A FAMILY CURSE.
In those days there lived at Pressburg a famous family, if the sad fate
of becoming a by-word in the community can be indeed considered fame.
They called themselves Meyer, a name borne by so many people that nobody
would care to adopt it unless obliged to.
The father was a counting-house clerk in a public institution, and
blessed with five beautiful daughters. In 1818 two of the girls were
already grown up--the queens of every ball, the toasted beauties of
every public entertainment. The greatest dandies, nay, even magnates,
delighted to dance with them, and they were universally known as "the
pretty Meyer girls."
How their father and mother rejoiced in their beauty! And these pretty
girls, these universal _belles_, were brought up in a manner befitting
their superiority. No sordid work, no domestic occupations for them! No,
they were brought up luxuriously, splendidly; their vocation was
something higher than the dull round of household duties. They were sent
to first-class educational establishments, instead of to the national
schools in the neighbourhood, where they were taught to embroider
exquisitely, sing elegantly, and acquire other lady-like
accomplishments. And all the time their father hugged himself with the
thought that one of his daughters would become a famous _artiste_, and
another would grow rich as a milliner _à la mode_, and the whole lot of
them would be married by some of those rich squires and bankers who were
continually trampling the ground around them. Perhaps he had read of
such cases in some of the old-fashioned romances of the day.
Now, such an elegant education presupposes an elegant income; but, as we
all know, the salary of a cashier in a public establishment is nothing
very remarkable. Housekeeping cost much more than Mr. Meyer could afford
to give to it. Papa knew that only too well, and he would lie busy all
night long thinking of some way out of the difficulty without ever being
able to find it. And he could not call his girls away from the great
world, for fear of spoiling their prospects.
Just at that very time a country squire was courting the eldest, whose
acquaintance he had made at last year's dances. He was pretty sure to
marry her, as any other connection with the daughter of a man of good
repute would not be honourable; and then no doubt the bridegroom would
advance "papa" a couple of thousand florins or so to relieve him from
his embarrassments.
But the acquaintance of these squires was certainly very costly. Public
entertainments, frippery, and splendour made frightful inroads; and when
the domestic table was spread, the invisible shapes of tailors,
bootmakers, milliners, mercers, and hairdressers sat down and helped to
consume poor pater-familias' dinner.
As for the mistress of the house, she was the worst manager it is
possible to imagine. Understanding nothing herself, she left everything
to the servants. Whenever she was in a difficulty she ran up debts right
and left (it never entered into her calculations that she would one day
have to pay them back), and often when there was only just enough money
left to pay for kitchen requisites for another couple of days, she had a
pleasant little trick of posting off to the fruiterer's and bringing
back a pine-apple.
One day it happened that the directors suddenly, and, as is their wont,
without any previous notification, visited and examined the cashier's
department, and Meyer was found to be six thousand florins short in his
cash--the natural result of papa's frivolity. Meyer was incontinently
dismissed from his post, and the little property he possessed was
seized; there was even some talk of locking him up. For a whole
fortnight this catastrophe was the sole talk of the town.
Now, Meyer had an elder sister living in the city, an old maid who had
withdrawn from the world, and in happier times had been the butt of the
family's sarcasms. She did nothing all day but go to church, say her
prayers, and caress her cat; and whenever she and her cronies came
together they would gossip and abuse the younger generation, possibly
because they themselves were past enjoying what their juniors liked. But
towards nobody was she so venomously spiteful as towards her own family,
because they walked about fashionably dressed, lived well, and went to
balls, while she herself had to crouch beside the fire all the winter,
wear the same dress for twelve years at a stretch, and had nothing
better to eat than a light pottage flavoured with carroways, with a
wheaten loaf broken up in it. The Meyer girls, whenever they wanted to
make each other laugh, had only got to say, "Shall we go and have dinner
with Aunt Teresa?"
Now, when this partly ridiculous, partly malevolent old lady heard of
her younger brother's sad case, she immediately called in what little
money she had out at interest--the fruits of many years of pinching and
sparing--converted it into florins, and, tying them up in a bright
pocket-handkerchief, went up to town, and paid into the public coffers
the amount of her brother's defalcation, and would not be quiet till, by
dint of much weeping and supplication, she had induced all the great
gentlemen concerned (she visited them one by one) to promise not to put
her brother in jail, and to abandon criminal proceedings against him.
Meyer, on hearing of his sister's good deed, hastened to seek her out,
and kissing her hand repeatedly, sobbing and weeping bitterly all the
time, could not find words adequate to express his gratitude. Nay, he
even prevailed upon his daughters also to come and kiss his sister's
hand; and could the good girls have shown a greater spirit of
self-sacrifice than by condescending to bring lips like theirs,
veritable roses and strawberries, into immediate contact with the old
lady's withered hands, and looking without a smile at the old maid's
old-fashioned garments?
Meyer swore by heaven and earth that his whole life would henceforth be
devoted to showing his gratitude to his sister for her noble deed.
