Hans Unwirrsch grew hot and cold by turns as Henrietta Trublet told her
story. It was his misfortune that even the most ordinary things excited
him so and that it was so difficult for him to look upon any such
incidents as ridiculous or insignificant. He sat there stupefied until
the French girl suddenly jumped up, stamped her foot passionately and
cried:
"Oh, he 'as treated me badly, but I vill revenge myself ven I can. I
vill interfere, I vill, if it is ze last hour. And I vill go to her--I
vill! I vill tell ze beautiful _Mademoiselle_ who he is--_le juif! le
misérable!_ He shall not 'ave his vill----"
"Kleophea!" cried Hans. "Good God, yes, yes, to be sure! Oh, tell me,
do you know about that? My head swims--I, we, you must go to her, she
must know this. No, no, and again, no, she shall not fall into his
hands; we must save her, even if it is against her own will."
"I did know zat he vas running after ze beautiful young lady, zere in
ze house by ze park; I vas much jealous of her--_pauvre petite_. I 'ave
stood before her vindow and laughed, _O mon Dieu_, and my heart 'as
bled. It vas very bad, it vas very vicked--_pauvre coeur_, I vill save
her from zis man! _Venez, monsieur le curé._"
The evening was cold and dark, the beautiful weather was all gone
and the wind began to move the mists above the ponds and to shake
the twigs. It began to groan and sigh as on the day when Hans had
gone from the university to his mother's deathbed. It rustled in the
distance and whistled nearby, far away the lights and lanterns among
the trees seemed to be thrown back and forth like the boughs. The fiery
reflection of the great city on the dark sky was like the breath of the
terrible, final abyss.
Now, indeed, the pleasure-seeking throng had long since dispersed; rich
and poor had crept out of sight; the shadow-like forms that still slunk
about the paths of the park were not to be trusted; it was well to
avoid them if possible. From a distant pleasure resort the wind brought
the sound of dance music, in fragments. Henriette Trublet walked close
to Hans' side and he gave her his arm as she, exhausted by his hasty
step, fell behind. More and more frequently and brighter the gas
lanterns shone through the trees--there was the street, and there Privy
Councillor Götz's house.
The two wanderers halted a moment.
Only a single window was lighted.
"Zat is not her light! Zat is not her room!" said the French girl.
Hans Unwirrsch shook his head; he could not utter Franziska's name in
this company. Oh that lighted window in the wild, restless, dark night!
Peace and rest;--God's blessing on Fränzchen! The candidate gazed
reverently at the dim glow above them and then gently took hold of the
hand of the poor girl who had again stepped away from his side as they
came out of the gloom of the trees.
"Come, _pauvre enfant_,--we are going on a good errand!" he said.
They walked through the little garden and Hans rang the doorbell. They
had to wait some time before it pleased Jean to open the door. At last
he came and was much amazed to see the tutor's companion, and still
more so at the emphasis with which Hans put an end to his expressions
of amazement.
"Is Miss Götz at home?"
Jean stared, stared and remained silent; but a moment later the
candidate had seized him by the shoulder-strap.
"Why don't you answer me? Announce me at once to Miss Götz--Miss
Kleophea!"
This unheard-of audacity caused the elegant youth to lose his usual
insolent balance for a few moments; and when he regained it at last
his indignation knew no bounds. And the housekeeper appeared and the
ladies' maid; the little kitchen maid looked shyly round a corner in
the background; poor Henriette drew back as far as possible from the
light of the hall lamp into the darkness. Hans, almost ready to die
with annoyance and excitement at all these impudent, doubtful glances,
repeated his request for Kleophea in a raised voice. At that moment
Franziska Götz leaned over the banisters. She carried her small lamp in
her hand.
"Miss Kleophea is not at home," snapped Jean. "Moreover I protest----"
"_Malheur à elle!_" exclaimed the French girl.
"Oh Mr. Unwirrsch, what has happened? What has happened to my cousin?"
cried Fränzchen coming down.
"Isn't she at home? We must speak to her;--Good God, where has she
gone?"
"She did not say; she left the house at dusk."
"Then you must hear, you must tell us what to do. Perhaps it is even
better so."
Franziska too looked wonderingly at the stranger, then she said:
"If I can be of use to you--to my cousin;--Oh, she is going to faint!"
The French girl shook her head.
"No, no, it vill pass quick--_ce n'est rien!_"
"Come up to my room. What has happened? What have you to tell me? Oh,
how pale you are,--lean on my arm."
The French girl shook her head again, she retreated timidly before the
quiet, gracious, innocent figure and turned to Hans.
"If ze ozer is not here, what 'ave I to do in zis house? You tell her,
_monsieur le curé_. I vill not enter in zis house, I vill go."
"No, no--stay, Miss Henriette," cried Hans, but the stranger drew her
shawl closer about her and held out her hand to Hans.
"_Adieu, monsieur le curé_, you are honest man." She turned toward
Fränzchen, bowed her head and whispered slowly and softly, "_Priez pour
moi!--Vous!_"
Franziska laid her hand on her shoulder.
"I do not want to let you go away like this. You are unhappy--and ill;
and you bring evil tidings to this house. Come, lean on my arm; oh
come, Mr. Unwirrsch;--Kleophea will certainly come back soon."
Gently Fränzchen led the poor little French girl upstairs and beckoned
to Hans to follow, while the servants put their heads together, sneered
and shrugged their shoulders.
For the first time Hans entered the room which Franziska occupied
in her uncle's house and his heart trembled much as he crossed the
threshold.
