CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST RIDE.
Manna was extremely gracious towards everybody, and no one would havesuspected that this graciousness had pride for its basis. Every oneappeared to her so poor, so forlorn, so trammelled! Whenever she wasspoken to, her thought of the speaker was, "You, who say this, are buta child of the world;" and whenever she took part in any pleasureexcursion, there was the perpetually recurring suggestion, "Youyourself are not here, you only seem to be here, you are in a whollydifferent world, yonder, far above."
Every one was charmed with her friendliness, her gentleness, herattentive listening, and yet only a part of herself was really taken upwith all this; she was elsewhere, and occupied with other interests.
No one ventured to exert any influence over her; but the Doctor agreedwith Pranken and her father, that she must again ride on horseback.
A new world seemed to be disclosed; inside the house, there wassinging, dancing, playing, and outside, too, all went merry as amarriage-bell. Manna took pleasant rides on horseback with Pranken,Eric, and Roland in the country round. Sonnenkamp also, mounted on hisgreat black horse, frequently joined the party. Their ride was full ofenjoyment, and they received on all sides marks of respect, not onlyfrom those who had been the recipients of benefits through theProfessorin and Fraeulein Milch, but also from those who were well offand independent in their circumstances. Wherever they alighted, andwherever they reined up, there was always some fresh proof of the pridewhich the whole region felt in such a man as Sonnenkamp.
One day Manna, Pranken, and Roland, Eric and Sonnenkamp, were ridingalong the road bordered with nut-trees.
"Herr Dournay is right," exclaimed Manna, who was riding in advancewith Pranken and her father.
Manna said that Eric had made the remark, that nut-trees were much morebeautiful, and that it was a stupid and prosaic innovation to set outlindens and other common trees along the roads; that the nut-treebelonged to the Rhine, was beautiful and productive, and at least gaveto the irrepressible boys a fine harvest time.
As she rode along she tore off a leaf of a nut-tree.
For some time her voice had been different; it was no longer as ifveiled with tears. Turning to her father, she continued:--
"You can bring this about. Set out a nursery of nut-trees, and give toall the villages round as many nurslings as they can make use of."
Sonnenkamp promised to carry out the idea, and unfolded a plan which hehad much at heart, of establishing general benevolent institutions, thefirst of which should be a fund for the widows and orphans of boatmen.
Manna stroked her beautiful white pony, to which she had given the nameSnowdrop.
Pranken was happy that the horse proved itself worthy of its mistress,and voluntarily extending her hand, she thanked him for his care.
"Now trot. Snow-drop!" she cried, chirruping; and with Pranken on oneside, and her father on the other, she rode boldly, rising in thesaddle.
They now came in sight, of an advancing procession. Manna reined in sosuddenly that she would have been thrown over her horse's head, had notSonnenkamp held her by her riding-habit. They dismounted, and Rolandand Eric were also obliged to dismount. The grooms led the horses, andManna walked with the procession. Holding up her long riding-dress, notproudly, but humbly, she sang aloud with the pilgrims, and Prankenalso. Eric was silent.
At a chapel by the way-side Manna knelt down, and Pranken also knelt byher side. When she arose, she was amazed to see that the rest had gone,leaving Pranken and her together. They were waiting in a pathwaythrough the field, not far off, with the grooms who were holding thehorses. The procession moved on, and Pranken and Manna were left alone.The murmur of the pilgrims was heard in the distance. Pranken held hishands folded together, and looked at Manna as if praying.
"Manna," he began, he had never called her Manna before. "Manna, suchis to be our life. We acknowledge the grace of heaven, that we,possessed of wealth and inheriting noble names, can occupy a loftyposition, but are ready every moment to unite ourselves with ourbrothers and sisters who walk the holy paths in coarse shoes andbarefoot, and to put ourselves on a level with them. Manna, thus willwe live!"
