Das landhaus am Rhein. English

by Berthold Auerbach

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THOU SHALT LAUGH, DANCE, AND DRINK.

  "A house without a daughter is like a meadow without flowers," said theMajor, who was watching, with Sonnenkamp and the Professorin, the youngpeople playing graces in the lawn between the villa and the greencottage.

  Lina had induced Manna to be present, and she was there in a brightsummer suit. And Lina, together with the maid, had prevailed upon Mannato wear a deep red velvet ribbon in her black hair, and that her richdark hair should be shown to the best advantage.

  The young people formed a large circle, sending differently coloredhoops swiftly through the air, and catching them upon the prettysticks.

  The Architect was present, too, having been invited at Manna's specialrequest. No one except herself and Lina knew why this had been done.

  Roland had requested Eric to join in the play; at first he declined,but Lina cried,--

  "Whoever doesn't play wears a wig and is afraid of its being foundout."

  He made one of the circle. Pranken gave him a sort of military salutewith his stick, as if it were a sword. They laughed merrily as theysprang about on the lawn, and it was a delight to the eye to witnessRoland's, and, still more, Manna's graceful movements. When she lookedup and reached out an arm, with her lithe and ethereal form, itappeared as if her eyes were fixed upon something else than the play;as if she were in an ecstasy, and were expecting not a hoop, but someheavenly vision. Pranken stood on her right, and Eric on her left;Pranken threw so skilfully that she always caught the hoop from him,while Eric sent it too high or too low, so that she was obliged tostoop and pick it up from the ground. It almost seemed as if he did itpurposely, for in this movement Manna's grace was always displayedafresh.

  Roland and Lina made fun of his clumsy play.

  Lina and Roland kept up a constant running fight; she struggled withthe boy as if she were a boy herself, and they tried to throw eachother down in the endeavor to catch a hoop tossed beyond the circle.But Roland was not thrown down, and escaped from all her clutches assmoothly as a weasel. The Architect smiled as he looked at Lina'sfawn-colored gaiter-boots. As Eric was leaping forward to catch a hoopwhich Manna had thrown on one side, he fell his whole length on thelawn.

  Manna laughed outright.

  As soon as Lina heard it she clapped her hands, exclaiming,--

  "The princess is set free! Manna has, heretofore, been the princess whocouldn't laugh. Captain, you've broken the spell! What name shall wegive to the knight who has set our Manna free?" Lina was overflowingwith merriment, and she might indeed take pride in having been themeans of enlivening the whole house, and, more than all, Manna.

  Eric succeeded in turning his fall into a joke, and he was at a loss,when he looked at his mother, to know why she shook her head sostrangely. He had entirely forgotten how she reminded him with prideduring those sad days when Bella was visiting the villa, that hisfather had said he had never had a fall.

  Manna's cheeks had never before glowed so brightly as they did to-day;the spell upon her seemed broken; one deep, hearty, childlike burst oflaughter had given her new life. She was sorely vexed, but she couldmake no suitable response when Lina said to Herr Sonnenkamp:--

  "Your Highness! The king was obliged to give the princess in marriageto the knight who made her laugh, and public proclamation was made ofit from the tower of the castle throughout all lands. Now say what youwill give to Herr Dournay."

  "I grant him a kiss," answered Sonnenkamp.

  "Herr Dournay, you are authorized to kiss Manna, her father grantspermission," Lina called out to the company.

  They all stood amazed, and Sonnenkamp cried:--

  "No, child, that was not my meaning. He can give you a kiss."

  "I don't need your permission for that," replied Lina.

  She was now entirely in her element; wherever there was any fun, anyteasing, she seemed a different being, quick, inventive, excessivelymerry, full of fanciful suggestions; as soon, however, as theconversation took a serious turn, she always sat very quiet andattentive, but her look said:--

  "All this is no doubt very fine, but I've no relish for it; I've neveryet seen that people were any better off or any merrier for all theirsmart speeches."

  They returned to the villa.

  Lina had hung her hat upon a bush. The Architect carried it to her,stroking the brown ribbons, and regarding fondly the brown straw braid,and the artificial vine-leaves, of a brown autumnal tint. He handed thehat to Lina, and while doing it they pressed each other's hands, as theArchitect said that he must go to the castle again, in order to makesome arrangements for the next day. For an instant only, Lina lookedthoughtfully after him, and then, giving her head a toss, she boundedup the steps and went into the music saloon. Placing herself at thepiano, she played a dancing tune, for the day must be wound off with adance; the release of the princess who had not been able to laugh mustbe celebrated with a dance, and Lina was so self-denying as to bewilling herself to play. When Pranken now came up to Manna andjestingly invited her to dance, Lina jumped up from the piano.

  "No, that won't do! The knight of philosophy gone to grass; he whofreed the princess, he must come first."

  Lina would not have it otherwise. Manna had first to dance with Eric,and the Aunt was obliging enough to play for them, so that Lina coulddance too. With a very roguish, saucy courtesy, she challenged Herr vonPranken, who took her arm without any hesitation, and danced with herbehind Eric and Manna.

