All this had naturally a very disastrous effect on Pfeiffer’s mind. He saw himself every where crossed and hampered in his work and in his efforts; and labors which he had formerly performed with zeal and pleasure now fretted and annoyed him. At length he lost a portion of his energy, and what he did brought him little or no advantage.
Thus the social position of the Pfeiffers became more and more critical from day to day. As a skillful lawyer, Dr. Pfeiffer had earned a considerable income at Lemberg; but he had liked to live in good style, kept carriages and horses, and a good table, and had not thought of providing for the future. Many people who knew his generosity made use of him, and borrowed his money. Thus Ida’s paternal inheritance vanished also, being lent to a friend of Pfeiffer’s, whom it was to help out of his embarrassments. The man failed in spite of the loan, and thus the whole fortune was lost.
After vainly seeking employment in Vienna, Dr. Pfeiffer returned, with his wife, to Lemberg, but afterward came back again to Vienna, and at length even tried his fortune in Switzerland, his native country, where he had, however, only passed the earliest years of his life. But fortune would nowhere smile upon him, and bitter poverty knocked at the door of the family.
“Heaven only knows what I suffered during eighteen years of my married life!” exclaims Ida Pfeiffer; “not, indeed, from any ill treatment on my husband’s part, but from poverty and want. I came of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed from my earliest youth to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew not where I should lay my head, or find a little money to buy the commonest necessaries. I performed household drudgery, and bore cold and hunger; I worked secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and music; and yet, in spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I could hardly put any thing but dry bread before my poor children for their dinner.
“I might certainly have applied to my mother or my brothers for relief, but my pride revolted against such a course. For years I fought with poverty and concealed my real position, often brought so near to despair that the thought of my children alone prevented me from giving way. At last the urgency of my necessities broke my spirit, and several times I had recourse to my brothers for assistance.”
Ida Pfeiffer had two sons. A daughter was born to her, but only lived a few days. The education of the children devolved entirely upon the mother; and as the younger showed a great appreciation for music, she took great pains to cultivate his talents.
In the year 1831 old Madame Reyer died. During the long illness which preceded her death she was tended by her daughter with the most affectionate care. After her mother’s death Ida betook herself again to Lemberg, from whence Dr. Pfeiffer had again written, announcing that he had a sure prospect of employment. He was now sixty years old, and lived in a state of constant illusion; a mere promise was sufficient to inspire him with the greatest confidence in the future. After experiencing a series of hopes and disappointments during a period of two years, she returned to Vienna, where she could at least obtain for her sons a better education.
At her mother’s death she had not, indeed, come into a great property, but she inherited enough to keep her in a respectable style, and to provide good teachers for her children. In 1835 she settled definitely in Vienna. Dr. Pfeiffer remained in Lemberg, where he was kept by force of habit, and by his affection for his son by his first marriage. From time to time, however, he visited Vienna to see his wife and children.
During a journey to Trieste which Ida Pfeiffer undertook with her youngest son, in order that he might have sea-baths, she enjoyed her first sight of the ocean. The impression made upon her by the sea was overpowering. The dreams of her youth came back, with visions of distant unexplored climes, teeming with strange, luxuriant vegetation; an almost irresistible impulse for travel arose in her, and she would gladly have embarked in the first ship to sail away into the great, mysterious, boundless ocean. Her duty toward her children alone restrained her; and she felt happy when she had quitted Trieste, and miles of mountain and plain intervened between the sea and herself, for the longing to see the world had weighed like a mountain on her spirit in the maritime city.
Returning to the routine of every-day life in Vienna, she still secretly nourished the wish that her health and strength might be spared until her sons should have been established in life, and she should be enabled to go out into the world depending on her own resources alone. This wish of hers was to be fulfilled. Her sons grew and throve, and became prosperous, successful men in their profession.