"Ah, he is dead, then?"
There was a degree of savage triumph in the question, and still more cruel was the hatred that flashed in his eyes,--hatred for one whom he thought dead. Erna saw it, and for an instant a wave of terror overwhelmed her. Instinctively she bowed her head as before a threatened danger, and before she was conscious that by this gesture she confirmed him in his error the involuntary falsehood was told.
Ernst drew a deep breath, and the colour slowly returned to his cheek: "Well, then, it is with the dead that I must strive. I will not fear a phantom; it must yield when once I clasp you in my arms. Erna, come to me!"
She recoiled in dismay from the pa.s.sion in his words: "What! you still persist? When I tell you that I have no love to bestow upon you, does not your pride stand you in stead?"
"My pride,--where has it gone?" he broke forth. "Do you suppose that I could have gone on wooing you patiently for months without one word of encouragement from you, had I been the same Waltenberg who thought he needed but to ask of fate to attain his desire? Now I have learned to beg. The sight of you threw about me a spell to escape from which I struggle in vain. Erna, if you desire it I will resign my wandering life, and if you should wish for home in those sunny lands which I so long to show you, I will return with you to the cold, gloomy north, and for your sake a.s.sume the fetters of existence here. You do not know what a change you have already wrought in me, how all-powerful is your influence over me. Ah, do not be thus cold and impa.s.sive as your Alpine Fay upon her icy throne! I must win you for my own although your kiss were as deadly as that of the phantom of your legend."
His words were prompted by pa.s.sion, strong to sweep down all obstacles in its path; such tones are always intoxicating for a woman"s ear, and here, moreover, they dropped like soothing balm upon a wound that was still bleeding. It had been so humiliating to the girl to know herself ignored, resigned, not for the sake of another,--Erna knew well that that other was as nought to the man whose ambition was his G.o.d, the idol to whom she had been sacrificed. And now she was beloved, idolized, encompa.s.sed by a pa.s.sionate regard which knew no calculation and no bounds. She was desired for herself alone. It was a triumph for her pride. And she was a.s.sailed, too, by pity,--by the consciousness of power to bestow happiness. Everything urged her to utter the consent for which she was implored, and yet she was restrained by an invisible something, and at this decisive moment another face arose in her memory,--a face that had looked so pale in the moonlight as the white lips had faltered, "And could you have loved a man who had risen thus?"
"Erna, ah, do not keep me upon the rack!" Waltenberg exclaimed, with feverish impatience. "See! I kneel to implore you!" And he threw himself upon his knees before her and pressed her hand to his lips.
As she turned away her eyes as if entreating help, she suddenly started, and in a hurried whisper exclaimed, "For heaven"s sake, rise, Ernst! We are not alone."
He sprang to his feet, and, following the direction of her eyes, perceived the president with his daughter and her betrothed just emerging in the distance from among the trees.
They had all been witnesses of the scene for a few seconds, but Nordheim divined that the decisive word had not been spoken, and that his self-willed niece might thwart his plan at the last moment. He therefore made haste to render its fulfilment irrevocable, and, advancing quickly, exclaimed, with a laugh, "We ask a thousand pardons!
Nothing was farther from our intention than to intrude, but, since we have done so, let me offer you my best wishes, my child, and, Waltenberg, I congratulate you from my heart! We are scarcely surprised, having seen for some time how matters stood with you, and upon my arrival I perceived a betrothal in the air. Come, Alice and Wolfgang, congratulate these lovers."
He bestowed a paternal embrace upon his niece, shook Waltenberg warmly by the hand, and so overwhelmed the pair with congratulations and good wishes that no denial on Erna"s part was possible. She pa.s.sively allowed it all,--allowed Alice to embrace her and Ernst to clasp her hand in his as his betrothed, only fully recovering her consciousness when Wolfgang approached her.
"Let me add my good wishes to the rest, Fraulein von Thurgau," he said.
His voice was calm, too calm, and his immovable countenance betrayed no breath of the tempest raging within him. Only for one instant did his eye meet hers, and that instant told her that she was amply revenged upon the man who had sacrificed his love to ambition and the love of gold. Now that he saw her in the arms of another, he felt how pitiable had been his choice, felt that he had bartered away the happiness of his life.
CHAPTER XVI.
SUSPICIONS.
"As I say, Wolf, I do not know what to think of it. I never applied for the position. I did not, in fact, know anything about it, and here it is offered to me,--to me in this secluded Oberstein at the other end of the kingdom. There, read for yourself."
As he spoke, Benno Reinsfeld handed his friend a letter which he had received the day before. They were in the doctor"s study, and Elmhorst also seemed surprised as he read the letter through attentively.
"It certainly is an admirable position," he said. "Neuenfeld is one of our largest iron-works,--I know the place by name at least, and the working population form a colony there, while you can establish the pleasantest relations with the mult.i.tude of officials employed in the management of the factories. Why, your salary will amount to six times your present income. Of course you must accept it. You must not let your good fortune slip again."
"But that other time I took infinite trouble to obtain the position. I sent in a scientific treatise that got me the preference, and then I was dropped, just because I could not come up to time. I have no a.s.sociation with Neuenfeld,--I do not know a soul there,--and with such advantages to offer there must be at least a dozen applicants for the post. How does the management know of the existence of a Dr. Reinsfeld in Oberstein?"
