For Sceptre and Crown Volume I Part 34

His eyes sought the pastor's daughter, who had seated herself at a little table in the window, where she occupied herself with some white needlework.

"I did not think that the gentlemen of the Consistorial Council were particularly pleased at his majesty's cabinet decree, appointing me adjunct here, with a view to my ultimately succeeding to the pastor's office."

"I can well believe it," returned his uncle; "authorities like to rule without feeling a higher power, especially when those below must hear of the interference. It disturbs the _nimbus_. Can they make any objection to your qualification?" he enquired.

"Not the least," replied the candidate. "That were hardly possible," he continued with a satisfied smile, "my testimonials are of the highest order."

"Well then, these gentlemen had better calm themselves, and not begrudge to his majesty the right of making a faithful old servant happy, since no injustice is done, and no one is pa.s.sed over. Would to G.o.d that these heavy times were safely gone, and the storm-cloud of war dispersed; how much blood it will cost, if the strife once begins!"

Helena let her work fall into her lap, and sat gazing through the open window, across the blooming roses, at the smiling landscape beyond.

A hasty step approached the house, and a knock was heard at the sitting-room door. "Come in," cried the pastor, and a young, poorly-dressed girl entered.

"Well, Margaret, what brings you here?" asked the pastor in a friendly voice.

"Oh! Herr Pastor," sobbed the little girl, whilst large tears ran down her cheeks, "father is so very ill, and he says he is afraid he shall die, and he wants so much to see you, Herr Pastor, to get a little comfort, and oh, dear! what will become of us if he does die?"--loud sobs stifled the poor child's voice.

The pastor stood up and laid his pipe down in his armchair.

"What is the matter with your father?" he asked.

"He got very hot, working, yesterday," replied the child, interrupted by her tears, "and then he took cold, and it brought back his cough last night so bad; and he is so ill, and he says he shall die!"

"Take comfort, my child," said the pastor, "it will not be so bad as that. I will come and see what must be done." And opening a large oaken chest, he took from it a case containing several small bottles, stuck it in his pocket, and seized his clerical hat.

"One had need to be something of a doctor, here in the country," he said to his nephew, "that the right means may be used, until further help can be procured, when it is really necessary. I believe I have saved a good many lives with my little medicine chest," he added, with a happy smile.

"Poor papa!" said Helena, "your fresh pipe?"

"Do you not think the poor sick man will be more refreshed when he sees me, than I should be by a few puffs of tobacco?" said her father gravely.

"But, my dear uncle, can I not undertake this for you?" asked the candidate. "I am so anxious to make myself acquainted at once with the duties of my sacred office."

"No, my dear nephew," replied the pastor; "let us do all things in order. You are not even appointed here yet; and then you must learn to know your people before you can undertake these visits; the sight of a stranger only excites a sick person. Wait quietly here--I will return shortly." And he left the house with the child, who ceased crying when she found the pastor was going to see her father.

The candidate walked to the window; his eyes first rested on Helena, who sat bending over the work she had again taken up, then they strayed through the window, beyond the rose beds, to the wood-crowned horizon.

"It is really pretty here," he said, "and in summer it is pleasant to reside here."

"Oh yes, it is lovely," interrupted the young girl, in that tone of complete conviction and natural enthusiasm with which young hearts regard the place where they have pa.s.sed a happy childhood, feeling certain that it must be the most charming and delightful spot in the world; "you will think it still more beautiful when you know all the glorious country around us, and all our pretty, quiet walks, even the monotonous fir woods have their charm, and their language"--and her eyes sought the dark green forests enclosing the sunny landscape as in a frame.

A slight smile, half compa.s.sionate, half ironical, played round the lips of the candidate.

"I really wonder," he said, "how my uncle, with his well-stored mind, so plainly appearing in his conversation, and still extolled by the friends of his youth, should have been able to exist here all these years, so far removed from all intellectual life, and from all intercourse with the progress of the world. He is considered one of the first pastors in the country, his duties, it is well known, have been performed in an exemplary manner, and with his reputation for learning, and the influence he possesses, he might long ago have held a seat in the Consistory. To such a man, this would have been the starting-point for a great, an important career! I cannot imagine how he has endured life among these peasants!"

