Part 1 (1/2)
Partners.
by E. Werner.
CHAPTER I.
It was afternoon on a sunny spring day. The profound Sabbath rest and stillness which found no place in the incessant turmoil of the great commercial seaport reigned the more undisturbed around a country house which lay beyond the great sea of buildings near the sh.o.r.e, and whose park-like grounds stretched down to the water. It was one of those imposing, elegantly and luxuriously appointed villas which rich townspeople usually inhabit when they wish to live secure from street noises and confusion, and yet would be able to reach the town without great loss of time. In the drawing-room, whose French windows opened upon the garden terrace, were a lady and gentleman engaged in an eager and obviously earnest conversation. The cheeks of the young lady glowed in hot excitement, and she struggled visibly with hardly repressed tears, while the gentleman appeared perfectly indifferent and unmoved.
He was a man of middle age, but with already completely grey hair, and grave, cold features; his whole appearance betokened the business man.
The calm and cool indifference of his manner was not lost for a moment in the most exciting conversation, and even his mode of speaking was dry and businesslike, without a trace of any warmer feeling.
”Really, Jessie,” said he, ”I am weary of this constant repet.i.tion of the old lamentations. As your guardian and relative I have undertaken the care of your future, and I should have thought the future which I lay before you acceptable enough. But such a silly, romantic, girlish head will never be able to judge what is for its own happiness.”
The silly, romantic, girlish head was at least not deficient in grace.
Without being regularly beautiful, the fair head, the delicate, but very expressive features, and the rather languis.h.i.+ng blue eyes, had something uncommonly attractive.
At this moment, however, the youthful countenance bore the expression of pa.s.sionate excitement, and the same excitement trembled in her voice when she replied--
”My happiness! What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies immeasurably far from what is happiness to me.”
”Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect with the word?” said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. ”Happiness is a brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a husband who, under all circ.u.mstances, can be a support to you. That is offered to you with the hand of a man”--
”Whom I don't even know,” interrupted Jessie.
”But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen him. According to his portrait, his exterior leaves nothing to be wished for, and you have declared that no other inclination binds you.
Why, then, this obstinate struggle against a union for which Gustave is already prepared?”
”Just because he was so quickly prepared for it. I cannot--I will not confide my future to a man who does not for a moment hesitate to give up his chosen calling, his already brilliant career, because the prospect of a wealthy match is held out to him.”
Sandow shrugged his shoulders.
”There again are the exaggerated ideas with which your German education has imbued you, and without which you were quite sentimental enough.
Chosen calling! Brilliant career! You seem to have a very exalted idea of the position of a German journalist. Gustave's pen is admired and sought for so long as the whim of the public and the present political tendency last. Sooner or later that will come to an end, and then good-bye to his brilliant career. Here in America independence, riches, and the coveted post of head of a great commercial house, are offered to him. He would be worse than a fool to throw that up in order to continue to write leading articles.”
”That is a matter of taste, and I a.s.sure you, Uncle Sandow, it would be quite immaterial to me whom you might choose as a partner if you would not draw me within the circle of your business calculations.”
”I do it in your own interest. You know it was the dearest wish of your late father to keep your fortune in the business. He ever hoped that his place there would be filled by his son-in-law. It was not granted to him to see this himself.”
”No,” said Jessie, softly, ”for he never had the heart to force me as you do now.”
Sandow made an impatient movement.
”What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you, but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. To every one who woos you your fortune is the great attraction. The days of disinterested love are long past, and when one or another plays such a comedy with you it is only more surely to squander your money afterwards. It is important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you.”
An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her fortune.
Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the air of infallibility with which it was p.r.o.nounced showed her that Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. Had she not already learnt what it meant to be a good match, and to thus enchain the selfishness and calculations of every man with whom she came in contact? Even her guardian saw and respected in her only the heiress, a bitter thought for a young creature whose heart longed pa.s.sionately for happiness and love.
”Here you need not fear this,” continued Sandow, who looked on her silence as a kind of a.s.sent. ”This marriage offers you both similar advantages. With your hand Gustave receives a fortune and a high position in the commercial world here; through him you retain an interest in your father's business, and have the certainty that your wealth will be controlled and increased by your husband. The thing is so clear and simple that I cannot really comprehend your obstinate resistance, particularly as you have interested yourself formerly about Gustave, and you have always read his articles with the greatest enthusiasm.”