When Berkow left the room in suppressed wrath, he had probably no idea
of the embarrassment his sudden departure would cause to the two who
remained behind, an embarrassment they had not felt since the evening
of their arrival, for never since then had they been alone together.
They had met only in the presence of strangers, or at table when the
servants were in constant attendance, and this unexpected tete-a-tete
seemed equally unwelcome to both. Arthur, no doubt, felt that he could
not exactly follow on his father's heels; he must at least address a
few words to his wife first, but several seconds passed before he made
up his mind what to say, and when at last he was about to speak,
Eugenie forestalled him.
"You need not have come to my assistance," said she coldly. "I should
have been able to vindicate my independence and hold my own against
your father."
"I do not in the least doubt your independent spirit," answered Arthur
in the same cool tone, "but I have misgivings as to my father's
delicacy. He was about to bring up a subject, the remembrance of which
I wished to spare both you and myself. That was the sole object of my
interference."
She was silent and leaned back in her seat, while her husband, standing
by the table, took up the fan that was lying there and examined its
arabesques with an appearance of much interest. A second and more
uncomfortable pause ensued, until at last he began again:
"As to this business with Hartmann, I really do admire the
self-abnegation you have shown in it. You, of all people, must feel a
strong antipathy to persons of his class."
Eugenie opened her large eyes wide, and looked at him sternly.
"I feel an antipathy to nothing but to weakness and vulgarity. I
respect any one who has energy thoroughly to fill his place in the
world, whether that place be a high or a lowly one."
There was a hard ring in her voice. Arthur's hand, still playing with
the fan, moved rather nervously, and there was a slight quiver about
his lips. He started a little when she spoke of weakness and vulgarity,
though the expression of his face was as indifferent as ever.
"A most elevated view of the matter," said he carelessly. "But I am
afraid you would modify it in some degree, if you were to be brought in
nearer contact with the rough wild sort of life which often obtains in
the lowly places."
"But this young miner is something out of the common," declared Eugenie
decidedly. "He may be wild and untamed, like one of Nature's elements
which grow to be a danger when not properly directed. I did not find
him rough."
She had involuntarily spoken with some warmth. The latent, half-stifled
fire in Arthur's eyes gleamed out again, as he fixed them on her.
"You appear to exercise a marvellous degree of authority over this
'wild untamed element of Nature.' It was on the point of breaking out
in an unseemly manner before my father. You had but to raise your fan,
and the angry lion became as gentle as a lamb." Here the said fan was
so violently opened and closed by the young man's slender white fingers
that the costly toy was in serious danger, while he went on half
mocking. "And in what a knightly manner he bent over your hand! If we
had not come in, I believe he would have ventured to kiss it like a
real preux chevalier."
Eugenie rose hastily. "I fear, Arthur, this man may force from you and
your father something more than a mere sneer, and I do not know whether
Herr Berkow does wisely to drive his people into an opposition, which
is constantly growing, and the consequences of which may one day recoil
on his own head."
Her husband's gaze was riveted on her as she stood before him, and yet
her rustling silks and airy laces, her roses and soft pearls, were
nothing new to him, any more than the proud and beautiful head with its
dark indignant eyes. Perhaps he was struck by her earnest championship
of her protege. He preserved the same careless, half-mocking tone in
which he had spoken hitherto, but it concealed a feeling of suppressed
irritation, and the fan he held in his hands met with decided ill-luck.
The delicately carved ivory was broken in two as he flung, rather than
threw, it on to a chair.
"Our deliverer has been reading you a lecture on socialism, I am sorry
I missed it. But this Hartmann is certainly remarkable in one way. He
has accomplished that which nothing had hitherto achieved, he has
actually led us into a lively conversation. But the interest of this
theme must be pretty well exhausted by this time, do not you think so?"
The entrance of a servant with a message brought the conversation to an
end. Arthur availed himself of the pretext to depart, taking leave of
his wife in the cold, ceremonious manner which marked all their
intercourse. Hardly had the servant closed the door and left her alone,
when Eugenie began to pace up and down the room in evident agitation.
She was revolted at the coldness and heartlessness shown about Ulric's
brave deed, but it was not that alone which made her steps so hasty and
drove the angry colour to her cheeks.
