Braesig went next morning, as he had designed, to Rexow, to see Frau
Nuessler. The crown-prince came to meet him at the door, wagging his
tail in such a Christian manner that one must believe him to be a dog
of good moral principle, since he bore no malice against Braesig for his
late chasing and drubbing. One would infer, also, from the quiet
content expressed in his yellow-brown eyes, that all was well at Rexow,
Frau Nuessler in the kitchen, and Jochen sitting in his arm-chair.
But it was not so, for when Braesig opened the door, Jochen was sitting
indeed in his old place; but Frau Nuessler stood before him, delivering
a brief but impressive discourse to the effect that he troubled himself
about nothing, and said not a word to the purpose, and when she caught
sight of Braesig, she went up to him, quite angrily, saying, "And you,
too, notice nothing, Braesig; for all you care, everything here may
stand on its head; and it is your fault, too, we never should have
taken those two but for you!"
"Fair and easy!" said Braesig, "fair and easy! Not quite so fast, Frau
Nuessler! What has happened now with the young candidates?"
"A good deal has happened, and I have said nothing about it, because
they were Jochen's friends, and it is a bad bird that fouls its own
nest; but since the time those two fellows came into my house, there
has been no peace nor rest, and if it goes on so much longer, I shall
quarrel, at last, with Jochen himself."
"Mother," said young Jochen, "what shall I do about it?"
"Keep still, young Jochen," cried Braesig, "you are to blame. Can't you
rouse up and teach them manners?"
"Let Jochen alone, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, hastily, "this time it
is your fault. You promised to have an eye to these young men, and see
that they did not get into mischief, and instead of that, you have let
one go on as he liked, without troubling yourself about him, and you
have put the other up to all sorts of nonsense, so that instead of
minding his books, he goes off with his fishing-pole, and brings me
home at night a great string of perch, as long as your finger. And when
I think I have everything tidy, I must go and dress the horrid things,
and make it all straight again.
"What? Brings home things a finger long, and I showed him the right
place to catch the great fellows! oh, you must--no, hold on!"
"Ah, what!" cried Frau Nuessler. "You should forbid his fishing
altogether, he did not come here for that purpose. He was to learn
something, his father said, and he is coming here to-day, too."
"Well, Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "I am very greatly annoyed that he
should do so little credit to my instructions, in his fishing. Has he
done anything else amiss?"
"Ah, yes, indeed! both of them have. But, as I said before, I have said
nothing about it, because they were Jochen's friends, and at first, it
seemed as if everything would go on well. At first, there were merry,
lively times here, and my little girls enjoyed it uncommonly; it was
Mining here and Rudolph there, and Lining here and Gottlieb there, and
they talked with Gottlieb, and romped with Rudolph, and the two old
fellows were very industrious at their work, and Gottlieb sat up stairs
in his room, and studied until his head swam, and Rudolph, too, read in
his books; but it was not long before they got to disputing and
quarrelling about ecclesiastical matters, and Gottlieb, who is much
more learned than the other, told him he did not look at things from a
Christian standpoint."
"Standpoint, did he say?" asked Braesig.
"Yes, he said standpoint," replied Frau Nuessler.
"Ho, ho!" cried Braesig, "I can hear him talk. Where other people stop,
at a standpoint, is only the beginning with the Pietists. He wanted to
proselyte him."
"Yes," said Frau Nuessler, "so it appeared. Now the other one is much
cleverer than Gottlieb, and he began to crack all manner of jokes at
him, and got the better of him, and so the strife grew worse and worse,
and, I don't know how it happened, but my little girls began to take a
part in the business, and Lining, as the most intelligent, was on
Gottlieb's side, and talked just as he did, and Mining laughed over
Rudolph's jokes, and carried on with him."
"Yes," interrupted Jochen, "it is all as true as leather."
"You should be ashamed of yourself, young Jochen, to allow such doings
in your house!"
