The Indian Lily and Other Stories.
by Hermann Sudermann.
THE INDIAN LILY
Chapter I.
It was seven o"clock in the morning when Herr von Niebeldingk opened the iron gate and stepped into the front garden whose wall of blossoming bushes separated the house from the street.
The sun of a May morning tinted the greyish walls with gold, and caused the open window-panes to flash with flame.
The master directed a brief glance at the second story whence floated the dull sound of the carpet-beater. He thrust the key rapidly into the keyhole for a desire stirred in him to slip past the porter"s lodge un.o.bserved.
"I seem almost to be--ashamed!" he murmured with a smile of self-derision as a similar impulse overcame him in front of the house door.
But John, his man--a dignified person of fifty--had observed his approach and stood in the opening door. The servant"s mutton-chop whiskers and admirably silvered front-lock contrasted with a repressed reproach that hovered between his brows. He bowed deeply.
"I was delayed," said Herr von Niebeldingk, in order to say something and was vexed because this sentence sounded almost like an excuse.
"Do you desire to go to bed, captain, or would you prefer a bath?"
"A bath," the master responded. "I have slept elsewhere."
That sounded almost like another excuse.
"I"m obviously out of practice," he reflected as he entered the breakfast-room where the silver samovar steamed among the dishes of old Sevres.
He stepped in front of the mirror and regarded himself--not with the forbearance of a friend but the keen scrutiny of a critic.
"Yellow, yellow...." He shook his head. "I must apply a curb to my feelings."
Upon the whole, however, he had reason to be fairly satisfied with himself. His figure, despite the approach of his fortieth year, had remained slender and elastic. The sternly chiselled face, surrounded by a short, half-pointed beard, showed neither flabbiness nor bloat.
It was only around the dark, weary eyes that the experiences of the past night had laid a net-work of wrinkles and shadows. Ten years ago pleasure had driven the hair from his temples, but it grew energetically upon his crown and rose, above his forehead, in a Mephistophelian curve.
The civilian"s costume which often lends retired officers a guise of excessive spick-and-spanness had gradually combined with an easier bearing to give his figure a natural elegance. To be sure, six years had pa.s.sed since, displeased by a nagging major, he had definitely hung up the dragoon"s coat of blue.
He was wealthy enough to have been able to indulge in the luxury of that displeasure. In addition his estates demanded more rigorous management.... From Christmas to late spring he lived in Berlin, where his older brother occupied one of those positions at court that mean little enough either to superior or inferior ranks, but which, in a certain social set dependent upon the court, have an influence of inestimable value. Without a.s.suming the part of either a social lion or a patron, he used this influence with sufficient thoroughness to be popular, even, in certain cases, to be feared, and belonged to that cla.s.s of men to whom one always confides one"s difficulties, never one"s wife.
John came to announce to his master that the bath was ready. And while Niebeldingk stretched himself lazily in the tepid water he let his reflections glide serenely about the delightful occurrence of the past night.
That occurrence had been due for six months, but opportunity had been lacking. "I am closely watched and well-known," she had told him, "and dare not go on secret errands." ... Now at last their chance had come and had been used with clever circ.u.mspectness.... Somewhere on the Polish boundary lived one of her cousins to whose wedding she was permitted to travel alone.... She had planned to arrive in Berlin unannounced and, instead of taking the morning train from Eydtkuhnen, to take the train of the previous evening. Thus a night was gained whose history had no necessary place in any family chronicle and the memories of which could, if need were, be obliterated from one"s own consciousness.... Her arrival and departure had caused a few moments of really needless anxiety. That was all. No acquaintance had run into them, no waiter had intimated any suspicion, the very cabby who drove them through the dawn had preserved his stupid lack of expression when Niebeldingk suddenly sprang from the vehicle and permitted the lady to be driven on alone....
Before his eyes stood her picture--as he had seen her lying during the night in his arms, fevered with anxiety and rapture ... Ordinarily her eyes were large and serene, almost drowsy.... The night had proven to him what a glow could be kindled in them. Whether her broad brows, growing together over the nose, could be regarded as a beautiful feature--that was an open question. He liked them--so much was certain.
"Thank heaven," he thought. "At last, once more--a _woman_."
And he thought of another who for three years had been allied to him by bonds of the tenderest intimacy and whom he had this night betrayed.
"Between us," he consoled himself, "things will remain as they have been, and I can enjoy my liberty."
He sprayed his body with the icy water of the douche and rang for John who stood outside of the door with a bath-robe.
When, ten minutes later, shivering comfortably, he entered the breakfast-room, he found beside his cup a little heap of letters which the morning post had brought. There were two letters that gripped his attention.
One read:
"Berlin N., Philippstra.s.se 10 a.
DEAR HERR VON NIEBELDINGK:--
For the past week I have been in Berlin studying agriculture, since, as you know, I am to take charge of the estate. Papa made me promise faithfully to look you up immediately after my arrival. It is merely due to the respect I owe you that I haven"t kept my promise. As I know that you won"t tell Papa I might as well confess to you that I"ve scarcely been sober the whole week.--Oh, Berlin is a deuce of a place!
If you don"t object I will drop in at noon to-morrow and convey Papa"s greetings to you. Papa is again afflicted with the gout.
With warm regards,
Your very faithful
FRITZ VON EHRENBERG."
The other letter was from ... her--clear, serene, full of such literary reminiscences as always dwelt in her busy little head.
"DEAR FRIEND:--
I wouldn"t ask you: Why do I not see you?--you have not called for five days--I would wait quietly till your steps led you hither without persuasion or compulsion; but "every animal loves itself" as the old gossip Cicero says, and I feel a desire to chat with you.
I have never believed, to be sure, that we would remain indispensable to each other. "_Racine pa.s.sera comme le cafe_," Mme. de Sevigne says somewhere, but I would never have dreamed that we would see so little of each other before the inevitable end of all things.
You know the proverb: even old iron hates to rust, and I"m only twenty-five.
Come once again, dear Master, if you care to. I have an excellent cigarette for you--Blum Pasha. I smoke a little myself now and then, but _c"est plus fort que moi_ and ends in head-ache.
Joko has at last learned to say "Richard." He trills the _r_ cunningly. He knows that he has little need to be jealous.
Good-bye!
ALICE."
He laughed and brought forth her picture which stood, framed and glazed, upon his desk. A delicate, slender figure--"_blonde comme les bles_"--with bluish grey, eager eyes and a mocking expression of the lips--it was she herself, she who had made the last years of his life truly livable and whose fate he administered rather than ruled.
She was the wife of a wealthy mine-owner whose estates ab.u.t.ted on his and with whom an old friendship, founded on common sports, connected him.
One day, suspecting nothing, Niebeldingk entered the man"s house and found him dragging his young wife from room to room by the hair....
Niebeldingk interfered and felt, in return, the lash of a whip....
Time and place had been decided upon when the man"s physician forbade the duel.... He had been long suspected, but no certain symptoms had been alleged, since the brave little woman revealed nothing of the frightful inwardness of her married life.... Three days later he was definitely sent to a sanitarium. But between Niebeldingk and Alice the memory of that last hour of suffering soon wove a thousand threads of helplessness and pity into the web of love.