and betook myself to the English garden, where I never found time long.
It is so celebrated that I need not praise it; but I venture to say
there are not many, even among our good old Munich inhabitants, who
know it at the time of its very greatest beauty, and that is early on
an autumn, or late-summer morning, when it is as solemn and deserted
as a primeval forest, and you can wander along the lofty avenues
of shade without meeting a human creature. The gold-daisied meadows
are luxuriant in the sun, the trees have lost none of their gorgeous
foliage, the sun-light falls, I might say, in _pasto_ on the
mirror-like ponds, and the magical dreamy silence thrills with the
quiet rushing of the Isar, and the light and noiseless hopping of birds
and squirrels from branch to branch. There was no one to be seen on the
lonely benches, unless, perhaps, a student preparing for his
examination, or some poor poet meditating his love-songs. As to my
colleagues the landscape painters, I have never met one of them here.
"Accordingly as I said, I was lounging on this particular morning in
the well-known paths, but not in a particularly good mood for making
studies, for Van Kuylen's picture, and what could have happened to
enable him to paint it, was constantly running in my head. When I had
dreamingly sauntered on to the vicinity of the famous waterfall, which
the grateful inhabitants prepared at so much expense as a surprise for
King Ludwig, I saw a lady on the bench upon the little hill overlooking
it, sitting motionless, and having nothing about her to excite my
interest, till all at once it struck me that she had a black veil down.
I thought, however, 'she has some reason for not wishing to be
recognized except by the one for whom she is waiting, and I will pass
quickly by,' when a strange impulse led me to turn round and give her
another look. The veiled figure made a little start, as though it
recognized me, but the next moment sat as motionless as before. But
there was a something in the turn of the head which seemed to me so
familiar, that I involuntarily turned back a step or two, and--'Good
Heavens! It is you, Miss Kate,' I cried, 'and what brings you here?'
and I held out my hand in cordial greeting. But she did not take it,
and seemed on the point of running off. 'Stop,' said I, 'I have not
bargained for this,' and in a friendly way I detained her. 'One is not
to fly from an old friend in this manner, but to tell him where one has
been for so many months past.' Meanwhile some uncomfortable terror was
creeping over me, partly by reason of her strange silence and her
looking about her as if for a way of escape, and partly because I had
seen her hide a bottle under her shawl. It was, therefore, so plainly
my duty not to leave her, that even my wife must have allowed it.
"'I shall not go away, Miss Kate,' I began, 'till you restore me a
little of that confidence you showed at our first interview. You know I
have only friendly intentions. You have something on your mind; it is
vain to deny it; and I believe there is no one who can be so unselfish
a confidant and adviser as I. Come, my dear young lady, let us seat
ourselves on this bench. And now tell me why you seemed so shocked at
seeing me again, and what sort of a cordial you are carrying there, and
hiding from me. Fie, fie, Miss Kate, are you going to take to drinking
secretly in your early youth?'
"She made no reply, but allowed herself to be led back to the bench,
where I seated myself beside her.
"In order to give her time to compose herself, I began to talk of quite
indifferent subjects: of the weather, and how beautiful it was here by
the waterfall, and of how I had spent my summer, purposely dwelling a
good deal upon my wife and children, as it always makes a good
impression when doctors and spiritual pastors are affectionate husbands
and parents.
"She seemed to be deaf to everything. There was no help for it, then, I
must take the bull by the horns.
"'Miss Kate,' I said, 'is it long since you have seen Herr van Kuylen?
My first expedition yesterday was to his house, but as I found no one
at home--'
"She started at the sound of his name. Aha! I thought, there is
something wrong here.
"'He must have been very industrious these last months,' I continued,
as unconcernedly as I could; 'I myself have only seen one picture of
his in the exhibition, but--'
"No sooner were the words spoken than from beneath the veil of the
silent girl beside me, there burst such heart-rending sobs that I
jumped up in horror.
