Meantime Reginchen's birthday had been celebrated in the
Dorotheen-strasse.
First of all came the dinner in her parents' great sitting-room, at
which, as usual, the journeymen and apprentices were present. Madame
Feyertag insisted that, before coming to the table, each should wash
his hands at the pump, and brush his jacket. To-day this ceremony,
which frequently was somewhat hurried, was performed with a
thoroughness that proved the homage each offered his master's daughter
to be no mere formality, but an offering from the heart. The head
journeyman had even availed himself of his superior social position, so
far as to appear with a bouquet, which, with a few well-chosen words,
he presented to the blushing child. Madame Feyertag pretended not to
notice this. She seemed to have some suspicion that the worthy man
might consider it a standing tradition in the family, that the head
journeyman must marry the master's daughter, and though she herself had
experienced the blessings of such a _mesalliance_, she hoped for a
better match for her only daughter. The shoemaker had no such
aspirations. When he reflected upon the past, he remembered very
different attentions, which even without any festal occasion, he had
paid the female members of his master's family. He was in a very good
humor, eat three large pieces of the famous plum cake, and finally
ordered two bottles of wine to be brought from the cellar, in which he
drank Reginchen's health in a speech, that spite of the strange
admixture of fatherly tenderness and incomprehensible allusions to
Schopenhauer, was admired by all the journeymen as a pattern of
oratorical art.
Yet despite all this, the solemn meal did not last more than half an
hour, and it was exactly half-past twelve when the little heroine of
the day, according to her usual custom, carried the brothers' dinner up
to the "tun." The low price which they paid for their board did not
admit of their being served with food more dainty than that with which
the people in the workroom were forced to content themselves, but
Madame Feyertag, who had a kind heart and felt an almost maternal
solicitude for Balder on account of his beauty and delicate health,
always remembered to keep some of the best pieces for her boarders
before supplying her own people.
When Reginchen entered the second story room, delighted with the
festivities of the day, and proud of the large piece of birthday cake
that fell to the brothers' lot, she was surprised to find no one but
Balder, who was sitting at his turning-lathe, and who, at her
appearance, hastily concealed something in the pocket of his working
blouse. She was afraid that, as had often happened, she would be
obliged to carry the dinner down again to be kept warm, and her
brother, the machinist, was to come for her precisely at one. But when
Balder told her that Edwin would not dine at home to-day, she
brightened up again, laid the table quickly and as daintily as the
simple dishes would permit, and placed in the middle the plate of cake,
which she had adorned with a few flowers from the head journeyman's
bouquet. Then she stood before her work with an expression of
mischievous delight, and called to Balder to sit down and not let the
dinner grow cold.
"Dear Reginchen," said the youth, as he limped forward with an
embarrassed air, "I have no beautiful flowers like George. Nothing
green and blooming grows upon my bench, you know. But, I too, should
like to recognize your eighteenth birthday to the best of my ability,
and that not by merely eating your nice cake. Will you accept as a
keepsake this little box, which I have made myself? I am sorry that you
will have to fill it for yourself, for I have not had time to buy
thimble, silk, needles, and all the other things it should contain."
He drew forth the dainty polished article, and handed it to her,
opening it as he did so, that she might see the inside. A flush of joy
crimsoned her round blooming face. But she thought it due to her good
breeding, not to accept the gift at once.
"Oh! Herr Walter," she said, smoothing her fair hair with both
hands,--it was a habit she had when embarrassed,--"Did I not beg you to
make me no more presents? My mother will scold again, for she thinks
you work too much already, and that you ought to take more care of
yourself. You must have toiled for weeks over such a pretty thing as
this--and I--it is too good for me--it is _too_ lovely--is it really
mine? If I only knew what I could do--"
"Shall I tell you, Reginchen?" he said, and his pale cheeks flushed
also--"sit down opposite me a little while; it is so dismal to eat
alone, and I should like to feel merry on your birthday, else how could
I enjoy the cake your kind mother has sent? If you leave me alone I
dare say I shan't be able to touch a mouthful of it, out of pure sorrow
for my own loneliness on such a holiday."
