Read Ebook: Gedichte der Gefangenen: Ein Sonettenkreis (Nr. 44) by Toller Ernst

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Ebook has 122 lines and 7539 words, and 3 pages

While Gustave and Miss Clifford exchanged the first general remarks, the elder brother opened the telegram, glanced over it, and then, turning to the other two, said--

"I must leave you for half an hour; a matter of business which demands immediate attention."

"To-day! Sunday?" asked Gustave. "Do you, then, never allow yourself a moment's rest?"

"Why should I? Something might then be neglected. On Sunday, when the offices are closed, I have the most pressing business sent out here. You looked up Jenkins and Co. in New York, Gustave? The telegram comes from them. I shall speak about it to you later. Meanwhile, I leave you in Jessie's company; so good-bye."

He folded the telegram together and went.

The younger brother looked after him with an air of the most profound astonishment.

"Well! one does not seem in danger of being spoiled by excessive brotherly love," he remarked drily, turning towards Jessie.

"You must know your brother to a certain extent," she answered simply, accustomed to see business take precedence of everything.

"Certainly! but in Europe he was a little more considerate. I thought I had a claim on, at least, the first hour after my arrival."

"Thanks, no!" interrupted Gustave; "I am not in the least tired, and have really every cause to be grateful to Jenkins and Co. for procuring me the pleasure of your company."

With that he drew a chair towards him, and sat down opposite to her. But neither his serene and careless air, nor his prepossessing appearance, succeeded in thawing the cold reserve of the young lady. She was not surprised to find him considerably younger than her guardian, as she knew he was the child of a second marriage. The elder brother was, indeed, already past middle age, while the younger was scarcely over thirty. On the whole, his exterior was exactly that represented in the picture which hung in his brother's study. A powerful, manly figure, agreeable, intelligent features, dark hair and beard, and lively, sparkling dark eyes, which were distinctly fine and expressive. But it was just those eyes which displeased Jessie, for she felt instinctively that her whole character was being put to the proof by them. The same observant glance which had met hers in the first moment of their acquaintance rested steadily on her countenance. Mr. Sandow, junior, was openly examining her, as the first paragraph of the business contract clearly entitled him to do, and that was amply sufficient to awake the most decided opposition in the mind of the young lady. He began the conversation by remarking--

"I am unfortunately quite unacquainted with your home. I come, an inexperienced European, as if fallen from the clouds into the new world, and count upon your friendly support."

"I think you will find the help of your brother better, and more to be relied on, than any I might venture to give."

"No doubt, as far as business affairs are concerned. Under all other circumstances, however, he seems to me rather unapproachable, and then there are some subjects with which I should like to make myself acquainted by the way."

"But no doubt they are entirely business affairs which bring you here," said Jessie, not without irony. "As far as I know, you intend to enter our firm?"

"Certainly! My brother has made that an indispensable condition."

"Condition! Were you not, then, free to act as you chose, Mr. Sandow? But I forgot; no doubt it concerns the inheritance of your brother's fortune."

The stab struck home; that was seen in the sudden flash of the dark eyes, but it produced no other effect, for Gustave replied with the most delightful candour--

"Quite right; the inheritance. It really was in jeopardy had I declined. My brother was quite capable of leaving the whole of his means to a philanthropical institution had I not obeyed his wishes."

Jessie hardly knew whether to be more surprised or annoyed at the openness with which this man acknowledged that he had come to America merely for the sake of the money. And this he declared before the woman whose hand and fortune were both destined for him, and in whom annoyance at last gained the upper hand as she replied--

"Till now I did not know that calculation was so well understood in Germany."

"Oh! thank God at last we are becoming a practical people," said Gustave, with unalterable composure. "We have been long about it, but now we are making undeniable progress. You seem to consider it a reproach, Miss Clifford!"

"No; but I learnt to look on the land to which my mother belonged, and which she taught me to regard as a second home, from quite another side."

"From the ideal side probably. Now I will not deny that this also exists; but, on the whole, people are now sweeping away the ideal from amongst us. There are only a few who still acknowledge it in word or deed."

"Just on that account should the few gather round their threatened colours, and venture life and blood for their sake!"

The phrase sounded rather peculiar in the mouth of a young girl, but she was plainly understood. Again the dark eyes flashed, but this time in unconcealed surprise.

"Ah! how flattering! A quotation from one of my own articles! You know them then?"

