VOLUME XI
* * * * *
FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN
THEODOR STORM
WILHELM RAABE
[Illustration: ON THE NORTH SEA COAST
_From the Painting by Jacob Alberts_]
THE GERMAN CLASSICS
Masterpieces of German Literature
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
[Illustration]
Patrons' Edition
IN TWENTY VOLUMES
ILLUSTRATED
THE GERMAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY NEW YORK
Copyright 1914
by
THE GERMAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY
CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS
VOLUME XI
* * * * *
Special Writers
MARION D. LEARNED, Ph.D., Professor of Germanic Languages and
Literatures, University of Pennsylvania:
The Life of Friedrich Spielhagen.
EWALD EISERHARDT, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in German, University of
Rochester, N.Y.:
The Life of Theodor Storm; Wilhelm Raabe.
Translators
MARION D. LEARNED, Ph.D., Professor of Germanic Languages and
Literatures, University of Pennsylvania:
Storm Flood.
MURIEL ALMON:
The Rider of the White Horse; The Hunger Pastor.
CHARLES WHARTON STORK, Ph.D., Instructor in English, University of
Pennsylvania:
Consolation.
MARGARETE MÜNSTERBERG:
To a deceased; The City; The Heath.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XI
PAGE
FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN
The Life of Friedrich Spielhagen. By Marion D. Learned 1
Storm Flood. Translated by Marion D. Learned 14
THEODOR STORM
The Life of Theodor Storm. By Ewald Eiserhardt 214
The Rider of the White Horse. Translated by Muriel Almon 225
To a Deceased. Translated by Margarete Münsterberg 343
The City. Translated by Margarete Münsterberg 343
The Heath. Translated by Margarete Münsterberg 344
Consolation. Translated by Charles Wharton Stork 345
WILHELM RAABE
Wilhelm Raabe. By Ewald Eiserhardt 346
The Hunger Pastor. Translated by Muriel Almon 353
ILLUSTRATIONS--VOLUME XI
PAGE
On the North Sea Coast. By Jacob Alberts _Frontispiece_
Friedrich Spielhagen. By A. Weiss 12
The Last Day of a Condemned Man. By Michael von Munkacsy 22
Arrested Vagabonds. By Michael von Munkacsy 62
The Loan Office. By Michael von Munkacsy 92
Two Families. By Michael von Munkacsy 112
The Little Thief. By Michael von Munkacsy 142
Milton and His Daughters. By Michael von Munkacsy 172
Christ Before Pilate. By Michael von Munkacsy 192
Golgatha. By Michael von Munkacsy 212
Theodor Storm 220
Dunes on the North Sea. By Jacob Alberts 236
Churchyard on a North Sea Island. By Jacob Alberts 252
Communion Service on a North Sea Island. By Jacob Alberts 268
A North Sea Islander's Congregation. By Jacob Alberts 284
Living-Room in a Frisian Farmhouse. By Jacob Alberts 300
A Quiet Corner. By Jacob Alberts 316
A Gentleman of the Old School. By Jacob Alberts 332
Wilhelm Raabe 352
The Commander of the Fortress. By Karl Spitzweg 382
The Letter Carrier. By Karl Spitzweg 412
The Nightly Round. By Karl Spitzweg 442
The Stork's Visit. By Karl Spitzweg 472
The Lover of Cacti. By Karl Spitzweg 502
The Antiquarian. By Karl Spitzweg 532
EDITOR'S NOTE
The illustrations in this volume, devoted to the writings of
Spielhagen, Storm, and Raabe, are from paintings by Michael von
Munkacsy, Jacob Alberts, and Karl Spitzweg. Munkacsy may be called an
artistic counterpart to Spielhagen, inasmuch as he shared with him the
conscious striving for effect, the predilection for striking social
contrasts, and the desire to make propaganda for liberalism. Spitzweg
was allied to Raabe in his truly Romantic inwardness, his joyful
acceptance of all phases of life, his glorification of the humble
and the lowly, and his inexhaustible humor. Alberts is probably the
most talented living painter of that part of Germany which forms the
background of Storm's finest novels: the Frisian coast of the North Sea.
KUNO FRANCKE.
THE LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN
BY MARION D. LEARNED, PH.D.
Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of
Pennsylvania.
The struggle for liberal institutions, which found expression in
the Wars of Liberation, the July Revolution of 1830, and the March
Revolution of 1848--with visions of a German Republic, with bitter
protest against the Reaction, with a new hope of a regenerated social
State and a renovated German Empire--marks only the stormy stages of
the liberalizing movement which is still going on in the German nation.
Since 1848, radical revolt has taken on forms very different from the
dreams which fired the spirits of the Forty-eighters. The sword has
yielded to the pen, the scene of combat has shifted from the arsenal
and the battlefield to the printed book and the Council Chamber; while
the necessity of an active policy of military defense has saved the
German people from the throes of bloody internal strife.
In the transition from the armed revolutionary outbreak of 1848 to the
evolutionary processes of the present day, the novel of purpose and
of living issues (Tendenz-und Zeitroman) has played an important part
in teaching the German people to think for themselves and to seek the
highest good of the individual and of the classes in the general weal
of the nation as a whole. In the front rank, if not the foremost, of
the novelists of living issues in this period of social and economic
reform was Friedrich Spielhagen, whose novels were almost without
exception novels of purpose.
Friedrich Spielhagen was born in Magdeburg in the Prussian province
of Saxony, February 24, 1829. He was the son of a civil engineer, and
descended from a family of foresters in Tuchheim. His seriousness
and precocity won him the nickname of "little old man," and also
admission to the gymnasium a year before the average age of six. In
1835, when he was six years old, his father was transferred to the
position of Inspector of Waterworks in Stralsund. It was here by the
sea and among the dunes that the young poet spent his most plastic
years, and became, like Fritz Reuter, his contemporary and literary
colleague of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the poet of the Flat Land, which he
made so familiar to the German public of the '60s and '70s. Spielhagen
has given his own account of the first years of his life in his
autobiography entitled _Discoverer and Inventor_ which is evidently
modeled after Goethe's _Poetry and Fact_. Here we learn with what
delight the boy accompanied his father on his tours of inspection about
the harbor city, with what difficulties he contended in school, which
he says was to him neither "stepmother" nor "alma mater," what deep
impressions his vacation visits at the country homes of his school
friends left upon his sensitive mind. Although his family never became
fully naturalized in the social life of Stralsund, but remained to
the end "newcomers," Spielhagen says of himself that, in his love for
Pomeranian nature, he felt himself to be "the peer of the native born
of Pomerania, which has come to be, in the truest sense of the word, my
home land."
The sea with its endless variety of moods and scenes opened to him
the secrets of his favorite poet Homer. He says: "I count it among
the greatest privileges of my life that I could dream myself into my
favorite poet, while the Greek original was still a book of seven
seals." Following the steps of his great German model, Goethe, he
tested his talents for the stage both at home, where he was playwright,
manager, stage director, prompter and actor, all in one, and later on
the real stage at Magdeburg only to find that he was not called to wear
the buskin.
In his school days he began to read the authors of German fiction and
poetry: Tieck, Arnim, Brentano, Stifter, Zschokke, Steffens, Goethe's
_Hermann and Dorothea_ and _Faust_ (First Part), Lessing, Uhland,
Heine's _Book of Songs_, Freiligrath, Herwegh. He also browsed about in
other literatures: Byron's _Don Juan_ he read first when he was seven
years of age; of Walter Scott he says: "In speaking this precious name
I mention perhaps not the most distinguished, but nevertheless the
greatest and most sympathetic, stimulator of my mind at that
time. * * * In comparison with this splendid Walter Scott, the other
English and American novelists, Cooper, Ainsworth, Marryat, and
whatever their names whose novels came into my hands at that time are
stars of the second and third magnitude." He regards Bulwer alone as
the peer of the Scottish Bard.
The English influence of the time was reflected also in the life
about him, especially in the sport-life, with its horse-racing,
pigeon-shooting, card-playing (Tarok, L'Hombre, Whist or Boston) and
kindred pastimes. He knew "that Blacklock was sired by Brownlock from
Semiramis, and Miss Jane was bred of the Bride of Abydos by Robin
Hood"--an interesting sidelight on the Byronic influence of the time.
This sport-life so zealously cultivated by the gentry, and his visits
to the manor houses of his school friends during the vacations,
afforded him glimpses into the customs and traditions of the agrarian
gentry of Pomerania, and the manorial economy and reckless life of
the nobles with their castles, dependents, laborers, overseers,
apprentices, volunteers and the like--the first impressions of his
_Problematic Characters_.
In 1847 Spielhagen left Stralsund to study jurisprudence at the
University of Berlin, a journey of thirty German miles in twenty-four
hours. What a revelation the great capital presented to the youthful
provincial, who had never seen a railroad nor a gas jet before he
began the journey! Arriving before the opening of the semester he
had time to take an excursion into Thuringia, which later became so
dear to him and is reflected in his _From Darkness to Light_ (second
part of _Problematic Characters_), _Always to the Fore_, _Rose of the
Court_, _Hans and Grete_, _The Village Coquette_, _The Amusement
Commissioner_, and _The Fair Americans_. Returning to Berlin he heard,
among others, Heidemann on Natural Law and Trendelenburg on Logic. The
signs of revolution were already visible in the university circles,
but had not as yet awakened the interests of Spielhagen, who declared
that revolution was a matter of weather, and that he himself was a
republican in the sense that the others were not.
The next semester Spielhagen went to the University of Bonn, wavering
between Law and Medicine. The landscape of the lower Rhineland was not
congenial to him. He longed for his Pomeranian shore with its dunes
and invigorating sea life. In Bonn he met leaders of the revolutionary
party--Carl Schurz, "le bel homme," and Ludwig Meyer. The portrait he
sketches of Carl Schurz is an outline of that which the liberator of
Kinkel rounded out for himself in his long years of sturdy citizenship
in America. Spielhagen warned Schurz at that time that his schemes were
quixotic.
During the following vacation, on a foot-tour through Thuringia,
Spielhagen witnessed the effects of the revolution and the ensuing
reaction. He arrived at Frankfurt-on-the-Main just after the close of
the Great Parliament. He was deeply impressed with the violence done to
Auerswald and Lichnowski, and witnessed the trial of Lassalle for the
theft of the jewel-casket of the Baroness von Meyendorf. His attention
was thus fixed upon the personality of the great socialist reformer who
was later to play such an important rôle in his novels, and of whom
he said: "Lassalle set in motion the message which not only continues
today, but is only beginning to manifest its depth and power, and the
end of which no mind of the wise can foresee."
In Bonn Spielhagen finally went over to classical philology, and
devoted much time also to modern literature. His beloved Homer, the
Latin poets, Goethe's lyrics, _Goetz_, _Iphigenia_, _Tasso_, _Wilhelm
Meister_, _The Elective Affinities_, Immermann's _Münchhausen_,
Vilmar, Gervinus, Loebel, Simrock's _Nibelungen_, Goldsmith's _Vicar
of Wakefield_, Dickens and Shakespeare all claimed his attention. The
most interesting incident of his stay at Bonn was his audience with the
later Crown Prince Frederick, who had come with his tutor, Professor
Curtius, to take up his studies at the university--an audience which
was repeated at the Court of Coburg in 1867, when Spielhagen came face
to face with his literary antipathy, Gustav Freytag.
After three years of vacillation in his university studies, he
finally made peace with his father, and decided to take his degree in
philology. To this end he entered the University of Greifswald and
began the more serious study of esthetics, starting with Humboldt's
_Esthetic Experiments_, and developing his own theory of objectivity in
the novel. Meanwhile he read the English novelists Dickens, Thackeray,
Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and the Germans Lichtenberg, Rabener,
Jean Paul, Thümmel, and Vischer's _Esthetics_. His essay _On Humor_
and other critical works owe much to these studies. After giving his
interpretation of an ode of Horace in the seminary, he worked at his
dissertation, and found in Tennyson the theme for his first finished
work, _Klara Vere_.
Having left the university, Spielhagen entered the army for his year
of service. Here he gained valuable experience and information, which
stood him in good stead in his novels. During this year he found
time to delve again into Spinoza, whom he had studied in Berlin. The
doctrines of this philosopher now had a new meaning for him and offered
him a philosophic mooring which he had so much needed in deciding upon
his career. Commenting on his reading he says: "I wished to win from
philosophy the right to be what I was, the right to give free rein to
the power which I felt to be dominant in my mind. I wished to procure
a charter for 'the ruling passion' of my soul." This charter he found
in Spinoza's words: "Every one exists by the supreme right of Nature,
and consequently, according to the supreme right of Nature, every one
does what the necessity of his nature imposes, and accordingly by this
supreme right of nature every one judges what is good and what is bad,
and acts in his own way for his own welfare." This principle of "suum
esse conservare" becomes the guiding thought in Spielhagen's life at
this time. With this philosophic turn of mind came a reaction against
Byron's immoral characters such as Don Juan.
He was now confronted with the problem of reconciling in his own life
Freiligrath's words, "wage-earner and poet." His pedagogical faculties
had been developed by the informal lectures which he had given to
the circle of his sister's girl friends. After the manoeuvres were
over he took a position as private tutor in the family of a former
Swedish officer of the "type of gentleman," as he says. In this rural
Pomeranian retreat the instincts of the poet were rapidly awakened.
Enraptured with the beauty of the country he adopted Friedrich
Schlegel's practice of writing down his thoughts and shifting moods
in the form of fragments. As the family broke up for the holidays, he
strapped on his knapsack for a cross-country tour homeward, making a
détour to visit an old friend at Rügen. It was here that he fell in
love with Hedda, the heroine of the story _On the Dunes_. He felt love
now for the first time in its real power, which was lacking in _Klara
Vere_. But this new, strange passion left him only the more a poet. In
one of his fragments he wrote: "The poet worships every beautiful woman
as the devout Catholic does every image of the Holy Virgin, but the
image is not the Queen of Heaven."
The vacation had made him discontented with his position. All the
rural charm seemed changed to commonplace. He now felt a bond of
sympathy with Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and George Sand, sought literary
uplift in Homer, Æschylus, Shakespeare, Scott, Byron, and extended his
reading to _Gargantua_, _Tom Jones_, Lamartine, _Madame Bovary_, and
_Vanity Fair_, but declares he would willingly exchange _Consuelo_ for
_Copperfield_. It was at this time when Spielhagen was in unsteady
mood as to his future, that he saw for the last time his old Greifswald
friend, Albert Timm, who in the last three years had sadly changed from
the promising student to the cynic: "'Yes,' he cried (from the platform
of the moving train) 'I am going to America, not of my own wish, but
because others wish it. They may be right; in any case, I have run my
course in Europe. Perhaps I shall succeed better over there, or perhaps
not; it's all the same. * * * Somewhere in the forest primeval! To the
left around the corner! Don't forget: to the left around the ----' and
the train sped out of sight." These parting words of his shipwrecked
friend reminded Spielhagen only too keenly of his own unsettled career.
At length Spielhagen decided to go to Leipzig to prepare for a
professorship of literature in the university. After a tour in
Thuringia, during which he saw in Ilmenau a gipsy troop which furnished
him with the character of Cziska in the _Problematic Characters_, he
again took up his study of literature and esthetics. His encounter with
Kant's philosophy and Schiller's esthetic theories led him back to
Goethe and Spinoza. In the midst of these philosophical problems, he
received one day a letter from Robert Hall Westley, an English friend
in Leipzig, "a gentleman bred and born," telling him of a vacancy in
English at the "Modernes Gesamt-Gymnasium" at that place. Spielhagen
accepted the position in 1854, and in good American fashion followed
the method of _docendo discimus_. Thus he finds himself again a
producer.
The first fruit of his critical studies during the early Leipzig
period was the completed essay _On Humor_, which was now accepted and
published by Gutzkow in _Unterhaltungen am häuslichen Herd_. This, his
first printed work, gave him new courage. His studies in English led
him again to the English and American poets. The offer of a Leipzig
firm to publish a collection of translations of American poetry added
new zest to his reading in American literature. The chief source
of his translations was Griswold's _Poets and Poetry of America_. A
specimen from Emerson's _Representative Men_ will illustrate his skill
in translating:
SPHINX.
"O tiefer und tiefer
Muss tauchen der Geist;
Weisst alles du, weisst du,
Dass gar nichts du weisst;
Jetzt zieht es dich mächtig
Zum Himmel hinan;
Bist droben du, steckst du
Dir weiter die Bahn."
These translations appeared under the title _Amerikanische Gedichte_.
In addition to selections from Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Bayard Taylor,
and others, he translated also George William Curtis' _Nile Notes of an
Howadji_, which was published with the title _Nil-Skizzen_.
His admiration for American literature was very great, as his own words
will show: "But upon this wide, entirely original, field of poetry
what abundance, what variety of production! Palmettos grow by the side
of gnarly oaks, and the most charming and modest flora of the prairie
among the garden flowers of magic beauty and intoxicating perfume." The
American poems were followed by translations of Michelet's _L'Amour_
and other French and English works.
Spielhagen connected himself with Gutzkow's _Europa_ and devoted
himself for a time to criticism. Among the essays of this period
are _Objectivity in the Novel_, _Dickens_, _Thackeray_, etc. At the
suggestion of Kolatschek, an Austrian Forty-eighter, who had returned
from America and founded the periodical _Stimmung der Zeit_ in
Vienna, Spielhagen wrote a severe criticism of Freytag's historical
drama _The Fabians_. This attack upon Freytag was occasioned by the
severe criticism of Gutzkow's _Magician of Rome_, published in the
_Grenzboten_, edited by Julian Schmidt and Gustav Freytag. It was
Spielhagen's demand for fair play as well as his admiration for Gutzkow
that drew him into the conflict.
The old home in Pomerania had been broken up by the death of his father
and the marriage of his sister, and the events of his early life could
now be viewed as history. Out of these events and his later experience
grew his first great novel, _Problematic Characters_ (1860, Second
Part 1861). This novel deals with the conditions in Pomerania in
particular, and in Germany in general, before 1848. The title is drawn
from Goethe's _Aphorisms in Prose_: "There are problematic characters
which are not adapted to any position in life and are not satisfied
with any condition in life. Out of this arises that titanic conflict
which consumes life without compensation." The hero, Dr. Oswald Stein,
is the poet himself in his rôle as family tutor and implacable foe
of the institutions of the nobility, "a belated Young German" and an
incipient socialist. He falls in love with Melitta von Berkow in her
Hermitage, with the impulsive Emilie von Breesen at the ball, and with
Helene von Grenwitz, his pupil. Because of the latter he fights a duel
with her suitor, Felix, and then goes off with Dr. Braun to begin anew
at Grünwald. In the second part of this novel this unfinished story is
carried to its tragic and logical conclusion, when Oswald dies a heroic
death at the barricades. Although most of the chief characters drawn in
the novel are types, they are modeled after prototypes in real life.
Oswald, the revolutionist with a suggestion of the Byronic, echoes
the poet in his early career. Dr. Braun (Franz), the man of will, is
modeled on the poet's young friend Bernhard, and Oldenburg, the titanic
Faust nature, is taken from his friend Adalbert of the Gymnasium days
at Stralsund. Albert Timm was his boon companion at Greifswald, and
Professor Berger is a composite of Professor Barthold, the historian,
and Professor M----, who later became insane.
In the years 1860-62 Spielhagen was editor of the literary supplement
of the _Zeitung für Norddeutschland_, doing valuable service as
a literary journalist. In this position he had opportunity to
prepare himself for the wider activities as editor of the _Deutsche
Wochenschrift_ and later (1878-84) of Westermann's _Monatshefte_. After
1862 he was identified with the surging life of Berlin.
In _The Hohensteins_ (1863) the story of a declining noble family,
recalling the historical novel of Scott and Hauff's _Lichtenstein_, the
socialistic program of Lassalle begins to appear. Lassalle's doctrines
find their spokesman in the hero, Bernhard Münzer, the fantastic but
despotic agitator and cosmopolitan socialist; while the idealist,
Baltasar, voices the reform program of the poet himself in the words:
"Educate yourselves, Germans, to love and freedom."
In the next novel, _In Rank and File_ (1866), the program of Lassalle
is reflected in Leo Gutmann, a character of the Auerbach type. The
mouthpiece of the poet is really Walter Gutmann, who sums up the
moral of the story in these sentences: "The heroic age is past.
The battle-cry is no longer: 'one for all,' but 'all for all.' The
individual is only a soldier in rank and file. As individual he is
nothing; as member of the whole he is irresistible." Father Gutmann,
the forester, is evidently an echo of the poet's family traditions,
while Dr. Paulus is an exponent of the philosophy of Spinoza. Leo's
career and fall illustrate the futility of the principle of "state aid"
in the reform program. Even the seven years of residence in America
were not sufficient to rescue him from his visionary schemes.
In _Hammer and Anvil_ (1869) the same theme is treated in a different
form. The poet teaches here that the conflict between master and
servant, ruler and subject, must be reinterpreted and recognized as
a necessary condition of society. "The situation is not hammer _or_
anvil, as the revolutionists would have it, but hammer _and_ anvil; for
every creature, every man, is both together, at every moment." Thus the
"solidarity of interests" is the aim to be kept in view, and is shown
by Georg Hartwig, who having learned his lesson in the penitentiary now
appears as the owner of a factory and gives his workmen an interest in
the profits.
The most powerful of Spielhagen's novels is _Storm Flood_ (1877),
in which the inundation caused by the fearful storm on the coast of
the Baltic Sea in 1874 is made a coincident parallel of the calamity
brought about by the reckless speculation of the industrial promoters
of the early seventies. As the catastrophe on the Baltic is the
consequence of ignoring the warnings of physical phenomena in nature,
so the financial crash and family distress which overwhelm the Werbens
and Schmidts are the result of the violation of similar natural laws
in the social and industrial world. The novelist has here reached the
highest development of his art. The course of the narrative gathers
in its wake all the elements of catastrophe, to let them break with
the fury of the tempest over the lives of the characters, but allows
the innocent children of Nature to come forth as the happy survivors
of this wreck and ruin. The characters of Reinhold and Else, who find
their bliss in true love, are his best creations. The poet has here
proved himself a worthy disciple of Shakespeare and Walter Scott.
After this blast of the tempest, the poet turned to the more placid
scenes of his native heath in the novel entitled _Flat Land_ (1879),
in which he describes the conditions of Pomerania between 1830-1840.
The wealth of description and incident, the variety of motive and
situation, make this story one of the most characteristic of Pomeranian
scenery and life.
In the novel _What Is to Come of It?_ (1887), liberalism, social
democracy, nihilism, held in check by the grip of the Iron Chancellor,
contend for the mastery. And what shall the result? The poet answers:
"There is a bit of the Social Democrat in every one," but the result
will be "a and lofty one and a new, glorious phase of an ever-striving
humanity." Here are brought into play typical characters, the
Bismarckian Squire, the reckless capitalist, the particularist with his
feigned liberalism.
Spielhagen's pessimism finds vent in _A New Pharaoh_ (1889), which is
a protest against the Bismarck régime. The ideals of the Forty-eighter
are represented by Baron von Alden, who comes back from America to
visit his old home only to find a new Pharaoh, who knows nothing of the
Joseph of 1848. Finding the Germans a race of toadies and slaves, in
which the noble-minded go under while the base triumph, he turns his
back upon the new empire for good and all. "Nothing is accomplished by
the sword which another sword cannot in turn destroy. The permanent and
imperishable can be accomplished only by the silent force of reason."
In addition to his more pretentious novels, Spielhagen wrote a large
number of shorter novels and short stories. To these belong _Klara
Vere_ and _On the Dunes_, already mentioned, _At the Twelfth Hour_
(1863), _Rose of the Court_ (1864), _The Fair Americans_ (1865), _Hans
and Grete_, and _The Village Coquette_ (1869), _German Pioneers_
(1871), _What the Swallow Sang_ (1873), _Ultimo_ (1874), _The Skeleton
in the Closet_ (1878), _Quisisana_ (1880), _Angela_ (1881), _Uhlenhans_
(1883), _At the Spa_ (1885), _Noblesse Oblige_ (1888). The most
important of Spielhagen's latest novels are _The Sunday Child_ (1893),
_Self Justice_ (1896), _Sacrifices_ (1899), _Born Free_ (1900).
[Illustration: FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN
_Permission Berlin Photo. Co., New York_ A. WEISS]
The place of Spielhagen in German literature is variously estimated.
Heinrich and Julius Hart in _Kritische Waffengänge_ (1884) contest
his claim to a place among artists of the first rank and condemn his
use of the novel for purposes of reform; while Gustav Karpeles in
his _Friedrich Spielhagen_ (1889) assigns him a place among the best
novelists of his time. This latter position is more nearly correct. The
modern disposition to cry art for art's sake, and to denounce all art
which has a didactic purpose, is the offspring of ignorance of the real
nature of art. In a general way all art has a didactic purpose of
varying degrees of directness. It is just this didactic purpose which
has entitled the novel to its place among the literary forms, and it is
this purpose which made Spielhagen's novels such a potent power in the
social revolution of the later nineteenth century.
The charge has been made against Spielhagen that his characters are
mechanical types used as vehicles of the author's doctrines or of the
tendencies of the time. This charge is not sustained by the facts,
even in the case of his first somewhat crude novel, the _Problematic
Characters_, of which he says later: "There was not a squire in Rügen
nor a townsman in Stralsund or Greifswald who did not feel himself
personally offended." And the pronounced and clearly defined characters
of _Storm Flood_, in their sharp contrasts and fierce conflicts with
social tradition and natural impulse, present a vivid picture of the
surging life of the New Empire.
Spielhagen possessed an intimate knowledge of literary technique. Few
if any of his contemporaries had given more careful attention to the
principles of esthetics and of literary workmanship, as may be seen
from his critical essays and particularly the treatises, _Contributions
to the Theory and Technique of the Novel_, and _New Contributions to
the Theory and Technique of the Epic and Drama_.
It was but poetic justice that the novelist of the stormy days of the
Revolution should be permitted to spend the declining years of his
long life in the sunshine of the new Berlin, in whose making he had
participated and whose life he had chronicled. He died February 24,
1911, having passed his fourscore years.
_FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN_
STORM FLOOD[1] (1877)
TRANSLATED AND CONDENSED BY MARION D. LEARNED, PH.D.
Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of
Pennsylvania.
The weather had grown more inclement as evening came on. On the forward
deck groups of laborers on their way to the new railroad at Sundin were
huddled more closely together between the high tiers of casks, chests,
and boxes; from the rear deck the passengers, with few exceptions,
had disappeared. Two elderly gentlemen, who had chatted much together
during the journey, stood on the starboard looking and pointing toward
the island around the south end of which the ship had to pass. The flat
coast of the island, rising in a wide circuit to the promontory, became
more distinct with each second.
"So that is Warnow?"
"Your pardon, Mr. President--Ahlbeck, a fishing village; to be sure, on
Warnow ground. Warnow itself lies further inland; the church tower is
just visible above the outlines of the dunes."
The President let fall the eye-glasses through which he had tried in
vain to see the point of the church tower. "What sharp eyes you have,
General, and how quickly you get your bearings!"
"It is true I have been there only once," replied the General; "but
since then I have had only too much time to study this bit of coast on
the map."
The President smiled. "Yes, yes, it is classic soil," said he; "there
has been much contention over it--much and to no purpose."
"I am convinced that it was fortunate that the contention was
fruitless--at least had only a negative result," said the General.
"I am not sure that the strife will not be renewed again," replied the
President; "Count Golm and his associates have been making the greatest
efforts of late."
"Since they have so signally proved that the road would be
unprofitable?"
"Just as you have shown the futility of a naval station here!"
"Pardon, Mr. President, I had not the deciding voice; or, more
correctly, I had declined it. The only place at all adapted for the
harbor would have been there in the southern corner of the bay, under
cover of Wissow Point, that is on Warnow domain. To be sure, I have
only the guardianship of the property of my sister----"
"I know, I know," interrupted the President; "old Prussian honesty,
which amounts to scrupulousness. Count Golm and his associates are less
scrupulous."
"So much the worse for them," replied the General.
The gentlemen then turned and joined a young girl who was seated in a
sheltered spot in front of the cabin, passing the time as well as she
could by reading or drawing in a small album.
"You would like to remain on deck, of course, Else?" asked the General.
"Do the gentlemen wish to go to the cabin?" queried the young girl in
reply, looking up from her book. "I think it is terrible below; but, of
course, it is certainly too rough for you, Mr. President!"
"It is, indeed, unusually rough," replied the President, rolling up the
collar of his overcoat and casting a glance at the heavens; "I believe
we shall have rain before sundown. You should really come with us, Miss
Else! Do you not think so, General?"
"Else is weatherproof," replied the General with a smile; "but you
might put a shawl or something of the kind about you. May I fetch you
something?"
"Thank you, Papa! I have everything here that is necessary," replied
Else, pointing to her roll of blankets and wraps; "I shall protect
myself if it is necessary. _Au revoir!_"
She bowed gracefully to the President, cast a pleasant glance at her
father, and took up her book again, while the gentlemen went around the
corner to a small passage between the cabin and the railing.
She read a few minutes and then looked up and watched the cloud of
smoke which was rising from the funnel in thick, dark gray puffs, and
rolling over the ship just as before. The man at the helm also stood
as he had been standing, letting the wheel run now to the right, now
to the left, and then holding it steady in his rough hands. And, sure
enough, there too was the gentleman again, who with untiring endurance
strode up and down the deck from helm to bowsprit and back from
bowsprit to helm, with a steadiness of gait which Else had repeatedly
tried to imitate during the day--to be sure with only doubtful success.
"Otherwise," thought Else, "he hasn't much that especially
distinguishes him;" and Else said to herself that she would scarcely
have noticed the man in a larger company, certainly would not have
observed him, perhaps not so much as seen him, and that if she had
looked at him today countless times and actually studied him, this
could only be because there had not been much to see, observe, or study.
Her sketch-book, which she was just glancing through, showed it. That
was intended to be a bit of the harbor of Stettin. "It requires much
imagination to make it out," thought Else. "Here is a sketch that came
out better: the low meadows, the cows, the light-buoy--beyond, the
smooth water with a few sails, again a strip of meadow--finally, in
the distance, the sea. The man at the helm is not bad; he held still
enough. But 'The Indefatigable' is awfully out of drawing--a downright
caricature! That comes from the constant motion! At last! Again! Only
five minutes, Mr. So-and-so! That may really be good--the position is
splendid!"
The position was indeed simple enough. The gentleman was leaning
against a seat with his hands in his pockets, and was looking directly
westward into the sea; his face was in a bright light, although the sun
had gone behind a cloud, and in addition he stood in sharp profile,
which Else always especially liked. "Really a pretty profile," thought
Else; "although the prettiest part, the large blue kindly eyes, did not
come out well. But, as compensation, the dark full beard promises to be
so much the better; I am always successful with beards. The hands in
the pockets are very fortunate; the left leg is entirely concealed by
the right--not especially picturesque, but extremely convenient for the
artist. Now the seat--a bit of the railing--and 'The Indefatigable' is
finished!"
She held the book at some distance, so as to view the sketch as a
picture; she was highly pleased. "That shows that I can accomplish
something when I work with interest," she said to herself; and then she
wrote below the picture: "The Indefatigable One. With Devotion. August
26th, '72. E. von W...."
While the young lady was so eagerly trying to sketch the features and
figure of the young man, her image had likewise impressed itself on his
mind. It was all the same whether he shut his eyes or kept them open;
she appeared to him with the same clearness, grace, and charm--now
at the moment of departure from Stettin, when her father presented
her to the President, and she bowed so gracefully; then, while she
was breakfasting with the two gentlemen, and laughing so gaily, and
lifting the glass to her lips; again, as she stood on the bridge with
the captain, and the wind pressed her garments close to her figure and
blew her veil like a pennant behind her; as she spoke with the steerage
woman sitting on a coil of rope on the forward deck, quieting her
youngest child wrapped in a shawl, then bending down, raising the shawl
for a moment, and looking at the hidden treasure with a smile; as she,
a minute later, went past him, inquiring with a stern glance of her
brown eyes whether he had not at last presumed to observe her; or as
she now sat next to the cabin and read, and drew, and read again, and
then looked up at the cloud of smoke or at the sailors at the rudder!
It was very astonishing how her image had stamped itself so firmly in
this short time--but then he had seen nothing above him but the sky
and nothing below him but the water, for a year! Thus it may be easily
understood how the first beautiful, charming girl whom he beheld after
so long a privation should make such a deep and thrilling impression
upon him.
"And besides," said the young man to himself, "in three hours we shall
be in Sundin, and then--farewell, farewell, never to meet again! But
what are they thinking about? You don't intend, certainly," raising his
voice, "to go over the Ostersand with this depth of water?" With the
last words he had turned to the man at the helm.
"You see, Captain, the matter is this way," replied the man, shifting
his quid of tobacco from one cheek to the other; "I was wondering, too,
how we should hold our helm! But the Captain thinks----"
The young man did not wait for him to finish. He had taken the same
journey repeatedly in former years; only a few days before he had
passed the place for which they were steering, and had been alarmed to
find only twelve feet of water where formerly there had been a depth
of fifteen feet. Today, after the brisk west wind had driven so much
water seaward, there could not be ten feet here, and the steamer drew
eight feet! And under these circumstances no diminution of speed, no
sounding, not a single one of the required precautions! Was the Captain
crazy?
The young man ran past Else with such swiftness, and his eyes had such
a peculiar expression as they glanced at her, that she involuntarily
rose and looked after him. The next moment he was on the bridge with
the old, fat Captain, speaking to him long and earnestly, at last, as
it appeared, impatiently, and repeatedly pointing all the while toward
a particular spot in the direction in which the ship was moving.
A strange sense of anxiety, not felt before on the whole journey, took
possession of Else. It could not be a trifling circumstance which threw
this quiet, unruffled man into such a state of excitement! And now,
what she had supposed several times was clear to her--that he was a
seaman, and, without doubt, an able one, who was certainly right, even
though the old, fat Captain phlegmatically shrugged his shoulders and
pointed likewise in the same direction, and looked through his glass,
and again shrugged his shoulders, while the other rushed down the steps
from the bridge to the deck, and came straight up to her as if he were
about to speak to her.
Yet he did not do so at first, for he hurried past her, although his
glance met hers; then, as he had undoubtedly read the silent question
in her eyes and upon her lips, he hesitated for a moment and--sure
enough, he turned back and was now close behind her!
"Pardon me!"
Her heart beat as if it would burst; she turned around.
"Pardon me," he repeated; "I suppose it is not right to alarm you,
perhaps without cause. But it is not impossible, I consider it even
quite probable, that we shall run aground within five minutes; I mean
strike bottom----"
"For Heaven's sake!" exclaimed Else.
"I do not think it will be serious," continued the young man. "If the
Captain--there! We now have only half steam--half speed, you know. But
he should reverse the engines, and it is now probably too late for
that."
"Can't he be compelled to do it?"
"On board his ship the captain is supreme," replied the young man,
smiling in spite of his indignation. "I myself am a seaman, and would
just as little brook interference in such a case." He lifted his cap
and bowed, took a step and stopped again. A bright sparkle shone in
his blue eyes, and his clear, firm voice quivered a bit as he went on,
"It is not a question of real danger. The coast lies before us and the
sea is comparatively quiet; I only wished that the moment should not
surprise you. Pardon my presumption!"
He had bowed again and was quickly withdrawing as if he wished to avoid
further questions. "There is no danger," muttered Else; "too bad! I
wanted so much to have him rescue me. But father must know it. We ought
to prepare the President, too, of course--he is more in need of warning
than I am."
She turned toward the cabin; but the retarded movement of the ship,
slowing up still more in the last half minute, had already attracted
the attention of the passengers, who stood in a group. Her father and
the President were already coming up the stairs.
"What's the matter?" cried the General.
"We can't possibly be in Prora already?" questioned the President.
At that instant all were struck as by an electric shock, as a peculiar,
hollow, grinding sound grated harshly on their ears. The keel had
scraped over the sand-bank without grounding. A shrill signal, a
breathless stillness for a few seconds, then a mighty quake through the
whole frame of the ship, and the powerful action of the screw working
with reversed engine!
The precaution which a few minutes before would have prevented the
accident was now too late. The ship was obliged to go back over the
same sand-bank which it had just passed with such difficulty. A heavier
swell, in receding, had driven the stern a few inches deeper. The screw
was working continuously, and the ship listed a little but did not move.
"What in the devil does that mean?" cried the General.
"There is no real danger," said Else with a flash.
"For Heaven's sake, my dear young lady!" interjected the President, who
had grown very pale.
"The shore is clearly in sight, and the sea is comparatively quiet,"
replied Else.
"Oh, what do you know about it!" exclaimed the General; "the sea is not
to be trifled with!"
"I am not trifling at all, Papa," said Else.
Bustling, running, shouting, which was suddenly heard from all
quarters, the strangely uncanny listing of the ship--all proved
conclusively that the prediction of "The Indefatigable" had come true,
and that the steamer was aground.
All efforts to float the ship had proved unavailing, but it was
fortunate that, in the perilous task required of it, the screw had
not broken; moreover, the listing of the hull had not increased. "If
the night was not stormy they would lie there quietly till the next
morning, when, in case they should not get afloat by that time (and
they might get afloat any minute), a passing craft could take off the
passengers and carry them to the next port." So spoke the Captain, who
was not to be disconcerted by the misfortune which his own stubbornness
had caused. He declared that it was clearly noted upon the maps by
which he and every other captain had to sail that there were fifteen
feet of water at this place; the gentlemen of the government should
wake up and see that better charts or at least suitable buoys were
provided. And if other captains had avoided the bank and preferred to
sail around it for some years, he had meanwhile steered over the same
place a hundred times--indeed only day before yesterday. But he had
no objections to having the long-boat launched and the passengers set
ashore, whence God knows how they were to continue their journey.
"The man is drunk or crazy," said the President, when the Captain had
turned his broad back and gone back to his post. "It is a sin and shame
that such a man is allowed to command a ship, even if it is only a tug;
I shall start a rigid investigation, and he shall be punished in an
exemplary manner."
The President, through all his long, thin body, shook with wrath,
anxiety, and cold; the General shrugged his shoulders. "That's all
very good, my dear Mr. President," said he, "but it comes a little too
late to help us out of our unhappy plight. I refrain on principle from
interfering with things I do not understand; but I wish we had somebody
on board who could give advice. One must not ask the sailors--that
would be undermining the discipline! What is it, Else?" Else had given
him a meaning look, and he stepped toward her and repeated the question.
"Inquire of that gentleman!" said Else.
"Of what gentleman?"
"The one yonder. He's a seaman; he can certainly give you the best
advice."
The General fixed his sharp eye upon the person designated. "Ah, that
one?" asked he. "Really looks so."
"Doesn't he?" replied Else. "He had already told me that we were going
to run aground."
"He's not one of the officers of the ship, of course?"
"O no! That is--I believe--but just speak to him!"
The General went up to "The Indefatigable." "Beg your pardon, Sir! I
hear you are a seaman?"
"At your service."
"Captain?"
"Captain of a merchantman--Reinhold Schmidt."
"My name is General von Werben. You would oblige me, Captain, if you
would give me a technical explanation of our situation--privately, of
course, and in confidence. I should not like to ask you to say anything
against a comrade, or to do anything that would shake his authority,
which we may possibly yet need to make use of. Is the Captain
responsible, in your opinion, for our accident?"
[Illustration: THE LAST DAY OF A CONDEMNED MAN
_Permission Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris_ MICHAEL VON MUNKACSY]
"Yes, and no, General. No, for the sea charts, by which we are directed
to steer, record this place as navigable. The charts were correct,
too, until a few years ago; since that time heavy sand deposits
have been made here, and, besides, the water has fallen continually in
consequence of the west wind which has prevailed for some weeks. The
more prudent, therefore, avoid this place. I myself should have avoided
it."
"Very well! And now what do you think of the situation? Are we in
danger, or likely to be?"
"I think not. The ship lies almost upright, and on clear, smooth sand.
It may lie thus for a very long time, if nothing intervenes."
"The Captain is right in keeping us on board, then?"
"Yes, I think so--the more so as the wind, for the first time in three
days, appears about to shift to the east, and, if it does, we shall
probably be afloat again in a few hours. Meanwhile----"
"Meanwhile?"
"To err is human, General. If the wind--we now have south-southeast--it
is not probable, but yet possible--should again shift to the west and
become stronger, perhaps very strong, a serious situation might, of
course, confront us."
"Then we should take advantage of the Captain's permission to leave the
ship?"
"As the passage is easy and entirely safe, I can at least say nothing
against it. But, in that case, it ought to be done while it is still
sufficiently light--best of all, at once."
"And you? You would remain, as a matter of course?"
"As a matter of course, General."
"I thank you."
The General touched his cap with a slight nod of his head; Reinhold
lifted his with a quick movement, returning the nod with a stiff bow.
"Well?" queried Else, as her father came up to her again.
"The man must have been a soldier," replied the General.
"Why so?" asked the President.
"Because I could wish that I might always have such clear, accurate
reports from my officers. The situation, then, is this----"
He repeated what he had just heard from Reinhold, and closed by saying
that he would recommend to the Captain that the passengers who wished
to do so should be disembarked at once. "I, for my part, do not think
of submitting to this inconvenience, which it would seem, moreover, is
unnecessary; except that Else----"
"I, Papa!" exclaimed Else; "I don't think of it for a moment!"
The President was greatly embarrassed. He had, to be sure, only this
morning renewed a very slight former personal acquaintance with General
von Werben, after the departure from Stettin; but now that he had
chatted with him the entire day and played the knight to the young lady
on countless occasions, he could not help explaining, with a twitch of
the lips which was intended to be a smile, that he wished now to share
with his companions the discomforts of the journey as he had, up to
this time, the comforts; the Prussian ministry would be able to console
itself, if worse comes to worst, for the loss of a President who, as
the father of six young hopefuls, has, besides, a succession of his
own, and accordingly neither has nor makes claims to the sympathy of
his own generation.
Notwithstanding his resignation, the heart of the worthy official was
much troubled. Secretly he cursed his own boundless folly in coming
home a day earlier, in having intrusted himself to a tug instead of
waiting for a coast steamer, due the next morning, and in inviting the
"stupid confidence" of the General and the coquettish manoeuvrings
of the young lady; and when the long-boat was really launched a few
minutes later, and in what seemed to him an incredibly short time was
filled with passengers from the foredeck, fortunately not many in
number, together with a few ladies and gentlemen from the first cabin,
and was now being propelled by the strokes of the heavy oars, and soon
afterwards with hoisted sails was hastily moving toward the shore,
he heaved a deep sigh and determined at any price--even that of the
scornful smile on the lips of the young lady--to leave the ship, too,
before nightfall.
And night came on only too quickly for the anxious man. The evening
glow on the western horizon was fading every minute, while from the
east--from the open sea--it was growing darker and darker. How long
would it be till the land, which appeared through the evening mist only
as an indistinct streak to the near-sighted man, would vanish from
his sight entirely? And yet it was certain that the waves were rising
higher every minute, and here and there white caps were appearing and
breaking with increasing force upon the unfortunate ship--something
that had not happened during the entire day! Then were heard the
horrible creaking of the rigging, the uncanny whistling of the tackle,
the nerve-racking boiling and hissing of the steam, which was escaping
almost incessantly from the overheated boiler. Finally the boiler
burst, and the torn limbs of a man, who had been just buttoning up
his overcoat, were hurled in every direction through the air. The
President grew so excited at this catastrophe that he unbuttoned his
overcoat, but buttoned it up again because the wind was blowing with
icy coldness. "It is insufferable!" he muttered.
Else had noticed for some time how uncomfortable it was for the
President to stay upon the ship--a course which he had evidently
decided upon, against his will, out of consideration for his
traveling-companions. Her love of mischief had found satisfaction in
this embarrassing situation, which he tried to conceal; but now her
good nature gained the upper hand, for he was after all an elderly,
apparently feeble gentleman, and a civilian. One could, of course, not
expect of him the unflinching courage or the sturdiness of her father,
who had not even once buttoned his cloak, and was now taking his
accustomed evening walk to and fro upon the deck. But her father had
decided to remain; it would be entirely hopeless now to induce him to
leave the boat. "He must find a solution to the problem," she said to
herself.
Reinhold had vanished after his last conversation with her father, and
was not now on the rear deck; so she went forward, and there he sat on
a great box, looking through a pocket telescope toward the land--so
absorbed that she had come right up to him before he noticed her. He
sprang hastily to his feet, and turned to her.
"How far are they?" asked Else.
"They are about to land," replied he. "Would you like to look?"
He handed her the instrument. The glass, when she touched it, still had
a trace of the warmth of the hand from which it came, which would have
been, under other circumstances, by no means an unpleasant sensation to
her, but this time she scarcely noticed it, thinking of it only for an
instant, while she was trying to bring into the focus of the glass the
point which he indicated. She did not succeed; she saw nothing but an
indistinct, shimmering gray. "I prefer to use my eyes!" she exclaimed,
putting down the instrument. "I see the boat quite distinctly there,
close to the land--in the white streak! What is it?"
"The surf."
"Where is the sail?"
"They let it down so as not to strike too hard. But, really, you have
the eye of a seaman!" Else smiled at the compliment, and Reinhold
smiled. Their glances met for a minute.
"I have a request to make of you," said Else, without dropping her eyes.
"I was just about to make one of you," he replied, looking straight
into her brown eyes, which beamed upon him; "I was about to ask you to
allow yourself to be put ashore also. We shall be afloat in another
hour, but the night is growing stormy, and as soon as we have passed
Wissow Hook"--he pointed to the promontory--"we shall have to cast
anchor. That is at best not a very pleasant situation, at the worst a
very unpleasant one. I should like to save you from both."
"I thank you," said Else; "and now my request is no longer
necessary"--and she told Reinhold why she had come.
"That's a happy coincidence!" he said, "but there is not a moment
to lose. I am going to speak to your father at once. We must be off
without delay."
"We?"
"I shall, with your permission, take you ashore myself."
"I thank you," said Else again with a deep breath. She had held out her
hand; he took the little tender hand in his, and again their glances
met.
"One can trust that hand," thought Else; "and those eyes, too!" And she
said aloud, "But you must not think that I should have been afraid to
remain here! It's really for the sake of the poor President."
She had withdrawn her hand and was hastening away to meet her father,
who, wondering why she had remained away so long, had come to look for
her.
When he was about to follow her, Reinhold saw lying at his feet a
little blue-gray glove. She must have just slipped it off as she was
adjusting the telescope. He stooped down quickly, picked it up, and put
it in his pocket.
"She will not get that again," he said to himself.
Reinhold was right; there had been no time to lose. While the little
boat which he steered cut through the foaming waves, the sky became
more and more overcast with dark clouds which threatened soon to
extinguish even the last trace of the evening glow in the west. In
addition, the strong wind had suddenly shifted from the south to the
north, and because of this (to insure a more speedy return of the boat
to the ship) they were unable to land at the place where the long-boat,
which was already coming back, had discharged its passengers--viz.,
near the little fishing village, Ahlbeck, at the head of the bay,
immediately below Wissow Hook. They had to steer more directly to
the north, against the wind, where there was scarcely room upon the
narrow beach of bare dunes for a single hut, much less for a fishing
village; and Reinhold could consider himself fortunate when, with a
bold manoeuvre, he brought the little boat so near the shore that the
disembarkment of the company and the few pieces of baggage which they
had taken from the ship could be accomplished without great difficulty.
"I fear we have jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire," said the
President gloomily.
"It is a consolation to me that we were not the cause of it," replied
the General, not without a certain sharpness in the tone of his strong
voice.
"No, no, certainly not!" acknowledged the President, "_Mea maxima
culpa!_ My fault alone, my dear young lady. But, admit it--the
situation is hopeless, absolutely hopeless!"
"I don't know," replied Else; "it is all delightful to me."
"Well, I congratulate you heartily," said the President; "for my part I
should rather have an open fire, a chicken wing, and half a bottle of
St. Julien; but if it is a consolation to have companions in misery,
then, it ought to be doubly so to know that what appears as very real
misery to the pensive wisdom of one is a romantic adventure to the
youthful imagination of another."
The President, while intending to banter, had hit upon the right word.
To Else the whole affair appeared a "romantic adventure," in which she
felt a genuine hearty delight. When Reinhold brought her the first
intimation of the impending danger, she was, indeed, startled; but she
had not felt fear for a moment--not even when the abusive men, crying
women, and screaming children hurried from the ship, which seemed
doomed to sink, into the long-boat which rocked up and down upon the
gray waves, while night came over the open sea, dark and foreboding.
The tall seaman, with the clear blue eyes, had said that there was
no danger; he must know; why should she be afraid? And even if the
situation should become dangerous he was the man to do the right thing
at the right moment and to meet danger! This sense of security had not
abandoned her when into the surf they steered the skiff, rocked like a
nut-shell in the foaming waves. The President, deathly pale, cried out
again and again, "For God's sake!" and a cloud of concern appeared even
on the earnest face of her father. She had just cast a glance at the
man at the helm, and his blue eyes had gleamed as brightly as before,
even more brightly in the smile with which he answered her questioning
glance. And then when the boat had touched the shore, and the sailors
were carrying the President, her father, and the three servants to
land, and she herself stood in the bow, ready to take a bold leap, she
felt herself suddenly surrounded by a pair of strong arms, and was thus
half carried, half swung, to the shore without wetting her foot--she
herself knew not how.
And there she stood now, a few steps distant from the men, who were
consulting, wrapped in her raincoat, in the full consciousness of a
rapture such as she never felt before. Was it not then really fine!
Before her the gray, surging, thundering, endless sea, above which dark
threatening night was gathering; right and left in an unbroken line
the white foaming breakers! She herself with the glorious moist wind
blowing about her, rattling in her ears, wrapping her garments around
her, and driving flecks of spray into her face! Behind her the bald
spectral dunes, upon which the long dune grass, just visible against
the faintly brighter western sky, beckoned and nodded--whither? On into
the happy splendid adventure which was not yet at an end, could not be
at an end, _must_ not be at an end--for that would be a wretched shame!
The gentlemen approached her. "We have decided, Else," said the
General, "to make an expedition over the dunes into the country. The
fishing village at which the long-boat landed is nearly a quarter of
a mile distant, and the road in the deep sand would probably be too
difficult for our honored President. Besides, we should scarcely find
shelter there."
"If only we don't get lost in the dunes," sighed the President.
"The Captain's knowledge of the locality will be guarantee for that,"
said the General.
"I can scarcely speak of a knowledge of the place, General," replied
Reinhold. "Only once, and that six years ago, have I cast a glance from
the top of these dunes into the country; but I remember clearly that I
saw a small tenant-farm, or something of the kind, in that direction. I
can promise to find the house. How it will be about quarters I cannot
say in advance."
"In any case we cannot spend the night here," exclaimed the General.
"So, _en avant!_ Do you wish my arm, Else?"
"Thank you, Papa, I can get up."
And Else leaped upon the dune, following Reinhold, who, hurrying on
ahead, had already reached the top, while the General and the President
followed more slowly, and the two servants with the effects closed the
procession.
"Well!" exclaimed Else with delight as, a little out of breath, she
came up to Reinhold. "Are we also at the end of our tether, like the
President?"
"Make fun of me if you like, young lady," replied Reinhold; "I don't
feel at all jolly over the responsibility which I have undertaken.
Yonder"--and he pointed over the lower dunes into the country, in which
evening and mist made everything indistinct--"it must be there."
"'Must be,' if you were right! But 'must' you be right?"
As if answering the mocking question of the girl, a light suddenly shot
up exactly in the direction in which Reinhold's arm had pointed. A
strange shudder shot through Else.
"Pardon me!" she said.
Reinhold did not know what this exclamation meant. At that moment the
others reached the top of the rather steep dune.
"_Per aspera ad astra_," puffed the President.
"I take my hat off to you, Captain," said the General.
"It was great luck," replied Reinhold modestly.
"And we must have luck," exclaimed Else, who had quickly overcome that
strange emotion and had now returned to her bubbling good humor.
The little company strode on through the dunes; Reinhold going on ahead
again, while Else remained with the other gentlemen.
"It is strange enough," said the General, "that the mishap had to
strike us just at this point of the coast. It really seems as if we
were being punished for our opposition. Even if my opinion that a naval
station can be of no use here is not shaken, yet, now that we have
almost suffered shipwreck here ourselves, a harbor appears to me----"
"A consummation devoutly to be wished!" exclaimed the President.
"Heaven knows! And when I think of the severe cold which I shall take
from this night's promenade in the abominably wet sand, and that,
instead of this, I might now be sitting in a comfortable coupé and
tonight be sleeping in my bed, then I repent every word I have spoken
against the railroad, about which I have put myself at odds with all
our magnates--and not the least with Count Golm, whose friendship would
just now be very opportune for us."
"How so?" asked the General.
"Golm Castle lies, according to my calculation, at the most a mile from
here; the hunting lodge on Golmberg----"
"I remember it," interrupted the General; "the second highest
promontory on the shore to the north--to our right. We can be scarcely
half a mile away."
"Now, see," said the President; "that would be so convenient, and
the Count is probably there. Frankly, I have secretly counted on his
hospitality in case, as I only too much fear, a hospitable shelter
is not to be found in the tenant-house, and you do not give up your
disinclination to knock at the door in Warnow, which would, indeed, be
the simplest and most convenient thing to do."
The President, who had spoken panting, and with many intermissions, had
stopped; the General replied with a sullen voice, "You know that I am
entirely at outs with my sister."
"But you said the Baroness was in Italy?"
"Yet she must be coming back at this time, has perhaps already
returned; and, if she were not, I would not go to Warnow, even if it
were but ten paces from here. Let us hurry to get under shelter, Mr.
President, or we shall be thoroughly drenched in addition to all we
have already passed through."
In fact, scattered drops had been falling for some time from the
low-moving clouds, and hastening their steps, they had just entered the
farmyard and were groping their way between barns and stables over a
very uneven courtyard to the house in whose window they had seen the
light, when the rain, which had long been threatening, poured down in
full force.
* * * * *
[Pölitz receives his guests with apologies for the accommodations and
his wife's absence from the room. His manner is just a bit forced;
Else, noticing it, goes out to look for Mrs. Pölitz, and brings the
report that the children are sick. The President suggests that they
go on to Golmberg. Pölitz will not hear of it, but Else has made
arrangements--makeshifts though they are--for the trip, and insists
upon leaving, even in the face of the storm. A messenger is to be sent
ahead to announce them--Reinhold included, upon Else's insistence.
Else goes into the kitchen, where Mrs. Pölitz pours out her soul to
her--the hardheartedness of the Count, who has never married, and her
vain labors to keep their little home in Swantow. It sets her thinking,
first about the Count, then about Reinhold--was he married or not?
Wouldn't any girl be proud of him--even herself! But then there would
be disinheritance! Yet she keeps on thinking of him. How would "Mrs.
Schmidt" sound! She laughs, and then grows serious; tears come into her
eyes; she puts her hand into her pocket and feels the compass which
Reinhold had given her. It is faithful. "If I ever love, I too shall be
faithful," she says to herself.
Reinhold, going out to look for the boat, wonders why he left it to
accompany the others to Pölitz's house; but fortunately he finds it
safe. Now his duty to the General and Else is fulfilled; he will never
see her again, probably. Yet he hastens back--and meets them just on
the point of leaving for Golmberg.
* * * * *
The President has been waiting for the storm to blow over, he says.
Else is fidgety, yet without knowing why; she wonders what has become
of Reinhold. The President sounds Pölitz on the subject of the
railway--the nearest doctor living so far away that they cannot afford
to have him come. But Pölitz says that they do not want a railway--a
decent wagon road would be enough, and they could have that if only
the Count would help a little. A naval station? So far as they are
concerned, a simple break-water would do, he tells the President. The
latter, while Pölitz is out looking for the messenger, discusses with
the General the condition of the Count's tenants, in the midst of which
the Count himself arrives with his own carriages to take them over to
Golmberg.
* * * * *
A chorus of greetings follows. The Count had met the General in
Versailles on the day the German Emperor was proclaimed, the General
had not forgotten. The company now lacks only Reinhold, and the Count,
thinking that he must have lost his way, is about to send a searching
party, when Else tells him that she has already done so. The Count
smiles. She hates him for it, and outside, a moment later, rebukes
herself for not controlling her temper. Reinhold meets her there. She
commands him to accompany them. As they are leaving Else makes a remark
about the doctor, which is overheard, as she intended, by the Count,
who promises to send for the doctor himself.
* * * * *
They proceed to Golmberg. Conversation in the servants' carriage is
lively, turning on the relative merits of their respective masters--how
liberal the Count is; how strict, yet not so bad, the General; while
a bottle of brandy passes around. In the first carriage, where Else,
the President, and the General are riding, the conversation is of the
Count's family and of old families in general, then of the project
before them--the railroad and the naval station. The President drops
that subject, finding the General not kindly disposed to it. He and
Else are both thinking of her indirect request to the Count to send
for the doctor. Then Else's thoughts turn again to Reinhold--his long
absence--what he would think of her command to accompany them. The
Count and Reinhold in the second carriage speak hardly a dozen words.
Reinhold's thoughts are of Else--how hopelessly far above him she
is--how he would like to run away. They arrive at Golmberg.]
* * * * *
The President had dropped the remark in his note that the absence of
a hostess in the castle would be somewhat embarrassing for the young
lady in their company, but as it was not so easily to be remedied
he would apologize for him in advance. The Count had dispatched a
messenger forthwith to his neighbor, von Strummin, with the urgent
request that he should come with his wife and daughter to Golmberg,
prepared to spend the night there. The Strummins were glad to render
this neighborly service, and Madame and Miss von Strummin had already
received Else in the hall, and conducted her to the room set apart for
her, adjoining their own rooms.
The President rubbed his thin white hands contentedly before the fire
in his own comfortable room, and murmured, as John put the baggage in
order, "Delightful; very delightful! I think this will fully reconcile
the young lady to her misfortune and restore her grouchy father to a
sociable frame of mind."
Else was fully reconciled. To be released from the close, jolting
prison of a landau and introduced into a brightly lighted castle in the
midst of the forest, where servants stood with torches at the portal;
to be most heartily welcomed in the ancient hall, with its strangely
ornamented columns, by two ladies who approached from among the arms
and armor with which the walls and columns were hung and surrounded,
and conducted into the snuggest of all the apartments; to enjoy a
flickering open fire, brightly burning wax tapers before a tall mirror
in a rich rococo frame, velvet carpets of a marvelous design which was
repeated in every possible variation upon the heavy hangings before the
deeply recessed windows, on the portières of the high gilded doors, and
the curtains of the antique bed--all this was so fitting, so charming,
so exactly as it should be in an adventure! Else shook the hand of
the matronly Madame von Strummin, thanked her for her kindness, and
kissed the pretty little Marie, with the mischievous brown eyes, and
asked permission to call her "Meta," or "Mieting," just as her mother
did, who had just left the room. Mieting returned the embrace with the
greatest fervor and declared that nothing more delightful in the world
could have come to her than the invitation for this evening. She, with
her Mamma, felt so bored at Strummin!--it was horribly monotonous in
the country!--and in the midst of it this letter from the Count! She
was fond of coming to Golmberg, anyhow--the forest was so beautiful,
and the view from the platform of the tower, from the summit of
Golmberg beyond the forest over the sea--that was really charming; to
be sure, the opportunity but seldom! Her mother was a little indolent,
and the gentlemen thought of their hunting, their horses, and
generally only of themselves. Thus she had not been a little surprised,
too, at the haste of the Count today in procuring company for the
strange young lady, just as if he had already known beforehand how fair
and lovely the strange young lady was, and how great the pleasure of
being with her, and of chattering so much nonsense; if she might say
"thou" to her, then they could chatter twice as pleasantly.
The permission gladly given and sealed with a kiss threw the frolicsome
girl into the greatest ecstasy. "You must never go away again!" she
exclaimed; "or, if you do, only to return in the autumn! He will not
marry me, in any case; I have nothing, and he has nothing in spite of
his entail, and Papa says that we shall all be bankrupt here if we
don't get the railroad and the harbor. And your Papa and the President
have the whole matter in hand, Papa said as we drove over; and if you
marry him, your Papa will give the concession, as a matter of course--I
believe that's what it's called, isn't it? And you are really already
interested in it as it is; for the harbor, Papa says, can be laid
out only on the estates which belong to your aunt, and you and your
brother--you inherit it from your aunt--are already coheirs? It is
a strange will, Papa says, and he would like to know how the matter
really is. Don't you know? Please do tell me! I promise not to tell
anyone."
"I really don't know," replied Else. "I only know that we are very
poor, and that you may go on and marry your Count for all me."
"I should be glad to do so," said the little lady seriously, "but I'm
not pretty enough for him, with my insignificant figure and my pug
nose. I shall marry a rich burgher some day, who is impressed by our
nobility--for the Strummins are as old as the island, you know--a Mr.
Schulze, or Müller, or Schmidt. What's the name of the captain who came
with you?"
"Schmidt, Reinhold Schmidt."
"No, you're joking!"
"Indeed, I'm not; but he's not a captain."
"Not a Captain! What then?"
"A sea captain."
"Of the Marine?"
"A simple sea captain."
"Oh, dear me!"
That came out so comically, and Mieting clapped her hands with such a
naïve surprise, that Else had to laugh, and the more so as she could
thus best conceal the blush of embarrassment which flushed her face.
"Then he will not even take supper with us!" exclaimed Mieting.
"Why not?" asked Else, who had suddenly become very serious again.
"A simple captain!" repeated Mieting; "too bad! He's such a handsome
man! I had picked him out for myself! But a simple sea captain!"
Madame von Strummin entered the room to escort the ladies to supper.
Mieting rushed toward her mother to tell her her great discovery.
"Everything is already arranged," replied her mother. "The Count asked
your father and the President whether they wished the captain to join
the company. Both of the gentlemen were in favor of it, and so he too
will appear at supper. And then, too, he seems so far to be a very
respectable man," concluded Madame von Strummin.
"I'm really curious," said Mieting.
Else did not say anything; but when at the entrance of the corridor she
met her father, who had just come from his room, she whispered to him,
"Thank you!"
"One must keep a cheerful face in a losing game," replied the General
in the same tone.
Else was a bit surprised; she had not believed that he would so
seriously regard the question of etiquette, which he had just decided
as she wished. She did not reflect that her father could not
understand her remark without special explanation, and did not know
that he had given to it an entirely different meaning. He had been
annoyed and had allowed his displeasure to be noticed, even at the
reception in the hall. He supposed that Else had observed this, and was
now glad that he had meanwhile resolved to submit quietly and coolly to
the inevitable, and in this frame of mind he had met her with a smile.
It was only the Count's question that reminded him again of the young
sea captain. He had attached no significance either to the question or
to his answer, that he did not know why the Count should not invite the
captain to supper.
Happily for Reinhold, he had not had even a suspicion of the
possibility that his appearance or non-appearance at supper could be
seriously debated by the company.
"In for a penny, in for a pound," he said to himself, arranging his
suit as well as he could with the aid of the things which he had
brought along in his bag from the ship for emergencies. "And now to the
dickens with the sulks! If I have run aground in my stupidity, I shall
get afloat again. To hang my head or to lose it would not be correcting
the mistake, but only making it worse--and it is already bad enough.
But now where are my shoes?"
In the last moment on board he had exchanged the shoes which he had
been wearing for a pair of high waterproof boots. They had done him
excellent service in the water and rain, in the wet sand of the shore,
and on the way to the tenant-farm--but now! Where were the shoes?
Certainly not in the traveling bag, into which he thought he had thrown
them, but in which they refused to be found, although he finally, in
his despair, turned the whole contents out and spread them about him.
And this article of clothing here, which he had already taken up a
dozen times and dropped again--the shirt bosoms were wanting! It was
not the blue overcoat! It was the black evening coat, the most precious
article of his wardrobe, which he was accustomed to wear only to
dinners at the ship-owners', the consul's, and other formal occasions!
Reinhold sprang for the bell--the rotten cord broke in his hand. He
jerked the door open and peered into the hall--no servant was to be
seen; he called first softly and then more loudly--no servant answered.
And yet--what was to be done! The coarse woolen jacket which he had
worn under his raincoat, and had, notwithstanding, got wet in places
had been taken away by the servant to dry. "In a quarter of an hour,"
the man had said, "the Count will ask you to supper." Twenty minutes
had already passed; he had heard distinctly that the President, who
was quartered a few doors from his room, had passed through the hall
to go downstairs; he would have to remain here in the most ridiculous
imprisonment, or appear downstairs before the company in the most
bizarre costume--water-boots and black dress suit--before the eyes
of the President, whose long, lean figure, from the top of his small
shapely head to his patent-leather tips, which he had worn even on
board ship, was the image of the most painful precision--before the
rigorous General, in his closely buttoned undress uniform--before the
Count, who had already betrayed an inclination to doubt his social
eligibility--before the ladies!--before her--before her mischievous
brown eyes! "Very well," he concluded, "if I have been fool enough to
follow the glances of these eyes then this shall be my punishment, I
will now do penance--in a black dress coat and water-boots."
With a jerk he pulled on the boots which he still held in his rigid
left hand, regarding them from time to time with horror, and opened the
door again, this time to go down the broad stairway, and with a steady
step along the hall into the dining-room, the location of which he had
already learned from the servant.
Meanwhile the rest of the company had assembled. The two young ladies
had appeared arm in arm and did not allow themselves to be separated,
although the Count, who approached them with animation, addressed
his words to Else alone. He dutifully hastened to inform the young
lady that the carriage had been sent off to Prora for the doctor a
quarter of an hour before. He asked Else whether she was interested
in painting, and if she would allow him to call her attention hastily
to some of the more important things which he had brought from the
gallery in Castle Golm to Golmberg to decorate the dining-room,
which seemed to him altogether too bare: here a Watteau, bought by
his great-grandfather himself in Paris; over there, a cluster of
fruit, called "Da Frutti," by the Italian Gobbo, a pupil of Annibale
Carracci; yonder, the large still-life by the Netherlander Jacob van
Ness. This flower piece would interest the young lady especially,
as it is by a lady, Rachel Ruysch, a Netherlander of course, whose
pictures are greatly in demand. Here on the étagère, the service of
Meissen porcelain, once in the possession of August the Strong, which
his great-grandfather, who was for some years Swedish minister at the
Dresden Court, had received in exchange for a pair of reindeer--the
first that had been seen on the continent; here the no less beautiful
Sèvres service, which he himself had in previous years admired in
the castle of a nobleman in France, who had presented it to him, in
recognition of his fortunate efforts to preserve the castle, which he
had turned into a hospital.
"You are not interested in old porcelain?" queried the Count, who
thought he noticed that the dark eyes of the young lady glanced only
very superficially over his treasures.
"I have seen so few such things," said Else, "I do not know how to
appreciate their beauty."
"And then, too, we are a bit hungry," put in Mieting--"at least I am.
We dine at home at eight o'clock, and now it is eleven."
"Hasn't the Captain been called?" asked the Count of the butler.
"Certainly, your Grace; a quarter of an hour ago."
"Then we will not wait any longer. The etiquette of kings does not
appear to be that of sea captains. May I accompany you, Miss Else?"
He offered Else his arm; hesitatingly she rested the tips of her
fingers upon it. She would have liked to spare the Captain the
embarrassment of finding the company already at the table, but her
father had offered his arm to Mieting's mother, and the gallant
President his to Mieting. The three couples proceeded to the table,
which stood between them and the door, when the door opened and the
strange figure of a bearded man in black suit and high water-boots
appeared, in which Else, to her horror, recognized the Captain. But in
the next moment she had to laugh like the others. Mieting dropped the
arm of the President and fled to a corner of the hall to smother in
her handkerchief the convulsive laughter which had seized her at the
unexpected sight.
"I must apologize," said Reinhold, "but the haste with which we
left the ship today was not favorable to a strict selection from my
wardrobe, as I have unfortunately just now noticed."
"And, as this haste has turned out to our advantage, we least of all
have reason to lay any greater stress upon the trivial mishap than it
deserves," said the President very graciously.
"Why didn't you call on my valet?" asked the Count with gentle reproof.
"I find the costume very becoming," said Else, with a desperate effort
to be serious again and with a reproving glance at Mieting, who had
come out of her corner but did not yet dare to take the handkerchief
from her face.
"That is much more than I had dared to hope," said Reinhold.
They had taken their places at the table--Reinhold diagonally opposite
Else and directly across from the Count; at his left, Miss Mieting,
and, at his right, von Strummin, a broad-shouldered gentleman with a
wide red face covered on the lower part by a big red beard; he was
possessed of a tremendously loud voice which was the more unpleasant
to Reinhold as it continually smothered the low merry chatter of the
young lady at his left. The good-natured child had determined to make
Reinhold forget her improper behavior of a few minutes before, and
the execution of this resolution was made easier for her as, now that
the tablecloth graciously covered the ridiculous water-boots, she
verified what she thought she had discovered at the first glance--that
the Captain, with his great, bright, blue eyes, his brown face, and
his curly brown beard, was a handsome man, a very handsome man. After
she had tried to communicate to Else this important discovery by
significant glances and explanatory gestures, and to her delight had
had it corroborated by a smile and nod, she yielded to the pleasure of
conversation with the handsome man, the more eagerly because she was
sure that this fervor would not pass unnoticed by the Count. For she
knew from experience that it would not please him, that he would even
feel it a kind of personal offense when ladies, whose favor he did not
seek, bestowed special attention upon other gentlemen in his presence!
And the fact that this was a simple sea captain, whose social status
had been discussed shortly before, made the matter more amusing and
spicy in her merry eyes; besides, the conversation was entertaining
enough without that. "The Captain has so many stories to tell! And
he tells them so simply and frankly! You can't believe, Else, how
interesting it is!" she shouted across the table; "I could listen to
him all night!"
"The child is not very discriminating in her taste," said the Count to
Else.
"I am sorry," said Else, "she has just chosen me as her friend, as you
have heard."
"That is another matter," said the Count.
The conversation between them could not get under way; the Count found
himself repeatedly left to talk to Madame von Strummin, with whom he
then conversed also--not to be altogether silent; while Else turned to
her neighbor on the other side, the President. And more than once, when
Madame von Strummin was again conversing with the General, the Count
had to sit and look on in silence and see how well the conversation at
his table could go on without him. To fill out these forced pauses,
he drank one glass of wine after another without improving his humor,
which he vented on the servants because he had nobody else. It would
have been most agreeable to him, to be sure, to use the Captain for
this purpose, but he found him extremely odious--everything about him,
his appearance, his attitude, his manners, his expression, his voice!
It was the irony of fate that he himself had brought the man to his
house in his own wagon! If only he had not asked the man to supper, but
had left him in his room! He said to himself that it was ridiculous
to be angry about the man, and yet he was angry--angry again because
he could not control his feeling. He must, at any price, make the
conversation general, to release himself from a state of mind which had
become quite intolerable to him.
Opposite him von Strummin was shouting into the ear of the General, who
seemed to listen only against his will, his views about the railroad
and the naval station. The Count, for his part, had determined not
to touch upon the delicate theme while at table; now any theme was
agreeable to him.
"Pardon, my friend," said he, raising his voice; "I have heard a snatch
of what you have just been telling the General about our favorite
project. You say continually 'we' and 'us,' but you know that our views
differ in essential points; I should like, therefore, to ask you, if
you must speak of the matter now, to do so only in your own name."
"Ho, ho!" exclaimed von Strummin. "Wherein do we differ so seriously?
In one point, I wish a station at Strummin just as much as you do at
Golm."
"But we can't all have a station," said the Count with a patronizing
shrug of the shoulders.
"Certainly not; but I must, or the whole project is not worth a red
cent to me," exclaimed the other. "What! Am I to haul my corn half a
mile, as before, and an hour later let the train whizz past my nose!
