When it had grown dark, and the workmen and servants had ceased working, he used to poke about the work-room aimlessly for another hour or so, simply because he could not tear himself away from "Susy." He would have liked best to stand near her as watchman until the morning. He liked to carry with him under his arm some of his plans or a book. This, also, was aimless, for it was dark--he only wanted to have everything nicely in order. All this happened in great secrecy, for no one had a firmer conviction that Paul was a fool than Paul himself.
One evening, when he was searching in the dark for one of his books to take there with him, he put his hand upon something long and round, carefully wrapped up in tissue-paper in the farthest corner of a drawer.
He could feel in the darkness how he blushed. It was Elsbeth"s flute.
How was it possible that he had so seldom bestowed a thought upon it or upon the giver? The fair form that he had seen for the last time on the darkest day of his life had gradually faded from his mind as his existence pa.s.sed into the shadowy realm of sorrow, and now at last, from sheer trouble and care, she had become to him like a shadow herself.
For the first moment he could scarcely recall her features. It was only little by little that her image presented itself to his mind.
He took the flute instead of the books under his arm, crept away to the shed, and sat down on the boiler. He fingered the keys with curiosity; he also put the mouth-piece to his lips, but did not dare to produce a sound, for he did not want to disturb any one"s sleep.
"It would be nice," he said to himself, "if I could play all sorts of sweet melodies and think of Elsbeth all the while; I could then once more pour out my heart to her, and feel that I, too, was something in the world. But, then, _am_ I in the world for myself alone?" he asked himself, absently laying hold of one of the crooked handles. "As this crooked handle turns and turns without knowing why, and in itself is nothing but a piece of dead iron, so I, too, must turn and turn, and not ask "Why!" There are said to be people in the world who have the right to live for themselves, and to mould the world according to their own wishes. But they are differently const.i.tuted from me; they are handsome and proud and daring, and the sun always shines upon them. They may even allow themselves the privilege of possessing a heart and acting according to its dictates. But I! Oh, good G.o.d!" He paused, and sadly contemplated the flute, the keys of which dimly shone in the dusk.
"If I were such a one," he continued, after a while, "I should have become a celebrated musician. I know very well there are many melodies in my brain which no one else has ever whistled; and when I had attained my end I should have married Elsbeth--and father would have been rich, and mother happy; but now mother is dead--father is a poor cripple--Elsbeth will take another--and I stand here looking at the flute and can"t play on it."
He laughed out loud, and then slid to the front, so that he could reach the chimney. He stroked it, and said, "But I will learn to play _this_ flute that it"ll be a pleasure to hear."
As he sat there he fancied he heard subdued t.i.ttering and whispering in the garden. He listened; there was no doubt of it. A pair of lovers were cooing, or, perhaps, more than one pair, for divers voices were intermingled, like the twittering of a number of sparrows.
"The maids keep sweethearts, it seems to me," he said; "I"ll show them the way out."
He fetched a whip, which was hanging on the stable door, and climbed over the farthest part of the garden fence to waylay the intruders.
Then suddenly he stopped short as if turned to stone, his eyes starting out of his head, and the whip trembling in his hand. He had distinguished his sisters" voices.
He leaned against the trunk of a tree and listened.
"Does he leave you in peace now?" one of the lovers asked, in a whisper.
"He has too much to do with his machine just now," Greta"s voice replied; "even his unpalatable sermons he spares us."
"You have never heeded them, anyhow!"
Greta giggled. "In spite of all his dignity he is only a stupid boy, and he understands nothing about love; as long as I can remember he has hung about Elsbeth Douglas; but do you suppose he has ever once dared raise his eyes to her? She, of course, would not dream of taking such a languishing idiot. There is her cousin Leo--he is quite another fellow."
His heart threatened to stop beating, but he went on listening.
"I can"t understand why you obey him at all," said the voice of her lover; "we have always given him a thrashing first, and then let him go, and in return he would beg our pardon. One has only to oppose him firmly, he is such a coward!"
"Just wait a bit, you rogue!" thought Paul, who now knew whom he had before him.
But Greta answered, eagerly: "Oh, fie! he has not deserved that from us.
He loves us so much that we really ought to be ashamed to deceive him; whatever he sees that we want he gives us, and I could swear that it is nothing but love that makes him so sad. So one mustn"t mind now and then taking a sermon into the bargain, especially if one pays no attention to it afterwards!"
"It"s a good thing I know that," thought Paul, and crept round in a half-circle, till he came to the arbor where the other couple were sitting.
There it was very much quieter; only from time to time a kiss or a giggle sounded from the darkness among the trees. Then he heard Kate"s voice:
"And why did you dance so much with Matilda last Sunday?"
"That is a horrid calumny," answered the other brother. "What gossip told you that?"
"The vicar"s daughter Hedwig told me."
"I like that! She is jealous of you; that"s the whole story. How she looked at me last Sunday! I thought my hair would be singed."
"Oh, the false girl!"
"Well, don"t grieve about that. You are all false! My sweet little lark, my sunshine, my little madcap, lay your head on my knee, I want to ruffle your hair."
"So?"
"No; you are lying on my watch-chain. That"s right! Sing me something."
"What shall I sing about?"
"About love!"
"First earn it, you rogue!"
Then all was quiet for a while. Presently Katie began to warble, softly,
""The nightingale on the lilac-bush Sang night"s soft hours away; I heard a crash, a gentle push, My window-pane gave way!
""I ran to see the cause in haste, At night"s soft witching hour, And there I found a ladder placed-- A man stood by my bower.
La, la, la!""
"Go on singing!"
"Oh no, it really is not proper."
"Why, then, did you begin it?"
She giggled and was silent.
"Sing me something else."
"Before I sing give me a kiss!" A short struggle; then his voice:
"What? first you want one, and then you struggle, you cat!"
"Here I am."
"Leave go! d----n it, you scratch!"
"If you take another girl I will scratch out your eyes!"
"Anything else?"