Peter Grimm

“ Peter suddenly appeared in his former shape as a discharged soldier; he entered by the window and said, “Godless man, what art thou doing? How can the dead maiden arise, when thou hast thrown about her bones in such confusion?” “Dear brother, I have done everything to the best of my ability,” he answered. “This once, I will help thee out of thy difficulty, but one thing I tell thee, and that is that if ever thou undertakest anything of the kind again, it will be the worse for thee, and also that thou must neither demand nor accept the smallest thing from the King for this!” ”

“ We've heard the truth. We had that message from Peter Grimm himself.
CATHERINE. Yes, it is true. I believe Uncle Peter Grimm was in this room to-night.
FREDERIK. [Not surprised—glancing towards the spot where PETER stood when he thought he saw him.] Oh! You, too? Did you see him, too?
MRS. BATHOLOMMEY. [Incredulously.] Impossible!
CATHERINE. I don't care what anyone else may think—people have the right to think for themselves; but I believe he has been here—he is here. Uncle Peter, if you can hear me now, give me back my promise—or—or I'll take it back! ”

“ If he keeps that compact with me and comes back, do you know what I shall ask him first?"
"You poor, blind, deaf, old Scotchman!" laughed Peter Grimm. "Open your eyes and your ears! You are like the man who lay down at the edge of the river and died of thirst."
"What would you ask him first, Doctor?" queried the girl as McPherson paused with dramatic effect, awaiting the question. ”

“ It had fallen to Frederik Grimm's. Wherefore, sick at heart, he sat with his head in his hands. And Peter Grimm read his thoughts as from a printed page.
"Once more a spark of manhood is alight in your soul," whispered the Dead Man. "It is not too late. Nothing is ever too late. ”

“ What more likely, in his own fevered unhappiness, than that he should think Peter Grimm said "I am very unhappy"? Would a man of Peter Grimm's strength and shrewdness come back to earth and tell the child nothing of greater importance than Willem says he told? And, if he could make Willem understand such phrases as "I am very unhappy" and "Kathrien must not marry Frederik," could he not have made the boy understand anything else? ”

“ Why should you wreck your life to carry out his pig-headed plans?"
"Oh!"
"Not strong enough yet," advised Peter Grimm. "Go on, lad."
"You are going to be wretched for the rest of your days, just to please a dead man who can't even know about it," insisted Hartmann. "Or if he does know, you may be certain he sees the affair more sanely by this time and is bitterly sorry he made you promise."
"He assuredly is," acquiesced Peter Grimm. "I wish I'd known in other days that you had so much sense. Go ahead!"
"You mustn't speak so, James," reproved Kathrien, deeply shocked. ”

“ Still walking as if drawn forward half against his will, the doctor descended the stairs to the big living-room. At the stair-foot stood Peter Grimm, with outstretched hands to receive him.
"Well, Andrew," said the Dead Man, in the tone of banter that had never in life failed to "get a rise" out of his medical crony, "I apologise. You were right. I was mistaken. I didn't know what I was talking about. So I've come back, as I promised, to keep our compact and to apologise. You see, I——"
"Well, Doctor," asked Kathrien, looking back into the room at sound of McPherson's steps, "how is Willem?" ”

“ They go up together, CATHERINE carrying a candle into the dark vestibule. The moment they disappear, a lamp standing on the piano goes out as though the draught from the door or an unseen hand had extinguished it. It is now quite dark outside, and the moon is hidden for a moment. At the same time, a light, seemingly coming from nowhere, reveals PETER GRIMM standing in the room at the door—as though he had been there when the young people passed out. He is smiling and happy. The moon is not seen, but the light of it (as though it had come out from behind a cloud) now reveals the old windmill. ”

“ Unknowingly, Frederik touched the flame to the paper, shook out the match, and watched the torn letter blaze and curl. Then he tossed the charred bits into a jardinière on the floor, and picked up the picture.
"There's an end to that!" he murmured, turning to throw the photograph into the smoking embers of the fireplace.
Peter Grimm stood erect. A new hope drove the sick despair from his face. Looking toward Willem's room he raised his arm and beckoned.
At once the door stealthily opened. A white little figure slipped out onto the gallery and toward the stairs. ”

