PRETZEL THE MISER, WITH THE EVIL EYE.
Of Anna's revelations, those which troubled me most were that relating
to Pretzel the miser, and that relating to Katrine Loebeg. Of the
intimacy which she had discovered, by means of a hole in the wall,
between the Devil and Gideon Wolf I soon disposed. The world abounds
in men who feed on delusions, and who find their greatest comfort
therein. The majority of these men are beings who hunger after what is
not within their reach, or who are envious of their neighbors. Gideon
Wolf, hungering for wealth, and seeing no practical road to its swift
attainment, flew to his imagination for the realization of his desire.
He played cards in the solitude of his room with a Shadow, and won of
it or lost to it great sums of money. There is a certain distinction,
and also a certain comfort, in this delusion. Imaginary millions are
involved in the turning up of a card, and the high play affords a
triumph when a fortune is won, and a scarcely less enjoyable despair
when it is lost. So much for Gideon Wolf's folly in playing cards with
the Devil. That I did not believe in the personality of the Evil One
was, in my old Anna's eyes, a terrible sin. She herself had the firmest
belief that he walked the earth, a solid body, horns, hoofs, tail, and
all complete. No, the Devil did not trouble me, but Pretzel the miser
did.
This Pretzel was, in my opinion, the most abominable man in the town.
He was a miser, and a money-lender at exorbitant interest. One hundred,
two hundred, even four hundred per cent., did not satisfy him; he was
never satisfied till he had extracted the last copper from the unhappy
people who went to him for assistance. A little, thin, dried-up old
man, with a joyless laugh. Out of his whole body I do not believe you
could have squeezed a teaspoonful of blood. The number of people he
had ruined! I could not count them. And all done under the shadow of
the law. Yes, he was always, always right, and his victims always,
always wrong. The judges and the lawyers all declared so--not because
they wished to favor him, but because they were compelled to go by
the letter of the law. "I want nothing more than my rights," he would
say; "look at my bond." And there was never a flaw in it, never the
smallest crevice that a poor wretch could creep through to escape from
his clutches. All, gracious heaven! A heartless money-lender's bond.
That it is necessary he should be upheld in it--that he should be
allowed to prey, to blast, to ruin, to destroy! Is there no such thing
as moral justice in this strangely constituted world? Public opinion.
Yes, yes. But what do men like Pretzel care for public opinion? Could
they not, if they pleased, buy up all the corn and the oil? If I had a
son, never, never should he become a money-lender! I would sooner see
him dead at my feet. "Look at my bond," says the money-lender; "ask my
debtor if he denies his signature." "Take what you demand," says the
judge. And helpless women and children stand by, wringing their hands
and weeping tears of blood. The money-lender sees not, hears not. He
takes what he demands, and when the Sabbath comes he kneels in church,
and prays and humbles himself. It is a cheap way of buying himself off.
Though if the truth were known, and if the workings of a man's soul
could be brought into view, the heart and the mind of the ruthless
schemer would be seen to be full of triumphant figures all the time his
lips are moving with meaningless prayer.
Not that Pretzel ever went to church, or ever prayed, or ever knelt to
any God but Money. No, no: there was no mock humility about Pretzel.
He gloried in his deeds, and when ruin overtook those unfortunate ones
who had been drawn into his web, he would heap reproaches upon them for
their unworldliness and their want of prudence. It was they who were
the wrongers, not he. "See what you have done," he would say; "see what
you have brought upon your poor families!" Can a more fiendish taunt be
imagined?
Of every person, with one single exception, with whom Pretzel had
dealings he got the advantage. That exception was myself. No one but
I, in all the town, who had borrowed money of him, could say, "I have
gained something from dealing with Pretzel." To hear that, and to be
compelled to acknowledge that it was true, cut him to the soul. You may
guess how he hated me.
It happened in this way: Old Pretzel did not always wait for customers;
if they did not come to him he went to them; he made business, I have
heard him say. It was not always, "I beg, I implore of you, good
Pretzel, to lend me a hundred forms; it will save me from ruin. For
the sake of my wife and children do this good deed!" It was he who
sometimes said, "Why don't you borrow two hundred, three hundred, five
hundred florins of me? It will help you on. You can buy fresh stock
with it, and turn it twice over before I come to you for payment. You
will grow rich, instead of being poor all your life. I would not do
this for every one, but I take an interest in you. Think of it, for
the sake of your wife and children. Think well of it; the money is
ready for you, and it won't run away." He would cast his eyes upon a
tradesman who was getting along comfortably, and when he had calculated
how much he was worth, he would go to him and tempt him to borrow,
putting all sorts of baits in his way. And he did it so cleverly that
the victim could scarcely ever remember how the whole thing was done,
and how it happened that ruin suddenly fell upon him like a clap of
thunder.
