The Lieutenant could not meet his cousin's flashing eyes, before which he cast down his own. The fire of his anger had quickly died out, but from his very soul he hated this insolent plebeian Candidate who had thus humiliated him. And he must apologize to him,--he must, he could not refuse to do so. He knew how stern was his cousin's resolve when once made known, how implacable his resentment when once it had found a lodgement in his kindly nature. There was no choice left him. What was he to do if his generous relative refused to shelter him? He thought of the future with horror. He had lost at play during his occasional visits to Berlin the entire large sum of this year's salary received for his unimportant services at Osternau, and had contracted debts for which he was continually dunned, although his creditors knew that they would be paid, as had so frequently been the case before, by his magnanimous cousin. How should he satisfy them if he were banished from Castle Osternau?
"Well, Cousin Albrecht, I await your decision."
The Lieutenant bit his lip; he could no longer hesitate; he must submit to the humiliation, but he registered a mental vow that he would avenge it upon the man who had been the cause of it. His task now was to make this humiliation as little apparent as possible: so, although the blood tingled in his veins, he forced himself to appear calm, as he replied to his cousin, "There really was no need of harsh words from you, Cousin Fritz, to induce me to recall a thoughtless expression, which I regretted as soon as I perceived that it had been misunderstood. I had no idea of styling Herr Pigglewitch a professional gambler, and I should have told him this, and asked to be excused for my misunderstood expression, had he not demanded with such an air of menace the satisfaction which the difference in our rank makes it impossible that I should give him. This declaration, to which I add that I had no intention to offend, and that I gladly retract any expression that could be considered insulting, will, I hope, entirely accord with your wishes."
"Entirely, and I think Herr Pigglewitch too will be quite satisfied," said Herr von Osternau, kindly, offering Albrecht his hand.
Egon bowed. He was not satisfied, but the Candidate Pigglewitch was forced to be so since Herr von Osternau was. Egon von Ernau would have rejected the apology and demanded again the satisfaction that had been denied him, finding in the reference to a difference of rank a fresh insult, but in the Candidate Pigglewitch such conduct would be unjustifiable, he must submit to seem content. He was even forced to admit that his adversary had gone farther to conciliate him than was absolutely necessary when, upon leaving the room to ride out to the harvest-fields, the haughty Lieutenant von Osternau offered him his hand in token of amity.
CHAPTER VI.
[SOLIMAN'S TRICKS].
It is no easy matter to be a tutor! This was the sum of Egon von Ernau's reflections as he sat at the study-table in his sitting-room an hour after the late scene with the Lieutenant, awaiting his little pupil. When Albrecht left the billiard-room, Herr and Frau von Osternau had a conversation with their new tutor concerning the course they wished him to pursue with their son. Frau von Osternau was desirous that the child should not be kept too long at his books. She thought that with two hours of daily instruction he could soon learn to read, write, and cipher, which was all that need be thought of at present. If, in addition, Herr Pigglewitch would give him a music-lesson every day, Fritz would be sufficiently occupied, at least for the first few months. Any excess of application was sure to be a physical disadvantage to the child, and his physical health and strength were the first considerations.
These views certainly differed widely from any that Egon had found in the teachers who had conducted his own education; nevertheless they seemed reasonable, and he undertook, by Frau von Osternau's desire, to give Fritz his first hour of instruction on the same afternoon.
For the first hour, which was to begin at five o'clock, he was now preparing himself. It had suddenly occurred to him upon his return to his room that he really had no conception of how to teach a boy to read and write. He had but the faintest remembrance of how he had been taught himself, and there was besides a dim idea in his mind of having heard somewhere that the old methods were no longer in use, that children were not taught first to read and then to write, but that there was a way by which both arts could be acquired at the same time, and with surprising rapidity. What could it be?