A CHALLENGE.
It was evening; Elmhorst was in his office with Dr. Reinsfeld, who had
arrived half an hour previously, and from the air of both men it was
evident that the subject of their conversation was a grave one. Benno
seemed especially agitated.
"So matters stand at present," he concluded, after a long explanation.
"Gronau came directly to me after his interview with the president, and
all my efforts to deter him from his purpose are vain. I begged him to
remember that it would cost him his position with Waltenberg, who never
could tolerate such an assault upon the fair fame of the uncle and
guardian of his betrothed, and that he had no positive proof; that
Nordheim would do all that lay in his power to brand him as a liar
and slanderer. It was of no use. He reproached me bitterly with
cowardice,--with indifference to my father's memory. God knows, he was
wrong there; but--I cannot bring forward the accusation!"
"Wolfgang had listened in silence, a contemptuous smile hovering about
his lips. It was high time indeed to break off all association with
that man; never for an instant did he doubt the truth of Gronau's
suspicions.
"I thank you for your frankness, Benno," he said. "It would have been
perfectly excusable if you had never taken me into consideration, but
had acted only as your father's son. I know how great is the regard you
thus show me."
Benno cast down his eyes; he was conscious that these thanks were
undeserved. It was not to spare his friend that he would have buried
that discovery in oblivion.
"You understand that I cannot possibly move in the affair," he
rejoined. "I must leave it to you to speak with your future
father-in-law----"
"No," Wolfgang coldly interrupted him.
Reinsfeld gazed at him in surprise. "You will not?
"No, Benno; Grouau has openly declared war to him, as you tell me,
therefore he is fully prepared; and, moreover, my relations with him
are no longer what they were. We are parted once for all."
The doctor's amazement was inexpressible: "Parted? And your betrothal
with Fraeulein Alice----"
"Is at an end. I cannot give you a detailed explanation of the matter.
Nordheim has shown himself to me also,--as what you now know him to be.
He endeavoured to impose upon me conditions entirely inconsistent, in
my opinion, with my honour; therefore I was obliged to retire."
Reinsfeld still stared at him, bewildered; he could not understand how
the man who had once staked everything upon this connection could speak
thus composedly of his shattered hopes.
"And Alice is free?" he managed to ask at last.
"Yes. But what is the matter with you? What is it?"
Benno had started up in extreme agitation: "Wolf, you never loved your
betrothed. I am sure of it, or you could not speak so coldly and calmly
of losing her. You do not even know what you are losing, for you never
appreciated what you possessed."
There was so passionate a reproach in his words that they betrayed
everything. Elmhorst was startled, and gazed at the doctor half
incredulously: "What does this mean? Benno, can it be--what? do you
love Alice?"
The young physician's honest blue eyes sparkled as he looked into those
of his friend: "No need to reproach me with it, Wolf. I have never
spoken a word to your betrothed that you might not have heard, and when
I saw how impossible it was to struggle against my love, I made up my
mind to depart. Do you suppose I would ever have accepted the position
in Neuenfeld, which I more than suspected was the result of the
president's influence, if any other way out of the difficulty had been
possible? There was nothing else to do if I wished to leave Oberstein."
The most conflicting sensations were pictured on Wolfgang's features as
he listened. True, he had never loved his betrothed, but Benno's
confession touched him very strangely, and there was something akin to
bitterness in his voice as he said, "Well, I am no longer an obstacle
in your way, and if you have any hope that your love is returned----"
"It would be vain!" Reinsfeld interposed. "You know now what happened
between our fathers, enough to separate me from Alice forever."
"Perhaps so, constituted as you are. Another man, on the contrary,
might use it to force from Nordheim a consent which he assuredly would
otherwise refuse. That you never could be induced to do."
"No, never!" Benno said, sadly. "I am going to Neuenfeld, and I shall
in all probability never see Alice again."
They were interrupted by the announcement that Herr Waltenberg wished
to speak with the engineer-in-chief. Elmhorst instantly arose, and
Reinsfeld prepared to leave. "Good-night, Wolf," he said, cordially
extending his hand. "Nothing can sever our friendship; we must always
be what we have always been to each other,--eh?"
