time? +And can I know what would have become of me if the family council had +really cut me off from the succession, and thrust me out into the world +with an indemnity in money? However large the sum might have been, it +would not have lasted long, and then--no, no, I have no right on this +ground, not even an excuse, to avoid a duel, supposing that I looked +for an excuse; but I look for none." + +We both remained silent. Without, the winter wind swept through the +streets and howled and whistled around the palace, like a hungry wolf +around the fold; and here in the room the light beamed so soft from the +lamps upon the marble tables, over the splendid furniture, on the +hearth the fire glowed and sparkled so cosily, and surrounded by all +the splendor, and illuminated by the soft light, at the fire upon his +own hearth, sat the master of this house, who did not even look for an +excuse to avoid a duel with an adventurer who had nothing at risk but +his own bare life. + +"I look for none," said the prince again. "Indeed I believe that though +there were the most indisputable justification of such a course, I +should decline to avail myself of it. I will say nothing of the fact +that it is impossible for me to live in the consciousness that such an +insult is unavenged--as impossible as for me to live by picking +pockets--but I have a feeling which I cannot shake off that this is a +doom which has fallen upon me, against which all resistance is +unavailing." + +He raised his eyes as he said this, and his look fell upon the portrait +of the young cavalier in the fantastic costume, which he had told me +represented his father, and which hung at some distance from us, +brilliantly illuminated by the light of a large lamp. + +"Altogether unavailing," he repeated, with a deep sigh, turning his +face from the portrait to the flame on the hearth, upon which his eyes +remained vacantly fixed, while his pale lips moved as if uttering words +which I could fancy I heard, though they were unspoken: "altogether +unavailing!" + +This was the same fatal presentiment that had laid its spell upon me +from the first. The events that had just now taken place, had been +prepared long, long ago; they had stood already written in the stars +that glittered on that autumn night when the young prince stole through +the park of Zehrendorf to his love. I sat there, my fevered brow +resting on my hand, and thought of that night, and how I was summoned +to guard her who did not wish to be guarded, who even then was planning +and weaving the web of treachery, and was even then a wanton, who, if I +could believe what the good Hans told me, had been in this case the +betrayer and not the betrayed, and who yet like a vengeful fury pursued +the man who was guilty of no wrong towards her, except that of being +her first lover, if he was the first. + +I must have spoken aloud some part of the thoughts that were passing +through my mind while the prince was walking up and down the room, and +at last stopped beside me and laid his hand upon my shoulder: + +"True heart," he said, "how true you are, and how you increase the debt +which I have never yet paid you, and which I would so gladly pay before +it is too late. Perhaps it will be something if I do for you what I +would do for none other: if I try to justify myself to you for the part +I have played in this unfortunate affair. Perhaps too I owe it to her; +and I would fain settle all my debts: I would wish that one man lived +who will know, if Prince Carl von Prora falls, how and why it was that +he died." + +He checked me with a gesture as I was about to speak, and proceeded, +his soft beautiful eyes fixed upon the fire which was now dying out on +the hearth: + +"You think that Constance never loved, neither me nor any other; that +it was not in her nature to love, and that therefore no one could be a +traitor to her. In this way you attempt to justify me; but you are +wrong. Constance really loved me, and still I did not betray her. +Whether I loved her or not is another question, which I cannot +affirm--which I would not for much be able to affirm. I was very young +when I first saw her at that unlucky watering-place; scarcely more than +a boy; and I may have loved her as boys love, romantically, +passionately, and yet not deeply. I know I behaved like a madman when +my father came and said that I could never marry the daughter of a +professional gamester and notorious smuggler, especially when the girl +was not even the legitimate child of this dishonored father. But this +you know: I told you all this; and this was all the prince then told +me. But this was not all that he might and should have told me. And his +telling me but half the truth while he concealed that which was of most +importance, out of what I must call false shame of appearing to his son +in the light of an evil example, and out of prudery to the world which +had long known him as a pious man and protector of the church, this is +the evil seed from which has sprung this disaster for me and for +himself. + +"I cannot say that the prince's warning was altogether fruitless, nor +can I say that I was convinced by it. I was a boy, a wild spoiled boy, +accustomed to having my own will because it was my will--my own will +often against my will. So was it here. The prince, convinced of my +obedience, committed the imprudence of sending me, accompanied by my +tutor, to Rossow, to hunt there, to recover my injured health, and to +pay court to the fair Countess Griebenow, who was allotted to me by +common consent of both families. How easy it is for a youth with money +enough in his pocket, to bribe his servants, I need not say. I spent +the morning at Griebenow, and the evening--you know where. But you do +not know, and probably would not believe upon any other authority, that +my courtship was carried on in very nearly the same style and tone in +both places. I repeat it, I was young, very young, and youthful modesty +and a certain chivalrous sense of honor, which is perhaps native to me, +always restrained me, even in the secrecy of Constance's apartment. +Whether it was female modesty, or calculation--probably both; for I +have rarely found women in which both were not present together--she +always knew how to keep me in limits, and scarcely at rare intervals +allowed me to kiss her hand. She maintained this rigor so firmly that I +was more than once convinced she loved some other; and you can conceive +whom I believed this other to be. Thus the play went on which had very +nearly been brought to a sudden end by our meeting in the wood, and on +the very day following I succeeded in realizing a long-concerted +scheme, and carrying off my beloved. I had made her no promises, but +she asked none, and no doubt thought all would come right if she played +her part well. And she played it just as before; and while we were +looked upon by all the world as a pair of unlawful lovers, and were +pursued in all directions by my father's letters and couriers, I had +received no favor from her beyond the privilege of kissing her hand. + +"I had made my preparations so skilfully that I escaped all the +prince's researches, though he moved heaven and earth to find the +fugitives. He would have started in pursuit himself, no doubt, only his +alarm at what had happened, brought on a violent attack of his old +gout. And well had he cause to be alarmed." + +The prince suddenly arose from his chair, and walked once or twice +across the room, stopping again before the portrait of his father, at +which he looked with a darkened countenance. He then resumed his seat, +and proceeded: + +"I had already got as far as Munich, when the old servant whom you have +seen overtook us. He was the bearer of a letter in cipher, in which +there was important information from various members of my family, and +a few lines in my father's own hand, upon reading which I had laughed +aloud. They ran: 'I adjure you by all that you hold sacred, to part +from her at once if you do not wish to load yourself with a horrible +crime: Constance von Zehren is your sister.'" + +"Great heavens!" I cried. + +"As I said," continued the prince, "I laughed; laughed madly at the +thought, and then felt a shudder run over my whole body and seem to +settle in my heart. + +"The letter referred me to the old servant for further particulars, +until the prince was in a condition to write me more fully. He, who +from his youth had been attached to the prince's person, and had +accompanied him upon all his travels, was better able than any other to +explain the matter. He had been with the prince in Paris at the time +when Herr von Zehren arrived there in his wild flight from Spain with +his beloved. The two gentlemen had been very intimate friends, and at +our court the two handsome stately young men went by the names of +Orestes and Pylades. But it seems that this friendship was much shaken +when the prince married my mother, whom Herr von Zehren had also +courted. Whether the prince could never forgive his friend this +rivalry, or whether Herr von Zehren, who was a man of fierce and +uncontrolled passions, gave the prince afterwards any cause of +offence--I do not know: but it appears that the prince was not only +fascinated by the charms of the young Spanish lady, who tormented by +her conscience, and perhaps as weak-minded as she was beautiful, +bestowed upon her lover's friend a confidence which he abused, and +perhaps also a love which he only did not refuse. + +"Was the prince the father of the child which passed for Herr von +Zehren's? It could not be certainly known; and the doubts which the +prince himself had on this point might never have been removed; for +when a few years later the unfortunate woman came to Rossow, where the +prince was then staying, and threw herself, with dishevelled hair at +his feet, crying that he was the father of her child, imploring him to +protect her and her child from their pursuer, and to tell her the way +to Spain--at this time she was a mere maniac. But there were other +confirmatory circumstances. An old female servant--the same horrible +old woman who was with Constance later, and whom you probably +knew--declared that her young mistress had told her the secret from the +first. She may have lied; but nature rarely deceives, and the prince +found in the child, which he contrived to see privately, a likeness of +which perhaps a trace may still be discovered in that picture yonder." + +The prince pointed with trembling hand to the portrait of his father; +but he only told me what I had discovered for myself while he was +telling me this frightful story. He must have read in my looks what I +did not venture to express, for he continued, fixing his beautiful +melancholy eyes upon me: + +"You see it too, do you not? We easily discover the truth when it is +pointed out to us; and I perceived it while the old woman was making +her terrible confession, and I blessed a merciful heaven that had saved +me from an awful crime. But how to free myself from this wretched +entanglement? Perhaps I should have disobeyed the prince's orders and +told Constance the whole truth; but I cannot too often repeat that I +was very young, and not in a condition to judge what might be all the +consequences of my hasty resolution. So I thought I should be managing +with great adroitness if I could continue to inspire Constance with +hate of me, or at least aversion, for the love that I now regarded with +horror. The means of attaining this end she had herself supplied me in +her arts of keeping me at a distance, in which I now was disposed to +see more than mere calculation. I returned her caprice with caprice, +her obstinacy with obstinacy, her coldness with coldness; I played my +game so well that I could not fail to win. What she suffered, I never +heard her say; but I saw it in her face which grew paler day by day, in +her eyes in which there often seemed to be the fire of madness. + +"At last came the catastrophe. After a violent scene, which I had +provoked, in Naples, whither we had come on our travels--I do not now +know why or how--I parted from her, in the firm conviction that she +would employ the ample means I had left at her disposal, either in +returning, or in the flight with which she had often threatened me. But +this would have been insufficient for the revenge which she conceived +such treachery as mine deserved. She, whom I had held to be the +proudest of the proud, who refused to belong to the Prince of Prora +unless he made her his wife--she cast herself into the arms of the +first comer, a wretched coxcomb whose acquaintance we had made by the +way. I shudder when I think what this first