"He is a fine-looking man, though," said the banker's wife.
"He is not my ideal of manliness! I like men such as William Tell, powerful, plain and sterling; he has such a soft, dreamy expression in his face, at the same time such a superior, polite smile, and a pair of eyes which no one can make out; now they look as if they had disappeared; then again gleam diabolically, now small, now large; eyes, as to the nature of which no one can form a decision. Yet, I have read somewhere that girls like that. What success Don Juan had, mamma! His register that Leporello unrolls is longer than the menu at the largest hotel! But it is not that alone, believe me, mamma; it is being a nobleman! The influence which rank exercises upon love is very great! Those who have nothing particular about them, excepting being noblemen--and it does prepossess people--have married the most beautiful girls. How often have I not already said that papa ought to have himself ennobled! With his money and his connexions it would be a trifle; but you do absolutely nothing to smoothe my path through life--to assist me to success. Some portion would fall to your share, too; you would like to be gnädige Frau, and it is impossible to give that to oneself."
While Salomon told his troubles to his mother, and as he added would try his luck with Eva once more, another rival of Blanden's had arrived unexpectedly, and was present at this forest-party, the young poet Schöner, who for a short time at least had applied for a place in Eva's heart, and had striven to be successful in obtaining it. But since that encounter with the singer, Eva had renounced him so completely that she treated him with conspicuous coldness.
Had he not accompanied the admired virtuoso, on the whole of her tour, back to the capital, and only left her when she made a trip into the country with a female friend, to Lithuania or Masuren, and forbade the young poet to escort her farther?
Schöner easily recovered all these slights and resigned himself to the existing state of affairs; he hoped soon to reconquer the lost position; he sunned himself with such self-satisfaction in the glory of an easily-gained, doubtful fame, that he was less susceptible of smaller defeats.
In addition, his spirits, like his poetry, were still sparkling champagne, and a certain youthful unripeness did not become him badly; his nature owned tokens of genius which promised that he would overcome it.
Blanden, with that subtle discrimination which was peculiar to him, soon remarked that Eva's indifference did not appear to be at all natural in this case, that slight defiance, something repellant lay in it, indicating former connection. He looked more closely at his rival, who did not displease him at all, and in whose poetical attempts he had already been interested, and found remarkable consolation in the former's turned-down shirt-collar, and in his unpolished thorn stick. He considered the entire toilet hopeless for a matrimonial candidate, that the heart of an educated girl, who aims at a domestic hearth, could not possibly repose any confidence in such a wooer.
Yet love, which allows itself to be won by an enthusiast and a pair of glowing eyes--had it no chance in the game?
Schöner was so engrossed by the political paroxysm of that period, that this intoxicated idealism lent him most infectious enthusiasm. He acknowledged himself to be Herwegh's disciple, and when he recited that poet's verses, the beautiful, powerful voice in which he declaimed them, always called forth a kindred feeling in his listeners.
He recited with the enthusiasm with which, at that period, these poetical fire-brands were hurled into the air, and, at the same time, heat the oak-branches with his thorn-stick, until the leaves whirled to the ground.