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diff --git a/33762-0.txt b/33762-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8135047 --- /dev/null +++ b/33762-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7903 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33762 *** + +THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH IN RÜGEN + +BY + +THE AUTHOR OF "ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN" + + +New York + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. + + +1904 + + + +[Illustration: map of Rügen] + + +CONTENTS + + +THE FIRST DAY--From Miltzow to Lauterbach + +THE SECOND DAY--Lauterbach and Vilm + +THE THIRD DAY--From Lauterbach to Göhren + +THE FOURTH DAY--From Göhren to Thiessow + +THE FOURTH DAY (continued)--At Thiessow + +THE FIFTH DAY--From Thiessow to Sellin + +THE FIFTH DAY (continued)--From Sellin to Binz + +THE SIXTH DAY--The Jagdschloss + +THE SIXTH DAY (continued)--The Granitz Woods, Schwarze See, and Kieköwer + +THE SEVENTH DAY--From Binz to Stubbenkammer + +THE SEVENTH DAY (continued)--At Stubbenkammer + +THE EIGHTH DAY--From Stubbenkammer to Glowe + +THE NINTH DAY--From Glowe to Wiek + +THE TENTH DAY--From Wiek to Hiddensee + +THE ELEVENTH DAY--From Wiek Home + + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH IN RÜGEN + + + + +THE FIRST DAY + +FROM MILTZOW TO LAUTERBACH + + +Every one who has been to school and still remembers what he was taught +there, knows that Rügen is the biggest island Germany possesses, and +that it lies in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Pomerania. + +Round this island I wished to walk this summer, but no one would walk +with me. It is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the +life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on +anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a +thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside. If you +drive you are bound by a variety of considerations, eight of the most +important being the horses' legs. If you bicycle--but who that loves to +get close to nature would bicycle? And as for motors, the object of a +journey like mine was not the getting to a place but the going there. + +Successively did I invite the most likely of my women friends, numbering +at least a dozen, to walk with me. They one and all replied that it +would make them tired and that it would be dull; and when I tried to +remove the first objection by telling them how excellent it would be for +the German nation, especially those portions of it that are still to +come, if its women walked round Rügen more often, they stared and +smiled; and when I tried to remove the second by explaining that by our +own spirits are we deified, they stared and smiled more than ever. + +Walking, then, was out of the question, for I could not walk alone. The +grim monster Conventionality whose iron claws are for ever on my +shoulder, for ever pulling me back from the harmless and the wholesome, +put a stop to that even if I had not been afraid of tramps, which I was. +So I drove, and it was round Rügen that I drove because one hot +afternoon when I was idling in the library, not reading but fingering +the books, taking out first one and then another, dipping into them, +deciding which I would read next, I came across Marianne North's +_Recollections of a Happy Life_, and hit upon the page where she begins +to talk of Rügen. Immediately interested--for is not Rügen nearer to me +than any other island?--I became absorbed in her description of the +bathing near a place called Putbus, of the deliciousness of it in a +sandy cove where the water was always calm, and of how you floated about +on its crystal surface, and beautiful jelly-fish, stars of purest +colours, floated with you. I threw down the book to ransack the shelves +for a guide to Rügen. On the first page of the first one I found was +this remarkable paragraph:-- + +'Hearest thou the name Rügen, so doth a wondrous spell come over thee. +Before thine eyes it rises as a dream of far-away, beauteous fairylands. +Images and figures of long ago beckon thee across to the marvellous +places where in grey prehistoric times they dwelt, and on which they +have left the shadow of their presence. And in thee stirs a mighty +desire to wander over the glorious, legend-surrounded island. Cord up, +then, thy light bundle, take to heart Shylock's advice to put money in +thy purse, and follow me without fear of the threatening sea-sickness +which may overtake thee on the short crossing, for it has never yet done +any one more harm than imposing on him a rapidly-passing discomfort.' + +This seemed to me very irresistible. Surely a place that inspired such a +mingling of the lofty and the homely in its guide-books must be well +worth seeing? There was a drought just then going on at home. My eyes +were hot with watching a garden parch browner day by day beneath a sky +of brass. I felt that it only needed a little energy, and in a few hours +I too might be floating among those jelly-fish, in the shadow of the +cliffs of the legend-surrounded island. And even better than being +surrounded by legends those breathless days would it be to have the sea +all round me. Such a sea too! Did I not know it? Did I not know its +singular limpidity? The divineness of its blue where it was deep, the +clearness of its green where it was shallow, lying tideless along its +amber shores? The very words made me thirsty--amber shores; lazy waves +lapping them slowly; vast spaces for the eye to wander over; rocks, and +seaweed, and cool, gorgeous jelly-fish. The very map at the beginning of +the guide-book made me thirsty, the land was so succulently green, the +sea all round so bland a blue. And what a fascinating island it is on +the map--an island of twists and curves and inland seas called Bodden; +of lakes, and woods, and frequent ferries; with lesser islands dotted +about its coasts; with bays innumerable stretching their arms out into +the water; and with one huge forest, evidently magnificent, running +nearly the whole length of the east coast, following its curves, dipping +down to the sea in places, and in others climbing up chalk cliffs to +crown them with the peculiar splendour of beeches. + +It does not take me long to make up my mind, still less to cord up my +light bundle, for somebody else does that; and I think it was only two +days after I first found Marianne North and the guide-book that my maid +Gertrud and I got out of a suffocating train into the freshness that +blows round ryefields near the sea, and began our journey into the +unknown. + +It was a little wayside station on the line between Berlin and +Stralsund, called Miltzow, a solitary red building on the edge of a +pine-wood, that witnessed the beginning of our tour. The carriage had +been sent on the day before, and round it, on our arrival, stood the +station authorities in an interested group. The stationmaster, +everywhere in Germany an elaborate, Olympic person in white gloves, +actually helped the porter to cord on my hold-all with his own hands, +and they both lingered over it as if loth to let us go. Evidently the +coachman had told them what I was going to do, and I suppose such an +enterprising woman does not get out at Miltzow every day. They packed us +in with the greatest care, with so much care that I thought they would +never have done. My hold-all was the biggest piece of luggage, and they +corded it on in an upright position at our feet. I had left the choosing +of its contents to Gertrud, only exhorting her, besides my pillow, to +take a sufficiency of soap and dressing-gowns. Gertrud's luggage was +placed by the porter on her lap. It was almost too modest. It was one +small black bag, and a great part of its inside must, I knew, be taken +up by the stockings she had brought to knit and the needles she did it +with; yet she looked quite as respectable the day we came home as she +did the day we started, and every bit as clean. My dressing-case was put +on the box, and on top of it was a brown cardboard hat-box containing +the coachman's wet-weather hat. A thick coat for possible cold days made +a cushion for my back, and Gertrud's waterproof did the same thing for +hers. Wedged in between us was the tea-basket, rattling inharmoniously, +but preventing our slipping together in sloping places. Behind us in the +hood were the umbrellas, rugs, guide-books, and maps, besides one of +those round shiny yellow wooden band-boxes into which every decent +German woman puts her best hat. This luggage, and some mysterious +bundles on the box that the coachman thought were hidden by his legs but +which bulged out unhideable on either side, prevented our looking +elegant; but I did not want to look elegant, and I had gathered from the +remarks of those who had refused to walk that Rügen was not a place +where I should meet any one who did. + +Now I suppose I could talk for a week and yet give no idea whatever of +the exultation that filled my soul as I gazed on these arrangements. The +picnic-like simplicity of them was so full of promise. It was as though +I were going back to the very morning of life, to those fresh years when +shepherd boys and others shout round one for no reason except that they +are out of doors and alive. Also, during the years that have come after, +years that may properly be called riper, it has been a conviction of +mine that there is nothing so absolutely bracing for the soul as the +frequent turning of one's back on duties. This was exactly what I was +doing; and oh ye rigid female martyrs on the rack of daily +exemplariness, ye unquestioning patient followers of paths that have +been pointed out, if only you knew the wholesome joys of sometimes being +less good! + +The point at which we were is the nearest from which Rügen can be +reached by persons coming up from the south and going to drive. No one +ever gets out there who is bound for Rügen, because no one ever drives +to Rügen. The ordinary tourist, almost exclusively German, goes first to +Stralsund, is taken across the narrow strip of water, train and all, on +the steam ferry, and continues without changing till he reaches the open +sea on the other side of the island at Sassnitz. Or he goes by train +from Berlin to Stettin and then by steamer down the Oder, crosses the +open sea for four hours, and arrives, probably pensive for the boats are +small and the waves are often big, at Göhren, the first stopping-place +on the island's east coast. + +We were not ordinary tourists, and having got to Miltzow were to be +independent of all such wearinesses as trains and steamers till the day +we wanted to come back again. From Miltzow we were going to drive to a +ferry three miles off at a place called Stahlbrode, cross the mile of +water, land on the island's south shore, and go on at once that +afternoon to the jelly-fish of Miss North's Putbus, which were beckoning +me across to the legend-surrounded island far more irresistibly than any +of those grey figures the guide-book talked about. + +The carriage was a light one of the victoria genus with a hood; the +horses were a pair esteemed at home for their meekness; the coachman, +August, was a youth who had never yet driven straight on for an +indefinite period without turning round once, and he looked as though he +thought he were going to enjoy himself. I was sure I was going to enjoy +myself. Gertrud, I fancy, was without these illusions; but she is old, +and has got out of the habit of being anything but resigned. She was the +sop on this occasion thrown to the Grim One of the iron claws, for I +would far rather have gone alone. But Gertrud is very silent; to go with +her would be as nearly like being alone as it is possible to be when you +are not. She could, I knew, be trusted to sit by my side knitting, +however bumpy the road, and not opening her lips unless asked a +question. Admirable virtue of silence, most precious, because most rare, +jewel in the crown of female excellences, not possessed by a single one +of those who had refused to walk! If either of them had occupied +Gertrud's place and driven with me would she not, after the way of +women, have spent the first half of the time telling me her secrets and +the other half being angry with me because I knew them? And then +Gertrud, after having kept quiet all day, would burst into activities at +night, unpack the hold-all, produce pleasant things like slippers, see +that my bed was as I like it, and end by tucking me up in it and going +away on tiptoe with her customary quaint benediction, bestowed on me +every night at bedtime: 'The dear God protect and bless the gracious +one,' says Gertrud as she blows out the candle. + +'And may He also protect and bless thee,' I reply; and could as ill +spare my pillow as her blessing. + +It was half-past two in the afternoon of the middle Friday in July when +we left the station officials to go back to their dull work and trotted +round the corner into the wide world. The sky was a hot blue. The road +wound with gentle ups and downs between fields whitening to harvest. +High over our heads the larks quivered in the light, shaking out that +rapturous song that I can never hear without a throb of gratitude for +being alive. There were no woods or hills, and we could see a long way +on either side, see the red roofs of farms clustered wherever there was +a hollow to protect them from the wild winds of winter, see the straight +double line of trees where the high road to Stralsund cut across ours, +see a little village a mile ahead of us with a venerable church on a +mound in the middle of it gravely presiding over the surrounding wide +parish of corn. I think I must have got out at least six times during +the short drive between Miltzow and the ferry pretending I wanted +flowers, but really to enjoy the delight of loitering. The rye was full +of chickory and poppies, the ditches along the road where the spring +dampness still lingered were white with the delicate loveliness of +cow-parsley, that most spiritual of weeds. I picked an armful of it to +hold up against the blue of the sky while we were driving; I gave +Gertrud a bunch of poppies for which she thanked me without enthusiasm; +I put little posies of chickory at the horses' ears; in fact I felt and +behaved as if I were fifteen and out for my first summer holiday. But +what did it matter? There was nobody there to see. + +Stahlbrode is the most innocent-looking place--a small cluster of +cottages on grass that goes down to the water. It was quite empty and +silent. It has a long narrow wooden jetty running across the marshy +shore to the ferry, and moored to the end of this jetty lay a big +fishing-smack with furled brown sails. I got out and walked down to it +to see if it were the ferry-boat, and whether the ferryman was in it. +Both August and the horses had an alarmed, pricked-up expression as they +saw me going out into the jaws of the sea. Even the emotionless Gertrud +put away her stocking and stood by the side of the carriage watching me. +The jetty was roughly put together, and so narrow that the