Mr. Itzig was now regularly established in business. Whoever visited him
passed through a much-frequented hall, and went up a not entirely clean
staircase, at the head of which was a white door, on which a great plate
revealed the name of "V. Itzig." This door was closed. It had a very
massive China handle, and was altogether much more suggestive and
imposing than Ehrenthal's had been. Passing through this door, the
visitor entered an empty lobby, in which a shrewd youth spent the day as
half porter, half errand-boy, and a spy besides. This youth differed
from the original Itzig only by a species of shabby gentility in his
appearance. He wore his master's old clothes--shining silk waistcoats,
and a coat a little too large for him. He showed, in short, that the new
firm was more advanced in matters of taste and toilette than the in many
respects commonplace establishment of Ehrenthal. The visitor, advancing
through the lobby, was received by Mr. Itzig in one of two small rooms,
of which the first contained little furniture, but two strikingly
handsome lamps--a temporary security for the unpaid interest of a note
of hand. The second was his sleeping apartment; in it were a simple bed,
a long sofa, and a large round mirror, with a broad gilt frame, an
acquisition from the secret stores of the worthy Pinkus. Itzig himself
was marvelously changed, and on dark days, in his dimly-lighted office,
he might really--looked at from a little distance--have almost passed
for a gentleman. His haggard face had filled out, his great freckles had
faded away, and his red hair, through much pomade and skillful brushing,
had grown darker and more manageable. He had still a preference for
black; but his clothes were new now, and fitted him better; for Mr.
Itzig had acquired a taste for externals. He no longer grudged himself
good food--nay, he even allowed himself wine. Yet, insignificant as his
new establishment was, Itzig only used it at night and during
office-hours. His inclinations still led him to his old haunts at Löbel
Pinkus's. Thus he led a double life--that of a respectable man of
business in his newly-painted office, beneath the glare of his solar
lamps; and when in the caravanserai, which fitted his taste far better,
a modest sort of life, with red woolen curtains, and a four-cornered
chest for a sofa. Perhaps this shelter suited him so exactly, because of
his uncontested influence over the master of the house. Pinkus, to his
shame be it spoken, had sunk into a mere tool of Veitel's, and his wife,
too, was devoted in her allegiance to the rising man.
On the present occasion Itzig sat carelessly on his sofa, and smoked a
pipe with an amber mouth-piece. He was completely the gentleman, and
expected a visitor of distinction. The bell rang, the servant flew to
the door, and a sharp voice was heard. Next there arose a dispute in the
lobby, which moved Veitel to shut up his writing-table in all haste, and
to put the key into his pocket.
"Not at home, indeed! He is at home, you wretched greenhorn you!" cried
the sharp voice to the guardian of the door. Next some resisting body
was heard to be thrust on one side. Veitel buried himself in an old
mortgage. The door opened, and Hippus appeared, red-faced and much
ruffled. He had never looked more like an old raven.
"So you deny yourself, do you? You tell that grub yonder to send away
old friends! Of course, you are become quite genteel, you fool! Did one
ever meet with such barefaced ingratitude? Because the fellow has
swindled himself into two fine rooms, his former associates are no
longer good enough for him! But you have reckoned without your host, my
boy, as far as I am concerned; I am not to be got rid of so easily."
Veitel looked at the angry little man before him with an expression of
countenance by no means friendly.
"Why did you make a scene with the young man?" he said, coldly; "he has
done nothing wrong. I was expecting a visitor on business, and I gave
orders to exclude all strangers. How could I know that you would be
coming? Have we not settled that you should only visit me in the
evening? Why do you disturb me during my business hours?"
"Your business hours, you young gosling, with your shell still hanging
about you!" cried Hippus, still more irate, and threw himself on the
sofa. "Your business hours!" he continued, with infinite contempt; "any
hours are good enough for <i>your</i> business."
"You are drunk again, Hippus," answered Veitel, thoroughly roused. "How
often have I told you that I will have nothing to do with you when you
come out of the spirit-shop?"
