When Axel came in two hours later, bringing Dellwig and Manske and two
or three other helpers, farmers, who had driven across the plain to do
what they could, he found his house lit up and food and drink set out
ready in the dining-room.
Letty and Anna had had time to recover from their tears and vows, sundry
small blisters on the back of Letty's neck had been treated with cotton
wool, and they had emerged from their agitation to a calmer state in
which the helping of the princess in the middle of the night to make
somebody else's house comfortable was not without its joys. The Mamsell,
no more able than the Kleinwalde servants to withstand the authority of
the princess's name and eye, had collected the maids and worked with a
will; and when, all danger of the fire spreading being over, Axel came
in dirty and smoky and scorched, prepared to have to hunt himself in the
dark house for the refreshment he could not but offer his helpers, he
was agreeably surprised to find the lamp in the hall alight, and to be
met by a wide-awake Mamsell in a clean apron who proposed to provide the
gentlemen with hot water. This was very attentive. Axel had never known
her so thoughtful. The gentlemen, however, with one accord refused the
hot water; they would drink a glass of wine, perhaps, as Herr von Lohm
so kindly suggested, and then go to their homes and beds as quickly as
possible. Manske, by far the grimiest, was also the most decided in his
refusal; he was a godly man, but he did not love supererogatory
washings, under which heading surely a washing at two o'clock in the
morning came. Axel left them in the hall a moment, and went into his
study to fetch cigars; and there he found Letty, hiding behind the door.
"You here, young lady?" he exclaimed surprised, stopping short.
"Don't let anyone see me," she whispered. "Princess Ludwig and Aunt Anna
are in the dining-room. I ran in here when I heard people with you. My
hair is all burnt off."
"What, you went too near?"
"Sparks came after me. Don't let them come in----"
"You were not hurt?"
"No. A little--on the back of my neck, but it's hardly anything."
"I am very glad your hair was burnt off," said Axel with great severity.
"So am I," was the hearty reply. "The tangles at night were something
awful."
He stood silent for a moment, the cigar-boxes under his arm, uncertain
whether he ought not to enlighten her as to the reprehensibility of her
late conduct in regard to her aunt and Klutz. Evidently her conscience
was cloudless, and yet she had done more harm than was quite calculable.
Axel was fairly certain that Klutz had set fire to the stables.
Absolutely certain he could not be, but the first blaze had occurred so
nearly at the moment when Klutz must have reached them on his way home,
that he had hardly a doubt about it. It was his duty as Amtsvorsteher to
institute inquiries. If these inquiries ended in the arrest of Klutz,
the whole silly story about Anna would come out, for Klutz would be only
too eager to explain the reasons that had driven him to the act; and
what an unspeakable joy for the province, and what a delicious
excitement for Stralsund! He could only hope that Klutz was not the
culprit, he could only hope it fervently with all his heart; for if he
was, the child peeping out at him so cheerfully from behind the door had
managed to make an amount of mischief and bring an amount of trouble on
Anna that staggered him. Such a little nonsense, and such far-reaching
consequences! He could not speak when he thought of it, and strode past
her indignantly, and left the room without a word.
"Now what's the row with _him_?" Letty asked herself, her finger in her
mouth; for Axel had looked at her as he passed with very grave and angry
eyes.
The men waiting in the hall were slightly disconcerted, on being taken
into the dining-room, to find the Kleinwalde ladies there. None of them,
except Manske, liked ladies; and ladies in the small hours of the
morning were a special weariness to the flesh. Dellwig, having made his
two deep bows to them, looked meaningly at his friends the other
farmers; Miss Estcourt's private engagement to Lohm seemed to be placed
beyond a doubt by her presence in his house on this occasion.
"How delightful of you," said Axel to her in English.
"I am glad to hear," she replied stiffly in German, for she was still
angry with him because of Letty's hair, "I am glad to hear that you will
have no losses from this."
"Losses!" cried Manske. "On the contrary, it is the best thing that
could happen--the very best thing. Those stables have long been almost
unfit for use, Herr von Lohm, and I can say from my heart that I was
glad to see them go. They were all to pieces even in your father's
time."
"Yes, they ought to have been rebuilt long ago, but one has not always
the money in one's pocket. Help yourself, my dear pastor."
"Who is the enemy?" broke in Dellwig's harsh voice.
"Ah, who indeed?" said Manske, looking sad. "That is the melancholy side
of the affair--that someone, presumably of my parish, should commit such
a crime."
"He has done me a great service, anyhow," said Axel, filling the
glasses.
"He has imperilled his immortal soul," said Manske.
"Have you such an enemy?" asked Anna, surprised.
"I did not know it. Most likely it was some poor, half-witted devil, or
perhaps--perhaps a child."
