E. Werner

“ What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies immeasurably far from what is happiness to me."
"Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect with the word?" said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. "Happiness is a brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a husband who, under all circumstances, can be a support to you. That is offered to you with the hand of a man"--
"Whom I don't even know," interrupted Jessie.
"But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen him. ”

“ Gustave continued in a serious tone--
"Jessie, too, urges me to a declaration, and, I see, cannot comprehend my hesitation. She does not understand the circumstances, but believes that you are a stranger to her guardian, who has won his affection, and to whom he would gladly open his arms. But we"--here he seized Frida's hand, and grasped it firmly in his own--"we know better, my poor child! We know that you have to struggle with a gloomy hatred which has already poisoned his life, and has rooted itself so firmly in that life that a few kind words cannot banish it. ”

“ I do not urge you to decide either to-day or to-morrow, but await nevertheless with certainty your assent to my wishes."
"Never!" cried Jessie, flaming out. "To belong to a man who sees in me merely a paragraph in a business contract; to an egoist who sacrifices to his material gain all that is holy and dear to others! Never! Never!"
Sandow took little or no notice of this passionate outburst. If Jessie had been his daughter he would have simply commanded and forced her to follow his wishes, but he knew too well the limits of his power as guardian to attempt anything of the kind here. ”

“ Between Miss Clifford's delicate brows appeared a deep frown of displeasure.
"I acknowledge, Mr. Sandow, that your tone and your whole manner of treating Frida are quite incomprehensible to me. You treat her completely as a child that must obey implicitly your higher will, and seem quite to forget that she must take a place at your side some day."
"She must first be educated for it," said Gustave condescendingly. "At present she is scarcely sixteen, and I am thirty, therefore the child must look on me with respect." ”

“ Her eyes followed Sandow, who was just disappearing behind the shrubbery. Now she turned and said--
"I can deceive him no longer. As long as he was hard and cold I might have done it; now, the falsehood crushes me to the earth!"
"Cast the whole responsibility on me," said Gustave encouragingly. "I have placed you in this position, have woven the 'intrigue,' as Miss Clifford so flatteringly expresses it; I will also bear the responsibility when the moment for explanation comes. But now the watchword is 'forward!' and we must not fail for a moment. When we are so near our aim, we must persevere. ”

“ Sandow replied not one word. He had turned away and looked grave and motionless out into the mist. Immovable, as if chained to the spot, he listened to every word which came with ever-increasing passion and excitement from the youthful lips.
"I saw myself, on board the steamer which brought also hundreds of emigrants here, how much anxiety and care such a ship carries, how many hopes and fears. Happiness is seldom the cause which forces them to leave their home. With so many it is the last hope, the last attempt to create a new home for themselves out here. ”

“ I could not believe that the pen from which flowed such glowing words should serve for the future to write figures, and only figures; that the undaunted champion should of his own free-will throw down his weapons, and quit the lists, to take a comfortable seat at the office desk. I doubted the possibility till the moment of your arrival, and that I must at last believe it--that is the bitterest disappointment of my life!"
Jessie felt herself to be drawn on by her excitement to insult the man who sat before her, but she cared not for that. ”

“ It is important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you."
An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her fortune.
Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the air of infallibility with which it was pronounced showed her that Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. ”

“ I always thought you frivolous, but not so dishonourable, but that you have, almost under the eyes of Jessie, your promised bride"--
"Frank, stop there!" cried Gustave, with such determination that Sandow, although trembling with rage, was silent. "I cannot allow this, my self-sacrifice will not go so far as that. Frida, come to me. You see that we must speak. He must learn the truth." ”

“ Yes, it is hard, at your age, when all should be joy and sunshine, to be already so deeply plunged in hatred and disunion, in the whole misery of human life. It has been hard enough to me to reveal all this to you; but it entered with such force into your life that it was imperative for you to know it. And my Frida does not belong to the weak and vacillating, she has something of the energy, and, alas, something of the hardness of a certain other nature. So bravely forwards, we must conquer in the end! ”

“ Frida crept to his side. He did not look at her at that moment, he could not, but he felt the anxious, imploring look, and the trembling of the hand which clasped his own.
"Now it is your turn to speak," said the man, turning half angrily to his companions, who had entirely left the management of the affair to him. "You, too, have wives and children, and have spent your last penny on the journey. Yes, Mr. Sandow, there are poor devils among us who have nothing but their strong arms, and can count on nothing but their labour. ”

“ Only America was open to him, that refuge of so many shattered existences. Despairing of himself and of the world, poor and with the prison stain upon his brow, he went there, but it was the turning point in his life. There he rose from deepest misery to riches and splendour.
From that time success had remained true to Frank Sandow. Whatever he ventured brought the richest returns, and soon he found only too much pleasure in these ventures. ”

“ Where humanity is concerned my opinions are in the highest degree Christian," declared Sandow solemnly.
Jessie's lips curled scornfully at the word "humanity," but the thing began to interest her, so she asked--
"Then you wish for an invitation to our house for"--
"Miss Frida Palm, that is her name."
"I will speak to my guardian about it, and if he is willing"--
"Oh! pray do not; that is just what I am most anxious to avoid," interrupted Gustave. "I do not wish my brother to know anything of my appeal to you. ”

