Meta carried out her heroic design without allowing herself to be
intimidated by anything, even by Aunt Rikchen's spectacles, "And they
are no joke," said Meta, when in the evening she reported the result of
the first sitting. "I could easier hold out against Baroness
Kniehreche's eye-glasses. Behind those there is nothing but a pair of
old blind eyes, of which I feel anything but fear; but when Aunt
Rikchen allows her spectacles to slip to the end of her nose, she then
begins really to see so clearly, that one would feel anxious and
uneasy if one had not so good a conscience. And do you know, Elsa,
that something particular must have occurred between you and the
Schmidts--what, I am quite in the dark about, as the good lady mixes
everything together higgledy-piggledy; but she is very angry with you
Werbens, as papa is with the Griebens, our neighbours, who are always
trespassing on his boundaries, he says; and you must have been
trespassing on the Schmidts, and that is the reason, you may depend
upon it, why Reinhold has got so distant. We shall hear nothing from
him; but Aunt Rikchen never can keep anything to herself, and we are
already the best of friends. She says I am a good girl, and that after
all I really had nothing to do with it, and the dove who brought the
olive branch from the earth did not know either what it had in its
beak: and then I saw that Reinhold, who was in the studio with me,
looked at her, and Herr Anders also looked quite grave, and glanced
again at Reinhold. They three know something, that much is clear, and I
will find it out, you may depend upon it."
But Meta did not find it out, and could not do so, as Aunt Rikchen did
not herself know the exact state of affairs, and the others were most
careful to keep her in ignorance. Meta's communication therefore by no
means contributed to Elsa's peace of mind, and if Elsa had at first, at
least, had the happiness of hearing of Reinhold through Meta, how he
had come to the studio and kept her company for a long time, and what
he had said, and how he had looked, even this source of consolation was
now decreasing, and seemed gradually to be drying up altogether. One
day he had scarcely been there for five minutes, another time only just
passed through the studio, a third time Meta had not seen him at all, a
fourth time she could not even say whether she had seen him or not.
Elsa thought she knew the meaning of this apparent negligence. Meta had
found out something which she could not tell her, or had in some other
way become convinced of the hopelessness of her love; and the ample
details which she gave from her other experiences and observations in
the studio, only served to conceal her embarrassment.
It was therefore with a very divided heart that Elsa heard how Meta
daily grew in favour with Aunt Rikchen, who was really a most excellent
old lady, and whose heart was in the right place, if her spectacles did
always get crooked, or slipped to the end of her nose. And how there
was something especially touching to her in the good lady, for she
herself would look just like that fifty years hence. But far more
touching to her was a lovely young blind girl, who now came every day,
because Herr Anders wished to bring the two together in one group. "When
she spoke it was just as if a lark were singing high up in the blue sky
on a Sunday mornings when all is still in the fields; and Justus said
that Nature had never before produced such a contrast as she and Cilli
made, and if he succeeded in reproducing it, no one could speak to him
again save hat in hand. There was also next to Justus's studio another
which aroused all her curiosity, because the owner of it never allowed
herself to be seen, and she could form no idea of what a lady could be
like who modelled in clay or hammered at the marble, least of all of
such a beautiful, elegant lady as Justus said Fräulein Schmidt was, for
you know, Elsa, a sculptor looks like a baker, only that he has clay in
his fingers instead of dough, and is powdered with marble-dust instead
of flour, and you would hardly take such a queer-looking creature for a
respectable gentleman, much less for a great artist, and Justus says
the one who looks cleanest and most elegant in spite of his working
blouse, and is handsomer than any one I ever saw in my life, is no true
artist, as he can do nothing more than point and block out; but you,
poor child, do not know what pointing is. Pointing, you must know, is
when you take a thing like a stork's bill, you know--"
And then followed a very long and very complicated explanation, out of
all which Elsa only gathered Meta's desire to talk of everything
excepting what alone lay near her own heart. "The work will soon be
finished," said Elsa to herself, "and the whole result of the fine plan
will be that I can no longer consider Reinhold's holding back as a mere
chance," But the work did not seem likely to be finished.