It was like a dream. The moaning wind outside the windows, the rustling
and creaking of the trees, was not all this just as it had been when,
at the Post-horn in Windheim, Fränzchen's sweet face first appeared out
of the darkness, and, for the first time, Lieutenant Rudolf Götz called
Dr. Moses Freudenstein a scoundrel?
What a long time lay between the present anxious evening and that one!
Who was the pale, haggard stranger in the cheap, shabby dress and
shawl? How came she here, in this house? What had she to do with
Fränzchen and what house was this?
Where was the friend of his youth? Where was Moses Freudenstein of
Kröppel Street?
It was, as if the weird, pitiless, cold wind outside gave an answer to
all these questions.
"Woe to you, struggle as you may, ours is the triumph! Ours is the
triumph over spring, over youth, over faithfulness and innocence.
Transitoriness and egoism are your masters! Struggle as you may, it
gives us joy to watch you struggle! The only faithfulness, innocence,
eternity is in--us!"
And again darkness looked threateningly in at the window as if it had
swallowed up every other light and as if, of all the brightness and
brilliance in the world, Fränzchen's little lamp alone were left. Hans
Unwirrsch stood in the narrow circle of light shed by this lamp with
the feeling that here alone there was still refuge in every distress,
satisfaction for all hunger, comfort for all pain. He scarcely dared to
breathe.
An open book and some sewing lay on the table;--Fränzchen had just
risen from that chair and now the strange, abandoned young woman sat
there,--it could not be reality, it must be a delusion, one of the
feverish delusions that had visited him lately.
No, no, that was Fränzchen's soft, sweet voice and Fränzchen had laid
her hand on the shoulder of the poor girl who, with hidden face, was
trembling and sobbing. Fränzchen Götz spoke in good, Parisian French to
poor Henriette Trublet, but still Hans, who knew the language only from
books, knew what she said. And the stranger raised her tearful eyes at
the first sound of her mother tongue, listened with all her soul and
then kissed Fränzchen's hand.
Speaking in her mother tongue she told her sad story for the second
time.
As she went on Franziska looked more and more anxiously at Hans; she
gripped the table against which she was leaning with a trembling hand
and when the Parisian had finished she cried:
"Oh, Mr. Unwirrsch, and Kleophea? Kleophea! Where is Kleophea? If only
she would come--now, now!"
She went to the window and opened it. The wind caught the sash and
nearly tore it from her hand, the lamp flared with the wild gust; the
gas flames at the edge of the park were blown about in their glass
globes, throwing red, uncertain flickering lights on the street,
but the street was empty and a carriage the sound of which seemed
unbearably long in approaching, drove by without stopping.
"And her father, her mother! What is to be done, oh, what is to be
done, Mr. Unwirrsch?"
Hans looked at his watch.
"It is nine," he said. "Calm yourself, Miss Franziska. She certainly
will not stay out much longer; we must be patient and wait, that is all
we can do."
Fränzchen had turned to the stranger; in spite of her anxiety and
excitement she still had comfort enough for poor Henriette. She spoke
to her softly and Henriette kissed her hand again and again. Hans stood
at the window and listened to the soft words of the two women and to
the loud voice of the gale. Now and then a figure passed through the
flickering light of the gas lanterns, several more carriages drove by,
but still Kleophea Götz did not come.
Franziska replenished the fire in the stove. She opened the door and
asked the housekeeper, whose eye and ear had been taking turns at the
keyhole for some time, to bring some tea and something to eat for the
hungry, half fainting stranger. The farther the night advanced the
greater did her anxiety become.
Henriette Trublet ate and drank eagerly, looked once more round the
room with fixed, glassy eyes and then her head sank forward on her
breast--she had fallen asleep.
It was the sleep of complete exhaustion.
"Poor, unfortunate girl!" sighed Franziska. "What a night! What a
terrible night!"
She put her arm round the sleeping girl to keep her from falling; her
locks touched the sinner's brow; and if Hans Unwirrsch had lived to be
a thousand years old he would never have been able to forget the scene.
She looked across to him.
"Oh, please help me, let us lay her down on the divan! Listen--what is
she saying?"
Henriette murmured in her sleep,--perhaps her mother's name--perhaps
that of her patron saint. She did not feel it when Hans picked her up
in his arms and carried her to the little sofa where Fränzchen arranged
the cushions for her and covered her with a cloak and shawl.
It struck eleven o'clock; Kleophea Götz had not come home yet.
"What a night! What a night!" murmured Fränzchen. "What shall we do?
What can we do?"
Suddenly she jumped up and put out both hands as if warding off
something.
"What if she should have gone away, never to come home again? What if
this evening she left her parents' house forever? Oh no, that is too
terrible a thought!"
"She can't have been so bereft of all reason, that is impossible!"
cried Hans. "That would be too terrible; it is impossible!"
"Oh, this deadly fear!" murmured Franziska. "Is that rain?"
It was rain. At first only a few scattered drops pattered against
the panes; but soon came the familiar sound of a drenching, pelting
downpour. The gale drove the rain in gusts across the country, the
broad park and the great city.
"In spite of everything, her mother would never have consented to an
alliance with this--this Dr. Stein," said Franziska. "It is true that
she likes to have him in her drawing room; but she is a proud woman
and thinks that she has already arranged quite a different future for
Kleophea. Shortly before she went away she spoke in her usual manner
of a brilliant match. Oh, it would indeed be the worst misfortune that
could happen if my cousin, with her contradictory spirit, had taken
such a step. Listen--there's another carriage--thank God, there she is!"
