Quicksands Part 17

"Most Respected Herr,--Pardon a stranger for venturing to intrude upon you with a complaint and a request. In the unfortunate situation in which I am placed no other choice is left me. I must appeal to you, most honoured Herr, if I would not run the risk of losing forever a sum of money hardly earned and acc.u.mulated only by constant self-denial.

Permit me to lay the case before you.

"Some years ago I loaned the Schulze Brandes, in Wilhelms.h.a.gen, the sum of four hundred thalers at a reasonable rate of interest, knowing him to be an honest man. He has justified my estimate of him as such, for although impoverished and forced to emigrate to America, he sent me before his departure all that he owed me, both capital and interest, but in such a manner that I am in danger of losing my hard-won savings entirely. Before leaving for America he gave it to my nephew, Gottlieb Pigglewitch, commissioning him to hand it to me. Whilst on the ocean he conceived a suspicion that Gottlieb had not fulfilled his trust, and therefore he wrote me immediately upon his arrival in New York to ask me if I had received the sum in question. Unfortunately his fears were but too well grounded; my nephew has never paid me the money, it is probably squandered, or lost at cards.

"My nephew, the son of my sister and the deceased Pastor Pigglewitch, of Wilhelms.h.a.gen, has repaid by the basest ingrat.i.tude the benefits conferred upon him by me when he was left a friendless orphan. He has never concerned himself about me since he left my house to enter upon an independent existence. He has forgotten my teachings, he has squandered his substance, leading a dissolute life, and given over to a pa.s.sion for cards. His conduct lost him a good situation in Wilhelms.h.a.gen, since which I have heard nothing of him until the arrival of Schulze Brandes's letter, which has filled me with anxiety concerning my money.

"More than four weeks had pa.s.sed since this money was intrusted to Gottlieb Pigglewitch. I did not know his address, and therefore wrote to his patron, Herr Director Kramser, from whom I learn that my nephew is receiving a high salary in your worshipful household as tutor to your son. I have now written to him to beg him to restore my property to me, but I fear that my request will be vain if it is not seconded by yourself, respected Herr. It is not probable that the money is at present in my nephew's possession, therefore he could not pay it even if he wished to do so. I might easily bring him to justice, but a feeling of kinship restrains me; I could bring myself to adopt such extreme measures only in case my nephew should refuse to pay me the money with interest. He can do this if he chooses.

"I learn from Herr Director Kramser that my nephew receives from your highly-respected self a salary of three hundred thalers cash. A young man can get along extremely well upon one hundred thalers yearly; I myself as a Candidate did with much less than that sum; he can then pay me at least two hundred thalers every year, if he only will.

"My humble request to you is, respected Herr, that you will compel my nephew thus to fulfil his duty by giving him only one hundred thalers yearly of his salary, and transmitting the two hundred to me, until the debt is liquidated. My nephew will, I am sure, be content with this means of returning to me my money; he will not force me to appeal for justice to the law of the land, and you, respected Herr, will establish a claim upon my everlasting grat.i.tude by yielding to my entreaty.

"With devoted respect, your obedient servant,

"Widman, _Pastor of Wennersdorf_."

"A most edifying doc.u.ment!" Egon said to himself, when he had read the letter. "I suppose the communication which I received this evening and put unread into my pocket also comes from Uncle Widman." He took out the letter and read it. Yes, it was from Widman, and contained threats of arrest and exposure if his nephew refused to devote two hundred thalers of his salary each year to the payment of his debt.

Egon indignantly crushed the letter together in his hand. "Gottlieb Pigglewitch has lost his money for the third time," he muttered. "There is no helping him, he must be left to his fate. He probably knows this, and therefore has made no further attempt to extort money from me by threats and promises."

Once more the young man read the letter to Herr von Osternau; it filled him with a vague apprehension. What should he say to the kind old man on the morrow? In his eyes, his tutor was Gottlieb Pigglewitch, the confirmed gambler, who had actually appropriated money intrusted to him for his uncle. 'I do not deny that this letter has affected my good opinion of you,' Herr von Osternau had said, and certainly he was justified in saying so.

"It is high time that this farce were ended," Egon murmured. "I must leave this house, and break the spell that has been cast about me!"

