ON LAND AND SEA.
A sparkling, dewy morning made Warnicken, that jewel of the Samland
coast, glisten with double brilliancy.
Blanden stood beneath the oaks of the precipitous declivity of the
Fuchs-spitze. Impatiently he followed the slowly rising course of the
sun and the shadows gradually moving aside.
Slowly the tops of the trees stood out one after another in the sunny
light, and the course of the heavenly orb could be measured beneath
them in the green verdure, in which the quivering, leafy network spun
its shadows ever farther over the campanulas, whose calix had just now
glittered in the sunny illumination.
Every branch, every flower, became a hand of the sun's clock for the
impatient tarrier, while its seconds and minutes moved haltingly
forward.
Blanden's disquiet was not the consequence of that longing with which
joyous, triumphant love goes to a reunion. A single meeting may make a
deep impression on the heart, but yet it only yields an uncertain
picture, more resembling a vision, than tangible reality, and how much
still is left to the enquiring mind; how easily is a delusion possible,
which lends a lasting value to a transitory mood!
Will the second meeting uphold that which the first one promised? Will
it confirm the deep impression which Blanden had received of the
campanula in the forest's gloom?
He hardly dared to doubt it; this doubt would have made him unhappy
already; because he believed himself to have found that which would be
able to give rest and peace to his life.
He hoped for a chance encounter, which might be looked for with
certainty in the so little frequented Warnicken; he would not as yet
introduce himself into the house, to the family; he dreaded lest its
middle-class setting should rob his fancy's picture of its entrancing
magic, nor did he feel justified at present in displaying his interest
in the girl in so conspicuous a manner.
Morning's freshness, however, did not seem to be beloved by the
Warnicken visitors. For a long time no living beings showed themselves.
At last Blanden saw the shimmer of a summer dress through the bushes;
his heart beat, as if it must be Eva; but it was an old maid in a
washed-out morning toilet, carrying a yapping lap-dog, casting a few
indifferent glances at the sea, and retiring immediately again, after
this modest enjoyment of nature.
Below, by the rope, a bald-headed male visitor splashed in the but
slightly-disturbed waves; everything else was quiet and tranquil.
Blanden walked uneasily up and down. Perhaps the whole colony had made
some excursion; he would return to the inn to make enquiries about
Regierungsrath Kalzow, as chance, upon which he had at first
calculated, did not favour him.
The sea, after yesterday's storm, lay in sunny clearness and calm; the
splashing of the breakers on the strand only rose like a gentle murmur;
merely a slight quiver spread over the vast surface; one hardly knew
whether it was the shadow of a cloud flying past, or the pulse's gentle
throb of the slumbering sea itself.
Then Blanden perceived a boat being put off from the shore; two girls
sat in it, one of whom rowed, while the other, in a clear voice, sang a
merry song.
He took his telescope to his aid; a fisher-girl was rowing, but the
other was gazing out steadily over the sea. He could not see her
features, but he did see that a wreath of blue-bells adorned her straw
hat. There, she turned round and directed her face towards the cliffs
along the coast; the morning sun lay full upon those fresh features--it
was his campanula!
Quickly resolved, Blanden hastened down the steep footpath from the
Fuchs-spitze to a landing-place, where two boats still lay at anchor.
He had soon made his bargain with the fisherman: to the latter's great
astonishment, he had bought the one for a price which richly
compensated him for the temporary loss.
Quickly as lightning, Blanden sprang into the boat, seized the oar, and
followed the skiff, which was already disappearing in the distance. The
vigorous physical exertion made him feel his internal impatience less
keenly.
"I seem to myself," thought he, "to be like an old pirate-prince, who
gives chase to a beautiful woman. The confounded stillness of the sea!
If I could only set full sail, so as to hasten more speedily after my
sweet prey. But no quarter when once I have boarded the enemy's ship!"
Blanden pulled with all his might, and the distance between him and the
two girls' skiff did indeed become ever smaller; it appeared, too, as
though they were about to turn round, they watched the boat following
them, and sought to avoid it; all the more determinedly did it pursue
their evading movements.
The one girl stood erectly in the skiff, her hand resting on the
rudder; she looked in curious expectance at the persistent pursuer,
while the other girl rowed on with stolid indifference.
Blanden, with the art of a skilled sailor, cut off every possible means
of return; so that farther flight seaward only remained. Both girls
seemed to be agreed on that point; Eva's signs and actions left no
doubt about it; but it was already too late: by attempting to return
they had lost too much of their start, and Blanden, in his little boat,
pulled, with great strength and rapidity.
"Campanula!" cried he to her, when they had come near enough to one
another; she recognised his voice. As in sweet alarm, she let the
tiller ropes slip from her hands; then she stood motionlessly and
folded them. But the fisher-girl commenced a spasmodic race, in vain
Eva signed and called to her; the girl only nodded her head and pulled
on, but Blanden after a short time overtook them once more.
"Captured at last!" cried he triumphantly, "difficult as it is made for
us to greet an old acquaintance again!"
"Welcome, Herr Assistant!" cried Eva, who had recovered her unaffected
liveliness, "I admire your knowledge of seamanship; you probably have
gained it in duck-shooting?"
"Do you not find, my beautiful child," said Blanden, "that this
conversation is somewhat uncomfortable, and at the same time,
dangerous? Our boats are so close together, that they might knock
against and upset one another, and I shall not stir from your side any
more, after having worked my way into your vicinity by the sweat of my
brow."
"What is to be done then?" asked Eva, "we shall go down together."
"Oh, no, I shall act according to the rights of the sea!"
"Have you some kind of right on your side again? Are you an inspector
of the sea perhaps, as you were inspector of the forest, and would you
ask me again for my passport?"
"The right which I have on my side, is one of the oldest and best
rights which history knows; it is the right of might! I shall take
possession of your boat and declare it, with all that it contains, to
be a lawful prize. You are sailing without a flag, you have no ship's
papers."
"And do we live in time of war?"
"Certainly until we have made peace, I see a lovely enemy in you;
therefore--board and give no quarter!"
And with a rapid bound Blanden had sprung into Eva's violently rocking
boat, while he relinquished his own to the waves.
The weak minded fisher-girl, with a low cry, pointed to the boat
floating away, while she exclaimed--
"Father's boat! Father's boat!"
"Indeed," said Eva, as she retired completely to the rudder, "you are
not wanting in audacity? This is an attack in pirate fashion!"
"Do I look like a corsair?"
"I do not know any personally, but why should you not sit for the
frontispiece to Byron's poem? You are sun-burnt enough for it, and look
as though you would have no fear of adventures!"
"Certainly not, if the prize be worth the risk!"
"And then--how recklessly you treat the property of others! The poor
fisherman's boat drifts upon the waves, without a master."
"Excuse me, my Fräulein! That boat is my property; I bought it and can
give it up again to the billows."
"And why do you do this?"
"Is it not worth some sacrifice to be with you? Nor would I appear here
as lord and master; no, but as your humble oarsman! Away little one,
let me go to the oar."
The fisher-girl did not stir; seeing he was about to take the oar from
her by force, she prepared to stand upon the defensive.
"Let the poor child alone," said Eva, "she will not leave her post."
Blanden hesitated; suddenly the girl voluntarily relinquished the oar,
cried again twice in a shrieking voice--
"Father's boat! Father's boat!" and then plunged into the sea. Blanden
was about to jump after her.
