AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.
Dr. Reinsfeld sat in his room, writing diligently. So much had to be
arranged and prepared for his successor, who was to arrive in the
course of the next week, and who was to buy the house and furniture.
The young physician's belongings were not very valuable, nevertheless
he looked about him upon his poor possessions with a sad, yearning
expression. Here he had been so happy, and so miserable!
A carriage drove up and stopped before his door. Benno looked up from
his writing to see who his visitor might be, and then hurried to the
door, in surprise, as he recognized the graceful figure of Frau
Gersdorf about to alight. This distinguished relative, whose
acquaintance he had formerly dreaded to make, had come to be his
cherished little friend, whose interest in his unhappy love was
intense. He had been obliged to discourage this interest of hers, but
he was nevertheless grateful for it.
He went out with a welcome upon his lips to open the carriage door, but
started, dismayed, for beside his young cousin sat a shyly shrinking
figure,--Alice Nordheim.
"Yes, I am not alone," said Molly, highly delighted by the effect of
her surprise. "We have been out driving, and did not wish to pass
through Oberstein without seeing you. Well, Benno, are you not glad we
stopped?"
Reinsfeld stood dumfounded. Driving in this cold rainy weather? Why had
Alice come? And why did she tremble so as he helped her out of the
carriage, seeming afraid to look at him? He could not utter a word; but
indeed there was no need that he should, for Frau Gersdorf gave no one
any chance to speak. She chattered on until they were in Benno's study,
and then she began afresh:
"And so here we are. You wanted to come, Alice, and now you look as if
you would like to run away. Why? I may surely call upon my cousin if I
please, and you are with me, chaperoned by a married woman, so your
duenna can make no possible objection. And you need not be in the least
embarrassed, children. I know everything,--I grasp the entire
situation, and it is very natural that you should wish to talk to each
other. So now begin!"
She seated herself in the arm-chair which the doctor had just left, and
prepared with great solemnity to assist at the interview. But a long
pause ensued,--neither Alice nor Benno spoke,--and, after some minutes
of silence, Molly began to be tired.
"I dare say you would rather talk without listeners," she remarked.
"Good! I will go into the next room, and see that no one interrupts
you."
Without waiting for a reply, she suited the action to the word, and
left the room for the one adjoining, by the closed door of which she
placed herself as sentinel.
But Molly had forgotten the other door of the study, which led through
a small vestibule out into the garden, and she was quite unconscious
that through the garden Veit Gronau was just now approaching the house,
leaving Said and Djelma to await him at the garden gate.
Ernst Waltenberg had not returned to Heilborn on the previous evening,
although he had promised to meet his secretary there. Early this
morning a messenger from him had brought Gronau the intelligence that
he had taken up his abode for a few days in the little inn at
Oberstein, and that the two servants were to be sent to him with all
that was necessary for his comfort. This had been done, and Veit had
accompanied them. Driving up the steep mountain-road had been very
difficult, wherefore all three had preferred to walk the last part of
the way, leaving the vehicle to bring the luggage.
The foot-path which thay pursued led directly past the doctor's
garden. Gronau walked up the little enclosure and opened the familiar
back-door. His last interview with Benno had been a stormy one,--he had
bitterly reproached the young physician with his indifference,--and his
kindly nature would not long allow him to cherish any unkind feeling.
He came now partly to apologize, and partly in hope of finding the
doctor more in sympathy with his wishes. As the Nordheim carriage was
standing before the front entrance of the house, he had no suspicion of
the visit which Benno was receiving, else he would have fled in dismay.
Meanwhile, Frau Gersdorf maintained her guard with unwearied,
devotion,--a devotion all the more disinterested since the stout oaken
door effectually deadened the voices of the pair she had left. Their
conversation, moreover, was far from what she had hoped would ensue.
Benno, after waiting in vain for Alice to break the silence, said,
gently,--
"And you really wished to come hither, Fraeulein Nordheim,--really?"
"Yes, Herr Doctor," was the low, trembling reply.
Reinsfeld knew not what to think. Lately Alice's intercourse with him
had been perfectly easy and familiar. True, since their last interview
in the forest, her ease of manner had vanished, but that could not
explain this alteration in her. She stood pale and trembling before
him, seeming actually afraid of him, for she retreated timidly when he
would have approached her.
"You are afraid--of me?" he asked, reproachfully.
She shook her head: "No, not of you, but of what I have to tell you. It
is so terrible."
Reinsfeld was still puzzled for a moment, and then suddenly the truth
flashed upon him.
"Good God! You do not know----?"
He paused, for, for the first time, Alice looked up at him with eyes
filled with such misery, such despair, that all other reply was
needless. He hastily went up to her and took her hand.
"How could it be? Who could have been so cruel, so dastardly, as to
distress you with _that_?"
"No one!" the girl said, with an evident effort, "By chance--I
overheard a conversation between my father and Herr Gronau----"
"You cannot believe I had any share in it!" Benno hastily interposed.
"I did all that I could to restrain Gronau; I refused to give him my
sanction."
