The father paused a moment. To a man of his sensitive feelings it was torture to discuss this subject with his son, but there was no option now, he must speak farther.
"When I was a young man I loved your mother devotedly, and married her against the wishes of my parents, who saw only unhappiness for me in a union with a woman from a foreign land. They were right, the marriage was a most unhappy one, and was finally dissolved by my desire. My son was awarded to me unconditionally, for it was my absolute right. More I will not tell you, for I cannot denounce a mother to her own son, so let that be enough for you."
Short and bitter as this declaration was, it made a singular impression upon Hartmut. His father would not denounce his mother to him, to him, who heard daily the bitterest accusations and invectives against his father from her lips.
Zalika had, as might be supposed, cast all the blame of the separation upon her husband and his countless tyrannies, and her son, who had suffered so much from his father"s austerity, gave a willing ear to all her tirades. And yet these few short, earnest words had more effect than all Zalika"s pa.s.sionate outbreaks. Hartmut felt instinctively on which side the truth lay.
"And now, to the main point," Falkenried went on. "What was the tenor of your daily interviews?"
Perhaps Hartmut had not expected this question; a deep red overspread his face, he was silent and cast his eyes on the ground.
"Ah, you do not care to repeat it. I desire to know it. I command you to answer me!"
But Hartmut was still silent; he only pressed his lips closer together, and looked defiantly at his father, who had come close to him now.
"You will not speak? Perhaps a command from the other side keeps you silent? No matter, your silence tells me more than any words. I see how much you are estranged from me already; a little longer with such influences, and you would be lost to me forever. These meetings with your mother are now at an end. I forbid you to see her again. You will go home with me to-day and remain under my protection. Whether that appears cruel to you or not, it must be, and you must obey."
But the Major erred when he believed his son would, as formerly, bow to his stern decree. Hartmut had been for the past few days in a school where all the antagonism of his nature had been aroused against his father.
"Father, you cannot, you dare not order me thus," he cried out now in great excitement. "It is my own mother whom I have found at last, the only one in the whole world who loves me. I will not be separated from her again as I once was. I will not be forced to hate her; threaten, punish me, do what you will with me, but I will not obey this time, I will not obey!"
All the ungovernable pa.s.sion of his nature broke out in these words; an unearthly fire gleamed in his eyes, and his hands were clenched; every fiber quivered in wild revolt; he was resolved to fight out this battle with his father to the bitter end.
But the burst of anger which he expected did not come. Falkenried looked silently at him, but with a glance of earnest, sad reproof.
"The only one in the whole world who loves you," he repeated slowly.
"You seem to forget that you have a father."
"Who has never loved me," cried Hartmut with excessive bitterness.
"Since I have found my mother, I have learned for the first time what love is."
"Hartmut!"
The boy seemed almost staggered by this strange tone, vibrating with pain, which he had never heard in all his life before, and the defiance which was about to break forth anew, died on his lips.
"Because I have had no flattering words and caresses for you, because I have been strict and severe in my training, have you doubted my love?"
said Falkenried, even in that same strange tone. "Do you know what that severity has cost me against my only, my dearly loved child?"
"Father!" The word had a shy, hesitating sound, but it was not the old shyness and fear; there lay in it a joyful, almost incredulous astonishment, and Hartmut gazed on his father"s face as if he could never take his eyes from it. Falkenried put his hand on his son"s arm and drew him nearer, while he continued:
"Once I was ambitious, had proud hopes of life, great plans and projects, but I received a blow from which I could never recover. If I strive and struggle now, Hartmut, the only spur I have in life, besides my sense of duty, is you, my son. All my ambitions are centered in you.
I strive for nought else on earth but to make your future great and happy; and you can become great my boy, for your talents are unusual, and your mind is as capable for good as for evil. But there is something more, there are dangerous elements in your nature which are less your fault than your fate, and which must be curbed in time, before they obtain a mastery over you, and plunge you into misery. I have been severe with you in order to expel the germs, but it has not been easy for me."
