I had spent the rest of the forenoon in my room, in order to finish a
calculation necessary to the proper adjustment of the machine at the
quarry. But I had not got beyond the statement of the problem. The new,
almost certain prospect of being able to carry out my great wish to
enlarge our works, almost made me dizzy. In fancy I saw the space of
ground where my lodging was, covered with buildings; I saw the flames
springing from the great furnaces and smoke pouring from the tall
chimneys; I heard the clang of hammer on anvil, and saw the crowd of
dingy workmen thronging the wide yards in the evening, and scattering
in the streets of a new quarter where in cleanly houses cheerful homes
awaited them, where they could rest from the toils of the day. And a
change had passed over the desolate house in which I lived; fresh green
sward surrounded it, a Triton spouted a jet of water high into the air
from the old basin of sandstone into which it fell plashing back, where
a host of goldfish played merrily, or darted back from the margin at
the approach of a pair who came up hand in hand and bent over the water
to see their own faces reflected. But the reflection quivered and
broke, so that only now and then could be seen two bright blue eyes and
two full red lips, nor was it clear whether the eyes flashed with anger
or with love, or whether the lips were pouted to a scornful word or to
a kiss.
"Dinner will soon be served, Herr Engineer," said William Kluckhuhn,
entering. "Can I assist the Herr Engineer to dress?"
William regularly came with this polite offer of his services, although
I just as regularly declined them. But to-day he would not take any
dismissal, and helped me on with my best coat so actively, and brushed
and touched me up with such zealous pertinacity, that I had to ask him
if he had any request to make of me.
"Oh, no," he answered; "but you were so kind as to get me back into
favor with the master, who was in the wrong altogether, for even if I
drank champagne----"
"Very well, William," I said.
"So I only wanted to tell you," he went on in a confidential tone,
"that they have had a terrible quarrel, and I very plainly heard----"
"But I do not wish to hear it, William."
"But you need not mind my telling you, for if I listened at the door a
little bit, that was not your doing, and it was not my doing that the
door was ajar, and I plainly heard our lady say that she would never
forgive it you----"
"Well," I muttered.
"And when she said it, she looked----"
"So you could see too?"
"O, the door was pretty wide open," William answered, shrugging his
shoulders, "and I made a rattling with the plates on purpose, but the
Fräulein was in such a rage----"
And William here made a face, apparently intended to represent the one
he had seen through the crack of the door, but so absurdly incredible
that I burst out laughing.
"Very good," he said; "I wanted to give you the hint; for when she is
angry----but you can laugh."
And William sighed deeply and looked at me in a supplicating manner.
"Well?" I said.
"And I wanted to beg you," he went on, "that if--ahem! you know what I
mean--you would be so good as to help me and my Louise too, for we have
been waiting now six years, and it is easy for you, Herr Engineer. Is
it not, now, Herr Engineer?"
"William, I firmly believe you have taken leave of your senses," I
answered, and strode past him out of the room with a look intended to
express majestic indignation.
But William's ears had served him faithfully, as I presently learned at
table. The company was small; no one besides the inmates, except
Arthur, who had come over in the justizrath's carriage from Rossow, and
greeted me as usual with excessive friendliness. The two Eleonoras,
owing to the warmth of the day, appeared in virgin white, and as a
group, of course. Hermine kept us waiting awhile. The commerzienrath
drew me aside and whispered to me that the prince had sent him word
that he must be quite satisfied about the chalk-quarry before the
negotiation went any further, and that he would send over his carriage
this afternoon to bring me to Rossow.
I had no time to answer this communication, which for more than one
reason was unacceptable to me, for at this moment Hermine entered and I
saw plainly that she had been weeping, although she tried hard to
appear as gay and careless as possible. The day was so charming--so
delicious! and to-morrow it would be finer still, and the party to the
Schlachtensee would be too delightful! The company was to be the very
nicest that could be; all young people, not an old one among them.