In that case I shall prefer to vote at the Diet for the highway which
the government offers; that will run right behind my new barn; I can
push the wagon from the barn floor to the road. Isn't that true, Mr.
President?"
"Whether the highway will run directly behind your barn or not, von
Strummin, I really do not know," said the President. "In any case it
will come through your property; as for the rest, my views have been
long known to the gentlemen;" and he turned to Else again, to continue
with her the conversation which had been interrupted.
The Count was angry at the reproof which these last words seemed to
convey, the more so as he was conscious that he had not deserved it. He
had not begun the discussion! Now it might and must be carried still
further!
"You see," continued he, turning to von Strummin, "what a bad turn you
have done us--I must say 'us,' now--by this continual, disagreeable
intrusion of personal interests. Of course we want our profit from
it--what sensible man does not want that! But that is a secondary
matter. First the State, then the other things. So I think, at least,
and so does the General here."
"Certainly I think so," said the General; "but how is it that you bring
me into it?"
"Because no one would profit more by the execution of the project than
your sister--or whoever may be in possession of Warnow, Gristow, and
Damerow."
"I shall never possess a foot of those estates," said the General
knitting his eyebrows. "Besides, I have had absolutely nothing to do
with the matter, as you yourself know, Count; I have not once expressed
an opinion, and so am not in a position to accept the compliment you
paid me."
He turned again to Madame von Strummin. The Count's face flushed.
"The views of a man in your position, General," he said with a skilful
semblance of composure, "can no more be concealed than the most
official declaration of our honored President, even if he give them no
official form."
The General knitted his brows still more sternly.
"Very well, Count," exclaimed the General, "be it so, but I confess
myself openly to be the most determined opponent of your project!
I consider it strategically useless, and technically impossible of
execution."
"Two reasons, either of which would be crushing if it were valid,"
rejoined the Count with an ironical smile. "As to the first, I submit,
of course, to such an authority as you are--though we could not always
have war with France and her weak navy, but might occasionally have it
with Russia with her strong navy, and in that case a harbor facing the
enemy might be very necessary. But the impracticability of the project,
General! On this point I think that I, with my amphibian character as
a country gentleman living by the sea, may with all deference say a
word. Our sand, difficult as it makes the construction of roads, to
the great regret of ourselves and our President, is excellent material
for a railroad embankment, and will prove itself a good site for the
foundation of our harbor walls."
"Except those places where we should have to become lake-dwellers
again," said the President, who for the sake of the General could no
longer keep silent.
"There may be such places," exclaimed the Count, who, in spite of the
exasperating contradictions by both of the gentlemen, now had the
satisfaction at least of knowing that all other conversation had ceased
and that for the moment he alone was speaking; "I grant it. But what
else would that prove than that the building of the harbor will last a
few months or years longer and cost a few hundred thousands or even a
few millions more? And what will they say of an undertaking which, once
completed, is an invincible bulwark against any enemy attacking from
the east?"
"Except one!" said Reinhold.
The Count had not thought that this person could join the conversation.
His face flushed with anger; he cast a black look at the new opponent,
and asked in a sharp defiant tone:
"And that is?"
"A storm flood," replied Reinhold.
"We here in this country are too much accustomed to storms and floods
to be afraid of either," said the Count, with forced composure.
"Yes, I know," replied Reinhold; "but I am not speaking of ordinary
atmospheric and marine adjustments and disturbances, but of an event
which I am convinced has been coming for years and only waits for an
opportune occasion, which will not be wanting, to break forth with a
violence of which the boldest imagination can form no conception."
"Are we still in the realm of reality, or already in the sphere of the
imagination?" asked the Count.
"We are in the domain of possibility," replied Reinhold; "of a
possibility which a glance at the map will show us has already been
more than once realized and will in all human probability be repeated
at no very distant future time."
"You make us extremely curious," said the Count.
He had said it ironically; but he had only given expression to the
feelings of the company. The eyes of all were fixed upon Reinhold.
"I am afraid I shall tire the ladies with these things," said Reinhold.
"Not in the least," said Else.
"I just revel in everything connected with the sea," said Mieting, with
a mischievous glance at Else.
"You would really oblige me," said the President.
"Please continue!" added the General.
"I shall be as brief as possible," said Reinhold, glancing first at
the General and then at the President, as if he were addressing them
alone. "The Baltic appears to have remained a world to itself after its
formation by revolutions of the most violent nature. It has no ebb and
flow, it contains less salt than the North Sea, and the percentage of
salt diminishes toward the east, so that the flora and fauna----"
"What's that?" interrupted Mieting.
"The vegetable and animal world, Miss Mieting--of the Gulf of Finland
are almost those of fresh water. Nevertheless there is a constant
interaction between the gulf and the ocean, as the two are still
visibly connected--an ebb and flow from the latter to the former, and
_vice versa_, with a highly complicated coincident combination of the
most varied causes, one of which I must emphasize, because it is just
that one of which I have to speak. It is the regularity with which the
winds blow from west to east and from east to west, that accompanies
and assists in a friendly manner, as it were, the ebb and flow of the
water in its submarine channels. The mariner relied upon these winds
with almost the same certainty with which one calculates the appearance
of well established natural phenomena, and he was justified in doing
so; for no considerable change had taken place within the memory of
man, until, a few years ago, suddenly an east wind, which usually began
to blow in the second half of August and prevailed until the middle of
October, disappeared and has never reappeared."
"Well, and the effect of that?" asked the President, who had listened
with rapt attention.
"The result is, Mr. President, that in the course of these years
enormous masses of water have accumulated in the Baltic, attracting
our attention the less because, as a matter of course, they tend to
distribute themselves evenly in all directions, and the main force is
continually increasing eastward, so that in the spring of last year
at Nystad, in South Finland, a rise of four feet of water above the
normal, at Wasa, two degrees further north, a rise of six feet, and at
Torneo, in the northernmost end of the Bay of Bothnia, a rise of eight
feet was registered. The gradual rise of the water and the uniformly
high banks protected the inhabitants of those regions to a certain
extent against the greatest calamity. But for us who have an almost
uniformly flat shore, a sudden reversal of this current, which has for
years set eastward without interruption, would be disastrous. But the
reversed current must set in with a heavy storm from the northeast or
east, particularly one that lasts for days. The water, forced westward
by the violent storm, will seek in vain an outlet through the narrow
passages of the Belt and of the Sound into the Kattegat and Skagger-Rak
to the ocean, and, like a hunted beast of prey rushing over the
hurdles, will surge over our coasts, rolling for miles inland, carrying
with it everything that opposes its blind rage, covering fields and
meadows with sand and boulders, and causing a devastation which our
children and children's children will recount with horror."
While Reinhold was thus speaking the Count had not failed to notice
that the President and General repeatedly exchanged knowing and
corroborative glances, that von Strummin's broad face had lengthened
with astonishment and horror, and, what vexed him most of all, the
ladies had listened with as much attention as if it had been an account
of a ball. He was determined at least not to allow Reinhold the last
word.
"But this marvelous storm flood is at best--I mean, in the most
favorable case for you--a hypothesis!" he exclaimed.
"Only for such as are not convinced of its inevitableness, as I am,"
replied Reinhold.
"Very well," said the Count; "I will assume for once that the gentleman
is not alone in his conviction--yes, even more, that he is right, that
the storm flood will come today, or tomorrow, or some time; yet it
appears that it does not come every day, but only once in centuries.
Now, gentlemen, I have the profoundest respect for the solicitude of
our authorities, which looks far into the future; but such century-long
perspectives of even the most solicitous would seem beyond calculation,
at any rate not induce them to neglect what the moment demands."
As the last words of the Count were directed evidently to the General
and the President, not to him, Reinhold thought he should refrain from
answering. But neither of the two gentlemen replied; the rest, too,
were silent; an embarrassing pause followed. Finally the President
coughed into his slender white hand, and said:
"Strange! While the Captain here prophesies with a tone of conviction
itself a storm flood, which our amiable host, who would be closest to
it--as our Fritz Reuter says--would like to relegate to fable land, I
have had to think at every word of another storm flood----"
"Still another!" exclaimed Mieting.
"Of a different storm flood, Miss Mieting, in another entirely
different region; I need not tell the gentlemen in what region. Here
too the usual course of things has been interrupted in the most
unexpected manner, and here too a damming up of the floods has taken
place, which have rushed in from west to east in an enormous stream--a
stream of gold, ladies. Here, too, the wise predict that such unnatural
conditions cannot last, that their consummation is imminent, that a
reverse current must set in, a reaction, a storm flood, which, to keep
the figure that so well fits the case, like that other flood will
rush upon us with destruction and desolation, and will cover with its
turbulent barren waters the places in which men believed that they had
established their rule and dominion firmly and for all time."
In his zeal to give a different turn to the conversation and in his
delight and satisfaction with the happy comparison, the President had
not reflected that he was really continuing the subject and that the
theme in this new form must be still more uncomfortable for the Count
than in the first. He became aware of his thoughtlessness when the
Count, in a tone reflecting his emotion, exclaimed:
"I hope, Mr. President, you will not associate our idea, dictated, I
may be permitted to say, by the purest patriotism, with those financial
bubbles so popular these days, which have usually no other source than
the most ordinary thirst for gain."
"For Heaven's sake, Count! How can you impute to me such a thing as
would not even enter my dreams!" exclaimed the President.
The Count bowed. "I thank you," said he, "for I confess nothing would
have been more offensive to my feelings. I have, of course, always
considered it a political necessity, and a proof of his eminent
statesmanship, that Prince Bismarck in the execution of his great ideas
made use of certain means which he would certainly have done better not
to have employed, because he thus could not avoid too close contact
with persons, dealings with whom were formerly very odious to him at
least. I considered it also a necessary consequence of this unfortunate
policy that he inaugurated, was forced to inaugurate, by means of these
nefarious millions, the new era of haggling and immoderate lust for
gain. However----"
"Pardon me for interrupting you," said the General; "I consider
this bargaining of the Prince with those persons, parties, strata
of the population, classes of society--call it what you will--as
you do, Count, as of course an unfortunate policy but by no means
a necessary one. Quite the contrary! The _rocher de bronze_, upon
which the Prussian throne is established--a loyal nobility, a zealous
officialdom, a faithful army--they were strong enough to bear the
German Imperial dignity, even though it had to be a German and not a
Prussian, or not an imperial dignity at all."
"Yes, General, it had to be an imperial dignity, and a German one too,"
said Reinhold.
The General shot a lowering glance from under his bushy brows at
the young man; but he had just listened with satisfaction to his
explanations, and he felt that he must now, even though Reinhold
opposed him, let him speak. "Why do you think so?" he asked.
"I only follow my own feelings," replied Reinhold; "but I am sure that
they are the feelings of all who have ever lived much abroad, away from
home, as I have--those who have experienced, as I have, what it means
to belong to a people that is not a nation, and, because it is not a
nation, is not considered complete by the other nations with which we
have intercourse, nay, is even despised outright; what it means in
difficult situations into which the mariner so easily comes, to be
left to one's own resources, or, what is still worse, to ask for the
assistance or the protection of others who unwillingly render it or
prefer not to help at all. I have experienced and endured all this, as
thousands and thousands of others have done, and to all this injustice
and wrong have had silently to clench my fist in my pocket. And now I
have been abroad again since the war, until a few weeks ago, and found
that I no longer needed to dance attendance and stand aside, that I
could enter with as firm step as the others; and thus, my friends, I
thanked God from the bottom of my heart that we have an Emperor--a
German Emperor; for nothing less than a German Emperor it had to be,
if we were to demonstrate to the Englishman, the American, the Chinese
and Japanese, _ad oculos_, that they henceforth no longer carry on
trade and form treaties with Hamburgers, Bremers, with Oldenburgers
and Mecklinburgers, or even with Prussians, but with Germans, who sail
under one and the same flag--a flag which has the will and the power to
protect and defend the least and the poorest who shares the honor and
the fortune of being a German."
The General, to whom the last words were addressed, stared straight
ahead--evidently a sympathetic chord in his heart had been touched. The
President had put on his eye-glasses, which he had not used the whole
evening; the ladies scarcely took their eyes from the man who spoke
with such feeling and loyalty--the Count seeing and noting everything;
his dislike for the man grew with every word that came from his mouth;
he felt he must silence the wretched chatterer.
"I confess," he said, "that I should regret the noble blood shed upon
so many battlefields, if it were for no other purpose than to put more
securely into the pockets of the men who speculate in cotton and sugar,
or export our laborers, their petty profits."
"I did not say that it was for no other purpose," rejoined Reinhold.
"To be sure," continued the Count, with a pretense of ignoring the
interruption; "the further out of gunshot the better! And it is very
pleasant to bask in the glory and honor which others have won for us."
The General frowned, the President dropped his eye-glasses, the two
young ladies exchanged terrified glances.
"I doubt not," said Reinhold, "that the Count has his full share of
German glory; I, for my part, am content with the honor of not having
been out of gunshot."
"Where were you on the day of Gravelotte, Captain?"
"At Gravelotte, Count."
The General raised his eyebrows, the President put on his eye-glasses,
the young ladies glanced at each other again--Else this time with a
thrill of delight, while Mieting almost broke out into unrestrained
laughter at the puzzled expression of the Count.
"That is, to be accurate," continued Reinhold, whose cheeks were
flushed by the attention which his last word had excited, as he turned
to the General; "on the morning of that day I was on the march from
Rezonville to St. Marie. Then, when it was learned, as the General
knows, that the enemy was not retreating along the northern road, and
the second army had executed the great flank movement to the right
toward Berneville and Amanvilliers, we--the eighteenth division--came
under fire at half-past eleven in the morning in the neighborhood of
Berneville. Our division had the honor of opening the battle, as the
General will recall."
Reinhold passed his hand over his brow. The dreadful scenes of those
fateful days again came to his mind. He had forgotten the offensive
scorn which had been couched in the Count's question, and which he
wished to resent by his account of his participation in the battle.
"Did you go through the whole campaign?" asked the General; and there
was a peculiar, almost tender tone in his deep voice.
"I did, General, if I may include the two weeks from the eighteenth
of July to the first of August, when I was drilling in Coblenz. As
a native Hamburger and a seaman I had not had the good fortune of
thoroughly learning the military discipline in my youth."
"How did you happen to enter the campaign?"
"It is a short story, and I will tell it briefly. On the fifteenth
of July I lay with my ship at the Roads of Southampton, destined for
Bombay--captain of a full-rigged ship for the first time. On the
evening of the sixteenth we were to sail. But on the morning of the
sixteenth the news came that war had been declared; at noon, having
already secured a suitable substitute, I severed my connection with the
ship-owners and with my ship; in the evening I was in London; during
the nights of the sixteenth and seventeenth on the way to Ostende by
way of Brussels, down the Rhine to Coblenz, where I offered myself as a
volunteer, was accepted, drilled a little, sent on, and--I don't know
how it happened--assigned to the Ninth Corps, Eighteenth Division, ----
Regiment, in which I went through the campaign."
"Were you promoted?"
"To the rank of Corporal at Gravelotte; on the first of September,
the day after the great sally of Bazaine, to the rank of
Vice-Sergeant-Major; on the fourth of September----"
"That was the day of Orléans?"
"Yes, General--on the day of the battle of Orléans I received my
commission as officer."
"My congratulations on your rapid advancement!" said the General with a
smile; but his face darkened again. "Why didn't you introduce yourself
to me as comrade?"
"The sea captain apologizes for the Reserve Lieutenant, General."
"Did you receive a decoration?"
"At your service! I received the Cross with my commission."
"And you don't wear the decoration?"
"My dress is a little disordered today," replied Reinhold.
Mieting burst into laughter, in which Reinhold freely joined; and the
others smiled--polite, approving, flattering smiles, as it seemed to
the Count.
"I fear we have taxed the patience of the ladies too long," he said
with a significant gesture.
* * * * *
[Mieting and Else are alone in their room. Mieting declares her love
for the captain, declaring he is just her ideal of a man. She then
unbraids her long hair, which reaches to her feet, tells Else all her
little love stories, kisses her and runs off to bed.
The gentlemen likewise prepare to retire. Reinhold excuses himself very
formally, declines the Count's offer of a carriage for his journey in
the early morning, and is also about to retire, when the butler knocks
on his door and tells him that the President wishes to speak to him.
The President assures him of his personal interest, and asks him to
look over certain papers relating to the railway and naval project
and tell him whether he would be willing to work with him in the
capacity of chief pilot at Wissow to succeed the old chief, soon to be
pensioned. Reinhold is quite overcome by this confidence on the part
of the stranger. The President invites him to dinner at his house, when
he is to give his answer. Reinhold considers the proposal--to give up
all his plans--his command of a ship plying between South America and
China for the great Hamburg firm, his North Pole expedition, in which
he had interested many people--to give up all for this desert coast
and--he had to confess it--to be near Else, though his social position
was hopelessly inferior; he would be but a fool, he knew. Which course
should he take? He looks out of the window and sees Venus, the star of
love, shining through a rift of the clouds. He decides to accept the
President's proposal. It is dawn, and he lies down for an hour's sleep.
Else lies awake for a long time thinking of the day's happenings. When
she does fall asleep, she dreams wildly of searching for Reinhold, and
of wrestling with Mieting, by whom she is finally awakened just before
sunrise. Mieting helps Else dress and they both go out to watch the
sunrise from a height overlooking the sea. Reinhold comes upon them
there. He sees the ship and hastens away with a word for Mieting and a
glance for Else, who returns the glance and sends him on his way with a
joyous heart.
On the train to Berlin Reinhold is in the same compartment with
Ottomar von Werben, Else's brother, and the two recognize each other.
Reinhold tells of his adventures in hunting buffaloes and tapirs, in
contrast with which Ottomar describes his tiresome occupation as an
officer since the close of the war. In the conversation Ottomar tells
Reinhold that he lives next door to Reinhold's uncle, and offers to
help him find his uncle when they arrive, since Reinhold has not seen
him for ten years. While Ottomar is looking through the crowd Reinhold
recognizes his uncle, who gives him an affectionate greeting, and
Ferdinande, his uncle's daughter, now a young lady of twenty-four.
Reinhold introduces Ottomar to Ferdinande, but she is in a hurry to
be off, and whispers in Reinhold's ear that her father and Ottomar's
father have been enemies since '48.
Reinhold, on entering his uncle's luxurious home, feels that it lacks
real comfort, but thinks this may be due to the fact that he is a
stranger. Then he thinks of Else--she lives next door! Aunt Rikchen
greets him with hugs and kisses when he comes in. At dinner he asks
about his cousin Philip, and learns that Philip almost never comes
home. The question seems to have opened an old sore, as Philip is at
odds with his father--an unfortunate beginning for the evening meal,
Reinhold thinks.]
* * * * *
Meanwhile it appeared that his fears were fortunately not to be
justified. To be sure, Aunt Rikchen could not open her mouth without
having the thread of her discourse abruptly cut off by Uncle Ernst, and
Ferdinande took little part in the conversation; but that signified
little in the beginning, or was easily explained, as Uncle Ernst asked
Reinhold first of all for a detailed account of his adventures and
experiences during the long years since they had seen each other, and
listened with an attentiveness which brooked no interruption. Now
Reinhold had an opportunity to admire the very unusual fullness and
accuracy of Uncle Ernst's knowledge. He could not mention a city,
however distant, with whose location, history, and mercantile relations
his uncle was not fully acquainted. He expressed to his uncle his
astonishment and admiration.
"What do you expect?" answered Uncle Ernst. "If one is born a
poor devil and has not the good fortune, like you, to roam around
professionally through the world, but as a boy, a youth, and a man,
has been bound to the soil and to hard work to gain his daily bread,
until he has become an old fellow and can now no longer travel as one
otherwise might do--what remains for him but to study the maps and nose
through books to find out how grand and beautiful God has made His
world."
While Uncle Ernst thus spoke, all the roughness and bitterness vanished
from his voice, all sullenness from his rigid features, but only for a
moment; then the dark cloud again gathered over his brow and eyes, like
gray mists about the snows of a mountain range, which had just gleamed
in the sunlight.
Reinhold could not take his eyes from the fine old face, whose
expression constantly changed but never showed the slightest trace of
shallowness or commonplace, remaining always dignified and strong,
nor from the splendid head which, now that his abundant curly hair
and bushy beard had grown quite gray, appeared more stately, more
majestic than in former years. And at the same time he was compelled
to think constantly of another face, opposite which he had sat but a
few evenings before--that of General von Werben, with features likewise
fine and sturdy, to be sure, but more composed, more concentrated,
without the glowing fervor which, in Uncle Ernst, shone out in a
splendid flash, or again, with threatening gleam, as if from beneath an
ashy covering. Reinhold had said to himself from the beginning that it
might not be long before he should have proof that this inner, scarcely
subdued glow was threatening, and needed only an occasion to break
forth with stormy violence; and he was not deceived.
In the narration of his journeys and wanderings he had come to the day,
when, in Southampton, he received news of the outbreak of the war,
and severed all his connections, gave up his other occupations and
habits, and returned to Germany to fulfil his duty toward his native
land which was in peril.--"The enthusiasm," he explained, "dictated my
determination; with full devotion and the use of all my intellectual
and physical powers, I carried it out from beginning to end, without--I
may be permitted to say so--even once growing weary, flagging, or
doubting for a moment that the cause to which I had consecrated myself
was a holy one, however unholy the horrible bloody vestments in which
it had to be enveloped. Then when the great object was attained, in
a greater, better, fuller sense than I and indeed all who had gone
into the battle with me had thought, had imagined, had desired, had
intended--then I returned to my old occupation without delay, steered
my ship again over the sea, in the silent happy consciousness of
having done my duty; in the assurance of finding in the shadow of the
German flag a bit of home everywhere, wherever the changing fate of
the mariner might lead me; in the happy confidence that you in the
fair Fatherland would never let the hard-won victory be lost, but
would employ the precious time in filling out and completing the work
so nobly planned, so vigorously begun, and that if I returned home it
would be to a land full of joy and peace and sunshine in the hearts and
countenances of all.
"I must confess that during the few days of my stay in my native land
I have had many experiences which appeared to mock my hopes; but I
have not been willing to believe that I saw aright. On the contrary, I
am convinced that chance only has brought me repeatedly into contact
with people who are discontented with the state of things purely for
this or that personal reason, or are not entirely satisfied at least
with the present conditions, as some of the gentlemen whom I met at
Count Golm's. I have not been restrained from voicing my opinion of
the upper aristocracy, even as late as yesterday, in the presence
of the skeptical President in Sundin, but have rather given strong
and open expression to my views. And now even here--in the bosom of
my family--at your table, Uncle Ernst, who have fought so often and
suffered so much for the honor and welfare of the Fatherland--this
silence can no longer be fully maintained; but I can surely expect a
hearty understanding and unconditional approval."
Uncle Ernst had listened in silence, with his head resting on his hand;
now he suddenly lifted his head, and said with a voice that boded
nothing good, "Pardon me for interrupting you to call your attention to
the fact that I, too, agree not in the least with what you say. It is
always well for the speaker to know that he does not have the listener
on his side."
There was an unusually sullen expression in his searching eyes.
Reinhold was well aware of it; he considered for a moment whether he
should be silent or continue. But even if he remained but a few days
this theme would still have to be discussed frequently, and if his
uncle were still of a different opinion, as could no longer be doubted,
it would be worth while to hear the views of such a man. So he went on,
"I am very sorry, dear uncle, on account of the theme, and--pardon me
for saying so--on your account."
"I don't understand you."
"I mean the question is so great and so weighty that it requires every
pair of strong shoulders to move it; and it is so worthy and so holy
that I am sorry for him who will not or cannot with full conviction
participate in council and action."
"Or 'cannot'!" exclaimed Uncle Ernst; "quite right! Did I not take part
in counsel and action as long as I could--on the barricades, in those
March days, in the national convention, and everywhere and at all times
when it was within human possibility--I mean when it was possible for
an honorable man to put his shoulder to the wheel, as you said? I will
not mention the fact that I pushed my shoulders sore in so doing--more
than once; that they tricked me and molested me, dragged me from one
penitential stool to another, and occasionally, too, clapped me into
prison--that belonged to the game, and better people than I fared no
better, but even worse, much worse. In a word, it was a struggle--a
hopeless struggle, with very unequal weapons, if you will, but still a
struggle! But how is it now? It is a fair, an old-clothes shop, where
they dicker to and fro over the counter, and auction off one tatter
after another of our proud old banner of freedom to the man who carries
them all in his pocket, and who, they know, carries them all in his
pocket."
The cloud on his brow grew more lowering, his dark brown eyes flashed,
his deep voice grew sullen--a storm was coming; Reinhold thought it
advisable to reef a few sails.
"I am not a politician, Uncle," he said. "I believe I have precious
little talent for politics, and have at least had no time to cultivate
such talent as I may possess. So I cannot contradict you when you say
it is not altogether as it should be in this country. But then, too,
you will grant me, as the aristocrats had to grant, that the question,
viewed from the other side--I mean from abroad, from aboard ship, from
a foreign harbor beyond the sea--makes a very different and much better
impression; and I think you cannot blame me for thinking more favorably
of the man--to put it flatly, for having a respect for him to whom we
owe respect in the last analysis, a respect which the German name now
enjoys throughout the world."
"I know the song!" said Uncle Ernst. "He sang it often enough, the sly
old fowler, and still sings it every time when the bullfinches won't go
into his net: 'Who is responsible for 1864, for 1866, for 1870? I! I!!
I!!!'"
"And isn't he right, Uncle?"
"No, and a thousand times no!" exclaimed Uncle Ernst. "Has one man sole
claim to the treasure which others have dug up and unearthed from the
depths of the earth with unspeakable toil and labor, simply because he
removed the last shovelful of earth? Schleswig-Holstein would still
be Danish today if the noblemen had conquered it; Germany would still
be torn into a thousand shreds if the noblemen had had to patch it
together; the ravens would still flutter about the Kyffhäuser, if
thousands and thousands of patriotic hearts had not dreamed of German
unity, had not thought of Germany's greatness day and night--the hearts
and heads of men who were not rewarded for their services with lands
and the title of Count and Prince, and were not pardoned."
"I tell you, Uncle," said Reinhold, "I think it is with German unity
as with other great things. Many fared in their imagination westward
to the East Indies; in reality only one finally did it, and he
discovered--America."
"I thought," said Uncle Ernst solemnly, "that the man who discovered it
was called Columbus, and he is said to have been thrown into prison in
gratitude for it, and to have died in obscurity. The one who came after
and pocketed the glory, and for whom the land was named, was a wretched
rascal not worthy to unloose the latchet of the discoverer's shoes."
"Well, really!" exclaimed Reinhold, laughing in spite of himself--"I
believe no other man on the whole globe would speak in that way of
Bismarck."
"Quite possible!" replied Uncle Ernst; "and I do not believe another
man on the globe hates him as I do."
Uncle Ernst drained at one draught the glass he had just filled. It
occurred to Reinhold that his uncle had tipped the bottle freely, and
he thought he noticed that the hand which raised the glass to his mouth
trembled a little, and that the hitherto steady gleam of his great eyes
was dimmed and flickered ominously.
"That is the result of my obstinacy," said Reinhold to himself; "why
excite the anger of the old graybeard? Every one has a right to look
at things in his own way! You should have changed the course of the
conversation."
On their way through the city he had given a brief account of the
stranding of the steamer and the events that followed, so he could now
without apparent effort resume the thread of his story there, and tell
further how he had been kindly received by the President in Sundin and
what prospects the President had held out to him. He described the
manner of the man--how he at one time enveloped himself in clouds of
diplomacy and, at another, spoke of men and things with the greatest
frankness, while at the same time, in spite of his apparent tacking,
keeping his goal clearly in view.
"You haven't drawn a bad portrait of the man," said Uncle Ernst. "I
know him very well, ever since 1847, when he sat at the extreme right
in the General Assembly. Now he belongs to the opposition--I mean to
the concealed opposition of the old solid Bureaucracy, which bears a
grudge toward the all-powerful Major Domus and would like, rather, to
put an end to his clever economy, the sooner the better. He is not one
of the worst; and yet I could wish that you hadn't gone quite so far
with him."
"I have not yet committed myself," said Reinhold, "and I shall not do
so until I have convinced myself that I shall find in the position
offered to me a sphere of action in keeping with my powers and
qualifications. But, if that should be the case, then I should have to
accept it."
"Should 'have to'? Why?"
"Because I have sworn to serve my country on land and sea," replied
Reinhold, with a smile. "The land service I have completed; now I
should like to try the sea service."
"It appears that 'service' has become a necessity with you," said Uncle
Ernst with a grim smile. It was intended as scorn--so Reinhold felt it;
but he was determined not to yield to his opponent on a point which
concerned, not himself, but his most personal views and convictions.
[Illustration: ARRESTED VAGABONDS
_Permission Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris_ MICHAEL VON MUNKACSY]
"Why should I deny," he questioned, "that the rigid Prussian military
discipline has made a very profound impression on me? With us, in
a small Republican community, everything is a little lax; no one
understands rightly the art of commanding, and no one will submit to
commands. Then we go on board ship, where one alone commands and the
others must obey. But no one has learned what he is now to do; the
officers lack, only too often, the proper attitude; they proceed at
random with abuse and noise, where a calm firm word would be more
in place; another time they let things go at sixes and sevens, and
give free rein when they should keep a tight rein. The men, for their
part, are the less able to endure such irregular treatment, as they
are mostly rough fellows, only waiting for the opportunity to throw
off restraint, which chafes them. So things do not move without
friction of all sorts, and one may thank God if things don't come to
a worse pass, and even to the worst, as indeed they unfortunately do,
frequently enough, and as has happened to me more than once. And if
one has been able to maintain authority without mishap during a long
voyage and has finally established order and discipline among the
men, by that time one is again in harbor; and on the next voyage the
dance begins again. In the army none of this is to be found. Every
one knows in advance that unconditional obedience is his first and
last duty; indeed, what is still more important, every one, even the
roughest, feels that disobedience is not simply a misdemeanor but
folly, which, if it were permitted in even the slightest case, would of
necessity destroy the whole organization--that our enormous, strangely
complicated mechanism, which we call the Army, can work only when
every one of the smallest wheels, and every one of the smallest cogs
in the smallest wheel, performs in its place and time exactly what is
prescribed."
"For example, people who think differently about what benefits the
country--those shot down in the trenches of Rastatt, and so forth,"
said Uncle Ernst.
Reinhold made no answer. What reply should he make? How could he hope
to come to an understanding with a man whose views about everything
were diametrically opposed to his own, who pushed his opinions to the
last extremity, never making a concession even to a guest who, only
an hour before, had been received with such cordiality as a father
displays toward his own son returning from abroad?
"Perhaps you have caused a rupture with him for all time," thought
Reinhold. "It is too bad; but you cannot yield, bound hand and foot,
unconditionally, to the old tyrant! If you cannot possibly touch chords
which awaken a friendly response in his hard soul, let the ladies try
to do so--and indeed that is their office."
Aunt Rikchen had evidently read the thought from his face. She answered
his silent appeal with one of her sharp, swift, furtive glances, and
with light shrugs of her shoulders, as if to say--"He's always so! It
can't be helped." Ferdinande seemed not to notice the interruption. She
continued to gaze straight ahead, as she had done during the entire
meal, with a strange, distracted, gloomy expression, and did not now
stir as her aunt, bending toward her, said a few words in a low tone.
Uncle Ernst, who was just about to fill his empty glass again, set down
the bottle he had raised.
"I have asked you a thousand times, Rike, to stop that abominable
whispering. What is the matter now?"
A swift flush of anger passed over Aunt Rikchen's wrinkled old-maidish
face, as the distasteful name "Rike" fell upon her ear; but she
answered in a tone of resigned indifference, in which she was
accustomed to reply to the reprimand of her brother, "Nothing at all! I
only asked Ferdinande if Justus was not coming this evening."
"Who is Justus?" asked Reinhold, glad that some other subject had been
broached.
"Rike is fond of speaking of people in the most familiar way," said
Uncle Ernst.
"When they half belong to the family, why not?" retorted Aunt Rikchen,
who seemed determined not to be intimidated this time. "Justus, or, as
Uncle Ernst will have it, Mr. Anders, is a young sculptor----"
"Of thirty and more years," said Uncle Ernst.
"Of thirty and more years, then," continued Aunt Rikchen; "more
exactly, thirty-three. He has been living, who knows how long, with
us----"
"Don't you know, Ferdinande?" asked Uncle Ernst.
"Ferdinande is his pupil, you know," continued Aunt Rikchen.
"Oh!" said Reinhold; "my compliments."
"It isn't worth mentioning," said Ferdinande.
"His best pupil!" exclaimed Aunt Rikchen; "he told me so himself
yesterday, and that your 'Shepherd Boy' pleased the Commission very
much. Ferdinande has a 'Shepherd Boy' at the exposition, you know,
suggested by Schiller's poem----"
"Uhland's poem, Aunt!"
"I beg pardon--I haven't had the good fortune of an academic education,
as others have!--I don't know now what I was about to say----"
"I guess it won't make much difference," growled Uncle Ernst.
"You were speaking of Ferdinande's 'Shepherd Boy,' Aunt," said
Reinhold, coming to her aid.
Aunt Rikchen cast a grateful glance at him, but, before she could
answer, the bell rang in the hall and a clear voice asked, "Are the
family still at the table?"
"It's Justus!" cried Aunt Rikchen. "I thought it was you! Have you had
supper?"
* * * * *
[Justus blows in like a fresh breeze just in time for tea. He has a
cheery word for each member of the family, and a hearty greeting for
Reinhold. He tells Reinhold that Berlin is becoming a great metropolis,
"_famös und famöser_" every day. He tells Aunt Rikchen he has a new
commission for a monument. Uncle Ernst interjects that Justus sets a
new head on an old figure to make a Victoria or a Germania. Uncle Ernst
thinks this a good symbol of German unity. Justus assures Reinhold that
this is Uncle Ernst's way; he is only envious; envy is his passion.
He envies God for having made the world so beautiful! Justus then
proceeds, eating and drinking everything in sight between the words,
to describe his new monument--Germania on a stove mounted on a granite
pedestal. On the fundament are to be reliefs, which Justus extemporizes
on the spot, making Reinhold a national guardsman with the wrinkles
of the old servant Grollmann; Uncle Ernst is to be the burgomaster,
and Ferdinande the prettiest girl; General von Werben extends his hand
to the burgomaster on entering the city. This awakens Uncle Ernst's
protest, as he hates the General. Ferdinande falls in a faint, and
Uncle Ernst shows the effects of his wine. Ferdinande goes into the
garden, and Justus and Reinhold leave the room to retire.
At breakfast Reinhold has a confidential talk with Aunt Rikchen and
learns many of the secrets of the family, especially the breach between
Uncle Ernst and Philip. Aunt Rikchen thinks Philip can't be so bad
after all, when he stops his poor old aunt on the street and asks her
if she wants any money.
Reinhold goes out of the house, with its gloomy associations, into the
glorious sunshine. He sees Cilli, the blind daughter of Kreisel, Uncle
Ernst's head bookkeeper, feeling her way along the iron fence, and
notices that she has caught her apron in a thorn-bush. He comes to her
relief and converses with her about the light, which she cannot see,
and about the world, which she can only feel and hear. Her face is an
animated ray of sunlight.
Reinhold starts out to find Uncle Ernst in his establishment. He
passes Ferdinande's studio and inquires of the young Italian, Antonio,
whether Miss Schmidt is in. Antonio makes an indifferent and rather
impolite reply, that he doesn't know. After passing from one department
to another, Reinhold finally finds Uncle Ernst confronted by a group
of socialistic strikers, and takes a stand close by his side. "We
are all socialists," cries a voice from the group. His uncle, in his
rage, orders the men to go and get their pay, and discharges them, as
he declares that might goes before right and revolution has become
permanent. He then sends Reinhold to accompany Ferdinande to the
Exhibition.]
* * * * *
The young man in shirt-sleeves, who had given a rather discourteous
answer to Reinhold, after closing the door shook his fist, muttering a
strong oath in his native tongue between his sharp white teeth. Then
he stepped back into the inclosure and stole with noiseless tread to
the door which separated this studio from the adjoining one. He put his
ear to the door and listened a few minutes. A smile of satisfaction
lighted up his dark face; straightening up, he drew a deep breath and
then, as noiselessly as a cat, stole up the iron steps of the winding
staircase which led to the little room whence he had descended a few
minutes before to answer Reinhold's knock.
After some minutes he came down the stairs again, this time without
artfully concealing the noise, but stepping more heavily than was
necessary and whistling a tune. He now had his coat and vest on,
and wore patent-leather shoes on his narrow feet, at which he cast
satisfied glances as he descended. Downstairs he stepped quickly
before the Venetian mirror and repeatedly scanned his entire figure
with the closest scrutiny, adjusted his blue cravat, pressed one of
the gold buttons more firmly into his shirt front, and passed a fine
comb through his blue-black curls, which shone like raven plumes. His
whistling became softer and softer, and finally ceased. He turned away
from the mirror, noisily moving one object after another, till he came
directly up to the door at which he had listened shortly before. He
reached out and seized a footstool, which he had placed against the
wall at arm's length for the purpose, and now stepped upon it and put
his eye to the door, as he had his ear a while before--very close; for
he had with great pains bored a hole with the smallest auger, and had
experienced great difficulty in learning to see through it into the
adjoining room, or the place where she was accustomed to work. The
blood flushed his dark cheeks as he peeped through. "Oh, bellissima!"
he whispered to himself, pressing a fervent kiss upon the wood.
All at once he jumped away--noiselessly as a cat; the seat stood again
by the wall, and he himself stood before the half-finished statue of a
female figure of heroic size, as a knock was heard at the door on the
other side--"Signor Antonio!"
"Signora?" called the young man from where he sat. He had taken up
his mallet and chisel, evidently only better to play the rôle of one
surprised.
"Can you come in a moment, Signer Antonio? _Fatemi il piacere!_"
"_Si, Signora!_"
He threw down the tools and ran to the door, the bolt of which was
already shoved back. Notwithstanding the request, he knocked before
opening it.
"_Ma--entrate!_--How finely you have fixed yourself up, Signor Antonio!"
Antonio dropped his eyelashes, and his glance glided down his
slender figure to the points of his patent-leather shoes--but only
for a moment. The next instant his black eyes were fastened with a
melancholy, passionate expression upon the beautiful girl, who stood
before him in her simple dark house-dress and her work-apron, holding
the modeling tool in her hand.
"You do not need to make yourself beautiful. You are always beautiful."
He said this in German. He was proud of his German, since she had
praised his accent repeatedly during the Italian lessons he had given
her, and had said that every word sounded to her, when he uttered it,
new and precious, like an acquaintance one meets in a foreign land.
"I think I am anything but beautiful, this morning," said Ferdinande.
"But I need your help. My model did not come; I wanted to work on the
eyes today. You have prettier eyes than your countrywomen, Antonio; do
pose for me--only a few minutes."
A proud smile of satisfaction passed over the beautiful face of the
youth. He took the same attitude toward Ferdinande that she had given
her statue.
"Fine!" she said. "One never knows whether you are greater as actor or
as sculptor."
"_Un povero abbozzatore!_" he muttered.
"You are not a workingman!" said Ferdinande. "You know you are an
artist."
"I am an artist as you are a princess!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I was born to be an artist and yet am not one, as you were born to be
a princess and yet are not one."
"You are crazy!"
It was not a tone of irritation in which she said this; there was
something like acquiescence in it, which did not escape the ear of the
Italian.
"And now you know it," he added.
She made no reply, and kept on with her work, but only mechanically.
"She called you to tell you something," said Antonio to himself.
"Where were you last evening, Antonio?" she asked after a pause.
"In my club, Signora."
"When did you come home?"
"Late."
"But when?"
"At one o'clock, _ma perchè_?"
She had turned around to her little table on which lay her tools, which
she was fingering.
"I only asked the question. We did not go to bed till late at night. We
had a visitor--a cousin of mine--there was much talking and smoking--I
got a fearful headache, and spent an hour in the garden. Will you pose
again? Or shall we give it up? It is hard for you; I think you look
tired."
"No, no!" he muttered.
He took the pose again, but less gracefully than before. Strange
thoughts whirled through his brain, and made his heart throb.--"When
did you come home?"--"I was in the garden for an hour."--Was it
possible--but no, no, it was impossible, it was chance! But if he had
met her alone in the garden, alone, late at night--what would he have
said, what would he have done?
His eyes swam--he pressed his hands, which he should have held to his
brow, to his eyes.
"What is the matter?" exclaimed Ferdinande.
His hand dropped; his eyes, which were fixed upon her, were aflame.
"What is the matter with me?" he muttered. "What is the matter with
me?--_Ho--non lo so neppur io: una febbre che mi divora, ho, che il
sangue mi abbrucia, che il cervello mi si spezza; ho in fine, che non
ne posso più, che sono stanco di questa vita!_"
Ferdinande had tried to resist the outbreak, but without success. She
shook from head to foot; from his flaming eyes a spark had shot into
her own heart, and her voice trembled as she now replied with as much
composure as she could command, "You know I do not understand you when
you speak so wildly and fast."
"You did understand me," muttered the youth.
"I understood nothing but what I could see without all that--that 'a
fever consumes you, that your blood chokes you, that your brain is
about to burst, that you are tired of this life'--in German; that 'you
sat too late at your club last night, and raved too much about fair
Italy, and drank too much fiery Italian wine.'"
The blue veins appeared on his fine white brow; a hoarse sound like the
cry of a wild beast came from his throat. He reached toward his breast,
where he usually carried his stiletto--the side pocket was empty--his
eyes glanced about as if he were looking for a weapon.
"Do you mean to murder me?"
His right hand, which was still clutching his breast, relaxed and sank;
his left also dropped, his fingers were interlocked, a stream of tears
burst from his eyes, extinguishing their glow; he fell on his knees and
sobbed: "_Pardonatemi! Ferdinanda, l'ho amata dal primo giorno che l'ho
veduta, ed adesso--ah! adesso----_"
"I know it, poor Antonio," said Ferdinande, "and that is why I pardon
you--once more--for the last time! If this scene is repeated I shall
tell my father, and you will have to go. And now, Signor Antonio, stand
up!"
She extended her hand, which he, still kneeling, pressed to his lips
and his forehead.
"Antonio! Antonio!" echoed the voice of Justus outside; immediately
there was a rap upon the door which led to the court. Antonio sprang to
his feet.
"Is Antonio here, Miss Ferdinande?"
Ferdinande went herself to open the door.
"Are you still at work?" inquired Justus, coming in.--"But I thought we
were going with your cousin to the Exhibition?"
"I am waiting for him; he has not yet appeared; just go on ahead with
Antonio; we shall meet in the sculpture gallery."
"As you say!--What you have done today on the eyes is not worth
anything--an entirely false expression! You have been working without
your model again; when will you come to see that we are helpless
without a model!--_Andiamo, Antonio!_ If you are not ashamed to cross
the street with me!"
He had taken a position by the side of the Italian as if he wished
to give Ferdinande the pleasure he found in contrasting his short
stout figure, in the worn velvet coat and light trousers of doubtful
newness, with the elegant, slender, handsome youth, his assistant. But
Ferdinande had already turned away, and only said once more, "in the
sculpture gallery, then!"
"_Dunque--andiamo!_" cried Justus; "_a rivederci!_"
[Ferdinande says Antonio is the only one, after all, who understands
her. She then reads a letter which she has received from Ottomar over
the garden wall. Ottomar speaks only of meeting her, but says nothing
of seeing her father, or of more serious purposes. Reinhold knocks on
her studio door, enters, and sees how the artists live in a world of
their own. Ferdinande says her father does not care what she does so
long as she can have her own way. Reinhold inspects her work and the
studio.]
"But now I am afraid you will spoil me so thoroughly that I shall find
it difficult to get back into my simple life," said Reinhold, as he
sped on at the side of Ferdinande in his uncle's equipage through the
Thiergartenstrasse to the Brandenburgerthor.
"Why do we have horses and a carriage if we are not to use them?"
inquired Ferdinande.
She had leaned back against the cushions, just touching the front seat
with the point of one of her shoes. Reinhold's glance glided almost
shyly along the beautiful figure, whose splendid lines were brought out
advantageously by an elegant autumn costume. He thought he had just
discovered for the first time how beautiful his cousin was, and he
considered it very natural that she should attract the attention of the
motley throng with which the promenade teemed, and that many a cavalier
who dashed by them turned in his saddle to look back at her. Ferdinande
seemed not to take any notice of it; her large eyes looked down, or
straight ahead, or glanced up with a dreamy, languid expression to the
tops of the trees, which, likewise dreamy and languid, appeared to
drink in the mild warmth of the autumn sun without stirring. Perhaps
it was this association of ideas that caused Reinhold to ask himself
how old the beautiful girl was; and he was a little astonished when
he calculated that she could not be far from twenty-four. In his
recollection she had always appeared as a tall, somewhat lank young
thing, that was just about to unfold into a flower--but, to be sure,
ten years had gone since that. Cousin Philip--at that time likewise
a tall, thin young fellow--must already be in the beginning of his
thirties.
A two-wheeled cabriolet came up behind them and passed them. On the
high front seat sat a tall, stately, broad-shouldered gentleman, clad
with most precise and somewhat studied elegance, as it appeared to
Reinhold, who, with hands encased in light kid gloves, drove a fine
high-stepping black steed, while the small groom with folded arms sat
in the low rear seat. The gentleman had just been obliged to turn out
for a carriage coming from the opposite direction, and his attention
had been directed to the other side; now--at the distance of some
carriage lengths--he turned upon his seat and waved a cordial greeting
with his hand and whip, while Ferdinande, in her careless way, answered
with a nod of her head.
"Who was that gentleman?" asked Reinhold.
"My brother Philip."
"How strange!"
"Why so?"
"I was just thinking of him."
"That happens so often--and particularly in a large city, and at an
hour when everybody is on the go. I shall not be surprised if we meet
him again at the Exhibition. Philip is a great lover of pictures, and
is not bad himself at drawing and painting. There, he is stopping--I
thought he would--Philip understands the proprieties."
At the next moment they were side by side with the cabriolet.
"Good morning, Ferdinande! Good morning, Reinhold! Stunning hit that
I strike you on the first day! Wretched pun, Ferdinande--eh? Looks
fine, our cousin, with his brown face and beard--but he doesn't need
to be ashamed of the lady at his side--eh? Where are you going--to the
Exhibition? That's fine! We'll meet there.--My nag acts like crazy
today.--Au revoir!"
With the tip of his whip he touched the black horse, which was already
beginning to rear in the traces, and sped off, nodding back once more
over his broad shoulders.
"I should not have recognized Philip again," said Reinhold. "He doesn't
resemble you--I mean Uncle and you--at all."
In fact, a greater contrast is scarcely conceivable than that between
the broad, ruddy, beardless, clean-shaven face of the young man, with
his closely clipped hair, and the splendid face of Uncle Ernst, with
its deep furrows and heavy growth of gray hair and beard, or the
stately pallor and aristocratic beauty of Ferdinande.
"Lucky for him!" cried Ferdinande.
"Lucky?"
"He is, as he appears, a man of his time; we are medieval ghosts. For
that reason he moves about as a ghost among us--but it is not his
fault."
"Then you are on his side in the rupture between him and Uncle?"
"The rest of us at home are never asked for our opinion; you must take
note of that for the future."
"Also for the present," thought Reinhold, as Ferdinande sank back among
the cushions.
"Ghosts are never one's favorite company, much less on such a beautiful
sunny day. There are so many good happy people--sweet little Cilli, for
example--and--of whom one thinks, him he meets!" As if wishing to make
up in all haste for what he had foolishly neglected in the morning, he
now tried to direct his thoughts to her whose image he believed he had
forever in his soul, but which would not now appear.--"The throng is to
blame for it," he said impatiently.
They were in the worst of the jam now, to be sure. A regiment was
marching down Friedrichstrasse across the Linden with the band playing.
The throng of pedestrians pressed back on both sides, particularly on
that from which they came; in the midst of them mounted and unmounted
policemen were striving with persuasion and force to maintain order
and keep back the throng which now and then gave audible expression to
their indignation.
The annoying delay seemed to make Ferdinande impatient, too; she looked
at her watch.--"Already half-past twelve--we are losing the best part
of the time." At last the rear of the battalion came along, while
the van of the next battalion, with the band playing, came out of
Friedrichstrasse again, and the throng of people pressed on with a rush
through the small space in wild confusion.--"On! On! Johann!" cried
Ferdinande, with an impatience which Reinhold could explain only by
the anxiety which she felt. They got out of one crowd only to get into
another.
In the first large square room of the Exhibition--the so-called clock
room--a throng of spectators stood so closely jammed together that
Reinhold, who had Ferdinande's arm, saw no possibility of advance.
"There are not so many people in the side rooms," said Ferdinande, "but
we must stand it a little while here; there are always good pictures
here; let us separate--we can then move more freely. What do you think
of this beautiful Andreas Achenbach? Isn't it charming, wonderful! In
his best and noblest style! Sky and sea--all in gray, and yet--how
sharply the individual details are brought out! And how well he knows
how to enliven the apparent monotony by means of the red flag there on
the mast at the stern of the steamer, and by the flickering lights on
the planks of the bridge wet with spray here at the bow--masterful!
Simply masterful!"
Reinhold had listened with great pleasure to Ferdinande's enthusiastic
description. "Here she can speak!" he thought; "well, to be sure, she
is an artist! You can see all that too, but not its significance, and
you wouldn't be able to explain why it is so beautiful."
He stood there, wrapped in contemplation of the picture.--"What
manoeuvre would the captain make next? He would doubtless have to tack
again to get before the wind, but for that he was already a ship's
length or so too near the bridge--a devilish ticklish manoeuvre."
He turned to communicate his observation to Ferdinande, and just missed
addressing a fat little old lady, who had taken Ferdinande's place and
was eagerly gazing through her lorgnette, in company with a score of
other ladies and gentlemen standing closely together in a semicircle.
Reinhold made a few vain efforts to escape this imprisonment and to get
to Ferdinande, whom he saw at a distance speaking with some ladies, so
absorbed that she did not turn even once, and had evidently forgotten
him.--Another advantage of freedom of movement--you can also make use
of that!--A picture nearby had attracted his attention--another sea
view by Hans Gude, as the catalogue said--which pleased him almost
better than the other. To the left, where the sea was open, lay a large
steamer at anchor. On the shore, which curved around in a large bend,
in the distance among the dunes, were a few fisher huts, with smoke
rising from the chimneys. Between the village and the ship a boat was
passing, while another, almost entirely in the foreground, was sailing
toward the shore. The evening sky above the dunes was covered with
such thick clouds that the smoke could hardly be distinguished from
the sky; only on the extreme western horizon, above the wide open sea,
appeared a narrow muddy streak. The night was likely to be stormy, and
even now a stiff breeze was blowing; the flags of the steamer were
fluttering straight out and there was a heavy surf on the bare beach
in the foreground. Reinhold could not take his eyes from the picture.
Thus it was, almost exactly, on that evening when he steered the boat
from the steamer to the shore. There in the bow lay the two servants,
huddled together; here sat the President, with one hand on the gunwale
of the boat and the other clutching the seat, not daring to pull up
the blanket which had slipped from his knees; here the General with
the collar of his mantle turned up, his cap pulled down over his face,
staring gloomily into the distance; and here, close by the man at the
helm, she sat--looking out so boldly over the green waste of water, and
the surf breaking before them; looking up so freely and joyously with
her dear brown eyes at the man at the helm!--Reinhold no longer thought
of the pressing throng about him, he had forgotten Ferdinande, he no
longer saw the picture; he saw only the dear brown eyes!
"Do you think they will get to shore without a compass, Captain?" asked
a voice at his side.
The brown eyes looked up at him, as he had just seen them in his dream;
free and glad; glad, too, was the smile that dimpled her cheeks and
played about her delicate lips as she extended her hand to him, without
reserve, as to an old friend.
"When did you come?"
"Last evening."
"Then of course you haven't had time to ask after us and get your
compass. Am I not the soul of honesty?"
"And what do you want of it?"
"Who knows? You thought I had great nautical talent; but let us get
out of the jam and look for my brother, whom I just lost here. Are you
alone?"
"With my cousin."
"You must introduce me to her. I have seen her 'Shepherd Boy' down
stairs--charming! I have just learned from my brother that your cousin
did it, and that we are neighbors, and all that.--Where is she?"
"I have been looking around for her, but can't find her."
"Well, that's jolly! Two children lost in this forest of people! I am
really afraid."
She wasn't afraid.--Reinhold saw that she wasn't; she was at home
here; it was her world--one with which she was thoroughly acquainted,
as he was with the sea. How skilfully and gracefully she worked her
way through a group of ladies who were not disposed to move! How
unconcernedly she nodded to the towering officer, who bowed to her from
the farthest corner of the room, above the heads of several hundred
people! How she could talk over her shoulder with him, who followed
her only with difficulty, when he was at her side, until they reached
the long narrow passage in which the engravings and water colors were
exhibited.
"I saw my brother go in here," she said. "There--no, that was von
Saldern! Let us give him up! I shall find him soon--and you your
cousin."
"Not here, either."
"It doesn't make any difference; she will not lack companions, any more
than we. Let's chat a little until we find them; or do you want to look
at pictures? There are a few excellent Passinis here."
"I prefer to chat."
"There is no better place to chat than at an exhibition, in the first
days. One comes really to chat, to see one's acquaintances after the
long summer when everybody is away, to scan the newest fashions which
the banker's wife and daughters have brought back from Paris--we ladies
of the officers don't play any rôle--one has an awful lot to do, and
the pictures won't run away. You are going to spend the winter with us,
my brother says?"
"A few weeks at least."
"Then you'll remain longer. You can't believe how interesting Berlin
is in winter! And for you, too, who have the _entrée_ into so many
circles! Your uncle entertains in grand style, my brother says, from
whom I have all my wisdom; artists go and come--as a matter of course,
when the daughter herself is an artist, and pretty besides! Is she
really so pretty? I'm so curious! At our house it's more quiet, and a
little monotonous--always the same people--officers--but there are some
fine men among them who will appeal to you, and among the ladies a few
lovely, beautiful women and girls. This is familiar talk. And then Miss
von Strummin is coming--Mieting! She promised me to do so at Golmberg,
with a thousand pledges, and has already written half a dozen letters
on the subject--she writes every day--sometimes two letters a day; the
last one was entirely about you."
"That makes me curious."
"I believe it; but I shall take care not to tell you what was in it;
you men are already vain enough. Papa, too, is very fond of you; did
you know that?"
"No, I did not know it; but I don't know of anything that would make me
prouder."
"He said--only yesterday evening, when Ottomar told us about meeting
you, and that he had met you in Orléans--it was too bad that you didn't
remain in the army; you would have had an easy time of it. You could
still reënter any moment."
"Very kind! I thought of it myself during the campaign, and, if the
campaign had lasted longer, who knows! But in time of peace! A second
lieutenant at thirty years--that wouldn't do!"
"Of course, of course! But how would it be with the marine? That could
certainly be arranged, and you could remain in your profession."
"I should be glad to remain in that, of course," answered Reinhold,
"and I am just revolving in my mind a proposal which President von
Sunden has made me recently, and which would advance me at once to the
rank of commander."
"To the rank of commander!" exclaimed Else with wondering eyes.
"To the rank of Pilot Commander."
"Oh!"
There was disappointment in the exclamation, which did not escape
Reinhold, and he continued with a smile: "That is, the command of a
few dozen rough, seasoned, seaworthy men, and of a dozen capable,
seaworthy, fast sailing craft, among them, I hope, also one or two
life-boats--a modest position but yet one not without honor, and
certainly full of dangers; all in all, a position of sufficient
importance to justify any one who does not make any great claims on
life, but is willing to exercise his capabilities in the service of the
world, in devoting to it and risking for it, his powers and abilities
and whatever else he has to give. And I--I should incidentally remain
in my profession."
They stood at a window, a little apart from the throng of people which
was surging just now up and down the long corridor with particular
vivacity. Else, leaning gently against the window-sill, was looking
with fixed eyes toward the street. Reinhold almost doubted whether she
had heard what he said, when, suddenly lifting her head, she answered
with the cheerful face of a few minutes before, "You are right--that is
your real calling. Accepting the proposal which the dear old man has
made to you, you have friends in all circles. Is it a question of some
particular position, if I may ask?"
"Yes, I should have my post at Wissow."
"At Wissow?"
She clapped her hands and laughed. "At our Wissow? No, but that is too
delightful! Then we should be half neighbors from Warnow and also from
Strummin, when I make my promised visit to Mieting! Then we shall come,
and you shall go sailing with us--but far, far out! Will you do it?"
"As far as you wish!"
"Done! And now we must continue our journey of discovery. Good
gracious! Princess Heinrich August, with the princesses! The
unfortunate Passinis! She has certainly seen me--she sees everything at
a glance; I can't get away now.--But----"
"I am going!" said Reinhold.
"Yes, do; it is better! Here--give me your hand! Good-by!" She extended
her hand which Reinhold held for a second; her eyes were turned again
to the princess. He went down the corridor. When he turned again for
a moment at the end of the corridor, he saw Else just making a deep
curtsy to the princess. The noble lady had stopped and was speaking to
Else.
"How will she get out of it," thought Reinhold. "She cannot say she has
been in the bay window speaking with a pilot commander _in spe_."
Ferdinande had talked with her friends so long in the clock room that
she thought she noticed that Reinhold, who had repeatedly looked around
for her, now having dismissed her from his mind for the moment, was
fully occupied in examining the pictures. Then, bowing to the ladies,
she moved on with the crowd, which pressed toward the side room,
stopping a few moments at the entrance to make sure that Reinhold was
not following her; then, with quick steps and wearing the expression
of a lady looking for her lost companion, giving only a quick nod to
passing acquaintances, she went on through this room, the sky-light
room, and the fourth room, from there turning into the long series of
small rooms which extended along the larger, and into which but few
visitors came, even in the first days of the exhibition.
Today it was comparatively empty, although here and there scattered
visitors strolled past, scanning the pictures with hasty, feverish
curiosity, not stopping long anywhere, but occasionally casting a
glance of admiration at an officer who appeared to be absorbed in a
few medieval landscapes. Now his interest seemed satisfied; he walked
quickly up the passageway, until a picture at the far end again
attracted his attention; it was the same one at which Ferdinande had
been looking. The light fell so unfavorably upon the picture that it
could be seen to advantage only from one place, and the officer had
to approach very close to the lady--brushing her gown in doing so.
"Pardon!" he said aloud, and then in a low tone, which reached her ear
alone, "Don't turn round till I tell you to do so! Speak toward the
corner; no one can notice it. First, thank you!"
"For what?"
"For coming."
"I only came to tell you that I can't bear it any longer."
"Do I have nothing to bear?"
"No--in comparison with me."
"I love you, as you do me."
"Prove it!"
"How?"
"By actions, not questions!"
"But if my hands are bound."
"Break the bonds!"
"I cannot."
"Farewell!"
She turned toward the entrance through which she had come; he forgot
all rules of propriety and stepped in front of her. They stood face to
face, looking into each other's eyes.
"Ferdinande!"
"I wish to proceed!"
"You must hear me! For Heaven's sake, Ferdinande, such an opportunity
will not come again--perhaps for weeks."
She laughed scoffingly. "We have time enough!"
Again she tried to pass him; again he stopped her.
"Ferdinande!"
"Once more: Let me pass! You need an opportunity? Such a good one to
get rid of me may never come again."
He stepped aside with a bow; she might have gone unhindered, but did
not do so; hot tears filled her large eyes; she did not dare to go into
the throng, but turned again toward the picture, while he took the same
discreet pose as before.
"Be gracious, Ferdinande! I looked forward eagerly to this moment--why
do you embitter for both of us the precious minutes? You know, you must
know, that I am resolved upon the last extremity, if it must be. But we
cannot take the final step without considering everything."
"We have considered for six months."
"Over the garden wall, in words which were only half understood; in
letters, which never say what we mean to say. That is nothing. You must
give me an appointment, for which I have so often asked. Shall my hand
never rest in yours, my lips never touch yours? And you ask for proofs
of my love!"
She looked at him with a side glance, gazed into his beautiful,
light-brown, nervous eyes. Two more beautiful, two darker eyes, had
looked at her an hour before with passionate fervor; she had resisted
them, but she did not resist these. Her eyelids dropped. "I cannot do
it," she stammered.
"Say: 'I do not wish to do it.' I have made countless proposals. I
asked to be presented to your brother at the club, recently. He was
delighted to make my acquaintance--gave me a pressing invitation to
call upon him--to see his pictures. How easily we could meet there!"
"I am not allowed to visit my brother--have not been allowed to do so
for a long time--and now, since last evening!"
"Then your cousin! He will surely come to see us; I shall return his
call--your father certainly cannot show me the door!"
"I have thought of that, and prepared him for it. It would, in any
case, be only a few minutes."
"Then I shall consider farther; if I only know that you wish it, I
shall find a way and write you, or rather tell you as soon as you give
the sign."
"I no longer dare to do it."
"Why not?"
"Some one is watching me at every step; I am not secure in his presence
for a moment--Antonio--I told you about it; I am afraid."
"Yes, you are always afraid."
He made a quick, uneasy movement toward the recess of the window near
which he was standing. At the same moment a strikingly handsome,
well-dressed young man vanished through the door at the other end of
the gallery, in which he had been standing for some time, so concealed
that, by bending a little to the left, he viewed the recess of the
window and the strange couple there with his falcon-like black eyes,
without running great risk of being detected. In an emergency he needed
only to spring into the throng which filled the larger side rooms. He
had seen enough, and darted back.
When Ottomar, after looking out of the window a few seconds, turned to
speak to Ferdinande a conciliatory word which was on his lips and in
his heart, the place was empty.
Ferdinande had not been able to do otherwise. Her lady friends, with
whom she had conversed a little while before, had just passed the door
of the side room next to which she stood, fortunately without noticing
her. But they had stopped close to the door--the dress of one of them
was still in sight.
* * * * *
[While viewing the pictures, Madame von Wallbach asks her husband,
Edward, who the striking figure is coming toward them. It is Count
Golm, who is presented and converses with them about Italy and Paris.
Else and Ottomar are referred to. Golm asks who Ottomar is. In the
course of the conversation Carla intimates her relations with Ottomar,
whom Golm wishes to meet. Princess Heinrich August comes along with her
suite, speaking with Else, and, recognizing Golm, inquires about his
island.
Philip comes upon Reinhold at the exhibition and converses with him
in a friendly way, mentioning Bismarck as his great hero, much to
Reinhold's delight. He then refers to his father in severe words and
points out a _nouveau riche_, who but two years ago was a dabbler, and
is today thrice a millionaire. Philip says that he himself is rich
and is expecting large dividends soon. He asks Reinhold to share with
him, but Reinhold declines, having saved a small sum himself. They
step aside as the princess comes along with Else, Golm, and her suite.
Philip meets Ferdinande again and talks with her. Ottomar is in the
crowd, also talking to Carla, in close proximity to Ferdinande. Antonio
is spying on Ferdinande and Ottomar, with curses on his lips.
Count Golm and Privy Councilor Schieler are at the Hotel Royal
discussing the new projects for a north or an east harbor of the
Sundin-Wissow railroad. The Count wants the east harbor; Schieler says
he is no longer an official and has no influence. The Count speaks
of his debts--fifty thousand thaler, due in October, and his account
not particularly good with Lübbener. Schieler tells him he should
marry a rich woman; suggests Else von Werben, mentioning the fact that
Wallbach, a director of the railroad, is also trustee of the Warnow
estates, and that Ottomar is engaged to Wallbach's clever sister,
Carla. Wallbach calculates that half of the estate, if sold to the
railroad, would be worth three or four times as much as the whole of
it is now, but he hesitates to give advice in the matter. The Count
proposes to buy the property at a lower rate and to sell it to the
railroad. But they are reckoning without their host, Valerie, Baroness
Warnow, who has, with her fifty years, acquired the right of a voice in
administering the affairs of the estates; but Giraldi, her chamberlain,
companion, and what not, is the power behind her. Schieler then tells
Golm the history of Valerie, gives him an account of the will of her
husband, and convinces the Count that the interests of the railroad
and of Golm are identical. Schieler and Golm then go to call on Philip
Schmidt, the general promoter of the railroad.
Schieler has prepared Philip for the visit, and told him that Golm
must be won over. Philip shows Schieler and Golm his pictures. The
Count is pleased and flattered, and offers Philip the hospitality of
Golmberg. Golm learns how Philip, a plain master mason, has come up by
his intelligence, inventive genius, energy, and speculation, especially
as promoter of the railroad scheme. Lübbener, previously notified by
Schieler, drops in at Philip's to see Golm. Refreshments are served,
and Philip, as a bluff, pretends to banish business. Victorine, a
mezzo-soprano, and Bertalde, a dancing girl, and, later, Ottomar come
in, and make a breezy scene. The company, as a jest, constitutes itself
a committee of promoters.
General von Werben is at work in his study, Aunt Sidonie is working on
her book on Court Etiquette, Ottomar has not returned from drill, Else
is reading Mieting's letters--one saying that Mieting will fall in
love with Reinhold if Else does not want him, and that she is coming to
make conquest; the second that Mieting has misunderstood Else's letter
at the first reading, and having re-read it, is not coming. Sidonie and
Else discuss the question of inviting Reinhold to the ball, and decide
that Ottomar is to deliver the invitation in person. Else is worried
at Ottomar's disturbed state of mind, and charges him with not loving
Carla. Ottomar admits that he intends to marry Carla for her five
thousand income, and taunts Else with having acquired her wisdom in
love matters from Count Golm. Else resents this, and then tells Ottomar
that his father wishes him to deliver the invitation. Ottomar demurs,
and, going to his room, finds a letter on the table from his father,
saying that he has paid twelve hundred thaler of Ottomar's debts--the
last he will pay.
Reinhold tries to change Uncle Ernst's attitude toward his socialistic
workmen. Kreisel comes in to tell Uncle Ernst that he is going to his
own funeral, and to ask for his discharge, for he too is a socialist.
Philip interviews his father in the interests of the railroad, offering
to buy out his plant, but, meeting with a rebuff, goes away.
Cilli asks Reinhold how Uncle Ernst received her father's resignation,
and then gives Reinhold an account of her blindness. Philip finds
Reinhold with Cilli and accuses him with strengthening Uncle Ernst's
prejudice against the railroad. Ottomar comes in to give Reinhold the
invitation to the ball, and then views the work in the studio. Philip
tells Justus that he will have half a street to his credit for his
sculpture. Ottomar seizes an opportunity to kiss Ferdinande and make an
appointment with her in the Bellevue Garden at eight o'clock. Antonio
enters and takes in the situation.
Ferdinande tells Aunt Rikchen that she is to take supper with Miss
Marfolk, a painter, to meet Professor Seefeld of Karlsruhe. Reinhold
prepares to go to the Werben ball. Aunt Rikchen suggests to Ferdinande
that she marry Reinhold herself, greatly to her astonishment. Antonio
heightens the embarrassment by coming to give Ferdinande the lesson,
which was to come on the following morning. Ferdinande sends him off,
takes a cab to the Grosser Stern, while Antonio follows her in another
cab. Ottomar, clad as a civilian, meets Ferdinande at the Grosser
Stern.]
* * * * *
Meanwhile the cab had gone only a short distance, as far as the
entrance to Bellevue Garden. "It is entirely safe here, I swear it
is," Ottomar whispered, as he helped Ferdinande alight. The cabman put
his dollar contentedly into his pocket and drove off; Ottomar took
Ferdinande's arm and led the confused, anxious, dazed girl into the
garden; he heard plainly her deep breathing. "I swear it is safe here,"
he repeated.
"Swear that you love me! That's all I ask!"
Instead of answering he placed his arm about her; she embraced him with
both arms; their lips touched with a quiver and a long ardent kiss.
Then they hurried hand in hand further into the park till shrubbery and
trees inclosed them in darkness, and they sank into each other's arms,
exchanging fervent kisses and stammering love vows--drunk with a bliss
which they had so long, long dreamed, but which was now more precious
than all their happy dreams.
So felt Ferdinande, at least, and so she said, while her lips met
his again and again, and so said Ottomar; and yet in the same moment
in which he returned her fervent kisses there was a feeling that he
had never before known--a shuddering fear of the fever in his heart
and hers, a feeling as of fainting in contrast to the passion which
surrounded and oppressed him with the violence of a storm. He had
sported with women before, considered his easy victories as triumphs,
accepted the silent worship of beautiful eyes, the flattering words
of loving lips, as a tribute which was due him and which he pocketed
without thanks--but here--for the first time--he was the weaker one.
He was not willing to confess it, but knew, as a practised wrestler
knows after the first grip, that he has found his master and that he
will be overcome if chance does not come to the rescue. Indeed, Ottomar
was already looking for this chance--any event that might intervene,
any circumstance which might serve to his advantage; and then he
blushed for himself, for his cowardice, this base ingratitude toward
the beautiful, precious creature who had thrown herself into his arms
with such confidence, such devotion, such self-forgetfulness; and he
redoubled the tenderness of his caresses and the sweet flattery of
words of love.
And then--that anxious feeling might be a delusion; but she, who had
done what he so often, so beseechingly asked, had at last granted
him the meeting in which he wished to set forth his plans for the
future--she had a right, she must expect, that he would finally unfold
the plan for that future with which he seemed to have labored so long,
and which was just as hazy to him as ever. He did not believe, what
she declared to be true, that she wished nothing but to love him, to
be loved by him, that everything of which he spoke--his father--her
father--circumstances which must be considered--difficulties which must
be overcome--everything, everything, was only a mist which vanishes
before the rays of the sun, trifles not worth mentioning, causing
them to waste even a moment of the precious time, even a breath of
it! He did not believe it; but he was only too willing to take her at
her word, already releasing himself silently from the responsibility
of results, which such neglect of the simplest rules of caution and
prudence might have, must have.
And then he forgot the flying moment, and had to be reminded by her
that his time was up, that they were expecting him at home, that he
must not reach the company too late.
"Or will you take me along?" she asked. "Will you enter the
reception-room arm in arm with me and present me to the company as
your betrothed? You shall not have cause to be ashamed of me; there are
not likely to be many of your friends whom I cannot look down upon, and
I have always found that to be able to look down on others is to be
half noble. To you I shall ever have to look up; tall as I am, I must
still reach up to you and your sweet lips."
There was a strange proud grace in the jest, and tenderest love in
the kiss, which her smiling lips breathed upon his; he was enchanted,
intoxicated by this lovely grace, this proud love; he said to himself
that she was right--he said so to her--and that she could compare with
any queen in the world; that she deserved to be a queen--and yet, and
yet! If it had not been a jest, if she had demanded it seriously,
what--yet she some time would demand it!
"That was the last kiss," said Ferdinande; "I must be the more prudent
one, because I am so. And now give me your arm and conduct me to the
nearest cab, and then you will go straight home and be very fine and
charming this evening, and break a few more hearts in addition to those
you have already broken, and afterwards lie at my feet in gratitude for
my heart, which is larger than all theirs together."
It was almost dark when they left the silent park. The sky was all
covered with clouds from which heavy drops of rain were beginning
to fall. Fortunately an empty cab came along which Ferdinande could
take to the Brandenburgerthor, there to step into another and thus
obliterate every trace of the way she had gone. Ottomar could throw a
kiss to her once more as he lifted her into the cab. And she leaned
back into the seat, closed her eyes, and dreamed the blissful hour over
again. Ottomar looked after the cab. It was a wretched nag, a wretched
cab; and as they disappeared in the dark through the faint light of
the few street lamps, a strange feeling of awe and aversion came over
him. "It looks like a hearse," he said to himself; "I could hardly
take hold of the wet doorhandle; I should not have had the courage to
ride in the rig--the affair puts one into a strangely uncomfortable
situation, indeed. The road home is no joke, either--it is nearly nine
o'clock--and besides it is beginning to rain very hard."