"Do not," said Eva, "she is the best swimmer in all the villages on the
coast; but she is imbecile, and only seldom has gleams of reason."
"And you trust yourself to her?" asked Blanden.
"No one pulls so good an oar, has better knowledge of wind and weather
and of the sea's peculiarities; she is a water spirit with her
meaningless frog's eyes. I should rely most implicitly upon her in
every danger of the stormy sea. Only look how she swims; she has
reached the forsaken boat, swings herself into it, and grasps the oar!"
"That is disagreeable enough for me!" said Blanden.
"Why in the world?"
"If you would take my telescope, lovely child, you would perceive
that a large number of glasses are directed towards us from the
Fuchs-spitze, although a short time ago, the most solemn silence
reigned beneath the Perkunos oaks. People are observing us, and will
observe us still more--what will they say, if Fräulein Eva sails upon
the sea with a stranger."
"You are right," said Eva, suddenly blushing deeply, "but what has that
to do with your boat?"
"Very much, my Fräulein! If the latter floated quietly away on the sea,
we might relate a credible tale of how it had leaked and I had taken
refuge in your safer boat; that stupid child has deprived us of this
fiction because she will row the skiff, uninjured back to the shore."
"Then you must invent another tale," said Eva.
"Why should I not sing and tell of a Baltic Lorelei, at sight of whom
the boatman in the little boat is seized with wild melancholy, to whom
he is irresistibly drawn."
"Because that boatman with his little boat is not swallowed up."
"Heine only fears it, my Fräulein; it need not therefore happen, and as
yet we do not know the end of this little story. But just look; a whole
girls' school seems to have assembled on the Fuchs-spitze and below
also on the landing place I see visitors."
"I fear, they are my father and mother," said Eva, "they have already
always forbidden these sailing expeditions; but I cannot give them up.
Such a morning's row upon the sea refreshes me so wonderfully; one
seems to glide onwards into eternity upon these deep, quiet waves;
above the wide heavens, beneath the increasing abyss, the farther we
retire from the safe shore; and where the billows meet the sky, even
there the world does not end; it only seems to do so! Far away beyond,
extends the longing for other shores, for other people! There the
sailing ships, the steam boats, distant, stately pass by from harbour
to harbour. How large the world is! And thus surrounded with the
splashing of chattering waves, with the fresh breeze wafted from afar,
there I have quite different, better thoughts, than yonder amidst
mankind, that is always gossiping of trivial, everyday matters,
criticising dress, depriving itself of the small respect due to it."
"Bravo, my Lorelei!" cried Blanden, "the sailor shares these thoughts
and feelings with his mermaid, he rejoices that he really bears a
mermaid in his boat, not one of those ordinary land young ladies, who
even in the face of eternity, only think of their own little wares, of
their possessions and belongings, dresses and bonnets, ribbons and
bows, and who believe that their passenger ticket upon earth has
merely been given to them on account of their goods. But father and
mother--there some slight justification is due. Did you tell them of
our late meeting?"
"No," said Eva, blushing.
"And why not?"
Eva was silent.
"Our adventure in the wood was too unimportant, or you forgot it
quickly?"
"Oh, no," said Eva; "but visits without visiting cards are not
announced."
"Good; then we have one little secret between us, and our sea excursion
is another. I shall explain that I believed you to be in danger, as a
half-witted girl rowed your boat, and that I therefore changed places."
During this conversation they had neared the shore. The Regierungsrath
was running angrily up and down, his hands in his coat-pockets; the
large, white cravat in which he had buried his chin seemed to be
loosely twined round it to-day, and moved to and fro.
His massive wife was more self-possessed, but an ominous lecture lay in
her eyes, and about the corners of her mouth.
"Oh, Eva," she cried to her daughter, as soon as her voice could be at
all audible without the aid of a speaking trumpet.
Blanden pulled to the shore, sprang out, bound the boat firmly to a
post, offered his hand to assist Eva to descend, and then busied
himself with the boat and oars, while Eva had to let the first
hurricane of reproaches and reproof sweep over her.
"And, who, then, is this strange gentleman?" asked old Kalzow, with the
air of an inquisitor.
Eva shrugged her shoulders.
"It is too bad, though," stormed her mother; "a _tête-à-tête_ upon the
sea with a perfect stranger!"
"He only introduced himself to me as a pirate, who had boarded my
ship."
"No, my Fräulein," said Blanden, now stepping nearer; "I believed you
to be in danger. One ought not to venture upon the sea with an idiot
girl."
"There you are right," said the Regierungsrath, suddenly appeased by
the stranger coinciding with him, and also reproaching his imprudent
daughter.
The former's fashionable appearance made a favourable impression upon
the old gentleman, who, as an introduction to friendly relations,
offered him a pinch of snuff.
Blanden thanked him with a slight bow.
"Our meeting upon the ocean waves, my Fräulein, was of so poetical a
character that I feared to desecrate it by the prose of social forms;
permit me, therefore, now only to introduce myself to you and your
family. My name is Blanden--Max von Blanden."
The Regierungsrath gave his name.
"I have an additional pleasure in making your acquaintance if you are a
relation of that old gentleman to whom the magnificent estates,
Rossitten, Kulmitten, and Nehren belong. I used often to be in that
neighbourhood; I know the estates, because they border upon a district
whither my official duties sometimes lead me; I am, namely, in the
third division of the Government, Woods and Forests--that is my branch!
Thus I have seen the old proprietor once or twice, and heard his
beautiful estates much talked about--a pleasant gentleman."
"All praise that he receives, honours and gratifies me, because I am
his son!"
"His son!" said the Regierungsrath, with a friendly chuckle; "then you
probably manage that extensive property."
"Certainly, and entirely upon my own account; because my poor,
good-hearted father now contents himself with a very small portion of
it."
"Then he has resigned most of the estates to you?" said the
Regierungsräthin, who looked upon the promising heir with especial good
will.
"All, all, _gnädige_ Frau! He only claims one very small place--the
place in the Blandens' family vault--he died half a year ago!"
"Oh, how sad!" said the _gnädige_ Frau, with a sigh, while, speedily
consoled, she added--
"Then in you we recognise the heir and owner of these beautiful
possessions."
"Alas! I cannot alter it, little talent as I have hitherto displayed in
exercising my rights of ownership in a becomingly solemn manner."
The result of this examination was a brilliant one. Rath and Räthin
were seized with internal disquiet as to how they could best ensure
themselves this gratifying acquaintance for some time. They looked at
one another with questioning and answering glances.
Eva was too happy; she did not know why. She concerned herself but
little about the master and owner of the property; but the friendly
footing between her parents and Blanden made her very happy.
For a moment she might be vexed with him that he had enveloped himself
in mystery towards her, and had not even told her his name; this
fleeting sensation of anger soon passed tracelessly away.
The world lay so seemingly bright before her; she could have sung,
shouted, danced, had it not been so very contrary to propriety; but she
could not quite restrain her exuberant spirits.
Half-witted Käthe landed just at that moment with her father's boat;
dripping with wet, she sprang upon the shore.
