SCENE IX.
Frederica, Gernau.
Fred. Tell me immediately, dear Gernau, what is the matter between you and my brother?
Gern. He is not a good man, Frederica.
Fred. Shall I go to him, Gernau?
Gern. Do not embitter my life, good soul; I have trouble enough besides. Your brother will drive me away.
Fred. What?
Gern. He will throw me out of my office.
Fred. Why?
Gern. To put a more accommodating man in my place.
Fred. He does not wish to do that certainly, nor could he even effect it.
Gern. He is all-powerful here; his abilities, his connections at Court, his office, render every thing possible that he wishes to atchieve.
Fred. And what does he want of you? what displeases him?
Gern. Under the pretence of promoting agriculture, he wants the best part of the forest for himself, which is of no great use to the community. And this pretended plea is a garden, he means to lay out in the English style for his own pleasure.
Fred. And should not an industrious man be indulged with some pleasure?
Gern. Should he wish to have it at the expence of the public? I must oppose it.
Fred. Does he know it?
Gern. Yes, he behaved so haughtily to me.
Fred. And you--
Gern. I thought on his sister,--and held my tongue.
Fred. (reaches him her hand.) Gernau!
Gern. He threatened me!
Fred. And you?
Gern. I curbed my passion. He bid me be gone,--and I shall not trouble him again.
Fred. And what do you intend to do as to the forest?
Gern. My duty.
Fred. (draws back her hand.) Oh!
Gern. Yes, yes! It will cost me your hand, I foresee.
Fred. Never!--my affection is fixed, and can never be diverted from the dear object.--Your complaisance--
Gern. I have been complaisant, as far as laid in my power. I cannot be so at the expence of my duty.
Fred. I do not insist on that either. But,--but--
Gern. What would you wish that your own sentiments of equity forbids you to utter?
Fred. I only wish--I demand nothing--I only wish you to soften your rigid idea of duty, if you can.
Gern. I know nothing but justice, that will not admit of any by-road. And if I were capable of such a sacrifice, whither would it lead me? It would lead me to see you, Selling's wife, and to laugh at me.
Fred. Must I break with all the world, because our hearts beat in unison? Am I criminal to listen to Selling's nonsense, because he is the only man through whom I can act upon my brother?
Gern. Then I may rely upon you?
Fred. Undoubtedly.
Gern. Pledge me your hand!
Fred. With all my heart!
Gern. Thus love will not forsake me, when I shall fall a victim to my duty.
Fred. I know no deceit, and follow the dictates of my heart.
Gern. In the name of heaven then I go to discharge my duty; it rewards and strengthens. Good bye, Frederica!--One more word, you are good; but are you resolute?
Fred. I am indeed!
Gern. Your brother has plans about you, in which I am most certainly set down for nought.--Frederica, Frederica, let him drive me hence, but not from you!
Fred. He shall not, he cannot. And no man can render me inconstant to you, but yourself.
Gern. Then you are mine, and I am easy.
Fred. And owe no grudge to my brother?
Gern. Frederica, I am an honest man.
Fred. Whom the purest love shall reward, as far as love can reward!
Gern. Adieu, dear Frederica!
Fred. Adieu, Gernau!
[Exeunt by opposite doors.
ACT II.
SCENE I.
A room in the Privy Counsellor's, furnished in the modern stile.
Reissman, Lewis.
Lew. I shall have the honour to let the Privy Counsellor know, that the Aulic Counsellor Reissman waits. (Steps into a closet, out of which the Privy Counsellor immediately comes, and Lewis sometime after.)
Reiss. I fly to congratulate you on your well-merited elevation.
P. Coun. I thank you with all my heart. I shall never forget that I am indebted to you for it.
Reiss. I beg,--nay, I entreat--
P. Coun. Your advice.
Reiss. Too much modesty.
P. Coun. Your self-denial. For you yourself had the justest claims to all the honours, with which you permitted me to be invested.
Reiss. Audaces fortuna.--I am too old. Now you should enjoy life, my friend. The merchant will endeavour to get a hundred per cent. if he can; why should the statesman sell his labour to the state at three? Away with the silly prejudice, and the retail-trade of your conscientious precepts; carry on your business wholesale, on the sacred principle of self-preservation.
P. Coun. I partly do so, but my father--
Reiss. I have paid the old honest man a visit.
P. Coun. Very kind of you! very kind of you indeed!
Reiss. He persists in his determination of setting the will aside.
P. Coun. Ridiculous!
Reiss. He will not suffer the children to go to the hospital, because the institution is intended for old and decayed people.
P. Coun. Mere formalities, attached to old age!
Reiss. As for the rest, he appeared pleased with your proposed union with my daughter.
P. Coun. Was he!
Reiss. He said many handsome things of the girl.
P. Coun. Too much cannot be said in her praise. She is an angel.
Reiss. I humbly thank you.--But he will not accept the office of mayor on any account.
P. Coun. I thought so;--but he must.
Reiss. Oh, yes! I must request you to carry that point, for--
P. Coun. Without doubt.
Reiss. For, however pleased I may be with your connection, I could not possibly think of giving my daughter to a man whose father earned his bread as a mechanic.
P. Coun. Leave me alone for that. His whole mode of life will be changed. Nay, this change has in some measure taken place already.
Reiss. Bravo, bravo!
P. Coun. His mansion--
Reiss. Right, right!
P. Coun. His dress--
Reiss. Very necessary.
P. Coun. Those pitiful caps of my sister--
Reiss. Oh, nice! Oh! there you remove a heavy weight from my mind. And then the chief object, that law-suit--
P. Coun. You cannot lose it. The will--?
Reiss. I will stick to that, as if rivetted to it with iron.
P. Coun. It speaks in your favour in all its forms.
Reiss. But he is so obstinate in pursuit of the cause, and will--
P. Coun. He cannot gain it.
Reiss. I think so. But then he has engaged that old foolish lawyer Wellenberg, that--
P. Coun. A fool, and a pedant.
Reiss. True! But then he is such a conscientious fellow; and, besides, you know he is called the champion of the poor and the guardian of orphans.
P. Coun. I have his opinion in my study. Mere declamation! nothing else. Your answer is sound, legal, and argumentative, and then the testamentary disposition is so plain that it cannot be set aside. If you were inclined to make the plaintiff a present--
Reiss. O yes, O yes! notwithstanding I am very economical; for all that I acquire is solely intended for my child, and when it shall please heaven to call me, it will devolve to you, my dear Sir.
P. Coun. Very kind;--but-- Enter Lewis.
Lew. The widow Rieder--
P. Coun. Some other time.
Lew. And Counsellor Wellenberg--
P. Coun. The day after to-morrow, at two o'clock.
Lew. Then there is old Schwartz--
P. Coun. I cannot be troubled with him now.
[Exit Lewis.
Reiss. Always plagued, always tormented.--
P. Coun. Oh! there is no end of it!
Reiss. Why! But wealth and honours are very welcome things too. But chiefly mind wealth; wealth is the word. High stations are exposed to storms, like lofty trees in a forest. But, if you have wealth, then come what will. A trunk filled with good bonds is soon packed up. The rest of your moveables may be left to the commissaries, just as you would throw a few bones to the dogs; then retire and go. I am your servant. (Going.)
[Privy Counsellor attends him to the door.
Reiss. No ceremony; the morning-hour yields a hundred per cent.
[Exit.