step must have cost the +unhappy girl; but I shudder still more when I think how little all +subsequent steps have cost her." + +He sighed deeply, and his sigh awakened a terrible echo in my own +breast. I sprang up and took a stride towards the door. + +"Where are you going?" asked the prince. + +I grasped my temples with both hands; my brain seemed on fire. + +"I do not know," I said, "I only know that this duel must not take +place." + +The prince smiled and shrugged his shoulders. + +"It is a queer business, altogether," he said. + +"And is there no remedy--none?" I cried. + +"Not that I know of," the prince answered with the same kindly +melancholy smile. "The young man would have to declare that he was out +of his senses. And that would not help; for any one who declares his +own insanity is not insane--ah, there you are, dear Edmund!" + +I had not seen that Count Schlachtensee had entered the room behind me. +The prince advanced to meet him, and took his hand: the count said "I +come----" and then checked himself and fixed a surprised look on me +whom he now observed for the first time. + +"I must now take leave of you," said the prince. "I thank you heartily +for your visit--heartily," and he grasped my hand firmly in his own +which was small and delicate as a woman's. "Farewell!" + +I was at the door when he followed me and gave me his hand again. +"Farewell," he said once more, and added in a low tone, "perhaps for +ever!" + +I stood in the street, with the snow driving into my face. I turned +back to look at the palace, and saw upon the lowered curtain the +shadows of two men who were pacing up and down the room. They were the +prince and his cousin; and I knew what they were conversing about, and +that there was not a moment to be lost. I called a hackney-coach that +was passing, and ordered the coachman to drive as quickly as possible +to the lodging of the actor Von Sommer, who went by the name of Lenz. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + +I have often in later days tried to recall the state of mind in which I +was on this miserable night: but have never been able perfectly to do +so. So I am conscious than any account I can now give of it must be a +most imperfect one. I can only say that I was overpowered by an emotion +which was probably the intensest form of pity--a feeling always +peculiarly strong with me, and which on far lighter occasions is +aroused in my breast to an extent which must appear absurd and childish +to shrewder and more coldblooded persons. Perhaps the extraordinary +statements which I had just heard might have affected me differently, +had the persons concerned been entire strangers to me; but this they +were not. Constance had played an important and fateful part already in +my life; the young prince had come into contact with me at eventful +moments; and I had loved Constance, and the prince had inspired me with +interest and sympathy such as an older brother might feel for a +younger. What had happened appeared to me awful, and what was to +happen, terrible. True I had again a dim consciousness that I could do +nothing to hinder the march of fate, that I had started upon an idle, +an insane expedition; but what was this to the voice that cried within: +It must not be! it must not be! + +In this intense excitement which now seems to me to have bordered on +insanity, I reached the lodgings of the actor. He was greatly surprised +at seeing me, but received me with politeness, and conducted me from +the room in which I found him with one of his companions at the +theatre, into another apartment to hear what I had to say. + +But what had I to say? Good heavens, there was so much to be said, or +else so little! The _much_ I could not tell him, for I felt that I had +no right to disclose the secret, and that if I had revealed it, he +would have considered it a wretched device suggested by the prince's +cowardice. And the _little_--that the duel must not take place--what +good could that do? What could the man do but shrug his shoulders and +look sharply into my eyes to see if I was quite in my senses? He was a +young man with a face wasted by a life of dissipation, and yet +handsome, and with very expressive large dark eyes, and I felt how my +cheeks flushed under their steady gaze. Under their gaze, and at the +words which almost forced their way through my lips, the words that if +he desired vengeance on Constance's lover--one who had been her lover +at a time when he claimed her as his own--he should select the right +man--he should come to me rather than the prince. And though I bit my +lips to restrain myself from saying this, the words forced their way +through my teeth in a hoarse hissing tone, which the other probably +took for the accents of rage that could scarcely be controlled. + +"That is your business then," he said, rising from his chair. "A +favored or a betrayed lover, I do not know which. Very well: I shall +meet you, sir, you may rely upon it; and every one who has or pretends +to have any claim upon the lady's favor. But each in his turn, sir, +each in his turn; you have come some hours too late; and you will +perceive that I can settle with my antagonists only in the order in +which they present themselves. Is there any other way in which I can +serve you?" + +He made me a polite bow, as he finished, and added: "Through this +door"--indicating by a gesture--"you can pass at once into the hall." + +I had also arisen and stood facing him. I could have stricken this +slender delicate man, feeble and nerveless from a life of dissipation, +to the earth with a single blow; the puny arm which he extended towards +the door with a theatrical gesture as I hesitated, I could have crushed +in my hand. It was the only time in my life that I was ever tempted to +abuse my physical strength; but I withstood the temptation, and forced +myself out of the room and out of the house. + +The coach was still standing at the door. + +"Where am I to drive now?" asked the man. + +I directed him to Constance's lodging, and we drove off. It was bitter +cold, and the glass of the coach-window was encrusted with sleet, +the crystals of which sparkled and glittered in the light of the +street-lamps as we passed them. I noticed it, and mechanically counted +the seconds that elapsed until we passed another lamp, when I again +observed the sparkling and glittering, and recalled to mind certain +optical laws which seemed to bear upon this phenomenon, as if I had +nothing else in the world to do on my way to see Constance von Zehren, +Prince Prora's sister. + +The coach stopped. + +Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour--it was now probably eleven +o'clock--the door was opened at once; the hall and stairway were +lighted up: they seemed in this house to be accustomed to late arrivals +and departures. As I rang at the door upon which stood, in great golden +letters, "Ada Bellini, Actress at the Theatre Royal," I heard the +rustling of a dress inside, and the next moment Constance stood before +me. She had doubtless expected a different visitor, and started back +with a cry. I closed the door, caught her by the hand as, with a face +white with terror, she endeavored to escape, and said: + +"I must speak with you, Constance." + +"You want to murder me!" she said. + +"No; but I intend to prevent another being murdered on your account. +Come!" + +I drew her, half by force, into the brightly lighted, almost gorgeous +parlor which she had just left, leaving the door open after her, and +led her to a chair in which she took her seat, her eyes uneasily +watching all my movements. + +"Have no fear," I said. "Do not be in the least alarmed. Once in +long-past days you called me your faithful George, who was to kill all +the dragons lurking in your path. Hitherto I have had no opportunity; +or did not use it if I had. The hour is now come; but I cannot do it +alone: you must help me and will help me." + +"Are you assured of that?" she asked. + +Her face had suddenly assumed another expression; the terror which had +been previously imprinted upon it, had vanished and made way for a look +of dark hatred, the same look that it wore that night when she adjured +me to avenge her on the prince. + +I do not know how I found the words, but I said what I had come to say. + +"What does the prince pay you for it?" + +This question was her reply. + +It was the same reply that I had expected from the actor, and it was +not to hear this that I had held my tongue before him. Here it was +different: it was the sister to whom I was speaking: she _must_ believe +me: I must find the place in her heart: nature could not so belie +herself. + +And whether it was that I succeeded in touching the mysterious bond +that unites two beings whose veins flow with the same blood; whether it +was that Constance's clear intelligence could not reject the proof that +I offered, I saw that the dark look passed away from her face, and gave +way to a confusion, an astonishment, that passed into actual horror. + +"It was _that_, then!" she murmured; "_that_ was the reason! And +that then was the reason that I hated my father--no, he was not my +father--and that he hated me! That--but then _she_ must have known it! +no, no, it cannot be!" + +She had sprung from her chair. + +"Where are you going?" I asked, seizing her hand. + +She tore herself loose and rushed from the room. + +I remained, hesitating what to do; I feared for a moment she was going +to kill herself; and then I heard her coming back, not alone. + +She re-entered, dragging after her the decrepit form of an old woman, +whom under other circumstances I should have taken for a housekeeper or +something of the sort, and in whom I recognized, with a shudder of +disgust, old Pahlen. + +How this horrible creature, after her escape from prison, found her way +to her mistress, I never learned; but the closer the relations that had +existed, as mistress and servant, between them, the fiercer was the +rupture, and more frightful the reckoning. + +"Here! here!" cried Constance, dragging the woman almost to my feet, +"here she is! George. I adjure you by heaven and all that is holy, kill +this monster who would have plunged me into horrible crime." + +Constance's words, her passion, my presence, all combined overwhelmed +the wicked woman. I saw in her old wrinkled face, in the sidelong look +of her evil eyes, that she knew her guilt; and Constance saw it as well +as I; for as the creature with faltering words tried to frame some +excuse, she cut her short with a cry of rage, almost a yell, that long +after sounded in my ears; "Begone! out of my sight! wretch! monster!" + +The wretch was no doubt glad of the chance of escape for which her +sidelong eyes had been searching before, and rushed out of the door. I +never saw her again, and know not how long afterwards she dragged out +her wretched existence, nor when and how it ended. + +Constance was pacing up and down the room, with a face which showed her +entire conviction of the truth, and wringing her hands in anguish. +Suddenly she threw herself upon her knees in a corner of the room, and +seemed to pour forth her heart in agonized prayer. I observed that +where she knelt a small ivory crucifix was attached to the wall, and +that from time to time she separated her hands to make the sign of the +Cross, and then clasped them again in fervent prayer. Later I learned, +by chance, that Constance, when in Italy, had returned to the Catholic +church, the faith of her mother. Whatever spiritual peace she may have +afterwards found, after confession and long penance, as the abbess of a +Roman convent, at this moment her prayers seemed to be unavailing. She +arose from the crucifix only to fall at my feet, to clasp my knees, and +to beg me to avert the frightful consequences of what she had done. I +raised her, saying that I had already done all that was in my power, +and that I had come to her to learn if she could do nothing. + +"There is but one means," she said; "and that is to prevail if possible +upon Herr Lenz to quit the field--to leave here immediately." + +"How can we do that? The man is evidently your tool, the tool of your +revenge; and it is no longer in your control--or do you think it is?" + +"It may be, it may be," she said, in a low hurried tone. "He knows that +I do not love him; he knows about Carl, and that has made him furious; +but I know that he loves me, and that for the prize of my hand, which I +have always refused him, he would consent to anything--to anything! Am +I not fair enough, George, for a man to consent to anything for my +sake?" + +She threw back with trembling hands the dark lustrous masses of hair +from either