They listened again and a moment later Hans shook his head and
Fränzchen sank brokenly onto a chair; Henriette Trublet slept a deep
and sound sleep.
"She would be lost for her whole life!" said Hans to himself, but
Franziska heard the murmured words; she started, shuddered and nodded.
"She would be lost."
"That man would kill her, soul and body. Alas, that it is so and that I
should be the one to have to say it."
Again Fränzchen rose from her chair; she went up to Hans, she laid her
trembling hand on his arm and whispered scarcely audibly:
"Dear Mr. Unwirrsch, I have done you a great wrong. Can you forgive me?
Will you forgive me? I have done heavy, heavy penance for it. It has
cost me many, many tears and wakeful nights. Oh, forgive me for this
distress; forgive me for my uncle's sake."
Hans Unwirrsch staggered as he heard these words.
"Oh, Miss--Franziska," he stammered, "not you, it is not you who have
done me a wrong. We both have been caught in the confused whirl of
this world. Evil powers have played with us and we could not defend
ourselves against them! Is not that the clear and simple truth?"
"It is," said Fränzchen. "We have not been able to defend ourselves."
The rain poured down in streams; the wind shook the window like a wild
beast, but both wind and rain, and the darkness that added to their
terror might do and threaten and say their worst: from then on, even on
this night when Kleophea Götz did not return to her home, they scarcely
seemed dreadful or uncanny any longer. From then on the wind and the
rain and the night were blessings; no longer were they voices from the
abyss, proclaiming destruction--death and the reign of egoism.
It was long after midnight and still Kleophea had not come. Hans and
Fränzchen sat beside the sleeping stranger and talked to each other in
low tones. Ah, they had so much to say!
They did not speak of love,--they did not think of it at all. They
simply spoke of how they had lived; and everything that had seemed so
confused was now so easily untangled; and often a single word made
everything that had been so dark and threatening become light and
simple and consoling.
Franziska Götz talked of her father, and what the daughter told Hans of
him was very different from what Lieutenant Rudolf Götz had said and
even more so from what Dr. Théophile Stein had related. The daughter's
eyes shone as she told how proud and brave her father had been and
how on more than one battlefield he had shed his blood for freedom.
Fränzchen talked of her mother, how lovely and kind she had been, how
much anxiety, unrest and distress she had suffered in her eventful life
without ever complaining and how at last in the year 1836 she had died
a lingering death of consumption. Good little Fränzchen told how deeply
her mother's death had bowed her father and how he had really never
raised his head again joyfully after the funeral. She told how her good
Uncle Rudolf had come to that funeral, an old invalid soldier himself,
with a little bundle and a heavy, knobbed stick. She knew much to tell
of the curious household of the two brothers in Paris and of how so
many old warriors of all nations, Germans, Frenchmen, Poles, Italians,
and Americans came and went in the house and were all so kind to
Fränzchen. She told of the fencing lessons that the two brothers gave
and of how, in a yard outside the barrier, they had taught the young
pupils of the polytechnic school and the students of the Latin Quarter
how to shoot with pistols. She told of the gruff old retired soldiers
of the Old Guard who came to be such good friends with the two Germans
whom they had met at Katzbach, Leipzig and Waterloo, and sat with them
in their attic room smoking and drinking and telling stories like all
the rest.
Then with bent head she told how good Uncle Rudolf had at last grown
homesick for Germany; how he had gone away and then how evil times
followed; times full of misery and trouble, evil, evil days. In a
scarcely audible voice Franziska Götz told how life went worse and
worse with her father, how, one after another, the sources from which
he had drawn aid failed, and how more and more frequently he had sought
comfort in stupefying strong drink and of how, gradually, many bad,
false people had drawn close to him.
Finally Franziska Götz spoke in a low voice of Dr. Théophile, of how he
had lived in the same house with them and how he had tried in the most
abominable way to take advantage of her unhappy father's weakness. She
spoke of her unutterable loneliness, and Hans Unwirrsch bit his lips
and in imagination gripped the throat of Moses Freudenstein of Kröppel
Street with his two good fists to squeeze his soul out of his body.
Franziska told of her father's death and how in her greatest distress
Uncle Rudolf had come again to save her.
Franziska showed Hans a letter from Uncle Theodor and it was really
most remarkable how differently Privy Councillor Götz could write from
the way he looked and spoke.
Lieutenant Rudolf Götz was very poor and had no home to which he could
take his brother's orphan child; and now for the first time Hans learnt
how the good old man lived, how he roved about nomadically, actually
_omnia sua secum portans_ and settled down only in winter with some
one of his comrades in war of the same age as himself, preferably with
Colonel von Bullau in Grunzenow, far off on the shore of the Baltic.
Lieutenant Rudolf could only fetch the orphan from Paris, he could
not offer her a protecting roof. Here now was the letter from Uncle
Theodor which the Privy Councillor's wife had not dictated and which
had not been written under her eyes but only under cover of one of his
documents; and it was this letter which had led the lieutenant to bring
his niece to his brother's house.
"And on the way I was fortunate enough to meet you in the Post-horn in
Windheim," cried Hans. "I was going to my mother's deathbed and Mr.
Götz called Moses a scoundrel, and the gale--and you, oh Miss
Franziska ... Good God, and it is truth and reality that we are sitting
here and waiting for Miss Kleophea!"
They both started at the mention of that name and looked toward the
black windows on which the rain still poured down, which the wind still
shook. They had given up hoping for the return of the unhappy girl.
Henriette Trublet stirred in her sleep and fearfully called the name of
Théophile. Gently and with a merciful hand Franziska replaced the cloak
over the forsaken girl's shoulders and then sat down again.