"Indeed!" cried Hippus; "you son of a witch, my visit is at all times an
honor to you. I drunk!" he hiccoughed out; "and with what, you
jack-pudding you? How is a man to get drunk," he screamed out, "when he
has not wherewithal to pay for a glass?"
"I knew that he was without money again," said Veitel, in exasperation.
"I gave you a dollar quite lately, but you are a perfect sponge. It is a
pity to waste a farthing upon you."
"You will prove, though, that it is not at all a pity," answered the old
man, tauntingly; "you will give me ten dollars here on the spot."
"That I will not," cried Veitel. "I am sick of supplying you. You know
our agreement; you are only to have money given you when you do
something for me in return. And now you are not in a condition either to
read or write."
"I am always good enough for you and such as you, even if I had had a
ten times better breakfast," said the old man, more calmly. "Give me
what you have got for me to do. You are become a covetous rascal, but
I'll put up with you. I will forgive your having denied yourself; I will
forgive your having become a presumptuous ass--making a show with lamps
that were meant for your betters; and I will not deprive you of my
advice, provided, be it understood, I duly get my honorarium. And so we
will make peace, my son. Now tell me what deviltry you have in hand."
Veitel pushed a thick parchment toward him, and said, "First of all, you
must look over that, write me out an abstract of it, and tell me what
you think of it. It has been offered me for sale. Now, however, I am
expecting some one, so you must go into the other room, sit down at the
table, and get through your task. When it is done we will talk about the
money."
Mr. Hippus took the heavy deed under his arm and steered toward the
door.
"To-day I am going to oblige you again, because you are a good boy,"
said he, affectionately, lifting his hand to pat Veitel on the cheek.
Veitel tolerated the caress, and was going to shut the door, when the
drunken old man turned round once more, and inquired with a cunning
leer, "So you expect some one, my child? Whom do you expect, little
Itzig? Is it a lad or a lady?"
"It is a money-matter," said Veitel, shrugging his shoulders.
"A money-matter!" repeated Hippus, with tender approbation of his
associate. "Ay, you are great in them--an accomplished swindler. Truly
he who gets money from you is lost; it were better for him to jump into
the water at once, though water is a despicable element, you confounded
little swindler you!" And, raising his head, he fixed his swimming eyes
affectionately on Veitel.
"And yet you yourself are come to get money from me," replied Veitel,
with a forced smile.
"Yes, I am determined," said Hippus, stammering. "I am not flesh and
blood! I am Hippus! I am Death!" and he tried to laugh intelligently.
The door-bell rang. Veitel desired him to keep quiet, shut the door upon
him, took up his amber pipe, and awaited his visitor.
A sword was heard to clatter in the lobby--a hussar officer came in.
Eugene Rothsattel had become a little older since the last winter, his
fine face was more haggard, and he had a blue ring round his eyes. He
put on an appearance of indifference, which did not deceive Mr. Itzig
for a single second, for behind that mask his experienced glance
detected the fever peculiar to hard-pressed debtors.
"Mr. Itzig?" inquired the officer <i>de haut en bas</i>.
"Such is my name," said Veitel, rising carelessly from the sofa. Eugene
looked at him uneasily. This was the very man against whom his father
had been warned, and now fate had driven him into the same snare. "I
have to pay a debt in the course of the next few days to certain
agents," began the lieutenant, "gentlemen of your acquaintance. When I
proposed to hold a consultation with them, I was informed by both that
they had sold their claims to you."
"I bought them unwillingly," replied Itzig. "I am not fond of having any
thing to do with military men. Here are two notes of hand, one for
eleven hundred, and the other for eight hundred, making a total of
nineteen hundred dollars. Do you recognize these signatures as yours?"
he coldly inquired, producing the documents; "and do you acknowledge
nineteen hundred to be the sum borrowed by you?"
"I suppose it must be about that," said the lieutenant, reluctantly.
