Villa Eden Part 218

The Banker's daughter-in-law, a lady of n.o.ble bearing, treated Eric and Roland with marked cordiality, and expressed a great desire to become acquainted with the Professorin and Manna.

Eric was surprised at being reminded of an incident that had almost pa.s.sed from his memory. This lady had heard him sing at the festival, and said how much pleasure it would give her to hear him again, as she sang a little herself: upon his saying, however, that he was not at that moment at all in the mood for singing, she at once ceased from her request, in the hope that it might, by and by, at some happier time be granted her.

As the company were rising from table, young Weidmann and the cas.h.i.+er Fa.s.sbender were announced. The host made them come in, and sit down with the party at dessert. The young men were evidently embarra.s.sed, and felt it a great favor to be thus admitted into the private life of their chief.

The gentlemen repaired to the billiard room. And the young men, as a special favor, were allowed to smoke a cigar in the house of the chief, even in his presence.

As Roland showed ho inclination to take part in the game, the Banker told him to consider himself at perfect liberty to go to his room, or to take a walk with Weidmann and Fa.s.sbender. He preferred going with the young men to his room. He returned presently, when the gentlemen, having finished their game, were sitting in familiar chat about the open fire, and with many thanks announced his resolution of entering the office for a while; only stipulating that he should not be charged with fickleness of purpose, if he did not stay long in the employ.

Far into the night, Roland talked with Eric, telling him how strange it seemed to have so much guidance and protection offered him, although he acknowledged the advantage it was to him, and the grat.i.tude he felt towards these gentlemen for it.

The next morning, the box of papers was taken to the vaults of the bank. Eric and Roland stood as in a fairy tale before all this hidden treasure. Some old recollection must have been stirred in Roland; for he suddenly said to Eric,--

"What would Claus say if he could see all this?"

He looked in amazement at Eric, standing there so tranquil and indifferent.

"Does it not impress you strongly too?" he said.

"Not at all; for what is all this treasure? From the top of a mountain, you see things of much more value than this stamped metal. Houses, fields, trees, are much more, much greater."

Roland looked disheartened. For a long time to come, he would have nothing to do but cast accounts, and watch the money market. The full life at the Villa, the mountains, the river, the drives, and Mattenheim, all seemed removed to an immeasurable distance.

Nevertheless, he remained firm.

Eric took Roland to the counting-house, where the latter was a.s.signed a place at young Weidmann's desk.

Eric staid several days; for he wished to become acquainted with Roland's a.s.sociates. He was especially pleased with the cas.h.i.+er, Fa.s.sbender's son, a young man of much discernment and youthful freshness, active in body, and vivacious in mind. He was president of the mercantile _turnverein_, and a.s.siduously cultivated the love of learning in himself and his companions.

Eric could resign the guidance of Roland to this young man with entire confidence.

He talked much with the Banker about Clodwig. The Banker was very lenient in his judgment of Bella, and could not refrain from reproaching Clodwig with having married again: he had deceived himself, and allowed Bella to be deceived; for the latter had really believed that she could find pleasure in a quiet life, and relinquish all the privileges of youth; and it was the smothered pa.s.sion for adventure which had driven her to this extreme.

Eric listened, but said little. He even felt it his duty to tell the Banker that he had got over his old zeal for imparting knowledge, and was no longer in a condition to give the total results of his thoughts and study.

The Banker considered this perfectly natural. The knowledge which const.i.tuted a man's calling, he said, was a man's capital, and ought not to be drawn upon: every man held a kind of trust fund, and the interest only should be risked and freely employed in trade.

He thought it eminently proper that Eric should now learn to be economical of himself.

On the third day, Eric returned alone to Villa Eden, promising to forward all necessary aids for Roland.

He came, as it were, out of another world; but his heart was lightened: he rejoiced at Roland's sudden resolve, and even began to consider himself no longer as a mere scholar, but as one to whom a great treasure has been intrusted which he is to care for next to truth.

The announcement of Roland's decision created great astonishment at Villa Eden.