Pretzel came to me--it was in the first year of Gideon Wolf's
apprenticeship; that is how those two became acquainted, by Pretzel
visiting my shop. Pretzel's words, when they were uttered in the
presence of Gideon Wolf, fell upon a rich soil. Well, he came to me
many times, admired my workmanship, admired my stock--I believe he knew
to the smallest coin what it would fetch in the market--and would say,
"You ought to have a fine plate-glass window to your shop. It would
draw custom. A fine plate-glass front, with glass shelves in it, and
your beautiful watches and chains all set out in blue velvet eases. How
they would glitter! It would make people's mouths water. Everybody in
the town would come to look, and a great many would be tempted to buy.
You would do three times the trade you are doing now. You would be able
to buy the newest-fashioned goods; you would grow rich."
"But it would cost a great deal of money," I would answer, "to make
these alterations."
"What does it matter," he would urge, "how much it would cost if you
got it back five times, ten times over?"
"But I haven't any spare cash, Pretzel; all that I am worth lies in my
stock. True, I do not owe anything; what I have is all my own."
"Really, Master Fink, you don't owe anybody anything--that is an
absolute fact, eh?"
"It is an absolute fact, Pretzel."
Then he would laugh slyly, and say, "An honorable, straightforward man
like you could easily borrow what he wants. Ah, how people would stare!
They would clap their hands, and say, 'What a wonderful man Master Fink
is--what a wonderful, wonderful man!' You would be looked up to, much
more than you are now, though you stand well. Yes, Master Fink, such is
the power of money that you would be made a magistrate."
I thought, "Ah, if I were a magistrate, and you were brought before
me, I would make short work of you, Miser Pretzel." And I wondered to
myself why he was so anxious to lend money to me who had always spoken
of him as a villainous usurer.
Day after day, week after week, he continued to pester me and try to
inflame my ambition with his cunning speech, until it entered my head
to set a trap for him. I told him, much as I should like to take his
advice, that it was not in my power, because, in an unlucky moment of
my life, I had vowed never to borrow money at interest. He opened his
eyes very wide at this I don't suppose he ever had such a thing said to
him before. He tried to reason me out of my vow, but I said it was of
no use, and that nothing should ever tempt me to break it.
"Have you ever known me to forfeit my word?" I asked. "Is it likely,
then, that I should break a solemn oath? I admit that it was foolish,
that I am bound by it."
He did not annoy me for a little while after this, but more than once
I saw him looking in at my shop-window, counting with his eyes the
watches and chains and trinkets therein displayed. Ha, ha! He was going
to walk straight into the trap. All this time I did not hold my tongue
concerning him I spoke of him freely to the neighbors as an abominable
usurer, hoping that what I said would reach his ears. Whether it did
or not he exhibited no ill-will towards me, but nodded and smiled in a
friendly way when we met. And one morning he entered my shop, and said,
"Master Fink, I will do you a service against your will. I will compel
you to become a rich man you shall make great profits you shall rise
in the town we want men like you to take the direction of affairs. You
shall borrow of me the money needed for alterations and improvements,
and I will charge you no interest--only, of course, you shall sign a
bond to pay me on a stated day. That is but fair."
"Indeed, indeed, I do not care for it," I said.
"Am I not already sufficiently well off?"
"No, you are not," he persisted. "I will do you this kindness, so that
people shall say, 'Pretzel is a good fellow; we have been mistaken in
him.' Oh, I know what some of them think of me!"
"The devil is never so black as he is painted," I said, saucily.
"Ah, Master Fink," he said, without a trace of displeasure in his face,
"you will have your joke, you will have your joke."
"Yes," said I to myself, "and I intend to enjoy it, and profit by it."
But although he urged and urged, I would not immediately do as he
wished; I drew him on, and within a week, so eager was he to have his
fingers in my pie, he had lent me three thousand florins for two years,
without interest. He plumped the money on my counter, and I signed
a bond, undertaking to repay it in hard coin on a certain date, and
giving Pretzel the power, in case it were not refunded to the minute,
to seize my goods and furniture, and sell me up stock and block. In the
bond Pretzel had inserted words to the effect that the money was to be
handed to him at exactly twelve o'clock in the morning by his own watch.
"Mind," he said, with a little chuckling laugh, "if you are a minute
later than twelve o'clock by my watch I shall take possession of all
your goods."
"Yes, yes," I said, "I understand. At twelve o'clock on that day
you shall receive the money you are kind enough to lend me without
interest."
