'How happy I would be, but I should still be able to offer you my escort.'
'You can - if you want to leave the ball because of me. Also, as I said, it is not far - in ten minutes you will be back. '
'I will not return; because what should I still here, when you are gone?
Anyone else, though I had spoken these words in a convincing tone, would now have cast some mocking objection. Ginevra looked down thoughtfully.,Really?' she asked, slowly opening her eyes and looking at me with a full look.
'Certainly,' I affirmed.
She was silent again. Then she said in her soft, dark voice, 'I'm glad.'
Meanwhile, the hall had almost completely emptied; for the rest-hour had come, and everything was pressing and compelling for refreshment and strengthening in the adjoining room, overfilling it. I was therefore able to settle down quietly with Ginevra, not far from an open side door that led to the ladies' dressing room. In front of this, in a very small room, was an extremely primitive confectionery; there were all sorts of pastry, oranges and fruit juices; Ice was not available.
'Can I offer you some refreshment?' I asked.
, No, thanks. Or maybe - I would like to ask for a glass of water. '
I approached the old woman, who sat glumly at the merchandise, sought water, and to buy something I also had some oranges put on the plate, which I presented to Ginevra.
'The oranges are beautiful,' she said. 'I'll take one and bring it to the mother.'
After drinking, we sat in silence for a while. 'But now I am ready,' she said now, getting up., Expect me outside at the entrance; I just take my clothes out of the dressing room. ' I hurried to the vestibule, where my coat hung. It was not long before she appeared, wrapped in a very light cloak, with a black veil over her head, from which her bright countenance gleamed wonderfully. Outside, she turned left immediately and took a narrow footpath. I did not dare offer her an arm, and held her at a respectful distance by her side. It was a moonless night; but the stars flickered, and you could clearly see the landscape.
'Do you see the row of small houses?' she started.,I live there.'
That's even closer than I thought. Just a few more moments - and you've disappeared. Maybe forever.'
She did not reply.
'Shall I really not see you again?'
'I'll ask the mother,' she said after a pause.
'And how will I know this?'
She seemed to think. 'Come to the alley tomorrow at four o'clock in the afternoon.' She pointed to two rows of bare trees, which stretched across the fields toward the river. 'It's my favorite way; especially in this time of year, when it's still very lonely around here. Do you want?'
,They ask? - - '
'It should be good weather tomorrow,' she went on, standing still, looking at the sky; Even bad things would not stop me. But now you stay behind. Do you see the illuminated windows? My good mother is still awake. ' She shook my hand. So addio ! Tomorrow! '
She hurried forward, facing the dim lights., Addio! she called softly back. Then she tapped lightly on a glass. Immediately afterwards, the front door was opened and closed again.
But I stood for a while, peering out at the shadow of Ginevra, who seemed to stand out on the screened curtains. At last I started on the way home, the breast full of blissful feelings, in which every memory of my fortress circe went down without a trace.
III.
In what excitement I met the fourth afternoon of the afternoon on the following day, one thinks; I counted the minutes, making sense of how endless such a minimal period of time might appear. And, as is already the case in similar cases, my feverish impatience faced obstacles in the last hour, quite unforeseen duties of service, which almost brought me to the rendezvous. Nevertheless, I managed to come off just before four o'clock, and almost always on the way to make.
The weather had indeed started very favorably. The most beautiful February sun shone down from the blue sky and created a true spring day, even if the landscape still had its entire winter bleakness.
From afar I saw the slender figure of Ginevra walking up and down between the designated rows of trees. She, too, immediately took notice of me and beckoned to me in greeting with the fan, which she had taken with her instead of a parasol. She wore her cloak lightly around her shoulders, and the black veil loosely wreathed her blond head.
'So you came,' she said with a smile as I finally stood breathless and heated in front of her. 'I had already begun to doubt a little.'
I was quick to apologize for the reasons for the delay, but she interrupted me. That does not matter. They are here now - and as far as I'm concerned, I would have waited much longer. I also have good news to tell you: my mother wants to receive you. '
,How fortunate!' I exclaimed.
'I foresaw it,' she went on quietly. 'Cause I know my mother and know that she does not refuse me any wish. But you must not believe that I am a spoiled child. The good meets my wishes, because I rarely have one - or at least speak out. If this happens, then she is also convinced that it is a sincere and well thought-out, on which I insist, if necessary. So when I told her about our meeting at yesterday's Balle, she merely said: if he thinks he is right, he may come. - And you mean it right? ' she added, looking me full and deep in the eye.
I confess that this question affected me somewhat. For I felt that something serious, solemnly binding had approached me, for which I had not been prepared. But already I had bent over the narrow hand, which stretched out to me trustingly, and kissed her with silent protestation.
'I did not doubt it,' she said in a firm tone. “The officers, though we are girls, are not in any special calling. But I think it's a prejudice that, like many others, is thoughtlessly reiterated. After all, I had proof to my father that honor is above all else in your class. - But come now; my mother is waiting for you. It is still very nice out here; but the day is drawing to a close, and in the dark you shall not enter our house. '
So we walked to the small dwellings that lay in the distance in front of us. They made artless interrupted fenced gardens and tiny land, a kind of suburb, which lay in the open field. Visibly poor people lived here; but everything seemed well-kept and clean. The bright disks reflected the rays of the setting sun; Here and there, children played peacefully outside the doors.