After dinner they would go over to Trantow to pick up Hans, who could
not be dispensed with, then to Sulitz, where Herr von Zarrentin and his
charming wife would join them; then arrive between five and six at the
coast-village Sassitz; a stroll through the dunes and the beech forest
as far as the Schlachtensee; supper, with pine-apple-punch, and
moonrise there; return through the wood to the cross-roads at the
Rossow pines, where their carriage and horses would be ready for them;
return of the whole company without exception to Zehrendorf; and wind
up all with tea and punch, and, if possible, a dance for such as were
very nice.
"Bravo! bravo! That is a plan!" cried Arthur, enthusiastically clapping
his hands.
"I knew it would have your approval, dear Arthur," said the fair
designer, stretching her hand to him over the table, with her sweetest
smile; "you understand these things, and I count upon you especially."
"I did not count upon _you_," she added, turning suddenly to me.
"I neither said, nor supposed anything of the kind, Fräulein Hermine,"
I replied.
"That is the very reason why one cannot count upon you in such things.
You don't think about them. Of course! How can any one whose mind is
occupied with matters of so much more importance?"
Hermine was never particularly amiable in her behavior to me, but her
conduct to-day was so pointedly unkind, and her vehemence too void of
any visible cause, not to strike the most indifferent spectator, not to
mention the steuerrath and the Born, who were very far from
indifferent, and now cast meaning looks at Arthur, as if urging him to
strike while the iron was hot. Arthur was evidently quite disposed to
follow their counsel, but did not precisely know how to go about it; so
he contented himself with giving Hermine a languishing look, and
curling his little black beard. The others seemed to gather from
Hermine's last words, and still more from the excited tone in which she
had spoken, that there was something unusual in the air. Fräulein Duff,
who had been all the time looking remarkably pale and agitated, raised
her eyes, as if in despair, to the ceiling, while the justizrath
riveted his gaze on a dish of salad, and drummed lightly on the table;
Emilie looked at her friend Elise, and Elise at Emilie, Emilie's look
inquiring "Does an innocent child like me need to understand these
things?" and Elise's replying "Sport peacefully, sweet cherub! Leave
this to us experienced ones!" Even William Kluckhuhn, who stood waiter
in hand at the sideboard, pulled a long face, as if the turn things had
taken was not altogether to his satisfaction, and the commerzienrath
alone was so busy with the other waiter, who was uncorking under his
eyes a bottle of the famous hock, that he had not the least idea as to
the cause of the sudden silence that had fallen upon the company. He
looked up in the most unconscious manner in the world, and asked
innocently--"I beg your pardon, but what were you speaking about?"
The peculiar expression which I had noticed in so many different shades
on the faces of the guests, grew several tints deeper. The silence was
more profound; the second waiter John, who was in the act of uncorking
the '22 hock, stopped with the cork half-drawn, and the plates which
William was handling rattled nervously, as the steuerrath pouring out
with unsteady hand a glass of wine, replied:
"Our dear Hermine was remarking that in the innocent amusements which
youth loves, one could not count upon our excellent George--you will
excuse me, George, for calling you by the old familiar name--because
our young friend has so many other, and, we will admit, more important
things on his mind."
The commerzienrath poured out with his own hands the precious wine into
the large hock-glasses--only a thumb's breadth deep, as otherwise one
lost the perfect bouquet--and probably took advantage of this pause to
collect himself, so that he was able to reply in a peculiar drawling
tone:
"More important things? Is not that a wine! More important things--the
very flower of the Rhine!--on his mind? I should think so: we made a
bargain this morning; he is to sell Ziehrendorf for me and I am to buy
for him that piece of ground adjoining the works in Berlin. I should
think it likely that such a thing as that would be on any one's mind."
I was astonished beyond measure to hear the commerzienrath, whom I knew
to be a very cautious man, mention an affair which we had only agreed
upon a few hours before, and which I considered a strict business
secret, thus openly before all his guests, and especially in the
presence of the justizrath, to whom my intervention in the matter was
anything but flattering--I was so amazed, I say, at this
unbusinesslike, incomprehensible proceeding of the usually so shrewd
old man, that I felt a flush of confusion rising hot in my face.
