It was dusk of a wet November day. The spouts were streaming and an
endless chain of grey drops glided down the iron rods of the porch
railing and fell precipitously into the pool gleaming on the pavement
below.
A miserable sort of sport to watch the game! But what better diversion
had the day to offer?
Suddenly the front door opened, the library bell rang sharply, and in
came a nimble little fellow, capering and stamping, and exhaling an
aroma of Russia leather and Parma violets. His coat collar was turned up
and his hat pulled far down. His close-cut blond hair shone like
yellowish-white velvet.
He measured Lilly from between lids masterfully narrowed to a slit with
a cursory and apparently disillusioned glance, threw out a strident
"good evening," and examined the back part of the room, as if expecting
some one to emerge from behind the bookcases and give him a special
greeting.
Lilly asked what she could do for him.
"Oh, you are the young lady in charge of the circulating library?" he
asked. The existence of such a young lady seemed to transport him into a
kind of careless gaiety.
Lilly said she was.
"Splendid!" he replied. "Just splendid!" And a thousand little merry
devils danced in his blinking, white-lashed eyes.
Lilly asked what book he wished.
"Be it known to you, most honored and erudite miss, I am not exactly
familiar with German literature and the allied sciences, but ever since
yesterday I have been possessed of a fabulous and downright sophomoric
zeal for culture. If you would help me with your valuable--"
He came to a sudden halt, stuck a monocle in his eye, looked her up and
down, first on the right side, then on the left, the way an intending
purchaser scrutinises a long-legged horse, murmured something like "the
devil," and asked to have the light turned on immediately.
Since it had actually grown so dark that the numbers on the backs of the
books were illegible, Lilly saw no reason for refusing his request.
When she reached up in all her glory to raise the chimney from the
hanging lamp, he uttered a second and more audible "the devil." And when
she stood there before him, the light shining on her sidewise, with an
uneasy, questioning look in her improbable eyes--those long-concealed
"Lilly eyes"--he sank back on the customers' seat to show how utterly
nonplussed he was, and folded his hands and implored her forgiveness.
Lilly felt a hot sense of insult rising in her. So low was she esteemed
in her position that an aristocratic young man--the first who had
strayed in to her in the course of one and a half years--did not deem it
necessary to show her the most ordinary courtesy.
"If you do not wish to borrow a book, sir," she said, giving him a
superior look, "please leave the place."
"What--what did you say?" he rejoined, outraged. "I borrow a book? _One_
book? One beggarly book? For every five minutes I am permitted to stay
here I will take out a whole shelf of books, for all I care, a whole
case of books--but with the proviso that I may return them to-morrow. I
will immediately contract with the best express company in town to keep
hauling the cases away and back again. But one moment--one moment. It
seems to me I once heard that for every book taken from a circulating
library you have to leave three marks deposit. Isn't that so?"
Lilly stared at him in blank astonishment and said it was so.
"Well, since I haven't such an amount of money in my possession just
now, I must ask you to keep _me_ here as a deposit. So, in a measure, I
yield myself up to you for imprisonment. Very vexatious for both
parties, I'm sure. But what else is to be done in the circumstances?"
In spite of herself Lilly had to laugh.
"Oh, she's reconciled!" he cried triumphantly. "Her majesty is
reconciled. And now let us speak to each other as decorous friends.
Observe me well. Do I look as if I read books? To be sure I have my
favourites, Schlicht, Roda-Roda and Winterfeld, and others who purport
to know the humour of soldiering life. But if I come here, it's not to
get books. The thing goes deeper than that. I hope I may confide in
you."
"If you think it necessary," stammered Lilly, whose eyes were fascinated
by a gleaming chain peeping from under the sleeve of his tan overcoat.
She did not know men ever wore gold bracelets.
"Evenings I like to get into mufti--the rest of the time, you know, I
wear uniform--but not for long any more--in a few weeks I depart this
life, because--do you know what debts are? No? Then rejoice. Debts are
the sour sediment in the lemonade of human existence, and the lemonade
at that is none too sweet. But what was I going to say? Oh,
yes--evenings I like to play Harun-al-Rashid and strive to win the favor
of the populace by honouring the populace's more commendable daughters
with a little conversation. Understand? So, in remoter districts, where
high are the hedges and silent the new villas--so yesterday I--behind
two young ladies--laughing over their shoulders and swinging their
skirts, exactly the way well-bred girls are wont to do--"
"I beg your pardon, but I should like this talk to end," said Lilly, red
with shame.
"Not at all," he said; "I knew at once you are a perfect lady, and have
nothing to do with such ticklish matters. I am merely confessing in
order to secure a little absolution from your purity."
