"Yes, yes, practice!" interrupted the a.s.sessor. "That is just what Fraulein Margaret wants. She spoke French very nicely when she came back from school a few years ago, but here in the country she has no opportunity for it. I was going to ask if you would occasionally read, or hold a little conversation in French with the young lady. You have plenty of time, and you would confer a great obligation on me."
"On you, Herr Hubert?" asked Fabian, amazed. "I must confess to feeling some surprise that such a proposition should come from you rather than from Herr Frank, or the Fraulein herself."
"There are good reasons for it," said Hubert, with dignity. "You may possibly have already remarked--I make no secret of it--that I cherish certain wishes and intentions which may be realised at no very distant date. In a word, I look on the young lady as my betrothed."
The Doctor suddenly stooped to pick up a sheet of paper which lay on the floor, and which he now scrutinised attentively although it bore no writing. "I congratulate you," he said, laconically.
"Oh, for the present I must decline to accept congratulations," smiled the a.s.sessor, with indescribable self-complacency. "There has been no avowal of our sentiments as yet, though I think I may safely count on her consent. To be frank, before proffering my suit, I should prefer to obtain the Counsellorship which I am shortly expecting. Such a position would produce a better effect, and you must know that Fraulein Frank is a good match."
"Really?"
"An excellent match. The steward is a rich man, there can be no doubt of that. Think of all the money he must have made here in twenty years, what with his salary and his percentage on everything! It is a positive fact that, on leaving his post, he means to buy and settle down on a place of his own, and I know that he is realising capital to a considerable amount with that intention. Fraulein Margaret and her brother, who is now studying at the school of agriculture, are the only children. I can count on a fair dowry and a snug little fortune to be inherited by-and-by. Added to this, the young lady herself is a most amiable, charming girl, whom I adore."
"Added to this!" repeated the Doctor, in a low tone, but with a bitterness most unusual to him. His murmured exclamation escaped the a.s.sessor, who went on with an air of great importance.
"Frank has spared nothing in the education of his children. His daughter was for a long time at one of the first establishments in P----, and there acquired all that a lady need know--much to my satisfaction, for you will easily understand, Doctor, that, looking to my future position, it is indispensable that my wife should be a person of cultivated mind. It will be required of us to appear in society, and to entertain at home, and therefore I feel it a duty even now to see that such accomplishments as pianoforte playing and French are not laid aside and forgotten. If you would be so good, therefore, in regard to the latter ..."
"With pleasure, if Herr Frank and his daughter wish it," said Fabian, in a constrained tone.
"Certainly they wish it, but it was I more especially who counted on your kind help," declared Hubert, who was evidently very proud of his bright idea. "When Fraulein Margaret was complaining not long ago that she had very nearly forgotten her French, her father hit on the plan of having the master of languages out from the town occasionally. Just imagine! a young Frenchman who would begin making love to his pupil at the very first lesson! Frank"s head is always running on his farming and his accounts, and he does not trouble himself with such things, but I was more prudent. I would not have that young Frenchman there so often, playing the gallant with the girl, for anything; but a man of more advanced age, like yourself ..."
"I am thirty-seven, sir," the Doctor interrupted him.
"Oh, never mind, that has nothing to do with it," said Hubert, smiling.
"I should be quite easy with you--but I should really have taken you to be older! Tell me though, Doctor, what made you bring such a quant.i.ty of books with you as you have here? What are you studying? Pedagogical science, I suppose. May I look?"
He rose, and was going towards the writing-table, but Dr. Fabian was quicker than he. With a rapid movement, almost betokening alarm, he threw a newspaper over some bound volumes lying on the table, and placed himself before them.
"Only a hobby of mine," said he, a vivid flush mounting to his cheeks.
"Historical studies."
"Oh, historical studies!" repeated the a.s.sessor. "Well, then, I must inquire whether you know Professor Schwarz, the great authority on such matters. He is my uncle. But, of course, you must know him. He is on the staff of the University of J----, where Herr Nordeck studied."
"I have that pleasure," said Fabian, rather dejectedly, with a glance at the newspaper.
"How should you not?" cried the a.s.sessor. "My uncle is a celebrity, an intellect of the very first order! We have every reason to be proud of his relationship, though our family can boast many a well-sounding name. Now I do not consider that I disgrace it myself!"
