But it was worse for the poor Herr Lieutenant next morning, when David
entered the room. David was never handsome,--nobody could say that, not
even his own mother, but he had not improved since the lieutenant first
made his acquaintance. Then, when he got the money for him at the
notary's, there was something quite friendly in his appearance; but
now, when he wanted the money again, he looked so tough and sour, that
the lieutenant, without thinking what he was doing, drew on his gloves
before speaking to him.
Speak with him he must, however, though David's face seemed to him as
if Moses and all the prophets were looking out from behind it; and when
David said, "Take off your gloves, Herr Lieutenant, and write," he took
off his gloves, and wrote across the note, and David's face became as
friendly as at their first interview.
"Thank God!" said the Herr Lieutenant, "that is done with."
But a few days later a wagon drove into the yard, and in the wagon sat
the notary Slusuhr, and Habermann shook his head, and said, "God
preserve me, with _him_ too?"
And as the notary entered the room, the Herr Lieutenant said also, "God
preserve me, him too?"
But he got on with him a little better than with David; the notary
looked like a man of some cultivation, he always dressed well, and
appeared outwardly like a gentleman, he understood also how to preserve
such an appearance in his language,--that is to say, as long as he
liked. This was the case at present; the lieutenant invited him to a
seat on the sofa, and ordered coffee, and there followed what seemed a
very friendly chat about the weather and the neighborhood and the bad
conduct of people in general, for in the latter topic the Herr Notary
was well posted, because he had cultivated the habit of looking around
him, and never acquired that of looking within. "Yes," said he, telling
about a merchant in Rahnstadt, "Just think, Herr von Rambow, how wicked
men are! There, out of pure kindness,--that is, on account of the
interest which I must pay, for I hadn't so much money lying idle, I had
to borrow it myself,--I lent him the money, and helped him out of his
difficulties, and he was so thankful,--and now--now that I want it
again, must have it, he is rough, he threatens to complain of me for
charging illegal interest."
Of course there was not a word of truth in this story, the notary only
told it to frighten the Herr Lieutenant, and it answered the purpose.
In order to turn the conversation, he asked what sort of business the
merchant was engaged in.
But the notary was not to be diverted; he did not answer the question,
but went on with his story.
"But I have entered a complaint against him, and now let him look out!
His credit is good for nothing,--and then the disgrace! It is not
exactly entered yet, to be sure, but I have written it myself. What do
you say to that?" The poor lieutenant was terribly distressed, the
prospect looked as dark as if this was but the few drops before a heavy
storm. He coughed, and cleared his throat, but said nothing, for he
could think of nothing to say. It made no difference to the notary, he
went on:
"But, thank God! I don't often have to deal with such idiots,
this fellow is an exception. And since we are talking of money
business,"--here he drew out his pocket-book,--"will you allow me to
give you back your note?"
He held out the note for eight hundred and thirty dollars, and the
rat-like ears seemed to erect themselves, and the grey eyes to protrude
from the grayish yellow face, and the dry lips to moisten, like a rat
when he smells bacon. The poor lieutenant took the note, and attempted
to put aside the matter with a semblance of indifference.
Yes, he said, he would send him the money; he had started so suddenly,
and the occasion of his journey had been so sad, that he had not
thought of the matter.
Yes, replied the notary, he believed him, he knew how it was when his
own father died; at such a time, a man thinks of nothing but his
loss,--and he put on such a melancholy face, that the lieutenant took
fresh courage,--but, said the notary, he had thought a great deal of
this note lately, he depended on it, for he was under engagements, and
to meet them,--he must have money.
"But this is such a trifling matter," interrupted Axel.
"Well, yes," said the notary, taking other papers from his pocket-book;
"but then these little matters too!" and he laid on the table the notes
for over two thousand dollars, which David had bought up at the
lieutenant's garrison town.
The lieutenant was startled out of his show of indifference.
"How did you come by these papers?" he exclaimed.