He had a voice that was hard to resist, and the young girl was so full
of compassion for his situation and so full of childish delight in her
gift, that she instantly pushed a chair up to the little table and sat
down opposite him.
"I really ought not to stay here any longer than is necessary to bring
up the dinner and afterward to carry down the dishes again," she said,
with a roguish affectation of secrecy. "But my mother won't be on the
watch to-day. She doubtless thinks I am making ready for the excursion,
but Fritz won't be here before one. He has only obtained leave to be
away for the afternoon, and has to come all the way from Moabit. Pray
do tell me, Herr Walter, how can you bear to live as you do? But you
are letting the soup get cold."
She eagerly pushed toward him the dish, for which he seemed to have no
special desire, and with the most charmingly officious coquetry she put
the spoon into his hand.
"To live so?" he repeated, smiling, as he ate the soup. "I don't know
how a man could live any better. A dinner before me fit for a prince,
while the sun shines on the green leaves before the open window, and
the little hostess herself condescends to serve me--I should be a
monster of ingratitude if I could desire anything better."
"Oh! nonsense," replied the young girl shaking her head. "You are only
joking, you know very well what I mean. Is it not almost two years
since you have been out of the house? It would kill me to stay in the
same place all the time."
"Because you are a little wagtail, Reginchen. Or must I not call you
that any more, now that you are eighteen years old? But I think you
will retain all your life the same activity that you showed five years
ago when we came here and when you carried my brother's books up-stairs
one by one, to enable you to run up and down more frequently. Now
jumping, you see, is not exactly my forte. But there is one peculiarity
about the pleasures a man enjoys: if he can't pursue them himself, they
are kind enough to come to him, and the happy hours that I have passed
up here during the last five years cannot be counted."
"Because, as mother always says, you are so moderate in your wants, and
so contented with everything."
"Oh! not at all, Reginchen. Your kind mother has a false opinion of me.
On the contrary, I am very much spoiled, I am by no means contented
with everything, and that is the very reason that I have no desire to
go out among the crowd of rude, coarse people, who are nothing to me,
to witness their self-torment in their endeavor to kill time, and to
lose the consciousness of their miserable, paltry, joyless lives; how
by means of bustle and fine dressing they try to appear to be something
which they are not, and standing on a huge pile of thalers which they
have scraped together Heaven knows how, attempt to pass themselves off
as great men. And now compare my life with all that, Reginchen:
constantly in the society of such a brother, possessing a few good
friends, just enough not to forget that even the best of men are not
Edwins, so well taken care of in such a pretty, comfortable house, with
no anxieties, and--besides--"
He hesitated and his color heightened. "Will you pass me the plate of
greens, Reginchen?" he asked, to conceal his embarrassment.
She did not seem to notice it.
"That is all very well," she said. "But, Herr Walter, are you not
always sick, and do you not have to bear a great deal of pain? And
health, it is said, is the greatest blessing."
He pushed back his plate and looked at her with such a light in his
blue eyes, that she grew a little embarrassed in her turn, and secretly
wondered whether she had said anything stupid or childish. To-day, for
the first time, she felt ill at ease in this gentle, cheerful presence,
confessing to herself, however, at the same time, that he was really
very handsome, as her mother had always said, and as, before, she would
never admit, since all sickness and repose was distasteful to her
bright, active temperament.
"Dear Reginchen," he said, "you are eighteen years old to-day, and it
is allowable for me to tell you, that many, nay most things, which
people repeat among themselves, are the very opposite of the truth.