Wolfgang looked down thoughtfully, then read over the letter again: "I think I can solve the riddle for you," he said at last. "The president has had a hand in it."
"The president? Impossible!"
"On the contrary, very probable. He is interested pecuniarily in the iron-works, and he put the present director there; his influence extends everywhere."
"But he certainly would not exert that influence in my behalf. You yourself saw how coldly he received me on the only occasion when I have had the honour of meeting him."
"Nor do I think that he has been induced to interfere thus for benevolence"s sake, but---- Benno, do you really know nothing of the cause of the breach between your father and Nordheim? Can you not remember some expression, some hint, that would give you a clue to it?"
Benno seemed to reflect, and then shook his head: "No, Wolf; no child heeds such things. I only know that afterwards, when I asked after "Uncle Nordheim," my father, with a severity very unlike himself, forbade my speaking of him. Soon afterwards my parents died, and in the hard struggle that ensued I had too much to do to allow of my reviving childish memories. But why do you ask?"
"Because I am now convinced that something very serious occurred then, the sting of which is still sharp after twenty years. It caused the only difference I have ever had with Herr Nordheim, who visits his anger upon you, who are entirely innocent of all offence."
"Possibly; but that would be all the more reason why he should not obtain for me a lucrative position."
"It is just what he would do, were there no other means of removing you from his vicinity, and I fear that this is the true state of the case.
He even wished to put a stop to your professional visits to his daughter. I did not tell you of it, because I thought it might, with justice, offend you, and he apparently changed his mind; but I am quite sure that I see his hand in this offer to you, from an entirely unexpected quarter, of a position that will keep you confined to a spot quite as distant from here as from the capital."
"Why, that would be a positive plot," Reinsfeld interposed, incredulously. "Do you really suspect the president of it?"
"Yes," said Elmhorst, coldly. "But, however the case may stand, so advantageous a position is not likely to come in your way soon again: so accept it by all means."
"Even if it be offered to me from such motives?"
"They are only supposit.i.tious; and even were they actual, no one in Neuenfeld knows anything of the circ.u.mstances; there they merely accept the recommendation of an influential man. Perhaps he perceives the injustice of visiting an old grudge upon you and wishes to indemnify you, since your presence recalls disagreeable memories."
Wolfgang knew well that this could not be so; his talk with the president had convinced him that he could be actuated by no sentiments of justice or magnanimity, but the young engineer wished to make the way easy for his friend, with whose sensitive delicacy he was familiar.
Under all circ.u.mstances it was a piece of good fortune for Reinsfeld to be removed from his present obscure position, no matter whose was the influence to which he owed the change.
"We will discuss it this evening when you come to me," Elmhorst continued, taking his hat from the table. "Now I must go; my conveyance is waiting outside; I am driving to the lower railway."
"Wolf," said Benno, with a searching, anxious glance at his friend"s face, "did you sleep at all last night?"
"No; I had some work to do. That sometimes will happen."
"Sometimes! It has come to be the rule with you. I believe you hardly sleep at all."
"Not much, it is true, but there is no help for it. Every structure must be finished before the winter sets in. Of course that makes a deal of work, and as engineer-in-chief I must see to it all."
"You are overworking yourself perilously. Hardly any other man could do as you are doing, and you cannot go on thus for long. How often I have told you----"
"The same old story," Wolfgang interrupted him, impatiently. "Let me alone, Benno; there is no help for it."
The doctor had, unfortunately, learned from experience that all his admonitions on this point would avail nothing, and he shook his head anxiously as he escorted his friend to the carriage. He himself was unwearied in the performance of his duties, but he knew nothing of the feverish state of mind that seeks forgetfulness in labour at whatever cost.
In the hall they met Veit Gronau, who had come with Waltenberg from Heilborn, and had taken the opportunity to pay a visit to Oberstein.
The gentlemen bade each other good-day, and then Elmhorst got into his carriage, while the two others returned to the study.
"The Herr Engineer-in-Chief was in a great hurry," said Gronau, settling himself in the leathern arm-chair, the leg of which had, fortunately, been mended. "He scarcely took time to speak to me, and he looks very little like a happy lover. He"s always as pale and gloomy as the marble guest! And yet he surely has reason to be contented with his lot."
"Yes, I am anxious about Wolf," Benno declared. "He is not at all like himself, and I am afraid the post he so coveted will be his bane. Even his iron, const.i.tution cannot stand the strain of feverish activity which fills his days and nights. He oversees the entire extent of railway, and he never gives himself an instant"s rest, in spite of all I can say."
"Yes, he is everywhere except with his betrothed," Gronau remarked, drily. "The lady seems to be of a remarkably unexacting temperament, else she could hardly endure having her lover entirely given over to locomotives, and tunnels, and bridges, or to have him declare as soon as he appears that he has not a moment to stay. But she takes it all as quite a matter of course. "Tis an odd household, that of the Nordheim villa. With two pair of lovers, one would suppose all would go as merrily as a marriage-bell, but instead of that they all seem rather uncomfortable, not excepting Herr Waltenberg. Said and Djelma are always complaining to me of his temper. I explained to them that it was all because he was thinking of marrying; that matrimony was sure to make mischief; but the rogues persist in thinking it very fine."
"Oh, you are a declared foe to matrimony, as we all know," said Reinsfeld, with a fleeting smile. "If Wolfgang is out of sorts,--and the responsibilities of his position may well make him so,--his betrothed is, in looks and temper, all that could be desired."