"'For God's sake!' I cried, 'what is the matter with you? Here is a
secret that will break your heart if you don't give it words. Tell
me--explain to me--'
"'Let me go,' she cried out passionately, and again tried to make her
escape. 'I am so unhappy that nobody can help me, and even if you do
really wish me well--still it is too late. Nothing remains for me now
but to--'
"Die--she would have said, but her sobs choked her. Meanwhile I had
availed myself of the opportunity to get hold of the bottle, which she
had put down on the bench beside her. With one quick gesture I at once
hurled it into the little cascade below us.
"'So then,' said I, 'that was it! You are a little fury, Kate, and in
your present heroic frame of mind, you were on the point of drinking
off that little bottle, and making me your executor!'
"She shook her head. 'You are mistaken,' she said, 'it was not poison,
it was only common _aquafortis_, not intended for internal use. If you
must know everything, I was only going to wash my face with it.'
"'Kate!' I cried in horror. 'Are you mad?'
"'Not at all,' she gravely replied. 'The expedient would be rather
rough, but efficient. I should then get rid of this accursed face which
has been the cause of all my misery, and now, too, at length--of my
shame.'
"These last words were scarcely audible, her face being hidden in her
hands. I misunderstood their purport, and consequently did not at once
know what to reply.
"It was she who solved my perplexity.
"She suddenly left off sobbing, and looked me full in the face with a
singularly resolute expression.
"I could therefore contemplate her at my leisure, and found that if
possible she was more beautiful than ever, her features still more
delicate and refined, the tears on her fair cheeks--altogether she was
the most enchanting and touching spectacle that a man could behold.
"'You think a good deal of what you have done,' she said in her
quietest tones. 'However if it is not in this hour it will be in some
other; carried out my purpose will surely be, for I am sick of life. If
you knew all you would certainly not blame me, but in the main you do
know; you have been yourself at the exhibition, you have there seen how
a wicked and cruel-hearted man has dared to behave to a poor, virtuous,
unhappy girl who would have nothing to say to him.'
"'What!' I cried, and the solution of the mystery flashed across me;
'he has then--you have not sat to him once for it?'
"'I!' she cried, with all the offended dignity of a little queen. 'I do
not so much as know what it looks like. I have only been told of it by
my landlady, who has not herself seen it, but an officer, to whom she
carried back a uniform yesterday evening, said to her: "Your lodger,
the pretty girl, who is so vastly coy whenever one comes to propose
anything to her, and always locks herself up, does not seem to be so
inaccessible to civilians; there she is at the exhibition, painted just
as God made her; to be sure Dutch ducats are more valuable than our
uniform buttons." At this the tailor's wife asked further questions,
and told me again all that she learnt. She herself is quite furious,
and never would have believed it of Herr van Kuylen. And all because I
had refused to go again to his studio after he had come the third day
of Whitsuntide to pay me a visit, when he knew I should be alone with
the children, and made me an offer of marriage in French that Babette
might not understand him; for which very reason I answered in German
that I did not mean to marry, and that he knew very well why, and that
now after his declaration I could no longer sit to him as he must
perfectly understand. But he seemed to understand nothing, he was like
a maniac, and I had great difficulty to get him out of the room at all,
for he always broke out anew, now with jests, now with the most fearful
adjurations. Since then I have never spoken a word to him, nor let him
in when he knocked at my door, and in the street I always got out of
the way so speedily, that he could have no hope at all. And then what
does he go and do? Out of revenge and wickedness he puts me as it were
in the pillory, so that every one may point their finger at me, and I
no longer dare look up in the presence of respectable women. Oh, what
men are! And I had thought that he, at least, was an exception, because
he did not prate, and had a kind of appearance which was not likely to
lead any one into folly and shame for his sake. Now I have had to pay
for my stupid confidence by the misery of my whole life.'
"Then again she burst into tears.
"I now attempted to comfort her, and also to defend my friend Jan, by
representing to her that painters think very differently on these
matters to what ladies do; that he had most certainly not done it out
of revenge; and that she could lose nothing in the eyes of any rational
beings if this picture--like all the rest of Van Kuylen's--were
destined for the gallery of some Amsterdam merchant, who knew as little
of the existence of 'the fair Kate,' as she did of his.
