The Breaking of the Storm Volume I Part 24

And certainly they were in a very disagreeable crowd. A regiment with its noisy band was marching down the Friedrichstra.s.se, cutting across under the trees. The stream of pa.s.sers-by stood back on both sides, especially near the carriage. Police, mounted and on foot, tried to keep order amongst them with right goodwill, and to keep back the crowds which occasionally expressed their impatience loudly.

Even Ferdinanda seemed to be impatient at the long stoppage. She looked at her watch. "Half-past twelve already," she murmured; "we are losing precious time." At last came the tail of the battalion, just as the head of another left the Friedrichstra.s.se, with its band playing, and the crowds let free pushed and struggled vehemently against each other in the small s.p.a.ce left between.

"Go on! go on, Johann!" cried Ferdinanda, with an eagerness which Reinhold could only attribute to the nervousness she might have felt.

They only came out of one crowd into another.

In the first great square room at the Exhibition, the so-called clock-room, the sight-seeing crowds were so thickly packed that Reinhold, who had Ferdinanda on his arm, saw no possibility of getting any further.

"It is not so full in the next room," said Ferdinanda; "but we must wait a little. They always take care to hang good pictures here. We will go separately, it is always easier to get on. How do you like this beautiful Andreas Achenbach? Is not that perfect? Wonderful! in his best and grandest style! Sky and sea--all in shades of grey, and yet how sharply the different bits stand out. And how well he knows how to bring life into what might seem monotonous by introducing that red flag in the background on the mast of a schooner, and here in the foreground by the flickering light upon the planks of the bridge as the water streams over it. Masterly! quite masterly!"

Reinhold had listened to Ferdinanda's spirited description with the greatest enjoyment. "She can talk about that," thought he. "Well, she certainly is an artist. I can see it all, but could not express it, and should not be able to say why it is so beautiful."

He stood there lost in contemplation of the picture. "What would be the captain's next man[oe]uvre? He certainly must tack to get before the wind, but he was about a s.h.i.+p's-length too near the bridge for that: a puzzling situation!" thought Reinhold.

He turned to express his opinion to Ferdinanda, and very nearly spoke to a little fat old lady who had taken Ferdinanda's place, and with her gla.s.s to her eyes was examining the picture together with about a dozen other people, who stood round in a half circle. Reinhold made a fruitless effort to get through them and to join Ferdinanda, whom he saw at some little distance talking to one or two ladies so busily that she never once turned round, and for the moment had evidently forgotten him. "Another advantage of being separate which I will also make use of," thought Reinhold. A picture close by caught his attention--another sea-piece by Hans Gude, so said the catalogue--which pleased him almost better than the first had done. To the left was the open sea, where a large steamer lay at anchor; on the sh.o.r.e, which curved round in a great bay, were to be seen in the distance amongst the sandhills a few fishermen's huts, out of whose chimneys smoke was rising; between the little village and the s.h.i.+p was a rowing-boat, while another quite in the foreground was sailing towards the sh.o.r.e. The evening sky was overcast with heavy clouds above the sandhills, so that the smoke could hardly rise; only to the extreme west of the horizon over the open sea was a small streak of dull red. The night would be stormy, and a sharp breeze was already springing up and blowing the flag of the steamer straight out, and on the bare sands in the foreground the breakers were coming in heavily. Reinhold could not tear himself away from the picture. It was so exactly like that evening when he had steered the boat from the steamer to the sh.o.r.e. There in front the two servants had packed themselves, here sat the President, one hand on the side, the other clutching at the seat, not daring to pick up the covering which had fallen from his knees; here sat the General, with the collar of his coat turned up and his cap pulled far over his face, staring gloomily before him; and here, close to the man who was steering, she sat, gazing out so bravely upon the grey waste of waters and the foaming breakers in front of her, and then looking up so frankly, so happily at him with the dear brown eyes! Reinhold had forgotten the crowd around him, had forgotten Ferdinanda, and did not even see the picture; he only saw those dear brown eyes!

"Will they manage to get to land without a compa.s.s, Captain Schmidt?"

asked a voice close to him.

The brown eyes were looking at him as he had just seen them in imagination, frank and happy; and the smile, too, was happy which played over cheek and lip as, without the slightest embarra.s.sment, she gave him her hand as to an old friend.

"When did you arrive?"

"Yesterday evening."

"Then certainly you have had no time to inquire for us and to claim your compa.s.s. Am I not honesty itself?"

"What use would it be to you?"

"Who can tell? You told me I had a great talent for navigation. But let us get out of this crowd and look for my brother, whom I have just lost. Are you alone?"

"I am with my cousin."

