Part 12 (1/2)

”So far as I can judge, he did succeed. Do you care to see the drawing?”

”Very much.”

Rita rose involuntarily.

”Will you show it to Dr. Weilen, my dear?”

”Certainly, mother.”

Miss Rita conducted him to her mother's room through the large state parlor, the walls of which, he noted in pa.s.sing, were covered with canva.s.ses of distinguished artists. In her mother's room, over a small Florentine inlaid table of the sixteenth century, hung the genealogical chart. The room was marked by the same rich style as prevailed elsewhere, but there was something more genial, more home-like in the artistically furnished boudoir. Not a boudoir in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather the apartment of a lady,--luxurious and subtly feminine withal. A soft glow from an iridescent hanging lamp dimly illuminated the room. Rita turned on the electric light inserted in the bowl of an antique lamp, and a bright radiance fell on the large chart occupying almost the entire wall s.p.a.ce.

Both stood regarding it without speaking.

Dr. Weilen was lost in contemplation, then he adjusted his eyegla.s.ses as if to see better. ”So that is the old pedigree! That's the way it looks!

So our tribe has grown and multiplied! How remarkable and interesting!”

He was lost in contemplation again, and drew nearer to the chart to study it in detail. It seemed as if he had entirely forgotten Rita's presence; and she remained perfectly quiet, so as not to disturb him.

”Curious,” he said, half to himself, ”who would have believed it? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would not have realized the persistent vigor in the old stock.” He turned his attention to the right-hand side of the chart, read a few names there, and then said to Rita: ”Excuse my abstraction, but it is quite surprising. Are you interested in the history of the family?”

”Of course, I am used to it from childhood up, and my mother has always told me all the peculiarities and incidents of the family.”

”And you know your cousins personally?”

”Quite many.”

”And what is their station in life?”

”Every possible station. Look at all these branchings and ramifications.

There is hardly an occupation that does not claim one or the other.

Lawyers, physicians, tutors, merchants,--some very well placed and others less fortunate. One cousin is an African explorer, another has joined a North Pole expedition; and by marriage the women of the family have entered circles as various. Among the cousins by marriage there are architects, professors, dentists, veterinary physicians, engineers, and manufacturers. I think it would hardly be necessary to go outside of the family to find one of every kind, with the exception....” Here she suddenly paused in her vivacious explanations and stared at him with embarra.s.sment in her large eyes.

”Well, Miss Rita, what branch is lacking on the golden tree of life?”

A vivid blush suffused her face, which appeared all the prettier to him in its embarra.s.sed shyness.

”I will tell you. Do you see here to the right?” and he pointed out the place with his finger. ”Here is the name Goldine, the last of the fourteen branches issuing from Rabbi Eliezer, joined to that of Herman Weilen--my parents; and here the broken branch, quite symbolic, do you see?--without a name,--that refers to me.”

Anxious fear took possession of her.

”Oh, Herr Regierungsrat,” she stammered.

”That's just it--Regierungsrat! I have been deprived of the cousins.h.i.+p on this genealogical tree. A scion without a name, disinherited!”

There was more sorrow than bitterness in his voice, and this gave her the courage to say: ”It surely happened unintentionally. Nothing was known of you in our family, and it was taken for granted that you had broken off connection with it. We had only heard....” Suddenly she hesitated.

”Your reasons are significant, Miss Rita, the broken-off branch dares not call you cousin.” A peculiar smile played about his lips. ”But I should like to finish the thought you would not express. You had only heard that I had discarded the belief of my fathers, had changed my religion, had entered the service of the Government, had made a career for myself, and hoped to reach a still higher goal. That's it, is it not? A broken-off branch, but not a withered one!”

She gazed at him with large, astonished eyes into which a dreamy expression gradually crept.

”To be sure,” he continued, ”I have no right to complain.”