side of her face, and smiled upon me. I have only once in +my life seen such a face, and that was when, in the Glyptothek at +Munich, I saw the Rondanini Medusa, and then the world-celebrated mask +seemed to me but a weak copy. + +"Come!" I said. She was about to start just as she was: I wrapped her +in a cloak of furs which she had probably worn from the theatre, and +which was lying on the floor. We left the house and drove to the +lodging of Herr von Sommer. The house was closed. Some minutes passed +before our repeated knocking brought the porter to the door. + +"Herr von Sommer set out half an hour ago." + +"Do you know where he was going?" + +"He did not say, further than that he would not be back for several +days." + +"Is no one in the house that can give further information?" + +"Hardly: he took his own servant with him." + +"You have no idea where he was going?" + +"None. He went in a _droschky_." + +I saw that nothing more was to be got out of the man, who stood +shivering in his sheepskin cloak; and in fact he cut short the +interview by shutting the door with a muttered oath. + +Constance who had followed me, had heard all. + +"Perhaps we can learn from _him_." + +We drove to the palace of the prince. Our progress was slow; a furious +gale was blowing, and the wretched horse could scarcely drag the coach +through the snow-drifts. I fancied that our own slow journey was an +emblem of repentance, which toils painfully after the evil deed that it +can never overtake. + +At last we reached the palace. As we got out, I cast an involuntary +look towards the sky. From a clear space, the blackness of which +contrasted with the white clouds that were driving with arrowy speed +across the sky, looked down upon us the calm eternal stars. The words +of Constance's favorite song came into my mind: + + "All day long the bright sun loves me, + Woos me with his glowing light; + But I better love the gentle + Stars of night." + + +Alas, this starry love had guided her far astray--had brought her at +last _here_, in this fearful night, to the house where the sister was +knocking at the door of her brother whom she had involved in the web of +death. + +The palace was dark; only the two lamps on either side the great +entrance were burning, and their golden light, in which the snow flakes +were once more fluttering down, shone dimly, as it had done a year +before at the unhappy meeting between us two at this very spot. + +I rang the bell: I heard its hollow clamor dully reverberating in the +hall of stone, as in a great sepulchral vault. No one came. At last +after minutes of agonizing expectation, the door was opened: a man in +his shirt-sleeves, with a light in his hand, stood before me. The +fellow's face was flushed with drinking and his eyes glassy; it was +evident that in the servants' hall the master's absence had been turned +to good account. He was about to close the door in my face, but I set +my foot against it and pushed in. The man then recognized me, having +seen me at the palace twice already to-day, and probably before at +Rossow. He answered my questions with disagreeable servility. His +highness had driven out half an hour before with the count; not in his +own carriage, but in a hired _droschky_ taken from the stand. He did +not know where his highness had gone; his highness often went out in a +_droschky_. He would certainly not be back until very late, if he came +back at all to-night. He, for his part, had leave to go to bed. + +It was evident that it was high time the fellow was making use of this +permission, for he tottered with sleep while he stammered out these +words. It was the same report that I had received at the other house: +both parties had already left the city, to go heaven only knew where: +somewhere where their meeting might be undisturbed. I said to Constance +that we could do no more. + +"I will go home and pray," she said. + +Was it a reminiscence from the tragedy in which she had been playing? +Was it really for her the close of the tragedy of her life? She spoke +no word further as we went home, except that once she said: + +"I have at least helped you to your happiness." + +I do not know what she meant. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + +When I reached home it was one o'clock--a fact which I could scarcely +comprehend. It seemed to me as if not hours but weeks had elapsed since +I parted from Hermine. I went on tip-toe to her room and bent over her +bed, where she lay sleeping, one arm beneath her head, like a +slumbering child. And like that of a child was the expression of her +face, as though a happy dream were passing through her spirit. It +seemed to me like a crime to sit watching, with a world of sorrow and +anguish in my soul, by the side of this blessed peace; and yet slumber +was impossible to me. So I put the shade before the night-lamp again, +and went to my own bed-chamber where I had already lighted a lamp. + +In the dim light of this lamp which only made a few objects in the room +visible while the rest were plunged in darkness, I sat for hours before +the hearth in which the last spark had long died out from the ashes, +revolving in my breast thoughts indescribably painful. In vain did I +endeavor to recall my old cheerful courage; it seemed to have died out, +like the embers in the ashes before me, which had once glowed as +brightly and sparkled as cheerfully: in vain did I try to bring to my +memory all the goodness and kindness that life had brought me hitherto, +and in which it still was rich; nothing would appear to me in the old +light: all was empty, gray, and dead, as though the world were but a +scene of devastation and decay, and I were wandering comfortless and +alone, among the ruins of splendors long passed away. + +A reaction from my excessive excitement must have overcome me at last. +I dreamed that there was a gray twilight that was neither night nor +day. I was wandering alone upon the bleak ridge of the promontory at +Zehrendorf, and a bitter piercing wind was blowing from the sea. All +was waste and desolate, and there was nothing to be seen but the ruin +of the old Zehrenburg, which rose dumb and defiant in the twilight. But +when I looked at it, it was not the old castle, but a gigantic statue +of stone, which was the Wild Zehren looking with dull glazed eyes +towards the west, where his sun had set forever in the eternal sea. And +though no light illuminated the gray twilight, a bright glitter flashed +from a golden chain which was on the neck of the stone giant who was +the Wild Zehren, and spurs of gold gleamed upon his feet of stone, and +brightly flashed the bare blade of the broad knight's sword which lay +across his knees of stone. And as, full of inward terror, I watched the +statue, a small figure came through the tall broom and drew near the +stone giant, which it crept lurkingly around, and watched from all +sides. And the queer small figure was the commerzienrath, and he made +the oddest faces and cut the strangest capers when he found the giant +was so fast asleep. Suddenly he began to clamber up the knees, then +stood upon tip-toe and took the golden chain from the giant's neck and +hung it around his own, then sprang down and took the sword, and lastly +the golden spurs, which he buckled on. Then with ridiculous pomposity +he strode backwards and forwards in the knight's accoutrements, and +tried to brandish the sword, but could not lift it, while his spurs +kept catching in the high broom and tripping him, and the heavy chain +upon his shoulders pressed him down, so that he suddenly became a +decrepit and bowed old man who could scarcely stand upon his feet, and +still tried to balance himself like a rope-dancer, upon the sharp edge +of the precipice where the chalk-cliff fell perpendicularly to the sea. +I strove to call to him to have a care for Hermine's sake, but I could +neither speak nor move; and suddenly he fell over the cliff. I heard +the heavy fall of his body upon the pebbly beach, and the giant begun +to laugh, a laugh so loud, so terrible that I awakened in fright, and +with wildly-beating heart looked around the room, into which, through +the curtains, there fell a gray twilight which was neither night nor +day, just as it had been in my dream, and I still heard the resonant +peals of laughter, but they were blows with which some impatient hand +was battering at the house-door. I hastened to open it myself. + +"What is the matter?" I asked. + +"A message for Herr Hartwig, and--and--ah! you are there yourself, Herr +Hartwig, I see." + +It was a servant from the hotel at which for many years my +father-in-law had been in the habit of stopping whenever he came to the +town. + +"Yes; what is the matter?" + +"My master sends his respects, and--and the Herr Commerzienrath has +just been found dead in his bed." + +I stared aghast into the face of the man: he probably thought that I +had not understood him, and stammered out his awkward message again; +but I had perfectly well understood him at first; that is, I had +understood the meaning of his words. The commerzienrath has been found +dead in his bed. That is very easily said, and as easily understood. +The commerzienrath had been found dead in his bed. + +"I will come at once," I said. + +The man hastened off; I went back to my room, put on my overcoat and +hat, took a pair of dark gloves instead of the light ones I had worn +the previous evening--all quite mechanically, as if I were going out +about some ordinary business. "The commerzienrath has been found dead +in his bed," I repeated, as I would have repeated a report brought to +the office that a belt had broken in such and such a shop. + +Then suddenly a pang darted through me as if a dagger had been thrust +into my breast. + +"Poor child!" I muttered, "poor child, how will she bear it? But there +is so much misfortune in the world; so much misfortune, and he was an +old man." + +Thus I left the house, in which the inmates already began to be +stirring. + +"You are going out early this morning," said the porter, coming out of +his lodge. "Anything happened at the works?" + +I did not answer: not until I had reached the street did I comprehend +the meaning of the man's words. It was now near seven o'clock, and +already clear daylight. The wind had hauled to westward, and was +blowing hard. It was raining: streams of water poured from the roofs, +and the heavy snow that had fallen in the night was mostly changed into +gray slush, through which the bakers' and milkmens' carts were toiling +heavily. I was shivering, and said to myself that it was a very +disagreeable morning; but no other feeling awakened in me. At a corner +I met a hearse with no following of carriages; the driver upon his high +seat had pulled his cocked hat down over his face; the broken-down +horses were going at a half-trot; the hearse slipped about in the +slush, and the threadbare black pall that was hung over the hearse +flapped to and fro in the wind. + +"That cannot be the commerzienrath," I said, looking after the hearse +with a vacant mind. + +Thus I reached the hotel. + +"Number eleven: first door to the right at the top of the stairs," said +the porter. + +He accompanied me up the stairs, more, no doubt, from curiosity than +sympathy, and told me that the Herr Commerzienrath had arrived in the +last train yesterday evening, and he had been ordered to wake the +commerzienrath at half-past six this morning, as he had a note to send +to Herr Hartwig. He knocked at the door punctually to the minute, and +the Herr Commerzienrath had called out quite plainly: "Very well; let +Louis bring my coffee;" and when ten minutes later, Louis took the +coffee up, the commerzienrath did not answer, and they found he was +dead. Who would have expected it? Such a robust old gentleman! And they +sent off at once for Doctor Snellius, because he was Herr Hartwig's +family physician, and the doctor would certainly be here in a minute. +"This door, Herr Hartwig, this door." + +The door was ajar. The landlord, the head-waiter, and another man, if I +remember rightly, were standing in the large room, into which the dim +light fell through the half-drawn curtains. At the farther end of the +room was a bed, before which two lights were burning on a small table. + +"We left everything as we found it," said the landlord in a low tone, +as he went with us to the bed. "It is a rule with me in such cases to +exercise the greatest discretion. One has then no reason to reproach +oneself, and avoids much inconvenience. The Herr Commerzienrath is +lying precisely as Louis found him; and there lies the tray with coffee +where Louis put it down." + +There lay the tray with coffee