Only a Girl Part 45

"Let those three alone, you vain fellow!" laughed Johannes, signing to him not to disturb their grave discourse.

Ernestine looked sadly at Helm. "Father Helm used to be kinder to me.

He was never so harsh to me before."

"Of course not," said Helm in a low voice. "Then you were a thing made of blotting-paper, that a breath might have destroyed. We were content only to keep you alive, and, as is apt to be the case with delicate children, we forgot, in our anxiety about your physical health, to take due care of your mind."

"Well, well, never mind that now," said Taun. "I am not at all afraid that you will long fail of finding the right. Your writings give evidence of such uncommon talent that I should not wonder if you became the most learned woman of the age."

Ernestine's eyes flashed. She raised her head like a thirsty flower in a summer rain. "The most learned woman of the age!" The words touched her weak point, and penetrated the inner sanctuary of her ambition.

Heim's harshness was forgotten. "How can you say this to me, in a century that has produced a Caroline Herschel and a Dorothea Rodde?"

Herbert, who from a distance had been hastening to the conversation, turned to Moritz and asked him in a low voice, "Who is Dorothea Rodde?

Of course I have heard of Herschel's sister,--just because she was Herchel's sister,--but I know nothing of the other."

"Don't ask me," laughed Moritz. "I have too much to do to busy myself about the wonders worked by all the blue-stockings immortalized in the pages of trashy annuals."

Ernestine shot an angry glance at him. She had heard what was said, and she was indignant.

It was the drop too much when Angelika asked across the table, "Johannes, pray tell us--the gentlemen want to know--who Dorothea Rodde is."

Johannes shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know."

"What, you! Do you not know?" said Ernestine. "Is it possible! Does no one know that woman--the famous daughter of that great man Schlager?

She only died in eighteen hundred and twenty-four, and is she forgotten already?"

"She cannot have materially advanced the cause of science," said Johannes, "or she would not have been forgotten."

"Such a rarely-endowed individual as this woman must, I should suppose, always be an object of scientific interest, even if she did not directly advance the cause of science itself. It must surely be interesting to physiologists, as well as to psychologists, that a woman has lived capable of learning all that Dorothea Rodde learned, even although she taught nothing. All cannot create. Many men have been held in high esteem for diligence alone. Besides, Dorothea would have achieved greatness if she had not committed the folly of marrying, thus arresting her scientific development in the bud and retiring entirely from public view. She buried herself alive, and the world is always ready to strew ashes upon a woman's coffin. Had she been a man, every one would have known that, when a boy of seventeen, he could speak all the dead and living languages, was thoroughly versed in chemistry, medicine, anatomy, and mineralogy, and in his eighteenth year, after a brilliant examination, received the degree of doctor of philosophy from the University of Gottingen! But it was only a girl who achieved all this thus early; and if the less envious time in which she studied acknowledged her superiority, the more prudent present ignores it all the more utterly."

A painful silence ensued. Every one was busied with his or her own thoughts. Every one felt confused. This beautiful, placid Ernestine had suddenly showed her claws!

The Staatsrathin silently laid down her knife and fork,--she had lost all desire to eat.

Johannes looked sadly at Ernestine, and gently shook his head. Herbert alone grew more cheerful as the rest seemed disturbed, and looked down the table at Elsa, who sat at the other end, lost in melancholy reverie as she drew several flowers and gra.s.ses out of the large vase on the table, intending, like Ophelia, to deck herself with them; but, alas, Hamlet had no eyes for her sweet madness!

"May I request you to present me to the lady?" Herbert asked Johannes.

"Herr Professor Herbert," said the latter, and added with emphasis, "your bitterest opponent!"

Ernestine bowed slightly and looked coldly at Herbert.

"Permit me," he began sneeringly, "to beg you to inform me, Fraulein von Hartwich,--I ask solely for instruction in the matter,--what possible scientific interest the fact that a woman spoke several languages--she could hardly have spoken _all_, as you declared--could possess."

"Yes, I too am curious upon that point!" cried Moritz.

Ernestine looked gravely from one to the other. "I am quite ready to explain it to you. I should not, indeed, have ventured to do so if you had not asked me, for it would have seemed to me insulting to suppose that you could need any such explanation."

"That shot told," Moritz remarked comically.

"We are foes, gentlemen, and I am bent upon victory," said Ernestine.

"I think the facility of acquisition shown by Dorothea Rodde is certainly as significant a fact in natural history as any example of extraordinary instinct in animals, for which zoologists search so untiringly. Or is the natural history of women less interesting than that of the ape?"

"We are not used to compare or to speak of women thus," Mollner interposed.

