What was that? Footsteps over the way....
Well, there was nothing remarkable in that. But they were slow, regular footsteps, as though somebody was pa.s.sing up and down. She stood up and went to the window. It was quite dark, and at first she could not recognize the man who was walking outside. But she knew that it was Klingemann. How absurd! Was he going to haunt the vicinity like a love-sick swain?
"Good evening, Frau Bertha," he said from across the road, and she could see in the darkness that he raised his hat.
"Good evening," she answered, almost confusedly.
"You were playing most beautifully."
Her only answer was to murmur "really?" and that perhaps did not reach his ears.
He remained standing for a moment, then said:
"Good night, sleep soundly, Frau Bertha."
He p.r.o.nounced the word "sleep" with an emphasis which was almost insolent.
"Now he is going home to his cook!" thought Bertha to herself.
Then suddenly she called to mind something which she had known for quite a long time, but to which she had not given a thought since it had come to her knowledge. It was rumoured that in his room there hung a picture which was always covered with a little curtain because its subject was of a somewhat questionable nature.
Who was it had told her about that picture? Oh, yes, Frau Rupius had told her when they were taking a walk along the bank of the Danube one day last autumn, and she in her turn had heard of it from some one else--Bertha could not remember from whom.
What an odious man! Bertha felt that somehow she was guilty of a slight depravity in thinking of him and all these things. She continued to stand by the window. It seemed to her as though it had been an unpleasant day.
She went over the actual events in her mind, and was astonished to find that, after all, the day had just been like many hundreds before it and many, many more that were yet to come.
II
They stood up from the table. It had been one of those little Sunday dinner parties which the wine merchant Garlan was in the habit of occasionally giving his acquaintances. The host came up to his sister-in-law and caught her round the waist, which was one of his customs on an afternoon.
She knew beforehand what he wanted. Whenever he had company Bertha had to play the piano after dinner, and often duets with Richard. The music served as a pleasant introduction to a game of cards, or, indeed, chimed in pleasantly with the game.
She sat down at the piano. In the meantime the door of the smoking-room was opened; Garlan, Doctor Friedrich and Herr Martin took their seats at a small baize-covered table and began to play. The wives of the three gentlemen remained in the drawing-room, and Frau Martin lit a cigarette, sat down on the sofa and crossed her legs--on Sundays she always wore dress shoes and black silk stockings. Doctor Friedrich"s wife looked at Frau Martin"s feet as though fixed to the spot by enchantment. Richard had followed the gentlemen--he already took an interest in a game of taroc. Elly stood with her elbows leaning on the piano waiting for Bertha to begin to play. The hostess went in and out of the room; she was perpetually giving orders in the kitchen, and rattling the bunch of keys which she carried in her hand. Once as she came into the room Doctor Friedrich"s wife threw her a glance which seemed to say: "Just look how Frau Martin is sitting there!"
Bertha noticed all those things that day more clearly, as it were, than usual, somewhat after the manner in which things are seen by a person suffering from fever. She had not as yet struck a note. Then her brother-in-law turned towards her and threw her a glance, which was intended to remind her of her duty. She began to play a march by Schubert, with a very heavy touch.
"Softer," said her brother-in-law, turning round again.
"Taroc with a musical accompaniment is a speciality of this house," said Doctor Friedrich.
"Songs without words, so to speak," added Herr Martin.
The others laughed. Garlan turned round towards Bertha again, for she had suddenly left off playing.
"I have a slight headache," she said, as if it were necessary to make some excuse; immediately, however, she felt as though it were beneath her dignity to say that, and she added: "I don"t feel any inclination to play."
Everybody looked at her, feeling that something rather out of the common was happening.
"Won"t you come and sit by us, Bertha?" said Frau Garlan.
Elly had a vague idea that she ought to show her affection for her aunt, and hung on her arm; and the two of them stood side by side, leaning against the piano.
"Are you going with us to the "Red Apple" this evening?" Frau Martin asked of her hostess.
"No, I don"t think so."
"Ah," broke in Herr Garlan, "if we must forgo our concert this afternoon we will have one in the evening instead--your lead, Doctor."
"The military concert?" asked Doctor Friedrich"s wife.
Frau Garlan rose to her feet.
"Do you really mean to go to the "Red Apple" this evening?" she asked her husband.
"Certainly."
"Very well," she answered, somewhat fl.u.s.tered, and at once went off to the kitchen again to make fresh arrangements.
"Richard," said Garlan to his son; "you might make haste and run over and tell the manager to have a table reserved for us in the garden."
Richard hurried off, colliding in the doorway with his mother, who was just coming into the room. She sank down on the sofa as though exhausted.
"You can"t believe," she said to Doctor Friedrich"s wife; "how difficult it is to make Brigitta understand the simplest thing."
Frau Martin had gone and sat down beside her husband, at the same time throwing a glance towards Bertha, who was still standing silently with Elly beside the piano. Frau Martin stroked her husband"s hair, laid her hand on his knee and seemed to feel that she was under the necessity of showing the company how happy she was.
"I"ll tell you what. Aunt," said Elly suddenly to Bertha; "let"s go into the garden for a while. The fresh air will drive your headache away."
They went down the steps into the courtyard, in the centre of which a small lawn had been laid out. At the back, it was shut off by a wall, against which stood a few shrubs and a couple of young trees, which still had to be propped up by stakes. Away over the wall only the blue sky was to be seen; in boisterous weather the rush of the river which flowed close by could be heard. Two wicker garden chairs stood with their backs against the wall, and in front of them was a small table. Bertha and Elly sat down, Elly still keeping her arm linked in her aunt"s.
"Tell you what, Elly?"
"See, I am quite a big girl now; do tell me about him."
Bertha was somewhat alarmed, for it struck her at once that her niece"s question did not refer to her dead husband, but to some one else. And suddenly she saw before her mind"s eye the picture of Emil Lindbach, just as she had seen it in the ill.u.s.trated paper; but immediately both the vision and her slight alarm vanished, and she felt a kind of emotion at the shy question of the young girl who believed that she still grieved for her dead husband, and that it would comfort her to have an opportunity for talking about him.
"May I come down and join you, or are you telling each other secrets?"
Richard"s voice came at that moment from a window overlooking the courtyard. For the first time Bertha was struck by the resemblance he bore to Emil Lindbach. She realized, however, that it might perhaps only be the youthfulness of his manner and his rather long hair that put her in mind of Emil. Richard was now nearly as old as Emil had been in the days of her studies at the conservatoire.
"I"ve reserved a table," he said as he came into the courtyard. "Are you coming with us, Aunt Bertha?"
He sat down on the back of her chair, stroked her cheeks, and said in his fresh, yet rather affected, way: