Elective Affinities - Goethe E-Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Herausgeber: Lebooks Editora
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 495

Beschreibung

The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an authentic Renaissance man: excellent in poetry, drama, literature, science, philosophy, painting, and politics, considered by many as the principal author of the German language. "Elective Affinities" is one of his major works. When Goethe chose this title, "Wahlverwandtschaften" was a technical term used only in chemistry. The connotations later acquired - in German and other languages - are largely due to the power of this great novel, elegantly rigorous, and which is, in fact, a reflection on the complications of human relationships, demonstrating how our experience of other people makes our experience of love and desire fluid and uncertain. It's no wonder that "Elective Affinities" is part of the famous collection: "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die."

Leseprobe

Von Goethe

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES

Contents

INTRODUCTION

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAPTER XXV

CHAPTER XXVI

CHAPTER XXVII

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHAPTER XXIX

CHAPTER XXX

CHAPTER XXXI

CHAPTER XXXII

CHAPTER XXXIII

CHAPTER XXXIV

CHAPTER XXXV

CHAPTER XXXVI

INTRODUCTION

Von Goethe

1749-1832

Few writers incorporate the literary culture of a nation as completely as Goethe does for his native Germany. An authentic Renaissance man, excellent in poetry, drama, literature, science, philosophy, painting, and politics, his position as the principal author of the German language remains undisputed. A prominent figure in the cultural movements of Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) and Weimar classicism, which sought to imitate Greek classicism, Goethe's influence spread throughout Europe as the emblematic representation of Romanticism.

Goethe was born into a relatively privileged family, receiving private lessons before following his father's wishes and studying Law in Leipzig.

At university, he preferred attending poetry classes to reciting ancient laws, perfecting his writing style and burning numerous works he considered unacceptable before starting his mature comedy: "The Accomplices."

Health problems precipitated his return to Frankfurt before the end of the course, and after a long convalescence, Goethe moved to Strasbourg to complete his studies. It was there that he experienced an intellectual awakening, meeting the literary critic and philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. He encouraged Goethe to approach language and literature scientifically, exploring the concepts of national identity, folk songs, and the genius of individuals like Martin Luther compared to those beyond Germany's borders, such as William Shakespeare. Goethe traveled through Alsace, familiarizing himself with the oral tradition of German-speaking villages and the folk roots of his mother tongue, intensifying his desire to write a Germanic play that would earn Herder's approval. This happened with "Gòtz Von Berlichingen," a story of a 16th-century knight. Its publication was a milestone in literary history, promoting throughout Europe the resurgence of drama based on the history of individual nations, as reflected in the works of Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas.

For Goethe, the play brought immediate fame, although it would reach new heights with the publication of "The Sorrows of Young Werther," a novel that captured the imagination of a generation and intimately associated the author with the Sturm und Drang movement. Werther was a young man in conflict with the world, unable to express himself and find happiness. His obsessive love for Lotte, a young woman engaged to another, and his failure to overcome the pain of rejection contribute to his violent suicide. In Werther, Goethe created the epitome of the tortured soul, a creature too sensitive for the hostile environment in which he lives, destined to be misunderstood.

The novel gave rise to a true cult, as hundreds of young people who identified with Werther dressed in yellow trousers and blue coats like the hero, and in extreme cases tragically committed suicide in identical fashion.

As a rising star, Goethe accepted the position of court official and private counselor to Charles Augustus, the young Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, in 1776. For 10 years, he served diligently as the duke's advisor, being elevated to the nobility. However, his creative spirit had been obstructed by the duties of state. It was his friendship with the poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller that signaled a new period of productivity. From this time came "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," a novel of self-discovery, and the successful "Hermann und Dorothea," a story of common Germans and the effects of the French Revolution.

"Faust," Goethe's unmatched masterpiece, a tragedy on which he worked for most of his adult life, emerged later.

Elective Affinities

The term "elective affinities" is at once precise and fraught with ambiguity. It evokes a condition full of emotional and romantic possibilities. When Goethe chose this title, Wahlverwandtschaften was a technical term used only in chemistry. The connotations later acquired - in German and other languages - are largely due to the power of this elegantly rigorous novel.

Using a scientific configuration of desire and the symbolism of nature, Goethe's novel is a complex, yet calculated and impersonal, exploration of love. The marriage of Charlotte and Eduard is used to examine perceptions of morality, fidelity, and self-development deeply ingrained in the concept of love. When this marriage is disrupted and challenged by the arrival of the Captain and Ottilie, the state of marriage takes on a pastoral hue, simultaneously idyllic and unreal. Through the discreet flirtation between Charlotte and the Captain and the passionate love between Eduard and Ottilie, the novel delves into the irresistible chaos of desire.

The novel "Elective Affinities" was initially condemned for its immoral thesis that love has a chemical origin. But it is, in fact, a lengthy reflection on the complications of human relationships, demonstrating how our experience of other people makes our experience of love and desire fluid and uncertain. Just as love cannot be captured and immobilized in marriage, desire cannot rest on just one person.

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES

CHAPTER I

Edward — so we shall call a wealthy nobleman in the. prime of life — had been spending several hours of a fine April morning in his nursery-garden, budding the stems of some young trees with cuttings which had been recently sent to him. He had finished what he was about and having laid his tools together in their box, was complacently surveying his work, when the gardener came up and complimented his master on his industry.

“Have you seen my wife anywhere?” inquired Edward, as he moved to go away.