"Herr von Rambow, I believe the name 'exchange' is applied to such
bills because they are transferable by their possessors; you cannot be
surprised that I should take them instead of cash payment, all the more
since I was saved a good deal of writing and postage money."
The lieutenant became more and more perplexed, but the idea that all
this was a concerted game did not yet occur to him.
"But, my dear Herr Notary, I have for the moment no money on hand."
"No?" cried the notary, shrugging his shoulders with an expression
which let one look straight into the black depths of his soul, and
revealed the compact that he had made with the devil. "No?" he
repeated; "I don't believe it." And, in spite of all the lieutenant's
assurances the notary stood before him, hard and cold, saying
insolently, to his face, that he did not believe him; it was only that
he _would_ not pay. Finally, the good old means of prolongation came
upon the carpet, to which Axel would gladly have agreed at the first,
if it had been proposed to him; but that would not have suited the
notary. He wanted more commission than David, and he meant to take his
satisfaction in the business, for he was a man who enjoyed a joke, and
the best of all jokes to him was when he could say to himself, "No one
can match you in craftiness; you set your foot on the necks of high and
low, and it is good sport to watch their struggles."
These were the troubles and distresses in which Axel von Rambow sat, up
to the neck, and they distracted him from his grief about his father.
From a deep sorrow, of God's sending, a soul works itself out fresh and
pure, like a man over whom the waves of the sea have rolled; he may
have had a hard struggle, but when he comes forth he stands on the
beach clean and cool, and ready for new work. But he who has fallen
into trouble through his own temerity, is like one who, having fallen
into a slough, is covered with filth, and is ashamed to meet the eyes
of others. So it was with the young Herr, he was ashamed that he had
lived so thoughtlessly, he was ashamed of having involved himself with
black and with white Jews, he was ashamed that he could not help
himself out of the slough, and that the help which others had given
could only sink him deeper. How easily he might have escaped all this,
if he had but confided in Habermann! How gladly he would assist him
even now, since the reason was gone that had hindered him before, the
Kammerrath! But the human heart is a stubborn and also a perverse
thing, and this perverse thing believes it will find more rest if miles
lie between it and its disgrace; so Axel left his estate much sooner
than his sisters had hoped.
At his garrison he found everything as he had left it, only he himself
was changed; at least he said so to himself, daily; but if one had
asked his comrades they would have said they observed nothing peculiar
about him, and quite naturally, for his good resolutions, which were
the only respect in which he had altered, had not yet come to light. He
meant to be economical, he meant to follow his father's advice, and
study agriculture as well as he could from books, he meant to do well
in all respects. His economy began the first morning; for a week he
drank no sugar in his coffee,--"For," said he, "if a man despises
little things, he will not prosper in great ones,"--and he smoked
cigars at nineteen instead of twenty dollars the box. His servant got a
serious lecture, when he brought the bread and butter for his
breakfast, and received orders to give his two horses each half a
measure of oats less than usual, "For," he said, "times are hard."
The latter was the only enduring retrenchment--probably because he was
not fed at the same crib with his mares; all the others stopped after a
week or so; it was of no use, he said, to begin things that one
couldn't carry through. It was much in the same way with his
agricultural studies. The first three pages of every book, he knew
almost by heart, he had read them so often; for he always began at the
beginning, because, when he had got so far, some thing would divert his
attention from the text. Then, as he felt so sure of these, he would
reward himself for his industry by looking up something interesting in
the books, and as he read a chapter on the breeding of horses, he would
say to himself he knew all that, and more too; there had been great
progress in those matters. After all, what good would it do for him to
read these books, if he could not take hold of the business
practically? he knew very well a farmer should be practical,--nothing
if not practical! So he made the acquaintance of a Herr von So-and-So,
who owned an estate in the neighborhood; he rode with him over the
fields, and asked the inspector what he was doing that day, and when
they returned to the house, he knew as well as the Herr von So-and-So
that in Seelsdorp on the 15th of June, they were carting manure, and
that his gray Wallach was foaled in Basedow from the gray Momus; or he
went with Herr von So and So, with a gun over his shoulder, through the
barley stubble, and got the information by the way that the barley had
been harvested on the 27th of August, shot a brace of partridges, and
when he went to bed at night he knew as well as Herr von So and So how
the partridges tasted.