“ PETER. We're the last of the family. The business—that's Peter Grimm. It will soon be Frederik Grimm. The love for the old gardens is in our blood.
FREDERIK. It is, sir. [Lays a fond hand on PETER'S shoulder.
PETER. [Struck.] I have an idea. We'll print the family history in our new floral almanac.
FREDERIK. [Suppressing a yawn.] Yes, yes, a very good idea.
PETER. Katie, read it to us and let us hear how it sounds.
CATHERINE. [Reads.] "In the spring of 1709 there settled on Quassick Creek, New York State, Johann Grimm, aged twenty-two, husbandman and vine-dresser, also Johanna, his wife." ”

“ And while on another man it would have been absurd, on him it seemed the only logical apparel.
Peter Grimm halted in the vestibule, laboriously [Pg 34] removed his rubbers, and dropped his heavy ash stick into its place on the rack. Then he carefully lifted the antique hat from his head, deposited it on a peg, and came forward into the room. The face, revealed as he left the vestibule's gloom for the bright sunlight, was at first glance hard, deeply lined, and stubborn; the effect accented by a set mouth, the little truculently alert eyes under bushy brows, and the slightly uptilted nose. ”

“ CHAPTER III PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN
"That man!" panted Kathrien. "He actually wants to buy our home—our gardens! Oh!" slipping for a moment back into the Dutch that was ever nearer to her heart than English, "Stel je zoon brutali tat!"
"Don't you worry!" consoled Peter. "He won't get a stick or a stone of ours. Wouldn't you think that girl had been born a Grimm, Fritzy? She's got the true spirit. No, no, dear. Of course we won't sell. Never. Never. Never. Hey, Fritz?"
"Certainly not!" declared Frederik. "The idea is preposterous."
"Fritzy!" ”

“ Like a confused and somewhat elderly hen she scuttled off in her husband's wake, while Peter Grimm stared after the two with a half-amused, half-perplexed smile.
"Of all the wall-eyed, semi-anthropoid congenital idiots," roared McPherson as the door closed behind them, "those two are——"
"You're mistaken, Andrew," contradicted Grimm. "They're kind-hearted, good people, who spend their lives and their substance in helping others. If you and they can't get on together [Pg 116] it's no one's fault. Any more than because fuchsias and sunflowers won't thrive in the same bed. ”

“ Oh, yes. In the life-to-come, for instance, am I to be a bone-setter and is he to keep on being a tulip man?"
"It stands to reason, Andrew, doesn't it?" suggested Peter Grimm. "What chance would a beginner have with a fellow who knew his business before he was born? Hey?"
With the merrily victorious air that he had ever assumed when he had scored a telling point in their old-time discussions, Peter surveyed the doctor.
"I believe, Katje," mused McPherson after a moment's consideration, "that it is possible to have more than one chance at our life work. ”

“ Frederik went on in a voice full of awe, "I thought I saw my uncle there——"
He pointed toward the desk with a little shudder.
"Eh?" said the doctor, with popping eyes, coming a step nearer. "You really mean that you thought you saw Peter Grimm?"
"And just before I—I saw him—I—I—had the strangest impulse to go to the foot of the stairs and call Kitty—give her the house—and run—run—get out."
"Oh!" cried the doctor sarcastically. "A good impulse. I see! Some one else must have been thinking for you—certainly." ”

“ Belasco has written the following account of "Peter's" evolution, to be used in this edition.
The play, "The Return of Peter Grimm," is an expression in dramatic form of my ideas on a subject which I have pondered over since boyhood: "Can the dead come back?" Peter Grimm did come back. At the same time, I inserted a note in my program to say that I advanced no positive opinion; that the treatment of the play allowed the audience to believe that it had actually seen Peter, or that he had not been seen but existed merely in the minds of the characters on the stage. ”

“ The door almost immediately opened and James Hartmann came into the room. The young man had a pen behind his ear and a half-written memorandum of sales in his hand. He had evidently risen from his work and entered the living-room on an unplanned impulse.
Kathrien had seated herself in a chair by the fire and was gazing drearily into the red embers.
"Look at her, lad!" breathed Peter Grimm. [Pg 201] "She is so pretty—so young—so lonely! Look! There are kisses tangled in that gold hair of hers where it curls about her forehead and neck. Hundreds of them. And her lips are made for kisses. ”

