Das landhaus am Rhein. English

by Berthold Auerbach

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THE TRIUMPH OF THE OPPRESSED.

  Roland entered the cottage, and found the Professorin, Eric, and Mannain grave conversation together; they had imparted the dreadful secretto each other, and what weighed the most heavily upon them was thethought how Roland would bear it when he should learn of it. He nowcame in and said:--

  "Manna, we are disgraced children!"

  The three hastened to him, and affectionately embraced and kissed him.

  "Be strong, brother!" said Eric, throwing his arms around him. "I canblow you strong, my brother."

  Hiawatha's saying echoed in Roland's soul, and he looked around on allsides, as if bewildered. He sat down speechless on a chair, and thethree dear to him sat in silence near him.

  Sonnenkamp, meanwhile, had got out at the entrance of the park, andwalked towards the villa; it seemed to him as if the ground would giveway under his feet, and the house and trees vanish. Are you sick? heasked himself. You are not to be sick! He whistled softly to himself;his gigantic strength still held out.

  Here everything is as it was, and you yourself are here, too, he said,exerting a powerful control over himself, as he stood upon his propertyand grounds. He seemed to be wrestling with a hostile world enlistedagainst him, and he repelled the encompassing foes with heroicstrength; they should not cut off the sources of his confidence andpower. He felt himself well armed and equipped. Pranken is right; onemust not let himself be cowed, one must bid defiance to the world, andthen it will bow itself in humility, and in a year--no, much sooner,all will come and flatter him.

  He remained standing on the steps, holding on by the railing, for allhis strength seemed exhausted; but drawing a deep breath, and pluckingup his courage, as it were, he soon recovered his self-possession. Helooked about without constraint, he had become so accustomed tofeigning, that he was determined no one should see in him any trace ofdisturbance.

  He went up the steps with a firm and steady stride. He took Pranken'sarm, and told him in a candid tone how highly he esteemed him andadmired his strength, of which he already felt the effect in himself.

  He went with Pranken to his room, nodding to everything, which stillheld its place here, and should hold it firmly for the time to come. Herequested his son--so he called Pranken--his son, of whom he was proud,to impart what had happened to Frau Ceres, the very first thing, in hisquiet and self-possessed, his easy, his all-subduing manner that he somuch admired.

  "Make no reply if she storms. This stormy outburst is no longerformidable."

  In this declaration there was a sort of tranquillizing influence whichSonnenkamp himself felt. It is better that the whole world should standup in arms against him, than to be forever and forever under thedominion of this crafty, threatening, and annoying woman. Now herweapon was gone, and the dagger which she had always kept hidden wasnow unsheathed in the eyes of all the world, and was in every hand.

  Pranken went to Frau Ceres; he had to wait a long time in theante-room, but at last Fraeulein Perini came out.

  Pranken briefly told her that the secret she had confided to him, andwhich he had kept so faithfully, was now made public.

  "So soon?" said Fraeulein Perini; and when Pranken inquired how FrauCeres would be likely to receive the annihilation of her hopes of beingennobled, and the whole detestable uproar in the world, she replied,smiling, that she could not tell, for Frau Ceres was now sufferingunder a terrible trial of a wholly different kind.

  She could hardly go on, she was so choked with laughter, but finally itcame out.

  Yesterday morning, Frau Ceres in some incomprehensible way had brokenoff her most beautiful nail, a real prodigy of most careful cherishing,and she was utterly inconsolable.

  Pranken could not help joining in the laugh. He accompanied FraeuleinPerini into the room.

  Frau Ceres gave him her left hand to kiss, holding the right carefullyconcealed. She asked whether Pranken had brought with him the armorialdevice, and pointed to an embroidery frame on which she wanted at onceto work the coat-of-arms, and also to an altar-cloth, whose border wasalready completed.

  Pranken now broke the news to her in a very careful manner.

  "And he always said I was stupid! I am cleverer than he," Frau Ceresburst out; "I always told him that Europe was no place for us, and thatwe ought to have remained where we were. Hasn't he caught it now? He'sashamed to come himself, and so he has sent you. He's ashamed, becauseI, the simpleton, who had never learned anything, knew the affair somuch better than he did."

  In this first moment, a mischievous joy seemed to be Frau Ceres'predominant feeling; the man who had always treated her as a feebleplaything must now see that her ideas were more correct than his.

  She sat long in silence, moving her lips, and with a scornful, exultantexpression, as if she were uttering to her husband all her presentthoughts. Pranken thought it incumbent on him to add, that in a shorttime the family would be as much respected as before.

  "Do you believe that we shall be ennobled then?"

  Pranken was perplexed what reply to make, for it seemed as if the womandid not yet comprehend what had happened. He evaded a direct answer,and only said that he remained true to the family, and regarded himselfas a son of the house.

  "Yes, to-morrow ought to be the wedding. Here in Europe, you have somany formalities. I'll drive to church with you. But where's Manna? Shehas horribly neglected me."

  "But, my dear Baron, it is well, this connection with the tutor'sfamily will now come to an end. Don't let it continue any longer, dearBaron."

  She requested Fraeulein Perini to tell Manna to come to her.

  Pranken could not comprehend how this woman, half childish, halfcunning, sometimes malicious, sometimes peevish, could be alsosometimes so affectionate; but there was no time now to try to solvethe riddle. He besought the Mother--such was the appellation he nowgave to Frau Ceres--to leave Manna alone for a few days; he would firstsee her alone, and then they would come together to the mother and askher blessing.

  "I give you my blessing now," said Frau Ceres, forgetting herself sofar as to give him both hands.

  She told him that Bella had been there, and had hardly shown herself toher; that she had come, and then had driven away again in a manner thatshe couldn't comprehend at all.

  Here a shot was heard.

  "He has shot himself; he has done it now!" cried Frau Ceres, in asingular tone; it was not lamentation, nor laughter, but somethingpeculiar, utterly inexplicable.

  Pranken hurried away.