Again silence fell upon the room; the peculiar expression in the
countenances of the guests deepened another tone, and now it was
Hermine's voice that broke the silence:
"Have I not told you, Emilie, that Herr Hartwig is a frightful
aristocrat? He cannot bear to see so old an estate in any other than
noble hands. That sort of thing is not for us plebeians. What does it
matter that we have to leave a place that we have grown fond of in
these seven years? We must take what we can get and be thankful that we
are anywhere at all."
There was a quiver in the tone of her voice, and her eyelids reddened
as if she restrained her tears with difficulty; the silence grew more
oppressive, and there was no need for the commerzienrath's raising his
voice so high as he said:
"So it is: God's service goes before lord's service, and our George has
the notion that he serves God with every additional farthing that he
can make those poor devils of workmen earn; and if he has but few
good words for lord's service, woman's service is his downright
abomination."
"That is not your device, Arthur!" said the steuerrath, in an
encouraging tone.
"_Noblesse oblige_," said the Born, with emphasis.
"_Mon c[oe]ur aux dames!_" said Arthur, laying his delicate hand on his
heart and bowing to his cousin.
The justizrath and his ladies said nothing, contenting themselves with
exchanging significant looks to the effect that this was a family
affair, and they have better avoid meddling in it.
Again ensued an embarrassing pause, which was broken, just as the
situation seemed to have reached a climax, by William Kluckhuhn using
his pocket-handkerchief with an energy altogether unbecoming in a
decorous serving-man, even in moments of the most lively concern.
Fräulein Duff, who had held her thin hands spasmodically clasped over
her breast during the last words of the Commerzienrath with the pale
resignation of one whose only remaining hope is in a better hereafter,
broke out into a hysterical weeping, and Hermine suddenly rising and
pressing her handkerchief to her cheeks and forehead, begged that the
company would excuse her if her ill-humor had annoyed them, but that
her headache was so violent that she must retire to her room.
I do not believe that any one of those present believed in this
headache, but this of course did not hinder the two Eleonoras from
springing from their chairs, and approaching the fair sufferer on
either side, in the intent to compose a touching group. But Hermine had
already seized the arm of her sobbing governess, and left the room with
a painful smile upon her lips, which seemed intended for all the
company except myself.
Except myself, over whom her look had passed as if my chair were empty,
and the rest of the company seemed to entertain the same opinion. No
one had a word or look for me, and I have never forgotten it of William
Kluckhuhn that at this fateful moment he had the hardihood to step
behind my chair, and in a suppressed tone to ask:
"Will the Herr Engineer take another glass of hock?"
I took the glass, and sipped it slowly with the air of a connoisseur,
but I cannot say that I was able to do justice to the noble vintage.
With all the trouble I took to appear quite at my ease, I was greatly
pained and disconcerted. It is an extremely disagreeable thing to be
singled out in this way by a young lady before an entire company.
Happily my strength was not tasked too hardly. The company rose from
table and hastily separated; I went out into the grounds to think it
all over in the soothing companionship of a cigar.
One thing was at once perfectly intelligible: the behavior of the
company at this incident. They had let me drop at the instant they
thought they saw that my game was lost. I knew well that Arthur's
parents had never given up the hope that he would one day marry his
cousin, and that their fulsome flatteries and Arthur's deceitful show
of friendship were only meant to cloak their real aim, and perhaps to
obtain some influence over me, as they probably feared that open enmity
would only make their chance worse.
As for the justizrath and the two Eleonoras, they merely swam with the
stream. They and the others--the conduct of all was explicable enough;
but the commerzienrath? Did it not look as if he had intentionally
provoked this scene at table, or at least offered the opportunity? He
was usually adroit enough in giving another turn to the conversation
when it did not please him. And if he really needed my assistance in
effecting the sale, why did he mention the matter to Hermine now when
all was still unsettled? Why, when he knew how averse she was from the
project, mention me to her as its originator or at all events its chief
promoter? Did he simply use me to screen himself? Such a man[oe]uvre
was exactly consistent with his character; he had a way of shifting
burdens that were uncomfortable for him, to the shoulders of others. Or
was this not all? Had the cunning old man tried his cuttle-fish
stratagem again, and hidden himself in a cloud of assumed carelessness?
