"Spare your pleasantries, gentlemen!" said the Director with some vexation in his tone. "I wish one of you had been honoured with this confounded post. I have had enough of it!"
The entire staff of officials connected with the great Berkow mines was assembled in full dress at the foot of the terrace running before the château. Built in the style of an elegant and modern villa with a handsome façade, great plate-glass windows and a fine entrance, the house produced a striking effect, which was still further heightened by the tasteful gardens surrounding it on all sides, and looking specially beautiful to-day in their fête-like dress.
The conservatories had evidently been stripped of their richest treasures for the decoration of the steps, balconies and terraces. The rarest and most precious plants, so seldom brought in contact with the outer air, unfolded here their wealth of colour, and perfumed the air with their sweet scents. On the broad lawns stood fountains, throwing high into the air their sparkling waters, and round them, most carefully cultivated, bloomed all the native beauties of spring in her first awakening. At the chief entrance a lofty triumphal arch was reared, all decked with flags and garlands, and the great gates, thrown wide open, were also twined with flowers.
"I have had enough of it!" repeated the Director, stepping up to the other gentlemen. "Herr Berkow demands the most brilliant reception possible, and thinks he has done everything when he gives us unlimited credit. As to the good-will of the people, he never takes that into account. Well and good, if we had the working men of twenty years ago to deal with! When, for once in a way, there came an off-day then, any kind of a holiday with a dance in the evening, one need never be anxious about the way they would cheer; but now--what with passive indifference on the one hand, and open hostility on the other, they were very near refusing to give any reception at all to their young master and his bride. If you go back to town to-morrow, Herr Schäffer, it would do no harm, in your report of our festive doings, to let a hint drop of the state of things. It seems they either do not, or will not, know of it there."
"That I certainly shall not!" returned the other. "Do you care to listen to our respected governor's very polite language when he has to hear of anything unpleasant? As for me, I prefer at such times to retire to the greatest possible distance from his august person."
The others laughed; it hardly seemed as though the absent master were held in much veneration among them.
"So he really has brought about the grand marriage," began the chief engineer. "He has given himself trouble enough about it. It will be some compensation for that patent of nobility which has been hitherto so persistently denied him, and for which, above all else, his soul yearns. He has, at least, the triumph of seeing that the noble old houses feel no prejudice against him as a plain commoner. The Windegs are willing to ally themselves with him."
Herr Schäffer shrugged his shoulders. "They had no choice left. The embarrassed state of the family affairs is no secret in the city. I doubt if it has been an easy thing to the proud Baron to give up his daughter on such a speculation. The Windegs have always been, not only among the oldest, but also among the haughtiest of the aristocracy; but even pride must bend to a bitter necessity."
"One thing is certain, this grand connection will cost us a famous sum of money," said the Director. "The Baron is sure to have made his conditions. Besides, I really do not see the object of all these sacrifices. I could understand it, if they were made with a view to buying rank and a title for a daughter, but Herr Arthur will be just as plebeian as before, in spite of his wife's ancient lineage."
"Do you think so? I would wager not. They will grant to the husband of a Baroness Windeg-Babenau, to the Baron's son-in-law, all that his father has striven for in vain; and, as for the latter, in his daughter-in-law's salon, nothing can hinder him from meeting all the people who have hitherto held him at a respectful distance. Don't tell me! The governor knows well enough what this marriage will bring him in, and so he can afford to pay something for the cost of it."