The Lector, while they were yet on their way to the Minister's, begged
Albano to moderate the fire of his assertions and his pantomimes. He
made known to him only so much of the family-jar as was necessary, in
order that he might not, by a mistaken idea of her restoration, throw
Liana into embarrassment. As they entered the card-room, everything was
already in full blaze.
As, at this time, no one is presented to him, I must do it; they are
disciples (at least _twelfth_ disciples) of the Minister.
And first, I introduce to thee the holy President of Justice, Von
Landrok, a good apothecary's-balance of Themis, which weighs out
scruples, and wherein no false weights lie; but what is quite as bad,
much smut, rubbish, and rust. Those at the ombre-table near by are the
lords and ladies of Vey, Flöl, and Kob, sleek, fine souls, like minerals
in cabinets, polished off on the show-side, but on the concealed base
still jagged and scratching.
Go with me to the entrance of the next apartment; here I have to present
to thee the young but fat canon Von Meiler, who, in order to line and
stuff out and pad his inner man with a thick, warm, outer one, needs to
fleece no more peasants yearly than the number of linden-trees the
Russian peels for his bark-shoes, namely, one hundred and fifty.
The apartment into which thou art looking I present to thee as a
fly-glass full of courtiers, who, in order to enter into the _kingdom of
heaven_, have become not merely _children_, but in fact _embryons_ of
four weeks, who, as is well known, look like flies; if Swift desires of
his servants nothing more than the _shutting-to_ of the doors, these
wish nothing of their employer and bread-provider but the _leaving-open_
of the same.
I have the honor to set before thee yonder--it is he who is not
playing--the holy Church-Counsellor, Schäpe, who would fain be chief
chaplain to the court; a soft scoundrel, who soaks and softens the
seed-corns of the divine and human word, like melon-seed (they are
thereby to spring up sooner in the heart), so long in sugared wine, that
they rot in it; a spiritual lord who never in his life _offered_ any
other prayers than the two which he always refuses, the _fourth_ and
_fifth_.[79]
But the Lector will soon name to thee, at the window, every one of the
lords and dames, coldly, gently, and without pantomime. At present the
Minister himself conducts thee to a gentleman, one of the players, with
a cross on, who drinks water with saltpetre, and is continually licking
his dry mouth; it is _Bouverot_,--he is just rising in thy presence;
examine the cold, but impudent and cutting, sharply-ground eye, whose
corners resemble a pair of open tinman's-shears, or a trap set,--the red
nose, and the hard, lipless mouth, whose reddish crab's-claw, worn off
by whetting, pinches together,--the cocked-up chin, and the whole
stocky, firm figure. Albano does not surprise him; he has already seen
all men, and he inquires about no one.
The Minister refreshed the youth, whose inner being was one snarl, with
the promise that at supper he would present to him his daughter. He
offered him a game; but Alban replied, with a too youthful accent, he
never played.
He could now roam round through the lanes of the card-tables, and survey
whatever he wished. In such a case one posts himself, if there is no one
of the company whom he can endure, exactly before or beside the face he
detests the most, in order inwardly to lash himself into vexation at
every word and every feature of the countenance. Albano might have had
many visages in his eye which were, at least in a small degree,
intolerable, and by which he might have stationed himself;--nay, no
sufficient reasons could have been assigned why he should not have given
his whole attention to a certain chaffy, dried up paste-eel, a weakling
full of impertinence, who was observing through an eye-glass the card
constellations as they came up, while Albano could extend the feelers
of his optic nerves even to the spots on the cards in the second
apartment;--there would, indeed, have been no reasons, had not the
German gentleman been there; before him he must place himself; of him he
knew the most and the worst; he stood in distant connection with
Schoppe, even with Liana. Furies! in the neighborhood of certain faces
the pinions of the soul crumple up and mew themselves as swans' and
pigeons' feathers are crushed before eagles' quills; it was as
uncomfortable and close for all the innocent feelings in such a roomy
breast as Albano's, as it is to a flock of pigeons into whose cote some
one has thrown the tail of a polecat.
I cannot disguise the fact, he muttered and growled inwardly at all the
man did and had,--whether it was his having fingers whose points were
finely shaved for the faro-game, and whose nails had been somewhat
peeled off by an altogether worse game of _hazard_ yet,--or his looking
occasionally through the hair of his eyebrows,--or (only once) squashing
a fly by a sudden snapping to of his lips like a fly-trap,--or his
uttering now a line of German and now of French, which I expect of good
circles, whereas only low people never bring out a German word, except a
few, such as _Lansquenet_,[80] _canif_ (kneif), _birambrot_ (bier am
brod), excepted. Suffice it, he thought always of Schoppe's fine
expression: "There are men and times at which and with whom nothing
could be more refreshing to an honest man than--to give them a sound
drubbing." Duelling is quite as good, thought the Count.
However, Schoppe must here be justified by an authority. Namely, the
author himself, otherwise such a soft, warm swan-skin, could never stand
behind card-table-chairs without becoming a complete game-cock, and
spreading out his scratching, bristly wing the wider the longer he idly
looked on; the reason is this, that in general one finds only those
people more and more tolerable and better upon acquaintance, with whom
one pursues and purposes the same kind of objects.
Albano wished heartily he had his brother-in-arms Schoppe with him now;
he went often, it is true, to Augusti to vent himself; but _he_ always
sought to pacify him; yes, by keeping himself constantly engaged with
the church-counsellor, he cut off from him the opportunity of betraying
his youthful, inexperienced soul to listeners. Moreover, the Lector
chose afterward for half an hour--what familiar friends often do in the
absence of familiar female friends--the latter (namely, absence).
The Count stood some time behind Bouverot's seat, and looked into a
Chinese mirror, japanned on the inside with grotesque figures, and
changed his position constantly, till he brought Cephisio's face to
appear therein right beside a painted dragon, just by way of
comparison;--all this went on, interrupted, however, by constantly
increasing heart-beatings for Liana, when the servants opened the doors
to the supper-hall; and now his heart thumped even to pain, and his
form, already so blooming with youth, hung all full of the roses of
happy and modest confusion.