He had noticed nothing, not he, of all that was going on around him,
and in which he was so much concerned, and thus quite innocently,
accidentally indeed, he placed "his young friend" in a quite untenable
position towards his pretty passionate daughter.
The blood rose hot to my brow as I came to this conclusion, and a new
feeling rose within me and obtained a complete mastery of me. It had
always been an easy thing for me to forgive heartily those who had
injured me; so easy indeed that I often called myself a weakling, a man
with neither heart nor gall; why then was that which I usually found so
easy, so difficult for me now? Why did every oblique glance that had
been directed at me across the table, the neglect, the indifference
which had been suddenly exhibited, now all recur even in their minutest
details to my memory? And why did I feel as if I should suffocate at
that which I had hitherto borne with such apparent equanimity? I had
suddenly struck a new vein in my own nature, a vein from which a
bitter, black, poisonous stream flowed into the current of my healthy
blood. I felt as an actual physical change what was really only a
change in my disposition; the first violent emotion of ambition; the
hot desire for personal revenge; the humiliation, the disgrace, if this
were baffled; the desperate final resolution to emerge from the contest
as victor, to attain my aim in spite of all and everything.
My aim! What was it then? The same which I had in view when I came
here, or another? Or this and that both at once? Well might I at this
moment have heard the warning voice of that stern wisdom which says
that we cannot serve God and Mammon.
I had taken my seat upon a bench which stood in a thick copse of
bushes. It was a quiet secret nook. The birds twittered pleasantly, a
gentle breeze blowing over the garden brought sweet odors on its soft
pinions, and a warm reviving sun beamed from the clear blue sky. The
spot was so sweet and the hour so lovely that I had to yield to its
soft solicitations, resist them as I might. My blood began to flow more
calmly: I commenced to take an interest in a pair of finches that had
just set up housekeeping in a knot-hole of a tree, recently
transplanted here from the Rossow park, and were incessantly hurrying
in and out of their little door. It was a peaceful pretty picture; the
little creatures were in such a hurry, and were so unwearyingly busy,
and evidently out of mere love--the world after all was not so wretched
a place as it had just seemed to me.
With these thoughts flitting through my mind, I must have closed my
eyes and fallen asleep; for I saw the bushes in front of me, and behind
which ran a walk, bend apart, and a face appear between them; a lovely
girlish face upon which the sunbeams and shadows of the leaves were
playing, and partly from this, and partly because I was dreaming, I
could not see clearly enough to decide if the light in the eye was
anger or love. When at last I opened my eyes fairly, I could see the
place in the bushes, but the sweet face was no longer there, but at the
same moment I heard ringing laughter with shouts and the cracking of a
whip, and mingled with the rest, piteous cries as of some one
entreating, then suddenly a loud shriek of terror, which caused me to
spring from the bench and hurry to the spot.
It was a circular space surrounded with shrubbery, which was used as a
race-course and which I had myself used as a riding-school several
times during my stay here as I endeavored to improve my imperfect
horsemanship under the guidance of the coachman, Anthony, an old
cavalryman. My lessons had been taken secretly in the very early
morning, because I knew that Hermine, who was passionately fond of
riding, was in the habit of practising here for an hour or two in the
forenoon. Recently Anthony had told me that Fräulein Duff was also
taking lessons, at the request of her young lady, who had suddenly
taken into her head to have in her expeditions and visits in the
neighborhood, another escort beside her groom, whom she frequently
dispensed with anyhow. The thing appeared to me absolutely incredible,
although old Anthony, who had nothing of the quiz about him, assured me
with the most serious face that it was a literal fact; now I was to
have my doubts removed by the evidence of my own eyesight.