  "I can't realize that I am dancing," said Manna, as she floated ratherthan danced round the great hall.

  "Nor can I," replied Eric.

  Manna broke the pause which ensued, by saying:--

  "Lina sets us all crazy."

  Pranken now came and asked her to dance; she was still somewhat out ofbreath. He held her hand until he began to whirl with her in the dance.Roland was delighted that Lina was free, and the Aunt must still keepplaying for him to dance with Lina, as he was unwilling to stop.

  Sonnenkamp was quite happy as he stood there in the music-saloon; andhe said to the Professorin that this was all so pleasant, and he hadnever thought that he should see his children dancing in this hall. Hehad sent to Frau Ceres, who would like to be a looker on, too. Shecame, and Pranken and Manna must dance again in her presence.

  Sonnenkamp praised the happy suggestion of his wife, that she shouldgive a grand ball in honor of Manna; but Manna decidedly opposed this,and the wise Lina, happy in her triumph, begged the parents in a lowtone not to urge Manna any further to-day, and she would bringeverything about in good season.

  After tea, Lina wanted to have another dance; she would like to keep upall night, and that Sonnenkamp should telegraph to the garrison to havethe military band sent by an extra train.

  She was to-day so full of buoyant sprightliness, and so overflowingwith cheerfulness, that even Eric, who had heretofore regarded her withindifference, approached her in a very friendly mood.

  "Yes," she said, "do you remember that time? Would you have believedthat you should ever have danced with your winged apparition? Isn't shea heavenly creature? Ah, and if you ever know her as she used to be, sofull of glee! Ah, I am delighted to think that you will fall so deeplyin love with Manna,--oh, so deeply in love,--so dead in love. Will youpromise me something?"

  "What, for instance?"

  "That you will tell me the very first day when you fall in love."

  "But if I should fall in love with you, what then?"

  "Come, don't talk so. I am much too stupid for you. I should have beensmart enough for Herr von Pranken, but I am engaged, and out of thequestion. Hasn't Manna told you anything about me?"

  Eric said she had not, and Lina continued:--

  "Yes, do this, do it out of regard for me, and snatch Manna away fromBaron von Pranken. I beg of you, do it for my sake."

  "What are you laughing at so merrily?" said Manna, coming up to them."I have begun to laugh to-day, and now I shoul
d like to keep youcompany."

  "Tell her," said Lina with a nod. As Eric was silent, she continued:--

  "He can tell you, but he is awfully reserved and profound. Don't lethim have any peace, Manna, until he has told you. Herr Captain, if youdon't tell at once, then I'll tell."

  "I have that confidence in your sense of propriety," said Eric veryseriously, "that I do not believe you would wantonly turn a joke intosober earnest."

  Lina's whole mien changed, and she said:

  "Ah, Manna, he is so awfully learned! My father says so too, and hesees people through and through. Don't you sometimes feel afraid ofhim?"

  Without making any reply, Manna took Lina's arm and went with herthrough the garden, Lina chatting, joking, and singing incessantly,like a nightingale in the shrubbery.

  After Manna had gone to her room, it seemed to her there that thepictures on the wall looked at her and asked: Who can this be? She shutout the dumb pictures by closing her eyes, threw herself upon herknees, and a voice within her seemed to say: It must be thus; thou artto become acquainted with the world, and all the vain delights of life,in order to gain the victory over them. Yet she felt down-hearted, forin the midst of her contrite prayer she seemed to hear the livelywaltzes sounding in her ears, and she heard a burst of laughter. Couldit have been she herself who had so laughed?

  The next day she had to enter into fresh gaieties.

  In the afternoon they drove to the castle, and there the Architectcontrived a new delight. He was a genuine priest of the May-bowl, andwith a sort of solemnity he mixed the various ingredients of thefragrant beverage. The whole company sat upon a projecting wall of thecastle, and looked out upon the broadly-extending landscape, whileLina, in her exuberant joyousness, sang and caroled withoutintermission. She sang in the open air, as a general thing, better thanin a room; and she had a good accompaniment, for she sang a duett withthe Architect.

  Eric was again asked to sing, and again he declined.

  Lina induced Manna to drink a whole glass of May-wine, and said, injoke, that if she could only get Manna once a little intoxicated, theold Manna, or, more properly, the young Manna, would again showherself. She seemed ready to make her appearance, but Manna hadstrength enough to hold herself in restraint, though she laughed to-dayat Lina's most trifling jokes.

  Roland nodded to Eric, but he whispered to him that he must not callattention to Manna's cheerfulness, as that would put an end to it.

  Wreaths were woven, and Lina recalled the time when Eric first came toWolfsgarten; with wreaths on their heads they all drove from the castleback to the villa.

  At the last declivity. Manna bounded lightly down the hill and Linaafter her; at the foot the latter embraced her old schoolmate, sayingto her:--

  "You are released! You have done the three best things in the world;you have laughed, danced, and drunk--no, this is not the best; the bestis yet to come."

  And again Manna burst into a ringing laugh.