He had often of late made this resolve; almost nightly, after he had retired to his solitary apartment, and thought over the events of the day, he had determined to tear asunder the bonds that were being woven about him, but the next morning found him powerless to carry his determination into execution. Yes, a spell had been cast upon him which paralyzed his will, and whose this spell was, he could not rightly tell.

When Bertha's wondrous beauty filled his mind, a wild feeling of delight thrilled through him, his pulses throbbed, his thoughts made chaos within him, he longed to clasp in his arms as his own her whom he had so foolishly insulted and scorned.

But in the midst of this rapturous intoxication he was recalled to a sober certainty of waking disgust when he remembered various expressions of Bertha's which had revealed to him her true self; he turned away from the thought of her, chilled and repelled, and in her place there was a very different image,--Lieschen gazed at him with a look of reproach, and yet of love! In thought of her he was calmed and cheered, she incited him to continued exertion, she called forth all his better nature,--she, the good angel who had led him out from the slough of an existence into which the beautiful fiend with the glowing eyes would fain drag him back!

Did he love Bertha? Did he love Lieschen? He did not know. Bertha exercised a demoniac influence upon him, Lieschen's spell was fairy-like, but mighty. His soul hovered between the two, in a conflict which robbed him of repose, subjugated his will, and made any firm resolve impossible for him.

Perhaps chance would befriend him.

CHAPTER XV.

RENEWED CONFIDENCE.

Herr Von Osternau pa.s.sed a miserable night. Pastor Widman's letter had excited him more than he cared to confess to himself. If he could have told his faithful partner of the wretched epistle, he would soon have been soothed to rest, but he could not do this for fear lest his Emma should find in the Pastor's letter fresh reasons for urging her oft-repeated desire for the tutor's dismissal. Herr von Osternau's sense of justice revolted against condemning the accused without allowing him a hearing.

As he had frankly confessed, his faith in the Candidate was shaken, and the more he thought, during his sleepless night, of the Pastor's letter, the more he suspected that he had bestowed his confidence upon one quite unworthy of it. The Pastor's accusation of his nephew did not seem like an invention, and if it were well grounded, Pigglewitch could no longer be retained as Fritzchen's tutor. The man who could lose at play money not his own was unfit for such an office, whatever might be his intellectual acquirements. But perhaps he was not so guilty as he seemed. He should not be judged before he had been allowed to speak in his own defence.

The next morning Herr von Osternau awaited the tutor's visit with the greatest impatience, continually consulting the clock as he walked to and fro in his sitting-room. It was only half-past eight; there was still half an hour to wait, since he had appointed the interview at nine o'clock.

He was pleased and surprised when thus early, nevertheless, a knock was heard at the door. Upon his "Come in," however, he was equally disappointed by the entrance not of Pigglewitch, but of the Lieutenant.

"Is it you, Albrecht? I thought you had gone to the meadows," he said, rather testily, but the next instant, perceiving that the Lieutenant looked downcast and unhappy, he continued, kindly, "What is it, Albrecht? You look out of sorts. I hope nothing is the matter."

The Lieutenant did not reply immediately. He had meant to look desperate, and not merely out of sorts, and it cost him some effort to make his features convoy the desired impression. Perceiving in an opposite mirror that his efforts were crowned with a degree of success, he said at last, in a trembling voice, "I come to you, Cousin Fritz, a prey to remorse and despair. On the day before yesterday evening I actually had my revolver in my hand to put an end to my wretched existence, but I thought of you, and of the contempt which you feel for a man who lays violent hands upon himself; the pistol dropped from my grasp, I had a glimmer of hope. I remembered your inexhaustible kindness. You have helped me so often that I cannot but look to you in my extremity."

Herr von Osternau's face had grown dark as the Lieutenant spoke. He had heard words like these too often not to know that they were the preface to a demand for money to pay some extravagant or gambling debt. He replied, indignantly, "Spare your words, cousin; they are useless. I must remind you of what I told you last year when I paid two thousand thalers for you. I a.s.sured you then that it was for the last time, and the money was paid upon your solemn promise never again to contract a debt which you could not pay yourself. It is of no use to continue this conversation. I shall be true to my word."

