THE CASTLE'S LORD AND LADY.
Herr Fritz Von Osternau, the lord of the castle, was seated in his room
at the open window looking discontentedly out upon the court-yard. In
consequence of over-exertion he had suffered for some days from a
violent attack of the spasmodic cough which many years previously
ignorant physicians had pronounced consumption. These attacks of a
chronic malady were not dangerous. The famous Mitterwurz, of Berlin,
when consulted by Herr von Osternau, had assured him that with care he
might regard his cough as a warrant for length of life, but care he
must take. In stormy or very warm weather he must stay in the house, he
must avoid violent exercise, and never ride far afield even in fair
weather after an attack of coughing, as physical exertion might provoke
a return of it. Since this verdict of the famous physician's, Frau von
Osternau never had allowed her husband to indulge in his agricultural
mania when he had coughed during the night. She would permit him to
take a short walk, upon which she always accompanied him that he might
not be induced to prolong it, and he was obliged to return to the
castle after an hour at most of sauntering. He obeyed her at such times
reluctantly, but still he obeyed, and thus he was sitting to-day at the
open window instead of being where he longed to be, out in the fields
superintending the harvesting. It was so tiresome to gaze out into the
sunlit court-yard, where not a person was to be seen, every man and
maid, as well as a host of day-labourers, being busy with the harvest.
Profound quiet reigned in the spacious quadrangle: even the poultry had
retired to the barns out of the glowing sunshine and were silent. The
court-yard was so lonely and deserted that its master grew tired of
looking out of the window, and taking up a book he tried to read. But
it would not do, his thoughts were with the harvesters, and the book
did not interest him. He laid it down with a sigh of impatience.
"This sitting idly here is intolerable," he said to his wife, who was
seated near him knitting diligently. "I detest laziness. Everybody is
busy in the fields, and I sit here doing nothing. I cannot bear it any
longer, Emma, I must go out, and besides there is no use in taking care
of myself any longer, I have not coughed once for two hours."
Frau von Osternau dropped her knitting in her lap and looked at her
husband with a smile. She was not beautiful, but her smile was
wonderfully lovely and lent a charm to her face, revealing such simple
kindness of heart that one forgot, in looking at it, its irregularity
of feature, and in spite of her forty years she was still youthfully
attractive. Her smile was really irresistible: it was sure to overcome
any rebellion against her wishes upon her husband's part; when he would
have obstinately resisted any severity of manner, he was powerless
against his wife's smile.
"Dear Fritz, you forget your wretched night," she said, gently. "You
coughed so terribly that neither of us slept an hour, and now you want
to go out into the hot sun with the harvesters. For my sake, dear, stay
quietly in your arm-chair. It will soon be noon, and the men will be
back in the court-yard."
Herr von Osternau muttered some unintelligible words, but resigned
himself to his fate with a sigh, and made another fruitless attempt to
read.
"Emma," he said, after a pause, "do you know that to-day is the 6th of
July?"
"I believe it is; but what makes you think of it?"
"You know we expected the tutor on the 6th."
"Then he will surely be here in the course of the day."
"I wish he would fail to keep his appointment. It would be a good
reason for getting rid of him. I confess I cannot reconcile myself to
your idea of having a tutor. We should have been wiser to engage a
governess for Fritzchen. A cultivated, well-born young woman is a
pleasant addition to one's household; she could easily have taught
Fritzchen all he need learn for a couple of years, and it would have
been well for our romp Lieschen to acknowledge a more strict control
than yours."
"Do you imagine that Lieschen would have submitted to it? You know I
thought at first of engaging a governess for Fritzchen, but our
experiences with Lieschen's governesses were too terrible. I could not
try that experiment again. If Liese drove her governess to desperation
when she was a child of seven, it is hardly likely that she would be
very docile as a girl of seventeen. She is too unaccustomed to control.
No, no, it is better as it is. And I may as well tell you, Fritz,
although I know how you will laugh at me, that when I wrote to Director
Kramser I made it a stipulation that the young man whom he should send
to us must be positively ugly. This I did in view of the position I
wished him to occupy with regard to Liese, who is to take music-lessons
of him."