carriage +would only just fit in. A slight wooden rail was all the protection +provided; but the water was not deep, and heaved limpidly over the +yellow sand at the bottom. The shore we were on was flat and vividly +green, the shore of Rügen opposite was flat and vividly green; the sea +between was a lovely, sparkling blue; the sky was strewn across with +loose clusters of pearly clouds; the breeze that had played so gently +among the ears of corn round Miltzow danced along the little waves and +splashed them gaily against the wooden posts of the jetty as though the +freshness down there on the water had filled it with new life. I found +the boat empty, a thing of steep sides and curved bottom, a thing that +was surely never intended for the ferrying across of horses and +carriages. No other boat was to be seen. Up the channel and down the +channel there was nothing visible but the flat green shores, the dancing +water, the wide sky, the bland afternoon light. + +I turned back thoughtfully to the cottages. Suppose the ferry were only +used for ferrying people? If so, we were in an extremely tiresome fix. A +long way back against the sky I could see the line of trees bordering +the road to Stralsund, and the whole dull, dusty distance would have to +be driven over if the Stahlbrode ferry failed us. August took off his +hat when I came up to him, and said ominously, 'Does the gracious one +permit that I speak a few words?' + +'Speak them, August.' + +'It is very windy.' + +'Not very.' + +'It is far to go on water.' + +'Not very.' + +'Never yet have I been on the sea.' + +'Well, you are going on it now.' + +With an expression made up of two parts fright and one resignation he +put on his hat again and relapsed into a silence that was grim. I took +Gertrud with me to give me a countenance and walked across to the inn, a +new red-brick house standing out boldly on a bit of rising ground, end +ways on to the sea. The door was open and we went in, knocking with my +sunshade on the floor. We stirred up no life of any sort. Not even a dog +barked at us. The passage was wide and clean with doors on each side of +it and an open door at either end--the one we had come in by followed by +the afternoon sun, and the other framing a picture of sky with the sea +at the bottom, the jetty, the smack with folded sails, and the coast of +Rügen. Seeing a door with _Gaststube_ painted on it I opened it and +peeped in. To my astonishment it was full of men smoking in silence, and +all with their eyes fixed on the opening door. They must have heard us. +They must have seen us passing the window as we came up to the house. I +concluded that the custom of the district requires that strangers shall +in no way be interfered with until they actually ask definite questions; +that it was so became clear by the alacrity with which a yellow-bearded +man jumped up on our asking how we could get across to Rügen, and told +us he was the ferryman and would take us there. + +'But there is a carriage--can that go too?' I inquired anxiously, +thinking of the deep bottom and steep sides of the fishing-smack. + +'_Alles, Alles_,' he said cheerily; and calling to a boy to come and +help he led the way through the door framing the sea, down a tiny, sandy +garden prickly with gooseberry bushes, to the place where August sat +marvelling on his box. + +'Come along!' he shouted as he ran past him. + +'What, along that thing of wood?' cried August. 'With my horses? And my +newly-varnished carriage?' + +'Come along!' shouted the ferryman, half-way down the jetty. + +'Go on, August,' I commanded. + +'It can never be accomplished,' said August, visibly breaking out into a +perspiration. + +'Go on,' I repeated sternly; but thought it on the whole more discreet +to go on myself on my own feet, and so did Gertrud. + +'If the gracious one insists----' faltered August, and began to drive +gingerly down to the jetty with the face of one who thinks his last hour +well on the way. + +As I had feared, the carriage was very nearly smashed getting it over +the sides of the smack. I sat up in the bows looking on in terror, +expecting every instant to see the wheels wrenched off, and with their +wrenching the end of our holiday. The optimistic ferryman assured us +that it was going in quite easily--like a lamb, he declared, with great +boldness of imagery. He sloped two ineffectual planks, one for each set +of wheels, up the side of the boat, and he and August, hatless, +coatless, and breathless, lifted the carriage over on to them. It was a +horrid moment. The front wheels twisted right round and were as near +coming off as any wheels I saw in my life. I was afraid to look at +August, so right did he seem to have been when he protested that the +thing could not be accomplished. Yet there was Rügen and here were we, +and we had to get across to it somehow or turn round and do the dreary +journey to Stralsund. + +The horses, both exceedingly restive, had been unharnessed and got in +first. They were held in the stern of the boat by two boys, who needed +all their determination to do it. Then it was that I was thankful for +the boat's steep sides, for if they had been lower those horses would +certainly have kicked themselves over into the sea; and what should I +have done then? And how should I have faced him who is in authority over +me if I returned to him without his horses? + +'We take them across daily,' the ferryman remarked, airily jerking his +thumb in the direction of the carriage. + +'Do so many people drive to Rügen?' I asked astonished, for the plank +arrangements were staringly makeshift. + +'Many people?' cried the ferryman. 'Rightly speaking, crowds.' + +He was trying to make me happy. At least it reassured August to hear it; +but I could not suppress a smile of deprecation at the size of the fib. + +By this time we were under weigh, a fair wind sending us merrily over +the water. The ferryman steered; August stood at his horses' heads +talking to them soothingly; the two boys came and sat on some coiled +ropes close to me, leaned their elbows on their knees and their chins on +their hands, and fixing their blue fisher-boy eyes on my face kept them +there with an unwinking interest during the entire crossing. Oh, it was +lovely sitting up there in the sun, safe so far, in the delicious quiet +of sailing. The tawny sail, darned and patched in divers shades of brown +and red and orange, towered above us against the sky. The huge mast +seemed to brush along across the very surface of the little white +clouds. Above the rippling of the water we could hear the distant larks +on either shore. August had put on his scarlet stable-jacket for the +work of lifting the carriage in, and made a beautiful bit of colour +among the browns of the old boat at the stern. The eyes of the ferryman +lost all the alertness they had had on shore, and he stood at the rudder +gazing dreamily out at the afternoon light on the Rügen meadows. How +perfect it was after the train, after the clattering along the dusty +road, and the heat and terror of getting on board. For one exquisite +quarter of an hour we were softly lapped across in the sun, and for all +that beauty we were only asked to pay three marks, which included the +horses and carriage and the labour of getting us in and out. For a +further small sum the ferryman became enthusiastic and begged me to be +sure to come back that way. There was a single house on the Rügen shore +where he lived, he said, and from which he would watch for us. A little +dog came down to welcome us, but we saw no other living creature. The +carriage conducted itself far more like a lamb on this side, and I drove +away well pleased to have got over the chief difficulty of the tour, the +soft-voiced ferryman wishing us Godspeed, and the two boys unwinking to +the last. + +So here we were on the legend-surrounded island. 'Hail, thou isle of +fairyland, filled with beckoning figures!' I murmured under my breath, +careful not to appear too unaccountable in Gertrud's eyes. With eager +interest I looked about me, and anything less like fairyland and more +like the coast of Pomerania lately left I have seldom seen. The road, a +continuation of the road on the mainland, was exactly like other roads +that are dull as far as a rambling village three miles farther on called +Garz--persons referring to the map at the beginning of this book will +see with what a melancholy straightness it proceeds to that village--and +after Garz I ceased to care what it was like, for reasons which I will +now set forth. + +There was that afternoon in the market-place of Garz, and I know not +why, since it was neither a Sunday nor a holiday, a brass band playing +with a singular sonorousness. The horses having never before been +required to listen to music, their functions at home being solely to +draw me through the solitudes of forests, did not like it. I was +astonished at the vigour of the dislike they showed who were wont to be +so meek. They danced through Garz, pursued by the braying of the +trumpets and the delighted shouts of the crowd, who seemed to bray and +shout the louder the more the horses danced, and I was considering +whether the time had not come for clinging to Gertrud and shutting my +eyes when we turned a corner and got away from the noise on to the +familiar rattle of the hard country road. I gave a sigh of relief and +stretched out my head to see whether it were as straight a bit as the +last. It was quite as straight, and in the distance bearing down on us +was a black speck that swelled at an awful speed into a motor car. Now +the horses had not yet seen a motor car. Their nerves, already shaken by +the brass band, would never stand such a horrid sight I thought, and +prudence urged an immediate getting out and a rushing to their heads. +'Stop, August!' I cried. 'Jump out, Gertrud--there's a dreadful thing +coming--they're sure to bolt----' + +August slowed down in apparent obedience to my order, and without +waiting for him to stop entirely, the motor being almost upon us, I +jumped out on one side and Gertrud jumped out on the other. Before I had +time to run to the horses' heads the motor whizzed past. The horses +strange to say hardly cared at all, only mildly shying as August drove +them slowly along without stopping. + +'That's all right,' I remarked, greatly relieved, to Gertrud, who still +held her stocking. 'Now we'll get in again.' + +But we could not get in again because August did not stop. + +'Call to him to stop,' I said to Gertrud, turning aside to pick some +unusually big poppies. + +She called, but he did not stop. + +'Call louder, Gertrud,' I said impatiently, for we were now a good way +behind. + +She called louder, but he did not stop. + +Then I called; then she called; then we called together, but he did not +stop. On the contrary, he was driving on now at the usual pace, rattling +noisily over the hard road, getting more and more out of reach. + +'Shout, shout, Gertrud!' I cried in a frenzy; but how could any one so +respectable as Gertrud shout? She sent a faint shriek after the +ever-receding August, and when I tried to shout myself I was seized with +such uncontrollable laughter that nothing whatever of the nature of a +noise could be produced. + +Meanwhile August was growing very small in the distance. He evidently +did not know we had got out when the motor car appeared, and was under +the pleasing impression that we were sitting behind him being jogged +comfortably towards Putbus. He dwindled and dwindled with a rapidity +distressing to witness. 'Shout, shout,' I gasped, myself contorted with +dreadful laughter, half-wildest mirth and half despair. + +She began to trot down the road after him waving her stocking at his +distant back and emitting a series of shrill shrieks, goaded by the +exigencies of the situation. + +The last we saw of the carriage was a yellow glint as the sun caught the +shiny surface of my bandbox; immediately afterwards it vanished over the +edge of a far-away dip in the road, and we were alone with Nature. + +Gertrud and I stared at each other in speechless dismay. Then she looked +on in silence while I sank on to a milestone and laughed. There was +nothing, her look said, to laugh at, and much to be earnest over in our +tragic predicament, and I knew it but I could not stop. August had had +no instructions as to where he was driving to or where we were going to +put up that night; of Putbus and Marianna North he had never heard. With +the open ordnance map on my lap I had merely called out directions, +since leaving Miltzow, at cross-roads. Therefore in all human +probability he would drive straight on till dark, no doubt in growing +private astonishment at the absence of orders and the length of the way; +then when night came he would, I supposed, want to light his lamps, and +getting down to do so would immediately be frozen with horror at what he +saw, or rather did not see, in the carriage. What he would do after that +I could not conceive. In sheerest despair I laughed till I cried, and +the sight of Gertrud watching me silently from the middle of the +deserted road only made me less able to leave off. Behind us in the +distance, at the end of a vista of _chaussée_ trees, were the houses of +Garz; in front of us, a long way in front of us, rose the red spire of +the church of Casnewitz, a village through which, as I still remembered +from the map now driving along by itself, our road to Putbus lay. Up and +down the whiteness of this road not a living creature, either in a cart +or on its legs, was to be seen. The bald country, here very bald and +desolate, stretched away on either side into nothingness. The wind +sighed about, whisking little puffs of derisive dust into our eyes as it +passed. There was a dreadful absence of anything like sounds. + +'No doubt,' said Gertrud, 'August will soon return?' + +'He won't,' I said, wiping my eyes; 'he'll go on for ever. He's wound +up. Nothing will stop him.' + +'What, then, will the gracious one do?' + +'Walk after him, I suppose,' I said, getting up, 'and trust to something +unexpected making him find out he hasn't got us. But I'm afraid nothing +will. Come on, Gertrud,' I continued, feigning briskness while my heart +was as lead, 'it's nearly six already, and the road is long and lonely.' + +'_Ach_,' groaned Gertrud, who never walks. + +'Perhaps a cart will pass us and give us a lift. If not we'll walk to +that village with the church over there and see if we can get something +on wheels to pursue August with. Come on--I hope your boots are all +right.' + +'_Ach_,' groaned Gertrud again, lifting up one foot, as a dog pitifully +lifts up its wounded paw, and showing me a black cashmere boot of the +sort that is soft and pleasant to the feet of servants who are not +required to use them much. + +'I'm afraid they're not much good on this hard road,' I said. 