"I ask whether you acknowledge that to be the sum that you have to pay
me on these notes of hand?"
"In the devil's name, yes," cried the lieutenant. "I own the debt,
though I did not receive the half of it in cash."
Veitel locked up the papers in his desk, and, with a shrug of his
shoulders, said ironically, "At all events, I have paid the whole sum to
the parties herein named. Accordingly, I shall summon you to pay me
to-morrow and the next day."
The officer was silent for a while, and a flush slowly overspread his
sunken cheeks. At last, after a hard struggle, he began: "I beg of you,
Mr. Itzig, to give me a little more time."
Veitel took up his amber pipe and leisurely turned it round. "I can give
you no further credit," said he.
"Come, Itzig, be reasonable," said the officer, with forced familiarity.
"I shall very probably soon be able to pay you."
"You will have as little money in a few weeks' time as you have now,"
replied Veitel, rudely.
"I am ready to write an I.O.U. for a larger sum, if you will have
patience."
"I never enter into any transactions of the kind," lied Veitel.
"I will procure you an acknowledgment of the debt from my father."
"The Baron Rothsattel would obtain as little credit with me as
yourself."
The lieutenant angrily struck the floor with his sword: "And supposing I
do not pay?" he broke out; "you know that I am not legally compelled to
do so."
"I know," quietly replied Veitel. "Will you pay to-morrow and the next
day?"
"I can not!" exclaimed Eugene, in despair.
"Then take care of the coat on your back," said Veitel, turning away.
"Wohlfart was right to warn me against you," cried Eugene, beside
himself. "You are an obdurate--" he suppressed the last word.
"Speak your mind freely," said Itzig; "no one hears you. Your words are
like the fire in my stove; it crackles now, in an hour it will be burned
to ashes. What you say to me in private, the people in the street will
say to you in three days' time if you do not pay."
Eugene turned away with a curse. On reaching the door he stood still for
a moment, then rushed down stairs.
Veitel looked round triumphantly. "The son as well as the father! He,
too, is safely noosed," said he to himself; "he can never procure the
money. There is an end of the Rothsattels, and their Wohlfart will not
be able to sustain them. When I am married to Rosalie, Ehrenthal's
mortgages will be mine. That will be the time, too, for finding the
vanished notes of hand among my father-in-law's papers. Then I shall
have the baron completely in my power, and the estate will be mine."
After this soliloquy he opened the door that had shut out Mr. Hippus
from the distinguished visitor--the sunken from the sinking--and he
found the little advocate fast asleep over the deed. Itzig looked at him
with hearty contempt, and said, "He grows burdensome. He said he was
death; I wish he were dead, and I freed from him." Then roughly shaking
up the old man, he screamed out to him, "You are fit for nothing but to
sleep; why must you come here to snore? Go home; I will give you the
deed when you are sober."
The advocate accordingly reeled away, promising to return the following
afternoon. Itzig proceeded to brush his silk hat with enviable
dexterity; he then put on his best coat, gave his hair its most
graceful curve, and went to the house of his antagonist Ehrenthal. As he
entered the hall he cast a shy glance at the office door, and hurried on
to the staircase. But he stopped on the lowest step. "There he is,
sitting again in the office," said he, listening. "I hear him mutter; he
often mutters so when he is alone. I will venture in; perhaps I can make
something of him." So he stepped slowly to the door and listened again;
then taking heart, he opened it suddenly. In the dimly-lighted room sat
a stooping figure in a leathern chair, a shapeless hat on its head. The
figure kept constantly nodding, and muttering unintelligible words. How
changed was Hirsch Ehrenthal in the course of the past year! When he
last drove over the baron's estate, he was a stout, respectable-looking
man, a fresh, well-preserved man, who knew how to stick in his
breast-pin to the best advantage, and cut a figure in ladies' eyes. Now
the head that was constantly nodding in nervous debility was that of an
old man, and the beard that hung down from his furrowed face had been
untrimmed for weeks. He was a picture of that most lamentable decay,
when the mind precedes the body on the way to second childhood.
