Withered Leaves: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3)

by Rudolf von Gottschall

The walk in the forest was undertaken in the happiest mood; the little party of seaside visitors had furnished itself with everything that was necessary. Knitting; packets of coffee and sugar, cakes of every kind, formed the provisions which the careful mothers carried with them, concerning themselves less about the sacred shadows and dwellings of sweet enchantment, than about the arrangements for the afternoon--coffee, which should be prepared at the hospitable hearth of the little forest house. The tall trees rustled, the birds sang, the flowers bloomed, but the respected ladies only heard the coffee-cups rattle in imagination.

Blanden conversed a great deal with the Rath and Räthin, although he came more and more to the conclusion that the interest which he felt in Eva could not be extended to her parents without an effort. The Rath was a pedant who at heart had only a mind for figures and all worldly matters that could be reduced to calculations; the Räthin, too, was accustomed to look upon everything from its business side. In addition, neither was free from that envy which is often an hereditary evil in officials' families, from the envy of those fortunate persons' incomes which are not restricted to small official salaries: a few sallies upon the rich banker's wife, if she walked on in front at a sufficient distance, upon the ostentatious display of her wealth, upon the attempts at being literary which pervaded the whole house, convinced Blanden that the Kalzow family, despite the consciousness of their exalted position, yet in truth belonged to those unhappy persons who are excluded from all the higher enjoyments of life.

Frau Kalzow had another especial cause for animosity towards her wealthy friend; the latter's son, a boy in the first form at the Kneiphof College, devoted particular attention to Eva, and during the walk would not stir from her side, so that it was rendered almost impossible for Herr von Blanden to approach her, as he wished to do. Frau Kalzow employed every legitimate stratagem to entice the promising Salomon away from Eva; she begged him to gather her a blue flower which she had espied far away in the wood, she lost a needle out of her knitting, and Salomon had to go far, far back along the footpath to find this corpus delicti, and restore Frau Räthin's work materials to their entirety; yet he executed all these commissions with great rapidity, and came running back breathlessly, so as to be able to renew his conversation with charming Eva.

"It is remarkable," said he to Eva, "that lyrical poets always praise the woods; I have instituted an album for poetry on the subject, and have been obliged already to buy a third volume from the bookbinder. I can discover nothing particular in a wood; fundamentally it is always the same. Some trunks are darker, others lighter; the leaves larger or smaller, dented or downy, and if one looks through between the stems it always bears the same aspect, and a forester, moreover, certainly only thinks of building or firewood. How different such a wealthy poet's soul! Unfortunately, I do not possess it, my Fräulein; therefore, I make extracts of as much poetry as is possible, so as always to be au fait when sensations amidst the forest's verdure are under discussion. Even Schiller, I believe, had no mind for woodland lyrics; how beautifully he might have described Fridolin's walk to the Eisenhammer. Yet not the forest only, the church he depicts to us. He had only feeling for the Bohemian forests, and when he peopled them with living beings, it was not elves and fairies, but robbers! Ah, the robbers, my Fräulein! I understand that thoroughly! And that Amalie! She is my ideal! How she rushes at Franz with her sword--she must have been blonde, on account of the song that she sings to the guitar; no brunette could possess so much enthusiasm."

Thus, with inexhaustible eloquence, Salomon entertained his companion, who was too good-natured to display her impatience, or to stop him with derision. After all he intended to show her attention and kindliness, and how could she have repaid it with ingratitude? Eva possessed the most delicate good feeling; her mother did not understand this, and now was indignant at the patience, or rather confidential manner, with which Eva treated the young scholar. At last she had recourse to a fiendish measure; the Frau Kanzleiräthin's fat daughter, otherwise a nice girl, had always been disposed to make advances to that talkative Salomon, and Frau Kalzow spurred her on to them with great zeal and inciting insinuations.

Minna actually did soon appear on Salomon's other side, while showing him a butterfly that she had caught with her summer hat. The butterfly roused the lad's interest, which he did not, however, extend to Minna herself; on the contrary, all the remarks that he made about the capture were directed to Eva, it only offered him an opportunity to show himself in a more brilliant light to the latter, because he knew the day and night butterflies as accurately as the forest lyrists, and, as the son of wealthy parents, possessed a splendid collection of those insects.

"This is a rare specimen, a trauer mantel with violet borders; the trauer mantel are distinguished by their borders--Nature has ordained this very wisely; a similar thing occurs with students' caps; the corps which I join is merely distinguished by different borders on its caps from the antagonistic corps with which it always fights. We, too, have our drinking parties my Fräulein, and I preside at these gatherings, but no one as yet has drunk me under the table. But as regards the wisdom of Nature, I find it also imprinted on the Apollo. That butterfly is only found in some few valleys in Silesian and other mountains, which thus possess an especial attraction, and are considered to be worth seeing, and so bring profit to the innkeepers and the inhabitants, for there are more butterfly-seekers than any one would believe, and I know one who even bears caterpillars upon his epaulettes."

Minna was much dejected at the small success of her strategy; deeply shamed, she walked along beside Salomon, casting her good-tempered eyes to the ground, and crushing the poor trauer mantel's head to death.

In the meantime the forester's lodge was reached, and while the other ladies prepared the coffee, Frau Kalzow deemed it expedient to invite Herr von Blanden to a little walk to the weeping willow hill, but recollected that she had forgotten the way thither, and requested Eva to accompany them as guide. Frau Kalzow remained modestly in the rear during this walk; Eva and Blanden could exchange thoughts and feelings uninterruptedly, gather flowers, climb little hills to obtain views; Frau Kalzow maintained her communications with the vanguard by occasionally calling to it.

Eva chatted innocently and fondly of her girlish and childish years, of her school days; Blanden thus had a glimpse of a mind clear as crystal, but which was also possessed of a sense and sympathy for everything loftier, for art and nature, and even for the questions of the day; only about one thing she was silent in her confessions, she did not mention that she was merely the Kalzow's adopted child; she did not mention her mother. She had often enough experienced what interruption to friendly relations had been called forth by such allusions, how it was her mother, who without knowing or wishing it, had exercised so cruel an influence upon her young life; she thought with silent emotion of the beautiful melancholy figure, whose picture still hovered before her mind; but the inexplicable estrangement permitted no warmer sensation to rise; as all the world was shy of and avoided remembering her mother, so she, too, only thought of her in quiet dreams, and dreaded calling up any lurking ill if she mentioned that name before others: this unsolved mystery oppressed her soul, this noli me tangere of her young life; yet there lay so much brightness in her nature that this one single darkening shadow remained unnoticed.