MASTER FINK RESOLVES TO UNDERTAKE A JOURNEY.
All that night Gideon Wolf occupied my mind. I thought of him and
dreamed of him, and when I rose in the morning it seemed to me that
I had a duty to perform which it would be a sin to neglect. Anna was
very much astonished when I told her after breakfast, Gideon not being
present, that I was going a journey on the following day, and should be
absent for a week.
"How will you be able to live away from home?" she exclaimed. "You have
never slept a night out of the house all the years I have been with
you."
"A proof," said I, "that I deserve a holiday."
"Who will air your sheets for you? Who will cook your meals? You will
come back as thin as the leg of a fly."
"I shall enjoy your cooking all the more when it is placed before me
again. Do not fear, Anna--I shall be able to manage. It is not pleasure
that calls me away; it is duty. I shall take only my knapsack with me,
and I shall leave the place in your charge."
"It will be taken good care of," she said wiping her eyes; the foolish
creature had been actually shedding tears at the thought of my leaving
her for a short time; "only I will not have Gideon Wolf in the house
while you are absent. I will not cook a meal for him--no, Master Fink,
not for all the money you can offer me; and I will not sleep in the
house alone with him."
"Then," I said, by no means displeased at the opportunity she offered
me, "I shall tell Gideon that he must get lodgings elsewhere. It may
be, Anna, that he will not remain with us much longer."
"I shall dance for joy," she said, nodding her head a great many times,
"when he goes for good. It is not for good that he stays."
If Anna was surprised at my resolution, Gideon Wolf was filled with
consternation upon my telling him that there would be no business done
in the shop for a week.
"What is to become of me?" he cried.
"I really cannot tell you," I replied. "It must be quite plain to you
that there is not much love lost between us. Our conversation yesterday
was not the pleasantest in the world, and you left me in a very
insolent manner. You said things which I shall not easily forget. You
are a man, and you must shift for yourself in the best way you can. I
do not presume to dictate to you, or to offer you advice."
"Master Fink," he said, cringing, "I am sorry for the words I spoke
when I left you yesterday. I will beg your pardon if you wish me to."
"I do not wish it. Yon are humble now because you are frightened. It
may be, Gideon, when I return from my journey, that I may still be
disposed to act as your friend; I tell you honestly that it depends
upon circumstances and what happens to me during the time I am away."
"Where are you going?" he asked, with a look of keen curiosity.
"I shall not tell you; I am my own master, and my movements are free.
It remains for me to inform you that you cannot remain in this house
during my absence."
"What! You turn me out-of-doors!"
"It can scarcely be regarded in that light," I said; "you will not
be in want of a bed. Anna will be the master here, and she will not
have you near her. You have managed to offend her in some way, and she
declares she will not cook a meal for you for all the money I could
offer her."
"She is a cat!" snarled Gideon.
"Well, at all events she has a set of long, sharp nails, and I should
advise you to be civil to her. You remember what I told you yesterday
about the invisible gentleman you play cards with in the middle of the
night. Anna has got scent of it, and she vows she will not sleep in the
house with you and that--that strange friend of yours, unless she has a
man to protect her. You see, Gideon, there is no help for it."
"I have no money to pay for lodgings elsewhere," he said. "Are you
going to leave me to starve?"
"No; here are two watches to clean and regulate; let them be in
first-rate going order at the end of the week, and I will pay you more
than your food and lodging will cost you. As for starving at any time,
are you not an able-bodied man, with a strong pair of hands, and a good
trade at your fingers' ends? No man who is willing to work need starve
in this town."
The watches I gave him to repair were of little value, and I could
easily have replaced them in case they were not returned to me, so the
next morning, which was Monday, I affixed to my shutters a notice that
I was called away on important business, and should be absent for a
week. Then I shook hands with my old Anna, who arranged my knapsack
for me, and bade her good-bye. She was much affected. Had I been her
husband or her son she could not have exhibited a deeper concern at
my departure; her tenderness touched me to the heart. Something else
worked also upon my feelings. There was an appetizing fragrance in my
knapsack proceeding from some delicacy which Anna had cooked for me; I
could not help smelling it, although my nose was in the middle of my
face, and not at the back of my head.