The Breaking of the Storm Volume Ii Part 32

"Does he know?" asked Justus.

"No--by-and-by, perhaps; it is, for the present, a strict secret between Elsa and me. I shall write to the General from Wissow."

"It is better so," said Justus.

Reinhold did not answer. The evening of his arrival stood out suddenly, with all its details, in his memory. How eagerly Ottomar had then sought his friends.h.i.+p, how heartily Uncle Ernst had received him, how Ferdinanda herself had welcomed him! And now! It was not his fault--that was at least a consolation.

"Here is an empty carriage," said Justus.

"Farewell, my dear Justus! Say goodbye again to Cilli for me, and Herr Kreisel, and tell him not to trust in the Sundin-Wissow; and hearty thanks for your friends.h.i.+p and affection."

"Not a word more, or--I am desperately sentimental to-day. This love--this horrible----"

Justus smothered the rest of his blasphemy in a mighty embrace, pulled his broad-brimmed hat over his eyes, and rushed away.

"Good fellow!" said Reinhold to himself, as he arranged his goods in the carriage. "I never should have credited him with it. Strange! What has restored to me courage, and the old feeling of security, has robbed him of his ready creative power and his cheery humour. And yet the impediments which lie in his way are child's-play compared to those that surround us. G.o.d grant he may soon smile again! Cilli is right--he cannot live without suns.h.i.+ne."

Reinhold had seated himself. The signal for starting had already been given, when the door was again thrown open, and a gentleman was hastily bundled in by the guard.

"Here, please, I have no more empty carriages. Your ticket at the next station!"

The guard shut the door.

"Good-evening, President; allow me," said Reinhold, taking the President's great travelling-bag and putting it in the net.

"Good gracious! is it you?" cried the President. "Where are you going?"

"I would not fail to present myself before you in Sundin on the 1st of December, according to your orders," answered Reinhold, rather surprised.

"Yes, yes, of course!" said the President. "Pardon me--such a stupid question! I am so worried, so perplexed--once more, forgive me!" And he stretched out his hand to Reinhold with his accustomed gracious friendliness.

"It is quite unnecessary, President," said Reinhold; "I know that you are busied about more important things and men."

"Yes, yes, more important things," said the President--"evil things!

And the men--these men, these men--pray sit opposite to me! One can talk so much better, and I am very glad to see an honest face again."

The President wrapped his rug round his knees. His fine, clever face looked pale and worn, and the touch of quiet irony and sarcastic humour which Reinhold had noticed at their first meeting had altogether failed him.

"I have been four days in Berlin," said the President, "and should certainly have begged you to come and see me, only, to confess the truth, I have been skulking about like a criminal with the police after him, so as not to be seen by any respectable men, if I could avoid it.

Perhaps you know what took me to Berlin?"

"The papers, President----"

"Yes, yes, the papers. Unfortunately there is no longer any decent obscurity. Everything will come out, and if it were only confined to the truth!--but unfortunately it is generally neither the whole truth, nor even the half. What falsehoods have not people--that is to say, the gentlemen concerned in the matter--told about me! I was concerning myself actively in the existence of the railroad, working for it, dinning into the Minister's ears that the concession must be granted--I, who have fought against it from the first, and warned the Minister most strenuously against it! Then, as that would not do, they attacked me from the other side. I had been an opponent, a determined opponent--I had been convinced at last--Saul had become Paul. That sounded more probable, but not probable enough. I was not convinced--I was simply bought. That was believed at once--it spoke for itself. A President, with his few thousand thalers salary, notoriously devoid of private fortune, the father of six children--how could he withstand such inducements! It is a shame and disgrace that it was believed, as it will be believed to-morrow, that there was not enough offered! The crafty fellow knows only too well what he is worth; he will quietly bide his time, watch for his opportunity, and feather his nest well!'

That is the worst, you see. Confidence, is shaken in the honour and integrity of our officials. It is the beginning of the end for me--the threatening cloud which foreshadows a future which I pray G.o.d I may never live to see!"

The President tugged here and there at his rug which he was generally so careful to keep smooth, unfastened his kid gloves which he had just b.u.t.toned, and drew them off his trembling hands. Reinhold himself was moved by the intense emotion of a man usually so cautious and so shrouded in diplomatic mists.

"It would be presumption in me," he said, "if I ventured to contradict a man of your great experience and judgment. Nevertheless I cannot refrain from suggesting that, just because the case concerns you so nearly, you may perhaps see it in too black a light."

"May be, may be!" said the President, "but this is no isolated case; there are others which unfortunately speak on my side, where high officials have succ.u.mbed to the temptation put before them. And then----"

He was silent for a few minutes, and then continued even more excitedly:

"If the higher powers only had tact, I say--only tact not to strengthen this most dangerous, and I confess exaggerated, tendency of the public mind to suspicion and distrust. But you will feel it painfully--the slightest acquaintance was sufficient to make one honour and respect the man--General von Werben----"

"I know, President," said Reinhold, as the President again became silent; "and my acquaintance with that excellent man has not been a transient one."