The youth"s countenance was in a glow, he hung with bated breath upon his father"s every word, and now he said in a whisper, behind which he could scarcely conceal his joy:
"I never dared to think you loved me, you were always so inflexible, so unapproachable--" he broke off and looked up at his father, who put his arm around him and drew him closer to himself. Their eyes met in a long, tender gaze, and the iron man"s voice broke as he said softly:
"You are my only child, Hartmut, all that remains to me of a dream of happiness which vanished, leaving only bitterness and disenchantment in its wake. I lost much and bore it;--but if I were to lose you, you,--I could not bear it."
He held his son close in his arms, and the boy threw himself sobbing on his breast, and in this pa.s.sionate embrace all else seemed to sink from view. They had both forgotten the threatening shadow from the past which was forcing itself between them.
In the meantime Frau von Eschenhagen was harangueing Will in the dining-room. She had already performed that duty once this morning, but she thought the occasion required a second portion. The young heir looked sorely disturbed, he felt himself in a false position both as regarded his mother and his friend, and yet he was quite innocent in the matter. As a dutiful son he listened patiently to the tirade, and only threw a wistful glance now and then toward the table upon which the evening meal was already spread, and of which his mother took not the slightest notice.
"This is what comes of it, when a boy has secrets behind his parents"
back," she said in conclusion. "Hartmut will be well watched now, and the Major won"t deal any too gently with him, either, and you, I think, will refrain from a.s.sisting in any more plots, if I have anything to say."
"I had nothing to do with it," said Will, defending himself. "I only promised to be silent, and I had to keep my word."
"You should never keep silence toward your mother. She is always and ever an exception," said Frau Regine, decidedly.
"Yes, mamma, that was probably what Hartmut thought; that"s how he acted toward his mother," said Willibald, and the remark was so just that nothing could be said in contradiction; it provoked Frau von Jischenhagen none the less, on that account.
"That"s something different, something quite different," she answered shortly. But her son asked obstinately:
"Why is it something different here, then?"
"Do not bother me any more with your talk and your questions," his mother went on angrily. "That is a thing which you do not understand, and about which you have no business to trouble your head. It"s bad enough that Hartmut has brought you into the affair at all. Now be quiet, and don"t trouble me any more about it. Do you understand?"
Will was silent as requested. It was the first time in his life that he had been catechised so sharply and had received so severe a lecture. At this moment his uncle Wallmoden, just back from a walk, entered the room.
"I hear Falkenried has come already?" he said to his sister.
"Yes," she answered. "He came immediately upon receipt of my letter."
"And how did he take the news?"
"Quietly enough, outwardly; but I saw only too well that he was moved to his very soul. He is alone with Hartmut now, and the pent-up storm will burst."
"How unfortunate. But I warned him of all this as soon as I heard of Zalika"s return. He should have spoken to his son at once. Now I fear he is adding a second blunder to the first in seeking, with commands and force, to prevent further meetings. That fatal stubbornness of his, which knows no alternative, is terribly out of place now."
"Yes, and their talk has lasted a long time already. I"ll just go and see how they"re getting on, and whether the Major is too severe or not.
You remain here, Herbert. I"ll be back immediately."
She left the room, and while Wallmoden paced the floor dejectedly, his nephew sat alone at the supper-table, which no one but himself seemed to notice. He did not venture to eat his supper, for his mother was in anything but a pleasant humor to-day, and he felt no liberties were to be taken. Fortunately she came back in a short time with a gleam of bright sunshine across her face.
"It"s all right," she said shortly and concisely. "He has the boy in his arms and Hartmut is clinging to him. They can do as they please now. G.o.d be praised! Now you can eat your supper, Will; the confusion that the house has been in all day is over at last."
Will didn"t wait to be told twice, but began his meal at the word.
Wallmoden shook his head and said half aloud:
"If it only really is over at last!"
Neither Falkenried nor his son perceived that the door had been softly opened and closed again.
Hartmut still clung to his father. He seemed to have lost all shyness and reserve in his newly found happiness. He was so tender, so caressing, that perhaps the Major was not far wrong in saying he would be left defenseless when his son learned of his great love for him. He said little; but pressed his lips again and again to his boy"s forehead, and his eyes never left his son"s glowing face, which was so near his own. At last Hartmut said softly:
"And my mother?"
A shadow darkened Falkenried"s face, but he did not unclasp the arms which held his son.