The agent stood at the door and looked in dismay at his former master.
Then, advancing nearer, he said, "I wish to speak to you, Mr.
Ehrenthal."
The old man continued to nod his head, and answered in a trembling
voice, "Hirsch Ehrenthal is my name; what have you to say to me?"
"I wish to speak to you on important business," continued Itzig.
"I hear," returned Ehrenthal, without looking up; "if the business be
important, why do you not speak?"
"Do you know me, Hirsch Ehrenthal?" said Itzig, bending down and raising
his voice.
The man in the leathern chair looked at him with languid eyes, and at
length recognized him. He got up in all haste, and stood, his head still
nodding, with a glance full of hatred and terror in his eyes. "What do
you want here in my office?" cried he, with a quivering voice. "How can
you come before me? Get out, man! get out!"
Itzig remained stationary. "Don't scream so; I am not doing any thing to
you; I only want to speak to you on important subjects, if you will be
calm as a man of your years should be."
"It is Itzig," murmured the old man; "he wants to speak on important
subjects, and I am to be calm. How can I be calm," screamed he again,
"when I see you before me? You are my enemy; you have ruined me here and
ruined me there; you have been to me like the evil spirit with the
sword, on which hangs the drop of gall. I opened my mouth, you pierced
me with your sword, the gall has reached my heart; I needs must tremble
when I see you."
"Be quiet," said Itzig; "and when you are so, listen to me."
"Is his name Itzig?" mumbled the old man to himself. "His name is Itzig,
but the dogs bark at him as he walks through the streets. I will not see
you," he again exclaimed. "Get out! I loathe the sight of you: I would
rather have to do with a spider than with you."
To this Veitel replied in a resigned voice, "What has happened,
Ehrenthal, has happened, and it's no use talking of it. You behaved
unkindly to me, and I acted against you; both are true."
"He ate every Sabbath at my table," growled the old man.
"If you remember that," continued Itzig, "why, so will I. True, I have
eaten at your table, and on that account I am sorry to be on bad terms
with you. I have always felt a great attachment to your family."
"You have shown your attachment, young Itzig," continued the old man.
"You are he who came into my house, and killed me before I am laid in my
grave."
"What nonsense are you talking?" continued Veitel, impatiently. "Why do
you always speak as if you were dead, and I the evil spirit with the
sword? I am here, and I wish your prosperous life, and not your death. I
will so contrive that you shall yet occupy a good position among our
people, and that they who pass you in the street shall again take off
their hats to you, as they did before Hirsch Ehrenthal became childish."
Ehrenthal mechanically took off his hat and sat down again. His hair had
grown white.
"There ought to be friendship between you and me," continued Veitel,
persuasively, "and your business ought to be as mine. I have sent to you
more than one man of our connection, and have told you my wishes through
him, and Mrs. Ehrenthal, your wife, has told you them too. I am become a
man who can rank with the best men of business; I can show you a safe
capital larger than you imagine. Why should we not put our money
together? If you will give me your daughter Rosalie to wife, I shall be
able to act for you as your son-in-law."
Old Ehrenthal looked at the suitor with a glance in which something of
his old cunning shone through his half-wittedness. "If you want my
daughter Rosalie," replied he, "hear the only question I have to put:
What will you give me if I give you Rosalie?"
"I will reckon it up to you at once," cried Veitel.
"You can reckon up a good deal, I dare say," said Ehrenthal, declining
the statement, "but I will only require one thing: if you can give me
back my son Bernhard, you may have my daughter. If you can not bring
Bernhard out of the grave, so long as I have any voice left I shall say,
'Get out with you! get out of my office!' Get out!" screamed he, in a
sudden transport of rage, clenching both fists against the suitor.
Veitel quietly retreated into the shadow cast by the door, the old man
sunk down again on his chair, and threatened and muttered to himself.