Eva liked the poor girl, in whom there was something heroic, resolute;
it was painful to her that the brave child believed herself to have
rescued something, while by her plunge into the sea and her skill in
rowing, she had only brought a stranger's boat into the haven; and when
the little one, with radiant eyes, stepped towards Eva, and with a
triumphant smile, pointed to the skiff which she had rowed to the
shore, the former embraced the girl--she was so full of her own
happiness that others' misfortunes touched her doubly. Certainly, she
had not considered the consequences, as the embrace had rendered her
morning toilet so wet that she shivered with the cold damp, and her
mother scoldingly bade her go home to change her clothes.
First, however, Herr von Blanden was invited to share the modest
mid-day meal at the inn, as well as accompany them to the forest, on an
afternoon excursion, which had been arranged with other visitors. His
acceptance made her parents and Eva equally happy.
On their road home, the Regierungsrath calculated to his wife what the
average revenue of the Rositten, Kulmitten and Nehren estates would be,
trying to draw the correct medium of income between favourable and
unfavourable years. He knew the nature of the soil, the number of
acres; the result worked out in ponderous figures was received by the
Frau Räthin with a well-pleased smile.
Eva had hastened on in front; yet her parents' conversation was
confined to income, taxes, and other questions of national economy. No
discussion was needed, for they understood one another.
Suddenly Frau Räthin stayed her winged steps; daring hopes and plans
had lent a more lively movement to her usually majestic gait; but a
rising thought suddenly paralysed it in a most disturbing manner.
"Gracious heavens!" cried she, as she supported herself with her
parasol against an old oak trunk.
"What is the matter with you, Miranda?" asked her husband anxiously.
"We have invited him--and have quite forgotten the one thing!"
"The poor dinner, do you mean? Oh, people are used to that at the
seaside; Spartan fare is the rule here!"
"No, no! We have forgotten to ask--"
"What then, in the world?"
"If Herr von Blanden is not already married?"
The Regierungsrath's chin jumped into his cravat with a slight shock of
alarm.
"You are right, Miranda! We are very foolish!"
"He is no longer a youth; I should put him down as being thirty years
old, and a man of that age, of his brilliant position, looked up to,
rich--nothing else can be possible--he must have had a wife long
since!"
Lost in sad thought, both walked silently side by side.
"But if I consider it properly," said Kalzow, "it cannot well be so. He
would have taken his wife with him to the sea."
"People do not always take their wives with them to bathing-places."
"And then, he showed such evident interest in Eva! It has not been
exactly explained yet how that occurrence took place at sea. Did you
hear what Eva said about the buccaneer? He boarded, captured her, I
don't know what else! Let us hope that it was all right."
"We should hope so? You talk of boarding and capturing--and on that
account Herr von Blanden must be unmarried? Old man--we know better!
Many an one has laid siege and taken captive who should not have gone
out to steal, because he has a good wife at home. And you, too, old
man, if one knew everything! But you should not pretend such innocence,
when your daughter's happiness is concerned!"
This turn to the conversation was plainly disagreeable to the
Regierungsrath; he took several pinches of snuff quickly one after
another, and sought to bring about an understanding with his wife, by
devising a plan of campaign, how to-day at dinner, even before the
pudding arrived, they might tear aside the veil which shrouded Herr von
Blanden's domestic circumstances.
They were agreed on one point, that if he were guilty of the crime of
being married already, he should be treated accordingly, and all
further intercourse be coolly broken off.
In the meanwhile, the hero of this discussion still stood on the shore,
and studied the wet ocean curiosity with its goggle eyes, which he
could picture perfectly to himself as one of those subordinate
fish-goddesses who flounder about Neptune's car. He tried in vain to
make her understand about his boat. The old fisherman came forward and
rated the girl for the boldness with which she had taken possession of
another person's property.
Blanden made her a present of the boat, and gradually, with silent
delight, she comprehended that she had become its owner. Then he
pressed a piece of gold into her hand, and its flashing shimmer
transported idiot Käthe into a perfect tumult of happiness. She held it
in the sun, and at the same time danced in a circle round it, until the
fisherman reminded her of the duty of returning thanks for it.
She hastened to Blanden, kissed his hands, and looked at him with eyes
whose glassy glitter was brightened with a moist gleam.
The second meeting with Eva had only strengthened Blanden in his hopes
and wishes. She appeared to be as sensible and beautiful as the first
time; as fresh, pure, and frank as he had imagined the wife of his
choice. At the same time, she was not without mental ability; not so
slow and apathetic as such calm and beautiful natures often are. She
was not consumed by commonplace, insignificant ideas, in which, from
the character of their bringing up, the daily associations, the
depressing example, talents of a higher organisation are often stifled.
Father and mother had made careful arrangements for the dinner in the
modest inn; the daughter, however, remained in reserve until the ground
had been properly reconnoitred.
Blanden was appointed to a seat by the mother, while the daughter sat
on the other side of her father. These precautionary measures
astonished him slightly; he did not imagine that he must first prove
himself to be a man towards whom it was possible to entertain serious
intentions.
The conversation turned upon politics, which, at that time, were the
salt of every East Prussian dinner-table. The Regierungsrath pushed his
vedettes carefully forward, and, with the vanguard of his articles of
belief, made a retrograde movement, as he remarked that a superior
enemy's force stood before him.
Not on any account would he injure his cause with Herr Von Blanden, and
manifested himself a temperate, tolerant man, to the great amazement of
the Kreisgerichtsrath sitting opposite to him, with whom he had often
broken a lance at table over these very questions.
"We are not yet ripe for a constitution," said Kalzow, "at least, not
for a constitution according to the modern English and French form. We
are a patriarchal people, and what would become of our bureaucracy if
Parliament should speak the decisive words? In England and France it is
quite different; there they have no such official power representing
the intelligence of the whole State, yes, which, as it were, it has
absorbed within itself. I cannot imagine a Prussia with a
constitutional organisation: we shall never live to see that, little as
I fail to recognise the advantages of such institutions."
"But, my dear friend," interposed the Kreisgerichtsrath, "you have
always hurled unqualified anathemas at them."
"It depends upon the nature of the soil, dear friend," replied the
Regierungsrath; "elsewhere these plants may thrive capitally, it is
impossible with us."
"I cannot see that," said Blanden, "I believe that we, too, shall one
day occupy the position that is due to us amongst Europe's nations, if
we become the equals of advanced peoples by means of a free
constitution. Until then, I hesitate to count Prussia amongst the
leading civilised states. The bureaucracy alone, best of
Regierungsraths, cannot assist us to it. I have travelled far over the
world, I know the Celestial Empire."
"You mean China?" interrupted the Räthin. Unbroken silence reigned
around.
"Yes, _gnädige_ Frau, and I assure you that officialdom is excellently
organised there. The candidate undergoes his examination before the
_Wald der Pinsel_,[2] in Nankin."
"_Wald der Pinsel_?" asked the Regierungsrath.
"So is the college for examinations designated there."
"That term of ridicule has surely been invented by some candidate who
failed," suggested the Gerichtsrath.
"It is no term of ridicule," explained Blanden, "it is the official
designation. The Chinese, it is well known, write with brushes, and
this _Wald der Pinsel_ is as well versed in all the old books of law
and history, in the philosophical writings of Con-fut-se and La-ot-se,
as any European University's Senate is at home in the works of all the
professions. I will not assert that these men are specially
intelligent--that is to say, I mean the Chinese _Wald der Pinsel_, not
the European--but they are learned, pedantic, and so strict in
examination, that many a bachelor who has, perhaps, paid more homage to
a lover with a green girdle than to the muses, fails irretrievably."
