Clear the Track! Part 39

Eckardstein had a new master. Count Conrad had lain eight days in the family vault, and his younger brother had taken the reins of authority.

That young officer, who had hitherto known no other home than in barracks save that spring, when he had paid only a short visit to his ancestral halls, now suddenly saw himself confronted by quite a new task, and placed in entirely new circ.u.mstances. It was certainly fortunate for him, that he had at his side his uncle and former guardian, who was himself a landed proprietor, and now prolonged his stay, in order to support his nephew both with advice and by action.

The gray, foggy weather of the last weeks had been followed by a mild autumnal day. The suns.h.i.+ne lay bright upon the extensive forests that stretched between Odensburg and Eckardstein, belonging, however, for the most part, to the latter domain, for in Odensburg the woods had had to give way constantly to the great industrial establishments, that had continued to spread from year to year. Only a hunting-ground of moderate dimensions and a forester's preserve remained.

Upon one of the woodland paths Count Victor and Herr von Stettin were walking along. They had been inspecting the condition of the forests and had now started on their return to the Castle.

They were about to cross the public road, that here led through the middle of the woods, when, an open carriage rolled rapidly by, in which sat two ladies in deep mourning. The younger turned with an expression of joyful surprise when she perceived the young Count, and upon her speaking a few words to the coachman the carriage stopped.

"Oh, Count Victor, I am very glad to see you again--if the occasion had only not been such a melancholy one!"

Victor stepped up to the carriage-door with a low bow, but looked as if he would rather have paid his respects from a distance. He only touched lightly the little hand that was cordially extended to him, and there was a perceptible reserve in his words as he answered:

"Yes indeed, a very melancholy occasion--but allow me, ladies, to introduce my uncle, Herr von Stettin--Fraulein Maia Dernburg--Fraulein Friedberg."

"Properly, I have only to renew an old acquaintance," said Stettin, smiling, as he likewise drew near. "Years ago when I was on a visit at Eckardstein, I used to see Fraulein Dernburg, but of the child of those days, indeed, a young lady has grown up who may not remember me."

"Only dimly, at least, Herr von Stettin, but so much the more plainly do I remember all the glad hours that I have pa.s.sed at Eckardstein, with Count Victor and Eric----" The young girl's eyes suddenly filled with tears as she p.r.o.nounced her brother's name. "Ah, death has invaded our household too! You know, I suppose, Victor, when and how our poor Eric died?"

"I have heard the particulars," said the young Count softly, "and have bitterly felt how much I lost in the friend of my youth. His widow remains at Odensburg, for the present, I learn."

"Oh, certainly, we could not let her leave us! Eric loved Cecilia so dearly! She lives with us."

"And--Baron von Wildenrod?" Victor put this question quite irrelevantly; his eyes at the same time being fastened upon the young girl's countenance with a look of intense anxiety. She blushed deeply.

"Herr von Wildenrod?" she repeated with embarra.s.sment. "He is also at Odensburg."

"And stays there, I presume?"

"I believe so," said Maia with a singular sense of oppression that she could not control, and which seemed altogether irrational. What was there against it, if her youthful playmate should guess to-day, what was no longer to be kept secret? But why did he look at her, in general, so coldly and so reproachfully? What was the matter with him?

Herr von Stettin, who, meanwhile, had been talking with Fraulein Friedberg, now turned again to the others; a few more questions were asked, a few more pieces of information exchanged, then Victor--who seemed strangely impatient to move on--closed the interview with the remark:

"I am afraid, uncle, that we are detaining the ladies too long. May I ask that our compliments be presented to Herr Dernburg?"

"I shall deliver your message to papa--but you will come yourself to Odensburg, will you not?"

"Certainly, if it is possible," declared the young Count in a tone that betrayed the impossibility of such an occurrence. He bowed and retired, the ladies returned his salutation, and the next minute the carriage was rolling away.

"That Maia Dernburg has developed into a charming girl!" said Stettin.

"It strikes me that it would be to your advantage to be a little less formal than you were just now. I think you used to be an intimate friend of her brother!"

Victor did not answer, and he cast down his eyes before the searching glance of his uncle, who now paused in his walk.

"I have long since remarked that something was preying on your mind,"

said he--"something that has altered your whole being. What has gone wrong with you? Be candid, Victor, and maybe your fatherly friend can advise and help you."

