CHAPTER V.
THE WORLD-SOUL.
"Why did you not look in, for a moment, upon the worthy people?" askedBella of her brother, after they had both taken their seats in thecarriage.
Whenever she came from a company where she had been amiable, this moodcontinued awhile, and she would look smilingly into the air, thensmilingly upon the furniture around; it was so now. There was in herthe dying echo of a pleasant and cheerful frame of mind, but herbrother came out of an entirely remote world, having spoken to-day withno one,--who would have thought it of him?--but his own soul, or moreproperly, Manna's soul.
"Ah! don't speak to me of the world," he said; "I wish to forget it,and that it should also forget me. I know it well, all hollow, waste,wilted, mere puppet-show. If you have been helping the puppets dancethere awhile, you can lay them away again in the closet offorgetfulness."
"You seem rather low-spirited," said Bella, placing her hand upon herbrother's shoulder.
"Low-spirited! that's another catchword! How often have I heard itused, and used it myself! What is meant by low-spirited? nothing. Ihave been knocked in pieces, and newly put together again. Ah, sister,a miracle has been wrought in me, and all miracles are now clear to me.Ah! I may come back to the words of the world, but I do not see how."
"Excellent! I congratulate you; you seem to have really fallen inlove."
"Fallen in love! For God's sake, don't say that; I am consecrated,sanctified. I am yet such a poor, timorous, wretched child of theworld, that I am ashamed to make my confession even to you, my onlysister. Ah! I could never have believed that I should feel suchemotion--I don't know what to call it--exaltation, such rapturethrilling every nerve. O sister, what a maiden!"
"It is not true," said Bella, leaning her head back against the softlining of the carriage, "it not true that we women are the enigma ofthe world; you men are far more so. Over you, over Otto von Pranken,the ballet connoisseur, has come such a romantic feeling as this! Butbeautiful, excellent, the mightiest power, is the power of illusion."
Pranken was silent; he heard Bella's words as if they were uttered in apast state of existence. When, where, did they speak and think of theballet? And yet, at these words there came dancing before his memorymerry, aerial, short-dressed, roguish, smiling forms. His heartthumped like a hammer against the book, the book placed there in hisbreast-pocket. He was about to tell his sister that for several days hehad no longer known who he was; that he was obliged often to recall tomind his own name, what he had wished, and what he still wished;that he went like one intoxicated through the world, which wasonly a flitting by of passing shadows; here were swiftly dartingrailway-trains, there towns and castles reflected in the river: allwere fleeting shadows which would soon be gone, while only the soul hadreal being, the soul alone.
Such had been the influence of Thomas a Kempis, so had he read thewords on which Manna's dark-brown eye had rested. All this passedthrough his mind; he could not make his sister comprehend thetransformation, he could hardly comprehend it himself. He came to theconclusion to keep it all to himself; and changing his tone, with greatself-command, he said smiling:--
"Yes, Bella, love has a sort of sanctifying power, if the word isallowable."
Bella told him in a bantering way, that he uttered this like aProtestant candidate for the ministry, who is making a declaration oflove in the parsonage arbor to the minister's blonde little daughter,clad in rose-colored calico. She looked upon it, however, as anexcellent, very commendable guaranty of his feelings, that he haddeclined, in his present state of mind, to enter the Justice's house;she praised his intention of breaking off now his flirtation with Lina.
Otto nodded, with a feeling of shame; and he began now to speak ofManna, in so gentle a tone, and in such serious earnestness, that Bellawas more and more amazed. She let him go on without interruption, and,clasping together the fingers of her right and left hand, she said toherself in a low tone:--
"Nut-brown eyes seven times, gazelle three times, glorious beyond allcount."
They drove through a little, fragrant pine-wood, and it seemed toPranken as if this perfumed air from without, and that from the book inhis bosom, enveloped him, enwrapped him in its sweet odors, andelevated him above everything. He said, looking fixedly before him:--
"Since our great-uncle, the Archbishop Hubert, no one of our family hasentered the service of the church; I shall--"
"You?"
"I shall," continued Pranken, "dedicate my second son to the church."
It appeared exceedingly comical, and yet Pranken said it with thedeepest seriousness, while leaning comfortably against the back of thecarriage, and puffing thick clouds of smoke in quick succession fromthe cigar in his mouth.
