I came back from the chalk-quarry, where I had been busy all the
morning with setting up the new machine. The work under my direction,
owing to good luck and the good will of the men, had succeeded so well,
and the phlegmatic old master miner had said at last, with a kind of
inspiration: "I believe we shall manage it yet!" I was in a very
cheerful frame of mind. The old delight in accomplishing anything had
possessed me once more, and while I strode rapidly through the fields,
revolving in my thoughts various plans and the means for their
accomplishment, I had again come to the conclusion that all might end
well yet if but the right will were here, and again I said to myself,
"what a chance for the master here!"
But I did not say it as I had said it a week before. Then it was a wish
to which nothing personal was attached, and the goal appeared to me
utterly unattainable. Now my heart was as much excited, but it no
longer beat as freely as then, and the goal no longer seemed at an
inaccessible distance--indeed it sometimes seemed so near that I might
touch it with my hand. And when this thought came into my mind, and I
suddenly saw in fancy the fair young face with the angry cloud on the
white firm brow surrounded with its mass of clear-brown curls, and the
full, red, saucily-defiant lips, I stood gazing blankly at the green
wheat whose spears were nodding in the morning breeze, or at the
distant sea-horizon glittering beyond the edge of the cliffs, while I
saw all the time nothing but the sweet defiant face; and then I
breathed deeply, and bethought myself that the commerzienrath had sent
for me, and was probably expecting me with impatience.
I found him in his room in such animated conversation with the
justizrath, that I could hear the voices of both talking together,
before William Kluckhuhn opened the door. They were both sitting at the
round table that was covered with ground plans, designs of buildings,
and specifications.
"Are you here at last?" cried the commerzienrath to me in such a tone,
that I felt justified in looking over my shoulder at the door, and
remarking to him that William was no longer in the room.
The commerzienrath cast at me one of those evil glances which one sees
in the eyes of an old tiger when he is undecided whether or not to
respect the steel rod in the hand of his keeper, and then cried in the
most pleasant tone:
"Yes, yes, the rascal; I sent him for you an hour ago and now he brings
you at last. We cannot get along without you at all; at least I cannot,
though this gentleman can do better without you than with you."
"Allow me, Herr Commerzienrath----" began the other.
"No, I allow nothing," he replied; "and least of all that you shall
consider yourself my friend in this affair."
"I am also the friend of the other party, so to speak," replied the
justizrath, pushing up with great dignity the stiff grizzled hair from
both sides of his head towards the crown, where it stood up in a comb,
something like that of a clown in a circus.
"Then you should at least be impartial!" cried the commerzienrath.
"Ask our friend here if he has ever known me otherwise," said the
justizrath, with a dignified look at me.
"Oh, ay," cried the commerzienrath, "but fine words butter no parsnips,
and my parsnips get poorer the longer you keep them at the fire. A week
ago, that is before you came, the prince was willing to give four
hundred thousand _thalers_; after you have had three conferences with
him, he abated fifty thousand of his offer, making sixteen thousand six
hundred and sixty-six and two-thirds _thalers_ per conference. I am
much obliged to you! You have always been a dear guest to me, but I
never would have believed that you would be so dear as that!"
Emilie's father made a movement as if he would fain wrap himself
up from the sharp arrows of his antagonist, in the old flowered
dressing-gown he used to wear at home; but bethinking himself that he
was in a black dress-coat, he pulled up his collar, felt to see if the
comb on the top of his head was in good condition, and looked at me
with a sly smile, as if to say: "Whoever expects to get the better of
Justizrath Heckepfennig, has got to get up early: you have found that
out, young man, eh?"
"Yes, my dear friend, this is the way I am treated here," continued the
commerzienrath, turning to me, and, for a change, falling to a
lachrymose tone: "it is enough to drive a man out of his senses; and
none know it better than you, George, for you understand the whole
thing--which is more than I can say of some people--you know well that
the property is worth five hundred thousand _thalers_ between brothers,
now especially, when we have the certainty of draining the chalk
quarries."
The commerzienrath accompanied these words with an expressive look at
me, meaning, "Now George, keep up the ball!"
