THE OLD UNDER A NEW FACE.
On the morning, Roland wanted to ride before doing any thing else; but
Eric, whose maxim was that the day could be consecrated only by taking
some good influence into the soul, made him read aloud the first
chapter of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. This was the dedicatory
act of their new occupation, and when they were called to breakfast,
both were very animated. They could take an equal satisfaction with
Fraeulein Perini, who returned from mass with Herr von Pranken.
Eric had not mistaken, Pranken was there. He greeted Eric with a sort
of studied respectfulness, but he fulfilled, after his way, the demands
of sincerity; whilst he, as a man who has nothing to conceal, openly
acknowledged that he had frequently thought it would be better that
Eric should not enter upon the position, with great decision, and in a
tone of satisfaction, he added to this, that there were mysterious
presentiments in the soul, which we must humbly acknowledge; and so
this self-willed act of Roland's was the finger of fate, which laid
upon Eric, as upon all the others, the duty of compliance.
Eric looked at Pranken in utter amazement. He had mistaken this man;
Pranken brought forward principles of conduct which he should never
have supposed, nor would now have attributed to him.
The breakfast passed off cheerfully; the amusement was at the Major's
expense, more indeed while absent, than while present. He had naturally
narrated to Pranken the terrors of the extra train, and Pranken knew
how to tell the story again very much to their entertainment; he could
imitate the Major's thick way of talking, and Fraeulein Milch was always
spoken of as Fraeulein Milch with the black eyes and the white cap.
After breakfast, Eric requested Herr Sonnenkamp that he and Roland
might, for the future, be excused from this breakfasting in common, and
might be left alone together until dinner-time.
Sonnenkamp looked at him with surprise. Eric explained that he asked
this on the first day, in order that there might be no precedent of
custom established. It was thoroughly needful to keep Roland
undisturbed, and in a persistent determination; this could only be done
by leaving to them at least half of the day, and the freshness of the
morning. Sonnenkamp agreed to it, shrugging his shoulders.
At breakfast it had been casually mentioned that Bella and Clodwig
would dine with them to-day.
Eric saw at once the chief difficulty of his calling, which lay in the
liability of diversions becoming interruptions. He drew a line of
demarkation between himself and all the household, especially
Sonnenkamp, which was not expressly defined, but yet could not be
overstepped; and this was so much the more difficult, as Eric was not
taciturn, and readily entered into the discussion of all matters. But
what was this line? There was a something in him which said to each one
that he must not ask more than Eric was ready, on his part, to answer.
He labored with Roland, and found out where the boy was well-grounded
in knowledge, where there was only a partial deficiency, and where
there was total ignorance.
A carriage drove into the court. Roland looked towards Eric. He did not
appear to have heard the rattling wheels.
"Your friends have arrived," said Roland. He avoided saying that he
himself was very impatient to greet Clodwig and Bella, and, under the
form of a reprimand, to receive praise for executing the bold deed. But
Eric insisted that they had no friends except duty; that there was
nothing and nobody there for them until they had performed their duty.
Roland clasped his hands tightly together under the table, and
compelled himself to be quiet.
Suddenly, in the midst of a mathematical axiom, he said,--
"Excuse me, they have fastened Griffin by a chain, I know it by his
bark; they must not do it: it spoils him."
"Let Griffin and everything else alone; all must wait," Eric said,
maintaining his stand.
Roland pranced like a horse who feels the rein and spurs of the rider.
Soon, however, Eric went with Roland down into the court. Roland was
right; Griffin was chained. He loosed him, and both boy and dog seemed
unchained, madly sporting together.
Bella was with Frau Ceres.
A servant informed Eric that Count Clodwig was expecting him. Clodwig
came to meet Eric with great cordiality, greeted him as a neighbor, and
rejoiced that the boy had exhibited so much energy.
