Part 13 (1/2)

”That usually so self-possessed young gentleman was much embarra.s.sed, and was making visible efforts to hide it, while he strove at the same time to encourage the old stranger.

”'Shall I send for him?' he asked a second time. 'Oh! please, I can wait, please,'--stammered the old man in his _gemuthlich_ Upper-Austrian dialect.

”I took him for a small mechanic; he was too diffident for a peasant, and not shabby enough for a day laborer.

”'I can wait,' he repeated. 'Have already waited, long, very long, Herr Lieutenant.'

”'As you will, but won't you sit down?' said Erich, hesitating, divided between fear of giving the old man a cold, and fear of not showing him proper attention.

”Right and left of me our comrades were chatting. 'Sylvester,' cried Schmied, 'it's the stupidest day of the year. It makes me think of punch, and cakes, and cousins.'

”'It makes me think of my tailor and my governor,' laughed Farmer Toni.

”The peasant-count was sitting on a bale of hay: Schmied stood over against him, leaning on the side of a forage wagon. Toni wore a short white riding coat; his chin was in his hands, his elbows were on his knees.

”'To the first I owe a bill,' he went on, 'And to the latter I owe congratulations. Schmied, do you think he'd be satisfied with ”Best Wishes for the New Year,” on a card?'

'”Are you going to Schirmberg's to-night?' asked another officer coming up.

”'Must,' said Toni, laconically. 'And you?'

”'I don't know. Perhaps I can plead another engagement. It will be deadly dull at Schirmberg's.'

”'I hear they are going to serve champagne and a prince of the blood,'

said Schmied.

”'h.e.l.lo! What's old Gusti up to?' laughed Toni: 'Big soirees are not in her line.'

”'It's all for Zwilk,' answered Schmied. 'You know he is going to be made adjutant to Prince Schirmberg.'

”'Adjutant to a prince!' It was the old stranger who cried out, proud, excited, turning his head from one to the other.

”Erich had continued to do the honors with all the courtesy of your true aristocrat to the plebeian who has not as yet stretched out a hand toward any of his prerogatives. The little old man had grown quite confiding: he looked up now in Erich's face and asked, 'You know him well?'

”'He is my comrade,' answered Truyn. 'I wish I could call myself as admirable an officer as he is. He is one of the best in the service, and he has a brilliant career before him.'

”Truyn liked Zwilk as little as the rest of us, but he wanted to give the old man pleasure, and that he could do without falsehood.

”The stranger stripped off his mittens, and put his knuckles to his wet eyes.

”'I thank you, I thank you,' he sobbed like a child. 'He's my son. I wanted to see him, long, long, but he was so far away and he never could come home,--but he wrote,--such beautiful letters. The priest, himself, couldn't beat them; and,--and--now, I was going to surprise him, but--will he--will he like it, Herr Lieutenant, after all? Look you,--I'm afraid,--he such a grand gentleman, and I'--

”Zwilk's voice sounded from within, hard and merciless, rating a common soldier: then he walked into the yard.

”Arm in arm with Prince Liscat, varnished, laced, buckled, strapped, affected and arrogant, one hand on his moustache, he simpered through his teeth:

”'You're much too good, Bonbon. You don't know how to treat the _canaille_. The Pleb must be trodden on, else he will grow up over our heads.'

”Then his eyes met those of the old stranger. He turned deathly pale; the old man shook in every limb. Handsome Truyn, very red in the face, stammered:

”'Your father has come to see you: it gives me much pleasure to make his acquaintance,' or some well-meant awkwardness of that kind.