"I know it,--and for my sake!"
"Yes, for your sake, Alice. What can you fear from me? There was no
need that you should come hither to entreat my silence."
"I did not come for that," Alice said, softly. "I wanted to ask your
pardon--your forgiveness for----"
Her voice was lost in a burst of sobs; suddenly she felt herself
clasped in Benno's arms. She was no longer Wolfgang's betrothed; he was
no traitor to his friend; he might for once clasp his love in his arms,
while she wept convulsively upon his breast.
Just at this moment Veit Gronau opened the side-door, and paused in
dismay upon the threshold. He would have been less amazed if the skies
had fallen than he was by the sight that met his eyes. Unfortunately,
he did not possess Frau Gersdorf's diplomatic talent for noiselessly
disappearing and pretending not to have observed anything; on the
contrary, his surprise expressed itself in a long-drawn "A--h!"
The lovers started in terror. Alice in great confusion extricated
herself from Benno's embrace, and the doctor lost all his presence of
mind, while the intruder maintained his stand upon the threshold, and
in his dismay never thought of stirring. At last the young girl fled
into the next room to Molly, while Benno, with a frown, approached his
unbidden guest: "This is an unexpected visit, Herr Gronau, a surprise
indeed."
His tone was unusually sharp, but Gronau did not seem to notice it. He
entered the room, and, with an air of extreme satisfaction, said, "This
is quite another affair,--quite another affair."
"What of it?" Benno exclaimed, impatiently; but Veit tapped him
cordially on the shoulder:
"Why did you not tell me this? Now I understand why you would not
accuse Nordheim. You were quite right, quite right."
"Nor will I suffer any one else to do so," Reinsfeld declared, his
irritation only aggravated by Gronau's genial tone. "I deny any one's
right to meddle in my affairs; understand me, Herr Gronau."
"I have no idea of doing anything of the kind," said Gronau, quietly.
"'Tis well that I have said nothing to Herr Waltenberg as yet. Of
course the matter must be kept quiet among ourselves. You have been far
wiser than I, Herr Doctor. How could you bear my scolding so patiently?
I never gave you credit for such cleverness."
"Can you suppose me capable of sordid calculation?" Benno exclaimed,
angrily. "I love Alice Nordheim."
"So I saw just now," Veit observed, "And she seemed very willing.
Bravo! Now we shall go to work with the Herr President very
differently. We shall say not a word about the stolen invention, but
shall simply ask for his daughter's hand, and his millions will
naturally follow it. 'Tis a fact, Benno, that you have shown a vast
amount of cleverness. Your arrangement of the matter would satisfy even
your father in his grave."
"That is your view," Benno declared, sadly. "Alice's and mine is very
different. What you saw was only a farewell forever."
At this intelligence, Veit looked as if he had suddenly received a box
on the ear.
"Farewell? Forever? Doctor, I verily believe you are out of your
senses."
The young physician was wont to be all patience and gentleness, but at
this interference with his most sacred emotions he lost his temper so
thoroughly that he tried to be rude.
"Herr Gronau, let me reiterate my request that you will no longer
meddle in my affairs. Do you suppose that I can ever call by the name
of father a man who so injured my father? You understand nothing of any
refinement of sentiment."
"No, I suppose not; but all the more do I comprehend what is practical,
and this matter is as simple as possible. You possess a means of
forcing Nordheim to consent to your marriage with his daughter, whom
you love. Use it and marry her. Anything else is nonsense, and that's
an end of it!"
"My opinion precisely," said a voice from the doorway, and Frau
Gersdorf, having heard the last words, advanced into the room and took
part with aplomb in the conversation.
"Herr Gronau is perfectly right. The matter is as plain and simple as
possible," she repeated. "All you have to do, Benno, is to marry Alice,
and there's an end of it."
Poor Reinsfeld thus assailed on both sides might well tremble for his
'refinement of sentiment.' He made up his mind to a final effort, and
declared,--
"But I will not. I am the one, and the only one, to decide here!"
"A pretty lover you are!" exclaimed Gronau raising his hands to heaven
in despair.
Molly, however, took a much more practical view of the case, and
attacked Benno's obstinacy from the other side.
"Benno!" she said, reproachfully, "there sits poor Alice in the next
room crying her very heart out. Will you not try at least to comfort
her?"
This was perfectly successful. Benno hesitated for a moment, but only
for a moment, then he rushed into the next room.
"There! he will not come back for some time," said Molly, closing the
door behind him. "Now we can take the affair in hand, Herr Gronau."
But this was too much for Veit Gronau's declared distrust of womankind.
Charming as was this new ally, her very presence reminded him of how
false to his avowed principles he was in thus standing godfather to a
love-affair. He suddenly remembered his attendant spirits still waiting
at the garden gate, and with a hurried and awkward apology he took his
leave, while Frau Gersdorf, with much self-satisfaction, seated herself
in the doctor's study to await the close of the interview in the next
room, and to reflect upon the vicissitudes that beset the path in life
of a self-constituted guardian angel.