This turn did Lilly's soul good, and she did not oppose him further.
"So the two young ladies were walking in front of me arm in arm. The
moment I reached-them I slipped in between like a slice of sausage in a
sandwich. They weren't a bit offish. They told me they owned a large
circulating library and intended shortly to open an art shop in Berlin,
and so on. But they didn't mention their address, and since--I admit it
with shame--until a few moments ago I thought they had some good points,
I am simply making the rounds of all the libraries in the directory.
Besides the well-known bookstores there are only three. I investigated
the other two, and now that I know the third, the art shop
proprietresses may go to the devil for all I care."
A feeling of scorn and mischievous delight arose in Lilly. She gave a
short laugh, but took good care not to disclose the existence of the
Asmussen girls.
To prove to her that in the presence of her majesty all desire for an
adventure ended, he presented himself formally: "Von Prell, future
ex-lieutenant."
Observing her questioning look he continued:
"As I delicately indicated, my days in the regiment are numbered."
Lilly timidly inquired whether an officer's life no longer pleased him.
"Until now I knew of no sort of life that would _not_ have pleased me."
Wanton spirits shot little gleams from his small grey eyes. "But the
paternal riches have taken wing, and my wages as army serf will just
about buy radishes, and even radishes get expensive around Christmas
time. So the best thing for me to do is to buy an old herring keg and
let myself be salted and packed. If you should happen to know of one to
be had cheap, I give the best prices."
Lilly frankly laughed a joyous laugh. He joined in, holding his hands to
his hips and emitting a thin, falsetto tehee, which, though scarcely
audible, shook his slim, sinewy body as with a storm of merriment.
They now sat opposite each other like two good friends, with the counter
between. Lilly wished the hour would never end.
A maid entered to exchange a volume of Flygare-Carlen for her mistress.
He unassumingly disposed himself for a stay, examined the backs of
several books, and acted altogether as if he were at home. When the maid
left he pulled the door open obsequiously and bowed and scraped as she
passed through.
Lilly grew more and more hilarious and restrained her laughter with
difficulty.
"Before the next customer comes you must go," she said, "else they'll
begin to think something."
"Why?" he asked. "The customers change."
But Lilly insisted, whereupon he took to pleading.
"Listen," he said. "I am known as a man utterly devoid of moral fibre.
Do _you_ be my stay in this mundane existence--at least until the door
opens again. While I'm sitting here I can commit no follies, and that
must convey some consolation to your charitable heart."
It was agreed, therefore, that he might keep his place until the next
time the bell rang. He leaned back in his chair comfortably and scanned
Lilly with the tender emotions of unlimited ownership.
"All earthly ills flow from garrulousness," he began. "If Columbus had
just kept the discovery of America to himself nobody would have made it
disagreeable for him. I will be wilier. I will consider my discovery as
a family secret between you and me. What a feast for the fellows! Let
them keep to the moths that fly at twilight, like the two prospective
art-shop proprietresses, to whom I owe the good fortune of your
acquaintance."
Lilly had completely forgotten the sisters. It was about time for them
to be coming home. Suppose they were suddenly to open the door!
The bell rang. No, it wasn't they. It was a spinster, who daily devoured
several volumes of love affairs, and came every evening for fresh
fodder.
The blithe lieutenant, remembering the compact, shot up out of his
chair. His demeanour stiffened into business-like coolness.
"If you please," he twanged, "will you kindly let me have the latest
work by--by--" Evidently no German author occurred to him. After racking
his brain the delivering name came, "by Gerstaecker."
Lilly brought him the "latest work," which bore the date 1849. He
deposited the requisite three marks, and took leave with too sweeping a
bow, while the little imps frolicked between his silver-white lids.
Soon after the sisters came home, cast a suspicious look at Lilly's
flaming cheeks, and passed by without greeting her.
The next day went after the fashion of every other, but something
troubled Lilly, something like Christmas expectations, a premonitory
restlessness, which pressed on to a new life.
And behold! At the same time as the day before the door opened, and in
stepped two elegant young men, who emitted a strident "good evening."
Their manner was both a bit assured and a bit abashed as they asked for
"an interesting book," while measuring Lilly with the stare of a
connoisseur.
She felt her limbs grow heavy and rigid, as always when conscious of
being observed and admired. But she maintained her dignity, and when the
young gentlemen after selecting their trash (which they scarcely glanced
at) wanted to start up a bantering conversation, she tossed her head and
withdrew behind the bookcase L to N, which sheltered her when she sat at
the window-sill making her entries and calculations.
The gentlemen took whispered counsel with each other, said a low
"good-by," and beat a retreat.
So her jolly friend had betrayed her after all!
