CHAPTER XII.
A CHEERFUL LITTLE TOWN.
There was a genuine neighborly feeling among the inhabitants of thissmall town. People called out to friends who were standing at thewindows and on the balconies, or walking in the streets; groups wereformed, where much chatting and jesting went on, while from windows,here and there piano-playing and singing were heard.
The justice's wife and her daughter Lina joined Eric and his hostess.People were surprised that he was leaving Sonnenkamp's house, as thereport had already spread that he was to remain there. And now Ericlearned that Roland had really ridden through the town, passing severaltimes before the physician's house, and letting his horse prance sothat it frightened one to look at him.
Lina was burning with eagerness to speak to Eric alone for a moment,and she found her opportunity when they met the school-director and hiswife, and the two elder ladies stopped to inquire about the health ofthe forester's wife, who lived in the director's house. Lina went onwith Eric, and said abruptly:--
"Do you know that your pupil Roland has a sister?"
"Certainly. I have heard so."
"Heard so? Why, you have seen her. She was the young girl with the staron her forehead, and the wings, who met us in the twilight on thecloister steps."
"Ah, indeed!"
"Ah, indeed!" mimicked Lina. "Oh! you men are dreadful; I have alwaysthought that you----"
She stopped and Eric asked:--
"That I--what of me?"
"Ah, mother is right, I am too heedless and clumsy, and say everythingthat comes into my head; I should have believed you now----"
"That you may do; it is a sin to be untrue, and a double sin to be sotowards you."
"Well then," said Lina, taking off her straw hat, and shaking the curlsin her neck, "well then, if you will honestly confess, that Manna madean impression on you at that time, I will tell you something; but youmust be frank and sincere."
"My dear young lady, do you think I would say no? You tempt me not tobe sincere."
"Well then, I'll tell you--but please keep it to yourself won'tyou?--Manna asked me who you were, and that's a great deal from her.Oh, Herr Captain, wealth is a dreadful thing; people offer themselvesonly for the sake of a girl's money--no, I didn't mean to say that--buttry to manage that Manna shall not be a nun."
"Can I prevent it?"
"Did you see the wooden shoes that the nuns wore? Horrid! Manna wouldhave to wear those shoes, and she has the prettiest little foot."
"But why shouldn't she be a nun, if she wants to?"
Lina was puzzled, she was not prepared for such an answer. Sheremembered, too, that she was a good Catholic.
"Ah," she said plaintively, "I fancied to myself--I am a silly child,am I not?--in old times a knight used to enter a castle disguised as asquire or something else--well, I thought now the squire must be atutor and then--"
She could not go on with her fancy sketch, for her mother overtookthem, rather anxious lest her daughter had made some of her dreadfullysimple speeches in her walk with the stranger.
"May one know what you are talking about so earnestly?" asked theJustice's wife. Lina drew a long breath, and put her hat-elastic in hermouth, which her mother had often forbidden, as Eric answered withgreat unconcern,--
"Your daughter has been reminding me that I was not very attentive whenwe first met on the convent island. I must ask your pardon now, madame.It relieves my mind of a burden of self-reproach to have theopportunity of excusing myself to you, and I earnestly beg that youwill carry my apologies to your husband. One meets in travelling somany people who think to make themselves of importance by beingill-tempered, that one catches the unfriendly spirit, and harms himselfthe most. If I had not had the good fortune to meet you again, a littlemisunderstanding would have remained between us. Ah! on such abeautiful evening, by your beautiful river, where people are sofriendly and cheerful, one longs to do some good to every one he meets,and to say, Rejoice with me, dear fellow-mote, dancing in the sunlight,for the little time which is called life."
Eric was very animated, and the Justice's wife much pleased with hisdemeanor. The evening walk was most refreshing. Lina directly gave upto her mother the place next Eric, and walked on the other side of thedoctor's wife. The walk lasted a long time, till the doctor's carriagewas heard in the distance by his wife, who knew the sound of its wheelsbefore the others could distinguish anything.
The doctor joined them with a fresh fund of cheerfulness, saying,--
"I was sent for to receive a confession, and now I have lost anexcellent reminder."
