Part 4 (1/2)
BAD NEWS.
If it had seemed dull and lonely in the little household of the Gulden Stra.s.se at Lubeck after Eric had gone to sea, how much more so was it not to the two sad women left alone to console each other when Fritz, also, had departed from home!
For days, Madame Dort appeared borne down by a weight of woe, and even Lorischen lost that customary cheeriness with which she usually performed her daily duties in her endeavours to console her mistress.
Mouser, too, went miaow-wowing about the house at nights, as if he likewise shared in the family despondency--not once being caught in the act of stealing the breakfast cream, a predilection for which had hitherto been an abnormal failing on his part. So changed, indeed, became the old cat that he did not possess spirit enough to put up his tail and ”phit” and ”fiz” at Burgher Jans' terrier, when that predatory animal made an occasional excursion into the parlour at meal times, to see what he could pick up, either on the sly or in that sneaking, fawning fas.h.i.+on which a well-trained dog would have despised. This continued almost to the end of the month; but then came a bright little bit of intelligence to gladden their hearts. It was like a gleam of suns.h.i.+ne breaking through the dark cloud of gloom that hung over them.
Fritz wrote home from Coblentz, close to the frontier, telling how comfortable he was, and how every one in the army of the Fatherland was confident as to the result of the campaign. In a few weeks at the outside, they thought--everything was so carefully planned and every contingency provided against--the French army of invasion would have been dispersed to the four winds of heaven and the war be over; and, then, the Landwehr, at all events, would be enabled to return home to their several states and resume those peaceful employments which their mobilisation had interrupted. Fritz said that he feared he would have no chance of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself in the campaign, as one alone of the three great army corps they had already ma.s.sed along the Rhine would be sufficient to crush the hated foe. The only men who would probably see any fighting would be those serving under the Crown Prince, who had already routed the enemy and were in active pursuit of them across the borderland. His veteran old general, Steinmetz, every one considered to be ”out of the hunt completely!” All he would see of the whole affair, they thought, would be the warriors returning home crowned with laurels after the victory.
Thus ran the tenor of Fritz's letter, the writer evidently not dreaming of the events in store for him; and that, instead of returning to Lubeck in a few weeks, it would be many weary months before he saw the blinking eyes of the ancient astronomical clock in the Dom Kirche again!
Through the intricacies of the field post, too, this communication was a long time in reaching the little seaport town on the North Sea, being at least ten days old when it arrived; but what mattered that? It contained good news when it did come, and was as welcome as if it had been dated only yesterday.
”Ah, ha!” exclaimed Lorischen, when her mistress communicated the contents of Fritz's letter. ”The young Herr will soon be back, and then we'll see him give Meinherr Burgher Jans the right-about. I call it scandalous, I do, his persecuting an unprotected, lone widow--just because her sons are away, and there's only me to look after her! But, I keep him at arm's distance, I promise you, madame. It is only his thief of a dog who manages to creep in here when I am about!”
Madame Dort blushed. She was a comely, middle-aged woman, and when she coloured up she looked quite pretty.
”I'm sure, Lorischen,” she said, ”I wonder you can talk such nonsense; you are as bad as poor Eric used to be, teasing me about that little fat man! Poor Burgher Jans means no harm in coming to inquire after my health while Fritz is away.”
”That's just what I object to, dear lady,” interrupted the other; ”why does he do it?”
”Can't you see, you stupid thing,” said Madame Dort, laughing heartily, the hopeful letter of her son having quite restored her spirits, ”that is the very reason? If dear Fritz were here, he would naturally ask him how we all are; but, as he is away now, and I never go outside the house, while you, my faithful Lorischen, are not very communicative, I suppose, when you go to the Market Platz, it is plain enough to common sense that the worthy Burgher, if he takes an interest in us, must come here to inquire after the family himself!”
”Oh yes, I understand,” answered the old nurse, in a grumbling tone.
She had lived so long with the widow, whom she looked upon really as a child committed to her charge, that she considered she had a perfect right to pa.s.s an opinion on anything which did not please her. Besides, she was jealous, on behalf of the boys, of any interloper being put over their heads in the shape of a stepfather, she as an old spinster having a wholesome horror of the designing nature of all men, especially of the little Burgher Jans, to whom she had taken an inveterate dislike. ”Oh yes, I understand,” she said in an ironical tone she always a.s.sumed on being a bit vexed; ”when the cat's away the mice play!”
”I presume then,” said Madame Dort dryly, ”that Mouser is a good deal absent now from his duties; for, I noticed this morning that half that cheese in the cupboard was nibbled up. It was a good Limburger cheese, too!”
”Ach, Himmel!” exclaimed the old nurse, not perceiving the design of her mistress to change the conversation, and taking up the cudgels readily to defend her dearly loved cat. ”The poor creature has not been himself since the young masters have been away. He feels too lonesome to hunt the mice as he used to do so gaily in the old days, tossing them up in the air when he caught them, and bringing them mewing to my feet,--the dear one! Why, he hardly ever touches a drop of milk now.”
”Yes, I see he spares our cream--”
”Oh, madame, that was a libel on the poor animal. It was only the dear lad Eric's joke! Mouser would never touch one drop of the breakfast cream, save perhaps when we might be late for the meal, or when the dear fellow felt a little thirsty, or--”
”Ah, indeed! Yes, no doubt,” interrupted Madame Dort, laughing again.
”He would have been at it again to-day, only Burgher Jans' dog came in at the nick of time and scared him away!”
”Did he!” said Lorischen indignantly. ”It strikes me that pest of a terrier is here a good deal too much, like his master! And, talk of him, there he is!” she added hastily, leaving the room as a knock came to the door.
Burgher Jans came in as the old nurse went out, brus.h.i.+ng by him with ill-concealed contempt and aversion. He was a fat little man, with long straight hair coming down over his coat collar, and a round, full-moon sort of face, whose effect of beaming complacency was enhanced by a pair of large-rimmed tortoise-sh.e.l.l spectacles out of which his owl-like eyes shone with an air of balmy wisdom.
”Most worthy lady,” he commenced, addressing Madame Dort with an elaborate bow, sweeping the floor with his hat. ”Unto me the greatest and ever-much rapture doth it with added satisfaction bring, to tell you of the glorious success of the German arms over our greatly-overbearing and hopeful-of-victory foe.”
”Dear me!” exclaimed the widow, ”you are rather late with your news; I heard from Fritz just now.”
”And is the dear, well-brought-up, and worthy youth in good health?”
”He is,” said Madame Dort; ”and tells us to expect him home soon.”
Burgher Jans looked startled at this announcement, losing a trifle of his beaming smile. ”He is not wounded, I trust?” asked he tremblingly.