This angry outbreak only increased the doctor's tipsy merriment. "You're a wonderfully fine old fellow!" he said, vainly trying to steady his voice. "But, still, you're an old coward, afraid of your own shadow, and a skinflint into the bargain! But never mind, we're the best of friends, and I'll stand by you in this matter with your wife's son. He shall not hurt you, depend upon me. But we'll have no more of the stupid old story to-day: we'll drink and be merry. Take a glass, you old sinner; come, and don't put such a d----d wry face on the matter."
He held out to Herr von Heydeck a glass of wine as he spoke, but the old man rejected it angrily. He had been so absorbed by interest in his own narrative that he had not until this moment noticed the condition of his listener. What advice or aid could he look for from this sot? "You are drunk again," he said with contempt. "Go home and sleep it off!"
This was just what the doctor desired. He knew that his brain was confused, and that he was not in a condition to talk without betraying his secret intentions; therefore he had feigned to be more drunk than he really was, hoping thus to end the conversation for to-day. "You may be right, old Solomon!" he exclaimed, with a loud laugh. "I am a little cloudy, and a nap can do me no harm. I'll come again tomorrow and have another talk. Sleep in peace; you need not be afraid; you and I are more than a match for the young fellow!"
He arose, and although he knew he had already drunk too much, he could not withstand the temptation of the glass that was standing filled upon the table, but emptied it before he turned towards the door. Then, nodding a familiar farewell to Herr von Heydeck, who took no notice of it, he left the room by the same door by which he had entered. When he reached Melcher's apartment he thought his head felt less confused and that his gait was sufficiently steady to justify his refusing the old man's proffered guidance down the mountain, and accordingly he left the castle alone.
As he reached the court-yard a cool breeze was blowing down the valley from the snow-mountains in the north, and by the time he had crossed the bridge the wine had produced its full effect upon him. So far from being able to reflect upon the best way in which to carry out his schemes, he needed all the mind he could muster to provide for his safety in descending the mountain. His capacity for thought was not quite destroyed, although his brain was thoroughly bewildered.
CHAPTER XII.
"Two weeks to spend in hobbling from the bed to the sofa, and from the sofa to the bed! it is insufferable!" Herwarth exclaimed when he was again alone with Paul, after Dr. Putzer had left his room.
In his vexation he did not meet with much sympathy from his friend. "You are wrong, noble knight," Paul replied, mockingly. "You will not only suffer it, but after a while you will admit that this enforced rest is highly beneficial for both of us. I at least am always delighted to have a good excuse for luxurious idleness. With what ecstasy shall I now survey from a distance the blue ice-rifts in the glaciers, in the consciousness that I am not called upon to ascend them in the sweat of my brow! I verily believe, my dear Herwarth, that you divined my secret wishes, and in heroic self-sacrifice sprained your knightly ankle to do me pleasure, that I might lounge and dawdle here for two weeks. It was true magnanimity on your part, my noble friend. We shall have some delightful days together. I will send for piles of books from Innspruck and Bozen, and I have any quantity of good cigars,--that is, as good as can be had in this confounded Austria. Oh, we will idle away the time gloriously!"
"Do you think I shall allow you to sit still here in the inn on my account while such delightful excursions are to be made all round the country?"
"On your account? You know perfectly well that you have nothing to do with it, noble knight. I act to please myself. I follow my inclination for the dolce far niente--for a season of repose after all these nonsensical, tiresome mountain-ascents, of which I have had in the last week enough to last me my lifetime. I have a horror of your delightful excursions, where your only gain is an unquenchable thirst. The view of the mountains from below is far finer than that of the valleys from above. I will have none of your mountain-excursions."