CHAPTER XVI.
REJOICE in YOUR LIFE.
Eric sat a long time on the bench; night came on, and he saw a light in his mother's house. He knew that she and his aunt were together, and he fancied that he heard the tones of a harp, but yet it was too far off for the sound to roach him. But the tones resounded within him, and the question darted through his mind: How will Manna bear it when she learns the terrible secret? And canst thou share in possessions so acquired? How Sonnenkamp will rave! What will Pranken do? The world will say, it was nicely contrived; while the father and the betrothed were absent, he has with his mother's help stolen away the daughter of the house. Let the world come on! Love conquers everything!
He saw a light in Manna's room, and heard the window shut; he looked for a long time up to it, and then went to the courtyard and ordered the groom to saddle a horse.
The groom said there was none there except Herr Sonnenkamp's black steed.
"Saddle him then."
"I dare not do it. My master allows no one to ride him."
"Do as I order you."
The horse was led out; he opened his large eyes on Eric, distended his nostrils, and tossed back his mane as he neighed.
"That's well!" exclaimed Eric.
He mounted and rode off at a tearing trot. He felt perfectly safe on the horse, who seemed to take delight in his free rider.
Where will he go? Far away—away to the world's end. He felt buoyant, as if the weight of the body were removed, and he could fly away into the wide, wide world.
He rode now down the mountain to the village where Claus lived. All that he had experienced on this road, and all that he had thought, thronged in upon his mind at once, and he even looked to see if Roland were riding by his side.
Roland! How strange! It struck him as an immeasurably long time since Roland had left him; it was the recollection of a far-off event, that he once had instructed a youth on the verge of manhood.
He gazed at the fields, at the vineyards, as if he must ask them: How is it, how will it be when I call you mine—a bit of the world my own! Trees, meadows, vine-hills, fields and vineyards danced before his eyes.
He rode into the village.
Here all was quiet. He drew up at the field-guard's house, he knew not for what reason. The blackbird was singing alone in the still night, 'Rejoice in your life.' She got no farther on in the tune, and this melody, so old and yet so good, now accompanied Eric, and chimed in with the hoof-beats of his swift steed.
From the village he made a bend, and rode up the height where he had formerly sat with Knopf. He had asked Knopf: What would you do if you should come into the possession of millions? And now it seemed to him that a hundred-pound weight lay upon his shoulders. He called out into the night:—
"No, I shall not become the possessor of millions, no, never!"
Now Weidmann's plans rushed into his mind. Above, on the height yonder, hundreds of men were living on their own acres, which once they had never thought of owning, free and happy in the independence secured through that man.
The horse looked round at his rider, as he exclaimed aloud:—
"That would be the thing? But on property so obtained? No!"
Quietly he rode down the mountain, and came in sight of the villa, and the glass of the hot-houses, but he turned his horse's head again. Yes, he must tell one man, one only. He rode to the Major's. Like a wanderer who sees a distant gleam of light, he was glad at heart when he saw the light twinkling in the modest house.
The Major, who had heard the clattering of hoofs—and he knew the black horse's trot—called out of the window:—
"Herr Baron von Lichtenburg, are you here so soon?"
"Up to this time my name has been Eric Dournay," replied the horseman. He dismounted, tied the horse to the garden-fence, entered the house, and was welcomed cordially by both of the inmates.
"What's to pay? Is all well?" asked the Major.
Eric relieved the anxiety of the Major, who kept saying:—
"Just see, Fräulein Milch,—don't be afraid to put on your spectacles,—just see! our Herr Eric looks like another being. You're in a fever; how red your lips are!"
Eric could not reply; he could not say that they were still burning with kisses.
The Major went to a cupboard, and mixing a powder in half a glass of water, returned to Eric. Putting his hand on Eric's forehead he said,—
"You had better take something." He then shook into it another powder, so that it effervesced, and Eric had to drink the hissing draught, without another word. The Major made the sage remark that there was nothing in the world so good for all sorts of excitement as a Rochelle powder.
Fräulein Milch, who saw very plainly that Eric had something to communicate, was about to leave the room, but he called out,—
"You are to hear it too, you and my friend here. I entrust it to your true hearts. I am betrothed."
"To Manna?" said Fräulein Milch.
Eric looked amazed, and the Major cried:—
"God be thanked that she lives in our days; in the past dark ages they would have burnt her for a witch. She knows everything, and sees into the future; nobody could ever believe it. But here you have it. As we were sitting together, she said: This very evening Eric and Manna have been betrothed. And when I laughed, she said: Don't laugh, I'll go for a bottle of wine. Look, comrade, there it stands; and she said: They will come here this very evening together. Well, she isn't yet an infallible prophetess, for you've come alone, comrade. Come here, let me kiss you, my heart's brother."
He gave him a hearty kiss, and went on:—
"You have no father, and I,—I'll go with you to the altar when you're married. Give me your hand. And people say, there are no miracles in these days! Every single day there's a miracle wrought, just exactly as much as in the good old times; only we know how to explain it to-day, and in old times they didn't understand it."
Fräulein Milch had uncorked the bottle and filled the glasses.
"Drink with me, my son!" cried the Major. "Drink! real Johannisberg."
They touched glasses, and the Major, emptying his, kissed Eric again, and then said,—
"Whew! You've learned to kiss. Give one to Fräulein Milch, too,—you've my permission. Fräulein Milch, no flinching! Come here—there—give her a kiss. She's a friend,—you've not a better in the world except your mother,—and you'll find out she's more than the whole world knows; you deserve to."
"I beg, Herr Major," Fräulein Milch interrupted with trepidation.
"Very well," said the Major, in a soothing tone, "I'll say nothing more. But now a kiss."
Eric and Fräulein Milch kissed each other, the Fräulein's face turning red as fire.
They now engaged in a friendly talk together, the Major taking special delight that Pranken would not get the magnificent girl and her millions; but his chief satisfaction arose from the convent's being circumvented.
As Eric returned home, late at night, he heard the blackbird still singing: Rejoice in your life!
There was no light in Manna's chamber, but Manna was standing at the window.