"Come, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, "let him alone; Jochen has done
everything he could to keep peace; When Gottlieb talked about the
devil, to frighten one out of his wits, then he believed in the devil,
and when Rudolph laughed about the devil, and made fun of him, then he
laughed with Rudolph. But, when the dispute was at the highest, little
Mining happened on a bright idea; she took their books and changed
them, and put Rudolph's into Gottlieb's room, and Gottlieb's into
Rudolph's, and when they looked at her in astonishment, she said,
merrily, they had better exchange studies for awhile, and they might
possibly learn to agree. Well, at first they would hear nothing of it;
but Gottlieb is always a good-natured old fellow, he soon began to
read, and since it was a winter day, and he could not amuse himself out
of doors, Rudolph finally began also. And then you should have seen
them! It was not long, before it seemed as if they had been exchanged
with their books. Gottlieb made bad jokes, and laughed about the devil,
and the other old fellow groaned and sighed, and talked of the devil,
as if he sat at table with us every day, and eat his potatoes, like
other honest people. Now, my little girls were quite perplexed; Mining
attached herself to Gottlieb, and Lining to Rudolph, for now it was
Rudolph who said Gottlieb did not occupy a Christian standpoint."
"Fie!" said Braesig, "he should not have said that. And such a fellow as
that cannot catch a good-sized perch!"
"Yes," cried Frau Nuessler quite angrily, "and with your confounded old
perch-fishing, the whole trouble came again, for when it was spring,
and the perch began to bite, Rudolph threw his Christian standpoint
aside, and took up his fishing-rod, and ran off into the fields, and
Gottlieb took up the devil again, for he was going to pass his
examination, and there is no getting through that without the devil.
And my two little girls were puzzled to tell which they should stand
by."
"They are a pair of confounded rascals," cried Braesig, "but the
proselyter is to blame for it all; why couldn't he let the other alone,
with his devil and his standpoint?"
"Well, never mind! He studied well at any rate and passed his
examination all right, and can be a minister any day; but the other
cousin has done nothing at all at his books, and has made us all this
dreadful trouble!"
"Why, what else has he done? He hasn't been catching whitings?"
"Whitings! He caught a sermon. You see, the Rector Baldrian's wife
wanted to hear her Gottlieb preach, and she asked the pastor in
Rahnstadt about it, and he promised her Gottlieb should preach last
Sunday, and she told her sister, Frau Kurz. She is naturally very much
annoyed that her boy is not so advanced as Gottlieb, and she goes to
the pastor also, and the old pastor is such a sheep that he promised
her Rudolph should preach the same Sabbath. Then they drew lots, who
should preach in the morning, and who in the afternoon, and Rudolph got
the morning. Well, old Gottlieb studied as hard as he could, and sat
from morning till night, out in the arbor, in the garden, and because
he has a bad memory, he studied aloud, and the other went roving about
as usual; but the last two days, he seated himself on the grassy bank
behind the arbor, as if he were making a sermon too. And then Sunday
came, and Jochen let them ride in to town, and we all rode, and were
seated in the pastor's pew, and, I tell you, I was terribly afraid for
Rudolph; but he stood there, as if there were nothing the matter, and
when it was time, he went up into the pulpit, and preached a sermon,
that made all the people open their eyes and mouths, and I rejoiced
over the youth, and was going to say so to Gottlieb, who sat by me; but
there sat the poor creature, fidgeting with his hands and feet, as if
he would like to go up and pull the other out of the pulpit, and he
said, 'Aunt, that is _my_ sermon!' And so it was, Braesig; the wicked
boy had learned the sermon by hearing it, because Gottlieb must study
it aloud."
"Ha, ha!" laughed Braesig heartily, "that is a good joke!"
"Do you call that a _joke_?" exclaimed Frau Nuessler, greatly excited.
"Such a trick as that in the house of God, you call a joke?"
"Eh, now," said Braesig, still laughing, "what would you have? It is a
devil of a joke, it is an infamous trick, to be sure: but I can't help
laughing, for the life of me."
"Oh yes!" said Frau Nuessler, bitterly, "that is the way with you; when
we others are ready to die with shame and anger, you stand by and
laugh!"
"There, don't scold me," said Braesig, trying to appease her, "tell me
what the proselyter did. I wish I could have seen him!"
"What could he do? He couldn't preach the same sermon over again, in
the afternoon; the old pastor had to warm up an old sermon for the
occasion, but he was fearfully angry, and said, if he should report the
matter, Rudolph might as well hang up his gown on the nearest willow."
"Well, and the proselyter?"
