Fritz and Eric

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  FAMILY COUNCILS.

  "I have to thank you, dear mother, for this!" said Fritz, with anaffectionate smile, to Madame Dort. "How did you contrive such apleasant surprise?"

  "You told me of your trouble, my son," she replied; "so I did my best tohelp you under the circumstances."

  "And you, little traitress," exclaimed he, turning to Madaleine. "Howcould you keep me in suspense all those weary weeks that have elapsedsince the year began?"

  "I did not think you cared so much," said she defiantly.

  "Cared!" he repeated.

  "Well, it was not my fault," she explained. "When I wrote to you last,I really never thought I should see you again."

  "You don't know me yet," said Fritz. "I should have hunted you out tothe world's end! I had determined, as soon as I had seen mother, to gooff to Darmstadt and find out what had become of you."

  "And a nice wild-goose chase you would have had," answered Madaleine,tossing her head, and shaking the silky masses of golden hair, nowunconfined by any jealous coiffe, with her blue eyes laughing fun. "Youwouldn't have found me there! The baroness--"

  "Hang her!" interrupted Fritz angrily; "I should like to settle her!"

  "Ah, I wouldn't mind your doing that now," continued the girl naively;"she treated me very unkindly at the end."

  "The brute!" said Fritz indignantly.

  "Her son--the young baron, you know--came home from the war in January.He was invalided, but I don't think there was anything the matter withhim at all; for, no sooner had he got back to the castle than he beganworrying me, paying all sorts of attention and pestering me with hispresence."

  "Puppy!" exclaimed Fritz; "I would have paid him some delicate littleattentions if I'd been there!"

  "Oh, I knew how to treat him," said Madaleine. "I soon made him keephis distance! But it is the Baroness Stolzenkop that I complain of; sheactually taxed me with encouraging him!"

  "Indeed?" interrogated Fritz.

  "Yes; and, when I told her I wouldn't choose her fop of a son if therewasn't another man in Germany, why she accused me of impertinence,telling me that the fact of my having attracted the young baron was anhonour which an humble girl in my position should have been proud of--she did, really!"

  "The old cat!" said Fritz indignantly; "I should like to wring her neckfor her."

  "Hush, my son," interposed Madame Dort. "Pray don't make use of suchviolent expressions. The baroness, you know, is exalted in rank, and--"

  "Then all the greater shame for her to act so dishonourably," heinterrupted hotly. "She ought to be--I can find no words to tell what Iwould do to her, there!"

  "Besides, Master Fritz," said old Lorischen, "I won't have you speak sodisrespectfully of cats, the noblest animals on earth! Look at Mouserthere, looking his indignation at you; can't you see how he feels thereproach of your comparing him to that horrid baroness?"

  This remark at once diverted the conversation, all turning in thedirection the old nurse pointed, where a little comedy was beingenacted.

  Mouser--with his tail erected like a stiff bottle-brush, and everyindividual hair galvanised into a perpendicular position on his back,which was curved into the position of a bent bow with rage andexcitement, his whiskers bristling out from each side of his head andhis mouth uttering the most horrible anathemas the cat language iscapable of--was perched on the back of Madame Dort's arm-chair in thecorner; while poor Gelert, the innocent cause of all this display ofemotion on Mouser's part, was calmly surveying him and sniffinginterrogatory inquiries as to whom he had the pleasure of speaking. Thedog had not yet been formally introduced to his new cat friend, and fromthe commanding position he had taken up, with his hind legs on thehearthrug and his fore paws on the seat of the easy chair, he hadconsiderable advantage over pussy, should that sagacious creature thinkof fleeing to another vantage-ground; although the thought of this, itshould be added, never crossed for an instant the mind of old Mouser; heknew well when he was safe.

  Fritz burst out laughing.

  "Lie down, Gelert!" he cried; and the retriever at once obeyed.

  "Is that the dear dog?" inquired Madame Dort, stooping to pat him.

  "Yes," said Fritz, "this is Gelert, the brave, faithful fellow but forwhom I would have bled to death on the battlefield and never have beensaved by Madaleine!"

  "Thanks be to God!" exclaimed the widow piously. "What a nice dog heis!"