Health, for instance, which is considered a necessary condition to
happiness, affords no more and no less than any of the other gifts so
commonly desired: wealth, talent, beauty, and so forth. Whether or not
these blessings will make a man happy, depends mainly upon whether he
knows how to use them. I was once acquainted with a man who never had
even a finger ache. But he did not value the gift of health,
principally because he had never been sick, regarding it as he regarded
respiration as a matter of course; his health, moreover, gave him an
opportunity to make life a burden to himself and every one about him,
because he had never learned to restrain his rude strength. It was not
until he met with an accident, and was dependent, in his pain and
helplessness, upon others, did he learn anything about human love and
the thousand little joys of life, which he had formerly despised. Yet,
Reginchen, I don't wish to persuade you to exchange with me. It would
be hard for such a wagtail to be compelled to limp about, or to sit
still. But sincerely as I hope that all your life you may keep your
perfect health, yet I am sure that should it be otherwise, you would
learn to understand me, and perceive--"
Here he was interrupted by a knock at the door. A servant entered, and
casting a sly inquisitive glance at the young pair who seemed so
absorbed in each other, dragged a basket into the room: "Dr. Marquard
had sent the medicine he mentioned, and would call in a few days to see
whether it had produced the proper effect."
When he departed with a roguish "Wish you joy!" Balder rose,
exclaiming: "Well, Reginchen, won't you confess now, that I am one of
the luckiest fellows under the sun? If I had two sound legs like Edwin,
who knows where I might be wandering at this moment. But instead of
that, here I am enjoying an enviable hour, celebrating your birthday
with a cosy dinner in the company of the heroine of the occasion, with
flowers and plum cake for dessert, and, just at the right moment, when
the conversation was growing a little serious, some excellent wine
arrives, with which we may drink ourselves merry again. You need not
get a corkscrew. Here is an auger on my bench. Do you know, we two will
do a charity in opening one of these bottles. The wine is really
intended for Edwin; he is to drink it to strengthen him. But this
otherwise perfect mortal is somewhat hard to manage in certain things.
He would be quite capable, from pure obstinacy, of sending back the
whole basket,--though it comes from an old friend,--because our
finances will not usually permit us to indulge in this luxury. So I
must make him believe the wine was prescribed for me as well as
himself, and as we share everything, he will finally drink it with me.
Come, Reginchen. You will have to content yourself with a tumbler, we
have not yet reached the dignity of crystal drinking-cups. Your
_health_, and may that blessing be accompanied by so many others, that
you will never be able to discover how paltry a possession it is in
itself alone."
He handed her a glass, and they clinked them merrily together after a
little hesitation on Reginchen's part; she feared the wine would go to
her head. She only sipped a little, but Balder emptied his glass at a
single draught, and then stepping quickly to the open window, and
before she could understand what he was about to do, he threw the empty
glass down into the courtyard where it was shattered in pieces.
"Good heavens," she exclaimed, "what are you doing?"
"Celebrating your birthday, Reginchen," he answered gaily, approaching
her and taking her hand. "May I not prove not only that I am very well,
but that I am also rich enough to throw something away? He who has
something to spare cannot be in want. And now farewell, dear Reginchen;
I hear your brother's voice down stairs. When wearied with pleasure you
lie down to rest to-night, remember that some one less light-footed
than you, rejoices that you came into the world eighteen years ago
to-day."
In spite of the warning that she must go, he held her hand so firmly
that her blush grew deeper and deeper. Suddenly, with a quick turn of
the wrist she broke away from him, and hastily collecting the dishes,
said: "I will bring you a bouquet of cornflowers, if they are still in
bloom. Good-bye, Herr Walter, and thank you again for your beautiful
present. My mother is right: you are the best man in the whole world."
With these words she ran out of the door.
He listened till the sound of her quick steps died away below, then a
shadow of sorrowful thought flitted over his face. He went to a drawer
that was constructed in the lower part of his turning-lathe, and
unlocking it, took out a portfolio containing scattered leaves which
seemed to be covered with verses. Turning them over he read a little
here and there for a time, then placing Reginchen's almost untasted
glass of wine before him, he sat down, and occasionally taking a sip
from the glass, began to write a poem.