"Ah, the good old creature was so confounded, he said nothing at all;
but his mother talked all the more, and quarrelled so fiercely with her
sister, Frau Kurz, that they have not spoken to each other since. Oh,
what a time it was! I was ashamed, and I was provoked, for Kurz and the
rector came up, too, and Jochen was lingering with them, but
fortunately our carriage drove up, and I got him away."
"But what did the duel-fighter say?"
"Oh, the rogue was clever enough to keep out of the uproar, he made
himself scarce after his fine sermon, and ran off home."
"He got a proper good lecture from you, I will wager."
"No," said Frau Nuessler, "he didn't. I don't meddle in the affair. His
father is coming, to-day, and he is the nearest to him, as the Frau
Pastorin says. And I told Jochen, decidedly, he ought not to talk so
much about it, for he has quite changed his nature, of late, and is
always troubling himself, and talking about things that are none of his
business. Keep still, Jochen!"
"Yes, Jochen, keep still!"
"And my two little girls, I scarcely know them again; after the sermon,
they cried all the way home, and now they keep out of the way so shyly,
and speak so short to each other, and they used always to go about
together arm in arm, and if one had anything on her heart the other
quickly knew it. Ah, my house is all topsy-turvy!"
"Mother," said young Jochen, rising suddenly from his chair, "it is
what I have said before, but I will say it once more; you shall see,
the boys have put something into their heads."
"What should they put into their heads, Jochen?" said Frau Nuessler,
rather sharply.
"Love-affairs," said Jochen, sitting down again in his corner. "My
blessed mother always said: A candidate and a governess in the same
house--you shall see, Gottlieb and Mining.
"Now, Jochen, so you talk and talk! The Lord keep you in your senses!
If I thought that was the case, the candidate should be turned out of
the house, and the other after him. Come out here, Braesig, I have
something to say to you."
When they were outside, Frau Nuessler took him to the garden, and sat
down with him in the arbor.
"Braesig," said she, "I cannot listen to this everlasting chatter of
Jochen's; he has got it from Rudolph, who used to talk with him so
much, last winter, in the evenings, and now he has got in the habit of
it, and cannot break off. Now tell me honestly,--you promised that you
would look after them,--have you ever had any idea of such a thing?"
"Eh, preserve us!" said Braesig, "not the remotest conception!"
"I cannot believe it is so," said Frau Nuessler, thoughtfully; "at
first, Lining and Gottlieb were always together, and Mining and
Rudolph,--afterwards, Mining held to Gottlieb, and Lining to Rudolph,
and after the examination, Lining went back to Gottlieb again; but
Mining and Rudolph are not friends, for since the sermon she will
scarcely look at him."
"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "love is a thing which begins in some
hidden way, perhaps with a bunch of flowers, or a couple say 'Good
morning' to each other, and touch each other's hands, or they stoop, at
the same time, to pick up a ball of cotton, and knock their heads
together, and a looker-on observes nothing more, but after a while, it
becomes more perceptible, the women often turn red, and the men cast
sheep's-eyes, or the women entice the men into the pantry, and offer
them sausage and tongue and pig's head, and the men come to see the
women, dressed up in red and blue neck-ties, or, if it is very far
gone, they go out walking on summer evenings, in the moonlight, and
sigh. Anything of that sort with the little rogues?"
"I cannot say, Braesig. They have been in my pantry, off and on; but I
soon sent them out, for I won't have people eating in the pantry, and I
never noticed that my little girls turned red, though they have cried
their eyes red, often enough, of late."
"Hm!" said Braesig, "this last is not without significance. Now I will
tell you, Frau Nuessler, leave it wholly to me, I know how to track
them; I detected Habermann's confounded greyhound, in his love-affairs.
I am an old hunter; I can track him to his lair; but you must tell me
where they have their haunts; that is, where I shall be likely to find
them."
"That is here, Braesig, here in this arbor. My little girls sit here in
the afternoon, and sew, and the other two come and sit with them; I
never thought any harm of it."
"No harm in that," said Braesig, and stepping out of the arbor he
looked carefully around, and in so doing perceived a large Rhenish
cherry-tree, full of leaves, which stood close by the arbor.
"All right!" said he, "what can be done shall be done."