"You will do that best," replied the aged spinster, "by bringing up your
family honourably. I have given my all to preserve your name from a
great reproach, you must now take great care to preserve it from a still
greater, for here below there is even a greater degradation than being
thrust into prison. You know what I mean. Get something to do yourself,
and accustom your children to work. Don't be ashamed of offering your
services as a book-keeper to any tradesman who will have you; you will,
at least, earn enough that way to make both ends meet. As for your
girls, they are now old enough to help themselves. God guard them from
accepting the help of other people. One of them might earn her bread as
a milliner's apprentice, for she can do fine needlework. Another can go
as a governess into some gentleman's family. God will show the others
what to do in His own time, and I am sure you will all be happy."
Worthy Meyer returned home from his sister's thoroughly comforted. He
thought no longer of suicide, but very quickly found himself a place as
assistant in a merchant's office; counselled his daughters to adopt some
wholesome mode of life, and they, weeping sorely, promised to obey him.
Eliza got a situation with a sempstress; but instead of trying to get a
governess's place, Matilda preferred to go in for art, and as she had a
nice voice, and could sing a little, it was easy for her to persuade her
father that a brilliant future awaited her on the stage, and that that
was the easiest and most glorious way to riches; and he at once
bethought him of the names of several celebrated actresses who had also
sprung from ruined families and, taking to the stage, had amply
provided, by their own unaided efforts, for the wants of their growing
families.
So Meyer allowed his daughter to follow her bent and adopt an artistic
calling. At first she was only employed as a chorus-singer, but then, as
every one knows, the most famous artistes have begun in that way.
Naturally enough, nothing of this reached the ears of Aunt Teresa, who
fancied that Matilda was a governess. The worthy spinster herself never
entered a playhouse, and if any one should whisper to her that one of
the Meyer girls was employed in the theatre, it would be easy to say
that it was another Meyer and not her kinswoman, Meyer being such a very
common name. So poor Meyer really began to believe that now the whole
family was going to lead a new and orderly life, that every one would do
his and her duty, and prosperity would flow into the house through
door, window, and chimney.
Mrs. Meyer had now to accustom herself to cooking, and Mr. Meyer to
burnt dishes, and the whole family slaved away all day long. Meyer was
occupied in his counting-house from dawn to dusk; Mrs. Meyer during the
same period was in the kitchen; the children sewed and stitched; while
the bigger ones worked out of doors on a larger scale, one of them
turning out a frightful quantity of hats and bonnets, while the other
was mastering her noble profession, or so at least they made each other
believe. As a matter of fact, however, Mr. Meyer lounged about the
coffee-houses pretty frequently, and read the newspapers, which is
certainly the cheapest way of taking one's ease; Mrs. Meyer confided the
pots and pans to the nursemaid, and gossiped with her neighbours; the
children read books surreptitiously or played at blindman's buff;
elegant dandies diverted the elder girl who was in the employment of the
milliner, and it will be better to say nothing at all about the arduous
artistic labours of the chorus-singer. The family only met together at
dinner-time, and then they would sit round the table with sour,
ill-tempered faces, the younger ones grumbling and whining at the meagre
food, the elder girls with their appetites spoilt by a surfeit of
sweetmeats, every one moody and bored, as if they found each other's
company intolerable, and all of them eagerly awaiting the moment when
they might return to their engrossing pursuits again.
There are certain happy-minded people who never will believe what they
don't like. They won't believe that any one is angry with them until he
actually treads on their corns; they fail to observe whether their
acquaintances snub them in the street; they never notice any change,
however nearly it concerns them, even if it be in the bosom of their
families, unless somebody calls their attention to it; and they will
rather invent all sorts of excuses for the most glaring faults than put
themselves to the trouble of trying to correct them.
Providence, as a rule, endows those people who have to live by their
labour with a beneficial instinct, which makes them find their pride and
joy in the work they have accomplished. When the whole family meets
together in the evening, each member boasts of how much he has done in
the course of the day; and how good it is that it should be so! Now, the
Meyers lacked this instinct. The curse of the expulsion from Paradise
seemed to rest upon _their_ labours. None of them ever boasted of having
made any progress. None of them ever inquired how the others had been
getting on. All of them were very chary how they opened a conversation,
as if they feared it would be made a grievance of; and is there anything
in the world so dreadful as a family grievance!
And grievances there are which speak even when they are dumb. Indoors,
every member of the family began to wear rags, and this is what every
family must come to that can only look nice in new clothes. Such people,
unless they are able to sit before the mirror all day long, look
draggle-tailed and sluttish, even if the clothes that hang about them
are not very old, and so betray their poverty to the world. The girls
were obliged to get out and do up their last year's dresses. Carnival
time came round again, and big balls were advertised, but they were
forced to sit at home, for they had no money to go anywhere.