They went on talking of the evening when they had first met and
Fränzchen told how much the candidate had pleased her Uncle Rudolf and
of how often he had spoken of him during their journey. Hans told about
his mother's death, of his Uncle Grünebaum and Auntie Schlotterbeck
and took the latter's last letter out of his pocket-book to show it to
Fränzchen. He told of how Dr. Théophile had read that letter while he,
Hans Unwirrsch, lay ill with fever; he told how a dreadful glance and
flash had shown him Dr. Théophile in all his malice and duplicity.
Fränzchen now unlocked a little box and showed the tutor a whole series
of letters from Uncle Rudolf--all of them nearly as illegible as Uncle
Grünebaum's epistles and the last few all written from Grunzenow on
the Baltic. Since summer the lieutenant had been lying, in great pain
with gout, in Colonel von Bullau's house in Grunzenow and Fränzchen
confessed with tears in her eyes that she had written her poor uncle
only joyful, cheerful and contented letters and that she could not have
written differently for anything in the world. At that Hans would have
liked to kiss her brave, soothing little hand again and again; but he
did not dare to, and it was better so. Angry at himself, however, he
deeply repented the doubtful blessings that at times he had called down
on the absent lieutenant's head. He regretted them deeply, especially
when he read the lieutenant's letters in which the old warrior
confessed plaintively that he would rather run away with the devil's
grandmother than ever again introduce and smuggle into his "gracious
sister-in-law's" house a tutor after his, though not after the devil's,
own heart.
"You won his whole heart that evening," said Fränzchen. "He talked of
you so much on our journey, and I--I did not forget you altogether
either in the years that followed. Oh, I had much time and great need
to think of all those who had treated me with friendliness. Oh, Mr.
Unwirrsch, we have neither of us been able to live happily in this
house, but still my lot was the harder to bear. I have often been
terribly, terribly hungry for a friendly face, a friendly word. I would
gladly have gone away to earn my own bread, but my aunt would not hear
of that. But you know all about it, Mr. Unwirrsch,--why should we say
any more about it? It is wrong too, to think only of ourselves at this
moment."
"It is not wrong," cried Hans with unaccustomed vehemence. "Oh, Miss
Franziska, we may certainly talk of ourselves in this hour; the hard,
cold world has thrust us back to the very core of our lives,--we may
talk of ourselves, in order to save ourselves. This night will pass, a
new day will come. What will it bring _us_? In all probability it will
plunge us into an entirely new state of things. How will it be tomorrow
in this house? I shall have to go; but you--you, Miss Franziska, what
will you have to do and suffer? How gloomy, how drearily bleak and dead
this house will be tomorrow! Any other existence would be blissful
compared with life in this house! Oh, Franziska--Miss Fränzchen,
write tomorrow to your uncle, to the lieutenant; or--or let me write
to him! Don't stay here; don't stay in this house; its atmosphere is
deadly--Oh, Fränzchen, Fränzchen, let me write to Lieutenant Götz!"
Franziska shook her head gently and said:
"I must stay. If I could not go before there is all the more reason
why I may not go now. I have not been happy in this house but still it
has given me shelter, and Uncle Theodor--Oh no, how could I leave poor
Uncle Theodor now? My head swims now, to be sure; but I must stay--I am
not mistaken, that is the right thing for me to do and I will not do
anything wrong. Dear friend, I must not write to Uncle Rudolf to take
me away from here, and you must not do so either. I know that that is
right."
Hans Unwirrsch dared to do it--he kissed the gentle, loyal little hand
that was stretched out to him so shyly and yet with such unconquerable
power. Hot tears ran down his cheeks.
Yes, she was right. She was always right. Blessings on her! On this
stormy night, this night of misery and ruin, she sat like a beautiful,
lovely miracle beside the foreign girl and laid her pure, innocent hand
on the latter's hot, feverish brow; yes, indeed, she was merciful and
of great kindness and she would have to remain in this desolate house;
that was certainly right!
It was long past two o'clock.
"Let us part now, dear friend," said Fränzchen. "She has not come
home,--she has taken her destiny into her own hands; may God have mercy
on her and protect her on her way. Let us part now, dear friend; I will
watch over this poor girl here and tomorrow morning we will talk over
the rest."
"Tomorrow morning," said Hans. "It seems to me as if this night would
never come to an end. I am afraid of the morning for, in spite of all
my doubts, I know that it will come. Oh, Miss Fränzchen, it has been a
long and yet a short, short night. It has been terrible and yet full of
sweetness. God bless you, Franziska. Oh, what shall I say to you,--how
shall we be when the new day has come?"
Franziska lowered her head and gave Hans Unwirrsch her hand in silence.
They parted from each other troubled and blissful. They could not yet
quite grasp the blessing which this dark, weird night had brought them
both. They parted, and their hearts beat loudly.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS XXIV TO XXXIII
[The morning came shrouded in gray mist. Hans and Fränzchen stepped to
the windows shivering. They had not slept; they drew long breaths and
greeted the gray light thankfully. They were no longer alone;--Hans and
Fränzchen had gained a great, great deal in the night in which Kleophea
Götz had left her home.
At seven o'clock the French girl waked from her deathlike slumber and
began to cry violently. Fränzchen spoke to her soothingly and then
began to talk earnestly and urgently of the future. Sobbingly Henriette
replied that she wanted to go home to her own country and to be good
and work hard and make her own living according to God's will. And
Fränzchen Götz put all her worldly treasures into the girl's hands and
then--_monsieur le curé_ knocked at the door and added his father's
venerable and curious watch to what Franziska had given, as well as a
purse containing five hard thalers and a few small coins.