In the middle of the track stood Arthur, who kept cracking a long whip
incessantly, Hermine, who was laughing in great amusement, the two
Eleonoras, in virginal white, clinging to each other as usual, and
Anthony, who plainly hesitated whether to obey Arthur's repeated
orders to keep away, or yield to the piteous supplications of Fräulein
Duff, and help that unhappy lady off the horse. It seemed that for the
first time they had let go the halter-rein, and the unskilful and
excessively timid rider had been seized with sudden panic. In her
desperation she had clasped both arms around the neck of the horse, a
small shaggy-maned animal not much larger than a pony, who on his part
plunged, kicked, and did his best to throw her entirely out of the
saddle, as she was already half out of it. The spectacle was certainly
indescribably ludicrous, but I could not bear to see for an instant my
good friend in this predicament without coming to her assistance, and
in a moment I had sprung to her side, caught the horse's head, and, as
she held out her arms to me, lifted her from the saddle. I wished to
place her gently on the ground, but in vain did I whisper to her to
control herself and not make a scene. As she had previously clung to
the horse's neck, so she now clung to mine, and seemed to find the
greatest pleasure in swooning in my arms and upon my breast. If a
situation of this sort under some circumstances is not destitute of
charms for the cavalier, it assumes another character when his fair
burden has fully reached those years when she can stand alone, and
becomes perfectly intolerable when the spectators instead of
commiserating him and hastening to his relief, only move their hands to
applaud like mad, and break into inextinguishable laughter.
At least this was what Hermine and Arthur did, while of the two
Eleonoras the second only looked at the first to see if she might
laugh.
"Duffy, Duffy," cried Hermine, "I have always told you to beware of
him!"
"Fräulein Duff," exclaimed Arthur, "do you want to tighten the
curb-chain?"
"May I?" signalled the second Eleonora more urgently, and the first
replied in the same way, "Laugh, thou innocent cherub!" and herself set
the example.
"Come, let us leave them alone; they must have a great deal to say to
each other," said Hermine, and hurried off amid peals of laughter, and
the rest followed, all laughing like mad, even to the stolid old
Anthony, who led away the horse, joyously whinnying, which was probably
his way of joining in the general hilarity. The next instant I was
standing alone with my fair burthen in my arms, mortified, offended,
furious, as I had never been before, so that if a river had chanced to
be at hand, I believe I would have pitched the poor Fräulein into it
without a moment's hesitation. Happily the temptation was not presented
to me, and as the laughter of the departing company grew fainter in the
distance, Fräulein Duff recovered consciousness, and unclasping her
arms from my neck, murmured: "Richard, you are my preserver!"
Richard was very far from being in the mood to fall in with the
sentimentalities of the poor governess, and indeed had at this moment
nothing like a lion-heart in his breast, but rather a little, spiteful,
vindictive heart; so he let his poor charge slide very unceremoniously
to the ground, and stood before her with gloomy brows and probably
wrathful looks, for she clasped her hands as if frightened and
whispered:
"Richard, for heaven's sake grow not desperate: however clouds obscure
the sky, the sun still beams above!"
"Fräulein Duff," I said, "I must confess that at this moment I am in no
temper for jesting, far less becoming the jest of others. You will
therefore excuse me if I bid you good day."
I sought to extricate my hand from hers, in which I succeeded with some
difficulty. But I had scarcely taken three steps when I heard such a
lamentable crying and sobbing behind me that I could not help turning
round. And there she stood in her green riding-habit, the skirt of
which was wound round her feet like a serpent, and upon her pale yellow
dishevelled locks a tall hat crushed out of shape, with a green veil,
the strings of which were hanging over her face instead of behind.
"Dear, good Fräulein Duff!" I said remorsefully. "Come! I know you
meant nothing but kindness." And I drew her arm in mine, and led her,
still softly weeping, away from the place of terror, trying with
friendly words to comfort her, until we reached the bench upon which I
had been sitting, and where I compelled her to sit down, as she was
completely overcome. Thus we sat awhile side by side, I staring
gloomily at the sand, and she sobbing more and more faintly, until at
last she lifted her tearful eyes to me and said:
"How can I requite your kindness, faithful noble friend?"