He found this sort of practical apiculture very agreeable, and as a man
is apt to talk about the things that please him, Axel did not fail to
exhibit his attainments, and was soon known among his comrades as a
shining light, quite an agricultural tallow candle, four to the pound.
Since most of them were the sons of noble landed proprietors, and
destined to the same life, and looking forward with horror to the time
when they must leave their jolly soldier-life, for the hard work of
gentlemen farmers, Axel seemed to them an unusual example of diligence,
and they looked upon him as upon some wonderful animal who out of pure
love for labor had put his head into the yoke. Most of them admired him
accordingly, though a few blockheads turned up their noses, and
insinuated that for a lieutenant his conversation savored too strongly
of the farm-yard.
Having set himself up as an authority in agricultural matters, it was
necessary to sustain his reputation, and to make progress with time.
And that was a period of wonderful progress in agricultural science,
for Professor Liebig had written a famous book for the farmers, which
was brimful and running over of carbon and saltpetre, and sulphur, and
gypsum, and lime, and sal-ammoniac, and hydrates and hydropathy, enough
to drive one crazy. People who wished to dip their fingers in science
procured this book, and sat down to it, and read and read, until their
heads were dizzy; and if they tried to recollect, they could not tell
whether gypsum were a stimulant or a nutriment,--that is to say, for
clover, not for human beings.
Axel bought this book, and it fared with him as with the rest, he read
and read, but kept growing dizzier, and his head turned round as if
there were screws getting loose in it, and he shut the book. It would
probably have stopped here, with him, as with the others, he would have
forgotten the whole concern, if he had not had the fortune to know a
good-natured apothecary, who could let him take all the drugs, of which
the book treated, into his own hands, and smell them with his own nose.
This was the practical way, and from that moment he understood the
business, yes, as well as Liebig himself, so that he had no occasion to
read farther in the book.
The branch of agriculture which gave him particular pleasure was
farming-implements and machinery. He had from a child taken great
delight in all sorts of inventions; as a boy he had made little mills,
he had pasted, and, although his mother had a great dislike to anything
that smacked of handicraft, he had, during his school-days, taken
private lessons in book-binding. These tastes came into exercise now;
he was uncommonly pleased to see a design of a new-fashioned American
rake, or a Scotch harrow, and it was not long before he indulged in the
innocent amusement of cutting little rakes and harrows and rollers
himself.
He did not stop here, however, but went on to design rape-clappers,
flax-bruisers, and corn-shellers. He might possibly have rested in
these achievements,--and it was surely worthy of honor in a lieutenant
to lay aside his uniform and go to work with drawing-knife, auger and
glue-pot,--if he had not made the acquaintance of an old half-crazy
watchmaker, who had wasted his life and his small property in
endeavoring to discover, for an ungrateful world, the secret of
perpetual motion. This old benefactor of humanity led him into his
workshop, and showed him how one wheel must be made to turn upon
another, and this upon a cylinder, and that upon a screw, and the screw
upon a winch, and that upon a wheel again, and so on, over and over; he
showed him machines that wouldn't go, and others that would go, and yet
others which wouldn't go as they should; he exhibited machines which
Axel could comprehend, and some which he couldn't comprehend, and some
which he didn't comprehend himself; but it was all very interesting to
Axel, and he became inspired in his turn with the desire of being a
benefactor to mankind. His idea was to invent a machine, which would do
all sorts of field labor, which should rake, harrow, roll, and pull up
weeds. It was really touching to see the fresh, young lieutenant of
cavalry and the withered, wrinkled old watchmaker, sitting together and
planning with the lever and screws to elevate mankind.