"The journal with which you are connected is one of the greatest political importance," said Jessie coolly. "It has always been read in our house. But just because I know your articles, does it surprise me that you were able to release yourself so easily and completely from all the bonds which held you to your native country."

"You mean the duties to which I am bound by my connection with the journal!" remarked Gustave. "There were certainly difficulties, but they have been arranged according to my wishes. One journalist more or less in Germany makes no difference, and my pen has been long since replaced by another, and, no doubt, a better one."

Jessie pressed her lips together. This wilful misunderstanding angered her inexpressibly, and she was still more annoyed at the persevering gaze, which yet had nothing obtrusive, but strove to conceal itself under the appearance of an animated conversation. In spite of this Jessie had the sensation that her whole character was being thoroughly studied, and this drove her by degrees from her reserve into a state of irritation entirely foreign to her disposition.

"I did not know I had such an attentive reader on this side the ocean," Gustave continued, in the most amiable manner. "Since I have learnt the fact, I should like to beg for your criticism. You have declared already that you love my home like a second fatherland. May I, then, reckon on your sympathy for all that my pen describes?"

"You have given up your literary career," remarked Jessie, "for a more advantageous one."

"Yes; I yielded to the force of circumstances. That does not seem to be judged favourably, but perhaps the author finds more grace in your eyes than the future partner in the firm of Clifford and Company."

"At all events, I can admire the ease with which the one has been metamorphosed into the other."

It was an annihilating look which accompanied the words, but Gustave Sandow was not to be so easily annihilated. He bore the look calmly, and his reply betrayed even a certain humour, which increased the growing irritation of the young lady.

"The criticism is not a favourable one, I see. But that is just the reason why I must hear it. You must not withhold your bad opinion from me, Miss Clifford. I insist upon knowing my sentence."

"Without reserve?"

"Quite without reserve."

"Well, then, Mr. Sandow, I declare openly to you that I have read with the fullest sympathy and admiration everything which came from your pen, till the moment when you accepted your brother's proposal. I should never have thought it possible. I thought that anyone who devoted himself so entirely to his country as you did, who fought so energetically for its rights, who summoned others so stirringly to their duties, must also abide by the colours to which he had sworn fealty, and dare not forsake them for mere fortune's sake. I could not believe that the pen from which flowed such glowing words should serve for the future to write figures, and only figures; that the undaunted champion should of his own free-will throw down his weapons, and quit the lists, to take a comfortable seat at the office desk. I doubted the possibility till the moment of your arrival, and that I must at last believe it--that is the bitterest disappointment of my life!"

Jessie felt herself to be drawn on by her excitement to insult the man who sat before her, but she cared not for that. She saw in him only the adversary, only the importunate suitor, whom she would keep at a distance cost what it might. Let him feel in the first hour how deeply she despised his selfishness, then there would be no room to doubt how she felt about the marriage scheme, and she was safe from his wooing. But he did not appear very sensitive to insult, for he maintained the most perfect composure.

"Miss Clifford, for a merchant's daughter, and the sleeping partner in a great mercantile house, you appear to nourish very disrespectful ideas of accounts and the office desk," said he, with revolting indifference. "My brother would be shocked. I feel myself extremely flattered that my modest pen has had the power of awakening so much interest, and as to the disappointment, I do not give up the hope of at last succeeding in bringing you to a better opinion of my performances at the office desk."

Jessie made no reply. She completely lost her self-control at this way of turning affront into compliment, and at the smiling calm with which the manuvre was carried out.

Fortunately at this moment the door opened, and Sandow entered.

"The telegrams are sent off," said he. "Now I am again at your disposal. I suppose dinner will soon be ready, Jessie?"

"I have still some necessary orders to give, which I will do at once."

And hastily, as if taking to flight before the new arrival, but not without casting on him another glance of contempt, she left the room.

"Well, what do you think of Jessie?" said Sandow, as soon as the brothers were alone; "and what progress have you made with her?"

"Progress! Surely, Frank, you did not quite expect me to make her a proposal of marriage at the first interview!"

"But at least you might lead the way to it."

"The way has opened most successfully," Gustave assured him. "We have already had a most lively dispute."

"Dispute! What do you mean?" and Sandow, who had seated himself near his brother, looked up as if he could hardly believe his ears. "Is that the way you begin your courtship?"

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