"But I saw the blaze immediately after I passed you," said Dellwig. "You
were within a stone's throw of the stables, going home. I had hardly
reached them when the fire broke out. Did you then see no one on the
road?"
"No, I did not," said Axel shortly. There was an aggressive note in
Dellwig's voice that made him fear he was going to be very zealous in
helping to bring the delinquent to justice.
"It was the supper hour," said Dellwig, musing, "and the men would all
be indoors. Had you been to the stables, _gnädiger Herr_?"
"No, I had not. Take another glass of wine. A cigar? Whoever it was, he
has done me a good turn."
"Beyond all doubt he has," said Dellwig, his eyes fixed on Axel with an
odd expression.
"Some of us would have no objection to the same thing happening at our
places," remarked one of the farmers jocosely.
"No objection whatever," agreed another with a laugh.
"If the man could be trusted to display the same discrimination
everywhere," said the third.
"Joke not about crime," said Manske, rebuking them.
"The discrimination was certainly remarkable," said Dellwig.
"That is why I think it must have been done by some person more or less
imbecile," said Axel; "otherwise one of the good buildings, whose
destruction would really have harmed me, would have been chosen."
"He must be hunted down, imbecile or not," said Dellwig.
"I shall do my duty," said Axel stiffly.
"You may rely on my help," said Dellwig.
"You are very good," said Axel.
Dellwig's voice had something ominous about it that made Anna shiver.
What a detestable man he was, always and at all times. His whole manner
to-night struck her as specially offensive. "What will be done to the
poor wretch when he is caught?" she asked Axel.
"He will be imprisoned," Dellwig answered promptly.
She turned her back on him. "Even though he is half-witted?" she said to
Axel. "Are you obliged to look for him? Can't you leave him alone? He
has done you a service, after all."
"I must look for him," said Axel; "it is my duty as Amtsvorsteher."
"And the gracious Miss should consider----" shouted Dellwig from behind.
"I'll consider nothing," said Anna, turning to him quickly.
"--should consider the demands of justice----"
"First the demands of humanity," said Anna, her back to him.
"Noble," murmured Manske.
"The gracious Miss's sentiments invariably do credit to her heart," said
Dellwig, bowing profoundly.
"But not to her head, he thinks," said Anna to Axel in English, faintly
smiling.
"Don't talk to him," Axel replied in a low voice; "the man so palpably
hates us both. You must go home. Where is your carriage? Princess, take
her home."
"_Ach, Herr Dellwig, seien Sie so freundlich_----" began the princess
mellifluously; and despatched him in search of Fritz.
When they reached Kleinwalde, silent, wornout, and only desiring to
creep upstairs and into their beds, they were met by Frau von Treumann
and the baroness, who both wore injured and disapproving faces. Letty
slipped up to her room at once, afraid of criticisms of her
hairlessness.
"We have waited for you all night, Anna," said Frau von Treumann in an
aggrieved voice.
"You oughtn't to have," said Anna wearily.
"We could not suppose that you were really looking at the fire all this
time," said the baroness.
"And we were anxious," said Frau von Treumann. "My dear, you should not
make us anxious."
"You might have left word, or taken us with you," said the baroness.
"We are quite as much interested in Herr von Lohm as Letty or Princess
Ludwig can be," said Frau von Treumann.
"Nobody could tell us here for certain whether you had really gone there
or not."
"Nor could anybody give us any information as to the extent of the
disaster."
"We presumed the princess was with you, but even that was not certain."
"My dear baroness," murmured the princess, untying her shawl, "only you
would have had a doubt of it."
"The reflection in the sky faded hours ago," said Frau vein Treumann.
"And yet you did not return," said the baroness. "Where did you go
afterwards?"
"Oh, I'll tell you everything to-morrow. Good-night," said Anna, candle
in hand.
"What! Now that we have waited, and in such anxiety, you will tell us
nothing?"
"There really is nothing to tell. And I am so tired--good-night."
"We have kept the servants up and the kettle boiling in case you should
want coffee."
"That was very kind, but I only want bed. Good-night."
"We too were weary, but you see we have waited in spite of it."
"Oh, you shouldn't have. You will be so tired. Good-night."
She went upstairs, pulling herself up each step by the baluster.
The clock on the landing struck half-past three. Was it not
Napoleon, she thought, who said something to the point about
three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage? Had no one ever said anything to
the point about three-o'clock-in-the-morning love for one's
fellow-creatures? "Good-night," she said once more, turning her head and
nodding wearily to them as they watched her from below with indignant
faces.
She glanced at the clock, and went into her room dejectedly; for she had
made a startling discovery: at three o'clock in the morning her feeling
towards the Chosen was one of indifference verging on dislike.