her young life in a place where nobody knew her. But she followed
without a murmur where Sali led her. Was he not everything in the world
to her now? The so-called Paradise Garden was a house of entertainment
situated in a beautiful spot, lying all by itself at the side of a
mountain from which one had a view far over the whole country. But on
holidays like this only the poorer classes, the children of small
farmers and of day laborers, even vagrants, used to resort to it. A
hundred years before a wealthy man of queer habits had built it as a
summer villa for himself, and nobody had succeeded him as tenant, and
since the house could not be used for anything else, the whole place
after a while began to decay, and so finally it got into the hands of
an innkeeper who managed it in his own peculiar way.
The name alone and the style of architecture had remained. The house
itself consisted of but one story, and on top of that an open loggia
had been erected, the roof of which was borne on the four corners by
statues of sandstone. These were meant for the four archangels and were
wholly defaced. At the edge of the roof could be seen all about small
angels carved of the same material and all of them playing some musical
instrument, the angels themselves showing monstrous heads and big
paunches, fiddling, touching the triangle, blowing the flute, striking
the cymbal or the tambourine; these instruments had originally been
gilt. The ceiling inside and the low sidewalls, as well as all the rest
of the house were still covered with rather dingy fresco paintings, and
these represented dancing and singing saints. But all of it had
suffered from the weather and the rain, and was now as indistinct and
chaotic as a dream itself. And besides, all over the walls clambered
grapevines, and at this time of year purplish ripening grapes peeped
forth from between the foliage. All about the house itself there stood
chestnut trees, and gnarled big rosebushes, growing wildly after a
fashion of their own, just as lilac bushes would grow elsewhere.
The loggia served as dance hall, and as Vreni and Sali came in sight of
the building they could notice the dancing couples turning around and
around under the open roof, and outside, under the trees, drinking,
shouting and noisy men and women were disporting themselves. It was a
merry throng.
Vreni, who was carrying in her hand, demurely and almost piously, her
wonderful gingerbread palace, resembled one of those ancient and
sainted church patronesses sometimes seen in missals, with a model of
the cathedral or other devout foundation displayed which would earn her
the Church's benediction. But as soon as she heard the wild music that
came down in a tumbling stream from the loggia, the poor thing forgot
her grief. Suddenly all alive she demanded rapturously that Sali should
dance with her. They pushed their way through all these people that
were crowding the environs of the house and the lower floor, these
being mostly ragged people from Seldwyla, with some who had been making
a cheap excursion into the country, and all sorts of homeless vagrants.
Then they ascended the stairs and at once after arriving on top they
seized each other and were whirling away in a lively waltz. Not an eye
did they give to their surroundings until the music came to a temporary
halt. Then they stopped and turned around. Vreni had crushed her
gingerbread house, and was just going to shed a few tears on that
account when she noticed the black fiddler, and now felt a veritable
terror.
He was seated near them, upon a bench which itself stood upon a big
table, and he looked just as black and tawny as ever. But to-day he
wore a bunch of green holly and pine in his funny little hat, and at
his feet there stood a big bottle of claret and a tumbler, and he did
not in the least touch either of these with his feet, although he was
forever kicking up his legs to keep the tune while fiddling. Next to
him sat a handsome young man with a French horn, but the young man
looked melancholy, and a hunchback there also was, standing next a bass
viol. Sali also had a fright in seeing the black fiddler, but the
latter greeted them both in the friendliest manner and called out to
them: "You see I knew that some day I should play to your dancing, just
as I said when I last met you. And now, you darlings, I trust you'll
have a good time, and take a drink with me."
He offered the full glass to Sali, who accepted it, emptied it and
thanked the fiddler. And when he saw that Vreni was badly scared at
seeing him, he did his best to reassure her, and jested with her in a
rather nice way, until he had made her laugh. Thereupon Vreni recovered
her courage, and both of them felt rather glad that they had an
acquaintance there and were in a certain sense standing under the
special protection of the black fellow. Then they danced steadily,
forgetting themselves and the whole world in the constant twirling,
singing, shouting and general noise, a noise which rolled down the hill
and over the whole landscape which gradually began to be shrouded in a
silvery autumn haze. They danced until twilight, when most of the merry
guests disappeared, unsteady on their feet and shouting at the top of
their voices. Those still remaining were the vagrants and stragglers,
houseless and strongly inclined to turn night into day. Amongst these
there were some who seemed on very friendly terms with the black
fiddler and who for the most part looked outlandish because of oddities
of costume. There was, for instance, a young man in a green corduroy
jacket and a tattered straw hat, who wore around the crown of the
latter a wreath of wild scarlet berries. He again had with him a savage
sort of female who wore a skirt of cherry-red chintz and had a hoop
made of young grapevine tied around her temples, so that at each side
of her face hung a bunch of grapes. This couple was the jolliest of
all, to be met with everywhere, and was dancing and singing without a
stop. Then there was a slender, graceful girl there, wearing a thin
silk dress and a white cloth on her head, the ends of which fell on her
shoulders. The cloth had evidently once been a napkin or towel. But
below this doubtful cloth there glowed a pair of magnificent eyes of
deep violet hue. Around her neck this extravagant person wore a sixfold
chain of the same autumnal berries, and this ornament suited her
complexion marvelously well. This strange woman was dancing perpetually
with none but herself, whirling almost unintermittently, with great
grace and a very light step, refusing every partner that offered
himself. Every time she passed in her dancing the sad hornblower she
smiled, and the musician turned away his head.