"Oh, Emma, Emma! what an extraordinary idea!" Herr von Osternau
exclaimed, with a laugh.
"It is impossible to be too prudent," Frau von Osternau said, gravely.
"Lieschen has an antipathy to everything ugly, there could be no danger
for her in an ugly, awkward man. Director Kramser is, as you know, an
old friend of mine, he used to be tutor to my brother Karl----"
"I remember him," her husband interrupted her. "I used to see him at
your father's before we were married. A very unattractive, awkward
young man, but in spite of that he has had a very successful career, I
believe."
"He certainly is rather awkward, but very good-humoured, and as honest
and good a man as ever lived. I have great confidence in him. I told
him so in my letter, and frankly confessed to him the reason why I
wanted an ugly tutor. I did not wish that there should be any danger
for Liese in taking music-lessons of him, and I am quite sure that
Kramser will have had a regard for my wishes in this respect."
"No doubt of it, so far as ugliness is concerned," her husband
rejoined, with a laugh. "Speak of an angel, and you hear the rustle of
his wings; there comes the tutor. Come to the window, Emma; there, I am
certain, comes your _protege_ across the court-yard. Heavens! what a
scarecrow!"
Frau von Osternau hastened to her husband's side and looked out of the
open window. His exclamation had made her curious; she too had a slight
shock, and could not but admit that 'scarecrow' was not too strong an
expression, when she saw the young man who had entered the court-yard
by the gate between the barns, and was now leisurely coming towards the
castle across the deserted quadrangle. He was still too far off to
allow of her distinguishing his features, but his figure was certainly
suggestive of a scarecrow. With his clothes hanging loosely upon
his long limbs and the tails of his black coat dangling against his
legs, the man looked like a caricature. His tall, rusty hat, as
well as his coat, seemed the relic of a bygone age. With a shabby old
travelling-bag hung over his shoulder on the end of a stick, he
sauntered slowly along, casting curious glances about him. Herr von
Osternau continued to stare at the strange figure as it gradually
approached the castle. "Most certainly your friend has obeyed your
directions with regard to the ugliness, Emma. And we are to have this
scarecrow living beneath our roof and eating at our table? Why my food
will choke me with that thing before my eyes!"
"He really does look almost too ugly," his wife replied, rather meekly;
she began to feel that she had laid too much stress Upon ugliness in
her letter to the Herr Director.
As the man came nearer, and her keen eye could distinguish his
features, she thought they did not quite correspond to the impression
made upon her by his figure. He could hardly be called very handsome.
The nose was too large, the mouth, shaded by a large moustache, not
sufficiently well formed, and the face was too pale to be pronounced
very handsome; but surely the large, dark eyes might be so considered,
as they looked observantly about the court-yard; and when, upon
advancing sufficiently near the castle to perceive Herr and Frau von
Osternau at the window, the man lifted his hat courteously, his manner
of doing so was such a contradiction of his appearance that Frau von
Osternau hardly knew what to think. The head from which the hat was
lifted seemed by no means repulsive, the dark, expressive eyes lent it
a certain interest.
Herr von Osternau's impressions with regard to the stranger were
identical with his wife's. "A very odd person," he observed, as the
man disappeared beneath the window. "I am really curious to see him."
His wife said nothing, but looked eagerly towards the door of the
sitting-room. She had not long to wait. In a moment Hildebrandt, Herr
von Osternau's old personal attendant, appeared, to announce that a
very odd-looking stranger had arrived with a travelling-bag; his name
he said was Gottlieb Pigglewitch, and he asserted that he was the Herr
Tutor whom madame expected.
Old Hildebrandt looked grave when his mistress desired him to show in
the Herr Tutor immediately, and he ventured to observe that the man did
not look like a respectable tutor, but like some tramp who had stolen
his ill-fitting clothes; nevertheless he obeyed his mistress's
reiterated order, and ushered Herr Gottlieb Pigglewitch into the
sitting-room.
When the tutor appeared on the threshold of the door, which Hildebrandt
held open for him, Frau von Osternau could not but be struck again by
the contrast between the young man's exterior and his air and bearing.