Meyer, in whatever direction he looked, saw nothing but ill-tempered,
dejected, sullen faces around him; but after a while he did not trouble
himself much about them. Only on Sunday afternoons, when a little of the
wine of Meszely had soothed his nerves, would his tongue be loosened,
and a fine flood of moral precept would pour forth for the edification
of his daughters. He would then tell them how happy he was at having
preserved the honour of his name, although he was poor and his overcoat
was ragged (which latter fact, by the way, was not very much to the
credit of his grown-up daughters), but he was proud of his rags, he
said, and wished his daughters to be equally proud of their virtues, and
so on. As for the daughters, they were, naturally, out of the room long
before this sermon was over.
Suddenly, however, a better humour and a more cheerful spirit descended
upon the family. Mr. Meyer, whenever he returned from his office or from
goodness knows whence, would find his daughters boisterously singing.
His wife, too, bought new bonnets; their dresses began to look stylish
again, and their food grew decidedly better. Mr. Meyer, instead of
having his modest measure of Meszely wine on Sunday afternoon only, now
met that pleasant table companion at dinner every day. He would have
taken the change as much as a matter of course as the sparrows take the
wheat from the fields without inquiring who sowed it, if his wife had
not whispered to him one day that Matilda was making such delightful
progress in her profession that the manager had thought well to very
considerably raise her salary, but that the matter was to be kept secret
for a time, lest the other chorus-girls should come to know of it, and
demand a rise of salary likewise. Mr. Meyer considered this to be quite
natural.
It is true he was a little surprised to find Matilda appearing in finer
and finer clothes every day, and wearing continually the most stylish
shawls and bonnets, which she passed on to her younger sister when she
had worn them a bit; he frequently noticed, too, that when he entered
the room, the conversation was suddenly broken off, and when he
inquired what they were talking about, they first of all looked at each
other as if they were afraid of giving contradictory answers, and once
or twice his impatience went so far that he asked his wife, "Why does
Matilda wear such expensive dresses?"
And the good lady thoroughly satisfied the anxious pater-familias. In
the first place, she said, the material of the dresses was not very
expensive, after all; it was made to look like _moiré_, but it was only
watered taffety. In the second place, Matilda did not buy them at the
original price, but got them from the prima donna for next to nothing,
after she had worn them once or twice; the things were as good as given
away. It was a common practice at the theatre, she said.
Mr. Meyer found that he was learning a great deal he had not known
before. But he considered it all quite natural.
From henceforth the whole family did their best to keep him in a good
humour. They consulted his wishes, inquired after his tastes, and were
always asking if there was anything he fancied or had a particular
liking for.
"What good girls these girls of mine are!" said this happy
pater-familias to himself.
On his birthday, too, they had pleasant surprises in store for him in
the shape of presents.
Matilda, in particular, delighted him with a valuable meerschaum pipe on
which hunting-dogs were carved. The whole thing, not including the
silver stopper, cost five and twenty florins in hard cash.
Moved partly by the fulness of his joy and partly because he thought it
the proper thing to do, Meyer resolved to visit Aunt Teresa that very
day, and was the more disposed to do so because a new velvet collar had
recently been sewn on to his overcoat, so he stuck the beautiful
meerschaum pipe in his mouth and went to Teresa's dwelling, which was
situated at the other end of the town.
The worthy spinster was sitting by her fireside, for she had a fire
lighted though the spring was fine. Mr. Meyer greeted her without taking
his pipe from his mouth.
Teresa made him sit down. Her demeanour towards him was most frosty; she
coughed thrice for every word she spoke. Mr. Meyer was only waiting for
her to say, "Where did you get that nice pipe?" and behind this
expectation was the afterthought that, perhaps, when she knew of the
festive origin of the present, Teresa also would hasten to gratify him
with birthday gifts. At last, however, he was forced to begin the
conversation of his own accord.
"Look, sister, what a handsome pipe I have!"
"It's all that," she replied, without even looking at it.
"My daughter bought it for me as a birthday present. Look!" and with
these words he handed the beautiful artistic masterpiece to Teresa.
She took the pipe by the stem and dashed it so violently against the
iron foot of the stove that it flew to pieces in every direction.
Mr. Meyer's mouth fell at both corners dismally. This was a pleasant
birthday greeting if you like!
"Sister! what does that mean?" he cried.
"What does that mean? It means that you are a stupid, a fool, a
blockhead! All the world knows that one of your daughters is the
mistress of a nobleman, and you are not only content to live with her
and share her shameful earnings, but you actually come here to me and
make a boast of it!"
"What! Which of my daughters?" exclaimed Meyer.
Teresa shrugged her shoulders. "If I did not know you for a credulous
simpleton," said she, "I should take you for an abandoned villain. You
thought me fool enough to believe that you were bringing up your
daughter as a governess when she was on the stage all the time. I don't
want to tell you what my views are as to choosing a profession--I admit
that they are old-fashioned, and out of date--but will you tell me how
it is possible for a girl with a salary of sixteen florins a month to
expend thousands on extravagant luxury?"