From now on Mrs. Asmussen's poor little hole of a library swarmed with
slim young men of fashion, who were driven by an insatiable desire for
reading to exchange one musty old volume for another.
Only a few dared come in uniform, but they did not withhold their names,
and the last page of the customers' book looked as if extracted from an
Almanac de Gotha.
Some wrapped themselves in a coat of business-like correctness, others
came with careless assurance of victory. One man began to make love on
the spot, and another even had the audacity to bandy gross language over
the counter. The naivest one condescendingly inquired when within the
next few days he might expect a visit from her.
Lilly soon came to see that these attentions neither honoured nor gave
hurt. She chatted freely with those who were courteous, refrained from
replying to those who were impertinent, and the instant a conversation
threatened to become lengthy she disappeared behind case L to N.
Within a few days the sisters had discovered the aristocratic visitors.
Their rage knew no bounds. Decency was thrown to the winds. Lilly was
not spared a single insult, a single abuse. Vile epithets such as she
had never heard poured over her in a dirty stream. The girls demanded
that she cede her place at the counter to them. She refused point blank,
whereupon they took to maltreating her.
On occasions of greatest need Mrs. Asmussen came to her assistance. The
broom rained blows on the white nightgowns of the jealous furies, and
drove them into the back room, where the battle was drowned in rivers of
tears.
Hostilities continued. In case business exigencies necessitated some
self-restraint during the day while customers were present, feelings
were given all the freer play in the morning and evening.
Lilly's life became a veritable hell.
A crust of hate and bitterness laid itself over her soul. Partly in
fright, partly in satisfaction she felt herself growing harder and
sharper. It was only at night that she melted, when she buried her
burning head in the pillows and gave vent to her misery in silent
weeping.
The merry friend with the white lashes, who had caused the entire
catastrophe, did not put in appearance for about two weeks. He came in
dragging his legs a little, and his eyes were swollen and bleared.
"This flower," he said, undoing the tissue paper of the package in his
hand, "is the picotee, which keeps fresh five or six days longer than
any parting pangs."
At the sight of him Lilly felt a little comforting joy light up within
her. She took the bouquet as a matter of course, and reproached him for
not having kept his mouth shut.
"I told you," he replied imperturbably, "that I am a man utterly devoid
of moral fibre."
Then he informed her that the regiment had given him a farewell dinner
for good and all, and now there was nothing more urgent for him to do
than secure passage for somewhere--if he only knew where.
"But we won't scratch our heads about _that_," he continued. "Brilliant
people such as you and I have brilliant careers. The path of my life
leads by still waters of cool champagne, and is paved with little meat
patties. That's kismet. No use struggling against it. Even if it finally
leads to a sugar-cane plantation in Louisiana, it's all the same to me.
One always comes across something new, and that's the main thing. For
the present the old man, who's taken a tremendous liking to me, wants me
to run about his estate as Fritz Triddelfitz."
He laughed his high-pitched, almost inaudible laugh, which shook him
like a storm.
Lilly wanted to know who the "old man" was.
That a person should have to ask this seemed inconceivable to him.
"Have you the least idea of life, if you don't know who the old man is?
The old man is the cat-o'-nine-tails. The old man decides what is good
and what is bad on earth. The old man breaks one man's neck and pays
another man's debts. He is the punch bowl of all our virtues and all our
sins. Withal the old man is eternally young. The old man sees you and
says to you: 'Come here, little girl. I'm a grey old horror, but I wish
to have you.' Then you have just enough courage left to ask 'When do you
want me, high and mighty lord?' You see, child, that's the old man.
They hist him on to you long ago, and if ever he should find his way to
you, then may the Lord have mercy on you! Then all's over and done for
with my poor young queen."
"But I don't know yet who the old man is," said Lilly, whom this
enigmatic alarum was beginning to make a little uncomfortable.
"Then don't ask," he replied, and held out his freckled hand in good-by.
"It's a pity for us two," he added, smiling at her tenderly and
compassionately from between his blinking lids. "We could so cosily have
enriched history with another famous pair of lovers." Leaning far over
the counter, "Since I am a man utterly devoid of moral fibre, I should
like to bestow one kiss upon you before I go."
Lilly laughingly held her mouth up.
He kissed her and walked to the door stiffly.
"I can scarcely crawl, I'm so knocked up by my bout," he said, and with
that was outside the door.
After this visit Lilly was seized with the same disquieting sense as
after his first visit. It seemed to her she was being flicked in sport
with tickling switches. But this time, joined to the other feeling, was
a certain anxiety which set her nerves a-tingle with a tormenting yet
soothing sensation, as if she were waiting outside a locked door of
gold, behind which an unknown fate was crouching ready to pounce on
her.