"By never alluding to it," I answered; "by never by a single word
reminding me of this ridiculous scene; which, however, I swear, shall
be the last in the wretched comedy which I have let them play with me
here so long."
"Comedy?" said Fräulein Duff, pressing her handkerchief to her eyes
with one hand, while with the other she held me fast, as I had risen to
my feet--"You need calm, dear Carl--your blood is in a tumult--sit here
by me--away with these black fever-phantasies!"
I had to laugh, angry as I was, and took my seat again by her side.
"O!" cried Fräulein Duff, "you are joyous and good, and still you
understand human nature; and can you really be deceived in this
maiden soul which lies before me as clear and transparent as yonder
heaven;--yes as yonder heaven," she repeated, raising her arms
poetically aloft where in all the sunny clearness of a spring
afternoon, the bluest of skies peeped through the thick blossoming
branches to our secluded nook.
"How can any one know that which under the best circumstances does not
know itself?" I returned.
"You err, my friend," replied the governess. "You take the timid
flutterings of this chaste virgin soul for attempts at flight; and yet
it would only fly to you, the coy birdling, to you and you alone!"
"In the name of heaven and all the blessed saints, Fräulein Duff,
hush! You drive me out of my senses, talking in that way!" I cried, now
effectually springing up, and pacing up and down as if demented, which
indeed I was; "I will hear nothing more of it and believe nothing more
of it, not even if I hear it from her own lips!"
"You will so hear it," said Fräulein Duff.
I broke into derisive laughter.
"You will," she repeated; "only patience, Richard; only patience!"
"To the devil with patience!" I exclaimed.
"What shall be the wager, prince?" said the governess with a sly smile,
lifting the thin forefinger of her transparent hand. "I summon old
stories back to your heart; old stories. Don't I remember as if it were
but yesterday, how she cried when she was but an eight-year-old child,
and would not be comforted, when she heard that they had put in prison
the handsome tall youth who always swung her so high? how she named all
her dolls George, and used to put them in the parrot's cage and say
that was her lover who was now in prison, and Poll was the jailor and
wanted to snap off her lover's head with his crooked beak? And when
I--for, my friend, a faithful educator of youth must be like the good
gardener who grafts roses upon the thorny stock--when I tried to
substitute for this fantastic form of childish grief, a more poetical
one; when I told her of Richard, the Lion-hearted, the renowned in song
and legend, and of Blondel the faithful singer, then she saw her ideal
in this form alone, and wandered about, her cithern in her hand, until
she found him she sought. Chance, or rather I must say the god of love
so ordained it that she really saw him in prison, paler than of yore,
it is true, but ever fair and stately, and thus has she carried his
image in her heart for six, seven years, without being for one moment
unfaithful to her Richard. You laugh incredulously, O my friend! You
know not how adamantine is the soul of a true woman. Seven years! that
seems to you an eternity. My friend, I know hearts that have
loved--loved without hope--for five-and-thirty years!"
And the good Fräulein pressed her handkerchief to her eyes and sobbed
aloud, but mastered her emotion presently and went on:
"But that is nought to the purpose now; I will not burthen your good
heart, at this moment when its own destiny is pressing so heavily upon
it, with the tragedy of another life which has been darkened with
perpetual gloom by such a misunderstanding as now drifts over the
horizon of yours like a passing cloud; nor is 'misunderstanding' the
right word in your case: you understand each other as do the two birds
there"--and Fräulein Duff pointed to the bush where the pair of finches
were carrying on their courtship--"only you are human creatures with
human sensitiveness and human pride. Alas, and she is not at all what
she seems to be! How has she humbled herself to her love in her hours
of solitude! How often has she kneeled before me, her face buried in my
lap, and said that her beloved was high above her like a star, and that
she could never hope to be worthy of one so strong, so brave, so noble.