'Let us +hope something will catch us up soon.' + +'_Ach_,' groaned poor Gertrud, whose feet are very tender. + +But nothing did catch us up, and we trudged along in grim silence, the +desire to laugh all gone. + +'You must, my dear Gertrud,' I said after a while, seeking to be +cheerful, 'regard this in the light of healthful exercise. You and I are +taking a pleasant afternoon walk together in Rügen.' + +Gertrud said nothing; at all times loathing movement out of doors she +felt that this walking was peculiarly hateful because it had no visible +end. And what would become of us if we were forced to spend the night in +some inn without our luggage? The only thing I had with me was my purse, +the presence of which, containing as it did all the money I had brought, +caused me to cast a careful eye at short intervals behind me, less in +the hope of seeing a cart than in the fear of seeing a tramp; and the +only thing Gertrud had was her half-knitted stocking. Also we had had +nothing to eat but a scrappy tea-basket lunch hours before in the train, +and my intention had been to have food at Putbus and then drive down to +a place called Lauterbach, which being on the seashore was more +convenient for the jelly-fish than Putbus, and spend the night there in +an hotel much recommended by the guide-book. By this time according to +my plans we ought to have been sitting in Putbus eating +_Kalbsschnitzel_. 'Gertrud,' I asked rather faintly, my soul drooping +within me at the thought of the _Kalbsschnitzel_, 'are you hungry?' + +Gertrud sighed. 'It is long since we ate,' she said. + +We trudged on in silence for another five minutes. + +'Gertrud,' I asked again, for during those five minutes my thoughts had +dwelt with a shameful persistency on the succulent and the gross, 'are +you _very_ hungry?' + +'The gracious one too must be in need of food,' evaded Gertrud, who for +some reason never would admit she wanted feeding. + +'Oh she is,' I sighed; and again we trudged on in silence. + +It seemed a long while before we reached that edge over which my bandbox +had disappeared flashing farewell as it went, and when we did get to it +and eagerly looked along the fresh stretch of road in hopes of seeing +August miraculously turned back, we gave a simultaneous groan, for it +was as deserted as the one we had just come along. Something lay in the +middle of it a few yards on, a dark object like a little heap of brown +leaves. Thinking it was leaves I saw no reason for comment; but Gertrud, +whose eyes are very sharp, exclaimed. + +'What, do you see August?' I cried. + +'No, no--but there in the road--the tea-basket!' + +It was indeed the tea-basket, shaken out as it naturally would be on the +removal of the bodies that had kept it in its place, come to us like the +ravens of old to give us strength and sustenance. + +'It still contains food,' said Gertrud, hurrying towards it. + +'Thank heaven,' said I. + +We dragged it out of the road to the grass at the side, and Gertrud lit +the spirit-lamp and warmed what was left in the teapot of the tea. It +was of an awful blackness. No water was to be got near, and we dared not +leave the road to look for any in case August should come back. There +were some sorry pieces of cake, one or two chicken sandwiches grown +unaccountably horrible, and all those strawberries we had avoided at +lunch because they were too small or two much squashed. Over these +mournful revels the church spire of Casnewitz, now come much closer, +presided; it was the silent witness of how honourably we shared, and how +Gertrud got the odd sandwich because of her cashmere boots. + +Then we buried the tea-basket in a ditch, in a bed of long grass and +cow-parsley, for it was plain that I could not ask Gertrud, who could +hardly walk as it was, to carry it, and it was equally plain that I +could not carry it myself, for it was as mysteriously heavy as other +tea-baskets and in size very nearly as big as I am. So we buried it, not +without some natural regrets and a dim feeling that we were flying in +the face of Providence, and there it is, I suppose, grown very rusty, to +this day. + +After that Gertrud got along a little better, and my thoughts being no +longer concentrated on food I could think out what was best to be done. +The result was that on reaching Casnewitz we inquired at once which of +the cottages was an inn, and having found one asked a man who seemed to +belong there to let us have a conveyance with as much speed as possible. + +'Where have you come from?' he inquired, staring first at one and then +at the other. + +'Oh--from Garz.' + +'From Garz? Where do you want to go to?' + +'To Putbus.' + +'To Putbus? Are you staying there?' + +'No--yes--anyhow we wish to drive there. Kindly let us start as soon as +possible.' + +'Start! I have no cart.' + +'Sir,' said Gertrud with much dignity, 'why did you not say so at once?' + +'_Ja, ja, Fräulein_, why did I not?' + +We walked out. + +'This is very unpleasant, Gertrud,' I remarked, and I wondered what +those at home would say if they knew that on the very first day of my +driving-tour I had managed to lose the carriage and had had to bear the +banter of publicans. + +'There is a little shop,' said Gertrud. 'Does the gracious one permit +that I make inquiries there?' + +We went in and Gertrud did the talking. + +'Putbus is not very far from here,' said the old man presiding, who was +at least polite. 'Why do not the ladies walk? My horse has been out all +day, and my son who drives him has other things now to do.' + +'Oh we can't walk,' I broke in. 'We must drive because we might want to +go beyond Putbus--we are not sure--it depends----' + +The old man looked puzzled. 'Where is it that the ladies wish to go?' he +inquired, trying to be patient. + +'To Putbus, anyhow. Perhaps only to Putbus. We can't tell till we get +there. But indeed, indeed you must let us have your horse.' + +Still puzzled, the old man went out to consult with his son, and we +waited in profound dejection among candles and coffee. Putbus was not, +as he had said, far, but I remembered how on the map it seemed to be a +very nest of cross-roads, all radiating from a round circus sort of +place in the middle. Which of them would August consider to be the +straight continuation of the road from Garz? Once beyond Putbus he would +be lost to us indeed. + +It took about half an hour to persuade the son and to harness the horse; +and while this was going on we stood at the door watching the road and +listening eagerly for sounds of wheels. One cart did pass, going in the +direction of Garz, and when I heard it coming I was so sure that it was +August that I triumphantly called to Gertrud to run and tell the old man +we did not need his son. Gertrud, wiser, waited till she saw what it +was, and after the quenching of that sudden hope we both drooped more +than ever. + +'Where am I to drive to?' asked the son, whipping up his horse and +bumping us away over the stones of Casnewitz. He sat huddled up looking +exceedingly sulky, manifestly disgusted at having to go out again at the +end of a day's work. As for the cart, it was a sad contrast to the +cushioned comfort of the vanished victoria. It was very high, very +wooden, very shaky, and we sat on a plank in the middle of so terrible a +noise that when we wanted to say anything we had to shout. 'Where am I +to drive to?' repeated the youth, scowling over his shoulder. + +'Please drive straight on until you meet a carriage.' + +'A what?' + +'A carriage.' + +'Whose carriage?' + +'My carriage.' + +He scowled round again with deepened disgust. 'If you have a carriage,' +he said, looking at us as though he were afraid we were lunatics, 'why +are you in my cart?' + +'Oh why, why are we!' I cried wringing my hands, overcome by the +wretchedness of our plight; for we were now beyond Casnewitz, and gazing +anxiously ahead with the strained eyes of Sister Annes we saw the road +as straight and as empty as ever. + +The youth drove on in sullen silence, his very ears seeming to flap with +scorn; no more good words would he waste on two mad women. The road now +lay through woods, beautiful beechwoods that belong to Prince Putbus, +not fenced off but invitingly open to every one, with green shimmering +depths and occasional flashes of deer. The tops of the great beeches +shone like gold against the sky. The sea must have been quite close, for +though it was not visible the smell of it was everywhere. The nearer we +got to Putbus the more civilised did the road become. Seats appeared on +either side at intervals that grew more frequent. Instead of the usual +wooden sign-posts, iron ones with tarnished gilt lettering pointed down +the forest lanes; and soon we met the first of the Putbus lamp-posts, +also iron and elaborate, wandered out, as it seemed, beyond the natural +sphere of lamp-posts, to light the innocent country road. All these +signs portended what Germans call _Badegäste_--in English obviously +bath-guests, or, more elegantly, visitors to a bathing resort; and +presently when we were nearer Putbus we began to pass them strolling in +groups and couples and sitting on the seats which were of stone and +could not have been good things for warm bath-guests to sit on. + +Wretched as I was I still saw the quaintness and prettiness of Putbus. +There was a notice up that all vehicles must drive through it at a +walking pace, so we crawled along its principal street which, whatever +else it contained, contained no sign of August. This street has Prince +Putbus's grounds on one side and a line of irregular houses, all white, +all old-fashioned, and all charming, on the other. A double row of great +trees forms a shady walk on the edge of the grounds, and it is +bountifully supplied with those stone seats so fatal, I am sure, to many +an honest bath-guest. The grounds, trim and shady, have neat paths +winding into their recesses from the road, with no fence or wall or +obstacle of any sort to be surmounted by the timid tourist; every +tourist may walk in them as long and as often as he likes without the +least preliminary bother of gates and lodges. + +As we jolted slowly over the rough stones we were objects of the +liveliest interest to the bath-guests sitting out on the pavement in +front of the inns having supper. No sign whatever of August was to be +seen, not even an ordnance map, as I had half expected, lying in the +road. Our cart made more noise here than ever, it being characteristic +of Putbus that things on wheels are heard for an amazing time before and +after their passing. It is the drowsiest little town. Grass grows +undisturbed between the cobbles of the street, along the gutters, and in +the cracks of the pavement on the sidewalk. One or two shops seem +sufficient for the needs of all the inhabitants, including the boys at +the school here which is a sort of German Eton, and from what I saw in +the windows their needs are chiefly picture-postcards and cakes. There +is a white theatre with a colonnade as quaint as all the rest. The +houses have many windows and balconies hung about with flowers. The +place did not somehow seem real in the bright flood of evening sunlight, +it looked like a place in a picture or a dream; but the bath-guests, +pausing in their eating to stare at us, were enjoying themselves in a +very solid and undreamlike fashion, not in the least in harmony with the +quaint background. In spite of my forlorn condition I could not help +reflecting on its probable charms in winter under the clear green of the +cold sky, with all these people away, when the frosted branches of the +trees stretch across to deserted windows, when the theatre is silent for +months, when the inns only keep as much of themselves open as meets the +requirements of the infrequent commercial traveller, and the cutting +wind blows down the street, empty all day long. Certainly a perfect +place to spend a quiet winter in, to go to when one is tired of noise +and bustle and of a world choked to the point of suffocation with +strenuous persons trying to do each other good. Rooms in one of those +spacious old houses with the large windows facing the sun, and plenty of +books--if I were that abstracted but happy form of reptile called a +bookworm, which I believed I am prevented from being only by my sex, the +genus, I am told, being persistently male, I would take care to spend at +least one of my life's winters in Putbus. How divinely quiet it would +be. What a place for him who intends to pass an examination, to write a +book, or who wants the crumples got by crushing together too long with +his fellows to be smoothed out of his soul. And what walks there would +be, to stretch legs and spirits grown stiff, in the crisp wintry woods +where the pale sunshine falls across unspoilt snow. Sitting in my cart +of sorrow in summer sultriness I could feel the ineffable pure cold of +winter strike my face at the mere thought, the ineffable pure cold that +spurs the most languid mind into activity. + +Thus far had I got in my reflections, and we had jolted slowly down +about half the length of the street, when a tremendous clatter of hoofs +and wheels coming towards us apparently at a gallop in starkest defiance +of regulations, brought me back with a jerk to the miserable present. + +'Bolted,' remarked the surly youth, hastily drawing on one side. + +The bath-guests at supper flung down their knives and forks and started +up to look. + +'_Halt! Hah!_' cried some of them, '_Es ist verboten! Schritt! +Schritt!_' + +'How can he halt?' cried others; 'his horses have bolted.' + +'Then why does he beat them?' cried the first. + +'It is August!' shrieked Gertrud. 'August! August! We are here! Stop! +Stop!' + +For with staring eyes and set mouth August was actually galloping past +us. This time he did hear Gertrud's shriek, acute with anguish, and +pulled the horses on to their haunches. Never have I seen unhappy +coachman with so white a face. He had had, it appeared, the most +stringent private instructions before leaving home to take care of me, +and on the very first day to let me somehow tumble out and lose me! He +was tearing back in the awful conviction that he would find Gertrud and +myself in the form of corpses. 'Thank God!' he cried devoutly on seeing +us, 'Thank God! Is the gracious one unhurt?' + +Certainly poor August had had the worst of it. + +Now it is most unlikely that the bath-guests of Putbus will ever enjoy +themselves quite so much again. Their suppers all grew cold while they +crowded round to see and listen. August, in his relief, was a changed +creature. He was voluble and loud as I never could have believed. +Jumping off his box to turn the horses round and help me out of the +cart, he explained to me and to all and any who chose to listen how he +had driven on and on through Putbus, straight round the circus to the +continuation of the road on the north side, where sign-posts revealed to +him that he was heading for Bergen, more and more surprised at receiving +no orders, more and more struck by the extreme silence behind him. 