by Georg Ebers
CHAPTER V.
The captain limped out into the cellar, but Barbara was already standingbehind the table again, moving the irons.
"When I am rich," she exclaimed, in reply to Wolf, who asked her to stopher work in this happy hour and share the delicious wine with him andher father, "I shall shun such maid-servant's business. But what elsecan be done? We have less money than we need to keep up our position,and that must be remedied. Besides, a neatly crimped ruff is necessaryif a poor girl like me is to stand beside the others in the singingrehearsal early to-morrow morning. Poor folks are alike everywhere,and, so long as I can do no better--but luck will come to me, too, someday--this right hand must be my maid. Let it alone, or my iron will burnyour fingers!"
This threat was very nearly fulfilled, for Wolf had caught her righthand to hold it firmly while he at last compelled her to hear that hisfuture destiny depended upon her decision.
How much easier he had expected to find the wooing! Yet how could itbe otherwise? Every young man in Ratisbon was probably courting thispeerless creature. No doubt she had already rebuffed many another assharply as she had just prevented him from seizing her hand. If hermanner had grown more independent, she had learned to defend herselfcleverly.
He would first try to assail her heart with words, and they were at hisdisposal in black and white. He had placed in the little box with thebreastpin a piece of paper on which he had given expression to hisfeelings in verse. Hitherto it had remained unnoticed and flutteredto the ground. Picking it up, he introduced his suit, after a briefexplanation, by reading aloud the lines which he had composed inBrussels to accompany his gifts to her.
It was an easy task, for he had painted rather than written his poetichomage, with beautiful ornaments on the initial letters, and in the mostcareful red and black Gothic characters, which looked like print. So,with a vivacity of intonation which harmonized with the extravagance ofthe poetry, he began:
"Queen of my heart wert thou in days of old, Beloved maid, in childhood's garb so plain; I bring thee velvet now, and silk and gold Though I am but a poor and simple swain That in robes worthy of thee may be seen My sovereign, of all thy sex the queen."
Barbara nodded pleasantly to him, saying: "Very pretty. Perhaps youmight arrange your little verse in a duo, but how you must havetaxed your imagination, you poor fellow, to transform the flightygood-for-nothing whom you left five years ago into a brilliant queen!"
"Because, even at that time," he ardently exclaimed. "I had placed youon the throne of my heart, because the bud already promised--Yet no! Inthose days I could not suspect that it would unfold into so marvellousa rose. You stand before me now more glorious than I beheld you in themost radiant of all my dreams, and therefore the longing to possess you,which I could never relinquish, will make me appear almost insolentlybold. But it must be risked, and if you will fulfil the most ardentdesire of a faithful heart--"
"Gently, my little Wolf, gently," she interposed soothingly. "If I amright, you mounted our narrow stairs to seek a wife and, when my fatherreturns, you will ask for my hand."
"That I will," the young knight declared with eager positiveness. "Your'Yes' or 'No,' Wawerl, is to me the decree of Fate, to which even thegods submit without opposition."
"Indeed?" she answered, uttering the word slowly, with downcast eyes.Then suddenly drawing herself to her full height, she added with agraver manner than he had ever seen her wear: "It is fortunate thatI have learned the stories of the gods which are so popular in theNetherlands. If any one else should come to me with such pretences,I would scarcely believe that he had honest intentions. You are inearnest, Wolf, and wish to make me your wife. But 'Yes' and 'No' can notbe spoken as quickly as you probably imagine. You were always a good,faithful fellow, and I am sincerely attached to you. But have I eventhe slightest knowledge of what you obtained abroad or what awaits youhere?"
"Wawerl!" he interrupted reproachfully. "Would I as an honest manseek your hand if I had not made money enough to support a wife whoseexpectations were not too extravagant? You can not reasonably doubtthat, and now, when the most sacred of bonds is in question, it ought--"
"It ought, you think, to satisfy me?" she interrupted with confidentsuperiority. "But one of two things must follow this sacredbond-happiness or misery in the earthly life which is entered from thechurch steps. I am tired of the miserable starving and struggling, mydear Wolf. Marriage must at least rid me of these gloomy spectres. Myfather will not let you leave soon the good wine he allows himself andyou to enjoy--you know that. Tell him how you are situated at thecourt, and what prospects, you have here in Ratisbon or elsewhere;for instance, I would gladly go to the magnificent Netherlands with myhusband. Inform yourself better, too, of the amount of your inheritance.The old man will take me into his confidence early to-morrow morning.But I will confess this to you now: The most welcome husband to me wouldbe a zealous and skilful disciple of music, and I know that wish willbe fulfilled with you. If, perhaps, you are already what I call asuccessful man, we will see. But--I have learned that--no happinesswill thrive on bread and water, and even a modest competence, as it iscalled, won't do for me."
"But Wawerl," he interrupted dejectedly, "what could be better thantrue, loyal love? Just hear what I was going to tell you, and have notyet reached."
But Barbara would not listen, cutting his explanation short with thewords:
"All that is written as distinctly on the tender swain's face as if Ihad it before me in black letter, but unfortunately it has as littlepower to move me to reckless haste as the angry visage into which youraffectionate one is now transformed. The Scripture teaches us to provebefore we retain. Yet if, on this account, you take me for a woman whoseheart and hand can be bought for gold, you are mistaken. Worthy PeterSchlumperger is constantly courting me. And I? I have asked him to wait,although he is perhaps the richest man in the city. I might have BernardCrafft, too, at any time, but he, perhaps, is as much too young as HerrPeter is too old, yet, on the other hand, he owns the Golden Cross, and,besides, has inherited a great deal of money and a flourishing business.I keep both at a distance, and I did the same--only more rigidly--lastyear when the Count Palatine von Simmern made me proposals which wouldhave rendered me a rich woman, but only aroused my indignation. I dealtmore indulgently with the Ratisbon men, but I certainly shall takeneither of them, for they care more for the wine in the taproom than themost exquisite pleasures which music offers, and, besides, they are foesof our holy faith, and Herr Schlumperger is even one of those who mostzealously favour the heretical innovations."