“My lady is alone yonder in the new grounds,” said the man; “the summer-house which she has been making on v the rock over against the castle is finished to-day and really it is beautiful. It cannot fail to please your grace. The view from it is perfect — the village at your feet; a little to your right the church, with its tower, which you can just see over; and directly opposite you, the castle and the garden.”

“Quite true,” replied Edward; “I can see the people at work a few steps from where I am standing.”

“And then, to the right of the church again,” continued the gardener, “is the opening of the valley; and you look along over a range of wood and meadow far into the distance. The steps up the rock, too, are excellently arranged. My gracious lady understands these things; it is a pleasure to work under her.”

“Go to her,” said Edward, “and desire her to be so good as to wait for me there. Tell her I wish to see this new creation of hers and enjoy it with her.”

The gardener went rapidly off and Edward soon followed. Descending the terrace and stopping as he passed to look into the hot-houses and the forcing-pits, he came presently to the stream and thence, over a narrow bridge, to a place where the walk leading to the summer-house branched off in two directions. One path led across the churchyard, immediately up the face of the rock. The other, into which he struck, wound away to the left, with a more gradual ascent, through a pretty shrubbery. Where the two paths joined again, a seat had been made, where he stopped a few moments to rest; and then, following the now single road, he found himself, after scrambling along among steps and slopes of all sorts and kinds, conducted at last through a narrow, more or less steep outlet to the summer-house.

Charlotte was standing at the door to receive her husband. She made him sit down where, without moving, he could command a view of the different landscapes through the door and window — these serving as frames, in which they were set like pictures. Spring was coming on; a rich, beautiful life would soon everywhere be bursting; and Edward spoke of it with delight.

“There is only one thing, which I should observe,” he added, “the summer-house itself. is rather small.”

“It is large enough for you and me, at any rate,” answered Charlotte.

“Certainly,” said Edward; “there is room for a third, too, easily.”

“Of course; and for a fourth also,” replied Charlotte. “For larger parties we can contrive other places.”

“Now that we are here by ourselves, with no one to disturb us and in such a pleasant mood,” said Edward, “it is a good opportunity for me to tell you that I have for some time had something on my mind, about which I have wished to speak to you but have never been able to muster up my courage.”

“I have observed that there has been something of the sort,” said Charlotte.

“And even now,” Edward went on, “if it were not for a letter which the post brought me this morning and which obliges me to come to some resolution to-day, I should very likely have still kept it to myself.”

“What is it, then?” asked Charlotte, turning affectionately toward him.

“It concerns our friend the Captain,” answered Edward; “you know the unfortunate position in which he, like many others, is placed. It is through no fault of his own; but you may imagine how painful it must be for a person with his knowledge and talents-and accomplishments, to find himself without employment. I — I will not hesitate any longer with what I am wishing for him. I should like to-have , him here with' us for a time.”

“We must think about that,” replied Charlotte; “it should be considered on more sides than one.”

“I am quite ready to tell you what I have in view,” returned Edward. “Through his last letters there is a prevailing tone of despondency; not that he is really in any want. He knows thoroughly well how to limit his expenses; and I have taken care for everything absolutely necessary. It is no distress to him to accept obligations from me; all our lives we have been in the habit of borrowing from and lending to each other; and we could not tell, if we would, how our debtor and creditor account stands. It is being without occupation which is really fretting him. The many accomplishments which he has cultivated in himself, it is his only pleasure — indeed, it is his passion — to .be daily and hourly exercising for the benefit of others. And now, to sit still, with his arms folded ; or to go on studying, acquiring and acquiring, when he can make no use of what he already possesses; — my dear creature, it is a painful situation; and alone as he is, he feels it doubly and trebly.”

“But I thought,” said Charlotte, “that he had had offers from many different quarters. I myself wrote to numbers of my own friends, male and female, for him; and, as I have reason to believe, not without effect.”

“It is true,” replied Edward; “but these very offers —  these various proposals — have only caused him fresh embarrassment. Not one of them is at all suitable to such a person as he is. He would have nothing to do; he would have to sacrifice himself, his time, his purpose, his whole method of life; and to that he cannot bring himself. The more I think of it all, the more I feel about it and the more anxious I am to see him here with us.”

“It is very beautiful and amiable in you,” answered Charlotte, “to enter with so much sympathy into your friend’s position; only you must allow me to ask you to think of yourself and of me, as well.”