His evil eye never had a slyer, wickeder look in it than when he shook
hands with me and wished me good-luck and good-day, leaving his three
thousand florins behind him. With his money tied up in a bag I went
immediately to the State Bank and deposited it upon interest, and there
I let it remain, without Pretzel or any person outside the bank knowing
anything of the transaction. From time to time Pretzel looked in, and
asked when my plate glass and my new-fashioned goods were to arrive. I
put off his questions with an awkwardness which I intended he should
notice. He did notice it, and after some time had passed he said,
"The new watches and chains are a long time coming; I am quite anxious
to see them. Remember, I lent you the money to purchase them with."
"No," I said, and I pretended to be much confused, "you did not lend me
the money to purchase them with; you simply lent me the money. That is
stated in the bond, and it is not stated in what manner I should employ
what I borrowed of you. A good speculation offered itself to me, and I
have invested in it."
"Master Fink," he said, severely, "it was understood, if the money was
spent, that it should be spent in purchasing new stock, so that you
might increase your trade."
"I cannot deny it," I answered, "but it was only understood; it was not
written down."
"You stand by the bond?"
"To the letter."
"That is well, as far as it goes; but a speculation carries risk with
it. How if yours should turn out bad?"
I made a gesture of despair, clasped my hand to my forehead, and said,
dolefully,
"I should be ruined! Yet, no; you are my friend; you would never take
my goods from me; you would give me time to repair my losses."
His eyes travelled round my shop; there was a malicious expression in
his weazen face.
"The devil is never so black as he is painted, is he, Master Fink?" he
said, with a wicked grin.
Thereafter he would ask me, whenever he saw me, "And how is the famous
speculation getting on, eh?"
"Don't ask me, don't ask me," I would sigh. "How fortunate for me that
I am in the hands of a man like yourself--in the hands of a friend!
Never have I beheld your money since the day on which you lent it to
me."
Which was as true as anything I ever spoke in my life. His money did
not trouble me; it was safe enough in the State Bank.
So the first year passed, and six months of the second, Pretzel never
ceasing to question me about my famous speculation, and I never ceasing
to express my despair. During the last few months he was in the habit
of coming to me with his watch in his hand, and saying,
"Master Fink, I wish you to regulate my watch."
And I regulated it for him, on an average, once in every week.
On the day before the money was to be repaid I went to the bank, and
drew it out in hard coin, and received, also, the interest--with which
interest I purchased, as I had previously determined, the handsome
lever-watch I have ever since worn, and the handsome gold chain you see
round my neck.
The morning arrived. I had a friend to breakfast with me, who was
to witness what was about to take place. Suspecting some trick, and
wishing to be prepared for it, I had arranged that this friend was to
come to me at seven o'clock in the morning, and to stay till the affair
was over. I expected that Pretzel would present himself at about a
quarter to twelve, but to my astonishment he entered my shop as half a
dozen clocks on my shelves chimed a quarter to ten. He was accompanied
by a lawyer.
"Good-morning, Master Fink," he said.
"Good-morning," I said.
Heavens! How cunning and sharp and sly and malicious was his look!
"You know what to-day is?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied, "it is Wednesday."
"Right; it is Wednesday; and the date, Master Fink, the date is that on
which you are to repay me my three thousand florins."
"Ah," I cried, "it is true, it is true! How could it have escaped me?"
"That is not my affair. This is my lawyer, Master Fink!"
I bowed to the lawyer, and said to Pretzel,
"You will renew the bond, will you not? You will let the money remain
with me for another two years, at the same rate of interest?"
"What!" he cried; "are you mad, or do you think I am?"
"No," I said, in a rueful tone, "I am not mad, but you see the state I
am in. Unfortunate--unfortunate that I am!"
"That is always the way," he said, appealing to his lawyer--"that is
always the way." Then to me, "Is not my demand just?"
"Quite just; but you will continue to be my friend--you will not ruin
me!"
He laughed in my face. "Master Fink," he said, "attend, to me. Years
before I lent you this money you were in the habit of reviling me and
speaking against me. You libelled and scandalized me; you held me up in
the blackest light. You were never tired of calling me a villainous old
usurer."
"It is true," I groaned, "but I have lived to see my error. You are
upright, you are just, you are liberal."
"I lent you my money," he continued, "without interest, to prove to
you and to everybody that when you spoke in that way against me you
were speaking lies, and that really I am a benevolent man." There was
something absolutely diabolical in his voice as he uttered these words.
