Withered Leaves Volume Ii Part 16

"You are mistaken," said Ccilie coldly. "I am glad to see you here, but I did not invite you."

"I beg your pardon, but I believed the pink note--"

"Oh, oh, Herr Professor," replied Ccilie, raising her forefinger warningly.

"Certainly without signature; but when you entered--"

"I always considered you to be a Dr. Faust, who studies the books of his nostradamus Hegel, and bathes his bosom a.s.siduously in the morning dawn; but I did not know that you had already tasted the magic drink, and saw a Helen in every woman. And now it strikes me, surely you are married--and scented pink notes, a.s.signations--ah, ah, Herr Professor!

Surely I was mistaken in the address, and took you for a Faust, while you are but a Don Juan."

Reising experienced the humiliating consciousness of having behaved very awkwardly. Of what use was all his philosophy with so little worldly wisdom.

Besides, Ccilie a.s.sumed a very triumphant air; she had the wicked intention of making the most of her triumph, and of keeping him as long as possible upon the rack; for this astute young lady, with her lizard-like suppleness and slimness, was a dangerous opponent.

And if now actually the auth.o.r.ess of the pink note were to enter, the whole secret would be betrayed. He therefore resolved to take refuge in another room, but Ccilie in her good-tempered malice addressed one question after another to him, so that he, without being rude, could not break off the conversation very quickly.

Then the door was opened again, and in elegant attire, her mocking little face enframed in the ribbons of a pink bonnet, upon which was perched a small garden of roses, his sister-in-law Lori entered.

Reising believed himself to have gone out of the frying-pan into the fire.

The two ladies greeted one another pleasantly; then Ccilie said, with meaning emphasis--

"But I fear I am disturbing you; my sister whom I expect, will seek me here; I will go to meet her."

And she took leave with a polite smile.

"It is outrageous!" cried Reising.

"What, in the world?"

"She believes--no, I cannot say it!"

"Surely it is nothing dreadful."

"Dreadful enough! She thinks--it is as absurd as possible, but what does the world not believe--that you have made an a.s.signation with me here!"

"An a.s.signation; how so?" asked Lori, with a roguish smile.

Reising now held the trumps in his hand; he would not play the pink note yet.

"Why should she have left us alone?"

"Well, a brother and sister-in-law have surely much to say that is not meant for any third person. Is it not so?"

She offered him her hand, which he grasped warmly.

"But indeed, dear brother, what brings you here at this unwonted hour?"

"I expect a friend, a young doctor--you do not know him, but he seems to have left me in the lurch. But what brings you here, then, my sister?"

"I also have invited a friend to meet me."

"Whom in the world, then?"

"Well, dear brother, no one but yourself."

"But for heaven's sake, Lori--the pink note?"

"Came from me!"

"It is an unseemly jest," said Reising, angrily, "and it has already caused me disagreeable embarra.s.sment!"

"It is no joke."

"But we can talk much more comfortably at home."

"That is just what we cannot do; Euphrasia listens to every word."

"She is indeed jealous!"

"No, you do my good sister injustice. She is not at all jealous, only avaricious, uncommonly avaricious. That alone is why she peeps through the keyholes, and listens at every door; she is afraid you might in an unguarded moment open your sesame, and that your treasures might also some day give pleasures to others."

Lori looked charming at that moment; she smiled so roguishly. Reising could not resist squeezing her hand heartily once more.

"I invited you to come here for this reason, that I have an important request to make to you. You must go with me now at once to Frulein Sohle's boarding school; it is only a few houses distant from here."

"And what shall I do there?"

"Frulein Sohle is about to retire, to give up her school and boarding house to some one else, and--I will be that some one."

"You, Lori, you would leave us?"

"With a heavy heart, but it must be; you have known my wish for long, but I could never talk it over quietly with you. I require some money for the good-will, about three thousand dollars, not given, oh, on no account--only lent upon ordinary interest, and for this money I was about to ask you."

Reising was not at all unwilling, but he feared the opposition of his wife, who held the portfolio of the minister of financial affairs with sovereign power.

"Euphrasia need know nothing about it," said Lori; "there are plenty of ways and means. Only a guarantee from you; any banker would give me the money. Euphrasia may continue to rattle the keys of her cash-box just as usual. Is it not true, dear Ferdinand?"

Lori deemed the moment suitable for making the utmost use of the rights which their relations.h.i.+p permitted them; she stroked her brother-in-law's bristly hair, and after a keen scrutinising survey of the lonely hall and a rapid glance at the door, she even pressed a hasty kiss upon his lips.

Reising's mood was such--that for the charming girl he would have even bought Frulein Sohle also, had she been a marketable commodity. A heretical thought took possession of him; he rejected it as worthy of d.a.m.nation, but still it arose again and again, even although in pale colours. Had he, then, been blind in those days by the seaside? Could Dr. Kuhl not give him better counsel? Was Lori not more graceful, more clever than Euphrasia? At that time he had the choice of the seven girls. He had then thought her too piquante for the wife of a future professor; how foolis.h.!.+ Such tediousness reigns in a University lecture rooms and in the drawing-rooms, that strong spices are needed to make life in any degree palatable. Lori was so piquante, so charming; but--too late!

Reising pa.s.sed his hand across his brow in order to chase away the impious dreams. Euphrasia once for all was his wife--and the great master said: "Everything real is reasonable!" If only those diabolical sparks in Lori's eyes did not flash with such peculiar fire!

"We will do a piece of business together," said she, "and therefore we must proceed in a business-like manner. You shall convince yourself that the inst.i.tution flourishes; you shall learn her conditions personally from Frulein Sohle."

"But what will Euphrasia say if I remain away so long?"

"Nothing, and she usually says nothing, even when she seems to say anything. I mean when she reproaches you, she does not mean it seriously. You can indulge in much greater freedom than formerly; she will gladly reconcile herself to it, only you must leave her in the belief that not a penny disappears from your funds without her knowledge. You will come, will you not?"