"You cannot help me," gloomily declared the young lord, "but I will confess to you--it may lighten the load on my heart.--You know the ground of dissension between Conrad and me. At times Conrad was hard upon me, and finally made his a.s.sistance, that I absolutely needed, dependent upon one condition. He planned a union between Maia Dernburg and me, that should henceforth lift me above care, and I--well, I was irritated, embittered, I wanted to be rid of that galling dependence at any price--and I acquiesced. I came here, saw Maia again, and then all was over with calculation and sordid considerations of any kind--for I fell ardently in love with the sweet girl the very first time we met.

And then--then I was punished severely enough, for having once calculated."

"You were rejected? Impossible! The young girl awhile ago was as cordial and unconstrained in her manners as possible."

"Maia knows nothing of my proposing to address her; it did not even come to a declaration. Conrad's plan was reported to her father in the most hateful manner. He took me to task about it, and as I could not and would not deny the truth, he treated my courts.h.i.+p as a speculation of the basest sort, myself as a fortune-hunter. He said the most unfeeling things to me----" Victor clinched his teeth at the bare recollection. "Excuse me from saying any more."

"So that is the way the matter stands?" said Stettin reflectively. "To be sure, what cares this proud industrial prince for a Count Eckardstein! Well, do not look so desperate though, my boy; circ.u.mstances are entirely different from what they were six months ago. Providence meanwhile has made you lord of Eckardstein, and you have it in your power, by a renewal of your courts.h.i.+p, to prove to that old hard-head the purity of your motives."

"I cannot get my own consent to do so--never! Maia is lost to me now and forever."

"Do not be so rash, please! A few harsh words can always be borne with from a future father-in-law, especially when he has not been altogether wrong in the matter. If your pride forbids the making of any advance, then let me take the initiatory steps. I shall have a talk with Dernburg."

"Just to have it announced to you, with polite regret, that his daughter is engaged to Baron von Wildenrod?" said Victor bitterly. "We may as well spare ourselves that mortification!"

"What are you thinking of? Wildenrod is in his forties and Fraulein Dernburg----"

"Oh, he has some demoniacal power of enchantment, and knows how to use it. I am convinced that the insinuation which so infuriated Dernburg against me originated with him. I was in his way, he was already basing his calculations upon Maia's fortune. And Maia has not remained indifferent to him; already they are everywhere talking of an engagement, and just now I gained certainty as to the state of her affections. Maia betrayed herself--I have nothing more to hope for."

The desperation of the young man plainly showed how deep was the pa.s.sion for his young playmate that stirred in his heart.

Stettin had become very serious.

"That would certainly be Wildenrod's master-stroke," said he, with knitted brow. "So, it was not enough for him to share his sister's portion, but he must needs win the Odensburg millions for himself!

There is still time for opening Herr Dernburg's eyes--his daughter shall not become the prey of this adventurer."

"An adventurer! Baron von Wildenrod!"

"He became so when fortune and splendor deserted his house. Perhaps fate had as much to do with it as guilt--never mind! He has forfeited the right to connect himself with an honorable family."

"And were you aware of this that time at Nice, and did you keep silence?" asked the young Count with bitter reproach in his tone.

"Was I to turn informer? And for the sake of whom? What right had I to force myself upon the confidence of a strange family? At that time what were these Dernburgs to me? One does not expose to public odium the son of a man at whose house you had been received as a friend for long years, without stringent necessity--and in this case I refrained."

"But you might have warned Eric in some way!"

"No warning would have availed at that period. If Eric had wanted to see--the double part that his future brother-in-law played was known all through Nice: I was not the only knowing one. But he walked blindly into the snare spread for him. But comfort yourself. Now when I know how close to your heart his sister is, no consideration shall hinder his exposure."

"Yes, Maia must be protected from this man, cost what it will!" cried Victor impetuously. "Uncle, I have concealed nothing from you, now; be as candid towards me! Who and what is this Wildenrod?"

"You shall learn," said Stettin gravely. "But we cannot discuss such things here, in the open woods. In ten minutes we shall be in the Castle, where we can talk farther on the subject."

CHAPTER XIX.

"OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, ON WITH THE NEW.----"

Maia and her companion, meanwhile, had continued their ride. Their destination was the railroad station, whither they went to bring home Frau von Ringstedt, who had repaired to Berlin, to prepare the family residence there for occupation during the winter. Dernburg's re-election had been expected with such certainty, that it had been considered in making their household arrangements. Now, whether they should go at all to Berlin was questionable, and the old lady was returning, for the present, to Odensburg.

"What was the matter with Count Victor to-day?" said Maia thoughtfully.