Von Barwig wore a grey satin tie, a flower was pinned in the lapel of his old Prince Albert coat, and his spotlessly clean cuffs and kid gloves gave him an appearance of festivity that was most unusual. "A wedding? You are right, all of you!" said Von Barwig, with a deep breath. Then he added, "I have been to a wedding, yes, a wedding! Ah, Jenny, how is my little girl?" Von Barwig took the flower he had in his coat and placed it in her hand. "Wear it, Jenny, wear it! Perhaps it will bring you good fortune! There should be two weddings, not one," he added, looking at Poons.
"Two, indeed!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Miss Husted, with a toss of her curls. "One is too many sometimes!" Then she asked suddenly, "Have you had your breakfast yet?"
Von Barwig shook his head.
"Then, professor, you won"t say no to a bite of hot breakfast with me,"
and Miss Husted smiled sweetly. Von Barwig still shook his head.
"Ah, do," pleaded Jenny.
"Dear, good, kind hearts, no! Many thousand thanks, no! I have much to do. Early to-morrow morning, my--" He was going to tell them that the steamship on which he had taken pa.s.sage was going to sail early next morning. He looked at them all and did not complete his sentence.
"How can I tell them I am going to leave them forever," he thought.
"I am not at all hungry; I have had breakfast, I a.s.sure you," he added quickly, partly to change the subject, and partly to avoid breakfasting alone with Miss Husted. He was in no mood to listen to imaginary troubles.
"I"m sorry, very sorry!" sighed that lady, and she went downstairs, disappointed, taking Jenny with her.
Von Barwig put on his little velvet house coat. "What have you for lunch, boys?" he asked. "I am a bit hungry."
"I thought so," said Pinac, quickly jumping up and opening the cupboard which housed their slender stock of provisions. "Some sausage, some loaf, some cold potato," he said, as he surveyed the contents of the shelf on which reposed the articles mentioned.
"Good; splendid!" said Von Barwig.
Fico laid the cloth while Poons set the knives and forks.
"And here"s a "arf bottle of wine," said Pinac.
"The same wine as yesterday?" asked Von Barwig.
"The very same wine," replied Pinac, handing him the bottle.
The old man pulled out the cork and smelled the contents of the bottle.
"It _was_ wine; it _is_ vinegar," he remarked tersely as he handed Pinac back the bottle. "I prefer coffee!"
Pinac rushed to get it. Poons put on a few coals and some more wood into the little stove, and the process of coffee-making began.
"There"s nothing like hot coffee to cheer you up on a cold day," said Von Barwig, rubbing his hands. "Not that I need cheering up, boys," he added quickly; "but hot coffee, the smell alone is enough to--to--whoever invented hot coffee was a genius! The chord of the ninth and the diminished seventh were ordinary discoveries; any musician was bound to stumble across them sooner or later. But this,"
and he poured the ground coffee into the pot, "is a positive invention of genius!"
Pinac noticed that Von Barwig was thinking of something else than what he was saying, for his eyes were glistening, and he was obviously labouring under some great excitement.
"We could have waited for you, Anton, but we were cold," said Pinac.
"And hungry," added Fico.
"You were right; quite right!" said Von Barwig.
"Whose wedding did you attend, Anton?" asked Pinac.
"A pupil"s wedding," answered Von Barwig quickly; as if he expected the question and was prepared to answer it. "Gott in Himmel, it"s cold!
Ha, of course," and he looked up; "that skylight isn"t mended! Dear Miss Husted, she always forgets it. I must fix it myself. Yes," he went on thoughtfully, "a pupil of mine was married; a young lady. She is very happy, very happy; and I am happy that she is happy--I must always remember that."
"Remember what?" inquired Fico after a pause.
"Always remember that this is a happy moment and that I must live on it. This moment is my future; it is all I have to live on. The wedding day of my pupil is the sum and end of all for me."
"Was it a fine wedding, Anton?" asked Pinac gently. He could see that the old man was much moved and he wanted to bring him out of the world of abstract ideas into the world of tangible, concrete thought.
"Very fine," replied Von Barwig. There was silence for a moment, then he went on reminiscently: "The father and mother of the bridegroom sat in church. The mother of my little pupil is dead, or she--she would have been there. When the minister said, "Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?" perhaps you think I did not envy that father who answered "I--I do!" Ah, he was a fine looking man, indeed yes, a fine looking man! After the wedding was over--I--I walked home. What is in my heart I cannot tell you; but she is happy, happy! What more can I ask? What more dare I ask?" he broke off suddenly.
"What is it, Anton?" asked Fico gently, "you are worried, anxious!"
"You are in trouble, Anton," said Pinac, taking Von Barwig"s hand.
"Come confide in your friends; they help you."
Von Barwig forced a laugh. "I troubled? Why, no, no! I have been to a wedding; a happy wedding, a smiling bride, a fine fellow of a bridegroom. A few tears, yes; but happy, happy tears! Come, come, long faces! Cheer up," cried Von Barwig hysterically, and he slapped Poons on the back to conceal his emotion.
"Mazette! Do you smell something?" inquired Pinac, sniffing the air.
"Something is burning!"
Von Barwig started and hastily looked into the coffee pot. "Ach Gott, boys," he said, "it"s the coffee!" and he laughed.
"Is it boiling?" asked Pinac.
"Boiling! No, it"s burning! I--forgot to put the water in it," and he laughed aloud.
"Let me make the coffee this time," said Pinac, busying himself at that occupation without further delay.
"Yes, and I mend that skylight," said Von Barwig, climbing up the steps that led to the skylight window. But Von Barwig was not successful.
The wind was so strong that it blew away everything that he tried to subst.i.tute for the missing pane of gla.s.s. Finally he determined, as he could not mend it, to stuff it up temporarily and to that end he asked Pinac to hand him up a cloak, which was lying on a chair, and which he thought was his own. His effort to stuff it into the broken skylight was only too successful, for, as it went through to the other side, the wind caught it, tore it out of his hands and blew it completely away.
There was a great outcry as the men realised that Pinac"s overcoat had blown away and was lost. It was only when Jenny brought up the missing article, which had fallen into the street below, that their excitement was allayed. Von Barwig made no further effort to mend the skylight.
A little later, after the men had gone out to their respective engagements, Jenny found Von Barwig busily engaged in packing his last few remaining possessions into the little old-fashioned portmanteau which he had brought over from Leipsic with him. He had pulled it out into the hallway, as his room was too small for him to pack comfortably.
"I"ve packed all your other things away. Everything is ready now,"
said Jenny in a low voice.
The old man nodded and patted her hand as if to thank her for all her goodness.
"Have you told them?" she asked.
"No," replied Von Barwig sadly; "I can"t, I haven"t the courage. I can"t stand parting; I shall write them."
Jenny was so filled with emotion that she could hardly speak. "You told _me_," she said after a while.
"Yes, you are the only one that could understand. I had to tell you, Jenny! I can"t go like a thief in the night without letting some one know. You will tell them that I had to go, that there was nothing else to do. Explain for me; you will do that, won"t you? Don"t let them think that I--I didn"t care."
Jenny nodded. Tears were running down her cheeks. "And you never found the baby, the lost little girl you came over to find; the baby that is now a young lady?"
"Ja, I go back without her," said Von Barwig, avoiding the question.