"But it was all in vain. With the active imagination of all
self-torturers, she pictured to herself that the picture might be
engraved or lithographed, and then hung up in the windows of all the
print-shops, and in all the public-rooms of the hotels along the Rhine,
and that then everybody would say, 'Only see what our coy little
schoolmaster's daughter has come to! A pretty face may lead a person
great lengths indeed!' and what would her parents and sisters think of
her--and suppose that such a print ever got as far as America, and came
one day to the eyes of Hans Lutz. No, no, she would much rather--having
rendered herself unrecognizable so far as she could--leap into the
Isar, than day and night imagine such fearful things.
"'Do you know what?' said I at length. 'All these desperate
lamentations and resolutions have no practical sense in them, and do
not lead us any nearer the goal that you wish to reach--the nullifying
as much as possible the mischief done. Be reasonable, Miss Kate, and
accompany me at once to our common friend, who has certainly no idea
how evil-disposed you are towards him. There you can at all events
obtain a written assurance from him that he painted the picture in
question entirely out of his own head, that you never sat to him except
for a most unexceptionably decorous portrait, and even then were not
alone with him. I will also try to induce him either to remove the
likeness of the lady Bathsheba to you, or to put an honest drapery over
her back. Come now, will not this be much more to the purpose than your
spoiling your complexion either with the water of the Isar, or
_aquafortis_? Only think what people would say about it; that you had
done yourself a mischief out of an unfortunate attachment to our little
Dutchman to whom you had sat!'
"This last quite too appalling idea seemed to remove all her
objections; she saw that a rational measure taken now, need not prevent
her doing the most despairing things by-and-bye, and as an empty cab
happened to be coming up the great avenue, we both got into it, with
the intention of at once bringing Van Kuylen to book.
"During the whole of the way she was silent, only answering Yes and No
to my questions. Indeed I did not say much either, and pushed myself
back as far as I could into the corner of the half-open vehicle; for we
had to pass through the street in which I lived. If my good wife should
chance to be looking out of the window, or were out walking, and met
her husband driving with a veiled lady! As I have said she is one of
the best of women, but all have a spot where they are vulnerable, and
appearances would have been decidedly against me; for what could induce
a landscape-painter to engage a female model in the English garden, and
to get into a cab with her?--his own family may well suffice _him_ as
lay figures!
"Meanwhile we had safely arrived at Van Kuylen's house in the meadows.
"An empty cab waiting in the street showed we had been preceded by some
other visitor. As we passed through the little garden and approached
the studio, we plainly heard the sound of voices within.
"'Sit down for a few moments on this bench, Miss Kate,' said I, 'I will
just listen whether I know the other voice, and whether there seems any
prospect of the person soon going away.'
"So saying, I went up to the door, which certainly was closed, but as
it was only a very thin one--in winter another door was added--one
could distinctly hear every word, unless, indeed, the speakers lowered
their voices intentionally.
"The girl was far too excited and impatient to think of sitting down;
she came and stood immediately behind me.
"'I have already explained to you,' we now heard Van Kuylen say, 'that
I am not going to sell the picture, and as for the copy you wish for, I
never copy any of my pictures. I am only too glad when I have once got
myself expressed, however poorly it may be, and I lack the mercantile
genius necessary for picture-multiplying.'
"'If you yourself do not intend to repeat it,' said a rather rough
manly voice which was entirely strange to me, 'perhaps you will allow
another to copy it for me, or at least let me have a photograph of it.'
"'I am sorry,' repeated Van Kuylen, 'that I cannot consent to have that
picture reproduced in any way. The circumstances are quite peculiar,'
and then he murmured something that we did not catch.
"'He is making short work of him,' said I, turning round to the girl.
'It is our time to appear on the scene,' I was going to add, but the
words stuck in my throat. Pale as death, with wide-staring eyes, as
though she saw a spectre, I do believe the poor child would have fallen
if I had not thrown my arm around her and supported her in the very
nick of time.
"'What is it? What is it?' I cried. 'Let me take you in to Van Kuylen's
sofa. Are you ill?'
