Part 63 (1/2)

”If you know it better, dear, tell it yourself.”

One oyster looked at the other, and both laughed aloud. Well, when such a fat oyster--for the Frau Syndic was fat, and Frau Krummhorn was also well-to-do--laughs so at another, it makes a great impression upon people, and as a natural consequence the company laid their knitting in their laps, and looked at the oysters.

”Good heavens!” cried the hostess, at last, ”what do you know?”

”Frau Krummhorn may tell,” said Frau Syndic, coolly. ”She saw it as well as I.”

Frau Krummhorn was a good woman, she could relate well and skilfully; but her gift of the gab had one failing, it was like Protonotary Scharfer's legs,--rudderless; and just like the protonotary, she was obliged to call out to one and another, ”Hold me fast!” or ”Turn me round!” She began: ”Yes, he came right across the market-place.”

”Who?” asked a stupid little a.s.sessor, who could not comprehend the business.

”Keep still!” cried everybody.

”So, he came right across the market-place. I knew him again directly, he had bought himself a new suit, of my husband, a black dress-coat, and blue trousers, eh, what do I say! a blue dress-coat and black trousers: I can see him, as if it were yesterday, he always wore yellow-leather breeches and boot-tops,--or was that Fritz Triddelsitz?

I really am not quite sure. Yes, what was I saying?”

”He came right across the market-place,” said a chorus of three voices.

”Exactly! He came right across the market-place, and into the Frau Syndic's street, I had just gone into Frau Syndic's, for she wanted to show me her new curtains, they came from the Jew Hirsch's,--no, I know,--the Jew Baren's, who has lately become bankrupt. It is remarkable, my husband says, how all our Jews become bankrupt, and yet grow richer all the time, no Christian merchant can compete with these confounded Jews. How far had I got?”

”He came into the Frau Syndic's street.”

”Ah, yes! The Frau Syndic and I were standing at the window, and could look right into the parlor of the Frau Pastorin Behrens, and the Frau Syndic said her husband had told her, if the Frau Pastorin would go to law about it,--no, not the Frau Pastorin, it was the Church, or else the Consistory,--then Herr Pomuchelskopp, or somebody else, must build a new parsonage at Gurlitz, and the Frau Syndic----”

But the Frau Syndic could contain herself no longer,--in putting up Frau Krummhorn to tell the story, she had prepared a fine rod for her own impatience, so she interrupted her, without ceremony:

”And then he went into the Frau Pastorin's and, without waiting, right into the parlor, and the old Frau rose from the sofa, and made such a motion of the hand, as if she would keep him away from her, and looked as distressed as if a misfortune had happened to her, and that might well be the case; and then she placed a chair, and urged him to sit down; but he did not sit down, and when the Frau Pastorin went out, he walked up and down the room, like--like----”

”Frau Syndic,” said Frau Krummhorn, ”you repeated a fine couplet this afternoon.”

”Why, yes. 'King of deserts is the Lion, when he strides along his path.' Well, he strode up and down like such a king of deserts, and when the old inspector and his daughter came in, he rushed up to them, with the bitterest reproaches.”

”But, good gracious!” said the little a.s.sessor, laying her knitting in her lap, ”could you hear, then?”

”No, dear,” said Frau Syndic, laughing at the stupidity of the little a.s.sessor, ”we did not _hear_ it; but Frau Krummhorn and I both _saw_ it, saw it with our own eyes. And the old inspector stood before him, like a poor sinner, and looked down, and let it all go over his head, and his daughter threw her arm about his neck, as if she would protect him.”

”Yes,” interrupted Frau Krummhorn, ”it was just so, as when old Stahl, the cooper, was arrested, because he had stolen hoops. His daughter Marik sprang between him and the policeman, Hoppner, and would not let her father be taken to the Rath-house, because of his white hair; but he had stolen the hoops, I am sure of it, for I had him put three new hoops about my milk-pail, and my husband said it was all the same to us, whether they were stolen or not, and for the milk also, it would not turn sour, on account of the stolen hoops; but I have noticed----”

”Right, Frau Krummhorn,” said Frau Syndic, stopping her, ”you noticed, also, how pale the girl looked, and how she trembled, when the young Herr turned to her, and released himself.”

”No,” said Frau Krummhorn, honestly, ”she looked pale, but I did not see that she trembled.”

”_I_ saw it,” said the Frau Syndic, ”she trembled like _that_,”

shaking herself back and forth in her chair, as if it were a warm summer day, and she were shaking off the flies,--”and he stood before her, like this,”--here she stood up--”'The last link is broken,' as my son, the student, sings, and he looked at her _so_,” and here she looked so angrily at the little a.s.sessor, that the latter grew quite red, ”and then the old Frau Pastorin thrust herself between them, and tried to quiet her, and soothed him, and talked so much, and perhaps succeeded in a measure, for he gave them both the hand, at parting; but when he left the house, it was clearly to be read in his face, how glad he was that he had broken off with this company. Wasn't it so, Frau Krummhorn?”

”I didn't see that,” said the merchant's wife, ”I was looking at the young girl, how she stood with her arms crossed on her breast, and so pale. G.o.d bless me! I have seen pale girls enough,--only lately, my brother's daughter, she has the pale sickness, and the doctor is always saying, 'Iron! iron!' but she has iron enough, her father is a blacksmith. He might have been something very different, for our late father----”

”Ah, the poor girl!” cried the stupid little a.s.sessor, ”she is such a pretty girl. And the poor old man! I cannot believe that, with his white hair, he has done such dreadful things.”