where Louis had put it down, and there +lay the commerzienrath as Louis had found him. The light from the two +candles, their long wicks unsnuffed, fell brightly enough upon his face +into which I now gazed. It was the third time in my life that I had +looked closely into the face of the dead. And naturally the other two +faces rose in my memory; that of the Wild Zehren, that of my dear and +fatherly friend, and now here was this. In the sombre features of the +Wild Zehren had lain gloomy defiance, like those of an Indian chief, +who, bound fast to the death-stake, sings taunting songs at his +tormentors; upon the mild face of his noble brother had lain a sublime +calm, as upon the face of one who dies for the sake of others. How +different was the face before me! About the large mouth hovered +something like the mocking smile which he usually wore when he thought +he had overreached any one; his eyes half shut, as he used to shut them +when he wished to hide his real meaning: over all the old, wrinkled, +yellow face was spread the deceitful cloud in which he loved to hide +himself, only that the cloud was drawn now a little closer than usual, +and it was not his old cuttle-fish man[oe]uvre, but death. + +"And we were so cheerful last night," whispered the host. "We sat in +the dining-room until half-past one, and drank three bottles of +champagne. The Railroad Director Schwelle was with us. I have warned +the old gentleman often enough; at his years one should be more +prudent. And such a clear head! Such a head for business! And here lies +the note that was to be sent to you this morning." + +It was a leaf apparently torn from his pocket-book, with half a page of +writing on it; the pencil with which he had written, lay by it. I took +up the paper; the characters were very legible, even firmer than his +writing usually was of late: + + +"DEAR SON: I arrived here yesterday evening, and would like to speak +with you before you go home from the works. May I ask you to wait for +me? I must first go on 'Change, where I shall meet many envious faces +to-day. They will see to-day how soon an old hand can grind little +notches out of his blade. But more of this when we meet. If you are +engaged out, please excuse yourself, as I should like to sit at your +table once more. But no preparations for me, I beg. Only, if you can +manage it conveniently, my favorite dish, Magdeburg cabbage, and a +little----" + + +The bill of fare was broken off, and here lay the guest. + +"Death overtook him while he was writing," said the landlord, whose +discretion had not hindered him from looking over my shoulder into the +paper. "How sudden it comes, sometimes!" + +At this moment the doctor stood among us: I had not heard him enter. He +nodded to me without speaking, and leaned over the dead man. Thus he +remained sometime and then he raised himself up and said to the +landlord: + +"I wish you would heat for me about a wine-glassful of pure Jamaica +rum. It must be perfectly pure rum, and must be brought to a boil. You +would probably do better to look after it yourself." + +"Certainly, certainly," said the landlord. "It is my duty in such cases +to do everything that lies in my power." + +"And do you go and see that I get it at once; and you, young man, tell +my driver to wait for me." + +"Yes sir," said both the waiters at once, and hastened after the +landlord. + +"Have you any hope?" I asked. + +The doctor did not answer. He gave a hurried glance at the door, then +stepped again to the bed, threw back the coverlid which the dead man +had drawn up over breast and arms as high as the chin, and then I saw +that he took out a small phial which he had probably found under the +cover in the stiffened hand of the corpse. He smelled its contents +cautiously for a moment, then wrapped it in a piece of paper and put it +in his waistcoat pocket. + +"Unless there is some especial reason for it," he said, "your wife need +not know that her father has poisoned himself." + +I groaned aloud. + +"Courage! courage!" said the doctor; "this is a world in which things +are often desperately dark. But this cannot be helped now, and you have +to think of your wife and children." + +As I went home an hour later, the wind was howling as furious as ever +through the rainy streets, and at the same corner I met the same +hearse, now coming back in a slouching trot as before. I looked at it +without the least emotion or feeling, which seemed indeed to have +perished forever in my breast. Yes, yes, the doctor was right: it was +often desperately dark in this world; and I do not know that it would +have seemed darker to me had I known what I did not know, that in the +palace of the prince, which I had to pass on my way home, behind +the lowered curtains, the last of the male line of the princes of +Prora-Wiek, counts of Ralow, was giving up his young life under the +hands of the surgeons. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + +It is often desperately dark in this world; who can say: "It cannot be +darker now?" + +When I reached home there was a running and a calling--something had +happened. An hour before she had rung for me, and I was not to be +found. "She was taken in a dreadful way; but luckily what was most +needed was ready at hand; for the doctor----" + +"He is close behind me," I said, and hurried into the room, from which +came the most heart-breaking cries. + +"Courage, dearest friend, courage," said the doctor an hour or two +later: "it is a little too soon, and--but there are often worse cases, +I think--but stay here a few minutes and breathe a little fresh air; +you are terribly excited; you cannot bear it." + +"She has to bear it," I cried, wringing my hands. + +"Of course," he answered. "Come with me." + +The day was fine, notwithstanding the cold night and the gray rainy +morning; the March sun had broken gloriously through the clouds, and +shone dazzlingly from the clear-blue sky: the thawing snow was dropping +from all the roofs and pouring from all the rain-spouts, and in the +thick branches of the trees of the garden upon which the windows +opened, birds were fluttering and twittering, proclaiming that winter +was at last over and the spring had come. + +But I had no ear for this proclamation: I had no faith in the blue sky +and the running water; I awaited other tidings--awaited them with +fervent prayers and passionate vows, such as men offer in the time of +sore extremity; and the tidings came at sunset, in a tiny piping voice +that seemed to go directly to my heart. + +Yes, now it was spring. I saw the spring sunlight in the happy smile of +the pale young mother; I saw the bright spring sky in her blue eyes +that looked smilingly up to me in a soft tremulous light such as I had +never before seen in them, and then were turned with beaming love upon +her babe. + +"It is a girl, after all," she whispered. "You will spoil her terribly, +and love her a great deal more than me; but I will not be jealous, I +promise you." + +And the next day the sun was shining again, and the heaven still blue +and the birds jubilant. + +"If the weather keeps so fine, we can soon go to Zehrendorf," she said. +"It is very well that you have not come to a definite settlement with +the prince. He has been very kind and obliging to us, it is true, but +still I think you had better reconsider the matter with my father. Why +does my father not come? You have written to him, haven't you?" + +"Certainly; but he had started on a journey. And you must not talk so +much." + +"I feel quite strong: I only wish I could give the little one some of +my strength. Oh me! such a giant as you are, George, and such a tiny +morsel of a babe! But it has your eyes, sir!" + +"I hope it has yours, madame." + +"Why so?" + +"Because then it would have the loveliest in the world." + +"What a flatterer! But to come back to Zehrendorf: we will have to keep +it on account of the child, which will need country air, the doctor +says. I can see us both sitting under the great beech which I saved +because you carved your name on it--for somebody else, sir!--and now to +be sitting with wife and child, a prosaic, common-place husband, where +you once stood full of romantic dreams--is it not very comical?" + +"Oh yes, it is inexpressibly comical; but now you really must not talk +any more." + +"Your commands shall be obeyed, my lord." + +And her blue eyes laughed so saucily, and she was so full of life and +hope and happiness, so merry, and full, of mirthful fancies; it cut me +to the heart when I saw and heard her, and had to leave her, under the +pretext of urgent business, to go and bury her father, who had killed +himself to avoid the disgrace of a shameful bankruptcy. And this day +too was a bright golden day of spring; only here and there were these +drops falling from the roofs, for the bright sun and warm air had dried +the moisture; in the sky, making it a still deeper blue, were standing +great white clouds, and the birds in the budding trees were thinking +seriously of setting up housekeeping--who could help looking cheerfully +in spite of all, into the future that was to make all right? Who would +not shake off his winter cares when he saw how everything was springing +and budding and blooming? But-- + + One night in spring there came a frost; + It nipped the tender blossoms. + + +Let this sad refrain of the old song say for me what I cannot bring +myself to narrate in words. It needs no comment; nor do the two fresh +graves, one larger and one tiny hillock, close side by side; nor the +flowers which loving hands have strewn above them. + + + One night in spring there came a frost; + It nipped the tender blossoms. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Only work can make us free! + +I had opportunity enough in the two following years to test this +leading aphorism of the wisdom of my teacher, in all its bearings. + +Work indeed made me free. + +But free from what? + +First from the meshes of the dishonest web in which the association +with my father-in-law had involved me, the meshes from which he for his +part had torn himself swiftly loose by a self-inflicted death, and from +which I gradually disengaged myself with incredible toil, which I had +to disentangle, untie, straighten out, if I would not let disgrace and +obloquy rest upon the name of the man who had been the father of my +wife. + +It came to light that, like a desperate player, he had given up the +game before it was quite lost. But in truth that is not exactly the +right word. It was lost for him; for what alone could have saved him, +could have set him free, as it set me free who took his obligations +upon myself, was conscientious, honest, manly work. But this was to him +impossible: he had never accustomed himself to it, had never believed +in its efficacy and its mighty results. When I spoke with enthusiasm to +him of the future that would bloom for our enterprises, and that out of +the waste place of ruins that he had despised for so many years, there +would arise a star of life and prosperity whose genial influences would +extend far and wide, he only smiled in contemptuous incredulity, and +called me an enthusiast, a dreamer, who would end by burning his +fingers, or at best would only pull the sweet chestnuts out of his +furnace-fires for others to feast upon. + +And he had gone on and gambled on upon 'Change, in stocks, in foreign +loans, in spirits, in cotton, in heaven knows what, just as he had +formerly gambled in contraband goods and in uninsured ships, until at +last the cards so fell that he saw no escape but to quit at once the +table and his life. + +I could never rid myself of the thought that the shame of having to +appear so small before me, to whom he had always so vaunted himself; to +have to admit that I was right with my stupid honesty; the shame of +this it was, I say, drove to his death the man who had inordinate +vanity, but not a trace of genuine pride. He knew that it was all over +with his wisdom, his superiority; and worst of all, it was all over +with his authority: and he grudged me what was to come in the future, +since I had so often, both in jest and earnest, foretold him that a new +time had come; an age of brotherhood, of equity, of justice, of mutual +help; and that the old egotism with its narrow schemes, its little +tricks and petty craft, would perish at the coming of the great new +era. + +Perhaps one or another of my readers may think that in thus prophesying +I drew too largely on my hopes and fancies, and that the golden time of +which I spoke lies still as then upon the lap of the gods. + +But I am merely writing the history of my own life; and I can only say +that if my temperament