"She, however, shook her head in silence, and made a sign signifying,
'Hush! I must listen,' and now we heard the stranger speak again. 'I
must request you at least to answer me one more question. Had you a
model for the female figure?'
"'Certainly,' replied Van Kuylen, 'I never paint a stroke but from
nature.'
"'Then you must know this girl intimately; you know where she lives,
and can tell me--'
"'Give yourself no further trouble, sir,' interrupted Van Kuylen. 'I
can well understand that this picture may excite other than artistic
admiration, but as for telling who sat to me for it--no, sir. My studio
is no bureau of enquiry, and besides--' then came some more muttered
words.
"'Forgive me,' said the stranger, his voice all the more raised; 'I can
comprehend that under the peculiar relation in which you seem to stand
to your model--'
"At this moment the girl tore away from me like lightning, rushed to
the door, and before I could try to hold her back, had burst in, and
now stood--the most exquisite little fury that ever defended her good
name--between the two men.
"I followed her instantly, and was just opening my mouth to interpose,
when I heard the stranger give a hollow groan, and saw him reel back a
step or two. I looked at him more closely. He was really a fine-looking
man, remarkably well-dressed in black, with a resolute somewhat
sunburnt face, in which I at once detected a few slight marks of
small-pox.
"'Excuse me,' I stammered out in much embarrassment; 'I have the
honour, Mr. Hans Lutz--'
"But Kate did not let me finish my speech; one quick glance at the
picture, which stood on an easel in the middle of the studio, had sent
all the blood back to her face. 'That is scandalous,' said she, going
straight up to Van Kuylen, who with his straw-coloured face and nankeen
attire cut a most unfortunate figure on this occasion. '_That_, then,
is your gratitude to me for making an exception in your case, and
consenting to sit for my portrait to you; and because I would consent
to nothing else, you would degrade me in this way before the whole
world, and represent me as a bad bold girl who lets herself be seen for
money, and has no objection to her shame being openly exhibited!
Declare now once for all before these two witnesses, whether you have
ever seen me as I am painted there, whether I was ever alone with you,
whether I did not show you the door when you came to me at my lodgings
and begged and entreated me to be your wife.'
"Her eyes flashed, and now that she was silent, her nostrils quivered,
and I noticed that she pressed her clenched fist closely to her side,
as though she feared she might be tempted to commit an assault upon the
little yellow man.
"I for my part, marvelled that he took it all so calmly.
"'I find out now,' he said at length with the utmost phlegm, and laying
down his pipe, 'who it is I have before me. You are no doubt the
engineering gentleman of whom the young lady has already told us. I
congratulate you on your return, which will probably set all things to
rights. If they went wrong it was your own fault. A person who allows
so long a time to pass without being heard of, cannot be surprised at
others coming forward in his absence. For the rest, I am prepared to
give the lady whatever spoken or written assurance she may require. The
best explanation, perhaps, will be found in _this_!
"So saying he went to a corner of the room, where all sorts of sketches
and unfinished pictures were heaped up together, and after a short
search, produced a study painted on paper, a female figure in the
precise position of Bathsheba, and although the face was merely an
outline, one saw at a glance that a quite different model must have sat
for it--a coarse common-place person with black hair whose back and
shoulders were widely celebrated amongst artists.
"'I thank you,' said the stranger, who seemed somewhat to have
recovered the unexpected meeting. 'I believe every word you have said,
but I hope you will not consider me too importunate if I repeat the
request that the picture may be mine. You understand--'
"'I understand it all,' drily returned Van Kuylen, while lighting his
clay-pipe with a large match; 'and as I have something to apologise
for, and very much wish that the lady should not eternally resent my
inconsiderate freak, I give you the picture for your new establishment.
And now--you will excuse me. I have some business which cannot be
postponed. A good journey to you.'
"Before one of us could find a word to reply, he made us an abrupt bow,
and passed through a door leading into the interior of the house.
"We three who remained behind stood there in utter helplessness. I felt
that I was one too many, and was planning how best to leave the pair
alone, when suddenly the lovely girl came up to me, held out her hand,
and with apparent composure said:
"'Farewell, dear sir; I thank you for all the kindness you have shown
me. I will now go home and trouble you no further.'