"Then, if you really accord us an equality with men in the scale of creation, Dorothea's eminent talent must certainly be of scientific interest, because it must a.s.sist in the investigation of the relative weight of the masculine and feminine brain,--a point not yet solved, the social importance of which is not recognized, or it would not be treated with such frivolous indifference. I, gentlemen, am convinced that the great contest for the emanc.i.p.ation of woman can be settled only through physiology, since that alone can prove whether the material conditions of the thinking mechanism are equal in men and women; and, if they are, who would deny a woman the right to a.s.sert her independence of man, even in the world of the intellect?"

"But we have not yet reached this point," said Johannes. "This equality has not yet been proved."

"Nor has the contrary," said Ernestine. "Therefore it seems to me that it would be well worth while for physiology to come to the aid of history, and test the material brain of famous women."

"And what end would that serve?"

"Can you ask that question seriously? Would not the result of such investigations, if it were favourable to women, strike a blow at our present social arrangements in the relations of the s.e.xes? And would not the rendering such an aid to true social harmony be a triumph for physiology, of which it might well be proud?"

"It would be all very well," said Moritz, "if the whole question were worth the trouble."

"Of course it is not worth it for you, but it is for us. What do men care about the position of woman,--her capacity or her incapacity? If your wives fill their position,--that is, if they are your obedient servants, have sufficient capacity for cooking, and can bring up your children,--all is as it should be, as far as you are concerned, and the most important problem of mankind, in the social system, is solved to your satisfaction."

A unanimous murmur arose at this accusation, but Ernestine was now greatly excited, and she continued, "It was the pain I felt at this narrow-minded indifference that led me to devote myself to natural science. I will do what I can to induce scientific men to turn their attention in this direction. Do not smile: even if I can do nothing for this cause myself, I would cheerfully dedicate my existence to arousing the interest of others in the subject. If I can prevail upon some less scrupulous university to afford me an opportunity for pursuing the requisite anatomical and physiological studies, these physical and psychical investigations shall be the sole occupation of my life."

"But, Fraulein von Hartwich," said Johannes seriously, "what would you discover that could further your desires? We have proved conclusively that the feminine brain absolutely weighs less than the masculine, and----"

"Have you proved that superiority depends only upon weight?"

"Not precisely, but it certainly does in most instances."

"In most instances? but if it is not proved to do so in all, the question is far from settled. It is true that Byron, Cuvier, and others had remarkably weighty brains, but, on the other hand, the brains of certain philosophers, as, for example, Hermann and Hausmann, weighed less than the ordinary feminine brain. We are then led to suspect that superiority depends upon the relation of the brain to the rest of the body,--perhaps upon the relation of different portions of the brain to each other, or the quant.i.ty of the gray matter. The only sure acquisition that physiology may be able to boast in this matter is that the relative weight of the feminine is not lighter than that of the masculine brain." Her eyes glowed with enthusiasm. "Oh, how gladly would I die if I could only succeed in casting a ray of light upon this chaos!"

"But, Fraulein von Hartwich," Herbert began with an ex cathedra air, "as woman is in all respects weaker and more delicate than man, is it not natural that her brain also should be smaller and lighter, rendering her incapable of as great intellectual exertion?"

"But, Herr Professor," replied Ernestine with a slight smile, "I have just said that superiority depended upon the relative, not the absolute, weight. Were it otherwise, the largest and strongest man would be the wisest, and you, sir, would have less ability than any one present, for you are the smallest man here."

Again there was an embarra.s.sed silence. Many could scarcely suppress their laughter as they saw the angry look of the little man. Others found the scene painful to witness. Such conduct on the part of a lady was unprecedented in the annals of professorial gatherings, and, although those who were acquainted with Ernestine found her behaviour perfectly natural from her standpoint, strangers to her were inexpressibly shocked,--none more so than the Staatsrathin, to whom the girl's every word was like acid to an open wound.

It was the old story over again. She was unlike the others, and, without meaning it, frightened them all away. Wherever she went, the curse of eccentricity attached to her. No one shared her interests,--she had nothing in common with any one,--she was, and must continue to be, alone! Even Johannes grew thoughtful and silent. She timidly sought his eye, but he did not look at her.

Elsa, although she had no public, was still playing Ophelia, and was pondering upon the sweetness of the service she could render if it were only asked of her. Ah, no one wanted to see how charmingly she could obey. And she softly hummed to herself, in English, Ophelia's words,

"Larded all with sweet flowers, Which bewept to the grave did go With true-love showers."

Frau Taun looked gravely across at Ernestine. She ceased to antic.i.p.ate _tableaux vivants_,--nothing could be done with such material. And then the conversation at table! She really could not expose her young guests to listen to anatomical treatises.

Herbert noticed the breach that had been made in Frau Taun's good opinion, and hastened to throw a bombsh.e.l.l into it. "She has not the slightest sense of refinement."

The ladies in the vicinity nodded a.s.sent.

Heaven be thanked! this combination of beauty and learning was wanting in what they possessed in fullest measure, and she had already succeeded in making herself disagreeable to the gentlemen who had been so impressed by her appearance.