Itzig watched him till his words again became unintelligible, when he
shrugged his shoulders and left the room.
As he went up stairs to pay his visit to the ladies, he repeated the
movement occasionally, to express his utter contempt of the poor
imbecile below. He rang the bell, and was admitted by the untidy cook
with a familiar smile.
Meanwhile Eugene drifted helplessly from one officer's room to another.
He went to Feroni's; the oysters were flavorless, the Burgundy tasted
like ink. Again he paced up and down the streets, the sweat of anguish
on his brow. At last he sat down in a confectioner's shop, tired to
death, and revolved every possible contingency. If Wohlfart were only
here! But there was no time to write to him. These agents had put him
off from day to day; it was only last night that they had both finally
referred him to Mr. Itzig. But, though it was too late to write to
Anton, might not this obliging friend have some acquaintance in the
town? In recommending young Sturm, Anton had told him that the future
bailiff's father was a safe man, not without substance. Perhaps he could
get money from the father of a hussar now in the service of his family,
if, indeed, the old man had any money. That was the question.
He turned to the Directory, and found John Sturm, porter, Island
Street, No. 17. He drove thither in a drosky. A loud "Come in" was the
reply to his hurried knock. The sore-pressed officer crossed the
threshold of the porter. Father Sturm sat alone with his can of beer, a
small daily paper in his hand. "A hussar!" cried he, remaining seated
through very astonishment. The officer, on his part, was astonished at
the colossal form now contemplating him, and both were silent.
"To be sure!" said the giant. "A hussar of my Karl's regiment--the coat
is the same, the epaulettes the same; you are welcome, comrade!" and he
rose. Then for the first time perceiving the metal of the epaulettes, he
exclaimed, "As I live, an officer!"
"My name is Eugene von Rothsattel," began the lieutenant. "I am an
acquaintance of Mr. Wohlfart."
"Of Mr. Wohlfart and of my son Karl," said Sturm, eagerly; "sit down,
sir; it is an exceeding pleasure and honor to me to see you." He brought
out a chair, and thumped it down in his zeal so as to make the door
shake again.
Eugene was going to sit down. "Not yet," said Sturm; "I will first wipe
it, that the uniform take no harm. Since my Karl went away, things are a
little dusty here."
He wiped and polished up the chair for his visitor. "Now, sir, allow me
to sit opposite you. You bring me tidings of my little fellow?"
"Only," replied Eugene, "that he is well in health, and that my father
much values his services."
"Indeed!" cried Sturm, smiling all over, and rapping on the table so as
to create a small earthquake in the room. "I knew, sir, that your father
the baron would be satisfied with him; I would have given him a bond for
that on stamped paper. He was a clever lad, even when he was that high,"
indicating with his hand a degree of smallness that belongs to no human
being, even in the earliest days of its visible life.
"But can he do any thing?" he anxiously inquired, "in spite of--you know
what." He held out his great fingers, and made confidential signs with
them. "First and middle finger--it was a great misfortune, sir."
Eugene now called to mind the unlucky accident. "He has got over it,"
said he, rather embarrassed at the part the paternal affections of the
giant made him play. "I came here to ask a favor."
"A favor?" laughed Sturm; "ask away, young baron; that is a simple
matter. Any one from the house where my Karl is bailiff has a right to
ask a favor from old Sturm. That is my view of the case."
"Well, then, Mr. Sturm, to make a long story short, I am called upon to
make a heavy payment to-morrow, and I want the money for it. The debt
has come upon me suddenly, and I have no time to communicate with my
father. I know no one in this town to whom I can turn with so much
confidence as to the father of our bailiff."
Sturm bent forward, and in his delight clapped the officer on the knee.
"That was nobly said. You are a gentleman, who keeps to his own house,
and does not go to strangers for what he can have from his own people.
You want money? My Karl is bailiff at your father the baron's; my Karl
has some money, so it is all right. How much do you want? A hundred
dollars? Two hundred dollars? The money is there."