'The +gracious one,' he amplified for the benefit of the deeply-interested +tourists, 'exchanges occasional observations with Fräulein'--the +tourists gazed at Gertrud--'and the cessation of these became by degrees +noticeable. Yet it is not permissible that a well-trained coachman +should turn to look, or interfere with a _Herrschaft_ that chooses to be +silent----' + +'Let us get on, August,' I interrupted, much embarrassed by all this. + +'The luggage must be seen to--the strain of the rapid driving----' + +A dozen helpful hands stretched out with offers of string. + +'Finally,' continued August, not to be stopped in his excited account, +manipulating the string and my hold-all with shaking fingers--' finally +by the mercy of Providence the map used by the gracious one fell out'--I +knew it would--'as a peasant was passing. He called to me, he pointed to +the road, I pulled up, I turned round, and what did I see? What I then +saw I shall never--no, never forget--no, not if my life should continue +to a hundred.' He put his hand on his heart and gasped. The crowd waited +breathless. 'I turned round,' continued August, 'and I saw nothing.' + +'But you said you would never forget what you saw,' objected a +dissatisfied-looking man. + +'Never, never shall I forget it.' + +'Yet you saw nothing at all.' + +'Nothing, nothing. Never will I forget it.' + +'If you saw nothing you cannot forget it,' persisted the dissatisfied +man. + +'I say I cannot--it is what I say.' + +'That will do, August,' I said; 'I wish to drive on.' + +The surly youth had been listening with his chin on his hand. He now +removed his chin, stretched his hand across to me sitting safely among +my cushions, and said, 'Pay me.' + +'Pay him, Gertrud,' I said; and having been paid he turned his horse and +drove back to Casnewitz scornful to the last. + +'Go on, August,' I ordered. 'Go on. We can hold this thing on with our +feet. Get on to your box and go on.' + +The energy in my voice penetrated at last through his agitation. He got +up on to his box, settled himself in a flustered sort of fashion, the +tourists fell apart staring their last and hardest at a vision about to +vanish, and we drove away. + +'It is impossible to forget that which has not been,' called out the +dissatisfied man as August passed him. + +'It is what I say--it is what I say!' cried August, irritated. + +Nothing could have kept me in Putbus after this. + +Skirting the circus on the south side we turned down a hill to the +right, and immediately were in the country again with cornfields on +either side and the sea like a liquid sapphire beyond them. Gertrud and +I put a coat between us in place of the abandoned tea-basket, and +settled in with an appreciation of our comforts that we had not had +before. Gertrud, indeed, looked positively happy, so thankful was she to +be safely in the carriage again, and joy was written in every line of +August's back. About a mile and a half off lay Lauterbach, a little +straggling group of houses down by the water; and quite by itself, a +mile to the left of Lauterbach, I could see the hotel we were going to, +a long white building something like a Greek temple, with a portico and +a flight of steps the entire length of its façade, conspicuous in its +whiteness against a background of beechwoods. Woods and fields and sea +and a lovely little island a short way from the shore called Vilm, were +bathed in sunset splendour. Lauterbach and not Putbus, then, was the +place of radiant jelly-fish and crystal water and wooded coves. Probably +in those distant years when Marianne North enjoyed them Lauterbach as an +independent village with a name to itself did not exist. A branch +railway goes down now to the very edge of the sea. We crossed the line +and drove between chestnut trees and high grassy banks starry with +flowers to the Greek hotel. + +How delightful it looked as we got out of the deep chestnut lane into +the open space in front of it before we were close enough to see that +time had been unkind. The sea was within a stone's throw on the right +beyond a green, marshy, rushy meadow. On the left people were mowing in +a field. Across the field the spire of a little Lutheran church looked +out oddly round the end of the pagan portico. Behind and on either side +were beeches. Not a soul came out as we drew up at the bottom of the +steps. Not a soul was to be seen except the souls with scythes in the +meadow. We waited a moment, thinking to hear a bell rung and to see +flying waiters, but no one came. The scythes in the meadow swished, the +larks called down that it was a fine evening, some fowls came and pecked +about on the sunny steps of the temple, some red sails passed between +the trunks of the willows down near the water. + +'Shall I go in?' inquired Gertrud. + +She went up the steps and disappeared through glass doors. Grass grew +between the stones of the steps, and the walls of the house were damp +and green. The ceiling of the portico was divided into squares and +painted sky-blue. In one corner paint and plaster had come off together, +probably in wild winter nights, and this and the grass-grown steps and +the silence gave the place a strangely deserted look. I would have +thought it was shut up if there had not been a table in the portico with +a reassuring red-check cloth on it and a coffee-pot. + +Gertrud came out again followed by a waiter and a small boy. I was in no +hurry, and could have sat there contentedly for any time in the pleasant +evening sunshine. The waiter assured me there was just one room vacant +for me, and by the luckiest of chances just one other leading out of it +for the Fräulein. I followed him up the steps. The portico, open at +either end, framed in delicious pictures. The waiter led me through a +spacious boarded hall where a narrow table along one side told of recent +supper, through intricate passages, across little inner courts with +shrubs and greenery, and blue sky above, and lilac bushes in tubs +looking as though they had to pretend they were orange trees and that +this was Italy and that the white plaster walls, so mouldy in places, +were the marble walls of some classic baths, up strange stairs that +sloped alarmingly to one side, along more passages, and throwing open +one of the many small white doors, said with pride, 'Here is the +apartment; it is a fine, a big, a splendid apartment.' + +The apartment was of the sort that produces an immediate determination +in the breast of him to whom it is offered to die sooner than occupy it. +Sleep in its gloomy recesses and parti-coloured bed I would not. Sooner +would I brave the authorities, and taking my hold-all for a pillow go +out to the grasshoppers for the night. In spite of the waiter's +assertion, made for the glory of the house, that this was the one room +unoccupied, I saw other rooms, perhaps smaller but certainly vacant, +lurking in his eye; therefore I said firmly, 'Show me something else.' + +The house was nearly all at my disposal I found. It is roomy, and there +were hardly a dozen people staying in it, I chose a room with windows +opening into the portico, through whose white columns I would be able to +see a series of peaceful country pictures as I lay in bed. The boards +were bare and the bed was covered with another of those parti-coloured +quilts that suggest a desire to dissemble spots rather than wash them +out. The Greek temple was certainly primitive, and would hardly appeal +to any but the simplest, meekest of tourists. I hope I am simple and +meek. I felt as though I must be as I looked round this room and knew +that of my own free will I was going to sleep in it; and not only sleep +in it but be very happy in it. It was the series of pictures between the +columns that had fascinated me. + +While Gertrud was downstairs superintending the bringing up of the +luggage, I leaned out of one of my windows and examined the delights. I +was quite close to the blue and white squares of the portico's ceiling; +and looking down I saw its grass-grown pavement, and the head of a +pensive tourist drinking beer just beneath me. Here again big lilac +bushes planted at intervals between the columns did duty for orange +trees. The north end framed the sky and fields and distant church; the +south end had a picture of luminous water shining through beech leaves; +the pair of columns in front enclosed the chestnut-lined road we had +come along and the outermost white houses of Putbus among dark trees +against the sunset on high ground behind; through those on the left was +the sea, hardly sea here at all the bay is so sheltered, and hardly salt +at all, for grass and rushes, touched just then by the splendour of +light into a transient divine brightness, lay all along the shore. +'Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to +behold the sun,' I thought; aloud, I suppose, for Gertrud coming in with +the hold-all said 'Did the gracious one speak?' + +Quite unable to repeat this rapturous conviction to Gertrud, I changed +it into a modest request that she should order supper. + +How often in these grey autumn days have I turned my face away from the +rain on the window and the mournful mistiness of the November fields, or +my mind from the talk of the person next to me, to think with a smile of +the beauty of that supper. Not that I had beautiful things to eat, for +lengthy consultations with the waiter led only to eggs; but they were +brought down steep steps to a little nook among the beeches at the +water's edge, and this little nook on that particular evening was the +loveliest in the world. Enthusiastically did I eat those eggs and murmur +'Earth has not anything to show more fair'--as much, that is, of it as +could be made to apply. Nobody could see me or hear me down there, +screened at the sides and back and overhead by the beeches, and it is an +immense comfort secretly to quote. What did it matter if the tablecloth +were damp, besides having other imperfections? What if the eggs cooled +down at once, and cool eggs have always been an abomination to me? What +if the waiter forgot the sugar, and I dislike coffee without sugar? +Sooner than go up and search for him and lose one moment of that rosy +splendour on the water I felt that I would go for ever sugarless. My +table was nearly on a level with the sea. A family of ducks were slowly +paddling about in front of me, making little furrows in the quiet water +and giving an occasional placid quack. The ducks, the water, the island +of Vilm opposite, the Lauterbach jetty half a mile off across the little +bay with a crowd of fisher-boats moored near it, all were on fire with +the same red radiance. The sun was just down, and the sky behind the +dark Putbus woods was a marvel of solemn glory. The reflections of the +beech trees I was sitting under lay black along the water. I could hear +the fishermen talking over at the jetty, and a child calling on the +island, so absolute was the stillness. And almost before I knew how +beautiful it was the rosiness faded off the island, lingered a moment +longer on the masts of the fisher-boats, gathered at last only in the +pools among the rushes, died away altogether; the sky paled to green, a +few stars looked out faintly, a light twinkled in the solitary house on +Vilm, and the waiter came down and asked if he should bring a lamp. A +lamp! As though all one ever wanted was to see the tiny circle round +oneself, to be able to read the evening paper, or write postcards to +one's friends, or sew. I have a peculiar capacity for doing nothing and +yet enjoying myself. To sit there and look out into what Whitman calls +the huge and thoughtful night was a comely and sufficient occupation for +the best part of me; and as for the rest, the inferior or domestic part, +the fingers that might have been busy, the tongue that might have +wagged, the superficial bit of brain in daily use for the planning of +trivialities, how good it is that all that should often be idle. + +With an impatience that surprised him I refused the waiter's lamp. + + + + +THE SECOND DAY + +LAUTERBACH AND VILM + + +A ripe experience of German pillows in country places leads me to urge +the intending traveller to be sure to take his own. The native pillows +are mere bags, in which feathers may have been once. There is no +substance in them at all. They are of a horrid flabbiness. And they +have, of course, the common drawback of all public pillows, they are +haunted by the nightmares of other people. A pillow, it is true, takes +up a great deal of room in one's luggage, but in Rügen however simply +you dress you are better dressed than the others, so that you need take +hardly any clothes. My hold-all, not a specially big one, really did +hold all I wanted. The pillow filled one side of it, and my bathing +things a great part of the other, and I was away eleven days; yet I am +sure I was admirably clean the whole time, and I defy any one to say my +garments were not both appropriate and irreproachable. Towards the end, +it is true, Gertrud had to mend and brush a good deal, but those are two +of the things she is there for; and it is infinitely better to be +comfortable at night than, by leaving the pillow at home and bringing +dresses in its place, be more impressive by day. And let no one visit +Rügen who is not of that meek and lowly character that would always +prefer a good pillow to a diversity of raiment, and has no prejudices +about its food. + +Having eased my conscience by these hints, which he will find +invaluable, to the traveller, I can now go on to say that except for the +pillow I would have had if I had not brought my own, for the coloured +quilt, for the water to wash with brought in a very small coffee-pot, +and for the breakfast which was as cold and repellent as in some moods +some persons find the world, my experiences of the hotel were pleasing. +It is true that I spent most of the day, as I shall presently relate, +away from it, and it is also true that in the searching light of morning +I saw much that had been hidden: scraps of paper lying about the grass +near the house, an automatic bon-bon machine in the form of a brooding +hen, and an automatic weighing machine, both at the top of the very +steps leading down to the nook that had been the night before enchanted, +and, worst shock of all, an electric bell piercing the heart of the very +beech tree under which I had sat. But the beauties are so many and so +great that if a few of them are spoilt there are still enough left to +make Lauterbach one of the most delightful places conceivable. The hotel +was admirably quiet; no tourists arrived late, and those already in it +seemed to go to bed extraordinarily early; for when I came up from the +water soon after ten the house was so silent that instinctively I stole +along the passages on the tips of my toes, and for no reason that I +could discover felt conscience-stricken. Gertrud, too, appeared to think +it was unusually late; she was waiting for me at the door with a lamp, +and seemed to expect me to look conscience-stricken. Also, she had +rather the expression of the resigned and forgiving wife of an +incorrigible evil-doer. I went into my room much pleased that I am not a +man and need not have a wife who forgives me. + +The windows were left wide open, and all night through my dreams I could +hear the sea gently rippling among the rushes. At six in the morning a +train down at the station hidden behind the chestnuts began to shunt and +to whistle, and as it did not leave off and I could not sleep till it +did, I got up and sat at the window and amused myself watching the +pictures between the columns in the morning sunlight. A solitary mower +in the meadow was very busy with his scythe, but its swishing could not +be heard through the shunting. At last the train steamed away and peace +settled down again over Lauterbach, the scythe swished audibly, the +larks sang rapturously, and I fell to saying my prayers, for indeed it +was a day to be grateful for, and the sea was the deepest, divinest +blue. + +The bathing at Lauterbach is certainly perfect. You walk along a +footpath on the edge of low cliffs, shaded all the way from the door of +the hotel to the bathing-huts by the beechwood, the water heaving and +shining just below you, the island of Vilm opposite, the distant +headland of Thiessow a hazy violet line between the misty blues of sea +and sky in front, and at your feet moss and grass and dear common +flowers flecked with the dancing lights and shadows of a beechwood when +the sun is shining. + +'Oh this is perfect!' I exclaimed to Gertrud; for on a fine fresh +morning one must exclaim to somebody. She was behind me on the narrow +path, her arms full of towels and bathing things. 