Bella, who always had some direct reply or some apposite remark to makein continuation, now said nothing, and Otto, who found it very hard tochange the tone of conversation, seemed to himself to be under a spell.He, the merry one, he, always so free and easy, was reduced to thelevel of some intrusive Swaggerer in a convivial company, who hadpretended to be a boon-companion, and must drink and drink, whether herelished it or not.
"I should like to give you one piece of advice," said Bella at last.
"I should like to hear it."
"Otto, I believe that your feeling is genuine, and I will also believethat it will last; but, for heaven's sake, don't let anything of it beperceived, for it will be considered hypocrisy, and the abjectsubmission of a suitor, to win by this means this pious, wealthyheiress. Therefore, for the sake of your own honor, for the sake ofyour position,--I pass by every other consideration,--keep all theseextravagances under safe lock and key. Otto, it is not my mouth thatspeaks, I am but the mouth-piece of the world: lock up all theseheavenly sensations. Forgive me if I have not used the right word; Ican think now of no other. In short, be the same as you were before youtook this journey, at least in presence of the world. Are you offendedwith me? Your features are so painfully contracted."
"O, no, you are shrewd and kind, and I will do as you say."
As if a new stop had been drawn out, Pranken immediately asked:--
"What's the state of things at the Villa? Is the All-wise, the greatWorld-soul, still there?"
"You mean, perhaps, your friend?" Bella could not refrain frombantering her brother.
"My friend? He never was my friend, and I never called him so. Ihave allowed myself to be bamboozled only through pity. It is along-standing trait in our family, that we are not able to see anyonein misfortune, and I, when I help an unfortunate one, come readily intoa more intimate relation with him than is natural and proper. If onewishes to rescue a man from drowning, one must grasp him in his armsand to his heart, but this does not make him our bosom-friend."
Here was again the flippant, galloping style of speaking, but there wasa depth of thought in the illustration derived from the meditations ofthe previous days.
Bella handed her brother a note which Fraeulein Perini had given her forhim. Pranken broke the seal and read it; his countenance becamecheerful. He put the letter in his breast-pocket, but as it did notseem to suit the neighborhood of Thomas a Kempis, he took it out again,and put it in another pocket. Then he folded his arms over his breast,and looked peacefully and serenely before him.
"Might I be permitted to read Fraeulein Perini's note?" said Bella,extending her hand.
Otto took it out, hastily ran through it again, and handed it to hissister. It contained the information that Eric had gone away, and thathe had held a secret interview with Frau Ceres; the details must begiven by word of mouth.
Otto said that he wanted, some time or other, an answer to this riddle.
"The riddle is solved for me," said Bella exultingly. "Lina, theJustice's daughter--it just occurs to me that Egmont's Clara had nosurname, needed none--well, Lina, the Justice's daughter, has declaredto all the world, that the Captain World-soul was with her at theconvent where Manna is, and without
saying a word about it, he getshimself introduced by you, the next day, to her father. You then, aswell as the rest of us, have been taken in by this loftily sublimeWorld-soul."
Pranken drew a long breath, doubled up his fist, and then made arepelling motion with his hand. Bella imparted the further informationthat she had seen to it, at the coffee-party, that the World-soul--thisword seemed to her just the one to designate Eric--should be obliged toseek another abiding place; the Justice would give the finishing stroketo him. Bella perceived, to her amazement, that Otto did not agree withher in this method of proceeding. It was entirely unworthy of thehigher life--he did not explain whether he meant the higher social orspiritual life--to intrigue in this way against a poor deceitfulwretch; he would much rather go openly to work, and directly enlightenSonnenkamp.
Bella was in very good spirits, and took it in good part. She beganwith saying, that it was in the highest degree contemptible to makesuch a stir about the appointment of a private tutor, a personage thatmust always play a subordinate part, however fine may be hisappearance. She advised her brother, in the mean while, not to let theJustice be beforehand with him if he himself wanted to have credit inthe matter.
Otto declared his intent to visit Herr Sonnenkamp the next day, andthen to cut off Dournay's secret threads. But he let the next day, andyet another, pass by, without going to the villa. If other tools andother hands did the work of annihilation, so much the better. TheJustice should have time to carry out his design. Otto read Thomas aKempis, to see if there was not some direction given for such a case;he found none.