  "He is all that," replied Fritz; "still, he must be taught not to molestMaster Mouser. Here, Gelert!"

  The dog at once sprang up again from his recumbent position on thehearthrug; while Mouser, his excessive spiny and porcupinish appearancehaving become somewhat toned down, was now watchfully observing this newvariety of the dog species, which his natural instinct taught him toregard with antagonism and yet who was so utterly different from BurgherJans' terrier, the only specimen of the canine race with whom he hadbeen previously acquainted.

  "See," said Fritz to the retriever, laying one hand on his head andstroking the cat with the other, "you mustn't touch poor Mouser. Gooddog!"

  The animal gave a sniff of intelligence, seeming to know at once whatwas expected of him; and, never, from that moment, did he ever exhibitthe slightest approach of hostility to pussy--no, not even when Mouser,as he did sometimes from curiosity, would approach him at the verydelicate juncture when he was engaged on a bone, which few dogs canstand--the two ever after remaining on the friendliest of friendlyterms; so friendly, indeed, that Mouser would frequently curl himself tosleep between Gelert's paws on the hearthrug.

  This little diversion had drawn away the conversation from Madaleine'streatment by the old Baroness Stolzenkop; but, presently, Madame Dortproceeded to explain to Fritz that, on account of his telling her in oneof his letters home how anxious he was in the matter, and knowingbesides how much she was indebted to Madaleine for saving his life byher kindly nursing when he was in the villa hospital at Mezieres, shehad written to her at Darmstadt, asking her to pay her a visit and solight up a lonely house with her presence until her son should havereturned from the war. "And a veritable house fairy she has been,"concluded the widow, speaking from her heart, with tears in her eyes."She has been like sunshine to me in the winter of my desolation."

  "And Mouser likes her, too," said Lorischen, as if that settled thematter.

  "She's the best manager in the world," next put in Madame Dort. "Shehas saved me a world of trouble since she's been in the house."

  "And she cooks better than any one else in Lubeck!" exclaimed the oldnurse, not to be beat in enumerating all the good qualities of Fritz'sguardian angel, who had taken her heart, as well as the widow's, bystorm.

  Meanwhile, the subject of all these remarks stood in the centre of theroom, blushing at the compliments paid her on all sides.

  "Dear me, good people, I shall have to run away if you go on like that,"she cried at last. "I have been so happy here," she added, turning toFritz. "It's the first time I've known what home was since my motherdied."

  "Poor child," said Madame Dort, opening her arms. "Come here, I'll beyour mother now."

  "Ah, that's just what I've longed for!" exclaimed Fritz rapturously."Madaleine, will you be her daughter in reality?"

  The girl did not reply in words, but she gave him one look, and then hidher face in the widow's bosom.

  "Poor Eric," said the widow presently, resigning Madaleine to the careof Fritz, who was nothing loth to take charge of her--the two retreatingto a corner and sitting down side by side, having much apparently to sayto each other, if such might be surmised from their bent heads andwhispered conversation. "If he were but here, my happiness would now bealmost complete!"

  "Yes," chimed in Lorischen as she bustled out of the room, Madame Dortfollowing her quietly, so as to leave the lovers to themselves--"thedear flaxen-haired sailor laddie, with his merry ways and laughing eyes.I think I can see him now before me! Ah, it is just nineteen months tothe day since he sail
ed away on that ill-fated voyage, you remember,mistress?"

  But, she need not have asked the question. Madame Dort had countedevery day since that bright autumn morning when she saw her darling forthe last time at the railway station. It was not likely that she wouldforget how long he had been absent!

  Later on, when the excitement of coming home to his mother and meetingwith Madaleine had calmed down, Fritz, having ceased to be a soldier,his services not being any longer required with the Landwehr, turned hisattention to civil employment; for, now, with the prospect of marryingbefore him, it was more urgent than ever that he should have somethingto do in order to occupy his proper position as bread-winner of thefamily, the widow's means being limited and it being as much as shecould do to support herself and Lorischen out of her savings, withouthaving to take again to teaching--which avocation, indeed, her health oflate years had rendered her unable to continue, had she been desirous ofresuming it again.

