ULI HAS THOUGHTS AND BECOMES A CALCULATOR
So the trip went off safely and innocently, but not without
consequences. Little by little the thought began to turn Uli's head that
he could easily make himself happy by getting a rich wife; for,
unreasonable as it is, in our ordinary speech to get happiness and to
get wealth are synonymous. So often we hear it said, "He's lucky; he
made a fine marriage and got over ten thousand gulden with his wife. Of
course she's a fool and gives him lots of trouble; but what's the odds
if you've got money? Money's all that counts." Uli was not free from
this general and yet so baseless notion; for did he not wish to become a
rich man himself? When he thought of Elsie's utterances, which, to be
sure, were made in the rain and mist, it seemed more and more probable
to him that she would take him if he tried hard to get her. The brother
had treated him so amicably and shown him so much confidence that he
probably would really not greatly oppose it; if Elsie was to marry
somebody, Uli might suit better than many another. The parents, he
thought, wouldn't like it at first, and would make a fuss; but if Elsie
managed it and the thing was done, he wasn't afraid of not winning them
over. The thought of one day living on Slough Farm and being his own
master there, was infinitely pleasant to him. In twenty years, he
sometimes calculated, he would easily double his wealth; he would show
the whole district what farming could bring in. One plan after the other
rose before him--how to go about it, all the things he would do, what
the pastor would say when he published the banns, what the people in his
home district would say when some day he would come along with his own
horse and wagon and it would be noised around that he had six horses in
his stable and ten of the finest cows. To be sure, when he saw Elsie
lolling around lazily there were blots on his calculation. He realized
that she was no housekeeper, and was moreover queer and extravagant. The
last fault she might overcome, he thought, if she had a husband. He
could afford to have servants then; other folks got along without the
wife doing anything, and with such wealth it wouldn't matter much. There
was something the matter with every woman; he'd never heard of any that
was so perfect that one wouldn't wish for anything else. Rich, rich!
That was the thing. And still, when he saw Elsie, his calculations came
to a sudden stop. This fading, languishing, sleepy thing seemed too
unpalatable to him. When she touched him with her clammy hands he
shuddered; he felt as if he must wipe the spot she had touched. And then
when he heard her talk, so affected and stupid, it almost drove him out
of the room, and he had to reflect: No, you can't stand living with this
woman; every word she said would shame you. But when he was away from
Elsie again he saw the handsome farm, heard the money clink, imagined
himself looked up to, and he felt as if Elsie were not so bad after all;
so he would gradually persuade himself that perhaps she was cleverer
than she seemed, and, if she loved a man and he talked sensibly to her,
something might yet be done with her, and with a proper man she might
yet turn out a very sensible woman.
All this merely went on in Uli's head; but murder will out. The trip had
made Uli and Elsie more familiar; they used a different tone in speaking
to each other, Elsie regarded him with the peculiar glance of a certain
understanding. Uli, to be sure, tried to avoid her eyes, especially when
they were in sight of Freneli; for just as Elsie's riches allured him
more strongly every day, so Freneli seemed to him ever handier and
prettier. The best thing, he often thought, would be to have Freneli
stay with them and manage the household. But Elsie ran after Uli more
than ever, and when on a Sunday afternoon she was alone with him for an
instant in the living-room, she would not rest until they got to
kissing. She would have given anything to take another drive with him;
but she did not know where to go, and when they went to market her
father and mother went along. Just the same, if Uli had had bad
intentions and had wanted to secure a marriage by an evil road--of which
there are cases enough with men worse than Uli--Elsie would have given
plenty of opportunity, nor would she have done anything to shield
herself. "Uli, don't be so timid!" she would perhaps have said. But Uli
was honest and desired no evil; so he shunned such opportunities, and
often avoided the chances Elsie gave him, much preferring to deserve her
than to seduce her. He worked all the harder, took especial pains with
every detail, and tried to earn the commendation that, if he were not
rich already, he could not fail to become so with such aptitude; this,
he thought, would have as much weight with the parents as many thousand
francs. He did not think of that terrible saying--"Only a servant." But,
his fellow-servants had eyes in their heads, too, and long before Uli
had begun to think of anything, they had noticed Elsie's indiscreet
conduct and had teased Uli about it. More and more they ascribed his
activity to the intention of becoming son-in-law. The change since the
trip was not hidden from them. They invented divers accounts of what had
happened, taunted Uli to his face and calumniated him behind his back.