"Pardon me, Matilda's salary has been raised," said Meyer, who would
very much have liked others to believe something of what he believed
himself.
"That is untrue. You can find out the real state of the case from the
manager if you like."
"And then, too, her clothes are not as expensive as you fancy, sister.
She wears cheap dresses which she bought second-hand from the prima
donna."
"That also is untrue. She bought everything brand new. This very week
she purchased three hundred florins' worth of lace from Messrs. Flesz
and Huber alone."
To this Mr. Meyer knew not what to say.
"Don't sit staring at me there like a stuck pig!" cried Teresa, with a
sudden access of temper. "Hundreds, aye thousands, of times have I seen
her sitting with a certain gentleman, in a hired carriage. 'Tis only a
blockhead like yourself that can't see what all the world sees! You are
a stupid dolt, made to be taken in. I wonder it has never entered into
the head of some play-writer to put you into a farce! What! a
pater-familias who, when he is half-tipsy, on Sunday afternoons preaches
moral sermons to daughters, who are laughing in their sleeves at him all
the time, and who brags about the meerschaum pipe which the seducer of
his own daughter gives him as a birthday present! Why, if I thought that
you had had any idea of this abomination, I would sweep you out of this
room with the very broom with which I now sweep up the fragments of your
pipe."
Mr. Meyer was very much upset by this language. He got up without
answering a word, put on his hat, and went, first of all, to the shop of
Messrs. Flesz and Huber, to find out how much his daughter had spent
there. It turned out to be considerably more than three hundred florins.
Aunt Teresa was certainly well-informed.
Thence he proceeded to the theatre, and inquired what his daughter's
salary was. The manager had no need to consult his books about it. He
told Mr. Meyer straight out that his daughter was paid sixteen florins,
but she did not earn it, for she was very backward in learning--in fact,
she made no progress at all; nor did she seem to care very much, for she
never appeared at any of the rehearsals, and her salary went for the
most part in paying fines.
This was a little too much. Mr. Meyer was beside himself with rage. He
rushed wildly home. Fortunately, he made such a row when he burst into
the house that the other members of the family had time to get Matilda
out of his way, so that he had to be content with disinheriting his
abandoned daughter on the spot, and forbidding her, under pain of
extermination, ever to appear beneath his roof again. A tiger could not
have been more furious, and in the pitilessness of his rage he commanded
that her accursed name should never be mentioned in his presence, and
threatened to send packing after the minx whoever had the audacity to
defend her.
His merciless humour lasted for a whole week. Very often his tongue
itched to ask a question or two, but he stifled the rising words, and
still kept silence. At last, one day, as they all sat together at
dinner, not a single member of the family could touch a thing--then Mr.
Meyer could stand it no longer.
"What's the matter with you all?" he cried. "Why don't you eat? What's
the meaning of all this blubbering?"
The girls raised their handkerchiefs to their eyes, and blubbered more
than ever; but his wife, loudly sobbing, replied--
"My daughter is dying!"
"Naturally!" replied her husband, thrusting such a large spoonful of
pudding into his mouth that he nearly choked. "'Tis easy to say that,
but it is not so easy to die!"
"It would be better for the poor thing if she did die; she would not
suffer so much then, at any rate."
"Then, why don't you send for the doctor?"
"Her sickness is not to be cured by any doctor."
"Hum!" said Mr. Meyer, beginning to pick his teeth.
His wife waited for a little while, and thus continued in a tearful
voice--
"She is always thinking of you. All she wants is to see her father. She
says if she could kiss his hand but once, she would die of joy."
At these words the whole family in chorus sent up a piping wail like an
organ. Mr. Meyer pretended to blow his nose.
"Where is she, then?" he inquired in a constrained voice.
"In the Zuckermandel quarter, in one poor room which she has hired for a
month, abandoned by every one."
"Then she is _poor_!" thought Mr. Meyer. "Perhaps, therefore, all that
Teresa said about her is not quite true?"
Perhaps she had loved some one, and accepted gifts from him. That was
not such a great crime, surely, and it did not follow from that, that
she had sold herself. Those old spinsters, who have never experienced
the world's primest joys, are so jealous of the diversions of young
people.
"Hum! Then that bad girl speaks of me sometimes, eh?"
"She fancies your curse rests upon her. Since she departed----"
Here the conversation was again interrupted by a general outburst of
weeping.
"Since she departed," continued Mrs. Meyer, "she has never risen from
her bed, and leave it I know she never will, unless it is to be put into
her cof-cof-coffin."
"Well, well, bring her home this afternoon," said Mr. Meyer, thoroughly
softened at last.
At these words the whole family fell upon his neck and kissed and
fondled him. Never was there a better man or a kinder father in the
whole world, they said.