"And even then, when I gave you the money, to my own loss--for how
much more profitably it could have been employed!--you threw into my
teeth the taunt that the devil is never so black as he is painted." (I
groaned again.) "If you have been improvident that is your affair. If
you have squandered my money and lost it recklessly, you will be spoken
of as a knave, and you will forfeit the honorable name you have been
so proud of." (I gave two long distinct groans.) "I have come now for
my money, and if you are not prepared to pay me three thousand honest
florins, I will strip your house and your shop of every article they
contain."
"No, no, Pretzel," I moaned, "you do not mean it!"
"I do mean it! You shall not have a bed to lie upon, nor a spoon to eat
with. You will be a beggar, a rogue, a cheat! Ask this lawyer whether I
am standing on my rights."
I looked at the lawyer.
"By the bond you have signed," he said, "which Pretzel holds in his
hands, if you do not pay him three thousand florins he is entitled to
carry away everything movable within these walls."
"And I will do it!" screamed Pretzel, working himself up into a state
of frantic exultation; "I will do it! I can see that you have not
got the money--that you are not prepared to pay it--that you have
squandered it like a thief! You shall suffer for calling me a villainous
old usurer; you shall suffer for saying that I am not so black as I am
painted! Do you see those vans at the door? They are mine--they are
mine--and I'll strip the place to the bare walls, you honest, honorable
man!"
Sure enough, there at my door stood two large, strong vans, and I
strove to squeeze out a few tears at my impending ruin as Pretzel
pointed to them and flourished the bond in my face.
"Are you quite determined to show me no mercy?" I asked, with a
succession of such heavy sighs that I thought to myself if I had not
been a watch-maker I might have been a fine actor.
"Hear him!" he cried; "he implores mercy from a villainous old usurer!
Why, he must be a fool as well as a rogue!"
"Well, then," I said, and I threw myself, quite heart-broken, into a
chair, "come at twelve o'clock, when the money is due, and in the mean
time I will see if I can get my friends to help me."
"It is twelve o'clock now," said Pretzel.
"Nay," I replied, looking round at my clocks, which were ticking
merrily away, "it wants exactly two hours to noon. The correct time is
five minutes to ten."
"By my watch," said Pretzel, pulling it out of his pocket, "it is
exactly five minutes to twelve."
I looked at his watch; the hands pointed to five minutes to twelve;
there was no disputing it.
"Your watch is wrong," I said; "it is two hours fast."
"I say nothing to that," said Pretzel, eagerly watching the second
hands, "you yourself have regulated it for several months past."
"Twenty-two times I have regulated it," I said, "and yesterday it was
in perfect order."
"One minute gone," said Pretzel; "four minutes to twelve. I demand my
money, my three thousand florins!"
"Your watch is two hours fast; how it came so Heaven only knows. You
cannot demand your money till twelve o'clock by the right time."
"You are wrong. The bond says twelve o'clock by my watch. It does not
stipulate that my watch shall keep right time. Read the words for
yourself. You stand by the bond, you know, to the letter--the exact
words you spoke to me. Another minute gone; three minutes to twelve. I
demand my money, my three thousand florins!"
"But, Pretzel," I implored, "you cannot mean it. You will surely not
cast me into the streets--you will not make a beggar of me!"
"Oh no," he cried, "I will not make a beggar of you--I will not cast
you into the streets! I have so much reason to love you, have I not? As
for your ruin, you have brought it on yourself. This is your signature,
not mine. It is your honesty that is at stake, not mine. The villainous
old usurer, the devil that is not so black as he is painted, wants only
his rights--nothing more. Two minutes to twelve; another minute gone. I
demand my money, my three thousand florins!"
"Bring me writing materials," I said to my friend, in a despairing
tone, "and I will write Miser Pretzel an order on the bank for three
thousand florins."
"I will accept no order on the bank," said, Pretzel, "for two reasons.
One is, because I should find it was not worth the paper it was written
on; and the other, because it is stated in the bond that the money is
to be repaid to me in hard coin."
"You insist upon it, Pretzel?"
"Yes, I insist upon it. Another minute gone; one minute to twelve."
I tapped him gently on his breast, within which I verily believe beat
the cunningest heart that mortal was ever cursed with; I made him a low
bow I smiled benignly; and saying, "What must be, must be," I took from
a drawer the bag with the three thousand florins in it, and put it into
his bands.
"There is your money," I said, "the exact sum, in hard coin, which I
drew from the State Bank yesterday. Give me my bond, that I may cancel
it."
He turned white, then yellow, then green; he trembled with rage; he
gasped for breath.
