O. T., A Danish Romance Part 38

"We must speak a few words together!" said he. "Heinrich, you have not acted honestly by me! The girl is not that which you represented her to be; you have deceived me: I demand an explanation!"

German Heinrich stood silent, but every feature eloquently expressed first amazement, and then slyness and cunning; his knavish, malicious eye, measured Otto from top to toe.

"Nay; so then, Mr. Thostrup, you are convinced, are you, that I have been cheating you?" said he. "If so, why do you come to me? In that case there needs no explanation. Ask herself there!" And so saying he pointed to the black-painted figure.

"Do not be too proud, Otto!" said she, smiling; "thou couldst yet recognize thy sister, although she has a little black paint on her face!"

Otto riveted a dark, indignant glance upon her, pressed his lips together, and tried to collect himself. "It is my firm determination to have the whole affair searched into," said he, with constrained calmness.

"Yes, but it will bring you some disagreeables!" said Heinrich, and laughed scornfully.

"Do not laugh in that manner when I speak to you!" said Otto, with flushing cheeks.

Heinrich leaned himself calmly against the door which led into the garden.

"I am acquainted with the head of the police," said Otto, "and I might leave the whole business in his hands. But I have chosen a milder way; I am come myself. I shall very soon leave Denmark; I shall go many hundred miles hence shall, probably, never return; and thus you see the princ.i.p.al ground for my coming to you is a whim: I will know wherefore you have deceived me; I will know what is the connection between you and her."

"Nay; so, then, it is _that_ that you want to know?" said Heinrich, with a malicious glance. "Yes, see you, she is my best beloved; she shall be my wife: but your sister she is for all that, and that remains so!"

"Thou couldst easily give me a little before thou settest off on thy journey!" said Sidsel, who seemed excited by Heinrich's words, and put forth her painted face.

Otto glanced at her with contracted eyebrows.

"Yes," said she, "I say 'thou' to thee: thou must accustom thyself to that! A sister may have, however, that little bit of pleasure!"

"Yes, you should give her your hand!" said Heinrich, and laughed.

"Wretch!" exclaimed Otto, "she is not that which you say! I will find out my real sister! I will have proof in hand of the truth! I will show myself as a brother; I will care for her future! Bring to me her baptismal register; bring to me one only attestation of its reality--and that before eight days are past! Here is my address, it is the envelope of a letter; inclose in it the testimonial which I require, and send it to me without delay. But prove it, or you are a greater villain than I took you for."

"Let us say a few rational words!" said Heinrich, with a constrained, fawning voice. "If you will give to me fifty rix-dollars, then you shall never have any more annoyance with us! See, that would be a great deal more convenient."

"I abide by that which I have said!" answered Otto; "we will not have any more conversation together!" And so saying, he turned him round to go out.

Heinrich seized him by the coat.

"What do you want?" inquired Otto.

"I mean," said Heinrich, "whether you are not going to think about the fifty rix-dollars?"

"Villain!" cried Otto, and, with the veins swelling in his forehead, he thrust Heinrich from him with such force, that he fell against the worm eaten door which led into the garden; the panel of the door fell out, and had not Heinrich seized fast hold on some firm object with both his hands, he must have gone the same way. Otto stood for a moment silent, with flashing eyes, and threw the envelope, on which his address was, at Heinrich's feet, and went out.

When Otto returned to the hotel, he found the horses ready to be put to the carriage.

"Have you had good intelligence?" whispered Louise.

"I have in reality obtained no more than I had before!" replied he; "only my own feelings more strongly convince me than ever that I have been deceived by him."

He related to her the short conversation which had taken place.

The Kammerjunker's carriage was now also brought out; in this was more than sufficient room for two, whereas in the other carriage they had been crowded. The Kammerjunker, therefore, besought that they would avail themselves of the more convenient seat which he could offer; and Otto saw Sophie and her mother enter the Kammerjunker's carriage. This arrangement would shortly before have confounded Otto, now it had much less effect upon him. His mind was so much occupied by his visit to German Heinrich, his soul was filled with a bitterness, which for the moment repelled the impulse which he had felt to express his great love for Sophie.

"I have been made Heinrich's plaything--his tool!" thought he. "Now he ridicules me, and I am compelled to bear it! That horrible being is not my sister!--she cannot be so!"

The street was now quiet. They mounted into the carriage. In the corner house just opposite there was a great company; light streamed through the long curtains, a low tenor voice and a high ringing soprano mingled together in Mozart's "Audiam, audiam, mio bene."

"The bird may not flutter from my heart!" sighed Otto, and seated himself by the side of Louise. The carriage rolled away.

The full moon shone; the wild spiraea sent forth its odor from the road side; steam ascended from the moor-lands; and the white mist floated over the meadows like the daughters of the elfin king.

Louise sat silent and embarra.s.sed; trouble weighed down her heart. Otto was also silent.

The Kammerjunker drove in first, cracked his whip, and struck up a wild halloo.

Wilhelm began to sing, "Charming the summer night," and the Kammerjunker joined in with him.

"Sing with us man," cried Wilhelm to the silent Otto, and quickly the two companies were one singing caravan.

It was late when they reached the hall.

CHAPTER XLI

"Destiny often pulls off leaves, as we treat the vine, that its fruits may be earlier brought to maturity."--JEAN PAUL.

It was not until toward morning that Otto fell into sleep. Wilhelm and he were allowed to take their own time in rising, and thus it was late in the day before these two gentlemen made their appearance at the breakfast-table; the Kammerjunker was already come over to the hall, and now was more adorned than common.

"Mr. Thostrup shall be one of the initiated!" said the mother. "It will be time enough this evening for strangers to know of it. The Kammerjunker and my Sophie are betrothed."

"See, it was in the bright moonlight, Mr. Thostrup, that I became such a happy man!" said the Kammerjunker, and kissed the tips of Sophie's fingers. He offered his other hand to Otto.

Otto's countenance remained unchanged, a smile played upon his lips.

"I congratulate you!" said he; "it is indeed a joyful day! If I were a poet, I would give you an ode!"

Louise looked at him with an extraordinary expression of pain in her countenance.

Wilhelm called the Kammerjunker brother-in-law, and smiling shook both his hands.

Otto was unusually gay, jested, and laughed. The ladies went to their toilet, Otto into the garden.

He had been so convinced in his own mind that Sophie returned his pa.s.sion. With what pleasure had she listened to him! with what an expression had her eye rested upon him! Her little jests had been to him such convincing proofs that the hope which he nourished was no self-delusion. She was the light around which his thoughts had circled.

Love to her was to him a good angel, which sung to him consolation and life's gladness in his dark moments.

Now, all was suddenly over. It was as if the angel had left him; the flame of love which had so entirely filled his soul, was in a moment extinguished to its last spark. Sophie was become a stranger to him; her intellectual eye, which smiled in love on the Kammerjunker, seemed to him the soulless eye of the automaton. A stupefying indifference went through him, deadly as poison that is infused into the human blood.

"The vain girl! she thought to make herself more important by repelling from her a faithful heart! She should only see how changed her image is in my soul. All the weaknesses which my love for her made me pa.s.s over, now step forth with repulsive features! Not a word which she spoke fell to the ground. The diamond has lost its l.u.s.tre; I feel only its sharp corners!"

Sophie had given the preference to a man who, in respect of intellect, stood far below Otto! Sophie, who seemed to be enthusiastic for art and beauty, for everything glorious in the kingdom of mind, could thus have deceived him!