They scarce waited for the table to be cleared in order to deck out the
worthy pater-familias in his best, and, putting a stick in his hand, the
whole lot of them accompanied him to the Zuckermandel quarter, where
Matilda lay in a poor garret, in which there was nothing, in the
strictest sense of the word, but a bed and an innumerable quantity of
medicine-bottles.
The heart of the good father was lacerated by this spectacle. So Matilda
had nothing at all, poor girl!
The girl would have risen when she beheld her father, but was unable to
do so. Mr. Meyer rushed towards her with a penitent countenance, just as
if he had sinned against her. The girl seized his hand, pressed it to
her bosom, covered it with kisses, and in a broken voice begged for his
forgiveness.
A father's heart must surely have been made of stone to have resisted
such an appeal! He forgave her, of course, and a coach was immediately
sent for in which to convey her home. Let the world say what it liked,
blood is stronger than water; a father cannot slay his offspring for the
sake of a little tripping!
And besides, as a matter of fact, there was not the slightest reason why
he should punish her so severely, for that very same day he received a
letter (it was brought to the house by a liveried servant), which the
nobleman so frequently alluded to wrote him with his own hand, and in
which he expressed his grief that his innocent, well-meaning advances
should have occasioned such a misunderstanding. He declared, moreover,
that he regarded the whole family with the greatest respect, and as to
his intercourse with Matilda, it was simply dictated by his enthusiasm
for art. Nay, he was prepared, if necessary, to furnish the most
incontestible proofs, under his own hand and seal, that the young lady's
virtue was fenced about by absolutely impregnable bulwarks.
Ah! an honest, honourable gentleman, indeed!
"Well, that's all right," said Mr. Meyer, whom this letter perfectly
satisfied--"quite another sort of thing, in fact. But, at any rate, he
ought not to try and make Matilda go out with him, or try and see her
behind the scenes. That might so easily compromise her. If his
intentions are honourable, let him come to the house."
Imbecile, to give bread to the rats that they might not disturb him in
the night-time, instead of keeping a cat!
Naturally, in a couple of days, Matilda was as rosy as an apple just
plucked from the tree, and her squire now came to the house to visit her
quite nicely. In a few months' time he departed, and after him came a
young banker, and then another squire, and a third and a fourth, and
goodness knows how many more. And all of them were great votaries of
art, worthy respectable gentlemen every one of them, who were never
known to utter an improper word, who kissed mamma's hand, and talked on
sensible topics with papa, and bowed as decorously to the girls as if
they were young countesses at the very least. And among them were such
merry, amusing young fellows, who would make one die of laughter with
their jokes, and teased mamma by going into the kitchen and tasting the
dishes, and pocketing the pancakes. Oh, they were such funny, quizzical
young fellows!
Four of the Meyer girls were now tall and stately, and all of them as
beautiful as could be, and not a year's difference between them. As they
grew up, and their virginal charms developed, Mr. Meyer's house became
more and more noisy and frequented. The old luxury, frivolity, and
extravagance returned, and a perpetual jollity took possession of it.
The most select company, moreover, assembled there--counts, barons,
gentlemen of high degree, bankers, and other bigwigs.
It is true that it struck Mr. Meyer as somewhat peculiar that when he
met these counts and barons in the street they did not seem to see him,
and if his girls were with him, they and these friends of theirs did not
even exchange looks; but it was his way not to trouble himself about
anything unpleasant; besides, he fancied that great folks always behaved
like this.
And now his youngest daughter also was growing up; she was already
twelve years old, and she promised to be more beautiful than any of her
sisters. At present she was in short frocks, and her long thick hair,
twisted into two pigtails, dangled down her back. The guests who
honoured her father's house with their presence had already begun to ask
her, in joke, when she was going to wear long dresses like her sisters.
One day Mr. Meyer had an unusual and surprising visitor. A bevy of
good-humoured youths were flirting with his daughters just then, while
papa was smashing flies on the wall at intervals, smiling complacently
whenever one of his daughters, startled by an extra loud bang, gave a
little shriek, when a knocking was heard at the door. As nobody answered
the door, the knocking was repeated twice, much louder each time, and at
last one of the jovial young fellows aforesaid jumped up and opened the
door, imagining that it was some other merry wag who wanted to surprise
them all--and behold! a dry, wrinkled old maid in a shabby black dress
stood before the brilliant assembly!
Papa was so frightened by this apparition that his knees knocked
together. It was Aunt Teresa!
The old spinster, without deigning to bestow the least attention on the
company assembled there, made straight for Mr. Meyer with the utmost
composure.
The worthy pater-familias was in the most unspeakable confusion. He knew
not whether to ask the old lady to take a chair, or whether to introduce
her to the gay throng as his sister, or whether to deny that he knew
her. But Teresa herself relieved him from his embarrassment. With a calm
and cold look, she said, "I have a few words to say to you, and if you
have leisure to quit your guests for a moment or two, be so good as to
take me where we may not disturb the company."