"Then you must introduce me to her. I saw her 'Shepherd Boy'

downstairs; it is charming! I have only just heard from my brother that it is your cousin who is the sculptor, and that we are neighbours, and all about it. Where is she?"

"I have been looking for her in vain."

"Now, that is delightful! Two lost children in a forest of people--I am dreadfully frightened!"

She was not a bit frightened, Reinhold could see that. She was in her own world, and was as much at home in it as he was at sea. How cleverly and gracefully she slipped past two ladies who would not make way for her! How carelessly she nodded to the enormously tall officer who made his bow to her from the farthest corner of the room over the heads of several hundred people! How will she manage to talk to Reinhold over her shoulder when he was near, as he followed her with difficulty into the small, narrow pa.s.sage where the prints and water-colours were hung.

"I saw my brother go in here," said she. "There--no, that is Herr von Saldern. Never mind, we shall find him presently--and your cousin?"

"She is not here either."

"Nor does that signify. She is as little likely to be in want of friends as I am. As we are here, let us have a little chat? Or would you rather look at the pictures? There are some very fine Pa.s.sinis here."

"I would rather talk."

"There is no better place for talking than the Exhibition during the first few days. People only come to talk and to see their friends after the long summer, when every one is away, and to examine the latest fas.h.i.+ons which the bankers' wives and daughters (we army people are not thought much of) have brought from Paris. They have an immense deal to do, and they know the pictures will not run away. My brother tells me you are going to spend the winter here?"

"A few weeks at all events."

"Then of course you will stay longer. You cannot think how amusing Berlin is in the winter--particularly for you, to whom so many circles are open. Your uncle keeps open house--so says my brother, from whom all my information comes. Artists come and go of course when the daughter of the house is an artist, and so beautiful besides! Is she really so beautiful? I am so curious. At home we are very much quieter and rather monotonous, always the same people--officers; but there are some charming men amongst them whom you would like to talk to; and amongst the ladies are several who are very nice and pretty, both married women and girls. Then Fraulein von Strummin is coming--Meta!

She swore it a thousand times at least at Golmberg, and has already written half a dozen letters on the subject. She generally writes every day, sometimes twice a day. The last was all about you."

"Now I am getting curious."

"I dare say; but I shall refrain from telling you--you men are quite conceited enough. Papa, too, thinks very highly of you; did you know that?"

"I did not know it; but I do not know anything that would make me prouder."

"Well, only yesterday evening, when Ottomar was telling us of his meeting with you, and that he had known you before in Orleans, he said what a pity it was you had not stayed in the army. You might have done it so easily, and could re-enter it even now."

"Very kind of him, Fraulein von Werben; and during the war I thought so too, and if it had gone on longer--there is no saying; but in time of peace a sub-lieutenant thirty years old! That would never do."

"True! true! But how would it be in the navy? You could rise there, and still keep to your own profession."

"I do certainly wish to remain in it," answered Reinhold, "and therefore I am thinking of accepting the proposal which President von Sanden made to me a few days ago, and which would immediately give me a command."

"A command!" exclaimed Elsa, with astonished eyes.

As superintendent of pilots.

"Oh!"

There was a tone of disappointment in the exclamation which did not escape Reinhold. He continued, smiling:

"That is to say, the superintendence of some dozen or so rough weather beaten seafaring men, and of some dozen tough weather-proof fast-sailing vessels, among which it is to be hoped there will be one or two lifeboats; a humble post, Fraulein von Werben, but not without its merits, and certainly plenty of danger; and taken for all in all, worth while for a man with no great pretensions in life, but who would willingly serve the world with his strength and talents, to give those strength and talents and anything else he may have got to it cheerfully. And I--well, I shall at all events stay in my own profession."

They were standing in a window, rather away from the stream of people who were pa.s.sing rapidly to and fro in the corridor. Elsa was leaning lightly against the window-sill, and gazing out into the street.

Reinhold doubted whether she heard what he said, till rapidly turning her head she answered with her former lively manner:

"You are right, it is your especial profession. Accept the proposal which our old friend has made you! You see you have friends in all directions. And is any special place named yet, if I may ask?"

"Yes, I should be stationed at Wissow."

"At Wissow?"

She clapped her hands together and laughed.

"In our Wissow? Now that is delightful! Then we shall be almost neighbours from Warnow and also from Strummin, if I pay my promised visit to Meta. Then we shall come and you must take us out sailing--quite far out, will you?"

"As far as you like!"

"An honest man is as good as his word! And now we really must set out on our voyage of discovery. Oh, dear! there is Princess Heinrich August with the Princesses! Those unlucky Pa.s.sinis! She has seen me already, she sees everything at a glance. I dare not go now; but----"