Why could she not meet her husband with that thorough contempt she
found so easy towards his father? Was it possible he could be worthy of
better things? There was something in Arthur's boundless indolence
which parried every blow, and even gave him at times a secret
superiority over the proud, passionate woman, carried away but too
often by her warmth of temper. On that first evening when, with
terrible candour, she had disclosed to him the truth, he must have felt
himself a deeply humiliated man; to-day, when she had shown him how
falsely he had judged his deliverer and hers, the wrong was clearly on
his side; and yet on both occasions he had confronted her with a
dignity which was not crushed and annihilated by her contempt.
She would not recognise this, would not confess to herself how it
wounded her that never, since the explanation between them, had he made
the slightest attempt to temper the coldness of their relations, even
by a word. She would certainly have repulsed any such attempt with all
the disdainful pride at her command, but that she should never be
called on to do so, that he should never take the trouble to go one
step beyond that which appearances absolutely required, vexed her in
spite of herself.
Eugenie was prompt with her love as with her hate, and her feeling
towards her husband had been of a decided nature even before she gave
him her hand--but it was not possible to look down on him from a lofty
eminence, as she could look down on his father. She felt that vaguely,
though she could give no account to herself of what had compelled this
feeling within her.
Arthur, going through the corridors, met the Director and the
chief-engineer who had been detained to confer on some business matter
with Berkow and were now about to leave the house. The young heir
stopped all at once.
"May I ask, sir, why Hartmann's refusal to take the money offered him
was immediately communicated to Lady Eugenie and to her alone? Why did
I hear nothing of it?" asked he sharply.
"Well," said the Director rather confused, "I really did not know you
attached any importance to it, Herr Berkow. You declined all personal
interference in the matter so decidedly, and her ladyship showed from
the first so much interest in it, that I thought myself bound"----
"Oh, indeed!" interrupted Arthur, with the same nervous little twitch
about his lips. "Well, her ladyship's wishes should be complied with
certainly, but I must beg of you, in all such matters of business"--he
laid an emphasis on the last word--"not quite to overlook me another
time. I expressly desire that I may be the first to be acquainted with
them in future."
So saying, he left the astonished officials, passing on to his own
rooms. The Director looked at his colleague.
"What do you say to that?"
The chief-engineer laughed. "Signs and wonders are to be seen! Herr
Arthur begins to take an interest in matters of business! Herr Arthur
desires to be acquainted with them! Such a thing has never happened
before since I have known him."
"But this is not a business matter at all," said the Director
irritably. "It is a mere private transaction, and I can guess how it
has been. Hartmann has behaved to the lady in that delightfully amiable
manner of his we know so well. I thought it was rather odd that she
should send for him. Fancy him in a drawing-room, with his savage
reckless ways! He is quite capable of telling her what he told me this
morning in the office: he does not want any payment, and he did not
risk his life for the sake of money. The lady has been indignant at his
insolence and her husband also, and now there will be some nice
pleasant things for me to hear from Herr Berkow, because I allowed the
interview to take place."
"Well, it will be the first time Herr Arthur has ever been indignant at
anything that concerns his wife," said the other indifferently, as they
went down the steps. "It seems to me that the glacier-temperature about
this married couple is extending gradually to all around them. You feel
the ice in the air directly you come near them, does it not strike
you?"
"It struck me that Lady Eugenie looked admirably handsome. She was
rather cool, certainly, but still admirably handsome!"
The chief-engineer made a comic little grimace expressive of horror.
"For Heaven's sake, do not adopt Wilberg's style! You are getting on
into the fifties, you know. Talking of Wilberg, he is already head over
ears in romantic adoration, but I doubt whether he, or his inevitable
verses, will excite much jealousy in high quarters. Herr Arthur seems
as little inclined to worship his wife as she to be worshipped.
Marriages of convenience are made up every day, it is true, but I can't
help having a sort of feeling about this one, as if it could not take
quite the usual course, as if beneath all the ice there lay something
like a volcano, which will burst out one fine day with thunder and
lightning, and give us a bit of an earthquake and a catastrophe on a
small scale. That would certainly 'shed some poetry on the arid steppes
of our everyday life,' as Wilberg would observe, supposing always the
eruption spared him and his guitar. But here we are below, good night!"