He turned into the Grosser-Stern-Allee, the shortest way home. It was
already growing dark so fast among the great tree trunks that he could
distinguish only the hard walk upon which he was moving with hurried
steps; on the other side of the broad bridle-path, where a narrow
foot-path ran, the trunks of the trees were scarcely distinguishable
from the blackness of the forest. He had ridden up and down this
beautiful avenue countless times--alone, with his comrades, in the
brilliant company of ladies and gentlemen--how often with Carla! Else
was right! Carla was a skilful horse-woman, the best, perhaps, of all
ladies, and certainly the most graceful. They had both so often been
seen and spoken of together--it was, in fact, quite impossible to sever
their relationship now; it would make a fearful fuss.
Ottomar stopped. He had gone too fast; the perspiration rolled from his
brow; his bosom was so oppressed that he tore open his coat and vest.
He had never known the sensation of physical fear before, but now he
was terrified to hear a slight noise behind him, and his eyes peered
anxiously into the dark--it was probably a twig which broke and fell.
"I feel as if I had murder on my soul, or as if I myself were to be
murdered the next moment," he said to himself, as he continued his way
almost at a run.
He did not imagine that he owed his life to the breaking of that twig.
Antonio had lain in wait all this time at the entrance to the avenue
as if bound by magic, now sitting on the iron railing between the
foot-path and the bridle-path, now going to and fro, leaning against
the trunk of a tree, continually engrossed in the same dark thoughts,
projecting plans for revenge, exulting in imagining the tortures which
he was to inflict upon her and upon him as soon as he had them in his
power, directing his glance from time to time across the open place
to the entrance of the other avenue into which the cab had disappeared
with the two people, as if they must appear there again, as if his
revengeful soul had the power to force them to come this way. He could
have spent the whole night like a beast of prey that lies sullenly in
his lair in spite of gnawing hunger, raging over his lost spoil.
And what was that? There he was, coming across the place, right toward
him! His eye, accustomed to the darkness, recognized him clearly as
if it had been bright day. Would the beast have the stupidity to come
into the avenue--to deliver himself into his hand? _Per bacco!_ It was
so and not otherwise; then--after a short hesitation--he turned into
the avenue--to the other side, to be sure; but it was all right; he
could thus follow him on his side so much the more safely; then there
was only the bridle-path to leap across, in the deep sand in which his
first steps would certainly not be heard, and then--with a few springs,
the stiletto in his neck, or, if he should turn, under the seventh rib
up to the hilt!
And his hand clutched the hilt as if hand and hilt were one, and with
the finger of the other hand he tested over and over the needle-point,
while he stole along from tree to tree in long strides--softly,
softly--the soft claws of a tiger could not have risen and fallen more
softly.
Now half of the avenue was passed; the darkness could not become more
dense now; it was just light enough to see the blade of the stiletto.
One moment yet to convince himself that they were alone in the park; he
over there, and himself--and now, crouching, over across the soft sand
behind the thick trunk of a tree which he had already selected as the
place!
But quickly as the passage was made, the other had now won a handicap
of perhaps twenty paces. That was too much; the distance would have
to be diminished by half. And it could not be so difficult; he still
had the soft sand of the bridle-path to the right of the trees, while
the other one was going to the left on the hard foot-path, where his
footsteps would drown any slight noise. There! _Maledetto di Dio_--a
dry twig broke with a crack under his stealthy foot. He crouched behind
the tree--he could not be seen; but the other must have heard it; he
stopped--listened, perhaps expecting his antagonist--in any case now no
longer unprepared--who knows?--a brave man, an officer--turning about,
offering his front to his antagonist. So much the better! Then there
would be only a leap from behind the tree! And--he was coming!
The Italian's heart throbbed in his throat as he now, advancing his
left foot, held himself ready to leap; but the murderous desire had
dulled his otherwise sharp senses; the sound of the steps was not
toward him but toward the opposite side! When he became aware of his
mistake the distance had increased at least twofold--and threefold
before he could determine in his amazement what was to be done.
To give up the chase! Nothing else remained. The beast was now
almost running, and then a belated cab rattled down the street which
intersected the avenue, and beyond the street were crossways to the
right and left. It was not safe to do the deed; there was no certainty
of escape afterwards--the moment was lost--for this time! But next
time!--Antonio muttered a fearful curse as he put his stiletto back
into its sheath and concealed it in his coat-pocket.
[Illustration: THE LOAN-OFFICE
_From the Painting by Michael von Munkacsy_
PERMISSION CH. SEDELMEYER, PARIS]
The other had vanished; Antonio followed slowly along the same
road, out of the park across the Thiergartenstrasse into the
Springbrunnenstrasse to the front of the house in which the hated one
lived. The windows were brightly illuminated. An equipage came up; an
officer and richly gowned ladies, wrapped in their shawls, alighted; a
second equipage followed--he was laughing and reveling up there now,
and whispering into the ear of one of the fair ladies who had alighted
what he had whispered ten minutes before to Ferdinande. If only he
could inspire her with the poisonous jealousy which consumed his own
heart! If he could bring about something between her and him which
would be insurmountable! If he could betray the whole thing to the grim
signor, her father, or to the proud general, his father, or to both----
"Hello!"
A man coming along the pavement had run into him as he leaned on
the iron railing of a front yard, arms folded, and had uttered the
exclamation in a harsh voice.
"_Scusi!_" said the Italian, lifting his hat. "Beg your pardon!"
"Hello!" repeated the man. "Is it you, Antonio?"
"O Signor Roller! Mr. Inspector!"
"Signor Roller! Mr. Inspector! That's enough Signoring and
Inspectoring," said the man, with a loud laugh--"for the present,
at least, till we have given it to the old man--to him and his
nephew and his whole brood! If I could only get at the throat of all
of them--could only play them a real trick! I'd be willing to pay
something for it! Only I have no money! It's all up!"
The man laughed again; he was evidently half drunk.
"I have money," said Antonio quickly, "and----"
"Then we'll take a drink, Signor Italiano," exclaimed the other,
slapping him on the shoulder. "_Una bottiglia--capisci?_ Ha!
ha! I have not entirely forgotten my Italian! _Carrara_--marble
oxen--_capisci?--capisci?_"
"_Eccomi tutto a voi_," said the Italian, taking the man's arm.
"Whither?"
"To business, to the devil, to the cellar!" exclaimed Roller,
laughingly pointing to the red lantern above the saloon at the corner
of the Springbrunnenstrasse.
* * * * *
[The three upper rooms of the General's villa are arranged for a ball.
Else appears in a blue gown, but is quite displeased with herself. All
looks blue. It is Ottomar's fault, as usual; he has gone out and not
returned. And then Wallbach doesn't love Luise, nor Luise him. The men
spend so much money. Ottomar is deep in debt; Wartenberg can't get
along with his twenty thousand, and Clemda with his fifty thousand
spends twice that much every year. Aunt Sidonie comes in, and is
charmed with Else's tarletan; she tells Else she looks just like her
princess in the book she is writing, and then refers to Count Golm as
a good match for Else. Else is infuriated, says she would not marry
Golm if he laid a crown at her feet. The General comes in and Schieler
enters and gives the General an account of the railroad project,
touching upon the sale of Valerie's estates to Golm, and suggests Golm
as a prospective husband for Else.]
* * * * *
The Count had entered a few minutes before in his provincial uniform
with the order of St. John. The reception-room had become almost filled
with guests meanwhile, and it was with some difficulty that he made
his way to the hostesses. Else had not spared him this trouble, to be
sure; at this moment, when he caught sight of her at the door, she was
eagerly continuing the conversation, which she had begun with Captain
von Schönau, so eagerly that the Count, having spoken to Sidonie,
stood behind her for half a minute without being noticed, till Schönau
finally thought it his duty to draw her attention to the new guest with
a gesture, and the words, "I think, Miss Else----"
"I think myself fortunate," said the Count.
"Oh! Count Golm!" said Else, with a well feigned surprise. "Pardon me
for not seeing you at once! I was so absorbed. May I make the gentlemen
acquainted: Captain von Schönau of the General Staff--a good friend of
our family--Count von Golm. Have you seen Papa, Count? He is in the
other room. Then, dear Schönau----"
The Count stepped back with a bow.
"That was a bit severe, Miss Else," said Schönau.
"What?"
Schönau laughed.
"You know, Miss Else, if I were not a most modest man I should have
all sorts of possible and impossible silly notions in my head."
"How so?"
"Why, my heavens, didn't you see that the Count was on the point of
extending his hand and stepped back with a face as red as my collar?
Such things a young lady like Miss Else von Werben overlooks only when
she wishes to do so, which is hardly the case, or if she--I shall not
venture to finish the sentence. Who is that?"
"Who?"
"The officer there--yonder to the left, next to the Baroness
Kniebreche--see, at the right!--who is speaking to your father, a
stately man--has a cross, too. How did he get here?"
Else had to decide now to see Reinhold, though her heart throbbed
quickly and she was vexed at it. She was already vexed that, in her
conduct toward the Count, she had exposed and almost betrayed herself
to the sharp eyes of Schönau; now it was to happen again!
"A Mr. Schmidt," she said, pressing more firmly the rosebud in her
hair. "Sea captain. We made his acquaintance on the journey; Papa was
greatly pleased with him----"
"Really a fine looking man," repeated Schönau. "Splendid manly face,
such as I like to see, and not without carriage; and yet one recognizes
the officer of the reserve at the first glance."
"By what?" asked Else, as her heart began to throb again.
"That you should know as well and better than I, as you associate
more with the Guard than I do! Compare him with Ottomar, who seems to
have been late again and wishes to atone for his sins by being doubly
amiable! Just see with what perfect form he kisses the hand of old
Baroness Kniebreche, and now turns on his heel and bows to Countess
Fischbach with a grace which the great Vestris himself might envy!
_Allons, mon fils, montrez votre talent._ And now he converses with
Sattelstädt--not a line too little, not one too much! To be sure, it is
a little unfair to compare the gentlemen of the reserve with the model
of all knightly form. Don't you think so?"
Else gazed straight ahead. Schönau was right; there was a difference!
She would have preferred to see him as he strode up and down the deck
in his woolen jacket; then she had envied him the steadiness and
freedom of his movements--and when afterwards he sat at the helm of the
boat, and steered it as calmly as the rider his rearing steed! If only
he hadn't come just at this time!
Then Reinhold, who had been conversing with her father, excused himself
with a friendly nod, and catching sight of Else, turned about and came
straight toward her. Else trembled so that she had to steady herself
with her left hand against the arm of the chair, for she wished to
remain entirely cool and unconscious; but as he stepped up to her, his
beautiful honest eyes still aglow from the gracious greeting accorded
him by her father, and a certain shyness in his open manly face, which
seemed to ask, "Shall I be welcomed by you, too?"--her heart grew warm
and kind; even though her hand remained on the arm of the chair, she
extended to him the other at full length; her dark eyes sparkled, her
red lips laughed, and she said, as heartily and frankly as if there had
not been a fairer name in the world--"Welcome to our house, dear Mr.
Schmidt!"
He had grasped her hand and said a few words which she only half heard.
She turned around to Schönau; the Captain had vanished; a flush came to
her cheeks. "It doesn't matter," she muttered.
"What does not matter, Miss Else?"
"I shall tell you later, when there is to be some dancing after dinner;
to be sure I don't know----"
"Whether I dance? Indeed I am passionately fond of it."
"The Rhinelander, too?"
"The Rhinelander, too! And, in spite of your incredulous smile, not so
badly that Miss von Werben should not give me the honor."
"The Rhinelander, then! All the rest I have declined. Now I must mingle
with the company."
She gave a friendly nod and turned away, but turned quickly again.
"Do you like my brother?"
"Very much!"
"I wish so much that you might become intimate with each other. Do make
a little effort. Will you?"
"Gladly."
She was now really much occupied. Reinhold, too, mingled with the
company, without any of the misgivings which he had felt upon entering
the brilliant circle of strangers. For he had now been received by the
hostess as a dear friend of the family! Even the eyes of her stately
aunt had glanced at him with a certain good-natured curiosity, formal
as her bow had been; on the other hand, her father had shaken his hand
so heartily and after the first words of welcome, drawing him aside
with evident confidence, said to him: "I must first of all make you
acquainted with Colonel von Sattelstädt and Captain von Schönau, both
of the General Staff. The gentlemen will be eager to hear. Please
express yourself with entire freedom--I consider that important. I have
yet a special request in the matter, which I wish to communicate to you
as soon as I get that far. Then I shall see you later!"
"That was already flattering enough for the simple Lieutenant of the
Reserve," Reinhold had thought to himself, as he went up to Else. And
she! her kindness, her graciousness! He felt like a Homeric hero,
who hoped, silently indeed, that the goddess to whom he prayed would
be gracious to him, and to whom the divinity appears in person, in
the tumult of battle, beckoning with immortal eyes and words which
his ear alone hears. What mattered it to him now that the gold
lorgnette of old Baroness Kniebreche was turned upon him so long
with such an unnecessary stare, and then let drop with a movement
which only too plainly said, "That was worth the effort!" What did
he care that Count Golm looked past him as long as it was possible,
and, when the manoeuvre once utterly failed, slipped by him with an
angry, snarling, "O, O, Captain--Very happy!" That the bow of young
Prince Clemda might have been a little less indifferent when he was
introduced! What difference did it make to him? And those were the
only signs of unfriendly feeling which he had encountered in a quite
numerous company during the hour just passed. Otherwise, amiable,
natural friendliness on the part of the ladies, and polite comradeship
on the part of the gentlemen, officers almost without exception, had
been the rule throughout; even Prince Clemda seemed to wish to atone
for his coolness, suddenly coming up to him and speaking through his
nose a few phrases from which Reinhold heard with some clearness:
"Werben--Orléans--Vierzon--Devil of a ride--sorry----"
The acquaintance of von Sattelstädt and von Schönau was the most
agreeable to him. They came up to him almost at the same time and
asked him if he was inclined to give them his views concerning the
practicability and value of constructing a naval station north of
Wissow Hook. "We both know the locality very well," said the Colonel;
"are also both--the Captain a little more than I--opposed to the
project. We have conferred frequently with the gentlemen of the
Ministry, of course; but nevertheless, or, rather, now in particular,
it would be of the greatest interest and most decided importance to
hear the view of an intelligent, entirely unprejudiced and unbiased
seaman, who is fully acquainted with the conditions--if he has in
addition, as you have, Captain, the military eye of a campaign officer.
Let us sit down in this little room--there is another chair, Schönau!
And now, I think it is best that you allow us to ask questions; we
shall come most easily and clearly to the point in that way. We do not
wish to tax you long."
"I am at the service of the gentlemen!" said Reinhold.
The gentlemen intended to make only the most modest use of the
permission thus granted; but as Reinhold had to go more into detail at
times in order to answer the questions put to him, the conversation
lasted much longer than anyone had intended, and, as it appeared,
than he himself had realized. Flattering as was the respectful
attention with which the two officers listened to his explanations,
sincerely as he admired the keenness, the exactness, and the extent
of the information exhibited by each of their questions, each
word--nevertheless he could not resist casting a glance through
the door of the room into the reception-room where the company
was still mingling freely in the accustomed manner; and through
the reception-room into the smaller room on the other side of the
reception-room, in which a group of younger ladies and gentlemen had
collected, among whom Reinhold noticed Ottomar and the lady who had
been pointed out to him at the exhibition as Miss von Wallbach, and
Count Golm, and, finally, Else too. A lively discussion was going on
there, so that one could hear it across the reception-room, although
only an occasional word could be understood. And Schönau's attention
also was finally attracted to it. "I'll wager," he said, "that they are
disputing about Wagner; when Miss von Wallbach is presiding, Wagner
must be the subject of discussion. I would give something, if I could
hear what ideas she is bringing forward today."
"That is to say, dear Schönau, if I am not mistaken, 'I would give
something, if Sattelstädt would finally stop,'" said the Colonel with
a smile. "Well, to be sure, we have tried the patience of our comrade
longer than was right or proper."
He rose and extended his hand to Reinhold, Schönau protested; he had
thought least of all of that which the Colonel imputed to him. The
Colonel shook his finger. "Shame on you, Schönau, to betray your
mistress! That is, you must know, comrade, the noble Dame Musica--for
her he goes through fire and flood, and lets the naval station go to
the dickens! March, march, Schönau!" And off they went.
Schönau laughed, but left, taking with him Reinhold, who followed
without reluctance, as he would thus have the best opportunity of
coming into the presence of Else and Ottomar, the latter of whom he had
seen and saluted hastily a few minutes before.
* * * * *
[Ottomar returns and quite outdoes himself in his attentions to the
ladies, much to the disquietude of Baroness Kniebreche and Carla. The
Baroness finally brings Ottomar and Carla together, and delivers a
little homily to them but without improving their relations. Ottomar
thinks to himself that the four charming girls with whom he is talking
would not make one Ferdinande from whom he has just parted. And suppose
he did have a hostile encounter with Wallbach, it would only be the
fourth in four years; and if the bullet did hit him, it would only be
the end of his debts and his amours! Ottomar is asked to introduce his
friend Reinhold. Clemda tells Ottomar that he is to marry Antonie in a
month, and that they wish Carla to be a bridesmaid. Colonel von Bohl
tells Ottomar that he can hardly begin his furlough before spring, as
Clemda's time is to be extended, and then speaks of a possible post
at St. Petersburg for Ottomar. Ottomar is embarrassed and runs into a
group of ladies gathered around Carla, who is discoursing about Wagner.
Count Golm is shrewd enough not to express his opinion about Wagner as
a great musician, but Ottomar, to the great confusion of the Baroness
and Carla, says he thinks the whole Wagner business is a humbug!
Supper is announced. Else implores Ottomar to take Carla to supper
and repair the injury he has done, but Carla has taken Golm's arm.
Else urges Ottomar not to let Golm beat him out. The polka starts.
The General, seeing Reinhold disengaged, asks him whether he dances?
Reinhold says he does, but is waiting for the chat which the General
had requested. The General proceeds to unfold the railroad scheme, and
elicits Reinhold's opinion. At the close of the ball, the General finds
a letter telling of Ottomar's escapade with Ferdinande.]
* * * * *
The last carriage had rolled away; the servants were cleaning up the
rooms under the direction of Sidonie; Else, who had usually relieved
her aunt of the duties of the house, had withdrawn with the excuse
that she felt a little tired, in order to allow the pleasant echo of
the delightful evening to pass through her thoughts again while she
sat in the quiet of her room, undisturbed by the clatter of chairs and
tables. It would not have been at all necessary for him to dance the
Rhinelander with such grace; she would have given him in the waltz,
also, the great flaming favor which she had placed at the bottom of
the basket, and which she drew, luckily, with a bold grab, when it
came her turn to fasten it with her trembling hands next to the iron
cross on his breast. Yes, her hands had trembled and her heart had
throbbed as she accomplished the great work and now looked up into
his beaming eyes; but it was for joy, for pure joy and bliss. And it
was joy and bliss also which now let her fall asleep, after she had
laid her greatest treasures, the sketch-book with his picture and the
little compass, upon her dressing-table, and put out the light--but
again lighted it to cast a glance at the compass-box and assure herself
that "it was always true" and "sought its master," and then opened the
sketch-book at the place where it always opened of itself, to look at
his picture once more--no, not the picture--it was horrible!--but at
the signature: "With love!" Secretly, very secretly to impress a kiss
upon it, and then quickly, very quickly, to put out the light, to press
her head into her pillow, and, in her dreams, to look for him to whom
she was ever true, dreaming or waking--who, she knew, would ever be
true to her, waking or dreaming.
Ottomar, too, had taken leave of the ladies, as the last guests left,
with a hasty, "Good-night! I'm tired enough to drop! Where is Father?"
and had gone downstairs without waiting for an answer to his question.
In the hall which led to his room he had to pass his father's room.
He had stopped a moment. His father, who had gone down a few minutes
before, was certainly still up, and Ottomar had, on such occasions,
always knocked and said at least, through the open door, "Good night!"
This time he did not do it. "I am tired enough to drop," he repeated,
as if he wished to excuse himself for the violation of a family custom.
But, on reaching his room, he did not think of going to bed. It would
not have been any use as long as the blood was raging through his veins
"as if I were crazy," said Ottomar, opening his uniform covered with
cotillion favors, and throwing it down. He opened his vest and collar,
and got into the first piece of clothing that came to his hand--his
hunting jacket--and seated himself with a cigar at the open window.
The night was perceptibly cool, but the cool air was grateful to him;
lightning flashed from the black clouds, but he took no notice of it;
and thus he sat looking out on the black autumn night, puffing his
cigar--revolving his confused thoughts in his perturbed mind, and not
hearing, because of the throbbing of his pulse in his temples and the
rustling of the wind in the branches, that there had twice been a knock
at his door; shrinking like a criminal, as now the voice sounded close
in his ear. It was August.
"I beg your pardon, Lieutenant! I have already knocked several times."
"What do you want?"
"The General requests the Lieutenant to come to him at once."
"Is Father sick?"
August shook his head. "The General is still in his uniform and doesn't
look sick, only a little----"
"Only a little what?"
The man ran his fingers through his hair. "A little strange,
Lieutenant! I think, Lieutenant, the General----"
"The devil! Will you speak?"
August came a step nearer, and said in a whisper, "I think the General
received a bad letter a while ago--it may have been half-past eleven.
I didn't see the one who brought it, and Friedrich didn't know him,
and he probably went away immediately. But I had to take the letter to
the General myself, and the General made a curious face as he read the
letter----"
"From a lady?"
August could not suppress a smile in spite of the genuine concern which
he felt for his young master. "I--he said--they looked differently--one
will get over that in time--a highly important letter----"
"These damned Manichæans!" muttered Ottomar. He did not understand the
connection; the next note was not due for eight days--but what else
could it be? His father would make another beautiful scene for him! Oh,
pshaw! He would get engaged a few days earlier, if he must get engaged,
if it were only finally to put an end to the disgraceful worries from
which he had no rest at night in his room, and couldn't smoke his cigar
in peace!
He threw his cigar out of the window; August had taken his uniform and
removed the cotillion favors. "What's that for?"
"Does the Lieutenant prefer to put on his uniform?" asked August.
"Nonsense!" said Ottomar. "That was just lacking to----"
He broke off; for he could not tell August--to make the tedious story
still more tedious and more serious. "I shall simply explain to Papa
that in the future I do not intend to molest him further with such
things, and prefer to have my affairs finally arranged by Wallbach," he
said to himself, while August went on ahead with the light--the gas
lights in the hall were already extinguished--down the hall, and now
stopped at his father's door.
"You may put the light on the table there, and as far as I am
concerned, go to bed, and tell Friedrich to wake me at six o'clock in
the morning."
He had spoken these words more loudly than was necessary, and he
noticed that his voice had a strange sound--as if it were not his own
voice. It was, of course, only because everything was so still in the
house--so still that he now heard the blood coursing in his temples and
his heart beating.
"The damned Manichæans!" he muttered again through his teeth, as he
knocked at the door.
"Come in!"
His father stood at his desk, above which a hanging lamp was burning.
And the lamps were still burning on the brackets before the mirror,
there was an uncanny brightness in the room, and an uncanny order,
although it was just exactly as Ottomar had seen it as long as he could
remember. He ought really to have put on his uniform after all.
"I beg pardon, Papa, for coming in négligé. I was just about to go to
bed, and August was so insistent----"
His father still stood at the desk, resting one hand on it, turning
his back to him without answering. The silence of his father lay like
a mountain on Ottomar's soul. He shook off with a violent effort the
sullen hesitation. "What do you want, Papa?"
"First, to ask you to read this letter," said the General, turning
around slowly and pointing with his finger to a sheet which lay open
before him on his desk.
"A letter to me!"
"Then I should not have read it; but I have read it."
He had stepped back from the desk, and was going up and down the room
with a slow, steady step, his hands behind him, while Ottomar, in the
same place where his father had stood without taking the sheet in his
hands--the handwriting was clear enough--read:
"Highly Honored and Respected General:
"Your Honor will graciously excuse the undersigned for venturing
to call your Honor's attention to an affair which threatens most
seriously to imperil the welfare of your worthy family. The matter
concerns a relationship which your son, Lieutenant von Werben, has
had for some time with the daughter of your neighbor, Mr. Schmidt,
the proprietor of the marble works. Your Honor will excuse the
undersigned from going into details, which might better be kept in
that silence in which the participants--to be sure, in vain--strive
to preserve them, although he is in a position to do so; and if the
undersigned requests you to ask your son where he was this evening
between eight and nine o'clock, and with whom he had a rendezvous,
it is only to indicate to your Honor how far the aforementioned
relationship has already progressed.
"It would be as foolish as impermissible to assume that your Honor
is informed of all this and has winked at it, so to speak, when
your son is on the point of engaging himself to the daughter of an
ultraradical Democrat; on the contrary the undersigned can picture
to himself in advance the painful surprise which your Honor must
feel on reading these lines; but, your Honor, the undersigned has
also been a soldier and knows what a soldier's honor is--as he for
his part has respected honor his whole life long--and he could no
longer look on and see this mischievous machination carried on
behind the back of such a brave and deserving officer by him, who
more than any other, appears to be called to be the guardian of
this honor.
"The undersigned believes that, after the above, there is no need
of a special assurance of the high esteem with which he is to your
Honor and your Honor's entire family
"A most faithful devotee."
The General allowed his son some minutes; now that Ottomar still stared
motionless before him--only his teeth bit nervously against his pale
lower lip--he remained standing, separated by the width of the room,
and asked: "Have you an idea who wrote this letter?"
"No."
"Have you the least suspicion who is the lady in question----?"
"For Heaven's sake!" exclaimed Ottomar in anguish.
"I beg pardon; but I am in the painful situation of having to ask,
since you seem inclined not to give the information which I expected."
"What shall I explain in the matter?" asked Ottomar with bitter scorn.
"It is as it is."
"Brief and to the point," replied the General, "only not just so clear.
There still remain some points which are obscure--to me, at least. Have
you anything to object to the lady--I may so express myself?"
"I should have to request you to do so otherwise."
"Then have you anything, even the slightest thing--excepting external
circumstances, and of that later--which would prevent you from bringing
her into Else's company? On your honor!"
"On my honor, no!"
"Do you know anything at all, even the slightest, concerning her
family, excepting external circumstances, which would and must prevent
another officer, who is not in your exceptional position, from
connecting himself with the family? On your honor!"
Ottomar hesitated a moment before answering. He knew absolutely nothing
touching Philip's honor; he maintained toward him the native instinct
of a gentleman who, in his eyes, was not a gentleman; but it seemed to
him cowardice to wish to conceal himself behind this feeling.
"No!" said he solemnly.
"Have you acquainted the lady with your circumstances?"
"In a general way, yes."
"Among other things, that you are disinherited as soon as you marry a
lady who is not of noble family?"
"No."
"That was a little imprudent; nevertheless I understand it. But in
general, you said, she does understand the difficulties which will
accompany a union between her and you in the most favorable case? Did
you have her understand that you neither wish nor are in a position to
remove the difficulties?"
"No."
"But led her to believe, perhaps assured her, that you could and would
remove them?"
"Yes."
"Then you will marry the lady?"
Ottomar quivered like a steed when his rider drives the spurs into
its flanks. He knew that would be, must be, the outcome of it;
nevertheless, now that it was put into words, his pride revolted
against any one forcing his heart, even his father. Was he to be the
weaker one throughout--to follow where he did not wish to go--to allow
his path to be prescribed by others?
"Not by any means!" he exclaimed.
"How? Not by any means?" returned the General. "I surely have not to do
here with an obstinate boy, who breaks up his plaything because it does
not amuse him any longer, but with a man of honor, an officer, who has
the habit of keeping his word promptly?"
Ottomar felt that he must offer a reason--the shadow of a
reason--something or other.
"I think," he said, "that I cannot decide to take a step in a direction
which would put me into the position of necessarily doing an injustice
in another direction."
"I think I understand your position," said the General. "It is not
pleasant; but when one is so many sided he should be prepared for such
things. Besides, I owe you the justice to declare that I am beginning
to inform myself, now, at least, as to your conduct toward Miss von
Wallbach, and I fail to find the consistency in that conduct which,
to be sure, you have unfortunately never led me to expect. According
to my conception, it was your duty to retire, once for all, the
moment your heart was seriously engaged in another direction. In our
close relations with the Wallbachs it would, indeed, have been very
difficult and unpleasant, but a finality; one may be deceived in his
feelings, and society accepts such changes of heart and their practical
consequences if all is done at the right time and in the right manner.
How you will make this retreat now without more serious embarrassment
I do not know; I only know that it must be done. Or would you have
pursued the wrong to the limit, and bound yourself in this case as you
did in that?"
"I am not bound to Miss von Wallbach in any way except as everybody has
seen, by no word which everybody has not heard, or at least might have
heard; and my attachment for her has been so wavering from the first
moment on----"
"Like your conduct. Let us not speak of it further, then; let us
consider, rather, the situation into which you have brought yourself
and consider the consequences. The first is that you have forfeited
your diplomatic career--with a burgher woman as your wife, you cannot
appear at St. Petersburg or any other court; the second is that you
must have yourself transferred to another regiment, as you could not
avoid the most objectionable conflicts and collisions in your own
regiment, with a Miss Schmidt as your wife; third, that if the lady
doesn't bring you property, or, at least, a very considerable sum, the
arrangement of your external life in the future must be essentially
different from what it has been heretofore, and, I fear, one that may
be little in accord with your taste; the fourth consequence is that you
by this union--even though it should be as honorable in a burgher moral
sense as I wish and hope--by the simple letter of the will lose your
claim to your inheritance--I mention this here once more only for the
sake of completeness."
Ottomar knew that his father had not said everything, that he had
generously kept silent about the twenty-five thousand thalers of debts
which he had paid for him in the course of the last few years--that
is, his entire private fortune except a very small residue--and that
he could not pay back this money to his father in the near future as
he had intended to do, perhaps would never be able to pay it back. His
father was now dependent upon his salary, ultimately upon his pension;
and he had repeatedly spoken recently of wishing to retire from the
service!
His glance, which had been directed in his confusion toward the floor,
now passed shyly over to his father, who was pacing slowly to and fro
through the room. Was it the light? Was it that he saw him differently
today? His father appeared to him to be ten years older--for the first
time seemed to him an old man. With the feeling of love and reverence,
which he had always cherished for him, was mingled one almost of pity;
he wanted to fall at his feet, embrace his knees and exclaim, "Forgive
me for the mistakes I have made!" But he felt riveted to the spot; his
limbs would not move; his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth; he
could say nothing but--"You still have Else."
The General had stopped in front of the life-size portraits of his
father and mother, which hung on the wall--a superior officer in the
uniform of the Wars of the Liberation, and a lady, still young, in the
dress of the time, whom Else strikingly resembled about the forehead
and eyes.
"Who knows?" he said.
He passed his hand over his forehead.
"It is late in the night, two o'clock, and the morrow will have its
troubles, too. Will you be good enough to put out the gas lights above
you? Have you a light out there?"
"Yes, Papa."
"Very well! Good-night!"
He had extinguished one of the lamps in front of the mirror, and taken
the other.
"Can you find the door?"
Ottomar wished to exclaim, "Give me thy hand!" but he did not venture
to do so, and went toward the door saying, "Good-night!"--which had
a sound of resentment, because he had almost broken into tears. His
father stood at the door of his bedroom. "One thing more! I forgot to
say that I reserve the right to take the next step myself. As you have
so long hesitated to take the initiative, you will have to grant me
this favor. I shall keep you informed, of course. I beg you to take no
further step without my knowledge. We must act in conjunction, now that
we understand each other."
He had said the last words with a melancholy smile that cut Ottomar to
the heart. He could bear it no longer, and rushed out of the room.
The General, too, already had his hand on the latch; but as Ottomar
had now vanished he drew it back, took the lamp to the writing-desk, a
drawer of which he unlocked, and drew out, where, among other ornaments
of little value belonging to his deceased wife and mother, he kept also
the iron rings of his father and mother from the Wars of the Liberation.
He took the rings.
"Another time has come," he muttered, "not a better one! Whither,
alas! have they vanished? And your piety, your fidelity to duty, your
modest simplicity, your holy resignation? I have honestly endeavored
to emulate you, to be a worthy son of a race which knew no other glory
than the bravery of its men and the virtue of its women. What have I
done that it should be visited on me?"
He kissed the rings and laid them back into the box, and from the
several miniatures on ivory took that of a beautiful brown-haired,
brown-eyed boy of perhaps six years.
He looked at it for a long time, motionless.
"The family of Werben will die out with him, and--he was my favorite.
Perhaps I am to be punished because I was unspeakably proud of him
prematurely."
* * * * *
[Old Grollmann, the servant, finds a similar letter directed to Uncle
Ernst, and delivers it. Uncle Ernst reads it, drinks a bottle of wine,
and falls asleep, after having rung for his afternoon coffee. He is
found in this condition by Grollmann. Reinhold has been casting longing
glances toward the Werben house over the wall. The General calls to
speak with Uncle Ernst about the letter.
The General gives Uncle Ernst a brief story of his life and his
social point of view, so far as they touch the family of von Werben,
disclosing his aristocratic attitude. Uncle Ernst replies that he has
no family history to relate, but gives a brief sketch of his own life,
recalling vividly the incident in which he spared the General before
the barricade, and was taken captive by him in return, and shut up in
Spandau. It is a struggle between the aristocrat and the democrat of
'48; a sullen silence prevails between the two men. The General finally
asks, in the name of Ottomar, for the hand of Ferdinande. Uncle Ernst
starts back in amazement.]
* * * * *
The night had had no terrors and the morning no gloom for Ferdinande.
In her soul it was bright daylight for the first time in many
months--yes, as she thought, for the first time since she knew what a
passionate, proud, imperious heart throbbed in her bosom. They had told
her so, so often--in earlier years her mother, later her aunt, her girl
friends, all--that it would some time be her undoing, and that pride
goes before a fall; and she had always answered with resentment: "Then
I will be undone, I will fall, if happiness is to be had only as the
niggardly reward of humility, which always writhes in the dust before
Fate, and sings hymns of thanks because the wheels of grim Envy only
passed over it but did not crush it! I am not a Justus, I am not a
Cilli!"
And she had been unhappy even in the hours when enthusiastic artists,
Justus' friends, had worshipped, in extravagant words, the splendid
blooming beauty of the young girl; when these men praised and aided
her talents, and told her that she was on the right path to becoming
an artist at last--that she was an artist, a true artist. She did not
believe them; and, if she were a real artist--there were much greater
ones! Even Justus' hand could reach so much higher and farther than
hers; he plucked fruits with a smile and apparently without effort for
which she had to strive with unprecedented efforts and which would ever
remain unattainable to her, as she had secretly confessed to herself.
She had expressed her misgivings to that great French painter upon whom
her beauty had made such an overwhelming impression. He had evaded
her with polite smiles and words; then he finally told her seriously:
"Mademoiselle, there is only one supreme happiness for woman--that is
love; and she has only one gift of genius in which no man can equal
her--that again is love."--The word had crushed her; her art life was
thus a childish dream, and love!--Yes, she knew that she could love,
and boundlessly! But her eye was yet to see the man who could kindle
this love to the heavenly flame, and woe to her if she found him! He
would not understand her love, not comprehend, and most certainly not
be able to return it; would shrink back, perhaps, from its glow, and
she would be more unhappy than before.
[Illustration: TWO FAMILIES
_Permission Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris_ MICHAEL VON MUNKACSY]
And had not this dismal foreboding already been most sadly fulfilled?
Had she not felt herself unspeakably unhappy in her love for him who
had met her as if the Immortals had sent him, as if he were himself an
Immortal? Had she not declared countless times in writhing despair,
with tears in her eyes and bitter scorn, that he did not comprehend her
love, did not understand it--would never comprehend or understand it?
Had she not seen clearly that he shrank back, shuddered--not before
the perils which threatened along the dark way of love--he was as
bold as any other and more agile--but before love itself, before
all-powerful but insatiate love, love demanding everything!
So she had felt even yesterday--even the moment after the blissful
one, when she felt and returned his first kiss! And today! Today she
smiled, with tears of joy, at her dejection. Today, in her imagination,
she begged her lover's pardon for all the harshness and bitterness
which, in thought and expression, she had entertained toward him, but
now, with a thousand glowing kisses pressed upon his fair forehead,
his loving eyes, his sweet mouth, would never again think, never again
express!
She had wished to work, to put the last touches on her "Woman with the
Sickle." Her hand had been as awkward and helpless as in the period of
her first apprenticeship, and it had occurred to her, not without a
shudder, that she had sworn not to finish the work. It was a fortunate
oath, though she knew it not. What should she do with this hopeless
figure of jealous vengeance? How foolish this whole elaborate apparatus
for her work appeared--this room with high ceiling, these easels, these
mallets, these rasps, these modeling tools, these coats-of-arms, hands,
feet, these heads, these busts, after the originals of the Masters, her
own sketches, outlines, finished works--childish gropings with bandaged
eyes after a happiness not to be found here--to be found only in love,
the one true original talent of woman--her talent which she felt was
her only one, that outshone everything which men had hitherto felt and
called love!
She could not endure the room this morning; now her studio had become
too small for her. She went out into the garden, and passed along the
walks between the foliage, under the trees, from whose rustling boughs
drops of rain from the night before fell down upon her. How often the
bright sunshine and the blue sky had offended her, seeming to mock her
pain! She looked up triumphantly to the gray canopy of clouds, which
moved slowly and darkly over her head; why did she need the sunshine
and the light--she, in whose heart all was pure light and brightness!
The drizzling mist which now began to fall would only cool a bit the
inner fire that threatened to consume her! Moving clouds and drizzling
mist, rustling trees and bushes, the damp dark earth itself--it was all
strangely beautiful in the reflection of her love!
She went in again and seated herself at the place where he had kissed
her, and dreamed on, while in the next room they hammered and knocked
and alternately chatted and whistled.--She dreamed that her dream had
the power to bring him back, who now slowly and gently opened the door
and--it was only a dream--came up to her with a happy smile on his
sweet lips, and a bright gleam in his dark eyes, till suddenly the
smile vanished from his lips and only his eyes still gleamed--no longer
with that fervid glow, but with the dismal melancholy penetration of
her father's eyes. And now it was not only her father's eyes; it became
more and more--her father, great God!
She had started out of her dream, but sank back into her seat and grew
rigid again. She had seen, with half-opened eyes, from the look in his
eyes and the letter which he held in his hand, why he had come. So in
half-waking, confused, passionate words, she told him. He bowed his
head but did not contradict her; he only replied, "My poor child!"
"I am no longer your poor child, if you treat me so."
"I fear you never have been my child at heart."
"And if I have never been, who is to blame for it but you? Did you
ever show me the love which a child is justified in demanding of a
father? Have you ever done anything to make the life you gave me worth
while? Did my industry ever wrest from you a word of praise? Did what
I accomplished ever draw from you a word of recognition? Did you not
rather do everything to humiliate me in my own eyes, to make me smaller
than I really was, to make me dislike my art, to make me feel that in
your eyes I was not and never could be an artist? Am I to blame that
you never considered all this anything better than a big play house,
which you bought for me to dally and play away my useless time in? And
now--now you come to wrest from me my love, simply because your pride
demands it, simply because it offends you that such a useless, lowly
creature can ever have a will of its own, can wish something different
from what you wish? But you are mistaken, Father! I am, in spite of all
that, your daughter. You can cast me off, you can drive me into misery
as you can crush me with a hammer, because you are the stronger; my
love you cannot tear away from me!"
"I can, and I will!"
"Try it!"
"The attempt and success are one. Do you wish to become the mistress of
Lieutenant von Werben?"
"What has that question to do with my love?"
"Then I will put it in another form: Have you the courage to wish to be
like those wretched foolish creatures who give themselves up to a man,
out of wedlock or in wedlock--for wedlock does not change matters--for
any other prize than the love which they take in exchange for their
love? Von Werben has nothing to give in exchange; von Werben does not
love you."
Ferdinande laughed with scorn.--"And he came to you, knowing that you
hated him and his whole family with a blind hatred, in order to tell
you this?"
"He could not come; his father had to do the difficult errand for him,
for which he had not the courage, for which his father had to enforce
the permission of his son."
"That is----"
"It is not a lie! By my oath! And still more: He did not even go of
his own will to his father; he would not have done it today, he would
perchance never have done it, if his father had been content with
asking him whether it was true, what the sparrows chatter from the roof
and the blackmailers wrote to the unsuspecting father anonymously, that
Lieutenant von Werben has a sweetheart beyond the garden-wall or--how
do I know!"
"Show me the letters!"
"Here is one of them; the General will be glad to let you have the
other, no doubt; I do not think the son will lay claim to it."
Ferdinande read the letter.
She had considered it certain that Antonio alone could have been the
betrayer; but this letter was not by Antonio--could not be by him.
Then other eyes than the passionate jealous eyes of the Italian had
looked into the secret. Her cheeks, still pale, flared with outraged
modesty.--"Who wrote the letter?"
"Roller; he has not even disguised his hand to the General."
She gave the letter back to her father quickly, and pressed her
forehead as if she wished to remove the traces of emotion. "Oh, the
disgrace, the disgrace!" she muttered; "oh, the disgust! the disgust!"
The dismissed inspector had taken up his residence in her family
till Ferdinande had noticed that he was audaciously beginning to pay
attention to her; she had made use of a pretense of a disagreement,
which he had had with her father, first to strain the social relations,
then to drop them. And the bold repulsive eyes of the man--"Oh, the
disgrace! oh, the disgrace! oh, the disgust!" she muttered continually.
She paced with long strides up and down, then went hurriedly to the
writing-desk which stood at one end of the large room, wrote hastily
a few lines, and then took the sheet to her father, who had remained
standing motionless in the same spot. "Read!"
And he read:
My father wishes to make a sacrifice of his convictions for me, and
consents to my union with Lieutenant von Werben. But, for reasons which
my pride forbids me to record, I renounce this union once for all,
as a moral impossibility, and release Lieutenant von Werben from all
responsibility which he may consider he has toward me. This decision,
which I have reached with full freedom, is irrevocable; I shall
consider any attempt on the part of Lieutenant von Werben to change it
as an insult.
Signed, Ferdinande Schmidt.
"Is that correct?"
He nodded. "Shall I send him this?"
"In my name."
She turned away from him and, seizing a modeling stick, went to her
work. Her father folded the sheet and went toward the door. Then he
stopped. She did not look up, apparently entirely absorbed in her work.
His eyes rested upon her with deep pain--"And yet!" he murmured--"Yet!"
He had closed the door behind him and was walking slowly across the
court through whose broad empty space the rain-storm howled.
"Empty and desolate!" he murmured.--"All is empty and desolate! That is
the end of the story for me and for her!"
"Uncle!"
He started from his sullen brooding; Reinhold was hastily coming from
the house toward him, bareheaded, excited.
"Uncle, for Heaven's sake!--The General has just left me--I know
all.--What did you decide?"
"What we had to."
"It will be the death of Ferdinande!"
"Better that than a dishonorable life!"
He strode past Reinhold into the house. Reinhold did not dare to follow
him; he knew it would be useless.
* * * * *
[Giraldi and Valerie have just returned from Rome and put up at the
Hotel Royal in Berlin. Valerie writes her brother, the General, a
note, which Else answers. Valerie thinks the friendly answer a trap.
Giraldi has another interview with Privy Councilor Schieler, "the
wonderworker," about the Warnow estates and about enlisting the
interests of Count Golm. The Count snaps eagerly at the bait held out
by the company--namely, the sale of the Warnow estates through him to
the company. Giraldi plans to have Golm get Else's part of the estate
by marrying her. Giraldi discovers that Antonio is the original of the
"Shepherd Boy" in the exhibition, and identifies him as the son of
himself and Valerie. Justus had discovered Antonio in Italy and brought
him home with him to Berlin. Antonio remains with Justus to be near
Ferdinande. Jealousy leads Antonio to the discovery of the relation
between Ferdinande and Ottomar. Ottomar's betrothal to Carla and Else's
relations with Reinhold are touched upon. Giraldi goes out to receive
His Excellency, tossing a few sweet phrases to Valerie, enough to show
her that she is still in his grip, and that she will never be able to
break his spell over her. Else calls and finds her in this frame of
mind.
* * * * *
Aunt Sidonie calls to see Valerie and chatters long about the family
and the betrothal of Ottomar and Carla. Else has thus been able to
reestablish friendly relations between Valerie and her father's family.]
* * * * *
Giraldi had not intended to stay away so long. It was to have been
only a formal call, a return of the one he had made on His Excellency
yesterday morning--but that loquacious gentleman still had much to
say about the things they thought they had settled yesterday--much to
add--even when he was standing at the door with one hand on the knob,
and the other, which held his hat, passing before his half-blinded
eyes, covered by gray spectacles, in an effort to shield them from the
light that came in too brightly from the window opposite.
"It seems foolish to try to warn the wisest of men," said he with a
cynical smile which, on his strange face, turned into a tragic grimace.
"Especially when the warning comes from the most courageous of men,"
answered Giraldi.
"And yet," continued His Excellency, "even he is wise--you
underestimate his wisdom; even he is courageous--almost to
foolhardiness. He gives proof of it every day. People like him, I
think, cannot be appreciated _par distance_ at all; at least half of
the charm which they have for their associates is in their personality.
You have to be close to them, personally--come into contact with them
in the same room--see them going to a Court soirée, to understand why
the other beasts grovel in the dust before such lions, and, even when
they wish to oppose, can do no more than swish their tails. Believe
me, honored friend, separation in space is just as unfavorable to the
appreciation of such truly historic greatness as is separation in time.
You Romans think you can explain by the logic of facts everything that
depends solely upon overpowering personality, just as our all-wise
historians construe the marvelous deeds of an Alexander or a Cæsar,
even to the dotting of an "i," all very coldly, as necessarily
following the bare situations in the case, just as though the
situations were a machine that turns out its product, whether master or
menial set it going."
Giraldi smiled. "Thanks, Your Excellency, in the name of His Holiness;
for you probably intended that brilliant little sermon for him anyway.
It is a good thing, too, for His Holiness to be shown the other side
of the medal once in a while, so that he may not forget fear, which is
the foundation of all wisdom, and may remain mindful of the necessity
of our advice and support. Only, at this moment, when the shadows of
clouds that threaten all around our horizon lie dark on his soul, I
would rather not represent the case to him as more troublesome, nor the
man in the case more dangerous, than we ourselves see them from our
knowledge of them. That is why I diligently used my very last interview
to raise his dejected spirits a little. May I give Your Excellency an
instance to show how very necessary that was? Very well! His Holiness
was speaking in almost the same words of the demoniac power of the
arch-enemy of our most Holy Church; he calls him a robber, a Briareus,
a murderer, a colossus, that plants his feet on two hemispheres, as the
one at Rhodes did on the two arms of the harbor. This, Your Excellency,
was my answer to His Holiness--that I could see even now the stone
falling from on high, the stone which would crush the feet of the
colossus. His eyes gleamed, his lips moved; he repeated the words to
himself; soon he will proclaim it _urbi et orbi_, as he does everything
with which we stuff him. Our enemies will laugh, but it will reassure
the weak hearts among us as it visibly reassured that poor old man."
"I would it were as true as it is reassuring," said His Excellency.
"And isn't it true?" cried Giraldi. "Doesn't the colossus really stand
on feet of masonry? What good is all this bloated boasting of the
power and the majesty and the cultural mission of the German Empire?
The end of the whole story, which he carefully avoids mentioning--or
at most has added very obscurely--is ever the strong Prussian
kingdom. What good can it do him to change restlessly from one rôle
to another, and proclaim today the universal right of suffrage, to
thunder against socialism tomorrow, day after tomorrow, in turn, to
censure the _bourgeoisie_ as though they were rude schoolboys. He is,
and will always be, the _major domus_ of the Hohenzollerns, whether
he will or not, in moments of impatience at his most gracious lord's
wise hesitation on some point, of anger at the intrigues of the court
_camarilla_, or whatever else may stir up his haughty soul. Believe me,
Your Excellency, this man, in spite of the liberalism which he wears
most diligently for appearances' sake, is an aristocrat from head to
foot, and, in spite of his oft-vaunted broad-mindedness, is full of
medieval, romantic cobwebs; he can at heart never desire anything,
and will never desire anything, but a kingdom by divine right, and,
while desiring a kingdom by divine right, he works away at one by
the people's right. Or what else is it, when he uproots respect for
the clergy in the people--not only for the Catholic clergy!--The
interests of all sects have always been common, and the sympathy
which a maltreated Catholic clergy awakens in the Protestant will
soon enough come to light. But without clerics there will be no God,
and no king by divine right--that is to say, he cuts off the branch
to which he clings. Now if he were not to take the thing nearly as
seriously as he does, if he were to be--which is incredible to me--so
narrow-minded and frivolous as to regard it all only in the light of a
question of etiquette, a dispute over precedence of the _major domus_
and grandees in the state of his own creation, which he wishes to
justify in the eyes of the church, then history would lead him back _ad
absurdum_, for it teaches on every page that a priest never accepts
this subordination; at the most, he endures it if he must. We are what
we always have been, and always shall be. And, Your Excellency, that
is his Achilles' heel--not to understand this, to believe that he can
intimidate us by threats and frights, and make us into creatures of
his will. When he sees that he will not get anywhere that way--and
I hope he will not see it very soon--he will try to compromise with
us, and compromise again and again, and be driven step by step into
the camp of the reactionaries; he will be forced to express more and
more openly the contradiction of his purpose--the kingdom by divine
right and his methods which he has borrowed from the arsenal of the
revolution; and this contradiction into which he is hopelessly driving,
and from which the revolution must come--for no people will long endure
a self-contradictory régime--is the stone which is already rolling, and
will let loose the avalanche and crush the colossus."
"_Serve him right_, and good luck to him!" said His Excellency with a
sarcastic smile, and then--after a little pause--"I am only afraid
sometimes that we too shall take the _salto mortale_ with him, and----"
"And stand firmer than ever on our feet," interrupted Giraldi quickly.
"What have we to fear from the revolution, the people? Nothing,
absolutely nothing! If people dance around the golden calf today, they
will grovel so much the lower in the dust before Jehovah tomorrow.
If today they enthrone the Goddess of Reason, tomorrow they will
flee, like a child that has frightened itself, back to the bosom of
the Mother Church. And if, as you said, Darwinism is really to be
the religion of the future for Germany--very well; then we shall be
Darwinians _par excellence_ and proclaim the new doctrine with holy
zeal from the rostra of the universities; we know well enough that
Nature wraps herself the more closely in her veil the more impatiently
the inquisitive pupil pulls at it, and then, when he has looked into
the hollow eyes of nothing, and lies crushed on the ground, we come and
raise up the poor knave and comfort him with the admonition, 'Go thy
way and sin no more'; and he goes his way and sins henceforth no more
in the foolish thirst for knowledge, for the burden of ignorance is
lighter and her yoke is easier--_quod erat demonstrandum_."
The corners of His Excellency's mouth were drawn apart as far as
possible. Even Giraldi was smiling.
"I wish I had you here always," said His Excellency.
"To tell Your Excellency things which you have long worn off on the
soles of your shoes with which you mount the rostrum."
"I generally speak from my place."
"And ever at the right place."
"It's often enough nothing but sound, and no one knows that better than
I myself. One has to consider how things sound."
"And not for naught. To us across the mountain the little silver bell
is the huge bell of the cathedral, whose bronze voice calls the tardy
to their duty and spurs on the brave to fiercer fight."
"And that reminds me that I myself am a tardy one this moment, and that
a fierce fight awaits me today in the Chamber."
"His Excellency will not forget my little commission," said Giraldi.
"How could I!" exclaimed His Excellency. "I hope, indeed, to have a
chance before the day is over to mention the matter. Of course they
won't do it without a little _baksheesh_--they don't do anything there
for the love of God; fortunately we always have such stuff on hand.
The promise to drive the screw one turn less tight in Alsace-Lorraine
and not to disturb rudely the childish pleasure of the old Catholic
gentlemen in Cologne, and not to beat the drum quite so loudly in the
coming discussion about the brave Bishop of Ermeland--every single
one of these kindnesses is worth a General, especially if he has such
antediluvian, unpractical ideas concerning the state, society and the
family."
"And such a thing passes without _éclat_?"
"Absolutely without _éclat_. Oh, my honored friend, you must not
consider us any longer the honest barbarians of Tacitus; we really have
learned something since that time!--God help you!"
"Will Your Excellency permit me to accompany you to your carriage?"
"Under no circumstances; my body-servant is waiting for me in the hall;
have him come in, please."
"Grant, Your Excellency, that now, as ever, I be your humble servant."
Giraldi was about to offer his arm to the half-blinded man, when a new
caller was announced.
"Who is it?" asked His Excellency with some anxiety; "you know I must
not be seen here by every one."
"It is Privy Councilor Schieler, Your Excellency."
"Oh, he!--By the way, don't trust that old sneak any more than is
necessary! He is a box that contains many good wares, but is to be
handled with care. Above all things, don't trust him in the matter in
question; it is quite unnecessary; his high protector can do nothing
about it."
"That is why I took the liberty to turn to Your Excellency."
"One is always too late with his advice to you. Another thing: In this
little clan war, as you have to carry it on here with the North German
centaurs, you need what is known to be thrice necessary in real war.
Are you sufficiently provided with that?"
"I was ever of the opinion that war must sustain war. Besides, I can
draw on Brussels at any time for any amount, if it should be necessary."
"Perhaps it will be necessary. In any case, keep the party in hand.
There is, in spite of your sanguine hopes for the future, which I,
by the way, share fully, a period of lean years ahead of us first.
We shall have to lead the life of a church mouse, and church-mouse
precaution behooves us now more than ever. You will keep me _au
courant_?"
"In my own interest, Your Excellency."
The Privy Councilor had entered; His Excellency extended him his hand.
"You come as I am leaving--that's too bad. You know that there is no
one with whom I would rather chat than with you. Which way does the
wind blow today in Wilhelmstrasse? Did they sleep well? Did they get
out of bed with the right foot or the left first? Nerves faint or firm?
Is country air in demand or not? Good Heavens! Don't let me die of
unsatisfied curiosity!" His Excellency did not wait for the smiling
Privy Councilor to answer, but shook hands again with both gentlemen,
and, leaning on the arm of his body-servant, who meanwhile had come in,
left the room.
"Isn't it wonderful," said the Privy Councilor,--"this prodigious
versatility, this marvelous ready wit, this quickness in attack, this
security in retreat. A Moltke of guerilla warfare. What an enviable
treasure your party has in this man!"
"Our party, my dear sir? Pardon me, I really must first stop and think
each time that you don't belong to us. Won't you sit down?"
"Thank you, no. I haven't a moment to spare, and I can only tell you
the most essential part in flying haste. First, in the Department
of Commerce they are beside themselves over a just reported vote of
the great General Staff on the Harbor matter which, as a colleague
has informed me--I myself have not been able to get a look at it--is
as much as a veto. The finished report is by a certain Captain von
Schönau--but the mind behind it--it is an unheard of thing--is there,
right in the War Department, and is, of course, none other than our
friend the General. That sets us back again I don't know how far or for
how long. I am beside myself, and the more so because I am absolutely
at a loss in the face of this obstruction. Good Heavens! A man may have
influence and could use this influence if he had to, even against an
old friend, but he surely would not do that sort of thing except in the
last extremity. Now what is your advice?"
"The purity of our cause is not to be clouded by intermingling with
such repugnant personalities," replied Giraldi.--"If you think that
you must spare an old friend, then there is, as you know, an old feud
between the General and myself, and everything which I personally might
do against him, or cause to be done, would properly seem to every one
to be an act of common revenge--which may God Almighty forbid! If he
will, he can have some incident occur which will disarm our enemy, and
which doesn't need to be an accident because people call it so."
"You mean if he should die?" questioned the Privy Councilor with a
shifty look.
"I don't mean anything definite at all, and certainly not his death. As
far as I am concerned he may live long."
"That is a very noble sentiment, a very Christian sentiment,"
replied the Privy Councilor, rubbing his long nose.--"And it is my
heart's wish, of course; and yet his opposition is and always will
be a stumbling block. I wish that were our only obstacle! But Count
Golm tells me now--I have just come from him--he will give himself
the honor immediately after me--I have just hurried on ahead of him
because I have another little bit of information about him to give you,
which I'll tell you in a moment--Count Golm tells me that his efforts
with the President in Sundin--he had come over in his semi-official
capacity as president of the board of directors _in spe_--that they
had been fruitless, quite fruitless; that he had been convinced,
and unalterably, much as he would like to do it for the Count, for
a thousand reasons--regard for a fellow countryman, and personal
friendship, and so on. Golm, who, between you and me, is crafty enough
and by no means a fool, finally hinted at the great sacrifices which we
had decided to make--but all in vain. In fact, Golm says that he rather
made matters worse than better by that."
"As ever when one does things by halves," said Giraldi.
"By halves, my dear sir! How do you mean that? What did they offer him?"
"Fifty thousand thalers as compensation, and the first position as
director of the new road, with six thousand a year fixed salary,
besides customary office rent, traveling expenses, and so forth."
"Well then, that, I suppose, is just half of what the man demanded
himself!"
"He didn't demand anything."
"One doesn't demand such things; one has them offered him. Authorize
the Count to propose twice as much, and I'll wager the deal is closed."
"We can't go as far as that," replied the Privy Councilor, scratching
his close-cropped hair.--"We haven't the means to permit that; and the
rest of us, too--and then, for the present, Count Golm is satisfied
with fifty thousand; we could not offer the President twice as much
without insulting Golm. He is already not so very kindly disposed
toward us, and that is the point that I should like to settle with you
before he gets here. Is it really impossible for you to--I mean for us:
the Board of Trustees of Warnow--to sell directly to us: I mean the
corporation?"
"Over the Count's head?" cried Giraldi.--"Goodness, Privy Councilor, I
think that you are bound by the most definite promises, so far as the
Count is concerned, in this respect!"
"Of course, of course, unfortunately. But then even Lübbener--our
financier, and at the same time----"
"The Count's banker--I know----"
"You know everything!--Even Lübbener thinks that one could get a little
assistance from a man who, like the Count, falls from one dilemma into
another, and is always inclined or compelled to sell his birthright for
a mess of pottage. Only we do not wish or intend to act contrary to
your plans, and if you insist upon it----"
"I insist upon nothing, Sir," replied Giraldi; "I simply follow the
wishes of my mistress, which, on this point, are identical with those
of von Wallbach."
"Good Lord," exclaimed the Privy Councilor impatiently, "I quite
understand that, to keep up appearances, one would rather sell to an
equal in rank than to a committee, even though the man concerned be a
member of this very committee; but you ought not to forget, too, that
we should have to pay direct to you just as much, or about as much, as
we shall hereafter have to pay the Count."
"The Count will not get off so cheaply as you say, either----"
"He will sell to us so much the higher," said the Privy Councilor.
"Matters will only be worse for us thereby."
"And yet I must, to my great regret, hereby refuse my support," replied
Giraldi decidedly.
The Privy Councilor made a very wry face. "It will be best," he
said grumblingly, "if he can't find the money--not even the hundred
thousand, to say nothing of the million, or whatever sum we may agree
upon in family council as the price of the estates. For he has to yield
to us; I do not know any one else in the world who would advance him
so much, at once or in instalments. I can say in advance, of course,
without being Merlin the Wise, that he will not get the money from us
cheaply, and so it will be evened up again at the end.--But now, my
honored patron, I must give place to the Count, and take leave of you.
My regards to Madame, whom I have not had the pleasure, unfortunately,
of meeting, but for whom I have felt the profoundest respect and have
gallantly shattered many a lance, after the manner of a knight. Not
in vain, for this family visit--I met Miss Sidonie down in the hall;
Miss Else had already gone on ahead--is a concession which I, without
immodesty, may consider the fruits of my persuasive art. _Apropos_, my
dear old friend Sidonie--she wanted to know yesterday what had really
been the deciding element in the matter of the engagement, which had
broken Ottomar's stubborn resistance."
"Well?" asked Giraldi with unfeigned curiosity.
"I do not know," said the Privy Councilor, laying his finger on his
long nose--"that is to say, my dear friend knows nothing, or she would
have told me. From what the servant says--that was all she could tell
me--an interview took place the night before between father and son.
I have every reason to think the subject was by no means a romantic
one--on the contrary, one as prosaic as it is inexhaustible, that of
Ottomar's debts.--Farewell, my dear, honored patron; you will keep me
informed, will you not?"
"Be assured of that!"
The Privy Councilor had gone; Giraldi kept his dark eyes fixed on
the door, a smile of profoundest contempt played about his lips.
"_Buffone!_" he muttered.
* * * * *
[Wallbachs and Ottomar call on Valerie. Giraldi asks François about the
interview between Valerie, Sidonie and Else. Count Golm is announced,
and speaks with Giraldi in the outer room about the advance of the
loan, and the impossible conditions which Lübbener, the banker, has
made him, and mentions his visit to Philip. Giraldi confuses Philip
with Reinhold, to the disgust of Golm, who informs Giraldi that Philip
is a promoter of the Sundin-Berlin railroad; that he is to build the
road, and is, besides, a graceful, companionable, immensely rich man.
Giraldi offers Golm half a million as advance loan for a four per cent.
mortgage, under promise of secrecy, telling him it is the hand of a
friend, not of a usurer, that is extended to him. The Count then goes
into the other room to meet the ladies.
Carla is eager to make the acquaintance of Giraldi, but Ottomar
conceives a dislike for the Count, and is alarmed at the power of
Giraldi; but Giraldi wins his confidence by flatteries and assurances
of friendship. During the conversation Valerie compares the studied
manner of Carla with the naturalness and ease of Else, and is convinced
that Carla is not suited to Ottomar. The company departs, and a scene
follows between Giraldi and Valerie.
The General speaks frankly with Reinhold about Ferdinande and wishes
that her father would relent as he has, but Uncle Ernst is still
obdurate. Justus and Reinhold converse about Uncle Ernst, and Justus
asks Reinhold to sit as model for one of his reliefs. The conversation
turns upon love, which Justus declares is a strange drop in the
artist's blood; Reinhold begs Justus not to express his opinions of
love in Cilli's hearing.
Cilli's father speculates in the railroad stocks on the sly. Cilli
is to be modeled by Justus, and tells Reinhold how her friends look,
although she cannot see them. She asks Reinhold if he loves Else, and
when he confesses he does, Cilli tells him that she was afraid at first
that he was in love with Ferdinande. Reinhold tells Cilli that he
thinks Else unattainable; Cilli replies that love is always a miracle,
and that Reinhold must be himself if he would win Else. Reinhold goes
away greatly encouraged, and finds in his room a letter from the
President telling him that his appointment as Pilot Commander has been
ratified, and that he shall appear at the ministry at his earliest
convenience.
Mieting comes unannounced to visit Else, and makes conquest of
the entire circle of Else's friends; even the stern old General
and Baroness Kniebreche are captivated by her spritely, impulsive
personality; but Mieting is not pleased with Carla as Ottomar's
prospective bride. Mieting refers to the evening at Golmberg, and tries
to find out Else's relations to Reinhold. She finally discovers the
compass in one of Else's gowns, and finds, in conversation with Else,
that she and Reinhold are in love. Justus models Mieting, who describes
the meaning of artistic terms to Else in her own naïve way. She tells
Else that Justus has made a model of Reinhold, which Else is to wear in
the form of a medallion as big as a cart-wheel.]
* * * * *
Mieting followed her hero without allowing herself to be deterred by
anything, even Aunt Rikchen's spectacles.--"And that is not a matter
for jest," said Mieting, as she related that evening the experiences of
the session; "I would rather face the lorgnette of Baroness Kniebreche.
For behind that is nothing but a pair of dimmed eyes, for which I feel
anything but fear; but when Aunt Rikchen lets her spectacles slip down
to the point of her nose, she only begins to see clearly, so that one
might become anxious and uneasy if one had not a good conscience--and
you know, Else, something unusual must have happened between you and
the Schmidts, has it not? It is, to be sure, still mysterious, for the
good lady mixes up everything, like cabbage and turnips; but she had
nothing good to say of the Werbens, like my Papa about the Griebens,
who continually dig away his line, he says; and you have dug away
something from the Schmidts, and that, you will find, is the reason
why Reinhold has become distant. We shall not learn it from him, but
Aunt Rikchen can't keep anything secret, and we are already the best
of friends. I am a good girl, she says, and can't help being so; and
the dove that brought the olive branch to the earth did not know what
it had in its beak, and I saw that Reinhold, who was in the studio,
winked at her, and Mr. Anders also made a really wry face and looked at
Reinhold--the three know something; that much is clear, and I mean to
find it out, depend upon it!"
But Mieting did not find it out, and could not, for Aunt Rikchen
herself did not know the real situation and the others did not let
her into the secret. Mieting's communications contributed by no
means to Else's pacification, even though Else had at least had the
pleasure during the first few days of hearing about Reinhold through
Mieting--how he had come into the studio and kept them company for
a while, and how he had looked; but even this source of consolation
flowed less freely and appeared gradually to dry up entirely. One
day he had been there scarcely five minutes; another day he had only
gone through the studio; a third, Mieting had not seen him at all;
on the fourth she did not know whether she had seen him or not. Else
supposed she knew what to think of this apparent indifference--that
Mieting had learned something which she did not wish to tell her, or
had convinced herself otherwise of the hopelessness of her love, and
that the detailed account which she gave of her other experiences
and observations, in the studio, were only to serve to conceal her
embarrassment.
It was, accordingly, with only divided interest that Else listened to
these accounts--how Mieting rose daily in the favor of Aunt Rikchen,
who was really a fine old lady and had her heart in the right place,
even if her spectacles did always sit crooked on the point of her
nose; and how the kind old woman had something specially touching for
her, for she too would look like that in fifty years. But a pretty
young blind girl, who came every day, had touched her still more
deeply, because Mr. Anders wanted to model them side by side on the
same relief; when she spoke, it was just as if a lark sang high, high
up in the blue air on a Sunday morning, when all is quiet in the
fields; and Justus said that Nature had never but once brought forth a
contrast like her and Cilli, and if he succeeded in reproducing that,
people would be permitted to speak to him only with their hats in
their hands.--There was another, next to Justus' studio, which aroused
her curiosity, because the occupant never showed herself, and she
could form no idea of a lady who kneaded clay, or hammered around on
marble--least of all of a marvelously beautiful, elegant lady, such as
Justus says Miss Schmidt is.--"For you know, Else, a sculptor differs
in appearance from a baker only in that he has clay instead of dough in
his fingers, and is powdered with marble-dust instead of flour, so that
one can hardly consider such a queer human child as a decent gentleman,
much less as an artist, and the only one who always looks so clean and
neat, in spite of his working jacket, and is more wonderfully handsome
than any one I have ever seen in my life--that one is not an artist,
Justus says, for he cannot do anything but point and carve--but you,
poor child, possibly do not know at all what pointing means? Pointing,
you know, is that which one does with a bill-stork or a stork-bill----"
And now followed a very long and confused explanation, from which Else
understood nothing but Mieting's wish to talk of anything but what
was engrossing her heart.--"The work will be finished," said Else to
herself, "and the entire success of the beautiful plan will consist in
my not being able to consider Reinhold's reserve as accidental."
But the work seemed not likely to be finished.--Such a face he had
never seen, said Justus; one might just as well model clouds in
springtime, which changed their form every moment.--And, again, when
the relief was done--"you can't believe how horrible I look, Else, like
a Chinese girl!"--Justus had set himself to finish his "Ready to Help,"
and--"then I cannot leave the poor fellow in the lurch, who tortures
himself so; for you know, Else, it is not simply a question of the
head, but of the whole figure--the posture, gestures--of new motives,
you know--but I think you, poor child, do not know at all what a motive
is. Motive is when one does not know what to do, and suddenly sees
something, in which, in reality, there is nothing to see--let us say, a
cat or a washtub----"
It was the longest, and also the last, explanation which Mieting drew
from the abundance of her newly acquired wisdom for her friend. During
the next few days Else had more to do about the house than usual, and
another matter urgently claimed her attention. After two months of
negotiation the final conference was held at her father's house to
consider the future management of the Warnow estates, in which, with
the three votes of von Wallbach, Privy Councilor Schieler, and Giraldi,
against the vote of the General, who had his dissenting view with his
reasons recorded in the minutes, it was decided that the whole complex
should be sold as soon as possible, and Count Golm be accepted as
purchaser, in case the conditions of the sale arranged by the family
council were agreed upon.
He came from the council pale and exhausted as Else had never before
seen him. "They carried it through, Else," he said. "The Warnow
estates, which have been in the possession of the family for two
hundred years, will be sacrificed and bartered.--Your Aunt Valerie
may answer for it if she can. For she, and she alone, is to blame for
letting an old respected family ignominiously perish. If she had been
a good and true wife to my friend--what is the use of lamenting about
things that are passed! It is foolish even in my eyes, not to say in
the eyes of those to whom the present is everything. And I must admit
they acted quite in the spirit of our time--wisely, reasonably, in
the interest of all of you. You will all be at least twice as rich as
you are, if the sale turns out as favorably as the Privy Councilor
prophesies. It is very unlike a father, Else, but I hope he may triumph
too soon. The Count, whom he mentions as purchaser, can only pay the
silly price--for the actual total value of the estates is scarcely
half a million, much less a whole million--in case he is sure they will
take the enormous burden from his shoulders immediately--that is, if
the scandalous project, the perilous folly of which for the State I
so clearly demonstrated with the aid of the General Staff and Captain
Schmidt, should go through. If it did go through, if the concession
were made, still it would be a violation of the little bit of authority
to which I lay claim, and I should regard it as if I had been passed
over in the recent advancements. I should ask for my discharge at once.
The decision is pending. For Golm it is a vital question; he will
either be ruined or a Croesus; and I shall be an Excellency or a poor
pensioner--quite in the spirit of the times, which plays _va banque_
everywhere. Well, as God wills it! I can only gain, not lose, for the
highest and best; my clear conscience, the consciousness of having
stood by the old flag, of having acted as a Werben must act, nothing
and no one can take from me."
So Else's father spoke to her, in a state of agitation which appeared
in every word, in the vibrant tone of his deep voice, although he
sought to compose himself. It was the first time he had thus taken her
into his personal confidence, and made her the witness of a strife
which he formerly would have fought out himself in his proud silent
soul. Was it chance, or was it intended? Had the vessel, already too
full, only run over? Or did her father have an intimation--did he know
her secret? Did he wish to say to her: "Such a decision will perhaps
confront you; I wish, I hope, that you, too, will remain true to the
flag which is sacred to me--that you will be a Werben?"
That was in the forenoon; Mieting had accepted an invitation for
dinner, by way of exception, from a friend of her mother, after she had
had her sitting. She would not return before evening. For the first
time Else did not miss her friend; she was glad to be alone, silent,
busy with her own thoughts. They were not cheerful--these thoughts;
but she felt it her duty to work them out to the last particular, to
become clear in her own mind, if it were possible. She thought that it
would be possible, and felt, in consequence, a silent satisfaction,
which, to be sure, as she said to herself, would be the sole
compensation for all that she had secretly given up.
And in this spirit of resignation she received with calm composure the
news which Mieting brought to her when she came home, and which would
have filled her with sadness under other circumstances--Mieting had to
go away; she had found a letter from her Mama at the house of the lady
from whom she came, in which her Mama so bitterly complained of her
long absence that she could not do otherwise than leave at once--that
is, early in the morning. How she felt about it she would not and could
not say.
It was a strange state of mind in any case; while she seemed one moment
about to burst into tears, the next she broke into laughter which she
tried in vain to suppress, until the laughter turned to tears again.