Here she hesitated and her eyes met his with distrustful keenness as sheasked in an altered tone:
"And you? Have not you returned to the false doctrines with which yourboyish head was bewildered in the school of poetry?"
"I confided to you then," he exclaimed, deeply hurt, "the solemn vow Imade to my poor mother ere she closed her eyes in death."
"Then that obstacle is removed," Barbara answered in a more gentle tone,"but I will not take back even a single word of what I have said aboutother matters. I am not like the rest of the girls. My father--HolyVirgin!--how much too late he was born! Among the Crusaders thisfearless hero, whom the pepper-bags here jeer at as a 'Turkey gobbler,'would have been sure of every honour. How ill-suited he is for anymercantile business, on the other hand, he has unfortunately proved.Wherever he attempted anything, disappointment followed disappointment.To fight in Tunis against the crescent, he let our flourishing lumbertrade go to ruin! And my mother! How young I was when her dead body wasborne out of the house, yet I can still see the haughty woman--whoseimage I am said to be--in her trailing velvet robe, with plumes wavingamid the curls arranged in a towering mass upon her head. She wasdressed in that way when the men came to sell our house in the Kramgasseat auction. She must have been one of the women under whose management,as a matter of course, the household is neglected."
"How can you talk so about your own
mother?" Wolf interrupted in asomewhat reproachful tone.
"Because we are not here to flatter the dead or to speak falsely toeach other, but to understand how matters are between us," she answeredgravely. "How you are constituted is best known to yourself, but itseems to me that while far away you have formed a totally false opinionof me, whom you placed upon the throne of your heart, and I wish tocorrect it, that you may not plunge into misfortune like a deludedsimpleton and drag me with you. Where, as in my case, so many things aredifferent from what the good and humble would desire them to be, it isnot very pleasant to open one's whole heart to another, and there isno one else in the world for whom I would do it. Perhaps I shall notsucceed at all, for often enough I am incomprehensible to myself. Ishall understand myself most speedily if I bring before my mind myfather's and my mother's nature, and recall the ancient saying thatyoung birds sing like the old ones. My father--I love him in spite ofall his eccentricities and weaknesses. Dear me! he needs me so much, andwould be miserable without me. Though he is a head taller than you, hehas remained a child."
"But a good, kind-hearted one!" Wolf interrupted with warm affection.
"Of course," Barbara eagerly responded; "and if I have inherited fromhim anything which is ill-suited to me, it is the fearless couragewhich does not beseem us women. We progress much farther if we hold backtimidly. Therefore, often as it impels me to resistance, I yield unlessit is too strong for me. Besides, but for your interruption, I shouldhave said nothing about my father. What concerns us I inherited from mymother, and, as I mean kindly toward you, this very heritage compels meto warn you against marrying me if you are unable to support me so thatI can make a good appearance among Ratisbon wives. Moreover, poor churchmouse though I am, I sometimes give them one thing and another toguess, and I haven't far to travel to learn what envy is. In my presentposition, however, compassion is far more difficult to bear thanill-will. But I by no means keep out of the way on that account. I mustbe seen and heard if I am to be happy, and I shall probably succeed solong as my voice retains the melting tone which is now peculiar to it.Should anything destroy that, there will be a change. Then--I know thisin advance--I shall tread in the footsteps of my mother, who had nomeans of satisfying her longing for admiration except her pretty face,her beautiful figure, and the finery which she stole from the poverty ofher husband, and her only child. How you are staring at me again! ButI can not forget that now; for, had it not been so, we should still beliving in our own house as a distinguished family of knightly rank, andI should have no need to spend my best hours in secretly washing lacesfor others--yes, for others, Wolf--to gain a wretched sum of whicheven my father must be ignorant. You do not know how we are obliged toeconomize, and yet I can only praise the pride of my father, who inducedme to return the gifts which the Council sends to the house by the townclerk when I sing in the Convivium musicum. But what a pleasure it isto show the bloated fellow the door when he pulls out the linen purse!True, many things must be sacrificed to do it, and how hard that oftenis can not be described. I would not bear it long. But, if I were yourwife and you had only property enough for a modest competence, you wouldscarcely fare better, through my fault, than my poor father. That wouldsurely be the result"--she raised her voice in passionate eagerness asshe spoke:
"I know myself. As for the immediate future, I feel that theever-increasing longing for better days and the rank which is my duewill kill me if I do not satisfy it speedily. I shall never be contentwith any half-way position, and I fear you can not offer me more. Talkwith my father, and think of it during the night. Were I in your place,I would at once resign the wish to win a person like me, for if youreally love me as ardently as it seems, you will receive in exchangeonly a lukewarm liking for your person and a warm interest in what youcan accomplish; but in other respects, far worse than nothing--perilafter peril. But if you will be reasonable and give up your suit, Ishall not blame you a moment. How bewildered you still stare at me!But there comes father, and I must finish my work before the irons getcold."
Wolf gazed after her speechlessly, while she withdrew behind the tableas quietly as if they had been discussing the most commonplace things.