Part 20 (1/2)
Otto, I love! therefore am I happy, therefore is there suns.h.i.+ne in my heart, life joy in my veins! I love Eva, the beautiful lovely Eva!”
Otto pressed his hand, but preserved silence.
”No, not so!” cried Wilhelm. ”Only speak a word! Do you I'm in a conception of the world which has opened before me?”
”Eva is beautiful! very beautiful!” said Otto, slowly. ”She is innocent and good. What can one wish for more? I can imagine how she fills your whole heart! But will she do so always? She will not always remain young, always lovely! Has she, then, mind sufficient to be everything to you? Will this momentary happiness which you prepare for her and yourself be great enough to outweigh--I will not say the sorrow, but the discontent which this union will bring forth in your family? For G.o.d's sake, think of everything!”
”My dear fellow!” said Wilhelm, ”your old preacher now really speaks out of you! But enough: I can bear the confession. I answer, 'Yes, yes!'
with all my heart, 'yes!' Wherefore will you now bring me out of my suns.h.i.+ne into shade? Wherefore, in my joy over the beauty of the rose should I be reminded that the perfume and color will vanish, that the leaves will fall? It is the course of life! but must one, therefore, think of the grave, of the finale, when the act begins?”
”Love is a kind of monomania,” said Otto; ”it may be combated: it depends merely upon our own will.”
”Ah, you know this not at all!” said Wilhelm. ”But it will come in due time, and then you will be far more violent than others! Who knows?
perhaps this is the sorrow of which you spoke, the misfortune which should bring your whole being into equipoise! That was also a kind of search after the sorrowful. I will sincerely wish that your heart may be filled with love as mine is; then will the influence of the sand-hills vanish, and you will speak with me as you ought to do, and as my confidence deserves!”
”That will I!” replied Otto. ”You make the poor girl miserable! Now you love Eva, but then you will no longer be able. The distance between you and her is too great, and I cannot conceive how the beauty of her countenance can thus fill your whole being. A waiting-girl! yes, I repeat the name which offends your ear: a waiting-girl! Everywhere will it be repeated. And you? No one can respect n.o.bility less than I do--that n.o.bility which is only conferred by birth; it is nothing, and a time will come when this will not be prized at all, when the n.o.bility of the soul will be the only n.o.bility. I openly say this to you, who are a n.o.bleman yourself. The more development of mind, the more ancestors!
But Eva has nothing, can have nothing, except a pretty face, and this is what has enchained you; you are become the servant of a servant, and that is degrading yourself and your n.o.bility of mind!”
”Mr. Thostrup!” exclaimed Wilhelm, ”you wound me! This is truly not the first time, but now I am weary of it. I have shown too much good nature, and that is the most unfortunate failing a man can be cursed with!”
He seated himself at the piano, and hammered away.
Otto was silent a moment, his checks glowed, but he was soon again calm, and in a joking tone said: ”Do not expend your anger upon that poor instrument because we disagree in our views. You are playing only dissonances, which offend my ear more than your anger!”
”Dissonances!” repeated Wilhelm. ”Cannot you hear that they are harmonies? There are many things for which you have a bad ear!”
Otto knew how to lead his anger to different points regarding which they had formerly been at variance, but he spoke with such mildness that Wilhelm's anger rather abated than increased.
They were again friends, but regarding Eva not one word more was said.
”I should not be an honest and true friend to him, were I to let him be swallowed up by this whirlpool!” said Otto to himself, when he was alone. ”At present he is innocent and good but at his age, with his gay disposition!--I must warn Eva! soon! soon! The snow which has once been trodden is no longer pure! Wilhelm will scarcely forgive me! But I must!”
On the morrow it was impossible for him to travel to Roeskelde, but the following day he really would and must hasten thither.
Still, in the early morning hour, Eva occupied his thoughts; she busied Wilhelm's also, but in a different way: but they agreed in the purity of their intentions. There was still a third, whose blood was put in motion at the mention of her name, who said: ”The pretty Eva is a servant there! One must speak with her. The family can make an excursion there!”
”You sweet children!” said the merchant's wife, ”the autumn is charming, far pleasanter than the whole summer! The father, should the weather remain good, will make an excursion with us to Lethraborg the day after to-morrow. We will then walk in the beautiful valley of the Hertha, and pa.s.s the night at Roeskelde. Those will be two delightful days! What an excellent father you have! But shall we not invite Mr. Thostrup to go with us? We are so many ladies, and it looks well to have a few young gentlemen with us. Grethe, thou must write an invitation; thou canst write thy father's name underneath.”
CHAPTER XXV
”These poetical letters are so similar to those of Baggesen, that we could be almost tempted to consider the news of his death as false, although so well affirmed that we must acknowledge it.”--Monthly Journal of Literature.
”She is as slender as the poplar-willow, as fleet as the hastening waters. A Mayflower odorous and sweet.”--H. P.
HOLST.
”Ah, where is the rose?”--Lulu, by GUNTELBURG.
The evening before Otto was to travel with the merchant's family to Roeskelde he called upon the family where Miss Sophie was staying. Her dear mamma had left three days before. Wilhelm had wished to accompany him to Roeskelde, but the mother did not desire it.