CHAPTER I.

  ON GOETHE'S BIRTH-DAY.

  The swiftly-flowing Rhine between its bends seems transformed into alake, until, curving around the jutting mountain, it continues itscourse.

  This is very much the case with the story we are narrating.

  The Mother wanted to go straightforward to the goal she had in view,but many obstacles interposed. First came a very pressing invitationfrom Clodwig, for the Mother and the whole of Sonnenkamp's family tocelebrate Goethe's birth-day at Wolfsgarten.

  The invitation was accepted; but Frau Ceres and Fraeulein Periniremained at home.

  They drove to Wolfsgarten. Eric did not say it in so many words, buthis eyes expressed how much he felt protected and supported by theMother's presence, in entering the house of his friend; she seemed aliving testimony that he crossed the threshold with a pure heart and apure eye. Yet he could not suppress all anxiety in regard to his firstmeeting with Bella. She came with the Aunt, as far as the wood, to meetthem.

  Bella embraced the Mother, and again thanked her for having subjectedherself to the self-denial of letting Aunt Claudine remain with her.Extending her hand to Eric, she said, with a sort of chilled look:--

  "You were his first thought to-day, my young friend."

  She said nothing further, and did not mention her husband's name.

  Rain began to fall before they reached Wolfsgarten, and it did notcease during the whole day, so that they were confined in doors.

  Clodwig was remarkably cheerful and happy, and the day passed off witha joyousness that is possible only to persons in entire leisure, andperhaps only on the banks of the Rhine.

  Roland was the happiest of all; he seemed to be the life and connectinglink of the company, looking up at every one, as if he would ask:--

  "Why are you not as glad as I am?"

  He went from the Mother to the Aunt, from her to Bella and to Clodwig,to and fro, as if he must let every one know how pleasant and home-likea circle he had found. He was in such very good spirits, that at lasthe said:--

  "Ah! when sister Manna comes home, she will see at once that uncle,aunt, grandfather and all are here, just as if they had grown upontrees."

  The inquiry was made where Pranken was.

  They said he had gone to stay with an agriculturist devoted to thechurch, the convent-farmer, as he was called; for there was nothing, atthe present day, to which an ecclesiastical coloring and characteristicwas not given. Pranken had the good fortune, by this means, to be nearthe convent, whose lands were farmed by the agriculturist.

  They assembled in the grand saloon, from which three doors opened uponthe covered piazza adorned with flowers and hanging-plants, andfurnished with comfortable seats.

  As they were quietly sitting and chatting together, Clodwig suddenlyraised his hand as a signal for them to be silent; they understood hismeaning and ceased talking. He had taken out his watch, and now said:--

  "This is the very moment Goethe was born. I beg," he added with akindly glance, "I, beg Bella and Fraeulein Dournay----"

  The ladies understood what he meant, and seating themselves at thepiano, played Beethoven's Overture to Egmont, arranged as a duet.

  Clodwig, leaning back in his chair, listened with closed eyes; theProfessorin was sitting near him, while Eric, holding Roland by thehand, was upon the piazza.

  At the conclusion of the Overture, Clodwig informed them that he hadbeen so fortunate as to know Goethe personally, and related a varietyof pleasing anecdotes.

  The Mother expressed her regret at never having heard the voice of theexalted genius, nor looked him in the eye, although she was old enough,at the time he died, to know what he was, even if she could not fullycomprehend him. She recounted the fact of a man's coming to herfather's house, as they were sitting down to dinner, and informing themthat news of Goethe's death had just been brought. An elderly lady wasso affected by it, that she could not sit down with them to dinner.

  In the qualified view he then expressed, she had gained an acquaintancefor the first time with her husband's mind; for while he held Goethe inthe highest veneration, he had asserted that the Master had made poeticart too effeminate, in placing woman too directly as the central pointof living interests, and giving the impression to men, that poesy andan acquaintance with it, were the province of woman, just as so manyFree-thinkers, as they were styled, regarded religion as belongingpeculiarly to her.

  Clodwig opposed this view of Goethe; he dwelt with special emphasisupon the difficulty experienced in our modern life, which does notadmit of the worship of genius, as it is termed; for this worship couldbe possible only where a pure manifestation of God, a theophany, wasgranted. When limitations were placed to this, worship was no longerpossible.

  It was scarcely noticed that Bella, Claudine and Herr Sonnenkamp hadleft the saloon, for Bella had requested Herr Sonnenkamp that he wouldgive her some advice about the new arrangements of her conservatory.

  And thus Clodwig and the Mother were now left alone in the saloon,while Eric and Roland were sitting in silence upon the piazza, andlistening to Clodwig as he added, that the future would no longer,perhaps, have any formal cultus, when there was the true consecrationof the spirit in actual life.

  Eric and Roland listened with bated breath, as Clodwig and the Motheracknowledged to each other the influence which the Master had exertedupon the development of their life and the training of their minds.They thoroughly discussed that work too little known, "Goethe'sConversations with Eckermann," which brings us into the living,personal presence of the Master of masters. Clodwig represented thatthe youth of today no longer had the same veneration for Goethe; andthe Professorin informed him that her deceased husband--she quoted himrepeatedly--had explained this by saying, that the youth of to-dayregarded themselves, first of all, as citizens, and this life as acitizen, this active influence in the State, had not dawned uponGoethe, and it was not his sphere.