He held his shabby old hat in his hand with the careless grace of a
gentleman paying a morning call, and the bow with which he greeted the
mistress and master of the house was respectful but easy. As he bowed,
the large, dark eyes rested keenly for an instant upon Frau von
Osternau, and were then turned with the same observant glance upon her
husband.
The shyness and the awkwardness which are wont to attack young men
unused to society upon first meeting persons of rank were evidently
unknown to Herr Gottlieb Pigglewitch. He approached Frau von Osternau,
and bowing again slightly, said, "Madame, allow me to introduce myself
as the Candidate Gottlieb Pigglewitch, whom Herr Director Kramser has
recommended to you for a tutor. I beg to thank you for your kindness in
consenting to postpone my entering upon the duties of the important
post assigned me until to-day, and to assure you that I am now ready to
fulfil them to the best of my ability. Yes, I confess that I greatly
desire to enter upon the honest performance of them. I am eager to
teach your little son what you would have him learn."
It was an odd speech, and there was certainly no trace to be found in
it of the formal tone always adopted upon every special occasion by the
Herr Director Kramser in his youth. Everything about the young man was
different from what Frau von Osternau had expected to find it. She was
not easily embarrassed, in her gentle, kindly way she was used to be
equal to any emergency, but, oddly enough, she hardly knew how to treat
this tutor whom she had engaged, this young man who was henceforth to
occupy a superior position among the dependants of her household. She
had thought it but natural and right that she should not be at all
disturbed by his entrance, and should calmly proceed with her knitting,
but it was laid aside, and she felt obliged to receive him as she would
have done a morning visitor of her own rank, as in a few courteous
words she expressed her pleasure in seeing him and motioned him towards
a seat.
Herr von Osternau's sensations were of a similar kind. He too rose from
his chair and left the window as the tutor entered, and when the latter
took a chair near the sofa, in compliance with Frau von Osternau's
invitation, her husband seated himself likewise, and felt himself
impelled to continue the conversation his wife had begun.
"I am glad to find you so punctual, Herr Pigglewitch," he said, with a
kindly nod. "I am quite sure, from the representations of Herr Director
Kramser, who is an old friend of my wife's, that you will inculcate
fidelity to duty and punctuality in your teaching of my Fritz, but I
must warn you upon one point. I prefer to undertake my son's training
myself in all matters bearing upon religion. It is of importance to me
that his views upon such subjects should agree with those of his
parents."
At this explanation a smile hovered about the young man's lips. He
inclined his head courteously towards the master of the house as he
replied, "I thank you for relieving me of your son's religious
instruction, since it is the department in which I feel myself least
fitted to impart knowledge."
"That surprises me. I should have supposed the contrary from Herr
Director Kramser's letter."
"Herr Director Kramser is probably disposed to judge too favourably of
my capacity and acquirements. I frankly confess that I have had doubts
whether I am capable of instructing and educating a boy, whether I am
not wanting in conscientiousness in undertaking an office for which I
may have no vocation. I decided to do so in a moment of excitement.
Perhaps I should not have done so. Still, I may be able to overcome all
difficulties, and accomplish my desire to do well and honestly what is
required of me. I do not know whether I possess the patience, force,
and talent required for the task, but I will hope so. I owe it to you
to be frank with you, Herr von Osternau, and I pray you to permit a
trial of my capacity,--a trial to which I concede your right to put an
immediate stop provided I do not fulfil entirely to your satisfaction
the duties required of me."
Herr and Frau von Osternau listened in increasing surprise to these
words, which they could scarcely comprehend. They exchanged significant
glances, and for a moment Herr von Osternau was doubtful whether it
would not be best to dismiss Herr Gottlieb Pigglewitch at once.
However, the young man's last sentence allayed his doubts. There could
be no harm in making the trial of which he spoke. Therefore he replied,
"I accept your proposal, although I confess myself surprised by your
manner of making it. I really cannot understand how a Candidate, who
has gone through the schools and passed his examination, should doubt
his ability to instruct a boy of six."
"I have never been a private tutor."
"Indeed? You doubt then your success in imparting private instruction?
That shows a laudable modesty. You certainly will have some
difficulties to overcome. Fritzchen is an undisciplined little fellow.
