Withered Leaves Volume I Part 13

"It is quite beautiful," said he, confidentially, several times to his Miranda, "that Eva has conquered him; but who says then that his intentions are serious? She is a poor, middle-cla.s.s girl; he, a rich, n.o.ble landowner, and even although, according to the universal law of the country, nothing stands in the way of such a marriage, yet up to the present time he has made no such declaration. The girl is beautiful as her mother, my poor sister, was."

Miranda merely vouchsafed a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders in reply to this eulogium.

"Yet beauty," continued the Rath, while setting his cravat to rights, "may suffice for love, but not for marriage, and to one who has knocked about in the world so much as Blanden, one adventure more or less does not matter. In fact, Miranda, if we have allowed Eva to be talked about again all for nothing, it would cause me sleepless nights."

Nor could Miranda either really suppress a few slight doubts; she comforted herself, however, with the thought that Blanden would probably remove these doubts himself.

Then the Kanzleirthin, who had just taken a turn with the banker's wife through the hazel bushes, holding a couple of nuts in her hand, came running, almost breathlessly, across the meadow to the married couple.

"What do I hear? Why, that is the same Blanden whose name was often mentioned at the time when the seraphic community was talked of?

Surely, he was a member of it."

"The gra.s.s has grown over it long since," said the Regierungsrath, annoyed.

"Besides, there are many Blandens in the province," added the Rthin.

"But all marks of recognition point to this one! I must say though,"

continued the Kanzleirthin, triumphantly, after having cracked a hazel nut with her seal-like protruding teeth, "that I should not like to entrust my daughter to a pupil of those saints, not even for a walk in the forest, because he might easily mistake it for Paradise."

And cracking the second hazel nut, she left the Kalzows with the joyful conviction that she had caused them great trouble by this communication. Indeed, the Regierungsrath was obliged to admit to himself that this sect had caused evil misfortune enough in families; he had occasionally heard Blanden's name mentioned at that time. But his wife repeated, consolingly--

"You may safely believe it is not the same Blanden; it will be some cousin of a collateral branch. It is only a piece of the Frau Kanzleirthin's spite, because no one notices her Minna, whom she always plays out as an ace, without ever making a trick by it."

The family's anxiety was, however, augmented when Blanden announced that he must visit his estates for a short period; would then, however, return, and he hoped should still find them at the seaside. It would have seemed like desecration of his feelings to confide his love just yet to her parents; it was still quite impossible for him to connect Eva in his thoughts with that undignified parental couple. What was unavoidable should only be done when the betrothal ceremony could follow immediately. But he must return home, because he had to present himself to his electors as candidate. Eva parted from him with perfect, joyful confidence, and when her mother hazarded a sceptical remark, she replied--

"We will wait patiently; everything will turn out for the best."

And such a happy ray suffused her countenance, that Miranda said to her husband, as she placed his cravats in a drawer--

"The girl is sure of her affair; she must have reason to be so."

The Rath chuckled significantly, and pa.s.sed no sleepless night.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ORDENSBURG.

It was late at night when Blanden's carriage, with its steaming horses, stopped before the castle door of Kulmitten.

The picture of the Holy Virgin, with the Child Christ in her arms, gleamed high above the portal in the moonlight. The remains of an old Ordensburg had been built into the castle, giving it an historically venerable appearance. The emblem of the Knights of the German Order, the cross with an eagle, was to be seen on all parts, and even greeted the new comers from the portal. The old belfry, well-preserved with its underground dungeons, rose upon a hill close to the sh.o.r.es of a large lake, which, with the wide belt of woods that surrounded it, extended far away in the moon's silvery light.

It would be easy to have imagined oneself in the solitude of primeval forests, had not the old stronghold reminded one that this place was no virgin soil, but that here the iron course of history had already held its sway, and claimed the victims of b.l.o.o.d.y conflicts.

Doctor Kuhl, who would not be deprived of guiding the foaming team, sprang down from the box, as he exclaimed--

"This seems to be quite an interesting old nest; why, surely the conversion of heathenish Prussia is relinquished here! Else you must begin with me."