“I have done that,” replied Edward. “For ourselves, we can have nothing to expect from his presence with us, except pleasure and advantage. I will say nothing of the expense. In any case, if he came to us, it would be but small; and you know he will be of no inconvenience to us at all. He can have his own rooms in the right \/ wing of the castle and everything else can be arranged as simply as possible. What shall we not be thus doing for him! and how agreeable and how profitable may not his society prove to us! I have long been wishing for a plan of the property and the grounds. He will see to it and get it made. You intend yourself to take the management of the estate, as soon as our present steward’s term is expired; and that, you know, is a serious thing. His various information will be of immense benefit to us; I feel only too acutely how much I require a person of this kind. The country people have knowledge enough but their way of imparting it is confused and not always honest. The students from the towns and universities are sufficiently clever and orderly but they are deficient in personal experience. From my friend, I can promise myself both knowledge and method and hundreds of other circumstances I can easily conceive arising, affecting you as well as me and from which I can foresee innumerable advantages. Thank you for so patiently listening to me. Now, do you say what you think and say it out freely and fully; I will not interrupt you.” “Very well,” replied Charlotte; “I will begin at once with a general observation. Men think most of the immediate — the present; and rightly, their calling being to do and to work. Women, on the other hand, more of how things hang together in life; and that rightly too, because their destiny — the destiny of their families — is bound up in this interdependence and it is exactly this which it is their mission to promote. So now let us cast a glance at our present and our past life; and you will acknowledge that the invitation of the Captain does not fall in so entirely with our purposes, our plans and our arrangements. I will go back to those happy days of our earliest intercourse. We loved each other, young as we then were, with all our hearts. We were parted: you from me — your father, from an insatiable desire of wealth, choosing to marry you to an elderly and rich lady; I from you, having to give my hand, without any especial motive, to an excellent man, whom I respected, if I did not love. We became again free — you first, your poor mother at the same time leaving you in possession of your large fortune; I later, just at the time when you returned from abroad. So we met once more. We spoke of the past; we could enjoy and love the recollection of it; we might have been contented, in each other’s society, to leave things as they were. You were urgent for our marriage. I at first hesitated. We were about the same age ;-but I as a woman had grown older than you as a man. At last I could not refuse you what you seemed to think the one thing you cared for. All the discomfort which you had ever experienced, at court, in the army or in traveling, you were to recover from at my side; you would settle down and enjoy life; but only with me for your companion. I settled my, daughter at a school, where she could be more completely educated than would be possible in the retirement of the country; and I placed my niece Ottilie there with her as well, who, perhaps, would have grown up better at home with me, under my own care. This was done with your consent, merely that we might have our own lives to ourselves — merely that we might enjoy undisturbed our so-long-wished-for, so-long-delayed happiness. We came here and settled ourselves. I undertook the domestic part of the menage, you the out-of- ' doors and the general control. My own principle has been to meet your wishes in everything, to live only for you. At least, let us give ourselves a fair trial how far in this way we can be enough for one another”.

“Since the interdependence of things, as you call it, is your especial element,” replied Edward, “one should either never listen to any of your trains of reasoning or make up one’s mind to allow you to be in the right; and, indeed, you have been in the right up to the present day.

The foundation which we have hitherto been laying for ourselves is of the true, sound sort; only, are we to build nothing upon it? is nothing to be developed out of it? All the work we have done — I in the garden, you in the park — is it all only for a pair of hermits?”

“Well, well,” replied Charlotte, “very well. What we have to look to is, that we introduce no alien element, nothing which shall cross or obstruct us. Remember, our plans, even those which only concern our amusements, depend mainly on our being together. You were to read to me, in consecutive order, the journal which you made when you were abroad. You were to take the opportunity of arranging it, putting all the loose matter connected with it in its place; and with me to work with you and help you, out of these invaluable but chaotic leaves and sheets to put together a complete thing, which should give the pleasure to ourselves and to others. I promised to assist you in transcribing; and we thought it would be so pleasant, so delightful, so charming, to travel over in recollection the world which we were unable to see together. The beginning is already made. Then, in the evenings, you have taken up your flute again, accompanying me on the piano, while of visits backward and forward among the neighborhood, there is abundance. For my part, I have been promising myself out of all this the first really happy summer I have ever thought to spend in my life.”

“Only I cannot see,” replied Edward, rubbing his forehead, “how, through every bit of this which you have been so sweetly and so sensibly laying before me, the Captain’s presence can be any interruption; I should rather have thought it would give it all fresh zest and life. He was my companion during a part of my travels. He made many observations from a different point of view from mine. We can put it all together and so make a charmingly complete work of it.”

“Well, then, I will acknowledge openly,” answered Charlotte, with some impatience, “my feeling is against this plan. I have an instinct which tells me no good will -come of.it.”

“You women are invincible in this way,” replied Edward. “You are so sensible that there is no answering you, then so affectionate that one is glad to give way to you; full of feelings, which one cannot wound and full of forebodings, which terrify one.”

“I am not superstitious,” said Charlotte ; “and I care nothing for these dim sensations, merely as such; but in general they are the result of unconscious recollections of happy or unhappy consequences, which we have experienced as following on our own or others’ actions. Nothing is of greater moment, in any state of things, than the intervention of a third person. I have seen friends, brothers and sisters, lovers, husbands and wives, whose relation to each other, through the accidental or intentional introduction of a third person, has been altogether changed — whose whole moral condition has been inverted by it.”

“That may very well be,” replied Edward, “with people who live on without looking where they are going; but not, surely, with persons whom experience has taught to understand themselves.”

“That understanding ourselves, my dearest husband,” insisted Charlotte, “is no such certain weapon. It is very often a most dangerous one for the person who bears it. And out of all this, at least so much seems to arise, that we should not be in too great a hurry. Let me have a few days to think; don’t decide.”

“As the matter stands,” returned Edward, “wait as many days as we will, we shall still be in too great a hurry. The arguments for and against are all before us; all we want is the conclusion and as things are, I think the best thing we can do is to draw lots.”

“I know,” said Charlotte, “that in doubtful cases it is your way to leave-them to chance. To me, in such a serious matter, this seems almost a crime.”

“Then what am I to write to the Captain ?” cried Edward; “for write I must at once.”

“Write him a kind, sensible, sympathizing letter,” answered Charlotte.

“That is as good as none at all,” replied Edward. “And there are many cases,” answered she, “in which we are obliged and in which it is the real kindness, rather to write nothing than not to write.”

CHAPTER II

Edward was alone in his room. The repetition of the incidents of his life from Charlotte’s lips; the representation of their mutual situation, their mutual purposes, had worked him, sensitive as he was, into a very pleasant state of mind. While close to her — while in her presence — he had felt so happy, that he had thought out a warm, kind but quiet and indefinite epistle which he would send to the Captain. When, however, he had settled himself at his writing-table and taken up his friend’s letter to read it over once more, the sad condition of this excellent man rose again vividly before him. The feelings which had been all day distressing him again awoke and it appeared impossible to him to leave one whom he called his friend in such painful embarrassment.