The Doctor still stood anxiously on his guard before his writing-table, as though to ensure himself against any attempt at robbery or violence on the part of the a.s.sessor, but that gentleman was now far too deeply absorbed by the importance of his family in general, and by his uncle"s celebrity in particular, to pay any special attention to the scribbling of an insignificant tutor. Nevertheless he felt himself called on to say something polite.
"But it is extremely creditable for laymen to take an interest in such studies," he remarked, condescendingly. "I only fear that you cannot have the necessary leisure for them here. There must be a great deal of stir in the Castle, a continual coming and going of all sorts of people, is there not?"
"It may be so," replied Fabian, unsuspiciously, and without an inkling of the man[oe]uvre executed by his visitor; "but Waldemar, knowing my bent, has been so kind as to choose for me the most secluded and quietest rooms."
"Naturally, naturally!" Hubert was standing at the window now, trying to take a thorough survey of the place. "But I should fancy that such an old building as this Wilicza, dating back through many centuries, must in itself have a great interest for you, with its various historical reminiscences. All these halls, staircases, and galleries!
and what immense cellars there must be below! Were you ever in the cellars?"
"In the cellars?" asked the Doctor, in much astonishment. "No, certainly not. What should I be doing there?"
"_I_ should go down," said the a.s.sessor. "I have a fancy for such old vaults, as indeed for everything that is curious. By-the-by, is the late Herr Nordeck"s collection of arms still complete? They say he had a most extravagant mania for such things, and that he got together hundreds of the finest rifles and other weapons."
"You must ask his son!" Dr. Fabian replied with a shrug. "I own I have not yet been in the armoury."
"That will be on the other side of the house," observed Hubert, taking his bearings with all the keenness of a detective. "According to Frank"s description it must be a dark, uncanny sort of place, like everything about Wilicza indeed. Have not you heard that the house is haunted? You have not yourself noticed anything unusual, out of the common, at night, I suppose?"
"I sleep at night," replied the Doctor, tranquilly, but with a slight smile at his visitor"s superst.i.tion.
The a.s.sessor cast an appealing glance towards Heaven. This man, whom accident had placed in the very heart of the place, saw and heard nothing of what was going on around him. He had not visited the cellars; he had not even been in the armoury, and at night he slept! No information could be extracted from this simple bookworm. Hubert could see that, so after a few polite speeches he took his leave and left the room.
He went slowly along the corridor. On his arrival a servant had received, and led him to the Doctor"s study; but now on his way back he was alone, alone in this "nest of conspiracy," which now, in the broad daylight, with its carpeted galleries and stairs, certainly appeared as secure and dignified in its repose as the most loyal home of the most loyal subject. But the a.s.sessor was not to be deluded by appearances.
Right and left he scented those plots which unfortunately escaped his grasp. There was a door which had a suspicious look, he thought. It stood in the shade of a colossal pillar, and was strongly and deeply encased in the wall. This door possibly led to a back staircase, or into a secret gallery, possibly even below into the cellars which Hubert"s fancy at once peopled with troops of traitors and filled with concealed stacks of arms. Should he press the latch? At the worst, he could allege a mistake, could say he had lost himself in the Castle"s intricate ways ... perhaps the key to all its secrets lay here....
Suddenly the door opened, and Waldemar Nordeck stepped out. The a.s.sessor sprang back. Just Heaven! for the second time he had nearly fallen foul of the master of Wilicza. One glance through the open c.h.i.n.k showed him that the place he had held to be such dangerous ground was that gentleman"s bedroom. Waldemar pa.s.sed him with a very cool bow, and went on to Dr. Fabian"s apartments. Hubert saw that, in spite of his apology, this "suspicious character" had not forgiven him. The consciousness of this and the shock of the unexpected meeting had, for the present, robbed him of all desire for further discoveries, and a servant just then appearing on the staircase, no alternative was left him but at once to make his way out.
Meanwhile Waldemar had gone in to his old tutor, who was still standing at the writing-table, busy putting in order the books and papers he had lately screened from the a.s.sessor"s curious gaze. The young man went up to him.
"Well, what news?" he asked. "You have had letters and newspapers from J----. I saw them when I sent you the packet over."
The Doctor looked up. "Oh, Waldemar," he said in a grievous tone, "why did you almost force me to bring my work and quiet studies before the public? I resisted from the first, but you went on urging and persuading me until the book appeared."