And so she went on the rest of the evening. The next morning the
feeling had reached such a height that Else was seriously concerned
about the strange girl, and urged her to put off the journey until
she should be quieted to some extent. But Mieting remained firm; she
had decided, and Else would agree with her if she knew all, and she
should know all--but by letter; she couldn't tell her verbally without
laughing herself to death, and she mustn't die just now for reasons
which she again could not give without laughing herself to death.
And so she went on until she got into the carriage in which August was
to take her to the station. She had declined all other company most
positively--"for reasons, Else, you know, which--well! You will read it
all in the letter, you know, which--Good-by, dear, sweet, my only Else!"
With that Mieting drove off.
In the evening August, not without some formality, handed Else a
letter which Miss Mieting had given him at the last moment before
her departure with the express direction that he should deliver it
promptly at the stroke of nine in the evening, twelve hours later.
It was a letter in Mieting's most confused hand, from which Else
deciphered the following with some difficulty:
Six o'clock in the afternoon.
Dear Else!
Don't believe a word of all that I told you when I came home.--Oh, that
won't help you any! You first read this letter--I am writing it right
here at Madame von Randow's in order to lose no time--August is to give
it to you when I am gone--thus, not a bit of it is true; my mother
hadn't written at all; I lied; I have been lying to you and deceiving
you most monstrously for a week, for I have not been going there
during that time on your account, and that would have been the most
injudicious procedure, as I am convinced that your Reinhold has long
since noticed how matters stand with us and has kept out of the way
even before we had an idea of it, and you may believe, Else, that two
such men, when they are such good friends, stand by each other in such
matters in a way that we girls couldn't improve upon. And for dear,
blind Cilli we thought we needed to have no further concern, because
she always smiled so cheerfully when we teased each other, and then,
too, she couldn't see, and the eyes play such an important part in a
matter of that kind, you know! Indeed, it began with the eyes, for up
to that time all went well. But when he came to them he said: "At this
point I shall have to determine what the color of your eyes really is;
and I was puzzling my brain about that all those days." I declared they
were yellow; Aunt Rikchen thought they were green; he himself thought
they were brown--and Cilli, who was to decide the matter, said she
was convinced that they were blue; she was so cheerful, and cheerful
people must have blue eyes. So we jested to and fro and each day he
began again with my eyes and, because one can't speak of eyes very well
without looking into them, I looked into his eyes while he looked into
mine, and I don't know whether you have ever had the same experience,
Else--when one has done that a few days, one begins to see more clearly
what is going on back of the eyes--very curious things. I tell you that
a shudder goes over one; one doesn't know sometimes whether to laugh at
the one who is looking, and give him a snip on the nose, or to take to
crying and fall on his neck.
So I had felt a few times, and this noon again--only a little worse
than before. The assistants were off at dinner, and Aunt Rikchen had
gone to look after the house; only he and I and Cilli were there, and
Justus wanted to work on, if we were willing, to finish the work. But
he didn't work industriously, as was his custom, and I noticed that,
and didn't sit as quietly as usual, and we--that is, he and I--played
all sorts of pranks with Lesto, who had to pretend that he was dead,
and bark at me as if he were mad, and I pretended to want to hit his
master, and other nonsense, till suddenly we heard the door which leads
into the garden close and--Heavens! Else! how shall I describe it to
you--Cilli had gone away without our noticing it; we must thus have
been a bit boisterous, and for that reason became quiet now, still as
mice, so that one could have heard a pin drop, if one had dropped,
and I was so embarrassed, Else, so embarrassed, you know! And still
more embarrassed when all of a sudden he kneeled close before me--I
had seated myself, because my knees were shaking--and then looked me
again in the eyes, and I looked at him, you know I had to, Else!--and
asked, but very gently, what that meant. That means, he said--but also
very gently--that you must once for all declare yourself. I'll give
you a snip on the nose if you don't get up, said I, but still more
softly--I'll get up--but so close to my ear that I could not strike
his nose, but had to fall in all seriousness upon his neck, whereat
Lesto, who thought the life of his master was at stake, began to bark
dreadfully, and I, to pacify Lesto and to get Justus up from his knees,
said yes to everything he wished, that I loved him, that I'd be his
wife, and whatever else one says at such a dreadful moment.
And now, just think, Else!--When we had spent five minutes in pacifying
Lesto, and were about to leave--for I said I had sworn to be sensible,
and to be a credit to you, and not to remain a second with such a
dangerous man in such a lonesome spot, with all the horrible marble
figures--and we went to the rear arm in arm--suddenly, Cilli came
toward us from among the marble figures, as white as marble herself,
but with a heavenly smile on her face, and said that we must not be
angry, that the door had shut and she could not get it open, and she
had heard everything--she heard so easily--and it sounded so loud in
the studio. Oh, Else! I was so ashamed that I could have sunk into
the floor, for I'm sure we didn't stop with words, but the heavenly
creature blushed as if she had been able to see, took me by the hand,
and said I should not be ashamed--one need not be ashamed--of an
honorable, true love, and I didn't know at all how happy I was, and
how proud I should be, but I would gradually find it out, and should
be thankful for my proud joy, and love Justus very much, for an artist
needs love very much more than other people. Then she took Justus'
hand and said, "And you, Justus, you will love her as much as the
sunshine without which you cannot live!" And, as she said that, the
sunbeam fell from the high window of the studio directly upon the sweet
girl, and she looked transfigured--so supernaturally beautiful, with
her poor blind eyes turned upward, that at last I couldn't keep from
weeping, and had great difficulty in composing myself. And she said,
"You mustn't stay here in this disturbed condition; you must go home
at once and tell your mother about it, and no one else before her;
for the fact that I know it is an accident, for which you are not to
blame." And I promised her everything that she asked of me, and I now
realize that the angel was perfectly right, for I am entirely out of my
senses with joy, and can't talk anything but nonsense for very joy, and
that I don't dare to do, because I have sworn to be sensible, and to
do credit to you. Tomorrow morning I leave--tomorrow evening at eight
o'clock I shall be home, at half-past eight I shall have told my mama,
and at nine o'clock August will give you this letter, for after Mama
you come next, of course. That I told Cilli outright, and she agreed to
it, and her last word was: Ask God that your friend may be as happy as
you are now. That I will do, Else, depend upon it, and depend in every
other respect, too, upon your friend, who loves you above all else.
Your sensible Miete.
P. S. In "all," "he" is of course excepted! I'm dreadfully sorry, but
it can't be helped, you know!
* * * * *
"The dear, foolish child!" exclaimed Else with a deep sigh, when she
had finished the letter--"I grant it with all my heart." And as she
thus sat and thought about it--how wonderfully it had all come about,
and how happy the two would be in their love--her eyes became more set,
her breathing more difficult, and then she pressed her hands to her
eyes, bowed her head upon Mieting's letter, and wept bitterly.
* * * * *
[It is the day of the sale of the Warnow estates to Count Golm,
Giraldi is busy with letters, business papers, political matters from
Paris and London, and church affairs from Cologne and Brussels. The
papers are in English, French, Italian and German, and he makes his
comments on each document in the language in which it is written.
Among the letters is one from a priest in Tivoli, referring to his
child. Bertalde is announced, and says she is tired of having Ottomar
in her arms yearning for Ferdinande. She tells Ferdinande of Ottomar's
love. Giraldi assures her of his good will toward Ottomar, to whom
he has given a hundred thalers. She caresses and kisses Giraldi for
it. Antonio is announced, Bertalde is led out by François, but in the
confusion Antonio recognizes the girl as the lady in black, whom he
had seen in Ferdinande's studio. Antonio gives Giraldi a letter from
Justus' desk, which Giraldi notes and returns, asking him to show him
other such letters. Giraldi impresses Antonio with his marvelous power
to accomplish what he wishes.]
* * * * *
"You shall see, Carla, he won't come today, either," said Madame von
Wallbach, trying to get a more comfortable position in her armchair.
"_Je le plains! Je le blâme, mais_----"
Carla, who sat on the right, shrugged her shoulders, and made a
_pianissimo_ gesture with her right hand.
"Miss von Strummin has left, too, without making us a farewell call."
"The silly little thing!" said Carla, making the return motion with her
hand.
"And Else has not even been here to excuse this rudeness."
"So much the worse for her," said Carla.
"I wash my hands in innocence," said Madame von Wallbach, rising slowly
and going into the reception room, which one of the dinner guests had
entered.
Carla was also just about to rise, but remained seated when she heard
that it was a lady, and one, too, of little importance. She dropped her
hands into her lap and looked down thoughtfully.
"He's not half so clever; sometimes he doesn't understand at all what
I say.--I even believe he's _un peu bête_; but he--worships me. Why
should I renounce all my admirers for the sake of a betrothed who does
not trouble himself about me? Of late he has scared them all away."
The door into the vestibule opened behind her; only more intimate
friends entered this room, her room, when there were small parties; the
one who entered must be either Ottomar or the Count. She had not heard
anything, but, as the steps approached over the rug, she passed her
fingers dreamily over the piano: "The Grail is already sending for the
tardy one----"
"My dear Miss Carla!"
"O dear Count!" said Carla, glancing up and extending her left hand
half over her shoulder to the Count, while her right played "My Dear
Swan." "Don't you want to say good-day to Luise? She is with Madame von
Arnfeld in the reception room."
The Count had drawn the hand extended to him so carelessly to his
lips.--"And then?" asked he.
"You may come back here--I have something to tell you."
The Count came back in half a minute.
"Bring up your chair--not so near--so--and don't be disturbed by my
drumming.--Do you know, dear Count, that you are a dangerous man?"
"But, my dear lady!" exclaimed the Count, twirling the ends of his
mustache.
"You must be, if Luise thinks so. She has just given me a most charming
curtain lecture."
"Great Heavens! What shall I do! Everybody worships you! Why shouldn't
I be allowed to do what everybody does?"
"Because you are not everybody, because"--Carla raised her eyes; the
Count was always as if intoxicated when he was permitted, unhindered
by the lorgnette, to look into those blue eyes, beneath whose languid
drooping lids a mysterious world of tenderness and coyness seemed to be
hidden.
"Because I came too late?" he whispered passionately.
"One must not come too late, dear Count; that is the worst mistake
in war, politics, everywhere. You must bear the consequences of this
mistake--_voilà tout!_"
She played: "Only one year at thy side could I have wished to be, as
witness of thy joy."--The Count gazed before him in silence.--"He
is taking that seriously," thought Carla; "I must give him a little
encouragement again."
"Why shouldn't we be friends?" she asked, extending her left hand while
the right intoned: "Come dwell with me! Let me teach thee how sweet is
the bliss of purest love!"
"Gladly, gladly!" exclaimed the Count, pressing a long, fervent kiss
upon the extended hand. "Why shouldn't we be friends!"
"Isn't it true?--'Friendship of pure souls is so sweet!' But the world
is not pure; it likes to besmirch that which shines; it demands,
guarantees; give it the only possible lead in this case; get married!"
"And you advise me to do that?"
"I do; I shall have an incalculable advantage from it; I shall not lose
you altogether. I cannot ask more; I do not ask more."
And Carla played with both hands: "Let thyself be made to believe there
is a joy that hath no pang!"
"Great Heavens, Carla--my dear lady, do you know that something like
that, in almost the same words----"
"You have just heard from Mr. Giraldi," said Carla, as the Count grew
embarrassingly silent. "Just express it frankly; it will not offend
me; he is the wisest of men, from whom you can conceal no secrets even
if you would and--I don't wish to; you--should not wish to, either. He
loves you very much; he wishes the best for you.--Believe me! Trust
him!"
"I believe it," said the Count--"and I should trust him unconditionally
if the union in question had not also a little bit of business flavor
in it. You know I bought the Warnow estate today. I should hardly have
been able to assume such a great risk, should not have assumed it at
all, if they had not intimated that I should have at least half of the
purchase price in the form of a dowry."
"_Fi donc!_" said Carla.
"For Heaven's sake, dear lady, don't misunderstand me!" exclaimed the
Count. "It is understood, of course, that this intimation could have
come from no one else in the world but Mr. Giraldi, as attorney of the
Baroness----"
[Illustration: THE LITTLE THIEF
_Permission Ch. Sedelmeyer, Paris_ MICHAEL VON MUNKACSY]
"Spare me such things, dear Count!" exclaimed Carla; "I don't
understand anything at all about them! I only know that my
sister-in-law is a charming creature, and that you are a terribly blasé
man, before whom every honorable girl must shudder. And now let us go
into the reception room. I hear Baroness Kniebreche; she would never
forgive you if you did not kiss her hand within the first five minutes!"
"Give me courage for the execution," whispered the Count.
"How?"
The Count did not answer, but took her hand from the keys of the piano,
pressed a few passionate kisses upon it, and, with a movement half
feigned and half real, hastened into the other room.
"But he is such a fool!" whispered Carla, looking after him over her
shoulder with her lorgnette as he hastened out.
"That he is," said a voice near her.
"_Mon Dieu!_ Signor Giraldi!"
"As ever, at your service!"
"As ever, at the proper moment! You have not yet been in the reception
room? Of course not! Come! Let us chat a few minutes longer. A
_tête-à-tête_ with you is a much envied distinction, which even
Baroness Kniebreche appreciates."
"And, besides, this respectable _tête-à-tête_ is not so dangerous as
the preceding," said Giraldi, taking a seat on the sofa by Carla at the
far end of the room, under a cluster of lights.--"Have you spoken to
him?"
"Just now!"
"And what did he answer?"
"He understands everything, except----"
"Not all, then?"
"Stop that ironical smile; he is really not so insignificant. He is
clever enough, for example, to inquire what special interest you can
have in his union with Else."
"Don't be angry if I smile a little bit longer," said Giraldi.--"What
did you say! The Count inquired what interest I have in the matter--he,
upon whose side the entire advantage lies. Very well, I grant that the
sale would have been long delayed, as the General, from pure obstinacy,
and your brother, for reasons of propriety, are not willing to sell
directly to a committee of speculators, and demand a go-between; I
admit, further, that the Count is not only the most convenient and
appropriate, but also, for us, the most profitable person, because
as a neighbor he can really pay more than anybody else. But that is
an advantage for us which we can most profitably equalize by other
advantages which we concede to him, and with the details of which I
do not wish to trouble you. Believe me, Miss Carla, the Count knows
all this as well as I do; and he is only pretending to be ignorant,
and consequently to be hesitating for reasons which I shall mention
in order: First, it is always well that one should not see the hand
which tosses fortune into one's lap--one can then be, on occasion, as
ungrateful as one wishes; second, he is in love, and--who could blame
him--doesn't yet consider the matter entirely hopeless, so long as you
are unmarried; third, he is not at all certain that Miss von Werben
will accept him, and for this uncertainty he has well-founded reasons,
which his philosophy and vanity can easily fabricate."
"You have already repeatedly referred to the fondness which Else was
supposed to have for the handsome sea captain. Much as I admire your
penetration, dear Giraldi--this is the limit of my credulity."
"And if I produce indisputable proofs--if I have it in black and white,
by the hand of Else's most intimate girl friend, that little Miss von
Strummin, who left so unceremoniously in order to surprise us from the
security of her island with the news of her engagement to the sculptor,
Justus Anders? Please do not laugh; all that I tell you is positively
true. Mr. Justus Anders, however, is the most intimate friend of the
Captain; the two pairs of friends, it appears, have no secrets between
them; anyhow, Miss von Strummin keeps none from her betrothed, and to
him she wrote in a letter, which arrived this morning, literally----"
Giraldi had taken out of the pocket of his dress coat a dainty
portfolio, and out of this a paper, which he unfolded.--
"If anybody should come, it is a letter from Enrico Braga, the
sculptor, in Milan--thus writes literally as follows:
"One thing more, beloved artist, at which Lesto would bark himself
to death with delight if he could understand it, and you will be as
delighted as a child, which you are: My Else loves your Reinhold
with all her heart and soul, and that means something, for one who
knows, as I do, that she is all heart, and has the most heavenly
soul in the world. I have not the permission, and least of all the
commission, to tell you this; but we must no longer play hide and
seek with each other, you know; and must also encourage our poor
friends, which can be best done by telling them hourly that he, or
in your case, she, loves you! I have at least found it successful
with Else. Oh, beloved artist! we ought really to be ashamed to be
as happy as we are, when we remember how unhappy our friends are,
and simply because of these abominable circumstances. If I knew
the one who invented these conditions, I should like to tell him a
thing or two, you bet."
"That is indeed wonderfully interesting, and will interest the Count
immensely!"
"No doubt," said Giraldi, putting the sheet back in his portfolio.--"By
the way, what a noble soul you are, indeed, not to ask from whom I got
the letter! But I think we will not make it known till we are sure of
one thing."
"Of what?"
Giraldi leaned over to Carla and looked straight into her eyes.--
"That you would not finally prefer to make Count Axel von Golm happy by
offering your hand to him instead of to Ottomar von Werben."
"You are horrible, Signor Giraldi, do you know it?" said Carla,
striking Giraldi's hands with her handkerchief.
"If you say so!--For see, dear lady; that communication of Else's
maritime affections and relations would finally induce the Count to
give up his suit, and hitherto we have been of the opinion that it
would be most convenient for all parties concerned to marry him to
Else. If you want him yourself--and so it appears--now it can be
brought about; only I should not be overhasty in your case. We can
prolong the game as long as we wish. And why should you not wish to
drain the sweetness of the betrothal period to the last drop--the more
as Ottomar--the truth does not offend noble souls--hardly knows how to
appreciate the true worth of the happiness which awaits him in the arms
of the most charming and gifted of women."
"That is to say, if I am not mistaken," said Carla, "Ottomar must do
as you wish; you have him in your power. Now, dear friend, I know how
powerful your hand is; but I confess I do not understand where the
power lies in this case. That Ottomar has had mistresses, presumably
still has--well, I, too, have read my Schopenhauer, who says nothing
of monogamy, because he was never able to discover it; and I do not
wish to be the woman who finds her lover less interesting because he
is interesting to other women. His debts? _Grands Dieux!_ Tell me one
who has none! And my brother says it is really not so bad. My brother
insists upon hastening our wedding, and now my sister-in-law does, too.
The General himself is, as you know, uncomfortably persistent in the
pursuance of his plans, and society would be beside itself if we were
not on our bridal tour by the beginning of March; on the fifteenth
Ottomar is to take up his appointment in St. Petersburg."
"If we agree in other things, let us make our arrangements
accordingly," replied Giraldi; "by the middle of February you will
find that your delicately sensitive nature is no longer equal to the
demands of the season, that you needs must have, before entering upon
the new chapter of your life, composure and quiet which the city cannot
give you, which you can find only in the seclusion of the country.
And it fortunately so happens now that, at the same time, my dear
friend, the Baroness, impelled by need of rest, is seeking quiet in the
seclusion of Warnow. I have reserved the castle and park of the Count,
who is the owner of the estates since this morning, for the months of
February and March, expressly for this purpose. He will be delighted
to learn that Miss von Wallbach wishes to share the retirement of the
aunt of her betrothed. Not alone! The Baroness will be accompanied,
at her urgent request, by Miss Else. Note that! The Count, whose
business at this time--of first importance, the building of the harbor
at Warnow--will make it necessary for him to sojourn in the country,
will do all in his power to enliven the loneliness of the ladies. Your
brother--I myself--we shall come and go. What a spectacle, to observe
the awakening of spring in the country, on the shore of the sea,
perhaps also dear Else's silent fondness for the man of her choice,
who, in his new position--he has been for some days Pilot Commander--I
believe that is what they call it--in Wissow, will be just as far from
Warnow as the Count is from the castle! What do you think of my little
plan?"
"Charming!" said Carla--"_À deux mains!_ But can it be carried out?"
"Let that be my concern. Only give me your two pretty hands to assure
me that you will support me."
"Here they are!"
"And I press upon both of them my lips as a seal of ratification."
"Now I must venture to interrupt your _tête-à-tête_," said von
Wallbach, entering from the reception room.--"The company is complete;
only Ottomar, whose companionship we must forego, and the Baroness are
wanting."
"I forgot to state," said Giraldi, greeting von Wallbach, "the Baroness
wishes me to excuse her--an indisposition--her overwrought nerves----"
"Oh!" said von Wallbach, "what a pity! Would you have the kindness,
Carla, to tell Luise? It will make no further disturbance, as I was
to conduct the Baroness; you, Mr. Giraldi, Baroness Kniebreche has
requested to accompany her."
Giraldi bowed; Carla went out.
"One moment," whispered von Wallbach, drawing Giraldi back by the arm,
"I am glad, very glad, that the Baroness is not coming. This is a day
of surprises. This morning, Golm, to the unspeakable astonishment of
all of us--Lübbener can't compose himself yet--paid down in one lump
the half million; the concession, for whose publication we should have
had to wait weeks, as there was always a question of the security, will
be printed tomorrow in the _Staatsanzeiger_--yes, yes, my dear Sir,
you may depend upon it! I have it with absolute certainty from Privy
Councilor von Strumm, who only begs that we shall not betray him.--It
is to be a delightful surprise for us, coming from the Minister;
and--and--dear friend!--I am not easily disconcerted, but _c'est plus
fort que moi_--from the same absolutely reliable source I learn that
the General does not appear in the Army promotions, which are likewise
to be published tomorrow."
"That means?" asked Giraldi.
"That means that he has been passed over, that he--according to our
notions--must retire for the sake of appearances."
"How strange!" said Giraldi.
"So it is, and can't be otherwise," continued von Wallbach with
emotion; "I should be able to understand the step, indeed, the
necessity of it, if only by removing him our matter could be put
through; as it is, however, as we have the concession in our pocket
without that----"
"An unnecessary cruelty," said Giraldi.
"Isn't it? And one that will have other consequences. I prophesy that
Ottomar will not go to St. Petersburg."
"That would be more than cruel--that would be ridiculous," said Giraldi.
"You don't understand our conditions; our people are very consistent in
such things."
Giraldi was spared the answer. In the door of the reception room
appeared, leaning on Carla's arm, the bent form of an old lady, who
moved to and fro a gigantic black fan, and exclaimed with a loud
metallic voice: "If Mr. Giraldi doesn't come to old Kniebreche, old
Kniebreche must come to Mr. Giraldi."
"I come on wings!" said Giraldi.
* * * * *
[Reinhold comes to take leave of the Werbens, hears the news that the
General has not been promoted, finds Else depressed. Else pours out her
heart concerning Ferdinande, her father and Ottomar, and his betrothal
to Carla. Reinhold declares he loves her, and holds her in his embrace.
Else kisses her compass, her talisman, and slips it back into her
pocket.
Reinhold starts for Sundin to report and take his post at Wissow. At
the railroad station Justus tells Reinhold of his betrothal to Mieting,
but fears that Mieting's father may change his mind. Reinhold assures
Justus that there is no danger of Strummin getting rich from the
concession, that the railroad must be a failure, and Strummin will be
glad enough to have him as a son-in-law. Justus declares that he has
produced nothing worth while since he has been in love--"Oh! this love,
this love!" Uncle Ernst has been elected to the city council and will
be elected next year to the Reichstag. Reinhold's train moves off.
Ottomar is on board, and expects to be the guest of Golm in the spring.
The President enters the coupé where Reinhold is. He is much excited,
having been in Berlin protesting against the concession. The whole
railroad situation is ventilated. The President recalls Reinhold's
first prophecy of the storm flood.
Madame and Miss von Wallbach, Else and Golm, are at dinner at Castle
Warnow as the guests of Valerie. Golm's advances to Else are repelled,
and he makes slighting remarks about Reinhold. Else defends Reinhold
and leaves the room in disgust. Golm protests to Madame von Wallbach
that Reinhold will probably object even to the removal of the dunes,
because they are necessary for protection. Madame von Wallbach is
disgusted at the failure of the match between Golm and Else, and
threatens to go home. Golm now turns his attentions to Carla, asks her
to take a ride, and steals a kiss. Carla and Else have an altercation
about Ottomar and Golm, Carla having learned from Giraldi of Ottomar's
relations to Ferdinande. Madame von Wallbach tells Carla she need not
object to Ottomar's mistresses, for all men have them, nor to his
debts, for Golm has debts too. Strummin asks Golm for the money he had
loaned him, which is now needed to set up Mieting. Golm and Carla ride
off alone.
Else, fatigued and disturbed, starts out for a walk in the open, while
her aunt Valerie lies in a sleepy stupor in her room. Else comes
through the portière just in time to see Golm kiss Carla. She now
considers the bond between Carla and Ottomar broken. She contrasts
their relations with her own to Reinhold, and longs to see Reinhold.
She goes into the park whose regular lines oppress her. She wanders on
till she comes to the Pölitz house, where she learns that little Karl,
who was sick when she was there before, has died. The Pölitz family
is in a bad plight, reflecting the evil character of the Count. Else
listens to the sad stories of Mrs. Pölitz and her sister-in-law, Marie,
whom Golm has seduced, and hurries on to Wissow Hook to see Reinhold.]
* * * * *
Mrs. Pölitz had said it was an hour's walk to Wissow Hook, but it
seemed to Else as if the very winding way would never end. And yet she
walked so fast that she left the little empty hay wagon just as far
behind her as it was ahead of her at the start. The wretched vehicle
was the only sign of human activity; otherwise the brown plain lay as
bare as a desert as far as the eye could reach; not a single large
tree was to be seen, only here and there a few scattered willows and
tangled shrubbery on the ditches, which ran this way and that, and a
broader, slowly flowing brook constantly widening, which she crossed on
an unsafe wooden bridge, without a railing. The brook must have come
from the range of hills to the right, at the base of which Else saw,
in striking contrast, the buildings of the other two Warnow estates,
Gristow and Damerow. Swinging around in a great bend, she gradually
ascended to Wissow Hook, which lay directly before her, while the plain
to the left extended without the least undulation to the lower dunes,
lifting their white crests here and there above the edge of the heath.
Only once a leaden gray streak, which must be the sea, although Else
could scarcely distinguish it from the sky, appeared for a few minutes
in an opening through which the brook may have had its source.
For the sky above her too was a leaden gray, except that it seemed
somewhat darker above the sea. In the east, then above the hills toward
the west, and along the leaden gray vault here and there, scattered
white spots floated, like powder smoke, motionless in the still air.
Not the slightest breeze was stirring, and yet from time to time a
strange whisper crept through the waste as if the brown heath were
trying to rouse itself from deep sleep, and a soft, long continued
sound of sadness could be heard through the heavy murky air, and then
again a boundless stillness, when Else thought she could hear her heart
beat.
But almost more terrible than the silence of the waste was the cry of a
flock of gulls, which she had scared up from one of the many hollows of
the heath, and which now, flying to and fro in the gray air, with the
points of their bills turned downward, followed her for a long time,
as if in raging anger at the intruder on their domain.
Nevertheless she walked on and on, faster and faster, following an
impulse that admitted no opposition to her determination, which was
even stronger than the horror which seemed to come over her from the
sky and ground, like the breath of spirits threatening and warning with
demon voices.--And then yet another terrible dread! Even from the far
distance--at the foot of the mountain promontory, rising higher--she
had noticed dark, moving points, as she convinced herself, now that
they were coming nearer--laborers, several hundred, who were carting
dirt and filling in an apparently endless dam, which had already
reached a considerable height. She could not avoid crossing the dam,
and if she did not wish to make a détour she must intersect the long
line of carters. This she did with a friendly greeting to those nearest
to her. The men, who were already sufficiently bothered, stopped their
carts and glared at her without returning her salutation. When she had
gone a short distance further, shouts and coarse laughter resounded
behind her. Turning involuntarily, she saw that a few of the band had
followed her and did not stop until she turned--checked, perhaps,
only by the noise which the others made. She continued her way almost
running. There was now only a narrow path over the short parched grass
and across the broad strips of sand with which the ascending slope of
the promontory was covered. Else said to herself that she could be seen
by the men until she reached the top, might be followed by them at any
moment, or if she turned back--the twilight had settled about her, the
men perhaps had stopped work for the day, and there was no overseer to
hold their coarseness in check, the rude men having the whole endless
plain as far as Warnow to insult, scare and annoy her--should she turn
about at once while there was time, ask for an overseer to accompany
her, perhaps try to have the hay wagon, which she had overtaken a while
before and was now nearing the laborers, carry her on, or another
wagon which from her elevation she discovered far in the distance and
which must have followed her!--There was only the one way over the
heath.
While Else was thus considering, as if drawn by magic she hastened
with beating heart up the slope, the upper edge of which was clearly
distinguishable from the vault of the sky by an even line rising toward
the sea. With every step the sea and the chains of dunes extended
farther to the left; now her glance swept out to where the misty sky
met the misty sea, and beyond the beautifully arched curve of the coast
to wooded Golmberg, which had a threatening look against the blue-black
background. Above the tree-tops, huddled in a vague mass, loomed the
tower of the castle. Between Golmberg yonder and the height on which
she stood--inhospitable as the sea itself, from which she was separated
only by the yellow border of the dunes--the brown plain she was
traversing; the only habitation of man--the fisher village of Ahlbeck,
which now, hard by the foot of the promontory, lay almost at her feet.
Yonder too, on the broad beach between the houses and the sea, extended
long moving lines of workmen up to the two moles which, with their ends
pointing toward each other, extended far into the sea. At the moles
were a few large craft which seemed to be unloading, while a fleet of
fishing-boats all moved in the same direction toward the shore. They
had reefed their sails, and were being propelled only by oars. The even
position of the brown sails and the uniform motion of the oars of the
fishing boats were in strange contrast with the confused disorder of
the white gulls, which a while ago had circled above her and now flew
ceaselessly at half the elevation between her and the shore.
All this she saw, however, with the keen eye of a falcon, as a traveler
on the train mechanically observes the details of the landscape he is
passing, while his thoughts have long been at home, tasting the joys
he will experience at sight of the loved ones from whom he has so
long been separated. She dared not hope to look into his dear eyes,
to grasp his dear hands in hers, to hear the sound of his strong, yet
gentle voice. She wished only to see the place where he lived.
And even this slight consolation, she thought, should be guarded. She
had already gone in the same cross direction, some distance on the
ridge of the hills, without obtaining a view of the other side where
Wissow must be located--only a view over the edge of the plateau, a
leaden gray. Perhaps if she followed the broader road which she was now
approaching, and which, coming from the right, led to a pile of great
boulders, whence a tall signal staff arose, and which must have been
built on the top of the ridge--presumably also on the extreme edge of
the promontory----!
As a matter of fact, as she ascended higher and higher a pale streak
appeared over to the right--the coast of the continent--then again the
leaden gray surface of the sea, upon which a sail could be discerned
here and there; finally, on this side, immediately below her, a white
point of dunes, which gradually grew wider in the shape of a wedge
toward the promontory, till it became a small flat peninsula, in the
middle of which a dozen small houses lay on the brown heath among the
dunes--that was Wissow! That must be Wissow!
And now that she stood on the point which she had striven with all
her physical and mental strength to reach, and, however longingly
she extended her arms, the goal of her longing still lay so far, so
unattainably far from her--now for the first time she thought she
understood the silent dreadful speech of the waste, the loneliness
about her, the rustling whisper of the heath, the voices of spirits
wailing in the air: Alone! Alone! Unspeakable sorrow arose in her
heart; her knees shook, she sank near the boulders upon a stone,
covered her eyes with her hands and broke into loud crying, like a
helpless, abandoned child.
She did not see a man, who was leaning against the signal staff
observing the sea, startled by the strange sound near him, come from
behind the boulders; she did not hear him coming up to her with hurried
steps across the narrow grass plot.----
"Else!"
She started up with a stifled shriek.
"Else!"
And then she cried aloud--a cry of wild joy, which echoed strangely
through the noiseless stillness--and she lay on his breast, clung to
him, as one drowning.
"Reinhold! My Reinhold!"
She wept, she laughed, she cried again and again, "My Reinhold!"
Speechless for joy and astonishment at the precious miracle, he drew
her to him upon the rock on which she had sat; she pressed her head
upon his breast.
"I so longed for you!"
"Else, dear Else!"
"I had to come, I could not do otherwise; I was drawn hither by spirit
hands. And now I have you, you! O never leave me again! Take me with
you down to your house yonder. There is my home! With you! With you! Do
not thrust me out again into the dreary, loveless, false world there
behind me! Only with you is joy, rest, peace, truth, fidelity! O your
dear, true heart, how it beats; I feel it! It loves me as I do you! It
has yearned for me as my poor shattered heart has for you, for you!"
"Yes, my Else, it has yearned for you, unspeakably, beyond measure.
I climbed up here, because it had no peace; I only wished to cast a
glance out there where I knew you to be--a last look, before----"
"Before? For Heaven's sake!"
He had led her the few steps to the boulders and now stood, throwing
his arm about her, close to the edge of the promontory, whose sullen
front was so steep that she seemed to be floating in the air above the
gray sea.
"See, Else, that is the storm! I hear it, I see it, as if it were
already let loose! Hours may yet pass, but it will come, it must
come--as all signs indicate--with fearful violence. The metallic
surface there below us, stirred into raging waves, will dash its foam
up to this height! Woe to the ships which have not sought shelter in
the harbor, perchance there to be secure against its wild fury! Woe to
the lowlands down there below us! I wished to write to you about it
this morning, for I saw it even yesterday, and tell you it would be
better for you to leave Warnow; but you would not have gone if I had."
"Never! I am too proud that you trust me, that you have told me this!
And when the storm breaks loose, and I know that your precious life is
exposed to danger--I will not tremble; and, if I fear, surely I will
not despair. I will say all the time: 'He could not fail to do his
duty, or to be the brave man whom I love; what if he thought that I
were weeping and wringing my hands, while he has to command and steer
as on that evening!' Do you know, my love, do you know that I loved
you then? And do you know that you said to me that I had eyes like a
seaman? O how well I remember every word; every look! And how happy I
was that I did not have to give the compass back to you at once; I did
not wish to keep it, you were to have it back again----"
"Then you were more honorable than I, dear! I was determined not to
give the glove back to you. You had taken it off when you looked
through my telescope; it lay on the deck. I picked it up; it has
accompanied me so faithfully ever since--do you see? It has been my
talisman! Seamen are superstitious; I swore not to part with it till I
held your hand in mine forever, instead of the glove." He kissed the
little blue-gray glove before he put it back into his breast-pocket.
They had again seated themselves upon the rock, caressing, whispering
fond words, jesting in happy phrases, pressing heart to heart and lips
to lips, forgetful of the desolate waste in the blissful paradise of
their young love, forgetful of the darkness which became more dense,
forgetful of the storm which was brewing in the leadlike air over the
leadlike sea, like the angel of destruction brooding over a world which
he finally hopes to destroy forever and to hurl back into primeval
chaos.
A sullen, rolling, trembling sound in the distance caused them to
stop and listen; suddenly a roaring sound penetrated the air, without
their noticing, even at this elevation, any motion, and this was again
followed by an absolute stillness. Reinhold jumped up.
"It is coming faster than I thought; we have not a moment to lose."
"What are you going to do?"
"Take you back."
"That you must not do; you must remain at your post of duty; on that
account you did not go to Warnow today; how could you now go so far,
when the peril is so much nearer? No, no, dear; do not look at me
with such concern! I must learn to live without fear, and I am going
to do it; I have determined to do it. No more fear from this moment
on, not even of men! I can no longer live without you, and you can no
longer live without me. If I did not know it before, I know it now;
and, believe me, my noble father is the first that will understand it.
Indeed, he must have felt it when he told me what he wrote to you:
'I place your fate in your own hands.' Ottomar and your aunt share
my inheritance; my proud father would not take anything from me, and
you--you take me as I am, and lead me down there forever! One more
glimpse of my paradise, and one more kiss! And now, farewell, farewell!"
He embraced her fondly, and was about to let her go; but he held her
hand fast in his.
"It is impossible, Else; it is growing dark up here; in half an hour it
will be night down there. You are not safe on the road, which cannot be
distinguished from the heath, and the heath is full of deep moors--it
is simply impossible, Else!"
"It must be possible! I should despise myself if I kept you from your
duty; and how could you love me and not feel your love a burden if I
did so? How do you know that you will not be very soon, perhaps are
even now, needed down below? And the people are standing helpless,
looking for their commander! Reinhold, my love, am I right or not?"
"You are indeed right; but----"
"No but, dear; we must part."
Thus speaking, they went hand in hand, with hasty steps, down the path
by which Else had ascended, and stood now at the cross-path which led
in both directions--to the Warnow heath over here, and to the Wissow
peninsula over there.
"Only to the foot of the hill, till I know you are on the right road,"
said Reinhold.
"Not a step farther! Hark! What was that?"
He, too, had heard it--a noise like that of horses' hoofs, which
struck in swiftest pace upon the hard ground behind the hill rising in
their rear and making impossible a further view of the ridge of the
promontory, which sloped more rapidly at that point. The next moment a
rider came in sight over the hill. He was now at the top, stopped his
horse, stood up in his stirrups and appeared to be looking about him.
"It is the Count!" said Else.
A deep flush came into her face. "Now, you will have to accompany me
for a little distance," said she. "Come!"
She took his arm. At that moment the Count, who had looked beyond them,
to the hill, turning his eyes downward, saw them both. He gave his
horse the spurs, and, galloping down the slope, was with them in an
instant. He had already seen Reinhold, doubtless, but as he checked his
horse and lifted his hat his face did not show the slightest trace of
astonishment or wonder; he seemed rather not to notice Reinhold at all,
as if he had met Else alone.
"That I call good fortune, Miss Else! How your aunt will rejoice! She
is waiting over there; the carriage couldn't go farther----"
He pointed with the butt of his whip over the hill.
"My Heavens, Miss Else! Even if you look at me twice as astonished!
Your aunt is worried because you have been away so long.--Messengers
in the neighborhood heard of Pölitz that you had come hither--strange
notion, Miss Else, by Heavens!--your aunt insisted upon coming
herself--stayed behind with Miss von Wallbach--offered to accompany
her--most despairing--astounding luck! Beg permission to accompany you
to the carriage, not two hundred paces."
He leaped from the saddle and took his horse by the bridle-rein.
Reinhold looked Else straight in the eye; she understood and answered
the look.
"We're very grateful to you, Count," said he, "but shouldn't like to
try your kindness a moment longer than is necessary. I shall accompany
my betrothed myself to the Baroness."
"Oh!" exclaimed the Count.
He had rejoiced in advance over the utter confusion which, in his
opinion, the discovered lovers must have felt in his presence, and
which would shock the Baroness if he could tell her in whose company
he had the good fortune to find her niece. For, that the fellow would
traipse down to Wissow with an expression of stammering embarrassment,
he assumed as a matter of course, now that he had gone so far. And now!
He thought he had not heard aright, he could hardly believe his eyes,
when Else and the fellow, turning their backs upon him as if he were
not there, walked on arm in arm. With a leap he was back in the saddle.
"Then allow me, at least, to announce the happy event to the Baroness!"
he exclaimed ironically, lifting his hat as he passed, and hurrying
ahead of them up the hill, beyond which he soon vanished.
"The wretch!" cried Else. "I thank you, Reinhold, that you understood,
that you have freed me forever from him, from all of them! You cannot
imagine how thankful I am and why I am so thankful to you! I will
not now burden you, dear heart, with the hateful things which I have
experienced; I shall tell you another time. Come what may, I am yours
and you are mine! This joy is so great--everything else is small and
insignificant compared with it!"
An open carriage was standing a short distance from them and by it a
rider. They thought it was the Count, but coming nearer they saw that
it was a servant. The Count had vanished with a scornful laugh, after
communicating the great discovery to the Baroness, and receiving only
the answer, "I thank you, Count, for your escort thus far!" The two
last words had been spoken with special emphasis and, lifting his hat
again, he rode off at a gallop from the road over the hills.
The Baroness left the carriage and came to meet the lovers. Else
released Reinhold's arm and hastened to meet her aunt; she told all
that was necessary by impulsively embracing her. As Reinhold came up
the Baroness extended her hand to him and said in a voice full of
emotion, "You bring me the dear child and--yourself! Then have double
thanks!"
Reinhold kissed the trembling hand.--"It is not a time for many words,
Baroness," said he, "and what I feel your kind heart knows. God's
blessing upon you!"
"And upon thee, my Reinhold!" exclaimed Else, embracing him; "God's
blessing! And joy and happiness!"
He helped the ladies into the carriage; one clasp of her dear hand, and
the company was off, the servant riding ahead.
Notwithstanding the hilly ground, as the road was good and the ground
firm, they could ride sufficiently fast even here upon the hill, and
Reinhold had urged all possible haste. Only a few minutes had passed
when the carriage had vanished from his sight behind the hills; when
it reached the plain below, and became visible again, half an hour had
elapsed. He had not time to wait for that; he must not lose a minute
more.
Down in Wissow the beacons were already lighted; at this moment
the signal for a pilot blazed up from the sea. They would answer
promptly--he knew they would; but a new situation might come any moment
which would require his presence; and it would take him a quarter of an
hour at a full run to get down there.
He ran down the hill in long bounds, when a rider appeared right before
him in a hollow of the ground, which extended to the right in a deep
depression along the length of the promontory, and stood on the path.
It happened so suddenly that Reinhold almost ran into the horse.
"You seem to be in a very great hurry, now," said the Count.
"I am in a great hurry," replied Reinhold, breathless from his rapid
running--and was about to go past the head of the horse; but the Count
pulled the horse around so that his head was toward Reinhold.
"Make room!" exclaimed Reinhold.
"I am on my own ground," replied the Count. "The road is free, and you
are for freedom of all sorts."
"Once more--Make room!"
"If I wish to do so."
Reinhold seized the bridle of the horse, which reared high from the
sharp spurs in his flank; Reinhold reeled backward. The next moment he
drew his long knife, which as a seaman he always carried with him.
"I should be sorry for the horse," he exclaimed, "but if you will not
have it otherwise----"
"I only wished to say 'Good evening, Commander'--I forgot it a while
ago; Good evening!"
The Count lifted his hat with scornful laughter, turned his horse about
again, and rode off to one side of the valley from whence he had come.
"That kind won't learn anything," muttered Reinhold, shutting his
knife again. It was a word that he had often heard from his Uncle
Ernst. As he felt now, so must Uncle Ernst have felt in that moment
when the dagger came down upon him--the dagger of her father. "Great
Heavens!" he reflected. "Is it true then that the sins of the father
are visited upon the children? That this combat, handed down from
generations, was to continue forever? That we ourselves, who are
guiltless, must renew it against our will and our convictions?"
A sound of thunder, still in the distance, but clear, louder and more
threatening than before, rolled through the heavy air; and again a gust
of wind followed it--this time no longer in the upper air, but raging
along the hill and the slopes of the promontory, echoing with screeches
and groans in the ravines. The next gust might strike the sea, letting
loose the storm which would bring the flood.
There was another storm for which human machinations appear as
child's play, and human hate as an offense, but one feeling remains
victorious--love! That Reinhold felt in the depth of his heart, as he
hastened downward to redeem the minutes which had been foolishly lost,
to risk his life if it must be, in spite of it all, for the lives of
other men.
* * * * *
[Valerie having heard of the reason for Else's absence starts out to
look for her. Golm discovers Else and Reinhold and spreads the news of
their betrothal. Else writes a hasty note to her father, telling him
all. Upon Else's return, Valerie expresses her sympathy, and tells her
the long sad story of her life. Valerie had loved her deceased husband
with a boundless love, but was carried away by a passion for Signor
Giraldi, before she was married to von Warnow. The early years of her
married life had been spent largely in travel; but still her heart was
ill at ease. On their journeys they came to Rome, where Valerie met
Giraldi again, coming hopelessly under the spell of his magic power. In
the midst of it all her husband dies, leaving a strange, complicated
will, which disinherited the children of the General, her brother, in
case they should marry outside of the nobility. After her husband's
death she had Giraldi as counselor and companion, and manager of her
affairs.
The storm has raged all day through the streets of Berlin, and a
financial storm, still more fierce, has been raging in the Exchange,
shaking many a proud countinghouse to its foundations by the wild
speculation in stocks. The Berlin-Sundin railway has been the storm
centre, and Philip Schmidt, the great promoter, has been making full
use of the French proverb, _sauve qui peut_. It is the evening of
the ball at Philip's new house; guests, many and mighty, throng the
burgher palace of the young promoter, whose democratic motto is to
bring together poets and kings, artists and speculators. Even the
venerable Baroness Kniebreche was all curiosity to see the luxury and
the motley throng. The Wallbachs, the Werbens, Golm, Lübbener, Justus
and Mieting, Krethe and Plethe, all are there. Toasts are drunk,
speeches are made, wine flows freely, and spirits run high. The air is
charged with financial and social gossip. Giraldi expects Ottomar's
engagement with Carla to be broken. A duel between Ottomar and
Wallbach is impending. If Valerie consents on the morrow to Giraldi's
plans, there will not be left one stone of the Werben fortune upon
another--dallying, temporizing, diplomatizing are the order of the
day. Antonio watches Ottomar and disturbs Giraldi's mind. Schieler
declares Golm a ruined man, and engages with Lübbener, who is pale with
concern, in conversation about Philip. Giraldi has just drawn the last
fifty thousand from Haselow, making it impossible for Haselow to help
Lübbener.
Philip excuses himself to Baroness Kniebreche for a few minutes, to
move around among the guests. He comes upon Lübbener and Schieler in
a corner, addresses Lübbener as "Dear Hugo," and tells him that this
splendor is all due to him. At the close of a laudatory speech in
honor of Philip, an officer, whom Lübbener has ordered, comes in to
arrest Philip. Philip seizes Lübbener by the wrist, telling him he
shall pay for it. Philip and the officer, Müller, leave the company
and go upstairs, that Philip may change his clothes. They pass through
one room after another until they reach Philip's bedroom. While Philip
changes the officer sits and waits; he hears a rustle, but suddenly
all is quiet. The time grows long. He goes to the door, only to find
Philip gone and himself a prisoner. It is announced that Philip has had
a stroke. The police rescue the officer. The ball breaks up. Ottomar
quarrels with Wallbach, and is to give notice in the morning. Antonio
is in evidence and threatens to stab Ottomar, but Bertalde interposes.
Von Wallbach writes to the General that he cannot accept Ottomar's
challenge to a duel until Ottomar can clear his record of the reported
scandal. Captain von Schönau offers to help the General pay Ottomar's
debts, but Colonel von Bohl comes to inform the General that Ottomar's
notes are all forged, that Giraldi had been paying Ottomar's notes as
they came due, and promised to pay the twenty thousand, but had drawn
the half million from the bank, and left during the night for Warnow.
The General, instead of signing the order to pay Ottomar's debts, tears
it up, sends Ottomar one of his brace of pistols, and loads the other
to shoot the devil who lured his son into shame.
Ottomar is at the lodging of Bertalde, who goes to fetch Ferdinande.
Ottomar plans to go to America, which Bertalde says is all nonsense.
She declares Ottomar is not going to leave her room, and that
Ferdinande shall stay with him--"these men act like children with their
silly honor." Ferdinande writes a note to her father, and gives it to
Cilli to deliver.
Cilli finds Uncle Ernst in a bad state of mind, but his heart warms
as he sees the blind girl, who delivers the letter and pleads for
Ferdinande. She starts home by way of the studio, and kneels down
before Justus' statue of Mieting.
Justus and Mieting are looking for furniture to set up housekeeping,
and find a bargain at Isaac Lobstein's. On the way back they chat of
all sorts of things, and speak of Cilli, for whom, Mieting says, they
must provide, because Justus would have married her if she hadn't been
blind and he so ugly! They return to the studio and find Cilli dead
before Mieting's bust.
The General is at the station to take the train for Sundin on the way
to Warnow. The storm has interfered with traffic, and the General is
frantic. Uncle Ernst is likewise waiting for a train to Sundin. He has
engaged a special, and invites the General to ride with him. Uncle
Ernst pours out his soul to the General, and pleads for the children;
but the General replies that all are biased by tradition in judging
their fellowmen. The special train for Uncle Ernst is announced. A
message from Else is handed to the General: "Come by the next train.
Fearful storm. Shall perhaps have to go to Reinhold. Aunt will then be
left alone with the terrible man. Come for my sake, for Ottomar's sake,
for Aunt's sake, who has thrown herself on our protection. Everything
is at stake. Else."
Madame von Wallbach insists upon going home, as Carla is committed
to Golm, and they can no longer be the guests of Ottomar's friends.
But Valerie cannot send them, because she wishes to accompany Else to
Wissow Hook. The tenant, Damberg, repeats Reinhold's statement that
"if the wind comes from the east there will be a bad storm flood."
Valerie starts for Wissow. As they hear the surf breaking on the dunes,
Else shrinks at the thought of Reinhold being in such peril. Valerie
comforts her.
Giraldi arrives at Warnow, much the worse for the stormy journey.
Madame von Wallbach tells him what he is, and what she thinks of him,
and informs him that Valerie is going to look out for Else and Ottomar
and will them her property. He is disconcerted by the calm disclosure
of his schemes by what he has hitherto thought an insignificant woman.
He bribes François to spy for him secretly, and sends him to Valerie
in Wissow with a letter, charging her with having fled from him, and
demanding that she return by six o'clock. Giraldi rages about the
weather, "made for barbarians," while the storm shakes the castle.
Count Golm sends back his jockey to get a handkerchief for Carla, while
he and Carla ride on over the dunes toward the sea. The jockey declares
that they will not be heard from before tomorrow, as he knows the Count
and his wiles.
As the jockey rides back the Count begins his game, kisses Carla, and
disarranges her hat; he excuses his conduct, as this is the first
time he has been alone with the prettiest girl in the world. Carla is
intoxicated with delight, and, as the Count suggests they may have
to remain alone, she replies: "An eternity--with you!" She makes him
swear that he will declare their engagement in the presence of Valerie,
Else, and Giraldi, and will marry her within four weeks. He swears,
with reservation, by his honor, but begins to ponder the bargain. Carla
throws herself impulsively into his arms exclaiming: "With you. With
you! Take me, take me! I am yours, yours, yours!" The Count is now bent
on the boldest plunge of all; he rides for the inn at Ahlbeck, where
they can spend the night. As they reach the village, all is confusion
in the streets. The people are rushing from the houses, crying,
howling, raging. The Count rides over a woman; the mob rush after him
with curses, clubs, sticks, and knives, while Carla rides on over
the dune. When the Count finally reaches her she has discovered his
character, and is silent. They seek shelter at the house of Pölitz, who
shouts to the Count--"Away with your butchery!" Carla finally falls to
the ground and cries--"Wretch! Go away with your butchery!" The Count
is undone, and weeps like a child.]
* * * * *
"It is half-past four o'clock," said Else; "we must go. Stay here! I
am not sure that Father has arrived yet; even if he left by the noon
train, he can't be in Warnow yet; but that dreadful man is certainly
there, waiting for you, will perhaps go away again without waiting for
your return--"
"I must speak with him," muttered Valerie.
"And you must speak with him alone, though I don't wish you to do so;
and so we must go----"
"Without taking along any consolation for you, poor child!"
"I am consoled; I am quite calm.--You must know that from the way I
talk and look."
Else bent down to her aunt and kissed her pale lips.
They were sitting at the window of Reinhold's study, to the right of
the entrance of the one-storied house--a rather large one in comparison
with the other houses. Else had been in almost all of them--in the
houses of the two chief pilots, and in five or six of the twelve houses
occupied by the other twenty-four pilots; and she would have gone into
the houses of the other pilots, also, and the fisher-houses, of which
there might have been several dozen, but it was not necessary, because
the people were standing in the doors and stretching out their hands
wherever she came--wrinkled hairy hands of a few worn-out tars, who
had crept out from behind the warm stove; brown strong hands of brown
strong women; small hard hands of rough, flaxen-haired children, who
looked up with blue eyes to the beautiful lady and did not believe
their mothers when they said that she was not a princess, but the
Commander's betrothed, who was to live here always, and was so happy
about it! And the Commander would come back, the women said, even
if it were a worse storm, the worst which Claus Rickmann had ever
seen--and he was ninety-two years old, so his word must mean something!
The Commander understood his business, and had six with him who also
understood their business, and he had already been out three times in
the new life-boat without once upsetting, so it would not upset today,
especially since his dear betrothed herself had come to meet him on his
return.
So the women spoke, one after another, almost the same words, as if
they had previously arranged what they should say; and then they had
all said so many good things about the Commander, to the effect that
he was better than the old commander, though he, too, had been a good
man; and they had all said the same thing over again, one after the
other, almost in the same words, with the same frank expression, and in
the same tone; but Else could have heard it a thousand times more, and
thanked each one individually, as if she heard it for the first time
and as if it were a message from Heaven.
And then a whole host of women and girls, with a still larger number
of children running beside them and after them, accompanied her to the
place near the end of the peninsula, where signal-staffs and great
light-buoys were placed on a high dune; and behind the dune, which
offered at least some protection, a dense mass of men, in high wading
boots and strange oilskin hats reaching far down behind, were looking
out upon the raging sea; and, as the young lady slipped into their
midst, they raised their oilskin hats, and left it to Claus Janssen,
the oldest of them, to answer the young lady's questions, and listened
and nodded eagerly, and, when they turned away to spy out over the sea,
were careful that it was to the leeward.
And Claus Janssen related that, in the early morning, when it had
grown light enough, a yacht, now anchored, had run in and brought the
news that a ship was aground at the Gruenwald Oie, and was flying a
signal of distress. There was such a high surf at that point that
they could see only the masts and occasionally the hull and that
there were people on it, hanging to the riggings. The ship--a small
Dutch schooner--seemed to be well built, and could hold out a few
hours or so, as it was on smooth sand, if the waves didn't wash the
men overboard in the meantime. From the Oie no one could get to the
ship--an ordinary boat would capsize immediately in the surf; half an
hour later the life-boat was launched by the Commander, and they could
follow it for three hours as it held its course against the storm, and
they had finally seen it in the surf off the Oie. But the surf must
have been very heavy, and the fog too dense, for they had lost sight of
it then--even from the crow's nest, with the strongest glass--and they
didn't know whether the Commander had got aboard--it was certainly a
hard bit of work, because it had lasted so long; but the Commander--he
would pull through. And now the young lady should go in and have Mrs.
Rickmann make her a cup of tea; they would give her notice when the
boat was in sight, and so far as the others were concerned the young
lady should be quite at ease; the Commander understood his business,
and the six who were with him understood their business, too!
And Else smiled, but not because the man said the same thing over again
in the same words that the women had said, but because, after the
assurance from the mouths of experienced men, a sweet peace came into
her heart! she shook the hands of the speakers, the others, and then
returned home with the escort of women and children, and repeated to
herself, while she spoke to them in words which the storm for the most
part dissipated--"He understands his business, and the six who are with
him, they understand their business, too!"--as if it were a petition
which she dared not express, and a song of joy which she was ashamed to
sing aloud.
Then she had been in the house which was soon to be her home; had drunk
tea with her aunt and pacified the exhausted creature in a room where
they heard as little as possible of the storm, and had gone through the
entire house with a throbbing heart, like a child led by its mother to
the Christmas dinner, accompanied by Mrs. Rickmann--the granddaughter,
no longer young--of old Claus Rickmann, a pilot's childless widow, who
kept house for Reinhold. It was a modest house and modestly furnished;
but she marveled at it all, as if she were wandering through an
enchanted castle. And how orderly and neat it was! And how tasteful,
where Mrs. Rickmann's domain in the kitchen and rooms stopped and
that of the Commander began; the furniture, as if she had been asked
for advice in the selection of each piece! And the great study table
covered with books and carefully arranged documents and papers, and
the large bookcases with glass doors, full of beautifully bound books,
and another case filled with mysterious nautical instruments, and a
third with beautiful shells, corals, and stuffed birds! And then Mrs.
Rickmann opened a little room adjoining the study of the Commander,
and Else almost shouted aloud! It was her room, next to the great
salon--the same carpet, the same blue rep covering of the same sofa,
the same chair, the same high wall-mirror, with gilded mantel! And
it had only one window, too, in which a small armchair stood, and a
sewing-table before the chair--so pretty! And Else had to sit down in
the chair, because her knees shook, and lay her head on the table to
weep a few tears of joy and give the table a kiss for him whose gentle
concern enveloped her here as in a soft mantle, and who was now being
tossed about out there on the raging sea, of which one had a full view
from the window, risking his precious life for the lives of others!
Meanwhile the clock had struck four--although it was already as dark
as if it had been six--and Mrs. Rickmann thought it was high time to
get dinner for the Commander, if the ladies would not take anything
but tea and zwieback. She spoke as calmly as if the Commander had been
a little belated in his row-boat on a smooth sea, instead of hearing
the storm raging more violently than ever at that moment and shaking
the little house to its foundations. Aunt Valerie, not having slept a
wink, came terrified from her room, to learn from Mrs. Rickmann that
there was no reason to fear, as the house could withstand such a shock
and that Wissow Hook broke the worst of it; and, as for the flood,
the house lay like the others, forty feet higher than the sea, and
they would wait to see if the flood could rise that high! Then Mrs.
Rickmann went out into the kitchen, after paying her respects to the
ladies in the Commander's study, and here they sat at the window, which
also looked out on the sea, each trying to direct her thoughts upon the
subject that each knew was agitating the heart of the other, exchanging
from time to time a cheering word or pressure of the hand, till Else,
noticing the increasing uneasiness in the face of her aunt, insisted
upon immediate departure, because the darkness was rapidly thickening
and they could not possibly find their dangerous way home by night.
Mrs. Rickmann came in with her frank face red from the kitchen fire,
and took a modest part in the discussion. The ladies could still wait
another short hour, it would not be any darker before sunset, and the
Commander must return at any moment, if his dinner was not to burn.
Mrs. Rickmann had hardly said this when a heavy hand rapped on the
window, and a harsh voice cried, "Boat in sight!"
And now Else ran, as if in a confused happy dream, to the strand by
the side of a man in high wading boots and a queer hat, who told her
all sorts of things which she did not understand, and then was at the
place where she had been on her arrival, and now up on the dune, upon
which the beacons flickered in the evening air, in the midst of many
other men in wading boots and queer hats, who pointed toward the sea,
and addressed her, though she did not understand a word, and one of
whom threw a woolen jacket around her shoulders, although she did not
ask him for it, nor thank him. Then suddenly she saw the boat quite
close, which she had looked for somewhere in the thick atmosphere, God
knows where, and which was then at quite another place, where the shore
was flat and the surf did not rage so furiously; then she saw the boat
again, looking twice as large as before, rise with its entire keel out
of the white foam, and sink again in the foam and rise again, while
some dozen men ran into the white foam which broke above their heads.
And then one of them came through the rolling swell, in high wading
boots, with such a queer hat on his head, and she gave a cry of joy and
rushed toward him and clung to him, and he lifted her up and carried
her a short distance till she could again set her foot on the sand;
but whether he carried her farther, or they flew together, or walked,
she did not know, and did not really see him till he had changed his
clothes and was sitting at the dinner table, and was laughing because
she filled for him one glass of port wine after another, while her aunt
sat by smiling, and Mrs. Rickmann came and went, bringing mutton chops,
steaming potatoes, scrambled eggs, and ham; and he, without taking
his eyes from her, devouring it all with the hunger of one who had
not eaten a morsel since seven o'clock in the morning. There had been
no time to eat; it was hard work to get to the stranded ship; still
harder to bring the poor sailors from the midst of the breakers; but
it had been accomplished; they were all rescued, all eight of them. He
had to put them ashore at Grünwald, which, too, was a difficult feat,
and detained him long; but nothing else was to be done, as the poor
sailors, who had hung in the rigging all night, were in a wretched
condition; but they would survive.
Intoxicated as by the blissful fragrance of a marvelous, beautiful
flower which they had plucked from the edge of an abyss, they only now
noticed that Aunt Valerie had left them. Else, who kept no secret from
her Reinhold, told him in hasty words what was the matter with the most
miserable woman, and how they must now not lose a moment in taking the
bad road homeward.
"Not a moment!" exclaimed Reinhold, rising from the table; "I shall
make the necessary arrangements at once."
[Illustration: MILTON AND HIS DAUGHTERS
_From the Painting by Michael von Munkacsy_
PERMISSION CH. SEDELMEYER, PARIS]
"It is already arranged," said Valerie, who had overheard the last
words as she entered; "the carriage is at the door."
The happy lovers had not heard the noise of wheels in the deep sand,
nor had they heard the hoofs of the horse of the rider whom Aunt
Valerie had seen through the window, and whose message she had gone out
of the room to receive.
He was there; he had commanded her to come!--She knew it, before she
opened the letter which François handed her. She read the letter in the
little room to the left, standing at the open window, while François
stood outside, and then in the inclosure, and she had laughed aloud as
she read it, and torn the sheet to pieces and hurled them out of the
window into the storm, which carried them away in an instant.
"Madame laughs," François had said--in French, as usual when he wanted
to speak emphatically.--"But I assure Madame that it is not a laughing
matter, and that if Madame is not at the castle by six o'clock it will
be a great misfortune."
"I shall come."
François bowed, mounted his horse again--he still held his bridle in
his hand--and, giving his horse the spurs and bowing almost to the
saddle, hurried away to the breathless astonishment of the children
of the pilots, who had been attracted by the unusual spectacle of
a horseman--while Valerie asked Mrs. Rickmann to have the carriage
brought from the stable of the chief pilot in the village, and
then--with heavy heart--went to separate the happy lovers. But she
decided upon the last meeting with the detestable despised man, only
because of those she loved and for whom she wished to save, in the
impending catastrophe, what remained to be saved! It would not be
much--she knew his avarice full well--but yet perhaps enough to secure
the future for Else and free poor Ottomar from his embarrassments. And
she smiled as she thought that even Else could believe that all this
was for her sake, for her future!--Great God!
Else was ready at once, and Reinhold did not try to detain her with a
word or a look. He would have been so glad to accompany them, but that
was not to be thought of. He could not now leave his post an hour; duty
might call him any moment!
And Else hadn't her wrap on when a pilot came in, bringing news of
a boat which had gone out at two o'clock to a steamer signaled from
Wissow Hook and flying the signals of distress. They were launched in
ten minutes, and in half an hour were past the Hook, but they hadn't
found the steamer, which had reached the open sea around Golmberg, as
they had seen after passing there on their return--it was half-past
four; they had been terrified at the surf, which had risen along the
dunes between the Hook and Golmberg, and held to as long as possible to
ascertain whether the sea had broken through as Reinhold had predicted.
They were not able to determine that at first because of the heavy
surf; but as they came nearer, in order to be sure about it, Claus
Lachmund first, and then the others, saw two persons on the White Dune,
one apparently a woman, who did not stir, the other a man who made a
sign. But, in spite of all efforts, they had not been able to get over
there--indeed they were lucky to get afloat again after sailing so
close to the White Dune--and had then seen that the breach had been
made by the sea--certainly to the north and south of the White Dune,
and possibly at other places--for they had seen nothing but water
landward--how far they could not say--the fog was too dense. It must be
bad in Ahlbeck, too; but they did not approach nearer, because those
there, with the Hook near by, could not be in peril; but the situation
of the two on the White Dune would be very serious if they were not
rescued before night.
"Who can the unfortunate ones be?" asked Valerie.
"Shipwrecked sailors, Madame--who else!" replied Reinhold.
"Farewell, my Reinhold," said Else; and then with her arms around his
neck, half laughing, half crying--"Take six men again who know their
business!"
"And promise me," said Reinhold, "that the carriage shall not go down
from the village to the castle unless you can see the road clearly
through the hollow when you are on the height!"
The ladies had gone; Reinhold prepared for his second trip. It was not
really his duty--any more than it had been in the morning; but none of
the sailors--even the best of them--quite understood how to manage the
new life-boat.
The two people on the Dune--he did not wish to tell Else about it--were
certainly not shipwrecked, because a ship, if stranded, would have long
since been signaled from the Hook. They could hardly be from Pölitz's
house, although that was nearby, because Mrs. Rickmann had told him,
when he went to change his clothes, that Pölitz had sent back word by
the messenger that he was dispatching little Ernst and the men with the
stock to Warnow; that he himself could not leave, nor could Marie, and
least of all his wife, who during the night had given birth to a boy;
and that it probably wouldn't be very bad, after all.
But now it had become serious, very serious; and even though the chief
pilot, Bonsak, might have exaggerated a little, as he sometimes did on
such occasions, in any case, there was peril--peril for the poor Pölitz
family, whom the most sacred duties confined to the house; greater
peril for the two of whom he knew nothing except that they were people
who must be lost unless he rescued them.
* * * * *
In the great bar-room of the inn at Warnow, filled with the smoke
of bad tobacco and the foul odor of spilt beer and brandy, were the
boisterous carters who had come that morning, and a few cattle traders
who had joined them in the course of the afternoon, and who were now
bent upon remaining. The innkeeper stood near them, trimming the tallow
candles, and was talking more boisterously than his guests, for he must
know better than anybody else whether a railroad direct from Golm past
Wissow Hook to Ahlbeck, rather than by way of Warnow, was nonsense
or not. And the Count, who had ridden out himself in the afternoon,
would open his eyes when he saw the fine kettle of fish; but if one is
determined not to hear, he must learn to feel. In Ahlbeck there is said
to be a horrible state of things, and murder and slaughter, too; that
didn't matter to the Ahlbeckers; they had lately put on airs enough
with their shore railroad station, naval post. Now they would have to
creep back into their hole again!
The innkeeper spoke so loud and heatedly that he did not see his wife
come in and take the keys of the guest-chamber from the board by the
door, while the maid took the two brass candle-sticks out of the wall
cupboard, put two candles in them, lighted them, and followed her
mistress. He did not turn around until some one tapped him on the
shoulder and asked him where he should put his horses; the servant had
said there was no more room.
"And there isn't any," said the innkeeper. "Where did you come from?"
"From Neuenfähr; the guests whom I brought are already upstairs."
"Who are the guests?" asked the innkeeper.
"Don't know. A young gentleman and a lady--persons of quality I think.
I couldn't drive fast enough for them; how is one to drive fast in such
weather, step by step, two mares or one--it didn't matter! A one-horse
rig that came up behind me could have passed me very easily; it must
have been somebody from Warnow; he turned off to the right before
reaching the village."
"Jochen Katzenow was in Neuenfähr this morning," said the innkeeper;
"he has a devil of a mare! Now come along; we will see; don't believe
it is possible."
The man from Neuenfähr followed the innkeeper into the court, where
they met the gentleman whom he had brought. The gentleman took the
innkeeper aside and spoke to him in a low tone.
"That may take some time," thought the man from Neuenfähr. He went out
of the door, unhitched his horses from the carriage, led them under the
protecting roof of a shed, where they were protected from the worst of
the storm, and left the carriage, a light, open Holsteiner, standing
outside.
He had just thrown the blankets over the steaming horses, when the
gentleman stepped out of the house and came up to him.
"It is possible that I shall not remain here long," said the gentleman;
"perhaps only an hour. We shall then go on."
"Whither, sir?"
"To Prora, or back to Neuenfähr; I don't know yet."
"That isn't possible, sir!"
"Why not?"
"The horses cannot stand it."
"I know better what horses can stand; I shall tell you later."
The man from Neuenfähr was vexed at the domineering tone in which the
gentleman spoke to him, but did not reply. The gentleman, who now
had on a great-coat with white buttons--on the way he had worn an
overcoat--rolled up his collar as he now went around the shed toward
the street. The light from the bar-room shone brightly upon his figure.
"Aha!" cried the man from Neuenfähr; "I thought so! One gets to be a
bully when he has been in the Reserves a while. Let the devil drive the
Lieutenant's carriage."
Ottomar had obtained exact information from the innkeeper; the road
which led directly through the village was not to be mistaken. He
walked slowly and stopped repeatedly--a few times because the storm
which was blowing directly in his face prevented him from proceeding,
and again because he had to ask himself what business he had in the
castle. His brain was so dazed by the long journey in the open carriage
through the dreadful storm, and then his heart was so disturbed; it
seemed to him as if he no longer had the strength to call him a rascal
to his face. And then--it had to be, must be, in the presence of his
aunt, if the wretched man was not afterward to deny everything and
entangle his aunt further in his web of lies, as he had entangled them
all. Or was this all a preconcerted game between him and his aunt? It
was, indeed, very suspicious that she had left the castle this very day
so early to call the rascal to account, when they were expecting him to
come. With Else, to be sure. But could not the love which she seemed to
cherish for Else secretly--as everything was done in secret--could it
not also be love after Giraldi's prescription; the aunt had undertaken
to entice and deceive Else, just as Giraldi had deceived him. And they
had both gone into the net, and the sly bird-catchers were laughing at
the stupids. Poor Else--who must certainly have depended upon the fair
promises, and must now contrive how she could get along as the wife of
a pilot commander with a few hundred thalers, over there somewhere in
that wretched fishing hamlet! That was not the cradle-song to which
she listened!--These--that was to be our inheritance--the castle by
the sea, as we called it, when we described our future to each other.
We would occupy it together--you one wing, I the other; and, when you
married the prince and I the princess, we would draw lots to see who
should have it all--we couldn't both occupy it longer, because of the
great retinue. And now, dearest, best of maidens, you are so far from
me, awaiting your lover, who, perchance, has gone out into the storm to
rescue the precious lives of a few herring fishermen, and I----
He sat down upon a rock where the road, passing by the first houses
of the village, descended into a narrow ravine, and then rose again
through the depression to the castle. The rock on which he sat was on
the extreme edge of the ravine, above the depression. It was held firm
in its socket by the roots of a fine stately fir-tree, which must once
have stood further back from the edge and now bent backward, groaning
and creaking under the force of the storm, as if it would avoid falling
into the abyss.
"There is no help for either of us," said Ottomar.--"It has gradually
crumbled away, and we stand like trees with their roots in the air. The
rock which would gladly have held us cannot do so. On the contrary--one
more heavy storm like this, and we shall both be lying down below! I
wish to Heaven we were lying there, and that you had broken my skull in
falling, and that the flood had come and washed us out to sea, and no
one knew what had become of us!"
And she--she, whom he had just left in the wretched, squalid room of
the inn, whose kisses he still felt on his lips, and who, as he went
out of the room--she thought surely he would not see it--threw herself
upon the sofa, buried her face in her hands, weeping! About what? About
her wretched lot, which bound her to one who was weaker than she. She
had the power; she would hold out through it come what might, but what
could come for her? She had told him a hundred times on the way that he
should not worry about the wretched money, that her father was much too
proud to deny her request, the first that she had made of him so far as
she could remember, the last that she should ever make of him.
And thus she had written to her father from Neuenfähr, where they had
to wait half an hour for the carriage. "The matter is all settled," she
said, brushing the hair from his brow as a mother from her son who had
played pranks while in school.
She was stronger; but what did she lose? Her father?--She appeared
never to have truly loved him! Her pleasant life in the beautiful
luxurious house?--What does a girl know what and how much belongs to
life? Her art?--She took that everywhere with her; she had said with a
smile--It is enough for both of us. Of course, she would now have to
support him, the dismissed lieutenant!
The fir-tree against which he was leaning creaked and groaned like a
tortured beast; Ottomar saw how the roots rose and strained, and the
marl wore away the steep slope, while the wind whistled and howled
through the cracked branches, like shot and bullets, and a roll of
thunder came from the sea as from a ceaseless volley of batteries.
"I had it so easy then!" mused Ottomar. "My father would have paid the
few debts I had and would have been proud of me, instead of now sending
me a pistol, as if I didn't know as well as he that it is all over
with Ottomar von Werben; and Else had spoken often and fondly of her
brother, who fell at Vionville. Dear Else, how I should like to see her
once more!"
He had heard from the innkeeper that the carriage with the ladies must
pass here, along the only still passable road, if they came back in
the evening as the coachman had said they would; the shorter way down
through the lowlands was no longer intact. Ottomar wondered what the
man could have meant by the lowlands. The situation was so entirely
different, as he knew it, from the description; the sea appeared to
break immediately behind the castle, even though he could no longer
distinguish particular objects in the wet gray mist which beat upon
him. The castle itself, which certainly lay close below him, seemed to
be a quarter of an hour distant; he would hardly have seen it at times
if lights had not continually flickered from the windows. Also among
the indistinguishable mass of buildings to the left of the castle,
which were probably in the court, lights flashed up occasionally,
changing their position as when men run to and fro with lanterns. A
few times it seemed to him as if he heard human cries and the lowing
of cattle. It might all be a delusion of the senses, which began to
fail the longer he sat unprotected in the raging storm that froze the
marrow in his bones. He must be off if he would not perish here like a
highwayman by the roadside!