At eight o'clock Henriette Trublet stepped out again from the Privy
Councillor's house accompanied by Hans and Franziska as far as the
garden gate. At parting she raised her lowered head and said: "The good
God vill reward you for vat you have done for me. I vill zink of you
alvays and alvays. I vill go and I vill not tire. I vill seek zem and
find. _Malheur à lui!_"
Then she disappeared in the thick fog. The postman came up hurriedly
and handed Hans a letter from Kleophea addressed to her father.
Hans quietly beckoned to the man-servant: "We have a message to go
immediately to your master. How long will you need to take a letter
there?" Jean thought that with good horses he could get there by one
o'clock. At nine he drove away with a package containing Kleophea's
letter and another from Franziska;--by four o'clock the parents could
be home. They came between three and four.
Hans Unwirrsch stood at the window and saw the Privy Councillor's
mud-bespattered carriage driving up. In the house, doors were opened
and slammed; the carriage stopped, and servants rushed out, Jean
jumped down to open the door. Privy Councillor Götz stepped out first
followed by his wife, deeply veiled; she led her boy by the hand and
went into the house with a quick, noisy tread without paying any
attention to her niece who had hurried up. As he stood in front of
the door the Councillor swayed for a moment as if overcome by sudden
dizziness; he pushed Jean's arm away and gripped Franziska's hand.
Leaning on her he went slowly and unsteadily up the steps. Thus he met
Hans, past whom his wife had also swept like a tempest. He gave the
tutor his hand, which trembled as with fever. And as at that moment his
wife's bell rang sharply through the house, he grasped Fränzchen's arm
more tightly and whispered: "My poor child, poor Kleophea! It could not
have ended differently--poor Kleophea!"
With tears in his eyes Hans Unwirrsch stood at the foot of the stairs
and watched Fränzchen as she supported and led the broken man.
* * * * *
It was nine o'clock on the morning of the sixth of October and it was
raining so hard that all the dogs let their ears droop and put their
tails between their legs. At the corner of Grinse Street appeared the
unhappy individual who was hunting for lodgings in such weather, Mr.
Johannes Unwirrsch, candidate for the ministry, from Kröppel Street
in Neustadt. It was by no means pleasant to be turned out of doors in
such weather but in Grinse Street he found what he was seeking--an
attic room at a remarkably low price and he moved in on the spot
without making use of his right to remain in the house of Mrs. Privy
Councillor Götz till the end of the year. He fetched his belongings and
settled himself in his new quarters. If the feeling of being his own
master was not altogether without a tinge of melancholy it was still
most refreshing. When Hans sank down on a chair in front of his table
a feeling of comfort came over him such as he had not known since his
student days.
The bell that rang so shrilly through the house as Kleophea's father
staggered to his room gave the household very definite information
as to the mother's mood. Paroxysms and faints had been the first
consequence of Kleophea's letter; during the drive to town Mrs. Götz
had sat in the corner of the carriage in a state of brooding apathy;
on her arrival at home her passion had broken out into a wild fury.
Mrs. Privy Councillor Götz raged; and it was dangerous to go near her.
It was not her daughter's fate, but the _éclat_ which the dreadful
event would make, doubtless was already making, that almost drove the
mother mad. She shrieked at the tutor that it was his fault that the
disgraceful traitor, Dr. Stein, the Jew, had ever come into the house.
She gave him all the blame for the horrible scandal. Hans defended
himself to the best of his ability but it was impossible to maintain
any position of right where this woman was concerned. Utterly exhausted
he went up to his room to pack his trunk: he was to leave the house the
very next morning.
At eight o'clock the next day the Privy Councillor sent for him.
Kleophea's father had become a weak, sick man. With surprising,
heartfelt emotion he took the candidate's hand, expressed regret that
he had to leave, thanked him for the faithful service that he had
wanted to do his son, and for not having left before, as well as for
the manner in which he had represented the house. He informed Hans that
Kleophea had gone to Paris and that he had written to give her his
blessing on her marriage. He had not been able to do otherwise. As soon
as Dr. Stein should have explained his puzzling intentions more clearly
he would have to treat with his wife, as all their property was hers.
Fränzchen slipped into the room, embraced her afflicted uncle with
tears and promised to stay with him and to hold fast to him. She smiled
through her tears and her uncle kissed the little hand that lay between
his dry, cold fingers.
Then they talked of the candidate's plans, the Privy Councillor paid
him the vast sum owing him for the last term and Hans was glad that
Fränzchen was thus able to see that, in spite of his dismissal, he
would not yet be exposed to a miserable death from starvation. He
declared that he intended to spend the winter in the city as a free man
and--to write a book.
Hans left the house gladly, but he parted from these two people with a
very heavy heart.
After Hans had taken possession of his room and his trunk had received
its place in the corner, he bolted the door and counted out on the
table the fabulous sum of one hundred and twenty-five thalers. Every
piece of silver turned into one of the stones with which he built his
castle in the air and the notes did beautifully for the roof. It was
an indescribable pleasure to go out in the rain and purchase a bottle
of ink, half a ream of writing paper and the pens necessary for the
literary work.
