Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine. Auerbach Berthold

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      "I believe you. I am not the cause of her becoming a nun – no, not I – do not think it," and reclining again on the pillow, Frau Ceres continued, —

      "I warn you, captain, not to remain here with us. I have been informed of nothing – he has let me be informed of nothing – but do not stay with us, if you can find any other employment in the world. What is your purpose in coming into this house?"

      "Because I thought – until an hour ago I believed – that I could be a fitting guide to your son."

      And now Eric gave utterance to his inmost feeling of unfitness for being another's guide, and yet he must confess that no other person could have a stronger inclination to be, only some other might perhaps take it more easily. He unfolded from the very depths of his soul the newly awakened longing to plunge into solitary meditation, and lamented that one builds up an ideal of life and of work only to have it shattered in pieces upon the rock of actual existence; but it was only unvanquished self-seeking, for which his own thought, and not, the world, was to blame.

      "I am not learned – I don't understand you," Frau Ceres replied. "But you speak so beautifully – you have such good expressions – I should like always to hear you speak, even if I do not understand what you are saying. But you will not let him know anything about my having sent for you?"

      "Him? Whom?" Eric wished to ask, but Frau Ceres raised herself up hastily, and said, —

      "He can be terrible – he is a dangerous man – no one knows it, no one would imagine it. He is a dangerous man! Do you like me too?"

      Eric trembled. What did that mean?

      "Ah! I do not know what I am saying," continued Frau Ceres.

      "He is right – I am only half-witted. Why did I send for you? Yes, now I know. Tell me about your mother. Is she really a learned and noble lady? I was also a noble lady – yes, I was one indeed."

      A fresh shiver passed over Eric. Is this half lethargic, half raving person really insane, and kept within bounds in society only by the greatest care?

      He had wished this very morning to write to his mother that he had come into fairyland, – the fairy land was yet more marvellous than he had himself fancied.

      Eric depicted with extreme precision, as far as a son could, the character of his mother; how she was always so very happy, because she was contriving how to make others happy. He described the death of his father, the death of his brother, and the greatness of soul with which his mother endured all this.

      Frau Ceres sobbed; then she said suddenly, —

      "I thank you – I thank you!"

      She extended her white hand to Eric, and kept saying, —

      "I thank you! With all his money he has not been able to make me know that I could weep once more. O, how much good it does me! Stay with us – stay with Roland. He cannot weep – say nothing to him – I also should like to have a mother. Stay with us. I shall never forget it of you – I thank you – now go – go – before he returns – go – good-night!"

      Eric went back to his chamber. What he had experienced seemed to him like a dream; the hidden element of mystery which seemed at Wolfsgarten to envelop the family of Sonnenkamp was more and, more evident. Here were the strangest sorts of riddles. Roland, full of life and spirits, came to him; the brief separation had given both a new and joyful pleasure in meeting again; it was as great as if they had been separated for years.

      Roland asked Eric to tell him about the Huguenots; there had evidently been much talk about them during the drive. Eric put him off, saying that it was not necessary, at least not now, to dwell upon the horrible tortures which human beings inflicted upon one another on account of their religious belief.

      Roland informed Eric that Herr von Pranken was going the next day to visit Manna at the convent.

      Eric was doubtful what he ought to do. If he were to forbid the boy's informing him of what he heard, he would scare away his confidingness, his perfect confidence; and yet it was disagreeable to himself to be informed of things which might not be intended for him to hear. He proposed to himself for the future, to request Sonnenkamp to say nothing in the hearing of the boy which he ought not to know, Eric was summoned once more to tea; Frau, Ceres did not make her appearance.

      Eric was this evening perplexed, and lost the feeling of untroubled security.

      Should he tell Sonnenkamp that his wife had sent for him? But then he must inform him of what she had revealed to him, though it was only half uttered, – it was a warning, a speech wholly disjointed and incoherent.

      Eric also saw Roland looking at him as if beseeching. The boy felt that some painful experience was going on in his new friend, which he would gladly remove. And to Eric's affection there was superadded the feeling of pity. Here was a manifestly distressing family relation under which the boy must have suffered, and it was a fortunate thing that his light, youthful spirits were untouched.

      Eric was reminded continually of an experience of his in the house of correction, The most hardened criminals had avowed always, with the most triumphant mien, that it conferred the greatest satisfaction to them to be able to conceal their deeds from the world; but the least hardened disclosed, on the other hand, how glad they felt to be punished; for the fear of discovery, and the constant endeavour to conceal the crime, were the severest punishment.

      Eric had now a secret; was he to let it be possible for a servant to betray him, and himself appear untrustworthy?

      When Eric was about to go to rest, Roland came to him and asked whether he had anything to impart to him.

      Eric replied in the negative, and the boy appeared sad when he said good-night.

      CHAPTER X.

      A NEW DAY AND DARK QUESTIONS

      The morning dew glistened on grass, flower, and shrub, and the birds sang merrily, as Eric walked through the park. There was evidence everywhere of an ordering, busy, and watchful mind.

      Eric heard, on the bank of the river, two women talking with each other, as they carried on shore the garden-earth out of a boat.

      "God be praised," said one, "who has sent the man to us; no one in the place who is willing to work need suffer poverty any more."

      "Yes," spoke the other, "and yet there are people here who are so bad as to say all sorts of things about the man."

      "What do they say?"

      "That he has been a tailor."

      Eric could hardly restrain himself from laughing aloud. But a third woman, with a rather thick voice, said, —

      "A tailor indeed! He has been a pirate, and in Africa stole a gold-ship."

      "And supposing he did," said the other, "those man-eaters have heaps of gold, and are heathens beside, and Herr Sonnenkamp does nothing but good with his gold."

      Eric could not help smiling at these strange tales and implications; and it was also painful to him that great wealth always stirred up new and calumnious reports.

      He went on farther. He saw from a height, with satisfaction, how the main building and all its dependencies, with park and garden, were combined in a beautiful harmony. Near the main building there were only trees of a dark foliage, СКАЧАТЬ