Young Adrian hurried down the Werffsteg, which had given his family its
name. He heeded neither the lindens on both sides, amid whose tops the
first tiny green leaves were forcing their way out of the pointed buds,
nor the birds that flew hither and thither among the hospitable boughs
of the stately trees, building their nests and twittering to each other,
for he had no thought in his mind except to reach home as quickly as
possible.
Beyond the bridge spanning the Achtergracht, he paused irresolutely
before a large building.
The knocker hung on the central door, but he did not venture to lift
it and let it fall on the shining plate beneath, for he could expect no
pleasant reception from his family.
His doublet had fared ill during his struggle with his stronger enemy.
The torn neck-ruffles had been removed from their proper place and
thrust into his pocket, and the new violet stocking on his right leg,
luckless thing, had been so frayed by rubbing on the pavement, that
a large yawning rent showed far more of Adrian’s white knee than was
agreeable to him.
The peacock feather in his little velvet cap could easily be replaced,
but the doublet was torn, not ripped, and the stocking scarcely capable
of being mended. The boy was sincerely sorry, for his father had bade
him take good care of the stuff to save money; during these times there
were hard shifts in the big house, which with its three doors, triple
gables adorned with beautifully-arched volutes, and six windows in the
upper and lower stories, fronted the Werffsteg in a very proud, stately
guise.
The burgomaster’s office did not bring in a large income, and Adrian’s
grandfather’s trade of preparing chamois leather, as well as the
business in skins, was falling off; his father had other matters in his
head, matters that claimed not only his intellect, strength and time,
but also every superfluous farthing.
Adrian had nothing pleasant to expect at home--certainly not from his
father, far less from his aunt Barbara. Yet the boy dreaded the anger of
these two far less, than a single disapproving glance from the eyes of
the young wife, whom he had called “mother” scarcely a twelve month, and
who was only six years his senior.
She never said an unkind word to him, but his defiance and wildness
melted before her beauty, her quiet, aristocratic manner. He scarcely
knew himself whether he loved her or not, but she appeared like the good
fairy of whom the fairy tales spoke, and it often seemed as if she were
far too delicate, dainty and charming for her simple, unpretending home.
To see her smile rendered the boy happy, and when she looked sad--a
thing that often happened-it made his heart ache. Merciful Heavens! She
certainly could not receive him kindly when she saw his doublet, the
ruffles thrust into his pocket, and his unlucky stockings.
And then!
There were the bells ringing again!
The dinner hour had long since passed, and his father waited for no
one. Whoever came too late must go without, unless Aunt Barbara took
compassion on him in the kitchen.
But what was the use of pondering and hesitating? Adrian summoned up
all his courage, clenched his teeth, clasped his right hand still closer
around the torn ruffles in his pocket, and struck the knocker loudly on
the steel plate beneath.
Trautchen, the old maid-servant, opened the door, and in the spacious,
dusky entrance-hall, where the bales of leather were packed closely
together, did not notice the dilapidation of his outer man.
He hurried swiftly up the stairs.
The dining-room door was open, and--marvellous--the table was still
untouched, his father must have remained at the town-hall longer than
usual.
Adrian rushed with long leaps to his little attic room, dressed himself
neatly, and entered the presence of his family before the master of the
house had asked the blessing.
The doublet and stocking could be confided to the hands of Aunt Barbara
or Trautchen, at some opportune hour.
Adrian sturdily attacked the smoking dishes; but his heart soon grew
heavy, for his father did not utter a word, and gazed into vacancy as
gravely and anxiously as at the time when misery entered the beleaguered
city.
The boy’s young step-mother sat opposite her husband, and often glanced
at Peter Van der Werff’s grave face to win a loving glance from him.
Whenever she did so in vain, she pushed her soft, golden hair back from
her forehead, raised her beautiful head higher, or bit her lips and
gazed silently into her plate.
In reply to Aunt Barbara’s questions: “What happened at the council? Has
the money for the new bell been collected? Will Jacob Van Sloten rent
you the meadow?” he made curt, evasive replies.
The steadfast man, who sat so silently with frowning brow among his
family, sometimes attacking the viands on his plate, then leaving them
untouched, did not look like one who yields to idle whims.
All present, even the men and maid-servants, were still devoting
themselves to the food, when the master of the house rose, and pressing
both hands over the back of his head, which was very prominently
developed, exclaimed groaning:
“I can hold out no longer. Do you give thanks, Maria. Go to the
town-hall, Janche, and ask if no messenger has yet arrived.”
The man-servant wiped his mouth and instantly obeyed. He was a tall,
broad-shouldered Frieselander, but only reached to his master’s
forehead.
Peter Van der Werff, without any form of salutation, turned his back on
his family, opened the door leading into his study, and after
crossing the threshold, closed it with a bang, approached the big oak
writing-desk, on which papers and letters lay piled in heaps, secured
by rough leaden weights, and began to rummage among the newly-arrived
documents. For fifteen minutes he vainly strove to fix the necessary
attention upon his task, then grasped his study-chair to rest his folded
arms on the high, perforated back, adorned with simple carving, and
gazed thoughtfully at the wooden wainscoting of the ceiling. After a few
minutes he pushed the chair aside with his foot, raised his hand to his
mouth, separated his moustache from his thick brown beard, and went to
the window. The small, round, leaden-cased panes, however brightly they
might be polished, permitted only a narrow portion of the street to be
seen, but the burgomaster seemed to have found the object for which he
had been looking. Hastily opening the window, he called to his servant,
who was hurriedly approaching the house:
“Is he in, Janche?”