"If we were living in the ancient times," he added, "the boy would have
received a new name from this exploit." What Clodwig said of Roland
was, at the same time, noble in sentiment and good in the manner of
expression.
When they were at the dinner-table, Eric heard in what way Bella jested
with Roland; the boy was beaming with delight, for Bella told him of
the hero, Roland.
Eric was greeted in a friendly but measured way, by Bella; she called
him repeatedly, "Herr Neighbor," and was extremely unconstrained. It
could seem to her now as a laughable piece of prudery and timidity,
that she had endeavored at one time to exert an influence to remove
Eric from the vicinity. Had then the man made an unusual impression
upon her? It appeared to her now like a dream, like a mistake.
Eric had thought of this first meeting with a sort of anxiety; now he
chided also his vanity.
"Shall you have the library of your father brought here?" asked
Clodwig.
Eric replied affirmatively, and Bella stared at him. He knew now why
Bella had been so indifferent and unconcerned; he had received money
from her husband, and he now ranked, therefore, very differently in her
estimation.
At dinner he saw Frau Ceres again, for the first time; and when he went
to her, she said in a very low tone, "I thank you," but nothing
further; the words were very significant.
They were in good spirits at table. They thought that the journey would
be a benefit to Frau Ceres. It would be a suitable preparation for the
journey to the baths. One and another day was named for setting out.
Eric did not know what this meant; Roland saw his inquiring look, and
said to her in a low tone,--
"We are all going to see Manna, and bring her back to journey with us
to the baths. This will be jolly and fine."
Eric experienced anew that the chief difficulty of a life so abounding
in means and so unconfined by regular duties was, that every one in the
family, and the boy especially, was living either in the reaction from
some dissipating amusement, or in the expectation of engaging in it. He
would wait quietly, until the question was asked him, in order then to
make his resolute decision of some account.
After dinner it happened, as if by chance, that Bella walked with Eric.
She first told him how happy Clodwig was that Eric was to remain now in
his neighborhood, and then suddenly standing still, and with a
furtively watchful look, she said,--
"You will shortly see Fraeulein Sonnenkamp again."
"I?"
"Yes. You journey with us, do you not?"
"No one has so informed me."
Bella smiled.
"But surely you will be glad to see Fraeulein Sonnenkamp again?"
"I did not know that it was she when I met her."
Bella smiled again, and said,--
"I have seen enough of the world to have no prejudice. The daughter of
the house and my brother Otto--Ah, you know well enough what I wish to
say."
"No, gracious lady, you give me credit for too much wisdom."
"It should offend me if you are reserved towards me, and are on such
intimate terms with the outside acquaintances of the family. The
Major's housekeeper boasts of your being her favorite, and yet do you
know nothing of the private betrothal?"
"Not until this moment. I offer my congratulations, and I am proud,
gracious lady, that you initiate me with such confidingness into your
family affairs."
"Do you know," cried Bella quickly, "do you know that I promise myself
a great deal of pleasure from you?"
"From me? What can I do?"
"That is not my meaning, to speak in direct terms. I have thought a
great deal about you. You are of an impulsive disposition, but you are
still an enigma to me, and I hope that I also am to you."
"I had not allowed myself, indeed--"
"I allow you to allow yourself. Then, Herr Captain, or Herr Doctor, or
Herr Dournay, but, at any rate, Herr Neighbor, we will make a contract.
I shall try to resolve for myself the contradictions and oddities of
your nature, and make such investigations as I am able to; on the other
hand, I allow you to do the same with me. Do you not find this
attractive?"
"Attractive and dangerous."
Bella straightened herself up, and Eric continued:--
"Dangerous for me, for you know what friend Hamlet says, that if our
deserts are known, 'who can escape a whipping?'"
"I am glad that you are not polite, but neither should you be
diffident."
"I mean, that it might be dangerous for me, not for you."
"I am too proud to sell, or to throw away politeness, as the Austrian
proverb says."
"I am glad that you are too proud for it too."