He soon recognized, however, that he could not sit down at once
to begin the manuscript of the "Book of Hunger." Now that he was
physically at rest the tumult in his soul began and the ghosts, once
roused, made a mockery of all attempts to lay them. For three days Hans
remained locked in his room, thought over the gain and the loss of the
past year and arrived at the result that the gain exceeded the loss. On
the evening of the third day the weather improved and he went out to
get some fresh air. Naturally his way led him to Park Street past the
house of the Privy Councillor. It looked unutterably dead and lifeless
to Hans. Shivering, he hurried home and tried to begin his manuscript,
but after a good hour he laid the first page of his "book" aside with
no mark on it but three crosses that he had drawn. The next morning he
wrote one page, but tore it up again in the evening. On the twentieth
of October he tore up the first sheet of the manuscript and found
himself in a mood which did not justify "high hopes for the future." He
also counted his supply of money and gradually the conviction dawned in
his mind that one of the main wings of his castle in the air was near
collapse and that the foundation of the building was insecure.
On the twenty-first of October the postman brought him a letter
which upset him completely and made the completion of the manuscript
altogether questionable. For the second time Uncle Nik'las Grünebaum
called him to a deathbed, this time to that of faithful Auntie
Schlotterbeck. At five the next morning Hans was on his way to
Neustadt, that is to say, at this early hour, some time before the
departure of his train, he stood shivering in front of the iron garden
gate in Park Street, taking dumb leave of the Privy Councillor's house.
Fränzchen still slept and dreamt. In her dream she heard a noise like
that of the sea and some one whom she did not recognize in her dream,
said it was the sea.
The following morning Hans arrived in Neustadt. He had made the last
part of the way on foot. Now he stood in front of the door of his house
and stared into the hall and saw four candles burning round a coffin.
Auntie Schlotterbeck was dead and had left greetings and many messages
for him with Uncle Grünebaum. The coffin had been closed that morning
and the funeral was to be at four in the afternoon. Everything had gone
on as it should and still Hans could not comprehend that it must be so.
There was Uncle Grünebaum. At first he did not recognize his nephew;
he had become a decrepit, half childish old man, sat in the corner and
whined and asked for Auntie. It was only gradually that he came to a
clearer consciousness of the events of the last few days.
Auntie Schlotterbeck had passed away gently and without pain after
impressing on Uncle Grünebaum to tell Hans that she had loved him very,
very much, that he had always been in her thoughts, that he could never
leave her thoughts and that in her eternal life she would pray for him
that it might go well with him in his life on earth. Moreover, she had
said to tell him that the thing about which he was now worrying would
end well though she could not say in what way.
A remarkable number of people accompanied Auntie Schlotterbeck to the
grave and Hans led Uncle Grünebaum directly behind the hearse. After
the funeral many came to shake hands with the mourners.
When Johannes and his uncle were once more at home Uncle Grünebaum sat
down in Auntie Schlotterbeck's armchair and went to sleep with grief
and fatigue.
For the first time Hans was left to himself and sat looking about in
the room. His father's glass globe was in its place and the rays of the
evening sun fell upon it. In the dusk Uncle Grünebaum suddenly rose
up out of his chair, called all shoemakers together in a strangely
uncanny voice, took farewell of Hans, greeted Auntie Schlotterbeck and
collapsed as he spoke the words: "Amen, the boot is finished." He had
followed Auntie Schlotterbeck.
And again Hans stood on God's acre, but this time he was quite alone.
The few who had followed the hearse had dispersed. Beneath the mounds
lay the guardians of his youth and he would have liked to go down after
them into the depths.
But out of the gloom and the depression that surrounded him there came
a gentle figure. This figure held him back and for her sake he said
that his time was not yet come.
A schoolfellow who had studied law settled the matter of Hans' property
for him. The house in Kröppel Street was put up at auction, the
movables were sold; he kept nothing but the glass globe. The day came
when Hans Unwirrsch had nothing more to do in his native town. The
attorney accompanied him to the post-house, saw him drive away and a
quarter of an hour later thought of him no more.
Hans arrived in Grinse Street in the middle of the night and the next
morning the landlady gave him Colonel von Bullau's card which he had
left there for the candidate with a message asking him to go to the
"Green Tree" where he would learn more.
Hans appeared at the "Green Tree" before breakfast, only to hear that
Colonel von Bullau was no longer there, that the landlord knew nothing,
and that he had better come again in the evening when the other
gentlemen would be there. He did so and was greeted with a "Hullo!" by
half a dozen "slayers of nine." From the captain he learned that he
was ordered to Grunzenow, to Comrade Götz, that the colonel had wanted
to take him with him at once and had been not a little put out at not
finding him in his burrow. They were to send him on. He might do a good
deed for Comrade Götz, who seemed to be tied to his chair and to be in
great distress on account of the little girl, his niece, whom he had
brought from Paris a few years before.
To Grunzenow, to Grunzenow! All Hans' exhaustion had disappeared. Yes,
that was the right thing, to go to Grunzenow, to Lieutenant Rudolf.
There advice and help were to be had; that was the starting point from
which to untangle all these knots. The "Hunger Pastor" had not been so
light-hearted for a long time as in this hour.
The same evening he told his landlady of his intended journey. He also
made a vain attempt to see the Privy Councillor. Jean answered him
insolently, his master was not at home. The card which he left did not
reach its destination either.
This time the candidate's way was northeasterly and however fast the
wheels of the cars went round they did not take hungry Hans forward
quickly enough. He longed with too great a longing for Grunzenow and
the gouty old "beggar lieutenant." Toward the end of the second day he
reached a small town in a bleak, unfruitful, heather-covered region.
Why it should have been called Freudenstadt was more than anyone had
been able to discover. This was as far as the "Post" went with which
Hans had traveled since the morning. Hans was able to get a carriage
from the landlord of the "Polish Buck" where Colonel von Bullau
sometimes came, but he walked the last part of the way, toward the sea.
