A PROFESSIONAL VISIT.
The president's carriage was rolling along the mountain-road, the only
one available until the railway should be opened, when Elmhorst and
Reinsfeld left the former's rooms and took their way to the villa.
Elmhorst of course did not wait to be announced,--the servants bowed
low before the future son-in-law of the house, and he conducted his
friend to the drawing-room. If the doctor had dreaded the visit
beforehand, he was now completely crushed by his unaccustomed
surroundings.
The room, with its luxurious carpets, its curtains admitting only a
half light, its pale-blue hangings and furniture, seemed to him like
some fairy realm. There were a few pictures on the walls, and a
statuette of white marble peeped forth from a group of flowering plants
that perfumed the air. All here was as fresh and delicate as though it
had been Elf-land.
Unfortunately, Benno was not accustomed to the society of elves. He
stumbled over the carpet, dropped his hat, and in stooping to pick it
up wellnigh overturned a little table, which nothing but Wolfgang's
dexterity preserved from a fall. He mutely endured the unavoidable
introduction, made an awkward bow, and when Frau von Lasberg's cold,
stern face arose upon his vision scanning 'this strange person' with
evident surprise, he lost all self-possession.
Elmhorst frowned: he had not fancied it would be quite so bad as this;
still, there was no retreat: the interview had to be gone through with,
although, to poor Benno's great relief, he made it as short as
possible. The embarrassed visitor held the recovered hat tightly in the
hands adorned with the yellow gloves which were far too large, while
his friend presented him to his betrothed.
"You have promised me, dear Alice, to consult Dr. Reinsfeld, and this
is he. You know how anxious I am about your health."
The tone in which the words were spoken was anxious and considerate,
but there was no tenderness in it. Reinsfeld, who had been quite
crushed by the magnificence of the Baroness, scarcely dared to lift his
eyes to the young heiress, who, he was sure, must be infinitely
haughtier and more magnificent. He stood like a victim at the altar,
when suddenly the gentlest voice in the world addressed him: "I am so
very glad to see you, Herr Doctor; Wolfgang has told me so much about
you."
He looked up amazed into a pair of large brown eyes in which there was
certainly no disdain. His head had been filled with the satin-clad and
lace-shrouded lady of the photograph, but in her stead he saw a
delicate little figure in a thin, white morning-gown, her light-brown
hair twisted in a loose knot, her lovely face pale and weary, but the
reverse of haughty. He was positively startled, and stammered something
about 'exceeding pleasure,' and 'great honour,' soon, however, coming
to a stand-still.
Wolfgang came to his aid with some remark as to the purpose of the
visit, wishing to afford his friend an opportunity to show himself at
his best as the skilful physician. But to-day Benno belied his entire
nature. He asked several questions, but his manner was that of one
suing for mercy; he stammered, he blushed like a girl, and, worse than
all, he was conscious of how unbecoming was his behaviour. This robbed
him of the last remnant of self-possession; he sat gazing at the young
lady imploringly, as if entreating her forgiveness for annoying her by
his presence.
Whether it were this same imploring expression or the childlike
sincerity and gentleness, which, in spite of the young man's
embarrassment, were evident in the dark-blue eyes lifted to her own,
that touched Alice, she suddenly felt moved to say, with extreme
kindness, "You will hardly be able to judge of my health in this first
visit, Herr Doctor, but be sure that I shall place implicit confidence
in Wolfgang's friend."
And she held out to him a transparent little hand, which lay like a
rose-leaf in his own as he said, with far more earnestness than the
occasion warranted, "Oh, thank you, thank you, Fraeulein Nordheim!"
Frau von Lasberg's face plainly showed her doubt of the capacity of a
physician whose first visit to a patient so overwhelmed him with
stammering confusion, and who was so profusely grateful for nothing.
And this man was Elmhorst's friend, and Alice seemed quite content. The
old lady shook her head, and said, with much reserve, "You are wont to
be very chary of your confidence, my dear Alice."
"I am all the more pleased that she should make an exception in my
friend's favour," Wolfgang interposed. "You will not regret it, Alice.
I assure you, Benno's acquirements and skill will bear comparison with
those of his most distinguished fellows. I am always remonstrating with
him for not exercising them in a wider field. He is sacrificing his
life here in a subordinate position, and only last year he refused a
most advantageous offer."
"But you know, Wolf----" Reinsfeld attempted to interrupt this praise.
"Yes, I know that a couple of little peasants who were ill so absorbed
you that you let the opportunity slip."
"Ah, was that the reason?" Alice asked, in an undertone, glancing again
at the young man, who looked as if he were being accused of some crime.
