Eberhard von Auffenberg had returned to the city shortly after the death
of Gertrude Nothafft. The last large sum he had received from Herr
Carovius, now nearly a year ago, he had almost used up. He found Herr
Carovius quite changed in his attitude toward him. Herr Carovius
declared that he was bankrupt, that he could not get any more money for
him. Instead of complaining or boasting, or flattering his princely
friend, or trying to incite him to activity of some kind, as he had been
accustomed to do, he wrapped himself in a silence that could not be
regarded as a favourable omen.
Eberhard had no desire to beg. Herr Carovius's personality was so
disagreeable to him that he refused to investigate the cause of his
novel behaviour. He let his thoughts take their own course; and they
drifted into other channels.
The gossip afloat concerning Eleanore had naturally reached his ears.
Herr Carovius had seen to it that there was no lack of insinuations,
either written or oral. But Eberhard had ignored them. Offensive insults
that had dared attach themselves to Eleanore seemed to him as incredible
as litter from the street on the radiant moon.
One day he had to call on Herr Carovius because of a note that had been
protested. They discussed the affair in a dry, business-like way, and
then, all of a sudden, Herr Carovius fixed his piercing eyes on the
Baron, walked around the table time after time, dressed in his sleeping
gown, and told, without the omission of a single detail, of the
lamentable death of Daniel Nothafft's young wife.
He became highly excited; why, it would be hard to say. "Let us hope
that the Kapellmeisterette will come to his senses now," he cried in a
falsetto voice. "He is already on the point of starvation; ah, believe
me, he is nearly done for. It will be necessary to take up a collection
for the unrecognised genius. He has already put one of his women in the
grave, the other is still kicking. By the way, how do you like her, the
angel? Are you not a bit sorry for the neat little halo that now hangs
like a piece of castoff clothing on the bedpost of an adulteress? Of
course, geniuses are allowed to do as they please. O Eleanore, bloody
lie that you are, you hypocritical soft, sneaking, slimy lie--Eleanore!"
With that Eberhard stepped up very calmly to the unleashed demon in
pajamas, seized him by the throat, and held him with such a fierce and
unrelenting grip that Herr Carovius sank to his knees, while his face
became as blue as a boiled carp. After this he was remarkably quiet; he
crept away. At times he tittered like a simpleton; at times a venomous
glance shot forth from under his eyelids. But that was all.
Eberhard poured some water in a basin, dipped his hands in it, dried
them, and went away.
The picture of the whining man with the puffed and swollen eyes and the
blue face was indelibly stamped on Eberhard's memory. He had felt a
greedy, voluptuous desire to commit murder. He felt he was not merely
punishing and passing final judgment on his own tormentor and
persecutor, but on the hidden enemy of humanity, the arch-criminal of
the age, the destroyer of all noble seed.
And yet the exalted outburst of Herr Carovius had precisely the effect
that Eberhard had least expected. His confidence in Eleanore's innocence
had been shaken. There may have been in Herr Carovius's voice, despite
the slanderous wrath with which his cowardly tongue was coated,
something that sounded truer than the wretch himself suspected. Eberhard
saw just then, for the first time in his life, the adored figure of the
girl as a human being like all other human beings; and as if through a
distant vision he experienced in his heart what had taken place.
His illusions were destroyed.
In his soul he had gone through the trials of renunciation long ago. His
passionate wishes of former times had gone through a process of
weakening from loss of blood. He had learned to bow to the inevitable;
he had made a special effort to acquire this bit of earthly wisdom. When
he surveyed the life he had lived in the past five years, it resembled,
despite its flux and the incessant change from city to city and country
to country, a sojourn in a room with closed doors and drawn shades.
When he had returned to the city, which he loved simply because Eleanore
lived in it, he had had no intention of reminding Eleanore of the
expiration of the time mutually agreed upon. He felt that it would be a
banal display of poor taste to appear before her once again as an
awkward, jilted suitor, and try to reconnect the thread where it had
been so ruthlessly broken five years ago. He had intended not to disturb
her or worry her in any way. But to go to her and speak with her, that
had been the one bright ray of hope in all these empty years.
After the scene with Herr Carovius he decided quite firmly to keep away
from Eleanore.
His ready cash had shrunk to a few hundred marks. He discharged his
servants, disposed of some of his jewelry, and rented one of those
little houses that are stuck on the rocks up by the castle like so many
wasp nests. The house he took had been occupied before him by the
Pfragners, and with its three rooms was not much larger than a
fair-sized cage in a menagerie. But he had taken it into his head to
live there, and that was all there was to it. He bought some old
furniture, and adorned the slanting walls of the dilapidated barracks
with such pictures as he had.
One evening there was a knock at the green door of the cottage. Eberhard
opened, and saw Herr Carovius standing before him.
Herr Carovius entered the Baron's doll house, looked around in
astonishment, and, pale as a sheet, said: "So help me God, it seems to
me you are trying to play the role of a hermit. This won't do; this is
no place for a Baron; I will not stand for it."
Eberhard reached for the book he had been reading, a volume of Carl du
Prel, and read on without replying to Herr Carovius or even taking
notice of the fact that he was present.
Herr Carovius tripped from one foot to the other. "Perhaps the Baron
will be so good as to take a look at his account," he said in a
beseeching tone. "I am in a tight place. My capital is gone, and my
debts in the shape of interest have been swelling like the Pegnitz in
the spring of the year. Would you like to know what I have been living
on for the last three months? I have been living on turnips, potato
peelings, and brick cheese; that has been my daily diet; and I have
submitted to it for the sake of my Baron."
"I am not a bit interested in what you have been eating," said the Baron
arrogantly, and kept on reading.
Herr Carovius continued with an imbecile sulk: "When you left me
recently because of that little quarrel we had about the Goose Man, it
never occurred to me that you were going to take the matter so
seriously. Lovers like to be teased, I thought. He'll come back, I
thought, he'll come back just as sure as laughter follows tickling.
Well, I was mistaken. I thought you were of a more gentle disposition,
and that you would be more indulgent with an old friend. Yes, we make
mistakes sometimes."
Eberhard remained silent.
Herr Carovius sighed, and sat down timidly on the narrow edge of the
sofa that stood next to the whitewashed wall. He sat there for almost an
hour in perfect silence. Eberhard appreciated neither the ridiculous nor
the fantastic element in the conduct of his guest. He read on.
And then, all of a sudden, Herr Carovius sprang to his feet, took his
wallet from his pocket, drew out a thousand-mark note, and laid it,
together with a blank receipt, across the page Eberhard was reading.
Before the Baron could recover from his amazement he had already
disappeared, closing the door behind him. The sound of his footsteps on
the street could be heard in the room; but he was gone.
What rare living creatures there are, O World, and what rare dead ones,
too! This is the thought that passed through Eberhard's mind.