"Such a countenance had never before come under his notice," said
Justus. "You might as well model the spring clouds, which every moment
change their form." And again, when the portrait for the bas-relief was
finished, "You can have no idea how dreadfully absurd I look, Elsa,
like a Chinese!" Justus had begun to work at the completion of the
"Ambulance preparations." "And I cannot leave the poor man in the lurch
after all his trouble, for you know, Elsa, it is no longer a question
of the head only--that is done--but of the whole figure, the attitude,
gesture, in a word, a new subject, you know; but I really believe, poor
child, you do not know what a subject is. A subject is when a man has
no idea what he shall make, and then suddenly sees something, where in
reality there is nothing to see--say a cat or a washing-tub--"
This was the longest, but also the last explanation which Meta gave to
her friend out of the fulness of her newly-acquired knowledge.
For the next few days Elsa had more than usual to do in the household,
and another matter imperiously claimed her attention. The final
conference over the future management of the Warnow estates took place
at her father's house, after two months of discussion backwards and
forwards over it, and the three votes of Herr von Wallbach, Councillor
Schieler, and Giraldi, as the Baroness's proxy, in opposition to the
General's single voice--who recorded his dissentient view in a
minute--had determined the sale of the whole property at the earliest
possible opportunity, and Count Axel von Golm had been accepted as the
purchaser in the event of his agreeing to the conditions of sale
settled at the same by the trustees.
Her father appeared after the long conference paler and more exhausted
than Elsa had ever seen him.
"They have done it at last, Elsa," he said. "The Warnow property, which
has been two hundred years in the possession of the family, will be
sold and cut up. Your aunt Valerie may justify it if she can, since
she and she alone is to blame that an old and honourable family falls
miserably to the ground. Had she been a good and faithful wife to my
friend--but what use is it harping upon bygone things? It is folly in
my own eyes, how much more so then in those of others, to whom the
present is everything! And I must confess the gentlemen have acted
quite in the spirit of the age, cleverly, rationally, and in your
interests. If the results are as brilliant as the Councillor flatters
himself, you will be at least twice as rich as before. It is very
unnatural, Elsa, but I hope he triumphs too soon. The Count--whom he
proposes as purchaser--can only pay the outrageous sum named--for the
entire property is really scarcely worth half a million, let alone
a whole million--if he is certain that so great a burden will be
immediately lifted off his shoulders; that is to say, if the scandalous
project is carried out, the danger and folly of which I so strongly
urged with the help of the staff and Captain Schmidt. If it does,
however, come to anything, if the concession is granted, it would be
an affront to that small authority which I can lay claim to, but which
I do claim, so that I should look upon it in the same light as if I
had been passed over in the approaching promotions. I should at once
send in my resignation. The decision must be made soon. For Golm it is
a question of life and death. He will either be utterly ruined or a
Crœsus; and I shall be his Excellency or a poor pensioner--all quite in
the spirit of the age, which is always playing a game of hazard. Well,
God's will be done! I can only win, not lose, since no one and nothing
can rob me of the best and highest--my clear conscience--and the
knowledge that I have always stood to the old colours, and have acted
as a Werben should act."
So said the father to Elsa in a state of agitation, which, hard as he
tried to control it, quivered and broke out in his words, and in the
very vibrations of his deep voice. It was the first time that he had
given her such a proof of his confidence, as to let her be a witness of
a struggle which formerly he would have fought out in silence in his
proud soul. Was it chance? Was it intentional? Was it but the
outpouring of the overflowing vessel? Or did her father suspect or know
her secret? Did he mean to say to her, "Such a decision may soon be
awaiting you also. I trust and hope that you, too, will stand to the
colours which are sacred to me, that you also will prove yourself a
Werben."
