Part 9 (1/2)
”Our little Louise in time will dance very well,” remarked the Judge to his wife, as he noticed with great pleasure the little _brisees_ and _cha.s.sees_ of his daughter whom the twelve-years-old Nils Gabriel Stjernhok twirled round, and with whom he conversed with great gravity, and a certain knightly politeness.
In the mean time Mrs. Gunilla was instructing Emelie on the manners and character of the French; and Emelie, whose countenance since the discussion of the marriage question had worn a bitter expression, endeavoured with a tolerably sharp tone to make her superior information felt, and in return was mown down, as it were, at one stroke by Mrs. Gunilla, who--had never been in France.
The Candidate followed Elise everywhere with glances of devotion, and appeared this evening perfectly enchanted by her amiability.
”Fie, for shame!--to take all the confections to yourself!” moralised the little Queen-bee to the little S----ne,--a fat, quiet boy, who took the confections and the reproof with the same stoical indifference.
Louise cast a look of high indignation upon him, and then gave her share of sweetmeats to a little girl, who complained that she had had none.
Supper came, and Emelie, whose eyes flashed unusual fire, seemed to wish fervently to win back that regard which she, perhaps, feared to have lost already, and with her playful and witty conversation electrified the whole company. Jacobi, who was excited in no ordinary manner, drank one gla.s.s of wine after another, talked and laughed very loud, and looked between whiles upon Elise with glances which expressed his sentiments in no doubtful manner. These glances were not the first of the kind which the quick eye of Elise's rival observed.
”That young man,” said she, in a low but significant whisper to the Judge, and with a glance on Jacobi, ”seems to be very charming; he has really remarkably attractive talents--is he nearly related to Elise?”
”No,” returned he, looking at her rather surprised; ”but he has been for nearly three months a member of our family.”
”Indeed!” said she, in a significant and grave manner; ”I should have thought--but as for that,” added she, in an apparently careless tone--”Elise is really so kind and so amiable, that for him who is with her daily, it must be very difficult not to love her.”
The Judge felt the sting of the viper, and with a glance which flashed a n.o.ble indignation, he replied to his beautiful neighbour, ”You are right, Emelie; I know no woman who deserves more love or esteem than she!”
Emelie bit her lip and grew pale; and she would a.s.suredly have grown yet paler, could she only have understood the sentiment which she had awakened in the breast of her former admirer.
Ernst Frank had a keen sense of moral meanness, and when this displayed itself no gifts of genius or of nature had power to conceal it. He clearly understood her intentions, and despised her for them. In his eyes, at this moment, she was hateful. In the mean time his composure was destroyed. He looked on Jacobi, and observed his glances and his feelings; he looked on Elise, and saw that she was uneasy, and avoided his eye.
A horrible spasmodic feeling thrilled through his soul; in order to conceal what he felt he became more than usually animated, yet there was a something hostile, a something sternly sarcastic in his words, which still, on account of the general gaiety, remained un.o.bserved by most.
Never before was a.s.sessor Munter so cheerful, so comically cross with all mankind. Mrs. Gunilla and he shouted as if desperate against each other. The company rose from the supper-table in full strife, and adjourned to the dancing-room.
”Music, in heaven's name! music!” exclaimed the a.s.sessor with a gesture of despair, and Elise and the Colonel's widow hastened to the piano. It was a pleasant thought, after the screaming of that rough voice had been heard, to play one of Blangini's beautiful night-pieces, which seem to have been inspired by the Italian heaven, and which awaken in the soul of the hearer a vision of those summer nights, with their flowery meadows, of their love, of their music, and of all their unspeakable delights.
”_Un' eterna constanza in amor!_” were the words which, repeated several times with the most bewitching modulations, concluded the song.
”_Un' eterna constanza in amor!_” repeated the Candidate, softly and pa.s.sionately pressing his hand to his heart, as he followed Elise to a window, whither she had gone to gather a rose for her rival. As Elise's hand touched the rose, the lips of Jacobi touched her hand.
Emelie sang another song, which delighted the company extremely; but Ernst Frank stood silent and gloomy the while. Words had been spoken this evening which aroused his slumbering perception; and with the look he cast upon Jacobi and his wife, he felt as if the earth were trembling under his feet. He saw that which pa.s.sed at the window, and gasped for breath. A tempest was aroused in his breast; and at the same moment turning his eyes, he encountered, those of another person, which were riveted upon him with a questioning, penetrating expression. They were those of the a.s.sessor. Such a glance as that from any other person had been poison to the mind of Frank, but from Jeremias Munter it operated quite otherwise; and as shortly afterwards he saw his friend writing something on a strip of paper, he went to him, and looking over his shoulder, read these words:
”Why regardest thou the mote in thy brother's eye, yet seest not the beam in thine own eye?”
”Is this meant for me?” asked he, in a low but excited voice.
”Yes,” was the direct reply.
The Judge took the paper, and concealed it in his breast.
He was pale and silent, and began to examine himself. The company broke up; he had promised Emelie to accompany her home; but now, while she, full of animation, jested with several gentlemen, and while her servant drew on her fur-shoes, he stood silent and cold beside his ”old flame”
as a pillar of ice. Mrs. Gunilla and the a.s.sessor quarrelled till the last moment. Whilst all this was going on, Elise went quietly to Jacobi, who stood somewhat apart, and said to him in a low voice, ”I wish to speak with you, and will wait for you in the parlour, when they are all gone.” Jacobi bowed; a burning crimson flashed to his cheek; the Judge threw a penetrating glance upon them, and pa.s.sed his hand over his pale countenance.
”It gives me great pleasure,” cried Mrs. Gunilla, speaking shrilly and _staccato_--”it gives me great pleasure to see my fellow-creatures, and it gives me great pleasure if they will see me. If they are not always agreeable, why I am not always agreeable myself! Heart's-dearest! in this world one must have patience one with another, and not be everlastingly requiring and demanding from others. Heaven help me! I am satisfied with the world, and with my own fellow-creatures, as our Lord has been pleased to make them. I cannot endure that people should be perpetually blaming, and criticising, and mocking, and making sour faces at everything, and saying 'I will not have this!' and 'I will not have that!' and 'I will not have it so! It is folly; it is unbearable; it is wearisome; it is stupid!' precisely as if they themselves only were endurable, agreeable, and clever! No, I have learned better manners than that. It is true that I have no genius, nor learning, nor talents, as so many people in our day lay claim to, but I have learned to govern myself!”
During this moral lecture, and endeavouring all the time to overpower it, the a.s.sessor exclaimed, ”And can you derive the least pleasure from your blessed social life? No, that you cannot! What is social life, but a strift to get into the world in order to discover that the world is unbearable? but a scheming and labouring to get invited, to be offended and put out of sorts if not invited; and if invited, then to complain of weariness and vexation, and thus utter their lamentations. Thus people bring a ma.s.s of folks together, and wish them--at Jericho! and all this strift only to get poorer, more out of humour, more out of health; in one word, to obtain the perfectly false position, _vis-a-vis_, of happiness! See there! Adieu, adieu! When the ladies take leave, they never have done.”
”There is not one single word of truth in all that you have said,” was the last but laughing salutation of Mrs. Gunilla to the a.s.sessor, as, accompanied by the Candidate, she left the door. The Judge, too, was gone; and Elise, left alone, betook herself to the parlour.