Papa Meyer at once accepted this proposal, and, opening the door before
her, led her into one of the remoter rooms. They had scarcely closed the
door, when a merry laugh arose from the midst of the company which they
had just quitted. Papa Meyer thereupon drew Aunt Teresa still further
away. Even he was not quite so simple as not to know why the young
people in there laughed so uproariously at this old-fashioned spinster
of a bygone generation.
Papa Meyer, when he did address Aunt Teresa, tried to assume his most
friendly air.
"Won't you take a seat, my dear kinswoman? Oh, what a pleasure it is to
see you at last!"
"I have not exactly come here to bandy compliments," replied Teresa,
dryly, "and it is not necessary to sit down for the sake of the few
words I have come to say. I can say them just as well standing up. For
two years we have not seen each other. During that time you have placed
a pretty considerable distance between us, and your mode of life has
been such as to make it impossible for all eternity for us ever to
approach one another again. This I fancy will not very greatly astonish
you, and the knowledge that this is so has given me the courage to say
it. You have chosen for your four daughters, one after the other, the
same career. Don't speak. It is better to be silent about such things,
and I beg you will not interrupt me. I shall not reproach you. You are
the master of your own actions. You have one daughter who is twelve
years old; in a short time she will be a marriageable girl. I have not
come to this house to make a scene, nor do I wish to preach about
morality, or religion, or God, or maidenly innocence, subjects which
great men and grand gentlemen simply sneer at as the stock-in-trade of
hypocrites. I will therefore tell you in a couple of words why I have
come. All I ask is that you deliver over to me your youngest daughter. I
will engage to bring her up honourably as a respectable middle-class
girl should be brought up. Her mind is still uncorrupted, she is still
in the hands of God, and I will undertake to the day of my death to
preserve her reputation. All I require of you is that neither you
yourself, nor any member of your family, ever think of her again. God
will help me to carry out my good resolution. And one thing more, in
case you reject my offer I shall petition the highest authorities to
favour my request which may have very unpleasant consequences for you,
for I am prepared to go to the Prince Primate of Hungary himself, and
explain to him the reasons which have induced me to come forward in this
manner. My proposition does not require much consideration. I'll give
you till early to-morrow morning to make up your mind. If by that time
you have not brought the girl to my house, you can reckon me as your
most irreconcilable enemy, and then the God who remits sins have mercy
upon you!"
With these words the old spinster turned her back upon him and left the
house.
Mr. Meyer escorted his sister to the door, and so long as he saw her
before his eyes, his mind stood still, he was not the master of a single
thought. Only when she had crossed his threshold did he come to himself
again. The girls and the young dandies commented on the appearance of
the venerable virgin in the most amusing manner, and their jokes put
some heart into papa Meyer again. He began to tell them what had brought
the ancient spinster there.
"She actually wants to take away Fanny," he cried, "and keep her for
ever."
"Ho! oh! ah!" resounded on every side.
"And why? I should like to know why? Have I not always brought her up
respectably? Can any one say anything against me? Can any one reproach
me with anything? Do not I treasure my daughters as the very light of my
eyes? Has any one ever heard an ill word fall from my mouth? Am I a
swindler, perhaps, who give my daughters such a bad example that the
State feels bound to step in and take them out of my hands? Well,
gentlemen, say what you know of me! Am I a thief, or a brigand, or a
blasphemer?"
And all the time he strode rapidly up and down the room like a stage
hero, while his guests stood still and stared.
What he said, however, made a great impression, for all the young
gentlemen now vanished from the house. There was something in Aunt
Teresa's threats which might have unpleasant consequences even for them.
When the family was alone again, there was a violent outburst of wrath
against that meddlesome Aunt Teresa, and Mr. Meyer himself waxed so
wroth that he felt bound to pour forth his grievances outside as well as
inside the house. He still possessed two or three acquaintances whom he
had learnt to know in his official days: they were now leading counsel
in the supreme court, eminent jurists whose opinions he could safely
follow. He had not seen them for a long time, but it now occurred to him
that he might just as well look them up and be beforehand with Aunt
Teresa in case she put her threat into execution.
His nearest acquaintance was Councillor Schmerz, a bachelor of about
forty, a smooth-faced, quiet sort of man, whom he found in his garden
grafting his pinks. To him he confided his grievance, telling him all
about Aunt Teresa and the shabby trick she threatened to play
him--reporting him to the Prince Primate, forsooth!
Mr. Schmerz smiled once or twice during this speech, and now and then
warned Mr. Meyer, who was quite carried away by the force of his
declamation, not to trample on his flower-beds, as they were planted
with cockscombs and larkspurs. When, however, Mr. Meyer had finished his
oration, he replied very gently--
"Teresa will not do that!"
"Teresa will not do that?" thought Mr. Meyer. "That's not enough for
me." He wanted to be told that Teresa _could_ not--was not allowed to do
it; and if she tried it on, so much the worse for Teresa.