'Won't you bathe too, +afterwards, Gertrud? Can you resist it?' + +But Gertrud evidently could resist it very well. She glanced at the +living loveliness of the sea with an eye that clearly saw in it only a +thing that made dry people wet. If she had been Dr. Johnson she would +boldly have answered, 'Madam, I hate immersion.' Being Gertrud, she +pretended that she had a cold. + +'Well, to-morrow then,' I said hopefully; but she said colds hung about +her for days. + +'Well, as soon as you have got over it,' I said, persistently and +odiously hopeful; but she became prophetic and said she would never get +over it. + +The bathing-huts are in a row far enough away from the shore to be in +deep water. You walk out to them along a little footbridge of planks and +find a sunburnt woman, amiable as all the people seem to be who have +their business in deep waters, and she takes care of your things and +dries them for you and provides you with anything you have forgotten and +charges you twenty _pfennings_ at the end for all her attentions as well +as the bathe. The farthest hut is the one to get if you can--another +invaluable hint. It is very roomy, and has a sofa, a table, and a big +looking-glass, and one window opening to the south and one to the east. +Through the east window you see the line of low cliffs with the woods +above till they melt into a green plain that stretches off into +vagueness towards the haze of Thiessow. Through the south window you see +the little island of Vilm, with its one house set about with cornfields, +and its woods on the high ground at the back. + +Gertrud sat on the steps knitting while I swam round among the +jelly-fish and thought of Marianne North. How right she was about the +bathing, and the colours, and the crystal clearness of the water in that +sandy cove! The bathing woman leaned over the hand-rail watching me with +a sympathetic smile. She wore a white sun-bonnet, and it looked so well +against the sky that I wished Gertrud could be persuaded to put one on +too in place of her uninteresting and eminently respectable black +bonnet. I could have stayed there for hours, perfectly happy, floating +on the sparkling stuff, and I did stay there for nearly one, with the +result that I climbed up the cliff a chilled and saddened woman, and sat +contemplating the blue tips of my fingers while the waiter brought +breakfast, and thought what a pitiful thing it was to have blue finger +tips, instead of rejoicing as I would have done after a ten minutes' +swim in the glorious fact that I was alive at all on such a morning. + +The cold tea, cold eggs, and hard rolls did not make me more cheerful. I +sat under the beeches where I had had supper the night before and +shivered in my thickest coat, with the July sun blazing on the water and +striking brilliant colours out of the sails of the passing fisher-boats. +The hotel dog came along the shingle with his tongue out, and lay down +near me in the shade. Visitors from Putbus, arriving in an omnibus for +their morning bathe, passed by fanning themselves with their hats. + +The Putbus visitors come down every morning in a sort of waggonette to +bathe and walk back slowly up the hill to dinner. After this exertion +they think they have done enough for their health, and spend the rest of +the day sleeping, or sitting out of doors drinking beer and coffee. I +think this is quite a good way of spending a holiday if you have worked +hard all the rest of the year; and the tourists I saw looked as if they +had. More of them stay at Putbus than at Lauterbach, although it is so +much farther from the sea, because the hotel I was at was slightly +dearer than--I ought rather to say, judging from the guide-book, not +quite so cheap as--the Putbus hotels. I suppose it was less full than it +might be because of this slight difference, or perhaps there was the +slight difference because it was less full--who shall solve such +mysteries? Anyhow the traveller need not be afraid of the bill, for when +I engaged our rooms the waiter was surprised that I refused to put +myself _en pension_, and explained in quite an aggrieved voice that all +the _Herrschaften_ put themselves _en pension_, and he hoped I did not +think five marks a day for everything a too expensive arrangement. I +praised the arrangement as just and excellent, but said that, being a +bird of passage, I would prefer not to make it. + +After breakfast I set out to explore the Goor, the lovely beechwood +stretching along the coast from the very doors of the hotel. I started +so briskly down the footpath on the edge of the cliffs in the hope of +getting warm, that tourists who were warm already and were sitting under +the trees gasping, stared at me reproachfully as I hurried past. + +The Goor is beautiful. The path I took runs through thick shade with +many windings, and presently comes out at the edge of the wood down by +the sea in a very hot, sheltered corner, where the sun beats all day +long on the shingle and coarse grass. A solitary oak tree, old and +storm-beaten, stands by itself near the water; across the water is the +wooded side of Vilm; and if you continue along the shingle a few yards +you are away from the trees and out on a grassy plain, where lilac +scabious bend their delicate stalks in the wind. An old black +fishing-smack lay on its side on the shingle, its boards blistered by +the sun. Its blackness and the dark lines of the solitary oak sharply +cleft the flood of brilliant light. What a hot, happy corner to lie in +all day with a book! No tourists go to it, for the path leads to +nowhere, ending abruptly just there in coarse grass and shingle--a +mixture grievous to the feet of the easily tired. The usual walk for +those who have enough energy--it is not a very long one, and does not +need much--is through the Goor to the north side, where the path takes +you to the edge of a clover field across which you see the little +village of Vilmnitz nestling among its trees and rye, and then brings +you back gently and comfortably and shadily to the hotel; but this +turning to the right only goes down to the shingle, the old boat, and +the lonely oak. The first thing to do in that hot corner is to pull off +your coat, which I did; and if you like heat and dislike blue finger +tips and chilled marrows, lie down on the shingle, draw your hat over +your eyes, and bake luxuriously, which I did also. In the pocket of my +coat was _The Prelude_, the only book I had brought. I brought it +because I know of no other book that is at the same time so slender and +so satisfying. It slips even into a woman's pocket, and has an +extraordinarily filling effect on the mind. Its green limp covers are +quite worn with the journeys it has been with me. I take it wherever I +go; and I have read it and read it for many summers without yet having +entirely assimilated its adorable stodginess. Oh shade of Wordsworth, to +think that so unutterable a grub and groveller as I am should dare call +anything of thine Stodgy! But it is this very stodginess that makes it, +if you love Wordsworth, the perfect book where there can be only one. +You must, to enjoy it, be first a lover of Wordsworth. You must love the +uninspired poems for the sake of the divineness of the inspired poems. +You must be able to be interested in the description of Simon Lee's +personal appearance, and not mind his wife, an aged woman, being made to +rhyme with the Village Common. Even the Idiot Boy should not be a +stumbling-block to you; and your having learned The Pet Lamb in the +nursery is no reason why you should dislike it now. They all have their +beauties; there is always some gem, more or less bright, to be found in +them; and the pages of _The Prelude_ are strewn with precious jewels. I +have had it with me so often in happy country places that merely to open +it and read that first cry of relief and delight--'Oh there is blessing +in this gentle breeze!'--brings back the dearest remembrances of fresh +and joyous hours. And how wholesome to be reminded when the days are +rainy and things look blank of the many joyous hours one has had. Every +instant of happiness is a priceless possession for ever. + +That morning my _Prelude_ fell open at the Residence in London, a part +where the gems are not very thick, and the satisfying properties +extremely developed. My eye lighted on the bit where he goes for a walk +in the London streets, and besides a Nurse, a Bachelor, a Military +Idler, and a Dame with Decent Steps--figures with which I too am +familiar--he sees-- + + ... with basket at his breast + The Jew; the stately and slow-moving Turk + With freight of slipper piled beneath his arm.... + The Swede, the Russian; from the genial south + The Frenchman and the Spaniard; from remote + America, the Hunter-Indian; Moors, + Malays, Lascars, the Tartar, the Chinese, + And Negro Ladies in white muslin gowns + +--figures which are not, at any rate, to be met in the streets of +Berlin. I am afraid to say that this is not poetry, for perhaps it is +only I do not know it; but after all one can only judge according to +one's lights, and no degree of faintness and imperfection in the lights +will ever stop any one from judging; therefore I will have the courage +of my opinions, and express my firm conviction that it is not poetry at +all. But the passage set me off musing. That is the pleasant property of +_The Prelude_, it makes one at the end of every few lines pause and +muse. And presently the image of the Negro Ladies in their white muslin +gowns faded, and those other lines, children of the self-same spirit but +conceived in the mood when it was divine, stood out in shining letters-- + + Not in entire forgetfulness. + And not in utter nakedness.... + +I need not go on; it is sacrilege to write them down in such a setting +of commonplaceness; I could not say them aloud to my closest friend with +a steady voice; they are lines that seem to come fresh from God. + +And now I know that the Negro Ladies, whatever their exact poetic value +may be, have become a very real blessing to an obscure inhabitant of +Prussia, for in the future I shall only need to see the passage to be +back instantaneously on the hot shingle, with the tarred edge of the old +boat above me against the sky, the blue water curling along the shore at +my feet, and the pale lilac flowers on the delicate stalks bending their +heads in the wind. + +About twelve the sun drove me away. The backs of my hands began to feel +as though they proposed to go into blisters. I could not lie there and +deliberately be blistered, so I got up and wandered back to the hotel to +prepare Gertrud for a probably prolonged absence, as I intended to get +across somehow to the island of Vilm. Having begged her to keep calm if +I did not appear again till bedtime I took the guide-book and set out. +The way to the jetty is down a path through the meadow close to the +water, with willows on one side of it and rushes on the other. In ten +minutes you have reached Lauterbach, seen some ugly little new houses +where tourists lodge, seen some delightful little old houses where +fishermen live, paid ten _pfennings_ toll to a smiling woman at the +entrance to the jetty, on whom it is useless to waste amiabilities, she +being absolutely deaf, and having walked out to the end begin to wonder +how you are to get across. There were fishing-smacks at anchor on one +side, and a brig from Sweden was being unloaded. A small steamer lay at +the end, looking as though it meant to start soon for somewhere; but on +my asking an official who was sitting on a coil of ropes staring at +nothing if it would take me to Vilm, he replied that he did not go to +Vilm but would be pleased to take me to Baabe. Never having heard of +Baabe I had no desire to go to it. He then suggested Greifswald, and +said he went there the next day; and when I declined to be taken to +Greifswald the next day instead of to Vilm that day he looked as though +he thought me unreasonable, and relapsed into his first abstraction. + +A fisherman was lounging near, leaning against one of the posts and also +staring straight into space, and when I turned away he roused himself +enough to ask if I would use his smack. He pointed to it where it lay a +little way out--a big boat with the bright brown sails that make such +brilliant splashes of colour in the surrounding blues and whites. There +was only a faint breeze, but he said he could get me across in twenty +minutes and would wait for me all day if I liked, and would only charge +three marks. Three marks for a whole fishing-smack with golden sails, +and a fisherman with a golden beard, blue eyes, stalwart body, and whose +remote grandparents had certainly been Vikings! I got into his dinghy +without further argument, and was rowed across to the smack. A small +Viking, appropriately beardless, he being only ten, but with freckles, +put his head out of the cabin as we drew alongside, and was presented to +me as the eldest of five sons. Father and son made a comfortable place +for me in a not too fishy part of the boat, hauled up the huge poetic +sail, and we glided out beyond the jetty. This is the proper way, the +only right way, to visit Vilm, the most romantic of tiny islands. Who +would go to it any other way but with a Viking and a golden sail? Yet +there is another way, I found out, and it is the one most used. It is a +small launch plying between Lauterbach and Vilm, worked by a machine +that smells very nasty and makes a great noise; and as it is a long +narrow boat. If there are even small waves it rolls so much that the +female passengers, and sometimes even the male, scream. Also the spray +flies over it and drenches you. In calm weather it crosses swiftly, +doing the distance in