  Madaleine, of course, could have gone out as a governess, Madame Dortbeing, probably, easily able to procure her a situation in the family ofone of her former pupils; or she might have resumed the position of ahospital nurse, for which she had been trained at Darmstadt, having beentaken on as an assistant in the convalescent home established in thattown by the late Princess Alice of Hesse, when the Baroness Stolzenkopturned her adrift. But Fritz would not hear of Madaleine's leaving hismother.

  "No," said he decisively to her, "your place is here with mutterchen,who regards you as a daughter--don't you, mother?"

  "Yes, indeed," answered the widow readily enough--"so long as I'mspared."

  "There, you see, you've no option," continued Fritz triumphantly."Mother would not be able to do without you now. Besides, it is notnecessary. I will be able to earn bread enough for all. Look at thesebroad shoulders and strong arms, hey! What were they made for else, I'dlike to know?"

  Still, Fritz did not find it so easy to get employment as he thought.

  Herr Grosschnapper had kept the clerkship he had formerly filled in hiscounting-house open for him some time after the commencement of the war;but, finding that Fritz would be away much longer than he had expected,he had been forced to employ a substitute in his place. This young manhad proved himself so diligent and active in mastering all the detailsof the business in a short time, that the worthy shipowner did not wishto discharge him now when his original clerk returned, and Fritz himselfwould have been loth to press the matter; although, he had looked uponhis re-engagement in the merchant's office as a certainty when he cameback to Lubeck.

  Fritz had thought, with that self-confidence which most of us possess,that no one could possibly have kept Herr Grosschnapper's books orcalculated insurances with such ability as he could, and that the worthymerchant would have been only too delighted to welcome so able a clerkwhen he walked into the counting-house again. He had not lived longenough to know that as good, or better, a man can always be found tofill the place of even the best; and that, much as we may estimate ourown value, a proportionate equivalent can soon be supplied from othersources!

  So, much to Fritz's chagrin, on going down to the merchant's place ofbusiness on the quay, all eagerness to resume work again on the oldfooting, he found that he was not wanted: he would have to applyelsewhere for employment.

  "Oh, that will not be a hard matter," he thought to himself.

  "Softly, my friend," whispered fickle Dame Fortune in his ear, "notquite so fast! Things don't always turn out just as you wish, youngsir, with your reliant impetuosity!"

  Lubeck had never been at any time a bustling place, for it had no tradeto speak of; and now, since the war had crippled commerce, everythingwas in a state of complete stagnation. Ships were laying up idle allalong the banks of the great canal, although spring was advancing andthe ice-chains that bound up the Baltic would soon be loosed. Therewere no cargoes to be had; and perforce, the carriers of the sea wereuseless, making a corresponding dearth of business in the houses of theshipping firms. Why, instead of engaging fresh hands at their desks,they would have need soon to discharge some of their old ones! This wasthe answer that met his ear at every place he applied to, and he hadfinally to give up all hope of finding work in his native town.

  It was the same elsewhere.

  The five milliards of ransom paid by France, brought no alleviation ofthe enormous taxation imposed on Germany to bear the expense oforganising the great military machine employed to carry out the war.The Prussian exchequer alone reaped the benefit of this plunder of theconquered nation; as for the remaining states of the newly createdempire, they were not a farthing to the good for all the long train ofwaggons filled with gold and silver and bales of bank-notes thatstreamed over the frontier when the war indemnity was paid. Ifpossible, their position was made worse instead of better; as, from themore extravagant style of living now adopted, in lieu of the formerfrugal habits in vogue--on account of the soldiers of the Fatherlandlearning to love luxury through their becoming accustomed during thecampaign to what they had never dreamt of in their lives before--articles of food and dress became increased in price, so that it was adifficult matter for people with a small income to make both ends meet.

  Ah, there was wide-spread poverty and dearth of employment throughoutthe length and breadth of the land, albeit there might be feasting andhurrahing, and clinking of champagne glasses Unter den Linden at Berlin!

  However, Fritz was not the sort of fellow to grow despondent, or fail torecognise the urgency of the situation.