"I can hardly take courage, Mr. Sturm, to tell you the amount of the
sum," said Eugene, embarrassed; "it is nineteen hundred dollars."
"Nineteen hundred dollars!" repeated the giant, in amazement; "that's a
capital; that's a firm; that's what people call a fortune."
"So it is, Mr. Sturm," said Eugene, sadly. "And since you are so
friendly toward me, I must own to you that I am heartily grieved that it
should be so much. I am ready to give you a note of hand for it, and to
pay any interest you may like."
"Do you know what," said Sturm, after some cogitation, "we will say
nothing about the interest; you can settle that with my Karl; but as to
the note of hand, that was a good thought of yours. A note of hand is
pleasant, on account of the chances of life and death. You and I would
have no need of such a thing; but I may die before my time. That would
not matter, for you, who know of the transaction, would still be there.
But then you might die, which, however, I have no fear of--quite the
contrary; but still such a thing might be, and then my Karl ought to
have your signature, so that he might come forward and say, 'My poor
young master has written this, therefore pay.'"
"You will then have the kindness to lend me the money?"
"There is no kindness in it," said Sturm; "it is but my duty, as the
thing is done regularly, and my dwarf is your bailiff."
Eugene was moved as he looked at the giant's laughing face. "But, Mr.
Sturm, I want the money to-morrow."
"Of course," replied Sturm, "that is just what suits me. Come, baron,
this way." He took up the candle, and led him into his bed-room. "Excuse
things being so disorderly; but I am a lone man, and at my work all day
long. Look here, this is my money-box." He drew out the iron chest. "It
is safe from thieves," said he, with self-complacency, "for no one in
the town can stir it but I, and no one can open it, for the lock is the
masterpiece of the father of my dear departed wife. Few besides me can
lift the lid, and even if many of them came, they would find it too
tough a job for them; so you may believe that the money is safe here
from rogues, and swindlers, and the like," said he, triumphantly. He was
about to put the key into the lock. "Stop," he suddenly cried; "one word
more. I trust you, baron, as I do my Karl--that of course; but just
answer me this question: You really are the young baron?"
Now it was Eugene's turn to smile, and, putting his hand into his
pocket, he said, "Here is my patent."
"Ah! many thanks," cried Sturm, carefully looking through the paper, and
reverentially reading the names, then bowing, and giving it back with
two fingers in the most respectful manner possible.
"And here," continued Eugene, "I happen to have a letter of Wohlfart's
in my pocket."
"Of course," cried Sturm, looking at the address, "that is his living
hand."
"And here is his signature."
"Your devoted Wohlfart," read the giant; "and if he writes that, you may
be sure that it is true. So now the business is settled," said he,
opening the box. "Here is the money. So, then, nineteen hundred
dollars!" He took five great rolls out of the chest, held them
comfortably in one hand, and gave them to Eugene. "Here are a thousand."
Eugene tried in vain to hold them.
"Just so," said the porter; "I will bring them down to the carriage. The
rest I must give you in promissory notes. These are worth a little less
than a hundred dollars, as of course you know."
"It does not signify," said Eugene.
"No," said the giant. "It can be mentioned in the note of hand. And now
the matter is all settled." He closed the chest, and pushed it under the
bed.
Eugene re-entered the little parlor with a lightened heart.
"Now, then, I will carry the money to the carriage," cried Sturm.
"The note of hand has yet to be written."
"True," nodded the giant; "we must do things in order. Just see, sir,
whether you can write with my coarse pen. If I had known that I should
have such a visitor, I would have brought a better one with me from Mr.
Schröter's."
Eugene wrote out an acknowledgment, while Sturm sat by his can of beer,
and looked at him in admiration. Then he accompanied him to the
carriage, and said at leave-taking, "Greet my little lad heartily, and
Mr. Wohlfart too. I have promised Karl to come to him at Christmas, on
account of the Christmas-tree; but my health is no longer as good as it
should be. I am forty-nine past."