ten minutes. My smack took twenty to get there and +much longer to get back, but what a difference in the joy! The puffing +little launch rushed past us when we were midway, when I should not have +known that we were moving but for the slight shining ripple across the +bows, and the thud of its machine and the smell of its benzine were +noticeable for a long time after it had dwindled to a dot. The people in +it certainly got to their destination quickly, but Vilm is not a place +to hurry to. There is nothing whatever on it to attract the hurried. To +rush across the sea to it and back again to one's train at Lauterbach is +not to have felt its singular charm. It is a place to dream away a +summer in; but the wide-awake tourist visiting it between two trains +would hardly know how to fill up the three hours allotted him. You can +walk right round it in three-quarters of an hour. In three-quarters of +an hour you can have seen each of the views considered fine and +accordingly provided with a seat, have said 'Oh there is Thiessow +again,' on looking over the sea to the east; and 'Oh there is Putbus +again,' on looking over the sea to the west; and 'Oh that must be +Greifswald,' on remarking far away in the south the spires of churches +rising up out of the water; you will have had ample time to smile at the +primitiveness of the bathing-hut on the east shore, to study the names +of past bathers scribbled over it, besides poems, valedictory addresses, +and quotations from the German classics; to sit for a little on the +rocks thinking how hard rocks are; and at length to wander round, in +sheer inability to fill up the last hour, to the inn, the only house on +the island, where at one of the tables under the chestnuts before the +door you would probably drink beer till the launch starts. + +But that is not the way to enjoy Vilm. If you love out-of-door beauty, +wide stretches of sea and sky, mighty beeches, dense bracken, meadows +radiant with flowers, chalky levels purple with gentians, solitude, and +economy, go and spend a summer at Vilm. The inn is kept by one of Prince +Putbus's foresters, or rather by his amiable and obliging wife, the +forester's functions being apparently restricted to standing +picturesquely propped against a tree in front of the house in a nice +green shooting suit, with a telescope at his eye through which he +studies the approaching or departing launch. His wife does the rest. I +sat at one of the tables beneath the chestnuts waiting for my food--I +had to wait a very long while--and she came out and talked. The season, +she explained, was short, lasting two months, July and August, at the +longest, so that her prices were necessarily high. I inquired what they +were, and she said five marks a day for a front room looking over the +sea, and four marks and a half for a back room looking over the forest, +the price including four meals. Out of the season her charges were +lower. She said most of her visitors were painters, and she could put up +four-and-twenty with their wives. My luncheon came while she was still +trying to find out if I were a female painter, and if not why I was +there alone instead of being one of a batch, after the manner of the +circumspect-petticoated, and I will only say of the luncheon that it was +abundant. Its quality, after all, did not matter much. The rye grew up +to within a yard of my table and made a quivering golden line of light +against the blue sparkle of the sea. White butterflies danced above it. +The breeze coming over it blew sweet country smells in my face. The +chestnut leaves shading me rustled and whispered. All the world was gay +and fresh and scented, and if the traveller does not think these +delights make up for doubtful cookery, why does he travel? + +The _Frau Förster_ insisted on showing me the bedrooms. They are simple +and very clean, each one with a beautiful view. The rest of the house, +including the dining-room, does not lend itself to enthusiastic +description. I saw the long table at which the four-and-twenty painters +eat. They were doing it when I looked in, and had been doing it the +whole time I was under the chestnuts. It was not because of the many +dishes that they sat there so long, but because of the few waiters. +There were at least forty people learning to be patient, and one waiter +and a boy to drive the lesson home. The bathing, too, at Vilm cannot be +mentioned in the same breath with the glorious bathing at Lauterbach. +There is no smiling attendant in a white sunbonnet waiting to take your +things and dry them, to rub you down when you come out shivering, and if +needful jump in and pull you out when you begin to drown. At Vilm the +bathing-hut lies on the east shore, and you go to it across a +meadow--the divinest strip of meadow, it is true, with sea behind you +and sea before you, and cattle pasturing, and a general radiant air +about it as though at any moment the daughters of the gods might come +over the buttercups to bleach their garments whiter in the sun. But +beautiful as it is, it is a very hot walk, and there is no path. Except +the path through the rye from the landing-stage up to the inn there is +not a regular path on the island--only a few tracks here and there where +the cows are driven home in the evening; and to reach the bathing-hut +you must plunge straight through meadow-grass, and not mind grasshoppers +hopping into your clothes. Then the water is so shallow just there that +you must wade quite a dangerous-looking distance before, lying down, it +will cover you; and while you are wading, altogether unable, as he who +has waded knows, to hurry your steps, however urgent the need, you blush +to think that some or all of the four-and-twenty painters are probably +sitting on rocks observing you. Wading back, of course, you blush still +more. I never saw so frank a bathing-place. It is beautiful--in a lovely +curve, cliffs clothed with beeches on one side, and the radiant meadow +along the back of the rocks on the other; but the whole island can see +you if you go out far enough to be able to swim, and if you do not you +are still a conspicuous object and a very miserable one, bound to catch +any wandering eye as you stand there alone, towering out of water that +washes just over your ankles. + +I sat in the shadow of the cliffs and watched two girls who came down to +bathe. They did not seem to feel their position at all, and splashed +into the water with shrieks and laughter that rang through the mellow +afternoon air. So it was that I saw how shallow it is, and how +embarrassing it would be to the dignified to bathe there. The girls had +no dignity, and were not embarrassed. Probably one, or two, of the +four-and-twenty were their fathers, and that made them feel at home. Or +perhaps--and watching them I began to think that this was so--they would +rather have liked to be looked at by those of the painters who were not +their fathers. Anyhow, they danced and laughed and called to each other, +often glancing back inquiringly at the cliffs; and indeed they were very +pretty in their little scarlet suits in the sapphire frame of the sea. + +I sat there long after the girls were clothed and transformed into quite +uninteresting young women, and had gone their way noisily up the grass +slope into the shadows of the beeches. The afternoon stillness was left +to itself again, undisturbed by anything louder than the slow ripple of +the water round the base of the rocks. Sometimes a rabbit scuttled up +the side of the cliff, and once a hawk cried somewhere up among the +little clouds. The shadows grew very long; the shadows of the rocks on +the water looked as though they would stretch across to Thiessow before +the sun had done with them. Out at sea, far away beyond the hazy +headland, a long streak of smoke hung above the track where a steamer +had passed on the way to Russia. I wish I could fill my soul with enough +of the serenity of such afternoons to keep it sweet for ever. + +Vilm consists of two wooded hills joined together by a long, narrow, +flat strip of land. This strip, beyond the meadow and its fringing +trees, is covered with coarse grass and stones and little shells. Clumps +of wild fruit trees scattered about it here and there look as if they +knew what roughing it is like. The sea washes over it in winter when the +wind is strong from the east, and among the trees are frequent +skeletons, dead fruit trees these many seasons past, with the tortured +look peculiar to blasted trees, menacing the sky with gaunt, impotent +arms. After struggling along this bit, stopping every few minutes to +shake the shells out of my shoes, I came to uneven ground, soft green +grass, and beautiful trees--a truly lovely part at the foot of the +southern hill. Here I sat down for a moment to take the last shells out +of my shoes and to drink things in. I had not seen a soul since the +bathing girls, and supposed that most of the people staying at the inn +would not care on hot afternoons to walk over the prickly grass and +shells that must be walked over before reaching the green coolness of +the end. And while I was comfortably supposing this and shaking my shoe +slowly up and down and thinking how delightful it was to have the +charming place to myself, I saw a young man standing on a rock under the +east cliff of the hill in the very act of photographing the curving +strip of land, with the sea each side of it, and myself in the middle. + +Now I am not of those who like being photographed much and often. At +intervals that grow longer I go through the process at the instant +prayers of my nearest and dearest; but never other than deliberately, +after due choice of fitting attitude and garments. The kodak and the +instantaneous photograph taken before one has had time to arrange one's +smile are things to be regarded with abhorrence by every woman whose +faith in her attractions is not unshakeable. Movements so graceful that +the Early Victorians would have described them as swan-like--those Early +Victorians who wore ringlets, curled their upper lips, had marble brows, +and were called Georgiana--movements, I say, originally swan-like in +grace, are translated by the irreverent snap-shot into a caricature that +to the photographed appears not even remotely like, and fills the +photographed's friends with an awful secret joy. 'What manner of young +man is this?' I asked myself, examining him with indignation. He stood +on the rock a moment, looking about as if for another good subject, and +finally his eye alighted on me. Then he got off his rock and came +towards me. 'What manner of young man is this?' I again asked myself, +putting on my shoe in haste and wrath. He was coming to apologise, I +supposed, having secured his photograph. + +He was. I sat gazing severely at Thiessow, There is no running away from +vain words or from anything else on an island. He was a tall young man, +and there was something indefinable and reassuring about his collar. + +'I am so sorry,' he said with great politeness. 'I did not notice you. +Of course I did not intend to photograph you. I shall destroy the film.' + +At this I felt hurt. Being photographed without permission is bad, but +being told your photograph is not wanted and will be destroyed is worse. +He was a very personable young man, and I like personable young men; +from the way he spoke German and from his collar I judged him English, +and I like Englishmen; and he had addressed me as _gnädiges Fräulein_, +and what mother of a growing family does not like that? + +'I did not see you,' I said, not without blandness, touched by his youth +and innocence, 'or I should have got out of your way.' + +'I shall destroy the film,' he again assured me; and lifted his cap and +went back to the rocks. + +Now if I stayed where I was he could not photograph the strip again, for +it was so narrow that I would have been again included, and he was +evidently bent on getting a picture of it, and fidgeted about among the +rocks waiting for me to go. So I went; and as I climbed up the south +hill under the trees I mused on the pleasant slow manners of Englishmen, +who talk and move as though life were very spacious and time may as well +wait. Also I wondered how he had found this remote island. I was +inclined to wonder that I had found it myself; but how much more did I +wonder that he had found it. + +There are many rabbit-holes under the trees at the south end of Vilm, +and I disturbed no fewer than three snakes one after the other in the +long grass. They were of the harmless kind, but each in turn made me +jump and shiver, and after the third I had had enough, and clambered +down the cliff on the west side and went along at the foot of it towards +the farthest point of the island, with the innocent intention of seeing +what was round the corner. The young man was round the corner, and I +walked straight into another photograph; I heard the camera snap at the +very instant that I turned the bend. + +This time he looked at me with something of a grave inquiry in his eye. + +'I assure you I do not _want_ to be photographed,' I said hastily. + +'I hope you believe that I did not intend to do it again,' he replied. + +'I am very sorry,' said I. + +'I shall destroy the film,' said he. + +'It seems a great waste of films,' said I. + +The young man lifted his cap; I continued my way among the rocks +eastward; he went steadily in the opposite direction; round the other +side of the hill we met again. + +'Oh,' I cried, genuinely disturbed, 'have I spoilt another?' + +The young man smiled--certainly a very personable young man--and +explained that the light was no longer strong enough to do any more. +Again in this explanation did he call me gnädiges Fräulein, and again +was I touched by so much innocence. And his German, too, was touching; +it was so conscientiously grammatical, so laboriously put together, so +like pieces of Goethe learned by heart. + +By this time the sun hung low over the houses of Putbus, and the strip +of sand with its coarse grass and weatherbeaten trees was turned by the +golden flush into a fairy bridge, spanning a mystic sea, joining two +wonderful, shining islands. We walked along with all the radiance in our +faces. It is, as I have observed, impossible to get away from any one on +an island that is small enough. We were both going back to the inn, and +the strip of land is narrow. Therefore we went together, and what that +young man talked about the whole way in the most ponderous German was +the Absolute. + +I can't think what I have done that I should be talked to for twenty +minutes by a nice young man who mistook me for a Fräulein about the +Absolute. He evidently thought--the innocence of him!