Edward was unaccustomed to deny himself anything. The only child and consequently the spoiled child, of . wealthy parents, who had persuaded him into a singular, ’ but highly advantageous marriage with a lady far older -than himself; and again by her petted and indulged in every possible way, she seeking to reward his kindness to her by the utmost liberality; after her early death his own master, traveling independently of every one, equal to all contingencies and all changes, with desires never excessive but multiple and various — free-hearted, generous, brave, at times even noble — what was there in the world to cross or thwart him ?

Hitherto, everything had gone as he desired! Charlotte had become his; he had won her at last, with an obstinate, a romantic fidelity; and now he felt himself, for the first time, contradicted, crossed in his wishes, when those wishes were to invite to his home the friend of his youth — just as he was longing, as it were, to throw open his whole heart to him. He felt annoyed, impatient; he took up his pen again and again and as often threw it down again, because he could not make up his mind what to write. Against his wife’s wishes he would not go; against her expressed desire he could not. Ill at ease as he was, it would have been impossible for him, even if he had wished, to write a quiet, easy letter. The most natural thing to do was to put it off. In a few words, he begged his friend to forgive him for having left his letter unanswered; that day he was unable to write circumstantially ; but shortly, he hoped to be able to tell him what he felt at greater length.

The next day, as they were walking to the same spot, Charlotte took the opportunity of bringing back the conversation to the subject, perhaps because she knew that there is no surer way of rooting out any plan or purpose than by often talking it over.

It was what Edward was wishing. He expressed himself in his own way, kindly and sweetly. For although, sensitive as he was, he flamed up readily — although the vehemence with which he desired anything made him pressing and his obstinacy made him impatient — his words were so softened by his wish to spare the feelings of those to whom he was speaking that it was impossible not to be charmed, even when one most disagreed, with him.

This morning, he first contrived to bring Charlotte into the happiest humor and then so disarmed her with the graceful turn which he gave to the conversation that she cried out at last:

“You are determined that what I refused to the husband you will make me grant to the lover. At least, my -dearest,” she continued, “I will acknowledge that your wishes and the warmth and sweetness with which you express them, have not left me untouched, have not left me unmoved. You drive me to make a confession; — till now I too have had a concealment from you; I am in exactly the same position with you and I have hitherto been putting the same restraint on my inclination which I have been exhorting you to put on yours.”

“Glad am I to hear that,” said Edward. “In the married state, a difference of opinion now and then, I see, is no bad thing; we learn something of one another by it.”

“You are to learn at present, then,” said Charlotte, “that it is with me about Ottilie as it is with you about the Captain. The dear child is most uncomfortable at the school and I am thoroughly uneasy about her. Luciana, my daughter, born as she is for the world, is there training hourly for the world; languages, history, everything that is taught there, she acquires with so much ease that, as it were, she learns them off at sight. She has quick natural gifts and an excellent memory; one may almost say she forgets everything and in a moment calls it all back again. She distinguishes herself above everyone at the school with the freedom of her carriage, the grace of her movement and the elegance of her address and with the inborn royalty of nature makes herself the queen of the little circle there. The superior of the establishment regards her as a little divinity, who, under her hands, is shaping into excellence and who will do her honor, gain her reputation and bring her a large increase of pupils; the first pages of this good lady’s letters and her monthly notices of progress, are forever hymns about the excellence of such a child, which I have to translate into my own prose; while her concluding sentences about Ottilie are nothing but excuse after excuse — attempts at explaining how it can be that a girl in other respects growing up so lovely seems coming to nothing and shows neither capacity nor accomplishment This and the little she has to say besides, is no riddle to me, because I can see in this dear child the same character as that of her mother, who was my own dearest friend; who grew up with myself and whose daughter, I am certain, if I had the care of her education, would form into an exquisite creature.

“This, however, has not fallen in with' our plan and as one ought not to be picking and pulling, pr forever introducing new elements among the conditions of our life, I think it better to bear and to conquer as I can, even the unpleasant impression that my daughter, who knows very well that poor Ottilie is entirely dependent upon us, does not refrain from flourishing her own successes in her face and so, to a certain extent, destroys the little good which we have done for her. Who are well trained enough « never to wound others by a parade of their own advantages? and who stands so high as not at times to suffer under such a slight? In trials like these, Ottilie’s character is growing in strength but since I have clearly known the painfulness of her situation, I have been thinking over all possible ways to make some other arrangement. Every hour I am expecting an answer to my own last letter and then I do not mean to hesitate anymore. So, my dear Edward, it is with me. We have both, you see, the same sorrows to bear, touching both our hearts in the same point. Let us bear them together, since we neither of us can press our own against the other.”

“We are strange creatures,” said Edward, smiling. “If we can only put out of sight anything which troubles us, we fancy at once we have got rid of it. We can give up much in the large and general; but to make sacrifices in little things is a demand to which we are rarely equal. So it was with my mother — as long as I lived with her, while a boy and a young man, she could not bear to let me be a moment out of her sight. If I was out later than usual in my ride, some misfortune must have happened to me. If I got wet through in a shower, a fever was in- evitable. I traveled; I was absent from her altogether; and, at once, I scarcely seemed to belong to her. If we look at it closer/’ he continued, “we are both acting very foolishly, very culpably. Two very noble natures, both of which have the closest claims on our affection, we are leaving exposed to pain and distress, merely to avoid exposing ourselves to a chance of danger. If this is not to be called selfish, what is ? You take Ottilie. Let me have the Captain; and, for a short period, at least, let the trial be made.”