This had taken place in the morning. Meta, after another sitting, had
unexpectedly received an invitation to dinner from a friend of her
mother's. She should not return till the evening. For the first time
Elsa scarcely missed her friend. She was glad to be alone, and to be
able to give way to her thoughts in silence. They were not cheerful,
these thoughts. But she felt it a duty to think them out, so as to see
her way clearly if possible. She thought she had succeeded, and found
in it a calm satisfaction, which, as she said to herself, was truly her
whole compensation for all she had renounced in secret.
And in this resigned frame of mind she received with tolerable
composure the news which Meta brought on her return home, which
otherwise would have filled her with sorrow, that Meta was going--must
go. She had found at the lady's to whom she had gone a letter from
mamma, in which mamma made such terrible lamentations over her long
absence, that she could not do otherwise than go at once--that was to
say, the first thing tomorrow morning. What she felt she would not and
could not say. It was an extraordinary frame of mind, in any case, as
whilst she seemed to be drowned in tears, she broke into a smile the
next moment, which she in vain attempted to suppress, until the smiles
again merged into tears; and so she went on for the rest of the
evening. The next morning this state of mind had reached such a pitch
that Elsa became really uneasy about the extraordinary girl, and begged
her to postpone her journey until she was somewhat calmer. But Meta
stood firm. She was quite determined, and Elsa would think her quite
right if she knew all; and she should know all, but by letter; by word
of mouth she could not tell her without dying of laughter, and she did
not wish to die just yet, for reasons which she also could not tell her
without dying of laughter.
And so she carried on the joke till she got into the carriage, in which
August was to take her to the station. She had absolutely forbidden any
one else to accompany her, "for reasons, Elsa, you know, which--there!
you will see it all in the letter, you know, which--good-bye, dear,
sweet, incomparable Elsa!" And off drove Meta.
In the evening August, not without some solemnity, gave Elsa a letter
which the young lady had given him at the last moment before starting,
with strict injunctions to deliver it punctually twelve hours later, on
the stroke of nine in the evening. It was a thick letter, in Meta's
most illegible handwriting, from which Elsa with difficulty deciphered
the following:
"6 o'clock p.m.
"Dearest Elsa,
"Do not believe a word of what, when I return home, I--ah! that is no
use. You will not read this letter till--I write it here at Frau von
Randon's, so as to lose no time--August will give it to you when I am
gone. Well, it is all untrue! My mother has not written at all. For the
last week I have deceived and imposed upon you abominably, as since
then I have no longer been on your behalf, and it would have been quite
useless if I had; for it is now clear to me that your Reinhold has
discovered long since how matters stood with us, and kept out of the
way, even before we ourselves had a suspicion; for you may believe me,
Elsa, that when two men are such good friends, they stand by one
another in such matters as well as we girls could. And before dear
blind Cilli we did not think it necessary either to have any reserve,
because she always smiled so merrily when we teased each other; and
then she could not see, and in such cases, you know, the eyes play a
great part. It began, indeed, with the eyes, for till then everything
had gone on quite properly; but when he came to them he said, 'I shall
now have an opportunity of finding out exactly what colour your eyes
are; I have been puzzling my brains about it all this time.' I
maintained they were yellow, Aunt Rikchen said green, he himself brown;
and Cilli, to whom the decision was left, said she was certain they
were blue, because I was so cheerful, and cheerful people always had
blue eyes. So we went on joking about it; and every day he began again
about my eyes, and as you cannot very well talk about eyes without
looking into them, I looked into his eyes while he looked in mine,
and--I don't know whether you have made the same discovery, Elsa, but
when one has done so for a few days, one begins to see more and more
clearly--quite down to the bottom of them--quite curious things, I can
tell you, which makes one turn hot and cold, and one often does not
know whether to laugh and to give the man who looks at you like that a
box on the ear, or to burst into tears and fall on his neck.