Whenever he required anything new of them they interpreted it to mean
that he wanted to get himself valued at their expense; therefore they
took it ill, became unruly, and said they would take him down a peg.
They lay in wait for Uli and Elsie wherever they could, tried to disturb
or to witness their accidental or intentional meetings, and to play all
kinds of tricks on them; and they would have dearly loved to uncover
some serious scandal, but Uli gave them no opportunity. With him the
scale still hung in the balance. At times Elsie and his life on Slough
Farm became so bitter to him that he would have liked to be a hundred
miles away. But the girl grew more and more in love with him, bought him
gifts at every opportunity, gave him more than he wanted to accept, and
acted in such a silly way with him that it finally attracted her
parents' attention. Joggeli grumbled: there you had it now; now you
could see the scheme Uli was working; but he would put a spoke in his
wheel. At the same time he did nothing; and in secret he thought that
his son, who so often tricked his father, would be served just right if
Elsie played the fool and disgraced him by having to marry a servant.
But the mother took it very much to heart and talked to Elsie: she
should not be so silly with Uli; she must think what folks would say and
how they would gossip about her. It was truly not seemly for a rich girl
to treat a servant like a sweetheart. No, she had nothing against Uli,
but still he was only a servant, and Elsie surely didn't want to marry a
servant.
Then Elsie blubbered: everything she did was wrong; in God's name, they
were always complaining of her; now they accused her of being too stuck
up, now of making herself too cheap; when she said a kind word to a
servant, folks made such a to-do that it couldn't be worse if she had
lost her good name; nobody wanted her to have any pleasure, and
everybody was down on her; it would be best for her if she could die
soon. And Elsie blubbered more and more vehemently, until she was all
out of breath, and her mother had to undo her bodice hastily, thinking
in all seriousness that Elsie was going to die. Then the good mother
held her peace again; for she did not want to scold Elsie to death. She
merely complained at times to Freneli that she didn't know what to do.
If she scolded, Elsie was capable of doing something foolish; but if she
let things go and something really did happen, then she would get the
blame for everything, and people would ask why hadn't she done something
in time. Of Uli she couldn't complain; he was acting very sensibly, and
she even thought the whole thing was disagreeable to him. And she would
be sorry to send him off packing without notice, before they had more
grounds of complaint; for, if she did, Joggeli would be the first to
accuse her of dismissing through groundless anxiety the best servant
they had ever had. But that was the way he always did--when she wanted
him to speak he would keep still, and when she wanted him to keep still
he would always meddle. She, Freneli, should keep her eyes open, and if
she saw anything out of the way she was to tell her. But from Freneli
the old woman got little comfort; she acted as if the whole affair were
none of her business. Elsie could not refrain from talking to Freneli
about Uli--how fine and handsome he was, and how she wouldn't take her
oath that she wouldn't marry him yet; if her people angered her by
refusing to do what she wanted, they'd just see what she'd do. She
wouldn't take long to think about it, and she'd only have to say the
word and Uli would go and have the banns published. Then, when Freneli
would say little to all this, Elsie would accuse her of being jealous.
Or when Freneli would talk to her and tell her not to make a fool of
Uli, whom she didn't really want, or would tell her not to grieve her
parents in this way, Elsie would accuse her of wanting Uli herself and
of trying to entice her away from him in order to climb up in the world;
but Uli wouldn't take such a penniless pauper as she--he was too shrewd
for that. She needn't imagine that she could get a husband so easily;
the poorest servant would think twice before he'd take a poor girl,
and twice again before he'd take a bastard--that was the greatest
disgrace there was.
[Illustration: THE BATH BENJAMIN VAUTIER]
Although Freneli felt such speeches deeply she would give no sign of it,
would neither weep nor scold, but say at most, "Elsie, that you're not a
bastard too isn't your fault; and that you haven't one by now isn't your
fault either."
The hardest thing for Freneli was to regulate her conduct toward Uli.