"And now tell me in what way you saw Manna, and how she appeared to
you."
Eric narrated the casual meeting, and how he had first learned her name
through the daughter of the Justice.
"Ah, indeed, indeed, Lina," said Bella, and her fingers moved very
rapidly, as if she were playing a piano in the air. It was an agreeable
recreation to look upon the playing of this sentimental game, for Lina
had a decided penchant for Otto. But the naive Innocence knew very well
that Otto had a preference for Manna, and it was not so very bad a plan
to introduce to Manna so handsome a suitor as Eric.
While Bella was walking with Eric, Pranken had taken Roland very
confidingly by the hand, and visited with him the stables and the young
dogs; then he led him into an unfrequented part of the park, very
remote from the road. Their talk was very naturally about Eric, and
Roland could not find words to tell how all-wise and all-good he was.
Pranken rebuked, with a stern countenance, the application of such
words to a human being, and he impressed very strenuously upon him,
that he could learn much from the worldly man that would be
advantageous to him in the world, but there was a highest which he was
not to entrust to him, and wherein he was to be in no way obedient.
And now he spoke of Manna. There was an expression of devotion in his
words, as well as in his tone. He took the book, which he always
carried over his heart, out of his breast-pocket, and showed Roland the
exact place which Manna reads to-day; by running away, Roland had let
several days slip without reading the same passages, but he could now
catch up by diligence. But, more than all, Herr Dournay need know
nothing of it, for no one of a different faith should step between
Roland and his God.
Pranken seated himself with Roland under a great nut-tree, by the road,
and read aloud some expressive passages. The boy looked at him in
wonderment. The Wine-chevalier rode by; he called out a greeting to
Pranken, but the latter returned it with only a friendly wave of the
hand, and continued his reading.
It was like a release to Roland when Bella and Eric came along, engaged
in a merry, jesting conversation. He called to them, and shortly after
joined Eric; and Bella went by the side of her brother, who twirled his
moustaches and surveyed his handsome boots. When Eric and Roland had
departed, Pranken straightened himself up, and began to appeal directly
to Bella's conscience for coquetting and trifling thus with a young
man.
Bella stood still, seemingly at a loss whether to laugh at her brother
or sharply reprove him; but she concluded in favor of the former
course, and ridiculed the new convert.
"Ah," she cried, "you are very properly afraid that this Herr Dournay
will be pleasing to the glorified Manna, and you suppose the same in
regard to me. You have just hit it. The man has something bewitching
for us women, provided we are shut up in the bonds of wedlock, or in a
convent."
Pranken did not fall in with this tone; he repeated, that every jest,
every act of trifling, bordered upon a sin, and jesting was liable to
remove imperceptibly the boundary line. He was so zealous, that he took
the book out of his breast-pocket, and read aloud to Bella a passage
having reference to the subject.
Bella looked with astonishment when Otto exhibited so pious a book: she
pointed out to her brother, meanwhile, what impregnable virtue was; she
made fun of the young man, who had a truly revolting self-confidence.
Moreover, Otto could be wholly at rest, if there was the appearance of
an understanding between her and Eric; yes, she would willingly make,
so far, a sacrifice for him; her virtue would be secure from every
misconstruction, and she would assume this appearance, in order to free
Otto from a dangerous rival.
"I am, indeed, in earnest," she concluded. "Are the good to deny to
themselves a friendly intercourse, because the bad conceal under this
appearance all kinds of baseness? That would be a world turned upside
down; that would be the subjection of the good to the evil."
Bella was not aware, or she did not think it worth while to take note
of it, that she here set forth a remark of her husband. Pranken looked
at her with surprise. Was he, in fact, misled by his newly awakened
zeal, or was this only a nicely-woven veil, a mere outside show of
virtue? He was in perplexity; he was at a loss what to say in reply to
this jesting and playful tone, to these insinuous and flexible evasions
of his sister.