CHAPTER XVIII.
UNDER-CURRENTS.
The visit took place. Pranken rode behind the carriage in which Clodwigand Bella were seated; on the back seat of the carriage stood aframe-work covered with paper, and a handsome box ornamented withinlaid work, which held the crayons.
Eric and Roland received the guests, and Eric begged them to makethemselves at home; he had had everything arranged by the servants; hewould himself be at their service in an hour, when lessons were over.
The visitors looked at each other in astonishment.
Pranken looked strangely changed; a deeper seriousness was in his face;now he shrugged his shoulders, and burst into a mocking laugh.
Bella thought Eric's conduct extremely formal and pedantic; Clodwigdeclared it showed a beautiful trait of character; but Pranken saw onlyidle display in this assumption of duty; the young man--he said thisquite in the tone of the Grand Master--the young man wished to make agreat impression with his faithfulness to duty.
Meantime they made themselves comfortable, and it was not to be deniedthat Eric had shown great thought for the pleasure of his guests, inhis floral decorations, and other arrangements.
The hour was soon over, and Eric returned to his guests in that freshand cheerful mood, which only the conquest over one's self and theconsciousness of duty fulfilled can ever give.
He had selected a good room, looking towards the North, and after alunch the drawing began.
Clodwig remained with his wife; Roland, who was to be drawn later, wentwith Pranken to the stables. Pranken conducted himself in the house asSonnenkamp's natural representative, or as a son of the family; he hadthe horses brought out, he examined the gardenwork, and praised theservants.
"I never saw you looking so serious and anxious," said Clodwig to Eric.And, indeed, Eric's expression was full of uneasiness, for he suspectedthat Pranken was now talking about him to Roland.
What can all education, all firm guidance effect, when one is not surefor a moment that some foreign influence is not working against it? Wemust comfort ourselves by thinking that no one man can form another,but the whole world forms each man. Eric, meanwhile, could not butdread what Pranken might be saying to his pupil.
First, Pranken asked whether Roland had read the daily portion in thebook that Manna sent him.
Roland said, no, directly, and then came a confused jumble of BenjaminFranklin, of Crassus, of Hiawatha, of the observations of storms by thetelegraphist, and of Bancroft's History of the United States.
Pranken nodded; he asked if Roland wrote often to Manna, and Rolandsaid yes.
Pranken now told him that he had trained a snow-white Hungarian horsefor Manna, and added:--
"You can tell her so. When you write, or not, as you please."
He knew, of course, that Roland was sure not to forget any informationwhich he was allowed to impart, especially if it was about a snow-whitehorse with red trappings. Pranken promised that Roland should himselfride the animal some day.
"Has it a name?" asked Roland.
Pranken smiled; he perceived that his communication had interestedRoland extremely, and he answered,--
"Yes, its name is Armida."
Just then Roland was called in, as he was needed for the sketch. Whenthe outline was completed, the drawing was laid aside for awhile.
In a half-confidential, half-commanding tone, Pranken asked Eric to goout with him alone, and in a friendly, even unusually friendly manner,he entered into a discourse upon Roland's education. And now, for thefirst time, Eric heard Pranken speak seriously of his strict religiousconvictions.
He was amazed. Was this all put on, in order to win more securely therich heiress educated in the Convent?
But it certainly was not necessary for Pranken, when no one could seeand remark upon it, in travelling, and at the Baths, to unite himselfso closely with ecclesiastics. Was it not rather probable that aconversion had really taken place in this worldly man, and that uponjust such a nature the stability and unchangeableness of the Churchwould take the surest hold?
"I consider it my duty, and you will give me the credit of consideringit a duty," said Pranken suddenly, laying his hand on his heart, "togive you some confidential information."
"If I can do anything, I shall feel myself honored by your confidence;but if I can be of no use, I would rather avoid an unnecessary share ina secret."
Pranken was astonished at this reluctance, and was inclined to bedispleased, but he restrained himself, and continued, in a highertone:--
"You know that Herr Sonnenkamp--"
"Excuse me for interrupting you. Does Herr Sonnenkamp know that you aremaking this confidential communication to me?"
"Good Heavens!" Pranken broke out,--"but no, I am wrong, I respect thisregard to your position."
He was silent for a few minutes; it occurred to him that, instead ofwhat he had meant to say, he might warn Eric not to have too much to dowith Bella. But would not this be an insinuation against his sister? Hedecided to go back to his first plan, and said shortly,--
"I think I may tell you that I am almost a son of this house, FraeuleinSonnenkamp is as good as engaged to me."
"If Fraeulein Sonnenkamp is like her brother, I can congratulate youheartily, I thank you for your unexpected, and as yet undeserved,confidence; may I ask why you have honored me with it?"
Pranken became more inwardly enraged, but outwardly still moreflattering; he nervously worked his right hand, as if he were using ariding-whip, but he smiled very condescendingly and said,--
"I have not been mistaken in you." After a pause he continued:--"Iacknowledge fully your considerateness."
He did not answer directly the question as to the cause of hisconfidence, and there was hardly time, for Roland now called Eric tothe sitting.