The more Elsie's money went to his head, the more he felt himself drawn
to Freneli; he could not bear to have her give him short answers or to
seem angry with him, and tried in every way to pacify her and win her
favor. He often fled from Elsie, and never sought her out; he never fled
from Freneli, but often looked for her; while Freneli fled from him and
Elsie ran after him. Freneli wanted to be short and dry with Uli, and
still, with the best intentions, she often could not but be friendly
with the friendly lad, and at times forgot herself and would spend two
or three minutes chatting and laughing with him. When Elsie happened to
see this there were terrible scenes. First she would make the wildest
accusations against Freneli, until she could talk no more and was
completely out of breath; when in this state she would sometimes rush at
her, and would have tried to beat her if she had had the strength. Then
she would pitch into Uli; a hundred times he would have to hear that he
was a filthy fellow and only a servant; that she saw what she had to
expect if she was such a fool as folks thought; but, thank heaven, there
was still time enough, and she wouldn't be such a fool as to bring her
money to a man who she was afraid would waste it all on women. Then she
would begin to bawl at such false statements, and say she was going to
die either by hanging or shooting herself. Often she would become
reconciled in the midst of her tears, and Uli had to promise not to run
after others any more, and not to say another good word to that old
Freneli, who just wanted to lead him on and astray. Again, the quarrel
would continue and Elsie would sulk. Then Uli would think: a girl that
was so jealous, and so often told him he was a servant, and bawled and
sulked so much, wouldn't be the most agreeable kind of wife; it would be
hard living with her, and it would be better if he drove the whole thing
out of his mind. But as soon as he became indifferent to her sulks,
Elsie grew anxious and sought a reconciliation; then she would buy him
something, or seek some other opportunity to flatter Uli, and beg him to
love her, for she had no other joy in life. And when she made him so
angry he mustn't take it ill of her; she only did it because her love
was so great and she didn't want anybody else to have him--etc., etc.
When she once had him to herself she wouldn't be jealous any more; but
so long as she was all in the air and didn't know where she stood, she
often felt as if she'd rather die. And she didn't really know whether
Uli loved her, either; sometimes it seemed to her that, if he loved her
very much, he'd go at it quite differently, and take hold of things
better; but he was just like a wooden doll and never lifted a hand. Then
when Uli would say that he didn't know how to do any better, that he too
didn't exactly know whether Elsie really wanted him, and if she was in
earnest about it she should speak with her parents, or they would go to
the pastor and announce their engagement and then see what would come of
it, Elsie would say that there was no hurry about it; they could get
married any time; the chief thing was that he should love her, and then
a year would be soon enough, or if he went at it right (that depended on
him, she would see about it), six months; but with that Freneli he must
have nothing more to do or she would scratch both their eyes out and the
hussy would have to leave the house.
Of course the affair made talk for miles around, and people told much
more than there was to tell. There were two parties: one thought the
parents were rightly served, the other thought Uli would get his deserts
with his rich wife. The longer it lasted, and it was over a year now,
the more probable seemed his success; the more the servants submitted
to Uli and ranged themselves on the side of the presumptive son-in-law,
so that the farm took on a more and more prosperous appearance and Uli
became more and more indispensable. Even Joggeli, into whose money-bags
the cash profit flowed, and who could easily figure what twenty
additional cords of fodder and a thousand sheaves of grain meant, choked
down his anger and shut one eye, comforting himself by saying that he
would use Uli as long as possible; and if matters ever got serious, why
then there would still be time enough. Once when Johannes, having heard
the gossip, came along, and cursed and swore and demanded that Uli be
discharged, Joggeli would not hear to it; as long as he lived he would
give orders here, and Johannes would be glad to have Uli if he could get
him; what went on here was none of his business, and if they wanted to
give Elsie to Uli that was none of his business either. He needn't think
he'd inherit everything; for the time being everything that they still
had and that he hadn't wormed out of 'em was theirs; the more Johannes
carried on, the sooner Elsie would have to marry--not that it would have
to be Uli; there were others too. They knew well enough how much he
loved them; if he just had the money he'd never ask again after father
and mother and Elsie; and they could all marry again for all he cared,
and if to tramps or gipsies it would be all one to him.