"I had felt like this already once or twice, and to-day again, only
rather worse than before. The assistants had gone to dinner, and Aunt
Rikchen to see after her household affairs; there were only he and I,
and Cilli, and Justus wished to go on working if we did not mind, that
he might finish once for all. But he did not work so industriously as
usual, and because I saw that, I also did not sit so still as usual;
and we--that is, he and I--played all sorts of tricks with Lesto, who
must lie down and pretend to be dead, and who barked furiously at me
when I pretended to beat his master, and other nonsense, until we
suddenly heard the sound of the door shutting which leads to the
garden, and--good gracious, Elsa! how can I tell you?--Cilli had gone
away without our having noticed it. We thought we must have gone rather
too far then, and so became quite quiet--as still as mice--so that you
might have heard a pin fall; and I was so embarrassed, Elsa--so
embarrassed, you know--and getting every moment more so, when he
suddenly knelt down right before me--my knees were trembling so, that I
had sat down--and again looked so into my eyes, and I--I was forced to,
Elsa--I asked quite softly what he meant. 'I mean,' said he--but also
quite softly--'that you must do what I ask you.' 'I shall box your ears
if you do not get up directly,' said I, still more softly. 'I shall not
get up,' said he, but so close to me that I could no longer box his
ears, but instead fell upon his neck, upon which Lesto, who evidently
thought that his master's life was in danger, began to bark furiously;
and I, just to quiet Lesto and to make Justus get up off his knees,
said 'Yes' to everything he asked--that I loved him, and would be his
wife, and everything else that one says in such a terrible moment.
"And now only think, Elsa, Elsa! when, in the course of five minutes,
we had quieted Lesto and were going out--as I said I had sworn to be
discreet and to do you credit, and that I would not remain a second
longer with so dangerous a man in so lonely a place, with all those
dreadful marble figures--and as we went out arm-in-arm, Cilli suddenly
stepped towards us from between two of the statues, herself as white as
marble, but with the most heavenly smile on her sweet face, and said we
must not be angry with her, as the door had shut itself and she could
not get out, and she had heard all--her hearing was so acute, and there
was such an echo in the studio. Oh, Elsa, I almost sank into the floor,
for I think there had not been words only. But that divine creature, as
if she had seen how red I grew, took me by the hand and said I need not
be ashamed; there was no need to be ashamed of a true, honourable love;
and I did not yet know how happy I was, how proud I ought to be; but I
should learn it gradually, and then I should be grateful for my proud
happiness, and love Justus very, very much, as an artist needed far,
far more love than other men. And then she took Justus's hand, and
said, 'And you, Justus, you will love her like the sunshine, without
which you cannot live.' And as she said so, a ray of sunshine fell
through the studio window right upon the dear thing, and she looked
transfigured--so marvellously beautiful, with the poor blind eyes
turned upwards, that at last I could not help crying, and she had great
difficulty in quieting me. And then she said: 'You must not remain here
in this state of agitation; you must at once return home and tell your
mother, and no one before her, for my knowing it is a mere chance for
which you are not to blame.' And I promised her all she wished, and I
feel now how right the dear angel was, as I am quite mad with delight,
and should certainly have done some folly for very joy; and that I must
not do, since I have sworn to be sensible and to do you credit. I shall
start to-morrow morning, and shall be home to-morrow evening at eight
o'clock, by half-past shall have told mamma all, and at nine August
will give you this letter, as after mamma you are, of course, the next.
I told Cilli so at once, and she quite agreed to it; and her last words
were, 'Pray to God that your friend may be as happy as you are now.'
And I will do so, Elsa, you may depend upon it; and in all other
respects also depend upon your ever loving, wise
"Meta.
"P.S.--Of course, 'he' is an exception to the 'all.' I am very sorry,
but it cannot be helped, you know."
"The dear, foolish child!" said Elsa, as she finished the letter, with
a deep sigh; "I congratulate her with all my whole heart."
And as she sat there and thought over how wonderfully it had all come
about, and how happy the two must be in their love, her eyes became
more fixed, her breathing ever harder, and then she covered her eyes
with her hands, bent her head upon Meta's letter, and cried bitterly.