Some other gay women or girls there were, together with their escorts,
all of them poorly or fantastically clad, but with all that they
assuredly enjoyed themselves greatly, and there seemed to be perfect
accord among them all. When it had turned completely dark the host
refused to furnish light for illumination, since the wind would blow
the candles out anyway, and besides the full-moon would be out in a
short spell, and for the present company, he claimed, the moonlight was
ample. This declaration, instead of being opposed, caused general
satisfaction among this mongrel crowd; they all stood up at the open
sides of the dance hall and watched the moon rise in her full splendor,
and when the new golden light flooded the wide hall, dancing was
resumed with great earnestness. And so quiet, good-natured and
well-mannered was it done as if they were turning under the light of a
hundred wax candles. This singular light, too, made them all more
intimately acquainted with each other, as though they had known them
for years, and thus it was that Sali and Vreni could not very well
avoid mingling with the rest and dancing with other partners. But
whenever they had been separated for just a short while they flew and
rejoined the other without delay, and felt delighted thereat. Sali made
a sad face at this, and when dancing with another person would turn
toward Vreni. But she would not notice that, but would glide along like
a fairy, her features transfigured with pleasure, and her whole soul
enraptured with the swaying motions of the dance, no matter who her
partner.
"Are you jealous, Sali?" she asked smilingly, when the musicians took a
longer rest.
"Not the least," he replied.
"Then why are you so angry when I'm dancing with somebody else?" she
wanted to know.
"I am not angry because of that," he said, "but only because I am
forced to dance with another person but you. I cannot feel pleasant
towards another girl. In fact, I feel just as though I had a block of
wood in my arms if it is anybody but you. And you? How do you feel
about that?"
"Oh, I feel as though I were in heaven so long as I merely can dance
and know that you are present," replied Vreni. "But I believe I should
at once fall down dead if you went and left me here by myself."
They had gone down from the dance hall and were now standing in the
grounds before the house. Vreni put both her arms around his neck,
pressed her slender trembling body against him, and put her burning
cheek, wet from hot tears, to his, sobbing out: "We cannot marry, and
yet I cannot leave you, not for a moment, not for a minute."
Sali embraced the girl, pressed her ardently against his heart, and
covered her with kisses. His confused thoughts were struggling for some
way out of the labyrinth that encompassed them both, but he saw none.
Even if the blot of his family misery and his neglected education were
not weighing against him, his extreme youth and his ardent passion
would have prevented a long period of patience and self-denial, and
then there would still have been his misfortune in having injured
Vreni's father for life. The consciousness that happiness for himself
and her was, after all, to be found only in a union honest, blameless
and approved by the whole world, was just as much alive in him as in
Vreni. In her case as in his, two beings ostracized by all, these
reflections were like the last flaring up of their lost family honor,
an honor that had been blazing for centuries in their respectable
houses like a living flame, and which their fathers had involuntarily
extinguished and destroyed by a misdeed which at the time had been
committed more in thoughtlessness than with malice aforethought. For
when they, in the attempt to enlarge their holdings by a piece of
dishonesty that seemed at the time wholly without risk and not likely
to entail serious consequences, had been guilty of a wrong to a person
that had been universally given up as lost, they had done something
which many of their otherwise correct neighbors would, under the same
circumstances, likewise have done.
Such wrongs as that are indeed perpetrated every day in the year, on a
large or a small scale. But once in a while Fate furnishes an example
of how two such transgressors against the honor of their houses and
against the property of another may oppose each other, and then these
will unfailingly fight to the death and devour one the other like two
savage beasts. For those who furtively or forcibly increase their
estate may commit such fateful blunders not only when they are seated
on thrones and then apply a high-sounding name to their lust and their
misdeed, but the same in substance is often done as well in the
humblest hut, and both categories of sinners frequently accomplish the
very reverse of what they aimed at, and their shield of honor then
becomes overnight a tablet of shame. But Sali and Vreni had both of
them, when still children, seen and cherished the honor of their
families, and well remembered how well they themselves were taken care
of and how respected and highly considered their fathers had been in
those days.