"And indeed that is a very reasonable price," he went on, "when we
consider that in this way we have found a plan for draining the great
morass, by carrying the pipes to the sand-bed which came so near
ruining the chalk-quarry, and which is a drain-trench provided by
nature itself for the water of the swamp."
Here the commerzienrath gave me a furious look, because I had not yet
come to his assistance.
Now this last plan he had mentioned, was one I had suggested myself,
and I considered it therefore my duty to remark here that it was true I
had the strongest hopes of the success of the scheme referred to, but
that it could only be demonstrated by trial, and even were it perfectly
successful, the land thus gained would at furthest only compensate for
the forest, which was apparently lost beyond recovery, and thus the
original value of Zehrendorf would in this respect remain unaltered.
"What in the devil do you mean, sir!" cried the commerzienrath,
springing up and storming about the room. "Did you come here for
_this_? What do you mean?"
"I came, Herr Commerzienrath, at your own request," I replied calmly,
while in violent excitement he paced the room with quick short steps,
still darting venomous looks at me, until suddenly he threw himself
back in his easy chair, crying:
"What a fellow this George Hartwig is! O what a fellow! What answers
the man has! Came here at my request! What a fellow, what a fellow!"
And the old gentleman slapped me on the knee, and said, resuming a
serious tone:
"But to come back to our business, the fact is that I can have five
hundred thousand from Von Granow any day. Is that not so, George? Did
he not say so to you yesterday evening?"
Herr von Granow had said nothing of the sort to me, but on the contrary
that he was ready to negotiate on any reasonable terms, but that the
commerzienrath's demands were simply unreasonable, not to say
ridiculous.
As I could not do the commerzienrath the favor to tell a falsehood, and
would not afford the justizrath, who seemed to be waiting for it, the
pleasure an admission of the truth would afford him, I arose from my
chair, saying that if I could be of no other service to them, I would,
with their permission, go to my own room where I had a little work to
do.
"No, no; stay here, stay here!" cried the commerzienrath eagerly; "I
must speak with you on matters of importance. And as for us, my dear
old friend, go now and tell his highness whatever you choose; but if
you tell him that we cannot succeed in draining the chalk-quarry, I
shall send him George here, who will open his eyes on that point. And
now farewell, my old friend, and come back at noon punctually. I have
found a couple more bottles of '22 Hock, that you will like I know,
gourmand that you are!"
And the commerzienrath poked the corpulent justizrath in the ribs with
his thumb, in a jocular fashion, and in this way poked him, so to
speak, out at the door, then turned shortly on his heel, came with
quick steps and stood before me, and cried in a rage that sent the
blood to his bald temples:
"Now will you tell me,--are you going to help me in this business, or
are you not?"
"First tell me, Herr Commerzienrath,--will you take another tone with
me, or will you not?" I answered.
"Bah! leave your fooleries! We are alone now. I have no notion of
playing blindman's-buff with you, do you understand me, sir?"
"Not in the least," I answered; "or only so far that I have no notion
of being a minute longer the guest of a man who knows so little--or
rather, who is so entirely ignorant of what is due to a guest."
I said this in a very calm tone, but I was far from feeling the
calmness that I assumed. On the contrary, the thought that in this
moment the grand plans I had been cherishing, were probably dissolving
in smoke; that this angry, foolish, selfish old man was trampling into
the earth the young green crop of my fairest hopes,--this thought made
my heart beat, and gave my last words a bitterness unusual to me.
The commerzienrath's sharp ears must have heard that he had driven me
to the limit of my patience, for as I laid my hand on the knob of the
door I felt myself held fast by my coat-tails, and turning round, saw
the face of the queer old man lifted to me with such an extraordinary
grimace, that, sad as I felt, I had to burst out laughing.
"Ay, that is right, laugh away, bad man, and sit down again. Yes; that
was all that was wanting, that you should run away from me. A nice mess
I should have had at dinner-time after that! No, no, sit down. It is
necessary that I should talk with you, and I will speak as if you were
my own son. Heaven has not thought fit to grant me one, so I must look
to others, who, naturally enough, cannot pardon an old man's little
infirmities of temper."