The Frieselander shook his head, the window again closed, and a few
minutes after the burgomaster seized his hat, which hung, between some
cavalry pistols and a plain, substantial sword, on the only wall of his
room not perfectly bare.
The torturing anxiety that filled his mind, would no longer allow him to
remain in the house.
He would have his horse saddled, and ride to meet the expected
messenger.
Ere leaving the room, he paused a moment lost in thought, then
approached the writing-table to sign some papers intended for the
town-hall; for his return might be delayed till night.
Still standing, he looked over the two sheets he had spread out before
him, and seized the pen. Just at that moment the door of the room gently
opened, and the fresh sand strewn over the white boards creaked under
a light foot. He doubtless heard it, but did not allow himself to be
interrupted.
His wife was now standing close behind him. Four and twenty years his
junior, she seemed like a timid girl, as she raised her arm, yet did not
venture to divert her husband’s attention from his business.
She waited quietly till he had signed the first paper, then turned her
pretty head aside, and blushing faintly, exclaimed with downcast eyes:
“It is I, Peter!”
“Very well, my child,” he answered curtly, raising the second paper
nearer his eyes.
“Peter!” she exclaimed a second time, still more eagerly, but with
timidity. “I have something to tell you.”
Van der Werff turned his head, cast a hasty, affectionate glance at her,
and said:
“Now, child? You see I am busy, and there is my hat.”
“But Peter!” she replied, a flash of something like indignation
sparkling in her eyes, as she continued in a voice pervaded with a
slightly perceptible tone of complaint: “We haven’t said anything to
each other to-day. My heart is so full, and what I would fain say to you
is, must surely--”
“When I come home Maria, not now,” he interrupted, his deep voice
sounding half impatient, half beseeching. “First the city and the
country--then love-making.”
At these words, Maria raised her head proudly, and answered with
quivering lips:
“That is what you have said ever since the first day of our marriage.”
“And unhappily--unhappily--I must continue to say so until we reach
the goal,” he answered firmly. The blood mounted into the young wife’s
delicate cheeks, and with quickened breathing, she answered in a hasty,
resolute tone:
“Yes, indeed, I have known these words ever since your courtship, and as
I am my father’s daughter never opposed them, but now they are no longer
suited to us, and should be: ‘Everything for the country, and nothing at
all for the wife.’”
Van der Werff laid down his pen and turned full towards her.
Maria’s slender figure seemed to have grown taller, and the blue eyes,
swimming in tears, flashed proudly. This life-companion seemed to have
been created by God especially for him. His heart opened to her, and
frankly stretching out both hands, he said tenderly:
“You know how matters are! This heart is changeless, and other days will
come.”
“When?” asked Maria, in a tone as mournful as if she believed in no
happier future.
“Soon,” replied her husband firmly. “Soon, if only each one gives
willingly what our native land demands.”
At these words the young wife loosed her hands from her husband’s,
for the door had opened and Barbara called to her brother from the
threshold.
“Herr Matanesse Van Wibisma, the Glipper, is in the entry and wants to
speak to you.”
“Show him up,” said the burgomaster reluctantly. When again alone with
his wife, he asked hastily “Will you be indulgent and help me?”
She nodded assent, trying to smile.
He saw that she was sad and, as this grieved him, held out his hand to
her again, saying:
“Better days will come, when I shall be permitted to be more to you than
to-day. What were you going to say just now?”
“Whether you know it or not--is of no importance to the state.”
“But to you. Then lift up your head again, and look at me. Quick, love,
for they are already on the stairs.”
“It isn’t worth mentioning--a year ago to-day--we might celebrate the
anniversary of our wedding to-day.”
“The anniversary of our wedding-day!” he cried, striking his hands
loudly together. “Yes, this is the seventeenth of April, and I have
forgotten it.”
He drew her tenderly towards him, but just at that moment the door
opened, and Adrian ushered the baron into the room.
Van der Werff bowed courteously to the infrequent guest, then called
to his blushing wife, who was retiring: “My congratulations! I’ll come
later. Adrian, we are to celebrate a beautiful festival to-day, the
anniversary of our marriage.”
The boy glided swiftly out of the door, which he still held in his hand,
for he suspected the aristocratic visitor boded him no good.
In the entry he paused to think, then hurried up the stairs, seized his
plumeless cap, and rushed out of doors. He saw his school-mates, armed
with sticks and poles, ranging themselves in battle array, and would
have liked to join the game of war, but for that very reason preferred
not to listen to the shouts of the combatants at that moment, and ran
towards the Zylhof until beyond the sound of their voices.
He now checked his steps, and in a stooping posture, often on his knees,
followed the windings of a narrow canal that emptied into the Rhine.
As soon as his cap was overflowing with the white, blue, and yellow
spring flowers he had gathered, he sat down on a boundary stone, and
with sparkling eyes bound them into a beautiful bouquet, with which he
ran home.
On the bench beside the gate sat the old maidservant with his little
sister, a child six years old. Handing the flowers, which he had kept
hidden behind his back, to her, he said:
“Take them and carry them to mother, Bessie; this is the anniversary of
her wedding-day. Give her warm congratulations too, from us both.”
The child rose, and the old servant said, “You are a good boy, Adrian.”
“Do you think so?” he asked, all the sins of the forenoon returning to
his mind.
But unluckily they caused him no repentance; on the contrary, his eyes
began to sparkle mischievously, and a smile hovered around his lips, as
he patted the old woman’s shoulder, whispering softly in her ear:
“The hair flew to-day, Trautchen. My doublet and new stockings are lying
up in my room under the bed. Nobody can mend as well as you.”
Trautchen shook her finger at him, but he turned hastily back and
ran towards the Zyl-gate, this time to lead the Spaniards against the
Netherlanders.