ENTERING INTO THE LIVES OF OTHERS.
Beautiful it is in the valley, on the river's bank, where the waters
glide by so swiftly, yet so undisturbed; beautiful to see how they
glisten in the daylight, reflecting every passing change in the sky,
and bearing to and fro the hurrying boats; and again in the evening, to
hear the quiet murmur of the stream, as it lies under the radiance of
the moon. But beautiful it is also to look from the mountain-top, over
the forests, the terraced vineyards, the villages, the cities, and the
far-reaching river.
A fresh impulse and animation were now given to the life at
Wolfsgarten. The picture of Eric and Roland was brought to completion,
and Eric set in order Clodwig's cabinet, thus introducing his pupil to
the curiosities of antiquity. There was singing and laughing, there
were walks and rides in the neighboring forests, and many a memorable
conversation.
Bella often took the parrot with her when she walked with Eric through
the park and the forest. The bird took a great antipathy to Eric, and
would scold at him from its place on its mistress's shoulder. Sometimes
she let it loose with the injunction, "Be sure and come home at night,
Koko;" and Koko would perch upon a tree, and fly this way and that,
through the forest, always returning at evening. Her freed slave, Bella
called him, at such times.
Now, however, Koko had been absent two days. Clodwig offered every
reward to get the bird back again, never remarking how quietly his wife
took her favorite's loss.
As a matter of course, Bella walked with Eric while Roland and Lina
roamed about together in the forest, Lina delighted at being allowed to
revel in a child's freedom. At other times, when Eric and Bella were
strolling through park and forest, Roland would sit in the potter's
workshop, where the clay from the neighboring hills was moulded. He had
the whole process explained to him, and was amazed to see what care and
labor a single vessel required. Two boys, of about his own age,
trampled the clay with their naked feet in order to render it pliable,
after which workmen formed it into tiles and architectural ornaments.
At a potter's wheel sat a handsome, powerfully-built youth, turning it
with his bare feet; then he lifted the clay with great care into the
required shape, formed the rim and the nose, and almost tenderly raised
the finished vessel from the wheel, and set it in its place on a shelf
with the others. He always took precisely the quantity of clay required
for the vessel, and never allowed his heavy hands to make on it an
impression which he had not designed.
Roland watched the whole scene thoughtfully. Could these men be helped
by money? No; their life might be made richer, but they must still
work.
The young man who shaped the vessels was dumb. He would give Roland a
friendly glance when he entered, and then quietly keep on with
his work. The master praised him very highly to Roland, who, being
desirous of doing something for him, presented him with his handsome
pocket-knife. It contained many instruments within it, and much
delighted the poor mute.
Roland told Eric what he had seen, and what thoughts had come into his
mind. He had noticed that the workmen had their food brought them, from
a great distance, by old women and little children, and asked whether
no better arrangement could be made for them.
Eric looked at the boy with unsympathizing eyes as he spoke. How he
would once have rejoiced in this proof of his pupil's interest in the
welfare of his fellow-men; but now he seemed wholly absorbed in other
matters.
A beautifully engraved card brought to Wolfsgarten a piece of news
that proved a fertile subject of conversation,--the betrothal of the
Wine-count's daughter with the son of the Court-marshal. It seemed an
extraordinary step on the part of the young man, who was suffering with
a mortal disease, but still more extraordinary that the lady, a fresh
young girl, overflowing with life and health, should have made up her
mind to such a union. Lina, who was well versed in the private history
of every one in the neighborhood, accounted for it by saying that the
Wine-count's daughter had always expressed a great desire to be a
widowed baroness. There was a deep undertone of meaning, a something
not wholly expressed, in Bella's way of speaking of this connection,
particularly when addressing Eric, which seemed to take for granted
that he would understand what she half concealed.
The newspaper brought another piece of intelligence, the return of the
Prince's brother from America, where he had been a careful observer;
and his bringing with him for the Prince a freed slave, in the person
of a handsome African.
While they were still discussing the impression which a sight of the
American Republic must make on a German prince, Roland came in from the
forest, exclaiming,--"I have him! I have him!"
He was holding the parrot by his claws.
"There you are again, my freed slave!" cried Bella, as the bird tore
himself from Roland's grasp, and, perching upon his mistress's
shoulder, began a violent scolding at Eric.
Clodwig did not allow himself to be easily interrupted in a discussion
he had once entered upon, and proceeded to state the results of his
observations in the world. Bella took an active part in the
conversation. It sometimes seemed to Eric, that there was nothing
beyond a certain superficial cleverness in her ready flow of words; but
he rejected the criticism as a pedantic one.
His life among books, he said to himself, had rendered him
unsusceptible to this easy, graceful, brilliancy, while his profession
as teacher led him to be always on the watch for an elaborate network
of thoughts and impressions, where there was meant to be nothing but a
simple expression of natural feeling. He now gave himself freely up to
the pleasure of enjoying the close companionship of so richly endowed a
nature. These butterfly movements of the mind he began to look upon as
legitimately feminine characteristics, which were not to be roughly
criticized. Hitherto he had been familiar, in his mother and aunt, only
with that severe and business-like conscientiousness, in all
intellectual and moral matters, which borders on the masculine; here
was a nature that craved only to sip the foam of life. Why require
anything further of it?
When Bella was one day walking with Eric in the park, Roland and Lina
meanwhile sitting with Clodwig, she complained of not being able to
repress the religious doubts that often beset her, while, at the same
time, existence without a belief in a compensating future life was a
terrible enigma. Without wishing to weaken this idea, Eric sought to
give her the assured peace which can be found in the realms of pure
thought. There was a strange contradiction in the hearts of these two,
imagining, as they did, that they were speaking of things far above and
beyond all life, while in reality they were talking of life itself, and
that in a way whose significance they would not willingly have
acknowledged to themselves.
Suddenly Bertram came riding towards them, his horse white with foam,
and while at a distance cried out,--
"Herr Captain, you must return instantly."
"What has happened?" asked Eric.
Clodwig came up with Roland and Lina, and Pranken also appeared at the
windows, all anxious to know what had happened.
"Thieves! robbers!" cried Bertram. "The villa has been broken into, and
Herr Sonnenkamp's room entered."
A few moments later, Eric and Pranken were in the wagon driving back to
the villa. Pranken's vexation was extreme, for he had taken the whole
responsibility upon himself.
For a long time neither of the three spoke, until at last Roland broke
the silence, by asking Eric what he thought Franklin would have thought
and said of such a robbery.
Pranken replied with some warmth, "I should think a son's first
question would be, 'What will my father say to it?'"
Roland and Eric were silent. Again they drove on for a long while
without a word being spoken. Eric was tormented by accusing thoughts.
He seemed to himself doubly a thief. These men had broken into the
rooms of the villa by night; what had he done? He had forgotten the
soul entrusted to him, and, worse still, after being received by the
kindest friendship, he had, under cover of lofty thoughts and noble
sentiments, in word, thought, and look been faithless to the most
precious trust in the person of his friend's wife. He pressed his hand
to his heart, which beat as if it would burst his bosom. Those men, for
having stolen gold, would be overtaken by the justice of the law; but
for himself,--what would overtake him? Conscious that Roland's eyes
were fixed upon him, he cast his own on the ground in painful
confusion.
Finally he controlled himself, and said in a trembling voice, that he
should assume the entire responsibility; he acknowledged Pranken's
friendliness, but felt that in such a case as this, no one could
interpose between himself and the consequences of neglect of duty. So
severely did he reproach himself, that Roland and Pranken looked at him
in amazement.