"I was not aware," said the Regierungsrath, "that they possessed
institutions in China betokening such high cultivation."
"Oh, they have a great many of them," continued Blanden, "the different
grades of Mandarins have buttons on their caps. It is thus known at
once if one of these dignitaries is a Chinese assessor, counsellor,
chief-counsellor, privy counsellor; and, without asking for his
visiting-card, each can immediately be treated with due respect. With
us, people sometimes make mistakes about rank; one gives offence, and
yet rank is not less esteemed by us than it is in China."
"With reason," said the Regierungsrath; "that which one has earned and
merited, one likes to see recognised by the world."
"You see, in the Celestial Empire, everything is arranged in the most
excellent manner. Yet this State is a pig-tail State, a marionette
State, because the people only count by souls and heads, because all
intellectual life and action, every right, every liberty, is wanting.
The Celestial son rules it by the rod of his officials. Everything
blooms and flourishes, but it is a lacquered happiness, all paper and
tinsel rubbish, a crushing existence of formula. What I saw there of
the law and Government reminds me of the Kasperle Theatre; they chop
off heads with the same equanimity as that with which Kasperle disposes
of his enemies--human life has no value, dignity of man is unknown."
"But that is different with us," said the Regierungsrath, as he assumed
a self-conscious bearing, and laid knife and fork aside. "What have we
in Prussia, according to your views, in common with the Celestial
Empire?"
"The Bureaucracy and patriarchal Government."
"Did I not always say so?" cried the Kreisgerichtsrath, triumphantly,
"that is quite my view! I am delighted to receive so worthy an ally."
And, at the same time, he cast a malicious glance at the
Regierungsrath, as if at a beaten opponent, so that a flush of anger
suffused the latter's face, and he contracted his bushy eyebrows.
"Education," continued Blanden, "is so propagated amongst all classes
of the Prussian people, that the introduction of a constitution is
indeed no reckless venture; besides, it is the fulfilment of old
promises, and will unite the bond between prince and people still more
firmly. I shall employ all my powers in this province, with the
assistance of my worthy colleagues, so that the military Government of
Prussia shall become a constitutional one. It will not lose its warlike
energy by these means. I say, openly, that this is my dearest task in
life. I consider our present political condition to be at the same time
intolerable and unworthy."
The Regierungsrath crumpled his dinner-napkin convulsively in his hand;
the challenge was too daring. He would gladly have given annihilating
expression to his opposite conviction; but he reserved it all on the
chance that when at the estates of Kulmitten, Rositten and Nehren, he
should not need in future to evince any such tender consideration.
Meanwhile, he had one of those coughing and choking attacks which
sometimes befell him in moments of great agitation, which he was
obliged to suppress. Miranda came readily to his assistance, and
thought, as the head waitress had already brought the pudding, she must
not hesitate any longer to clear up the state of affairs.
"Since when, Herr von Blanden," asked she, with a most unconcerned
countenance, "have you returned from your travels?"
"Only half a-year ago."
That sounded consolatory enough, and the Regierungsrath's condition
visibly improved.
"Then, probably," continued the Regierungsräthin, as she calmly poured
a spoonful of fruit-sauce upon the pudding, "you have already set up a
quiet domestic hearth?"
Now it was for Eva, who had listened silently but attentively, and
sympathising warmly with Blanden's remarks to the former conversation,
to become pale. She started at the thought that she had never put this
question to herself; it lay in a measure so near, and yet so far, from
her heart. In breathless tension, she waited for the reply; her heart
beat eagerly, yet the firm conviction dwelled within her that Blanden
could not yet be fettered.
"The domestic hearth of a bachelor," replied Blanden.
These few words exercised a cheering effect upon the Kalzow family. The
Regierungsrath had already mobilised a line of victorious arguments
against Blanden's reprehensible political views; they were ready to
advance at the double so soon as the signal was given. The attack
should commence at dessert, if the declaration of war need not be
withheld on account of considerations of policy. This was now the case;
everything was disembodied; the most telling proofs were dismissed to
their homes; the peaceful mood prevailed so completely, that the
Regierungsrath condescended to the most extensive admissions as regards
politically emancipated nations. The Kreisgerichtsrath, however, stared
anew at the Caudine Passes into which his opponent's logic seemed to
have wandered. The Regierungsräthin was seized with a most unusual love
of enterprise; she made the most various plans and projects, and first
thought over an arrangement of the afternoon party, which should give
the young people in the forest the utmost liberty possible for an
undisturbed meeting. Eva herself was happy; her life was sunnily bright
again. The lowering shadow had passed away without dimming it.
The walk in the forest was undertaken in the happiest mood; the little
party of seaside visitors had furnished itself with everything that
was necessary. Knitting; packets of coffee and sugar, cakes of every
kind, formed the provisions which the careful mothers carried with
them, concerning themselves less about the sacred shadows and
dwellings of sweet enchantment, than about the arrangements for the
afternoon--coffee, which should be prepared at the hospitable hearth of
the little forest house. The tall trees rustled, the birds sang, the
flowers bloomed, but the respected ladies only heard the coffee-cups
rattle in imagination.
Blanden conversed a great deal with the Rath and Räthin, although he
came more and more to the conclusion that the interest which he felt in
Eva could not be extended to her parents without an effort. The Rath
was a pedant who at heart had only a mind for figures and all worldly
matters that could be reduced to calculations; the Räthin, too, was
accustomed to look upon everything from its business side. In addition,
neither was free from that envy which is often an hereditary evil in
officials' families, from the envy of those fortunate persons' incomes
which are not restricted to small official salaries: a few sallies upon
the rich banker's wife, if she walked on in front at a sufficient
distance, upon the ostentatious display of her wealth, upon the
attempts at being literary which pervaded the whole house, convinced
Blanden that the Kalzow family, despite the consciousness of their
exalted position, yet in truth belonged to those unhappy persons who
are excluded from all the higher enjoyments of life.
Frau Kalzow had another especial cause for animosity towards her
wealthy friend; the latter's son, a boy in the first form at the
Kneiphof College, devoted particular attention to Eva, and during the
walk would not stir from her side, so that it was rendered almost
impossible for Herr von Blanden to approach her, as he wished to do.
Frau Kalzow employed every legitimate stratagem to entice the promising
Salomon away from Eva; she begged him to gather her a blue flower which
she had espied far away in the wood, she lost a needle out of her
knitting, and Salomon had to go far, far back along the footpath to
find this _corpus delicti_, and restore Frau Räthin's work materials to
their entirety; yet he executed all these commissions with great
rapidity, and came running back breathlessly, so as to be able to renew
his conversation with charming Eva.
"It is remarkable," said he to Eva, "that lyrical poets always praise
the woods; I have instituted an album for poetry on the subject, and
have been obliged already to buy a third volume from the bookbinder. I
can discover nothing particular in a wood; fundamentally it is always
the same. Some trunks are darker, others lighter; the leaves larger or
smaller, dented or downy, and if one looks through between the stems it
always bears the same aspect, and a forester, moreover, certainly only
thinks of building or firewood. How different such a wealthy poet's
soul! Unfortunately, I do not possess it, my Fräulein; therefore, I
make extracts of as much poetry as is possible, so as always to be _au
fait_ when sensations amidst the forest's verdure are under discussion.