Eric found Professor Einsiedel and Fraulein Milch at his mother's; and all gazed wonderingly at the latter when she suddenly exclaimed,--

"Roland enter the house of a Jew!" But to the inquiry what there was strange about this, she made no reply, only looking round as if bewildered.

Eric told the Professor he should now make great allowance for the rich, to whom full aspiration could scarcely be possible with their vast possessions ever in their thoughts. The safe-key in the breast pocket must, he thought, lock up something in the heart.

Manna, alone, comprehended the true grounds of Roland's strange resolve; for she said that it would not merely prove the youth's salvation to learn the management of wealth, which, after all, was only a kind of military drill, but that he evidently considered it a fortunate opportunity to be transplanted into an entirely new sphere of life.

And so it was.

Manna almost envied her brother the opportunity of doing and becoming something new. She, too, would gladly have engaged in some occupation.

A trait of Sonnenkamp's strange nature a.s.serted itself within her. She wanted to go forth into the world. She was more with the Aunt than with the Professorin, who desired, if possible, to effect a speedy and fundamental cure; while the Aunt preferred to begin by a tender fostering care.

Eric and his mother pondered much upon how best to deal with Manna's restless mood, and to satisfy her longing aspirations.

So much had come upon her at once; and her love for Eric did not seem quite to compensate her for what she had lost, since at heart she still yearned for a firm support in the Church.

Weidmann came, and with him they discussed the question of waiving all ordinary considerations, and celebrating Manna's and Eric's marriage at once.

He declared that one ought never to have recourse to marriage as a remedy, but should enter into a new phase of existence with a tranquil heart, and a new joy in existence itself.

This coincided with Eric's own secret feeling, and he said to Manna,--

"Your desire to travel, to find something outside yourself, is a perfectly natural one. You miss that great other home of yours, the church, which you could visit at any time, and come back in an altered frame of mind. You want some other human being to proffer you out of his own thought and soul, and upon const.i.tuted authority, something distinct from yourself,--something which you yourself have lost.

Instead of this, you have now to find your all at home and in yourself.

It is hard, I know; but so it must be. So long as you seek any thing without, you are not at home with yourself. Here in this place, in these rooms where such horror overwhelmed us, we must learn to compose and control ourselves. 'Stand to your post!' is the military command; and it has also a moral significance."

With such words, and more to the same effect, did Eric lighten Manna's perplexities: she embraced and thanked him for thus entering into her very soul, and freeing her from every yoke.

Quietly and serenely the days glided by, until an invitation arrived from the Justice's wife. The Professorin accepted at once; but Manna said she could not accompany her: she was not yet chastened and calm enough to mingle with the world and submit to being received with compa.s.sion.

Eric made a sign to his mother not to urge Manna; and she was left to do as she liked.

CHAPTER VII.

BITTER ALMONDS BECOME SWEET.

The Justice's wife was an object of envy in that the first coffee-party of the winter was to be at her house. It seemed hardly necessary to provide any entertainment; for who would care to eat and drink when there was so much to talk about?--of Sonnenkamp, of Bella, of the betrothal of Eric and Manna, of poor Frau Ceres, of the negro, of the Prince, of Clodwig's death. There was so much, that only a part of it could be brought into play.

At length the company a.s.sembled.

The corner of the sofa where Bella used to sit--it seemed decades ago--was shunned with a kind of superst.i.tious dread. Frau "Lay-Figure"

was so extremely fortunate as to have a story to tell about a sofa-corner. There was a physician back in the country, with a very small practice, and the sofa in his parlor had a great hole in it: so, whenever a caller came, the doctor's wife was very affable, and seated herself forthwith upon the torn place in the sofa. It was a good story enough, and Frau Lay-Figure told it well, too: and she laughed, as she generally did; for she laughed at every thing: but n.o.body else laughed very heartily.

Luckily, a stranger was now introduced; quite a distinguished personage, who now made her first appearance at the grand coffee-party.

This was the wife of the Director of the Water-works, who, in the discharge of his duties as Rhine Commissioner, had come to reside for a short time in the little town.

The Frau Directorin of the Water-works seated herself, all unconsciously, in Bella's old place.

And now they could begin.