"Most beautiful was this young creature, but, may G.o.d forgive me! I was bitterly angry with her for being so and for coming to church dressed up as if for a ball. "Incorrigible comedian blood," I scolded to myself. I thanked G.o.d that Klaus could not see her from his seat, and gave Sturmer an unfriendly look because he kept looking over at our pew. All at once, as the clergyman was singing the liturgy, Susanna put her hand to her forehead, as if to grasp something there, and then sank back silently, with closed eyes, into her seat.
"I cannot tell now the exact order in which all this happened; I only remember that a chair was overturned with a loud noise, that the clergyman was silent for an instant, and that there was a movement among the congregation; at the same time Klaus left our pew, carrying out the white figure in his arms, like a feather. I rose at once to follow him.
Anna Maria"s head was bent low over her hymn-book; was she going to take no notice of the affair? But now she slowly rose, and went behind me down the narrow, creaking flight of steps which led up outside the church to our pew; it was provided with a wooden roof as a protection against wind and storms, and the ivy which grew over the whole church adorned it like a bridal arch with green festoons.
"Klaus was just disappearing into one of the nearest cottages, whose shining window-panes looked out like clear eyes beneath the gray shingle-roof, not at all sad at the constant view of the little church-yard. Marieken Martens and her husband lived here; she had been in Anna Maria"s service, a quick, industrious girl, but once was sent away in the utmost haste because she--but that has nothing to do with the case. Anna Maria had her brought back again at that time, and she was married from the manor-house, and since then Anna Maria and I had each held a curly brown head over the font. When there was anything going on at our house--that is, when there was extra work--Marieken came and helped.
"She was at the threshold coming to meet us already, wiping her hands on her clean ap.r.o.n, and pushing back her eldest child. "She is lying on the sofa inside," she whispered. "Oh, the master looks pale as death from fright!" Anna Maria stepped by me into the little room; she made a sign for me to stay outside, so I sat down on the wooden stool that Marieken placed in the entry for me, and listened intently for every sound from within.
"For a little while all was still. Marieken ran in with fresh water, and then I heard Anna Maria say: "How are you now, Susanna?"
""Go back to church quite easy," came the reply; "it was a momentary weakness. I am very sorry to have given you such anxiety and trouble."
And the next moment the girl was standing on the threshold, a crimson blush overspreading her whole face, and without noticing me at all, she flew to the outside door and across the church-yard; her fluttering white dress appeared again for an instant in the frame of the gateway leading to our garden; then she had vanished like an apparition.
"Shaking my head, I rose to go into the little room and hear what was to be done now. But I sat down again, almost stunned at the sound of Klaus"s voice, which came out to me so crushingly cold and clear:
""I should like to ask you, Anna Maria, to occupy the girl hereafter in some way better suited to her; this swoon was the natural effect of constant over-exertion."
"I could not picture Anna Maria to myself at this moment, for Klaus had never used such a tone to her before. My old heart began to beat violently from anxiety. "It is here! It is here!" I said to myself.
"Yes, it had to come!"
""I think this swoon is rather a consequence of Susanna"s running about too much in the fearful heat yesterday," she replied coldly. "However, as you wish; I will leave it entirely to you to decide what occupation is most fitting for Susanna Mattoni."
""Great heavens! Anna Maria, do you not understand?" Klaus rejoined, almost imploringly. "Look at the girl: she is delicate and accustomed to the easy life of a large city, never to a regular life. I beg you not to take it amiss, it is my opinion and----"
""I am sorry that I have made such a mistake," Anna Maria interrupted, icily. "I have tried to do my best for this unfortunate child, who has grown up in most wretched circ.u.mstances. I wanted to make a capable, housewifely maiden of her, but I see myself that such miserable comedian blood is not to be improved, and I ask you now only for one thing----"
"She broke off. What would come now? I looked about me in horror to see if any one were listening. But Marieken was clattering about with her pots and pans in the kitchen, and the children were playing before the outside door.
""That you will not require me to endure this frivolous creature, this frippery and finery, this trifling, flighty being. I have an unspeakable aversion to her," she concluded.
""So that is your confession of faith, Anna Maria?" asked Klaus, and his voice sounded angry. "I tell you Susanna Mattoni remains here in the family. I will have it, for a sacred promise binds me, and I hope that you will never let her feel what you think of her. Her light-mindedness, her unsteadiness, and all the faults which you have just cited, cannot be laid to her charge, for from her youth up she has never learned to recognize them as faults. Of frivolity, moreover, I have no evidences, for a couple of bonbons do not seem to me sufficient proof."
""I cannot act contrary to my convictions," returned Anna Maria, "and if I am no longer to educate Susanna as I think well for her, you had better find another place for her."
"I had sprung up and laid hold of the door-handle; for Heaven"s sake!
there would be a quarrel. But the storm had already drawn near.
""Susanna is to remain, I tell you!" thundered Klaus. "Do you quite forget who is master of the house? It appears to me I have let you go on for years in an immeasurable error, in letting you govern uncontrolled, and a.s.senting to all your arrangements. It is time for you to remember whose place it is to decide matters at Butze."
"Merciful Heaven! My knees trembled; how was this to end? And now there was no sound there within; only the low singing of the young wife was heard from the kitchen, where she was rocking her youngest child to sleep; and I stole softly away from the door and sat down on the wooden bench before the house. Over the quiet, green graves in the church-yard lay a Sunday calm, only a light breath of wind rustled in the tall trees. Over in the little church the sermon was just finished, the sermon for the fifth Sunday after Trinity. The sound of the organ and singing of the congregation floated across to me, and my lips repeated the words:
""Ah! stay with thy clearness.
Precious light, with us stay; Let thy truth shine upon us, That we go not astray."
