Partners Part 1

Partners.

by E. Werner.

CHAPTER I.

It was afternoon on a sunny spring day. The profound Sabbath rest and stillness which found no place in the incessant turmoil of the great commercial seaport reigned the more undisturbed around a country house which lay beyond the great sea of buildings near the sh.o.r.e, and whose park-like grounds stretched down to the water. It was one of those imposing, elegantly and luxuriously appointed villas which rich townspeople usually inhabit when they wish to live secure from street noises and confusion, and yet would be able to reach the town without great loss of time. In the drawing-room, whose French windows opened upon the garden terrace, were a lady and gentleman engaged in an eager and obviously earnest conversation. The cheeks of the young lady glowed in hot excitement, and she struggled visibly with hardly repressed tears, while the gentleman appeared perfectly indifferent and unmoved.

He was a man of middle age, but with already completely grey hair, and grave, cold features; his whole appearance betokened the business man.

The calm and cool indifference of his manner was not lost for a moment in the most exciting conversation, and even his mode of speaking was dry and businesslike, without a trace of any warmer feeling.

"Really, Jessie," said he, "I am weary of this constant repet.i.tion of the old lamentations. As your guardian and relative I have undertaken the care of your future, and I should have thought the future which I lay before you acceptable enough. But such a silly, romantic, girlish head will never be able to judge what is for its own happiness."

The silly, romantic, girlish head was at least not deficient in grace.

Without being regularly beautiful, the fair head, the delicate, but very expressive features, and the rather languishing blue eyes, had something uncommonly attractive.

At this moment, however, the youthful countenance bore the expression of pa.s.sionate excitement, and the same excitement trembled in her voice when she replied--

"My happiness! What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies immeasurably far from what is happiness to me."

"Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect with the word?" said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. "Happiness is a brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a husband who, under all circ.u.mstances, can be a support to you. That is offered to you with the hand of a man"--

"Whom I don't even know," interrupted Jessie.

"But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen him. According to his portrait, his exterior leaves nothing to be wished for, and you have declared that no other inclination binds you.

Why, then, this obstinate struggle against a union for which Gustave is already prepared?"

"Just because he was so quickly prepared for it. I cannot--I will not confide my future to a man who does not for a moment hesitate to give up his chosen calling, his already brilliant career, because the prospect of a wealthy match is held out to him."

Sandow shrugged his shoulders.

"There again are the exaggerated ideas with which your German education has imbued you, and without which you were quite sentimental enough.

Chosen calling! Brilliant career! You seem to have a very exalted idea of the position of a German journalist. Gustave's pen is admired and sought for so long as the whim of the public and the present political tendency last. Sooner or later that will come to an end, and then good-bye to his brilliant career. Here in America independence, riches, and the coveted post of head of a great commercial house, are offered to him. He would be worse than a fool to throw that up in order to continue to write leading articles."

"That is a matter of taste, and I a.s.sure you, Uncle Sandow, it would be quite immaterial to me whom you might choose as a partner if you would not draw me within the circle of your business calculations."

"I do it in your own interest. You know it was the dearest wish of your late father to keep your fortune in the business. He ever hoped that his place there would be filled by his son-in-law. It was not granted to him to see this himself."

"No," said Jessie, softly, "for he never had the heart to force me as you do now."

Sandow made an impatient movement.

"What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you, but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. To every one who woos you your fortune is the great attraction. The days of disinterested love are long past, and when one or another plays such a comedy with you it is only more surely to squander your money afterwards. It is important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you."

An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her fortune.

Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the air of infallibility with which it was p.r.o.nounced showed her that Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. Had she not already learnt what it meant to be a good match, and to thus enchain the selfishness and calculations of every man with whom she came in contact? Even her guardian saw and respected in her only the heiress, a bitter thought for a young creature whose heart longed pa.s.sionately for happiness and love.

"Here you need not fear this," continued Sandow, who looked on her silence as a kind of a.s.sent. "This marriage offers you both similar advantages. With your hand Gustave receives a fortune and a high position in the commercial world here; through him you retain an interest in your father's business, and have the certainty that your wealth will be controlled and increased by your husband. The thing is so clear and simple that I cannot really comprehend your obstinate resistance, particularly as you have interested yourself formerly about Gustave, and you have always read his articles with the greatest enthusiasm."

"Because I believed in the writer of them; because I did not imagine it possible that all this glowing love of country, all this enthusiasm for the great and beautiful, could be only phrases to be cast to the winds as soon as it appeared advantageous to do so."

"These knights of the quill are accustomed to fine expressions," said Sandow slightingly. "It is a business matter. It would be hard upon them if they must match word and deed. Gustave has written as his situation and the tendency of the day demanded, and now he acts as reason requires. If he did not he would be useless to me as a partner.

And now let us end the discussion. I do not urge you to decide either to-day or to-morrow, but await nevertheless with certainty your a.s.sent to my wishes."

"Never!" cried Jessie, flaming out. "To belong to a man who sees in me merely a paragraph in a business contract; to an egoist who sacrifices to his material gain all that is holy and dear to others! Never!