"With that she turned round without casting one glance at her sun-burnt
lover, and moved towards the door.
"'Katharine!' cried the young man, rushing towards her.
"'Leave me!' said the incensed beauty. 'We have no longer anything to
do with each other. One who could believe _that_ of me--who could
suppose that I should ever degrade myself so far--'
"'Listen to me, dear Kate,' I interposed, for I saw that both the proud
high-tempered creatures were just in the mood to part as suddenly as
they had met; 'if you really believe that I am a friend to you, do try
to follow me and consider the question more calmly. Just put yourself
in the place of your Hans Lutz, (you will forgive me, my dear sir, for
using your Christian name though we have not even been introduced,) and
ask yourself whether a lover is very likely to retain his five senses,
when he chances to enter a picture-gallery, and sees the girl of his
heart turn her back upon him in that fashion. And yet supposing you had
really been Frau van Kuylen, and your husband _had_ painted you behind
your back, as our greatest artists have been wont to do with their
wives and mistresses, that would have been nothing so very out of the
way either. Instead, therefore, of treating the matter so tragically,
you ought rather to thank God for having brought things so happily
round; to be reconciled to your lover; to my poor friend, who after all
is the one to be pitied, for he goes empty away; and to your own face
with which you were so very angry. It has, indeed, been an infliction
to you, but at last it is to it that you are indebted for the happiness
of having Mr. Hans Lutz again. For if Mrs. Bathsheba had not stolen
your bewitching profile, who knows whether your lover would ever have
come on your track here in Munich, and finally carried off picture and
original both!'
"Such was the gist of my address, and my eloquence had the happiest
results. There ensued a most affecting reconciliation, an embracing,
kissing, and handshaking, whereof--as regards the last at all events--I
had my due share, and in another five minutes I saw the happy pair
drive off in the cab, radiant with delirious bliss, and had scarcely
time to invite them to pay a visit to my house, and to call after the
driver to go through the English garden, that being the best scene for
such an idyll.
"Van Kuylen did not show himself again. But as I slowly followed the
cab, and turned round once more, I thought I saw from the upper window
of the small house, a resigned cloud of smoke eddy up from a white
clay-pipe. He had not spared himself the pain of looking after the
lovers from his lonely watch-tower.
"I need not say that I instantly went home, and accurately repeated the
whole remarkable story to my dear wife. Alas! I failed to produce the
desired effect thereby. There lurked in the soul of that excellent
woman a prejudice against a girl who presumed to be so beautiful that
all men ran after her, and even the steadiest landscape painters took
in her an interest--fatherly, indeed, but dangerously warm. The
suspicion that all might not have been so very right after all, seemed
to gain confirmation, when day after day passed without bringing the
happy pair to pay their promised visit. My wife went about again with a
well-known air of magnanimously suppressed triumph, and treated me with
such compassionate indulgence, that it almost drove me wild. But what
was to be done? I must needs put up with it, and had only the choice of
passing as a bad judge of character, or a secret sinner.
"However, in a fortnight's time the tide turned. I was sitting quietly
over my work about noon, when in ran my little Christopher, and called
out to me that I was to come instantly to mamma, that there was a most
beautiful lady there with a gentleman, and that they had asked for me.
There they were then, husband and wife, on their marriage trip through
Italy to New York. On the day I had last seen them they had set out
homewards to present themselves to their parents, and as Hans Lutz--his
real name was Johann Ludwig Weinmann--was making a quantity of money
over there in America, it was probably much the same to the father of
the fair Kate, whether the result was attained by railway-making and
bridge-building, or the tanning of leather. My good wife had at
first--she afterwards confessed to me--sat rather monosyllabically
there, but when I came in, and neither the young woman nor I blushed,
nor exchanged any sign whatever of a private understanding, she finally
resumed her equipoise, and was obliged to believe in me: more--in the
course of the next half-hour she fell so completely in love with the
beautiful world's wonder, she did not know how to let her go, and
finally parted from her with the tenderest embraces. Later she said to
me, 'It really is a very good thing she is gone to America.'