And yet he remained; but the visions passed in greater confusion
through his benumbed brain. There was a Christmas tree with glittering
candles, and he and Else went in at the door hand in hand, and his
father and mother stood at the table upon which were dolls for Else,
and helmet and sabre and cartridge-boxes for him; and he rushed with
joy into the arms of his father, who lifted him up and kissed him.
Then the Christmas tree became a tall fir, and its crown a gleaming
candelabrum beneath which he danced with Carla, scorning the Count, who
looked on with anger, while the 'cello hummed and the violins played,
and the couples whirled in and out--Tettritz with Amelia von Fischbach,
tall Wartenberg with little Miss von Strummin; and then followed the
bivouac fires, and the trumpets of Vionville, which sounded the assault
upon the batteries thundering a reply, and he called to Tettritz and
Wartenberg, laughing--"Now, gentlemen, the bullet through the breast
or the cross upon the breast!" and gave his steed the spurs; the horse
reared in his onset with wild neighing.----
Ottomar started up and looked, dazed, about him. Where was he? At
his feet roared and hissed a wide whirling stream; and now he heard
a neighing quite clearly, very close to him--in the deep road on the
edge of which he stood, a carriage, pushed backward against the side
of the road by backing horses. With one leap he was in the rear of the
carriage and at the coachman's side, up to the snorting horses, to help
the man turn them about, there was just room.
"Where are the ladies?"
He saw that the carriage was empty.
"They got out--up above--were in such a hurry--over the path in the
lowlands, toward the park--Good Heavens! Good Heavens! If only they got
over! Good Lord!" A wave of the stream which had broken through between
the hills and the castle, and into which the coachman had almost
driven, broke into the deep road and leaped up under the feet of the
horses, which would no longer stand still, and dashed up the road, with
the coachman, who had fortunately caught the lines and was trying to
stop the animals, at their side.
Ottomar had only understood this much from the coachman's words, which
the storm had drowned for the most part, that Else was in dire peril.
What sort of a path was it? Where was the path?
He ran after the coachman, calling and shouting. The man did not hear.
* * * * *
[Else and Valerie return from Wissow Hook and reach the terrace of
Golmberg. Giraldi, who has wandered out to look for them, seizes
Valerie by the hand and rescues her, leaving Else on the terrace at the
mercy of the storm.]
* * * * *
Ferdinande sprang up as Ottomar's step was heard across the hall down
the creaking stair, and paced to and fro in the little room a few
times, wringing her hands; then she threw herself upon the sofa again,
when she finally saw Ottomar, resting her head in her hands on the arm
of the sofa. But she had not been weeping, and she was not weeping
now; she had no tears. She no longer had any hope, any wish but to be
allowed to die for him, as she could not live for him, and as her life
would be another burden, another torture, for him.
If she had only believed the officer with the smooth brow and the
wide sympathetic eyes, when he said: "You deceive yourself, young
lady; your flight with Ottomar is not a solution, it is only another
complication, and the worst one of all! The difficulty for Ottomar lies
in his wretchedly compromised honor as an officer. The appearance of
things here at least, must be saved, and that is in accordance with
the preliminaries which I have arranged. His life will be at the best
a life in death, and I don't know whether he will be able to endure
it; indeed, I doubt it; but in cases like this it is permissible to
silence one's better convictions. But there is no doubt that, if you
fly with him now and the affair becomes known, as it must, for us his
friends there remains no possibility of saving appearances. An officer
who must resign his position because of debts, whose engagement is
annulled in consequence, who, in this critical predicament, gives up
also the right to call to account slanderers and tale-bearers--that
can happen, unfortunately happens only too often. But thus--pardon
the expression--free course is given to scandal. The man who, in such
a moment, can think of anything but saving from shipwreck as much of
his honor as he can, or, if nothing more is left to be saved, does not
at least resign with dignity, perhaps--perhaps even to give up his
life--who, instead of this, involves another being in this shipwreck,
whom he declares he loves--an innocent girl, a respectable lady--that
man has lost all claim to interest or sympathy. Ottomar himself must
see that sooner or later. This journey of his to Warnow has, to my
mind, absolutely no point. What will he do there? Call Giraldi to
account? The Italian will answer him: You are not a child; you were not
a child; you must have known what you were doing.--Challenge the Count?
For what, when he accompanies you? Well, let him go; but alone--not
with you! I entreat you, not with you! Believe me!--Love in whose
omnipotence you so firmly believe, which is to help Ottomar over all
difficulties as with a divine hand--it will prove itself absolutely
impotent--yes, worse than that; it will completely shatter the little
strength that Ottomar might have summoned. For his sake--if you will
not think of yourself--do not go with him!"
Strange! While he was speaking to her with hurried yet clear
words--drawing her aside even in the last moment while Ottomar and
Bertalde were arranging a few things in the next room--it all passed
over her like an empty sound--she scarcely knew what he was talking
about. And now it all came back to her mind--word for word--it had all
been fulfilled--word for word!
All-powerful Love! Great Heavens! It was a mockery! What else had he
for the visions of the future, which she had painted to him in glowing
terms fresh from her overflowing breast, than a melancholy, dismal
smile, dispirited monosyllabic replies, which he only made in order to
say something while his heart was weighed down by the thought of his
angry father, his sympathetic or scoffing comrades, or the question
whether he would be able after all to force von Wallbach to fight a
duel. His caresses even, when she held him in her arms with her heart
full of untold anxiety, as a mother who rescued her child from the
flames--she shuddered when she thought of them: as if she were a girl
in love whom one must humor--a mistress whom one takes along on a
journey and whom one must not allow to feel that she is a burden at the
first station.
She, she--who once had dreamed that her love was an inexhaustible
fount, and had reproached herself for having been so niggardly with it,
for having turned her lover from her door, for having left him out in
the dreary waste of life, where he must perish in anguish and despair!
She, who was so haughty because she knew that she had all the world
to give; that her love was like the storm which surges on, overriding
everything that is not stronger than itself--like a flood which rolls
on, destroying everything that does not rise into the clouds.
That had been her fear all along; he too--even he would not understand
her entirely; there would be a yawning breach between her ideal and
the reality, and she must not on that account sacrifice her ideal,
even though her heart throbbed with even greater longing and the blood
coursed through her veins even more imperiously. She had only this one
greatest thing to lose in order to be poorer when it was lost than the
poorest beggar--she whose implacable mind destroyed once and forever
the fair dream of many years of being a true artist!
How she had fought! How she had struggled through so many dreary days,
so many wakeful nights, in gloomy brooding and racking despair to
the horror of which, strong though she was, she would long ago have
succumbed, had not his dear illusive image flitted through her morning
dreams, luring her on to other dreary days, to other nights of torture.
Now it was no longer his image; it was he himself--illusive no longer,
and yet still dear! Oh, how deeply she had loved--more than ever,
infinitely more in his helpless misery, than in the days of his
prosperity!
If she could help him! For herself she had no wish, no longer any
desire. God was her witness! And if she rested tonight in his arms, he
in hers--she could think of it without feeling her pulses quicken, and
without feeling that the despair which depressed her heart had vanished
even for a moment. He will not draw any new strength or fresh courage
from your embraces, your kisses, she said to herself. He will arise
from the couch of love--a broken man, weary of life. How should she
keep her strength and courage to live--no longer for herself alone--now
for both of them? If not strength and courage to live--then to die!
If she could die for him! Dying for him could say: "Behold, death is a
joy and a feast for me if I may hope that you will despise life from
this moment on, and, because you despise it, will live nobly and well,
as one who lives only to die nobly and well!" But for his weak soul
even that would be no spur, no support--only one dark shadow more to
add to the other dark shadows which had fallen upon his path; and he
would continue to waver upon the steady path, inactive, inglorious, to
an early inglorious grave!----
Thus she lay there, deep in the abyss of her woe, not regarding
the howling of the storm which shook the house continually from
garret to cellar, not hearing the boisterous tumult of the drunken
guests directly below her room, scarcely raising her head when the
innkeeper's wife came into the room.
The latter had intended to ask the young lady, as the guests would
now certainly remain for the night, how she wished to have the beds
arranged in the room; but, at the strange expression of the beautiful
pale face which rose from the arm of the sofa and gazed at her with
strange looks, the question had died on her lips and she had only asked
the other question--if she might not make the young lady a cup of tea.
The young lady had not appeared to understand her; at least she made
no reply, and the innkeeper's wife thought: She will doubtless ring if
she wishes anything. So she went with the light in her hand into the
adjoining room, and left the door, which was hard to close, slightly
ajar, in order not to disturb the young lady further, and then turned
with her candle to the windows to see if they were closed; the upper
bolt had stuck, and as she loosened the lower one, the storm, coming
through the narrow opening, blew out the candle which she had placed
upon the window-sill.
"I can find my way," the landlady murmured, and turned toward the beds
in the dusk, but stopped as she heard the door adjoining open and the
young lady utter a slight scream. "Good Heavens!" thought she, "people
of quality are almost worse off than we are"--for the gentleman who
had returned had begun at once to speak in a tone not exactly loud,
but evidently excited. What could be the trouble between the two young
people? thought she, slipping on tiptoe to the door. But she could
not understand anything of all the gentleman was saying, nor the few
words which the lady interjected; and then it seemed to the landlady
as if it was not the clear voice of the gentleman and as if the two
were not speaking German. She peeped through the crack and saw, to her
astonishment and terror, a wild strange man in the room with the young
lady, from whose shoulders a brown coat fell to the floor as she looked
in; but he did not pick it up, though continuing to gesticulate and to
speak more rapidly and loudly in his unintelligible gibberish like a
crazy man, as the terrified landlady thought.
"I will not go back again!" cried Antonio, "after having run half the
way like a dog behind his mistress, whom a robber has kidnapped, and
ridden the other half cramped up in straw in a wagon, like an animal
taken to market by the butcher. I don't intend to be a dog, worse
than a beast, any longer, and I will no longer endure it. I now know
everything, everything, everything!--How he has betrayed you, the
infamous coward, to run after another, and again from her to you, and
has lain before your door whining for favor, while those inside have
been making a match for him. His wench and that infernal Giraldi, whom
I intend to throttle whenever and wherever I meet him, as truly as my
name is Antonio Michele! I know everything, everything, everything--and
that you will yield your person to him tonight, as you have already
yielded your soul to him!"
The desperate man could not understand the half contemptuous, half
melancholy smile which played about the proud lips of the beautiful
girl.
"Don't laugh, or I'll kill you!"
And then as she arose--not from fear, but only to ward off the furious
man----
"Pardon, oh! pardon me--I kill you, you--you, who are everything to
me, the light and joy of my life, for whom I would let myself be torn
in pieces, limb by limb! I will give every drop of my heart's blood
if you will only let me kiss the hem of your garment--kiss the ground
upon which you tread! How often, how often, have I done it without your
knowing it--in your studio--the place where your beautiful feet have
rested, the implements which your hand has touched! And I demand so
little! I am willing to wait--for years--as I have already waited for
years; I shall not grow tired of serving you, of worshiping you as the
Holy Madonna, till the day comes when you will hear my prayers."
He dropped to his knees where he stood, lifting his wild eyes and
twitching hands to her.
"Arise!" she said; "you do not know what you say, and do not know to
whom you speak. I can give you nothing. I have nothing to give; I am so
poor, so poor--much poorer than you!"
She went about the room, wringing her hands; passed him still kneeling,
and, when her garments touched his glowing face, he sprang to his feet
as though touched by an electric current.
"I am not poor," he cried; "I am the son of a prince--I am more than
a prince; I am Michelangelo! I am more than Michelangelo! I see them
coming in pilgrim troops, singing songs in praise of immortal Antonio,
bearing flowers, waving wreaths to decorate the marvelous works of the
divine Antonio! Do you hear! Do you hear? There, there!"
Up the broad village street came a confused cry of many voices, of
people terrified by the news of the flood, which had broken through the
dikes, and running down to the scene of the disaster. From the tower of
the church nearby the tones of the bell resounded, now threateningly
near, now quavering in the distance, as the storm surged to and fro.
"Do you hear?" cried the madman--"Do you hear?"
He stood with outstretched arms, smiling with his dazed eyes fixed
as in blissful triumph on Ferdinande, who gazed at him with horror.
Suddenly the smile changed to a terrible grimace; his eyes sparkled
with deadly hate, his outstretched arm drew back abruptly, his hand
clutched his breast, as now, directly under the window, a voice in
commanding tone sounded clear above the cries of the multitude, through
the raging storm--"A rope--a strong rope, the strongest rope you have,
and small cords, as many as possible.--There are some below already! I
shall be down there before you are!" A hasty step, then three or four
steps at a time, came up the stairs. The madman laughed aloud.
The landlady likewise had heard the clear voice below, and the
hastening step upon the stair. There would be trouble if the young
gentleman should come in while the strange, uncanny man was with the
young lady. She rushed into the room at the moment when the gentleman
from the other side threw open the door.
Uttering a cry of rage, with lifted stiletto Antonio rushed toward
him--but Ferdinande threw herself between them, before Ottomar could
pass the threshold, covering her lover with her outstretched arms,
offering her own breast to the impending blow, collapsing without a
sound of complaint in Ottomar's arms, while the murderer, the assassin,
at the sight of the deed which he had not intended, and which, like a
gleaming flash of lightning, rent the darkness of his insanity, rushed
past them in cowardly, confused flight, down the stairs, through the
midst of the multitude, which the tolling of the storm-bell and the
cries of those passing by had frightened from the bar-room and the
houses and which shrank back in terror at the strange man with his
black hair waving in the wind and a bloody dagger in his hand--up the
village street, running, crying, screaming, over everything that came
in his way, into the howling darkness.
And--"Murder! Murder! Seize him! Stop him! Stop the murderer!" they
shouted from the house.
* * * * *
[The driver from Neuenfähr is trying to find stable room for his
horses in Warnow. A man in great haste rushes up to him and asks to
be driven to Neuenfähr, offering whatever he may ask, while the mob
clamors for the murderer of Ferdinande. The driver starts in the face
of the flood and the storm. He is terrified and wishes to turn back.
The passenger offers him five thalers, twenty thalers, a hundred
thalers--anything--and tells him to drive on--anywhere to get away
from the place. The driver wonders who the raving man can be--a tramp!
The murderer of Ferdinande, or the devil? The horses plunge on through
the flood; the driver curses, and then prays. Instead of one passenger
there are now two, grappling like fiends at each other's throats. The
horses are swimming. The driver unhitches them, mounts one of them, and
leaves his uncanny passengers to perish in the flood, reaching at last
the little village of Faschwitz.]
* * * * *
"That won't do," cried the Burgess. "Take it in again!" "Ho! Ho, heave
ho!" cried the thirty who held the cable--"Ho, heave ho!"
In their haste they had constructed a kind of raft by tying together a
few boards and doors from the nearest houses, and had now tentatively
let it into the stream. The flood carried it away instantly and turned
it upon end! the thirty had all they could do to get it back on shore
again.
For the brow of the hill had become a shore by the stream which in its
fury had dashed over it! And upon the brow of the hill half the village
had assembled, and people still came running in breathless haste. The
village was in no danger; the nearest houses were ten to fifteen feet
above water; it did not seem possible that the water could rise much
more, especially as it had dropped a foot during the last few minutes.
The storm had gone somewhat to the north; the inrushing flood must flow
in the direction of the Hook. It had also grown a little brighter,
although the storm still raged on with unabating force. Those who had
arrived first did not need to show the others coming up the scene of
the calamity; every one could discern the white terrace over there
and the female figures in black--at one time two, and now again only
one, as before, who continually signaled with a handkerchief, and sat
crouching in a corner as if she had given up hope and expected and
awaited her fate.
And yet it appeared as if the rescue must be accomplished. The space
was so narrow; one could throw a stone across. The best throwers
had tried it, foolishly--with a thin cord attached to a stone; but
the stone did not go ten feet, and blew away with the line like a
spider-web. And now the huge wave rolled on into the park, dashing over
the terrace, spending its force in the stream, in spite of the fact
that it had washed up to the edge of the shore. The women cried aloud;
the men looked at one another with serious, troubled expressions.
"Nothing can be done, children," said the Burgess; "before we can bring
the raft around, the building over there will be broken to pieces. One
more such wave, and it will break into a thousand bits--I know it will;
the pillars are not six inches thick, and the wood is worm-eaten."
"And if we can get the raft over and move up toward it, we shall break
it in two and upset ourselves," said Jochen Becker, the smith.
"There are ten lying in the water instead of two!" exclaimed Carl
Peters, the carpenter.
"That doesn't help any," said the Burgess; "we can't let them drown
before our very eyes. We will try to get twenty feet further up with
the raft, and put the people right on it; I'll go along myself. Take
hold, children, take hold!"
"Ho, heave ho! Ho, heave ho!"
A hundred hands were ready to draw the raft up stream, but thirty paces
would not accomplish it; it must be twice that far. The half hundred
brave men had been found ready to make the attempt; the Burgess would
stay by--who else should command them that held the rope?--That was the
important thing!
They stood on the raft with long poles.
"Ready!"
The raft shot from the shore into the stream like an arrow.
"Hurrah!" cried those on the shore. They thought they had reached the
goal; they were already afraid that the raft would drive over into the
park and upset against the trees. But it did not go any farther--not
a foot; it danced upon the stream so that the six on the raft had to
throw themselves flat and hold fast, and so go down the stream again,
like an arrow, toward the shore on this side to the place where they
were before. Only with the greatest exertion were the fifty able to
hold it; only with the greatest difficulty and evident peril had the
six come down again from the raft to the steep shore.
"That won't do, children," said the Burgess. "If only the Lieutenant
would come back--they are his near kinsmen! First he chases us down
here, and now he won't come himself."
The faint brightness which had appeared when the foaming spray had
withdrawn a little had again vanished. While hitherto only the leaden
gray sky and the dense storm had turned the evening into night, the
real night now came on. Only the sharpest eyes could still see the
black form on the terrace, though the terrace itself could still be
descried by every one, and at the same time the wind was evidently
growing worse and had shifted again from northeast to southeast. The
water was rising fast in consequence of the counter-current setting
in the direction of Wissow Hook. That would have aided them as the
swiftness of the current diminished; but no one any longer had the
courage to renew the hopeless attempt. If there were no way of getting
a rope over and fastening it there, so that some of them could slip
over the swaying bridge from here to the terrace, no rescue was
possible.
So the Burgess thought, so thought the others, and so they shouted
it into one another's ears; but in the dreadful tumult no one could
understand a word that was said.
Suddenly Ottomar stood in their midst. He had taken in the whole
situation at a glance.--"Give me the line," he cried, "and make a
light!--The willows there!"
[Illustration: CHRIST BEFORE PILATE
_From the Painting by Michael von Munkacsy_
PERMISSION CH. SEDELMEYER, PARIS]
They understood him instantly.--The four old, hollow willows, right
there on the edge--they were to set fire to them! The village
would be in danger, to be sure, if it could be done; but none thought
of that. They hurried to the nearest houses, they brought back pieces
of oakum and resinous wood by the armful and stuffed it all into the
hollow trunks, which fortunately were turned toward the west. A few
fruitless attempts--and then it flamed up--sparkling, flashing--now
flaring and again subsiding--casting strange, shifting lights upon the
hundreds of pale faces which were all directed toward the man with the
line around his breast, struggling against the stream.--Would he hold
out?
More than one pair of callous hands were clasped in prayer; women were
on their knees, sobbing, moaning, pressing their nails into the flesh,
tearing their hair, screaming as if mad, when another dreadful wave
rolled up and on over him, and he vanished in the swell.--But there he
was again! It had cast him back half the distance he had traversed; but
a minute later he had retrieved the lost ground. He had been driven
quite a distance down stream, but had chosen well his starting point;
the terrace was still far below him. It seemed a miracle that he came
through the stream!
And now he was in the middle of it! It was the worst place--they knew
it from their previous experience! He seemed not to advance, but,
instead, gradually to lose headway.--But the terrace was still below
him; if he overcame the middle of the current, he could, he must
succeed!--And now he was gaining ground perceptibly--nearer and nearer,
foot by foot--in a diagonal curved line toward the terrace!--
Rough, quarrelsome fellows who had been enemies all their lives, had
clasped hands; women fell sighing into each other's arms. A gentleman
with short gray hair and heavy gray mustache, who had just run up from
the village, taking his stand close by the burning willows, almost
enveloped by their flames, had followed the swimmer with steady gaze
and with fervent prayers and promises--that everything, everything,
should be forgiven and forgotten, if only he should have him back
again, his dear, heroic son!--He now cried out aloud--a terrible cry
which the storm carried away and hurled down upon the shore where
the men were standing who held the line, shouting to them to pull
back--back--back!--It was too late!
Then down came the mighty fir-tree, at the foot of which the swimmer
had sat an hour before--torn loose by the storm, hurled into the flood,
rolling on in the whirlpool of the stream, like a giant emerging from
the deep, now turning up its mighty roots which still held the rock in
their grasp, and now the top; now rising erect as it had once stood
in the light of the sun, and in the next moment crashing down upon
the swimmer--then plunging with its top into the foaming currents and
turning its roots upward as it hurried out of the light into the darker
night.
They drew him back, as, strangely enough, the thin line had not
broken--a dead man, at whose side, as he lay stretched out upon the
shore (he had only a wide, gaping wound above his brow, like one who
had died an honorable cavalryman's death) the old man with the gray
mustache knelt down, kissed him upon the beautiful, pale lips, and then
rose up.--"Now give me the line! It was my son! And over there is my
daughter!"
It seemed madness! The young man--they had seen how he struggled!--But
the old man!--Though he was old, he was nevertheless a large man, with
broad high chest. He threw off his coat and vest.
"If you find, General, that you cannot hold out, give us the sign at
the right time," said the Burgess.
And now something like a miracle appeared to those who, in this short
hour, had passed through such strange, horrible, fearful experiences!
The willow torches, which were all blazing at once from the roots to
the spreading branches, cast a brightness almost like that of day upon
the shore, upon the multitude, the stream, the terrace beyond--far into
the flooded park, up to the castle, the windows of which here and
there flashed red in the reflection of the fire.
In this light, along the narrow stream upon the bottom of which the
village children had formerly played, rolling like balls from the edge
of the slope to the bottom--along this foaming water-course down which
the spreading fir-tree was still tossing like a monster of the sea;
seizing its prey with a hundred arms, sped a slender beautiful boat,
which had disembarked a strange cargo at the rear landing-place of the
castle, as at a dock. There they had heard how matters stood, and the
man at the helm had said: "Children, it is my betrothed!" And the six
with him had cried: "Hurrah for the Commander!" and "Hurrah for his
betrothed!" So they now shot past with lowered mast, while the six
seamen held the oars in place as in a flag-boat which brings an admiral
to shore. And the flag fluttered behind the man at the helm, as with
the gentle pressure of his strong hand he steered the obedient craft
through the mighty swells to the point which his clear unfailing eyes
kept in view, as an eagle does his prey, although his courageous heart
was beating furiously in his breast.
And they shot past--on, past the multitude, which gazed breathlessly
at the miracle, on, by the terrace--but only a short distance; for the
man at the helm brought the boat about like an eagle in its flight, and
the six seamen dipped their oars all at one stroke--and then--Hurrah!
Hurrah! Hurrah!--the oars shot up again, and the boat lay alongside the
terrace, over which and the boat a gigantic wave rolled its foaming
comb toward the shore, and there, subsiding, dashed the foam into
the burning trees, enveloping the breathless observers on the shore
in a cloud of spray; and, as the cloud dissipated, they saw, in the
dim light of the extinguished fire, no longer the terrace--and the
boat only as it were a shadow, which disappeared to the right in the
darkness.
Then they breathed freely again, as from a single troubled soul,
relieved from its anxiety; and "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" was heard
as from a single throat, so that it sounded above the howling storm.
The boat might vanish in the dark! But they knew that the man at the
helm understood his business, and the six at the oars understood their
business, too; it would come back again, bringing with it those rescued
from the storm and flood!
* * * * *
The setting sun was just above the hills. In its magic light gleamed
the surface of the water which covered the great semicircle between
Golmberg and Wissow Hook. The slanting golden rays sent their blinding
light into the eyes of Reinhold, who was just steering his boat from
the sea into the bay, close past the White Dune, upon the steep side of
which the long in-rolling wave was curling, while the boat swept past
by its broad crest, and the points of the uniformly rising and falling
oars almost touched the edge. The glances of the men who plied the
oars were directed toward the Dune as they glided on, and the scene of
rescue on the night of the storm was surely in the minds of all; but
not one of them said a word.
Not because it was against discipline. They knew that the Commander
allowed a modest word at the right time, even when he was, as today,
in full uniform, and wore the iron cross on his breast; but he had
drawn the three-cornered hat far down over his face, and, if he lifted
his eyes quickly once more to examine the course, they did not look
threatening today; they had not yet seen threats in his eyes, any more
than they had heard harsh words from his lips--but lips serious and
sad. They did not wish to disturb the Commander in his thoughts--more
serious and sad than the brave men might entertain or could comprehend.
What were the two people to them whom they had rescued from the peril
of death on this Dune, with unspeakable effort and hundredfold mortal
peril to each one of them--what were the few people to them whom they
had rescued because it was their duty, or the others whom they had
already rescued during the day! How the Count and the noble lady got
there, what relation the two sustained to each other--why should they
ask about that?
But he!
What a shudder went through him when he found the brilliant Carla von
Wallbach, whom he had seen dancing and coquetting a few days before,
under the light of the candelabra, through the reception room at
Warnow--now a picture of extreme misery, her clothes drenched with
water, her delicate limbs trembling from the icy cold, with half dazed
senses, curled up in a heap scarcely like a human form, and bore her
to the boat; with horror he recalled the moment when he laid her down
in the boat--how she, awaking from her stupor and recognizing him, had
cried out as if mad, "Save me from him, from him!"--and held him, the
strange man, anxiously in her grasp, as a child its mother, so that
he had to release himself by force! And when the Count, who was in a
scarcely less lamentable condition, having been carried by two pilots
into the boat and placed near Carla, suddenly staggered up again at the
risk of falling overboard, tottered to the bow of the boat and there
sat brooding in sullen disdain, disregarding everything that went on
about him, until they worked their way to the Pölitz premises and made
ready to bring the wretched people through the window of the garret to
which they had fled, into the boat--then he sprang up and shrieked like
a madman that he did not wish to be packed in with those people, that
he would not have it so!--And he belabored those about him until he was
deterred by the threat that they would bind him if he did not obey the
orders of the Commander--at which he covered his face with his hands,
and sullenly swallowed his wrath.
There was the garret, and there was the window opening--they had torn
out the window and knocked out a piece of the wall to make room--and
Reinhold remembered that he himself had succeeded in rescuing wretched
people from this dreadful desolation, that he had been able to carry
frail human forms through the storm and blackness into the safe port of
the castle, where all danger was over.
The passage from the inundated court to the castle lasted only a few
minutes--the storm had hurled the boat before it like a snowflake--but
those had been the only moments when his own heart trembled, not
with fear, but with tender solicitude. His eyes grew moist as he now
recalled it all--the mother who lay in the boat with her little one at
her breast, her head upon the knees of her husband, while poor Marie,
full of compassion, held the fainting Carla in her arms. How must the
wretched man in the bow of the boat have felt at this sight if he once
raised his eyes! The raging haste with which he jumped out and rushed
away when they touched the landing of the castle to conceal himself
somewhere in the darkness--it was Cain fleeing from the dead body of
his slain brother.
And Reinhold's thoughts grew still more sad. He had succeeded in the
greatest effort of all; he had been permitted to rescue his betrothed
from certain death--and with her the unfortunate woman who loved them
both, as if they had been her children and whom both loved and honored
as a mother. It was indeed such a supreme joy--and yet, yet----?
How dearly this joy had been bought! Was there other joy which must be
bought just as dearly? Was there everywhere happiness, with unhappiness
so near at hand in its pitiless form, like the blue-black shadows
yonder between the turrets and the battlements of the castle, bordered
on the brightly illuminated surface? Did not even the apparently
firmest ground shake, as here the wave undulates above the fields
through which the ploughman formerly drove his plough, over the pasture
upon which the shepherd formerly drove his flocks? Did they have to
die so young, so beautiful, so richly endowed with the most splendid
gifts and talents? And if they had to die because they could no longer
live, no longer wished to live, death was for them only a release from
inevitable destruction. What a questionable good did life appear to
be, when with it is born the possibility of such a horrible fate? How
could the two fathers bear it?--With fortitude no doubt--and yet, and
yet----?
They had rowed around the castle in the park, and approached the shore
where the willows had burned that night, the charred ends of which
still rose from the sands. Several larger as well as smaller boats
already lay there, which had come from Ahlbeck, and even from the
distant villages along the coast. From every direction--from miles
around--they had come, for in every quarter the tragic story of the
youth and maiden who loved each other, who both had fled from home and
found neither happiness nor a happy star, and now had died and were to
be buried today, had passed from mouth to mouth.
Reinhold turned from the shore and went to the village. The President
had written him that he would arrive at Warnow at a certain hour, and
wished to speak to him before he presented himself to the family.
Reinhold was well aware of the punctual habits of the worthy man, and
had scarcely reached the place in front of the inn, where a barricade
of vehicles had already assembled, when an equipage rolled up from
which the President descended, and, seeing him, at once came to meet
him with outstretched hand. There was something almost paternal in
the silent greeting, for the President was too much moved to venture
speech until they had stepped aside a few paces. He then began, with a
melancholy smile:
"Prophets to the right, and prophets to the left! Yes, yes, my dear
young friend! What would we give, indeed, if we had all proved to be
false prophets, and our storm floods had not come! But they have come;
yours has subsided quickly enough, thank God; mine will yet long rage
on, Heaven pity me! Would that such brave St. Georges might appear in
this case, to charge so boldly at the body of the dragon, and wrest
from him his victims! I am proud of you, dear friend; there are not
many who can truly rejoice in such splendid deeds as you have been
permitted to perform with the help of a gracious God. To rescue so many
lives, even if your betrothed had not been among them--how happy you
must be! It will not add to your joy, I think; it will not increase
the bliss which fills your heart; but it is right and proper that such
noble, divinely inspired conduct find recognition also in the eyes of
the world. Your treatise, which at the time aroused bad feelings, has
not been forgotten; if your counsel had been followed the unfortunate
military port would at least never have been begun, and millions and
millions would have been saved for our country, not to speak further of
the disgrace. Such minds should not celebrate, the Minister thinks; in
answer to my report of events here, he has sent an order by telegraph
to confer upon you a medal for bravery, with a ribbon, in the name of
His Majesty, and to ask you, in his own name, whether you are inclined
to enter his Ministry in some capacity to be agreed upon in a personal
interview with him--as reporting member to the ministry, I suppose,
or even the marine ministry--it appears that the two gentlemen are
competing for you. I think I know what you will answer me--that you
prefer to remain here for the present. I should not like to lose you
just now; but keep your future open in any case; you owe it to the
general weal, and you owe it to yourself. Am I right?"
"Certainly, Mr. President," replied Reinhold; "it is my ardent desire
and my firm determination to serve my King and country by land and sea
whenever and however I can. Every call which comes to me will find me
ready, although I will not deny that I should leave here reluctantly,
very reluctantly."
"I can easily imagine so," said the President. "A man like you puts
his soul into everything, devotes himself to the fulfilment of his
duty, be it great or small; and that one can perform great things in a
comparatively small sphere you have shown. Nevertheless the matter has
also a sentimental side which it would be false heroism to overlook.
The high recognition which your services have received from the King
will be a pleasing satisfaction for your so sorely tried father-in-law,
and he would feel himself quite lonely in Berlin without the presence
of his daughter."
"How kind you are!" said Reinhold, with emotion. "How you think of
everything!"
"Isn't it so?" rejoined the President, returning the pressure of
Reinhold's hand with a friendly grip. "It is admirable! Have I not
the honor to be a friend of the family? And did you not recognize me
in that capacity when you communicated everything privately to me in
your official report of the events of the days of the storm flood?
What concerned you and the family to whom you now belong? I feel
myself honored by your confidence; I do not need to tell you that it
is all buried in my breast. But you are right--in such complicated
circumstances one must not depend upon himself, one must call to his
aid experience, the wisdom of his friends. And who would be better able
than I to offer assistance in this case? I have considered everything,
I have made it all clear to myself, indeed have even laid some few
first lines, and have found most ready response from every quarter.
We will discuss that in detail when you come to Sundin in the next
few days, as you will do, I hope. For today--I must go back to the
funeral at once--only this much: I am sure that the estates of your
aunt, the Baroness, are intact; inasmuch as both Golm and the Society
are bankrupt and must be content with any condition, even if it be
only moderately acceptable. I shall not make any that are favorable to
the parties, you may be sure of that! These people who have brought
such unspeakable disaster upon thousands deserve no pardon. To be
sure, there will remain then, at the best, only fragments of the proud
fortune, for the greater part of it, I fear, has forever disappeared
with that horrible man, Giraldi. Or do you think not?"
"Most certainly, Mr. President," said Reinhold. "I assumed it from the
beginning, and the report of the man who drove for him and with whom
I afterward spoke in detail myself and cross-questioned, confirmed my
assumption. The inundation between Wissow Hook and Fachwich came with
such fearful violence that the first water must have been washed out
more than once by that coming in from the bay, which was formed as
from a bowl, together with everything in its current. Then the water
which was forced out formed a monstrous stream, which surged between
the continent and the island, westward into the open sea, and if the
corpses are ever driven ashore after weeks, perhaps after months,
anywhere----"
"Too bad, too bad!" sighed the President. "The proud, proud
fortune--according to my estimation and accounts--which the dreadful
man made in his last interview with the Baroness, a whole million!
How much good could have been done with that! And in your hands, too!
Nevertheless, on the other hand--it is a dreadful thought--such an
inheritance, and now even the Baroness! Are you acquainted with the
horrible details?"
"She knows that Antonio was the assassin of my poor cousin; she knows,
also, that the two Italians were together in their flight, that they
perished together. I hope the unspeakable horror which the man's report
contains for us will ever remain a secret."
"She doesn't believe in the son?"
"Not at all! It is as if God in his mercy had blinded in this
direction her otherwise clear vision. She considers the whole matter
a fabrication, a downright lie of Giraldi's. You can imagine, Mr.
President, that we uphold her in her belief, and are grateful to fate
even for that reason which swallows up in its depths what should never
have seen the light of day."
"Of course, of course!" said the President; "that is a consolation
withal. The unhappy woman has really already suffered enough. Toward
your poor uncle fate has been less gracious. It is dreadful to lose
such a daughter, so fair and so highly endowed. But for a man such as
your uncle must be, to judge from all I have heard of his generosity,
his sense of honor, to be pursued by the ghost of a son who is followed
wherever he goes by warrants and bailiffs--against that, I think, no
magnanimity and no philosophy can avail--that is pitilessly horrible,
without the slightest breath of atonement! Such suffering, even time,
which is almighty in other things, cannot diminish; here death alone
can bring relief--but the man will take good care not to die."
"I don't know," said Reinhold. "He is from a family which does not fear
death; however differently the unfortunate man may look at life, I can
easily imagine that even to him the question comes in a form which he
understands, and that he will then not hesitate a moment in forming his
decision."
The fugitive ripple of an ironical smile played about the lips of the
President; he was about to say, in a happy turn of phrase, that he
could understand the pride of family, even when, as in this case, it
overshot the mark; but a loud cry in a heavy voice in the immediate
neighborhood prevented him. The one who shouted was von Strummin, who
came down the short cross street leading from the main street of the
village to the parsonage in such haste that Reinhold, who had already
heard of the arrival of his friend in the early morning, had no time to
tell the President of the relation of the two men. On the other hand,
von Strummin shouted, before he extended his hand to the President--"I
have the honor, Mr. President, to present to you my son-in-law,
Mr. Justus Anders, renowned sculptor--the grand gold medal, Mr.
President!--came this morning with my daughter from Berlin, accompanied
by your aunt, Commander--he took the arrangements in hand at once, as
your aunt wished it so--had the whole lower floor cleared out--looks
now like the church in Strummin! Yes, my honored President! Such an
artist! The rest of us must all stand with open mouths.--And now just
think, Mr. President--the pastor cannot, or rather will not, preach
the funeral sermon--declines at the last moment! We--my son-in-law and
I--have just seen him--didn't even receive us--can't see any one--can't
speak at all--beautifully hoarse. The parish of Golm, which the Count
has promised him, still sticking in his throat!"
"Pardon, Strummin," said Reinhold, interrupting the zealous man, "I
differ widely from the pastor in his belief, but here I must take his
part. He is really ill, very ill, and his illness has a justifiable
cause. I know it; for my men, and, as it happened, I myself--we have
had the feeble old man with us everywhere as a volunteer wherever there
was need of giving help or consolation, and you know that was the case
on not a few occasions."
"Well, if you say so!" exclaimed von Strummin; "and it may be, too,
that I have become suspicious, if I think I scent only a trail of our
fine Count. But the Parish of Golm----"
"Dear von Strummin," whispered the President, "why all that so
loud!--And you have heard----"
"Well, for all I care!" cried Strummin; "I am only saying that the
Parish of Golm----"
The two friends could not hear what Strummin, now lowering his voice at
the repeated request of the President, said further in support of his
theory. They remained some distance behind, shaking hands repeatedly,
while tears stood in their eyes.
"Yesterday at this time we buried Cilli," said Justus.--Ferdinande's
Pietà, which I am finishing, will stand over her grave, and declare
to the world what a treasure of goodness and love and mercy lies
buried there; and to these two here I will erect a monument--I showed
Mieting a plan of it on the way.--She says it will be great; but
how gladly I would break stone, literally, for the rest of my life,
as my father-in-law said, if I could thereby awake the good, noble,
brave souls to life again!--The naval uniform is very becoming to
you, Reinhold! I should have modeled you that way; we must try it
again--the big gold epaulettes are fine for modeling!--And who is going
to preach the funeral sermon? The General and Uncle Ernst have directed
that they shall both be buried in one grave. I find that beautiful and
right, and the objection that they were not even publicly betrothed
entirely without basis and genuinely philistine. And here it occurs to
me--Uncle Ernst must speak at the grave; he speaks so well, and it will
do him good to express his thoughts!--And the General, too; they both
stand together, now, like brothers. A dispatch came a while ago for
Uncle Ernst; I was present when he opened it, and saw how he winced; I
am convinced that it is about poor Philip; they probably caught him;
it is horrible that Uncle Ernst must bear that, too--on a day like
this! But he didn't tell any one except the General. I saw how they
went aside, and he showed the General the dispatch, and they conversed
together for a long time, and then shook hands.--Uncle Ernst! who swore
that the hand which he should extend to the General would shrivel up,
and who asked me, half a dozen times today, whether I thought Ottomar's
comrades, who had said they were coming, would really come; it was for
that reason we set the funeral so late--it would be very painful for
the General if they didn't come!--As if he had no sorrows of his own!
He is a heroic soul!--But your Else, too, is admirable. How she loved
this brother, and how quietly and calmly she orders everything now, and
has a willing ear and a cheerful kindly word for every one! 'That's
more than I could do, you know,' said Mieting; 'there's only one Else,
you know.'--Of course I know that! But there's also only one Mieting!
Am I not right?"
"My dear son-in-law!" said Strummin, turning away.
"He has called me that two hundred times today," said Justus with a
sigh, lengthening and quickening his steps.
They had reached the upper end of the deep narrow cut, where they saw
the castle directly before them. A strange sight for the President, who
was very well acquainted with the situation from former days, and whom
Reinhold had led a few steps up to the now very steep slope. For the
stream had washed away and carried off the slope to such an extent that
here and there the edge projected, and Reinhold was enabled to find and
show to the President the place where the fir-tree had stood, whose
fall had been so disastrous to Ottomar. Below them, between the steep
slope and the castle, a stream still surged--no longer in the foaming
waves and roaring whirlpools of that night of terror, but in quiet,
smooth eddies, which merged to form new ones and to splash up against
the keels of five large boats across which the wide temporary bridge
had been made from the mouth of the ravine to the ancient stone gate of
the court.
The turrets of the gate, down to the great coat-of-arms of the Warnows
above the opening, gleamed in the evening sheen, and so, too, glittered
the round tower of the castle and the roofs above it down to the
sharply defined line of the blue-gray shadows, which the hill cast
over the lower land. And farther on to the right gleamed the tree-tops
of the flooded park, and beyond castle and park the still waters that
entirely filled the great inlet and seemed to merge into the open
sea beyond. Before the slanting, shimmering sunbeams even Reinhold's
sharp eyes could not distinguish the few tops of the dunes which still
towered above the water; he could scarcely make out the roofs of the
Pölitz premises, or here and there on the wide surface a clump of
willows on the banks of the dikes.
The President stood absorbed in deep thought; he seemed to have
forgotten even Reinhold's presence.--"Some time the daylight will
come," Reinhold heard him mutter.
They walked over the pontoon bridge--the water gurgling and splashing
against the sharp keels; out of the wide opening of the gate came a
sullen murmur. Entering the gate they saw for the first time why the
village had looked so deserted. The very large court, particularly
the part next to the castle, was filled with a multitude of perhaps a
thousand people, who were huddled together in dense groups, and made
room, with respectful greeting, for the gentlemen as they approached
the portal. They curiously scanned the newcomers, making observations,
in low tones, after they had passed. "The man who walked with the
Commander was the President!" they who knew him remarked (and there
were many) to the others.--"If the President--who is the chief official
in the whole district, and, besides being a kind gentleman, is well
disposed to every one--would come and be present at the funeral, then
the Count might stay at home, Heaven willing!"--"And if the Count wants
to play the rôle of gentleman among them--they would make him sorry for
it."--"But Mr. Damberg says that is not to be thought of; the Count
may be thankful if they spare his life, and, in any case, he would be
ostracized."
The gentlemen entered the castle. A still larger and more brilliant
group now appeared upon the bridge, and drew the attention of the
throng thither. It was a group of officers in full dress uniform,
followed at some distance by a larger number of subalterns--from the
regiment of von Werben, said they who had served, and had seen Ottomar
in the casket.--And the Colonel in the front was, of course, the
commander of the regiment!--That he could command, those who had served
in France could tell by his eyes and nose. And the Captain, who marched
at his side, had been sent by the General Staff by Field-Marshal von
Moltke himself; and the tall Lieutenant, also in the uniform of von
Werben's regiment, was young von Wartenberg, of the von Wartenbergs of
Bolswitz; and as for the old families of von Bolswitz--they had come
over an hour before in their equipage, with an outrider, from their
castle, three miles away. And the idea that a word of all that stupid
talk about young von Werben could be true, that they didn't take him to
Berlin because he couldn't have an honorable burial there, and that
they came all the way from Berlin to help bury him!
Justus, who had undertaken the direction of the funeral ceremonies
with the greatest willingness, and had seen the officers come across
the courtyard, waited in the vestibule until he could receive them
and conduct them into the room on the right, where the company was
assembled. Then he beckoned to Reinhold to follow him, and led him
to the door at the end of the hall, which he quietly opened and
immediately closed behind him. No one else would be allowed to enter,
he declared,--"What do you say, Reinhold?"
The high magnificent rooms, with windows all closed, were flooded with
soft light from countless tapers, hung from the walls and ceiling; and
among baskets of evergreen plants and young fir-trees which stood in a
beautiful ellipse, opening toward the door, rested the two caskets upon
an elevated platform, covered with tapestries and flowers. The walls
were decorated with old arms which Justus had taken from the armory
of the castle--beautiful casts of antiques, and even originals, which
a former art-loving occupant of the castle had collected, and which
Justus had brought from the halls and rooms, and groups of ornamental
plants and evergreens--with lighted candles among them.
"Haven't I made it look beautiful!" he whispered; "and all in the
few morning hours. They would both be delighted with it--he with the
arms, and she with the sculptures. But they themselves are the most
beautiful of all! I must now call the family, Reinhold, before we close
the caskets; meanwhile, take your last look. You haven't had as much
opportunity as the others."
Justus vanished through the door leading to the apartments. Reinhold
ascended the steps and went between the caskets in which the two were
sleeping their eternal sleep.
Yes, they were beautiful--more beautiful than they had been in life.
Death appeared to have removed every trace of earth from them, so that
noble Nature might reveal herself in all her splendor. How fair, how
noble, the face of this girl, and how beautiful the face of the youth,
as if their souls had been truly united in death, and each had fondly
given to the other what was fairest in life! So, around their lips,
once so proud, a sweet, blissful, meek smile rested, for, along with
the restless shifting of the nervous eyes and the impatient trembling
of the fine mouth, death had blotted out all that was incomplete,
imperfect, from the young man's clear features, and had left nothing
but the expression of heroic will with which he had gone to his death,
and of which the broad red wound on his white brow was the awful seal.
There was a slight noise in the firs behind him; he turned and opened
his arms to Else. She laid her head on his breast, weeping. "Only for a
moment can I feel your dear heart beating, and know that you are still
left me--you, my sweet solace, my unfailing treasure!"
She arose. "Farewell, farewell, for the last time, farewell, dear
brother, farewell! Fair, proud sister, how I would have loved you!" She
kissed the pale lips of the two corpses; Reinhold took her in his arms
and led her from the platform, down to where he saw Justus and Mieting
standing, hand in hand, at a respectful distance, among the shrubbery;
while, following the General, Valerie and Sidonie, Uncle Ernst and Aunt
Rikchen appeared upon the platform to take leave of the dead.
Solemn, yet nerve-racking moments, the details of which Reinhold's
tearful eyes could not grasp nor retain! But to Justus' keen artist's
eye, one touchingly beautiful picture followed another--but, none
more touching or beautiful for him, who knew these persons and their
relations so well, than the last--the General almost carrying the
exhausted Valerie down the steps, her head shrouded in a heavy veil
of lace--she had come down from her sick room only for this occasion;
while Uncle Ernst's strong form, still standing there, bent over to
kind little Aunt Rikchen, and, to quiet her, stroked with his strong
hand her pale, troubled, tear-stained face.
"Do you know," whispered Mieting; "they now feel what we felt when we
stood before the dead angel--that they must love each other, you know."
Half an hour later the funeral procession moved out of the castle gate,
from one of whose turrets a large German flag, and from the other a
black one, fluttered in the evening breeze; over the bridge of boats it
passed, up the deep road, turning to the right along the gently sloping
road to the cemetery which extended from the highest point to the chain
of hills that formed the shore, a few hundred steps distant from the
village--a long solemn procession!
The village children, strewing the way with evergreen, went on before
the caskets--before the one decked with palms, where lay the maidenly
form of the beautiful heroic girl, borne by strong pilots and fishermen
who would not surrender the honor of carrying their Commander's
kinswoman to her last resting place; before that of the man, decorated
with emblems of war, for whom she had died, and whom a kindly fate had
allowed to die as a brave man, worthy of the decorations which he had
won in battle, and which the Sergeant-Major of the company bore on a
silk cushion after him--worthy he, that the trim warriors who had seen
him in the days of his glory should lift him now on their shoulders, so
often touched by his friendly hand in the hot hour of battle, and by
the flaming bivouac-fire on the wearisome march to the great rendezvous.
After the caskets, the two fathers; then Reinhold with Else, and
Justus with Mieting--Sidonie and Aunt Rikchen remaining with Valerie;
the President and Colonel von Bohl, Schönau and the brilliant company
of the other officers, and neighboring noblemen with their ladies;
von Strummin and his spouse, the Wartenbergs, the Griebens, the
Boltenhagens, the Warnekows, and the rest, the descendants of the old
hereditary families; the endless train of country folk and sea folk,
with the heroic form of brave Pölitz, and the stout figure of the
chief pilot, Bonsack, at their head.
A long, silent procession it was, accompanied step by step by the
monotonous cadences of the rising and falling waves along the steep
shore, and now and then by the shrill cry of a sea-gull, which, soaring
above the gleaming water, might have regarded the strange spectacle
with wonder, or by a word whispered from neighbor to neighbor, which
those immediately preceding and following did not hear. Thus were
uttered the low words which the General spoke to Uncle Ernst as the
head of the procession reached the cemetery--"Do you feel yourself
equal to the task?" And Uncle Ernst's answer was--"Not until now have
I felt myself equal to it." Even Reinhold and Else, who walked behind
them, would not have understood it if they had heard, nor had Uncle
Ernst shown to any one but the General the dispatch of which Justus
had spoken. The dispatch of serious content in the dry, matter-of-fact
style of the police: Philip Schmidt recognized tonight when about to
embark on the steamer _Hansa_, bound from Bremerhafen to Chile, shot
himself with a revolver in his stateroom, leaving the embezzled money
untouched; will be interred tomorrow evening at six o'clock.
There, under the broad hand which he slipped under his overcoat, lay
the paper, and his great heart beat against it--beat again truly strong
and truly proud, now that he could say to himself that his unfortunate
son did not belong to the cowards to whom life is everything; that for
him, too, there was a measure of disgrace which must not overflow,
because in that moment he drained the beaker of life--a draught too
insipid and loathsome even for his unhallowed lips.
The caskets were lowered into a common grave. At its head stood Uncle
Ernst, bareheaded, and, before him in a wide semicircle, the throng,
bareheaded, silent, looking up to the powerful man whose almost
gigantic figure towered above the hills against the ruddy evening sky.
Now he raised his piercing eyes, which seemed to take in at a glance
the whole assemblage: and now his deep voice sounded, its clear tones
making every word distinct, even to the outer edge of the circle.
"My friends, one and all--I may call you so, for in the presence of
such a great misfortune, such a fearful catastrophe, all are friends
who have human faces.
"My friends! This--it had to be! It had to be! It had to be, because we
had so basely, so utterly forgotten love; because we had lived on so
long through the hopeless years, in barren selfishness, drowning the
longing cry of our hearts with the empty sound of our iron conceit,
ceaselessly keeping up the vain struggle for mine and thine--the
fierce, wild struggle--without a blush and without mercy, wishing no
peace, giving no pardon, regarding no right but that of the victor, who
scornfully treads the vanquished under foot.
"Yes, my friends: it had to be, it had to be, that we should learn
again to love one another! It is this certainty--this, and this alone
it is--which can soothe our sorrow for the dear ones whom we now commit
to the sacred lap of Earth; the tender blossoms which the storm has
broken.
"The storm! The fearful storm, which raged through German hearts and
minds and through German lands, breaking so many hearts, darkening
so many minds, covering so many fields of young green crops with the
horrors of destruction, filling the air with poisonous mists, so that
even the brave man might ask--Has the bright German sun set forever!
But no! It shines upon us again! It sends us, as it sets, its last
golden beams, promising a new, bright day, full of honest toil and
true, golden harvest!
[Illustration: GOLGATHA
_From the Painting by Michael von Munkacsy_
PERMISSION CH. SEDELMEYER, PARIS]
"Oh; thou, serene light of Heaven, and thou, Sacred Sea, and thou,
life-giving Earth--I call you to witness the vow which we make at the
graves of these who parted from us all too soon: To put from us, from
now on, all that is small and common, to live in the future in the
light of truth, to love one another with all our hearts! May the God
of truth and love grant that to the honor of humanity, and to the
glory of the German name!"
The voice of the speaker ceased. But the echo of his words quivered in
the hearts of his hearers, as they silently stepped forward to show the
last honors to the dead. The rays of the setting sun spread over the
sky, lighting up the scene, and the sky lovingly reflected them back to
earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Permission L. Staackmann, Leipzig.
THE LIFE OF THEODOR STORM
BY EWALD EISERHARDT, PH.D.
Assistant Professor of German, University of Rochester, N.Y.
Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm was born on the fourteenth of
September, 1817, in the little town of Husum on the west coast of
Schleswig-Holstein. His paternal forefathers were Low Germans; his
mother's family, named Woldsen, was of Friesian origin. For many
generations the Storms had been hereditary tenants of the mill in
Westermühlen near Husum; for centuries the Woldsens had belonged to
the aristocracy of Husum, composed of prominent merchants from whose
ranks the burgomasters and senators rose. Theodor Storm's father was
an attorney in Husum and commanded universal respect on account of his
unselfishness, punctilious sense of honor, and clear-sightedness in
juristic matters. The poet's mother is described as a woman of graceful
and attractive appearance, distinguished by an unaffected emotional
nature and keen mental penetration. Eduard Mörike spoke of her
personality as being "so clear, so luminous, so provocative of love."
The Storms were not rich, but their home was permeated with that sense
of solid comfort, based on the consciousness of efficiency and pride
of ancestry, so often found in the burgher circles of Germany. Of
particular importance to the children was the presence in the family of
their maternal grandmother. She was full of overflowing kindness toward
her grandchildren, and hence to them the home possessed the magic of
a spot where, as in fairy tales, all wishes might be fulfilled, a
veritable refuge in all times of need. She succeeded, moreover, in
awakening in them strong family feeling; for she loved to tell about
her own youth, her parents and brothers and sisters whose portraits
and silhouettes, in old-fashioned costumes and with quaint cues, hung
on the walls. It was owing mainly to his mother's family that the
poet, even in his early youth, was brought into somewhat close touch
in his native place with all the different classes of people and many
kinds of characters; for on the vessels, in the factories, and in the
houses of the Woldsens and Feddersens--Storm's maternal grandmother
was a Feddersen--numbers of the inhabitants of the little town had
employment, and their relations with these families were not entirely
of a business nature but were rooted in mutual confidence.
Of equal importance for his development were the scenes with which
the boy became familiar through his father's family. His paternal
relatives were settled on considerable estates in the neighborhood,
the family mill in Westermühlen being managed by his father's eldest
brother. There the boy found an Eldorado in the holidays. There, while
wandering through the woods and over the heath, he first held converse
with nature; there, where another spirit rested on house and garden
than in the town, he first vaguely felt the atmosphere peculiar to
certain places; there, where he saw men now favored, now threatened,
by external powers and always dependent upon them, his eyes were
first opened to the relations between man and nature in all their
many-sidedness.
Compared with what his home and family offered him, all that school
could give the future poet was of no significance. Until the autumn
of 1835 he attended the preparatory school of the town and was then
sent to the Gymnasium in Lübeck for a year and a half. After leaving
there he devoted himself to the study of law, first in Kiel, which he
left only to return after three terms spent in Berlin; and it was in
the former place that he concluded his studies and passed his final
juristic examination in the autumn of 1842.
At that time Storm had already made several efforts to express himself
in lyric poetry. At the age of nine he had written his first poem,
and it is characteristic that the occasion of it was the death of a
dearly loved sister. Later, during his school-days in Husum and Lübeck,
he filled two small books with poems, and even made a vain attempt to
reach the public with his _The Building of St. Mary's at Lübeck_. His
poetical talent was most deeply stirred, however, while he was in Kiel
for the second time, when he became intimate with the historian Theodor
Mommsen and his brother Tycho. As a result of this inspiring friendship
the three young men published, in 1843, the _Songs by Three Friends_.
Our poet's contributions to it were chiefly in the sphere in which
throughout his whole life he was to show himself a master--namely, in
love lyrics; and even these early poems sound, in common with many of
his later writings, the note of resignation. Doubtless this quality
was largely innate in his nature, but it was also nursed and fed by an
experience through which he passed in his youth. As a young student
Storm loved a child, Berta von Buchau, and, while she was still a
young girl, asked her hand in marriage, only, however, to meet with
a refusal. The poems dedicated to this love are rich and varied in
tone; they range from the ironic and humorous to the exuberant and
graceful, make the lover find gratification in the service of his
love, are prompted by doubt, raise lamentations and accusations, pray
for the lost love's happiness and ask her to bear him in remembrance,
and finally they die away in grief and sadness. The most artistically
finished poem of this group and the one that gives deepest utterance to
Storm's peculiar poetical talent is _Twilight_. It avoids all extremes
in feeling, seeks to produce the single, deeply felt mood that created
it, and gives in a few apparently chance touches a clear and definite
situation.
In February, 1843, Storm established himself as an attorney in Husum,
and with this step his happiest years began. He was once more in his
home, away from which there had never been any real happiness for him;
his parents were both still vigorous and he was surrounded by loving
brothers and sisters. In the social life of the place, which seems
to have centred in his father's house, he was a favorite, and his
influence on the spirit of the little town was felt when he founded and
conducted a musical society, which soon was able to appear successfully
in public. His happiness reached its climax when, in the autumn of
1846, he married his cousin Konstanze Esmarch.
Konstanze was a really beautiful woman of fine and generous
proportions, with large yet delicately modeled features and fresh
youthful vigor. Storm himself is described as a man of scarcely medium
height, slender and of a somewhat stooping carriage. His appearance can
have been impressive only by reason of his bright blue eyes and the
high forehead beneath his abundant blond hair. Less irritable than her
husband, less passionate and eager in her desires, Konstanze met life
more evenly, firmly, and clearly, and thus, though lacking talent of
any kind, she exerted a far-reaching and beneficial influence on the
poet's nature. "When she came into the room it always seemed to me as
if it grew lighter," he once said of her.
For some years, during which three sons were born to them, they lived
most happily in Husum until the shadow of political events fell
across their house. After a vain struggle for freedom, the dukedoms
of Schleswig and Holstein were subdued by Denmark; and as Storm,
even after their subjection, continued openly to proclaim his German
sentiments he finally found himself obliged, in 1853, to leave his home.
During the ten years spent in Husum Storm's lyric talent came to
full and characteristic development. The influence of Heine's _Book
of Songs_, so apparent in the poems of his school and student days,
is hardly seen any more. Eichendorff's poems and his novel, _Poets
and Their Disciples_, do indeed still echo strongly, and we feel the
influence of Mörike's lyrics in this period more clearly than before.
But all this is insignificant in comparison with Storm's own creative
power and the wealth that flowed to him out of his own life. As he
was particularly happy at that time, it is natural that qualities
should appear in his work which are too often overlooked in forming an
estimate of his character and which were more strongly developed in
this period than in any other. It is true that we still hear sad tones,
even complaints of lost love and of love's suffering and loneliness,
but the majority and the best poems are written in a contented,
confident, energetic, even jubilant key. It is his love for his wife,
of whom he sang so much, that transfigures life to the poet. Beneath
her hand pain is stilled, in her arms life and death are overcome,
and her presence turns the alien place into home. Separated from the
world and from the day nothing can surpass the moments when he receives
from her love's last and highest gifts. To the sound of clear bells on
moonlight nights peace on earth and good-will to men seem to descend
upon the little family circle over which God himself keeps watch. It
was in those days, too, that the poet succeeded in writing his song of
"the gray town by the sea" which nature has treated so slightingly and
yet so singularly, and to which his whole heart goes out; for it is,
after all, his mother town. Indeed, he hails with rejoicing the world,
the beautiful, imperishable world, and every true heart that does not
allow itself to be subdued but enjoys the golden days and has learned
to gild the gray ones. He is even full of hope as regards the fate of
his home country. In spite of all defeats, in spite of all disgrace and
distress, he prophesies a new spring for her and calls the poet blessed
who may then win for her "the jewel of poetry." It is only when he
actually has to leave his home and move away with his wife and children
that he begins to doubt as to his own return; then his hope changes
into the prayer that at least his sons may once be able to go back, for
"no man thrives without a fatherland."
In 1853 Storm had entered the Prussian service, and for three years
held the position of assistant judge in the circuit court in Potsdam.
There he was not content, in spite of the cordiality with which he was
received, especially by Berlin poets, artists, and lovers of art. If
we understand him aright, he was oppressed by the feeling that in the
society of Potsdam the worth of the individual was determined by the
office he held and by his descent, and that the human being in that
State was sacrificed to the citizen and the official, the man to the
soldier. During those years Storm's poetical production faltered, and
it was fortunate for him that in the autumn of 1856 he was transferred
as a circuit judge to Heiligenstadt in Central Germany. This cozy
little town in the mountains appealed exceedingly to his nature, and on
the whole he was able to live there much as he had been accustomed to
in Husum. In addition, the improvement in his financial condition and
the lesser burden of his professional work undoubtedly contributed to
the re-awakening in him of the poet.
He was not so productive in lyric poetry as during the years in Husum,
but, as regards artistic value, the poems of this period certainly
do not stand below those of the earlier one. He tries his hand at
folk-poetry and succeeds in striking its key of heartiness, simplicity,
and spontaneity. He clothes the popular theme of the enamoured miller's
daughter in a garment of artistic form, and yet, by means of roguish
humor and naïve frankness, manages to sound the note of the folk-song.
He employs one of the most telling means for lyric effect by drawing
parallels between the conditions in nature and those in men, and in
doing this he awakens the most delicate harmonies by portraying both
conditions without pointing out the relation between them, or by
placing an individual in the midst of a somewhat minutely described
landscape and leading us to imagine him in a state that corresponds
with that of nature.
But in contrast to those just mentioned the greater number of his poems
are of a subjective kind. Again the poet writes of his wife, from whom
after all comes every joy that he experiences away from home, and he
only draws her all the closer to his heart since the passing years
have imprinted the first signs of age on her gentle features. His love
is mixed with yearning for the time when they were both young and--for
his home. The yearning for home is at one time expressed in almost
classically pure words, "nach drüben ist sein Auge stets gewandt"
(his eye is ever roaming toward the other land); at another it merely
underlies and glimmers through the devotion with which he paints a
scene from home; at still another the poet's blood surges high and
"fury and longing for home wrestle for his heart." At last he can no
longer stifle his indignation; he calls upon the very dead to arise
and to battle again, and in ringing words shouts to the world "_die
deutschen Gräber sind ein Spott der Feinde_" (the German graves are
mocked by enemies).
Even more strongly than in his political poems the specifically manly
quality in Storm's poetry appears in what we may call his confessional
lyrics. There he gives us his thoughts about immortality: that, in
common with all creation, man too rebels against dissolution, and that
the belief in immortality is only the final, refined, and spiritualized
form of this rebellion. But the true man stands above his own fate and
will not sacrifice reason even to the most seductive promises. The
church stands opposed to such high development of the individual; Storm
thinks poorly of it, and forbids the priest to attend at his grave.
[Illustration: THEODOR STORM
_Permission Berlin Photo. Co., New York_]
As in the realm of the mind the poet opposes the church, so in the
social sphere he attacks feudalism and the bureaucracy. Those whose
national feeling is not deep and comprehensive enough to allow
them to feel at one with the people he stigmatizes as the drop of
poison in German blood. He holds up to ridicule those who need the
pretentiousness of power in order to be happy and would like to gain
it at the cost of the people's liberty. But in pithy words Storm
advises his sons to keep to the truth uncompromisingly, to despise
outward success, but to spare no pains in striving for true worth, not
to sacrifice self-respect to consideration for others but always to
remember that in this life, after all, every one can stand only on
his own feet.
The years in Heiligenstadt are of special importance in Storm's whole
artistic activity, inasmuch as poetry is gradually pushed into the
second place by his prose works. At that time Storm was known to the
greater public hardly at all by his lyrics but only by _Immensee_
(1849) and similar tales. Hence he was recognized as the author of
lyric stories expressive chiefly of "transfigured resignation." This
characterization, however, is only partially justified, for resignation
finally disappears from Storm's stories and the share that the lyric
element has in his tales changes entirely in the course of time. Of
a number of his earlier narratives and sketches it can actually be
said that they were written less for the sake of the tale than on
account of the mood they express. And, in _Heiligenstadt_, Storm,
who in all spheres sought untiringly for pure form, finally reached
that kind of prose in which feeling and imagination have the widest
scope, the "Märchen." He writes _The Rain-Witch_, perhaps the most
perfect artistic fairy tale of German literature, in which he not
only surpasses Goethe and the Romanticists but also himself. For, in
Storm's own words, his _Hinzelmeier_ is only a "fantastic-allegorical
creation," _Bulemann's House_, written in the style of E. T. A.
Hoffmann, "an odd story," while _The Mirror of Cyprianus_ appears
rather "in the elegant robe of the saga."
The last of these works was not finished in Heiligenstadt, but
when Storm was back in his old home again. For in March, 1864, he
had returned to Husum, where he was given the office of "Landvogt"
(district magistrate), to which were attached authority in police
matters and the administration of justice.
In taking this step he had followed the call of his fellow-citizens,
for the death of Frederick VII. of Denmark had once more awakened
in the Duchies the hope of freedom. The longed-for happiness of his
return, however, was marred; for, instead of becoming independent,
Schleswig-Holstein was finally made a Prussian province, and he was
still more deeply stricken by a loss in his family. In May, 1865, his
wife Konstanze died after the birth of her seventh child. Storm did
indeed marry again--his second wife Dorothea Jensen was a friend and
relative of his and Konstanze's, and this marriage too was happy--but
his further poems bear witness to what he lost in Konstanze. One of
his stories, also, _Viola Tricolor_ (1873), deals with the problem how
a man can cultivate the memory of his dead wife without doing injury
to his love for the living one; he called it a "Selbstbefreiung"
(self-justification).
The evening of Storm's life was not spent in Husum, where memories
threatened to engulf him, but in the village of Hademarschen nearby,
whither he moved in 1880, when he retired from office. Here he was
destined still to develop abundant artistic activity as a novelist
until his death on the fourth of July, 1888.
After the completion of his imaginative writings a decided change in
Storm's prose style began to take place. Formerly the lyrical element
lay like a haze over and about objects and persons, and even now it
does not disappear. Yet it no longer blurs and obliterates the outlines
and connections, but rather streams out of the objects represented, as
a fragrance rises from a flower. The first beginnings of this style are
already noticeable in _At the Castle_ (1861), in which the problems
of class differences and of enlightenment form to a certain extent
the backbone of the narrative, and in _At the University_ (1862),
which for a story of Storm's at that period contains a great wealth of
incidents. But it was in such works as _In the Village on the Heath_
and _At Cousin Christian's_ that the poet first attained a purely
objective narrative style. That he himself realized this is clear from
his correspondence. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1873, he writes
to Hebbel's biographer Kuh with reference to _In the Village on the
Heath_: "I think I have shown by this that I can also write a story
without the atmosphere of a distinct mood (Dunstkreis einer bestimmten
Stimmung). I do not mean a mood which is spontaneously developed during
the reading from the facts given, but a mood furnished _a priori_ by
the author."
Hand in hand with the development of this "epic" style goes the
transition to realism which we find also in Storm's poems. In prose it
is best represented by works like _Eekenhof_ and _Der Herr Etatsrat_,
or _Hans and Heinz Kirch_ and _Two-Souled_. Here the poet shrinks from
no harshness. We find striking portraits the lines of which are drawn
with a sharp, unflattering touch. Psychic conditions of the most brutal
kind are portrayed and are made the more telling because it is almost
only their effects that are given. In the same way the external world
stands chiefly before us in its appearances while the conditions that
have led to these appearances are neglected. Finally, Storm endeavors
to step beyond the bounds of pure narrative. He seizes upon material
of a dramatic nature and seeks to retain--nay more, to bring out--its
dramatic character, even in the epic form. In one of his letters he
calls the "Novelle" the epic sister of the drama, and goes on to say
that it treats of the deepest problems of human life and requires for
its perfection to be centred about some conflict. Such are works like
_The Sons of the Senator_, where individual will is pitted against
individual will; _Renate_ or _At the Brewer's_, where individuals
struggle against a multitude who are sunk in error and superstition;
and, above all, _The Rider of the White Horse_, where the individual
wrestles with the mass, the man with the most elementary forces of
nature.
_The Rider of the White Horse_ is Storm's last complete work and also,
as we believe, the one that best reflects the whole man, as far as that
is possible with a poet of such varied development. The scene is laid
in his home, which is characterized with vividness and grandeur in its
setting of marsh and sea. Like the stories of his youth it glorifies
love, the love of two beings who are faithful to each other unto death,
and at the same time it touches themes which deeply occupied Storm
in his age, such as the problem of heredity in _Karsten Kurator_, or
the relation between father and son in _Hans and Heinz Kirch_ or in
_Basch the Cooper_. The charm of youth, to which our poet was always
most susceptible, invests the chief characters, and they have that
chaste reserve that holds all internal life sacred. Happiness is won,
but it ends in tragedy, the tragedy which has taken the place of the
resignation of his youthful works and which, after all, was more deeply
rooted in Storm than the joyfulness that is sounded in _Psyche_. It is
a man of sober intellect who tells the whole story and yet, like human
life itself, it stands out against a mystic background. Remembrance
of long ago has clarified everything, loving comprehension fills
everything with deepest sympathy. It was granted to Storm to stand on
a pinnacle of art at the end of his life, a pinnacle which he had to
leave, but from which he did not need to descend.
_THEODOR STORM_
THE RIDER OF THE WHITE HORSE (1888)
TRANSLATED BY MURIEL ALMON
The story that I have to tell came to my knowledge more than half a
century ago in the house of my great-grandmother, the wife of Senator
Feddersen, when, sitting close up to her armchair one day, I was busy
reading a number of some magazine bound in blue cardboard, either
the _Leipziger_ or _Pappes Hamburger Lesefrüchte_, I have forgotten
which. I still recall with a tremor how the old lady of more than
eighty years would now and then pass her soft hand caressingly over
her great-grandchild's hair. She herself, and that day, have long been
buried and I have sought in vain for those old pages, so I can just as
little vouch for the truth of the facts as defend them if anyone should
question them. Only one thing I can affirm, that although no outward
circumstance has since revived them in my mind they have never vanished
from my memory.
On an October afternoon, in the third decade of our century--thus the
narrator began his tale--I was riding in very bad weather along a dike
in northern Friesland. For more than an hour I had been passing, on the
left, a bleak marsh from which all the cattle had already gone, and, on
the right, uncomfortably near, the marsh of the North Sea. A traveler
along the dike was supposed to be able to see islets and islands; I
saw nothing however but the yellow-gray waves that dashed unceasingly
against the dike with what seemed like roars of fury, sometimes
splashing me and the horse with dirty foam; in the background eerie
twilight in which earth could not be distinguished from sky, for the
moon, which had risen and was now in its second quarter, was covered
most of the time by driving clouds. It was icy cold. My benumbed hands
could scarcely hold the reins and I did not blame the crows and gulls
that, cawing and shrieking, allowed themselves to be borne inland by
the storm. Night had begun to fall and I could no longer distinguish my
horse's hoofs with certainty; not a soul had met me; I heard nothing
but the screaming of the birds, as their long wings almost brushed
against me or my faithful mare, and the raging of wind and water. I do
not deny that at times I wished myself in some secure shelter.
It was the third day of the storm and I had allowed myself to be
detained longer than I should have by a particularly dear relative
at his farm in one of the northern parishes. But at last I had to
leave. Business was calling me in the town which probably still lay
a few hours' ride ahead of me, to the south, and in the afternoon I
had ridden away in spite of all my cousin and his kind wife could do
to persuade me, and in spite of the splendid home-grown Perinette and
Grand Richard apples which were yet to be tried. "Just wait till you
get out by the sea," he had called after me from the door, "you will
turn back then; we will keep your room ready for you!"
And really, for a moment, as a dark layer of clouds made it grow black
as pitch around me and at the same time a roaring gust threatened to
sweep both me and my horse away, the thought did flash through my head:
"Don't be a fool! Turn back and sit down in comfort with your friends."
But then it occurred to me that the way back was longer than the one to
my journey's end, and so, drawing the collar of my cloak closer about
my ears, I trotted on.
But now something was coming along the dike towards me. I heard
nothing, but I thought I could distinguish more and more clearly, as a
glimmer fell from the young moon, a dark figure, and soon, when it came
nearer, I saw that it was riding a long-legged, lean white horse. A
dark cloak fluttered about the figure's shoulders and as it flew past
two burning eyes looked at me from a pale countenance.