[Illustration: Reginchen and Balder.]
About an hour elapsed in this manner. His delicate, almost girlish
features grew brighter; from time to time, with an eager gesture, he
tossed back his thick fair hair, gazed out at the sun-gilded top of the
acacia-tree and up at the patch of blue sky, that peered in upon him
over the old roof. Happiness, repose, and a divine cheerfulness beamed,
the longer he wrote, on brow and cheeks.
They say I am ill. And it well may be;
Yet I feel no sorrow, from pain am free.
The current of life flowing swiftly on
In sunlight I see,
And sit on the shore, where the flowers bloom.
Oh! murmur of waves, soft breeze that blesses,
Air, water, light,--how sweet your caresses!
Do you not beckon to me from the boat,
Child with gold tresses?
Ah! yes, she beckons--and onward will float!
If ye fade from sight,
Oh! star-like eyes,
And bereft of light,
Vain are my sighs,
Joy's radiant glow
E'en 'mid my woe
Will aye remain.
Oh! blessed sun
Of love and purity,
Glad soul, from guile so free,
How bright thy rays!
My flower of life unfolds to thee--
Thou dost not dream--how short its days!
Again, for a short time, he rested, employing his pen meanwhile by
sketching a framework of flowers and vines for the verses; he had
written the stanzas without a single erasure or the alteration of a
rhyme. This was no art-exercise which he pursued in order to fancy
himself a poet, (on the contrary, he declared that the real poet was
Edwin, only that he was too proud to let his light shine); it was only
a kind of soliloquy, and by writing down these improvisations, instead
of merely murmuring them to himself, he simply increased and prolonged
his solitary pleasure. He always carried in his own pocket the key of
the drawer where he kept the papers, and even Edwin, from whom he
usually had no secrets, was not permitted to touch this hidden
treasure.
He now took another sheet, and wrote the following lines:--
To _this_ lot assigned,
This joy once possessed,
Say, can one so blessed
On earth be sad?
To cool my heart's fire,
By answering love,
To feel the desire,
Man's brother to prove;
Firm in purity,
By beauty inspired,
Ere of life weary
By death required;
The great mystery
Vaguely believing,
Germs of truth in the
Soul's depths perceiving,
Truth-germs unfolding
In the light given,
Joyfully holding
The rain from heaven,
A spark of divine fire
Into the heart hurled,
Kindles with pure desire
A child of the world.
To _this_ lot assigned,
_This_ joy once possessed,
Say, can one so blessed
On earth be sad?
Yet hours may come when the spirit will fail,
Petty cares, like a swarm of flies, assail;
Midst the current of life, with gasping breath,
Waiting I stand, for the summons of death.
Doubting, I question if earth is to me
So grand, so blissful a reality;
Outweighing all the burdens of my life,
My aimless days of fruitless toil and strife.
Sternly denied the brightest joys of earth,
My homely toil no laurel-wreath is worth;
If, wearied of the slowly passing time,
A child should break the clock, would'st call it crime?
O death!--but hark! now a bright footstep nears,
Bright eyes are sparkling, and a glad voice cheers;
My sinking spirit, roused from inward strife,
No longer asketh--Shall I live this life?
He sat still for some time with a smile on his lips, then his face grew
graver and he sighed, as if to relieve his oppressed heart and to shake
off some thought that troubled him. On the paper that lay upon his
knees his pencil sketched a profile, which was unmistakably Edwin's.
The thoughts that occupied his mind seemed again to crave utterance in
words, but just at that moment he heard some one come up stairs with a
familiar, heavy tread. A slight shade of annoyance flitted across his
brow, he hastily thrust the portfolio back into the drawer, carefully
locked it, and then resumed his work at the turning-lathe, but the
visitor who now entered with a melancholy "Good evening, Balder,"
beheld a friendly face, in which there was no sign of the youth's
unwillingness to be disturbed in his solitary intercourse with the
muses.