be sanguine and my views inclined to optimism, +my own experiences in these things have not rendered turbid the free +current of my blood, nor shaken my pious belief in the better qualities +of human nature and beyond all, my faith in the approaching triumph of +goodness and truth, even in our own day. Wherever industry and +uprightness have gone hand in hand, in those provinces where I am most +at home--the provinces of industry and commerce--there and only there +have I seen permanent successes achieved; and if in politics it now and +then appears otherwise, this is but an appearance destined soon to +vanish and disclose the stern reality. + +But, as I said, I am only writing the story of my own life, which has +taught me this lesson first and chiefest of all, and at no time were +the lessons more impressive than at the period of which I am now +speaking. And had I been the worst of pessimists, the most splenetic of +misanthropes, the proofs of love, of kindness, and of devotion which +were offered me on all sides, would have taught me another and a better +faith. + +On all sides, even where I had least expected them. + +For instance from the old man whom during the building of the new +factory I had often seen in dressing-gown and slippers, a little black +cap on his bald head, and a long pipe in his toothless mouth, standing +by the paling which separated the building-place from the gardens +behind it, and with whom I had occasionally exchanged a few friendly +words, without knowing or asking who he was. This old man came to see +me on one of the first days of my trials, while my business misfortunes +and my domestic afflictions were dealing me blow after blow, and +introduced himself as Herr Weber, the former owner of the ground. He +had heard, he said, that my deceased father-in-law's affairs were not +in the best condition, and he had come to say to me that as for the +payment I need be in no hurry--(my father-in-law had assured me that +the purchase had been paid for to the last farthing)--and that he saw +what trouble I was in, and that I had never shunned to give my personal +help wherever it was necessary. As for the old gentleman, he would +never have lent him a penny; but when active young men like myself +needed it, he had always a few thousands at their service, say twenty +or forty as might be wanted, and if they would be of any help to me, I +might come and see him when I pleased. + +A day or two later came a letter in a big school-boy hand and the +queerest spelling, from the good Hans, to the effect that there was a +considerable portion left of his mother's fortune, which was entirely +at his disposal, and that it was at my service to the last penny; but +as he could not lay hands upon the cash at once, he had in the meantime +instituted a very thorough search in his desk and in all his coats, +with astonishingly successful results, and he expected of my friendship +that I would allow him to send me this sum without delay. Moreover, I +knew, he said, that he was a better manager than he seemed to be, and +if I would permit him to canter over every day to Zehrendorf and look +after things a little there, it would be a real kindness both to his +bay horse and himself. + +I scarcely need mention that the good doctor offered me his capital for +the third time; but this and all the rest did not move me so much, nor +exercise such an influence on my future, as the proposition made to me +by a deputation of the workmen of the factory, with Herr Roland at +their head as spokesman. They had heard, he said, that matters were not +in the condition they should be, and that there was danger that the +works would pass into other hands; that this possibility was very +alarming to them, and they had unanimously resolved to avert it, if it +lay at all within their power. They therefore begged to inquire if it +would in any way diminish my embarrassments if they one and all agreed +to a reduction of wages until the danger was over, and I was in a +condition to make good the arrears; releasing me at the same time from +all responsibility in case the hoped-for turn of affairs did not come +to pass. + +It was some time before I could so far control my emotion as to be able +to answer, and then I said to the brave fellows that I could never +agree to accept their generous offer; not because I was ashamed to be +under an obligation to my comrades, but because, thanks to the friendly +assistance I had received from other sources, I was in a position to +fulfil all my engagements to them. + +But I had something else, I said, in view. And here I unfolded to them +a project which I had long planned with the doctor and Klaus, upon the +model of similar enterprises in England, by which each of the workmen, +according to the degree of his skill and merit, became a participator +in the establishment. I told them that a time of uncertainty, a crisis +like the present, was not suitable for putting this plan into +execution, but that I was more resolved than ever to exert all my +powers to bring about a fitting time, and that I hoped to be able to +offer the matter to them definitely, perhaps within a year. + +And before a year had passed, I was able to redeem my word. + +Nor was I less fortunate in regard to the second point, which I had +held to with a kind of passion while I gave up so much else so +willingly: Zehrendorf still remained in my possession, and I had not +been forced to abandon a single one of the useful improvements that had +been commenced there. On the contrary, all was thriving and prospering; +and I had even commenced a new work, the draining of the great moor, +with the best results. The property was now worth, if not the price +which the commerzienrath had demanded for it, still very nearly that +which the generous young prince had offered at our memorable interview. +I could not look without sadness at the letter which he had written to +me that evening, before I went to him the second time, in which he +placed his credit at my disposal to an extent far exceeding the sum +mentioned. What had become of the other letter in which he called upon +his father to make good this offer, in the event of his falling in the +duel? Doubtless it never reached the hands for which it was intended, +for the old prince, who survived his son several years, was a man of +generous and noble character, and would have held sacred the last wish +of his unfortunate son. And the dishonesty of those who intercepted +this letter turned to my advantage. I should certainly, in those first +days of trial and confusion, have parted at once with the property had +the proposition been made to me; but as no one offered to buy it, and I +was not disposed to throw it away for a fourth of its value to Herr von +Granow, I was compelled to keep it, and I was enabled to keep it, +thanks to the generous help of my good Hans, and--why should I not say +it? thanks to my own untiring exertions. + +But I had to thank labor for yet more than this. As she set me free +from the load of indebtedness which my father-in-law had suddenly +thrown upon my shoulders, so she bathed me in dragon's blood until I +was invulnerable to the keen arrows of grief which at first pierced my +heart at the loss of my wife and my child. It is true that under the +covering of apparent insensibility remained a deep-seated sorrow; but +the tears which I often wept in the evening when I came home after the +toils of the day to my solitary room, or when I awaked in the night to +a sense of my loneliness, had no longer the old corrosive bitterness; +they flowed gently, and less for my own loss than at the thought that +one so loving, so gentle, so graceful, so full of innocent mirth and +lightheartedness had been so untimely summoned away. And yet here too +there was something which almost seemed a consolation. As her father +had never loved any creature upon earth but her, so she had loved him +dearly, however often he may have wounded her pride and sensibility by +his coarse and dishonorable nature. His death, the cause of which could +not be altogether kept secret, would have been a fearful blow to her; +and how could she have passed through this time of trouble, of +comparative poverty, this almost desperate struggle, she, who from her +earliest youth had found life a long festival, and who only knew +struggles and poverty by hearsay? How could she have borne to know that +her husband of whom she was so proud, whom her love placed so high +above all other men, was a debtor to his friends? And could she have +entered with her whole heart into the feast in which the chief of the +establishment and his workmen celebrated the founding of their +co-operative association, and I declared that from henceforth the +distinction between us of master and workmen was at an end; that we +were all workmen and all masters in one common cause. Could she have +adapted herself to these relations? Of a truth she could! For her love +for me was greater than her pride. + +She would have adapted herself to it, for she could well play a part +when she thought it necessary to do so; but to enter into it, to throw +her heart into it, that she could never have done; and this thought +remained like a faint dimness upon her lovely portrait, which all my +love and endearing memories could not wipe away. I had to admit to +myself that in the tasks which were dearest and most sacred to me, I +must have been alone. + +Alone! + +I do not know whether there are men who can endure the sense of being +alone; but I know certainly that I do not belong to such. And I was +alone for the first time for many, many years; far more alone than in +that solitary apprenticeship I passed in the little house among the +ruins. There I had at least had the dreams of a golden future for my +companions; now this future lay behind me as a past, as something +irrevocably gone. I called myself ungrateful: there was still so much +left to me, and above all, my dear, my beloved friends. There was the +good Doctor Snellius, there was my brave Klaus, there, over on the +island, was my faithful old Hans, and even good Fräulein Duff might +have been near me, if her parents--now very aged--in Saxony, with whom +she was staying, could have been prevailed upon to part with her. And +before all, there were Kurt and Benno, now grown tall stately young +men, and whom I often sportively called my staff and my prop. + +In earnest as well as in sport: for Kurt had now become the soul of the +Technical Bureau, and the superiority of his knowledge and his talents +freely acknowledged by all, even by Herr Windfang; and Benno, who, half +from natural inclination and half from affection to me, had turned +farmer, knew how to turn his knowledge of natural science to such +account at Zehrendorf as to astonish all who understood what he was +doing. + +In truth I had no lack of friends, not to mention the hundreds of +stalwart men in the midst of whom I lived, and who would have gone +through fire and water at a sign from me, and it would have been +ungrateful, shamefully ungrateful, had I spoken of being alone, so I +did not speak of it; but I was alone, and I felt it, nor could all my +labor banish this feeling--indeed it seemed to strengthen it. + +"You have worked too hard," said the doctor. "Even such a nature +as yours cannot keep this up. You must break away--take a +journey--recreate yourself a little. One should study the Brunels and +the Stephensons on their own ground, as one studies Raphael and Michel +Angelo. Only don't stay away so long as Paula." + +The doctor seemed to have startled himself by associating my name thus +with Paula's; at least he tuned himself down with an especially +energetic effort, looked at me rather doubtfully through his round +spectacle-glasses, and said, as if in answer to a question on my part: + +"She is very well, and enjoying herself extremely; she writes to me +from Meran----" + +And the doctor began to hunt for the letter in his old fashion. + +"From Meran?" I asked; "how long has she been there?" + +"About--let me see--about a week. I thought a short stay there would be +beneficial to her. The prolonged stay in the Italian climate does not +seem to suit her." + +"But I thought you said just now, doctor, that she was very well?" + +"Well, so I did--that is to say--what I mean was--of course she is +well; but better is better, and she has been there now long enough. +Oscar stays behind in Rome. Has not Kurt told you all about it?" + +"Not a word, from which I infer that he does not know it himself. Paula +corresponds with scarcely any one but you." + +"Well, I believe that is so," answered the doctor, "and I know I ought +to read her