Only a Girl Part 43

Angelika looked at her with compa.s.sion. "I will do what you ask, Elsa, but you know he does not care much for plucked flowers."

"But perhaps he will value them when he knows that they were plucked by the faithful hand of such a friend as I."

Angelika took the bouquet, and said hesitatingly, "I hope he will not be vexed,--he does not like to have anything placed upon his writing-table,--but I will try."

Hastily, as usual, Moritz came running through the garden just as Angelika was bending over Elsa. She turned, and found her husband's sparkling black eyes resting upon her.

"Moritz," she cried in delight, "have you come at last?"

"Yes, my darling. I had another patient to see; but now I am free to stay with you until to-morrow at eight,--twelve whole hours. Is not that fine?"

"Fine indeed!" repeated Angelika, and poor Elsa listened to these loving speeches, longing for the time when such happiness should be hers.

"Come," said old Heim, plucking Moritz by the sleeve, "we cannot live upon your pretty speeches to your wife, and they may spoil our appet.i.tes. Your mamma begs you to play the part of host at supper."

"Come, Angelika," said Moritz, drawing Angelika's arm through his own.

He never took any other woman than his wife to supper.

This was a trying moment for Elsa, for it was her usual fate to be left sitting still when supper was ready or a dance was in prospect. She must either join herself to some other unfortunate, similarly neglected, or perhaps be offered a left arm by some good-natured man already provided with a lady upon his right. Ah, her knight, her Lohengrun, was not there, he who would one day rescue her forever from this solitude. Where was he? Why did he not come? And in her distress she turned to one of the gentlemen who had just finished smoking and was approaching the circle of ladies. "Do you not know where Professor Mollner is?"

The gentleman was a young a.s.sistant surgeon, whom Moritz had taken to the village with him that afternoon. The latter, as he pa.s.sed, whispered in his ear, "Do not tell."

The young man looked confused, and just then Herbert approached and said maliciously, "You were in Hochstetten this afternoon, where Professor Mollner played his usual part of good Samaritan? I heard you telling Hilsborn about it,--pray favour us too with the interesting story."

He laid his hand, as if unconsciously, upon his sister's shoulder, but its heavy pressure, told her that it was not done either unconsciously or kindly.

"We all know very well that Mollner never allows an insult to pa.s.s unpunished," said Hilsborn, "and you should know it, Herr Herbert, better than any of us."

"True, I have had occasion to be convinced of the interest that Mollner takes in Fraulein von Hartwich, although it is by no means so dangerous to correct an erring professor as an enraged mob."

"What? what is it?" ran from mouth to mouth, and the company drew together in a large group.

"Permit me," said Moritz in a loud voice to Herbert, "to be the interpreter of my brother-in-law's conduct, as I certainly understand it better than a stranger. The truth is, the Hartwich was insulted by a Hochstetten mob, and my brother-in-law interfered to prevent her from receiving personal injury."

"Ah," said Herbert, as if he were comprehending it all for the first time, "this, then, was the generous motive that took your brother two miles from town to that retired village?"

"I myself have never yet presumed to cross-examine my brother-in-law as to his motives,--I leave the bold undertaking to you," replied Moritz, challenging Herbert with his keen glance.

"What can have happened there?"

"What did the Hartwich do? A whole village certainly does not rise against a private individual without some cause."

"This Hartwich must be a dreadful person!" Such were the remarks made by one and another.

"Gentlemen, let me pray you to come to supper," said the Staatsrathin, who was evidently embarra.s.sed.

But her invitation was unheeded. All the ladies and several gentlemen had, like hungry wolves, had a taste of the interesting subject, and they were not to be tempted by the promise of other food. There was no end to their amazement and conjectures. To be sure, it was impossible to express before Mollner's relatives all that was thought, but they could gain some information by their questions.

They could not understand how Professor Mollner could befriend such a person. It was no wonder that public opinion was so opposed to her.

