"And Dodi?"
"He is asleep; hush, we must not wake him." And still the lips murmured tenderly, "Come in."
"He might wake and cry."
"Oh, he is no longer a crying child. Just think, he is a year old."
"What! a year already! He is quite a big fellow."
"He can say your name already."
"Does he really talk?"
"And he is learning to walk."
"Just fancy!"
"He eats anything now."
"Impossible; that is too soon."
"What do you know about it? wait till you see him."
"Push the curtain aside that I may see him by the moonlight."
"No; that would not do. If the moon shines on a sleeping child it makes it ill."
"Nonsense!"
"There are all sorts of wonderful things about children, and one must have plenty of faith; that is why women have charge of children, because they believe everything. Come in and look at him."
"I will not go in as long as he is asleep--I might wake him; you come out."
"I can not do that; he would wake if I left him, and mother is asleep."
"Well, then, you go back to him, and I will remain outside."
"Won"t you lie down?"
"It is almost day-break. Go back to him, and leave the window open."
And he remained standing by the window, looking into the little room, on whose floor the moon painted silver patterns, and trying to distinguish the tones which came from the quiet chamber--a little whimper of an awakened child, then a low song like a dreamy lullaby, "For all the gold . . ." Then the sound of a kiss, which a good baby gets as a reward for going to sleep. With his elbows on the window-sill, and listening to the breaths of the sleepers, Timar awaited the dawn, which filled the little house with light. The red sunrise awoke the child, and there was no more sleep for the others. The baby crowed and babbled; what it said only those two understood--itself and Noemi.
When at last Michael got it into his arms he said, "I shall stay here, Dodi, till I have finished your house."
The child said something which Noemi interpreted to mean, "That is just what I wish."
These were the happiest days of Timar"s dual life. Nothing troubled the serenity of his happiness, except the thought of that other life to which he must return. If he could find ways and means to sever himself from that, he might live on here in peace. Nothing would be easier; he simply had to stay here. He would be sought for during the first year, for two or three more he would be remembered from time to time; then the world would forget him and he it, and Noemi would remain to him. And what a jewel she was! Whatever was lovable in woman was combined in her, and every feminine defect was wanting. Her beauty was not of the kind which satiates by its monotony: with every change of expression arose a new charm. Tenderness, gentleness, and fire were united in her disposition. The virgin, the fairy, the woman were harmoniously blended in her. Her love was never selfish; her whole being went out to him whom she loved: his sorrows and joys were hers, she knew no others. At home she thought of every trivial detail which could conduce to his comfort; she helped him in his work with an untiring hand. Ever bright and fresh, if she felt unwell a kiss from him drove away the pain. She was submissive to him, who worshiped her. And when she took the child on her lap, it was a sight to drive the man mad who had made her his own--and yet not really his.
But Timar had not yet made up his mind. He still played with Fate. The price was too high even for such a treasure as a lovely woman with a smiling child in her arms.
The cost was--a whole world! a property amounting to millions; his position in society; his rank and n.o.ble friends; the enterprise of world-wide influence, on whose result hung the future of a great national branch of trade! and besides--Timea. He might have reconciled himself to the idea of treading his riches under foot: they came from the submarine depths, and might return thither.
But his vanity refused to contemplate the notion that that woman with the white face, which no glow from her husband could animate, might be happy in this life--with another man. Perhaps he hardly knew himself what a fiend was hidden in his breast. The woman who could not love him was fading away before his eyes, while he could live through happy days where he was well beloved. And during this time the house-building made rapid progress, and was already being put together by the workman"s skillful hand; the roof was on, and covered with wide planks formed like fish-scales to overlap each other. The carpentry was done, and now came the cabinet-work. Michael completed it without any a.s.sistance, and might be seen from morn to eve in the workshop he had arranged in the new house, where he sung all day as he planed and sawed. Like the steadiest of day-laborers, he never left off his work before dark; then he returned to the hut where an appetizing supper awaited him. After the meal he sat down on the bench outside the house, and lighted his clay pipe. Noemi sat by him and took Dodi on her knees, who was now expected to exhibit what he had learned during the day. A new word! And is not this one word a greater acquirement than all the wisdom of the world?
"What would you sell Dodi for?" Noemi asked him once in jest. "For the whole earth full of diamonds?"
"Not for the whole heaven full of angels."
Little Dodi happened that day to be full of spirits. In a mischievous mood he caught hold with his little hand of the pipe Michael had in his mouth, and pulled till he got it out of his hold, when he at once threw it on the ground; as it was made of clay, of course it was broken into atoms. Timar was rather hasty in his exercise of justice, and bestowed a little tap on the child"s hand as a punishment for the damage done. The boy looked at him, then hid his head in his mother"s breast, and began to cry.
"See now," said Noemi, sadly, "you would give him away for a pipe, and this one was only of clay."
Michael was very sorry to have slapped Dodi"s hand. He tried to make it up by coaxing words, and kissed the little hand, but the child was shy of him, and crept under Noemi"s shawl. All night he was restless, wakeful, and crying. Timar got angry, and said the child was of a willful nature, his obstinacy must be overcome. Noemi cast a gently reproachful glance on him.
The next day Timar left his bed earlier than usual, and went to his work, but he was never heard to sing all day. He left off early in the afternoon, and when he came home he could see by Noemi"s face that she was quite alarmed at his appearance. His complexion was quite altered.