letters now and then to you and the boys; but somehow it +always happens----" + +And the doctor made another dive into his breast-pocket, then, as if in +desperation, crammed his battered hat upon his large bald head, and +hurried off, leaving me once more in absolute uncertainty as to what +really were the contents of Paula's letters, which he was always +rummaging his pockets for without ever finding. + +That their contents had, directly or indirectly, some reference to me, +was not to be doubted; for what other reason could the doctor have had +in concealing these letters from me so carefully? But my conjectures +could penetrate no further than this; and I was obliged to admit to +myself, with deep grief, that I could no longer understand Paula. And I +also could not avoid the thought that she was herself responsible for +this, and that it was the result of her own conduct, if my dearest +friend, my sister, as she had so often called herself, had become a +stranger and a riddle to me. And why? I did not know, nor could I +fathom the cause. Was it a fault in me that I once loved her with all +the strength of my young, buoyant, confiding soul? That after she had +so often, under such different circumstances, and in so many ways, +rejected my love, I had become like a ship torn from its anchor and +driven rudderless upon a rough sea? Was it a fault that even in my love +for Hermine, I could not forget her, though I knew that she would +remain forever distant from me, and that I had in future only to look +up to her as to the high inaccessible stars? Must I pay so heavy a +penalty for what was as natural to me as to breathe? Must she on this +account exclude me from the council of her heart, in which I had before +been so proud of my place; and forbid my participation in her hopes, +her plans, her wishes, her triumphs, and perhaps her disappointments? +Must she for this deny the cordial interest which she had once felt for +me, and deny it at a time when all my friends crowded around to help me +with word and deed, and when she had nothing for me but two or three +lines which she wrote from Rome, containing scarcely anything but the +expression of a sympathy which in such cases is felt by mere +acquaintances? + +I had become a stranger to her, that was plain; or I should have heard +her sweet consoling voice in the dark hours that followed Hermine's +death. And she had grown a stranger to me: I scarcely knew more of her +than did the indifferent crowd that stood before her pictures at the +exhibition. I knew as little as they why she, whose fresh venturous +power had charmed and astonished every one in her first pictures, now +for a long time seemed only to take pleasure in melancholy themes--in +views in the most desolate parts of the Campagna, where sad-featured +peasants watched their goats among the ruins of long-past splendor; in +scenes upon the Calabrian coast where a burning sun glowed pitilessly +between the bare pointed rocks, and the solitude and desertion seemed +to sink into the beholder's soul. How did the choice of such subjects, +and the strangely serious, even gloomy coloring, agree with the +cheerful frame of mind which, according to the doctor's report, she +continually enjoyed? + +"Only one who is deeply unhappy can paint thus," I once heard a lady +dressed in mourning remark to her companion, as they stood before one +of these pictures. + +"Of late her pictures have shown a great falling-off," said a critic +whose judgment carried great weight in the city. "Such pictures please, +because they flatter a certain leaning towards pessimism which belongs +to most men of our time; but all largeness of conception and treatment +is wanting. I might say here is an egotistic sorrow which is forcibly +imposed upon nature. The execution, too, leaves much to be desired: +look here, and here"--and the critic pointed to several places which he +pronounced weak. "But her younger brother is a genius indeed," he went +on. "Have you seen his _aquarelles_? Heavens! what fire and what life! +And he is still little more than a boy they say. He will be at the top +of the tree before long, mind my words." + +It seemed that the public did not altogether agree with the critic in +his estimation of Paula's talents; at all events they fairly fought for +her pictures, and paid the highest prices for them. I, for my part, did +not trust myself to form a judgment, and in fact I had none; I only +knew that if Paula enjoyed such unbroken happiness and cheerfulness as +the doctor reported, she gave this cheerfulness the strangest +expression in the world. + +The conversation in which the doctor informed me that Paula and her +mother were staying at Meran, took place in February, nearly two years +after my misfortunes. In the beginning of the summer I heard again from +him that she was making sketching excursions in the Salzkammergut and +Tyrol, and somewhat later, that she would pass the latter part of the +summer in Thüringen. + +"She keeps coming nearer, nearer, all the time," said the doctor; "will +you not now undertake your long-planned trip to England?" + +"It seems," said I, looking straight into the doctor's spectacles, +"that you think I ought to celebrate Paula's return by my own absence." + +"I do not see how you arrive at this singular conclusion," said the +doctor. + +"Nor do I see how otherwise to interpret your suggestion that I should +go away when Paula comes." + +"Your wits are certainly wandering," he answered. + +A few weeks later he surprised me with the news that he thought of +taking a journey the next morning to J., the Thüringian town in which +Paula was staying. Her health seemed to be not so good as he could +wish, though it was true her letters were as cheerful as usual--here +the doctor made a motion toward his breast-pocket--but he would rather +see her for himself; it was but a "cat's jump," and he thought of +returning the next day. + +"Bring her back with you," I said; "perhaps she would like to stay +awhile here again." + +The doctor looked at me fixedly. + +"I would very gladly do you and her the pleasure of being absent when +she returns," I continued; "but I really can not now well leave the +works for any length of time; and perhaps it will be sufficient if you +tell her, doctor, that I have suffered much in the last twelve months, +and also learned much; for example, to use your own expression, my +friend, to live with half a heart. Will you tell her that?" + +I had done my best to speak as firmly as possible, but could not +prevent my voice from trembling a little at the last words, and my hand +also trembled, which the doctor held fast between both his own small +and delicate hands, while he looked steadfastly into my face through +his round spectacle-glasses. + +"Will you?" I repeated, a little confused. + +"I certainly will not!" exclaimed the doctor, suddenly dropping my +hand, pushing me back into the chair from which I had risen, and +walking in an agitated manner up and down the room; then suddenly +stopping before me, he crowed in his shrillest tones: + +"I certainly will not! I am sick of this game of hide-and-seek, and out +it must come, happen what may. Do you know, sir, or do you not know, +that Paula loves you? Do you know, or do you not know, that she has +loved you for ten years? that she has loved you from the hour when you +saved her father from the axe of that murderous scoundrel--I can't +remember his name. That with this love for you she has grown from the +half child you first knew her, to womanhood? and that from that time +there has been no hour of her life when she has not loved you, and +certainly most of all at the times when she has seemed to love you +least--for example at the time when you, you brainless mammoth, were +fancying she was captivated by Arthur, who was tormenting her about +you, and asking whether it was right and fair for the daughter of a +prison-superintendent to make an inexperienced young man, condemned to +only seven years' imprisonment, a prisoner for life? Have you any idea +what it cost the poor girl to conceal her love from you? What it cost +her to play the part of a sister and only a sister towards you, that +you might remain unfettered to grasp boldly at whatever was highest and +fairest in the world, and be able to mount the ladder upon whose +topmost round the high-spirited girl wished to see the man she loved? +What it cost her to send you to Zehrendorf to win the bride she had +destined for you? What it cost her to turn a smiling face upon your +happiness! And finally, what, it cost her not to hasten to you in your +misfortunes, not to be able to say to you: 'Here, take my life, my +soul--all, all is yours?' I ask you for the last time, do you know +this, sir, or do you not?" In his excitement the doctor's voice had +reached a pitch from which all tuning down was impossible. He did not +even make the attempt, but instead, tore off his spectacles, stared +angrily at me with his sparkling brown eyes, put on his glasses again, +crammed his hat upon his flushed skull until it covered his ears, +turned abruptly upon his heel and made for the door. + +In two strides I overtook him. + +"Doctor," I said, catching him by the arm, "how would it do if you let +me go to-morrow in your place?" + +"Do whatever you like!" he cried, running out of the room and banging +the door behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +There come days in our lives which we afterwards remember as some +blessed dream which knows nothing of earthly sufferings or earthly +restrictions, in which we soar as on the pinions of eagles, strong and +high above all the little pitiful obstacles that otherwise so +lamentably hamper our feet. + +Of such dream-like beauty was the day on which I took the most +memorable journey of my life: a wonderful summer day, whose glorious +brightness was not marred by the smallest cloud, and yet palpitating in +a mild balmy air that played around my cheeks and brow, while the train +whirled in rattling speed through the lovely Thüringian country. It was +the first journey I had made in my life, at least the first that was +not a business trip, and the first also that took me from my northern +home into the sunny plains of Middle Germany. The novelty of the +scenery probably helped to make everything appear to me doubly graceful +and lovely: I could not satiate myself with gazing at the soft +undulating lines of the hills; at the sharply-defined crags whose +summits were crowned with ruined fortresses and ancient keeps, and +whose feet were laved by the clear water of winding rivers; at the +flowing meadow-lands in which lines of trees with foliage of brightest +green marked the courses of the streams; at the cities and towns that +lay so peacefully in the valley, and at the little villages that +nestled so cosily among the trees. It was not Sunday, but all these +things wore a Sunday look, even the men who were working alone in the +fields and stopped to look as the train rushed by, or those gathered in +the neat stations where we stopped. It was as if everybody was +travelling only for pleasure, and that even taking farewell was not +painful on such a lovely day. And then the meetings of friends--the +happy faces, the hand-shaking and kissing and embracing! Every one of +these scenes I watched with the liveliest interest, and always with a +feeling of emotion, as if I had a portion in it myself. + +Thus I arrived in the afternoon at E., where I quitted the railroad and +engaged a carriage from a number that were at the station to take me +the remaining distance. We soon left the level land and entered a +valley through which the road to "the forest" ran in many windings +between hills on either side. The journey lasted several hours, and the +sun was already declining as we slowly toiled up a mountain the +steepest of all, "but the last," said the driver. We had both descended +and were walking on either side the large and powerful horses, and +keeping the flies off them with pine branches. + +"Woa!" cried the driver; the horses stopped. + +We had reached the summit, and stopped to let the horses blow a little. + +"That is our pride," said the man, as I looked with astonishment at a +primeval and gigantic oak which grew here in an open space in the heart +of the pine forest, and spread its gnarled and weather-beaten boughs +far up against the blue sky. + +"That is a great curiosity," he went on. "People come from miles and +miles to see that tree; and it has been painted I don't know how often. +Not many days ago a young lady, who has been staying with us a few +weeks, came here and made a picture of it. I drove her here myself; I +often drive her