Louder and louder sounded the voice of the sea. He climbed one more
hill and it lay before him spread out in the pale evening light and the
fog swallowed up the horizon and rolled across the water to the bleak
shore on which, farther down below to the right, the lights in the
cottage windows of Grunzenow gleamed red.
Hans had not imagined the sea thus. In his dreams it had appeared
to him in broad daylight, immeasurable, shining with the greatest
brilliance known on earth;--and now this too was different, but still
he was so overpowered that he had to press his hand to his heart and
his breath choked him.
Hans was met at the big gate of the castle of Grunzenow, in which it
looked barbarous enough, by Colonel von Bullau, who took him across a
rather extensive court, up a broad stairway and with one push of his
hand landed him in the middle of the apartment where Lieutenant Götz
and an aged, clerical gentleman were sitting at a table covered with
glasses and cards.
The lieutenant had changed very much, he had grown much older in the
short time. His legs were packed up in cushions and covers and his left
foot rested heavily on a low footstool. Impatiently he asked for news
of his child, his Fränzchen. The colonel introduced the candidate to
the vicar, Pastor Josias Tillenius. Old Josias' step was firm; his eyes
were still keen and clear, his face was rather reddish to be sure, but
his hair was the whiter on that account. He was a real seamen's pastor
and well able to stand a good gale; he was in thorough keeping with the
seasoned colonel and Lieutenant Rudolf. They were a curious trio and
the housekeeping too was odd and mad enough.
[Illustration: THE LOVER OF CACTI
_Permission Franz Hanfstaengl_ KARL SPITZWEG]
The lieutenant reproached Hans bitterly for not having taken care of
Fränzchen, for having let the wolf into the house and then, after
the Jew had made off with Kleophea, for not having made a stand but
allowing himself to be driven away, and for having shaken the dust
off his feet. Hans defended himself like a man, declared that the
lieutenant had thrown him into all the confusion and trouble, had
expected him to play a part without telling him what it was, had never
explained why he had spoken so harshly of Hans' boyhood companion. He
went on to say that the lieutenant was wholly to blame and that his
niece must have thought him, the tutor, as deceitful and hypocritical
as Moses Freudenstein. The lieutenant had made Hans wretched and
unhappy beyond measure and was not entitled to ask the latter for more
justification than he himself was ready to give. In this speech Hans
Unwirrsch of Kröppel Street showed that he had not spent his years of
apprenticeship in vain. The three had laid aside their clay pipes and
stared at the speaker as if they were looking at something perfectly
new.
The lieutenant gave a deep-drawn sigh, took Hans' hand and said that he
would gladly ask his forgiveness if he had unknowingly done him wrong.
He asked him to tell him the next day exactly how life had gone with
him in his brother's house. Deeply touched Hans clasped the trembling
hand. He had still so much to say to the old man. He had to tell him
that he must thank him on his knees for all the trouble, care, all
the discord, grief and pain that he had laid upon his soul. He had to
tell him that he, the hungry Hans Unwirrsch, had to thank him, the
faithful old Eckart, Rudolf Götz, for his finest, noblest hunger, his
finest, noblest longing. He had so much to tell him about himself and
Fränzchen, but it could not be done then; the right moment had not yet
come.
Weeks now passed in which Candidate Unwirrsch became better acquainted
with the sea, the village of Grunzenow, Colonel von Bullau and Pastor
Josias Tillenius, and in which he had to answer hundreds and hundreds
of questions put to him by Lieutenant Rudolf Götz. Colonel von Bullau
showed him the scenery of the wild region; Pastor Tillenius taught him
to know the people who inhabited this arid, unfruitful soil, who lived
solely on what they could wrest from the grasp of the sea, and whom
the constant, hard, dangerous struggle with the grim and changeable
moods of that element had made so serious, silent, harsh and enduring.
It almost seemed like a dream to the candidate that he had wanted to
write a "Book of Hunger" surrounded by the atmosphere and brilliance
of green meadows and hopeful cornfields. Now he stood in an entirely
different world, where to be a pastor would indeed be to "preach in the
wilderness" and the hard ground beneath his feet gave forth an entirely
different tone from that of the sacred soil of Neustadt or the hardwood
floors and the pavements of the great city.
Hans came to be a daily visitor in the pastor's house. He found old
Josias closely veiled in tobacco smoke, well wrapped up in his dressing
gown, eagerly looking through ancient folios for ancient theology so
as to keep up with the current. The old man had seen and lived through
much in his youth as he had gone out as an army chaplain against the
French in 1793. Bullau and Tillenius had lain together in front of many
a camp fire; later they sat with each other at an indoor fireside.
The owner of the castle felt just as comfortable sitting by the stove
in the pastor's house as the pastor felt at the castle fireside, and
the nomadic Lieutenant Götz completed the trio and the comfort, and
he was very much missed when his restless blood drove him abroad. In
the course of the pastor's long life and ministry he had gradually
built up, without suspecting it, his own theology, his own system as
regarded views of the world and of God and there were things in it
which caused the candidate to look up, often with emotion, often with
astonishment, very often with amazement. It was as if he were looking
into a mirror when Hans Unwirrsch looked into the life of this aged man
whose colleagues farther back in the rich fertile country called him
the "Hunger Pastor," thus giving him in earnest the same name that Dr.
Théophile Stein, in Mrs. Götz's drawing room, had once bestowed in fun
on the friend of his youth.