Never!"

Sandow took little or no notice of this pa.s.sionate outburst. If Jessie had been his daughter he would have simply commanded and forced her to follow his wishes, but he knew too well the limits of his power as guardian to attempt anything of the kind here. He knew besides that his long-accustomed and dreaded authority was of itself a kind of compulsion to the girl, and was determined to employ it.

"We will leave the subject now," said he, rising. "I am going to the station, and expect in an hour to present my brother to you. You will condescend in the first place to learn to know him, and everything else will follow in time. Good-bye."

With this he left the room, and the carriage, which had been waiting for him, rolled from the door.

Jessie remained alone, and now, when she felt herself no longer under the ban of those cold, hard eyes, the long-repressed tears burst forth.

The girl plainly did not belong to those energetic natures which set will against will. In these tears she betrayed all the weakness of a character accustomed to be directed and led, and which, in the first struggle to which it must arm itself, feels its own impotence.

It was, indeed, the first struggle of her life. Reared in the happiest circ.u.mstances, sheltered by the love of the tenderest parents, pain had first approached her when her mother died, and two years after her father followed his wife to the grave. In his will, Sandow, the friend and partner of many years, was named guardian of the orphan girl, and her pecuniary interests could have been placed in no better hands.

But Jessie had never succeeded in forming a real attachment to her uncle, though she had known him from her childhood. He was a near relation of her mother's, and like her a native of Germany. More than twelve years before he had come almost dest.i.tute to America, and had sought and found a situation in her father's business. They said misfortunes and bitter experiences had driven him from Europe. What these really had been Jessie could never learn, for even her parents seemed only partially informed on the subject, and Sandow himself never alluded to it.

In the beginning he had been placed in a subordinate position in the office merely out of consideration for him as a connection, but he soon developed such a restless activity, such prudence and energy, that he speedily won for himself a place second only to the chief himself, and when a threatened business crisis was turned aside only through his timely and energetic action, he was promoted to a share in the concern, which under his guidance soon made quite a new departure. A succession of bold and fortunate speculations raised the, till then, modest firm to the position of the first in the town, and the new chief managed to employ so successfully the weight which this good-fortune gave him that he became almost sole ruler, and at all events possessed the first and decisive voice in any question of importance.

In this way Sandow had become in a comparatively short time a wealthy man. As he was alone, he resided as before in the house of his relations, but in spite of this domestic intercourse of many years'

duration, and in spite also of the community of interests, he had never become really united with them. His cold, harsh manner closed the way to any nearer approach; he recognised nothing but business interests and incessant labour, and never sought rest or relaxation in the family circle; indeed, these were things which for him appeared to have no existence.

Jessie's father made no opposition to his partner taking the greater portion of the work and anxiety off his own shoulders, being himself more inclined to social enjoyment, to an easy family life. Since he met Sandow's wishes on this point the relations between the two men had always been most harmonious, though they may have arisen in the first place more out of mutual necessity than real friendship.

Now the management of the young heiress's possessions lay in Sandow's hands alone, and he soon extended his rights so far as to wish to control also her future. With the same inconsiderate selfishness which all his undertakings displayed, he wove the plan of a marriage between his ward and his brother, and was as much surprised as displeased when his scheme, which was unconditionally accepted on the one side, found decided opposition on the other. However, he paid little attention to this opposition, and was firmly convinced that the girl, who till now had shown neither strength nor inclination for independent action, would also, in this respect, follow his wishes.

The hour destined for the journey to and from the station had nearly elapsed when the carriage again drew up at the door, and immediately after the two gentlemen appeared in the drawing-room where Jessie still sat.

Sandow did not appear in the least agitated at again meeting his brother after a separation of so many years. His manner was as unmoved, his tone as cool as usual, as he presented Mr. Gustave Sandow to Miss Jessie Clifford. The new arrival approached the young lady with a polite bow.

"May I also reckon on a friendly reception from you, Miss Clifford? I come as a stranger indeed, but I bring you a greeting from the land which was your mother's. Let this be my introduction to you."

That sounded not only kindly, but friendly, almost warm. Jessie looked up with surprise, but the searching, piercing look which met hers chilled her again directly, for it recalled to her the cause of their acquaintance. She replied with cool civility--

"I hope you had a pleasant voyage, Mr. Sandow."

"Remarkably so. We had the calmest sea, the most agreeable pa.s.sage, and also during my land journey the weather has been most delightful."

"That is why you have protracted it so long, I suppose," said Sandow, joining in the conversation. "You have wandered about the country in every direction like a tourist. We expected you a fortnight ago."

"Well, one ought to learn to know the country and the people," rejoined Gustave. "Did you wish me to come direct here?"

"Not exactly. I quite understand your staying in the large towns. It is always an advantage to be personally acquainted with one's commercial correspondents. Unfortunately I have no time for it, but I certainly provided you with plenty of letters of introduction. What is it--a telegram?"