--that being German +I must, whatever my sex and the shape of my head, be interested. I don't +know how it began. It was certainly not my fault, for till that day I +had had no definite attitude in regard to it. Of course I did not tell +him that. Age has at least made me artful. A real Fräulein would have +looked as vacant as she felt, and have said, 'What is the Absolute?' +Being a matron and artful, I simply looked thoughtful--quite an easy +thing to do--and said, 'How do you define it?' + +He said he defined it as a negation of the conceivable. Continuing in my +artfulness I said that there was much to be said for that view of it, +and asked how he had reached his conclusions. He explained elaborately. +Clearly he took me to be an intelligent Fräulein, and indeed I gave +myself great pains to look like one. + +It appeared that he had a vast admiration for everything German, and +especially for German erudition. Well, we are very erudite in places. +Unfortunately no erudition comes up my way. + +My acquaintances do not ask the erudite to dinner, one of the reasons, +as insufficient as the rest, being that they either wear day clothes in +the evening, or, if worldly enough to dress, mar the effect by white +satin ties with horse-shoe pins in them; and another is that they are +Liberals, and therefore uninvitable. When the unknown youth, passing +naturally from Kant and the older philosophers to the great Germans now +living, enthusiastically mentioned the leading lights in science and art +and asked if I knew them or had ever seen them--the mere seeing of them +he seemed to think would be a privilege--I could only murmur no. How +impossible to explain to this scion of an unprejudiced race the +limitless objection of the class called _Junker_--I am a female +_Junker_--to mix on equal terms with the class that wears white satin +ties in the evening. But it is obvious that a man who can speak with the +tongue of angels, who has put his seal on his century, and who will be +remembered when we have returned, forgotten, to the Prussian dust from +which we came--or rather not forgotten because we were at no time +remembered, but simply ignored--it is obvious that such a man may wear +what tie he pleases when he comes to dine, and still ought to be +received on metaphorical knees of reverence and gratitude. Probably, +however, if we who live in the country and think no end of ourselves did +invite such a one, and whether there were hostesses on knees waiting for +him or not, he would not come. How bored he would be if he did. He would +find us full of those excellences Pater calls the more obvious parochial +virtues, jealous to madness of the sensitive and bloodthirsty appendage +known as our honour, exact in the observance of minor conventionalities, +correct in our apparel, rigid in our views, and in our effect +uninterruptedly soporific. The man who had succeeded in pushing his +thoughts farther into the region of the hitherto unthought than any of +his contemporaries would not, I think, if he came once, come again. But +it is supposing the impossible, after all, to suppose him invited, for +all the great ones of whom the unknown youth talked are Liberals, and +all the _Junkers_ are Conservatives; and how shall a German Conservative +be the friend of a German Liberal? The thing is unthinkable. Like the +young man's own definition of the Absolute, it is a negation of the +conceivable. + +By the time we had reached the chestnut grove in front of the inn I had +said so little that my companion was sure I was one of the most +intelligent women he had ever met. I know he thought so, for he turned +suddenly to me as we were walking past the Frau Förster's wash-house and +rose-garden up to the chestnuts, and said, 'How is it that German women +are so infinitely more intellectual than English women?' + +Intellectual! How nice. And all the result of keeping quiet in the right +places. + +'I did not know they were,' I said modestly; which was true. + +'Oh but they are,' he assured me with great positiveness; and added, +'Perhaps you have noticed that I am English?' + +Noticed that he was English? From the moment I first saw his collar I +suspected it; from the moment he opened his mouth and spoke I knew it; +and so did everybody else under the chestnuts who heard him speaking as +he passed. But why not please this artless young man? So I looked at him +with the raised eyebrows of intense surprise and said, 'Oh, are you +English?' + +'I have been a good deal in Germany,' he said, looking happy. + +'But it is extraordinary,' I said. + +'It is not so very difficult,' he said, looking more and more happy. + +'But really not German? _Fabelhaft_.' + +The young man's belief in my intelligence was now unshakeable. The Frau +Förster, who had seen me disembark and set out for my walk alone, and +who saw me now returning with a companion of the other sex, greeted me +coldly. Her coldness, I felt, was not unjustifiable. It is not my +practice to set out by myself and come back telling youths I have never +seen before that their accomplishments are _fabelhaft_. I began to feel +coldly towards myself, and turning to the young man said good-bye with +some abruptness. + +'Are you going in?' he asked. + +'I am not staying here.' + +'But the launch does not start for an hour. I go across too, then.' + +'I am not crossing in the launch. I came over in a fishing-smack.' + +'Oh really?' He seemed to meditate. 'How delightfully independent,' he +added. + +'Have you not observed that the German Fräulein is as independent as she +is intellectual?' + +'No, I have not. That is just where I think the Germans are so far +behind us. Their women have nothing like the freedom ours have.' + +'What, not when they sail about all alone in fishing-smacks?' + +'That certainly is unusually enterprising. May I see you safely into +it?' + +The Frau Förster came towards us and told him that the food he had +ordered for eight o'clock was ready. + +'No, thank you,' I said, 'don't bother. There is a fisherman and a boy +to help me in. It is quite easy.' + +'Oh but it is no bother----' + +'I will not take you away from your supper.' + +'Are you not going to have supper here?' + +'I lunched here to-day. So I will not sup.' + +'Is the reason a good one?' + +'You will see. Good-bye.' + +I went away down the path to the beach. The path is steep, and the corn +on either side stands thick and high, and a few steps took me out of +sight of the house, the chestnuts, and the young man. The smack was +lying some distance out, and the dinghy was tied to her stern. The +fisherman's son's head was visible in a peaceful position on a heap of +ropes. It is difficult as well as embarrassing to shout, as I well knew, +but somebody would have to, and as nobody was there but myself I was +plainly the one to do it, I put my hands to my mouth, and not knowing +the fisherman's name called out _Sie_. It sounded not only feeble but +rude. When I remembered the appearance of the golden-bearded Viking, his +majestic presence and dreamy dignity, I was ashamed to find myself +standing on a rock and calling him as loud as I could _Sie_. + +The head on the ropes did not stir. I waved my handkerchief. The boy's +eyes were shut. Again I called out _Sie_, and thought it the most +offensive of pronouns. The boy was asleep, and my plaintive cry went +past him over the golden ripples towards Lauterbach. + +Then the Englishman appeared against the sky, up on the ridge of the +cornfield. He saw my dilemma, and taking his hands out of his pockets +ran down. '_Gnädiges Fräulein_ is in a fix,' he observed in his +admirably correct and yet so painful German. + +'She is,' I said. + +'Shall I shout?' + +'Please.' + +He shouted. The boy started up in alarm. The fisherman's huge body +reared up from the depths of the boat. In two minutes the dinghy was at +the little plank jetty, and I was in it. + +'It was a very good idea to charter one of those romantic smacks to come +over in,' said the young man on the jetty wistfully. + +'They're rather fishy,' I replied, smiling, as we pushed off. + +'But so very romantic.' + +'Have you not observed that the German Fräulein is a romantic +creature,'--the dinghy began to move--'a beautiful mixture of +intelligence, independence, and romance?' + +'Are you staying at Putbus?' + +'No. Good-bye. Thanks for coming down and shouting. You know your food +will be quite cold and uneatable.' + +'I gathered from what you said before that it will be uneatable anyhow.' + +The dinghy was moving fast. There was a rapidly-widening strip of golden +water between myself and the young man on the jetty. + +'Not all of it,' I said, raising my voice. 'Try the compote. It is +lovely compote. It is what you would call in England glorified +gooseberry jam.' + +'Glorified gooseberry jam?' echoed the young man, apparently much struck +by these three English words. 'Why,' he added, speaking louder, for the +golden strip had grown very wide, 'you said that without the ghost of a +foreign accent!' + +'Did I?' + +The dinghy shot into the shadow of the fishing-smack. The Viking and the +boy shipped their oars, helped me in, tied the dinghy to the stern, +hoisted the sail, and we dropped away into the sunset. + +The young man on the distant jetty raised his cap. He might have been a +young archangel, standing there the centre of so much glory. Certainly a +very personable young man. + + + + +THE THIRD DAY + +FROM LAUTERBACH TO GÖHREN + + +The official on the steamer at the Lauterbach jetty had offered to take +me to Baabe when I said I wanted to go to Vilm, and I had naturally +refused the offer. Afterwards, on looking at the map, I found that Baabe +is a place I would have to pass anyhow, if I carried out my plan of +driving right round Rügen. The guide-book is enthusiastic about Baabe, +and says--after explaining its rather odd name as meaning _Die Einsame_, +the Lonely One--that it has a pine forest, a pure sea air with ozone in +it, a climate both mild and salubrious, and that it works wonders on +people who have anything the matter with their chests. Then it says that +to lie at Baabe embedded in soft dry sand, allowing one's glance to rove +about the broad sea with its foam-crested waves, and the rest of one to +rejoice in the strong air, is an enviable thing to do. Then it bursts +into poetry that goes on for a page about the feelings of him who is +embedded, written by one who has been it. And then comes the practical +information that you can live at Baabe _en pension_ for four marks a +day, and that dinner costs one mark twenty _pfennings_. Never was there +a more irrepressibly poetic guide-book. What tourist wants to be told +first how he will feel when he has embedded himself in sand? Pleasures +of a subtle nature have no attraction for him who has not dined. Before +everything, the arriving tourist wants to know where he will get the +best dinner and what it will cost; and not until that has been settled +will there be, if ever, raptures. The guide-book's raptures about Baabe +rang hollow. The relief chest-sufferers would find there if they could +be induced to go, and the poem of the embedded one, would not, I felt, +have been put in if there had been anything really solid to praise. +Still, a place in a forest near the sea called _Die Einsame_ was to me, +at least, attractive; and I said good-bye to the Lauterbach I knew and +loved, and started, full of hope, for the Baabe I was all ready to love. + +It was a merry day of bright sun and busy breeze. Everything was moving +and glancing and fluttering. I felt cheerful to hilarity when we were +fairly out in the fields that lie between the Greek temple and the +village of Vilmnitz--privately hilarious, of course, for I could not be +openly so in the sober presence of Gertrud. I have observed that sweet +smells, and clear light, and the piping of birds, all the things that +make life lovely have no effect whatever on Gertruds. They apparently +neither smell, nor see, nor hear them. They are not merely unable to +appreciate them, they actually do not know that they are there. This +complete unconsciousness of the presence of beauty is always a wonder to +me. No change of weather changes my Gertrud's settled solemnity. She +wears the same face among the roses of June that she does in the nipping +winds of March. The heart of May, with which every beast keeps holiday, +never occupies her respectable interior. She is not more solemn on a +blank February afternoon, when the world outside in its cold wrapping of +mist shudders through the sodden hours, than she is on such a day of +living radiance as this third one of our journey. The industrious breeze +lifted up the stray hairs from her forehead and gave it little pats and +kisses that seemed audaciously familiar applied to a brow of such +decorum; the restless poplar leaves whispered all the secrets of life in +her unhearing ears; the cottage gardens of Vilmnitz, ablaze that day +with the white flame of lilies, poured their stream of scent into the +road, and the wind caught it up and flung it across her sober nostrils, +and she could not breathe without drawing in the divineness of it, yet +her face wore exactly the same expression that it does when we are +passing pigs. Are the Gertruds of this world, then, unable to +distinguish between pigs and lilies? Do they, as they toss on its +troublesome waves, smell perpetual pigs? The question interested me for +at least three miles; and so much did I want to talk it over that I +nearly began talking it over with Gertrud herself, but was restrained by +the dread of offending her; for to drive round Rügen side by side with +an offended Gertrud would be more than my fortitude could endure. + +Vilmnitz is a pretty little village, and the guide-book praises both its +inns; but then the guide-book praises every place it mentions. I would +not, myself, make use of Vilmnitz except as a village to be driven +through on the way to somewhere else. For this purpose it is quite +satisfactory though its roads might be less sandy, for it is a flowery +place with picturesque, prosperous-looking cottages, and high up on a +mound the oldest church in the island. This church dates from the +twelfth century, and I would have liked to go into it; but it was locked +and the parson had the key, and it was the hour in the afternoon when +parsons sleep, and wisdom dictates that while they are doing it they +shall be left alone. So we drove through Vilmnitz in all the dignity +that asks no favours and wants nothing from anybody. + +The road is ugly from there to a place called Stresow, but I do not mind +an ugly road if the sun will only shine, and the ugly ones are useful +for making one see the beauty of the pretty ones. There are many Hun +graves, big mounds with trees growing on them, and I suppose Huns inside +them, round Stresow, and a monument reminding the passer-by of a battle +fought there between the Prussians under the old Dessauer and the +Swedes. We won. It was my duty as a good German to swell with patriotic +pride on beholding this memorial, and I did so. As a nation, the least +thing sets us swelling with this particular sort of pride. We acquire +the habit in our childhood when we imitate our parents, and on any fine +Sunday afternoon you may see whole families standing round the victory +column and the statues in the _Sieges Allee_ in Berlin engaged in doing +it. The old Dessauer is not very sharply outlined in a mind that easily +forgets, and I am afraid to say how little I know of him except that he +was old and a Dessauer; yet I felt extremely proud of him, and proud of +Germany, and proud of myself as I saw the place where we fought under +him and won. 