“ Against one's will it recalls one's own youthful days. She still clings so fast to her enthusiastic ideas, to her dreams of happiness to come, and cannot understand that the outer world should look on things under such a different aspect. Foolish, childish ideas, which will fall away of themselves in the rough school of the world, but while one listens to them all one's lost beliefs by degrees revive again."
Again his voice had that peculiar softened tone, which those even who best knew the merchant had never heard from his lips, and which seemed like an echo from some older, happier time. ”

“ His auger at the deception burst forth with great violence, and was poured unsparingly upon us both. Frida could not support this, she declared she would go at once, and now is, most probably, making the necessary preparations for her journey."
"And you are not with her!" cried Jessie. "You have not protected and supported her! Can you leave her alone at such a moment? Go to her!"
"I should only be in the way," declared Gustave, with a composure which appeared to Miss Clifford as the height of selfishness. "What remains to be done Frida must fight out alone. ”

“ He seemed to have touched the right chord, for in the trembling tone with which Frida replied lay the plainest proof of its truth.
"Yes, an inexpressible home-sickness!"
"Naturally, you have been such a short time here," said Sandow, carelessly. "All Germans feel that at first, but it soon passes away. If one is lucky in the New World one is glad to forget old times, and in the end rejoices at having turned one's back on them. ”

“ Around Gustave Sandow's lips played a half ironical smile as he replied--
"Do you, then, think it is a settled thing that she will become my wife? At present I seem to have the most brilliant prospects of refusal."
"Stupid girlish whims! nothing more. She has taken it into her head that marriage must be preceded by a love romance. But you"--and here Sandow's eyes rested on his brother's handsome person--"it need not be difficult for you to gain ground with her, and my authority will do the rest. Jessie is far too dependent a character not to be led at last." ”

“ He dragged the quiet and timorous Clifford with him into the boldest and fool-hardiest speculations, and, as since his death, the reins had been entirely in his own hands, he could now brook no control.
There was something almost terrible in this restless, unceasing, hunt for gain in a man, who heaped up riches, but had no one for whom to gather them. But man must have something to cling to, something to give an aim and object to his life, and when the nobler good is lost, it is often the demon of gold which makes itself lord of the empty shrine. ”

“ What Gustave's energetic representations could not produce, this childish chatter had succeeded in doing. The earnest warnings of his brother had brought no effect on the merchant, he cast them off contemptuously as "sentimental notions," as the "ideas of a novice," and finally silenced him with a threat.
He had long been unaccustomed to take the weal and woe of others into consideration in his calculations. "One must reckon with men as with figures!" That was the principle of his life, and the foundation of his riches. ”

“ Apparently overwhelmed, Gustave drooped his head.
"I acknowledge it."
"And for more than one reason you fear that your brother will be opposed to this interest."
"I allow that too."
"Therefore Miss Palm is to appear unacknowledged in our house, that, through her personal qualities she may gain sympathy and consideration, until you may venture to declare the truth."
"Miss Clifford, you have incredible penetration," said Gustave, in the tone of deepest admiration. "It is quite impossible to hide anything from you. Now that you have so completely seen through me, may I reckon on your support?" ”

“ Gustave pointed across it, while he put his arm round his future wife.
"There lies my native land, Jessie! In a few weeks it will also be your home, as it was the home of your own mother, and as such you will learn to love it. What my brother declared this morning may be true--that here the intellectual field too, is wider and freer than with us, that one rises more rapidly here, and wields a mightier power, even with the pen. With us just now, our first duty is to hold high our flag in the midst of the hottest fight, and to defend it with the whole strength of our lives. ”

“ You look flushed and tearful, and you must do away with these signs of excitement. Meanwhile, I will wait here for Jessie. We have not had one dispute to-day, and a wrangle has become one of the necessities of life to me, which I cannot do without."
Frida obeyed. She left the drawing-room, crossed the terrace, and descended into the garden. Slowly she walked through the beautiful park-like grounds, which stretched down to the shore, and on which the whole skill of the landscape gardener had been spent; but the spot she sought, lay in the most distant part of the garden. ”

“ Then he concealed the best feelings of his heart from a cowardly fear of losing that brother's wealth; he heaped intrigue on intrigue to secure the coveted riches, then denied his bride rather than risk the fortune, and again courted the heiress. The most miserable selfishness, the most paltry calculations, were the mainsprings of his actions. Jessie hated and despised him with all her soul, but that she was forced to do so, that it was precisely this man whom she must despise, tore her very heart. ”

“ Is it true, really true, that he is connected with this Jenkins, that such a man belongs to his friends?"
"Child, you understand nothing about that," said Gustave, evasively. "Whoever, like my brother, has seen all the hopes of his life shattered, whose every blessing has become a curse, every pleasure a disappointment, either sinks utterly under such a catastrophe, or he leaves his former self entirely behind, and goes on his way another man. ”

“ But this Frida with her wilful reserve, which we must overcome before reaching the real nature, has nothing weak and wavering about her. When once the somewhat forbidding crust has been broken through, strength and life are found beneath. I like such natures, perhaps because I feel something kindred in them, and sometimes I am surprised, almost startled, to hear from the lips of that girl, remarks and ideas almost identical with what were mine at the same age. ”

“ It was not granted to him to see this himself."
"No," said Jessie, softly, "for he never had the heart to force me as you do now."
Sandow made an impatient movement.
"What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you, but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. ”