A short time afterward, Eugene, writing to Anton, casually mentioned
that he had borrowed nineteen hundred dollars from father Sturm on a
note of hand. "Try to arrange the matter for me," said the letter; "of
course my father must know nothing of it. A good-hearted, foolish
fellow, that old Sturm. Think of something nice for his son the
hussar--something that I can bring him when I pay you a visit."
Anton flung down the letter indignantly. "There is no helping them; the
principal was right," said he. "He has squandered the money in golden
bracelets for a mercenary <i>danseuse</i>, or at dice with his lawless
comrades, and he now pays his usurer's bills with the hard earnings of
an honest working-man."
He called Karl into his room. "I have often been sorry to have brought
you into this confusion, but to-day I deeply feel how wrong it was. I am
ashamed to tell you what has happened. Young Rothsattel has taken
advantage of your father's good-heartedness to borrow from him nineteen
hundred dollars!"
"Nineteen hundred dollars from my governor!" cried Karl. "Had my Goliath
so much money to lend! He always pretended that he did not know how to
economize."
"Part of your inheritance is given away in return for a worthless note
of hand, and what makes it still more aggravating is the coolness of the
thoughtless borrower. Have you, then, not heard of it from your father?"
"From him!" cried Karl; "I should think not. I am only sorry that you
should be so vexed. I implore you not to make any disturbance about it.
You best know how many clouds hang over this house; do not increase the
anxiety of these parents on my account."
"To be silent in a case like this," replied Anton, "would be to make
one's self an accomplice in an unfair transaction. You must immediately
write and tell your father not to be so obliging in future; the young
gentleman is capable of going to him again."
Anton's next step was to write Eugene a letter of serious remonstrance,
in which he pointed out to him that the only way of giving Sturm
tolerably good security would be the procuring the baron's
acknowledgment of his son's debt, and begged that he would lose no time
in doing this.
This letter written, Anton said to Karl, "If he does not confess to his
parents, I shall state the whole affair to the baron in his presence the
very next day after his arrival. Don't try to dissuade me; you are just
like your father."
The consequence of this communication was, that Eugene left off writing
to Anton, and that his next letter to his father contained a rather
unintelligible clause: "Wohlfart," he said, "was a man to whom he
certainly had obligations; only the worst of that kind of people was,
that they took advantage of these to adopt a dictatorial tone that was
unbearable; therefore it was best civilly to shake them off."
This opinion was quite after the baron's own heart, and he warmly
applauded it. "Eugene always takes the right view of the case," said he;
"and I too earnestly long for the day when I shall be able to
superintend the property, and to dismiss our Mr. Wohlfart."
The baroness, who had read the letter out to her husband, merely
replied, "You would miss Wohlfart very much if he were to leave you."
Lenore, however, was unable to suppress her displeasure; and, leaving
the room in silence, she went to look for Anton out of doors.
"What are you and Eugene differing about?" she cried, as soon as she saw
him.
"Has he been complaining of me to you?" inquired Anton, in return.
"Not to me; but in his letter to my father he does not speak as he ought
of one who has been so kind to him."
"Perhaps this is accidental--a fit of ill-humor that will pass off."
"No, it is more, and I will know about it."
"If it be more, you can only hear it from himself."
"Then, Wohlfart," cried Lenore, "Eugene has been doing something wrong,
and you know of it."
"Be that as it may," returned Anton, gravely, "it is not my secret, else
I should not withhold it from you. I pray you to believe that I have
acted uprightly toward your brother."
"What I believe little signifies," cried Lenore. "I am to know nothing;
I understand nothing; I can do nothing in this wretched world but grieve
and fret when others are unjust to you."
"I very often," continued Anton, "feel the responsibility laid upon me
by your father's indisposition a grievous burden. It is natural that he
should be annoyed with me when I have to communicate unwelcome facts.
This can not be avoided. I have strength, however, to brave much that is
painful, so long as you and the baroness are unshaken in your conviction
that I always act in your interest so far as I understand it."
