The Breaking of the Storm Volume I Part 5

"I do not understand anything about that, sir," answered the farmer; "the General will know more about it. For my part I only know that it would be very difficult to build a harbour in our sand, which is blown by the wind here to-day and there to-morrow, and that we country people and the sailors and fishermen need no harbour, whether for war or peace; and that the best and only thing for us would be just a breakwater, and a certain amount of regular dredging. Railroad, harbour, ah! yes, they will swallow up many a tree that will be cut down for them and turned into money, and many an acre of sand which is not worth sixpence now, and many an acre of good land too, on which now some poor man drags on his life in the sweat of his brow, who will then have to take his staff in his hand, and set out for America, if there is still room there for the like of us."

The man's rough voice trembled as he spoke the last words, and he pa.s.sed the back of his sunburnt hand across his forehead. The President looked at the General again, but this time not inquiringly as before.

The General rose from his seat, walked a few paces about the room, and went to the window which he opened.

"The messenger is a long time," said he.

"I will go and look after him," said the farmer, leaving the room.

The General shut the window, and turned quickly to the President:

"Do you know, I wish we had not sent to Golmberg. Our visit there, however involuntary it may be, puts us under an obligation to the Count, and--"

The General rubbed his high forehead that was already getting bald at the temples, and angrily pulled his thick grey moustache; the President shrugged his shoulders.

"I am in a much more ticklish position," said he.

"It is different with you," answered the General; "you are acquainted with him, on friendly terms: you have been so, at any rate. And you cannot altogether avoid intercourse with him; business must bring you constantly together; this is only one instance amongst many. I, on the other hand--"

The President smiled.

"My dear General," said he, "you speak as if intercourse with the Count were a serious matter in itself! Confess now, it is not the stupid business of the railway and harbour that have set you against the Count, but the conversation of the worthy farmer."

"Are the man's complaints unfounded?" asked the General, turning on his heel.

The President again shrugged his shoulders.

"That is as you choose to consider it. The Count might perhaps do more for his tenants, but we must not be too hard upon him. The property was heavily embarra.s.sed when he came into it as a very young man. To retain it at all it was necessary to raise the rents as high as possible. He was not in the happy position of your late brother-in-law, who allowed himself to be guided rather by the impulses of his kind heart than by economic considerations in his leases. The Warnow property falls in next Easter, does it not? You will be obliged then, as one of the trustees, to concern yourself more particularly about the condition of affairs here. Who knows whether this day year you will lend so willing an ear to the complaints of people whose discontent with everything has become a second nature?"

"I shall then, as I have hitherto invariably done, abstain as far as possible from all direct interference in the matter," answered the General hastily. "You know that I have only once inspected the property, as was my duty when, six and twenty years ago, Herr von Wallbach, Councillor Schieler, and I had to undertake the care of the estate after my brother-in-law's death, and since then I have left everything in Schieler's hands. I have never since been here, and now----"

"You are here," cried the President, "by the strangest accident, undoubtedly; but a wise man, and a soldier too, must allow for strange accidents in his calculations. I think the rain has stopped, and if we cannot remain here, it is high time to mount our cart. I had almost said the scaffold."

The President put aside the rug which he had carefully spread over his knees, rose from the corner of the little sofa, and came up to the General at the window. At this moment the yard-dog began to bark furiously, the farmer's little terrier rushed yelping out at the housedoor; two bright lights appeared between the outhouses, followed soon by others, and the trampling of horses and rolling of wheels sounded on the uneven pavement.

"It is the Count himself, I will wager!" cried the President, forgetting all the General's scruples and considerations at the joyful sight of the carriage. "Thank heaven! we shall not at any rate be tortured! My dear Count, how very kind of you!"

And he cordially stretched out both hands to the gentleman who quickly came in at the door which the farmer opened for him.

CHAPTER VI.

The Count responded no less cordially to the President's greeting.

"Kind!" he exclaimed, holding fast the other's hands; "and kind of me?

Why it is kind indeed, wonderfully kind; but of you, of all of you, to be cast here on the heights of Golmberg, to be thrown upon this most inhospitable sh.o.r.e--inhospitable because no creature ever comes to us, or can come from that side. And now may I ask you to be so kind as to introduce me to General von Werben?"

He turned towards the General, who answered his extremely courteous bow with some reserve.

"It is not the first time that I have had the pleasure," said he; "I had the honour formerly at Versailles----"

"I could not have believed that General von Werben would have remembered so insignificant a matter," cried the Count, "a poor knight of St. John!"

"Our meeting occurred on a very remarkable day," said the General; "on the 18th of January."

"The day of the proclamation of the German Empire!" interrupted the President, to whom the General's last remark, and the tone in which he made it, seemed of doubtful courtesy; "and here comes our heroine!

Fraulein Elsa von Werben, here is our deliverer in the time of need: Count von Golm."

"I am highly honoured," said the Count.

Elsa, who had just entered the room, answered only by a bow.

"Now we are all a.s.sembled," cried the President, rubbing his hands.

"Captain Schmidt is still missing," said Elsa, looking beyond the Count to her father.

"I am only afraid that we shall put the Count's patience to too great a trial," answered the General in a tone of annoyance.

"I put myself absolutely at your disposal," said the Count; "but may I ask what the question is?"

"There is another gentleman with us, a captain in the merchant service," said the General.

"Whom I mentioned to you," interrupted the President. "He went out again after our arrival here to look after the steamer. I almost think that he must have lost his way among the sandhills, or that some accident has happened to him."

"Some men with lanterns should be sent after him," exclaimed the Count.

"I will give the order at once."

And he moved towards the door.

"You need not trouble yourself," cried Elsa; "it has already been done at my request."

"Oh!" said the Count, with a smile; "indeed!"

The blood rose to Elsa's cheek. As she came into the room, and the Count turned quickly towards her--with his regular features and clear bright colouring, set off by a fair moustache--she had thought him good-looking, even handsome; the smile made him positively ugly. Why should he smile? She drew herself up to her full height.

"Captain Schmidt rendered us the most essential service during our pa.s.sage; we have to thank him that we are here in safety. It seems to me only our duty not to leave him in the lurch now."

"But, my dear madam, I am quite of your opinion!" said the Count, and smiled again.

The veins in Elsa's temples were throbbing. She cast a reproachful glance at her father. Why did he leave her to defend a cause which after all was his? She did not know that her father was extremely vexed at the turn the conversation had taken, and was only doubting whether he could not use the Captain's absence as a pretext to avoid for himself and his daughter at least the Count's hospitality. She did not hear either with what marked emphasis he agreed to the necessity for waiting still some time longer, as she had left the room after her last words.

In the little entrance, in which through the wide open door the light from the carriage lamps now brightly shone, she stood still and pressed her slender hands against her brow. What had come over her so suddenly?

Why had she been so eager? To provoke a stranger's smile by her over-eagerness, to draw upon herself the suspicion of taking a too lively interest in the person, when it was only the cause she cared about, only that a debt of courtesy, to say nothing of grat.i.tude, might be paid? Supposing the people who seemed to be just leaving the yard with their lanterns should not find him? How long might she still wait?

When ought she to say, We must start? Or, supposing he returned only to say that he was not thinking of going with them, and that childish scene had been acted for nothing? For the third time, and now with right and reason, the Count might smile.

"That I could not bear!" said Elsa, and stamped her foot.