Part 43 (1/2)
”Of course you would have to yield in the land quarrel with the pastor,” said Botho. ”I knew Schonemann long ago at Sellenthin's.”
”Yes, he was a tutor there and knew no better than to shorten the lesson hours and lengthen the recreation hours. And he could play grace-hoops like a young marquis; really, it was a pleasure to watch him. But now he has been seven years in orders and you would never know the Schonemann who used to pay court to the charming mistress of the house. But I must admit this, he educated both the young ladies well, especially your Katherine....”
Botho glanced timidly at his uncle, almost as if to beg him to be discreet. But the old Baron, delighted to have seized upon so favorable an opportunity to enter on his favorite theme, went on in exuberant and ever-increasing good humor: ”There, there, Botho. Discretion. Nonsense!
Wedell is from our region and must know the story just as well as anyone else. Why should we keep silence about such things? You are already as good as bound. And G.o.d knows, young man, when I pa.s.s the young girls in review, you cannot find a better--teeth like pearls, and she is always laughing so that you can see the whole row. A flaxen blonde to tempt your kisses, and if I were only thirty years younger, I declare ...”
Wedell, who noticed Botho's confusion, tried to come to his aid and said: ”The Sellenthin ladies are all very pleasing, the mother as well as the daughters; last summer I met them in Norderney, and they were charming, but I would prefer the second....”
”So much the better, Wedell. You will not come into any conflict and we can celebrate a double wedding. And Schonemann may be sure that if Kluckhuhn, who is touchy like all old people, agrees, I will not only put a spoke in his wheel, but I will give up the strip of parsonage land to him without further ado if I can see such a wedding within the year. You are rich, dear Wedell, and there is really no haste about you. But look at our friend Botho. That he looks so well nourished is no thanks to his sandy wastes, which, excepting a couple of meadows, are really nothing but a nursery of young pines, and still less to his eel pond. 'Eel pond,' sounds wonderful, you might almost say poetic.
But that is all. One cannot live on eels. I know you do not like to hear about this, but so long as we are on the subject, I may as well come out with it. How do matters stand, then? Your grandfather had the timber cut down and your late father--a capital fellow, but I never saw anyone play the man of affairs so poorly and so expensively too--your late father, I say, divided up the five hundred acres of eastern farming-land among the Jeseritz peasants, and there is not much good land left, and the thirty thousand thalers are long since gone. If you were alone, it might do, but you must share with your brother, and at present the mamma, my sister Liebden, has the whole still in her hands, an admirable woman, clever and skilful, but she does not err on the saving side. Botho, what is the use of belonging to the Imperial Cuira.s.siers and what is the use of having a rich cousin, who is only waiting for you to come and seal and ratify by a formal proposal what your parents had already agreed upon when you were still children? Why consider longer? Listen, if I could go to your mother to-morrow on my return and bring her the news: 'Dear Josephine, Botho consents; everything is arranged,' listen, boy, that would be something for an old uncle who means well by you to rejoice over. Speak to him, Wedell.
It is time that he should quit this bachelor life. Otherwise he will squander his bit of property or get caught by some little bourgeoise.
Am I right? Naturally. Done! And we must drink to the happy event. But not with these dregs....” And he rang the bell. ”A bottle of Heidsieck.
The best brand.”
CHAPTER VIII
At about this same time there were at the club two young cavaliers, one of them, who was tall, slender and smooth-faced, belonged to the Gardes du Corps; the other, who was somewhat shorter, and had a full beard with only the regulation smooth chin, had been dismissed from the Pasewalkern. The white damask table cloth, which remained from their breakfast, had been turned back and the two were playing piquet on the bare half of the table.
”Six cards and four of a kind.”
”Very well.”
”And you?”
”Fourteen aces, three kings, three queens.... And you don't make a trick.” And he laid his hand on the table and then pushed all the cards together while his companion shuffled.
”Did you know that Ella is about to be married?”
”What a pity!”
”Why a pity?”
”She can't jump through the hoop any more.”
”Nonsense. The more they are married the slenderer they grow.”
”Yet there are exceptions. Many names belonging to the aristocracy of the circus already appear in the third and fourth generation, which seems to point to some alternation of a slender and a stouter form, or if you like, to the new moon, the first quarter, &c.”
”You are mistaken. _Error in calculo_. You forget that there may be adoptions. All these circus people are secretly 'Gichtelianer' and pa.s.s on their property, their rank and their names according to agreement.
They seem the same and yet they are different. There is always fresh blood. Cut.... Besides that I have another bit of news. Afzelius is to join the General Staff.”
”Which do you mean?”
”The one who belongs to the Uhlans.”
”Impossible.”