Servants and steward had a.s.sembled in the castle's portal. Blanden had hardly descended, before grey-headed Olkewicz, a Masure, whose cradle had stood by the Lake Marggrabowa, a.s.sumed an important mien, so as to deliver his report of the most recent events. But Blanden at once perceived his faithful steward's intention, and arrested it--

"Not now, Olkewicz! it will be time enough to-morrow! The castle still stands upon the same spot--and that is the princ.i.p.al thing. For the rest, go to sleep children! It is late at night; only Friederich shall stay up, and look after my guest and me."

Friederich lighted them through the vaulted hall; the pillars cast shadows upon the stone flags of the floor, and upon the old castle's strong walls. They ascended a stone staircase; the table was laid in the dining-hall of the Order. It was a magnificent room; a granite column in the middle supported the radiated arch. Faded gla.s.s paintings were still visible in the windows. Blanden opened them; his gaze wandered out over the wide lake.

"You must excuse me for a short time," said Kuhl. "I am a species of Aquarius, and must greet my native element; I am impelled like the late unhappy Melusine. I must away into the water!"

"Now, at midnight?" asked Blanden.

"Until I have had a dip in the lake, I cannot feel myself at home here.

See how it lures me with those glistening lights which play upon its surface. There are probably no syrens in the lake; if there had been any, they would most likely have died long ere this of _ennui_. Can one not dive into it anywhere from a balcony or gallery?"

"That even at midnight would create great sensation."

"Well, then, I will go to the bushes on the banks."

Blanden sat at the windows of the dining-hall, lost in dreams; he pondered how the old castle would gain new life. He asked himself what impression the magnificent view over the wide lake and the tall woods, most of which formed part of his possessions, would make upon Eva, when she first sat here by his side?

Far away his friend splashed in the waves, and swam ever farther out into the lake; a considerable time elapsed before he appeared at the midnight repast. Then he was lighted to his room by the old servant, who was himself dismissed to rest by Blanden.

The master of the castle was in a condition of strange excitement; he could not sleep. He took the candle, and walked through all the apartments to plan their future distribution, and to find out where Eva would be most comfortable.

He first entered his library; it was a magnificent apartment, the shelves, containing books, reached up to the ceiling. The newest poets and authors of Germany, bearing well-known names, were not missing.

Blanden esteemed it to be his duty to buy their works--a duty towards literature, which but few of his equals recognised.

In addition to these he also possessed all the newest foreign cla.s.sics, numberless political, historical and philosophical works. A division that occupied one entire wall, was filled with works of travel of all descriptions; on one spot he perceived a conspicuous gap; several volumes were missing--who could have borrowed them?

A stuffed royal tiger, which he himself had killed on the coast of Coromandel, stood before the shelves; beside it several stuffed Asiatic birds, amongst them one of Paradise, whose splendid tail sparkled in the light of the lamp which Blanden held in his hand.

Then he imagined that a small piece of paper was placed in the rare bird's bill; it was no delusion, he seized the paper and read the following words, traced upon it in unfamiliar handwriting--

"The bird of Paradise, according to the legends of Eastern nations, has no feet; such a bird of Paradise is the happiness of love. It may not take a firm foothold upon earth, else its sparkling brilliancy, its Argus-eyed splendour, its Paradise will be lost to it."

Blanden was astonished. Who could have written these lines? How came they hither? Was it a warning which met him just when he was about to found a lasting happiness upon earth? Yet it was impossible--no one even knew of it as yet.

He examined the other birds, and even at last the royal tiger, whether they, perhaps, could belong to the race of speaking animals and were supplied with significant notes; but all these creatures preserved unoffending silence.

A lion's skin was extended as a rug before the library table, towards which Blanden stepped, and whereon he perceived three open volumes were lying; they were plainly those works of travel which were missing from the shelf, writings upon Italy. The opened chapters treated of Lago Maggiore; red roses lay between the pages.

Blanden almost started affrightedly at the spirit which, during his absence, had bewitched his castle. Who could know of that secret meeting on the Lago Maggiore?

The amber merchant, who pretended to have met him on the sh.o.r.es of that lake once, rose to his mind. Yet, the red roses and the very pregnant sentence could have no connection with that disagreeable companion.

Thoughtfully, Blanden examined the handwriting--it seemed to be that of some woman.

His study adjoined the library. A number of letters had been acc.u.mulated into a heap upon the writing-table. Blanden glanced hastily at the caligraphy of the addresses, most of which indicated letters containing business matters.