Part 95 (1/2)
”Charles Henry Buschman, will you be my wife?”
Charles Henry did not answer; tears and bobs choked his voice, and trembling with emotion he laid his head on Fritz Kober's shoulder.
”Does that mean yes?” said Fritz, breathlessly.
”Yes,” whispered she, softly.
And now Fritz uttered a wild shout, and threw his arms around the soldier's neck and kissed him heartily.
”G.o.d be thanked that it is over,” said he; ”G.o.d be thanked that I did not deceive myself--that you are truly a girl. When you were last sick, and the surgeon bled you, I was suspicious. I said to myself, 'That is not the arm of a man.' I went out, but in the evening you were praying, and you did not know that I was in the tent, and you said, 'You dear parents in heaven, pity your poor daughter.' I could have shouted with rapture and delight, but I held my peace. I wished to wait and see if you would be good to me.”
”But the expression of your eyes was so changed,” whispered Charles Henry; ”I was obliged to turn away when their glance fell upon me. I felt that my secret was discovered, and therefore I avoided being with you.”
”Officer Buschman,” cried Deesen, in a commanding voice from the house, ”is your work finished?”
”Immediately; I have but a few st.i.tches to do,” cried Charles Henry. ”Be silent,” said he to Fritz, ”and let me sew.”
But Fritz was not silent; he crouched near officer Buschman, and whispered many and strange things in his ear.
Charles Henry sewed on zealously, blushed often, and replied in low, embarra.s.sed words.
At last the work was completed, and the knees of the great Frederick's breeches were worthily mended with divers patches.
”I will carry them myself to the king, as I have a favor to ask him,”
said Fritz Kober. ”Come with me, Charles Henry; you must hear what the king says.”
He took Charles Henry's hand and advanced to the door, but Deesen stood there, and forbade him to enter; he ordered Fritz to give him the breeches.
”No,” said Fritz Kober, resolutely, ”we have a request to make of the king, and he once gave us permission to come directly to him when we had a favor to ask.”
He pushed Deesen aside and entered the room with Charles Henry.
The king sat in his bed reading, and was so absorbed that he did not see them enter. But Fritz stepped up boldly to the bed and laid the breeches upon the chair.
”Did you mend them, my son?” said the king.
”No, your majesty, Charles Buschman mended them, but I came along to say something to your majesty. You remember, no doubt, what you said when we returned from the enemy's camp near Kunersdorf, after the battle, when Charles Henry related so beautifully all that we had seen and heard.
You said, 'You are both officers from this day, and if you ever need my a.s.sistance call upon me freely.'”
”And you wish to do so now?” said the king.
”Yes, your majesty, I have something to ask.”
”Well, what is it?”
Fritz Kober drew up grandly and ceremoniously.
”I ask your majesty to allow me to marry officer Charles Henry Buschman--to marry him to-day!”