"I implore you, Cousin Fritz----"

"I will hear nothing further. I should wrong my daughter by sacrificing fresh sums of money to you. I felt free to do for you what I have done, but now it is time that I should lay by Lieschen's portion, since I have been spending my whole income all these years upon the improvement of the estate."

"All that is needed is three thousand marks, an insignificant sum for you. Would you for such a trifle drive me to suicide, Cousin Fritz?"

"It is sacrilegious to talk thus."

"Do you not force me to it? Can I live disgraced? I have signed a note of hand. I must pay the money in fourteen days, or I shall be dishonoured."

"You told me a year ago that you owed nothing."

"It was true, but--I am ashamed to confess my folly--I was insane enough to be tempted to play. I fell in with some of my comrades the day before yesterday in Berlin, and cards were proposed. I refused for a long time to join the game, but I was overpersuaded. At first the stakes were very low, and I won, but the luck changed, I lost my head, and I came away with a debt of honour for three thousand marks. If it is not paid in fourteen days I shall be dishonoured."

"You are dishonoured already, even though your debt were paid; you promised me never again to touch a card."

"I was mad! I was mad!"

"Your word of honour should have kept you sane. But I shall not depart from what I told you a year ago. You have no help to expect from me."

"At least lend me the three thousand marks. You can easily do so; you have ten thousand there in your desk; the trifling sum can readily be paid from my salary in two years at the latest."

"That cannot be done, either; you must learn to help yourself."

"You drive me to suicide."

"That threat is useless. It will not move me to break my word to you."

An evil look was the Lieutenant's only reply; he saw that further entreaty would be of no avail. There was no need, then, to subject himself to further humiliation. The expression of despair in his face gave place to one of sullen defiance. Without another word he left the room.

Herr von Osternau had been calm and decided so long as Albrecht was present; but now that he was alone he grew restless and anxious. Had he perhaps been too hard? No, he could neither speak nor act otherwise.

For years he had been far too much influenced by the reflection that Albrecht had been deprived of an inheritance which he had long considered as his own. The sums which had been sacrificed for this dissipated, reckless relative were enormous; the sacrifice had been made in vain, Albrecht was utterly ungrateful. He seized every opportunity for a visit either to Breslau or to Berlin to resume his dissolute career, to contract fresh debts. There was no helping him, least of all by compliance with his demands. Only by being thrown upon his own resources, with no hope of a.s.sistance from his cousin, might he perhaps be induced to resist the temptation to play.

Herr von Osternau was sure that he had acted for the best, but nevertheless he felt very anxious. The thought that his cousin might fulfil his threat of self-destruction, filled him with dread. His kindly nature gave him no repose. He sat down at his writing-table and scratched off a note to Herr von Sastrow begging him to write to Albrecht and offer to lend him the money he needed upon his promise to repay him from his salary. The money, Herr von Osternau a.s.sured his uncle, should be repaid him,--for that he would go surety,--but of this the Lieutenant must be kept in ignorance. He must believe that the offer of help came unsuggested from Herr von Sastrow alone.

When the note had been handed to Wenzel, with orders to take it directly to the post at Station Mirbach, Herr von Osternau felt relieved, but so occupied had he been with the Lieutenant's case for the last half-hour that it was only when the Candidate presented himself punctually at the appointed time that he was reminded of Pastor Widman's miserable letter, according to which the Candidate, like the Lieutenant, had squandered his patrimony; like Albrecht, he was an inveterate gambler, who had lost at play money not his own.

Involuntarily Herr von Osternau compared the two men in his mind. There was no trace in the Candidate's face of the theatric despair which Albrecht had laboured to display. Herr Pigglewitch was so calm and collected that Herr von Osternau was half convinced of his innocence before he had spoken a word, and not until the young man avoided his searching glance did he again doubt him.

Did Egon suspect this? He looked up again frankly, and in a clear, calm voice, without embarra.s.sment, without waiting to be questioned, he opened the interview which was to decide his future relations with the lord of the castle.

"You made use of harsh language to me last evening, Herr von Osternau.

You told me that you had lost confidence in me----"