"One would think ten years had passed since I left off drawing," saidBella, "you look so much older now."
Eric could not speak out his thoughts. The way in which Pranken hadtreated him, and the manner in which he had borne himself, disturbedhim very much. He was sitting now quite still, but it seemed to him asif he were being rent asunder. He felt that there was somethingfundamentally false in his relations with Pranken. They were both awareof the contrast and discord which existed between them; they oughteither to have been open enemies, or to have passed each other withindifference; and yet some spell seemed to draw them together, and topersuade them into apparent friendliness.
All misery springs from untruthfulness. The world would be quite adifferent place, and much misery would be saved, could we be true atall times, and not allow ourselves to be led into lasting relations andobligations, while we silence the inward remonstrance by saying,--Itwill all turn out well; the matter need not be taken so seriously. Butin thousands of cases the lie is concealed, veiled, beautified, as inthat Bible-story, where the serpent overcomes all opposition, allargument, by the words,--"Only eat, and you will not die, but onlybecome wise."
The great punishment of a relation founded on false grounds is, that itconstantly demands from us farther untruthfulness; either openlyrecognized as such, or concealed by our self-deception, and at last thelie takes on the appearance of virtue, changes all the foundation ofour character, silences the protests which our better nature makes, andsays, you must not desert your friend; you have been friends so long,you have received so much from him, and have done so much for him; itwould break up your whole life; you would take a large portion from it,if you gave him up. No! you must now hold firmly together. And so thelie grows and poisons life. All sorrow and all unhappiness, allmisunderstanding and deceit, arise from the fault that man will not befaithful to himself. The devil of lies goes about, seeking whom he maydevour.
It is true there is no devil that you can see so as to describe him inthe military style, but close by every divine idea which in itsultimate foundation is nothing but Truth, dwells the Lie, and is alwayscapable of assuming the form and language of
its neighbor.
All these thoughts were tossing and raging in Eric's soul as he sat forhis portrait. Could any one at that moment have painted the picture ofhis soul, it would, have been an unparalleled distortion.
At last, Bella declared she could not draw him as he then looked, andthe sitting was postponed.
They all went to dinner, which passed cheerfully, for the Doctor joinedthem. In the evening, they went out rowing on the Rhine, and Rolandtold how beautifully Eric could sing; but Eric could not be persuadedto give them a single song. He was bantered on having displayed histalent at the musical festival, by Pranken especially, who spoke in afriendly tone, but with a most cutting manner.
In the evening, when the fire-flies were darting here and there in thedusky park, Eric walked with Bella, while Clodwig sat in the balconiedroom, turning over the leaves of an album filled with new photographicviews of Rome, and, at many a page, looking far away into the past.
Roland walked with Pranken, and they talked of Manna. Pranken knew wellhow to suggest what he should write of him. In walking, they passed andrepassed Eric and Bella, and Pranken looked surprised at seeing hissister leaning on the young man's arm. Like glancing fire-flies, thebrilliant flashes of wit lighted up their conversation, but left longertrains of light behind them. Bella and Eric spoke in a low tone, andoften, as the others passed near them, they stopped speaking. Bellatalked again about her good husband,--she always called him her "goodhusband,"--and said how thoughtfully Eric understood him, not only, ifshe might say so, with his mind, but with his heart.
"You have made a new phrase," said Eric, and Bella repeated hernewly-coined expression, with as much pleasure as if she had found anew style of head-dress which suited her face alone.
Eric was pedantic enough to go back to the original subject ofdiscussion, and said warmly, how delightful it was to find Beauty andPeacefulness, not only in one's own ideal, but in real life; to reachout one's hand to them and look into their calm, clear eyes.
"You are a good man, and I believe an honest one," said Bella, andpulling off her glove she lightly tapped with it on Eric's hand.
"It is no merit to be honest," said Eric. "I could almost wish I couldbe untruthful; no,--not untruthful, but a little more reticentsometimes."
It was charming and edifying, to hear how Bella now extolled the beautyand happiness of a thoroughly honest nature; and she spoke in a tone ofdeep emotion, as she added, that she might have won early in life amost brilliant lot, if she could have feigned, a very little love. Ericdid not know what to answer, and this caused one of those pauses whichPranken, passing with Roland, observed.
Bella went on to say, that it is always a blessing to do anything tohelp a human being; it falls to the lot of one person, to do this for afellow-creature in the morning of life--here she bent her head towardsEric--while another does it for one in the decline of life, when thesacrifice, quiet and unrecognized, can only be rewarded by theconsciousness of the service rendered.
At a bend of the road, it happened, very naturally, that Eric walkedwith Roland, and Pranken with his sister. Roland was jealous of Bella,of every person; jealous at every word, at every look, that Ericdirected to any one but himself; he wished to have him wholly tohimself. And as Roland now exhibited his childish humor, Eric shrunkinto himself affrighted; he had not only allowed himself to be divertedfrom Roland, but perhaps also had been committing a wrong in adifferent direction. There was yet time for him to retrace his steps.He went to bid Clodwig good-night, and he was almost pleased to findthat he had already retired to rest.
Das landhaus am Rhein. English Page 73