The girl's sharp reproof surprised Egon so much that he was at a loss for a reply. He was used in society to meet with the greatest complaisance from any young lady upon whom he bestowed attention. It is true he understood the reason for this, he knew why the belles of the capital lent so ready an ear to him, manifesting the greatest interest in everything that he said, and from this knowledge he had acquired the habit--now become to him second nature--of treating them with an easy air of superiority. He was consequently greatly surprised to find a girl scarcely more than a child administering to him for the second time to-day a rebuke which he could not but be conscious was well merited. He was really in some embarrassment as to how he should reply to her, when he was fortunately relieved of the necessity for doing so.
The discussion of the important agricultural matters which had claimed Herr von Osternau's entire attention, and had been listened to with such interest by his wife that she had paid no heed to the conversation between the Candidate and her daughter, came to an end after Herr von Osternau had arranged operations for the next day, and he now turned to Egon, saying, kindly, "You must have been somewhat bored, Herr Pigglewitch: you can hardly take any great interest in agricultural pursuits, but if you are to live at Castle Osternau I trust you will find some in what concerns us here so nearly. It will come, I think, on a closer acquaintance with the subject. The management of an extensive landed estate, the pursuit of agriculture, always seems to one town-bred as an inferior, unintellectual occupation. To him the ordinary peasant is stupidity personified,--a man who follows his plough like some soulless machine,--and the landed proprietor is but slightly the superior of his peasants. Among our titled official circles, if a son is too dull for diplomacy they make a soldier of him, and if there are fears as to his passing his examination as an officer he is thought at all events clever enough for agriculture. They buy him an estate, and should he find a clever, well-taught superintendent, the machinery of his farms works well, and the opinion that the dullest fellow is not too dull for an agricultural career receives confirmation. The poor development of our agricultural resources in many parts of our country is owing to this wretched prejudice. The larger number of landed proprietors have no idea of the significance of their vocation, they farm after the fashions which have been handed down to them through long generations, without a thought of the study which should be devoted to the agriculture of to-day. For the enlightened management of a large farming interest a constant and keen observation of nature's methods is required, and an understanding that must be well directed by a cultivated intellect. It is so easy to tread the well-worn paths that our forefathers have trod, and in doing so one wins approval as a practical farmer from those who are always ready to point out the mistakes of others whom they regard as given over to theories, never suspecting how study might enable them to treble the produce of their fields and meadows. The intelligent farmer makes science his servant, by whom he wrings nature's secrets from her and turns them to the best advantage. The smallest agricultural details are of importance to him, for through exactitude in these the whole vast machinery of a large estate is kept in order, and small results will be reached by those who despise them. But I hardly meant, Herr Pigglewitch, to deliver you a lecture upon agriculture. I only wish to prove to you that an interest in the details of a large farming establishment is not so tiresome and belittling as you may have hitherto believed. When you have been here some time you will begin to perceive the complicated wheel-work of the vast machine, and will perhaps take some pleasure in our daily discussion of agricultural matters."
Egon listened attentively to this long explanation, and as he did so a new sphere of ideas lay revealed before him. He himself possessed an extensive estate in Western Prussia, Plagnitz, which he had inherited from his mother, but he had never concerned himself in the slightest degree with its management; indeed, he had never visited it but once, when, after a stay of somewhat less than a week, he had left it with the determination never to see it again, so flat, stale, and unprofitable did life seem to him in a country where the scenery was not particularly fine, in an old manor-house that might have been a mediæval castle. His administrator, who bore the reputation of a good, practical agriculturist, was interested in nothing save rye and wheat, cows and sheep. Upon no other subject could a word be exchanged either with him or with his wife, who was an admirable housekeeper. He had conducted his young master through stalls and stables, and would, if allowed, have told him the history and pedigree of every horse and ox. He knew just how much milk every cow gave daily, and the number of calves born on the estate in a year, all which details he was desirous of giving to his master. The sheep were passed in review before their lord, and the administrator grew enthusiastic over the merits of Negrettis and Merinos. Egon hardly understood a word of his explanation, and was simply bored. Then horses were brought, and the two men rode over the entire estate. Egon was called upon to admire the crops, when he really did not know the difference between wheat, oats, and rye. Everything that the administrator admired tired his master. Egon was delighted to leave Plagnitz at the end of four days; he made up his mind that nothing was more stupid or conducive to intellectual torpor than the pursuit of agriculture. Since this visit he had not even read his administrator's letters; he gave them to some one of his father's clerks to answer, and drew from his father's bank the income from the estate, heedless whether it was as large as it ought to be or not. Such details were too insignificant to occupy his attention. He had more money than he knew how to spend. He really had not thought of his West Prussian estate for a long time, when it suddenly occurred to him during Herr von Osternau's discourse. With the remembrance of it came, however, the memory of the intolerable tedium of his visit there. Could it have been his own ignorance that made the management of his estate so utterly devoid of interest for him? Was his administrator one of the practical farmers spoken of by Herr von Osternau? Was it possible to introduce more enlightened methods at Plagnitz,--methods with a scientific basis, which might make of it a model for the cultivation of the surrounding estates? He would consider this when he returned to Berlin. But should he ever return to Berlin? Had he then quite relinquished the purpose for which he had left the capital? His present existence was to have been only a short episode before the close of a useless career, and here he was thinking of the future and of something to be done after a while. It was folly. He must live in the present, there was no future for him.
For a moment he lost himself in memory and reflection. He was recalled to the present by a sneering remark of the Lieutenant's: "You are preaching to deaf ears, my dear cousin. Herr Pigglewitch does not find your admonitions worth listening to."
"You are mistaken, Herr Lieutenant," Egon rejoined, hastily, "I have not only been listening attentively, but have been drawing conclusions from what Herr von Osternau has been saying which may prove of advantage to me, and for which I thank him. I frankly confess that I have hitherto had no idea that the cultivation of the soil required any amount of intellectual capacity, and I cannot tell whether I shall ever feel any real interest in agriculture. At present I am so absolutely ignorant upon the subject that the meaning of various words and phrases that fell upon my ear during your discussion, as, for instance, four-course rotation, naked fallow, extirpator, is unknown to me."
Herr von Osternau laughed at the young man's frank confession of ignorance, at which Frau von Osternau was much surprised.
"You amaze me, Herr Pigglewitch," she said. "Director Kramser wrote me that you were the son of a country clergyman and had been brought up in the country."
"Again I have made a blunder," thought Egon. "Impudence, befriend me!" and, without seeming at all confused, he turned to the lady of the house. "I confess, to my shame, madame," he replied, "that as a boy I had a great dislike for every sort of occupation not connected with my books. And then the small farm attached to a country parsonage is a very insignificant affair. I took no kind of interest in it then, nor did my tastes change with years. A teacher who is not content with inferiority in his training has very little time for any occupation save what is connected with his future vocation."
"Ah! with such incessant study you must have become wonderfully learned," the Lieutenant observed.
Egon took no notice of the remark: he was only too glad that he had been able to satisfy the mistress of the house without telling a direct falsehood. He saw that he had come off conqueror when Frau von Osternau gave him a kindly nod and said, "You have turned your time to good account, Herr Pigglewitch, your wonderful music to-day was proof of that. I can understand how long and how diligent has been the practice which has given you so brilliant an execution. The expression, the feeling in your playing cannot be taught or learned, it is a God-given inspiration possessed by comparatively few of us. I shall be too happy if you are able to call forth only a hint of it in my children."