“We might venture it,” said Charlotte, thoughtfully, “if the danger were only to ourselves. But do you think it prudent to bring Ottilie and the Captain into a situation where they must necessarily be so closely intimate; the Captain, a man no older than yourself, of an age (I am not saying this to flatter you) when a man becomes first capable of love and first deserving of it and a girl of Ottilie’s attractiveness?”

“I cannot conceive how you can rate Ottilie so high,” replied Edward. “I can only explain it to myself by supposing her to have inherited your affection for her mother. Pretty she is, no doubt. I remember the Captain observing it to me, when we came back last year and met her at your aunt’s. Attractive she is — she has particularly pretty eyes; but I do not know that she made the slightest impression upon me.” „“That was quite proper in you,” said Charlotte, “seeing that I was there; and, although she is much younger than I, the presence of your old friend had so many charms for you that you overlooked the promise of the opening beauty. It is one of your ways; and that is one reason why it is so pleasant to live with you.”

Charlotte, openly as she appeared to be speaking, was keeping back something, nevertheless; which was .that at the time when Edward came first back from abroad, she had purposely thrown Ottilie in his way, to secure, if possible, so desirable a match for her protegee. For of herself, at that time, in connection with Edward, she never thought at all. The Captain, also, had a hint given to him to draw Edward’s attention to her; but the latter, who was clinging determinately to his early affection for Charlotte, looked neither right nor left and was only happy in the feeling that it was at last within his power to obtain for himself the one happiness which he so earnestly desired ; and which a series of incidents had appeared to have placed forever beyond his reach.

They were on the point of descending the new grounds, in order to return to the castle, when a servant came hastily to meet them and, with a laugh on his face, called up from below, “Will your grace be pleased to come quickly to the castle? The Herr Mittler has just galloped into the court. He shouted to us to go all of us in search of you and we were to ask whether there was need, ‘whether there is need,’ he cried after us, ‘do you hear? but be quick, be quick.”

“The odd fellow,” exclaimed Edward. “But has he not come at the right time, Charlotte? Tell him there is need — grievous need. He must alight. See his horse taken care of. Take him into the saloon and let him have some luncheon. We shall be with him immediately.”

“Let us take the nearest way,” he said to his wife and struck into the path across the churchyard, which he usually avoided. He was not a little surprised to find here, too, traces of Charlotte’s delicate hand. Sparing, as far as possible, the old monuments, she had contrived to level it and lay it carefully out, so as to make it appear a pleasant spot on which the eye and the imagination could equally repose with pleasure. The oldest stones had each their special honor assigned them. They were ranged according to their dates along the wall, either leaning against it or let into it or however it could be contrived; and the string-course of the church was thus variously ornamented.

Edward was singularly affected as he came in upon it through the little wicket; he pressed Charlotte’s hand and tears started into his eyes. But these were very soon put to flight by the appearance of their singular visitor. This gentleman had declined sitting down in the castle; he had ridden straight through the village to the churchyard gate; and then, halting, he called out to his friends, “Are you not making a fool of me ? Is there need, really ? If there is, I can stay till midday. But don’t keep me. I have a great deal to do before night.”

“Since you have taken the trouble to come so far,” cried Edward to him, in answer, “you had better come through the gate. We meet at a solemn spot. Come and see the variety which Charlotte has thrown over its sadness.”

“Inside there,” called out the rider, “come I neither on horseback, nor in carriage, nor on foot. These here rest in peace: with them I have nothing to do. One day I shall be carried in feet foremost. I must bear that as I can. — Is it serious, I want to know ?”

“Indeed it is,” cried Charlotte, “right serious. For the first time in our married lives, we are in a strait and difficulty, from which we do not know how to extricate ourselves.”

“You do not look as if it were so,” answered he. “But I will believe you. If you are deceiving me, for the future you shall help yourselves. Follow me quickly, my horse will be none the worse for a rest.”

The three speedily found themselves in the saloon together. Luncheon was brought in and Mittler told them what that day he had done and was going to do. This eccentric person had in early life been a clergyman and had distinguished himself in his office by the never-resting activity with which he contrived to make up and put an end to quarrels; quarrels in families and quarrels between neighbors; first among the individuals immediately about him and afterward among whole congregations and among the country gentlemen round. While he was in the ministry, no married couple were allowed to separate ; and the district courts were untroubled with either cause or process. A knowledge of the law, he was well aware, was necessary to him. He gave himself with all his might to the study of it and very soon felt himself a match for the best trained advocate. His circle of activity extended wonderfully and people were on the point of inducing him to move to the Residence, where he would find opportunities of exercising in the higher circles what he had begun in the lowest, when he won a considerable sum of money in a lottery. With this, he bought himself a small property. He let the ground to a tenant and made it the center of his operations, with the fixed determination or rather in accordance with his old customs and inclinations, never to enter a house when there was no dispute to make up and no help to be given. People who were superstitious about names and about what they imported, maintained that it was his being called Mittler which drove him to take upon himself this strange employment.

Luncheon was laid on the table and the stranger then solemnly pressed his host not to wait any longer with the disclosure which he had to make. Immediately after refreshing himself he would be obliged to leave them.

Husband and wife made a circumstantial confession; but scarcely had he caught the substance of the matter, when he started angrily up from the table, rushed out of the saloon* and ordered his horse to be saddled instantly.