"You forced your money upon me," I said, "as you have forced it upon
others. You would have ruined me, as you have ruined others. I have
made you pay for it. Out of a spirit of revenge you laid a snare for
me, and thought to entangle me in it; and now you find yourself caught
in your own trap. Instead of biting, you are bit. I put your money into
the State Bank, at fair interest; I knew it was quite safe there. I
never touched it, never used a florin of it, and with the interest I
received yesterday I bought this handsome chain and this handsome lever
watch, which I shall wear as long as I live, to remind me always that
honesty is the best policy. Never, never shall it be set two hours fast
or two hours slow to entrap the innocent and unsuspecting. Count the
money, Pretzel, count the money; you will find it right to a florin;
and you can carry it away in those beautiful strong vans you have gone
to the expense of hiring for my benefit."
Shaking as if he had an ague, Pretzel counted the money and flung the
bond at my feet.
"You do not require me any longer," said the lawyer to him, with an
ill-concealed smile. I saw that he enjoyed the joke, and that very soon
the whole town would be laughing at the capital trick Master Fink had
played upon Miser Pretzel.
"Wait a moment, please," I said to the lawyer; "it is not yet quite
finished. In your presence I present Pretzel the money-lender with a
small account he owes me, and I request immediate payment of the same.
"Account!" snarled Pretzel; "I owe you nothing."
"Pardon me. Here is the account, with the items fairly and properly set
down. Twenty-two times have I regulated your watch for you, at your
own request. Why you wanted it so often examined and set in order when
nothing was the matter with it was your affair, not mine; I sit at my
counter to attend to my customers. I charge you one florin a time--in
all, twenty-two florins."
"You are an extortionist," he said; and if he could have scorched me to
death with his evil eye it would have afforded him, I have no doubt,
the greatest satisfaction; "I shall not pay you a florin of this false
account."
"It is a faithful account," I said, "and if it is not paid before
twelve o'clock to-morrow--by my watch, not yours--I shall have you
summoned in the Public Court. You may take my word that I mean what I
say. Good-morning."
"Master Fink," he said, with the look of a snake, "one day I may be
even with you."
"Till then," I said, "farewell."
From that hour we had never exchanged a single word. He prospered, and
was feared and hated, and well did I know that if the opportunity ever
offered itself he would deal me a deadly blow.
And this was the man with whom Gideon Wolf was consorting. Nothing
but evil could come of such a friendship. But it was of no use my
interfering between those two rascals; I should have been laughed to
scorn by the pair of them.
It was otherwise with Katrine Loebeg. I had been kind to her; when
she was a little one I had walked in the fields with her, and we had
been merry together. I could speak to her as a father would to his
child; I could warn her; I could enlighten her as to Gideon Wolf's time
character. Ah! I did not think of the glamour which love sheds over the
eyes of the young--not only over the eyes, over the reason, over the
judgment. Had I reflected a little, had I recalled the memory of the
past, when I myself was in love, I might have taken a different view.
I met Katrine the very next evening in the public street. I spoke to
her, cautiously and tenderly. She was a timid, confiding girl, with a
gentle voice, but the moment I ventured to say one word against Gideon
Wolf she turned upon me like a fury. I never supposed her capable of
such spirit. It was the passion of a mother defending her young. Ah,
woman, woman! So weak, so strong, so fierce, so tender! It puts me
out of patience to think of it. A bundle of sticks, some inflexible
as steel bars, some supple as blades of grass--that well represents
the qualities of her nature. What can be said of a man who, with some
knowledge of the world, deliberately uses these astonishing, these
beautiful contrasts to his own base ends? I have my own opinion on such
matters. Perhaps I am old-fashioned. If so, thank God for old fashions!
May they never entirely die out!
"What do you mean," cried Katrine, "first Anna, then you, by coming to
me, and speaking against Gideon?"
"Anna has spoken to you, then," I said.
"Yes, she has," said Katrine, "and said such things of Gideon as she
ought to be ashamed of. She deserves to be punished for it, and so I
told her. I am not good enough for him, not half good enough. Is he not
already sufficiently persecuted, sufficiently unfortunate? But if all
the world rose against him, I would stand by his side, if he would let
me, and die for him! Yes, gladly would I die for him!"
Fool that I was! Not to know that if you want to increase a woman's
love for a man, all you have to do is to speak to her against him! I
soon discovered my error, and was compelled to confess to myself that
I had done Gideon Wolf a good turn in his suit with Katrine Loebeg.
So may a man himself, by an act which he has not well considered,
frustrate his own good intentions.
What thrilled me through and through was to see Pretzel the Miser, who
had been secretly watching us, go to Katrine when I left her, and walk
side by side with her in confidential converse. There came to my mind
the picture of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Well, the best service we could now render to Katrine was to hold our
peace. Heaven knows, things were bad enough; to have set the whole town
talking would have made them worse.