Consul Buddenbrook said to his wife: “If I thought Tony had a motive in
refusing this match-- But she is a child, Betsy. She enjoys going to
balls and being courted by the young fellows; she is quite aware that
she is pretty and from a good family. Of course, it is possible that
she is consciously or unconsciously seeking a mate herself--but I know
the child, and I feel sure she has never yet found her heart, as the
saying goes. If you asked her, she would turn this way and that way,
and consider--but she would find nobody. She is a child, a little bird,
a hoyden. Directly she once says yes, she will find her place. She will
have _carte blanche_ to set herself up, and she will love her husband,
after a few days. He is no beau, God knows. But he is perfectly
presentable. One mustn’t ask for five legs on a sheep, as we say in
business. If she waits for somebody to come along who is an Adonis and
a good match to boot--well, God bless us, Tony Buddenbrook could always
find a husband, but it’s a risk, after all. Every day is fishing-day,
but not every day catching-day, to use another homely phrase--.
Yesterday I had a long talk with Grünlich. He is a most constant wooer.
He showed me all his books. They are good enough to frame. I told
him I was completely satisfied. The business is young, but in fine
condition--assets must be somewhere about a hundred and twenty thousand
thaler, and that is obviously only the situation at the moment, for he
makes a good slice every year. I asked the Duchamps. What they said
doesn’t sound at all bad. They don’t know his connections, but he lives
like a gentleman, mingles in society, and his business is known to be
expanding. And some other people in Hamburg have told me things--a
banker named Kesselmeyer, for instance--that I feel pleased with. In
short, as you know, Betsy, I can only wish for the consummation of
this match, which would be highly advantageous for the family and
the firm. I am heartily sorry the child feels so pressed. She hardly
speaks at all, and acts as if she were in a state of siege. But I can’t
bring myself to refuse him out and out. You know, Betsy, there is
another thing I can’t emphasize often enough: in these last years we
haven’t been doing any too brilliantly. Not that there’s anything to
complain of. Oh, no. Faithful work always finds its reward. Business
goes quietly on--but a bit too quietly for me. And it only does that
because I am eternally vigilant. We haven’t perceptibly advanced since
Father was taken away. The times aren’t good for merchants. No, our
prospects are not too bright. Our daughter is in a position to make a
marriage that would undoubtedly be honourable and advantageous; she is
of an age to marry, and she ought to do it. Delay isn’t advisable--it
isn’t advisable, Betsy. Speak to her again. I said all I could, this
afternoon.”
Tony was besieged, as the Consul said. She no longer said no--but she
could not bring herself to say yes. She could not wring a “yes” out of
herself--God knew why; she did not.
Meanwhile, first her Father would draw her aside and speak seriously,
and then her Mother would take up the tale, both pressing for a
decision. Uncle Gotthold and family were not brought into the affair;
their attitude toward the Mengstrasse was not exactly sympathetic. But
Sesemi Weichbrodt got wind of it and came to give good advice, with
correct enunciation. Even Mademoiselle Jungmann said, “Tony, my little
one, why should you worry? You will always be in the best society.”
And Tony could not pay a visit to the admired silken salon outside the
Castle Gate without getting a dose from old Madame Kröger: “À propos,
little one, I hear there is an affair! I hope you are going to listen
to reason, child.”
One Sunday, as she sat in St. Mary’s with her parents and brothers,
Pastor Kölling began preaching from the text about the wife leaving
father and mother and cleaving only to her husband. His language was
so violent that she began listening with a jump, staring up to see
if he were looking at her. No, thank goodness, his head was turned
in the other direction, and he seemed to be preaching in general to
all the faithful. Still, it was plain that this was a new attack upon
her,--every word struck home. A young, a still childish girl, he
said, could have as yet no will and no wisdom; and if she set herself
up against the loving advice of her parents she was as deserving of
punishment as the guilty are; she was one of those whom the Lord spews
out of his mouth. With this phrase, which the kind Pastor Kölling
adored, she encountered a piercing glance from his eyes, as he made
a threatening gesture with his right arm. Tony saw how her Father,
sitting next to her, raised his hand, as though he would say, “Not so
hard.” But it was perfectly plain that either he or her Mother had let
the Pastor into the secret. Tony crouched in her place with her face
like fire, and felt the eyes of all the world upon her. Next Sunday she
flatly refused to go to church.
She moved dumbly about the house, she laughed no more, she lost her
appetite. Sometimes she gave such heart-breaking sighs as would move
a stone to pity. She was growing thinner too, and would soon lose her
freshness. It would not do. At length the Consul said:
“This cannot go on, Betsy. We must not ill-use the child. She must
get away a bit, to rest and be able to think quietly. You’ll see she
will listen to reason then. I can’t leave, and the holidays are almost
over. But there is no need for us to go. Yesterday old Schwarzkopf from
Travemünde was here, and I spoke to him. He said he would be glad to
take the child for a while. I’d give them something for it. She would
have a good home, where she could bathe and be in the fresh air and
get clear in her mind. Tom can take her--so it’s all arranged. Better
to-morrow than day after.”
Tony was much pleased with this idea. True, she hardly ever saw Herr
Grünlich, but she knew he was in town, in touch with her parents. Any
day he might appear before her and begin shrieking and importuning. She
would feel safer at Travemünde, in a strange house. So she packed her
trunk with alacrity, and on one of the last days in July she mounted
with Tom into the majestic Kröger equipage. She said good-bye in the
best of spirits; and breathed more freely as they drove out of the
Castle Gate.