"Yes," said Elsa, "Christian love should be shown to every sinner, but this woman puts our s.e.x in such a light that really one blushes at being a woman. I can say, with Gretchen, that humanity is dear to me, but this Hartwich displays such shamelessness, such vulgarity of mind, that it becomes the duty of those possessed of any sensibility to suppress all compa.s.sion and to regard her with abhorrence."

"Tell me, then, Fraulein Elsa," Hilsborn here interrupted her, "what becomes of your former a.s.sertion that the cause of the despised and neglected should always be espoused by the true Christian, as in the case of your field-flowers?"

Elsa blushed, and stroked back her curls.

"But, my dear friend," remarked the botanist, "the Hartwich is not a field-flower."

"Certainly not one that cows can eat, for she is poisonous," said Herbert.

"Oh, there are reptiles that feed on hemlock," said old Heim with irritation. "But, whether she be hemlock or belladonna, we all know that both are medicinal, and she might perhaps be useful as an antidote to the affectation and hypocrisy that infect the feminine world of to-day, producing bigotry, malice, and all sorts of moral diseases."

"That was going almost too far," Moritz whispered to the old man, who pa.s.sed him grumbling thus, with his hands clasped behind him. "I cannot abuse her any more, for Johannes's sake, but I do wish the devil had her rather than Johannes should have her!"

Heim looked at him and contracted his white, bushy eyebrows. "To that nonsense all I say is, we will talk about it at some future time."

The Staatsrathin approached. "Uncle Heim, you are blinded by your partiality. Convince us that this person is anything else than a brazen-faced claimant for notoriety, and G.o.d knows what besides,--convince us of this, And we will beg her pardon,--but, until then, we must be allowed to consider any intercourse with her, on my son's part, as a misfortune. Now give me your arm; we must go to supper."

"Yes, let us go. I am tired, and shall be glad of something to eat,"

said the old gentleman, conducting the Staatsrathin into the house, where the table was laid.

The others followed, and Elsa fluttered after them like the last swallow of autumn. They all entered the house by the large door opening upon the garden. Directly opposite was the door leading into the street. They began, laughing and talking, to ascend the stairs to the dining-room, when a carriage drove up. The Staatsrathin, who led the way, stopped and listened intently. It might be Johannes.

The door was at that instant thrown open, and he appeared,--but not alone. There was a lady leaning on his arm.

A murmur of surprise was heard.

Johannes was quite as much astonished at unexpectedly encountering such an a.s.semblage as the guests were at his entrance with a veiled lady, who was evidently embarra.s.sed and desirous to withdraw when she saw so many people. But Johannes detained her. "I pray you, remain," he said to her, "you have no cause for alarm."

The Staatsrathin leaned heavily upon Heim's arm, her knees trembled under her.

"Compose yourself," the old man whispered in her ear. "Submit to the inevitable,--remember that your son is master of the house."

"I shall not forget it," she replied softly, yet with bitterness.

In the mean time, Johannes had reached the staircase with the evidently reluctant Ernestine. "My dear mother," he said, looking up at her with a face radiant with pleasure, "I bring you another guest."

The Staatsrathin descended a couple of stairs with the air of one compelled to receive a guest whose visit she regards as anything but welcome.

"Fraulein von Hartwich," said Johannes, presenting her at once to his mother and his a.s.sembled friends, "has been persuaded by me to seek an asylum for this night beneath our roof, as her uncle is absent from home, leaving her alone and defenceless, the object of a low, and brutal conspiracy."

"You are welcome, Fraulein von Hartwich," said the Staatsrathin with cold courtesy, without offering Ernestine her hand, or relieving her embarra.s.sment in any way. "Let me entreat you to share our simple meal.

Unfortunately, we can postpone it no longer, as we have already been obliged to wait some time for my son."

And, without another word to Ernestine, she led the way with Heim to the dining-room.

Ernestine's heart throbbed. What a reception was this! To what a humiliation had she exposed herself! Was not running the gauntlet here a thousand times worse than being stoned in the village by rude peasants? "Let me go," she said, taking her hand from Johannes's arm.

"I feel that I am unwelcome to your mother."