about." + +Absorbed in my own thoughts hitherto, I had, contrary to my usual +custom, spoken but little with the man, and indeed scarcely noticed +him, and now it seemed as if he and I were old acquaintances, and had +the most intimate interests in common. I asked him the young lady's +name; not that I had any doubt that it was Paula, and yet it was a sort +of shock to me when he pronounced it, and from his lips it sounded +strangely. And now the man, who seemed to have been awaiting his +opportunity, became very communicative, and told me, while we crossed +the back of the mountain and descended in a rattling trot, a multitude +of things about the charming young lady; and the old lady her mother, +who was blind, but who recognized people at once by the voice; and +about the old man, with the hooked nose and long gray moustache and +curly white hair, who was really only their servant, but the ladies +treated him as one of themselves; and yesterday a young gentleman had +arrived, with a sunburnt face and bright brown eyes and long brown +hair, who was the young lady's brother, and a painter too. + +The carriage was clattering over the rough pavement of the little town, +and the talkative fellow was still chattering about Paula and the rest. +I had told him that I had come on purpose to see that lady, and that he +must put me down at the inn at which he told me she was staying. + +The carriage stopped. The head-waiter with two small myrmidons rushed +out; two boys who saw a chance of their services being called into +requisition as guides came up to have a look at the strange gentleman. +Concealing my agitation, I asked the head-waiter if I could have a +room, and if either of the guests was at home. + +I could have a room, he said, but neither of the guests was at home: +the lady and the young gentleman had gone out for a walk, and the young +lady had started for the mountains with Herr Süssmilch early in the +afternoon: she went into the mountains every afternoon: she painted up +there, and hardly ever came back until after sundown. + +"Do you know the place?" + +"Certainly; perfectly well: this boy here has carried the lady's things +there often enough. Say, Carl, you know where the lady goes to paint?" + +"To be sure," said the boy. "Shall I take the gentleman there?" + +"Yes," I said, and turned to start at once. + +"You need not be in any hurry, sir," the attentive headwaiter called +after me; "you will reach the place in half an hour." + +My little guide ran on ahead, and I followed him along the main street +of the little town, planted with lindens, with groups of travellers +seated here and there before the doors, and reached the fields upon +which still lay the golden evening light, and then entered the cool +twilight of the woods. We pursued the wide road which ascended the +mountains by a steep acclivity for the most part, but occasionally ran +along small level glades, and was elsewhere inclosed on both sides by +the tall forest trees. It was wonderfully quiet in the cool pines: no +breeze stirred, scarcely was the silence broken at rare intervals by +the chirp of a bird: the blue sky looked down from above, and I felt as +if the path climbed up to heaven. + +No one met us on the way; only when we were almost at the summit and +had turned to the right from the main road into the wood and reached an +open space where stood a sort of hunting-lodge, I saw a couple of men +who were sitting upon benches with mugs of beer in their hands. Out of +the wood, directly opposite the spot at which we had entered the +clearing, came a man followed by a boy carrying an easel and other +painter's apparatus. I recognized the sergeant at once; and my little +guide said that the boy who was carrying the things was his brother +Hans, and that they were coming from the place where the lady used to +paint. This place was only five minutes walk distant, and we had only +to follow the way by which the sergeant and Hans had just come. + +My old friend, who was talking in a rather animated manner to the boy, +who probably was not carrying the things carefully enough to please +him, had not observed me, and I was glad of it, for I felt that I was +not in a frame of mind to talk with him. So I gave my guide a sign to +wait for me; and crossed the clearing towards the path he had pointed +out. + +It was a broad path, overgrown with short green grass upon which the +foot fell noiselessly, and the pines on both sides were of such growth +that their branches almost entirely roofed it in, so that only here and +there the red sunset glow pierced to the green twilight. It gradually +but continually ascended, and I walked on, not even conscious that I +was walking or moving my limbs, as one ascends heights in a dream. A +breathless expectation, a joyful fear possessed me wholly. Thus might +an immortal spirit feel which is about to enter the presence of its +judge, and with all its timid hesitation, knows still that this judge +is mercy itself. + +And now it grew lighter and more open with every step, and I passed out +of the forest upon the crest of the mountain, which to my right hand +rose to a mighty height, while westwardly, to the left, it sloped away +to a deep valley, over which I could see far-distant mountain terraces +rising slope above purple slope, against the evening sky. The sun had +set, but its radiance still lay calm upon the light clouds which +floated over the mountain, and a few paces from me, bathed in the +roseate light reflected from the clouds, stood a female figure by a +mossy rock upon which she leaned her right arm, while her left hand +with her broad straw hat hung idly by her side. She was looking fixedly +at the sunset sky, and her features were clearly defined against the +bright background. Thus I saw her once more. + +But she neither saw me nor heard me, for the soft grass muffled my +steps. I wished to call her by name, but could not; and now she slowly +turned her face towards me and looked at me with wide fixed eyes and +unmoving features, as though I were an apparition which she had long +yearned to behold, and which the might of her longings had summoned +before her. But as I spread my arms, saying, "Paula, dearest Paula!" a +heavenly light flashed into her lovely face, a faint cry broke from her +lips, and she lay upon my breast with a storm of passionate tears, as +if all the sorrows she had borne all these long years had burst forth +in one moment. + +What I said, what she said, while we stood on the mountain ridge, while +streak after streak of the rosy light faded out of the sky, I cannot +now recall. + +And then we went back hand in hand through the silent wood, by another +way than that by which I had come; a way that at first led over a +grassy slope directly down the mountain, so that we could still see the +valley in the faint evening light, and then under high beeches where it +was quite dark, so that Paula held firmly to my hand until we came upon +open spaces and the valley lay before us again, now dim in gray +twilight, so that I thought the descent must be longer than the ascent, +and yet it was so short--so short! What did it matter? I knew that with +her who was leading me down the dim mountain path I would walk +henceforth hand-in-hand so long as we both lived upon earth; and an +inward prayer rose in my soul that her last day might be mine also. + +And now I see ourselves--that is our mother, Paula, Oscar and +myself--seated at a table in one of the arbors in front of the inn, and +the light of the lamp in its glass shade falls mildly on the gentle +features of the blind lady who from time to time lays her soft hand +upon mine, and on Paula's dear face that beams with a lovely radiance +from her inward happiness, and upon the beautiful young features of +Oscar, whose dark eyes glow while he tells how a young English nobleman +whose acquaintance he made at Rome has given him a grand commission to +paint a series of frescoes in his castle in the Highlands, and how +before he sets out there, he had to come after his sister to get some +advice from her; and then the youth tosses back his long hair, and +lifts a full glass and drinks it off to our health, and the mother +smiles gently upon us, and as our glasses clink together there appears +in an opening in the trellis that head with the gray moustache and +white hair which played so important a part in the history of art. + +Then I am standing at the open window of my room, listening to the +rustling of the west wind in the branches and the plashing of the +fountain before the inn, and my gaze is fixed upon a star that beams +brighter than all the rest in the nightly sky. + +And the old sadness awakens once more in my heart, and my eyes fill +with tears. + +But when I look again, the star is beaming more brightly than ever, as +if it were an eye looking lovingly down and sending me greeting from +the abodes of the blest. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + +In this history of my life I have now reached the point at which from +the first I intended to close the narrative. To be sure I said to +myself then, and still must admit, that in this way I shall not give +contentment to all. One will find that there is a certain regular and +not unsatisfactory progress in the story, and that he would not object +to read a few hundred pages further, if no better entertainment was at +hand; another will maintain that according to his experience (this is a +man of great experience) life begins to be truly interesting exactly at +the point at which I cut short my story. Youthful adventures, he says, +are like the maladies of children; every one must have them, sooner or +later, and therefore there is nothing of special interest about them; +only when the perfectly developed man takes his position in public +life, and undertakes his share in solving the problem of the age, or +when he, as a private man, has had the opportunity of proving his +character in those conflicts which are never wanting in wedded life, +and in the relations of parent to children, which always present trials +and difficulties--then only is it worth while to follow the story of a +life. + +Profoundly do I feel the weighty nature of these criticisms; but I had +once for all made up my mind not to be guided by the wish to please +this one or that--nor, indeed, to please any, as it would now +appear--and to the one I can reply that with the least possible +trouble he can find a far more amusing book to while away his leisure +hours; and as to the other (the man of great experience) with the best +will in the world I cannot possibly satisfy his great requirements, +though I freely admit that he has a perfect right to make them. Did +I wish to make my story ever so interesting, I could find nothing to +tell of conflicts in wedded life, nor of domestic trials and +difficulties--or nothing that would be worth the telling; and if I--as +I sometimes flatter myself in moments of peculiar elation and +self-satisfaction--have done an honest day's work at the great task of +our time, and all things considered, have approved myself no despicable +workman, I would not willingly anticipate my wages; and I think that +there will in due time, perhaps, be found a good friend, who, either in +an elegant epitaph, or an elaborate obituary notice in the newspapers, +will award me my meed of praise in well-chosen words. + +But in earnest, dear reader, who have grown to be my friend, or you +would not have read on so far--you for whom alone I have written, and +for whom alone I write this closing chapter--in earnest I think it will +be agreeable to both of us if I break off here. I do not know whether +you are a craftsman initiated into our art and mystery; and this is +what I should have to know in order to narrate to you the life of a +craftsman, such as I am, in such a way that in the one case it would be +satisfactory to you, and in the other not too wearisome: indeed I do +not even know whether you may not be a lady, who, despite your +excessive amiability and general loveliness, with all your other +accomplishments have no especial fondness for the discussion of +technical matters, and who, for the care with which I have hitherto +limited myself to merely touching the edge of these obscurities and +mysteries, have given me hearty thanks--thanks which for much I would +not forfeit now. + +As I say, I know none of these things; but one thing I know, and that +is that you--to borrow the phrase of good Professor Lederer--are a +human being, to whom nothing that concerns humanity is alien; and as I +have hitherto, I trust, only told you what found a ready response in +your sympathies, because it concerned a man who was neither