It will be hard to induce him to study, and as for Lieschen----"
"Lieschen? I beg your pardon. I thought my duties were confined to the
instruction of a boy."
"True. But, since Herr Director Kramser wrote to my wife that you were
very musical, we thought you might give some lessons weekly upon the
piano to our daughter Lieschen. I am of course ready to make them an
object of special remuneration."
"Not at all. You have relieved me from instruction in religion; instead
I will gladly give lessons in music."
"You play the piano very well, as Herr Kramser informs me, and you have
a fine voice," Frau von Osternau observed.
"So it is said, I believe."
"So Herr Director Kramser wrote me," the lady rejoined, in a tone
sharper than it was her wont to use. She was aggrieved by the small
degree of estimation shown in the young teacher's words for the Herr
Director. "I shall be very sorry if your talent and capacity in this
respect have been overrated by the Herr Director, for I laid special
stress in my letter to him upon my desire that the tutor whom I engaged
should be a good musician, not only because I wished that Lieschen
should take lessons, but principally upon Fritzchen's account. I
consider it of the first importance that a child should receive his
primary instruction in music from a competent teacher."
"I cannot tell whether I shall be able to satisfy your desires in this
respect, madame. I am but a _dilettante_, and have never given lessons
in music. Here also I must pray you to make trial of me, as I will also
try to adjust myself to my new duties. The future must show whether I
can succeed in pleasing you and in satisfying myself. Will you allow me
to give you some idea now of the amount of artistic skill I possess?
the fine instrument yonder invites the test. You can at least judge
whether my execution and touch are satisfactory, whether my voice
pleases you. One does not like to purchase an article without first
examining it; why should you engage a music-teacher without first
hearing him? He can, unfortunately, give you no instant proof of his
ability to impart instruction, but this is the case with every kind of
teacher. I know from sad experience how large is the number of
musicians, whom Heaven in its wrath has allowed to teach, who bring to
their calling only the merest superficial facility, without the
smallest vocation for teaching."
He arose as he spoke, and, without waiting for Frau von Osternau's
permission, went towards the grand piano. It was open; Frau von
Osternau, no mean performer herself, had been playing an hour or two
before for her husband's entertainment, and had not closed it. Herr
Pigglewitch looked at the notes upon the music-desk. "Beethoven," he
said. "Is your daughter then so far advanced? It is refreshing nowadays
to find such music open upon a piano. Young ladies whose execution is
sufficiently brilliant to play the 'Moonlight Sonata' usually prefer to
exhibit in what is called drawing-room music. Cultivated taste is but
little thought of nowadays. The popular performers are those who can
make most noise, and rattle off the greatest number of notes in a given
time. I abhor such mere execution as I do the sentimental stuff so
popular with the ladies of the present day."
Very admirable sentiments these, but in their ease and freedom of
expression so very different from anything that Frau von Osternau had
expected to hear from the tutor recommended by Director Kramser, that
she looked in wide-eyed wonder at the singular person who, turning over
the music and talking thus, appeared to have forgotten for the moment
the purpose for which he had gone to the piano.
She believed herself exalted far above any aristocratic prejudice of
rank; she prided herself upon the humanity and kindness of her
treatment of inferiors, even of servants. The Inspectors of the estate
and the various governesses she had employed had been treated almost
like members of the family, she never had required of them the servile
respect customary among people employed in such capacities by many
families of rank, but the negligent ease of Gottlieb Pigglewitch's
manner and address seemed to her scarcely permissible. She was tempted
to recall him to a sense of his position, but while she was pondering
upon how this could best be done, the young man had seated himself at
the piano, his fingers were wandering over the keys, and in another
moment Frau von Osternau had completely forgotten that she had wished
to reprove, so intense was her enjoyment of the man's wonderful
playing.
