Withered Leaves Volume I Part 10

The world lay so seemingly bright before her; she could have sung, shouted, danced, had it not been so very contrary to propriety; but she could not quite restrain her exuberant spirits.

Half-witted Kthe landed just at that moment with her father's boat; dripping with wet, she sprang upon the sh.o.r.e.

Eva liked the poor girl, in whom there was something heroic, resolute; it was painful to her that the brave child believed herself to have rescued something, while by her plunge into the sea and her skill in rowing, she had only brought a stranger's boat into the haven; and when the little one, with radiant eyes, stepped towards Eva, and with a triumphant smile, pointed to the skiff which she had rowed to the sh.o.r.e, the former embraced the girl--she was so full of her own happiness that others' misfortunes touched her doubly. Certainly, she had not considered the consequences, as the embrace had rendered her morning toilet so wet that she s.h.i.+vered with the cold damp, and her mother scoldingly bade her go home to change her clothes.

First, however, Herr von Blanden was invited to share the modest mid-day meal at the inn, as well as accompany them to the forest, on an afternoon excursion, which had been arranged with other visitors. His acceptance made her parents and Eva equally happy.

On their road home, the Regierungsrath calculated to his wife what the average revenue of the Rositten, Kulmitten and Nehren estates would be, trying to draw the correct medium of income between favourable and unfavourable years. He knew the nature of the soil, the number of acres; the result worked out in ponderous figures was received by the Frau Rthin with a well-pleased smile.

Eva had hastened on in front; yet her parents' conversation was confined to income, taxes, and other questions of national economy. No discussion was needed, for they understood one another.

Suddenly Frau Rthin stayed her winged steps; daring hopes and plans had lent a more lively movement to her usually majestic gait; but a rising thought suddenly paralysed it in a most disturbing manner.

"Gracious heavens!" cried she, as she supported herself with her parasol against an old oak trunk.

"What is the matter with you, Miranda?" asked her husband anxiously.

"We have invited him--and have quite forgotten the one thing!"

"The poor dinner, do you mean? Oh, people are used to that at the seaside; Spartan fare is the rule here!"

"No, no! We have forgotten to ask--"

"What then, in the world?"

"If Herr von Blanden is not already married?"

The Regierungsrath's chin jumped into his cravat with a slight shock of alarm.

"You are right, Miranda! We are very foolis.h.!.+"

"He is no longer a youth; I should put him down as being thirty years old, and a man of that age, of his brilliant position, looked up to, rich--nothing else can be possible--he must have had a wife long since!"

Lost in sad thought, both walked silently side by side.

"But if I consider it properly," said Kalzow, "it cannot well be so. He would have taken his wife with him to the sea."

"People do not always take their wives with them to bathing-places."

"And then, he showed such evident interest in Eva! It has not been exactly explained yet how that occurrence took place at sea. Did you hear what Eva said about the buccaneer? He boarded, captured her, I don't know what else! Let us hope that it was all right."

"We should hope so? You talk of boarding and capturing--and on that account Herr von Blanden must be unmarried? Old man--we know better!

Many an one has laid siege and taken captive who should not have gone out to steal, because he has a good wife at home. And you, too, old man, if one knew everything! But you should not pretend such innocence, when your daughter's happiness is concerned!"

This turn to the conversation was plainly disagreeable to the Regierungsrath; he took several pinches of snuff quickly one after another, and sought to bring about an understanding with his wife, by devising a plan of campaign, how to-day at dinner, even before the pudding arrived, they might tear aside the veil which shrouded Herr von Blanden's domestic circ.u.mstances.

They were agreed on one point, that if he were guilty of the crime of being married already, he should be treated accordingly, and all further intercourse be coolly broken off.

In the meanwhile, the hero of this discussion still stood on the sh.o.r.e, and studied the wet ocean curiosity with its goggle eyes, which he could picture perfectly to himself as one of those subordinate fish-G.o.ddesses who flounder about Neptune's car. He tried in vain to make her understand about his boat. The old fisherman came forward and rated the girl for the boldness with which she had taken possession of another person's property.

Blanden made her a present of the boat, and gradually, with silent delight, she comprehended that she had become its owner. Then he pressed a piece of gold into her hand, and its flas.h.i.+ng s.h.i.+mmer transported idiot Kthe into a perfect tumult of happiness. She held it in the sun, and at the same time danced in a circle round it, until the fisherman reminded her of the duty of returning thanks for it.

She hastened to Blanden, kissed his hands, and looked at him with eyes whose gla.s.sy glitter was brightened with a moist gleam.

The second meeting with Eva had only strengthened Blanden in his hopes and wishes. She appeared to be as sensible and beautiful as the first time; as fresh, pure, and frank as he had imagined the wife of his choice. At the same time, she was not without mental ability; not so slow and apathetic as such calm and beautiful natures often are. She was not consumed by commonplace, insignificant ideas, in which, from the character of their bringing up, the daily a.s.sociations, the depressing example, talents of a higher organisation are often stifled.

