"I--I imply nothing."
"Please, I would much rather you spoke out."
"Well, then, if I must speak out, I would say that, in spite of all the hard discipline with which you have schooled yourself, you remain as rank and romantic a sentimentalist as ever. For proof that you always were one, take the Isle of Friendship. Ah, by-the-by, does it still exist, our Isle of Friendship?"
"The stream has not swept it away. It stands firm and steadfast, like us two," Ulrich said with a seraphic smile.
"Ah, that is capital! Steadfast as we are. But now, if you please, just recall how you asked of your old G.o.dfather, as a present for your confirmation, to be allowed to build a Pagan temple on the island, with we two as Castor and Pollux inside, and think of all the mock sacrifices and solemn ceremonies, and such-like mummery."
"Childish follies, reminiscences of my Homeric readings." Ulrich interposed.
"Yes, but why did these sort of ideas never occur to me? Simply because I am a plain, happy-go-lucky, country squire, whose imagination has never of necessity been stretched to conceive of anything beyond a fiery horse, women, and wine. But you ... well, the temple speaks volumes.... You have a knack of converting those you care for into ideal beings, who exist absolutely only in your fancy."
"Do you mean to say that I overrate Felicitas?"
"When will you have done with your inquisitorial "Do you mean to say?"
Remember that I am not a poacher. But to return to Felicitas. You know that I knew her when she was in pinafores. Quite apart from the fact that she was often at Halewitz, being a distant cousin to me, at one time--once I was devilish fond of her. But I never regarded her in the light of what you call a rare exotic bloom. Either I hadn"t a sufficiently discerning eye, or, blockhead that I am, I know women better than you with your sevenfold wisdom."
Ulrich fixed his eyes steadily on the floor.
Leo, after he had looked at him with a shyly inquiring glance, took heart and blurted out, "Man, tell me this. Why on earth were you so mad as to make her your wife?"
Ulrich shrank and cowered under the direct blow. "I fail to understand you, Leo," he said, on the defensive; and Leo saw with some alarm that he had gone too far.
"I mean after ... what had happened," he explained, scarcely audibly.
"And what had happened? Because her husband fell by your hand in honourable combat, was I to be prevented from winning her? True friends that we are, we are not quite identical. If I had not always felt sure that I had acted according to your principles, I might almost say in your interest!"
Leo laughed loud. "Good heavens! in mine?" he exclaimed, interrupting him.
"Yes, certainly, and I will tell you why. You remember that memorable evening when you came tearing to my place and said to me, "Rhaden has sought a dispute with me at cards, and I have been obliged to challenge him. You must be my second, of course." Now, do you also recollect what I asked you at the same time?"
Leo gazed at him blankly. "I remember," he murmured.
"I said, "This wrangle might easily be only a blind. The country rings with all sorts of scandal. You know that I would not lend myself to perpetrate a wrong, and so I ask you solemnly, as our friendship is sacred, does any tie exist between you and Felicitas, forbidden by laws human and divine?" You answered, "No," and I was satisfied, because the idea of either of us lying to each other would be too absurd. Is it not so?"
"Yes, it would have been absurd," repeated Leo, and pressed his lips together.
"There was nothing wonderful in the fact that one of the duellists should fall at the hands of the other, no matter how paltry the cause of quarrel. We all knew Rhaden"s vindictive nature. I don"t deny that you wished to spare him, but you got heated, and as luck would have it your third bullet took a fatal direction. The thing happened, and we had to take the consequences. It was quite right of you to go away for a time out of reach of the women"s cackle, and whether you were equally wise, after your period of detention in a fortress was over, to go so far abroad and let nothing be heard of you for six months, is to my mind doubtful, for it simply opened one door of conjecture after the other to the gossips and slanderers."
He stopped, and damped his projecting lips on the edge of his wine-gla.s.s. His cheeks burned, and the thin transparent face seemed illumined by an inward fire. But he continued in the same strain of merciless, matter-of-fact calm.
"You will probably not have forgotten anything that pa.s.sed at our last meeting? You had just received sentence--two years--a round sum, as you expressed it, half of which, thank G.o.d, you were let off. You wanted to give yourself up that same evening. We were sitting over our wine celebrating a separation, as to-day we celebrate our reunion. That is four and a half years ago, and meanwhile many things have changed. You handed over to me the necessary papers, and made me the trustee of your property. Unfortunately, without strictly stipulating that I should have complete authority in your absence. But more of that hereafter.