The house to which Ginevra now directed me was a little more handsome than the rest; to the entrance led up several steps. As we climbed up to the next window, we saw the flushed, curiously-looking countenance of an elderly woman, who passed us in the corridor and disappeared into a side door.
'That was our landlady,' said Ginevra; The widow of the magistrate who had been under my father and earned this little estate over the years. She herself inhabits only one chamber; we rented everything else for a cheap one. '
She opened a second side door, through which we entered a bright kitchen, and from there into a not unroomy living-room, where Ginevra's mother was sitting in her easy chair, a delicate, slender woman who looked suffering but could not count for much over forty years, A slight blush flew over her face as we entered and she rose with some difficulty.
'There he is, Mom,' said Ginevra. 'I'll leave you alone with him.' She quickly took off subjects, veils and cloaks and hurried out again.
I approached the pale woman who had sat back down, and a pause of mutual embarrassment entered.
At last I began: 'You were so kind as to allow me -'
'I'm glad to meet you,' she replied in rather broken German.,Please take a seat.'
I pulled up a chair.
'I do not know,' she continued after a while, 'whether I have done right to ask you to us; probably most mothers would have been worried. But my daughter told me everything that had happened at the ball, and so it seemed to me best not to put any obstacles in the way of a reunion. Your amiable personality '- she said this flattery with a slight lowering of the head and in that fine, exquisitely balancing tone that can only be heard in Italy -' Your amiable perso
nality seems to have made a deep impression, and it might well secret meetings that are always most embarrassing for a young girl. When I made the acquaintance of my unforgettable husband, I myself was forced to do so by the circumstances in my parents' house, and I know what I have suffered.
As she spoke, I had attentively looked at her face, which was animated by the memory. There was nothing Southern in the whole appearance, and if it had not been the characteristic of the pronunciation and of some of the movements, one would hardly have thought it an Italian. Soft, soft features, simple auburn hair and eyes; She had not the slightest resemblance to her daughter.
She guessed my thoughts and said with a smile, “You do not think you're like Ginevra? She is completely after her father. If you take the trouble to look at that picture there, you will know it. '
I got up and stepped in front of a rather faded watercolor hanging on a window pillar. It was somewhat stiff, but not without emotion, and introduced a casual thirty-year-old man in officer's uniform of the Jägertruppe. Out the finely cut, frail collar protruded a finely cut, highly expressive head with blond hair and blue eyes. The longer I looked at the picture at the uncertain twilight of the evening, the clearer Ginevra's features came to meet it.
'And not only in appearance does she resemble him,' continued the woman, to my loud approval; Also in everything and everything concerning the character, which, although only recently turned sixteen, has already developed to great strength. '
'Yes, your daughter is a very unique creature!' I exclaimed.
Well, maybe we're both bribed judges. But that's what I think I can say myself: she's an excellent girl and deserves to be happy. '
'She will certainly!'
'It's in God's hands.'
There was a silence, while the crackle of the hearth, as well as soft footsteps and handling, could be heard from the kitchen.
'Ginevra is making the coffee,' said Mrs Maresch. 'She has to attack everywhere. To keep a maid, we are not able to; The worst is done by the woman we live with. The small pension I receive is barely enough to live on, and if not some time ago we had lost a couple of hundred lire to a relatives in Italy, we might be in need - and worse, depending on strangers People are advised. '
'You certainly have several relatives in Italy?' I asked.
No, at least nobody close to my heart. Parents and a brother I had died quickly years in a row. Reluctantly my marriage was admitted after long struggles, and then me lost in the stranger more and more out of sight. I have, as you may imagine, suffered from homesickness despite my marital happiness. But at least that's what got lost, and I do not really want to go back to Italy for now. And not elsewhere. My husband's relatives are still living in Graz and they have repeatedly asked me to come to them with Ginevra. But we prefer to remain independent, as limited as we have to live. Moreover, since we live in this house, we are very satisfied. It's not much more than a cabin, but we're all here for ourselves, with a small garden - and with a few steps you're out in the open. I long for spring, when I will be able to enjoy all this;
So we continued the conversation, and now I also let some of my living conditions flow, although the sensitive woman in this regard avoided any question. She listened with modest attention and finally said: 'I see that you are of noble family. And Emil's your name - Emilio. A beautiful and well-known name; my poor brother has also led him. '
At that moment, Ginevra came in, holding a small, green-painted lampshade, as was then customary, and its glow lit up the already darkened room.
'You'll probably already have spoken to him, mother,' she said, putting down the lamp, 'and I can bring the coffee, which is already finished, and to which you' - she turned to me with a bow -, Are invited, if you do not disdain this women's drink. '
And now she quickly began to make arrangements. She moved the table close to her mother and spread a fresh one Cloth over it. Then she brought out of the kitchen jug and cups, which the latter filled carefully and smiled.
