Hammer and Anvil Part 42

"I am strong whenever duty calls," cried the born Kippenreiter, drawing Frau von Zehren away with her.

"That is a grand expression!" sighed Fraulein Duff. "Happy he who can say that of himself!" and the pale governess shook her yellow locks in a dejected way, then turned her dim eyes on me, and lisped:

"Richard--ah, just as in the old story! Alas that the Blondel is wanting! But do not despair; faithfully seek, and thou shalt find at last; that is an immortal truth."

"How are you, Fraulein Duff?" I asked, merely to say something.

"And still this charming quality of taking an interest in the welfare of others, with all his own misfortunes! That is beautiful! that is great!" whispered the governess. "I must, indeed I must, make an attempt to creep into your heart----"

She laid the tips of three fingers upon my arm and pointed shyly with her parasol in the direction which the company, who had now left the place under the plane-trees, had taken.

"And how do you live here?" she again whispered, as we descended into the garden. "But why need I ask--calm and free from care as William Tell. Life here is an idyll. Do not talk to me of a prison! The whole world is a prison; no one knows that better than I."

"I should have thought, Fraulein Duff, that the education of so charming a creature----"

"Yes, she is charming," replied the pale lady, with a flush of real emotion, "lovely as a May morning, but you can understand--the undisturbed happiness of life--that this child should have such a----"

She looked cautiously around, and then continued in a hollow voice:

"Only think! he calls her Hermann, and asks three times a day why she is not a-- _Fi donc!_ I cannot utter it. Oh, it lacerates my heart that such rough hands should clutch the delicate chords of this virgin soul!

The world loves to blacken whatever is bright and fair; who knows not that? but at least her own father--but I am the last who should complain of him. He has--you are a n.o.ble soul, Carlos; I cast myself upon your breast--he has awakened hopes in me which would render giddy a soul less strong than mine. To acquire a million is great; to throw it away is G.o.dlike--and to be the mother of this child, I often think, must be heavenly; but what will you say to my always talking of myself?

what will you say to your satirical friend?"

"My satirical friend?"

Fraulein Duff stepped a pace backward, shaded her eyes from the rays of the evening sun with her transparent hand, and said with a coquettish smile:

"Carlos, you are playing false. Confess now you want to escape me by this serpentine turning. There is but one here to whom this description applies, but he is a giant--in intellect! It is immense--sublime! it really overcame me! And you call such a giant your friend, and yet complain that you are in a prison! Oh, my dear friend, who would not willingly exchange his freedom for your imprisonment, to win such a friend as this!"

Fraulein Duff pressed her handkerchief to her eyelids, and then gave a loud shriek as she felt herself seized fast from behind, and turning saw Hermine's little spaniel, who had fastened his sharp teeth in the skirt of her dress, and looked at her with a malevolent expression in his great black eyes. At the same moment the whole company came up, so that the governess had suddenly quite a concourse of spectators to her combat with the little long-haired monster. I endeavored to release her, and only made matters worse; Zerlina would not let go, and shook and tore with all her strength; the boys pretended to help me, and secretly urged her on; no one could keep from laughing, and the commerzienrath literally roared. Nothing remained for Fraulein Duff, under these circ.u.mstances, but to swoon away, and fall into the arms of Doctor Snellius, who just then came up, attracted by the noise.

"Do not be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen," said the commerzienrath, "this happens three times every day."

"Barbarian!" murmured the fainting damsel, with pale lips, and raised herself from the arms of the doctor, who, despite the sublimity attributed to him, wore at this moment a very sheepish look. Fraulein Duff strove to cast, through the tears that dimmed her water-blue eyes, an annihilating look at the mocker, declined the doctor's proffered arm with the words, "I thank you, but I need no a.s.sistance to the house,"

and hastened away, holding her handkerchief to her face, while Zerlina capered around her little mistress with joyous barkings and triumphant flouris.h.i.+ngs of her bushy tail.

"I think she will lose her wits one of these days," said the commerzienrath, as a sort of explanation of the scene which had just occurred.

"So much the more should you spare her, especially in the presence of others," said the superintendent.