“Either you do not know me, you do not understand me,” he cried, “or you are sorely mischievous. Do you call this a quarrel ? Is there any want of help here ? Do you suppose that I am in the world to give advice? Of all occupations which man can pursue that is the most foolish. Every man must be his own counselor and do what he cannot let alone. If all go well, let him be happy, let him enjoy his wisdom and his fortune; if it go ill, I am at* hand to do what I can for him. The man who desires to be rid of an evil knows what he wants; but the man who desires something better than he has got is stone blind. Yes, yes, laugh as you will, he is playing blindman’s-buff; perhaps he gets hold of something but the question is what he has got hold of. Do as you will, it is all one. Invite your friends to you or let them be, it is all the same. The most prudent plans I have seen miscarry and the most foolish succeed. Don’t split your brains about it; and if, one way or the other, evil comes of what you settle, don’t fret; send for me and you shall be helped. Till which time, I am your humble servant.”

So saying, he sprang on his horse, without waiting the arrival of the coffee.

“Here you see,” said Charlotte, “the small service a third person can be, when things are off their balance between two persons closely connected; we are left, if -possible, more confused and more uncertain than we were.”

They would both, probably, have continued hesitating some time longer, had not a letter arrived from the Captain, in reply to Edward’s last. He had made up his mind to accept one of the situations which had been offered him, although it was not in the least up to his mark. He was to share the ennui of certain wealthy persons of rank, who depended on his ability to dissipate it.

Edward’s keen glance saw into the whole thing and he pictured it out in just, sharp lines.

“Can we endure to think of our friend in such a position?” he cried; “you cannot be so cruel, Charlotte.”

“That strange Mittler is right after all,” replied Charlotte ; “all such undertakings are ventures; what will come of them it is impossible to foresee. New elements introduced among us may be fruitful in fortune or in misfortune, without our having to take credit to ourselves for one or the other. I do not feel myself firm enough to oppose you further. Let us make the experiment; only one thing I will entreat of you — that it be only for a short time. You must allow me to exert myself more than ever, to use all my influence among all my connections, to find him some position which will satisfy him in his own way.”

Edward poured out the warmest expressions of gratitude. He hastened, with a light, happy heart, to write off his proposals to his friend. Charlotte, in a postscript, was to signify her approbation with her own hand and unite her own kind entreaties with his. She wrote, with a rapid pen, pleasantly and affectionately but yet with a sort of haste which was not usual with her; and, most unlike herself, she disfigured the paper at last with a blot of ink, which put her out of temper and which she only made worse with her attempts to wipe it away.

Edward laughed at her about it and, as there was still room, added, a second postscript, that his friend was to see from this symptom the impatience with which he was expected and measure the speed at which he came to them by the haste in which the letter was written.

The messenger was gone; and Edward thought he could not give a more convincing evidence of his gratitude than by insisting again and again that Charlotte should at once send for Ottilie from the school. She said she would think about it; and, for that evening, induced Edward to join with her in the enjoyment of a little music. Charlotte played exceedingly well on the . piano, Edward not quite so well on the flute. He had taken a great deal of pains with it at times; but he was without the patience, without the perseverance, which are requisite for the completely successful cultivation of such " a talent; consequently, his part was done unequally, some pieces well, only perhaps too quickly — while with others he hesitated, not being quite familiar with them; so that, for any one else, it would have been difficult to have gone through a duet with him. But Charlotte knew how to manage it. She held in or let herself be run away with and fulfilled in this way the double part of a skillful conductor and a prudent housewife, who are able always to keep right on the whole, although particular passages ' will now and then fall out of order.

CHAPTER III

The Captain came, having previously written a most sensible letter, which had entirely quieted Charlotte’s apprehensions. So much clearness about himself, so just an understanding of his own position and the position of his friends, promised everything which was best and happiest.

The conversation of the first few hours, as is generally the case with friends who have not met for a long time, was eager, lively, almost exhausting. Toward evening, Charlotte proposed a walk to the new grounds. The Captain was delighted with the spot and observed every beauty which had been first brought into sight and made enjoyable by the new walks. He had a practiced eye, . and at the same time one easily satisfied; and although he knew very well what was really valuable, he never, as so many persons do, made people who were showing him things of their own uncomfortable, by requiring more than the circumstances admitted of or by mentioning anything more perfect, which he remembered having seen elsewhere.

When they arrived at the summer-house, they found it dressed out for a holiday, only, indeed,' with artificial flowers and evergreens but with some pretty bunches of l] natural corn-ears among them and other field and garden fruit, so as to do credit to the taste which had arranged them.

“Although my husband does not like in general to have his birthday or christening-day kept,” Charlotte said, “he will not object to-day to these few ornaments being expended on a treble festival.”

“Treble?” cried Edward.

“Yes, indeed,” she replied. “Our friend’s arrival here we are bound to keep as a festival; and have you never thought, either of you, that this is the day on which you were both christened? Are you not both named Otto?”

The two friends shook hands across the little table.

“You bring back to my mind,” Edward said, “this little link of our boyish affection. As children, we were both called so; but when we came to be at school together, it was the cause of much confusion and I readily made over to him all my right to the pretty laconic name.”

“Wherein you were not altogether so very high-minded,” said the Captain; “for I well remember that the name of Edward had then begun to please you better, from its attractive sound when spoken by certain pretty lips.”

They were now sitting all three round the same table where Charlotte had spoken so vehemently against their guest’s coming to them. Edward, happy as he was, did not wish to remind his wife of that time; but he could not help saying:

“There is good room here for one more person.”