Mr. Schmerz had evidently made up his mind to graft an endless series of
pinks that afternoon, so Mr. Meyer thought it best to carry his
complaint to another of his acquaintances, in the hope that he would and
must give a more definite reply.
This other acquaintance was Mr. Chlamek, a famous advocate, one of the
most honourable of characters, and withal an exceedingly dry
man--practical shrewdness and commonsense personified. He, too, was a
pater-familias with three sons and two daughters.
Mr. Chlamek listened to the matter laid before him with all an
advocate's patience, and answered the question quietly and frankly--
"My dear friend, never quarrel with a relation for showing a disposition
to relieve you of one of your daughters. Thank God that you have still
daughters left and to spare. I know from experience that one girl gives
more trouble than three boys. I should not refuse this offer if I were
you."
Mr. Meyer said not a word. This advice pleased him even less than the
other. So he went to his third acquaintance.
This third acquaintance was a really excellent fellow, and by profession
a judge of the criminal court. He was always frightfully rude to those
with whom he was in any way angry, and if the whole penal code had been
his ring, he could not have twisted it round his finger more easily.
Mr. Meyer found the eminent criminal lawyer in the midst of a heap of
dusty papers. Mr. Bordácsi, for that was his name, had an extraordinary
faculty for so identifying himself with any complicated case he might
take up as to absolutely live and breathe in it. Any attempt at
sophistry or chicanery made him downright venomous, and he only
recovered himself when, by dint of superior acumen, he had enabled the
righteous cause to triumph. He was also far-famed for his
incorruptibility. Whoever approached him with ducats was incontinently
kicked out-of-doors, and if any pretty woman visited him with the
intention of making her charms influence his judgments, he would treat
her so unceremoniously that she was likely to think twice before
visiting him again on a similar errand.
No sooner did Bordácsi perceive Mr. Meyer than he took off his
spectacles and put them on the page of the document before him, so as
not to lose his place; then he exclaimed, in an extraordinarily rough
voice--
"Well, what's the matter, friend Meyer?"
Mr. Meyer was glad to hear the word "friend," but this was a mere form
of expression with his Honour the Judge. He always said "friend" to
lawyers' clerks, lackeys, and even to the parties to a suit whom it was
his duty to tear to ribbons. Meyer, however, set forth his grievance
quite confidently. He even sat down, though he had not been invited to
do so, as he was wont to do in the bygone happy days when they were
official colleagues together. It was Meyer's custom never to look those
whom he was addressing in the face, which bashfulness deprived him, of
course, of the advantage of being able to read from their countenances
what impression he was making upon them. He was therefore greatly
surprised when, on finishing his speech, his Honour Judge Bordácsi
roared at him in the angriest of voices--
"And why do you tell me all this?"
Mr. Meyer's spirit suddenly grew cold within him; he could not answer a
word, only his mouth moved weakly up and down, like the mouth of a
puppet that you pull with a string.
"What!" cried Judge Bordácsi, with a still more violent exertion of his
lungs, rushing upon his unfortunate client and fixing him with
frightfully distended eyes.
In his terror the unfortunate man leaped from the seat in which he had
sat down unasked, and murmured tearfully--
"I humbly beg your pardon. I came here for advice and--and protection."
"How? Do you imagine, sir, that I shall take your part?" bawled the
judge, as if he were speaking to some one who was stone deaf.
"I fancied," stammered the unfortunate pater-familias, "that the old
kindliness which you formerly showed to my house----"
Bordácsi did not let him finish. "Yes, your house! In those days your
house was a respectable house, but now your house is a Sodom and
Gomorrah which opens its doors wide to all the fools of the town. You
have devoted your four girls to the bottomless pit, and you are a
scandal to every pure-minded man. You are the corrupter of the youth of
this city, and your name is a by-word throughout the kingdom wherever
dissolute youths and outraged fathers are to be found."
Here Mr. Meyer burst into tears, and murmured something to the effect
that he did not know anything about it.
"With what a handsome family did not God bless you! and, sir, you have
made it the laughing-stock of the world. You have traded with the
innocence, the love, and the spiritual welfare of your daughters; you
have sold, you have bartered them away to the highest bidder; you have
taught them that they must catch passers-by in the street with an ogle
or a stare, that they must smile, laugh, and make love to men whom they
see for the first time in their lives, that they must make money by
lying!"
The wretched man was understood to say, amidst his sobs, that he had
done none of these things.
"And now, sir, you have one daughter left, the last, the prettiest, the
most charming of them all. When I used to visit at your house, sir, she
was a little child no higher than my knee, whom every one loved, every
one fondled. Don't you remember, sir? And now, sir, you would abandon
her also. And you are angry, you storm and rave when a respectable
person wants to save the unfortunate child from having her innocence
corrupted, save her from withering away profitlessly in the claws of a
pack of gross, rowdy, street-lounging, rake-hell young profligates, from
living a life of wretchedness and shame, from dying abandoned and
accursed, to say nothing of the fire of hell after death. And you even
raise objections, sir! But, of course, I understand, they would be
depriving you of a great treasure, of something you can sell at a high
price, something that you can calculate upon making a handsome profit
out of, eh?"