Even Schiller, I believe, had no mind for woodland lyrics; how
beautifully he might have described Fridolin's walk to the Eisenhammer.
Yet not the forest only, the church he depicts to us. He had only
feeling for the Bohemian forests, and when he peopled them with living
beings, it was not elves and fairies, but robbers! Ah, the robbers, my
Fräulein! I understand that thoroughly! And that Amalie! She is my
ideal! How she rushes at Franz with her sword--she must have been
blonde, on account of the song that she sings to the guitar; no
brunette could possess so much enthusiasm."
Thus, with inexhaustible eloquence, Salomon entertained his companion,
who was too good-natured to display her impatience, or to stop him with
derision. After all he intended to show her attention and kindliness,
and how could she have repaid it with ingratitude? Eva possessed the
most delicate good feeling; her mother did not understand this, and now
was indignant at the patience, or rather confidential manner, with
which Eva treated the young scholar. At last she had recourse to a
fiendish measure; the Frau Kanzleiräthin's fat daughter, otherwise a
nice girl, had always been disposed to make advances to that talkative
Salomon, and Frau Kalzow spurred her on to them with great zeal and
inciting insinuations.
Minna actually did soon appear on Salomon's other side, while showing
him a butterfly that she had caught with her summer hat. The butterfly
roused the lad's interest, which he did not, however, extend to Minna
herself; on the contrary, all the remarks that he made about the
capture were directed to Eva, it only offered him an opportunity to
show himself in a more brilliant light to the latter, because he knew
the day and night butterflies as accurately as the forest lyrists, and,
as the son of wealthy parents, possessed a splendid collection of those
insects.
"This is a rare specimen, a _trauer mantel_ with violet borders; the
_trauer mantel_ are distinguished by their borders--Nature has ordained
this very wisely; a similar thing occurs with students' caps; the corps
which I join is merely distinguished by different borders on its caps
from the antagonistic corps with which it always fights. We, too, have
our drinking parties my Fräulein, and I preside at these gatherings,
but no one as yet has drunk me under the table. But as regards the
wisdom of Nature, I find it also imprinted on the Apollo. That
butterfly is only found in some few valleys in Silesian and other
mountains, which thus possess an especial attraction, and are
considered to be worth seeing, and so bring profit to the innkeepers
and the inhabitants, for there are more butterfly-seekers than any one
would believe, and I know one who even bears caterpillars upon his
epaulettes."
Minna was much dejected at the small success of her strategy; deeply
shamed, she walked along beside Salomon, casting her good-tempered eyes
to the ground, and crushing the poor _trauer mantel's_ head to death.
In the meantime the forester's lodge was reached, and while the other
ladies prepared the coffee, Frau Kalzow deemed it expedient to invite
Herr von Blanden to a little walk to the weeping willow hill, but
recollected that she had forgotten the way thither, and requested Eva
to accompany them as guide. Frau Kalzow remained modestly in the rear
during this walk; Eva and Blanden could exchange thoughts and feelings
uninterruptedly, gather flowers, climb little hills to obtain views;
Frau Kalzow maintained her communications with the vanguard by
occasionally calling to it.
Eva chatted innocently and fondly of her girlish and childish years, of
her school days; Blanden thus had a glimpse of a mind clear as crystal,
but which was also possessed of a sense and sympathy for everything
loftier, for art and nature, and even for the questions of the day;
only about one thing she was silent in her confessions, she did not
mention that she was merely the Kalzow's adopted child; she did not
mention her mother. She had often enough experienced what interruption
to friendly relations had been called forth by such allusions, how it
was her mother, who without knowing or wishing it, had exercised so
cruel an influence upon her young life; she thought with silent emotion
of the beautiful melancholy figure, whose picture still hovered before
her mind; but the inexplicable estrangement permitted no warmer
sensation to rise; as all the world was shy of and avoided remembering
her mother, so she, too, only thought of her in quiet dreams, and
dreaded calling up any lurking ill if she mentioned that name before
others: this unsolved mystery oppressed her soul, this _noli me
tangere_ of her young life; yet there lay so much brightness in her
nature that this one single darkening shadow remained unnoticed.
Blanden felt refreshed and younger by his intercourse with the graceful
girl; although so many storms had passed over his internal life, yet
one spot remained in it, where the longing for peace, the readiness to
welcome a quiet state of happiness, defied all desolation, and starting
from that spot, his whole life should take a new form; he felt with
intense satisfaction that he was still capable of such happiness as the
simplicity of a pure, euphonious nature grants, and therein lay the
girl's charm, in the perfect harmony of her character. As her slender
figure stood before him, not excessively tall, but yet stately and
commanding, girlish but not so thin as girls in boarding schools often
are in consequence of too much mental cultivation; as the light of her
large eyes beamed above beautiful regular features, so in her were mind
and heart also in harmonious unison; the movements of her feelings and
thoughts possessed the same grace as her physical actions; it was the
invisible spirit of tact and moderation that governed her whole body
and mind. Wherever she reigned there this spirit must impress itself
upon all who approached her, who stepped within her spell! What a
guarantee for happiness, for peace, lay in such dominant grace, in such
exquisite euphony! All discordant elements must remain aloof; the
recollections of the past could have no power before the magical might
of such a presence.
That was the thread which Blanden twined mentally around the nosegay of
woodland flowers which Eva presented to him! He had firm faith in his
own felicity, if he should ensure it by speedy, decisive choice.
But will the young girl be able to love the much older man? Was her
ready trust a proof of love, or not, rather qualified to awaken doubt
of it? Because perhaps the delicate reserve of love would have been
more reticent towards a companion of her own age; the trust reposed so
freely in him was in the experienced, older man who should respect it
with friendly counsel. And yet the enthusiastic illumination of the
gazelle-like eye often excited sympathy, a slight quiver in her voice
and her whole being, whenever he approached her, on pressing her hand
in his, which Blanden once ventured to offer her, when she was speaking
so sweetly and fervently of her childhood's dreams.
And yet, if Eva did really love him, would it be for her own good? Is
the chasm not much too great between the unconscious girl, whose life
is spent in one single emotion, and the man who has fought his way
through every passion, has weathered life's storms in every latitude,
to whom graceless womanhood had often offered sweet temptation, who had
also felt the charm of danger that lies in forbidden paths, and who on
outlawed ways and in a daring manner had sought to unriddle the dark
secret in combining the spirituality with the sensuality of human
nature? Was it not cold egotism which strove to purchase its own peace,
too dearly perhaps, with the price of that of another human being?
Could not, sooner or later, the confessions which he had no right,
which it was least of all a duty to make to such innocence, be
completed by some chance, by gossiping report; and must not some
internal rift gradually extend through the beloved one's heart; must
she not suddenly feel that she had built the bridge of her happiness
across an unknown abyss, from out of whose depth unnatural spirits
arose and spread a gloom over her life?
The more serious the affection which Blanden felt for Eva, the more
powerful did these considerations become; yes he walked back by her
side with a moody brow.
"You are not cheerful," said Eva, "oh you must not cling to gloomy
thoughts! What would I not give if I could banish all sadness out of
your life!"