Thus Joggeli talked to his son in his nagging, coughing way, so that the
mother grew quite anxious, and interrupted: Johannes needn't be afraid;
that wouldn't happen, for she was still at the helm and Elsie wouldn't
force them to everything, and Uli was a good lad, and so on. Then
Johannes wanted to talk with Uli himself, but he was not to be found; he
had gone out to get a cow, it was said. Trinette, this time much more
beautifully sulphur-yellow than Elsie had been, strutted around her with
contemptuous mien and turned-up nose, and finally said, "Fie and for
shame, how common you're making yourself! To take up with a servant!
It's a disgrace for the whole family! If my folks had known that my
husband's sister would marry a servant, they'd have given him the mitten
like a flash; they didn't like him any too well as it was; but I was
fool enough to want him absolutely. We can't count you as one of the
family any more, and then you can see where you'll find a roof for your
head; you can't stay here any more--I say this once and for all. Faugh,
to have a love-affair with a servant! You give me the creeps; I can't
bear to look at you any more. Ugh, aren't you ashamed to the bottom of
your soul, and don't you feel like crawling into the ground?"
However, Elsie was not ashamed, but paid Trinette back heartily in her
own coin: a girl could choose anybody she wanted for her sweetheart, and
could marry a servant or a master; all men were alike before God. But if
once she was a wife she'd be ashamed to have her name connected now with
the stable-boy and now with the butcher, now with the herder and now
with the carter, and finally with all the peddlers and traders, and to
have children with no two noses the same and looking as much alike as
Swiss and Italians. But for Freneli and the mother, the two
sisters-in-law would have torn the grass-green and the sulphur-yellow
dresses from each other's bodies. When the mother wanted to help out
Trinette by speaking for her, Elsie became so excited that they had to
put her to bed. Now, she said, when she recovered consciousness and
speech--now she surely would do what she wanted; she wouldn't let
herself be made into sausages like a fat sow; and it was cruel of her
parents to want just one child to inherit and to let the other child
pine away without a husband, just so all the money would stay in one
pile.
Johannes and his wife did not stay long. Turning in frequently on the
homeward road, and giving up all restraint, they spun out at length the
whole story to their friends and colleagues, male and female, and their
story carried the rumor to complete certainty. The brother and his wife
told it themselves, people said, and they ought to know.
Not long afterward Uli drove to market with a horse, but soon saw that
he could not sell it for what he was instructed to get, so, as it was
bad weather, he took it from the market-place and stabled it in an inn.
Turning a corner to enter the inn, he bumped into his old master. With
unconcealed joy Uli held out his hand and told him how glad he was to
see him and to be with him for a while. The master was somewhat cool and
spoke of much business, but finally named a place where they could drink
a bottle in peace. There, after they were seated in a corner fairly well
out of sight, they began the preliminaries. Johannes asked whether there
had been much hay, and Uli said yes, and asked whether his grain had
fallen too; the first wind had felled theirs. "You're doing well,"
continued the master after some further talk, "and what do I hear? Folks
say you're soon to be farmer at Slough Farm."
"Why, who says that?" asked Uli.
"Oh, folks say it's being talked about far and wide, and they say it's
surely true."
"Folks always know more than those concerned," said Uli.
"There must be something in it," answered the master. "Oh," said Uli, "I
wouldn't say that it might not be some time, but it's a long way off
yet; nothing has been said about it and it might turn out either way."
"Well," said Johannes, "it seems to me there's been enough talk about
it."
"Why, how so?" asked Uli.
"Why, the girl's pregnant!"
"That's an accursed lie," cried Uli, "I haven't been near her. I won't
say that I couldn't have been; but I'd have been ashamed to. Everybody
would have blamed me and thought it was a scoundrelly trick, like a good
many others; and I didn't want that. Folks mustn't say of me that I got
a rich wife that way." "So, so!" said Johannes; "then things aren't as
I've heard, and here I thought that Uli wanted to ask me to be his
spokesman. I shouldn't have liked that, I must say, and that's the
reason I'd have preferred not to meet you. I'm glad it isn't so; I'd
have dirtied my own hands with it too. And in any case it would have
vexed me if you'd done like other skunks. But something is in it?"
"Oh," replied Uli, "I wouldn't deny that I've thought the daughter
wanted me, and it might be carried through if we took hold of it right.
