Part 16 (1/2)

”But can I dare to disturb his excellency?” asked the footman, anxiously. ”He has not rung the bell, sir.”

”Well, you must be kind enough to disturb him and tell him I must leave unless he can admit me at once,” exclaimed Gentz, energetically. ”Go, sir, go!”

The footman sighed deeply. ”Well, I will do so at your risk, Mr.

Counsellor,” he said, in a low voice, stepping behind the portiere. He soon returned, a malicious smile playing on his lips.

”His excellency regrets that you cannot wait any longer, Mr.

Counsellor,” he said. ”His excellency being so busy that he cannot be disturbed, he requests you to call again to-morrow at the same hour.”

”So his excellency dismisses me after detaining me here in the anteroom for more than an hour?” asked Gentz, incredulously.

”His excellency is overwhelmed with unexpected business,” said the footman, with a shrug of his shoulders. ”His excellency therefore requests you, Mr. Counsellor, to call again to-morrow.”

Gentz cast upon the footman a glance which would have s.h.i.+vered him like a thunderbolt if he had not been a man of stone. But being a man of stone, the thunderbolt harmlessly glanced off from him. With a peculiar smile, he a.s.sisted the enraged counsellor in putting on his cloak, handed him his hat with a polite bow, and then hastened to the door in order to open it to him.

At this moment the minister in his study rang the bell loudly and violently. The footman quickly opened the door leading to the hall, and, with a polite gesture, invited Gentz to step out. The latter, however, did not stir. He had hastily placed his hat on his head and was now putting on his gloves with as grave an air as if they were gauntlets with which he was going to arm himself for the purpose of stepping out into the arena.

The minister's bell resounded even louder and more violently than before.

”I beg your pardon, Mr. Counsellor,” the footman exclaimed, impatiently, ”his excellency is calling me. Be kind enough to close the door when you leave. I must go to his excellency.”

He hurriedly crossed the room and hastened into the minister's study.

Gentz now put on his gloves and approached the door. He bent one more glance full of anger upon the anteroom, and finally fixed his eyes upon the glittering books in the cases on the wall. An expression of malicious joy suddenly overspread his features. He drew back from the door, and hurriedly crossing the room, he approached the books. Without any hesitation whatever, he took down one of the largest and most richly ornamented volumes, concealed the book under his cloak, hastened back to the door, and left the house of the minister of finance with a haughty and defiant air.

Without nodding or greeting any one, he hastened through the streets back to his own house. At the door of the latter there stood two huge furniture-wagons, half filled with the sofas, arm-chairs, tables, and looking-gla.s.ses which heretofore had adorned his rooms, and which he was now going to lose with his wife.

The servants had not finished removing the furniture, and he had to pause in the hall in order to let them pa.s.s with the large silken sofa which had been the chief ornament of his own parlor. This greatly increased his anger; with furious gestures he rapidly ascended the staircase and went to his rooms. Every door was open--the apartments which he crossed with ringing steps, were empty and deserted, and finally he reached the door of his study, where his footman had posted himself like a faithful sentinel. Gentz silently beckoned him to open it, and entered. But when the servant was going to follow him, he silently but imperiously kept him back, and slammed the door in his face.

Now at last he was alone; now no one could see and watch him any longer; now he could utter the cry of rage that was filling his breast and almost depriving him of the power of speech; and after uttering this cry, he could appease his wrath still in some other way.

He threw his cloak and hat upon a chair, seized the splendidly bound and richly gilt volume from the minister's library with both hands and hurled it upon the floor.

”Lie there, toy of a proud minister!” he exclaimed furiously. ”I will treat you as I would like to treat him. I will abuse you as I would like to abuse him. There! take this! and this! and that!”

And he stamped with his heels upon the magnificent work, clinching his fists and swearing fearfully. [Footnote: Vide ”Gallerie von Bildnissen aus Rahel's Umgang,” edited by Varnhagen von Ense, vol ii., p 168.]

A loud and merry laugh was heard behind him, and upon turning round he beheld in the door one of his friends, who was looking at him with a radiant face.

”Herr von Gualtieri, you laugh, and I am furious,” exclaimed Gentz, stamping again upon the costly volume.

”But why, for G.o.d's sake, are you furious?” asked Herr von Gualtieri.

”Why do you perpetrate such vandalism upon that magnificent volume under your feet?”

”Why? Well, I will tell you. I was to-day at the house of Count Schulenburg-Kehnert; he had sent me word to call on him at ten o'clock, and when I was there, he made me stand for an hour in his anteroom like his gorgeous, gilt-edged books, which his footman told me he never opens because he is afraid of injuring their gilt edges.”

”And did he admit you after you had been in the anteroom for an hour?”

”No. When I had been there for an hour, he sent me word through his footman that he was too busy to receive me, and that I had better call again to-morrow. Bah! He wanted to treat me like those books of his, which he never opens; he did not want to open me either--me, a man who has got more mind, more knowledge, and information than all his books together. He made me wait in his anteroom for a whole hour, and then dismissed me!”