Later they had been separated for long years, and when they met again
they saw in each other also the lost honor and luck of their houses,
and that instinctive feeling had helped to make them cling to each
other all the more tenaciously. They longed indeed, both of them, for
happiness and joy, but only if it might be done legitimately and in the
sight of all; yet at the same time their ardent affection for each
other could not be suppressed and their senses, their bounding blood,
called loudly for the consummation of their desires.
"Now it is night," said Vreni in a low tone of voice, "and we will have
to part."
"What, I am to go home now and leave you alone?" retorted Sali. "No,
that can never be."
"But what then?" said Vreni, plaintively. "Tomorrow morning by daylight
things will look no better."
"Let me give you a piece of advice," a shrill voice suddenly was heard
behind them. It was the black fiddler, who now came up to them. "You
foolish young things! There you are now, and you know not what to do
with yourselves, although you are fond of each other. Yet nothing
easier than that. I advise you to delay no more. Let one take the
other, just as you are. Come along with me and my good friends here,
right into the mountains, for there you need no priest, no money, no
documents, no honor, no dowry, no bed and no wedding--nothing but your
mutual good will. Don't get frightened. Things are not at all so bad
with us. Pure air and enough to eat, provided one is not afraid to
work. The green woods are our home, and there we love and keep house
just as we wish. During the winter we lie snug in some warm, cosy den
of our own contriving, or else we creep into the warm hay of the
peasants. Therefore, lose no time. Keep your wedding right now and
here, and then come along with us, and you are rid of all your cares,
and may belong to each other forever and aye, or at least as long as
you want to. For have no fear--you'll grow old with us; our style of
life procures good strong health, you may well believe me. And don't
think, you silly young folk, that I am bearing you a grudge because of
what your fathers have done to me. No indeed. Of course, it gives me
pleasure to see you arrived there where you now are. But with that I
rest content, and I promise you to help and aid you in all sorts of
ways if you will only be guided by me."
He said all this in a sincere and well-meaning tone. "Well, think it
over, if you wish, for a spell," he encouraged them still further, "but
follow my counsel if you are wise. Let the world go, and belong to each
other and ask nobody's consent. Think of the gay bridal bed in the deep
forest glade, and of the comfortable hay barn in winter." And saying
which he disappeared again in the house.
But Vreni was trembling like aspen in Sali's arms, and he asked her:
"What do you think of all that? To me it seems indeed it would be best
to let the whole world go hang, and to love each other without
hindrance and fear."
But Sali said this more jokingly than in earnest. Vreni, on the other
hand, took it all seriously, kissed him and replied: "No, I should not
like that. These people do not act according to my notions. That young
man with the French horn, for instance, and the girl in the silk skirt
also belong together in that way, and are said to have been very much
in love. But last week, it seems, she has been, for the first time,
unfaithful to her lover, and he grieves greatly on that account, and he
is angry at her and at the others, but they merely ridicule him. And
she is imposing a kind of self-inflicted and ludicrous penance on
herself by dancing all alone, without any partner, and without speaking
to anyone, but that, too, is only making a fool of him. However, one
may see that the poor musician is going to make up with her this very
night. But I must say, I should not like to be with a company where
such doings are common, for I never could be unfaithful to you,
although I would not mind undergoing all else for the sake of
possessing you."
For all that, poor Vreni, being held in Sali's arms, became more and
more feverish, for ever since noon when that hostess at the inn had
mistaken her for a bride, and she herself had not contradicted, this
alluring prospect had been burning in her veins, and the less hopeful
things seemed to turn for a realization of this idea, the more
relentlessly her pulses were hammering with expectation and desire. And
Sali was experiencing similar hallucinations, since the fiddler's
enticing remarks, while he meant not to listen to them, had also been
fuel to his passion. So he said in embarrassment to Vreni: "Let us go
inside for a spell. At least we must eat and drink something."
They were greeted in entering the guest room where nobody had remained
but the fiddler's friends, the vagrants, which latter were seated about
a poor meal at table, by a merry chorus: "There comes our bridal pair!"
"Yes," added the fiddler, "now be friendly and comfortable, and we will
see you married."
Urged to join the company the two young lovers did so rather
shamefacedly. But after a moment they began to brighten, and were glad
to be at least rid for the moment of the darker problem that was yet to
be solved. Sali ordered wine and some choicer dishes, and soon general
merriment spread among them all. The heretofore implacable lover had
become reconciled to his unfaithful one, and the couple now fondled and
caressed each other in reestablished ecstasy, while the giddy other
pair ceaselessly yodled, sang and guzzled, but they also did not forget
to give plain evidences of their amatory disposition. The fiddler and
the hunchback accompanied all this with a great deal of cheerful noise.