  Long before Eric had gone to sea, he had fancied that Lubeck, with itsslow movements and asthmatic trade, offered little opening for theenergy and ability with which he felt himself endowed; for, he mightlive and die a clerk there, without the chance of ever rising toanything else. He had frequently longed to go abroad and carve out afortune in some fresh sphere; but the thought of leaving his motheralone prevented him from indulging in this day-dream, and he haddetermined, much against the grain, to be satisfied with the humble lotwhich appeared to be his appointed place in life.

  Now, however, circumstances had changed. His place was filled up in theold world; Providence itself forced him to seek an opening in the new.

  His mind was made up at once.

  "Little mother," said he one evening, when he had been home a month,seeing every prospect of employment shut out from him--his last hope,that of a situation in the house of a comrade's father at Coblentz, fromwhich he had expected great things, having failed--"I've determined toemigrate to America--that is, if you do not offer any objection; for Ishould not like to go without your consent, although I see there's nochance for me here in Germany."

  "What!" exclaimed Madame Dort, so startled that she let her knittingdrop. "Go to America, across the terrible sea?"

  Fritz had already explained matters to Madaleine, and she, brave-heartedgirl that she was, concealing her own feelings at the separation betweenthem which her lover's resolve would necessitate, did not seek to urgehim against his will to abandon his project. She believed in hishonesty of purpose, relying on his strong, impulsive character; and whathe had decided on, she decided, too, as a good wife that was to be,would be best not only for them both but for all.

  "Yes, to America, mutterchen," he replied to the widow's exclamation,speaking in a tender voice of entreaty. "It is not so very far, youknow, dear little mother, eh? It will be only from Bremerhaven toSouthampton in England,--you recollect going there with me for a trip,don't you, the year before last?--and from Southampton to New York; and,there, I shall be in my new home in ten days' time at the outside! Why,it's nothing, a mere nothing of a voyage when you come to consider itproperly."

  "Across the wide, wild ocean that has already robbed me of Eric, myyoungest," went on poor Madame Dort, unheeding his words; "you, myfirstborn--my only son now--I shall never see you more, I know!" and shegave way to a burst of tears.

  "Say not so, darling mother," said Madaleine, throwing her arms roundher and joining in her weeping wi
th a sympathetic heart, feeling quiteas great grief at the idea of parting with her lover. "He will returnfor us both bye-and-bye. He is only going to make that home for us inthe Far West we've read about so often lately, which he cannot hope toestablish here; and then, my mother,--for you are my mother too, now,are you not?--he will come back for you and me, or we will go out andjoin him."

  "And I should like to know what will become of me, Fraulein Madaleine,"interposed Lorischen indignantly. "Am I to be left behind to bebothered all my life long by that little plague, Burgher Jans?"

  "No, no, Lorischen," laughed Fritz; "a home across the sea in Americawould not be a home without you--or Mouser, either," he added.

  "That's all right, then," said the old nurse affably; her digressionserving to break the gravity of the conversation, and make Madame Dorttake a better view of the matter.

  "But, it's a terrible journey, though, a terrible journey--almost worsethan parting with him to go to the war," said the widow sadly toherself.

  "Ah, but you did not have Madaleine with you then," replied Fritz,turning a look of affection to the fair girl clinging to his mother."She will be a daughter to you, and comfort you in my absence, I know."

  "Aye, that I will," exclaimed Madaleine fondly, caressing her adoptedparent and gazing at Fritz with the blue eyes full of love, althoughblinded with tears. "I shall love her dearly for your sake, my darling,as well as for her own--and my own too; and we will all look forward tomeeting again happily after our present parting, with hope and trust inthe good God who will protect and watch over you in return for ourprayers!"

  "Amen to that," said Lorischen heartily. "And I tell you what it is,Master Fritz--we'll be all ready when you give the word to follow youacross the sea to that wonderful America! I declare I'm quite longingto see it, for I don't think much of this Lubeck now, with such curious,meddling, impertinent people in it like that odious little fat man,Burgher Jans."

  These words of the old nurse put them all in a merry mood, and thefamily council thus terminated more cheerily than it had begun.