"The Herr Doctor practises among the peasantry, if I understand
aright?" said Frau von Lasberg. "Do you really drive up the mountains
to the secluded cottages scattered here and there?"
"No, madame, I walk," Reinsfeld explained, simply. "I have, it is true,
been obliged of late years to buy a mountain-pony for extreme
distances, but I usually walk."
The lady cleared her throat and looked significantly at the engineer,
who was intrusting his betrothed's health to a doctor of peasants.
Benno was now entirely out of her good graces. Wolfgang understood her
look, and smiled rather contemptuously as he said, "Yes, madame, he
walks; and when he reaches his home after an expedition through snow
and ice, he works away at a scientific treatise that will one day make
him famous. But no one must know anything about that. I discovered it
only by chance."
"Pray, pray, Wolf!" Benno protested, in such embarrassment that
Elmhorst could not but release him. He observed that his friend had a
medical visit to pay, and thus allowed him to take his leave. How this
leave was taken the poor doctor never quite understood; he only knew
that the delicate white hand was held out to him in token of farewell,
and that the kindly brown eyes were lifted half compassionately to his
own. Then Elmhorst took his arm, piloted him past all the flowers and
statuettes, and then the door was closed between him and the fairy
realm.
In the antechamber he asked, timidly, "Wolf--did it go off so very
badly?"
"God knows, it could hardly have been worse," was Elmhorst's irritated
reply.
"I told you before, I am unused to society," Benno said, piteously.
"But you are a man nearly thirty, and can be resolute enough by the
bedside of a patient; while to-day you behaved like a school-boy who
has not learned his task."
Thus he hectored his friend after his usual fashion, and Benno meekly
submitted. Only when he was entreated earnestly to collect himself and
be more sensible the next time, did he ask, in a half-frightened,
half-pleased tone, "May I come again, then?"
Elmhorst fairly lost patience: "Benno, I really do not know what to
think of you. Have I not begged you to take charge of my betrothed's
health?"
"But the old lady was much displeased,--I could see that," Reinsfeld
observed, dejectedly, "and I am afraid that Fraeulein Nordheim too
thinks----" He paused and looked down.
"I do not ask the Baroness Lasberg's permission in my plans for my
betrothed," Wolfgang said, haughtily. "And my influence with Alice is
supreme. Since it is my wish, she has accepted you for her physician."
The doctor eyed him askance: "Wolf, you really do not deserve your good
fortune."
"Why not? Because I take the helm into my own hands thus early? You do
not understand, Benno. When a man without means, like myself, enters a
family like Nordheim's, he must choose whether to rule, or to occupy a
very subordinate position. I prefer to rule."
"You are a monster to talk of ruling that delicate creature!" Benno
broke out, angrily.
"Of course I did not mean Alice," Wolfgang rejoined, coolly; "her
nature is extremely gentle, and she is used to yield to the will of
another. I merely take care that this other shall be myself. You need
not look at me so angrily; my wife will never find me a tyrant. I know
she needs the greatest forbearance and care, and she shall always find
them at my hands."
"Yes, because she brings you a million," Benno muttered, as he turned
to go. Elmhorst detained him.
"You have not told me your opinion of Alice?"
"At present I have formed none. She seems to be in an extremely nervous
condition, but I must have more opportunity of observation."
"As much as you please. _Au revoir_."
"Adieu."
They parted, and while Wolfgang returned to his betrothed the doctor
left the villa. He seemed in haste, for he strode quickly up a
mountain-path, and did not stay his steps or look back until he had
reached a distant point.
There, behind those windows with white lace curtains, lay the fairy
realm, where they were now ridiculing and laughing at the awkward
fellow who had so plainly, in every word and gesture, shown his
unfitness for the Nordheim drawing-room. Involuntarily he glanced at
his gloves, which had seemed to him so extremely elegant an hour
before, and in a sudden fit of impatience he tore them off and tossed
the innocent yellow things into the thicket of pines. One fell on the
ground, but the other was caught upon a bough, where it dangled and
nodded like a huge sunflower. This irritated its owner still more, and
he was half minded to send his hat after it, when he bethought himself
in time that he really could not dispose of his entire wardrobe thus.
"You cannot help it, old fellow!" he said, sadly, looking at his
venerable beaver. "I am not used to polite society. I wonder whether
_she_ is laughing too?"
There was no explanation as to whom the 'she' referred to, but
certainly for a time Dr. Reinsfeld was as miserable a man as could be
found among the mountains. The consciousness of his want of society
tact oppressed him terribly.