"Dear heart!" sighed Frau Nuessler, as went back to the house, "what a
miserable time we shall have to-day! Kurz is coming this afternoon, in
time for coffee, he is bitterly angry with his son, and such a
malicious little toad. You shall see, there will be a great uproar."
"It is always the way with little people," Braesig: "the head, and the
lower constitution are so close together, that fire kindles quickly."
"Yes," sighed Frau Nuessler, again entering the house, "it is a misery."
She had no idea that the misery in her house was already in full
course.
While these transactions were going on below stairs the two little
twin-apples sat up in their chamber, sewing. Lining sat by one window,
and Mining by the other, and they never looked up from their work, they
never spoke to each other, as in those old times, at the Frau
Pastorin's sewing-school,--they sewed and sewed, as if the world were
coming to pieces, and they, with needle and thread, were patching it
together again, and they looked so solemn about it, and sighed so
heavily, as if they knew right well what an arduous task they had under
their fingers. It was strange that their mother had said nothing to
Braesig of how their pretty, red cheeks had grown pale, and it must have
been because she had not noticed it herself. But it was so, the two
little apples looked as wan as if they had grown on the north side of
the life-tree, where no sun-beams pierced to color their cheeks, and it
seemed, too, as if they hung no longer on the same twig. At last Lining
let her work drop in her lap, she could not sew any longer, her eyes
filled, and the tears ran down her white cheeks; and Mining reached for
her handkerchief, and held it to her eyes, and great tears dropped in
her lap, and so they sat and wept, as if the fair, innocent world in
their own bosoms had gone to pieces, and they could not patch it
together again.
All at once Mining sprang up and ran out of the door, as if she must
get into the free air; but she bethought herself, she could not run off
without being seen and questioned by her mother, so she stood there, on
the other side of the door, still crying. Lining sprang up also, as if
she should comfort Mining, but she bethought herself that she did not
know how, so she stood on this side the door, crying.
So is often interposed, between two hearts, a thin board, and each
heart hears the other sighing and weeping, and the thin board has on
each side a latch, that one needs merely to lift, and what has
separated the hearts may be shoved aside; but neither will stir the
latch, and the two hearts weep still.
But, thank God! such selfish pride towards each other these little
hearts had not yet learned, and Mining opened the door, and said,
"Lining, why are you crying?" and Lining reached out her hands, and
said, "Ah, Mining, why are _you_ crying?" And they fell into each
others arms, still crying, but their cheeks grew red as if the sunlight
had reached them, and they clung fast to each other, as if they were
again growing on the same stem.
"Mining!" said Lining, "I will give him up to you, and you shall be
happy with him."
"No, Lining!" cried Mining, "he cares more for you, and you are a great
deal better than I am."
"No, Mining, I have made up my mind; uncle Kurz is coming this
afternoon, and I will ask father and mother to let me go back with him,
for to stay here and look on might be too hard for me."
"Do so, Lining; then you will be with his parents; and I will ask
Gottlieb to get me, through his father, a place as governess,
somewhere, far, far away, before you come back; for my heart is too
heavy to stay here."
"Mining," said Lining, pushing her sister back, and looking earnestly
in her eyes,--"with his parents? whom do you mean?"
"Why, Rudolph."
"You mean Rudolph?"
"Yes, of course; whom do you mean, then?"
"I? I meant Gottlieb."
"No, no!" cried Mining, throwing her arms again about her sister's
neck, "how is that possible? Why, we don't mean the same one, after
all!"
"Dear heart!" exclaimed Lining, "and what misery we have made
ourselves!"
"And now it is all right!" cried Mining, dancing about the room, "it is
all right now!"
"Yes, Mining, it is all right now," and Lining also danced about the
room. And Mining fell upon her sister's neck again, this time in joy.
Yes, when one touches the latch, in time, and shoves back the
separating wall, then the hearts come together again, and all is right,
even if there is not such a rejoicing as here in the little chamber.