He took her hand, which she allowed him to hold an instant, and thendrew it away. He continued:--
"I have never yet told you that I too have wrestled with the holyresolution to renounce the world, and to assume the priestly vow. Youalso, elevated and pious, have struggled, and have returned to theworld. I place my heart, my soul, my soul's salvation in your hand.Here, on this consecrated spot, come with me into the chapel." Heseized her hand, and at the same moment, Eric cried:--
"Fraeulein Manna!"
"What's the matter? What do you want?" exclaimed Pranken.
"Fraeulein Manna, your father wants me to tell you that yonder is aboundary-stone convenient for you to mount your horse."
"I shall not ride again, I shall walk back to the house," repliedManna; and turning round, whether she knew that Pranken was notfollowing her, or did not know it, she went on with Eric. After theyhad gone some distance, turning round she saw Pranken still standingmotionless in the place, and she called to him to come with them.
In spite of all urging, she would not mount her horse, but walked thewhole distance in her heavy riding-dress.
She said nothing; there was a strange look of defiance in hercountenance.
She locked herself in her room, and wept and prayed for a long time.
The struggle had come sooner than she thought, and she seemed toherself all unarmed. Pranken had a right to address her in that way.And would it not be better that she should enter into life? At thisthought she looked around, as if she must ask Eric what he thought ofthis conclusion, what opinion he would form of this fickleness. Againshe looked around, and it seemed to her that Eric had come into theroom with her, and still she was alone.
It was a severe conflict, and only this one point was gained, that shewould no longer allow herself to be robbed of herself by suchdistractions.
A boat-sail upon the Rhine had been appointed for the evening. Manna,who had promised to go, now positively declined. She stood at thewindow of her silent chamber without opening it, and she wished that itwas grated. She saw the gentlemen and the ladies go down to the river,and heard Lina singing a beautiful song accompanied by a fine manlyvoice.
Who is that?
It is not Pranken, nor Roland; it can be no other than Eric.
On the boat, Lina requested Eric to sing the "Harper's Song," set tomusic by Schubert. Eric considered it entirely inappropriate to singaloud here, in a joyous company upon the Rhine, the plaint of a sorelyburdened soul breathed out to the lonely night.
But Lina persisted, and Eric sang,--
"He that with tears did never eat his bread."
The rowers stopped rowing, and Eric's voice thrilled the inmost soul.He paused, and then sang the words,--
"Ye lead us onward into life. Ye leave The wretch to fall; then yield him up, in woe, Remorse, and pain, unceasingly to grieve; For every sin is punished here below."
Schubert's air closes without any musical cadence, just as Goethe'swords give no final solution. The strain, "For every sin is punishedhere below," filled the air as the boat glided past the villa. Mannaheard the words, sank down, and covered her face with both hands.
Hour after hour passed away, and then some one knocked at the door.Manna waked from the sleep into which she had fallen in the midst ofher anguish. It was quite dark. Roland and Lina were calling her name.Overcome by weariness of body and soul, Manna had not been able to keepfrom falling asleep, and now she joined the rest of the family, as ifin a dream. It seemed to her as if it were morning, and yet it wasnight. She had a feeling of oppression in the society of those aroundher, all of whom looked upon her with loving eyes.
In order, as it were, to recover self-possession, she proposed anothersail upon the Rhine by moonlight
, and she asked Lina to sing.
Lina rejoined that she could not sing so beautifully as Eric, and thathe ought to sing.
"Do sing," Manna said to him. "I cannot sing now," Eric replied.
The first request she had ever made of him he positively refused togrant. Manna was vexed at first, and then she was glad of this lack offriendliness. It is better thus; there is no reason why he shouldinterest you in any way; you must again take the proper position inregard to him. And in order to show that she did not feel hurt by therefusal, she was more animated than she had ever been before.
When they returned from the excursion, Sonnenkamp met them as they weregetting out of the boat, and told them that Sevenpiper had informedhim, lest they should be taken by surprise, or be away--but no one wasto know anything about it--that he was to be waited upon by the boatmento-morrow evening, to thank him for the benevolent institution he hadestablished.