He drew a deep breath. Here in the open air the sun shone so
brilliantly, while the house seemed so full of dismal ghosts.
"Good heavens!" said he to himself; "can there be a more terrible lot
than to go creeping and groping through life with unenlightened mind,
like my poor aunt here!--always dreading treachery and deceit, sin and
sorrow; seeing no more of the sunshine, of all the might and beauty of
the world, than if she were blind, like that poor girl!"
A young girl was groping her way along the iron railing that divided
the courtyard from the garden, which was on rather a higher level. She
moved with slow and careful steps, holding in her uplifted left hand a
plate, on which appeared to be slices of bread-and-butter, and with her
right hand outstretched lightly touched every third rail. It was by
these careful movements that Reinhold recognised the blind girl, even
before she stood still, and, slightly raising her head, turned her face
towards the sun. The sun was very powerful, but her eyelids never even
quivered. She had opened her eyes wide, as a flower turns its open
petals to the sun, and lovely as a flower was the expression of the
sweet, pure, child-like features.
"Poor poor Cilli!" murmured Reinhold.
He had remembered the name from last night's conversation, and that the
blind girl was the daughter of Kreisel, Uncle Ernst's head clerk. And
the man who had been standing in the doorway of the low building a
little way off, which from the desks in the windows seemed to be the
counting-house, and now came towards the girl across the intervening
part of the courtyard, must be her father--a little old man with a
perfectly bald head, that shone in the sun like a ball of white marble.
The blind girl instantly recognised his footsteps. She turned her head,
and Reinhold saw the two thick blonde plaits, as they fell so far over
her shoulders that the ends were concealed by the stonework supporting
the railing. She nodded repeatedly to the newcomer, and when he was by
her, bent her head that he might kiss her forehead, and held up the
plate with both hands, from which he took a slice of bread-and-butter
and began to eat at once, at intervals saying a few words, which
Reinhold in the distance could not catch, any more than he could the
girl's answers. But he could have sworn that they were words of love
that were thus exchanged, as from time to time the old man stroked the
blonde hair with his left hand (the right was occupied with the
bread-and-butter), while a happy smile played upon the girl's sweet
face, which he now saw in profile. And now the old gentleman had
finished his second slice of bread-and-butter, and taking a white
handkerchief out of his pocket, he shook it out of its folds and wiped
his mouth with it, then refolded it in its original creases and put it
back in his pocket, while the girl, as before, presented her forehead
for a kiss. The old man hobbled away, and stood in the door waving his
hand; the blind girl waved her hand and nodded in return till he
disappeared, exactly as if she could see what she really only heard
with her acute ear, or calculated by the time it took, it being
evidently a daily habit. Then again she raised her eyes to the sun with
the self-same expression of child-like innocence on the pure face; and
taking in her right hand the plate, which before she had held in her
left hand, retraced her steps as she had come, lightly touching every
third rail with the tips of her fingers.
Reinhold had observed the whole scene without moving. The poor blind
girl could not see him, and the old man had not once looked that way.
Now for the first time he recollected himself. The touching scene had
riveted his attention as though by a charm, and the charm had not left
him, as he followed the blind girl's movements with breathless
attention; mentally he touched each third rail as she did, as though he
himself were groping along by the railing, following her light and
graceful movements step by step. He waited for her reappearance from
behind a white-thorn bush which grew against the railing, and now hid
her from his sight, as a sailor waits for the reappearance of a star
which he is observing, and which, as he gazes, is for some moments
obscured by over-shadowing clouds. But she did not reappear as the
moments passed, and the bush seemed to be moving. Perhaps she was
trying to gather a branch and could not manage it. In a moment he was
through the garden gate and at her side.
A thorn from the bush protruding through the railing had caught hold of
the end of her little white apron as it was blown about by the wind,
and would not let go, though she patiently exerted all her efforts to
extricate it.
"Allow me," said Reinhold.
Before he came up to her she had raised herself from her stooping
attitude, and turned her face towards him, which as he spoke was
suffused with the loveliest blush. But there was not the slightest
trace of embarrassment or terror in the pure features.
"Thank you, Captain Schmidt," said she.
The sweet, melodious tone of her voice harmonised wonderfully with the
bright child-like smile that accompanied the words.
"How do you know, Fräulein Cilli, who it is that is speaking to you?"
said Reinhold, as he stooped down and freed the light material from the
thorn.