Next you said distinctly, "I have yet another favour to ask of you. You know that through me Felicitas is placed in an unpleasant position.
Naturally it would not be possible for me to venture in her neighbourhood, even if I were to be soon set at liberty, and as the question "What will become of her?" is much on my mind, I beg you with all my heart to protect her ... stand by her, and see that no breath of the hateful calumny crosses her threshold." Is that correct?"
"Correct! Yes, yes," Leo said irritably, and stabbed at the remains of the fowl, which lay in cold congealed gravy.
"And what did I ask you then?"
"Don"t know. It doesn"t matter. It really doesn"t matter; only make haste and have done."
"I asked you," Ulrich went on unperturbed, ""Do you bear any old love towards her in your heart?" and you replied, "I did, but it is all past now." And I asked you further, "Then is she free?" and you said, "As far as I am concerned, she is.""
"But, man, how could I suspect that you yourself----"
"Does that alter the case? Was she less free on that account?"
"Get out with your judicial hair-splitting. You have spoilt my appet.i.te," said Leo, laying down his fork.
"Forgive me, dear old boy," Ulrich responded; "but I can"t spare you this explanation, lest you should end by reproaching me with having thrown dust in your eyes, and having made a breach between us by my marriage."
"It seems to me that is what it will amount to, as it is," Leo growled, looking gloomily before him.
"What! you say that?" Ulrich stammered, as if he could scarcely believe his ears.
"Perhaps you will give me your views as to how our relations are to continue."
"My view is, that if at heart all is the same as of old, the ways and means of continuing our intercourse need concern us least."
"That is excellent, quite excellent, and only what one would expect from a man of ideal sentiment. But it is just as it always was; your knowledge of life deserts you wherever love and friendship and fine feeling come in. A woman, old fellow, stands between us now. And do you imagine for a moment that this woman could bring herself to forget what has happened sufficiently to tolerate calmly my coming and going at Uhlenfelde? And even if she were willing, how could I consent to it?
Remember there"s a boy running about your house--you are fond of him, eh?"
A melancholy gleam of acquired parental pride fluttered over Ulrich"s face.
"I am very fond of him," he said softly.
"When I knew him he was quite a little chap, four years old at most. He often sat on my knee. He was lovable, that much I know about him. But what is the good of recalling it? The boy has the features of the man whom I once saw, through the smoke of my pistol, fall to the ground with a bullet in his side. Isn"t that enough?"
Ulrich breathed heavily and stared at him.
"And now I tell you, once for all," Leo continued, raising his voice, "that if you had asked the advice, which would only have been fitting before taking so grave a step, of your stupid old comrade Leo Sellenthin at the time you resolved to plunge into this marriage, prompted either by mad generosity or an equally mad pa.s.sion, he would have answered you clear and straight, as is his way, "Choose between her and me." There!"
Ulrich grew a shade paler, and his left hand clasped the sofa-corner convulsively. He rose slowly, saying in a voice which anxiety at the thought of his friend breaking with him completely altered--
"Leo, you know that I cling to you as to a part of my own body. But I will know the truth. Are you trying to bring about a rupture? If so, say so."
A peal of laughter came from Leo.
"Ah, now I have caught it, as usual," he cried. "All our life long we have had these scenes. When we were fourth-form boys--well, you know what it used to be. Once when I tore myself from you because I got bored with philosophising in your company about the good of humanity, and preferred to lie under the garden hedge with Rupp and Sydow to bombard the pretty girls as they went by with paper pellets, then I got a note--"You are insincere ... a traitor ... I will do away with myself." ... Ay, the devil take your confounded heroics."
He stood up and soothed his friend, who sank back again on the sofa-cushions, and caressed comically his bristly hair.
"There, there, little girlie," he laughed. "So long as you live you won"t get rid of me, good for nothing that I am. Who would nurse you and stroke your head when the white mice bother you? and who would preach morality to me and cram worn-out wisdom into me when I got into sc.r.a.pes, if----" He stopped suddenly and cast a side-long glance at the keyhole; then seized an empty bottle and hurled it with a kind of war-whoop at the hinges of the door, so that it smashed to pieces in contact with the iron.
Ulrich sprang up in horror. "What has happened?" he asked.
"Nothing much," Leo explained, perfectly calm again. "Only a worm of a head waiter was sneaking around, probably to listen to us, so I tried to give him his death-blow."