CHAPTER XXIV.
[PAST AND PRESENT].
Egon rose to dress after Wangen had left him, but he found that he had overrated his strength. He grew giddy, a dull headache confused his thoughts, and he lay down again for a while to collect them before making another attempt to rise. By degrees the pain subsided, and he was able to reflect calmly upon what had occurred, and upon the future.
He was to see Bertha again, and, to his own surprise, the thought of a fresh meeting with the woman with whom he had once dreamed of passing his life had no power to agitate him, or to quicken his pulses. It was simply a necessity, and, since the vicinity of Plagnitz to Linau made future intercourse unavoidable, the sooner it was over the better.
His second attempt to complete his toilet was much more successful than the first, although, as he finally looked at himself in the mirror before leaving his room, he was startled at the pale face and weary eyes which he saw there. He was conscious for the first time that he had grown very much older in the last four years. Was there not a white hair in the curl that escaped from beneath the narrow strip of linen bound about his brow?
"Madame will hardly find her old admirer dangerous," he said to himself, with a smiling nod at his reflection. "You never were handsome, old fellow, at the best of times, but to-day you are a positive fright. Perhaps 'tis best so. The consciousness of the figure that I cut may be of use in putting an end to any foolish fancies that might be born from a very gracious reception of me. Let the past be buried in the grave of poor Pigglewitch, we do not need it for the better life of the future." Thus reflecting, he left his room to take his way to the balcony, where, Wangen had told him, he should find the mistress of the mansion.
As he closed his door behind him he heard another door open at the end of the corridor, along which there instantly came tripping a graceful little girl of scarcely fifteen.
Involuntarily Egon's slow steps were stayed. There was something about the child that reminded him of Lieschen as he had first seen her. For an instant the present vanished, and he was standing, in the form of 'the new tutor,' at his window at Castle Osternau. Merry laughter floated upward from the lawn, and two children came flying out of the shrubbery. Lieschen's image as he had then seen it arose vividly before his mind's eye in all its innocent charm; but another moment brought him back to reality, and he knew that he was in a strange house, and that courtesy required that he should show himself aware of the presence of the new-comer. He bowed as ceremoniously as he would have done to a woman grown, and surveyed the pretty girl with great interest. Indeed, there was something of Lieschen in the arch sparkle of her eyes and in the girlish grace of her movements.
Clara paused also as she became aware of the stranger's presence, and returned his bow with a charming little courtesy. Then, suddenly approaching him, she said, "Are you Herr von Ernau, of whom I have heard so much? Oh, I thought you would look so different!"
"Indeed? And in what does the reality differ from the picture you condescended to frame of my insignificance?"
"I can't exactly say, but you are very---- Of course that bandage disfigures you, and you will look better when you have recovered from losing so much blood. Do you feel better? Are you strong enough to go alone, or shall I support you? Oh, you think I am too little to be of any use; but indeed you are mistaken, I am very strong. Lean on me. Indeed you do need help, you look so terribly pale and tired."
"I thank you for your kind offer of help, but----"
"Oh, you refuse it, of course; but I shall walk behind you, and if you totter I shall hold you up. Now I think of it, you do not know who I am. I must introduce myself. I am Clara von Wangen, Hugo von Wangen's sister, and I know you are on your way to pay my sister-in-law a visit. Is it not so?"
"You are right, Fräulein Clara."
"Do not call me Fräulein, it sounds as if you were laughing at me. Only the servants say Fräulein Clara, every one else calls me Clara only. I will show you the way to the balcony, where my sister-in-law is anxiously expecting you. She was very much surprised when she heard that you were Herr von Ernau, and I don't wonder at it, for a cousin who used to live with us while poor papa was alive told me such an interesting tale about how you were once betrothed to Bertha, and how you were thought dead, when she was betrothed to my brother. I hope it is not pert and forward to talk so to you, Herr von Ernau?"
"Not at all, I like it very much."
"Well, then, I'll go on, and tell you that you'd better be careful with Bertha. I don't think she has a good heart, and just when she seems kindest she is sometimes really most unkind. You'd better take care, Herr von Ernau. But I really must not talk to you any longer, or she will wonder what has become of you. Good-by!"
