Withered Leaves Volume I Part 22

"We walked quickly," said Ophelia, "and wanted to rest for a moment."

And she sat down upon the bench, breathing with difficulty and sighing, and darted one of those glances, soft as velvet, which flatter a susceptible heart wonderfully, at Doctor Reising, who stood near her.

Her eyes were furnished with long silken lashes, and as they were her sole recognised beauty, she had brought the skilful management of them to a most artistic state of perfection; she laid claim to sentimentality, which was peculiarly favoured by this dowry of Nature.

When she cast her eyes modestly down, they disappeared almost entirely beneath their silken curtain; if she turned them up, it lay like a canopy above their rapturous glance. But Doctor Reising did not possess his friend Doctor Kuhl's versatility in the remotest degree. Ophelia's eyelashes had no power over him after Euphrasia's plaits had bound him in their fetters, and he looked coldly down upon those speaking, upturned eyes like a dreary, rainy sky upon two widely opened flower calyx.

"There is to be a large entertainment," said Lori, dancing to and fro.

"Doctor Kuhl has just told us of it, and we came, dear sister, to bring you the glad news."

"What do I care about your entertainment?"

"Oh, we are all to be invited. Herr von Blanden has engaged himself in Warnicken, and to-morrow will celebrate his betrothal. They are to dance under the big pear tree."

The news was not without its effect upon Euphrasia; she leaned her head upon her hand, and said, thoughtfully--

"What shall we wear?"

"Our summer dresses, of course," replied Lori. "I, my sap-green, you, your violet. Ophelia, to be sure, has an ugly pink dress. The bodice is much too high; it makes her look like a _picottee_, with a stem that is broken near the top. Emma is sensible, and always wears dark clothes, but Albertina's white dress still bears traces of the last picnic, and is covered with every variety of soil. What our two little ones wear does not matter; no one notices those half-grown up creatures."

After this weighty affair had been quickly settled by loquacious Lori, Euphrasia found time to enquire who the bride was.

"A little girl from Warnicken," said Lori, in a tone of indifference.

"The daughter of a Regierungsrath. She has no fortune, and opinions differ as to her beauty."

"Oh, heavens, what luck!" sighed Ophelia, "such a wealthy, n.o.ble landowner."

"Some say," continued Lori, "he had met her at the seaside in a wood, where she was standing, wreathed in garlands of leaves, like a dryad just stepped forth out of the trunk of an oak, and there she bewitched him, as nothing of the sort ever appeared to him in his own forests in Masuren. Others, on the contrary, say he met her on the sea; it was a novel kind of fis.h.i.+ng, he himself was more the fish than the fisherman, as she has cast her net with great skill. Who can tell how it occurred?

Besides, it is perfectly immaterial; the princ.i.p.al thing is, that to-morrow evening there will be dancing under the pear tree."

"But we must return," said Ophelia.

"We only came to fetch you. Herr von Blanden is going from table to table inviting the people; we must not delay. Doctor Kuhl will introduce us to him."

"Come, Doctor Reising!"

"There is no such great hurry," said Euphrasia. "I have seen Her von Blanden several times already, he does not interest me! I do not like those aristocratic landowners; certainly he looks very different from the rest; he has a pair of remarkable eyes, but in reality they are all moulded in the same fas.h.i.+on. So if you like, we will remain here."

But the sisterly rivals would not allow that, their eloquence on the subject was of such convincing power, or rather was so clad with thorns of every description, that the Doctor and the heiress of the house of Baute, found it most advisable to yield.

The visitors at Neukuhren were in a state of great excitement, the committee of amus.e.m.e.nt had announced its sittings to be permanent; all were invited by Blanden; all wished to prove their grat.i.tude at the betrothal by some act or attention. A concert should precede the dance under the large pear tree; there was so much young musical talent, that a large amateur orchestra was easily formed, and all private performers had brought their instruments with them, so that any one strolling along the village street of Neukuhren on a quiet summer's evening would hear, now on the right, now on the left, sounds like wonderful solos of a separated band of musicians, to which chance often lent discordant symphony. An a.s.sessor who played first upon the cornet, then the trumpet, made himself most audible; people pretended to remark that the sea then always became particularly disturbed, as though the Tritons and Nereides stormed upon the strand because they were jealous of the compet.i.tion with their sh.e.l.l-horns. One first and one second violin, who lived in two stories of the same house, sought to arrange an impossible harmony between the "Carnival of Venice" and the second's part in a quartett by Beethoven. The flute was played every evening by one of the stoutest proprietors in the district of l.a.b.i.an, who blew everything that he possessed into the holes of that oldest of wooden instruments. The smallest doctor who practised which the town of pure reason could produce, played the violoncello; he found numerous patients amongst his listeners, and had to be sought for behind his instrument where he was in danger of disappearing. A lawyer, white as dough, who on account of lack of legal knowledge wished to devote himself to a diplomatic career, also played the violoncello, and indeed so well that a brilliant future was prophecied for him as such artistic performances in drawing-rooms fit people for higher diplomatic posts. A great kettle-drum was also present in Neukuhren, but in this instance it belonged to a professional not an amateur: that might be the reason why, although it had been seen to be unloaded from the carriage, its existence remained a myth, and the artist seemed to content himself with one important part of his performance, with counting the pauses in the time.