I had soon returned to a placable mood, and the commerzienrath need not
have adopted quite so lamentable a tone. But he kept it up, while he
went into a long explanation how he had taken Zehrendorf originally in
the hope of selling it to advantage; that the proper time had now
arrived, and he needed the money, imperatively needed it, and that it
was absolutely necessary that I should help him to close the bargain
with the prince. I understood the matter better than either he, the
justizrath, or the young prince, and the last had written to him
repeatedly, and even this morning again, that he would rather treat
through me than the justizrath, who was an old ass--"and heaven help
him!" the commerzienrath here cried, "an old ass he most truly is: he
is indeed!"
"What has put it into the prince's head to mix me up in the matter?" I
asked, in amazement.
"Because he takes an interest in you, as everybody else does, you
confounded fellow! Now will you? say, will you?"
"Herr Commerzienrath," I said, after a short pause in which I had
striven to concentrate upon one point the thoughts that were whirling
in my brain, "I will own to you that it grieves me to think that
Zehrendorf should pass into other hands, into the hands of a master of
whom I know not but that he may let all that has been called into
existence here with so much labor and cost, fall to neglect and ruin,
so that the poor people about here may sink into a worse condition than
that in which you found them. For in spite of everything, your new
undertakings have drawn many here who cannot get away again so easily,
but must remain here to suffer and to increase the sufferings of the
rest. Now I have frankly told you, more than once, Herr Commerzienrath,
that I by no means consider you the good master that I wish for
Zehrendorf; and if, despite this, I had rather see you here than
another, it is simply because for your own interest you will have to
try to complete what has been begun, and I have not yet given up the
hope of making you a convert to my views. Still, since you say that you
are compelled to sell the property, and your resolution seems fixed, I
will help you in the matter, but only under two conditions. The first
is, that you authorize me, as your friend, but also as a man of honor,
to take the negotiation into my own hands, that is to say, to aim at a
good, or we will say the best price, but not to make demands which the
prince can only consent to if he is a fool, and which, if he is not a
fool, he will reject with contempt. One moment's patience, Herr
Commerzienrath!--I said I had two conditions. The second is, that so
soon as I have effected the sale of Zehrendorf, you will agree to the
plan for extending our works in the city, and will place at my disposal
the sums which I have calculated as necessary for that purpose."
"Are you clear out of your senses, sir!" cried the commerzienrath,
smiting with his fist the arm of his chair, "to say such things to me
here, in my own house, in my own room, as if you were a Pacha of three
tails, or I don't know what, instead of being----"
"Your most obedient servant," I said, rising, and making him a polite
bow.
"Eh! what?" he exclaimed, "Do you want to frighten me? You are not
going, I know; why all these fooleries?"
"And you will agree with me at last, so why all this noise?" I replied
laughing.
"But I tell you for the hundredth time that if I sell Zehrendorf ever
so well, I need the money for other things than your cursed factory!"
shouted the commerzienrath.
I looked him steadily in the eye, and said, "Do you know what I have
lately dreamed, Herr Commerzienrath? It is that you are really very far
from being the rich man you are generally believed to be."
"You confounded fellow! you humorous dog! you funny rascal!" cried the
commerzienrath. "I suppose you will tell me next that I have stolen the
boots I am wearing. Couldn't you lend me five _thalers_ for a day or
two? you----"
And he poked me in the ribs with his thumb, and held his sides with
laughter at his capital joke.
"If you are a rich man, then," I continued very seriously, and it cost
me no effort to be serious now--"then say yes, and the thing is
settled."
I held out my hand, and he struck his own into it, laughing still like
mad.
"The thing is settled then," I said, drawing a deep breath.
"Settled," he said.
"And I shall hold you to your word, Herr Commerzienrath," I said: "You
may count surely upon that."
"And I count upon you," he answered, still holding my hand fast in one
of his own, while with the other he gave me little raps upon the
knuckles. "If you were not a man to be relied upon, would I have taken
so much pains about you, do you suppose? you--Oh! murder!"
In my excitement I must have pressed the old man's hand a little too
hard, for he gave a loud outcry and made a horrible grimace: I begged
his pardon, and he laughed and shook his hand, and again cried "Murder!
you man of iron! you confounded fellow!" and poked me out at the door,
with his thumb, just as he had poked out the justizrath.