"Ah, yes, clearness, clearness and truth and peace; help us in all time of need! I knew Klaus, I knew Anna Maria. An almost exaggerated sense of duty, an iron will when she thought she was doing the right thing, inflexibility--that was the Hegewitz character; good, solid qualities when they got on peaceably together, but thus? And there was Sturmer coming out of the church door; he had not waited till the hymn was finished, and was now hastening up to me.
""Fraulein Rosamond, you still here?" he asked. "Who----"
"But I did not give him time to finish. "Come, Edwin, give me your arm, I have been waiting for some one to escort me back." And actually dragging away the astonished man, I succeeded in getting him into the park without betraying the presence of Klaus and Anna Maria in the little room.
""And now, a thousand times welcome, dear Edwin," said I, breathing freely again, as we walked under the shady trees. "How have you been?
How delightful it is to have you here again, and how well and strong you are looking!"
"He bent to kiss my hand. "Yes, thank G.o.d that I am among old friends again!" he replied heartily. "How have things gone here? But why do I ask? Well, of course; at least, I saw you all unaltered in church. But I would like to ask, at the risk of appearing curious, who was the young lady who--oh!" He stopped, and pointed toward the thick, dark shrubbery at one side, holding my arm so firmly in his that I was obliged to stand still.
"There sat Susanna in the deepest shade of the thicket. She was leaning her elbows on the table, and her oval face rested on her clasped hands; motionless, like a lovely statue, she was looking down before her.
"A golden sunbeam flitted back and forth over the white figure; an expression full of pain and woe lay on the lovely face, which I had never before seen so sad and tearful.
""The poor child!" I sighed involuntarily. And as Sturmer almost forced me into a side-path, I briefly satisfied his curiosity. "She is the daughter of Professor Mattoni; you remember Klaus"s old tutor?"
"My head was in a whirl, for I knew not what more might happen to-day.
""And is she to live here always?" inquired Edwin Sturmer.
""Yes--no!" I returned hesitatingly; I did not know what to answer. I sought to reach the terrace and garden-parlor as quickly as possible, and to my inexpressible relief saw Klaus, as if transported there by magic, coming to the door to meet his guest; an uninitiated person would scarcely have seen the slight cloud on his brow.
"I did not linger with them, but went to seek Anna Maria, and found her in the sitting-room, pale but calm. I was glad to avoid the greeting between her and Sturmer, and caught only his look as he bent low over her hands.
"Anna Maria was a perfect enigma to me; I understood the outbreak of pa.s.sion of last evening as little as this decided opposition to-day. Yet the latter was less inexplicable, for she too, must have seen the sparks already glowing in Klaus"s heart. But she had taken the wrong course.
Any man of chivalry, if told that he must turn a weak, helpless woman out of the house where she has found a shelter, will refuse to do it; particularly if she be as young, as strikingly beautiful as Susanna, and--if he is already in love with her. To me it was an incontestable fact: Klaus loved the girl! Perhaps he did not know yet himself how much; but that he did love her I had seen and--feared.
"I came to the table in a thoroughly unpleasant frame of mind. "To-day is the beginning of the end: what will the end be?" I said to myself, sighing. That was a strange dinner; Susanna had excused herself, Klaus was chary of words, and Anna Maria forced herself to be talkative and affable in a way quite contrary to her nature; a little red spot burned on her chin, the sign of violent agitation.
"Brockelmann announced that the old actress had suddenly arrived; to be sure, I had quite forgotten about her. Anna Maria made no answer; Klaus looked sharply at her, and then gave orders for the old woman to be given some dinner. Sturmer talked a long time about his travels, and Pastor Grune came to coffee. The gentlemen were soon involved in a scientific conversation about the excavations at Pompeii, at which Sturmer had been present several times, and Anna Maria walked slowly up and down on the terrace, now and then casting a look at the gentlemen, through the open door of the garden-parlor.
"I sat under the shady roof of the wild-grape, and knitted, and followed her with my eyes. Anna Maria had on a light-blue linen dress, and a thin white cape over her rosy shoulders; her heavy plaits shimmered like gold, and her complexion was fresh as a flower. Anna Maria had made her toilet with especial care to-day; she was the picture of a typical North German woman, tall, fair, slender, and clear-sighted, serene, and calm.
"All at once she stopped in front of me. "Aunt Rosamond, do you think that Susanna Mattoni has been overworked in any way? I mean, can her temporary weakness be the result of that?"
""Yes, Anna Maria," I replied, "I am convinced of it, for she had not been accustomed to doing anything. She has. .h.i.therto sat in a cage like a bird; when such a creature tries to fly all at once, it is soon made lame by the motion."
"She made no reply, and continued her walking. The conversation grew louder indoors; the gentlemen were now sitting over their Rhine wine.
The cool breeze of approaching evening began to blow, and the sun was hidden behind a bank of clouds.
""Ah! Sturmer, do stay till evening," I heard Klaus say. "It will never do not to finish the day together, after beginning it so; do not pervert our good old custom."
"Anna Maria stood still and listened. But instead of an answer we heard the chairs pushed back, and then Klaus"s voice again:
""Ah! Susanna, have you quite recovered? Allow me to present Baron Sturmer."
"Anna Maria turned and looked out toward the garden.
"Pastor Grune inquired after the health of the young girl, and soon they all came out on the terrace. Susanna went up to Anna Maria at once, and held out her hand, saying: "Forgive me for having frightened you this morning. I do not know how it happened; everything grew dark before my eyes, and----"
""Oh! certainly," interrupted Anna Maria, touching the girl"s hand but lightly; "I was not at all frightened; a swoon is nothing so unusual."
"Susanna blushed up to her black curls, and sat down quietly by my side.