Andreas to Nikolai.
"... I am dreaming again. I never can dream when I am actively
happy. Then my nights follow one another in unchanging succession.
The hand, which a moment before had been caressing the beloved, seems
to go to sleep of its own accord; while my head, close to hers, is
still linked to it by some few strands of hair. Then my capacities
for dreaming seem to be lulled as if, in the arms of love, they were
gathering new inspiration for the solitary days which were bound to
follow.
"For the moment I am not alone, but I am not fully in possession of
my joy; therefore I am dreaming once again.
"Last night I was on our island. Day was beginning to dawn. The
boatman could hardly see the landing-stage, so dark lay the shadow
from the oleander tree. I went slowly up the hill towards the white
house. The door was open, but Othello was not there to greet me. As
in summer time, cushions were strewn on the terrace, and some rugs
lay there just as Diana might have left them. A book had slipped to
the ground. My weary feet went slowly up the steps. The door
leading into our bedroom was open; on a low table, a candle was
guttering into its socket. I stepped noiselessly up to the curtain
which sheltered the bed, and through whose folds I could hear the
regular breathing of the sleeper. I pulled the curtain back, and
there lay--Olivia, naked, before my eyes. Othello (can you
understand, my Nikolai?), Othello will not enter dreams into which
Diana does not come, and where Olivia breathes and has her being.
Othello is faithful. I fear I am not! Is Diana?
"For she is here, in this out-of-the-way part of Europe. Don't be
too astonished!
"The day after the one I last wrote to you about, the day I made the
principessa's acquaintance, I was invited to lunch at the embassy,
and was standing behind Olivia when, all of a sudden, in came Diana.
I cannot honestly say that I was surprised. 'Dream, come back to
me,' I had whispered every night during all those weeks when, in my
loneliness, I longed for a sight of her. So when she appeared thus
before me it was as if in response to my expectations. She herself
was taken aback by our meeting, for she grew pale. When we took our
places at table, and as the meal progressed, my heart went out to
her, and every word I said seemed to be inspired by her. She was
dressed in white, and the bronze of her skin shone through the
raiment and gleamed forth among the pale company like the horns among
the violins in that piece of Schumann's--you remember it.
"Othello had sensed her presence before I did. He had run hither and
thither restlessly as we were out walking the previous evening. He
was searching for a trail that I knew nothing of. She may have
passed by in a carriage, and only my dog and not my heart had been
aware of her proximity. Am I being put to a test? How would it have
been had I not seen Olivia, and had run across Diana while taking a
stroll? Would everything have been as it was in the spring? I ask
myself whether the extreme of love which Olivia's lips seem to
promise, will, if I ever get so far, sow the field of my life with as
lavish a hand as Diana's when she yielded hesitatingly to my
passionate embrace. I see, I feel, what awaits me. Everything, in
the world of reality, my friend, we are doomed to know beforehand.
You may well ask why I have set my foot on the hard and toilsome road
leading to this new experience. How, I answer, can a man control his
fate in such matters?
"A creature resembling a young moon has driven me forth into the
noonday glare, I know not why. There I am faced with the great sun
who, in his turn... Will he drive me back into the dusk whence I
have so recently emerged? I'm sorry to be writing so mad a letter.
The nights are to blame, so hot, and the sirocco blowing....
"I enclose a new poem--To Olivia.
"ANDREAS."
Diana to Scherer.
"... My very first experiences here confirm your hopes. I've called
on the minister. The visit was fairly successful, partly because I
did not go with an introduction from the embassy, and partly because
a certain Egyptian, sent to me by the manager, smoothed the way for
me. Furthermore, the process of interpreting facilitated our
negotiations. Where else in Europe are we given so much time for
reflection, where else can we study the effect of our actions upon
our antagonists so admirably as here? He did not believe a word I
said when I informed him that I wished later on to make a few
excavations and wanted to use the new permanent way to get to the
ruins which lie on either side of the track. I gathered all this by
the solemn fashion in which he nodded his head and promised me
everything I asked. He is not more narrow-minded than many of our
own folk, but he is extremely false. He speaks reservedly about the
count, which inclines me to believe that some sympathy exists between
them. The railroad people are of course uncongenial to him, when he
does not positively loathe them; and he is comforted by the thought
that I personally seem to have little to do with them. His secretary
speaks French, and I paid him a score of compliments afterwards. Nor
did I miss an opportunity to have a dig at his master. I shall
certainly need the man's help in the future. The main thing is to
discover what the French have promised, and especially how much they
have offered him if he will consent to act against Münsterberg. I
have tipped the bearer of this letter as handsomely as if the missive
were destined for a ruling monarch....