Meyer gnashed his teeth with rage and horror.
"Let me tell you, sir, if you are still able to follow good advice,"
continued the judge, in the same pitiless voice, "that if that
respectable person, your kinswoman Teresa, is still willing to take
charge of your daughter Fanny, surrender her unconditionally, renounce
all your rights to her now and for evermore, for if you raise any
further objections, if the matter comes before the courts, so help me
God! I'll have you locked up myself."
"Where?" asked the terrified Meyer.
This question took the judge somewhat aback at first, but he soon found
an answer.
"Where? Well, in the house of correction, in case the things that are
done in your house, sir, are done with your knowledge and consent; and
in a madhouse if they are done without your knowledge."
Mr. Meyer had got a sufficient answer at last; he took his leave and
departed. He could scarce find the door by which he had entered, and he
had to grope his way down to the street. The loafers there who saw him
nudged each other with a grin and said, "That chap has had a good
skinful somewhere!"
So he had to learn from others that he was not a respectable man; he had
to learn from strange lips that people looked down upon him, laughed at,
cursed him, sneered at him as the man who made money out of his
daughters' love affairs, and whose house was a place where young men
were corrupted.
And he had always fancied that he was the best man in the world, whose
house was honoured and respected, and whose friendship was sought after!
In his confusion of mind he had wandered out of his way as far as the
Malomligeti pond. What a nice pond! he thought. How many wicked girls
could be suffocated there! A man, too, might easily leap into it, and be
at rest! Then he turned back again and hastened home.
At home they were still chattering and exclaiming at the pretensions of
Aunt Teresa. The youngest girl was passed from hand to hand, and kissed
and embraced as if some great misfortune awaited her.
"Poor Fanny, it would be better for you to be a servant with us than to
live with Aunt Teresa!"
"Oh, what a pleasant time you'll have, sewing and knitting all day long,
and in the evening reading devotional books to aunty till she dozes
off!"
"I know she will always be running us down; you will never see us, and
we shall become quite strangers to you."
"Poor Fanny, the old faggot will beat you, too."
"Poor Fanny!"
"My poor girl!"
"Poor little sister!"
They quite frightened the child with all these lamentations, and it was
at last determined that if Fanny would say to papa, if he pressed her,
that she did not want to go to Aunt Teresa, they would all take her
part.
At that same moment Meyer's steps were audible upon the staircase. He
rushed into the room with his hat on--but, indeed, in such a house as
that it was not usual to take off one's hat at all at any time. He knew
that every one was looking at his face, but he also knew that his face
was distorted enough to frighten any one who looked at it.
Without bestowing a glance on any one, he simply said to Fanny--
"Put on your hat and cloak, and look sharp about it!"
"Why, papa?" asked Fanny. Like all badly-brought-up children, she always
said, "What for?" before doing anything she was told to do.
"You are to come with me."
"Where?"
"To Aunt Teresa's."
Every one present affected an air of astonishment. Fanny cast down her
eyes, and twisting a ribbon round her finger, "I don't want to go to
Aunt Teresa," she faltered timidly.
A disjointed embroidering frame was lying on the table.
Fanny stole a glance at her mother and sisters, and meeting with looks
of encouragement, repeated, this time in a bold, determined voice--
"I don't want to go to Aunt Teresa!"
"What? You don't want to go, eh?"
"I want to stay here with my mother and sisters."
"With your mother and sisters, eh? and become what they are, I suppose?"
and seizing the girl with one hand, he snatched up with the other one of
the sticks of the embroidering frame, and, before Fanny had time to be
frightened, he thrashed her in a way that made his own heart bleed for
her.
The sisters tried to interfere, and got their share also, for papa Meyer
broke all the remaining sticks of the frame over their shoulders, so
that when it came to his wife's turn, he had to pummel her with his
fists till she collapsed in a corner.
A few years sooner a moderate dose of this discipline might have been of
use, now it only caused physical pain. And all the time Mr. Meyer never
said a word; he simply gratified his rage, like a wild beast that has
escaped from its cage.
After that he seized Fanny by the hand, and without taking leave of any
one, dragged her along with him to Aunt Teresa's. The child wept all the
way.
The chastised damsels wished, in their wrath, that their departing
father might never return again. And their wish was gratified, for Mr.
Meyer never did return home again. From henceforth he vanished from
Pressburg. Where he went or what became of him nobody ever knew. Some
maintained that he had jumped into the Danube, others that he had
emigrated; and years afterwards distant travellers sent word home from
time to time that they had seen a man greatly resembling him, some said
in England, some in Turkey.