Wolfgang warmly returned the pressure of the hand thus given:
"Good-night, Benno. I shall see you to-morrow."
He went with him to the door of the room, just as Waltenberg made his
appearance; a few words were exchanged among the young men, and then
Reinsfeld departed, and the two were left alone.
Ernst seemed to have regained his self-control during his lonely ride
of two hours; his manner, at least, was cold and collected, although
there was still a gleam in his eyes that boded no good.
"I hope I do not interrupt you, Herr Elmhorst?" he said, slowly
approaching the young engineer.
"No, Herr Waltenberg; I expected you," was the reply.
"So much the better; there is no need, then, of any preface to what I
am come to say. No, thank you!" he interrupted himself, as Elmhorst
offered him a chair. "Between us formal courtesy is superfluous. I need
not tell you why I am here. Our interpretation of the scene of this
afternoon differed from that of the strangers then present, and I have
a few words to say to you with regard to it."
"I am quite at your service."
Ernst folded his arms, and there was a trace of contempt in his voice
as he continued: "I am, as you know, betrothed to Baroness von Thurgau,
and I am not inclined to allow in my betrothed so intense an interest
in the peril of another man. But that is a matter between herself and
myself. What I desire to know at present is how far you are implicated
in this interest. Do you love Fraeulein von Thurgau?"
The question sounded like a threat, but Wolfgang's answer came
instantly and simply: "Yes."
A flash of deadly hatred shot from Ernst Waltenberg's eyes, and yet
this confession told him nothing new. He knew from Erna herself that
she had loved another, but he had fancied that he should have to seek
that other in the grave, among the shades. Here he stood living before
him, the man who could sacrifice an Erna to wretched mammon; a man
incapable of a pure, exalted affection, and who yet held his head as
haughtily erect as if there were no reason why he should bow before any
on earth. This irritated Ernst still more.
"And this love does not probably date from to-day or from yesterday? As
far as I know, you have frequented the house of the president for
years,--before I returned from Europe, before Baroness von Thurgau was
betrothed."
"I regret being obliged to refuse to give you any satisfaction on these
points," Wolfgang replied, as frigidly as before. "I am quite ready to
answer any question you have a right to put. I refuse to submit to a
cross-examination."
"I can well believe it," Waltenberg declared, with a bitter laugh. "You
would fare but ill in such an examination,--as the betrothed of Alice
Nordheim."
Elmhorst bit his lip,--the shot found a joint in his armour, but he
recovered himself in an instant:
"First of all, Herr Waltenberg, I must request you to change your tone,
if this conversation is to be prolonged. I will tolerate no insults,
least of all, as you well know, from yourself."
"I am not to blame if the truth insults you," Ernst retorted,
arrogantly. "Contradict my words, and I will retract them. Until you
do, you must allow me to entertain my own opinion with regard to a man
who loves, or pretends to love, a woman while he woos and wins a
wealthy heiress. You cannot possibly ask esteem for such a paltr----"
"Enough!" Wolfgang cut short his words. "No need of abuse to attain
your end. I am perfectly aware of why you are here, and I will not balk
you. But such words as you are using I forbid. I am in my own house."
He confronted his antagonist erect and very pale. Something in the man
commanded respect, even as he thus repelled the imputation which his
conduct had ostensibly deserved. Ernst could not but feel that his
rival bore himself with dignity, hard as it was to admit it.
"You adopt a lofty tone," said Waltenberg, with a sneer. "'Tis a pity
your betrothed is not here; in her presence there might not be so much
conscious rectitude in your manner."
"I am no longer betrothed," Wolfgang coldly declared.
Waltenberg retreated a step in extreme amazement.
"What--what do you mean?"
"I simply inform you of a fact to show you that the cause for the
imputation with which you would insult me exists no longer, for _I_ was
the one to withdraw from the engagement."
"When? For what reason?" The questions were put hurriedly.
"On these points I owe you no explanation."
"I am not so sure of that, for here, as it seems to me, you are
reckoning upon my magnanimity. You are mistaken. I never will release
Erna; and she herself, as I know, will never ask her release at my
hands. She does not make a promise to-day to break it to-morrow, and
she is far too proud to give herself to a man who preferred wealth to
her love."