Sali and Vreni kept very close to each other, tightly holding hands,
and all at once the fiddler bade all the company be quiet, and a
jocular ceremony was performed signifying the union of the two young
people. They had to clasp hands, and the whole audience rose and, one
by one, stepped up to congratulate them and to bid them welcome within
their fraternity. They placidly submitted to it all, but said never a
word, and regarded the whole as a jest, while all the while a shudder
of voluptuous feeling ran through them.
The merry company now became louder and more excited, the fiery wine
spurring them on, until at last the black fiddler urged departure.
"We have a long way before us," he cried, "and it is past midnight. Up,
all of you! Let us solemnly escort the young bridal couple, and I
myself will open the procession. You will hear me fiddling as never
before."
Since Sali and Vreni felt perfectly dazed, and scarcely knew what they
were doing in this hurly-burly around them, they did not protest when
they were made to head the file, the other two couples following, and
the hunchback, with his huge bass viol on his shoulder, being at its
tail end. The black fiddler, though, strode in advance, playing like a
man possessed, skipping down the steep hill path like a chamois, and
the others laughed, singing in chorus, and jumping from rock to rock.
Thus this nocturnal procession hastened on and on, through the quiet
fields and at last through the home village of Sali and Vreni, now sunk
in deep slumber.
When they two came through the still lanes and past their abandoned
homes, a painfully savage mood seized them, and they danced and whirled
along with the others behind the fiddler, kissed, laughed and wept.
They also danced up the hill with the three fields that had tempted
their fathers to their ruin, the fiddler all the time leading, and on
its crest the dusky fiddler fell into a frenzy of fantastic melody, and
his train of followers jumped about like veritable demons. Even the
poor hunchback acted like demented. This quiet hill resounded with the
infernal noise of the whole crew, and it was a perfect witches' Sabbath
for a short while. The hunchback breathed hard and in a muffled voice
squeaked with delight, swinging his heavy instrument like a baton. In
their paroxysm none saw or heard the next.
But Sali seized Vreni and thus forced her to halt. He imprinted a kiss
on her mouth, thus stopping her shouts of joy. At last she gathered his
meaning, and ceased struggling. They stood there, right on the spot
where they first had encountered the black fiddler, listening to the
wild music and to the singing and shrieking of the demoniac cortege, as
the sounds gradually swept onwards down the hill towards the river
below. Nobody evidently had missed them in the midst of the whole
spook. The shrill tones of the fiddle, the laughter of the girls, and
the yodels of the men resounded for another spell through the night,
fainter and fainter, until at last the noise died away down by the
shores of the river.
"We have escaped those," now said Sali, "but how are we going to escape
from ourselves? How shall we separate, and how keep apart?"
Vreni was not able to answer him. Breathing hard she lay on his breast.
"Had I not better take you back to the village, and wake some family in
order to make them take you in for the night? To-morrow you can leave
and look for some work. You'll be able to get along anywhere."
"But without you? Get along without you?" said the girl.
"You must forget me."
"Never," she murmured sadly. "Never in my life." And she added,
glancing sternly at him: "Could you do that?"
"That is not the point, dear heart," answered Sali, slow and distinct.
He caressed her feverish cheeks, while she kept pressing herself
against his bosom. "Let us only consider your own case. You, Vreni, are
still so very young, and quite likely you will fare well enough after a
short while."
"And you also--you ancient man," she said, smiling wistfully.
"Come!" now said Sali, and dragged her along. But they only went on a
few steps, and then they halted once more, the better to embrace and
kiss. The deep quiet of the world ran like music through their souls,
and the only sound to be heard around them was the gentle rush and
swish of the waves as they slowly went on further down the valley
below.
"How beautiful it is around here! Listen! It seems to me there is
somebody far away singing in a low voice."
"No, sweetheart; it is only the water softly flowing."
"And yet it seems there is some music--way out there, everywhere."
"I think it is our own blood coursing that is deceiving our ears."
But though they hearkened again and again, the solemn stillness
remained unbroken. The magic effect of the light of a resplendent full
moon was visible in the whole landscape, as the autumnal veil of fog
that rose in semi-transparent layers from the river shore mingled with
the silvery sheen, waving in grayish or bluish bands.
Suddenly Vreni recalled something, and said: "Here, I have bought you
something to remember me by."
And she gave him the plain little ring, and placed it on his finger.
Sali, too, found the little ring he had meant for her, and while he put
it on her hand, he said: "Thus we have had the same thought, you and
I."
Vreni held up her hand into the silvery light of the moon and examined
the little token curiously.
"Oh, what a fine ring," she then said, laughing. "Now we are both
betrothed and wedded. You are my husband, and I'm your wife. Let us
imagine so, just long enough until that small cloud has passed the
moon, or else until we have counted twelve. You must kiss me twelve
times."