O my friend, she is proud of you! With what enthusiasm was she not
filled when dear Fräulein Paula wrote her how you had acted in that
night of the storm, and again 'there is no one like him, no one!' she
exclaimed, when you were our preserver on the steamer last autumn. Yes,
my friend, you are her religion; and she confesses you before all men,
only not before you. Was she not fixed upon having her Richard in a
picture at least, whatever her heartless father might say? Has she not
adored this picture as if it were the image of a saint, and even fitted
up her room in oriental style, that its surroundings might harmonize
with it? The same room you now occupy: no other was good enough for her
Richard; and her Richard must have it, let people shake their heads as
they might, or her tyrannical father bawl in his hateful way, and I
myself--I confess it--mildly remonstrate. My friend, to this--to such a
step which would be ludicrous were it not sublime--belong courage,
inspiration, all the intensest conviction of a great ideal love. The
world delights to darken all that's bright--if that be a poet's word it
is an eternal truth, and believe me, she herself has had her martyrdom
to bear; it is no pigmy's task to maintain one's self against such a
father. I will say no evil of him; I will say nothing of him, for where
should I begin and where end? And yet she has achieved the impossible:
the tiger fawns at the feet of the lamb."
"I learned that to-day," I replied.
"Remind me not," cried Fräulein Duff, "of that terrible hour, which was
yet only a further proof of her love. O smile not so sardonically! Has
it not been long her cherished hope, here, at this place which is so
dear to her, some day to realize with her Richard her dream of love?
And now to hear that she shall be driven from this paradise, and that
the angel with the sword is none other than the lord of the paradise
himself!"
"But," I cried, "am I the one who drives her from it? How can she make
me responsible for a thing that she knows to be the cherished scheme
and urgent wish of her father, who probably intentionally provoked the
scene at the table to-day?"
"Very possibly," replied Fräulein Duff. "Who can fathom the wiles of
this labyrinthine old man? Yes, if I rightly remember, she hinted at
something of the sort when we were alone in her room, and she relieved
her o'erburthened heart in a flood of tears."
"From what we have just seen, the relief appears to have been pretty
effectual," I said.
"My friend," replied the governess, "he jests at scars who never felt a
wound. Will you be less patient than I, who for all the wayward humors
of the lovesick child have only a tear of pity in a smiling eye?"
"It is not given to every one to submit so cheerfully to tyranny as you
do, dear Fräulein."
"I am exhausted," said Fräulein Duff, pressing her palm against her
brow. "All my evidences glide off from this serpent-smooth eccentric."
"Then let us break off this conversation; besides, it is full time I
had started for Rossow."
I had arisen, and the governess also arose, swung the long train of her
riding-habit boldly over her left arm, and said, leaning on my right:
"Richard, do not go to Rossow: evil will come of it: trust me; I have
Cassandra's foreboding spirit."
"I am, though from other motives, little inclined to go," I replied;
"but I am resolved to do my duty and keep the promise I made to the
commerzienrath, whether he asked it with a good or an evil intention,
and be the consequences what they may."
"'I like the Spaniard proud,'" replied Fräulein Duff with an
enthusiastic look, "but it is not always the haughty one who brings
home the bride; the crafty one often reaches the goal. 'The monarch's
pampered minion seeks her hand--' do you not fear Arthur?"
"To fear, in such cases, one must either hope or wish: I am not aware
that I have indulged in either feeling."
Fräulein Duff in sudden terror drew her arm from mine, stopped and
exclaimed:
"Great heavens, what do I hear! How am I to understand you? O Roderick,
by all our hopes of bliss hereafter I adjure you--do you not love her
then? Do you really love Paula, as that insidious Arthur is ever
whispering in her ear?"
I was spared the necessity of answering this very ticklish question,
for at this moment William appeared, calling me, and saying that the
Rossow carriage had been waiting for me half an hour, and that he had
been looking for me everywhere.
"Good-by, Fräulein Duff," I said.
"And no answer? None?" cried the governess with a look of agonized
expectation.
"This is my answer," I said, pointing to the carriage.
Cassandra possibly found that oracular speeches are sometimes too hard
even for seeresses to unriddle, for as the carriage rolled out at the
gate I looked back and saw her standing where I had left her, her eyes
and hands raised to heaven, in the attitude of the Praying Child.