He went on to tell them that a man had lived in the next village, thesight of whom had always given him a stab in the heart, for the man hadsworn a false oath about a hundred florins which he owed him. But astime went on, he had become quite grateful to this person for servinghim as a reviver of his faith, because every time he met him he felt afresh belief in the meanness of mankind, which one easily forgets. Now,before his death, the man had confessed to him and given back themoney. So here he was, a hundred florins richer, but he had lost hisfaith. How could he laugh now at the world, if he had no longer themeanness of men to laugh at?
"What will you do now with the hundred florins?" asked Lina.
"What would you do with them?"
"I don't know."
"What would _you_ do, captain?" said the physician, turning suddenly toEric; "what would you do, if you had a million to give away?"
"I?" asked Eric, somewhat taken aback. He did not understand the reasonof the sudden question.
"Yes, you."
"I never thought about it, but first I would found valuablescholarships at all the German universities. The man of wealth ought tobe able to reflect how he is cultivating the mind of the man ofgenius."
"Good," answered the doctor, "every one thinks first of his own circle.Here's my little friend Lina; if she had a million to give away, shewould spend it all on blue muslin, and dress all the female world init. Wouldn't you, Musselina?"
Lina was silent, and her mother said, "Give some smart answer; can'tyou think of one?" Lina apparently could not think of one, but therewas a pleasant, merry tone in the intercourse between the doctor andthe child.
After their friends left them, the doctor said to Eric,--
"You can become familiar with a new method of instruction here. TheJustice's lady tries with all her might to make her daughter a pert,worldly chatterbox, but fortunately the child has a simple, genuinenature which can't be spoiled, and when you talk with her alone she isfull of bubbling life, and rightly deserves the name of Musselina."
The doctor was more friendly than ever in his bearing towards Eric, forhe saw that he had wished to interfere in his life too hastily androughly. He expressed regret that Eric had not seen Herr Weidmann toadvantage that day, as the latter had been preoccupied, or somethinghad gone wrong with him, and he advised Eric not to adopt a wrongimpression in regard to him. The doctor smiled, well pleased, when Ericreplied that he should not allow himself to form an opinion of a viewon the Rhine which every one admired, if he had seen it only throughrain or mist. The physician had evidently been thinking much of Ericduring his drive; he always addressed him to-day as Herr Captain in avery marked manner, and he explained this when he held out his hand inbidding him good-night, by saying,--
"You are the first soldier with whom I have ever been able to livequite comfortably. With all other officers, I have always had a feelingof--I can't say fear, exactly--but a certain consciousness of beingunarmed in the presence of an armed man. You soldiers always have anair of preparation, of readiness for attack, in which there's muchthat's good. I take back my words; perhaps a soldier can be a stillbetter educator than a physician. Well, good-night!"
When Eric was alone, everything vanished which he had seen orexperienced during the day, and Roland's form alone remained beforehim. He tried to fancy what the boy's thoughts were in riding afterhim. He s
ought to transport himself into the boy's state of feeling; hecould not entirely do so, for Roland was full of anger with Eric, fordeserting one who was so truly and fondly devoted to him. The boy feltas if he had been robbed, and so he rode over to the town fancying thatEric must be coming to meet him, or must be watching for him at thewindow; he rode back weeping with anger.
The world, of which he was to possess so much, appeared to himworthless and strange, while it seemed to Eric, who had nothing but hisown thoughts, bathed in a dew of blessing. In the stillness of thenight he thought over the hospitable and homelike reception he had metfrom Clodwig, and now from the physician, and hospitality seemed to himthe purest fruit of noble manhood. In ancient times men entertainedgods and angels, and they still entertained them, for in freelyoffering what one has to a stranger, whose very existence was yesterdayunknown, the divine is unfolded in the pure soul.
Up yonder at Wolfsgarten, Eric had met with a fatherly good-will, basedupon congeniality of thought--here with the doctor, as much goodwill asdifference of opinion; but here, too, that personal friendliness whichis so satisfying and home-like.
There was Bella who always wished to make an impression in her ownbehalf, and here was the doctor's wife, who wished nothing for herself,who thanked Eric in her heart, and wished only that her husband mighthave the good fortune to be able to talk over learned subjects withanother man. And were these many forms, were all these events, to beonly the passing occurrences of a journey?
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