"You are good, my child," said Blanden, as he again pressed her hand,
"but oh I am not! True goodness of heart, innocence alone can possess;
we others have only momentary touches of it; our good works are often
but a species of atonement! If you knew what we have lived through,
must live through, who have been so tossed about by fate! Often we ask
ourselves, if it is really we who have done this or been guilty of
that, it seems so strange, so incredible to us; we would gladly sever
the thread which binds the present with the past, but always this self,
this indestructible I, that cannot set itself free from its deeds, that
often grins at us like a spectre. Even the tree can shake off its
withered leaves; but the withered leaves of our life cling indissolubly
to us, and no coming spring sweeps them away with its rejuvenating
breath."
"You certainly have done no evil," said Eva, "I will be surety for
that."
"That surety is bold, my Fräulein; yet, certainly, no evil that is the
fruit of internal wickedness, that would intentionally injure the
well-being of mankind, nothing from base motives. But from personal
error, much evil often arises, and one may ruin those whom one loves!"
"Mutual love knows no ruin," replied Eva, and joyful pride, nameless
confidence was expressed in these words, and in her demeanour.
"That is a beautiful belief, and it would be cruel to disturb it."
"Oh, you are kind and good," continued Eva, "despite your strange
utterances, which might alarm one; yes, sometimes you have such a
scoffing expression, and such an evil gleam in your kindly eyes, that I
could be afraid of you myself! Yet, it soon passes away. Has mankind
injured you so deeply that you should cherish such hostile emotions?"
"They me, and I them! Thus it is in the world! But I will not soil your
pure mind with such thoughts."
Eva and Blanden returned thoughtfully to the forester's lodge, and it
was welcome to them that Frau Kalzow, who had joined them again, should
now bear the burden of the conversation, as she made several
unmistakable allusions to the growing intimacy between Blanden and Eva,
and then had recourse to a description of the coffee-party, which did
not fail in the sharpest, most characteristic colouring.
The hour for coffee had, however, been missed by the expedition to the
weeping willows, and the defaulters had to content themselves with a
second infusion of the Mocha beverage.
The next day all the members of the forest party were the guests of
Herr von Blanden, who had sent for the best and most expensive wines
from Neukuhren.
Consequently, all were in the liveliest spirits; the political debates
were carried on as eagerly as could be desired; Blanden even no longer
felt melancholy, as he had done on the previous day; he was in a most
cheerful humour, and brilliant fireworks of thought entertained the
guests, of whom most, however, were but little able to appreciate them.
Eva did not criticise the rapid changes of mood which Blanden
displayed. She rejoiced at his gaiety, his exuberant spirits.
In the afternoon an excursion was made to the charming Georgswalder
ravine, and there pitched a nomad camp beneath tall oaks and beeches.
Blanden's hesitation of the previous day had disappeared; he only
perceived in Eva an eligible, beautiful woman. Boldly he sought and
paid her attention, which was not repulsed with any false shame or
affected modesty.
On the third day they went again into the forest. Blanden's courtship
of Eva had not been unobserved, as was betokened plainly enough by the
prevailing disposition of the guests.
While the Regierungsrath and his friends rejoiced over it, a hostile,
rancorous party was not wanting.
The Kanzleiräthin deemed Eva's behaviour extremely unbecoming and would
have given Herr von Blanden credit for better taste, or, at least, more
discrimination, as a man of his years ought not to pay attention to so
young a girl: her dear Minna was six or eight years older; the habit of
making false statements about the year of her birth and baptismal
certificate, had made her mother herself uncertain about it.
Minna possessed that steadiness which is befitting a good housewife;
her physical beauty also was perfectly capable of bearing comparison
with that of slender Eva, as her figure was plump, and her eyes were
not full of that unhealthy enthusiasm which Eva's too large pupils
betrayed.
And then, Minna owned a mother who rejoiced in an immaculate character;
Eva, certainly, had two such relations, but the present one, a mother
according to the country's laws, is disagreeable enough, and about the
other it is best to be silent.
Minna herself was too good-hearted to feel envy or jealousy; she was
only mournful, and Salomon once found her in tears, sitting beneath the
weeping willows.
He did not so calmly bear the unworthy preference which Eva granted to
an elderly gentleman, who surely already belonged to the Philistines,
instead of bestowing her favours upon fresh, joyous youth.
It is true, Eva had never been unfriendly towards him, but what was
this friendliness to him?
Young wealthy Salomon might count upon occupying the first place in the
heart of a Regierungsrath's daughter. Herr von Blanden might also be
rich, but was he as young and had he such a future before him as
Salomon?
"It is incredible, mamma!" said he to his sympathising mother, "they
are walking together again, talking confidentially. That Blanden, who
is more than thirty years old, and has passed through many a storm, and
what has he done in the world? Certainly, he has a cut upon his right
cheek, a proof that he has studied; but apart from that cut he has
gained hardly any merit, and can he actually be termed handsome,
mamma?"
"He is a fine-looking man, though," said the banker's wife.
"He is not my ideal of manliness! I like men such as William Tell,
powerful, plain and sterling; he has such a soft, dreamy expression in
his face, at the same time such a superior, polite smile, and a pair of
eyes which no one can make out; now they look as if they had
disappeared; then again gleam diabolically, now small, now large; eyes,
as to the nature of which no one can form a decision. Yet, I have read
somewhere that girls like that. What success Don Juan had, mamma! His
register that Leporello unrolls is longer than the _menu_ at the
largest hotel! But it is not that alone, believe me, mamma; it is
being a nobleman! The influence which rank exercises upon love is very
great! Those who have nothing particular about them, excepting being
noblemen--and it does prepossess people--have married the most
beautiful girls. How often have I not already said that papa ought to
have himself ennobled! With his money and his connexions it would
be a trifle; but you do absolutely nothing to smoothe my path through
life--to assist me to success. Some portion would fall to your share,
too; you would like to be _gnädige_ Frau, and it is impossible to give
that to oneself."
While Salomon told his troubles to his mother, and as he added would
try his luck with Eva once more, another rival of Blanden's had arrived
unexpectedly, and was present at this forest-party, the young poet
Schöner, who for a short time at least had applied for a place in Eva's
heart, and had striven to be successful in obtaining it. But since that
encounter with the singer, Eva had renounced him so completely that she
treated him with conspicuous coldness.
Had he not accompanied the admired _virtuoso_, on the whole of her
tour, back to the capital, and only left her when she made a trip into
the country with a female friend, to Lithuania or Masuren, and forbade
the young poet to escort her farther?
Schöner easily recovered all these slights and resigned himself to the
existing state of affairs; he hoped soon to reconquer the lost
position; he sunned himself with such self-satisfaction in the glory of
an easily-gained, doubtful fame, that he was less susceptible of
smaller defeats.
In addition, his spirits, like his poetry, were still sparkling
champagne, and a certain youthful unripeness did not become him badly;
his nature owned tokens of genius which promised that he would overcome
it.
Blanden, with that subtle discrimination which was peculiar to him,
soon remarked that Eva's indifference did not appear to be at all
natural in this case, that slight defiance, something repellant lay in
it, indicating former connection. He looked more closely at his rival,
who did not displease him at all, and in whose poetical attempts he had
already been interested, and found remarkable consolation in the
former's turned-down shirt-collar, and in his unpolished thorn stick.
He considered the entire toilet hopeless for a matrimonial candidate,
that the heart of an educated girl, who aims at a domestic hearth,
could not possibly repose any confidence in such a wooer.