  They again extolled, as in an alternate chant, the influence of Goethein enriching and in deepening their life.

  Eric and Roland listened in silence; once only, Eric said in a lowtone,--

  "Note, Roland, this is glory, this is renown, this is the noblestgood-fortune, for a man to exert such an influence that his spiritalways gives fresh inspiration; that two persons shall sit in afteryears, and derive mutual edification from recalling what one who isdead and gone has been the means of establishing."

  Roland looked into the large, gleaming eyes of Eric, who could haveembraced the youth as he said,--

  "For once, I am present at your devotions."

  Again the two in the saloon spoke, and now Eric heard his namementioned, as the Mother said,--

  "Eric reads Goethe's poems aloud very well."

  He got up at once, and was ready to do it.

  Bella, Aunt Claudine, and Herr Sonnenkamp were called in, and Eric readaloud, but to-day not so well as usual, for there were many thingswhich might be taken as the embodiment of emotions in his own heart andin that of Bella.

  They sat down to dinner in an elevated frame of mind, as after areligious service.

  Clodwig could not speak often enough of the good-fortune, which had ledthe son of one of the guests to become the life-guide of the son ofanother.

  He plunged deeply into the consideration that one Spirit, who presidedover all, had prepared and fitted the one to impart the highest hepossessed to the other.

  He said very naturally, that Manna ought to leave the convent, as noone could aid her to complete her education more worthily than theMother.

  Sonnenkamp and the Mother looked at each other in amazement, foranother was expressing their own silent convictions.

  Sonnenkamp thanked Clodwig very meekly for the deep interest he felt inhis family, and said that a suggestion of Clodwig's had to him theweight of a higher command, and he hoped that the Professorin wouldreceive it as such. She promised to undertake the charge, as her onlysatisfaction was i
n being useful.

  The rain still continued. Again they assembled in the grand saloon, andnow Bella displayed her proficiency in arts that no one knew her to bemistress of. She appeared, having a red velvet curtain draped about herin the Grecian style, and imitated a famous Italian player withwonderful fidelity to the life. She went out, and appeared again as aParisian grisette; then she afterwards appeared as a Tyrolese singer,every time wholly different, and hardly recognizable.

  She excited the most merriment when she imitated in succession threedifferent beggar-women,--a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew. Sheenacted also, with the same applause, a scene in which a Catholic, aProtestant, and a Jewish woman came separately to the dentist, to havean aching tooth extracted. And without degenerating into caricature,she took off her acquaintances, all with such perfect grace and suchaccuracy of delineation, that words failed to express the admiration.

  Clodwig said in a low tone to the Mother: "You may well be proud thatshe makes this exhibition before you, for she cannot be easily inducedto do it in any one's presence whom she does not value highly."

  Sonnenkamp added that it was a magnificent but wasteful luxury topossess such talent, and not to exhibit it to the delight of the wholeworld.

  Eric, meanwhile, watched with a mixed feeling these dramaticrepresentations, which he could not help admiring. How rich a natureBella possessed! And how hard it must be for her to circumscribe hermanifold activity within the narrow bounds of a limited sphere of duty!But Bella, to-day, had thrown herself into the various parts with allher energy; she desired to have every feeling and every remembranceeffaced from her own and from Eric's soul. Eric had this impression,but he made no remark. Bella spoke to him once only, telling him thatthe Russian Prince, who was staying with Weidmann, wrote frequently toher, and desired to be remembered to him; and that he also wrote in thewarmest terms of esteem concerning Roland's earlier tutor, MasterKnopf.

  In the emphasis which she placed upon the word tutor, Bella seemeddesirous of setting up again between her and Eric the old boundary linethat had disappeared.

  Towards evening the rain held up, and the sun came out with thatinexpressible glory of coloring only to be seen when the mountainsglow, and seem transfigured with its misty beams. They immediately setout towards home.

  The whole day seemed a perfect series of fantastic forms. Roland wascontinually giving expression to his astonishment at the versatility ofthe Countess; but Sonnenkamp offered his hand to the Mother, saying,--

  "If agreeable to you, we will to-morrow pay a visit to my daughter."

  The Mother nodded assent. Sonnenkamp was highly pleased; he had perfectconfidence in the nobleness of her motives, and, for awhile, he himselfexperienced a like elevation. It is such a fine thing, and people areso happy in taking up with things of that sort, and it always payswell, at any rate, in making one feel comfortably.

  But very soon the consciousness of his own triumphant power cameuppermost; the world subserves his plans, and it is his chief delightto make people his tools and playthings, and balance himself on theirshoulders. And it exactly suited his purpose that Clodwig and theProfessorin adopted his own secret plan; they must now feel grateful tohim for carrying out their desires, at the very time they were ofservice to him, and were helping him to bring to a successful issue hismain design. He saw in this a confirmation of his claim to be a beingof a higher species, one who disposes as he will of others, and at thesame time makes them feel under obligation to him.

  On the evening of his return, Sonnenkamp ordered the gardener to placethe next day Manna's favorite flower, the mignonette, in every part ofher room.

 
Berthold Auerbach's Novels