The formation of the orchestra was entrusted to an unknown composer, who, it was said, had the ma.n.u.script of four operas lying in his work-room. One of them was always absent, and wandered about amongst the different German general-managers, from whom, however, it always returned home safely, like Noah's dove to the ark, certainly without an olive or laurel branch; then the next ma.n.u.script commenced its wanderings with similar result. Happily the composer, in addition to his talents and his scores, still possessed a few hundred thousand dollars, so that society could pardon his musical tendencies and performances. Long since he had bought himself a superb _bton_ in order one day to conduct one of his operas. With this magic staff in his pocket, Mller von Stallupnen, as he called himself, in order to be distinguished from other celebrated Mllers, ran about that day to make the necessary arrangements, his long hair fluttering in the breeze, which blew from off the East Sea. In spite of this cooling element, he was obliged to wipe the perspiration from his forehead, because it was a toilsome labour to obtain an equal temperature of disposition in all the coadjutors, and similarity of views about the pieces of music to be performed. The violoncellist as future diplomatist, supported him therein with valuable a.s.sistance. The little doctor proved to be the most obdurate, he maintained his opinion immovably as though it were some consultation beside a sick-bed. A mixed choral song was also contemplated. In that the fair s.e.x must be especially begged for their co-operation, so as to give a graceful counter-balance to the rough, beery student voices of a few lawyers.

The conductor moved about in most amiable _gracioso_ from one seaside beauty to another, after having first brushed into order his hair which had been blown about by the sea-breeze. Although this amendment only remained effectual for a short time, still he appeared to advantage before the natural _coiffures_ of most of the land-nymphs who allowed their loosened plaits, which had been dipped in the ocean's waves, to hang down their shoulders to dry. Both the Fruleins von Dornau, of whom Olga had an imposing alto, Ccilie a brilliant soprano voice at their disposal, had already made the musical agent happy with their consent, and his next move was to the Baute family, where he might hope for a rich musical harvest amongst the seven daughters.

But music's sister-art, poetry, which had not yet been proclaimed as its Siamese twin, as it was later in the artistic works of the future, must not be omitted. For Neukuhren possessed a much-made-of visitor in the young poet Schner, who on this occasion must tune his lyre, all the more so because he was a friend of the young betrothed. Her engagement was really tantamount to a refusal for him, and it was a strange suggestion that he should celebrate that refusal with his poetical flowers; but Eva belonged already to his recollections, his love for her was now but a poetical page in his alb.u.m; the renunciation was no longer hard for him. But another difficulty arose, his muse which was accustomed to sing the dawn of day on the political horizon, and the resurrection of nations, was not adapted for such domestic events; he could not discover the right key for it, such social and drawing-room poetry was not worthy of him, and reduced him to despair.

He sprang up from his work-table and with hurried steps walked up and down the room. When he began to compose about roses, he always thought of the sword beneath the roses, the sword of Harmodius and Aristogiton, that he loved to wield in verse against all tyrants, and that which he was used to sing of pa.s.sion's devouring flames was not fitted for a bridal idyll.

Schner was obliged to curb his glowing fancy.

At last he had managed to produce a marriage poem, but when he read it over, he was alarmed at the reminiscences of the bridesmaids' wreath of violet silk which had slipped in. Schiller certainly had created no master-piece when he addressed Demoiselle Slevoigt in a nuptial poem--

"_Zieh holde Braut mit unserm Segen, Zieh hin auf Hymen's Blumenwegen_."