'At this moment the notes of a bugle were heard across from the castle. Full of happy thoughts and feelings as the friends all were together, the sound fell in among them with a strong force of answering harmony. They listened silently, each for the moment withdrawing into himself and feeling doubly happy in the fair circle of which he formed a part. The pause was first broken by Edward, who started up and walked, out in front of the summer-house.

“Our friend must not think,” he said to Charlotte, “that this narrow little valley forms the whole of our domain and possessions. Let us take him up to the top of the hill, where he can see further and breathe more freely.”

“For this once, then,” answered Charlotte, “we must climb up the old footpath, which is not too easy. By the next time, I hope my walks and steps will have been carried right up.”

And so, among rocks and shrubs and bushes, they made their way to the summit, where they found them-^ selves, not on a level flat but on a sloping grassy terrace, running along the ridge of the hill. The village, with the castle behind it, was out of sight. At the bottom of the valley, sheets of water were seen spreading out right and left, with wooded hills rising immediately from their opposite margin and, at the end of the upper water, a wall of sharp, precipitous rocks directly overhanging it, their huge forms reflected in its level surface. In the hollow of the ravine, where a considerable brook ran into the lake, lay a mill, half hidden among the trees, a sweetly retired spot, most beautifully surrounded; and through the entire semicircle over which the view extended, ran an endless variety of hills and valleys, copse and forest, the early green of which promised the near approach of a luxuriant clothing of foliage. In many places particular groups of trees caught the eye; and especially a cluster of planes and poplars directly at the spectator’s feet, close to the edge of the center lake. They were at their full growth and they stood there, spreading out their boughs all around them, in fresh and luxuriant strength.

To these Edward called his friend’s attention.

“I myself planted them,” he cried, “when I was a boy. They were small trees which I rescued when my father' was laying out the new part of the great castle garden and in the middle of one summer had rooted them out. This year you will no doubt see them show their gratitude in a fresh set of shoots.”

They returned to the castle in high spirits and mutually pleased with each other. To the guest was allotted an agreeable and roomy set of apartments in the right \y wing of the castle; and here he rapidly got his books and papers and instruments in order, to go on with his usual occupation. But Edward, for the first few days, gave him no rest He took him about everywhere, now on foot, now on horseback, making him acquainted with the country and with the estate; and he embraced the opportunity of imparting to him the wishes which he had been long entertaining, of getting at some better acquaintance with it and learning to manage it more profitably.

“The first thing we have to do,” said the Captain, “is to make a magnetic survey of the property. That is a pleasant and easy matter; and if it does not admit of entire exactness, it will be always useful and will do, at any rate, for an agreeable beginning. It can be made; too, without any great staff of assistants and one can be sure of getting it completed. If by and by you come to require anything more exact, it will be easy then to find some plan to have it made.”

The Captain was exceedingly skillful at work of this kind. He had brought with him whatever instruments he required and commenced immediately. Edward provided him with a number of foresters and peasants, who, with his instruction, were able to render him all necessary assistance. The weather was favorable. The evenings and the early mornings were devoted to the designing and drawing and in a short time it was all filled in and colored. Edward saw his possessions grow out like a new creation upon the paper; and it seemed as if now for the first time he knew what they were, as if they now first were properly his own.

Thus there came occasion to speak of the park and of the ways of laying it out; a far better disposition of things being made possible after a survey of this kind than could be arrived at by experimenting on nature, on partial and accidental impressions.

“We must make my wife understand this,” said Edward.

“We must do nothing of the kind,” replied the Captain, who did not like bringing his own notions in collision with those of others. He had learned by experience that the motives and purposes by which men are influenced are far too various to be made to coalesce upon a single point, even on the most solid representations. “We must not do it,” he cried; “she will be only confused. With her, as with all people who employ themselves on such matters merely as amateurs, the important thing is, rather that she shall do something than that something shall be done. Such persons feel their way with nature. They have fancies for this plan or that; they do not venture on removing obstacles. They are not bold enough to make . a sacrifice. They do not know beforehand in what their work is to result. They try an experiment — it succeeds — it fails; they alter it; they alter, perhaps, what they ought to leave alone and leave what they ought to alter; f and so, at last, there always remains but a patchwork, which pleases and amuses but never satisfies.”

“Acknowledge candidly,” said Edward, “that you do not like this new work of hers.”

“The idea is excellent,” he replied; “if the execution were equal to it, there would be no fault to find. But she has tormented herself to find her way up that rock; and she now torments everyone, if you must have it, that she takes up after her. You cannot walk together — you cannot walk behind one another with any freedom. Every moment your step is interrupted one way or another. There is no end to the mistakes which she has made.” .

“Would it have been easy to have done it otherwise?” asked Edward.

“Perfectly,” replied the Captain. “She had only to break away a corner of the rock, which is now but an unsightly object, made up as it is of little pieces and she would at once have a sweep for her walk and stone in abundance for the rough masonry work, to widen it in the bad places and make it smooth. But this I tell you in strictest confidence. Her it would only confuse and annoy. What is done must remain as it is. If any more money and labor is to be spent there, there is abundance to do above the summer-house on the hill, which we can settle our own way.”

If the two friends found in their occupation abundance of present employment, there was no lack either of entertaining reminiscences of early times, in which Charlotte took her part as well. They determined, moreover, that as soon as their immediate labors were finished, they would go to work upon the journal and in this way, too, reproduce the past.

For the rest, when Edward and Charlotte were alone, there were fewer matters of private interest between them than formerly. This was especially the case since the fault-finding about the grounds, which Edward thought so just and which he felt to the quick. He held his . tongue about what the Captain had said for a long time; but at last, when he saw his wife again preparing to go to work above the summer-house, with her paths and steps, he could not contain himself any longer but, after a few circumlocutions, came out with his new views.