"Well then, what do you say to this?" cried the President. "Differences have existed between him and the Minister, I know; differences which must have been settled by a superior authority. It is difficult, it is almost impossible to work with any one who is determined not to act in concert. One must give way, and of course the inferior; but just at this time that should have been avoided. It will throw fresh oil into the fire, as if it did not burn fiercely enough already, as if matters had not already been made easy enough for these promoters! They will laugh in their sleeves: 'Do you see that? do you hear that? We had just intended, modest as we are, to take our shares into the market to-morrow at 75; but now we ask 80--85! Paper that can send a General von Werben flying, cannot be difficult to float!'

"You will see, my dear sir, they will trumpet it in all the papers, and--even if it is all false--if the General's position were untenable, the mob goes by outward appearance, judges by outward appearance, and--outward appearance is against us."

The rug slipped from his knees, but he never seemed to observe it.

"And if that were all! But we, of whom our ill.u.s.trious sovereign has so rightly said that we are appointed by fate to eat our bread in the sweat of our brow, we begin to desire to live for show, for glittering useless show. Take this railway business; it is all show whichever way you look at it--good high roads, decent communal roads are all that we need for the moderate requirements of our island, which the prospectus boastfully calls the 'granary of Germany.' Show is the security upon the ground of which alone the concession can be obtained; I know that they could not raise even the few hundred thousand thalers. The subscriptions according to rule from 'good and substantial houses,' are show--shameful show; the only real subscription is from Prince Prora, through whose territory nearly a third of the railway pa.s.ses; the other ten million are from Count Golm, and Co.--and not one thaler is paid up, or ever will be paid. So it goes on, so it must go on. You can't gather figs from thistles, and as to what is to be expected from that magnificent harbour which is to crown the whole, well, you know all about that as well as or better than I do."

The President stood up and went to the window, through which the lights of the town were already disappearing. Then he came back to his place and said as he leant over towards Reinhold, in an almost mysterious voice:

"Do you remember a conversation on the evening when I had the pleasure of making your acquaintance at the Count's table at Golmberg? I have so often thought of it lately. Your storm--I hope to G.o.d it may not come--but if it comes as you have prophesied, I should take it for a parable of what is hanging over us. Yes! for a sign from heaven! to awaken us, to startle us out of our criminal intoxication, out of our empty, visionary life, to withdraw the glittering show from our eyes, to show us, as Fichte says, 'that which is.' Ah! where is the hand which would now write us 'Speeches to the German nation?' I would bless that hand. Instead of it our philosophers prate about the intellect, which is meant for nothing but to lead the will into absurdities, and to crush and destroy all joy and cheerfulness which is yet the mother of all virtues; and our poets are disciples of the French school, and learn how to be frivolous and disreputable to the heart's core without offending external proprieties, or wander, poor creatures, with their beggar's staves in the ruins of the age, and try to make us believe that the clouds of dust that they raise are creatures of flesh and blood; and our composers show forth the _blase_ impudence, the shameless sensuality of the age in music which fairly bewilders the moral and aesthetic feelings of the great and small world, or heats the fevered blood to madness.

"It cannot remain so. It is impossible; a nation cannot continue to dance before the golden calf and sacrifice to Moloch. Either it will be overwhelmed in the flood of its sins, or it must cling to the saving Ararat of honest, manly, and middle-cla.s.s virtue. G.o.d grant that our people may have strength for the latter. There are times when I despair of it."

The President leant back and closed his eyes. Did he wish to break off the conversation? Was he too much exhausted to pursue it further? At any rate, Reinhold did not venture to express the thoughts with which his heart was full. Each sat silent in his corner. The last lights of the town had long disappeared. Over the broad, dark plain, through which the train rushed, lay a light covering of snow, from which the woods rose up gloomily. Above, in the darkening sky, sparkled and shone, in countless numbers, the eternal stars.

Reinhold's eyes were gazing upwards. How often had he so gazed from the deck of his s.h.i.+p on stormy winter nights with an anxious, fearful heart! And his heart had again beat high with courage, if only one of the loved and trusted lights illuminated his lonely path. And now, when they all beamed upon him, those silver stars--and greater, mightier than all, the star of his love--now, should he lose courage? Never! The storm might come--it would find him ready; it would find him at his post.

BOOK V.

CHAPTER I.

Dinner had been over an hour at Castle Warnow. Frau von Wallbach, Elsa, and Count Golm, who had been invited to dinner, were sitting in the drawing-room round the hearth, on which but a small fire was burning.

Although only just the end of February, the day had been wonderfully sultry. Francois even had to open the window, and it was not to be wondered at that the Baroness should have been seized with one of her bad headaches at dinner, and directly they got up from the table should have begged leave to withdraw. Carla had gone to put on her habit, not wis.h.i.+ng to lose the opportunity of riding once more, escorted by several gentlemen. Herr von Strummin, who had paid a neighbourly morning visit and remained to the early country dinner, now wished, or was obliged, to return home, and had gone to see after the horses.

Count Golm, who had really intended to spend the evening at Warnow, now thought it would be better, in consideration of the Baroness's indisposition, to return to Golm after the ride without again dismounting, and at once took leave of the ladies.

He had hoped that Elsa, to whom he had addressed himself, would have protested, at least with some polite phrase, which he might have accepted as genuine.

But Elsa was silent, and Frau von Wallbach with difficulty concealed a fit of yawning, as she leaned back in her arm-chair, and with her hand before her mouth, seemed to be making a minute inspection of the ceiling.

The Count bit his lip.