"I am not well," he said to Noemi, "my head is so heavy, my feet will hardly carry me, and I have pain in all my limbs. I must lie down."
Noemi hastened to make up a bed for him in the inner room, and helped him to undress. With anxiety she noticed that Michael"s hands were cold and his breath burning. Frau Therese felt his forehead, and advised him to cover himself well, for he was going to have ague. But Michael had the sensation that something worse was at hand. In this district typhus was raging, for the spring floods had swelled the Danube in an unusual degree, and left malaria behind them. When he laid his head on the pillow he was still sensible enough to think of what would happen if a serious illness attacked him; no doctor was near to help. He might die here, and no one would know what had become of him. What would become of Timea, and above all, of Noemi? Who would care for the forsaken one, a widow without being a wife? Who would bring up Dodi, and what fate awaited him when he should be grown up, and Michael underground? Two women"s lives would be wrecked by his death!
And then he began to think of the revelations of his delirium before the two women who would be with him day and night--of his stewards, his palaces, and of his pale wife--of how he would see Timea before him, call her by name, and speak of her as his wife--and Noemi knows that name.
Besides his bodily pain, another thing tormented him--that he had struck Dodi yesterday. This trifle lay heavy as a crime on his soul. After he was in bed he wanted the child brought to him that he might kiss it, and whispered "Noemi," with hot breath.
"What is it?" she answered.
But already he know not what he had asked. Directly he was in bed the fever broke out with full force. He was a strong man, and such are the first to succ.u.mb to this "aid-de-camp" of death, and suffer the most from it. Thenceforward he wandered continually; and Noemi heard every word he spoke. The sick man knew no one, not even himself. He who spoke through his lips was a stranger--a man who had no secrets, and told all he knew. The visions are akin to the delusions of madness; they turn on one fixed idea, and however the detail may change, the central figure returns ever and again to the surface.
In Timar"s wandering there was one of these dominating figures--a woman.
Not Timea, but Noemi--of her he continually spoke. Timea"s name never pa.s.sed his lips--she did not fill his soul.
For Noemi it was horror and rapture combined to listen to this unconscious babble--horror, because it spoke of such strange things, and took her with him to such unknown regions, that she trembled at a fever which compelled him to look on at such marvels--and yet it was bliss to hear him, for he always talked of her, and her only.
Once he was in a princely palace and talking with some great man. "To whom should his excellency give this decoration? I know a girl on the ownerless island--no one is more worthy of it than she. Give her the order. She is called Noemi; her other name? Do queens have another name?
The first. Noemi the first, by the grace of G.o.d queen of the ownerless island and the rose-forest."
He carried his idea further. "If I become king of the ownerless island, I shall form a ministry. Almira will be inspector of meat, and Narcissa will be appointed to the dairy department. I shall demand security from them, and name them as confidential advisers." Then he talked of his palaces. "How do you like these saloons, Noemi? Does the gilding of this ceiling please you? Those children dancing on the golden background are like Dodi--are they not like him? A pity they are so high up. Are you cold in these great halls? So am I--come, let us go away. It is better by the fire in our little hut. I do not love these high palaces; and this town is often visited by earthquakes--I fear the vault may fall in on us. There! behind that little door some one is spying on us--an envious woman. Do not look, Noemi! Her malicious glance might do you harm. This house once belonged to her, and now she wanders through it like a ghost. See, she has a dagger in her hand, and wants to murder you; let us run away!"
But there was a hinderance in the way of escape--the frightful ma.s.s of gold. "I can not stand up, the gold drags me down. It is all on my breast; take it away! Oh, I am drowning in gold! The roof has fallen in, and gold is rolling down on me. I am suffocating. Noemi, give me your hand; pull me from under this horrible mountain of gold."
His hand lay in Noemi"s all the time, and she thought, trembling, what a fearful power it was which tortured a poor sailor with such dreams of money. Then he began again: "You don"t care for diamonds, Noemi? You little fool! Do you think their fire burns? Don"t be afraid. Ha! you are right, it does burn--I did not know that--it is h.e.l.l-fire. Even the names are alike--Diamond, Demon. We will throw them into the water--throw them from you. I know where they came from, and I will throw them back into the water. Don"t be afraid, I will not remain long under water. Hold your breath and pray. As long as you can stay without taking breath I shall be down below; I am only going to dive into the cabin of the sunken ship. Ah! who is lying on this bed?"
Such a shudder seized him that he sprung from his couch and would have rushed away. Noemi was hardly able to get him back to bed. "Some one is lying there, but I must not say the name. See how the red moon shines in at the window. Shut the light out. I will not have it on my face. How near it is coming! Draw the curtain across!"
But the curtains were drawn, and besides, it was pitch-dark outside.
When the fever-fit pa.s.sed, he murmured, "Oh, how lovely you are without diamonds, Noemi!"
Then a fantasy seized him. "That man stands at our antipodes on the other side of the earth. If the earth were of gla.s.s he could look down upon us. But he can see me just as well as I see him. What is he doing?
He is catching rattlesnakes, and when he comes back he will let them loose on the island. Don"t let him land; don"t let him come back!
Almira! Almira! At him! tear him! Aha! now a giant snake has got him; it is strangling him. How frightful his face is! If only I need not see the snake swallow him! Will he look at me? Now there is only his head out, and he keeps looking at me. Oh, Noemi, cover my face that I may not see him!"