Charlotte was thoroughly disturbed. She was sensible enough to perceive at once that they were right but there was the difficulty with what was already done — and what was made was made. She had liked it; even what was wrong had become dear to her in its details. She fought against her convictions; she defended her little creations; she railed at men who were forever going to the broad and the great. They could not let a pastime, they could not let an amusement alone, she said but they must go -and make a work out of it, never thinking of the expense which their larger plans involved. She was provoked, annoyed and angry. Her old plans she could not give up, the new she would not quite throw from her; but, divided as she was, for the present she put a stop to the work and gave herself time to think the thing over and let it ripen by itself.

At the same time that she lost this source of active amusement, the others were more and more together over their own business. They took to occupying themselves, moreover, with the flower-garden and the hot-houses; and f/ as they filled up the intervals with the ordinary gentlemen’s amusements, hunting, riding, buying, selling, breaking horses and such matters, she was every day left more and more to herself. She devoted herself more assiduously than ever to her correspondence on account of the Captain; and yet she had many lonely hours; so that the information which she now received from the school became of more agreeable interest.

To a long-drawn letter of the superior of the establishment, filled with the usual expressions of delight at her daughter’s progress, a brief postscript was attached, with a second from the hand of a gentleman in employment there as an assistant, both of which we here communicate.

POSTSCRIPT OF THE SUPERIOR

“Of Ottilie, I can only repeat to your ladyship what I have already stated in my former letters. I do not know how to find fault with her, yet I cannot say that I am satisfied. She is always unassuming, always ready to oblige others; but it is not pleasing to see her so timid, so almost servile.

“Your ladyship lately sent her some money, with several little matters for her wardrobe. The money she has never touched, the dresses lay unworn in their place. She keeps her things very nice and very clean; but this is all she seems to care about. Again, I cannot praise her excessive abstemiousness in eating and drinking. There is no extravagance at our table but there is nothing that I like better than to see the children eat enough of good, wholesome food. What is carefully provided and set before them ought to be taken; and to this I never can succeed in bringing Ottilie. She is always making herself some occupation or other, always finding something which she must do, something which the servants have neglected, to escape the second course or the dessert; and now it has to be considered (which I cannot help connecting with all this) that she frequently suffers, I have lately teamed,-from pain in the left side of her head. It is only at times but it is distressing and may be of importance. So much upon this otherwise sweet and lovely girl.”

SECOND POSTSCRIPT, BY THE ASSISTANT

“Our excellent superior commonly permits me to read the letters in which she communicates her observations upon her pupils to their parents and friends. Such of them as are addressed to your ladyship I ever read with twofold attention and pleasure. We have to congratulate you upon a daughter who unites in herself every brilliant quality with which people distinguish themselves in the world; and I at least think you no less fortunate in having had bestowed upon you, in your stepdaughter, a child who has been born for the good and happiness of others and assuredly also for her own. Ottilie is almost our only pupil about whom there is a difference of opinion between myself and our reverend superior. I do not complain of the very natural desire in that good lady to see outward and definite fruits arising from her labors. But there are also fruits which are not outward, which are of the true germinal sort and which develop themselves ' sooner or later in a beautiful life. And this I am certain is the case with your protegee. So long as she has been under my care, I have watched her moving with an even step, slowly, steadily forward — never back. As .with a child it is necessary to begin everything at the beginning, so it is with her. She can comprehend nothing which' does not follow from what precedes it; let a thing be as simple and easy as possible, she can make nothing of it if it is not in a recognizable connection; but find the intermediate links and make them clear to her and then nothing is too difficult for her.

“Progressing with such slow steps, she remains behind her companions, who, with capacities of quite a different kind, hurry on and on, learn everything readily, connected or unconnected, recollect it with ease and apply it with correctness. And again, some of the lessons here are given by excellent but somewhat hasty and impatient teachers, who pass from result to result, cutting short the process by which they are arrived at; and these are not of the slightest service to her; she learns nothing from them. There is a complaint of her handwriting. They say she will not or cannot, understand how to form her - letters. I have examined closely into this. It is true she writes slowly, stiffly, if you like; but the hand is neither timid nor without character. The French language is not my department but I have taught her something of it, in the step-by-step fashion; and this she understands easily. Indeed, it is singular that she knows a great deal and knows it well, too; and yet when she is asked a question, it seems as if she knew nothing.

“To conclude generally, I should say she learns nothing like a person who is being educated but she learns like one who is to educate — not like a pupil but like a future teacher. Your ladyship may think it strange that I, as an educator and a teacher, can find no higher praise to give to any one than by a comparison with myself. I may leave it to your own good sense, to your deep knowledge of the world and of mankind, to make the best of my most inadequate but well-intended expressions. You may satisfy yourself that you have much happiness to promise yourself from this child. I commend myself to your ladyship and I beseech you to permit me to write to you again as soon as I see reason to believe that I have anything important or agreeable to communicate.”

This letter gave Charlotte great pleasure. The contents of it coincided very closely with the notions which she had herself conceived of Ottilie. At the same time, . she could not help smiling at the excessive interest of the assistant, which seemed greater than the insight into a pupil’s excellence usually calls forth. In her quiet, unprejudiced way of looking at things, this relation, among others, she was contented to permit to lie before her as a possibility; she could value the interest of so sensible a man in Ottilie, having learned, among the lessons of her life, to see how highly true regard is to be prized, in a world where indifference or dislike are the common natural residents.

CHAPTER IV