On the nineteenth of December Lieutenant Götz read in the paper
that Privy Councillor Götz had died of a shock on the tenth. His
excitement and agitation on Fränzchen's account were great. At Colonel
von Bullau's urgent suggestion Hans was sent to bring the child to
Grunzenow after he had confessed that he loved Fränzchen and would
cling to her as to nothing else in the world.
At first Lieutenant Rudolf had not known whether to laugh or to cry,
to bless or to curse. But the pastor had laid his hand on his shoulder
and said: "I should simply let him go and fetch his Fränzchen; he
shall be my assistant in the 'Hunger parish'; their children shall
keep our graves green." At parting the old man drew Hans' attention
to the peculiar conditions under which one had to labor in the parish
of Grunzenow; he pointed out to him that he must be patient and stout
of heart who on this dreary shore, where even one's sermons had to
echo the voices of the sea, would be a true shepherd for the lonely
fisherfolk, and that only the holiest hunger for love could make a man
strong enough for that place on earth. And Hans, who had given his
heart to Fränzchen Götz, now gave his soul to the hungry shores of
Grunzenow.
On the evening of the second day of his journey Hans reached the city.
He went first to the house in Park Street but not a single window was
lighted. Full of agitation he sought the "slayers of nine" in the
"Green Tree" and from them he learnt that Franziska Götz was no longer
in her aunt's house; she had left it or had had to leave it on the day
of her uncle's funeral. The widow with her little boy had retired to
the house of a very old and very pious relative and there was a rumor
that she was much dissatisfied with the world and not in the best of
humor. We cannot describe how the candidate spent the rest of this
night.
Nevertheless he rang the bell in Park Street early the next morning,
but the house remained dumb and dead. Only the postman came with a
letter from Kleophea which he dropped back into his leather bag with a
shrug of the shoulders. It was addressed to Kleophea's father and bore
the postmark, Paris.
At police headquarters Hans learnt that Franziska Götz now lived at 34
Annen Street, fourth floor, with a widow named Brandauer, a laundress.
A quarter of an hour later he was sitting in silence beside Fränzchen,
with both of her hands in his and the most important thing had been
said: he had even kissed the girl. They had so much to say to each
other that could not be told in a day or a week or a month. Fränzchen
related that on the third day after Kleophea's flight her mother had
come out of her apartments again, had forbidden anyone to mention her
daughter's name in her hearing and in full sight of the household had
torn up the letter Kleophea had written just after she left. She had
done with her child forever.
Kleophea had written to Fränzchen and parts of her letter sounded
forced and embarrassed; she begged her to kiss Papa and to tell him
that she thought of him "so much, so much." She did not speak of her
mother once and there was no mention of Dr. Stein till just at the end.
Franziska too had written with a bleeding heart to Kleophea about her
father and mother and asked her cousin never to forget in case of need
that Fränzchen was still there to feel with her, to suffer with her, to
comfort and if possible to help.
Then they talked of Uncle Theodor's death. On the ninth of December at
eight o'clock in the morning Jean had found his master fully dressed
in his black frock coat, with his white tie, sitting at his writing
table, dead. On the table under his cold hand which in its cold grasp
still held the pen lay a sheet of paper on which were the words: "I
forgive----" Death had overtaken him before he could write whom and
what he forgave.
It was a miracle of miracles to sit thus hand in hand high up in Annen
Street at Mrs. Brandauer's, while it began to snow again. In spite
of the fresh graves, in spite of poor Kleophea, Hans and Fränzchen
became more and more permeated with the secure calm of happiness. Frau
Brandauer asked Hans to stay to dinner and it turned out that there
was nothing to prevent Fränzchen from following Hans to Grunzenow the
next day on the noon train. And at that hour next day they were really
sitting side by side in the train.
It was the twenty-fourth of December. That was the right day on which
to be hurrying toward home. The post-coach and the way to Freudenstadt
were, in truth, enchanted. There at the door of the old post-house
stood Colonel von Bullau and welcomed with a hurrah the child of
Lieutenant Rudolf's heart, his darling, his pet, Fränzchen Götz. An
opulent lunch was waiting in the "Polish Buck" and then with a joyful
hurrah off they went over the smooth course to Grunzenow. In the castle
they had "let in the womenfolk" who had ruled for three days with
torrents of water and broomsticks. Now everything was ready. A gigantic
snowman stood in the court and kept watch in front of a portal of honor
made of evergreens and bearing a transparency that bade Fränzchen and
Candidate Unwirrsch welcome. The little room in the vicarage which
the future assistant Hans Unwirrsch was to occupy had also been swept
and scrubbed and arranged for him. Then came the hour when all the
Christmas trees in Germany blazed with light--the right hour in which
to move into a new life with joy-filled, grateful hearts. The gate of
the castle of Grunzenow stood wide open. Grimly the lanterns burned in
the eyes and mouth of the snowman--welcome! shouted the triumphal arch
in fiery letters--welcome! roared the rough voices of the servants. The
cannon crashed, the dogs barked--Lieutenant Rudolf Götz held his child
in his arms and nearly crushed and smothered her.
There was the grand old hall of the house of Grunzenow! The tile stoves
radiated heat,--an enormous Christmas tree shone in the light of a
hundred wax candles--Christmas, Christmas! The house of Grunzenow had
not seen such a Christmas for a hundred years.
Fränzchen Götz sat under the Christmas tree surrounded by the three old
men, and it was a pretty scene; Hans Unwirrsch smiled, but he smiled
through tears. If next morning he should not wake in Grinse Street the
circle of his happiness would be complete.]