He did not reply; but no silence ensued, for she grew more and more talkative in proportion as his reserve increased.
When they reached the vineyard they found that the thick shadows of the grape-leaves made it too dark for them to enter, and Madame Duroc proposed that they should return at once to the house. Then followed a simple incident, now familiar to the world as the memorable events of history. It is but just to say that Steck at the time did not analyze the tender, sincere emotion which it excited in his breast; but in his artist-mind everything photographed itself with such distinctness that almost a lifetime later it recurred to him, and he transferred it to his Homeric page in the exquisite lines which all of us know. There were some large stones, roughly hewn to serve as steps, at the entrance of the vineyard, and they were descending these, when Alide's foot slipped, and she fell in his arms. For a second he supported her, with her hair close to his lips, her trembling form palpitating in his grasp.
She gently sank on his shoulder,
Breast was placed against breast, and cheek against cheek; thus
he stood there,
Fixed as a marble statue, the force of will keeping him steadfast,
Drew her not to him more closely, but braced himself under her
pressure.
She recovered herself almost immediately, and, suffused with shame at her awkwardness, as she expressed it, she hurried forward by his side.
Rahel and Max were already in the porch with the pastor when they arrived. "Did you find it as pleasant as we did?" asked Rahel. "You must have loitered by the way, for we walked as far as the old pear-tree, and yet we are home first."
"It is a rarely beautiful night," answered her mother. "But come, girls, it is time to go in now; and, Otto, I am sure the gentlemen are quite ready, after their journey from Strasburg to-day, to be shown to their room."
"I congratulate you, Dr. Steck," said Max Waldstein, when Otto had bidden the two young men good-night and closed the door of the guest-chamber, "on the result of these serious studies of yours; on your triumphant success in the praiseworthy attempt to examine these pastoral, idyllic lives with entire freedom from personal emotions. Wine, women, and song? Luther was an infant when he wrote it: it is philosophy, mathematics, jurisprudence, that make the world go round. What do you say, Dr. Steck? Have you brought your Phædon in your valise, and shall I fetch it to lull you to sleep? Tell me, am I not an admirable fellow to have introduced you into the original Primrose family?"
"Do not be hard upon me, Max," answered the other, frankly; "I acknowledge myself vanquished, routed, cut to pieces. But no, I will not yield like a craven; it is not open warfare, it is an ambuscade. Instead of warning me of the danger, you lured me into it. It was Rahel who was bewitching, Rahel who was irresistible; and just as I am pluming myself that I have met the enemy, received the full shock of her charge, and come off conqueror, there enters this baby whom you never thought it worth your while to mention, and before she has spoken I am groveling in the dust."
"And it is only your own villainous taste that brought you there," replied Max. "How could I know that you would prefer one of these pink-and-white lasses that spring up as thick as weeds all over Germany, to the sprightly Mademoiselle Rahel, or Olivia, as you have dubbed her? Truly the story is quite complete: the gentleman in disguise may have the honor of passing for Mr. Burchell; and, since scoundrels are not so necessary in common life as in novels, I will undertake the rôle of the nephew, and behave myself better than he did."
"Oh, Max!" interrupted his companion, "tell me, above all things, on your conscience, have you not betrayed me? What can she think of me? What a cursed fool I have made of myself in this execrable costume! Does she know that I am Goethe? I heard you talking freely about me before supper."