"Of course I did. What use was it to yourself, or to any one else while it was lying shut up in that drawer? But what has happened? Your "History of Teutonism" was received in learned circles with a favour far beyond our expectations. The first recognition of its worth came from J----, from Professor Weber, and I should think _his_ opinion would be decisive on such a subject."
"I thought so too," replied Fabian, despondingly. "I was so proud and happy at receiving praise from such a mouth, but that is just what has roused Professor Schwarz--you know him, don"t you?--to attack me and my book in quite an unprecedented manner. Just look at this."
He held out the newspaper to him. Nordeck took it and read the paragraph through coolly. "This is nothing but a charming specimen of spitefulness. The end is especially neat. "We hear that this new celebrity just discovered by Professor Weber was for a long time tutor to the son of one of our greatest landed proprietors, and that his system of education was attended by no very brilliant result.
Notwithstanding this, the influence of the distinguished pupil we speak of may have had something to do with our friend"s exaggerated appreciation of a work by which an ambitious dilettante hopes to force his way into the ranks of scientific men!""
Waldemar threw down the paper. "Poor Doctor! How often will you be made to suffer for having brought up such a monster as myself! In truth, your system of education has as little to do with my unamiable character as my influence had with Weber"s review of your book; but in these exclusive circles they will never forgive you for having been a private tutor, even though you should one day mount into a Professor"s chair."
"Good Heavens, who ever dreams of such a thing!" exclaimed the Doctor, fairly frightened at so bold a notion. "Not I, certainly, and therefore it hurts me all the more to be accused of ambition, and of intrusively thrusting myself forward, merely because I have written a scientific book which keeps strictly to the matter in hand, offends no one, interferes with no one ..."
"And moreover is of remarkable merit," interrupted Waldemar. "I should have thought you would have come round to that belief yourself when Weber took up the cudgels for you so decidedly. You know he does not allow himself to be influenced, and you used to think him an indisputable authority, to whom you looked up in veneration."
"Professor Schwarz is an authority too."
"Yes, but an atrabilious one who admits no one"s importance but his own. What the deuce made you hit on this Teutonic theme? That is _his_ province--_he_ has written on that, and woe to the man who lays his finger on it. That man"s work is condemned beforehand. Don"t look so discouraged. It is not becoming in a recently discovered celebrity.
What would Uncle Witold, with his sovereign contempt for the old "heathen rubbish," have said to Weber"s discovery? I think you would have been treated rather more respectfully than was, I regret to say, the case. You made a great sacrifice in remaining with me."
"Do not speak so, Waldemar," said the Doctor, with a touch of indignation. "I well know on whose side the sacrifice is now! Who obstinately insisted upon keeping me with him when I could be of no further use to him, and yet refused to accept the smallest service which was likely to take me from my books? Who gave me the means to devote myself solely to study, so that I could gather together and set in order the scattered knowledge I possessed? Who almost compelled me to accompany him on his travels, because my health was shaken by constant work? The hour in which your Norman injured me was a blessed one for me. It has brought me all I ever hoped or wished for from life."
"Then you wished for very little," said Waldemar, impatiently--he was evidently anxious to turn the conversation into another channel. "But one thing more. I met that gifted representative of the L---- police wandering about the Castle just now. He had been here with you, and I see him continually over yonder at the manor farm. He can have no object in visiting us now that we have proved ourselves beyond suspicion. What is he always hanging about Wilicza for?"
Fabian looked down in much embarra.s.sment. "I don"t know, but I imagine that his frequent visits to the steward"s house have a purely personal motive. He called on me to-day."
"And you received him with the utmost friendliness? Doctor, you are a living impersonation of the doctrines of Christianity. To him who smites you on the right cheek, you will meekly turn the left. I believe you would not hesitate a moment to render Professor Schwarz an important service, if it were in your power. But beware of this a.s.sessor, with his frantic mania for arresting people. He is on the hunt for conspirators again, you may be sure; and limited as his intelligence may be, chance might for once play the right cards into his hands. It would not be difficult here at Wilicza."
The last words were spoken in such a tone of angry annoyance that the Doctor let fall the first volume of his "History of Teutonism," which he had just taken up.
"You have made some unpleasant discovery?" he asked. "Worse even than you expected. I thought so, though you have said so little about it."
Waldemar had sat down, and was leaning his head on his hand.