Yet love, which allows itself to be won by an enthusiast and a pair of
glowing eyes--had it no chance in the game?
Schöner was so engrossed by the political paroxysm of that period, that
this intoxicated idealism lent him most infectious enthusiasm. He
acknowledged himself to be Herwegh's disciple, and when he recited that
poet's verses, the beautiful, powerful voice in which he declaimed
them, always called forth a kindred feeling in his listeners.
He recited with the enthusiasm with which, at that period, these
poetical fire-brands were hurled into the air, and, at the same time,
heat the oak-branches with his thorn-stick, until the leaves whirled to
the ground.
"Have you seen him in person?" he asked Eva, and, as she replied in the
negative, he continued, "I was present when the students greeted him; I
was present at the entertainment in the Kneiphöf _Junkerhof_, when he
declaimed his marvellously beautiful poem--
'_Die Lerche war's nicht die Nachtigall,
Erhebt euch vom Schlumnur der Sünden;
Schon wollen die Feuer sich überall,
Die heiligen Feuer, entzunden_.'[3]
And the old Justizrath, with his long, thin arms patted Herwegh on his
shoulders, and addressed a warm speech to him, and any one who could
saddle a Pegasus, mounted his poetical steed, in order to do honour to
the poet. A new epoch has dawned for poetry. I know your charming
book-shelves, Eva; there they stand in delicate bindings--the
romancists, Uhland, Platen, and Rückert, and whatever their names may
be; the later born masters of song, who followed our classical writers,
but where the mere empty appearance of cultivation is not in question,
there the reverence of quiet natures buries itself in the solitary
enjoyment of the poets, and they are mostly women and girls who give
themselves up to such enjoyment. How totally different it has become
now! Not only youths, but grown-up men are enthusiastic about Herwegh's
poetry, as it does not find its echo alone in the students' drinking
parties, but also in official bureaux and counting-houses. Herwegh's
journey through Germany was a regular triumphant course; he was _fêted_
everywhere; the King granted him an audience, and treated him as an
intellectual Great Power. Poetry is becoming a national affair again;
the beautiful times of Greece are returning once more."
"And do you not fear," said Blanden, "that this infatuation will be
followed by a long reaction? that poetry, by these strong measures
which it must employ to act upon the masses, will dull its power, and a
time of universal indifference to it ensue?"
"I do not fear that," replied Schöner, "the last poet will only depart
from the world with the last man, as Anastasius Grün has sung so
beautifully."
"Oh, yes, singers will not fail," interposed Blanden, "but the public!
The gentlemen of the profession will not give way, but I can well
imagine a time when political poetry will be followed by political
prose, when the ideals are attained which the poet's enthusiasm has
lauded. That which, until now, has been the home of poetry, the kingdom
of silent feelings, will be more forsaken than ever now, because, in
the noise of public life, people have become unaccustomed to it. Then
the poets will only sing of politics; yet these will need no more
poetry; they would treat of more tender subjects, yet these retreat
before politics. All poetry will then appear to be materials for use in
sickness, which, in the present critical period, we have cast off from
us."
"I cannot take so black a view," replied Schöner. "I believe in the
everlasting youth of the mind, in the immortality of the beautiful, of
poetry, even though the poets die. Who could subscribe to a _monumentum
aere perennius_? I even doubt if Herwegh will produce anything great;
he is only a man of the Awakening, of the lyrical Initiative. There is
no versatile productive nature in him; a dull fanaticism lies in him,
which has been able to give utterance to the cry of distress of the
people and time, but hardly commands a wealthier spiritual life, and no
varied forms of art. One single enchanting poetical blossom, like the
torch-thistle, and then the busy, creative power is exhausted. His
dreamy brow, his dark eye promise much, and if genius did not live in
him, how could he have composed such entrancing poetry? But a heavy
spell, as it were, rests upon him, and too early fame is poison."
"You speak your own condemnation," said Eva, with cold flattery.
"Oh, no, my Fräulein! I rejoice that my poems have found some little
echo; yet this modest recognition is far removed from the noisy,
clamorous path of triumph of those happy ones, upon whose brows fresh
laurels have been lowered. Lasting fame can only be won by serious
work, and the glorious aim of a maturer life."
Eva was astonished at this modest confession, which made a favourable
impression upon Blanden. The self-satisfaction of the young poet, who
was a spoiled favourite in certain circles of society, certainly drew
pleasant nourishment from the frequently extravagant recognition with
which he met; but the inmost kernel of his nature was not absorbed by
it; the impetus to future greater performances remained alive.
Eva and her companions had become separated from the party during this
animated conversation. From several symptoms, Schöner perceived that a
little romance was being enacted, of which he himself was not the hero.
He remained untroubled at this neglect, and, with noble unselfishness
and a poet's pleasure in a little love tale, which he might utilise
himself for a newspaper, he left the field, under the pretence that he
had promised a beautiful bouquet to the Kanzleirath's Minna, and he
must gather it in the wood. He also had the satisfaction in so doing of
giving them to understand he would not act the superfluous third
person's part of chaperon at this _rendezvous_ of two lovers, and
guessed their wish to be alone.
They had arrived once more at the spot where Blanden had first greeted
his campanula; the alders rustled in the evening wind, the stream
whispered beneath the trees; above through the quivering boughs of the
weeping willows the western sky poured its floods of gold.
"You know this young poet well?" asked Blanden.
"I have met and talked to him several times, he interests me; he
possesses talent, intellect and attractive qualities, yet the want of
steadiness in his nature and actions repelled me; everything in him is
prompted by the whim of the moment."
"And you felt no liking for him?"
"Just a very little liking, I do not deny it; he paid me attentions,
people remarked it, and often threw us together in society; it
flattered me, as he was accounted the ornament and pride of those
circles, and he gazed at me with fervid eyes as though he felt a deep
passion for me, but he looked at all the world with the same eyes, and
when I recognised that, he became indifferent to me."
"He has the eye and heart of a poet! Such a heart yearns to possess
everything beautiful that it looks upon as its own heaven-bestowed
property; it is dangerous and fatal to win a poet's evanescent
passion--he only gives it durability in his works, not in his life. How
many blossoms of beautiful emotions has Goethe plucked, as it were, in
passing by; to how many women's hearts did his wanderings bring death,
like the approach of the inapproachable. That does not suit us inferior
mortals! And even if in the extravagance of youth, we do yield
ourselves up to such poetical paroxysms, we must soon learn to control
ourselves, for we not only leave desolate the lives of others, like
that poet, but also our own, as we are unable to cast imperishable
creations into the other scale."
Eva looked questioningly at him with her large eyes.
"Let us sit down upon the grassy mound, among the blue-bells, they ring
in spring, perhaps also for me; it was here I found my campanula."
Eva stood hesitatingly; he drew her down beside himself upon the sward.
"The girl that asks for feelings fresh as morn, must reject the
man--reject him decidedly--who, after abundant experiences in far-off
lands, returns to his home. My life is an Odyssey. I have suffered many
shipwrecks; many a Calypso has bound me in her fetters, yet no Penelope
awaits the home-comer, he has first to seek her."