Who was it? Why was it here? And now I remembered that I had heard no
sound of hoofs nor of the animal's breathing, and yet horse and rider
had passed close beside me.
Wondering about this I rode on. But I had not much time to wonder;
it was already passing me again from behind. It seemed to me as if
the flying cloak brushed against me and the apparition shot by as
noiselessly as before. Then I saw it farther and farther ahead of me
and suddenly it seemed to me as if its shadow was suddenly descending
the land-side of the dike.
With some hesitation I followed. When I reached the spot where the
figure had disappeared I could see close to the dike, below it and on
the land-side, the glistening of water in one of those water-holes
which the high tides bore in the earth during a storm and which then
usually remain as small but deep-bottomed pools.
The water was remarkably still, even stiller than the protection of
the dike would account for. The rider could not have disturbed it; I
saw nothing more of him. But I did see something else that I greeted
with joy; below me, on the reclaimed land, a number of scattered lights
shone. They seemed to come from the long, narrow Friesian houses that
stood singly on mounds of different heights; while close before me,
halfway up the inside of the dike, stood a large house of the same
sort. All its windows on the south side, to the right of the door, were
illuminated; behind them I could see people and even thought I could
hear them, in spite of the storm. My horse had already turned of its
own accord onto the path down the side of the dike that would lead me
to the house. It was evidently a public house, for in front of the
windows I could see the beams, resting on two posts and provided with
iron rings, to which the cattle and horses that stopped there were tied.
I fastened mine to one of the rings and then commended it to the care
of the hostler who came to meet me as I stepped into the hall. "Is
there a meeting here?" I asked him, hearing distinctly the sound of
voices and the clatter of glasses through the open door of the room.
"Something of the kind," he replied in Low German, and I learnt later
that this dialect in the place had been current, together with the
Friesian, for over a hundred years. "The dikegrave and commissioners
and some of the others interested! It's on account of the high water!"
Entering I saw about a dozen men sitting at a table which ran
along under the windows; on it stood a bowl of punch over which a
particularly stately man seemed to preside.
I bowed and asked to be allowed to sit down with them, which request
was readily granted. "You are keeping watch here, I suppose," I said,
turning to the stately man; "it is dirty weather outside; the dikes
will have all they can do!"
"Yes, indeed," he replied; "but we here, on the east side, think we
are out of danger now; it is only over on the other side that they are
not safe. The dikes there are built, for the most part, after the old
pattern; our main dike was moved and rebuilt as long ago as in the
last century. We got chilled out there a little while ago, and you are
certainly cold too," he added, "but we must stand it here for a few
hours longer; we have our trustworthy men out there who come and report
to us." And before I could give the publican my order a steaming glass
was pushed towards me.
I soon learnt that my friendly neighbor was the dikegrave. We got into
conversation and I began to tell him my singular experience on the
dike. He grew attentive and I suddenly noticed that the conversation
all around us had ceased. "The rider of the white horse!" exclaimed one
of the company and all the rest started.
The dikegrave rose. "You need not be afraid," he said across the table;
"that does not concern us alone. In the year '17 too it was meant
for those on the other side; we'll hope that they are prepared for
anything!"
Now the shudder ran through me that should properly have assailed me
out on the dike. "Pardon me," I said, "who and what is this rider of
the white horse?"
Apart from the rest, behind the stove, sat a little lean man in a scant
and shabby black coat. He was somewhat bent and one of his shoulders
seemed to be a little crooked. He had taken no part whatever in the
conversation of the others, but his eyes, which in spite of his sparse
gray hair were still shaded by dark lashes, showed clearly that he was
not sitting there merely to nod off to sleep.
The dikegrave stretched out his hand towards him. "Our schoolmaster,"
he said, raising his voice, "will be able to tell you that better than
any of the rest of us here--only in his own way, to be sure, and not as
correctly as Antje Vollmers, my old housekeeper at home, would do it."
"You're joking, Dikegrave," came the somewhat thin voice of the
schoolmaster from behind the stove, "to put your stupid dragon on an
equality with me!"
"Yes, yes, Schoolmaster!" returned the other; "but tales of that kind
you know are said to be best preserved among the dragons!"
"To be sure," said the little man. "We are not quite of the same
opinion in this matter," and a smile of superiority passed over his
delicately formed face.
"You see," the dikegrave whispered in my ear, "he is still a little
haughty. He studied theology once, in his youth, and stuck here in his
home as schoolmaster only on account of an unfortunate betrothal."
In the meantime the schoolmaster had come forward out of his corner and
seated himself beside me at the long table. "Go on Schoolmaster, let us
have the story," called a few of the younger ones in the party.
"To be sure," said the old man turning to me, "I am glad to oblige you;
but there is much superstition interwoven with it and it requires art
to tell the tale without including that."
"Please don't leave that out," I replied, "trust me to separate the
chaff from the wheat myself."
The old man looked at me with a smile of understanding. "Well, then,"
he said, "in the middle of the last century, or rather, to be more
exact, before and after the middle, there was a dikegrave here who
understood more about dikes, drains and sluices than peasants and
farmers usually do; yet even so it seems hardly to have been enough,
for he had read but little of what learned experts have written about
such things, and had only thought out his own knowledge for himself
from the time he was a little child. You have probably heard, sir,
that the Friesians are good at figures and undoubtedly you have heard
some talk too about our Hans Mommsen of Fahretoft, who was a peasant
and yet could make compasses and chronometers, telescopes and organs.
Well, the father of this dikegrave was a bit like that too; only a bit,
to be sure. He had a few fields in the fens where he planted rape and
beans, and where a cow grazed. Sometimes in autumn and spring he went
out surveying, and in winter when the northwester came and shook his
shutters, he sat at home sketching and engraving. His boy generally sat
there with him and looked up from his reader or his Bible at his father
measuring and calculating, and buried his hand in his blond hair. And
one evening he asked his father why that which he had just written had
to be just like that and not otherwise, and gave his own opinion about
it." But his father, who did not know what answer to give, shook his
head and said: "I can't tell you why, it is enough that it is so; and
you yourself are mistaken. If you want to know more go up to the attic
tomorrow and hunt for a book in the box up there. The man who wrote it
was called Euclid; you can find out from that book."
The next day the boy did go up to the attic and soon found the book,
for there were not many in the whole house; but his father laughed
when the boy laid it down before him on the table. It was a Dutch
Euclid, and Dutch, although after all it is half German, was beyond
them both.
"Yes, yes," he said, "the book was my father's, he understood it. Isn't
there a German one there?"
The boy, who was a child of few words, looked quietly at his father and
only said: "May I keep it? There is no German one there."
And when the old man nodded he showed him a second little volume, half
torn. "This one too?" he asked again.
"Take them both," said Tede Haien; "they won't do you much good."
But the second book was a little Dutch grammar, and as most of the
winter was still to come it did help the lad enough so that finally
when the time came for the gooseberries to bloom in the garden he was
able to understand nearly all of the Euclid, then very much in vogue.
"I am not unaware, Sir," the narrator interrupted himself, "that this
same incident is told of Hans Mommsen; but, here with us, people used
to tell it of Hauke Haien--that was the boy's name--before Mommsen was
born. You know how it is, when a greater man arises, he is credited
with everything that his predecessors may have done, in earnest or in
fun."
When the old man saw that the lad cared nothing about cows or sheep
and scarcely even noticed when the beans were in blossom--which after
all is the joy of every man from the marshlands--and that his little
place might indeed get on with a peasant and a boy, but not with a
semi-scholar and a servant, and also because he himself had failed of
prosperity, he sent his big boy to the dike, where from Easter till
Martinmas he was to wheel his barrow of earth with the other laborers.
"That will cure him of Euclid!" he said to himself.
And the lad pushed his wheelbarrow, but he kept the Euclid in his
pocket all the time, and when the workmen ate their lunch or stopped
for a bite in the late afternoon he sat on the bottom of a wheelbarrow
with the book in his hand. And in autumn when the tides began to be
higher, and the work had sometimes to be stopped he did not go home
with the others, but stayed, and sat on the slope of the dike, his
hands clasped round his knee, and watched for hours how the gray waves
of the North Sea dashed up higher and higher towards the grass-line
of the dike. Not until the water came in over his feet and the foam
spattered in his face did he move up a few feet higher and then sit on
there. He heard neither the splashing of the water nor the screaming
of the gulls and shore-birds that flew above and around him, almost
touching him with their wings, and flashing their black eyes into his;
nor did he see how night came and enveloped the broad, wild desert
of water in front of him. All that he saw was the hem of the water
outlined by the surf which, when the tide was in, struck again and
again with its heavy beat on the same spot in the dike and washed away
the grass-line on its steep side before his very eyes.
After staring at it long he sometimes nodded his head slowly, or,
without looking up, drew a soft line in the air with his hand as if he
would thus give the dike a gentler slope. When it grew so dark that all
earthly things vanished from his sight and only the tide continued to
thunder in his ears, he got up and trotted home half wet through.
One evening when he came home in this state, his father, who was
cleaning his measuring instruments, looked up and turned on him. "What
have you been doing out there so long? You might have been drowned; the
water is eating right into the dike today."
Hauke looked at him stubbornly.
"Don't you hear what I say? You might have been drowned."
"Yes," said Hauke; "but I didn't get drowned."
"No," replied the old man after a time and looked at him
absent-mindedly--"not this time."
"But," went on Hauke, "our dikes are no good!"
"What's that, boy?"
"The dikes, I say!"
"What about the dikes?"
"They're no good, Father."
The old man laughed in his face. "Is that so, boy? I suppose you are
the child prodigy of Lübeck!"
But the lad would not allow himself to be confused. "The water-side
is too steep," he said; "if it should happen again as it has already
happened more than once we may all drown in here, behind the dike too."
The old man pulled his tobacco out of his pocket, twisted off a piece
and pushed it in behind his teeth. "And how many barrows did you wheel
today?" he asked crossly, for he saw that working at the dike could not
cure the boy of working with his mind.
"I don't know, Father; about the same as the others; perhaps half a
dozen more. But--the dikes must be built different."
"Good," said his father with a laugh; "you may get to be dikegrave;
then, build them different."
"Yes, Father," returned the boy.
The old man looked at him and swallowed once or twice; then he went
out. He did not know what answer to give the lad.
* * * * *
When, at the end of October, work on the dike came to an end Hauke
Haien still continued to find more pleasure in a walk out towards
the north, to the sea, than in anything else. Just as the children
of today look forward to Christmas, he looked forward to All Saints'
Day, when the equinoctial gales burst over the land, an occasion for
lamentation in Friesland. In spite of wind and weather he was certain
to be found at the time of the high spring tides lying out on the dike
all by himself; and when the gulls shrieked, when the waves dashed high
against the dike, and in rolling back washed out whole pieces of sod
into the sea, Hauke's angry laughter was something worth hearing.
"You can't do anything right," he shouted out into the noise, "just as
people don't know how to do anything!" And at last, often when it was
quite dark, he would turn away from the broad, bleak expanse and trot
home along the dike till he reached the low door under his father's
thatch, and his tall, overgrown figure slipped through and into the
little room beyond.
Sometimes he brought a handful of clay with him. Then he sat down
beside his father who had begun to let him go his own way, and, by the
light of the thin tallow candle, kneaded all kinds of dike-models, laid
them in a shallow dish of water and tried to imitate the way in which
the waves washed out the bank. Or he took his slate and drew on it
profiles of dikes on the water-side as he thought they ought to be.
It never entered his head to associate with the boys who had been his
companions in school, and apparently they cared nothing about such a
dreamer. When it came winter again and the frost had taken hold he
wandered out along the dike farther than he had ever been before to
where the ice-covered surface of the shoals stretched before him as far
as the eye could reach.
In February, during continuous frost, dead bodies were found washed up
on the shore; they had lain out by the open sea on the frozen shoals. A
young woman who had seen them being carried into the village stood and
chattered to old Haien: "Don't think that they looked like people," she
exclaimed, "no, they looked like sea-devils! Big heads like this," and
she held up her hands with the fingers stretched out, far apart from
each other, "black and wrinkled and shiny like freshly baked bread! And
the crabs had nibbled them; the children screamed when they saw them."
Such a description was not exactly new to old Haien. "They have
probably been washing about in the sea since November," he said
indifferently.
Hauke stood beside them in silence. But as soon as he could he crept
away out to the dike; no one could say whether he wanted to hunt for
more corpses or whether the horror that still hung about the now
deserted spots where the others had been found attracted him. He ran on
farther and farther till he stood all alone in the bleakness where only
the winds swept across the dike and where there was nothing but the
plaintive voices of the great birds as they wheeled quickly by. On his
left lay the wide empty marsh, on the other side the never-ending shore
with the great expanse of shoals now glistening with ice; it seemed as
if the whole world lay in white death.
Hauke remained standing on the dike and his keen eyes glanced far in
all directions; but there were no more dead to be seen; only where the
invisible currents moved under it the ice field rose and sank like a
stream.
He ran home; but on one of the following evenings he was out there
again. The ice was now broken in places: clouds of smoke seemed to
rise out of the cracks and above the whole surface of the shallows was
spread a net of steam and fog that combined strangely with the dusk of
the evening. Hauke gazed at it with fixed eyes, for dark figures moved
up and down in the fog, and as he watched them they seemed to be as
large as men. There, far away on the edge of the smoking fissures, they
walked back and forth, full of dignity but with long noses and necks
and odd, terrifying gestures; suddenly they began to jump up and down
in an uncanny way, like imps, the big ones over the little ones and the
little ones towards the others; then they spread out and lost all form.
"What of them? Are they the spirits of those who were drowned?" thought
Hauke. "Ahoy!" he shouted loudly into the night; but the forms heeded
him not, merely continued their strange doings.
Then he suddenly thought of the fearful Norwegian sea-ghosts about whom
an old captain had once told him, who instead of a head and face had
only a tuft of sea-grass on their necks; he did not run away however,
but dug the heels of his boots deep into the clay of the dike and
gazed at the weird antics that went on before his eyes in the growing
dusk. "Are you here with us too?" he asked in a hard voice. "You shall
not drive _me_ away."
Not till the darkness had covered everything did he start for home,
walking with a stiff, slow step. But from behind him there seemed to
come the whirring of wings and resounding laughter. He did not look
round, neither did he quicken his step, and it was late when he reached
home, but he is said never to have spoken to his father or anyone else
of this experience. Only many years later, after God Almighty had laid
the burden of an half-witted child upon him, he took the girl out on
the dike with him at the same time of day and of the year and the same
thing is said to have happened again out on the shallows. But he told
her not to be afraid, those creatures were only herons and crows that
looked so big and dreadful in the fog as they caught fish in the open
cracks.
"God knows, Sir!" the schoolmaster interrupted himself; "there are all
kinds of things in the world that may confuse an honest Christian's
heart; but Hauke was neither a fool nor a dunce."
As I did not reply he was about to go on, but suddenly there was a
stir among the other guests who hitherto had listened in silence, only
filling the low room with dense tobacco smoke. First one or two, then
nearly all of them turned towards the window. Outside--we could see
through the uncurtained windows--the wind was driving the clouds, and
light and darkness were madly intermingled; but it seemed to me, too,
as if I had seen the haggard rider shoot by on his white horse.
"Wait a bit, Schoolmaster," said the dikegrave softly.
"You need not be afraid, Dikegrave," replied the little story-teller.
"I have not slandered him and have no reason to do so," and he looked
up at him with his wise little eyes.
[Illustration: DUNES ON THE NORTH SEA
JACOB ALBERTS]
"Well, well," said the other, "just let me fill your glass again."
And after that had been done and the listeners, most of them with
disconcerted faces, had turned to him again the schoolmaster continued:
"Thus keeping to himself and loving best to live only with the wind and
water and the images that solitude brings, Hauke grew up to be a tall,
lean fellow. He had been confirmed for more than a year when things
began to change with him, and that was owing to the old white Angora
tom-cat which had been brought home from a Spanish sea voyage to old
Trien' Jans by her son, who later perished on the flats. Trien' lived
a good distance out on the dike in a little cottage and when she was
working about in her house this monster of a cat used to sit in front
of the door and blink out at the summer day, and the lapwings that flew
by. When Hauke passed the cat mewed at him and Hauke nodded; they both
knew what was going on between them."
Once, it was spring, and Hauke often lay out on the dike as was his
habit, farther down nearer the water, among the shore-pinks and the
sweet-smelling sea-wormwood, and let the sun, which was already strong,
shine down on him. The day before, when he was on the uplands, he had
filled his pockets with pebbles and when the low tide had laid bare the
flats and the little gray sand-pipers hopped over them, piping as they
went, he suddenly took a stone out of his pocket and threw it at the
birds. He had practised this from childhood and generally managed to
bring one down; but just as often it was impossible to go out on the
mud after it; Hauke had often thought of bringing the cat with him and
teaching it to retrieve. Here and there, however, there were firm spots
in the mud or sandbanks and then he could run out and fetch his plunder
himself. If the cat was still sitting in front of the door as he passed
on his way home it mewed wild with rapacity until Hauke threw it one of
the birds he had killed.
On this particular day as he went home, his jacket on his shoulder,
he only had one bird, of a kind unknown to him but which was covered
with beautiful plumage that looked like variegated silk and burnished
metal. The cat looked at him and begged loudly as usual. But this
time Hauke did not want to give up his prey--it may have been a
kingfisher--and paid no attention to the animal's desire. "Turn and
turn about," he called to him, "my turn today, yours tomorrow; this is
no food for a tom-cat!" But the cat crept up cautiously towards him;
Hauke stood and looked at him, the bird hanging from his hand and the
cat stopped with its paw raised. But Hauke seems not to have understood
his friend thoroughly, for, as he turned his back on him and prepared
to go on his way he felt his plunder torn from his grasp with a jerk,
and at the same time a sharp claw dug into his flesh. A sudden fury
like that of a beast of prey surged in the young fellow's blood; he
grabbed madly about him and had the robber by the neck in a moment.
Holding up the powerful creature in his fist he strangled it till its
eyes obtruded from the rough hair, not heeding the strong hind claws
that were tearing the flesh from his arm. "Ho, ho!" he shouted and
gripped it still tighter; "we'll see which of us can stand it longest!"
Suddenly the hind legs of the great cat dropped lifelessly from his arm
and Hauke went back a few steps and threw it towards the cottage of the
old woman. As the cat did not move he turned and continued his way home.
But the Angora cat had been its mistress's treasure; it was her
companion and the only thing that her son, the sailor, had left her
when he came to his sudden end on the coast hard by, while trying to
help his mother catch prawns in a storm. Hauke had scarcely taken a
hundred steps, sopping up the blood from his wounds with a cloth as
he went, when a loud outcry and lamentation from the direction of the
cottage struck on his ear. He turned and saw the old woman lying on the
ground in front of it while the wind blew her gray hair about the red
handkerchief that covered her head. "Dead!" she shrieked, "dead!" and
stretched out her thin arm threateningly towards him: "you shall be
cursed! You killed him, you useless vagabond; you weren't worthy to
stroke his tail." She threw herself on the animal and gently wiped away
with her apron the blood that flowed from its nose and mouth. Then she
again began her loud lamentation.
"Will you soon be through?" called Hauke to her, "then let me tell you
this: I will get you a tom-cat that is satisfied with the blood of rats
and mice!"
With this he went on his way, not apparently paying heed to anything.
But the dead cat must have confused his head all the same, for when
he came to the village he went on past his father's house and all the
others too, out a long way on the dike towards the south, where the
town lies.
In the meantime Trien' Jans too wandered out in the same direction;
she carried a burden in her arms wrapped in an old blue-checked pillow
slip, holding it carefully as if it had been a child; and her gray hair
blew about in the gentle spring breeze. "What are you carrying there,
Trina?" asked a peasant who met her. "More than your house and home,"
she replied and went on eagerly. When she came near to old Haien's
house, which stood down below, she turned down the "Akt" as we call the
cattle-paths and footways that run up or down the side of the dike.
Old Tede Haien was just standing out in front of the door looking at
the weather. "Well, Trien'!" he said as she stood before him, panting
and digging the point of her stick into the ground. "What have you got
new in your bag?"
"First let me come in, Tede Haien! Then I'll show you," she said with
an odd gleam in her eyes.
"Come in then," said the old man. Why should he bother about the
foolish woman's eyes?
And when they were both inside she went on: "Take the old tobacco box
and writing things away from the table--what do you want to be always
writing for? There! And now wipe it off nice and clean!" And the old
man, who was beginning to be curious, did everything that she told
him. Then she took the blue pillow slip by the corners and shook
the body of the great cat out on the table. "There you have him,"
she cried, "your Hauke has killed him." Whereupon she began to cry
bitterly. She stroked the thick fur of the dead animal, laid its paws
together, bowed her long nose over its head and whispered indistinct
words of endearment into its ear.
Tede Haien watched the scene. "So," he said, "Hauke killed him?" He did
not know what to do with the blubbering woman.
She nodded grimly: "Yes, by God, he did it!" and she wiped away the
tears from her eyes with her gnarled gouty hand. "No child, nothing
alive any more!" she sobbed. "And you know yourself how it is with us
old ones, after All Saints' Day's over our legs freeze at night in bed
and instead of sleeping we listen to the northwester rattling at the
shutters. I don't like to hear it, Tede Haien, it comes from where my
lad went down in the mud."
Tede Haien nodded and the old woman stroked her dead cat's coat. "And
this one here," she began again, "in the winter when I sat at my work
and the spinning wheel and hummed he sat beside me and hummed too and
looked at me with his green eyes! And when I was cold and crept into
bed--it was not long before he sprang up too and laid himself on my
shivering legs and then we slept warm together!" And the old woman
looked at the old man standing beside her at the table with smouldering
eyes as if she wanted his assent to this memory.
But Tede Haien said slowly: "I know a way to help you, Trien' Jans." He
went to his strong box and took a silver coin out of the drawer. "You
say that Hauke has robbed you of your pet and I know that you don't
lie; but here is a crownpiece of Christian IV.; go and buy yourself a
dressed lambskin to keep your legs warm. Besides, our cat will soon
have kittens and you may pick out the largest of them. The two together
ought to make up for an Angora tom-cat that is weak with old age. And
now take the creature and carry it into town to the knacker, for
aught I care, and hold your tongue about its having lain here on my
respectable table!"
While he was speaking the woman had taken the crown and hidden it in
a little bag that she wore under her skirts; then she stuffed the cat
back into the pillow-case, wiped the spots of blood from the table with
her apron and stumped out of the door. "Don't forget about the young
kitten," she called back as she went.
Some time later, as old Haien was walking up and down in the little
room, Hauke came in and threw his bright bird onto the table; but when
he saw the blood-stains which were still recognizable on its white,
scoured top he asked with apparent carelessness, "What's that?"
His father stood still. "That is the blood that you shed!"
The boy flushed hotly. "Oh, has Trien' Jans been here with her cat?"
The old man nodded. "Why did you kill it?"
Hauke bared his torn arm. "That's why," he said; "he snatched my bird
away from me."
The old man said nothing. He began to walk up and down again for some
time; then he stopped in front of his son and looked at him absently.
"I have settled the matter of the cat," he said after a moment, "but
you see Hauke, this cottage is too small; two masters can't _hold_
it--it is time now, you must get yourself something to do."
"Yes, Father," replied Hauke; "I have thought the same myself."
"Why?" asked the old man.
"Well, a fellow boils within, if he has not enough to do to work it
off."
"So," said the old man, "and that's why you killed the Angora? That
might easily lead to something worse!"
"You may be right, Father; but the dikegrave has sent his servant-boy
off; I could do that work."
The old man began to walk up and down again and squirted a stream
of black tobacco-juice from his mouth. "The dikegrave is a dunce,
as stupid as an owl! He is only dikegrave because his father and
grandfather were dikegraves before him and because of his twenty-nine
fens. When Martinmas comes round and the dike and sluice accounts have
to be made up he feeds the schoolmaster on roast goose and mead and
wheat-cracknels, and just sits there and nods when the other man runs
over the columns of figures and says: "Yes, indeed, Schoolmaster, may
God reward you! What a man you are at figures!" But if at any time the
schoolmaster can't or won't, then he has to do it himself and he sits
and writes and crosses out again, and his big stupid head grows red and
hot and his eyes stand out like glass balls as if what little brain he
has was trying to get out there."
The boy stood up straight before his father and was amazed that he
could make such a speech; he had never heard him talk like that before.
"Yes, he is stupid enough, God knows," he said; "but his daughter Elke,
she can figure!"
The old man looked at him sharply. "Oh ho, Hauke!" he exclaimed, "what
do you know of Elke Volkerts?"
"Nothing, Father; only the schoolmaster told me so."
The old man made no answer to this; he merely shifted his tobacco quid
slowly from one cheek to the other. "And you think," he said then,
"that when you're there you will be able to help figure too."
"Oh, yes, Father, I could do that all right," answered the son and his
mouth quivered with earnestness.
The old man shook his head: "Well, as far as I am concerned, you may
try your luck!"
"Thank you, Father!" said Hauke, and went up to the attic where he
slept. There he seated himself on the side of the bed and thought and
wondered why his father had questioned him about Elke Volkerts. He knew
her of course, the slender eighteen-year-old girl with the narrow,
brown-skinned face and the dark brows that met above the defiant eyes
and narrow nose; but he had scarcely spoken a word to her till now.
Well, if he should go to work for old Tede Volkerts he would look at
her more closely to see what kind of a girl she was. And he would go
right away so that no one else should get the place ahead of him, for
it was still quite early in the evening. And so he put on his Sunday
suit and best boots and started on his way in good spirits.
The long low house of the dikegrave could be seen from far away, for
it stood on a high mound, and the highest tree in the village, a
mighty ash, stood near it. In his youth the grandfather of the present
dikegrave, the first one in the family, had planted such a tree to
the east of the front door; but the first two saplings died and so,
on his wedding morning, he had planted this tree which with its ever
wider-spreading top still murmured in the unceasing wind, as it seemed,
of by-gone days.
When, some time later, Hauke's tall, overgrown form ascended the high
mound, the sides of which were planted with turnips and cabbages, he
saw above him, standing beside the low door, the daughter of the master
of the house. One of her somewhat thin arms hung loosely at her side,
her other hand seemed to be feeling behind her for an iron ring, two
of which were fastened to the wall, one on either side of the door, so
that a rider coming to the house could tie up his horse. She seemed to
be looking out over the dike to the sea where, in the still of evening,
the sun was just sinking into the water and sending its last ray to
gild the brown-skinned girl who stood there watching.
Hauke slackened his steps and thought to himself: "She does not look
half bad that way!" And then he had already reached the top. "Good
evening," he said going up to her, "what are your big eyes looking at
now, Jungfer Elke?"
"At something that happens here every evening," she replied, "but which
cannot always be seen every evening." She let the ring drop from her
hand so that it fell back clanging against the wall. "What do you
want, Hauke Haien?" she asked.
"Something that I hope won't displease you," he said. "Your father has
turned out his servant-boy so I thought I might get the place."
She looked him over from head to foot. "You still look rather too
slight to be strong, Hauke," she said, "but two good eyes would serve
us better than two good arms." She looked at him with an almost
lowering glance as she spoke, but Hauke did not falter. "Come along
then," she went on, "the master is in the house, let us go in."
* * * * *
The next day Tede Haien and his son entered the large room of the
dikegrave. The walls were covered with glazed tiles on which to please
the eye, there was here a ship under full sail or an anchor on the
shore, there a recumbent ox before a peasant's house. This durable
wall-covering was broken by an immense wall-bed, the doors of which
were now closed, and a cupboard through the glass doors of which all
sorts of china and silverware might be seen. Beside the door leading
into the adjoining parlor a Dutch clock was let into the wall behind
glass.
The stout, somewhat apoplectic, master of the house sat in an armchair
on a bright-colored woolen cushion at the end of a table that had been
scoured until it shone. His hands were folded over his stomach and his
round eyes were contentedly fixed on the skeleton of a fat duck; knife
and fork lay on a plate in front of him.
"Good day, Dikegrave," said Haien and the dikegrave slowly turned his
head and eyes towards him. "Is it you, Tede?" he replied, and the fat
duck he had just eaten had had its effect on his voice. "Sit down, it's
a long way over here from your house to mine!"
"I've come," said Tede Haien, sitting down at right angles to the
dikegrave on a bench that ran along the wall. "You've had trouble with
your servant-boy and have agreed to take my boy in his place!"
The dikegrave nodded: "Yes, yes, Tede; but--what do you mean by
trouble? We people from the marsh have something to take for that,
thank God!" And he picked up the knife that lay before him and tapped
the skeleton of the poor duck caressingly. "That was my favorite bird,"
he added with a comfortable laugh; "it would eat out of my hand!"
"I thought," said old Haien not hearing the last words, "that the
fellow did a lot of mischief in the stable."
"Mischief? Yes, Tede; mischief enough, to be sure! The lazy mutton-head
had not watered the calves, but he lay dead drunk in the hayloft and
the creatures mooed with thirst the whole night, so that I had to lie
in bed till noon to make up my sleep. No farm can go on that way!"
"No, Dikegrave, but there is no danger of that where my son is
concerned."
Hauke stood against the door-post with his hands in his side pockets;
he had thrown his head back and was studying the window casing opposite
him.
The dikegrave raised his eyes and nodded to him: "No, no, Tede," and
now he nodded to the old man too, "your Hauke will not disturb my
night's rest; the schoolmaster has already told me that he would rather
sit before a slate and reckon than over a glass of spirits."
Hauke did not listen to this speech of encouragement for Elke had come
into the room and was clearing away the remains of the food from the
table with her light, quick hands, glancing at him furtively with her
dark eyes, as she did so. Now his glance too fell upon her. "By God,"
he said to himself, "she does not look half bad that way either."
The girl had left the room. "You know, Tede," the dikegrave began
again, "God has denied me a son."
"Yes, Dikegrave, but do not let that trouble you," answered the other.
"For the brains of a family are said to come to an end in the third
generation; your grandfather, as we all still know today, was the man
who protected the land!"
After thinking for some moments the dikegrave looked almost puzzled.
"How do you mean that, Tede Haien?" he asked, and sat upright in his
armchair; "I am in the third generation myself."
"Oh, that's so! No offence, Dikegrave; that's just what people say."
And Tede Haien with his lean form looked at the old dignitary with
somewhat mischievous eyes.
The latter went on unconcernedly: "You must not let old women's talk
put such foolishness as that into your head, Tede Haien; you don't know
my daughter, she can figure two or three times as well as I myself! I
only wanted to say that besides his work in the field your Hauke can
gain considerable here in my room with pen or pencil and that won't do
him any harm!"
"Yes, indeed, Dikegrave, that he will; there you're quite right!" said
old Haien and began to arrange for several benefits to be included
in his son's contract which had not occurred to the boy the evening
before. Thus besides the linen shirts that Hauke was to receive in the
autumn in addition to his wages, he was also to have eight pairs of
woolen stockings; then he was to help his father with the work at home
for a week in the spring and so on. The dikegrave agreed to everything;
Hauke Haien seemed to be just the right man for him.
"Well, God have mercy on you, my boy," said the old man as soon as they
left the house, "if you are to learn from him how the world goes!"
But Hauke answered quietly: "Let it be, Father; everything will turn
out all right."
* * * * *
And Hauke was not wrong; the world, or what the world meant to him,
did grow clearer to him the longer he stayed in that house. This was
more the case perhaps, the less a superior judgment came to his aid,
and the more he was obliged to depend on his own strength, on which he
had been accustomed to rely from the beginning. There was one person
in the house to be sure whom he did not suit at all and that was Ole
Peters, the head man, a capable workman but a fellow with a very ready
tongue. The former lazy and stupid but stocky second man on whose back
he had been able to load a whole barrel of oats and whom he could
knock about as he chose had been more to his liking. He could not get
at Hauke, who was much quieter and mentally far superior to him, in
this way; for Hauke had such a very peculiar way of looking at him.
Nevertheless he managed to find work for him which might have been
dangerous to his body as it was not yet firmly knit, and when he said:
"You should have seen fat Niss; it was all play to him!" Hauke took
hold with all his strength and managed to do the job even though he had
to overexert himself. It was fortunate for him that Elke was generally
able to countermand such orders either herself or through her father.
We may well ask ourselves what it is that sometimes binds perfect
strangers to each other; perhaps--they were both born mathematicians
and the girl could not bear to see her comrade ruined by doing rough
work.
The breach between the head man and his subordinate did not grow better
in winter when, after Martinmas, the different dike accounts came in to
be examined.
It was on a May evening, but the weather was like November; inside the
house the surf could be heard thundering out beyond the dike. "Here,
Hauke," said the master of the house, "come in here; now you can show
whether you can figure!"
"I have got to feed the yearlings first, Master," replied Hauke.
"Elke," called the dikegrave, "where are you, Elke? Go to Ole and tell
him to feed the yearlings; Hauke must come and figure!"
And Elke hurried to the stable and gave the order to the head man, who
was just occupied in putting away the harness that had been used that
day.
Ole Peters took a snaffle and struck a post near which he was standing
as if he would smash it to bits: "The devil take the damned scribbling
farm-hand!" She overheard the words as she closed the stable-door
behind her.
"Well?" asked her father as she came back into the room.
"Ole is going to do it," she answered biting her lips a little, and sat
down opposite Hauke on a coarsely carved wooden chair such as at that
time the people here used to make in their own homes during the winter
evenings. She took out of a drawer a white stocking with a red-bird
pattern on it and went on knitting; the long-legged creatures in the
pattern might have been herons or storks. Hauke sat opposite her deep
in his calculations, the dikegrave himself rested in his armchair,
blinking now and then sleepily at Hauke's pen. As always in the
dikegrave's house, two tallow-candles burned on the table and in front
of the windows with their leaded glass the shutters were closed outside
and screwed tight from within; the wind might bluster as it would. At
times Hauke raised his head from his work and glanced for a moment at
the stockings with the birds on them or at the narrow, quiet face of
the girl.
All at once a loud snore came from the armchair and a glance and
a smile flew back and forth between the two young people; then
followed gradually quieter breathing; one might have begun a little
conversation, only Hauke did not know how. But as she stretched out her
knitting and the birds became visible in their entirety he whispered
across the table:
"Where did you learn that, Elke?"
"Learn what?" the girl asked back.
"To knit birds?" asked Hauke.
"Oh, that? From Trien' Jans, out at the dike, she can do all sorts of
things; she served here once in my grandfather's time."
"But you weren't born then, were you?" asked Hauke.
"No, I hardly think I was; but she often came to the house afterwards."
"Is she so fond of birds? I thought she only liked cats."
Elke shook her head. "She raises ducks, you know, and sells them; but
last spring after you killed her Angora, the rats got at the ducks in
the back of the duckhouse. Now she wants to build another one at the
front of the house."
"Oh!" said Hauke and gave a low whistle, drawing his breath in through
his teeth, "That is why she has dragged all that clay and stone down
from the upland. But if she does that she will build on the road on the
inside of the dike; has she got a permit?"
"I don't know," said Elke; but Hauke had spoken the last word so loud
that the dikegrave started up out of his slumber. "What permit?" he
asked and looked almost wildly from one to the other. "What is the
permit for?"
But when Hauke had explained the matter to him he tapped him on the
shoulder laughing. "Well, well, the inside road is wide enough; God
have mercy on the dikegrave if he has got to bother about every
duckhouse as well!"
It made Hauke's heart heavy to think that he had been the means of
delivering the old woman's ducklings up to the rats and he allowed
himself to let the dikegrave's excuse stand. "But Master," he began
again, "there are some that would be better off for just a little nip
and if you don't want to do it yourself just give the commissioner a
nudge who is supposed to see that the dike regulations are carried out."
"How, what's the lad saying?" and the dikegrave sat perfectly upright
while Elke let her elaborate stocking fall and listened.
"Yes, Master," Hauke went on, "you have already had the spring
inspection; but all the same Peter Jansen has not harrowed out the
weeds on his piece till today. In summer the goldfinches will play
merrily about the red thistle-blossoms there! And close beside it
there's another piece--I don't know whom it belongs to--but there's a
regular hollow in the dike on the outside. When the weather's fine its
always full of little children who roll about in it, but--God preserve
us from high water!"
The old dikegrave's eyes had grown steadily bigger.
"And then," began Hauke again.
"Well, and what else, young man?" asked the dikegrave; "haven't you
done yet?" and his voice sounded as if his second man had already said
too much to please him.
"Yes, and then, Master," went on Hauke, "you know that fat girl
Vollina, the daughter of Harders, the commissioner, who always fetches
her father's horses home from the fens,--once she's up on the old
yellow mare with her fat legs then it's: 'Cluck, cluck! Get up!' And
that's the way she always rides, right up the slope of the dike!"
Not till this moment did Hauke notice that Elke's wise eyes were fixed
on him and that she was shaking her head gently.
He stopped, but the blow that the old man gave the table with his fist
thundered in his ears. "The devil take it!" he roared, and Hauke was
almost frightened at the bellow that filled the room. "She shall be
fined! Make a note of it, Hauke, that the fat wench is to be fined!
Last summer the hussy caught three of my young ducks! Go on, make a
note of it," he repeated when Hauke hesitated; "I think she really got
four!"
"Oh, come, Father," said Elke, "don't you think it was the otter that
took the young ducks?"
"A giant otter!" the old man shouted snorting. "I think I know that fat
Vollina from an otter! No, no, it was four ducks, Hauke. But as for the
other things you've chattered about, last spring the chief dikegrave
and I lunched together here in my house and then we went out and drove
past your weeds and your hollow and we didn't see anything of the sort.
But you two," and he nodded significantly towards his daughter and
Hauke, "may well thank God that you are not a dikegrave! A man's only
got two eyes and he's supposed to use a hundred. Just run through the
accounts of the straw work on the dike, Hauke; those fellows' figures
are often altogether too careless."
Then he lay back again in his chair, settled his heavy body once or
twice and soon fell into a contented sleep.
* * * * *
Similar scenes took place on many an evening. Hauke had keen eyes and
when he and the dikegrave were sitting together he did not fail to
report this or that transgression or omission in matters relating to
the dike, and as his master was not always able to shut his eyes, the
management gradually became more active before anyone was aware of it,
and those persons who formerly had kept on in their accustomed sinful
rut, and now unexpectedly received a stroke across their mischievous or
lazy fingers, turned round annoyed and surprised to see where it came
from. And Ole, the head man, did not fail to spread the information far
and near and thus to turn those circles against Hauke and his father,
who, of course, was also responsible; but the others, on whom no hand
descended or who were actually anxious to see the thing done, laughed
and rejoiced that the young man had succeeded in poking the old one
up a bit. "It is only a pity," they said, "that the fellow hasn't the
necessary clay under his feet; then later on he'd make a dikegrave like
those that we used to have; but the couple of acres that his father has
would never be enough!"
When in the following autumn the chief dikegrave, who was also the
magistrate for the district, came to inspect, he looked old Tede
Volkerts over from top to toe while the latter begged him to sit down
to lunch. "Upon my word, Dikegrave," he said, "it's just as I expected,
you've grown ten years younger; you've kept me busy this time with all
your proposals; if only we can get done with them all today!"
"We'll manage, we'll manage, your Worship," returned the old man with
a smirk; "this roast goose here will give us strength; yes, thank God,
I am always brisk and lively still!" He looked round the room to see
if Hauke might not perhaps be somewhere about; then he added with
dignity; "and I hope to God to be spared to exercise my office a few
years longer."
"And to that, my dear Dikegrave," replied his superior rising, "let us
drink this glass together!"
Elke, who had arranged the lunch, was just going out of the room door
with a soft laugh as the two men clinked their glasses together. Then
she fetched a dish of scraps from the kitchen and went through the
stable to throw them to the fowls in front of the outside door. In the
stable she found Hauke Haien just pitching hay into the cows' cribs,
for the cattle had already been brought in for the winter owing to the
bad weather. When he saw the girl coming he let his pitchfork rest on
the ground. "Well, Elke!" he said.
She stopped and nodded to him. "Oh, Hauke, you ought to have been in
there just now!"
"Should I? Why Elke?"
"The chief dikegrave was praising the master!"
"The master? What has that got to do with me?"
"Well, of course, he praised the dikegrave!"
A deep red spread over the young man's face. "I know what you are
driving at," he said.
"You needn't blush, Hauke; after all it was you whom the chief
dikegrave praised!"
Hauke looked at her half smiling. "But it was you too, Elke," he said.
But she shook her head. "No, Hauke; when I was the only one that
helped he didn't praise us. And all I can do is to figure; but you see
everything outside that the dikegrave ought to see himself; you have
cut me out!"
"I didn't mean to, you least of all," said Hauke shyly, pushing aside
one of the cows' heads. "Come, Spotty, don't eat up my fork; I'll give
you all you want!"
"Don't think that I am sorry," said the girl after thinking a minute;
"after all it's a man's business!"
[Illustration: CHURCHYARD ON A NORTH SEA ISLAND
JACOB ALBERTS]
Hauke stretched out his arm towards her. "Give me your hand on it,
Elke."
A deep scarlet shot up under the girl's dark brows. "Why? I don't lie,"
she cried.
Hauke was about to answer, but she was already out of the stable, and
standing with the pitchfork in his hand he could only hear the ducks
and hens outside quacking and cackling around her.
* * * * *
It was in January of the third year of Hauke's service that a winter
festival was to be held. "Eisboseln" (winter golf) they call it here.
There had been no wind along the coast and a steady frost had covered
all the ditches between the fens with a firm, smooth crystal surface
so that the divided pieces of land now formed an extensive course over
which the little wooden balls filled with lead, with which the goal was
to be reached, could be thrown. A light northeast breeze blew day after
day. Everything was ready. The uplanders from the village lying to the
east across the marsh and in which stood the church of the district,
who had won the previous year, had been challenged and had accepted.
Nine players had been picked out on each side. The umpire and the
spokesmen had also been chosen. The latter, who had to discuss disputed
points when a doubtful throw was in question, were generally men who
knew how to present their case in the best light, usually fellows who
had a ready tongue as well as common sense. First among these was Ole
Peters, the dikegrave's head man. "See that you throw like devils," he
said, "I'll do the talking for nothing."
It was towards evening of the day before the festival. A number of the
players had gathered in the inside room of the parish tavern on the
uplands, to decide whether or not a few applicants who had come at the
last minute should be accepted. Hauke Haien was among the latter. At
first he had decided not to try, although he knew that his arms were
well trained in throwing. He feared that Ole Peters, who held a post
of honor in the game, would succeed in having him rejected and he hoped
to spare himself such a defeat. But Elke had changed his mind at the
eleventh hour. "He wouldn't dare to, Hauke," she said; "he is the son
of a day laborer; your father has a horse and cow of his own and is the
wisest man in the village as well."
"Yes, but what if he should do it in spite of that?"
She looked at him half smiling with her dark eyes. "Then," she said,
"he'll get turned down when he wants to dance with his master's
daughter in the evening." Thereupon Hauke had nodded to her with spirit.
Outside the tavern the young people, who still wanted to enter the
game, were standing in the cold, stamping their feet and looking up at
the top of the church-tower, which was built of stone and stood beside
the public-house. The pastor's pigeons, which fed in summer on the
fields of the village, were just coming back from the peasants' yards
and barns where they had sought their grain and were now disappearing
into their nests under the eaves of the tower. In the west, above the
sea, hung a glowing evening crimson.
"It'll be good weather tomorrow!" said one of the young fellows walking
up and down stamping, "but cold, cold!" Another, after he had seen
the last pigeon disappear, went into the house and stood listening at
the door of the room through which there now came the sound of lively
conversation; the dikegrave's second man came and stood beside him.
"Listen, Hauke, now they're shouting about you," and within they could
distinctly hear Ole Peters' grating voice saying, "Second men and boys
don't belong in it."
"Come," said the other boy and taking Hauke by the sleeve he tried to
pull him up to the door. "Now you can hear what they think of you."
But Hauke pulled himself away and went outside the house again. "They
didn't lock us out so that we should hear what they said," he called
back.
The third applicant was standing in front of the house. "I'm afraid
I shan't be taken without a hitch," he called to Hauke, "I am
hardly eighteen years old; if only they don't ask for my baptismal
certificate! Your head man will talk you up all right, Hauke!"
"Yes, up and out!" growled Hauke and kicked a stone across the way,
"but not in."
The noise inside increased; then gradually it grew still; those
outside could hear again the gentle northeast wind as it swept by the
top of the church tower. The boy who had been listening came back
to the others. "Who were they talking about in there?" asked the
eighteen-year-old boy.
"Him," the other answered and pointed to Hauke; "Ole Peters tried to
make out he was still a boy, but they were all against that. And Jess
Hansen said, 'and his father has land and cattle.' 'Yes, land,' said
Ole Peters, 'land that could be carted away on thirteen barrows!'
Finally Ole Hensen began to speak: 'Keep still there,' he called, 'I'll
put you straight; tell me, who is the first man in the village?' They
were all quiet a minute and seemed to be thinking, then someone said 'I
suppose it's the dikegrave!' And all the others shouted, 'Well, yes; it
must be the dikegrave!' 'And who is the dikegrave?' asked Ole Hensen
again; 'and now think carefully!' Then one of them began to laugh
softly and then another until at last the whole room was just full of
laughter. 'Well, go call him then,' said Ole Hensen; 'you surely don't
want to turn away the dikegrave from your door!' I think they're still
laughing; but you can't hear Ole Peters' voice any more!" the boy
finished his report.
Almost at that moment the door of the room inside was flung open and
loud, merry cries of "Hauke! Hauke Haien!" rang out into the cold night.
So Hauke went into the house and did not stop to hear who the dikegrave
was; what had been going on in his head during these moments nobody
ever knew.
When, some time later, he approached his master's house he saw Elke
standing down at the gate of the carriage-drive. The moonlight
glistened over the immeasurable white-frosted pasture-land. "Are you
standing here, Elke?" he asked.
She only nodded: "What happened?" she said. "Did he dare?"
"What would he not do?"
"Well, and?"
"It's all right, Elke. I can try tomorrow."
"Good-night, Hauke!" and she ran lightly up the mound and disappeared
into the house.
Hauke followed her slowly.
On the following afternoon a dark mass of people was seen on the broad
pasture-land that ran along towards the east on the land side of the
dike. Sometimes the mass stood still, then, after a wooden ball had
twice flown from it over the ground which the sun had now freed from
frost, it moved gradually forward away from the long, low houses that
lay behind it. The two parties of winter golfers were in the middle,
surrounded by all the young and old who were living or staying either
in these houses or on the uplands. The older men were in long coats,
smoking their short pipes with deliberation, the women in shawls
and jackets, some of them leading children by the hand or carrying
them in their arms. Out of the frozen ditches which were crossed one
after another the pale shine of the noonday sun sparkled through the
sharp points of the reeds; it was freezing hard. But the game went
on uninterruptedly, and all eyes followed again and again the flying
wooden ball, for the whole village felt that on it hung the honor of
the day. The spokesman of the home side carried a white staff with an
iron point, that of the upland party a black one. Wherever the ball
ceased rolling this staff was driven into the frozen ground amid the
quiet admiration or the mocking laughter of the opposing party and
whoever first reached the goal with his ball won the game for his side.
There was very little conversation in the crowd; only when a capital
cast was made the young men or women sometimes broke into a cheer,
or one of the old men took his pipe out of his mouth and tapped the
thrower with it on the shoulder, saying, "That was a throw, said
Zacharias, and threw his wife out of the attic window," or "That's how
your father used to throw, may God have mercy on his soul!" or some
other pleasant words.
The first time he cast luck had not been with Hauke; just as he threw
his arm out behind him to hurl the ball a cloud which had covered the
sun till then passed away from it and the dazzling rays struck him full
in the eyes; his cast was too short, the ball fell on a ditch and stuck
in the uneven ice.
"That doesn't count! That doesn't count! Throw again, Hauke!" shouted
his partners.
But the uplanders' spokesman objected: "It must count. What's cast is
cast."
"Ole! Ole Peters!" shouted the men from the marsh. "Where is Ole? Where
the devil can he be?"
But he was there already. "Don't shout so! Is there something wrong
with Hauke? That's just how I thought it would be."
"Oh, nonsense! Hauke must throw again; now show that you've got your
mouth in the right place."
"I certainly have that!" shouted Ole, and he went up to the other
spokesman and made a long harangue. But the sharp cuts and witty points
that usually filled his speech were lacking this time. At his side
stood the girl with the enigmatical brows and watched him sharply with
angry eyes; but she might not speak for the women had no voice in the
game.
"You're talking nonsense," shouted the other spokesman, "because reason
is not on your side. Sun, moon and stars treat us all alike and are in
the sky all the time; it was a clumsy cast and all clumsy casts count!"
Thus they talked at each other for a while, but the end of it was that,
according to the umpire's decision, Hauke was not allowed to repeat his
cast.
"Forward!" cried the uplanders and their spokesman pulled the black
staff out of the ground and the next player took his stand there when
his number was called and hurled the ball forward. In order to see the
throw the dikegrave's head man was obliged to pass Elke Volkerts. "For
whose sake did you leave your brains at home today?" she whispered to
him.
He looked at her almost fiercely and all trace of fun disappeared from
his broad face. "For your sake," he said, "for you have forgotten yours
too."
"Oh, come! I know you, Ole Peters!" answered the girl drawing herself
up, but he turned his head away and pretended not to hear.
And the game and the black staff and the white one went on. When
Hauke's turn to throw came again his ball flew so far that the goal,
a large whitewashed hogshead, came plainly into sight. He was now a
solidly built young fellow and mathematics and throwing had occupied
him daily since he was a boy. "Oh ho! Hauke!" the crowd shouted; "the
archangel Michael could not have done better himself!" An old woman
with cakes and brandy made her way through the crowd to him; she
poured out a glass and offered it to him: "Come," she said, "let us be
friends; you are doing better today than when you killed my cat!" As
he looked at her he saw that it was Trien' Jans. "Thank you, Mother,"
he said; "but I don't drink that stuff." He felt in his pockets and
pressed a newly coined mark-piece into her hand. "Take that and drink
this glass yourself, Trien'; then we shall be friends again!"
"You're right, Hauke!" returned the old woman obeying him. "You're
right; it is better for an old woman like me than for you!"
"How are you getting on with your ducks?" he called after her as she
was going away with her basket; but she only shook her head without
turning round and clapped her old hands in the air. "It's no good,
Hauke; there are too many rats in your ditches; God have mercy on
me! I must find some other way of earning my bread." And with this
she pushed her way into the crowd again, offering her spirits and
honey-cakes as she went.
At last the sun had sunk behind the dike and in its place had left a
reddish violet glow that flamed up into the sky; now and then black
crows flew by and seemed for the moment to be of gold; it was evening.
On the fields however the dark crowd of people kept on moving farther
and farther away from the black houses in the distance behind them
towards the hogshead; an exceptionally good cast might reach it now. It
was the marsh party's turn and Hauke was to throw.
The chalky hogshead stood out white in the broad shadows that now fell
from the dyke across the course. "You'll have to leave it to us, this
time!" cried one of the uplanders, for the contest was hot and they
were at least ten feet in advance.
Hauke's tall, lean figure stepped out of the crowd; the gray eyes in
his long Friesian face were fixed on the hogshead; his hand, which hung
at his side, held the ball.
"The bird's too big for you, eh?" came the grating voice of Ole Peters
close to his ear, "shall we exchange it for a gray pot?"
Hauke turned and looked at him steadily. "I'm throwing for the marsh,"
he said. "Where do you belong?"
"To the marsh too, I imagine; but you are throwing for Elke Volkerts,
eh?"
"Stand aside!" shouted Hauke and took his position again. But Ole
pressed forward with his head still nearer to him. Then suddenly,
before Hauke himself could do anything, a hand gripped the intruder and
pulled him backwards so that he stumbled against his laughing comrades.
It was not a large hand that did so, for as Hauke hastily turned his
head he saw Elke Volkerts beside him pulling her sleeve to rights, and
her dark brows were drawn angrily across her hot face.
The power of steel shot into Hauke's arm; he bent forward a little,
weighed the ball in his hand once or twice, then he drew his arm back
and a dead silence fell on both sides; all eyes followed the flying
ball, it could be heard whistling through the air; suddenly, far away
from the spot where it was thrown, the silver wings of a gull hid it
as, shrieking, the bird flew across from the dike. But at the same
moment it was heard in the distance striking against the hogshead.
"Hurrah for Hauke!" shouted the marshlanders and the news ran loudly
through the crowd: "Hauke! Hauke Haien has won the game!"
But Hauke himself as they all crowded about him had only felt for a
hand at his side and even when they called again: "What are you waiting
for, Hauke? Your ball is lying in the hogshead!" he only nodded and did
not move from the spot; not until he felt the little hand clasp his
firmly did he say: "I believe you're right; I think I've won!"
Then the whole crowd streamed back and Elke and Hauke were separated
and swept along by the crowd towards the tavern on the road that turned
up by the dikegrave's mound towards the uplands. But here they both
escaped and while Elke went up to her room Hauke stood at the back, in
front of the stable door and watched the dark mass of people wandering
up to the tavern, where a room was ready for the dancers. Night
gradually fell over the open country; it grew stiller and stiller about
him, only behind him he could hear the cattle moving in the stable;
he fancied he could already catch the sound of the clarinets in the
tavern on the uplands. All at once he heard the rustle of a gown round
the corner of the house and firm little steps went down the footway
that led through the fens up onto the uplands. Now, in the dusk, he
could see the figure swinging along and he knew that it was Elke; she
too was going to the dance in the tavern. The blood rushed up into his
throat; should he not run after her and go with her? But Hauke was no
hero where women were concerned; weighing this question he remained
standing till she had disappeared from his sight in the dark.
Then, when the danger of overtaking her had passed, he too went the
same way till he reached the tavern up by the church, and the talking
and shouting of the crowd before the house and in the passage, and the
shrill tones of the violins and clarinets within, surrounded him with a
deafening noise. Unnoticed he made his way into the "guildhall." It was
not large and was so full that he could scarcely see a step in front of
him. In silence he stood leaning against the door-jamb and watched the
moving throng; the people seemed to him like fools; he did not need to
fear either that anyone would think of the struggle in the afternoon
or of who had won the game an hour ago. Each man had eyes only for his
girl and turned round and round with her in a circle. He was seeking
for one only and at last--there she was! She was dancing with her
cousin, the young dike commissioner--but she had already disappeared
again and he could see only other girls from the marsh and the uplands
for whom he cared nothing. Then suddenly the violins and the clarinets
ceased and the dance was at an end; but already another was beginning.
The thought passed through Hauke's mind whether Elke would really keep
her word, if she might not dance past him with Ole Peters. He almost
screamed at the idea; then--well, what would he do then? But she did
not seem to be dancing this dance at all and at last it came to an end
and another, a two-step, which was just beginning to be popular then,
followed. The music started with a mad flourish, the young fellows
rushed up to the girls, the lights on the walls flared. Hauke nearly
dislocated his neck trying to distinguish the dancers; and there, the
third couple, was Ole Peters and--but who was the girl? A broad fellow
from the marsh stood in front of her and hid her face. But the dance
went on madly and Ole and his partner circled out where he could see
them. "Vollina! Vollina Harders!" Hauke almost shouted aloud and gave
a sigh of relief. But where was Elke? Had she no partner or had she
refused them all because she did not want to dance with Ole? The music
stopped again and then a new dance began but still he did not see her.
There was Ole, still with his fat Vollina in his arms! "Well," said
Hauke to himself, "it looks as if Jess Harders with his twenty-five
acres would soon have to retire! But where is Elke?"
He left the door and pushed his way further into the room; suddenly he
found himself standing before her as she sat with an older friend in a
corner. "Hauke!" she exclaimed, raising her narrow face to look at him;
"are you here? I didn't see you dancing!"
"I haven't danced," he replied.
"Why not, Hauke?" and half rising she added: "Will you dance with me? I
wouldn't with Ole Peters; he won't come again!"
But Hauke made no move to begin. "Thank you, Elke," he said, "but I
don't know how well enough; they might laugh at you; and then * * *" he
broke off suddenly and looked at her with feeling in his gray eyes as
if he must leave it to them to finish what he would say.
"What do you mean, Hauke?" she asked softly.
"I mean, Elke, that the day can have no happier ending for me than it
has had already."
"Yes," she said, "you won the game."
"Elke!" he said with scarcely audible reproach.
A hot red flamed up into her face. "There!" she said, "what do you
want?" and dropped her eyes.
A partner now came and claimed her friend and after she had gone Hauke
spoke louder. "I thought I had won something better, Elke!"
Her eyes searched the floor a few seconds longer; then she raised them
slowly and a glance, filled with the quiet strength of her being, met
his and ran through him like summer warmth. "Do as your feeling tells
you, Hauke," she said; "we ought to know each other!"
Elke did not dance again that evening and when they went home they
went hand in hand; from the sky above the stars sparkled over the
silent marsh; a light east wind blew and made the cold severe, but the
two walked on without many wraps as if spring had suddenly come.
* * * * *
Hauke had thought of something, to be used perhaps only in the
uncertain future, but with which he hoped to celebrate a secret
festival. Accordingly he went to town the next Sunday to the old
goldsmith Andersen and ordered a thick gold ring. "Stretch out your
finger till I measure it," said the old man and took hold of Hauke's
third finger. "It's not as big as most of you people have," he went on.
But Hauke said: "I'd rather you measured my little finger," and he held
it out to him.
The goldsmith looked at him somewhat puzzled; but what did he care what
the whim of a young peasant might be. "We'll probably find one among
the ladies' rings," he said, and the blood mounted into Hauke's cheeks.
But the ring fitted his little finger and he took it hastily and paid
for it with bright silver. Then, with his heart beating loudly and
as if it were a solemn act, he put it into his waistcoat pocket. And
from then on he carried it there day by day with a restless yet proud
feeling, as if his waistcoat pocket were made only to carry a ring in.
So he carried it for years, in fact, the ring had to leave that pocket
for a new one; no opportunity to escape presented itself. It had indeed
passed through Hauke's head to go straight to his master; after all,
his father belonged in the village and held land there. But in his
calmer moments he knew well that the old dikegrave would have laughed
at his second man. And so he and the dikegrave's daughter lived on side
by side, she in girlish silence, and yet both as if they walked hand in
hand.
A year after the winter festival Ole Peters had left the dikegrave's
service and married Vollina Harders; Hauke had been right; the old man
had retired and instead of his fat daughter his brisk son-in-law now
rode the yellow mare to the fens and on his way back, it was said,
always up the side of the dike. Hauke was now head man and a younger
fellow had taken his former place. At first the dikegrave had not
wanted to advance him. "He's better as second man," he had growled,
"I need him here with my books!" But Elke had said, "Then Hauke would
leave, Father!" That frightened the old man and Hauke had been made
head man but he still kept on as before helping in the administration
of the dike.
After another year had passed he began to talk to Elke about his
father's growing feeble, and explained that the few days that the
master allowed him in summer in which to help at home were no longer
enough; the old man was overworking himself and he, Hauke, could not
stand by and see it go on. It was a summer evening; the two were
standing in the twilight under the great ash in front of the door of
the house. For a time the girl looked up in silence at the bough of the
tree; then she answered, "I did not want to say it, Hauke; I thought
you would find the right thing to do yourself."
"Then I must go away out of your house," he said, "and cannot come
again."
They were silent for a time and watched the sunset glow that was just
sinking into the sea over behind the dike. "You must know best," she
said; "I was at your father's this morning and found him asleep in his
armchair; he had a drawing-pen in his hand and the drawing-board with a
half finished drawing lay before him on the table. Afterwards he woke
and talked to me for a quarter of an hour but only with difficulty, and
then, when I was going, he clung to my hand as if he were afraid that
it was for the last time; but * * *."
"But what, Elke?" asked Hauke, as she hesitated to go on.
A few tears ran down over the girl's cheeks. "I was only thinking of my
father," she said; "believe me, it will be hard for him to lose you."
And with an effort she added: "It often seems to me as if he too were
preparing for his end."
Hauke did not answer; it seemed to him as if the ring in his pocket
suddenly moved but before he could suppress his indignation at this
involuntary stir Elke went on: "No, don't be angry, Hauke! I trust and
believe that even so you will not forsake us!"
At that he seized her hand eagerly and she did not draw it away. For
some time longer the two stood there together in the growing dusk till
their hands slipped apart and they went their different ways. A gust of
wind struck the ash-tree and rustled through its leaves, rattling the
shutters on the front of the house; but gradually the night fell and
silence lay over the vast plain.
The old dikegrave yielded to Elke's persuasion and allowed Hauke to
leave his service although the latter had not given notice at the
proper time. Two new men had since been engaged. A few months later
Tede Haien died, but before he died he called his son to his bed: "Sit
down here beside me, child," he said in a feeble voice, "close beside
me! You need not be afraid; the one who is with me is only the dark
angel of the Lord who has come to call me."
And the grief-stricken son sat down close to the dark wall-bed: "Speak,
Father, tell me all that you still have to say!"
"Yes, my son, there is still something," said the old man and stretched
out his hands on the counterpane. "When you, only a half-grown boy,
went into the dikegrave's service you had it in your mind to be
a dikegrave yourself some day. You infected me with the idea and
gradually I too came to think that you were the right man for that.
But your inheritance was too small for you to hold such an office. I
have lived frugally during the time you were in service. I thought to
increase it."
Hauke pressed his father's hands warmly and the old man tried to sit up
so that he could see him. "Yes, my son," he said, "the paper is there
in the top drawer of the strong chest. You know, old Antje Wohlers had
a field of five and a half acres; but in her crippled old age she could
not get on with the rent from it alone; so every Martinmas I gave the
poor creature a certain sum and more too, when I had it; and for that
she made over the field to me; it is all legally arranged. Now she too
is lying at the point of death; the disease of our marshes, cancer, has
overtaken her; you will not have anything more to pay!"
He closed his eyes for a time; then he added: "It isn't much; but still
you will have more than you were accustomed to with me. May it serve
you for your life in this world!"
Listening to his son's thanks the old man fell asleep. He had nothing
more to attend to, and a few days later the angel of the Lord had
closed his eyes forever, and Hauke came into his paternal inheritance.
On the day after the funeral Elke came to his house. "Thank you for
looking in, Elke!" was Hauke's greeting.
But she answered: "I am not just looking in; I want to tidy the house
a little so that you can live in comfort. With all his figures and
drawings your father had not time to look about him much and death too
brings confusion; I'll make it a little homelike for you again!"
He looked at her with his gray eyes full of trust: "Tidy up, then," he
said; "I like it better too."
And so she began to clear up the room. The drawing-board which still
lay there was dusted and put away in the attic. Drawing-pens, pencils
and chalk were carefully locked away in a drawer of the strong chest.
Then the young servant was called in and helped to move the furniture
of the whole room into a different and better position so that there
seemed to be more light and space. "Only we women can do that," said
Elke, smiling, and Hauke, in spite of his grief for his father, looked
on with happy eyes and helped too when it was necessary.
And when, towards twilight--it was at the beginning of
September--everything was as she wanted it for him, she took his hand
and nodded to him with her dark eyes. "Now come and have supper with
us; I had to promise my father to bring you back with me; then when you
come home later everything will be ready for you."
When they entered the spacious living-room of the dikegrave, where the
shutters were already closed and the two lights burning on the table,
the old man started to get up out of his armchair but his heavy body
sank back again and he contented himself with calling out to his former
servant: "That's right, Hauke, I'm glad you've come to look up your old
friends again! Just come nearer, nearer!" And when Hauke came up to his
chair he took his hand in both his podgy ones and said: "Well, well,
my boy, don't grieve too much, for we must all die and your father was
not one of the worst! But, come, Elke, bring the roast in; we need to
strengthen ourselves! There is a lot of work ahead of us, Hauke! The
autumn inspection is coming on; the dike and sluice accounts are piled
as high as the house; then there's the recent damage to the dike on the
western koog--I don't know which way to turn my head; but yours, thank
God, is a good bit younger; you are a good lad, Hauke!"
And after this long speech in which the old man had laid bare his whole
heart, he fell back in his chair and blinked longingly at the door
through which Elke was just entering with the roast. Hauke stood beside
him smiling. "Now sit down," said the dikegrave; "we mustn't waste
time; this dish doesn't taste good cold."
And Hauke sat down; it seemed to him a matter of course that he should
share in Elke's father's work. And when later the autumn inspection
came and a few months more had been added to the year, he had really
done the greater part of it.
* * * * *
The narrator stopped and looked about him. The shriek of a gull had
struck the window and outside in the entrance the stamping of feet was
heard as if someone were shaking off the clay from his heavy boots.
The dikegrave and the commissioners turned their heads towards the
door. "What is it?" exclaimed the former.
A stout man with a sou'wester on his head entered. "Sir," he announced,
"we both saw it, Hans Nickels and I: the rider of the white horse has
thrown himself into the water-hole!"
"Where did you see that?" asked the dikegrave.
"There is only the one hole; in Jansen's fen where the Hauke Haien Koog
begins."
"Did you only see it once?"
"Only once; and it only looked like a shadow; but that doesn't mean
that it was the first time."
The dikegrave had risen. "You will excuse me," he said, turning to me,
"we must go out and see where the mischief is brewing." He went out
with the messenger and the rest of the company rose too and followed
him.
I was left alone with the schoolmaster in the large bare room; we now
had a clear view through the uncurtained windows which were no longer
hidden by people sitting in front of them, and could see how the wind
was driving the dark clouds across the sky. The old man still sat in
his place, a superior, almost compassionate smile on his lips. "It has
grown too empty here," he said, "will you come upstairs with me to my
room? I live here in the house, and, believe me, I know the weather
here near the dike; we have nothing to fear for ourselves."
[Illustration: COMMUNION SERVICE ON A NORTH SEA ISLAND
_From the Painting by Jacob Alberts_
PERMISSION PHOTOGRAPHISCHE GESEILSCHAFT BERLIN]
I accepted gratefully; for I too was beginning to feel chilly there,
and after taking a light we climbed the stairs to an attic-room which
did indeed look towards the west like the other, but whose windows were
now covered with dark woolen hangings. In a bookcase I saw a small
collection of books and beside it the portraits of two old professors;
in front of a table stood a large easy-chair. "Make yourself at home,"
said my friendly host and threw a few pieces of peat into the still
faintly burning stove, on the top of which stood a tin kettle.
"Just a few minutes! It will soon begin to sing and then I will brew a
glass of grog for us; that will keep you awake."
"I don't need that," I answered; "I don't grow sleepy following your
Hauke on his way through life."
"Really?" and he nodded to me with his wise eyes after I had been
comfortably settled in his easy chair. "Let me see, where were
we?----Oh yes, I know. Well then!"
Hauke had come into his paternal inheritance, and as old Antje Wohlers
had also succumbed to her illness, her field had increased it. But
since the death, or, rather, since the last words of his father,
something had grown up in him, the seed of which he had carried in
his heart since his boyhood; more than often enough he repeated to
himself that he was the right man when there should have to be a new
dikegrave. That was it. His father who surely understood it, who, in
fact, had been the wisest man in the village, had, as it were, added
these words to his inheritance as a final gift; Antje Wohlers' field,
which he also owed to him, should form the first stepping-stone to this
height. For, to be sure, a dikegrave must be able to point to far more
extensive property than this alone. But his father had lived frugally
for lonely years and had bought this new possession with the money
thus saved; he could do that too, he could do more than that; for his
father's strength had been gone, while he could still do the hardest
work for years to come. Of course, even if he did succeed in that way,
yet the keen edge that he had put on his old master's administration
had not made friends for him in the village, and Ole Peters, his old
antagonist, had lately come into an inheritance and was beginning to
be a well-to-do man. A number of faces passed before his inward vision
and they all looked at him with unfriendly eyes; then wrath against
these people took hold of him and he stretched out his arms as if he
would seize them; for they wanted to keep him from the office to which
he alone was suited. And these thoughts did not leave him; they were
always there and so side by side with honor and love there grew up
ambition and hatred in his young heart. But he hid them deep within
him; even Elke did not suspect their existence.
With the coming of the New Year there was a wedding. The bride was a
relative of the Haiens, and Hauke and Elke were both there as invited
guests; in fact they sat side by side at the wedding breakfast owing to
the failure of a nearer relative to come. Only the smile that passed
over both their faces betrayed their joy at this. But Elke sat listless
in the noise of the conversation and the clatter of glasses that went
on about them.
"Is there something the matter?" asked Hauke.
"Oh, no, not really; there are only too many people here for me."
"But you look so sad!"
She shook her head; then they were both silent again.
Gradually a feeling as if he were jealous because of her silence grew
in him and he took her hand secretly under cover of the tablecloth;
it did not start but closed confidingly round his. Had a feeling of
loneliness taken hold of her as she watched her father growing older
and weaker day by day? Hauke did not think of putting this question to
himself but he ceased to breathe now as he drew the gold ring from his
pocket. "Will you leave it there?" he asked, trembling as he slipped it
onto the third finger of her slender hand.
The pastor's wife was sitting opposite them at the table; suddenly she
laid down her fork and turned to her neighbor: "Good gracious, look at
that girl!" she exclaimed, "she's pale as death!"
But the blood was already coming back into Elke's face. "Can you wait,
Hauke?" she asked softly.
The prudent Friesian stopped to think for a moment. "For what?" he said
then.
"You know well; I don't need to tell you."
"You are right," he said; "yes, Elke, I can wait--if only the time's
within reason!"
"Oh God, I'm afraid it's near! Don't speak like that, Hauke, you are
talking of my father's death!" She laid the other hand on her breast:
"Till then," she said, "I will wear the ring here; never fear, you will
never get it back as long as I live."
Then they both smiled and his hand pressed hers so that at any other
time the girl would have screamed aloud.
During this time the pastor's wife had been looking steadily at Elke's
eyes which now burned as with dark fire beneath the lace edging of
her little gold-brocaded cap. But the increasing noise at the table
had prevented the older woman from understanding anything that was
said; she did not turn to her neighbor again either, for budding
marriages--and that is what this looked like to her--even if it were
only because of the fee that budded for her husband at the same time,
she was not in the habit of disturbing.
Elke's premonition had come true. One morning after Easter the
dikegrave Tede Volkerts had been found dead in his bed; his countenance
bore witness to a peaceful end. He had often spoken in the previous
months of being tired of life and had had no appetite for his favorite
dish, a roast joint, or even for a young duck.
And now there was a great funeral in the village. In the burying ground
about the church on the upland, lying towards the west, was a lot
surrounded by an iron fence. In it the broad, blue grave-stone had been
lifted up and was now leaning against a weeping ash. A figure of Death
with a very full and prominent set of teeth had been chiseled on the
stone and below stood in large letters:
Dat is de Dot, de allens fritt,
Nimmt Kunst un Wetenschop di mit;
De kloke Mann is nu vergån
Gott gäw em selik Uperstån.
This is Death who eats up all,
Art and science go at his call;
The clever man has left us forlorn
God raise him on resurrection morn!
This was the resting place of the former dikegrave, Volkert Tedsen. Now
a new grave had been dug in which his son, the dikegrave Tede Volkerts,
was to be laid. The funeral procession was already coming up from the
marsh below, a throng of carriages from all the villages in the parish;
the one at the head bore the heavy coffin, the two glossy black horses
from the dikegrave's stables were already drawing it up the sandy slope
to the uplands; the horses' manes and tails waved in the brisk spring
breeze. The churchyard was filled to the walls with people, even on top
of the brick gate boys squatted with little children in their arms; all
were anxious to see the burying.
In the house down on the marsh Elke had prepared the funeral repast
in the living-room and the adjoining parlor; old wine stood at every
place; there was a bottle of Langkork for the chief dikegrave--for he
too had not failed to come to the ceremony--and another for the pastor.