"Your manager is splendid. But he will have to get over the mistrust
he naturally feels towards me on account of your very flattering
recommendation. At present he sees in me nothing other than a kind
of supervisor! His house is not sufficiently comfortable to receive
guests, so I was invited to dine at the hotel. We ate what was
provided by the menu of the day, and drank a sweet fizz very much the
worse for wear, from which I gather he is of a thrifty disposition.
His wife has the beautiful eyes, the slow movements, the cloying
sweetness, the perfidy, and the ceaseless longing for love, typical
of the Levantine woman. He manages to keep her in hand for the
present. While we were at dinner, for instance, she ogled an English
naval officer at a neighbouring table, and her husband literally
crushed the look under foot before my very eyes. You know that since
his marriage he is still received at the embassy, but only once a
year now, at the annual levee when there are some three hundred
guests present.
"For the rest, I shall have to be concise. I enclose the notes I
made immediately after my several visits to the manager, the minister
and the bank director (who seems ill-disposed towards me).
"As for the ambassador, I can't say much as yet, for we are only in
the initial stages of our acquaintanceship. Still, I like the man.
Seen him twice, en petit comité, no politics. I cannot believe that
you really care for him. He speaks of you with a kind of cool warmth.
"His enemy, the baron, is likewise my foe; so is the baroness.
Eckersberg is innocuous, but his thoughts run in a somewhat bawdy
vein. The tall prince may be a friend. I am doing my best to be
pleasant to the secretary who sees after the dispatching of my
correspondence, for as Count M. says, we are all at his mercy. He is
a domestic tyrant, but tamable.
"Since, in spite of my arts and wiles, I foresee that he will read my
letters, and since I may seldom have a chance of sending you a
letter, as on this occasion, by a trusty hand, we had better agree
upon a code: Greyhound = Count Münsterberg, the German ambassador;
Terrier = Count Eckersberg, the military attaché; Policedog = Baron
Linnartz, secretary to the Legation; Sheepdog = Prince Eduard,
youngest attaché; Drayhound = the aforesaid secretary; Great Dane =
Manager; Bulldog = Minister. Further zoological data to follow.
"Best wishes.
"DIANA."
The major to Diana.
"Your card with address only and view of the town hardly seems to
court an acknowledgment. Nevertheless it does not actually forbid me
to answer. So I shall profit by the fact and send you a few lines,
especially as today is the anniversary of a date that will for ever
be inscribed in my heart.
"Unfortunately such times as those of three years ago are not to be
recaptured. Were it not for my work (I shall ever have you to thank
for helping me to get it) I could hardly believe that I am the same
man.
"Talk here runs mainly upon that corner of the world where you happen
to be. Nobody has any confidence in the present peaceful situation;
calm before a storm. I have seen Herr Scherer lately, two meetings
quite close together. He is amazingly inquisitive, always plying me
with questions, looks at me searchingly, and so on. I wonder if he
suspects me of something. If anyone has a right to suspicion surely
it is I rather than he!
"By the way, I have to thank his rival in the political field--if the
question of gratitude arises at all in the matter, which I doubt--for
a very interesting possibility. Last Tuesday, the minister came over
to me after being deep in talk with N. We were all at the club. He
said he had heard that I was interested in politics. Was I good at
languages, and so forth. I was guarded in my replies, for I was not
sure what he was driving at. In the end he asked whether I'd like a
post abroad....
"What would you say if one fine morning I appeared on the scene of
your mysterious operations, and greeted you with: 'Good-morning, most
honoured of friends?'--Have no fear, I'm effectively stuck here at my
post, and when I'm 78 I'll be relegated to the pensioners'
almshouse--if any such thing still exists after another eighty years
of peace.
"Your faithful servant,
"F. v. M."