And so it might have gone on, for all me, and for all him, and he might
possibly have elevated mankind, though the constant tugging of
securities and discounts and such matters had a tendency to bring him
down, for he thought nothing about the payment of his debts, and
although there was a good income from Pumpelhagen, according to his
father's will it was I to be applied first to the payment of his own
debts, and the sisters must be supported out of it; and, as for the
rest, he lived without anxiety when his first needs were supplied.
But there are a pair--brother and sister--who shake the most
indifferent person out of his dreams, and drive him, without, ceremony,
out from the warm chimney-corner, into the storm and rain,--these are
hate and love. Hate thrusts one head-foremost out of the door, saying,
"There, scoundrel, away with you!" Love takes one gently by the hand,
leads one to the door, and says, "Come, with me, I will show you a
better place." But it comes to the same thing; one must leave his nice,
warm chimney-corner. Axel made the acquaintance of both; and it
happened quite accidentally, it was none of his doing.
I don't know whether it is so still; but at that time it was the
custom, among the Prussians, for the regimental commanders to send
regular deportment lists of the officers to Berlin, and King Frederic
William was in the habit of looking into the papers himself, in order
to see what his officers were fit for.
Now Axel's good old colonel liked the Herr Lieutenant very much,
because he had once owned an estate himself, alongside Buetow and
Lauenburg, which he had got rid of through his singular methods of
farming; and because he still owned one, on which he could carry out
these methods, one of them being never to enrich the soil, because he
thought it not good for the land. He had a great opinion of his own
methods, and as he was like the old carrier who, when they can no
longer drive, still like to crack the whip, he enjoyed talking about
them, and as Axel listened attentively, and was too polite to
contradict him, the old colonel conceived a high opinion of his wisdom.
For this reason Axel's testimonials were always very good; but
unfortunately the old Colonel paid little attention to orthography, and
so he wrote once, "Lieutenant von Rambow is a thoroughly 'feiger'
officer," when he meant to say "faehiger" (capable). The king himself
saw it, and wrote on the margin, "I have no occasion for a 'feiger'
(cowardly) officer; let him be dismissed at once." It was a stupid
thing in the old colonel; the mistake must be corrected; but he did not
know how to do it without taking his adjutant into counsel. With his
assistance, the orthography and the business were made right; but
the rogue could not hold his tongue, and before long the whole set
were aiming their poor jokes at our innocent Axel. Especially one
thick-headed fellow, of "very old family," who had all along poked fun
at him on account of his agricultural pursuits, not because he managed
them foolishly, but because he took to them at all,--now applied the
screw so insolently that all his comrades observed it; Axel alone took
no notice, because he had not the slightest suspicion of the cause.
There was another matter, in addition. The Herr von So and So, with
whom Axel took practical lessons in farming on horseback and with a
shot-gun, had a wonderfully pretty daughter,--nobody need laugh! she
was really a fine girl,--by whom the Herr Lieutenant of the "old
family" was strongly attracted. She, however, treated him quite coolly,
and was much more gracious to Axel, who also turned his best side out
in her presence. Whether it was that the young lady took no pleasure in
the stupidly forward behavior of the Herr Lieutenant of "old family,"
and if she were going to marry preferred a man gifted with more brains,
or that she was pleased with Axel's good-temper and modesty, it was not
long before Axel was evidently "cock of the walk," and the Herr
Lieutenant of "old family," sat upon the nettles of jealousy.