When everything was ready she went through the stable out to the back
door; she met no one on her way; the men had gone with the carriages
to the funeral. There she stood, her mourning clothes fluttering in
the spring breeze, and looked across to the village where the last
carriages were just driving up to the church. After a while there was
a commotion there and then followed a dead silence. Elke folded her
hands; now they were probably lowering the coffin into the grave: "And
to dust thou shalt return!" Involuntarily, softly, as if she could hear
them from the churchyard she repeated the words; then her eyes filled
with tears, her hands which were folded across her breast sank into her
lap; "Our Father, who art in heaven!" she prayed with fervor. And when
she had finished the Lord's prayer she stood there long, immovable,
she, from now on the owner of this large lowland farm; and thoughts of
death and of life began to strive within her.
A distant rumble roused her. When she opened her eyes she saw again one
carriage following the other in rapid succession, driving down from the
marsh and coming towards her farm. She stood upright, looked out once
more with a keen glance and then went back, as she had come, through
the stable and into the solemnly prepared living rooms. There was no
one here either, only through the wall she could hear the bustle of the
maids in the kitchen. The banquet table looked so still and lonely;
the mirror between the windows was covered with white cloth, so were
the brass knobs of the warming-oven; there was nothing to shine in the
room any more. Elke noticed that the doors of the wall-bed in which
her father had slept for the last time were open and she went over and
closed them tight; absently she read the words painted on them in gold
letters among the roses and pinks:
"Hest du din Dågwerk richtig dan
Da kommt de Slåp von sülvst heran."
If you have done your day's work right
Sleep will come of itself at night.
That was from her grandfather's time! She glanced at the cupboard;
it was almost empty but through the glass-doors she could see the
cut-glass goblet which, as he had been fond of telling, her father had
won once in his youth tilting in the ring. She took it out and stood
it at the chief dikegrave's place. Then she went to the window, for
already she could hear the carriages coming up the drive. One after
another stopped in front of the house, and, more cheerful than when
they first came, the guests now sprang down from their seats to the
ground. Rubbing their hands and talking, they all crowded into the
room; it was not long before they had all taken their places at the
festive table on which the well-cooked dishes were steaming, the chief
dikegrave and the pastor in the parlor; noise and loud conversation ran
along the table as if the dreadful silence of death had never hovered
here. Silently, her eyes on her guests, Elke went round with the maids
among the tables to see that nothing was missing. Hauke Haien too sat
in the living-room besides Ole Peters and other small landowners.
After the meal was over the white clay pipes were fetched out of the
corner and lighted and Elke was busy again passing the coffee cups
to her guests, for she did not spare with that either today. In the
living-room, at her father's desk, the chief dikegrave was standing in
conversation with the pastor and the white-haired dike commissioner
Jewe Manners. "It is all very well, Gentlemen," said the former, "we
have laid the old dikegrave to rest with honors; but where shall we
find a new one? I think, Manners, you will have to take the dignity
upon you!"
Smiling, the old man raised the black velvet cap from his white hair:
"The game would be too short, Sir," he said; "when the deceased Tede
Volkerts was made dikegrave, I was made commissioner and I have been it
now for forty years!"
"That is no fault, Manners; you know the dike affairs so much the
better and will have no trouble with them!"
But the old man shook his head: "No, no, your Grace, leave me where I
am and I can keep on in the game for another few years yet!"
The pastor came to his aid. "Why," he said, "do we not put into office
the man who has really exercised it in the last years?"
The chief dikegrave looked at him. "I don't understand you, pastor."
The pastor pointed into the parlor where Hauke seemed to be explaining
something to two older men in a slow earnest way. "There he stands," he
said, "the tall Friesian figure with the clever gray eyes beside his
lean nose and the two bumps in his forehead above them! He was the old
man's servant and now has a little piece of his own; of course, he is
still rather young!"
"He seems to be in the thirties," said the chief dikegrave, measuring
Hauke with his eyes.
"He is scarcely twenty-four," returned Commissioner Manners; "but the
pastor is right; all the good proposals for the dike and drain work
and so on that have come from the dikegrave's office during the last
years have come from him; after all, the old man didn't amount to much
towards the end."
"Indeed?" said the chief dikegrave; "and you think that he would be the
man now to move up into his old master's place?"
"He would be the man," answered Jewe Manners; "but he lacks what we
call here 'clay under his feet'; his father had about fifteen, he may
have a good twenty acres; but no one here has ever been made dikegrave
on that."
The pastor opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, when Elke
Volkerts, who had been in the room for some little time, suddenly came
up to them. "Will your Grace allow me a word?" she said to the chief
officer, "it is only so that an error may not lead to a wrong!"
"Speak out, Miss Elke!" he answered; "wisdom always sounds well from a
pretty girl's mouth."
"--It is not wisdom, your Grace; I only want to tell the truth."
"We ought to be able to listen to that too, Jungfer Elke."
The girl's dark eyes glanced aside again as if she wanted to reassure
herself that no superfluous ears were near. "Your Grace," she began
then, and her breast rose with strong emotion, "my godfather, Jewe
Manners, told you that Hauke Haien only possesses about twenty acres,
and that is true for the moment; but as soon as is necessary Hauke will
have as many more acres as there are in my father's farm which is now
mine; this with what he now has ought to be * * *."
Old Manners stretched his white head towards her as if he were looking
to see who it was that spoke. "What's that?" he said, "what are you
saying, child?"
Elke drew a little black ribbon out of her bodice with a shining gold
ring on the end of it. "I am engaged, Godfather," she said; "here is
the ring, and Hauke Haien is my betrothed."
"And when--I suppose I may ask since I held you at the font, Elke
Volkerts--when did this happen?"
"It was some time ago, but I was of age, Godfather Manners," she said;
"my father was already growing feeble and, as I knew him, I did not
want to trouble him with it; now that he is with God he will see that
his child is well cared for with this man. I should have said nothing
about it till my year of mourning was over, but now, for Hauke's sake
and on account of the koog, I have had to speak." And turning to the
chief dikegrave she added: "Your Grace will pardon me, I hope!"
The three men looked at one another. The pastor laughed, the old
commissioner contented himself with murmuring "Hum, hum!" while the
chief dikegrave rubbed his forehead as if he were concerned with an
important decision. "Yes, my dear girl," he said at last, "but how is
it with the matrimonial property rights here? I must confess I am not
thoroughly at home in these complicated matters."
"That is not necessary, your Grace," answered the dikegrave's daughter,
"I will transfer the property to Hauke before the marriage. I have my
own little pride," she added, smiling; "I want to marry the richest man
in the village!"
"Well, Manners," said the pastor, "I suppose that you, as godfather,
will have no objection when I unite the young dikegrave and the
daughter of the old one in marriage!"
The old man shook his head gently. "May God give them his blessing!" he
said, devoutly.
But the chief dikegrave held out his hand to the girl. "You have
spoken truly and wisely, Elke Volkerts; I thank you for your forceful
explanations and I hope also in the future and on more joyous occasions
than this to be the guest of your house; but--the most wonderful thing
about it all is that a dikegrave should be made by such a young woman."
"Your Grace," replied Elke, who looked at his kindly face again with
her serious eyes, "the right man may well be helped by his wife!" Then
she went into the adjoining parlor and silently laid her hand in Hauke
Haien's.
* * * * *
It was several years later. Tede Haien's little house was now occupied
by an active workman with his wife and children. The young dikegrave
Hauke Haien lived with his wife in what had been her father's house.
In summer the mighty ash rustled in front of the house as before; but
on the bench which now stood beneath it generally only the young wife
was to be seen in the evening sitting alone with her sewing or some
other piece of work. There was still no child in this home and Hauke
had something else to do than to spend a leisure evening in front of
the house, for in spite of the help he had given the old dikegrave the
latter had bequeathed to him a number of unsettled matters pertaining
to the dike, matters with which Hauke had not liked to meddle before;
but now they must all gradually be cleared up and he swept with a
strong broom. Then came the management and work of the farm itself,
increased as it was by the addition of his own property, and moreover
he was trying to do without a servant boy. And so it happened that,
except on Sunday when they went to church, he and Elke saw each other
only at dinner, when Hauke was generally hurried, and at the beginning
and end of the day; it was a life of continuous work and yet a
contented one.
And then the tongues of the busy-bodies disturbed the peace. One Sunday
after church a somewhat noisy gang of the younger landowners in the
marsh and upland districts were sitting drinking in the tavern on
the uplands. Over the fourth or fifth glass they began to talk, not
indeed about the king and the government--no one went so high in those
days--but about the municipal officials and their superiors and above
all about the municipal taxes and assessments, and the longer they
talked the less they were satisfied with them, least of all with the
new dike assessments; all the drains and sluices which had hitherto
been all right now needed repairs; new places were always being found
in the dike that needed hundreds of barrows of earth; the devil take it
all!
"That's your clever dikegrave's doing," shouted one of the uplanders,
"who always goes about thinking and then puts a finger into every pie."
"Yes, Marten," said Ole Peters, who sat opposite the speaker; "you're
right, he's tricky and is always trying to get into the chief
dikegrave's good books; but we've got him now."
"Why did you let them load him onto you?" said the other; "now you've
got to pay for it."
Ole Peters laughed. "Yes, Marten Fedders, that's the way it goes
with us here and there's nothing to be done. The old dikegrave got
the office on his father's account; the new one on his wife's." The
laughter that greeted this sally showed how it pleased the company.
But it was said at a public house table and it did not stop there; soon
it went the rounds on the uplands as well as down on the marshes; thus
it came to Hauke's ears too. And again all the malicious faces passed
before his inward eye and when he thought of the laughter at the tavern
table it sounded more mocking than it had been in reality. "The dogs!"
he shouted and looked wrathfully to one side as if he would have had
them thrashed.
At that Elke laid her hand on his arm: "Never mind them! They would all
like to be what you are!"
"That's just it," he answered rancorously.
"And," she went on, "did not Ole Peters himself marry money?"
"That he did, Elke; but what he got when he married Vollina was not
enough to make him dikegrave!"
"Say rather; he was not enough himself to become dikegrave!" And Elke
turned her husband round so that he looked at himself in the mirror,
for they were standing between the windows in their room. "There stands
the dikegrave," she said; "now look at him; only he who can exercise
an office holds one!"
"You are not wrong there," he answered, thinking, "and yet * * * Well,
Elke, I must go on to the eastern sluice; the gates don't lock again."
She pressed his hand. "Come, look at me a minute first! What is the
matter with you, your eyes look so far away?"
"Nothing, Elke; you're right."
He went; but he had not been gone long when he had forgotten all about
the repairs to the sluice. Another idea which he had half thought out
and had carried about with him for years, but which had been pushed
into the background by urgent official duties, now took possession of
him anew and more powerfully than before as if suddenly it had grown
wings.
Hardly realizing where he was going he found himself up on the seaward
dike, a good distance to the south, towards the town; the village that
lay out in this direction had long disappeared on his left; still he
went on, his gaze turned towards the water-side and fixed steadily on
the broad stretch of land in front of the dikes; anyone with him could
not have helped seeing what absorbing mental work was going on behind
those eyes. At last he stopped; there the foreland narrowed down to a
little strip along the dike. "It must be possible," he said to himself.
"Seven years in office! they shan't say again that I am dikegrave only
on my wife's account!"
Still he stood and his keen glance swept carefully over the green
foreland in all directions; then he went back to where another small
strip of green pasture-land took the place of the broad expanse lying
before him. Close to the dike however a strong sea current ran through
this expanse separating nearly the whole outland from the mainland
and making it into an island; a rough wooden bridge led across to
it so that cattle or hay and grain carts could pass over. The tide
was low and the golden September sun glistened on the bare strip of
mud, perhaps a hundred feet wide, and on the deep water-course in the
middle of it through which the sea was even now running. "That could be
dammed," said Hauke to himself after watching it for some time. Then
he looked up and, in imagination, drew a line from the dike on which
he stood, across the water-course, along the edge of the island, round
towards the south and back again in an easterly direction across the
water-course and up to the dike. And this invisible line which he now
drew was a new dike, new too in the construction of its profile which
till now had existed only in his head.
"That would give us about a thousand acres more of reclaimed land," he
said, smiling to himself; "not exactly a great stretch, but still----"
Another calculation absorbed him. The outland here belonged to the
community, its members each holding a number of shares according to the
size of their property in the parish or by having legally acquired them
in some other way. He began to count up how many shares he had received
from his own, how many from Elke's father and how many he had bought
himself since his marriage, partly with an indistinct idea of benefit
to be derived in the future, partly when he increased his flocks of
sheep. Altogether he held a considerable number of shares; for he had
bought from Ole Peters all that he had as well, when the latter became
so disgusted at losing his best ram in a partial inundation that he
decided to sell. But that was a rare accident, for as far back as Hauke
could remember only the edges were flooded even when the tides were
unusually high. What splendid pasture and grain land it would make and
how valuable it would be when it was all surrounded by his new dike! A
kind of intoxication came over him as he thought of it, but he dug his
nails into the palms of his hands and forced his eyes to look clearly
and soberly at what lay before him. There was this great dike-less
area on the extreme edge of which a flock of dirty sheep now wandered
grazing slowly; who knew what storms and tides might do to it even
within the next few years; and for him it would mean a lot of work,
struggle, and annoyance. Nevertheless, as he went down from the dike
and along the foot-path across the fens towards his mound, he felt as
if he were bringing a great treasure home with him.
* * * * *
Elke met him in the hall; "How did you find the sluice?" she asked.
He looked down at her with a mysterious smile: "We shall soon need
another sluice," he said, "and drains and a new dike!"
"I don't understand," replied Elke as they went into the room. "What is
it that you want, Hauke?"
"I want," he said slowly and stopped a moment. "I want to have the big
stretch of outland that begins opposite our place and then runs towards
the west, all diked in and a well-drained koog made out of it. The
high tides have left us in peace for nearly a generation, but if one
of the really bad ones should come again and destroy the new growth,
everything might be ruined at one blow; only the old slip-shod way of
doing things could have let it go on like that so long."
She looked at him in amazement. "Then you blame yourself!" she said.
"Yes, I do, Elke; but there has always been so much else to do."
"I know, Hauke; you have done enough!"
He had seated himself in the old dikegrave's easy-chair and his hands
gripped both arms of it firmly.
"Have you the courage to do it?" asked his wife.
"Indeed I have, Elke," he said hastily.
"Don't go too fast, Hauke; that is an undertaking of life and death and
they will nearly all be against you; you will get no thanks for all
your trouble and care!"
He nodded: "I know!" he said.
"And suppose it doesn't succeed!" she exclaimed again; "ever since I
was a child I have heard that that water-course could not be stopped
and therefore it must never be touched."
"That is simply a lazy man's excuse," said Hauke; "why should it be
impossible to stop it?"
"I never heard why; perhaps because it flows through so straight; the
washout is too strong." Suddenly a memory came back to her and an
almost roguish smile dawned in her serious eyes. "When I was a child,"
she said, "I heard the hired men talking about it once; they said that
the only way to build a dam there that would hold was to bury something
alive in it while it was being made; when they were building a dike on
the other side--it must have been a hundred years ago--a gypsy child
that they bought from its mother at a high price had been thrown into
it and buried alive; but now probably no one would sell her child."
Hauke shook his head. "Then it is just as well that we have none, or
they would probably require it of us!"
"They wouldn't get it!" said Elke, and threw her arms across her own
body as if in fear.
And Hauke smiled; but she went on to another question: "And the
tremendous expense! Have you thought of that?"
"Indeed I have, Elke; we shall gain in land much more than the expense
of building the dike, and then too the cost of maintaining the old dike
will be much less; we shall work ourselves and we have more than eighty
teams in the parish and no lack of young hands. At least you will not
have made me dikegrave for nothing, Elke; I will show them that I am
one."
She had crouched down in front of him and was looking at him anxiously;
now she rose with a sigh. "I must go on with my day's work," she said
slowly stroking his cheek; "you do yours, Hauke."
"Amen, Elke," he said with an earnest smile; "there is work here for
both of us!"
And there was work enough for both, though now the husband's burden
became even heavier. On Sunday afternoons and often late in the evening
Hauke and a capable surveyor sat together, deep in calculations,
drawings and plans; it was the same when Hauke was alone and he often
did not finish till long after midnight. Then he crept into his and
Elke's bedroom, for they no longer used the stuffy wall-beds in the
living-room, and so that he might at last get some rest, his wife lay
with closed eyes as if asleep although she had been waiting for him
with a beating heart. Then he sometimes kissed her brow, whispering a
word of endearment, and laid himself down to wait for the sleep which
often did not come to him till cock-crow. During the winter tempests he
would go out on the dike with paper and pencil in his hand and stand
there drawing and making notes while a gust of wind tore his cap from
his head and his long tawny hair blew across his hot face. As long as
the ice did not prevent it he would take one of the men-servants and go
out in the boat to the shallows and measure the depth of the currents
there with a rod and plumb-line, whenever he was in doubt. Elke often
trembled for him, but the only sign she showed of it when he came home
again was the firmness of her hand-clasp or the gleaming light in her
usually quiet eyes. "Have patience, Elke," he said once when it seemed
to him that his wife did not want to let him go; "I must be perfectly
clear about it myself before I make my proposal." At that she nodded
and let him go. His rides into town to the chief dikegrave were no
trifle either, and they and all the work of managing the house and
farm were always followed by work on his papers late into the night.
He almost ceased to associate with other people except in his work and
business; he even saw less of his wife from day to day. "It is a hard
time and it will last a long while yet," said Elke to herself and went
about her work.
At last, when the sun and spring winds had broken up the ice everywhere
the preparatory work came to an end. The petition to the chief
dikegrave to be recommended to a higher department was ready. It
contained the proposal for a dike to surround the foreland mentioned,
for the benefit of the public welfare, especially of the koog and not
less of the Sovereign's exchequer as, in a few years, the latter would
profit by taxes from about one thousand acres. The whole was neatly
copied, packed in a strong tubular case, together with plans and
drawings of all the localities as they were at present and as planned,
of sluices and drains and everything else in question, and was provided
with the dikegrave's official seal.
"Here it is, Elke," said the young dikegrave, "now give it your
blessing."
Elke laid her hand in his: "We will hold fast to each other," she said.
"That we will."
Then the petition was sent into town by a messenger on horseback.
* * * * *
"You will notice, my dear sir," the schoolmaster interrupted his tale
as he looked at me with kindness in his expressive eyes, "that what I
have told you up to now I have gathered during nearly forty years of
activity in this district from reliable accounts from what has been
told me by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of enlightened
families. Now in order that you may bring this into harmony with the
final course of events I have to tell you that the rest of my story was
at the time and still is the gossip of the whole marsh village when,
about All Saints' Day, the spinning wheels begin to whirr."
[Illustration: A NORTH SEA ISLANDER'S CONGREGATION
JACOB ALBERTS]
About five or six hundred feet north of the dikegrave's farm, as
one stood on the dike, one could see a few thousand feet out in the
shallows and, somewhat farther from the opposite bank, a little
islet called "Jeverssand" or "Jevershallig." It had been used by the
grandfathers of that day as a sheep pasture, for at that time it had
been covered with grass; but even that had ceased because several times
the low islet had been flooded by the sea, especially in midsummer,
and the grass had been damaged and made unfit for the sheep. So it
happened that, except for the gulls and other birds that fly along the
shore, and perhaps an occasional fishhawk, nothing visited it any more;
and on moonlight evenings, looking out from the dike, only the foggy
mists could be seen as they hung lightly or heavily above it. When the
moon shone from the east on the islet people also thought they could
distinguish a few bleached skeletons of drowned sheep and the skeleton
of a horse, though how the latter had come there no one could explain.
Once, towards the end of March, late in the evening, the day-laborer
who lived in Tede Haien's house and the young dikegrave's man Iven
Johns stood together at that spot and gazed out fixedly at the
islet, which could scarcely be distinguished in the misty moonlight;
apparently something unusual had caught their attention and kept them
standing there. The day laborer stuck his hands in his pockets and
shook himself. "Come on, Iven," he said, "that's nothing good; let us
go home!"
The other one laughed, but a shudder could be heard through his
laughter. "Oh, nonsense! It's a living creature, a big one! Who in the
devil's name could have driven it out there onto that piece of mud!
Look! Now it's stretching its head over towards us! No, it's lowering
its head, it's eating! I thought there was no grass there! Whatever can
it be?"
"What business is that of _ours_?" answered the other. "Good night,
Iven, if you won't go along; I'm going home."
"Good-night then," the day laborer called back as he trotted home along
the dike. The servant looked round after him a few times, but the
desire to see something uncanny kept him where he was. Then a dark,
stocky figure came along the dike from the village towards him; it was
the dikegrave's stable boy. "What do you want, Karsten?" the man called
out to him.
"I?--nothing," answered the boy; "but the master wants to speak to you,
Iven Johns."
The man had his eyes fixed on the islet again. "All right; I'm coming
in a minute," he said.
"What are you looking at?" asked the boy.
The man raised his arm and pointed to the islet in silence. "Oh ho!"
whispered the boy; "there's a horse--a white horse--it must be the
devil who rides it--how does a horse get out there on Jevershallig?"
"Don't know, Karsten; if only it's a real horse!"
"Oh, yes, Iven; look, it's grazing just like a horse! But who took
it out there; there isn't a boat big enough in the whole village!
Perhaps after all it's only a sheep; Peter Ohm says, in the moonlight
ten stocks of peat look like a whole village. No, look! Now it's
jumping--it must be a horse!"
The two stood for a time in silence, their eyes fixed on what they
could see but indistinctly over there. The moon was high in the sky
and shone down on the broad shallow sea whose rising tide was just
beginning to wash over the glistening stretches of mud; no sound of
any animal was to be heard all around, nothing but the gentle noise of
the water; the marsh too, behind the dike, was empty; cows and oxen
were all still in their stalls. Nothing was moving; the only thing that
seemed to be alive was what they took to be a horse, a white horse,
out on Jevershallig. "It's growing lighter," said the man breaking the
silence; "I can see the white sheep bones shining clearly."
"So can I," said the boy, stretching his neck; then, as if an idea
had suddenly struck him, he pulled at the man's sleeve. "Iven," he
whispered, "the horse's skeleton that always used to lie there, where
is it? I can't see it!"
"I don't see it either, that's queer!" said the man.
"Not so very queer, Iven! Sometimes, I don't know in what nights, the
bones are said to rise up and act as if they were alive."
"So?" said the man; "that's old wives' superstition!"
"May be, Iven," said the boy.
"Well, I thought you came to fetch me; come on, we must go home.
There's nothing new to see here."
The boy would not move till the man had turned him round by force and
pulled him onto the path. "Listen, Karsten," he said when the ghostly
island was already a good bit behind them, "they say you're a fellow
that's ready for anything; I believe you'd like best to investigate
that yourself."
"Yes," replied Karsten, shuddering a little at the recollection, "yes,
I'd like to, Iven."
"Are you in earnest?" asked the man after Karsten had given him his
hand on it. "Well then, tomorrow evening we'll take our boat; you can
go over to Jeverssand and I'll wait for you on the dike."
"Yes," replied the boy, "we can do that. I'll take my whip with me."
"Yes, do!"
In silence they went up the high mound to their master's house.
The same time the following evening the man was sitting on the big
stone in front of the stable door as the boy came up to him cracking
his whip. "That makes an odd whistle!" said Iven.
"To be sure, look out for yourself," answered the boy; "I have plaited
nails into the lash."
"Come along then," said the other.
As on the day before the moon was in the eastern sky and shone down
clearly from its height. Soon they were both out on the dike and
looking over at Jevershallig that stood like a spot of fog in the
water. "There it is again," said the man; "I was here after dinner and
it wasn't there, but I could distinctly see the white skeleton of the
horse lying there."
The boy stretched his neck. "It isn't there now, Iven," he whispered.
"Well, Karsten, how is it?" asked the man. "Are you still itching to
row over there?"
Karsten thought for a moment; then he cracked his whip in the air.
"Undo the boat, Iven!"
Over on the island it looked as if whatever was walking there raised
its head and stretched it out towards the mainland. They did not see it
any longer; they were already walking down the dike and to the place
where the boat lay. "Now, get in," said the man after he had untied it.
"I'll wait till you come back. You must head for the east shore, there
was always a good landing there." The lad nodded silently and then
rowed out, with his whip, into the moon-lit night. The man wandered
along the dike back to the place where they had stood before. Soon he
saw the boat ground near a steep dark spot on the other side to which a
broad water-course flowed, and a short, thickset figure sprang ashore.
Wasn't that the boy cracking his whip? Or it might be the sound of the
rising tide. Several hundred feet to the north he saw what they had
taken to be a white horse, and now--yes, the figure of the boy was
going straight towards it. Now it raised its head as if startled and
the boy--he could hear it plainly--snapped his whip. But--what could
he be thinking of? He had turned round and was walking back along
the way he had gone. The creature on the other side seemed to go on
grazing steadily, he had not heard it neigh; at times white stripes of
water seemed to pass across the apparition. The man watched it as if
spellbound.
Then he heard the grounding of the boat on the side on which he stood
and soon he saw the boy coming out of the dusk and towards him up the
side of the dike. "Well, Karsten," he said, "what was it?"
The boy shook his head. "It wasn't anything," he said. "Just before
I landed I saw it from the boat and then, when I was once on the
island--the devil knows where the beast went, the moon was shining
brightly enough; but when I came to the place there was nothing there
but the bleached bones of half a dozen sheep and a little farther on
lay the horse's skeleton with its long, white skull and the moon was
shining into its empty eye-sockets!"
"Hmm!" said the man; "did you look carefully?"
"Yes, Iven, I stood close up to it; a God-forsaken lapwing that had
gone to sleep behind the bones flew up shrieking and startled me so
that I cracked my whip after it a few times."
"And that was all?"
"Yes, Iven, I didn't see anything else."
"And it's enough," said the man, pulling the boy towards him by the
arm and pointing across to the islet. "Do you see anything over there,
Karsten?"
"As I live, there it is again!"
"Again?" said the man; "I was looking over there the whole time and it
never went away; you went right towards the uncanny thing."
The boy stared at him; a look of horror that did not escape the man
appeared on his usually saucy face. "Come," said the latter, "let us go
home; seen from here it is alive and over there it is only bones--that
is more than you and I can understand. Keep your mouth shut about it;
things like that must not be questioned."
So they turned and the boy trotted along beside him; they did not speak
and the marsh lay in unbroken silence at their side.
But after the moon had declined and the nights had grown dark something
else happened.
Hauke Haien had ridden into town at the time the horse-fair was going
on, without however having anything to do with that. Nevertheless
towards evening when he came home he brought a second horse with him;
but its coat was rough and it was so thin that its ribs could be
counted and its eyes lay dull and sunken in their sockets. Elke had
gone out in front of the door to meet her husband. "For heaven's sake!"
she exclaimed, "what's the old white horse for?" For as Hauke came
riding up in front of the house and drew rein under the ash she saw
that the poor creature was lame too.
But the young dikegrave sprang laughing from his brown gelding. "Never
mind, Elke, it didn't cost much."
"You know that the cheapest thing is usually the dearest," his wise
wife answered.
"Not always, Elke; this animal is four years old at the most; look
at him more carefully! He has been starved and abused; our oats will
do him good and I will take care of him myself so that he shan't be
overfed."
During this conversation the animal stood with his head lowered; his
mane hung down long over his neck. While her husband was calling the
men Elke walked round the horse looking him over, but she shook her
head: "We never had such a nag as this in our stable!"
When the stable boy came round the corner of the house he suddenly
stopped with terror-stricken eyes. "Well, Karsten," said the dikegrave,
"what's the matter with you? Don't you like my white horse?"
"Yes--Oh, yes, master, why not?"
"Well, then, take both the horses into the stable but don't feed them;
I am coming over there in a minute myself."
Cautiously the boy took hold of the white horse's halter and then
hastily, as if to protect himself, he seized the rein of the gelding
which had also been trusted to his care. Hauke went into the house with
his wife; she had warm beer ready for him and bread and butter were
also at hand.
He was soon satisfied and, rising began to walk up and down the room
with his wife. "Now let me tell you, Elke," he said, while the evening
glow shone on the tiles in the walls, "how I happened to get the
animal. I stayed at the chief dikegrave's about an hour; he had good
news for me--some changes will undoubtedly have to be made in my plans;
but the main thing, my profile, has been accepted and the order to
begin work on the new dike may get here any day now."
Elke sighed involuntarily: "Then it is to be done after all!" she said
apprehensively.
"Yes, wife," replied Hauke; "it's going to be uphill work but that is
why God brought us together, I think. Our farm is in such good order
now that you can take a good part of it on your shoulders; think ten
years ahead--then our property will have greatly increased!"
At his first words she had pressed her husband's hand assuringly in
hers, but his last remark brought her no joy. "Who will the place be
for?" she said. "Unless you take another wife instead of me; I cannot
bear you any children."
Tears rushed to her eyes; but he drew her close and held her tight in
his arms: "Let us leave that to God," he said; "but now, and even then,
we shall be young enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor ourselves."
She looked at him long with her dark eyes while he held her thus.
"Forgive me, Hauke," she said, "at times I am a despondent woman."
He bent his face to hers and kissed her. "You are my wife and I am your
husband, Elke! And nothing can change that."
At that she put her arms close round his neck. "You are right, Hauke,
and whatever comes will come to us both." Then, blushing, she drew away
from his arms. "You were going to tell me about the white horse," she
said softly.
"Yes, I will, Elke. I've already told you that I was in high spirits
over the good news that the chief dikegrave had given me; and just as I
was riding out of the town, there, on the dam, behind the harbor, I met
a ragged fellow; I didn't know whether he was a vagabond or a tinker or
what. He was pulling the white horse on the halter after him and the
animal raised its head and looked at me with pleading eyes, as if it
were begging me for something; and at the moment I was certainly rich
enough. 'Hello, fellow!' I shouted, 'where are you going with the old
nag?'
"He stopped and the white horse stopped too. 'Going to sell it,' he
said and nodded to me with cunning in his eyes.
"'To anyone else, but not to me!' I said merrily.
"'Why not?' he answered; 'it's a fine horse and well worth a hundred
thalers.'
"I laughed in his face.
"'Oh, you needn't laugh,' he said; 'you needn't pay me that! But I
can't use the beast; it would starve with me. It would soon look
different if you had it a little while.'
"So I jumped down from my gelding and looked at the animal's mouth and
saw that it was still young. 'How much do you want for it?' I asked,
for the horse was looking at me again as if begging.
"'Take it for thirty thalers, sir,' said the fellow, 'and I'll throw in
the halter.'
"And so, Elke, I took the brown, clawlike hand that the lad offered me
and it was a bargain. So we have the white horse, and cheap enough too,
I think. Only it was curious; as I rode away with the horse I heard
laughing behind me and when I turned my head I saw the Slovak standing
there, his legs apart, his arms behind his back, laughing like the
devil."
"Phew!" exclaimed Elke; "if only the white horse doesn't bring you
anything from his old master! I hope he'll thrive for you, Hauke."
"He shall thrive for his own sake, at least as far as I can manage it!"
And with that the dikegrave went out to the stable as he had told the
boy he would.
But this was not the only evening on which he fed the horse; from then
on he always did it himself and kept it under his eye all the time; he
wanted to show that he had made a good bargain and at least the horse
should have every chance. And it was only a few weeks before the animal
began to hold up its head; gradually the rough hair disappeared, a
smooth, blue-mottled coat began to show and when, one day, he led it
about the yard, it stepped out daintily with its strong, slender legs.
Hauke thought of the tattered, adventurous fellow who had sold it:
"The chap was a fool, or a scoundrel who had stolen it!" he murmured to
himself. Soon, whenever the horse heard his step in the stable it would
throw its head round and whinny to him, and then Hauke saw that its
face was covered with hair as the Arabs like to have it while its brown
eyes flashed fire. Then he led it out of the stall and put a light
saddle on it, but he was hardly on its back before a whinny of joy
broke from the animal and off it flew with him, down the mound onto the
road and then towards the dike; but the rider sat tight and once they
were on top the horse quieted down and stepped lightly, as if dancing,
while it tossed its head towards the sea. Hauke patted and stroked its
smooth neck but the caress was no longer necessary; the horse seemed to
be entirely one with its rider and after he had ridden out a bit on the
dike towards the north he turned it easily and rode back to the yard.
The men were standing below at the entrance to the driveway, waiting
for their master to come back. "There, John," the latter called, as he
sprang from his horse, "take him and ride him down to the fen, to the
others; he carries you as if you were in a cradle!"
The horse tossed his head and whinnied loudly out into the sunny open
country, while the man unbuckled the saddle and the boy carried it off
to the harness-room; then he laid his head on his master's shoulder
and suffered himself to be caressed. But when the man tried to swing
himself up onto his back he sprang suddenly and sharply aside and then
stood quiet again, his beautiful eyes fixed on his master. "Oh ho,
Iven!" cried the latter, "did he hurt you?" and tried to help his man
onto his feet.
Iven rubbed his hip hard. "No, master, it's not so bad; but the devil
can ride the white horse!"
"And so will I!" added Hauke, laughing. "Take the rein and lead him to
the fen, then."
And when the man, somewhat ashamed of himself, obeyed, the white horse
quietly allowed himself to be led.
A few evenings later the man and the stable-boy were standing together
at the stable door; behind the dike the evening glow had paled, and
on the inner side the koog lay in deep dusk; occasionally the lowing
of some startled cow came from the distance or the shriek of a lark
as a weasel or water rat put an end to its life. The man was leaning
against the door-post smoking a short pipe, the smoke of which he could
no longer see; he and the boy had not yet spoken to each other. The
latter had something on his mind, but he did not know how to approach
the silent man with it. "Look, Iven," he said at last. "You know the
horse's skeleton on Iverssand?"
"What about it?" asked the man.
"It isn't there any more; not in the daytime nor by moonlight; I've
been out on the dike at least twenty times."
"I suppose the old bones have fallen apart!" said Iven, and went on
smoking calmly.
"But I was out there by moonlight too; there's nothing walking about
over on Jeverssand!"
"Well," said the man, "if the bones have fallen to pieces I suppose it
can't get up any more."
"Don't joke, Iven! I know now; I can tell you where it is."
The man turned towards him with a start. "Well, where is it then?"
"Where?" the boy repeated impressively. "It's standing in our stable.
It's been standing there ever since it has not been on the islet. It's
not for nothing that the master always feeds it himself. I know what
I'm talking about, Iven."
The man puffed away violently for a while. "You're a bit off, Karsten,"
he said at last; "our white horse? If ever a horse was alive it's he.
How can a bright lad like you believe in such an old woman's tale!"
But the boy could not be convinced: if the devil was in the horse why
shouldn't it be alive? On the contrary, so much the more for that! He
started every time that he went into the stable towards evening, where
even in summer the animal was sometimes bedded, when he saw it toss
its fiery head towards him so sharply. "The devil take it!" he would
murmur, then, "we shan't be together much longer."
So he began to look about him secretly for a new place, gave notice,
and on All Saints' Day entered Ole Peters' service. There he found
attentive listeners to his story of the dikegrave's devil-horse. Ole's
fat wife, Vollina, and her stupid father, the former dike commissioner
Jess Harders, listened to it with pleasurable shuddering, and later
repeated it to everyone who had a spite against the dikegrave or who
enjoyed tales of that kind.
In the meantime towards the end of March the order to begin work on the
new dike had been received through the chief dikegrave. Hauke's first
step was to call together the dike commissioners and they all assembled
one day in the tavern up by the church and listened while he read the
main points to them from the various documents: from his petition, from
the report of the chief dikegrave, finally from the decision in which,
above all, the profile that he had proposed was accepted, so that the
new dike would not be steep like the other but slope gradually on the
water-side; but they did not listen with cheerful or even satisfied
faces.
"Yes, yes," said an old commissioner, "we are in for it now and no
protests can help us, for the chief dikegrave is backing up our
dikegrave."
"You're right enough, Dethlev Wiens," said another; "the spring work is
at the door and now we've got to make miles of dike, so of course we
must drop everything else."
"You can finish all that this year," said Hauke; "things won't move as
fast as that."
Few of them were ready to admit it. "And your profile!" said a third,
bringing up a new subject; "on the outside, towards the water, the dike
will be wider than Lawrenz's child was long! Where are we to get the
material? When will the work be done?"
"If not this year, then next; that will depend mainly on ourselves,"
said Hauke.
A laugh of annoyance passed through the company. "But why all this
useless work? The dike is not to be any higher than the old one,"
shouted a new voice; "and that's been standing for more than thirty
years I think!"
"That's right," said Hauke; "the old dike broke thirty years ago,
then thirty-five years before that and again forty-five years before
that; since then, although it still stands there steep and contrary to
reason, the highest tides have spared us. But in spite of such tides
the new dike will stand for a hundred and then another hundred years;
it will not be broken through because the gentle slope towards the
water offers no point of attack to the waves and so you will gain for
yourselves and your children a safe and certain land, and that is why
our sovereign and the chief dikegrave are backing me up; and it is
that, too, that you ought to be able to see yourselves, for it is to
your own advantage."
As no one seemed anxious to give an immediate answer to this an old
white-haired man rose from his chair with difficulty. It was Elke's
godfather, Jewe Manners, who still held office as commissioner at
Hauke's request. "Dikegrave Hauke Haien," he said, "you are putting
us to a great deal of trouble and expense and I wish you had waited
for that till God had called me home; but--you are right, no one with
reason can fail to see that. We ought to thank God every day that,
in spite of our laziness, he has preserved that valuable piece of
foreland from storm and water for us; but now it is the eleventh hour
when we ourselves must take hold and try with all our knowledge and
ability to save it for ourselves without depending any more on God's
long-suffering. I am an old man, my friends; I have seen dikes built
and broken; but the dike that Hauke Haien has projected, by virtue of
the understanding that God has given him, and that he has succeeded in
getting our sovereign to grant--that dike no one of you who are alive
here today will ever see break; and if you yourselves will not thank
him your grandchildren will one day not be able to refuse him the crown
of honor that is his!"
Jewe Manners sat down again, took his blue handkerchief from his pocket
and wiped a few drops from his forehead. The old man was still known
for his thoroughness and inviolable uprightness, and as those assembled
were not ready to agree with him they continued their silence. But
Hauke Haien took the floor and they all saw how pale he had grown. "I
thank you, Jewe Manners," he said, "for being here and for speaking as
you have spoken; the rest of you, gentlemen, will please regard the new
dike, for which indeed I am responsible, at least as something which
cannot be changed now. Let us accordingly decide what is to be done
next!"
"Speak," said one of the commissioners. Hauke spread the plan of the
new dike out on the table. "A few minutes ago," he said, "one of you
asked where we should get all the necessary earth. You see here that
as far as the foreland extends out into the shallows there is a strip
of land left free outside the line of the dike; we can take the earth
from there and from the foreland that runs along the dike, north and
south from the new koog. If we only have a good thick layer of clay on
the water side, we can fill in, on the inside or in the middle, with
sand. But now we must find a surveyor to stake out the line of the new
dike on the foreland. The one who helped me to work out the plan will
probably suit us best. Further, we must make contracts with several
cartwrights for single tip-carts in which to haul the clay and other
material. In damming up the water-course and on the inner sides, where
we may have to do with sand, we shall need, I can't say now how many
hundred loads of straw, perhaps more than we shall be able to spare
here in the marsh. Let us consider then, how all this is to be obtained
and arranged; and later we shall also want a capable carpenter to make
the new sluice here on the west side towards the water."
The commissioners had gathered round the table, looked indifferently at
the map and now gradually began to speak, but, as it seemed, more for
the sake of saying something. When they came to discuss the engaging
of a surveyor one of the younger ones said: "You have thought it out,
dikegrave; you must know who would be best fitted for the work."
But Hauke replied: "As you are all under oath you must speak your own,
not my opinion, Jacob Meyen; and if you can do better I will let my
proposal drop."
"Oh well, it will be right enough," said Jacob Meyen.
But one of the older men did not think so. He had a nephew who was a
surveyor, such a surveyor as had never been seen here in the marsh
country; he was said to know even more than the dikegrave's blessed
father, Tede Haien!
So the merits of both surveyors were discussed and it was finally
decided to give the work to them both together. It was the same thing
when they came to consider the tip-carts, the straw supply, and
everything else, and Hauke arrived home late and almost exhausted, on
the gelding which he still rode at that time. But he had no sooner sat
down in the old easy chair which had belonged to his predecessor, who,
though more ponderous, had lived more lightly, than his wife was at his
side. "You look so tired, Hauke," she said, stroking the hair away from
his forehead with her slender hand.
"I am, a little," he answered.
"And how is it going?"
"Oh, it's going," he said with a bitter smile; "but I must turn the
wheels myself and I can be glad if somebody else does not hold them
back."
"But they don't all do that, do they?"
"No, Elke; your godfather, Jewe Manners, is a good man; I wish he were
thirty years younger."
A few weeks later, after the dike-line had been staked out and most
of the tip-carts delivered, the dikegrave called a meeting in the
parish tavern of all those who had shares in the koog which was to
be surrounded by the new dike, and also of the owners of land that
lay behind the old dike. His object was to lay before them a plan for
the distribution of labor and expense, and to hear any objections
they might have to make. The latter class of owners would have to do
their part, too, inasmuch as the new dike and the new drains would
diminish the cost of maintenance of the older ones. This plan had been
a difficult piece of work for Hauke, and if, through the kind offices
of the chief dikegrave, a dike messenger and a dike clerk had not been
assigned to him he would not have finished it so soon, although every
day for some time he had been working late into the night. Then, when,
tired out, he sought his couch, he did not find his wife waiting for
him in pretended sleep as formerly; she too had now such a full measure
of daily work that at night she lay in imperturbable slumber as if at
the bottom of a deep well.
When Hauke had read his plan and spread out again on the table the
papers which had already lain in the tavern for three days so that they
might be examined, it appeared that there were serious men present
who regarded this conscientious diligence with deference, and after
calm deliberation submitted to the dikegrave's just demands. Others,
however, whose shares in the new territory had been sold either by
themselves or their fathers or other former possessors, protested
against being made to bear part of the cost of the new koog, in which
they no longer had any interest, without considering that the new works
would gradually disburden the old territory. And others again who were
blessed with shares in the new koog shouted that they wanted to sell
them, that they would let them go at a low price; for on account of the
unjust demands made of them they could not afford to hold them. But Ole
Peters, who was leaning against the door-post with wrath in his face,
called out: "Think it over first and then trust to our dikegrave!
He knows how to figure! After he already had most of the shares he
persuaded me to sell him mine, and as soon as he had them he decided to
build a dike around this new koog."
After he had spoken there was dead silence in the meeting for a moment.
The dikegrave stood at the table on which he had spread out his papers
before; he raised his head and looked at Ole Peters. "You know well,
Ole Peters," he said, "that you slander me; you do it nevertheless
because you know, as well, that a good deal of the mud with which
you pelt me will stick! The truth is that you wanted to get rid of
your shares and that I needed them at that time for sheep breeding;
and, if you want to know more, I can tell you that it was the abusive
words that you used in the tavern, when you said that I was only the
dikegrave on my wife's account, that aroused me; I wanted to show you
all that I could be a dikegrave on my own account, and so, Ole Peters,
I have done what the dikegrave before me should have done long ago.
And if you bear me a grudge because at that time your shares became
mine--you hear yourself that there are men enough here who are offering
theirs at a low price now, merely because this is more work than they
want to do."
A murmur of applause broke from a small part of the men assembled and
old Jewe Manners, who stood among them, shouted: "Bravo, Hauke Haien!
God will give you success in your undertaking."
They were not able to finish, however, although Ole Peters was silent,
and they did not disperse till supper time. A second meeting was
necessary before everything could be arranged, and then only because
Hauke took it upon himself to provide four teams for the following
month instead of the three that would properly have fallen to his lot.
[Illustration: LIVING ROOM IN A FRISIAN FARMHOUSE
JACOB ALBERTS]
Finally when the bells were all ringing through the country for
Whitsuntide the work had been begun. Unceasingly the tip-carts moved
from the foreland to the dike-line where they dumped their loads of
clay, while an equal number were already making the return trip to the
foreland for new loads. At the dike-line itself stood men with shovels
and spades to shovel the clay into place and level it; tremendous
wagons of straw were brought and unloaded; the latter was used not
only to cover the lighter material such as the sand and loose earth
on the inside of the dike, but also, when portions of the dike had
been finished and covered with sod, a firm coat of straw was laid over
that to protect it from the gnawing waves; overseers were appointed
who walked hither and yon, and, in time of storm, stood with wide-open
mouths shouting their orders through the wind and weather. Among them
rode the dikegrave on his white horse, which he now used exclusively,
and the animal flew here and there with its rider as he gave his short,
dry orders, praised the laborers or, as sometimes happened, dismissed
a lazy or incompetent man without mercy. "It's no use!" he would say
at such times; "we can't have the dike spoiled on account of your
laziness!" While he was still far away as he rode up out of the koog
they heard his horse snorting and all hands began to work with a better
will: "Look alive! Here comes the rider of the white horse!"
While the workmen were stretched off on the ground in groups eating
their lunch Hauke rode along the deserted works and his eyes were
keen to discover spots where careless hands had handled the spade.
If, however, he rode up to the men and explained to them how the work
must be done, they did indeed look up and went on chewing their bread
patiently, but he never heard a word of agreement or any other remark
from them. Once at that hour, it was already late, when he found a
place in the dike where the work had been particularly well done; he
rode up to the next group of lunchers, sprang from his horse, and asked
pleasantly who had done such good work there, but they merely looked at
him shyly and sullenly and named slowly a few men as if they did it
against their will. The man whom he had asked to hold his horse, which
was standing as quiet as a lamb, held it with both hands and looked, as
if in fear, at the animal's beautiful eyes which, as usual, were fixed
on its master.
"Well, Marten," said Hauke; "why do you stand as if you had been struck
by lightning?"
"Your horse is as quiet, sir, as if it were thinking of some mischief."
Hauke laughed and took hold of the rein himself, when the horse at once
began to rub its head caressingly against his shoulder. A few of the
workmen looked fearfully over at horse and rider; others, as if all
that did not concern them, continued to eat their lunch in silence,
now and then throwing a crumb to the gulls which had remembered this
feeding-place, and, balancing on their slender wings, tipped forward
almost onto their heads. The dikegrave stood for a while, absently
watching the begging birds as they caught the pieces thrown to them
in their bills; then he sprang into the saddle and rode away without
looking round at the men; the few words which they now spoke sounded to
him almost like mockery. "What is it?" he said to himself; "was Elke
right when she said they were all against me? Even these servants and
small owners for many of whom my new dike means added prosperity?"
He spurred his horse so that it flew down to the koog like mad. He
himself knew nothing, to be sure, of the uncanny nimbus that his former
stable-boy had thrown about the rider of the white horse; but if only
the people had seen him then as he galloped along, his eyes staring out
of his lean face, and his horse's red nostrils cracking!
Summer and autumn had passed by; the work had gone on till near the end
of November; then frost and snow had called a halt; the men had not
been able to finish and it was decided to leave the koog lying open.
Eight feet the dike rose above the level of the ground; only to the
west towards the water where the sluice was to be laid a gap had been
left; also above, in front of the old dike, the water-course was still
untouched. Thus, as for the last thirty years, the tide could flow into
the koog without doing much damage there or to the new dike. And so the
work of men's hands was consigned to the great God above, and placed
under his protection until the spring sun should make its completion
possible.
In the meantime preparations had been made in the dikegrave's house for
a happy event; in the ninth year of their married life a child was born
to him and his wife. It was red and shriveled and weighed its seven
pounds as new-born children should when, like this one, they belong
to the female sex; only, its cry had been strangely muffled and did
not please the midwife. But the worst was that on the third day Elke
lay in a high fever, wandered in her speech and did not know either
her husband or the old nurse. The wild joy that had seized upon Hauke
at the sight of his child had turned into tribulation. The doctor had
been fetched from the town; he sat beside the bed, felt Elke's pulse,
wrote prescriptions and looked helplessly about him. Hauke shook his
head; "He can't help; only God can help!" He had figured out a kind of
Christianity for himself; but there was something that prevented his
praying. When the old doctor had driven away he stood at the window
staring out into the winter day and, while the patient screamed aloud
in her delirium, he clasped his hands together tightly; he did not know
himself whether it was an act of devotion or due to his tremendous fear
of losing control of himself.
"Water! The water!" whimpered the sick woman. "Hold me!" she screamed;
"hold me, Hauke!" Then her voice died down; it sounded as if she were
crying; "into the sea, out into the ocean? O, dear God, I'll never see
him again!"
At that he turned and pushed the nurse away from the bed. He dropped
on his knees, put his arms round his wife and held her close: "Elke!
Elke! Oh, know me, Elke, I am right here with you!"
But she only opened wide her eyes burning with fever and looked about
her as if helplessly lost.
He laid her back on her pillows; then, twisting his hands together, he
cried: "Oh Lord, my God, do not take her from me! Thou knowest I cannot
be without her!" Then he seemed to recollect himself and added softly:
"I know, indeed, Thou canst not always do as Thou wouldst, not even
Thou; Thou art all-wise; Thou must do according to thy wisdom--Oh Lord,
speak to me if only by a breath!"
It was as if a sudden stillness had fallen; he heard nothing but
gentle breathing; when he turned to the bed his wife lay there in calm
slumber; only the nurse looked at him with horrified eyes. He heard the
door move: "Who was that?" he asked.
"The maid, Ann Grete, went out, sir; she came to bring the child-bed
basket."
"Why do you look at me so confusedly, Mrs. Levke?"
"I? I was frightened at your prayer; such a prayer will never save
anyone from death!"
Hauke looked at her with penetrating eyes: "Do you too, like Ann Grete,
go to the conventicle where the Dutch jobbing tailor Jantje is?"
"Yes, sir; we both hold the living faith!"
Hauke did not answer her. The dissenting conventicle movement which
was in great vogue at that time had also put forth blossoms among the
Friesians; artisans who had come down in the world, or schoolmasters
who had been dismissed for drunkenness, played the chief part in it,
and girls, young and old women, loafers and lonely people assiduously
attended the secret meetings in which anyone could play the priest.
Of the dikegrave's household Ann Grete and the stable-boy, who was in
love with her, spent their free evenings there. Elke, to be sure, had
not failed to express her misgivings about this to Hauke; but it had
been his opinion that no one should interfere in matters of faith; the
conventicle would not hurt anyone and it was at least better than the
tavern!
So it had gone on, and therefore too he had kept silence this time.
But others did not keep silent about him! The words of his prayer
circulated from house to house; he had denied God's omnipotence, and
what was a God without omnipotence? He was an atheist; perhaps the
affair of the devil-horse might be true, after all!
Hauke heard nothing of this; in those days he had eyes and ears only
for his wife; even the child had vanished from his mind.
The old doctor came again, came every day, sometimes twice, then
he stayed all night, wrote another prescription, and the man, Iven
Johns, galloped off to the apothecary's with it. And then his face
lost something of its seriousness, he nodded confidentially to the
dikegrave: "We'll pull through! With God's help!" And one day--was it
that his art had triumphed over the disease or, after Hauke had prayed,
had God been able to find another way out after all--when the doctor
was alone with the patient he spoke to her and the old man's eyes
beamed: "Mrs. Haien, now I can tell you confidently, today the doctor
has his holiday; things were bad with you, but now you belong to us
again, to the living!"
At that a flood of joy broke from her dark eyes: "Hauke, Hauke, where
are you?" she cried, and when in response to her clear call he rushed
into the room and up to her bed, she threw her arms around his neck:
"Hauke, my husband, I'm saved! I'm going to stay with you!"
The old doctor drew his silk handkerchief from his pocket, passed it
over his forehead and cheeks and went out of the room nodding his head.
On the third evening after this day a pious orator--it was
a slipper-maker who had been dismissed from work by the
dikegrave--preached in the conventicle at the Dutch tailor's, and
explained to his hearers God's qualities: "But whoever denies God's
omnipotence, whoever says: 'I know Thou canst not do as Thou
wouldst'--we all know the wretched one; he lies like a stone upon the
community--he has fallen away from God and seeks the enemy of God, the
lover of sins, to be his comforter; for man must reach out for some
staff. But you, beware of him who prays thus; his prayer is a curse!"
This too was carried about from house to house. What is not in a small
community? And it also came to Hauke's ears. He did not speak of it,
not even to his wife; only at times he embraced her vehemently and held
her close: "Be true to me, Elke! Be true to me!" Then her eyes looked
up at him full of astonishment: "True to you? To whom else should I be
true?" But after a little while the meaning of his words came to her:
"Yes, Hauke, we are true to each other, not only because we need each
other." And then he went about his work and she about hers.
So far that would have been well; but in spite of all his absorbing
work there was a feeling of loneliness round him, and defiance and
reserve towards others crept into his heart; only towards his wife did
he always remain the same, and morning and evening he knelt by his
child's cradle as if that were the place of his eternal salvation. With
the servants and laborers however he grew stricter; the awkward and
careless whom formerly he had reproved quietly were now startled by the
sudden harshness of his rebuke and Elke sometimes had to go softly and
put things right.
When spring approached work on the dike began again; the gap in the
western line of the dike was now closed by a cofferdam dike, in the
form of a half-moon both towards the inside and towards the outside, in
order to protect the sluice which was now about to be built. And, like
the sluice, the main dike grew gradually to its height, which had to be
attained by more and more rapid labor. The dikegrave, who was directing
the work, did not find it easier; for in place of Jewe Manners, who
had died during the winter, Ole Peters had been appointed dike
commissioner. Hauke had not wanted to try to prevent it; but, instead
of the encouraging words and affectionate slaps on his left shoulder
that went with them, which he had so often received from his wife's old
godfather, he met with secret resistance and unnecessary objections
from his successor, which had to be battered down with unnecessary
reasons; for Ole did indeed belong to the men of consequence but, as
far as dike matters were concerned, not to the wise men; and moreover
the "scribbling farm-hand" of before was still in his way.
The most brilliant sky again spread out over sea and marsh, and the
koog grew gay with strong cattle whose lowing from time to time
interrupted the wide stillness; high in the air the larks sang
unceasingly; one did not hear it till, for the length of a breath,
the song was silent. No bad weather disturbed the work and the sluice
already stood with its unpainted timber-structure without having needed
the protection of the temporary dike even for one night; God seemed to
favor the new work. Frau Elke's eyes also laughed to her husband when
he came riding home from the dike on his white horse; "You've grown to
be a good horse, after all," she would say and pat the animal's smooth
neck. But Hauke, when she held the child, would spring down and let the
tiny little thing dance in his arms; and when the white horse fixed its
brown eyes on the child he would say perhaps, "Come here, you shall
have the honor too!" Then he would put little Wienke--for so she had
been christened--on his saddle and lead the horse round in a circle on
the mound. Even the old ash-tree sometimes had the honor; he would seat
the child on a springy bough and let it swing. The mother stood with
laughing eyes in the door of the house, but the child did not laugh.
Its eyes, on either side of a delicate little nose, looked rather dully
out into the distance, and the tiny hands did not reach for the little
stick that her father held out to her. Hauke did not notice it and of
course he knew nothing of such little children; only Elke, when she
saw the bright-eyed girl on the arm of her work-woman whose child had
been born at the same time as hers, sometimes said sorrowfully: "My
baby isn't as far along as yours, Stina!" and the woman, shaking the
sturdy boy whom she held by the hand, with rough love, would answer:
"Oh, well, children are different; this one here stole the apples out
of the pantry before he had passed his second year!" And Elke stroked
the curly hair out of the fat little boy's eyes and then secretly
pressed her own quiet child to her heart.
By the time October was coming on the new sluices on the west side
stood firm in the main dike, which closed on both sides, and now, with
the exception of the gaps at the water-course, fell away with its
sloping profile all round towards the water sides and rose fifteen
feet above the ordinary tide. From its northwest corner there was an
unobstructed view out past Ievers Islet to the shallows; but the winds
here cut in more sharply; they blew one's hair about and anyone who
wanted to look out from here had to have his cap firmly on his head.
At the end of November, when wind and rain had set in, there only
remained the opening close up to the old dike to be stopped, on the
bottom of which, on the north side, the sea-water shot through the
water-course into the new koog. On both sides stood the walls of the
dike: the gulf between them had now to be closed. Dry summer weather
would undoubtedly have made the work easier but it had to be done now
in any case, for if a storm broke the whole construction might be
endangered. And Hauke did his utmost to carry the thing to a finish
now. The rain streamed down, the wind whistled; but his haggard form on
the fiery white horse appeared, now here, now there, out of the black
mass of men who were working above as well as below, on the north side
of the dike, beside the opening. Now he was seen down by the tip-carts
which already had to bring the clay from far out on the foreland, and
of which a compact body was just reaching the water-course and sought
to dump its load there. Through the splashing of the rain and the
blustering of the wind were heard from time to time the sharp orders of
the dikegrave, who wanted to be the sole commander there that day; he
called up the carts according to their numbers and ordered those who
pushed forward back; "halt" sounded from his lips and the work below
ceased. "Straw, a load of straw down here!" he called to those above,
and from one of the carts on the top a load of straw plunged down onto
the wet clay. Below, men jumped into it, tore it apart and called to
those above not to bury them. And then new carts came and Hauke was
already above once more, and looked down from his white horse into the
gulf, and watched them shoveling and dumping; then he turned his eyes
out to the sea. It was blowing hard and he saw how the fringe of water
crept farther and farther up the dike and how the waves rose higher
and higher; he saw too how the men were dripping and could scarcely
breathe at their hard work for the wind, which cut off the air at their
mouths, and for the cold rain that streamed down over them. "Stick to
it, men! Stick to it!" he shouted down to them. "Only one foot higher,
then it's enough for this tide!" And through all the din of the storm
the noise of the workmen could be heard; the thud of the masses of clay
as they were dumped, the rattling of the carts and the rustling of the
straw as it slid down from above went on unceasingly. Now and then the
whining of a little yellow dog became audible, that was knocked about
among the men and teams, shivering and as if lost; but suddenly there
sounded a piteous howl from the little creature, from down below in the
gulf. Hauke looked down; he had seen it being thrown into the opening
from above; an angry flush shot up into his face. "Stop! Hold on!" he
shouted down to the carts, for the wet clay was being poured on without
interruption.
"Why?" a rough voice from below called up to him; "surely not on
account of the wretched beast of a dog?"
"Stop! I say," shouted Hauke again; "Bring me the dog! Our work shall
not be stained by any outrage!"
But not a hand moved; only a few shovels of sticky clay still flew down
beside the howling animal. Thereupon he put spurs to his horse, so that
it shrieked aloud and dashed down the dike, and all stood back before
him. "The dog!" he shouted; "I want the dog!"
A hand slapped him gently on the shoulder as if it were the hand of
old Jewe Manners; but when he looked round it was only a friend of the
old man's. "Take care, dikegrave!" he whispered to Hauke. "You have no
friends among these men; let the dog be!"
The wind whistled, the rain streamed; the men had stuck their spades
into the ground, some of them had thrown them down. Hauke bent down
to the old man: "Will you hold my horse, Harke Jens?" he asked; and
the man had scarcely got the reins into his hand before Hauke had
jumped into the chasm and was holding the little whining creature in
his arms; and almost in the same instant he was up again in the saddle
and galloping back up the dike. His eyes traveled over the men who
were standing by the wagons. "Who was it?" he called. "Who threw the
creature down?"
For a moment they were all silent; for anger flashed from the
dikegrave's haggard face and they had superstitious fear of him. From
one of the teams a bull-necked fellow stepped up to him. "I did not do
it, dikegrave," he said and biting a little end off a roll of chewing
tobacco he calmly stuffed that into his mouth before he went on; "but
whoever did it did right; if your dike is to hold, something living
must go into it!"
"Something living? In what catechism did you learn that?"
"In none, sir," replied the fellow and an insolent laugh came from his
throat; "even our grandfathers knew that, who could certainly have
measured themselves with you in Christianity! A child is still better;
if that can't be had, a dog probably does instead!"
"Be silent with your heathenish doctrines!" Hauke shouted at him; "it
would fill it up better if you were thrown in!"
"Oh ho!" The shout rang out from a dozen throats and the dikegrave
found himself surrounded by wrathful faces and clenched fists; he saw
that these were indeed no friends; the thought of his dike came over
him with a shock; what should he do if they should all throw down their
shovels now? And as he looked down he saw again old Jewe Manners'
friend going about among the workmen, speaking to this one and that,
laughing to one, tapping another on the shoulder with a friendly smile,
and one after the other took hold of his spade again; a few moments
more and the work was once more in full swing. What more did he want?
The water-course would have to be closed and he hid the dog securely
enough in the folds of his cloak. With sudden decision he turned his
white horse towards the nearest wagon: "Straw to the edge!" he shouted
commandingly and mechanically the teamster obeyed; soon it rustled down
into the depths and on all sides the work stirred anew and all hands
took hold busily.
The work had gone on thus for another hour; it was after six o'clock
and already deep dusk was descending; the rain had ceased. Hauke called
the superintendents to him as he sat on his horse: "Tomorrow morning
at four o'clock," he said, "every man must be at his place; the moon
will still be up; with God's help we shall be able to finish then! And
one more thing," he called as they were about to go. "Do you know this
dog?" and he took the trembling animal out of his cloak.
They replied in the negative; only one of them said: "He's been running
about begging in the village for days; he doesn't belong to anyone!"
"Then he is mine," said the dikegrave. "Don't forget--tomorrow morning
at four o'clock!" and rode away.
When he got home Ann Grete was just coming out of the door; she was
cleanly and neatly dressed and it passed through his mind that she was
just on her way to the tailor in the conventicle: "Lift up your apron!"
he called to her and as she involuntarily obeyed he threw the little
dog, covered with clay as he was, into it. "Take him to little Wienke;
he shall be her little playfellow! But wash and warm him first, thus
you will be doing a deed that is pleasing to God, for the creature is
almost benumbed."
And Ann Grete could not refuse to obey her master, and so on that
evening she did not get to the conventicle.
* * * * *
And on the following day the last touch of a spade was put to the new
dike; the wind had gone down; now and again the gulls and avocets
hovered above the land and water in graceful flight; from Jevershallig
resounded the thousand-voiced honking of the barnacle geese that even
at that time of year were enjoying themselves on the coast of the North
Sea, and out of the morning mist, which hid the broad expanse of marsh,
a golden autumn day gradually rose and illumined the new work of men's
hands.
A few weeks later the chief dikegrave came with the government
commissioners to inspect it. A great banquet, the first since the
funeral repast at the time of old Tede Volkerts' death, was given in
the dikegrave's house. All the dike commissioners and the men having
the largest holdings of land in the new koog were invited. After dinner
the dikegrave's carriage and all those of the guests were got ready.
The chief dikegrave put Elke into the gig, before which the brown
gelding stood stamping; then he jumped in himself and took the reins;
he wanted to drive his dikegrave's clever wife himself. So they drove
off merrily from the mound and out into the road, up the way to the new
dike and along the top of that round, recently reclaimed koog. In the
meantime a light northwest wind had sprung up and the tide was driven
up on the north and west sides of the new dike; but it could not fail
to be noticed that the gentle slope broke the force of the waves. The
government commissioners were loud in their praise of the dikegrave,
soon drowning the doubts that the local commissioners now and then
hesitatingly uttered.
This occasion too passed by; but there was still another satisfaction
in store for the dikegrave one day when he was riding along the new
dike sunk in quiet self-congratulatory thought. The question might well
occur to him why the koog, which never would have been there but for
him and in which the sweat of his brow and his sleepless nights were
buried, had now been named "the new Caroline Koog," after one of the
princesses of the ruling house; but it certainly was so: in all the
documents pertaining to it that was the name used, in some of them it
was even written in red Gothic letters. At that point he looked up and
saw two laborers with their farm implements coming towards him, one
some twenty paces behind the other: "Wait for me, then," he heard the
one that was following call; but the other, who was just standing at
the path that led down into the koog, called back: "Some other time,
Jens! It's late; I've got to dig clay here!"
"Where?"
"Why here, in the Hauke-Haien-Koog!"
He called it aloud as he ran down the path as if he wanted the whole
marsh that lay below to hear. But to Hauke it was as if he heard his
fame proclaimed; he rose in his saddle, put spurs to his horse and
looked with steady eyes across the broad scene that lay at his left.
"Hauke-Haien-Koog!" he repeated softly; that sounded as if it could
never be called anything else. Let them be as obstinate as they would,
his name could not be downed; the princess' name--would it not soon
exist only in mouldy old documents? The white horse galloped on proudly
and in Hauke's ears the words continued to ring: "Hauke-Haien-Koog!
Hauke-Haien-Koog!" In his thoughts the new dike almost grew to be an
eighth wonder of the world; in all Friesland there was none to equal
it! And he let the white horse dance; he felt as if he stood in the
midst of all Friesians; he towered above them by a head and his keen
glance swept over them with pity.
Gradually three years had passed since the building of the new dike;
the latter had proved successful and the expense of repairs had been
but slight. In the koog white clover was now blooming nearly everywhere
and when you walked across the protected pastures the summer breeze
wafted a whole cloud of sweet scent towards you. It had been necessary
to replace the nominal shares with real ones and to assign permanent
holdings to each of the men interested. Hauke had not been slow in
acquiring a few new ones himself, before that; Ole Peters had held back
stubbornly; no part of the new koog belonged to him. Even so it had not
been possible to make the division without vexation and dispute; but it
had been done nevertheless, and this day too lay behind the dikegrave.
* * * * *
From then on he lived a lonely life, devoting himself to his duties as
a farmer and a dikegrave, and to his immediate family; his old friends
were no longer alive and he was not fitted to make new ones. But under
his roof was peace which even his quiet child did not disturb; it spoke
little; the continual questioning that is peculiar to brighter children
seldom came from its lips and when it did it was usually in such a
way that it was difficult to answer; but the dear, simple little face
almost always wore an expression of content. The little girl had two
playfellows and that was all she wanted: when she wandered about the
mound the little yellow dog that Hauke had saved always accompanied
her, jumping and springing, and whenever the dog appeared little Wienke
was not far away either. The dog was called "Perle" and her second
comrade, a peewit-gull, was "Klaus."
It was a hoary old woman who had installed Klaus at the farm; the
eighty-year-old Trien' Jans had no longer been able to make a living
in her cottage on the outside dike, and Elke had thought that the
worn-out servant of her grandfather might still find with them a few
peaceful hours at the end of her life and a comfortable place to die.
So half by force she and Hauke had fetched the old body to the farm and
settled her in the little northwest room of the new barn, which the
dikegrave had been obliged to build when he enlarged his place a few
years before. A few of the maids had been given their rooms next to
hers so that they could look after her at night. All round the walls
she had her old household goods; a strong box made of red cedar, above
which hung two colored pictures of the prodigal son, a spinning wheel
which had long since been laid aside and a very clean four-post bed in
front of which stood a clumsy footstool covered with the white skin of
the deceased Angora cat. But she also still had something living, and
had brought it with her: this was the gull Klaus that had stuck to her
for years and been fed by her; when winter came, to be sure, it flew
south with the other gulls and did not come again till the wormwood
exhaled its sweet odor along the shore.
The barn lay somewhat farther down the mound; from her window the old
woman could not see out over the dike to the sea. "You've got me here
like a prisoner," she murmured one day when Hauke came in, and pointed
with her gnarled finger to the fens which lay spread out below. "Where
is Jeverssand? Out there above the red or above the black ox?"
"What do you want with Jeverssand?" asked Hauke.
"Oh, never mind Jeverssand," grumbled the old woman. "But I want to see
where, long ago, my lad went to God!"
"If you want to see that," replied Hauke, "you must go and sit up under
the ash-tree; from there you can look well out over the sea."
"Yes," said the old woman; "yes, if I had your young legs, dikegrave!"
For a long time such were the thanks for the aid that the dikegrave
and his wife had given her; then all at once there was a change. One
morning Wienke's little head peeped in at her through the half-open
door. "Well!" called the old woman, who was sitting on her wooden chair
with her hands clasped, "what message have you got to tell me?"
But the child came silently nearer and looked at her unceasingly with
indifferent eyes.
"Are you the dikegrave's child?" asked Trien' Jans, and, as the child
lowered her head as if nodding, she continued: "Sit down here on my
footstool then! It was an Angora tom-cat--as big as that! But your
father killed him. If he were still alive you could ride on him."
Wienke looked at the white skin dumbly; then she knelt down and began
to stroke it with her little hands as children do a living cat or dog.
"Poor Tomcat!" she said, and continued her caresses.
"There," exclaimed the old woman after a while, "now it's enough; and
you can still sit on him today; perhaps your father only killed him
for that!" Then she lifted the child up by both arms and set her down
roughly on the stool. But as Wienke sat there silent and immovable,
only looking at her all the time, she began to shake her head: "Thou
art punishing him, Lord God! Yes, yes, Thou art punishing him!" she
murmured; but pity for the child seemed to come over her after all: she
put out her bony hand and stroked the little girl's sparse hair and an
expression came into the child's eyes as if she liked the touch.
[Illustration: A QUIET CORNER
JACOB ALBERTS]
From now on Wienke came to see the old woman in her room daily. Soon
she sat down of her own accord on the Angora footstool and Trien' Jans
gave her little pieces of meat or bread of which she always kept some
on hand, and let her throw them on the floor; then the gull shot out
of some corner, screeching, with outstretched wings, and fell upon
them. At first the child used to be frightened and screamed at the big
flapping bird; but soon it was like a game they had learnt, and as soon
as she stuck even her head through the crack of the door the bird shot
out towards her and lighted on her head or shoulder till the old
woman came to her aid and the feeding could begin. Trien' Jans, who in
general could not bear even to have anyone stretch out his hand towards
her Klaus, now looked on patiently while the child gradually won the
bird entirely away from her. It let Wienke catch it willingly; she
carried it about and wrapped it in her apron, and, when, on the mound,
the little yellow dog sometimes sprang about her and jumped jealously
at the bird, she would cry out: "Not you, not you, Perle!" and would
lift the gull so high in her little arms that it would free itself
and fly away shrieking across the mound, and the dog would try to
secure its place in her arms by jumping and rubbing against his little
mistress.
When Hauke's or Elke's eyes chanced to fall on this odd group, like
four leaves all held fast on one stem by only a common lack, a tender
glance would indeed fly towards their child; when they turned away
there remained in their faces only pain which each bore for himself,
for they had never yet unburdened their hearts to each other about the
child. One summer morning as Wienke was sitting with the old woman
and the two animals on the big stone in front of the barn door, her
parents, the dikegrave with his white horse behind him, the reins over
his arm, passed by; he was going out on the dike and had fetched his
horse from the fens himself; on the mound his wife had slipped her arm
through his. The sun shone down warmly; it was almost sultry, and now
and then there came a puff of wind from the south-southeast. The child
must have found it tiresome where she was: "Wienke wants to go," she
called, shook the gull from her lap, and reached for her father's hand.
"Come along then," he said.
But Elke exclaimed: "In this wind? She'll be blown away!"
"I'll hold on to her; and the air is warm today and the water merry;
she can see it dance."
So Elke ran into the house and fetched a little shawl and a cap for her
child. "But there's going to be bad weather," she said; "see that you
hurry and go and get back again soon."
Hauke laughed: "That won't catch us!" and lifted the child up to his
saddle in front of him. Elke remained out on the mound for a while and,
shading her eyes with her hand, watched the two trotting out on the
road and over to the dike; Trien' Jans sat on the stone and mumbled
something incomprehensible with her faded lips.
The child lay without moving in her father's arm; and it seemed as if,
oppressed by the thundery air, she were breathing with difficulty. He
bent his head to her: "Well, Wienke?" he asked.
The child looked at him for a while. "Father," she said, "you can
surely do that! Can't you do everything?"
"What ought I to be able to do, Wienke?"
But she was silent; she seemed not to have understood her own question.