"From the same person who told you that my name is Cilli, and that I am
blind--from Justus."
"Will you take my arm, Fräulein Cilli, and allow me to see you home? I
suppose you live in the house that is just in front of us?"
"I walk safer alone; but give me your hand. May I feel it for a
moment?"
She put out a small, soft white hand to him, which Reinhold touched
with a feeling of awe.
"Just what he said," she murmured as though speaking to herself.
"Strong and manly--a good, a true hand."
She let go his hand, and they walked on side by side, she by the
railing again, feeling the rails, he close to her side, never turning
his eyes from her.
"Did Anders tell you that too?" he asked.
"Yes; but your hand would have told me without that. I know people by
their hands. Justus's hand is not so strong, though he works so much;
but it is as good."
"And as true," said Reinhold.
Cilli shook her head with a laugh, that was as sweet and soft as the
twittering of the swallows.
"No, no," said she, "not as true! He cannot be, for he is an artist; so
he can have but one guiding star--his Ideal--that he must look up to
and follow, as the kings followed the star in the East, which going
before them stopped at Bethlehem over the house in which the Saviour
was laid in a manger; but beyond that he must be free, free as the
birds in the branches overhead, free to come and go, free to flit and
flutter and sing to his heart's content."
They had reached the end of the railing. Before them stood the house in
which Cilli lived. She rested the tips of her fingers upon the iron
pillars which ended the railing, and raised her face with a strange
dreamy expression on it.
"I often wish I were an artist," said she; "but I should like better
still to be a sailor. Sometimes I have wonderful dreams, and then I fly
over the earth on wide-spread wings. Below me I see green meadows and
dark forests, and corn-fields waving their golden grain; silver
streamlets wander down the hill-sides and mingle their waters in the
broad rivers which glitter in the light of the sun as it sinks to the
horizon. And as it sinks, and the waters, with the church spires
reflected in them, take a rosy hue, a terrible anguish overwhelms me,
as I feel that it will sink before I can see it--this sun which I have
never seen, of which all I know is that it is above all things
beautiful and great and glorious. And when the sun is so low that in
another moment it must disappear, there lies before me, boundless,
illimitable, the great ocean! It is impossible to describe what I feel
then, but I fancy it must be what the dead feel when they rise to
everlasting joy, or what great and good men feel when they have done
the deed which renders them immortal."
A couple of swallows flitted chirping through the air. The blind girl
raised her sightless eyes.
"They come over the sea, but I cannot, I never can get beyond the
shore, never beyond the shore!"
For the first time a shadow came over the charming face that was
uplifted to Reinhold, but the next moment it was once more lighted up
by the bright, child-like smile.
"I am very ungrateful," said she, "am I not? How many people never see
the sea even in their dreams as I do, and did only last night! Justus
passed our window--we always have lights very late--and he called out
that you had arrived, and were so nice and pleasant, and had told so
many wonderful things about your long voyages. You must tell me about
them. Will you?"
She stretched out her hand to him again.
"Indeed I will," cried Reinhold. "I am only afraid that your dreams are
more, immeasurably more, beautiful than anything I can tell you about."
The blind girl shook her head.
"How strange! that is what papa always says, and even Justus, though he
is an artist, and the whole world lies before him as beautiful as on
the first day of creation, and now you say it, who have seen the whole
world. I can look at the sun without flinching; you must hide your eyes
from its glory. I--I cannot see the loving smile upon my dear father's
face, cannot see the faces of those I love. How can my world be as
glorious and lovely as yours? But of course you only say that not to
make me sad. You need not be afraid; I envy no one. From my heart I can
say that I grudge no man his happiness, especially those who are so
good, so intensely good as my father and Justus!"
The face that was turned to him beamed once more with the brightest
sunshine.
"When once I begin to chatter there is no stopping me, is there? And I
have kept you all this time, when you have so much to do of far greater
importance. I shall see you again."
She gave his hand a slight pressure, and then withdrew her own, which
she had left in his till now, and stepped towards the door, which was
only separated from her by the width of the path which on this side lay
between the garden and the house. Then, however, she stood still again,
and said, half turning over her shoulder:
"Was not Justus right when he said you were kind? You did not smile
when I said I should see you again!"
She went into the house, feeling the door-posts with her finger-tips,
turned once more as she stood on the threshold, nodded, and stepped
into the hall.