"Oh! pray don't," said the Assessor.
Ottilie Wollnow made no answer. She knew her husband too well to have the gloomy expression of his eyes and the cloud on his brow escape her notice, in spite of his apparent unconcern. Besides, she had a foreboding that Gotthold's interview with her husband had not been quite so innocent as it seemed, that there was something disagreeable, perhaps some misfortune impending, and above all, she was convinced that the Selliens were getting into a passion in vain, and Gotthold would not appear at breakfast.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The little company at Dollan had already been wandering for half an hour up and down the rain-soaked paths in the garden, between the dripping hedges, waiting for the arrival of Assessor Sellien and dinner.
"You're a pretty fellow," cried Hans Redebas, who was walking with Otto von Plüggen, as Brandow with Gustav von Plüggen and Pastor Semmel met him on the same spot for the third time: "first you invite us to meet some one who vanishes in the dew and mist; then it occurs to your lovely wife, on whose account we all come here, to have a headache and not appear; and finally, we're kept waiting for the Assessor, and wandering around your old wet garden like horses in a tread-mill! I'll give you ten minutes, and if we don't sit down to the table by that time I'll have my horses harnessed, and we'll dine in Dahlitz, and not badly either. What do you say to that, Pastor?"
And Herr Redebas laughed and clapped the Pastor, who had come with him in his carriage, rudely on the shoulder. Brandow laughed too, and said they must have patience; it was not his fault that the Assessor had not arrived, and things had gone contrary that day; the dinner had been ready a long time.
"Then in the name of three devils, let's go to the table, or I shall faint away," cried Herr Redebas.
It was by no means probable that this man, with the frame and strength of a giant, would be overcome by such a sudden attack of weakness; but Brandow had every reason not to increase the ill-humor of his guests. Already, to shorten the time before dinner, they had played a game of cards, in which the Pastor took no share except by his intense interest, and lost a few hundred thalers. To be sure, the amount was very little in comparison to the sum he owed his visitors; but they had been irritated by the loss, and took the less care to conceal their annoyance as Brandow still uttered no word in allusion to the business for whose settlement they had really assembled. Undoubtedly he was unable to pay. To be sure, they had expected it, nay, in point of fact, the whole transaction which Hans Redebas and the two Plüggens had jointly undertaken was based upon this supposition; but now each was not sorry to consider himself in the light of a man of honor, whose confidence had been most shamefully betrayed.
Herr Redebas, especially, was in a very irritable mood. The conditions to which, at the conclusion of the mutual bargain, he had agreed, pleased him less and less every moment. Why had he not required the whole sum to be paid, or else claimed for his share the second stake Brandow had offered in addition to Brownlock, his wheat-harvest? The wheat, as he had just convinced himself, was an exceptionably, unexpectedly fine crop; it would have brought in a very large profit; while the horse, after all, was a doubtful bargain. Since the committee had included a large tract of marsh land in the course laid out for the race between the gentlemen riders, the chances in favor of Brownlock, which was universally considered too heavy a horse, were very considerably lessened. And, moreover, what had such a sedate, man as Hans Redebas to do with such things, which, after all, were only fit for the nobility? It would be better for the two Plüggens to see what they could make of the horse! It was their trade; they understood it, and so in God's name let them take the beast for their ten thousand, and leave him the wheat crop! But this time, in spite of the proverbial want of harmony that prevailed between them, the two brothers made common cause. The bargain had been settled, and every one must rest satisfied with it; if Hans Redebas fancied he was the only one who could see into a thing, he'd find himself greatly mistaken. Therefore, as Herr Redebas could not vent his anger upon his two companions, he thought himself entitled to treat Brandow with all the more rudeness and want of consideration. Even before dinner he had shown this disposition to an extravagant degree, and the wine, of which he drank immense quantities at the table, in spite of its many other excellent qualities, did not possess that of improving the giant's temper.
At any other time it would have been an easy matter for Brandow to parry his antagonist's coarse jests and turn the laugh against him; nay, he was usually considered among his associates to be a man whom one could not offend, with impunity; but to-day his dreaded powers of sarcasm, as well as his often tested courage, seemed to have deserted him. He did not hear what could not have been inaudible, did not understand what no one could fail to comprehend, laughed when he would usually have started up in fury, and with pale trembling lips tried as well as he could to give the conversation a jesting turn, for which purpose he grasped at more and more questionable expedients, and at last related anecdotes, which even to the long-suffering Pastor, seemed altogether too scandalous.