After the snack was taken, she got up and lit a candle. 'But I will show you my room,' she cried. 'It is a very tiny little room, but I am sovereign in it.'
She opened a side door, which I had already seen several times, and let me enter while she was pointing ahead. The room, however, was infinitely small, so much so that one wondered how what stood in it could still find room. In the middle wall was a window; To the right and left of it were two framed ink drawings depicting southern landscapes. Close to the window, a sewing table, heaped with white cloth, close to another small table, on which stood between some flower pots a bird farmer. One side wall covered a box, the other a shelf that was completely filled with books in faded bindings.
'Well, did not I decorate it nicely?' Ginevra asked. When I'm here, I can look into our garden. To be sure, he is still quite bald and desolate now; For that my flowers are blooming at the window. And this' - she approached the bird-grower with the light, in which a siskin, the head under the wing, already slept on its stem- that's my piccino! He chirps very funny during the day. And there '- she lit the shelf -, there you have the whole Italian Parnassus: Dante, Ariosto, Tasso and so on. It comes from my father, who put his pride in understanding Italian, like a native - or better yet. He did not read anything else, and God knows how many times he has made these volumes. He knew no other pleasure. In his younger years he was also a draftsman; those landscapes are there from him in Naples, for in the year twenty he took part in the Austrian intervention. '
I had now pulled out one of the volumes and exfoliated.
'Do you perhaps also read Italian?' she researched.
, I should be fine; because it was taught in the cadet institute. But I did not get far. '
'We want to read each other, then it will work. - Did you hear, Mamma, 'she called into the room,' that our language is not foreign to him? '
, Ho compreso; che piacere! 'the mother asked.
'By the way, you can imagine,' continued Ginevra, that I myself do not know most of what is in the books; it's too hard reading for a young girl. '
We had stepped out of the little room at these words, and seeing that an old grandfather clock in the room had already turned eight, I thought it proper to say goodbye now.
'Goodbye,' said the mother., Sia benedetta la sua intrata da noi. '
I held the hand that she handed to me respectfully to my lips and stepped out of the door, accompanied by Ginevra with the light. Outside, she set it down and followed me down the hall. There she stopped and spread her arms with an unspeakably beautiful and noble movement.
'So you love me?' she asked with a heartfelt look.
I pulled her to me, and our lips closed into a long kiss.”
IV.
“And now,” continued the colonel, “a happy time began for me. I visited, as often as possible, the small house, its quietness and seclusion, the charm of a relationship which grew ever more intimately under the gentle eye of the mother - and at the same time remained the purest and louder one imaginable. For with all the passion with which Ginevra opened her young soul to me, she nevertheless showed a virgin sovereignty and dignity, which filled me with reverence and holy awe. I usually came in the early afternoon hours. Then Ginevra was sitting at the sewing table and I beside her, chattering or quietly lost in her sight, and when the lamp was lit, while the mother listened, we read in her father's books: Sonnets Petrarcas, easy-to-understand songs from the divina commedia, and now and again a fragment of Master Ludovico's fantastic poem. But not long did it endure us in the parlors. Because it was spring and sunny, warm days lured us in front of the house. The mother had her armchair made in the garden, where already the first green shimmered and the buds were close to breaking up. There, as we walked out into the field, she paused to look up at the larks, who sprang up from the floes, and plucked the first violets and other early flowers to Ginevra for the ostrich she gave me when they said goodbye. So we lived like in a beautiful dream and did not know that the days of happiness were
numbered.....
One day, when I returned home at nightfall, I found a letter from my uncle, in which he informed me that his influence had made it possible to obtain my transfer to a regiment in Vienna. And with simultaneous promotion to lieutenant; a leap forward, which at that time was not too difficult to achieve by the favor of a friendly regimental owner. He hoped, therefore, that he would soon be able to embrace me. In other circumstances, this news would have been a most enjoyable one; at this moment but she struck me like lightning out of the blue. What should a promotion mean to me now? What a transfer to Vienna and the reunion of my uncle, when all this quickly and suddenly swept me away from my beloved? I spent a sleepless night, and by the next morning I was also informed of the matter on business, with the advice that I would have to go to my new destination within three days. So only three days, three short days were granted to me - and even these, as I realized on closer consideration, only in the smallest fractions. For it was just with my divorce from the regiment that I was more than ever bound to comradely intercourse in this span of time, quite apart from the other obligations my so unexpected departure imposed on me.save a full evening for me. The present day was already occupied by a joint fencing exercise, which took place every week and used to close with a blackboard in the casino. Over there people were informed and therefore did not expect me. But I was able to catch the hours that were just ahead of me and immediately headed for Leitmeritz. It was a difficult walk; I had to inform the women of the soon-to-be-divorced separation!
I met the mother alone at home. She'd gotten some strength lately, and seemed busy fixing things in the room.
'Ah, Emilio!' she exclaimed in surprise as she saw me enter. 'How nice that you come back once in the morning and compensate us for the lost evening. Ginevra is getting some small purchases in the city; but she will be back soon. But what do you have? ' she continued with worried looks, as she perceived my serious and downcast face. 'Did something happen?'
Short Stories From Austria- Ferdinand Von Saar Page 16