She turned as they reached the door of the balcony-room, and, tripping up-stairs, vanished from Egon's sight. He stood for an instant, pondering upon her childish warning, and then entered the room, where Bertha advanced instantly from the balcony to meet him.
How exquisitely beautiful she was! much more beautiful even than the picture of her which he had preserved in his memory. Her figure had not lost one whit in grace, while it had gained in fulness and finish. Her dark eyes sparkled and she smiled bewitchingly as she held out both hands to him, with "Welcome! a thousand times welcome, Herr von Ernau! Ah, what an anxious night you have given us!"
'You'd better be careful with Bertha.' The words occurred to Egon as he kissed the fair hand extended to him and felt its lingering pressure. The ordeal through which he was passing could hardly have been imagined by the child who had just left him, and yet her words helped him to suppress all evidence of emotion, although his heart did undeniably beat faster and louder.
"Your kind welcome, madame, gives me courage to hope that you forgive me for once deceiving you with a name and personality not my own, and----"
"I will not hear one more word that bears reference to the past, Herr von Ernau. It lies far behind us, and I have made a vow to forget it and to think only of the present and the future. Promise me to follow my example."
"It shall be as you please, madame."
"And I please to forget everything that is not delightful. We are near neighbours, I hope we shall frequently see each other, and I promise never to ask you a single question about your masquerading time. You must dismiss it from your thoughts."
"That will not be so easy. I should like to explain----"
"But I always detested explanations. What interests me at present is that you should take a comfortable chair and rest yourself: you are weak from loss of blood. You are trembling: take my arm."
In truth Egon was giddy for a moment, and involuntarily availed himself of the hand she extended to him. Wangen came forward to assist his wife, and conducted Egon to a luxurious chair on the balcony, where Bertha flitted about him, placing the cushions comfortably beneath his head, silently lavishing upon him a hundred little kindnesses, which scarcely contributed to dispel a certain embarrassment which began to possess him. Wangen was unwontedly silent; in truth his thoughts, like those of his wife and his guest, were busy with the past. Although hardly of a jealous temperament, his sense of his wife's intellectual superiority was always present to prompt him to self-depreciation, and he had remembered more than once during the morning the many brilliant qualities which he had long since heard attributed to Egon von Ernau,--the same man who, marvellously enough, had played the part of the Candidate at Castle Osternau. As he marked his wife's eager attention to their guest it occurred to him to wonder--it was but a passing thought--whether Bertha had not once been more interested in the tutor than she would have cared to admit. He felt ashamed of himself on the instant that such an idea should have found entrance in his mind, and yet he could not quite forget it.
His wife's influence, however, was so great over his moods that she soon conquered his taciturnity, and Egon was both interested and charmed by the lively talk that occupied the next hour. Bertha passed in review for her guest's entertainment and information all the principal persons in the neighborhood. True, her wit was sometimes far from kindly, but her tact was great, and she was quick to mark and to obliterate any adverse impression with regard to herself which she might produce. He therefore resigned himself to the spell of the moment, and had quite forgotten the unfortunate cause of his presence in Linau, when Inspector Kämpf made his appearance to announce to Wangen that the conveyance was about to start for Station R---- with the body of the unfortunate driver.
This recalled Egon to a sense of reality, the spell of the moment was broken; he begged the inspector to inform himself as to the poor man's family, for whose future he should care, and then, turning to Wangen, asked that he would kindly allow him the use of a vehicle in which to drive immediately to Plagnitz.
"Impossible! Indeed you cannot, you must not leave us, Herr von Ernau," Bertha exclaimed, in answer to his request. "You must stay in Linau until your wound is healed. We cannot let you go until you are perfectly strong."
Wangen added his entreaties to his wife's, although not with the same urgency, but Egon was firm. He declared that it was a matter of necessity that he should be in Plagnitz before evening, that he was quite strong enough to undertake the short journey thither, and that, with many thanks for the kind hospitality extended to him at Linau, he was resolved not to trespass upon it further. Neither Wangen nor Bertha could turn him from his purpose, and the former therefore yielded to his request, and directed Inspector Kämpf to have a light wagon made ready for Herr von Ernau's use.