Yet a few verses reminded one of that poem, and "the wreath's solemn adornment" had pa.s.sed unnoticed in his ode. He tore it up angrily, rushed out into the air, and implored the Muses for only a few original ideas, that would be suitable for such a purpose, which the most commonplace mortals do not lack, if ever on a similar occasion they mount their Pegasus. The super-abundance of genius with which he was endowed weighed heavily upon him, he longed for the intellectual level of an impromptu poet, who could daily shake a wedding ode out of his sleeve. The collegian Salomon was going about at the same time with the criminal thought of also reciting a sonnet, that he hoped to put together out of Heine and his extracts, and which should not be so harmless as an every-day congratulatory poem; he wanted to introduce a meaning, a fine poisoned meaning, which should only be comprehensible to the bride, which he intended to plunge into her heart like a vengeful dagger. In a lonely hollow walk, overgrown with sting-nettles he scanned the deadly verses on his fingers, until the murderous iambus flowed evenly upon its four feet without a halting choliambus. Had not Archilochos written satirical iambi the unhappy objects of which had hanged themselves in despair, what result might not be attained by a similar poetical production? What an effect, if he presented a bouquet to the bride-elect and a wasp flew out of it into her face, furnished with a sting such as Alphonse Karr's _gupes_ possessed, which at that time were so much liked by him!

As the arts, so was also the study of nature called into request, so as not to be wanting at the bridal ovation. A physician worked earnestly at the most uncertain of all studies, that of the weather, and gazed hopefully at the two barometers which he had brought with him to discover whether, in the evening, the full moon which was astronomically a.s.sured, might not be overcast by clouds of rain, and whether the dance could be carried out beneath the pear tree undisturbed by events of nature.

Doctor Reising and his Euphrasia had been towed back by her jealous sisters to the family table. They arrived exactly at the exciting moment in which Herr von Blanden introduced his betrothed.

Father Baute, who easily confused his daughters' names, was supported by Doctor Kuhl, the latter, alarmed at no feminine plural, calling out one after another as if at muster-roll.

Eva felt strange amongst all the strange faces. None was capable of inspiring her with immediate interest. Even the prettiest of the daughters, Lori, had a watchful smile that betokened mischief.

Blanden's invitation was accepted with many thanks. Hardly had he retired with his betrothed before the Baute family started noisily out of the respectful silence with which they had listened to the strange gentleman's words, and suddenly resembled a swarming bee-hive.

All talked at once. "How do you like her? How do you like him?" Those were the most coherent words which echoed simultaneously from all sides. Lori's sharp voice was the first to pierce through the noise.

"She cannot long have left her governesses. She is a very nice child, but the schoolroom clings to all her movements. He is a very different man. He shows plainly that he has long since pa.s.sed through school, and also the school of life."

"She has fine eyes," said Ophelia, opening her own widely.

"But not so fine as yours," said Lori, quickly, "as that is all that you wished to hear."

"T could not like him," said Marie, "he looks so sleepy."

"That indicates a deep, mental life," said Euphrasia; "when he does open his eyes, a great deal of intellect lies in them. And he does open them when anything arouses his sympathies. We all, of course, are very uninteresting to him, but I like men to whom we are, or appear so."

"Well, then, you have an extensive public upon whom to exercise your liking," said Lori.

Albertina interrupted a silence of some hours with the thoughtful words--

"Besides, he has a good figure."

"I imagine her to be most domestic," said Emma, "and that is the princ.i.p.al matter. She is sure to be at home beside the kitchen fire and the bread board, and look very pretty there, too. And that is very important. It is no art to look well in a ball dress."

"My dear Emma," interposed Lori, "that is exactly true art! With the aid of paint, rouge, and the sculpture of a laced bodice, one must become a work of art."

"The bride-elect pleases me," said old Baute, wiping his spectacles, "she is natural," added he, with a melancholy glance at his daughters.

Herbart once maintained that everybody at certain points feels cramped by society. Professor Baute often, in the midst of his daughters, had this sensation of being cramped.

"There is something pleasant about her, and certainly it is a healthy nature. She possesses repose and equanimity, and as thus the mutual determination of all ideas is connected through one another, she will also be sensible, she will not give way too much either to strong or weak affections; I believe we may congratulate this Blanden. He himself, however, appears to be of a pa.s.sionate nature. But pa.s.sions arise from an immoderately strong or ill-connected ma.s.s of conceptions.

There are eulogists of pa.s.sion. But, according to Herbart's and my view, it stands in repulsive contrast to all that really belongs to the well-being of mankind. Pa.s.sion plays a great part in history. Herbart cautions us against charging the all-providing spirit of the universe with this part, it would otherwise resemble Mephistopheles too closely."

Doctor Reising's lips quivered convulsively; he pa.s.sed his hand through his hair, and, as soon as Baute again wiped his spectacles, he broke forth indignantly with the words--

"False, all false! How beautifully Hegel says, it is the cunning of Reason that makes use of the pa.s.sions of mankind for its own purposes.