"My mother knows what you are to us," said Lenore. "She never, indeed,
speaks of you to me, but I can read her glance when she looks at you
across the table. She has always known how to conceal her thoughts; how
she does so more than ever--yes, even to me. I seem to see her pure
image behind a white veil; and she is become so fragile, that often the
tears rush to my eyes merely in looking at her. She always says what is
kind and judicious, but she seems to have lost interest in most things;
and though she smiles at what I say, I fancy that the effort gives her
pain."
"Yes, just so," cried Anton mournfully.
"She only lives to take care of my father. No one, not even her
daughter, knows what she inwardly suffers. She is like an angel,
Wohlfart, who lingers on our earth reluctantly. I can be but little to
her, that I feel. I am not helpful, and want all that makes my mother so
lovely--- the self-control, the calm bearing, the enchanting manner. My
father is sick--my brother thoughtless--my mother, spite of all her
love, reserved toward me. Wohlfart, I am indeed alone."
She leaned on the side of the well and wept.
"Perhaps it will all be for your good," said Anton, soothingly, from the
other side the well. "Yours is an energetic nature, and I believe you
can feel very strongly."
"I can be very angry," chimed in Lenore through her tears, "and then
very careless again."
"You grew up without a care in prosperous circumstances, and your life
was easy as a game."
"My lessons were difficult enough, I am sure," remonstrated Lenore.
"I think that you were in danger of becoming a little wild and haughty
in character."
"I am afraid I was so," cried Lenore.
"Now, you have had to bear heavy trials, and the present looks serious
too; and if I may venture to say so, dear lady, I think you will find
here just what the baroness has acquired in the great world--dignity and
self-control. I often think that you are changed already."
"Was I, then, an unbearable little savage formerly?" asked Lenore,
laughing in the midst of her tears, and looking at Anton with girlish
archness.
He had hard work not to tell her how lovely she was at that moment; but
he valiantly conquered the inclination, and said, as coolly as he could,
"Not so bad as that, dear lady."
"And do you know what you are?" asked Lenore, playfully. "You are, as
Eugene writes, a little schoolmaster."
"So that is what he has written!" cried Anton, enlightened.
Lenore grew grave at once. "Do not let us speak of him. As soon as I
heard his letter, I came here to tell you that I trust you as I do no
one on earth, if it be not my mother; that I shall always trust you as
long as I live; that nothing could shake my faith in you; that you are
the only friend that we have in our adversity; and that I could ask your
pardon on my knees when any one offends you in word or even thought."
"Lenore, dear lady," cried Anton, joyously, "say no more."
"I will say," continued Lenore, "how I admire the self-possession with
which you follow your own way and manage the people, and that it is you
alone who keep any order on the estate, or can bring it into a better
condition. This has been upon my mind to say; and now, Wohlfart, you
know it."
"I thank you, lady," cried Anton; "such words make this a happy day. But
I am not so self-possessed and efficient as you think, and every day I
feel more and more that I am not the person to be really of service
here. If I ever wish that you were not the baron's daughter, but his
son, it is when I go over this property."
"Yes," said Lenore, "that is just the old regret. Our former bailiff
used often to say the same. When I sit over my work, and see you and Mr.
Sturm go out together, I get so hot, and I throw my useless frame
aside. I can only spend, and understand nothing but buying lace; and
even that I don't understand well, according to mamma. However, you must
put up with the stupid Lenore as your good friend;" and she gave him her
own true-hearted smile.
"It is now many years since I have, in my inmost soul, felt your
friendship to be a great blessing," cried Anton, much moved. "It has
always, up to this very hour, been one of my heart's best joys secretly
to feel myself your faithful friend."
"And so it shall ever be between us," said Lenore. "Now I am comfortable
again. And do not plague yourself any more about Eugene's foolish ways.
Even I am not going to do so."
Thus they parted like innocent children who find a pleasure in saying to
each other all that the passion of love would teach to conceal.