First they wept, and then they danced about the room, then they sat
down one in the other's lap, and talked it all over, and blamed
themselves for stupidity, that they had not noticed how it stood with
them, and wondered how it was possible that they should not have come
to an explanation before, and then each confessed how far she had gone
with her cousin, and that the young men had not yet spoken openly, and
they were both half inclined to scold them, as the cause of all the
trouble. And Lining said she had been, all along, in great doubt; but
since last Sunday, she had been convinced that Mining cared for
Gottlieb, for otherwise why should she have cried so? and Mining said
she could not help crying, because Rudolph had done such a dreadful
thing, and she supposed Lining was crying for the same reason. And
Lining said that what troubled her was because her poor Gottlieb was
served so. But it was all right now; and when the dinner-bell rang, the
little twin-apples tumbled down stairs, rosy-red, and arm in arm, and
Braesig, who had seated himself with his back to the light that he might
judge the better of their appearance, stared in astonishment at their
bright eyes and joyous faces, and said to himself: "How? they are shy?
They are in trouble? They are in love? They look just ready for a
frolic."
Upon the ringing of the dinner-bell, entered Braesig's proselyter, the
candidate Gottlieb Baldrian. Lining grew red, and turned away, not in
ill humor, but on account of the confession she had made upstairs, and
Braesig said to himself, "This strikes me as a very curious thing;
Lining is affected. How can it be possible? and he such a scarecrow!"
Braesig had expressed himself too strongly, but Gottlieb was no beauty.
Nature had dealt niggardly with him, and the little that he had he did
not use to advantage. Take his hair, for instance. He had a thick head
of hair, and if it had been properly kept under by the shears, it would
have been good, respectable light hair, and he might have gone about,
without attracting any attention; but he had, in his clerical heart,
set up for his model, St. John the beloved, and he parted his hair in
the middle, and combed it down on each side, though its natural
tendency was to stand upright. Eh, well, I have nothing to say against
it if a little rogue of ten or twelve years runs around with curls
about his head, and the mothers of the little rogues have still less to
say against it, and they turn them about, and stroke the hair out of
their eyes, and comb it smooth, too, when a visitor is coming,--silly
people sometimes go so far as to put it up in curl-papers, and use hot
irons; I should have nothing to say, if it were the fashion for old
people to curl their hair in long curls, for the old pictures look very
fine so; but he who has no calves ought not to wear tight trowsers, and
if a man's hair does not curl, he does better to keep it short. Our old
Gottlieb's incongruous wig hung down, tanned by the sun, as if he had
tied in a lot of rusty lath-nails, and because he had to oil it very
liberally to keep it in its place, it ruined his coat-collar,--farther,
it did not reach. Under this rich gift of nature, looked out an
insignificant, pale face, which usually wore a melancholy expression,
so that Braesig was always asking him what shoemaker he employed, and
whether his corns troubled him. The rest of his figure harmonized with
this expression, he was long, and thin and angular; but the part
devoted to the enjoyment of the good things of this world seemed quite
wanting, and the place which this necessary and useful organ generally
occupies was a great cavity, like Frau Nuessler's baking-tray, seen from
the inside. He was really a natural curiosity for Braesig, who ate like
a barn-thresher, and couldn't help it. One would almost have believed
that the Pietist was nourished in some other way than by eating and
drinking. I have known people, and know some people still, whom I never
could rival in this respect. It is true these candidates are often very
thin, as one may see by the best of the Hanover candidates, who are so
plenty among us; but when one gets a fat parish, he often begins to
fill out, and so Braesig did not give up the hope that Gottlieb might
come to something, in time, though he puzzled his brains over him a
great deal. This was the way Gottlieb Baldrian looked; but the picture
would not be complete, if I did not say that over the whole was spread
a little, little smirk of Pharisaism; it was a very little, but that
Pharisee stuff is like a calf's stomach; with a little, little bit one
can turn a whole pan of milk sour.
They sat down to dinner, and Jochen asked,--
"Where is Rudolph?"
"Good gracious, Jochen, what are you talking about?" said Frau Nuessler
hastily, "you ought to know by this time, that he never in his life was
in season. He has gone fishing; but if people won't come in time, they
may go without their dinner."
The meal was a quiet one, for Braesig did not talk, he lay in wait, with
all his senses and faculties, and Frau Nuessler wondered in silence what
could have so changed her little girls. They sat there laughing and
whispering lightly to each other, and looking so happy, as if they were
just awaked from a bad dream, and were rejoicing that it wasn't true,
and that the sun shone brightly once more.