Eva did not venture to look up, and plucked the blue flowers while he
continued--
"Yet what are whirlpools and ocean wonders, the magicians and nymphs of
other days--what all the harsh and sweet dangers of those seas which
Homer's sun has illuminated for evermore, compared with the shoals and
abysses which menace the bold traveller of the present time? To-day
there is no Odyssey in which a vein of Faust would not be concealed, a
struggle to fathom the world and life. And how wonderfully at this
great turning-point of the period in which we are born, all truths and
all delusions play into one another! And while still at home I
succumbed to these perils! I saw how the old faith clung convulsively
to the standard of the world's renunciation, in that religious
enthusiasm which then held its sway over me, I joined it; yet beauty,
which we learn to despise, passion, which we should renounce by oath,
gained the victory within me over that belief. They all played a daring
game, I succumbed to it, and I was not the only one; it was the first
great step astray in my life."
Eva had laid her flowers in her lap; she did not dare to look at
him--not with her eyes' mute question.
"I speak to you in enigmas, and may they remain enigmas to you! What I
have experienced in the world were adventures that were only wafted
upon me like gossamer threads in the air, which we shake off again.
Only once beneath Italy's soft sky, in the intoxicating breath of its
perfumed plains, a spell held me enthralled for a short time; I thought
to live through one of Boccaccio's novels; the charm of concealment
from those at home remained assured to this dream-like meeting. Enough,
I returned home, no tired, no bowed down man, but tired of the life
that I had led, overwhelmed with dark recollections, resolved, instead
of an unsteady wanderer through the universe, to become a citizen of my
country and of the world, who works nobly and bravely; for this I
require peace, and peace of mind is alone the ground upon which such
good work nourishes."
"And it will flourish," cried Eva, with exalted animation, "cast all
sadness, all depression far behind you! I cannot bear to see shadows
suffuse your brow--your eyes close as if expiring! I would see you
happy, quite happy, and your name honoured like those of the noblest
patriots, a Stein and Schön!"
"That word shall never be forgotten by me," cried Blanden, "it finds an
echo in my soul; it tells of perfect unanimity of feeling, and if there
is a cabala in life, you have thrown open the page on which the magic
sentence stands, which now governs my days. That is the noble ambition
which animates me now, with which I would banish the evil spirits, yet,
I repeat, that to attain it I need also ensured peace at home. Let us
reverse the old fairy-tale--I am an enchanted prince--will you be the
princess who loosens the unholy spell?"
Eva blushed deeply, and covered her face with her hands--the blue-bells
had fallen from her lap.
"Will you dedicate your whole life to me, that mine may open to new,
soft bloom beneath the light of your beautiful gentle eyes? Will you be
a true guardian to me, that I may never lose sight of the glorious goal
which I strive to reach? I know that I am asking much; you are to give
up to me a young pure life, while mine has been already furrowed and
torn by the wild streams of passion; but is it not an old question
whether love consists more of happiness than sacrifice?"
"A sacrifice," cried Eva, springing up suddenly; "a sacrifice, which is
the greatest happiness!"
"That word announces mine! Then you will adorn my life, my lovely
campanula? You will belong to me, my glorious Eva, my redeemer!"
"I will," said she, not whispering shamedly, but in a transport of
ecstacy; and he folded her in his arms and pressed the betrothal-kiss
upon her lips.
"Thus be my past life extinguished by this moment," cried Blanden. "I
feel as if, pursued by evil spirits, I entered the sanctuary of a
bright temple, and all the gods smiled me a welcome. Sacred be this
moment to us: the rustling trees, the parting orb of day be witness of
our betrothal!"
And again he folded Eva to his heart; she returned his caress amid
burning tears, by which the pent-up tumult of her passionate love found
relief for itself. Blanden felt too happy; again and again he listened
to the assurances of perfect love. They wandered some time longer by
the stream in the evening's light, then unconcernedly returned to the
party.
This want of confusion was indeed ruinous to Eva's character. The
Kanzleiräthin explained to her daughter that she must break off her
intimacy with Eva, as it was positively astounding what liberties that
girl allowed herself. She had always seen that the Kalzow's bringing up
was a very sad one, but had not expected that it would bear such
ruinous fruits. Salomon suggested to his mother that they had not
merely been catching butterflies and gathering flowers, but that the
science of nature also possessed other interesting pages which could be
studied. Rath and Räthin Kalzow rejoiced silently at the favourable
course which this mutual fancy took; at the same time the Rath had some
misgivings which occasionally worried him, so that his coughing fits
overcame him.
"It is quite beautiful," said he, confidentially, several times to his
Miranda, "that Eva has conquered him; but who says then that his
intentions are serious? She is a poor, middle-class girl; he, a rich,
noble landowner, and even although, according to the universal law of
the country, nothing stands in the way of such a marriage, yet up to
the present time he has made no such declaration. The girl is beautiful
as her mother, my poor sister, was."
Miranda merely vouchsafed a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders in
reply to this eulogium.
"Yet beauty," continued the Rath, while setting his cravat to rights,
"may suffice for love, but not for marriage, and to one who has knocked
about in the world so much as Blanden, one adventure more or less does
not matter. In fact, Miranda, if we have allowed Eva to be talked about
again all for nothing, it would cause me sleepless nights."
Nor could Miranda either really suppress a few slight doubts; she
comforted herself, however, with the thought that Blanden would
probably remove these doubts himself.
Then the Kanzleiräthin, who had just taken a turn with the banker's
wife through the hazel bushes, holding a couple of nuts in her hand,
came running, almost breathlessly, across the meadow to the married
couple.
"What do I hear? Why, that is the same Blanden whose name was often
mentioned at the time when the seraphic community was talked of?
Surely, he was a member of it."
"The grass has grown over it long since," said the Regierungsrath,
annoyed.
"Besides, there are many Blandens in the province," added the Räthin.
"But all marks of recognition point to this one! I must say though,"
continued the Kanzleiräthin, triumphantly, after having cracked a hazel
nut with her seal-like protruding teeth, "that I should not like to
entrust my daughter to a pupil of those saints, not even for a walk in
the forest, because he might easily mistake it for Paradise."
And cracking the second hazel nut, she left the Kalzows with the joyful
conviction that she had caused them great trouble by this
communication. Indeed, the Regierungsrath was obliged to admit to
himself that this sect had caused evil misfortune enough in families;
he had occasionally heard Blanden's name mentioned at that time. But
his wife repeated, consolingly--
"You may safely believe it is not the same Blanden; it will be some
cousin of a collateral branch. It is only a piece of the Frau
Kanzleiräthin's spite, because no one notices her Minna, whom she
always plays out as an ace, without ever making a trick by it."
The family's anxiety was, however, augmented when Blanden announced
that he must visit his estates for a short period; would then, however,
return, and he hoped should still find them at the seaside. It would
have seemed like desecration of his feelings to confide his love just
yet to her parents; it was still quite impossible for him to connect
Eva in his thoughts with that undignified parental couple. What was
unavoidable should only be done when the betrothal ceremony could
follow immediately. But he must return home, because he had to present
himself to his electors as candidate. Eva parted from him with perfect,
joyful confidence, and when her mother hazarded a sceptical remark, she
replied--
"We will wait patiently; everything will turn out for the best."
And such a happy ray suffused her countenance, that Miranda said to her
husband, as she placed his cravats in a drawer--
"The girl is sure of her affair; she must have reason to be so."
The Rath chuckled significantly, and passed no sleepless night.