I had seized this opportunity to make my escape from the company, and was wandering about in the farther walks of the garden, when I saw Paula and Hermine approaching at a little distance. Paula had laid her hand on the little maid's shoulder, who, in her turn, had wound one arm round her cousin's waist. Hermine was looking up in Paula's face, and speaking with great animation, while Paula smiled in a friendly manner, and said from time to time something which seemed to call forth vehement opposition from the little maid.

The lovely child of ten years, with her glossy brown hair, and her great sparkling blue eyes, her bright little face beaming with animation, and the slender maiden of fifteen, with the gentle smile on her delicate lips--both these beautiful figures illuminated by the ruddy glow of an autumn sunset--how often has this picture recurred to my memory in later years!

And now they caught sight of me. I heard Paula say: "Ask him then yourself," and Hermine answered, "And so I will!"

She let Paula go, came springing up to me, stood before me looking fearlessly at me with her great eyes, and asked:

"Can you conquer lions, or can you not?"

"I think not," I answered; "but why?"

"Yes or no?" she asked, giving the least possible stamp of her little foot.

"Well then, no!"

"But you ought to," she replied, with an indignant look. "I wish it."

"If you wish it, I will do my very best, the first chance that offers."

"Do you see, Paula," said the little maid, turning to her with a triumphant look. "I told you so! I told you so!" and she clapped her hands and sprang about like a little Bacchante, and then ran scampering over the flower-beds, Zerlina following her with loud barkings.

"What did the child mean with her curious question?" I asked Paula.

"It seems that Fraulein Duff keeps comparing you to Richard the Lion-heart," replied Paula, with a smile.

"With Richard the Lion-heart--me?"

"Yes, because you are blond, and so tall and strong, and a prisoner; so Hermine has taken it into her head that you must be able to conquer lions. Whether she is in earnest or in jest, I doubt whether she knows herself. But I wanted to thank you for joining us in the garden to-day.

It was kind of you; for I could see that you were not at ease in the company."

"And you, yourself?"

"I must not ask the question. They are our relations."

"Of course that excuses everything."

I said this not without some bitterness, with a reference to her friends.h.i.+p to Arthur; but I felt ashamed of myself when she raised her sweet, gentle eyes to my face and innocently asked:

"What do you mean?"

Happily I was spared the necessity of an answer, for Doctor Snellius came up at the moment, calling "Fraulein Paula! Fraulein Paula!" while he was yet at a distance.

"I must go in," said Paula; "there are many things to see to; and I beg you do not look so angry. You have been of late not so friendly as usual; are you displeased with me?"

I had not the courage to answer "Yes!" when I looked into the earnest fade that was lifted to mine.

"Who could be that?" I said. "You are a thousand times better than all of us."

"That she is, G.o.d bless her!" said Doctor Snellius, who had caught the last words.

He looked after her as she hastened away, and a deep and sorrowful shade pa.s.sed over his grotesque face. Then with both hands he draped his hat over his bald skull down to his very ears, and said in a tone of irritation:

"The devil take it! She is far too good; she is so good that she can only meet with trouble. The time is past--if; there ever was such a time--when all things worked together for good to the good man. One must be bad--thoroughly bad; one must flatter, lie, cheat, trip up his neighbor, regard the whole world as his private inheritance which by neglect has fallen into alien hands, and which is to be won back again.

But to do this one must be brought up to it, and how are we brought up?

As if life were one of Gessner's idylls. Modesty, love of our neighbors, love of truth! Let any one try it with this outfit! Is the commerzienrath modest? Does he love his neighbor? Does he love the truth? Not one whit And the man is a millionaire, and his neighbors pull off caps when they meet him, and fame proclaims him one of the n.o.blest of human-kind, because from time to time he tosses a _thaler_ that will not go into his crammed purse, into a poor man's hat. But you will say he has his punishment in his own breast. Much of it! He considers himself a thoroughly good man, a splendid fellow, full of humor, and when at night he lies down in his bed to snore his eight hours, he says, 'This you have honestly earned.' Away with your starving, hectic honesty!"

"I did not say a word in its favor, doctor."