Part 60 (2/2)
”Certainly, sir, as nice and elegant as you may desire,” said the porter, condescendingly.
”I do not require it to be nice and elegant,” replied the stranger.
”Only a small room with a comfortable bed; that is all I care for.”
”It is at your disposal, sir,” said the porter; and beckoning the youngest waiter to a.s.sist the stranger in alighting, he added: ”Take the gentleman to one of the smaller rooms on the first floor.”
”Oh, no,” said the stranger, ”I do not ask for a room on the first floor; I shall be satisfied with one on the second floor. Be kind enough to pay my fare to the coachman; he gets ten florins. You may put it down on my bill.”
”And will you give me no drink-money?” asked the coachman, angrily. ”The gentleman will a.s.suredly not refuse me drink-money after a three days'
journey?”
”My friend, I did not agree to pay you any thing but those ten florins,”
said the stranger. ”I will comply with your demand, however, for you have been an excellent driver.”
He handed half a florin to the coachman, and entered the hotel with measured steps.
”Do you want supper?” asked the waiter, conducting him upstairs.
”Yes, if you please,” said the stranger; ”but no expensive supper, merely a cup of tea and some bread and meat.”
”A poor devil!” muttered the porter, shrugging his shoulders disdainfully, and following the stranger with his eyes. ”A very poor devil! only a room on the second floor; tea and bread and meat for supper! He must be a savant, a professor, or something of that sort.”
Meantime the footman and the waiter had carried the heavy trunk, with the gold and other valuables, up-stairs to the rooms of the stranger on the first floor. These rooms were really furnished in the most sumptuous manner, and worthy to be inhabited by guests of princely rank. Heavy silk and gold hangings covered the walls; blinds of costly velvet, fringed with gold, veiled the high arched windows; precious Turkish carpets adorned the floor; gilt furniture, carved in the most artistic manner and covered with velvet cus.h.i.+ons, added to the splendor and beauty of the rooms.
The stranger lay on one of the magnificent sofas when the trunk with his valuables was brought in. He ordered the footman with a wave of his hand to place the trunk before him on the marble table, wrought by some Florentine artisan, and then he leisurely stretched out his legs again on the velvet sofa.
Scarcely had the door closed again behind the footman and the waiter, however, when he hastily rose, and drawing the trunk toward him, opened it with a small key fastened to his watch-chain.
”I believe I will now at length add up my riches,” he said to himself.
”The time of the golden rain, I am afraid is over, at least for the present; for, in Germany, an author and savant is never taken for a Danae, and no one wants to be a Jove and lavish a golden rain upon him.
The practical English, who are more sagacious in every respect, know, too, how to appreciate a writer of merit, and pay him better for his works. Thank G.o.d I was in England! Let us see now how much we have got.”
He plunged his hands into the small trunk and drew them forth filled with gold pieces.
”How well that sounds!” he said, throwing the gold pieces on the table, and constantly adding new ones to them. ”There is no music of the spheres to be compared with this sound, and no view is more charming than the aspect of this pile of gold. How many tender love-glances, how many sumptuous dinners, how many protestations of friends.h.i.+p and love-pledges, how many festivals and pleasures do not flash forth from those gold pieces, as though they were an enchanted mine! As a good general, I will count my troops, and thus enable myself to draw up the plans of my battles.”
A long pause ensued. Nothing was heard but the music of the gold pieces, which the traveller arranged in long rows on the marble table, and the figures which he muttered, while his countenance grew every moment more radiant.
”Five hundred guineas!” he exclaimed joyfully; ”that sum is equivalent to three thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars in Prussian money; there are, besides, two thousand-pound notes in my wallet, amounting to over thirteen thousand dollars, which, together with my guineas, will amount to over sixteen thousand dollars cash. Oh, now I am a rich man! I no longer need deny to myself any wish, any enjoyment.
I can enjoy life, and I WILL enjoy it. As a stream of enjoyment and delight my days shall roll along, and to enjoyment glory shall be added, and throughout all Germany my voice shall resound; in all cabinets it shall reecho, and to the destinies of nations it shall point out their channel and direction. For great things I am called, and great things will I accomplish. I will not allow myself to be used by these lords of the earth as a journeyman, to whom the masters a.s.sign work for scanty pay. Their equal and peer, I will stand by their side, and they shall recognize it as a favor which they cannot weigh up with gold, if I take the word for them and their interests, and win battles for them with my pen.”
There was a gentle knock at the door, and quickly he threw his silken handkerchief over the gold pieces and papers, and closed the cover of his casket before he gave permission to enter.
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