Part 12 (1/2)
”Your Highnesses do not need to look at them,” suggested Stadinger. ”I look out that the servants do not come into the castle, but if Your Highness goes into the kitchen like the day before yesterday----”
”Well, must I not inspect my servants at times? But I shall not go into the kitchen a second time--you have taken care of that. I have my suspicions that you have gathered here all the very ugliest of the Wald to celebrate my arrival. You ought to be ashamed, Stadinger.”
The old man looked sharply and fixedly into his master's eyes, and his voice sounded very impressive as he answered:
”I am not ashamed a bit, Your Highness. When the late Prince, Your Highness' father, gave me this post of rest he said to me, 'Keep order at Rodeck, Stadinger--I rely upon you.' Well, I have kept order for twelve years in the castle, and in my house particularly, and I shall do that in future. Has Your Highness any orders for me?”
”No, you old, rude thing,” cried the Prince, half laughing, half angry.
”Make haste and get away. We do not need any curtain lectures.”
Stadinger obeyed. He saluted and marched off.
Rojanow looked after him and shrugged his shoulders sarcastically.
”I admire your patience, Egon. You allow your servants very far-reaching liberty.”
”Stadinger is an exception,” replied Egon. ”He allows himself everything; but he was not so much in the wrong when he sent Lena away.
I believe I should have done the same in his place.”
”But it is not the first time that this old castle-keeper has taken it upon himself to call you and me to order. If I were his master he would have his dismissal in the next hour.”
”If I tried that it would turn out badly for me,” laughed the Prince.
”Such old family heirlooms, who have served for three generations, and have carried the children in their arms, will be treated with respect.
I cannot gain anything there with orders and prohibitions. Peter Stadinger does what he will, and occasionally lectures me just as he sees fit.”
”If you suffer it--such a thing is incomprehensible to me.”
”Yes, it is a thing you do not comprehend, Hartmut,” said Egon more seriously. ”You know only the slavish submission of the servants in your country and the Orient. They kneel and bow at every opportunity, yet steal and betray their masters whenever they can and know how.
Stadinger is of an enviable simplicity. My 'Highness' does not intimidate him in the least. He often tells me the hardest things to my face; but I could put hundreds of thousands in his hands--he would not defraud me of one iota of it. If Rodeck were in flames and I in the midst of it, the old man, with all his sixty years, would stand by me without a second thought. All this is different with us in Germany.”
”Yes; with you in Germany,” repeated Hartmut slowly, and his glance was lost dreamily in the dusk of the forest.
”Are you still so prejudiced against it?” asked Egon. ”It cost me persuasion and prayers enough to get you to accompany me here--you fought so against entering German territory.”
”I wish I had not entered it,” said Rojanow, gloomily. ”You know----”
”That all sorts of bitter remembrances have their origin here for you--yes, you have told me that; but you must have been a boy then.
Have you not yet overcome the grudge against it? You have the most obstinate reticence, anyway, upon this point. I have not yet heard what it really was that----”
”Egon, I beg of you, leave the subject,” interrupted Hartmut, harshly.
”I have told you once for all that I cannot and will not speak of it.
If you mistrust me, let me go. I have not forced myself upon you, you know that; but I cannot bear these inquiries and questions.”
The proud, inconsiderate tone which he used toward his friend did not seem to be anything new to the Prince. He merely shrugged his shoulders and said pacifyingly: