Thekla

“ At last Isoult rose, lighted a candle, and went gently up-stairs. She paused a moment at Mrs Rose’s door. Should she go in, or not? All she could hear was Thekla reading or repeating a verse of Scripture.
“‘In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.’”
Thekla opened the door while Isoult still stood there.
“Shall I come in, Thekla?”
“I think not, Mrs Avery, but I thank you,” she answered. “She hath not awoke to the full sorrow yet; it is rather a shock, a stun, than an agony. And who is dead to pain is alike dead to comfort. ”

“ Thekla took tender care of him. Love showed her how. Love is a wise instructor, you know; and teaches in six lessons what Time, slow old pedagogue, takes a lifetime to impart.
As the end of September drew near, Grandfather seemed a little brighter; and, in her great wish to please and cheer him, a queer idea popped into Thekla's head. It was nothing less than to tell him all about the Months and the moments, and let him join the story-listening group. She consulted Max; and he thought it a capital plan, provided October made no objections. ”

“ They were like those of a poor old soldier, who, after living fifty years on his pension, finds himself dragged from pipe and chimney-corner, and obliged to begin again as a drummer-boy."
"It was really cruel, I think," said Thekla, indignantly.
"Yes," said April; "but you haven't heard the worst. Think of being suddenly united to such a young body! There was Maria, elderly and dignified, full of wisdom and experience, longing for nothing so much as to be left alone to think over the facts she had learned. And there were her arms and legs always wanting to be in motion. ”

“ The feminine, Theophila, was the name of the mother of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Theokles (Θέοκλής) , divine fame, was an ancient heathen name, and it is most probable that Θεκλα (Thekla) is the contraction of the feminine. St. Thekla was said to have been a disciple of St. Paul, at Inconium, and to have been exposed to lions at Antioch. Though they crouched at her feet instead of tearing her, she is considered as the first virgin martyr, and it was deemed that the highest possible praise for a woman was to compare her to St. Thekla. ”

“ There is a great difference, however, between being better and being well. Thekla's hands were still too weak and thin to twirl the spindle, and for many a day the wood-carving had lain untouched in the cupboard. It seemed as if they were too languid to enjoy any thing; and, when the evening came for April's visit, Max would hardly take the trouble to rise and fetch the can, though Thekla reminded him. ”

“ Just dying is the matter with me, Thekla. If I can't die one way I kin another. Now Thekla, I want you to quit crying and listen. After I'm gone you go to the boss, young Mr. Lossing—but I always called him Harry because he learned his trade of me, Thekla, but he don't think of that now—and you tell him old Lieders that worked for him thirty years is dead, but he didn't hold no hard feelings, he knowed he done wrong 'bout that mantel. ”

“ February kissed Thekla's hand (the tip of his nose felt very cold) , made a clumsy bow to both, and went away.
The children hugged each other. "If they're all like that," cried they, "how jolly it will be!" ”

“ Thekla. And now we must part! Forever!
[She goes past him till she approaches the center door.]
Gustav. Quite right, we must part—but before that, we'll say good-by to each other, won't we?
Thekla [uneasily] . No.
Gustav [dogging her] . Yes, we will; yes, we will. We'll say good-by; we will drown our memories in an ecstasy which will be so violent that when we wake up the past will have vanished from our recollection forever. There are ecstasies like that, you know. [He puts his arm around her waist.] You're being dragged down by a sick spirit, who's infecting you with his own consumption. ”

“ Thekla!—can it be little Thekla? Why don't you speak? Don't you know me? Have you forgotten Fritz?"
"Fritz!" cried the little ones. "Not our Fritz who went away so long ago?"
"The very same bad shilling come again," laughed the big brother, catching Thekla in his arms and almost squeezing her to death with a hug. "But why do you look so astonished? Didn't Grandfather get my letter? And where is the Grandfather?" beginning to collect himself. But then he caught the look on Max's face, and saying "Ah!" he suddenly turned very pale, and releasing Thekla sat down in the nearest chair. ”

“ The sorrow we dreaded for our poor Thekla is come at last too surely. Bertrand de Créquy is dead! He died in a prison alone, for conscience' sake, but at peace in God. A stranger from Flanders brought her a few words of farewell in his handwriting, and afterwards saw him dead, so that she cannot doubt. She seems to move about like one walking in a dream, performing every common act of life as before, but with the soul asleep. We are afraid what will be the end of it. Gold help her! She is now gone for the Christmas to Eva and Fritz. ”

“ Thekla was up the stairs in a moment; and Isoult followed. Mr Carter (a fictitious person) was the clergyman who had stepped into Mr Rose’s place of minister to the Gospellers’ gatherings, when they dared to hold them; a good man, but very cold and harsh.
“O Thekla! Isoult!” cried Mrs Rose when they came in. “Am I so very wicked as Mr Carter saith me to be?”
Poor soul! she had been weeping bitterly.
“Mother!” cried Thekla, in amazement, “what meanest thou?” ”

“ Aunt Thekla replied. "And she does not love him,—not enough at least to endure for his sake her grandfather's anger." And, clasping Johanna's hands in her own, the old lady added, with tearful, imploring eyes, "Think what you are doing. The happiness or misery of the whole family is in your hands. If you cannot forgive, Johann Leopold will lose his betrothed, Otto's and Magelone's lives will be ruined, whether they marry or not, and my brother, who has made the happiness and honour of his house his sole care, will see it in his old age brought to disgrace——"
"If I could but spare him!" ”

“ It fought the fire as mortal foes fight, it wrestled and beat it down, and tore and trampled it under foot. But to the last the eye of the little spark gleamed red and vengeful, and only when it was cold in death did its fury go out. Water had won the day."
Max and Thekla had been too horrified to move during this story, which August recited rapidly and with great excitement. Tears were running down Thekla's face when he ended. "And the children," said she, "what did they do?" ”

“ That decks his bier. Life is an empty casket:
I throw it from me. O! my only hope;—
To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds— 10
That is the lot of heroes upon earth! [Exit Thekla. [793:1]
(The curtain drops.)
FOOTNOTES:
[793:1] The soliloquy of Thekla consists in the original of six-and-twenty lines, twenty of which are in rhymes of irregular recurrence. I thought it prudent to abridge it. Indeed the whole scene between Thekla and Lady Neubrunn might, perhaps, have been omitted without injury to the play. 1800, 1828, 1829. ”

“ Various seamy sides of society are shown up in pretty plain colors, and the author does not hesitate to draw conclusions from them, too strongly convincing to be questioned by his readers. The old engraver, Karl Fischer, his wife and two daughters, are typical products of the time, especially the pretty and sensual Thekla, whose physical exuberance and innocent carelessness of social decencies are such a manifest result of her environment. ”

“ The child is ill."
"Dear Johann," Thekla began. But her brother did not allow her to proceed.
"I knew it would be so," he went on, "and I told the doctor so when he devised his confounded plan of travel. A woman belongs at home. She is a superfluity in railways and hotels, and she feels uncomfortable——"
"Johanna's letters have shown the contrary," said Thekla. "Moreover, they agreed beforehand to spend the time before Werner entered upon his duties in the University in travel."
"Of course!" cried the Freiherr. "The child is always agreed to what those whom she loves propose. ”

“ And sleep was rendered almost impossible by the mosquitoes, who seemed to possess stings and wings and buzzes such as never mosquitoes boasted before. Whenever poor Thekla dropped into a nap, after hours of tossing, in the stifling loft which served her for bedroom, "Spizz-z-z-z" the teasing little trumpets would begin; and immediately she would be broad awake again, ready to cry with fatigue, and dealing blows right and left, as if battling
"'O Reggy!' she cried, 'the boat is running away with us!'—'Don't cry, Emmy!'
he exclaimed. 'It isn't our fault, so nobody will scold us. ”

“ Adolf [takes her by the neck and kisses her] . Yes, my dear, I'll bite you so that you die.
Thekla [joking] . Look out, somebody might come.
[She goes to the fireplace on the right and leans on the chimneypiece.]
Adolf. Oh, what do I care if they do. I don't care about anything in the whole world so long as I have you.
Thekla. And if you don't have me any more?
Adolf [sinks down on the chair on the left in front of the circular table] . Then I die!
Thekla. All right, you needn't be frightened of that the least bit; I'm already much too old, you see, for anybody to like me. ”

“ I am of course aware, Malcolm, of the conversation which the count had with you concerning Thekla, and my wishes fully agreed with his on the subject. In other times one would not speak of marriage when Thekla's father had been but two months dead; but it is no time for conventionalities now. All Southern Germany is falling away from the Protestant cause, and ere long we may see the Imperialists at the gate of Nuremberg, and it may be that in a few months the whole of Germany will be in their power. Therefore, I would that there should be no delay. Thekla is nearly seventeen ”

“ When Thekla brought him food, he would cuddle close, and lick her fingers, bleating softly. Before long he was grown so tame that, if Max seized his two fore feet and waltzed round the room, he made no objection, but frisked funnily, as if enjoying the joke. Best of all, however, he loved to lie beside Grandfather's chair, within reach of his stroking hand. The old man found continual pleasure in the gentle creature, whose wool was scarcely whiter than his own snowy hair. ”

“ Aunt Thekla shook her head dubiously.
"Do you call it a suitable partie?" she said. "I fear that Magelone, with her love of amusement and her superficiality, will make Johann Leopold unhappy, or that he will make her so."
"I do not think so," said the Freiherr. "On the contrary, she will spirit him up, and he will tone her down; a very good thing for both. The stronger will get the upper hand, I don't care which it is. ”

“ At first the poor girl could scarcely believe that she had at last found a friend; but Thorstein looked so good and kind, that her fears quickly vanished.
“Alas!” she said, “I am a most unhappy maiden! [60] My name is Thekla, and my father is King Alfhelm. One day, as I was playing in a field near the palace with my maidens, a great giant suddenly rushed in among us from the neighbouring wood, and snatching me up in his arms, despite all my cries and struggles, carried me down to the shore, where his boat was waiting. ”

“ Where she was, he must come no more. The chief element of comfort was Thekla. She could have free access to both her parents, so long as they remained at liberty; and Mr Rose might yet be heard to preach in the houses of other Gospellers.
“Isoult,” said Dr Thorpe, coming in, a few days after this woeful letter had been received and answered, “for all the late ’headings, there be fools left in the realm.”
“Troth,” said she, laughing, “I never cast doubt else.”
“Why,” pursued he, “if they hang up all the wise men, what else shall be left? ”

“ Thekla, who had been ironing, looked very pale and complained of a headache. The day had been hot; no cool wind had come with evening to refresh them; the leaves hung motionless. Far, far away the tinkle of a bell was audible, from some animal astray in the Forest.
"I don't recollect much about August," said Thekla, languidly. "Was she pretty?"
"I don't either," answered Max. "There was such a confusion that night the Months came, that I got them all mixed up in my mind. I think, though, she wasn't a she: she was a man.
"Oh, no!" cried Thekla, "August never could be a man, Max. ”

“ That the adolescent Church should thus have been enabled to triumph over all her enemies may seem to many a better proof of her divine guidance than the miraculous powers once attributed to her. We may not all of us be able to believe that a rainstorm put out the fire on which Thekla was to be burned alive, or that the crocodiles in the tank in the arena into which she was cast were struck by lightning and floated to the surface dead. ”

“ I stretch lame hands of faith.”
Tennyson.
Twenty-two hours of the year 1555 had passed away. John Avery, Robin, and Esther had gone to the service held in Mr Sheerson’s house. The children had been put to bed before they went; Thekla was up-stairs with her mother, who had begged her to remain at home. Mrs Rose could give no reason for her request, except that she felt low and nervous, and had a fancy or a foreboding, which it might be, that it would be better for Thekla to absent herself. Dr Thorpe and Isoult sat alone in the little chamber of the Lamb. ”