better nor +worse, wiser nor more foolish, more interesting nor more common-place, +than the average of his kind, and whose thoughts and feelings, whose +aims and endeavors, even whose errors you could readily understand, so +I think you, as a good man and my friend, must feel why I ask you to +depict for yourself the rest of my life's history, in accordance with +your friendly sympathy and amiable imagination, in bright and cheerful +colors. + +And the words "bright and cheerful" you may take literally, for--and I +say this with a heart full of the deepest gratitude, and without fear +of "the envy of the gods" in which I do not believe--there has fallen +much, very much glorious sunlight across the path of my life. My +efforts have been crowned with amplest success, far beyond my boldest +expectations, and very far beyond my modest pretensions and moderate +wants; and, what is of far more importance, to arrive at these results +I have never had to deny the doctrines of my teacher, never had to be a +hard hammer to a poor much-tormented anvil, on the contrary, I am as +sure of it as of my own existence that I should not only not be the +cheerful man that I am, but I should also not be the rich man that I +am, had I not all my life long been a believer in the great and lovely +doctrine of mutual helpfulness, brotherhood, and the community of all +human interests. + +This living, active, and inspiring faith has brought me blessings a +hundred and a thousand fold; and with the deepest conviction I +recommend it to all who aim at success, even those who are disposed to +attach no especial value to the possession of a good conscience, and +yet perhaps find that this little prized and contemptible thing, if one +only has it, contributes no little to the happiness of life. + +You will willingly, I doubt not, my friend, spare me any further +exposition of these truths, since you have found them confirmed in your +own life; and you are quite ready to go on with the picture of my life +in the way I have indicated, and dispense with the narration of further +details concerning myself and my family, the number and ages of my +children, and whether the boys are strong and intelligent, and the +girls bright and handsome--you are already disposed to heap all those +excellences upon their young heads, when I simply say that they are, +without exception, fine children; but you think that what may be +sufficient for myself, my wife, and my children (although these last +nowhere appear in this narrative, and consequently have really no just +claims to any consideration), what may be sufficient for us, is in no +wise just to the other persons who have appeared in this story, and in +whose behalf you have a right to put forth decided claims; and you +would like before the close to know what has become of them, to one or +the other of whom you have perhaps taken a fancy. + +Many a one, as you may well suppose, in the five and twenty years that +have passed has been taken away by death, whom neither entreaties nor +exertions can compel to relinquish his prey, however desperately the +survivors try to hold fast in their hands the vanishing threads of a +life so dear. + +Thus you departed, dearest and best of mothers, and were changed for us +into a luminous picture of gentleness, kindness and patience, and at +the same time of calm, strong, self-sacrificing courage, to which we +have at all times been wont to turn with devotion, as to that of your +noble husband, and from whose memory we have often drawn counsel and +comfort. + +And you too, brave old sergeant, faithful heart of gold, you too left +us, full of years, highly honored, and deeply wept, and by none more +deeply than our boys whom you taught to ride and to fence, and to speak +the truth, happen what might. + +And you also, dear good Hans, last of an ancient race of heroes! Be not +vexed with me, dear friend, if I have allowed myself now and then a +sportive word at the quaint ways that clung to you as long as your +massive frame threw its broad shadow upon the ground. Believe me, +despite all, no one ever loved you as I loved you, perhaps because no +one was ever so near to you as I, and no one had the chance of knowing +how not one drop of faithless blood ever coursed through your great +noble heart, and how from crown to heel you were a true knight without +fear and without reproach. + +You too, enthusiastic friend with the fantastic ways, with the affected +speech, and with sincere love in your soft and gentle soul, kindly +Fräulein Duff! I thank you for allowing us to have the care of your +declining years; and though your ardent wish to see all our daughters, +your pupils, married before your death, was not fulfilled, I think you +still lived to find what your loving and affectionate heart had sought +so faithfully. + +Ah! yes; the ranks of the dear old familiar faces have been sadly +thinned; but we will be thankful that so many are still left us, so +many whom we never could replace. + +For who could replace you, my brave Klaus, best of all foremen, and +yourself head-foreman after the worthy Roland with his smile under his +bushy beard had himself vanished into that primeval forest from which +no one has ever yet emerged, any more than all the treasures of the +archipelago which your Javanese aunt was to bring, could replace your +Christel, or your eight boys, who, since as boys they cannot compare +with their mother, try their best to be as like her as possible, and +have all her blue Hollander's eyes and blond hair. The old Javanese +aunt has not made her appearance yet, and I am afraid she never will. +But I fancy you have long forgiven her this misbehavior; and only once +were you really angry with her, and that was at the time when for your +friend George fifty thousand _thalers_ more or less were a matter of +salvation or ruin, and when you besought heaven to send you the aunt +quickly, even though she were an uncle. + +And a few other friends are left still, and will remain, if it be +heaven's will, awhile longer, though one of them at least has been +expecting a stroke of apoplexy every day for the last fifty years---- + +"No, no, doctor; I will not finish the shameful sentence. You fly at +once into your altitudes that I should mention you in my book, as if +the history of my life could be anything but the history of my life, +and assert that after you have worn an honorable baldness for half a +century, I make a child's jest of you at last, and you can no longer +show yourself upon the street. Scold as much as you like, doctor, and +in the topmost notes of your highest register, if you like; I +understand you, and know that you will tune yourself down again +presently; and I further know that if everybody does not take off his +hat to you on the street, it is because everybody does not know you." + +"And I do not wish to be known," cries the doctor, "nor to be exhibited +to the public as a curiosity of natural history, least of all by you +who have always seen me in a false light--if indeed a mammoth like you +can see anything in the right light. If I am to have my portrait taken, +it shall be by your wife, who ought to be ashamed, by the way, to +neglect her noble art so, out of mere idolatry of you and of her +children--or else by Oscar. _Apropos_, will you not include in your +book a thorough analysis of all Oscar's paintings, or at least of his +chief works, and thus cover yourself with ridicule, as you really know +nothing whatever about art? or will you not set forth in detail all +that Kurt has accomplished in our railroad undertakings, and his +inventions in various departments of machinery, and so, as he is +modesty itself, cover him with a garment of confusion? Or will you not +denounce Benno to the government because his agricultural school at +Zehrendorf which grows and flourishes so quietly, is a formidable rival +to the official country institutes?" + +"Scold away, doctor: you have not an idea how admirably all you say +fits into my last chapter. I should like to let you have the last word +there, as everywhere else." + +"That was all that was wanting!" cried the doctor in wrath, and ran out +of the door, the last of our guests. + +This scene happened yesterday evening, and I said to Paula, "Was it not +a happy idea to leave the last word to my best, oldest, dearest friend, +to whom I owed more than I could ever find words to say." + +"I could never know which was to be the last touch in my pictures until +I had given it," said Paula: "perhaps it will be the same way with your +book." + +To-day, thinking it over in the early dawn, I find that Paula was +right. I feel that I must close, and yet have the feeling that I must +not stop yet; that I have forgotten or omitted something, I know not +what; that I owe the reader, despite my solemn disallowance erewhile, +information on a multitude of points. + +For example, how it happens that I am sitting at my writing table "in +the early dawn," after having, as it seems, a little company of friends +with me yesterday evening: have I then been writing all night until +morning overtook me? + +Nothing of the sort. The early dawn, that is to say, four o'clock in +winter, and in midsummer, as now, often two o'clock, has for years +found me in my office, reading, calculating, drawing, and now, since I +have had this book on hand, for the most part writing. I have all my +life been a good sleeper, so far that my sleep is very profound and +mostly dreamless: but I have long accustomed myself to do with half the +sleep that others find indispensable. The Doctor says I have too large +a heart, like most big good-natured fellows of rather limited +intelligence and with broad shoulders, whom nature has marked out for +carrying burdens and playing the part of anvil; but he smiles when he +says so, and I do not know if he be speaking in earnest or in jest. + +I have been just now standing at the open window, after extinguishing +the lamp by which I have been writing. In the perfectly cloudless, +light-green, July sky stood the sickle of the waning moon, but the +stars had all faded from sight. Over my window, just under the eaves, +sat a swallow, and sang, rocking her little head from side to side and +looking towards the east where the sun would presently rise. I have +never heard a sweeter song, and even now while I write its melody fills +my whole soul. From one of the tall chimneys of the factory, whose main +building turns its front towards the villa, arose a column of dense +smoke springing slender and straight as a pine-shaft high into the +clear air. There is a great casting to be made to-day, and Klaus has +had his furnaces lighted early. + +I see this picture, as I have endeavored to describe it, often and +often in the early morning, and it always inspires me with cheerfulness +and joy, and with a thankful heart I greet the rising sun. + +There resounds a well-known sound, a welcome clangor the first blow of +the hammer on the anvil; the day which the swallow announced is here. +Farewell, my friend; we will both go to our work. + + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: "Ordinarius," the professor charged with the especial +instruction of any class. "The Prima," or first form, corresponds to +the sixth or highest form in an English public school.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 2: "Steuerrath," Councillor of Customs, the title of an +official, as is also "Commerzienrath," Councillor of Commerce, in the +next paragraph.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 3: "Gnädigste," most gracious. A form of address to ladies of +rank.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 4: "Rathhaus;" Council-house, or City Hall.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 5: "Raubmördergalgenmässig."] + +[Footnote 6: From this point the conversation is continued in the +familiar second person, which does not convey the same association in +English, and is therefore not adopted in the translation.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 7: "Bierkaltschale," a beverage composed of beer, sweetened +with fruit sliced into it.--Tr.] + +[Footnote 8: An old-fashioned table-compliment, meaning "may your +dinner do you good!"--Tr.] + +[Footnote 9: "Die Liebe" is feminine in German.--Tr.] + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Hammer and Anvil, by Friedrich Spielhagen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAMMER AND ANVIL *** + +***** This file should be named 34868-8.txt or 34868-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/8/6/34868/ + +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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