Villa Eden Part 172

Eric escorted Bella to the villa, but he could not utter a word.

Fortunately, Fraulein Perini came up, and he could hand Bella over to her. He hastened to Manna and informed her in a few hasty words that Bella had arrived. She looked up, half roguishly, half pitifully, and asked:--

"Is it true that you once loved her?"

"Yes and no. Are you jealous?"

"No, for I know that you have never loved, never; you can never have loved any one but me. Come, Eric, let us now go up to her, hand in hand, and acknowledge at once what we are to each other, and also before the world. Let us have no single moment of deception or concealment. I have the courage to confess all, and I am happy to have it to confess. Regard to the world must not deprive us of a moment, of one single moment, in which we can see each other, freely take each other's hand, and appear before the world, as we are in reality, one."

Eric had great difficulty in bringing Manna to use foresight and prudence; he desired her, as the first token of their relation as husband and wife, to conform to his will.

Manna wept, and said peevishly:--

"Very well; I will obey you, but I'll see no one."

Eric tried every means to induce her to see Bella, but she refused, saying:--

"Can you, the pure, the good, allow me to be so debased for an hour?

How am I to endure it, how am I to conduct myself, if she salutes me as her sister-in-law?"

Eric told her that Bella wanted him to go at once to Wolfsgarten, in order to spend with Clodwig these few days in which he was unsettled.

And when he pointed out the abnormal position of a dependant, Manna tenderly stroked his face, saying:--

"You good man, you have to serve; yes, I know now what this is for you, the pure, lofty soul, whom all ought to serve. Ah, how much have you, dear heart, been obliged to bear! But it is well, for otherwise we should not have become acquainted with one another. Come, I shall be able to do it. I will make myself do it."

She went to receive Bella, and she had self-control enough to do it in an unexceptionable manner.

Eric soon went away, and Bella was amazed to see the glance with which Manna followed him. Manna was desperate, talking much and in an unusually lively way, so that Bella was puzzled afresh.

The Major was now announced; he came to congratulate Manna, and he did it in his cordial and clumsy way.

"Do favor us with congratulations this evening, Herr Major, after my brother has returned."

Manna turned away.

Bella had seen enough; it suddenly flashed across her: She loves Eric.

But no, that cannot be! She offered to embrace and kiss Manna, but Manna begged her, with tears, to leave her in quiet to-day.

Bella stood up erect and looked at Manna; it was the Medusa-look, but Manna bore it quietly. Without another word Bella strode out of the house, and left the villa. What she thought, what she meditated, who can tell? She herself did not know, and no one at the villa was at all anxious about it.

After Bella had gone, the Major stepped up to Manna, who was standing motionless, and said:--

"You have done bravely, child--you've stood fire well--that's good! You shall have a backer in me, and in Fraulein Milch too; and if they bother you here in the house, you'll come to us; be easy, you're not all alone in the world. You'll ask her pardon, you'll find out--don't speak--you've a backer in me--and she told me to come here, she'd go to the Professorin; she knows where there's need. I only wish when you've been nine and forty years together you may be to one another what we are--you'll know--you'll have your eyes opened. Very well! Some people can hold out bravely, she's done so. Very well--I haven't blabbed any thing,--have I blabbed?"

Manna smiled amidst her tears at the odd, incomprehensible, and yet affectionate speech of the good Major.

Whilst Manna and the Major were standing together, Bella went through the park.

Hate, deadly hate was excited within her, and her eye seemed to be seeking something on which to vent her rage. What can I destroy here?

what can I do to make people angry? Here are pyramids of flowers--if I should throw them all in a heap, if I should nip off the choice plants?--that would be childis.h.!.+ She looked round for something in vain.

She had forced herself to appear friendly, but the constraint was evident. She especially hated Eric and his mother; there was a different tone all through the neighborhood, and she had nothing to do with it; these people had given it. Who are they? sermonizing pedagogues,--nothing but eternal second-hand traders in sublime thoughts! And she, Bella, the brilliant, the admired, who could once confer happiness by a single word, she stood in the background! But they must be off, these parasites, and they should be made to feel who they are, and they should know who has found them out, who has demolished them!

She thought about Eric, about the Mother, about the Aunt, as if looking everywhere for some hook by which to grapple them and dash them to pieces.

She went restlessly to and fro several times between the villa and the green cottage, and at last went into the Professorin's. Here she met Fraulein Milch.

Stop! this is just the person! she shall be the hammer to hit the others.

When Bella entered, Fraulein Milch got up, bowed very politely, and was about to go.

"Do remain," urged the Professorin. "You are already acquainted with the Countess Wolfsgarten?"

"I have the honor."

Bella looked at the modest person whom she was desiring to demolish, and then said:--

"Ah, yes, I recollect. The Major's housekeeper, if I do not mistake?"

"Fraulein Milch is my friend," interposed the Professorin.

"Your friend? I was not aware of that. You are very kind."

"Fraulein Milch is my friend, and is my n.o.ble a.s.sistant in the work of charity."

"Ah, yes, you peddle out the money of Herr Sonnenkamp."

It was uncertain whether this was addressed to both the ladies present, or solely to Fraulein Milch.

Bella saw how the Professorin's face quivered, and she felt greatly encouraged. Now she had found out the point to begin at. This Professorin had inflicted a wound upon her by means of her son--no, not that, but she had wounded her personally, she had a.s.sumed a first part that did not belong to her.

And Bella continued:--

"This wasteful expenditure on the abandoned, on notorious tipplers, will shortly cease."

The Professorin now requested Fraulein Milch to leave her; she had never kissed her yet, but to-day she embraced her affectionately and gave her a kiss. She wanted to calm her wounded feelings, to make her some amends, and show the countess how highly she esteemed the person she had so rudely attacked, who appeared so defenceless, or who did not choose to defend herself. After Fraulein Milch had gone, Bella said,--

"I cannot conceive how you can be so intimate with this person; you dishonor thereby all who stand in relations of friends.h.i.+p with you."

"I think that any one whom I esteem, and whom I unite to myself in friends.h.i.+p, is placed by this fact in a position of respect, and I have a right to expect that every one will show it."

"Of course, of course, so long as you are here. But if you leave the vicinity before long----"

"Leave the vicinity?"

"The work here is now accomplished, and--"

The Professorin had to sit down. Bella's eyes flashed; she had attained what she wished; she had torn off all the tinsel from these people, who were forever making a parade of spirituality, and decking themselves out with sublime ideas, and now here they were naked and helpless.