“ Slight of figure, unworldly, simple in all his ways, Warfield was the very man to bring a message back from the other world. Warfield has always appeared to me as a character out of one of Grimm's Fairy Tales. He was, to my mind, the one man to impersonate a spirit and make it seem real. So my desire to write a play of the dead, and my belief in Warfield's artistry culminated in "The Return of Peter Grimm." The subject was very difficult, and the greatest problem confronting me was to preserve the illusion of a spirit while actually using a living person. ”

“ And James Hartmann, still full of that new fear of his own good fortune, dared not stay her.
But Peter Grimm did not hesitate.
"Katje!" pleaded the Dead Man. "Is Hap [Pg 317] piness so common that we can toy with it? Is life's greatest joy so cheap that we can thrust it aside when by a miracle it is laid at our feet? Can we afford to risk everything by putting off love when it is in our very grasp?"
The girl hesitated, paused, and seemed to busy herself with straightening some disarranged articles on the desk. The Dead Man came and stood beside her. ”

“ I wonder if Mynheer Peter will send me 'here, there, and everywhere on business' when I'm older."
"Perhaps," agreed Hartmann, catching the slight note of wistfulness in Willem's voice. "You're beginning the way I began. It wasn't more than a week after my father got his gardening job with Mr. Grimm that I used to be sent up to meet the trains with a basket of flowers and 'the compliments of Peter Grimm.' It seems more like yesterday than eighteen years ago."
"I'm glad you're back from New York City," said the boy, circling back to the conversation's starting-point. "It's been rather lonely. ”

“ Kathrien's dreamy gaze strayed from the fire-flicker on the hearth to the office door, on whose farther side she knew Hartmann was at work.
"Yes," smiled Peter Grimm, noting her glance. "You and James. And the message ended in this kiss."
He touched his lips to her forehead. And, at the unfelt contact, the light again sprang into her eyes. [Pg 192]
"Can't you see I'm trying to help you, Katje?" he begged. "Can't you even hope? Come, come! Hope! Why, anybody can hope. It is the very easiest and most natural thing on earth. Especially when one is young—as you and I are. ”

“ Every man can't be blessed like you with the soul of a market gardener—a peddler of turnips.
JAMES. [Thinking—ignoring FREDERIK.] He's a great old man—your uncle. It's a big name—Grimm—Peter Grimm. The old man knows his business—he certainly knows his business. [Changing.] God! It's an awful thought that a man must die and carry all that knowledge of orchids to the grave! I wonder if it doesn't all count somewhere.... I must attend to the mail.
PETER GRIMM enters from the gardens. He is a well-preserved man of sixty, very simple and plain in his ways. ”

“ McPherson growled in futile disgust.
"Don't give up, Andrew!" exhorted Peter Grimm. "Don't give up! Make her see it your way. A girl can always change her mind. Try again. Andrew!"
The last word was almost a cry. For McPherson, with a shrug of his shoulders, accepted defeat in surly silence and was tramping across to the hat rack, where he began to gather up his outdoor raiment.
"Oh, Andrew! Andrew!" he pleaded, following him up. "Don't throw away the fight so easily! Tell her to——"
"Good-bye, Kathrien," said the doctor at the threshold. ”

“ Hyslop is right: man will spend millions to discover the North Pole, but not a penny to discover his immortal destiny.
PETER. [Stubbornly.] I don't believe in spook mediums and never shall believe in them.
DR. MACPHERSON. Probably most professional mediums cheat—perhaps every one of them; but some of them are capable of real demonstrations at times.
PETER. Once a swindler, always a swindler. Besides, why can't my old friends come straight back to me and say, "Peter Grimm, here I am!" When they do—if they do—I shall be the first man to take off my hat to them and hold out my hand in welcome. ”

“ Peter Grimm acknowledged the compliment with a laugh.
"Oh, say it, Andrew! Say it!" he adjured. "There is no 'death' and there are no 'dead,' as this world understands the words. So one term is as good as another. 'Dead' or 'passed over.' It's all one. Neither phrase means anything. Don't be afraid of offending me." [Pg 250]
"And Willem is like that?" asked Kathrien.
"I am sure of it," answered McPherson. "Now, Willem——"
"I think I'd better put the boy to bed!" hastily interposed Mrs. Batholommey, coming between the doctor and his proposed "subject." ”