He had taken his place at the instrument to give some proof of his
musical ability, but no sooner did his fingers touch the keys than this
was quite forgotten, He had not played for weeks, he had even felt a
kind of dislike of music, to the charm of which he had so often yielded
involuntarily. In the melancholy in which he had been plunged life
appeared to him so shallow and wearisome that he could not spur himself
to the exertion of extricating himself from its cheerless misery. But
now, when the first tones of the piano responded to his touch, they
awakened within him memories of hours in which he had lost himself and
revelled in the world of melody and harmony, music cast its spell
around him once more, life dawned upon him afresh, and he gave
expression in his playing to this feeling. He improvised so wondrously
that Frau von Osternau was profoundly touched, and her husband forgot
to look out into the court-yard, where the men were returning from the
fields, he forgot all else save the music, to which he listened with
head bent and clasped hands.
The last chord died away, the player dropped his hands from the keys
upon which his gaze had rested dreamily, and turned to Frau von
Osternau with a smile.
"Pardon me, madame," he said, "I forgot myself, and have given you my
own wild fancies. I could not resist the impulse of the moment, it is
my misfortune that I lack self-control. But I will try to improve, and
will make an instant beginning by praying you to suggest something you
would like to hear, only begging you not to ask to-day for what is mere
technique. We will postpone that to another hour."
Frau von Osternau's eyes were moist as she replied,--
"You must play no more at present. I would not have the pleasure you
have just given me disturbed by a single other note. You are an artist,
a divinely-inspired artist, Herr----" She hesitated; she could not bear
at the moment to pronounce the ridiculous name Pigglewitch, but it had
to be done, nevertheless, and as she uttered it the spell that had held
her was broken. The man's name recalled her to prosaic reality; again
she was aware of the ugly, old-fashioned coat with its long pointed
tails that hung down behind the music-stool and reached to the ground.
There sat before her no longer the artist who had transported her to 'a
purer ether,' but the Candidate Gottlieb Pigglewitch, awaiting her
further commands.
"There is no need, Herr Pigglewitch," she continued, "that I should
hear anything more to be sure that you are capable of giving my
children instruction in music, the future must show whether to teach is
your vocation in life. Let us make the trial, and discover whether you
are fitted for the situation, and whether you can be comfortable in
fulfilling its duties. I frankly confess to you that I have my
misgivings. You do not at all answer to the idea I had formed of the
tutor recommended to me by the Herr Director Kramser, but then reality
seldom corresponds to the representations of our imagination. With your
consent, Fritz," she added, turning to her husband, "I beg Herr
Pigglewitch to consider himself from this time our children's teacher."
"I give it with all my heart," Herr von Osternau replied, with a nod,
offering his hand to the young man, who had left his seat and
approached him. "There's my hand, Herr Pigglewitch, we will all put
this matter honestly to the test. If we are unsuccessful, we can part
friends, but I hope we shall succeed. From this moment the castle is
your home, and I pray you to consider it such. My old Hildebrandt will
show you to the rooms that have been prepared for you, and I will send
Fritz to you that you may make acquaintance with your pupil. We dine at
three, you can use the time until then in establishing yourself in your
new quarters. At table and while coffee is being served we can perhaps
discuss some plan of instruction. We will detain you no longer at
present."
Pigglewitch, upon whom Herr von Osternau's kindly manner made a most
agreeable impression, thanked his employers courteously, and when old
Hildebrandt appeared in answer to a touch upon a silver bell on the
table beside his master, the young man followed him after a graceful
bow to the lord and lady of the castle.
Silence reigned for many minutes in the room he had left. Frau von
Osternau had taken up her knitting, the needles clicked incessantly as
they always did when the lady was lost in thought. Her husband was the
first to speak. "Tell me frankly, Emma, how you like your _protege_."
"I really do not know. I cannot make up my mind."
"Nor can I. A very strange fellow! He attracts and repels me. I called
him a scarecrow when I saw him coming across the court-yard, but as he
sat playing at the piano, and his dark eyes fairly shone, I thought him
really handsome."
"So did I. What are we to think? But indeed since my good old friend
Kramser has recommended him, we need be under no anxiety."
"It is odd though. I never should have imagined that so prosaic,
commonplace a man as Kramser would have recommended so singular a
person. How can the young fellow have been led to adopt teaching as a
vocation? Will he, do you think, ever tame down the spirit that
sparkles in those eyes to the dull routine of every-day life? If he
does, we shall have cause for gratitude to your friend Kramser for
many an hour of enjoyment. You were right when you called him a
divinely-gifted artist."