And, to be sure, it has seemed to me that that would be a piece of good
fortune for a poor lad like me; I could never do better."
"I suppose it's that pale, transparent little thing, that has to go in
out of the wind for fear of getting blown away?"
"Why, she isn't the prettiest that ever was," said Uli; "she's thin and
sickly; but she'll surely get better when she has a husband, the doctor
says; and she'll get fifty thousand."
"Does she still loll around the house, or does she take hold with the
housekeeping?" asked Johannes.
"She doesn't do much work and isn't in the kitchen very often; but she
can knit finely and makes all sorts of pretty things with beads. But if
she gets the farm some time we could afford a cook. If she only looks
after things now and then, she doesn't need to do everything herself,"
said Uli.
"Ye-up, but to look after things you have to know how yourself; it's
foolish to think that if a woman just looks at something, that's all
that's necessary. For instance, a woman can sit all day in a drug-store
with her knitting, but that won't keep the apprentices from doing as
they please. And I thought she looked rather ugly and scowled at a
person instead of giving him a friendly word."
"She does have failings," said Uli, "and is mighty sensitive too. But if
she once has a good husband and has enough to do to keep her busy, so
that she could forget herself now and then, she'd surely improve. Not
that she can't ever be friendly. She can act very prettily at times;
and if the farm's properly worked one can get at least ten thousand
sheaves from it, not counting rye and wheat."
"That's a lot," said Johannes, "and there aren't many more such farms in
the canton. But if you gave me the choice between a good farm and a bad
wife, or neither, I'd take the latter a hundred times over. To be rich
is nice, but riches aren't happiness; and to have a hateful sour woman
at home, that either turns up her nose or bawls at everything, would
make a home for the devil to live in. And if a man has to look for his
pleasure outside his house, he's badly off."
"But master," said Uli, "you always told me to save and be thrifty, and
then I'd be somebody; that the man who had nothing was nothing."
"Quite right, Uli," said the master, "that's what I said and what I
still say. A man is happier when thrifty than when extravagant, and he's
no man if he can't provide for his old age while he's young and single.
If a man doesn't begin well while he's young he'll come to a bad end. A
good lad with some money can marry more easily than a vagabond, and
should look for a good wife; but the richest isn't always the best. Some
women I'd rather take without a farthing than others with a hundred
francs. Everything depends on the person. Do as you will, but consider
it well."
"To be sure, Elsie's a wretched creature," said Uli, "but she can
improve; many a girl has been thin when young, and has grown stout in
old age; and she's not really bad tempered, especially when she's
contented. When she's angry--then, to be sure, she doesn't know just
what she's saying, and throws my position in my face, and twits me about
other girls; but when she's contented again she can be quite amusing,
and has the best heart in the world. She's given me presents, Lord knows
how many, and would have given me lots more if I hadn't kept stopping
her." "Do as you will," said Johannes, "but I tell you again: consider
it well. It seldom turns out well when such different folks come
together, and it has rarely turned out well when a servant has married
his master's daughter. I set great store by you; to another man I
wouldn't have said so much. Now I must go home; come and see us some
time when you have the leisure; then we'll talk the matter over some
more, if it's not too late."
Uli looked discontentedly after his master. "I shouldn't have thought,"
he reflected, "that he would grudge me my good fortune. But that's the
way with these cursed farmers; they're all alike; they don't want to see
a servant get hold of a farm. Johannes is one of the best of 'em; but he
can't stand it either to see his servant get to be richer than he is and
own a finer farm. Why else should it have mattered to him whether
Elsie's pretty or ugly? He didn't just lookout for a pretty one when he
married. They seem to think it's almost a sin when the like of us thinks
of a farmer's daughter, and still many a one might be glad if she got a
mannerly servant for a husband and didn't have to live like a dog on the
farm all her life." But he said to himself that he wouldn't let himself
be dissuaded so easily; the thing had gone on too long and there had
been too much talk about it for him to back out that way. But the affair
must be brought to a conclusion, he thought; he wanted to know where he
stood, once and for all; he was tired of hanging between door and hinge.
He'd tell Elsie that she must speak with her parents; by autumn the
banns must be published, or he'd leave at Christmas; he wouldn't be made
a fool of any longer.