It was high tide; when they came up on the dike the reflection of the
sun on the great expanse of water shone in her eyes, a whirlwind drove
the waves up high in an eddy, and others followed and beat splashingly
against the shore; she clasped her little hands so fearfully about her
father's fist in which he held the reins that the white horse bounded
to one side. Her pale blue eyes looked up in confused terror to Hauke:
"The water, Father, the water!" she cried.
But he freed himself gently and said: "Be quiet, child, you are with
your father; the water won't hurt you!"
She smoothed the pale blonde hair away from her forehead and ventured
to look out at the sea again. "It won't hurt me," she said trembling;
"no, tell it not to hurt us; you can do that and then it won't hurt us."
"I can't do that, child," replied Hauke seriously; "but the dike on
which we're riding protects us and it was your father who thought that
out and had it built."
Her eyes looked at him as if she did not quite understand that; then
she hid her strikingly small head in her father's loose coat.
"Why do you hide yourself, Wienke?" he whispered to her; "are you still
frightened?" And a trembling voice came from the folds of his coat:
"Wienke doesn't want to see; but you can do everything, can't you,
Father?"
A distant clap of thunder rolled up against the wind. "Oh ho!"
exclaimed Hauke, "there it comes!" and turned his horse to go back.
"Now we'll go home to Mother."
The child drew a deep breath, but not until they had reached the
mound and the house did she raise her little head from her father's
breast. Then in the room when Elke had taken off the little shawl and
the cap she remained standing like a little dumb ninepin in front of
her mother. "Well, Wienke," said the latter and shook the little girl
gently, "do you like the great water?"
But the child opened her eyes wide: "It speaks," she said; "Wienke is
frightened."
"It doesn't speak; it only roars and surges."
The child looked off into the distance. "Has it legs?" she asked again;
"can it come over the dike?"
"No, Wienke, your father takes care of that, he is a dikegrave."
"Yes," said the child and clapped her hands with an idiotic smile;
"Father can do everything--everything." Then suddenly, turning away
from her mother, she cried: "Let Wienke go to Trien' Jans, she has red
apples!"
And Elke opened the door and let the child out. After she had shut it
again she looked up at her husband, and an expression of the deepest
sorrow lay in the eyes which hitherto had always brought consolation
and courage to his aid.
He held out his hand and pressed hers as if there were no need of any
further word between them; but she said softly: "No, Hauke, let me
speak: the child that I have borne to you after waiting for years will
always remain a child. O, dear God! She is feeble-minded; I must say
it before you once."
"I have known it a long time," said Hauke, and held tight the hand that
his wife wanted to draw away from him.
"And so we are still alone after all," she said.
But Hauke shook his head: "I love her and she throws her little arms
around me and presses herself close against my breast; I would not do
without that for any treasure!"
The woman looked darkly ahead of her: "But why?" she said; "What have
I, poor mother, done to deserve it?"
"Yes, Elke, I too have asked that, asked Him who alone can know; but,
as we both know, the Almighty gives men no answer--perhaps because we
should not understand it."
He had taken his wife's other hand and drew her gently to him: "Don't
let yourself grow disturbed and be hindered in loving your child, as
you do; you can be sure she understands that."
At that Elke threw herself on her husband's breast and wept her fill
and was no longer alone with her sorrow. Then suddenly she smiled at
him; after pressing his hand vehemently she ran out and fetched her
child from old Trien' Jans' room, and took her on her lap and fondled
and kissed her till the little girl said stammeringly: "Mother, my dear
Mother!"
Thus the people on the dikegrave's farm lived quietly together; if the
child had not been there much would have been lacking.
Gradually the summer went by; the birds of passage had passed through,
the air was empty of the song of the larks; only in front of the barns
where they picked up grains of corn, while the threshing was going on,
occasionally one or two could be heard as they flew away screeching;
everything was already hard frozen. In the kitchen of the main house
old Trien' Jans sat one afternoon on the wooden step of a stairway that
led up from beside the range to the attic. During the last few weeks it
seemed as if she had returned to life; she came gladly into the kitchen
sometimes, and saw Elke at work there; there could no longer be any
question of her legs not being able to carry her there, since one day
when little Wienke had pulled her up there by her apron. Now the child
knelt at her side and looked with her quiet eyes into the flames that
flickered up out of the stove-hole. One of her little hands clasped the
sleeve of the old woman, the other lay in her own pale blonde hair.
Trien' Jans was telling a story: "You know," she said, "I was in your
great grandfather's service as a housemaid and then I had to feed the
pigs; he was cleverer than them all--then, it is terribly long ago, but
one evening, the moon was shining and they closed the outer sluice and
she could not get back into the sea. Oh, how she screamed and tore her
hard shaggy hair with her little fish-hands! Yes, child, I saw it and
heard her screaming myself! The ditches between the fens were all full
of water and the moon shining on them made them sparkle like silver and
she swam from one ditch into the other and lifted her arms and struck
what were her hands together so that you could hear it a long way off,
as if she wanted to pray; but, child, those creatures cannot pray. I
was sitting in front of the door on a few beams that had been brought
up there to be used in building, and looking far out across the fens;
and the water-woman still swam in the ditches, and when she raised her
arms they too glittered like silver and diamonds. At last I did not
see her any more and the wild geese and gulls that I had not heard the
whole time began to fly through the air again, hissing and cackling."
The old woman ceased; the child had caught up one word. "Could not
pray?" she asked. "What do you say? Who was it?"
"Child," said the old woman, "it was the water-woman; those are
accursed creatures who can never be saved."
"Never be saved," repeated the child and her little breast heaved with
a deep sigh as if she had understood that.
"Trien' Jans," came a deep voice from the kitchen door and she started
slightly. It was the dikegrave Hauke Haien who was leaning there
against the post. "What are you saying to the child? Haven't I told you
to keep your legends to yourself or to tell them to the geese and hens?"
The old woman looked at him with an angry glance and pushed the little
girl away from her: "Those are no legends," she murmured half to
herself, "my great-uncle told me that."
"Your great-uncle, Trien'? Why just now you said you had experienced it
yourself!"
"It's all the same," said the old woman; "but you don't believe, Hauke
Haien; I suppose you want to make my great-uncle out a liar." Then she
drew nearer to the range and stretched her hands out over the flames in
the grate.
The dikegrave threw a glance towards the window; it was scarcely dusk
as yet outside. "Come, Wienke," he said and drew his feeble-minded
child to him; "come with me; I want to show you something from out
on the dike! Only we shall have to walk; the white horse is at the
blacksmith's." Then he went with her into the living-room and Elke tied
thick woolen shawls about the little girl's throat and shoulders; soon
after her father took her out on the old dike towards the northwest,
past Jeverssand, to where the flats lay broad before them almost
farther than the eye could reach.
Part of the time he carried her, part of the time he led her by the
hand; the twilight deepened gradually; in the distance everything
disappeared in mist and vapor. But there, where one could still see,
the invisibly swelling currents of the shallows had broken the ice,
and, as Hauke had once seen it in his youth, smoking fog now rose from
the cracks along which the uncanny, impish figures were once more to be
seen hopping towards one another and bowing and suddenly stretching out
wide, in a terrible fashion.
The child clung to her father in fear and covered her little face with
his hand: "The sea-devils!" she whispered tremblingly between his
fingers; "the sea-devils!"
He shook his head: "No, Wienke, neither water-women nor sea-devils;
there are no such things; who told you about them?"
She looked up at him dully but did not answer. He stroked her cheeks
tenderly: "Just look again," he said; "those are only poor hungry
birds. Just see how the big one spreads his wings now; they are
catching the fish that come into the steaming cracks."
"Fish," repeated Wienke.
"Yes, child, all those creatures are alive like us, there _is_ nothing
else. But God is everywhere!"
Little Wienke had fixed her eyes on the ground and held her breath;
she looked as if she were gazing into an abyss terrified. Perhaps
it only seemed so; her father looked at her long; he bent down and
looked into her little face, but no feeling of her imprisoned soul was
visible in it. He lifted her in his arms and stuck her benumbed hands
into one of his thick woolen gloves: "there, my little Wienke," and
the child probably did not hear the tone of intense tenderness in his
words--"there, warm yourself close to me! You are our child after all,
our only one. You love us----" The man's voice broke, but the little
girl pressed her head tenderly into his rough beard.
Thus they went home full of peace.
* * * * *
After the New Year, trouble once more entered into the house; the
dikegrave was seized with a marsh fever; it went hard with him too, and
when, under Elke's nursing and care, he recovered, he scarcely seemed
to be the same man. The languor of his body also lay upon his mind,
and Elke was worried to see how easily content he was at all times.
Nevertheless towards the end of March he was moved to mount his white
horse and ride out again for the first time along the top of his dike.
It was on an afternoon and the sun, which had been shining earlier in
the day, had long since been concealed by the haze.
A few times during the winter there had been high tides but they had
done no serious damage; only over on the other bank a herd of sheep
on an islet had been drowned and a bit of the foreland had been washed
away; here on this side and in the new koog no harm worth mentioning
had been done. But in the previous night a stronger gale had raged and
now the dikegrave himself had to ride out and inspect everything with
his own eyes. He had already ridden all along the new dike, beginning
below at the southeast corner, and everything was in good condition,
but as he came towards the northeast corner where the new dike ran up
to the old one, the former was indeed uninjured, but where before the
water-course had reached the old one and flowed along beside it, he
saw that a great strip of the grass-line had been destroyed and washed
away, and a hollow had been eaten in the body of the dike by the tide,
which moreover, had thus laid bare a whole maze of mouse-passages.
Hauke dismounted and inspected the damage from nearby: the destructive
mouse-passages seemed unmistakably to continue on beyond where they
could be seen.
He was seriously frightened; all this should have been thought of and
prevented at the time the new dike was built; as it had been overlooked
then it must be taken care of now! The cattle were not yet out on
the fens, the grass was unusually backward; in whatever direction he
glanced it all looked bleak and empty. He mounted his horse and rode
back and forth along the bank: the tide was low and he did not fail to
perceive that the current from outside had bored a new bed for itself
in the mud and had come from the northwest against the old dike: the
new one however, as far as it was involved, had been able to withstand
the onslaught of the waves owing to its gentler profile.
A new mountain of annoyance and work rose before the dikegrave's mental
vision: not only would the old dike have to be strengthened here but
its profile would also have to be approximated to the new one; above
all, the water-course, from which danger now threatened again, would
have to be diverted by new dams or brush hedges. Once more he rode
along the new dike to the extreme northwest corner and then back
again, his eyes fixed on the newly channeled bed of the water-course,
which was plainly to be seen at his side in the bared mud. The white
horse fretted to go on, and snorted and pawed the ground, but Hauke
held him back; he wanted to ride slowly and he wanted also to master
the inner disquietude which was fermenting and seething within him with
ever-increasing strength.
If a storm should come bringing with it high tides--such a one as
in 1655, when men and property were swallowed up uncounted--if it
should come again as it had already come several times!--a hot shudder
trickled over the rider--the old dike, it could never stand the violent
attack that would be made on it! What, what could be done then? There
would be one way, and one way only, to save perhaps the old koog, and
the property and life in it. Hauke felt his heart stand still, his
usually strong head whirl; he did not speak it aloud, but within him it
was spoken clearly enough: your koog, the Hauke-Haien-Koog, would have
to be sacrificed and the new dike broken through.
Already he saw in imagination the rushing flood breaking in and
covering grass and clover with its salt seething froth. His spur gashed
into the white horse's flank, and with a cry it flew forward along the
dike and down the path that led to the dikegrave's mound.
His head full of inward alarm and confused plans, he came home. He
threw himself into his armchair and when Elke entered the room with
their daughter he stood up again, lifted the child up and kissed her;
then he drove the little yellow dog away from him with a few light
blows. "I've got to go up to the tavern again!" he said and took his
cap from the peg on the door, where he had only just hung it.
His wife looked at him troubled: "What do you want to do there? It's
already growing dark, Hauke."
"Dike affairs," he murmured. "I'll meet some of the commissioners
there."
She followed him and pressed his hand, for by the time he had finished
speaking he was already outside the door. Hauke Haien, who hitherto
had made all his decisions alone, now felt anxious to hear a word
from those whose opinions he had formerly regarded as scarcely worth
considering. In the inn he found Ole Peters sitting at the card table
with two of the commissioners and a man who lived in the koog. "You've
come from out on the dike, I suppose, dikegrave," said the former
picking up the half-dealt cards and throwing them down again.
"Yes, Ole," replied Hauke; "I was out there; it looks bad."
"Bad? Well, it will cost a few hundred sods and some straw work I
suppose; I was out there too this afternoon."
"We shan't get off as cheap as that, Ole," answered the dikegrave. "The
water-course is there again and even if it doesn't strike against the
old dike from the north now, it does from the northwest."
"You ought to have left it where you found it," said Ole dryly.
"That means," replied Hauke, "you're not concerned in the new koog and
therefore it should not exist. That is your own fault. But if we have
to plant brush hedges to protect the old dike the green clover behind
the new one will more than make up for that."
"What do you say, dikegrave?" cried the commissioners; "hedges? How
many? You like to do everything the most expensive way!"
The cards lay on the table untouched. "I'll tell you, dikegrave," said
Ole Peters leaning his arms on the table, "your new koog that you've
foisted on us is eating us up. Everyone is still suffering under the
cost of your broad dike; now it's consuming the old dike too and you
want us to renew that! Fortunately it's not so bad; it held this time
and will continue to do so. Just mount your white horse again tomorrow
and look at it once more."
Hauke had come to the tavern out of the peace of his home. Behind the
words he had just heard, which after all were fairly moderate, there
lay--he could not fail to recognize it--an obstinate resistance. It
seemed to him that he lacked the strength he had formerly had to cope
with it. "I'll do as you advise, Ole," he said: "only I'm afraid I
shall find it as I saw it today."
A restless night followed this day; Hauke tossed sleeplessly about on
his pillow. "What is the matter?" asked Elke, kept awake by worry about
her husband; "if there is anything on your mind tell it to me; we have
always done that."
"It is not of any consequence, Elke," he replied; "there are some
repairs to be made to the dike, to the sluices; you know that I always
have to think such things out in my mind at night." He said nothing
further; he wanted to keep himself free to act as he chose. Without his
being conscious of it his wife's clear insight and strong mind were an
obstacle to him in his present weakness and involuntarily he avoided it.
On the following morning as he came out onto the dike he saw a
different world from the one he had found the day before; it was indeed
low tide again but the day was growing and the rays from the bright
spring sun fell almost perpendicularly on the shallows which extended
as far as the eye could reach; the white gulls glided calmly hither
and thither and, invisible above them, high under the azure sky the
larks sang their eternal melody. Hauke, who did not know how nature
can deceive us with her charm, stood on the northwest corner of the
dike and sought the new bed of the water-course which had given him
such a shock the day before; but with the sunlight darting directly
down from the zenith he could not even find it at first; not until he
shaded his eyes with his hand from the dazzling rays did it show itself
unmistakably. Nevertheless the shadows in the dusk of the evening
before must have deceived him; it was outlined but very weakly now; the
mouse-passages that had been laid bare must have been more responsible
for the damage done to the dike than the tide. To be sure, it must be
changed; but by careful digging and, as Ole Peters had said, by fresh
sodding and a few rods of straw work the damage could be repaired.
"It wasn't so bad, after all," he said to himself with relief, "you
made a fool of yourself yesterday!" He called the commissioners
together and the work was decided upon, for the first time without any
objection being raised. The dikegrave thought he felt a strengthening
calm spreading through his still weakened body; and in a few weeks
everything was neatly carried out.
The year went on but the older it grew the more clearly the newly
laid grass shot up green through its covering of straw, with the more
agitation did Hauke walk or ride past this spot. He turned away his
eyes, he rode close along the inside of the dike; several times when
he would have had to pass the place and his horse was ready saddled
for him to start he had it led back into the stable; then again, when
he had nothing to do there, he would suddenly hurry out there on foot
just so as to get away quickly and unseen from his mound; sometimes too
he had turned back, he had not been able to trust himself to examine
the dismal place anew; and finally he had felt as if he would like to
tear everything open again with his hands; for this bit of the dike
lay before his eyes like a prick of conscience that had taken form
outside of him. And yet his hand could not touch it again and he could
speak of it to no one, not even to his wife. Thus September had come;
in the night a moderate wind had raged and finally had shifted to the
northwest. On the following dull morning, when the tide was low, Hauke
rode out on the dike and a start ran through him as he let his eyes
rove over the shallows; there, coming from the northwest he suddenly
saw it again and cut through more sharply and deeply, the new spectral
bed of the water-course; exert his eyes as he might, it refused to
disappear.
When he came home Elke took his hand; "What is the matter, Hauke?"
she asked, looking into his gloomy face; "surely there is no new
misfortune? We are so happy now; I feel as if you were at peace with
them all."
In the face of these words he could not express his confused fear.
"No, Elke," he said, "no one makes an enemy of me; only it is a
responsible office to protect the community from God's sea."
He freed himself so as to avoid further questioning from the wife that
he loved. He went into the stable and shed as if he had to inspect
everything; but he saw nothing around him; he was only intent on
quieting his prick of conscience, on trying to convince himself that it
was a morbidly exaggerated fear.
"The year of which I am telling you," said my host, the schoolmaster,
after a while, "was the year 1756, which will never be forgotten about
here; in Hauke Haien's house it brought with it a death. At the end of
September the almost ninety-year-old Trien' Jans was found dying in
the room which had been given up to her in the barn. According to her
desire she had been propped up against her pillows and her eyes looked
through the little leaded panes into the distance; there must have been
a thinner over a denser layer of air lying there along the sky for at
this moment there was a clear mirage and the sea was reflected like a
glistening strip of silver above the edge of the dike so that it shone
dazzlingly into the room; the south end of Jeverssand too was visible."
At the foot of the bed crouched little Wienke and held her father's
hand tightly in one of hers as he stood close by. Death was just
engraving the Hippocratic face on the dying woman and the child stared
breathlessly at the uncanny, incomprehensible change in the plain
countenance with which she was so familiar. "What is she doing? What is
it, Father?" she whispered fearfully and dug her finger nails into her
father's hand.
"She is dying," said the dikegrave.
"Dying," repeated the child and seemed to fall into confused thought.
But the old woman moved her lips once more: "Jins! Jins!" a shrill cry
of distress broke from her and she stretched out her bony arms towards
the reflection of the sea that glistened outside: "Help me! Help me!
You are above the water. * * * God have mercy on the others!"
Her arms sank, there was a slight cracking of the bedstead; she had
ceased to live.
The child drew a deep sigh and raised her pale eyes to her father: "Is
she still dying?" she asked.
"She has finished!" said the dikegrave, and took the child in his arms.
"She is far away from us now, with God."
"With God," repeated the child and was silent for a while as if she
were thinking over the words. "Is it good to be with God?"
"Yes, best of all." But in Hauke's heart the dying woman's last words
tolled heavily. "God have mercy on the others!"--the words sounded
softly within him. What did the old witch mean? Can the dying prophesy?
Soon, after Trien' Jans had been buried up by the church, there began
to be ever louder talk of all kinds of misfortune and curious vermin
that were said to have frightened the people in northern Friesland. And
it was certain that on the Sunday in Mid-Lent the golden cock had been
thrown down from the top of the tower by a whirlwind; and it was true
too that in midsummer a shower of large insects fell from heaven like
snow so that it was impossible to open one's eyes and they lay nearly
as high as a hand on the fens and no one had ever seen anything like
it. But after the end of September when the head-man and the maid Ann
Grete came back from town where they had driven with grain and butter
for the market, they climbed down from their wagon with faces pale with
fear. "What is it? What is the matter with you?" cried the other maids,
who had come running out when they heard the sound of the wagon.
Ann Grete in her traveling dress stepped breathlessly into the roomy
kitchen. "Oh, hurry up and tell us!" called the girls again, "where is
the misfortune?"
"Oh, may our dear Jesus protect us!" cried Ann Grete. "You know from
the other side, across the water, that old Molly from Siegelhof--we
always stand together with our butter at the corner near the
apothecary's--she told me about it and Iven Johns said too, 'that
means a misfortune,' he said, 'a misfortune for the whole of northern
Friesland; believe me Ann Grete!' And"--she lowered her voice--"perhaps
after all it's not all right with the dikegrave's white horse."
"Ssh! Ssh!" said the other maids.
"Yes, yes; what does it matter to me! But over there, on the other
side, it's going on worse than with us! Not only flies and vermin,
blood too has fallen like rain from heaven; and on the Sunday morning
after that when the pastor went to his washbasin there were five
death's-heads, the size of peas, in it, and they all came to see it; in
the month of August horrible red-headed caterpillars went through the
land and ate up the grain and flour and bread and whatever they could
find and no fire was able to destroy them!"
Ann Grete suddenly ceased; none of the maids had noticed that their
mistress had come into the kitchen. "What tales are you telling there?"
she asked. "Don't let your master hear that!" And as they all wanted to
begin to tell her she went on, "It's not necessary; I heard enough of
it; go about your work, that will do you more good!" Then she took Ann
Grete with her into the sitting-room to go through her market accounts
with her.
So in the dikegrave's house none of the family paid any attention to
the superstitious gossip that was going about; but it was different in
the other houses and the longer the evenings grew the more easily did
it find its way in. Everyone lived as if in an oppressive atmosphere
and secretly people said to themselves that a misfortune, and a heavy
one, would fall on northern Friesland.
* * * * *
It was in October, before All Saints' Day. A strong wind had blown from
the southwest all day; in the evening the crescent moon was in the
sky, dark brown clouds drove past and a medley of shade and dull light
flew across the earth; the storm was growing. In the dikegrave's room
the empty supper table still stood; the men had been sent into the
stable to look after the cattle; the maids were busy in the house and
in the attics seeing that the doors and windows were securely fastened
so that the storm should not gain an entrance and do damage. Hauke
stood beside his wife at the window; he had just swallowed down his
supper; he had been out on the dike. He had gone there on foot early in
the afternoon; here and there, where the dike looked weak, he had had
pointed stakes and sacks of clay or earth piled up; everywhere he had
left men to drive in the stakes and make dams with the sacks in front
as soon as the tide should begin to damage the dike. The largest number
he had placed at the corner towards the northwest at the intersection
of the old and new dikes; their instructions were not to leave the
places assigned to them except in case of necessity. That was what he
had left behind him and then, scarcely a quarter of an hour ago, he had
come back to the house wet and disheveled and now, his ear fixed on the
gusts of winds that rattled the leaded panes, he gazed out absently
into the wild night; the clock behind the pane of glass in the wall was
just striking eight. The child, who was standing beside her mother,
started and buried her head in her mother's dress. "Klaus!" she called,
crying, "where is my Klaus?"
She might well ask, for this year, as indeed the year before, the
gull had not flown away for the winter. Her father did not heed the
question, but her mother lifted the child in her arms. "Your Klaus is
in the barn," she said, "he has a warm place there."
"Warm?" said Wienke, "is that good?"
"Yes, that's good."
The master still stood at the window. "It won't do any longer, Elke,"
he said; "call one of the girls, the storm will break in the panes; the
shutters must be screwed on!"
[Illustration: A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
JACOB ALBERTS]
At her mistress's word the maid had run out; they could see from the
room how her skirts were blown about; but when she unfastened the catch
the wind tore the shutter out of her hand and threw it against the
window so that a few broken panes flew into the room and one of the
lights flared and went out. Hauke himself had to go out to help and it
was only with great difficulty that the shutters were at last got into
place. When they opened the door again to come into the house a gust of
wind followed them that made the glass and silver in the cupboard shake
and clatter; upstairs in the house above their heads the beams trembled
and cracked as if the gale were trying to tear the roof off the walls.
But Hauke did not come back into the room. Elke heard him walking
across the floor towards the stable. "The white horse! The white horse,
John; quick!" She heard him call the order; then he came into the room,
his hair tumbled but his gray eyes sparkling. "The wind has shifted!"
he cried, "to the northwest, at half spring-tide! No wind; we have
never experienced such a storm!"
Elke had grown as pale as death: "And you must go out there again?"
He seized both her hands and pressed them convulsively: "That I must,
Elke."
Slowly she raised her dark eyes to his and for a few seconds they
looked at each other; but it was like an eternity. "Yes, Hauke,"
answered the woman; "I know well that you must!"
There was a sound of trotting before the front door. She flung herself
on Hauke's neck and for a moment it seemed as if she could not let him
go; but that too was only for a second. "This is _our_ fight," said
Hauke; "you are safe here, no tide has ever come up to this house. And
pray to God to be with me too!"
Hauke wrapped himself in his cloak and Elke took a scarf and wound it
carefully round his neck; she wanted to say a word, but her trembling
lips refused to utter it.
Outside the white horse neighed so that it sounded like a trumpet in
the howling storm. Elke went out with her husband; the old ash creaked
as if it were being split asunder. "Mount, master," called the man,
"the white horse is as if mad; the rein might break." Hauke threw his
arms round his wife: "I shall be here again at sunrise!"
Already he had leapt onto his horse; the animal reared; then, like a
war-horse rushing into battle, it charged down the mound with its rider
out into the night and the howling of the storm. "Father, my Father!"
cried a child's plaintive voice after him: "my dear Father!"
Wienke had run out after them in the dark; but she had not gone more
than a hundred steps before she stumbled against a heap of earth and
fell.
The man Johns brought the crying child back to her mother; the latter
was leaning against the trunk of the ash, the boughs of which lashed
the air above her, staring out absently into the night in which her
husband had disappeared; when the roaring of the gale and the distant
thunder of the sea ceased for a moment she started as if frightened;
she felt as if everything was trying just to destroy him and would
be dumb instantly when it had got him. Her knees trembled, the wind
had blown her hair down and now played with it at will. "Here is the
child!" John shouted to her; "hold her tight!" and he pressed the
little girl into her mother's arms.
"The child? I'd forgotten you, Wienke!" she exclaimed; "God forgive
me." Then she hugged her to her breast as closely as only love can and
dropped on her knees: "Lord God, and Thou, my Jesus, let us not become
widow and orphan! Protect him, Oh dear God; only Thou and I, we alone
know him!" And there was no more interruption to the gale; it resounded
and thundered as if the whole world were coming to an end in one vast
reverberation of sound.
"Go into the house, Missis!" said Johns; "come!" And he helped them and
led the two into the house and into the sitting-room.
The dikegrave, Hauke Haien, flew forward on his white horse towards the
dike. The narrow path was like a mire, for excessively heavy rain had
fallen in the preceding days; nevertheless the wet sticky clay did not
seem to hold the horse's hoofs, it moved as if treading on a firm dry
road. The clouds drove across the sky in a mad chase; below, the wide
marsh lay like an unrecognizable desert filled with agitated shades;
from the water behind the dike came an ever-increasing dull roar as if
it must swallow up everything else. "Forward, my white horse!" cried
Hauke; "we're riding our worst ride!"
At that moment a sound like a death cry came from under his mount's
hoofs. He pulled up and looked round; at his side, close above the
ground, screeching mockingly as they went, moved a flock of white
gulls, half flying, half tossed by the gale; they were seeking
protection on shore. One of them--the moon shone fleetingly through the
clouds--lay crushed on the path: it seemed to the rider as if a red
ribbon fluttered from its neck. "Klaus!" he cried. "Poor Klaus!"
Was it his child's bird? Had it recognized horse and rider and tried
to seek shelter with them? He did not know. "Forward!" he cried again,
and the white horse had already lifted his hoofs for a new race when
suddenly there was a pause in the storm and a deathlike silence took
its place; it lasted but an instant, then the gale returned with
renewed fury; but in the meantime the rider's ear had caught the sound
of men's voices and the faint barking of dogs and when he turned his
head back towards the village he distinguished, in the moonlight that
broke forth, people on the mounds and in front of the houses busy about
wagons that were loaded high; he saw, as if in flight, still other
wagons driving hurriedly towards the upland; the lowing of cattle being
driven up there out of their warm stables, met his ear. "Thank God,
they are saving themselves and their cattle!" his heart cried; and then
came an inward shriek of terror: "My wife! My child! No. No; the water
will not come up to our mound!"
But it was only for a moment; everything flew by him like a vision.
A fearful squall came roaring up from the sea and into its face horse
and rider stormed up the narrow path to the dike. Once on top Hauke
halted his steed with force. But where was the sea? Where Jeverssand?
Where lay the opposite shore? Nothing but mountains of water faced him,
rising up threateningly against the night sky, seeking to overtop one
another in the dreadful dusk, and beating, one over the next, on the
shore. They came forward with white crests, howling, as if the roar of
all the terrible beasts of prey in the wilderness were in them. The
white horse pawed the ground and snorted out into the din; but it came
over the rider as if here all human power were at an end; as if night,
death, chaos must now set in.
Still he considered: after all it was a storm-tide; only he himself
had never seen such a one as that; his wife, his child, they were safe
on the high mound, in the solid house; but his dike--and pride shot
through his heart--the Hauke-Haien-Dike, as the people called it; now
was the time for it to prove how dikes must be built!
But--what was this? He was at the angle between the two dikes; where
were the men whom he had ordered here, whose work it was to watch
this spot? He looked north up the old dike; for he had sent a few up
there too. Neither here nor there could he see a soul; he rode out a
piece; but still he was alone: only the soughing of the storm and the
surging of the sea that filled the air to an immeasurable distance
smote deafeningly on his ear. He turned his horse back; he came again
to the deserted corner and let his eyes pass along the line of the new
dike; he saw distinctly, the waves rolled up here more slowly, less
violently; it almost seemed as if there were other water there. "It
will stand, all right!" he murmured and felt a laugh rise within him.
But his inclination to laugh soon passed as his eyes glanced farther
along the line of his dike: on the northwest corner--what was that?
He saw a dark swarm of moving beings; he saw how industriously they
stirred and hurried--there could be no doubt, they were men! What were
they trying to do, what work were they doing on his dike now! And
already his spurs were in the white horse's flanks and the animal was
flying with him thither; the gale came from the broad side, at times
the gusts came with such force that they were almost swept down from
the dike into the new koog; but horse and rider knew where they were
riding. Hauke already perceived that probably a few dozen men were
working industriously there together and already he saw distinctly that
a gutter was cut right across through the new dike. Violently he reined
in his horse. "Stop!" he cried, "stop! What devil's work are you doing
here?"
The men had ceased shoveling with a start when they suddenly perceived
the dikegrave among them; the wind had carried his words to them and
he saw that several were trying to answer him; but he only caught
their vehement gestures, for they all stood at his left and what they
said was carried away by the gale which was so violent out here that
it hurled them against one another so that they were obliged to crowd
together. Hauke measured with his quick eyes the gutter that had been
dug and the height of the water which, in spite of the new profile,
dashed up almost to the top of the dike and spattered horse and rider.
Only ten minutes more work and then--he saw it distinctly--then the
high tide would break through the gutter and the Hauke-Haien Koog would
be buried by the sea!
The dikegrave beckoned one of the laborers to the other side of his
horse. "Now, speak," he shouted, "what are you doing here, what is the
meaning of this?"
And the man shouted back: "We've got to break through the new dike,
sir! So that the old dike doesn't break."
"What have you got to do?"
"Break through the new dike!"
"And flood the koog? What devil ordered you to do that?"
"No, sir, no devil; the commissioner Ole Peters has been here; he gave
the order!"
Anger flamed up into the rider's eyes: "Do you know me?" he shouted.
"Where I am Ole Peters has no orders to give! Away with you! Back to
your places where I left you."
And as they hesitated he dashed into the group with his horse: "Away,
to your own or the devil's grandmother!"
"Be careful, sir," shouted one of the group and struck at the madly
careering animal with his spade; but a kick from the horse knocked the
spade from his hand, another fell to the ground. At that moment there
suddenly arose a shriek from the rest of the group, a shriek such as
only deathly terror wrests from the human throat; for a moment all,
even the dikegrave and the horse, stood as if paralyzed; only one of
the laborers had extended his arm like a sign-post; he pointed to the
northwest corner of the two dikes, where the new one ran up to the old
one. Only the raging of the wind and the surging of the water could be
heard. Hauke turned in his saddle: what was that there? His eyes grew
large: "By God! A breach! A breach in the old dike!"
"Your fault, dikegrave," shouted a voice from the group. "Your fault!
Take it with you before God's throne!"
Hauke's face, first red with anger, had grown pale as death; the moon
which shone on it could not make it whiter; his arms hung limp, he
scarcely knew that he held the rein. But that too only lasted for a
second; already he drew himself up, a hard groan broke from his mouth;
then dumbly he turned his horse and with a snort it raced away with
him to the east along the dike. The rider's glance flew sharply in all
directions; thoughts were whirling in his head: What blame had he to
bear before God's throne? The break through the new dike--perhaps they
would have accomplished it if he had not called "stop!" But--there was
another thing and his heart grew hot, he knew it only too well--the
summer before, if only Ole Peters' evil mouth had not held him back
then--that was where it lay! He alone had recognized the weakness
of the old dike; he should have pushed on the new work in spite of
everything: "Lord God, I confess it," he cried out suddenly aloud into
the storm. "I have discharged my office badly."
At his left, close to his horse's hoofs, raged the sea; before him,
now in complete darkness, lay the old koog with its mounds and homes;
the moon's pale light on the sky had disappeared entirely; only at one
spot did light shine through the darkness. And something like comfort
crept into the man's heart; it must be shining over from his own house,
it seemed to him like a message from his wife and child. Thank God,
they were safe on the high mound! The others, certainly, they were
already in the upland village; more light glimmered from there than
he had ever seen before; yes, even high up in the air, probably from
the church-tower, light shone out into the night. "They will all have
gone away," said Hauke to himself; "to be sure, on more than one mound
a house will lie in ruins, bad years will come for the flooded fens;
drains and sluices to be repaired! We must bear it and I will help,
those too who have done me harm; only, Lord, my God, be merciful to us
men!"
He turned his eyes to the side, towards the new koog; about it foamed
the sea; but in it lay the peace of night. Involuntarily triumphant
rejoicing rose in the rider's breast: "The Hauke-Haien-Dike, it must
stand; it will hold after more than a hundred years!"
A roar like thunder at his feet roused him from these dreams; the white
horse did not want to go on. What was that? The horse jumped back and
he felt how a piece of the dike in front of him plunged down into the
depths. He opened his eyes wide and shook off all meditation: he had
stopped close to the old dike, the horse's front feet had been on it.
Involuntarily he jerked the horse back; at that moment the last veiling
of clouds swept from the moon and the mild planet illumined the horror
that seething and hissing rushed down before him into the old koog.
Hauke stared at it senselessly; it was a deluge, come to swallow up man
and beast. Then a light shone again into his eyes; it was the same one
that he had seen before; it was still burning on his mound; and now as,
encouraged, he looked down into the koog he perceived that behind the
confusing whirl that dashed down clamorously before him, only a breadth
of about a hundred feet was inundated; beyond that he could clearly
distinguish the way that led up from the koog. He saw still more: a
carriage, no, a two-wheeled gig came driving madly up towards the dike;
a woman, yes, and a child too, were sitting in it. And now--was not
that the shrill bark of a little dog that was borne by on the wind?
Almighty God! It was his wife, his child! They were already coming
quite close and the foaming mass of water was rushing towards them. A
shriek, a shriek of desperation broke from the rider's breast: "Elke!"
he shouted; "Elke! Back! Back!"
But wind and sea were not merciful, their raging tossed his words away;
only the wind had caught his cloak and nearly flung him from his horse;
and the approaching vehicle flew on steadily towards the rushing flood.
As he looked he saw his wife stretch out her arms as if up towards
him: had she recognized him? Had longing, had deathly anxiety about
him driven her out of her secure house? And now--was she shouting a
last word to him? These questions shot through his mind; they remained
unanswered: all words from her to him, from him to her were lost; only
an uproar as if the world were coming to an end filled their ears and
excluded all other sounds.
"My child! Oh Elke, Oh faithful Elke!" cried Hauke out into the
storm. Another large piece of the dike in front of him gave way and
thunderingly the sea plunged in after it; once more he saw below the
horse's head the wheels of the conveyance rise up out of the chaotic
horror and then disappear in a whirl. The fixed eyes of the rider who
stood so solitary on the dike saw nothing further. "The end!" he said
softly to himself; then he rode to the edge of the abyss where, below
him, the waters rushing uncannily were beginning to flood his home
village; he still saw the light shining from his house; he felt that
the soul had gone out of it. He raised himself high in the saddle and
drove his spurs into the white horse's flanks; the animal reared and
nearly fell over backwards; but the man's strength forced it down
again. "Forward!" he cried once more as he had so often urged it on to
a steady ride. "Take me, God; spare the others!"
Another pressure of the spurs; a shriek from the white horse that rose
above the gale and the roar of the waves; then from the plunging stream
below a dull splash, a brief struggle.
The moon looked down from above and illumined the scene; but on the
dike beneath there was no longer any life save that of the savage
waters which soon had almost completely covered the old koog. But still
the mound where stood Hauke Haien's home rose up out of the swelling
flood, the light still shone from there; and from the upland where the
houses gradually grew dark, the solitary light from the church steeple
threw its wavering beams across the seething waves.
* * * * *
The narrator ceased; I reached out for the filled glass that had long
been standing before me; but I did not put it to my mouth; my hand
remained lying on the table.
"That is the story of Hauke Haien," my host began again, "as I had to
tell it according to my best knowledge. Our dikegrave's housekeeper,
of course, would have made another tale; for this too people have to
report: after the flood the white skeleton of the horse was to be
seen again in the moonlight on Jevershallig as before; everyone in
the village believed he saw it. So much is certain: Hauke Haien with
his wife and child went down in that flood; I have not been able to
find even their graves up in the churchyard; the dead bodies were
undoubtedly carried back through the breach by the receding water out
to sea, at the bottom of which they gradually were dissolved into their
original component parts--thus they had peace from men. But the Hauke
Haien Dike still stands now after a hundred years, and tomorrow if you
ride to town and don't mind going half an hour out of your way you will
have it beneath your horse's hoofs.
"The thanks Jewe Manners once promised the builder that the
grandchildren should give have not come, as you have seen; for thus it
is, sir: they gave Socrates poison to drink and our Lord Jesus Christ
they nailed to the cross! It is not so easy to do such things as that
any longer; but--to make a saint of a man of violence or a malicious
bull-necked priest, or to make a ghost or a phantom of night of an able
fellow just because he is a whole head above the rest of us--that can
be done any day."
When the earnest little man had said that he got up and listened at the
window. "It is different out there now," he said, and drew the woolen
curtain back; it was bright moonlight. "See," he continued, "there are
the commissioners coming back, but they are separating, they are going
home; there must have been a break over on the other side; the water
has fallen."
I looked out beside him; the windows upstairs, where we were, lay
above the edge of the dike; it was as he had said. I took my glass and
finished it: "I thank you for this evening," I said; "I think we can
sleep in peace!"
"That we can," replied the little man; "I wish you a good night's sleep
from my heart!"
In going down I met the dikegrave below in the hall; he wanted to take
home with him a map that he had left in the tap-room. "It's all over,"
he said. "But our schoolmaster has told you a story of his own, I
suppose; he belongs to the rationalists!"
"He seems to be a sensible man."
"Oh yes, certainly; but you can't mistrust your own eyes after all. And
over on the other side, just as I said it would be, the dike is broken!"
I shrugged my shoulders: "We will have to take counsel with our pillows
about that! Good night, dikegrave!"
He laughed. "Good night!"
The next morning, in the most golden of sunlights, which had risen on a
wide devastation, I rode along the Hauke Haien Dike down to the town.
TO A DECEASED[2]
But this is more than I can bear,
That still the laughing sun is bright,
As in the days when you were there,
That clocks are striking, unaware,
And mark the change of day and night--
That we, as twilight dims the air,
Assemble when the day is done,
And that the place where stood your chair
Already many others share,
And that you seem thus missed by none;
When meanwhile from the gate below
The narrow strips of moonlight spare
Into your vault down deeply go
And with a ghostly pallid glow
Are stealing o'er your coffin there.
THE CITY[2]
The shore is gray, the sea is gray,
And there the city stands;
The mists upon the houses weigh
And through the calm, the ocean gray
Roars dully on the strands.
There are no rustling woods, there fly
No birds at all in May,
The wild goose with its callous cry
Alone on autumn nights soars by,
The wind-blown grasses sway.
And yet my whole heart clings to thee,
Gray city by the sea;
And e'er the spell of youth for me
Doth smiling rest on thee, on thee
Gray city by the sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Translator: Margarete Münsterberg.
THE HEATH[3]
It is so quiet here. There lies
The heath in noon's warm sunshine gold.
A gleam of light, all rosy, flies
And hovers round the mounds of old.
The herbs are blooming; fragrance fair
Now fills the bluish summer air.
The beetles rush through bush and trees,
In little golden coats of mail;
And on the heather-bells the bees
Alight on all its branches frail.
From out the grass there starts a throng
Of larks and fills the air with song.
A lonely house, half-crumbled, low:
The farmer, in the doorway bent,
Stands watching in the sunlight's glow
The busy bees in sweet content.
And on a stone near by his boy
Is carving pipes from reeds with joy.
Scarce trembling through the peace of noon
The town-clock strikes--from far, it seems.
The old man's eye-lids droop right soon,
And of his honey crops he dreams.--
The sounds that tell our time of stress
Have not yet reached this loneliness.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Translator: Margarete Münsterberg.
CONSOLATION[4]
Let come to me whatever may,
While you are with me it is day.
Though in the world I wander far,
My home is ever--where you are.
Your face is all in all to me,
The future's frown I do not see.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Translator: Charles Wharton Stork.
WILHELM RAABE
BY EWALD EISERHARDT, PH.D.
Assistant Professor of German, University of Rochester
Wilhelm Raabe was born on the eighth of September, 1831, in the little
town of Eschershausen in the Duchy of Braunschweig. He received his
schooling at the Gymnasiums in Holzminden and Wolfenbüttel; from
1849-53 he was employed in a bookstore in Magdeburg; then, while living
with his mother in Wolfenbüttel, he prepared for the university, and
later went to Berlin, where he studied chiefly history, philosophy, and
literature. After the success of his first book, _Records of Sparrow
Lane_ (1857), he turned entirely to authorship. In 1862 he married and
moved to Stuttgart, where he remained till 1870. From then on until his
death in 1910 he lived in Braunschweig. Raabe was an extraordinarily
productive writer, yet during the last ten years of his life he
entirely gave up all literary activity, and left his last work, _Old
Folks in the Old Home_, unfinished.
The underlying theme of Raabe's writings is the inner life of the
individual man and his specifically human sphere of family, society,
community, nation. With this he combines a strong preference for
what is characteristically German, which he loves just as much where
it is merely German, in fact, German to the point of being odd and
bizarre, as where it merges into the universally human. Raabe believes,
however, that both the peculiarly German and the broadly human types
are found with greater richness and depth among the Germans of the
first two-thirds of the nineteenth century than among those of the last
third. The period before the development of modern Germany is that in
which he loves best to linger. When he forsakes it, he does so to go
still farther back, into the realm of history proper.
What was it that interested Raabe in history? Not so much the causal
connection of events; not so much historical growth, as historical
conditions. And, moreover, to him the outward circumstances are merely
the necessary premises for what he really wishes to grasp, the spirit
of a period, the constitution of the folk-soul. The great historical
figures who led up to a period and stand out prominently in it he
pushes into the background. It is the forgotten men and women that he
seeks, and he pictures how circumstances or events ordered their lives,
whether the individual lived apart from his age and contrasted with the
mass, or whether the "milieu" wrought in him a particular condition of
mind and heart, so that he was drawn into situations and events, into
the "Zeitgeist," without actually exercising any decisive influence.
In _Else von der Tanne_ the German peasants, at the end of the Thirty
Years' War, are sunk in "brutish stupor," inwardly and outwardly
coarsened and demoralized, filled with boundless suspicion. When Else,
"the purest, holiest flower in the horrible devastation of the earth,"
appears among them, they look upon her as something monstrous, they
make a witch of her, and under their stoning the gentle miracle falls
stricken at the threshold of the house of God. In _Sankt Thomas_ the
struggle between Spain and the Netherlands kindles heroism in the
heart of a woman who, like a phenomenon, interposes in the fight, in
which she perishes after all, without being able to give its course a
favorable turn. "That was no longer that Camilla who had swung in the
hammock. * * * She now appeared as the beautiful but deadly genius of
this island; it was as if the destructive power of the tropical sun had
become embodied in her. * * * Camilla Drago, in league with the fire
from heaven, defended the castell Pavaosa." In _The Crown of the Realm_
the heroine feels the necessity of making her lover go through the
campaigns in Bohemia and Hungary from where he returns afflicted with
leprosy. He gives up his happiness for lost, but the girl, from whom he
has hidden, finds him, acknowledges her love for him, nurses him until
his death and becomes in the end the mother-nurse of the exiled lepers.
We do not really feel this last story to be historical; for the spirit
of the age, all the events and even the fate of the hero and heroine
are far eclipsed by the triumphant strength of those powers that,
standing above all time, are able to determine human life. _The Crown
of the Realm_ was indeed written after Raabe had tried in _The People
of the Forest_ and in his trilogy _The Hunger Pastor_, _Abu Telfan_,
and _The Dead-Wagon_--works round which all Raabe's writings circle as
round a pole--to comprehend the eternally problematical in human life
and to take up some attitude toward it.
"Gib Acht auf die Gassen!" (Watch the Streets), and "Blick auf zu den
Sternen!" (Look up to the Stars), are the mottos at whose point of
intersection lies the life-wisdom of _The People of the Forest_. To
wrestle with the factors of every-day life, to have a clear eye for
the different values of these factors, and in general to respect the
dignity of the common are indispensable to every real human life. But,
if one is to attain the goals that lie in the land of promise, one's
gaze must not remain fixed on the ground. For the universe and the
human soul are, in themselves, dark, and receive their light only from
the shining spheres that we call stars. In man's sky these are love,
friendship, faith, patience, mercy, courage, humility, honor. Still
more wonderful, however, than the existence of these stars is perhaps
the fact that originally we did not possess them at all, but have only
found them in the course of thousands of years. And how did they become
ours? Through life's suffering and distress and infamy. Here, indeed,
we arrive at the centre of Raabe's thought and work. All that is high
in the world has developed through friction with what is low, all
that is high requires the low. For just as white is seen in all its
intensity only in contrast with black, so, too, depth of love, nobility
of mind, strength to aspire are best manifested and unfolded in the
conflict with selfishness, baseness, indifference, and every kind of
distress and pain. That is why Hans Unwirrsch has Moses Freudenstein
for a companion; that is why the author lays so many and such different
obstacles in his way; that is why he allows him to attain only to
such a modest happiness at last; for the satisfied do not hunger, and
hunger for all that is noble is the meaning of our existence. That is
why, too, a book like _The Hunger Pastor_ exercises, on the whole, no
liberative influence; it does, however, strengthen and edify our souls
and warms our hearts with its inner glow.
But how is it? If the antagonism of those elements that increase life
and those that weaken it is necessary, must they therefore exist
eternally beside each other, and to which side will the final victory
incline? "If ye knew what I know, ye would weep much and laugh little:"
with these words of Mohammed's _Abu Telfan_ closes. Accordingly the
ideal, symbolized in _The Hunger Pastor_ by the cobbler's luminous ball
that accompanies Hans Unwirrsch everywhere, here finds only a place of
refuge in the secluded "Katzenmühle" (cat's mill). Deep resignation
is the predominant mood of this work. And in the _The Dead-Wagon_ the
place of the shining ball is taken even by the hearse, and the motto
of this book is, "The _Canaille_ is lord and remains lord." Antonie
Häusler falls into the power of her rascally grandfather, and attempts
to rescue her fail. Nevertheless chevalier von Gläubigern reports to
Jane Warwolf: "I got there in time, she is happy! Believe no one who
tries to tell you that she died in misery. * * * Pay no attention
to Hennig and those others about us, they know nothing * * *" The
chevalier is right. Antonie died, but in the triumph of martyrdom, and
this triumph, still and unnoticed as it was, continues to burn in the
hearts of the three old people whom we leave at the end of the novel
in the home for the old and sick in Krodebeck.
The circle of our trilogy is closed. Light and darkness war against
each other in all three parts. In _The Hunger Pastor_ love and work
finally win both external and internal victory; in _Abu Telfan_ we
are left full of worry that light is diminishing more and more; in
the _The Dead-Wagon_ the deepest shadows prevail, the noble and the
life-affirming forces experience external defeat, but they remain
unconquerable in themselves.
Further than in the _The Dead-Wagon_ a wise author who is just to
the world may not go in his pessimism, in spite of his study of
Schopenhauer, if he would not appear to indulge in mannerism, to be
one-sided. Raabe does not fall a victim to his deep penetration into
the hardship and infamy of life; it finally becomes to him merely the
means to an end. For he thus obtains from his strict conscience the
right from now on to develop for its own sake a side of his talent
which had already flashed through almost all his works--his humor. In
whatever relation good and evil, happiness and suffering may stand to
one another, man can not entirely get rid of either of these sides
of life. The idealist or pessimist seeks to emphasize one of the two
sides, the realist simply takes them as they are and bears them, the
humorist tries to reconcile one with the other. This reconciliation
must, of course, be subjective in its nature. It takes place in the
mind and heart of the man. A humorist like Raabe allows the oppressive
a place within him, and is untroubled because he recognizes that it is
an integral part of his lot, of humanity's lot. He does not bear it
with ridicule or bitterness, indifference or resignation, because he
knows he must, but rather he rejoices in the strength of his soul, he
rejoices that he can do it. In the consciousness of this ability he
has cast away "the fear of the earthly" and looks down smiling on the
mysterious play of the forces of life. He smiles at those who allow
themselves to be consumed by distress, he smiles at his own distress
which he has to overcome again and again, and is yet affected by grief,
is full of the deepest sympathy for all creation, for he knows that
he is fighting a common battle with it all. Humor is hearty, humor
is brave, humor is full of sunny, smiling wisdom. We have works and
characters in German literature that are more pronouncedly and purely
humorous than Raabe's. But probably in no other German writer has humor
become such a controlling mood of life as in him. With no one else do
we feel the faithful humorous personality of the author behind and
in his works as we do with Raabe. _Horacker_ (1876), _Old Familiar
Corners_ (1879), _The Hold-All_ (1890) may be quoted here.
By virtue of its elevation Raabe's humor has a quiet and certain
glance, and is apt to spend its all-embracing sympathy on what is
overlooked, what is insignificant, and in all it finds greatness and
light hidden and operative. The apparently contradictory attracts him
whether it appears to be contradictory in itself or contradictory to
what is generally accepted and traditional. He makes friends with
originals and oddities; he leads us into the isolation of small German
towns, and we feel at home in their sociability and narrowness, in
their affection for things and customs of olden times, in their
solidity and singularity, in all their local joys and sorrows. Among
his many stories we may refer in this connection to: _Der Dräumling_
(1872), _Wunnigel_ (1878), _The Horn of Wanza_ (1880).
Even in Germany Raabe became known only slowly. This was due to his
quiet character that disdained all striving after effect, to the
intentional mixture of various elements in his art which sometimes
makes it difficult to grasp the purpose of a work as a whole, to his
persistent pursuit of ends that lay outside the ruling interests of
his time. When once his countrymen began to come to themselves again,
however, he did not lack homage. And so it will probably continue to
be. An age whose interests are centered largely in the external side of
life will think little of him and pass him by, while one whose gaze is
directed rather within will take the pains to understand and appreciate
him. May his image never be blotted out entirely! For he belongs to
those who feel ever rising within them the question, "What shall it
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
[Illustration: WILHELM RAABE]
_WILHELM RAABE_
THE HUNGER PASTOR
TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED BY MURIEL ALMON
CHAPTER I
It is of hunger that I am going to speak in this good book of mine:
what it means, what it desires, what it is able to do. I cannot, to
be sure, show how, for the world as a whole, hunger is both Shiva and
Vishnu, destroyer and preserver in one; it is for history to show that;
but I can describe how it works in the individual as destroyer and
preserver, and will continue so to work till the end of the world.
To hunger, to the sacred power of genuine, true hunger, I dedicate
these pages, and, indeed, they belong to it by rights, as will, I hope,
be perfectly clear by the time we have reached the end. With this
latter assurance I am relieved of the necessity of writing a further
introduction which, after all, would contribute only in the slightest
degree to the reader's comfort, emotion, and excitement; and will begin
my story with unlimited good will toward my fellow men, past, present
and future, as well as toward myself and all those shadow-figures that
will pass before me in the course of this tale--reflexes of the great
cycle of birth, being, and passing away, of the infinite growth that is
called the evolution of the world--slightly more interesting and richer
than this book, it is true, but, unlike this book, not obliged to come
to a satisfactory conclusion in three parts.
"Here we have the boy at last! We have him at last--at last!" cried
the father of my hero, and drew a long breath of relief like a man who,
after long, vain yearning, hard work, many troubles and cares, had
finally reached his happy goal. He looked down with wise, shining eyes
at the tiny, pitiable bit of humanity that the midwife had laid in his
arms just as the evening bell had sounded. A tear stole over the man's
haggard cheek and the sharp, pointed, wise fatherly nose sank ever
lower and lower toward the insignificant, scarcely recognizable little
nose of the new-born infant, till it suddenly rose up again with a jerk
and turned with anxious inquiry toward the kind, capable woman who had
contributed so much to his delight.
"Oh, Mrs. Tiebus--good Mrs. Tiebus, is it really a boy? Tell me again
that you aren't mistaken--that it is really, really so!"
The midwife, who till now had watched the first tender greeting between
father and son with self-assured, smiling nods of the head, now jerked
_her_ nose into the air, dispelled all the spirits and sprites of good
will and contentment which had fluttered about her, with an inimitable
gesture of both arms, placed them akimbo, and, with scorn, contempt,
and insulted self-respect, began to speak:
"Master Unwirrsch, you are a fool! Have your picture painted on the
wall!... Is it one? Did ever anybody hear the like from such a sensible
old man and the head of a house?... Is it one? Master Unwirrsch, next,
I believe, you'll forget how to tell a boot from a shoe. This just
shows what a cross it is when God's gift comes so late. Isn't that
a boy that you've got there in your arms? Isn't that really a boy,
a fine, proper boy? Lord, if the old creature didn't have the poor
little thing in his arms I'd like to give him a good box on the ears
for putting such a silly, meddlesome question! Not a boy? Indeed it
is a boy, Father Pitch-thread--not one of the heaviest, to be sure;
but still a boy, and a proper boy at that! And how shouldn't it be
a boy? Isn't Bonnyparty, isn't Napoleum on his way again across the
water and won't there be war and tussling between today and tomorrow,
and don't we need boys, and isn't it exactly for that reason that in
these strange times of ours more boys than girls come into the world,
and aren't there three boys to one girl? and you come to me, to an
experienced and sensible person like me, and ask such outrageous
questions? Have your picture painted on the wall, Father Unwirrsch, and
have written underneath it what I think of you. Here, give the boy to
me, you don't deserve to have him bother with you--go along with you to
your wife--perhaps you'll ask her too, if it's--a--boy!"
Ungently the infant was snatched from the arms of the despised, crushed
father and, after getting his breath, Master Anton Unwirrsch hobbled
into the bedroom of his wife, and the evening bells still rang. But we
will not disturb either the father and mother or the bells--let them
give full utterance to their feelings with no one to interfere.
Poor people and rich people have different ways of life in this world;
but when the sun of happiness shines into their huts, houses, or
palaces, it gilds with the very same gold the wooden bench and the
velvet chair, the whitewashed wall and the gilt one, and more than one
sly dog of a philosopher says he has noticed that as far as joy and
sorrow are concerned the difference between rich and poor people is
not nearly as great as both classes often, very often, extremely often
think. Be that as it may; it is enough for us that laughter is not a
monopoly nor weeping an obligation on this spherical, fire-filled ball
with its flattened poles, onto which we find our way without desiring
it, and from which, without desiring it, we depart, after the interval
between our coming and going has been made bitter enough for us.
The sun now shone into the house of poor people. Happiness, smiling,
stooped to enter the low doorway, both her open hands extended in
greeting. There was great joy over the birth of the son on the part
of the parents, the shoemaker Unwirrsch and his wife, who had waited
for him so long that they were almost on the point of giving up hope
altogether.
And now he had come after all, come an hour before work ceased for the
day! All Kröppel Street already knew of the event, and the glad tidings
had even reached Master Nikolaus Grünebaum, the brother of the woman
who had just given birth to the child, though he lived almost at the
opposite end of the town. A grinning shoemaker's apprentice, carrying
his slippers under his arm so as to be able to run quicker, bore the
news there and shouted it breathlessly into Master Grünebaum's less
deaf ear with the result that for five minutes the good man looked
much stupider than he really was. But now he was already on his way
to Kröppel Street, and as he, a citizen, householder and resident
master of his trade, could not take his slippers under his arm, the
consequence was that one of them deserted him faithlessly at a street
corner, to begin life with nothing to depend on but its own hands, or
rather its own sole.
When Uncle Grünebaum arrived at his brother-in-law's house he found so
many good women of the neighborhood there, giving advice and expressing
their opinions, that, in his lamentable capacity of old bachelor and
pronounced woman-hater, he could but appear highly superfluous to
himself. And he did see himself in this light and would almost have
turned back if the thought of his brother-in-law and fellow-craftsman,
left miserably alone in the midst of all this "racket" had not enabled
him to master his feelings after all. Growling and grunting he pushed
his way through the womenfolk and at last did find his brother-in-law
in a not very enviable nor brilliant position and attitude.
The poor man had been pushed completely aside. Mrs. Tiebus had taken
measures to exclude him from his wife's room; in the living room among
the neighbors he was also entirely superfluous; Master Grünebaum
finally discovered him sitting in a miserable heap on a stool in the
corner where only the cat that was rubbing against his legs showed any
sympathy for him. But his eyes were still shining with that radiance
that seemed to come from another world; Master Unwirrsch heard nothing
of the women's whispering and chattering, saw nothing of the confusion
that reigned among them, nor did he see his brother-in-law till the
latter seized him by the shoulder and, not very gently, shook him back
to consciousness.
"Give a sign that you're still in the land of the living, Anton!"
growled Master Grünebaum. "Be a man, and drive the womenfolk out, all
of them except--except Auntie Schlotterbeck there. For although the
devil takes them one and all, odd and even, still she is the only one
among them that lets a man get in a word at least once an hour. Won't
you? Can't you? Don't you dare to? Well, then catch hold of my coat
behind till I get you out of this tumult in safety; come upstairs and
let things go on as they will down here. So the boy is here? Well,
praise be to God, I began to think we'd waited in vain again."
The two fellow-craftsmen pushed their way sideways through the women,
got out into the passage with difficulty, and mounted the narrow
creaking stairs that led to the upper story of the house. There Auntie
Schlotterbeck had rented a small living room, bedroom and kitchen,
which left only one room at the disposal of the Unwirrsch family,
and that was stuffed so full of all kinds of articles that scarcely
enough space remained for the two worthy guild-brothers to squat
down and exchange the innermost thoughts of their souls. Boxes and
chests, bunches of herbs, ears of corn, bundles of leather, strings
of onions, hams, sausages, endless odds and ends had here been hung,
or flung, stuffed or stuck below, above, before, beside and among one
another with a skill that approached genius, and it was no wonder that
Brother-in-law Grünebaum lost his second slipper there.
But through both the low windows the last rays of the sun shone
into the room; the comrades were safe from Mrs. Tiebus and the
neighbors.... They sat down opposite each other on two boxes and shook
hands for five well-counted minutes.
"Congratulations, Anton!" said Nikolaus Grünebaum.
"I thank you, Nikolaus!" said Anton Unwirrsch.
"Hooray, he is here! Hooray, long may he live! And again, hoo--"
shouted Master Grünebaum with the full power of his lungs, but broke
off when his brother-in-law held his hand over his mouth.
"Not so loud, for mercy's sake, not so loud, Nik'las. The wife is right
underneath us here and has trouble enough as it is with all those
women."
The new-made uncle let his fist fall on his knee:
"You're right, Brother; the devil take them, one and all, odd and
even. But now let her go, old man, and tell us how you feel. Not a bit
the way you usually do? Oh ho! And how does the little tadpole look?
Everything in the right place? Nose, mouth, arms, legs? Nothing wrong
anywhere? Everything in order: straps and legs, upper, vamp, heel and
sole? Well pitched, nailed, and neatly polished?"
"Everything as it should be, Brother," cried the happy father, rubbing
his hands. "A prize boy! May God bless us in him! Oh, Nik'las, I wanted
to say a thousand things to you, but I choke too much in my throat;
everything about me goes round----"
"Let it go as it will; when the cat is thrown down from the roof she
has to take time to collect herself," said Master Grünebaum. "The wife
is doing well, I suppose?"
"Yes, thank God. She behaved like a heroine; an empress couldn't have
done better."
"She is a Grünebaum," said Nikolaus with pride, "and in case of
necessity the Grünebaums can clench their teeth. What name are you
going to have the boy called by, Anton?"
The father of the new-born child passed his lean hand over his high,
furrowed forehead and stared out of the window into space for a few
moments. Then he said:
"He shall be christened after three fellow-craftsmen. He shall be
called Johannes like the poet in Nuremberg, and Jakob like the highly
honored philosopher of Goerlitz, and the two names shall be to him as
two wings on which to rise from the earth to the blue sky and take his
share of light. But as a third name I will give him Nikolaus so that he
may always know that he has a true friend and protector on earth, one
to whom he can turn when I am no longer here."
"I call that a sentence with a head full of sense and reason, and a
clumsy, ridiculous tail. Give him the names and it will be an honor for
all three of us, but keep away from me with those old foolish notions
of death. You're not fat, to be sure, and you couldn't exactly knock an
ox down with your bare fist either; but you can draw the pitch-thread
through the leather for many a long year yet, you ruminating bookworm."
Master Unwirrsch shook his head and changed the subject, and the two
brothers-in-law discussed this and that with each other till it had
grown perfectly dark in the storeroom.
Somebody knocked at the door, and Master Grünebaum called:
"Who is there? No womenfolk will be admitted."
"It's I," called a voice outside.
"Who?"
"I!"
"It's Auntie Schlotterbeck," said Unwirrsch. "Push the bolt back; we've
sat up here long enough; perhaps I may see the wife again now."
His brother-in-law obeyed, growling, and the light from Auntie
Schlotterbeck's lamp shone into the room.
"Here they are, really. Well, come along, you heroes; the women have
gone. Creep out. Your wife, Master Unwirrsch? Yes, she is well taken
care of; she is sleeping and you mustn't disturb her; but I've a
piece of news that you shall hear and thank God. At the house of the
Jew, Freudenstein, across the street, the same thing happened today
as in this house; but it wasn't quite the same. The child is alive--a
boy, too, but Blümchen Freudenstein is dead, and there is great
lamentation over there. Praise the Lord, Master Unwirrsch; and you,
Master Grünebaum, go home. Come, come, Unwirrsch, don't stand there so
dumbfounded; death enters, or passes by, according to God's command.
I feel as if I'd been broken on the wheel, and am going to bed. Good
night to you both."
Auntie Schlotterbeck disappeared behind her door, the two masters stole
downstairs on tiptoe, and in the public-house which he frequented
regularly, Uncle Grünebaum had far less to say that evening about
politics, municipal and other affairs than usual. Master Unwirrsch lay
all night without closing his eyes; the infant screamed mightily, and
it was no wonder that these unaccustomed tones kept the father awake
and stirred up a whirling throng of hopes and cares and drove it in a
wild chase through his heart and head.
It is not easy to produce a good sermon; but neither is it easy to
make a good boot. Skill, much skill is necessary to do either, and
bunglers and botchers had better keep their hands off, if they have any
regard for their fellow-men's welfare. I, for my part, have an uncommon
partiality for shoemakers, in their totality when they march in holiday
parades as well as for the individuals. As the people say, they are a
"ruminating tribe," and no other trade produces such excellent and odd
peculiarities in the members of its guild. The low work-table, the low
stool, the glass globe filled with water which catches the light of the
little oil lamp and reflects it with greater brilliance, the pungent
odor of leather and of pitch must naturally exert a lasting effect on
human nature, and that is just what they do, and powerfully too. What
curious originals this admirable trade has produced! A whole library
could be written about "remarkable shoemakers" without the materials
being in the least exhausted! The light which falls through the hanging
glass globe onto the work-table is the realm of fantastic spirits;
during the meditative work it fills the imagination with strange
figures and pictures and gives to thought a tinge that no other lamp,
patented or unpatented, can lend it. It makes one think of all sorts of
rhymes, queer legends, marvelous tales and merry and sad events of the
world which, when they have once been put on paper by an unpractised
hand, amaze the neighbors; at which the shoemaker's wife laughs or
is afraid when her husband hums them in a low voice in the dusk. Or,
perhaps, we begin to ponder still deeper, we feel the necessity of
"unraveling life's beginning." Deeper and deeper we look into the
glowing globe, and in the glass we see the universe in all its forms
and natures: we pass freely through the portals of all the heavens
and know them with all their stars and elements; intuitive perception
opens our minds to sublime visions and we write them down while Pastor
Richter, head clergyman of the parish, stirs up the mob against us from
the pulpit and the constable of Goerlitz, who is to fetch us to prison,
stands before the door.
"For this is eternity's right and eternal existence, that it has only
_one_ will. If it had two one would break the other and there would be
strife. It is indeed great in strength and miraculousness; but its life
is but love alone, from which light and majesty emanate. All creatures
in Heaven have _one_ will, and that is directed to God's own heart and
lives in God's own spirit, in the centre of multiplicity, in growing
and blooming; but God's spirit is life in all things, _Centrum Naturæ_
gives being, majesty and power, and the Holy Ghost is the leader."
Whoever has anything against shoemakers and does not know how to
appreciate their excellence individually and generally, let him keep
away from me. Whoever goes so far as to turn up his nose at them
contemptuously because of their often curious appearance, their
crooked legs, their hard, black paws, their crazy noses, their unkempt
tufts of hair, is no good to me; if he is lost I shall offer no reward
for his return. I treasure and love shoemakers, and above them all
I value the worthy Master Anton Unwirrsch, the father of Hans Jakob
Nikolaus Unwirrsch. Alas, it was not long after those vesper bells had
given greeting to his first and only born that the evening bells of
his own day on earth began to ring. Yet there are so many threads of
his life that run on into his son's that we cannot omit a description
of his personality and being. Physically, as we already know, he stood
not very firmly on his feet, but mentally he was straight and strong
enough and could cope with many a man who thought himself far superior.
All the relics of his hidden life show that he did his utmost to make
up for the defects of a neglected education, that he had a thirst for
knowledge--a very keen thirst. And even though he never learnt to spell
quite correctly he yet possessed a poetic soul, like his celebrated
fellow-craftsman from the "Mouse-trap" in Nuremberg, and read as much
as he possibly could. Moreover, what he read he usually understood
too; and if in some things he did not find the meaning that the author
had intended, he got another meaning out of it or read it into it
which belonged entirely to him alone and with which the author might
very often be well content. Although he loved his trade and did not
neglect it in any way it was no gold mine to him, and he remained a
poor man. Golden dreams, however, his occupation did bring him, and
all occupations that can do that are good and make those who practise
them happy. Anton Unwirrsch saw the world from his cobbler's stool
almost exactly as Hans Sachs had once seen it, but he did not become
so famous. He left a little book in close, fine handwriting which
his widow first kept like a sacred relic in the depths of her chest,
together with her hymn book, bridal wreath and a little black box of
which we shall hear more later on. As she would have a sacred relic,
the mother delivered the little book over to her son and he gave it
the place of honor in his library between the Bible and Shakespeare,
although in poetry and content it ranks a little below these two.
Auntie Schlotterbeck and Master Grünebaum had a vague suspicion of the
existence of this manuscript, but only the poet's wife had definite
knowledge of it. To her it was the most marvelous thing that could be
imagined. For did it not rhyme "like the hymn book," and had not her
husband written it? That was far beyond anything that the neighborhood
could bring to light.
To the son these leaves, sewed together, were a dear legacy and a
touching sign that even among the lowly there is an eternal striving
upward out of the depths and darkness to the heights, to the light, to
beauty.
The harmless, formless outpourings of shoemaker Unwirrsch's soul
were naturally devoted to the phenomena of nature, to the home, his
handicraft, and certain great facts of history, chiefly the deeds and
heroes of the War of Liberation which had just thundered by. They
testified to thought that, in all these directions, was sometimes
charmingly simple-hearted, sometimes lofty. There was a little humor
mixed up in it, but it was the pathetic that was most prominent and,
indeed, most often brought forth the familiar smile. The worthy
Master Anton had experienced so much thunder and lightning, so many
hailstorms, fires and floods, had seen so many Frenchmen, Rhenish
Confederates, Prussians, Austrians and Russians marching past his house
that it was no wonder if now and then he, too, tried his hand a little
at lightning and thunder and smiting dead. This did not cause any
enmity between him and his neighbors, for he remained what he was, a
"good fellow," and when he died he was mourned not alone by his wife,
his brother-in-law Grünebaum and Auntie Schlotterbeck; no, all Kröppel
Street knew and said that a good man had passed away and that it was a
pity.
He had waited long and yearningly for the birth of a son. He often
pictured to himself what he could and would make of him. He transferred
all his earnest striving for knowledge to him; the son should and
must attain to what his father could not. The thousand insurmountable
obstacles which life had thrown in the way of Master Anton should not
halt the career of the future Unwirrsch. He should find his course
clear, and no door of wisdom or of education should be closed to him by
life's labors and hardships.
Thus did Anton dream, and one year after another of his married life
passed. A daughter was born, but she died soon after; and then for a
long time there came nothing, and then--then at last came Johannes
Jakob Nikolaus Unwirrsch, whose entrance into the world has already
given us the material for a number of the foregoing pages and whose
later sufferings, joys, adventures, and travels--in short, whose
destinies will form the greater part of this book.
We saw the brother-in-law and uncle, Grünebaum, lose his slipper,
we saw and heard the tumult of the women, made the acquaintance of
Mrs. Tiebus and Auntie Schlotterbeck;--we saw, finally, the two
brothers-in-law sitting in the storeroom and saw the dusk creeping in
after the eventful sunset. Master Anton lived one more year after the
birth of his son and then died of pneumonia. Fate treated him as she
does many another: she gave him his share of joy in his hopes, and
refused him their fulfillment, which, indeed, never can catch up with
fleet-winged hope itself.
Johannes screamed lustily in the hour of his father's death, but not
for his father. But Mrs. Christine cried much for her husband and for
a long time could not be quieted either by Auntie Schlotterbeck's
words of consolation or by the philosophic admonitions of the wise
Master Nikolaus Grünebaum. The latter promised his dying brother-in-law
to do his best for those who were left and to stand by them in all
the crises of life according to his best ability. Once more Anton
Unwirrsch struggled for air, but the air for him was too full of flames
of fire; he sighed and died. The doctor wrote his death certificate;
Mrs. Kiebike, the layer-out, came and washed him, his coffin was ready
at the right time, a goodly train of neighbors and friends accompanied
him to the churchyard, and in the corner, beside the stove, sat Mrs.
Christine, who held her child on her lap and gazed with fixed, red and
swollen eyes at the low black work-stool and the low black work-table
and who still could not believe that her Anton would never again sit
on the one and in front of the other. Auntie Schlotterbeck cleared
away the empty cake plates, bottles and glasses which had been placed,
full, before the mourners, the pall-bearers and the condoling neighbors
to give them strength in their sorrow. Hans Jakob Nikolaus Unwirrsch
crowed with childish joy and stretched out his tiny hands longingly
toward the shining glass globe above his father's table, on which the
sun now fell and which had shed such a remarkable lustre on Anton
Unwirrsch's world of thought. The influence of this globe was long to
continue. The mother had become so accustomed to its light that she
could not dispense with it even after her husband's death; it shone on
far into the son's youth, Johannes heard many a tale of his father's
worth and excellence by its light, and gradually in the son's mind the
image of his father was joined inseparably to the brilliance of this
globe.