Helena looked with her great eyes at her cousin in amazement. His words struck an element quite unknown to her life.

"How little you know my father," she said; "he loves his beautiful quiet home, and the peaceful, happy scene of his work, far better than dignities with their restraints and cares."

"But the higher and the more influential the position," said the candidate, "the greater the scope for work, and the richer the blessing that zealous labour may obtain."

"It may be so," returned the young girl, "but the fruit is not so plainly seen, intercourse with the people is so much less intimate, and my father has often told me that his highest pleasure is to pour comfort and peace into a troubled soul, and his highest pride to bring back an erring heart to G.o.d. But you intend to remain here yourself, cousin," she added with a smile, "and to bury yourself in this solitude?"

"I have to commence my career," he replied, "I must work to rise, and youth is the time for toil; but as the aim of my life, I shall certainly place a much higher object before me." His eye scanned the far distance as if he were looking for some aim, very different to anything which the quiet landscape around had to show.

"And you, Helena," he asked after a moment's pause, "have you never felt the need of a higher intellectual life, the longing for a more extensive world?"

"No," she replied simply; "such a world would only depress and alarm me. When we were lately in Hanover it seemed as if all my blood rushed back to my heart, I could scarcely understand what was said to me, and I felt so dreadfully lonely. Here I know everything around me, the people and the country; here life feels so rich and so warm, but in a large town it felt cold and narrow. I should be very unhappy if my father were going away from here; but there is no idea of such a thing," she said in a tone of certainty.

The candidate sighed slightly as he gazed straight before him.

"But in winter," he said, "when you cannot be out of doors, and when nature has no charms, you must be very dull and lonely."

"Oh, no!" she cried cheerfully, "never. We are never dull here, you cannot think how pleasantly we pa.s.s the long winter evenings. My father reads to me, and tells me about so many things, and I play and sing to him. He is so happy after his day's work."

Again the candidate sighed.

"Besides," she continued, "we are not quite without society. There is the family of our president von Wendenstein at the castle, and we make up quite a large party. We are not so much out of the world as you imagine. Last winter we very often danced at the castle."

"Danced!" exclaimed the candidate, as he folded his hands over his breast.

"Yes," said Helena; "the company staying at Luchow often came over, and we had quite as much fun as they could have had in Hanover."

"But my uncle, did he not object to your partic.i.p.ating in such extremely worldly amus.e.m.e.nts?" asked the candidate.

"Not in the least," she replied; "why should he?"

The candidate seemed to have an answer ready, but to repress it; and, after a short pause, he said in a gentle tone of superiority,--

"The opinion becomes more and more confirmed in all well-regulated circles, that such amus.e.m.e.nts are quite inadmissible in a clergyman's family."

"Indeed! what an excellent thing it is that we are quite out of the way of those well-regulated circles," said Helena coldly, for she felt displeased at her father's judgment being condemned, and her own amus.e.m.e.nts disapproved.

The candidate was silent.

"Of what does the family at the castle consist?" he asked after a pause; "I must go there and be introduced as soon as possible."

"Besides Herr von Wendenstein, his wife and daughters, there is the Auditor von Bergfeld," replied Helena.

"Has he been here long?" asked the candidate quickly, casting a searching look at his cousin.

"A year," she replied, with perfect indifference, "and he will soon leave, for a young auditor is always employed here."

"But Herr von Wendenstein has sons?" he asked.

"They are no longer at home," she replied; "one has a government appointment in Hanover, the other is an officer at Luchow. Here comes my father!" she exclaimed, and pointed out a pathway leading from the high road, at the farther end of which the pastor had just appeared.

"I will make him a fresh cup of coffee. But good heavens!" she exclaimed, whilst a deep blush spread all over her face.