"Pray cease your attempts to use the old weapon: it has lost its
point," Elmhorst said, sternly. "Born and bred in the very lap of
luxury as you were, ignorant of all self-denial, what can you know of
the struggles and efforts of one longing to rise, consumed by ambition
to win recognition for himself, to attain a great goal? I yielded to
temptation, yes; but I have delivered my soul now, and can bid defiance
to your boasted virtue. You too would have succumbed if life had denied
you fortune and happiness,--you first of all,--and it may be you would
not have fought your way free as I have, for, by heaven! the struggle
is no easy one."
There was such convincing truth in his words that Ernst was silent. He
to whom luxury was a necessity of existence could hardly have withstood
temptation; but because he could not help the conviction that this was
so, did he all the more detest the man who had come off conqueror in
the fiercest of all battles,--the conflict with self.
"And now go, and hold your betrothed to her promise," Wolfgang went on,
still more bitterly. "She will not break it, nor will she forgive me
for what has been. There you are right. I have paid for my wrong-doing
with my happiness. Force Erna to bestow upon you her hand; her love you
cannot gain, for that belongs to me,--to me alone!"
"Ah, you dare----!" Ernst began, furiously, but paused before the cold,
proud triumph in the eyes that met his own.
"Well? upon what ground now would you quarrel with me? That I love your
betrothed is hardly an insult; that I am beloved you cannot pardon. I
never knew it myself before to-day."
Waltenberg looked as if he would fain have flown at the throat
of the man who thus uttered what could not be gainsaid; in a voice
half stifled by passion be rejoined, "Then you can easily conceive
that I shall hardly consent to share the love of my betrothed with
another,--with a living rival at least."
Elmhorst shrugged his shoulders: "Is this a challenge?"
"Yes, and the affair had best be concluded as soon as possible. I will
send Herr Gronau to you to-morrow to make the necessary arrangements,
and I hope you will agree that to-morrow shall decide----"
"Not at all," Elmhorst interrupted him. "I shall have no time
to-morrow, nor the day after."
"No time for an affair of honour?"
"No, Herr Waltenberg. In fact, I have no great opinion of these affairs
of honour which consist in trying to put an end as quickly as possible
to a man whom one hates. But there are cases in which one must be false
to his convictions rather than incur the imputation of cowardice. So I
am ready. But we workingmen have an honour of our own apart from that
cherished as such by the favoured idlers of society, and mine demands
that I should not expose myself to the possibility of being shot before
the task which I have undertaken to fulfil has been accomplished. In
eight or ten days the Wolkenstein bridge will be finished,--I shall
then have completed my task; I shall have seen my work accomplished.
Then I shall be at your disposal, but not an hour sooner. Until then
you will be obliged to curb your impatience."
There was an almost contemptuous deliberation in the manner in which
all this was stated to the man to whom it was scarcely intelligible.
Waltenberg had never worked, never devised anything that he loved and
would fain see completed; he had never done aught save follow the
impulse of the whim of the moment. Now this impulse incited him to the
destruction of his enemy or to his own ruin,--he did not stop to ask
which; but to be obliged to wait for days, to stay his thirst for
revenge,--the thing seemed an impossibility.
"And if I do not accept this condition?" he asked, sharply.
"Then I do not accept your challenge. The choice is yours."
Ernst clinched his fist in suppressed fury; but he saw that he must
submit: it was his antagonist's right to require this delay.
"So be it, then!" he said, controlling himself by an effort. "In from
eight to ten days. I rely upon your word."
"You will find me ready."
A formal, hostile bow was given on both sides, and Ernst left the room,
while Elmhorst slowly walked to the window.
Outside, the moon, visible now and then among the clouds, cast an
uncertain light over the landscape. For a moment it emerged clearly,
and in its rays was revealed the bridge, the bold structure which had
promised its creator so proud a future. And out into the same light
strode the man who had sworn his death,--whose hand was sure when
a foe was to be removed from his path. Wolfgang made no effort at
self-deception: he bade farewell to his dreams for the future, as he
had already bidden farewell to his happiness.