Father and mother had made careful arrangements for the dinner in the modest inn; the daughter, however, remained in reserve until the ground had been properly reconnoitred.

Blanden was appointed to a seat by the mother, while the daughter sat on the other side of her father. These precautionary measures astonished him slightly; he did not imagine that he must first prove himself to be a man towards whom it was possible to entertain serious intentions.

The conversation turned upon politics, which, at that time, were the salt of every East Prussian dinner-table. The Regierungsrath pushed his vedettes carefully forward, and, with the vanguard of his articles of belief, made a retrograde movement, as he remarked that a superior enemy's force stood before him.

Not on any account would he injure his cause with Herr Von Blanden, and manifested himself a temperate, tolerant man, to the great amazement of the Kreisgerichtsrath sitting opposite to him, with whom he had often broken a lance at table over these very questions.

"We are not yet ripe for a const.i.tution," said Kalzow, "at least, not for a const.i.tution according to the modern English and French form. We are a patriarchal people, and what would become of our bureaucracy if Parliament should speak the decisive words? In England and France it is quite different; there they have no such official power representing the intelligence of the whole State, yes, which, as it were, it has absorbed within itself. I cannot imagine a Prussia with a const.i.tutional organisation: we shall never live to see that, little as I fail to recognise the advantages of such inst.i.tutions."

"But, my dear friend," interposed the Kreisgerichtsrath, "you have always hurled unqualified anathemas at them."

"It depends upon the nature of the soil, dear friend," replied the Regierungsrath; "elsewhere these plants may thrive capitally, it is impossible with us."

"I cannot see that," said Blanden, "I believe that we, too, shall one day occupy the position that is due to us amongst Europe's nations, if we become the equals of advanced peoples by means of a free const.i.tution. Until then, I hesitate to count Prussia amongst the leading civilised states. The bureaucracy alone, best of Regierungsraths, cannot a.s.sist us to it. I have travelled far over the world, I know the Celestial Empire."

"You mean China?" interrupted the Rthin. Unbroken silence reigned around.

"Yes, _gndige_ Frau, and I a.s.sure you that officialdom is excellently organised there. The candidate undergoes his examination before the _Wald der Pinsel_,[2] in Nankin."

"_Wald der Pinsel_?" asked the Regierungsrath.

"So is the college for examinations designated there."

"That term of ridicule has surely been invented by some candidate who failed," suggested the Gerichtsrath.

"It is no term of ridicule," explained Blanden, "it is the official designation. The Chinese, it is well known, write with brushes, and this _Wald der Pinsel_ is as well versed in all the old books of law and history, in the philosophical writings of Con-fut-se and La-ot-se, as any European University's Senate is at home in the works of all the professions. I will not a.s.sert that these men are specially intelligent--that is to say, I mean the Chinese _Wald der Pinsel_, not the European--but they are learned, pedantic, and so strict in examination, that many a bachelor who has, perhaps, paid more homage to a lover with a green girdle than to the muses, fails irretrievably."

"I was not aware," said the Regierungsrath, "that they possessed inst.i.tutions in China betokening such high cultivation."

"Oh, they have a great many of them," continued Blanden, "the different grades of Mandarins have b.u.t.tons on their caps. It is thus known at once if one of these dignitaries is a Chinese a.s.sessor, counsellor, chief-counsellor, privy counsellor; and, without asking for his visiting-card, each can immediately be treated with due respect. With us, people sometimes make mistakes about rank; one gives offence, and yet rank is not less esteemed by us than it is in China."

"With reason," said the Regierungsrath; "that which one has earned and merited, one likes to see recognised by the world."

"You see, in the Celestial Empire, everything is arranged in the most excellent manner. Yet this State is a pig-tail State, a marionette State, because the people only count by souls and heads, because all intellectual life and action, every right, every liberty, is wanting.

The Celestial son rules it by the rod of his officials. Everything blooms and flourishes, but it is a lacquered happiness, all paper and tinsel rubbish, a crus.h.i.+ng existence of formula. What I saw there of the law and Government reminds me of the Kasperle Theatre; they chop off heads with the same equanimity as that with which Kasperle disposes of his enemies--human life has no value, dignity of man is unknown."

"But that is different with us," said the Regierungsrath, as he a.s.sumed a self-conscious bearing, and laid knife and fork aside. "What have we in Prussia, according to your views, in common with the Celestial Empire?"

"The Bureaucracy and patriarchal Government."

"Did I not always say so?" cried the Kreisgerichtsrath, triumphantly, "that is quite my view! I am delighted to receive so worthy an ally."