It happened, about this time, that the officers of the corps gave a
ball, and the Herr Lieutenant of "old family" adorned himself for this
festivity with a pair of false calves. Looking at his legs, his own
comrades scarcely knew him, and as there is always a mischief-maker
among so many frolicsome young people, who in this case happened to be
the adjutant, he converted the cotton-wool calves of Axel's rival into
a pincushion, and stuck them full of butterflies, with which the
unconscious lieutenant hopped about quite merrily. People could not
help looking and laughing, and the Herr Lieutenant, discovering how his
calves were ornamented, became fearfully angry, as he had reason to be,
and his wrath broke loose upon the first laughing face he chanced to
meet, which happened to be Axel's. "If you were not already designated
upon the colonel's conduct list, I should have the satisfaction of
applying the epithet myself!" exclaimed he, in his rage. Axel did not
hear the words distinctly, the insolent tone, however, was not to be
misunderstood; and as he was really no poltroon, and very easily
excited, he turned with equal anger to his rival, saying that "he did
not understand what he said, but the tone he had used made an
explanation necessary;" and with that he went to his captain, with whom
he stood on good terms, and asked an account of the matter, and what he
heard from him did not tend to diminish his anger. He fell into a
terrible passion, and challenged the lieutenant of "old family," and
also the adjutant, because he had brought the matter about, and the
lieutenant challenged the adjutant, an account of the butterflies, and
so the three rode out one fine Sunday afternoon, with a crowd of
seconds and witnesses and impartial observers and doctors and surgeons,
and they cut each other's faces, and shot at each other's limbs, and
then there was peace again. Axel got a scar on his nose, because he was
stupid enough to parry a thrust with his face instead of his sword. If
this did not exactly beautify him, it certainly did him no harm. Herr
von So and So's pretty daughter heard of the matter, she put together
many little pleasantries which she had noted between the rivals, and
who can blame this intelligent girl if she believed herself the
innocent cause of such heroic deeds, and liked Axel afterward better
than before?
Here I might relate the entire love-story of Axel and Frida, and I
leave it to any unprejudiced person if I should not have a pair of
characters for a love-story, such as cannot be found even in the Bible,
a lieutenant of cuirassiers, and a young lady of the nobility; but no,
I will have nothing to do with it. For, in the first place, I never do
more than I am obliged, and who can compel me to give private
instructions to the burghers' daughters, who may possibly read this,
about falling in love with a lieutenant of cuirassiers, or to teach
young mechanics how they may ingratiate themselves with noble young
ladies? Who would give me anything for that? And, secondly, I may as
well say, once for all, I do not write with any regard to young people,
I write merely for the old folks, who lie down of an afternoon on the
sofa, and take a book to drive the flies from their faces, and the
cares out of their heads. Thirdly, I have already three young maidens
to dispose of, and any one who wants to know what a task that is may
inquire of any mother of three unmarried daughters. Louise Habermann
must have a husband, and would it not be a shame to leave the two
little twin-apples to trundle through the world as old maids? Fourthly
and lastly, I am not fitted to describe correctly the love of a
lieutenant of cuirassiers, it is a touch beyond me, it requires the pen
of a Shakespeare or a Muehlbach, and who knows whether Shakespeare
himself were adequate to the task, for so far as I am informed he never
ventured upon it.
In short, they were betrothed, and the wedding was held at Whitsuntide,
1843, and the Herr von So and So gave his blessing as a dowry, because
it was all he had to give. Well, we will treat him like a Christian,
and give him something, to wit a name,--for since he is become our
father-in-law he must have a name,--so he shall be called Herr von
Satrup of Seelsdorp, of which estate he owned still less than Axel of
Pumpelhagen.
Frida von Satrup was an intelligent girl, and understood before her
marriage that a "Herr Lieutenant" was only a large piece of a small
apple, and that a "Frau Lieutenant" would be a small piece of a large
apple; she stipulated, therefore, that Axel should leave the army. Axel
was not unwilling, for the foolery about the "feiger" officer was not
by any means over, although he bore the mark of the old colonel's
blunder in red ink on his face, and he had also a great desire and
purpose to turn his agricultural science into ready money, at
Pumpelhagen, and therewith to pay his debts.
He took his discharge, therefore, packed his uniform, sash and
epaulettes in a box, delivered, with tears in his eyes, a touching
farewell address to his brave sword, laid that also in the box, nailed
and sealed the box, and wrote on the top, "In case of sudden death, to
be opened by my heirs," sent the whole to Pumpelhagen, was married in a
black dress-suit, and started with his young bride for a journey up the
Rhine.
How he made his entrance into Pumpelhagen, in the midsummer of 1843,
shall be told in another place.