'Oh blood and iron!' I cried, 'Glorious and potent mixture! +Do you see that monument, Gertrud? It marks the spot where we Prussians +won a mighty battle, led by the old, the heroic Dessauer.' And though +Gertrud, I am positive, is even more vague about him than I am, at the +mention of a Prussian victory her face immediately and mechanically took +on the familiar expression of him who is secretly swelling. + +Beyond Stresow the road was hilly and charming, with woods drawing +sometimes to the edge of it and shading us, and sometimes drawing back +to the other side of meadows; and there were the first fields of yellow +lupins in flower, and I had the delight to which I look forward each +year as July approaches of smelling that peculiarly exquisite scent. And +so we came to the region of Baabe, passing first round the outskirts of +Sellin, a place of villas built in the woods on the east coast of Rügen +with the sea on one side and a big lake called the Selliner See on the +other; and driving round the north end of this lake we got on to the +dullest bit of road we had yet had, running beside a railway line and +roughly paved with stones, pine-woods on our left shutting out the sea, +and on our right across a marshy flat the lake, and bare and dreary +hills. + +These, then, were the woods of Baabe. Down the straight road, unpleasing +even in the distance, I could see new houses standing aimlessly about, +lodging-houses out of sight and sound of the sea waiting for +chest-sufferers, the lodging-houses of the Lonely One. 'I will not stay +at Baabe,' I called energetically to August, who had been told we were +to stop there that night, 'go on to the next place.' + +The next place is Göhren, and the guide-book's praise of it is +hysterical. Filled with distrust of the guide-book I could only hope it +would be possible to sleep in it, for the shadows had grown very long +and there is nowhere to stop at beyond Göhren except Thiessow, the +farthest southern point on the island. Accordingly we drove past the two +Baabe hotels, little wooden houses built on the roadside facing the +line, with the station immediately opposite their windows. A train was +nearly due, and intending passengers were sitting in front of the hotels +drinking beer while they waited, and various conveyances had stopped +there on their way to Göhren or Sellin, and the Lonely One seemed a very +noisy, busy one to me as we rattled by over the stones, and I was glad +to turn off to the left at a sign-post pointing towards Göhren and get +on to the deep, sandy, silent forest roads. + +The forest, at first only pines and rather scrubby ones, stretches the +whole way from Baabe to Göhren and grows more and more beautiful. We had +to drive at a walking-pace because of the deep sand; but these sandy +roads have the advantage of being so quiet that you can hear something +besides the noise of wheels and hoofs. Not till we got to Göhren did we +see the sea, but I heard it all the way, for outside the forest the +breeze had freshened into a wind, and though we hardly felt it I could +see it passing over the pine-tops and hear how they sighed. I suppose we +must have been driving an hour among the pines before we got into a +region of mixed forest--beeches and oaks and an undergrowth of +whortleberries; and then tourists began to flutter among the trees, +tourists with baskets searching for berries, so that it was certain +Göhren could not be far off. We came quite suddenly upon its railway +station, a small building alone in the woods, the terminus of the line +whose other end is Putbus. Across the line were white dunes with young +beeches bending in the wind, and beyond these dunes the sea roared. +Beeches and dunes were in the full glow of the sunset. We, skirting the +forest on the other side, were in deep shadow. The air was so fresh that +it was almost cold. I stopped August and got out and crossed the +deserted line and climbed up the dunes, and oh the glorious sight on the +other side--the glorious, dashing, roaring sea! What was pale Lauterbach +compared to this? A mere lake, a crystal pool, a looking-glass, a place +in which to lie by the side of still waters and dream over your own and +heaven's reflection. But here one could not dream; here was life, +vigorous, stinging, blustering life; and standing on the top of the dune +holding my hat on with both hands, banged and battered by the salt wind, +my clothes flapping and straining like a flag in a gale on a swaying +flagstaff, the weight of a generation was blown off my shoulders, and I +was seized by a craving as unsuitable as it was terrific to run and +fetch a spade and a bucket, and dig and dig till it was too dark to dig +any longer, and then go indoors tired and joyful and have periwinkles or +shrimps for tea. And behold Gertrud, cold reminder of realities, beside +me cloak in hand; and she told me it was chilly, and she put the cloak +round my unresisting shoulders, and it was heavy with the weight of +hours and custom; and the sun dropped at that moment behind the forest, +and all the radiance and colour went out together. 'Thank you, Gertrud,' +I said as she wrapped me up; but though I shivered I was not grateful. + +It was certainly not the moment to loiter on dunes. The horses had done +enough for one day, nearly half their work having been over heavy sand, +and we still had to look for our night quarters. Lauterbach had been +empty; therefore, with the illuminating logic of women, I was sure +Göhren would have plenty of room for us. It had not. The holidays had +just begun, and the place swarmed with prudent families who had taken +their rooms weeks before. Göhren is built on a very steep hill that +drops straight down on to the sands. The hill is so steep that we got +out, and August led or rather pulled the horses up it. Luckily the +forest road we came by runs along the bottom of the hill, and when we +came out of the trees and found ourselves without the least warning of +stray houses or lamp-posts in the heart of Göhren, we had to climb up +the road and not drive down it. Driving down it must be impossible, +especially for horses which, like mine, never see a hill in their own +home. When we had got safely to the top we left August and the horses to +get their wind and set out to engage rooms in the hotel the guide-book +says is the best. There is practically only that one street in Göhren, +and it is lined with hotels and lodging-houses, and down at the bottom, +between the over-arching trees, the leaden waves were dashing on the +deserted sands. People were having supper. Whatever place we passed, at +whatever hour during the entire tour, people were always having +something. The hotel I had chosen was in a garden, and the windows +evidently had lovely views over the green carpet of the level tree-tops. +As I walked up to the door I pointed to the windows of the bedroom I +thought must be the nicest, and told Gertrud it was the one I should +take. It was a cold evening, and the bath-guests were supping indoors. +There was no hall-porter or any one else whom I could ask for what I +wanted, so we had to go into the restaurant, where the whole strength of +the establishment was apparently concentrated. The room was crowded, and +misty with the fumes of suppers. All the children of Germany seemed to +be gathered in this one spot, putting knives into their artless mouths +even when it was only sauce they wanted to eat, and devouring their soup +with a passionate enthusiasm. I explained my wishes, grown suddenly less +ardent, rather falteringly to the nearest waiter. All the children of +Germany lifted their heads out of their soup-plates to listen. The +waiter referred me to the head waiter. Embarrassed, I repeated my +wishes, cooled down to the point where they almost cease to be wishes, +to this person, and all the children of Germany sat with their knives +suspended in the air and their mouths open while I did it. The head +waiter told me I could have the rooms on the 15th of August--it was then +the 17th of July--at which date the holidays ended and the families went +home. 'Oh, thank you, thank you; that will do beautifully!' I cried, +only too grateful that the families had left no corner unoccupied into +which I might have felt obliged, by the lateness of the hour, to force +my shrinking limbs; and hurrying to the door I could hear how all the +children of Germany's heads seemed to splash back again into their +soup-plates. + +But my pleasure at not being doomed to stay there was foolish, as I +quickly perceived, for stay somewhere I must, and the guide-book was +right when it said this was the best hotel. Outside in the windy street +August and the horses were waiting patiently. The stars were coming out +in the pale green of the sky over Göhren, but from the east the night +was dragging up a great curtain of chill black cloud. For the best part +of an hour Gertrud and I went from one hotel to another, from one +lodging-house to another. The hotels all promised rooms if I would call +again in four weeks' time. The lodging-houses only laughed at our +request for a night's shelter; they said they never took in people who +were not going to stay the entire season, and who did not bring their +own bedding. Their own bedding! What a complication of burdens to lay on +the back of the patient father of a family. Did a holiday-maker with a +wife and, say, four children have to bring six sets of bedding with him? +Six sets of Teutonic bedding, stuffed with feathers? Six pillows, six of +those wedge-like things to put under pillows called _Kielkissen_, and +six quilted coverlets with insides of eider-down if there was a position +to keep up, and of wadding if public opinion could afford to be defied? +Yet the lodging-houses were full; and that there were small children in +them was evident from the frequency with which the sounds that accompany +the act of correction floated out into the street. + +We found a room at last in the gloomiest hotel in the place. Only one +room, under the roof in a kind of tower, with eight beds in it, and no +space for anything else. August had no room at all, and slept with his +horses in the stable. There was one small iron wash-stand, a thing of +tiers with a basin at the top, a soap-dish beneath it, underneath that a +water-bottle, and not an inch more space in which to put a sponge or a +nail-brush. In the passage outside the door was a chest of drawers +reserved for the use of the occupiers of this room. It was by the merest +chance that we got even this, the arrival of the family who had taken it +for six weeks having been delayed for a day or two. They were coming the +very next day, eight of them, and were all going to spend six weeks in +that one room. 'Which,' said the landlord, 'explains the presence of so +many beds.' + +'But it does not explain the presence of so many beds in one room,' I +objected, gazing at them resentfully from the only corner where there +were none. + +'The _Herrschaften_ are content,' he said shortly. 'They return every +year.' + +'And they are content, too, with only one of these?' I inquired, +pointing to the extremely condensed wash-stand. + +The landlord stared. 'There is the sea,' he said, not without impatience +at being forced to state the obvious; and disliking, I suppose, the tone +of my remarks, he hurried downstairs. + +Now it is useless for me to describe Göhren for the benefit of possible +travellers, because I am prejudiced. I was cold there, and hungry, and +tired, and I lived in a garret. To me it will always be a place where +there is a penetrating wind, a steep hill, and an iron wash-stand in +tiers. Some day when the distinct vision of these things is blurred, I +will order the best rooms in the best hotel several months beforehand to +be kept for me till I come, wait for fair, windless weather and the +passing of the holidays, and then go once more to Göhren. The place +itself is, I believe, beautiful. No place with so much sea and forest +could help being beautiful. That evening the beauties were hidden; and I +abruptly left the table beneath some shabby little chestnuts in front of +the hotel where I was trying, in gloom and wind, not to notice the +wetness of the table-napkin, the stains on the cloth, and the mark on +the edge of the plates where an unspeakable waiter had put his thumb, +and went out into the street. At a baker's I bought some rusks--dry +things that show no marks--and continued down the hill to the sea. There +is no cold with quite so forlorn a chill in it as a sudden interruption +of July heats; and there is no place with quite so forlorn a feeling +about it as deserted sands on a leaden evening. Was it only the evening +before that I had sailed away from Vilm in glory and in joy, leaving the +form of the abstruse but beautiful youth standing in such a golden +radiance that it was as the form of an angel? Down among the dunes, +where the grey ribbons of the sea-grass were violently fluttering and +indigo clouds lay in an unbroken level over leaden waves, I sat and ate +my rusks and was wretched. My soul rebelled both at the wretchedness and +at the rusks. Not for these had I come to Rügen. I looked at the waves +and shuddered. I looked at the dunes and disliked them. I was haunted by +the image of the eight beds waiting in my garret for me, and of certain +portions of the wall from which the paper was torn--the summer before, +probably, by one or more of the eight struggling in the first onslaughts +of asphyxia--and had not been gummed on again. My thoughts drifted +miserably into solemn channels, in the direction of what Carlyle calls +the Immensities. I remembered how I was only a speck after all in +uncomfortably limitless space, of no account whatever in the general +scheme of things, but with a horrid private capacity for being often and +easily hurt; and how specks have a trick of dying, which I in my turn +would presently do, and a fresh speck, not nearly so nice, as I hoped +and believed, would immediately start up and fill my vacancy, perhaps so +exactly my vacancy that it would even wear my gloves and stockings. The +last rusk, drier and drearier than any that had gone before, was being +eaten by the time my thoughts emerged from the gloom that hangs about +eternal verities to the desirable concreteness of gloves and stockings. +What, I wondered, became of the gloves and stockings of the recently +extinguished female speck? Its Gertrud would, I supposed, take +possession of its dresses; but my Gertrud, for instance, could not wear +my gloves, and I know believes only in those stockings she has knitted +herself. Still, she has nieces, and I believe aunts. She would send them +all the things she could not use herself, which would not be nice of +Gertrud. It would not matter, I supposed, but it would not be nice. She +would be letting herself down to being a kind of ghoul. I started up +with the feeling that I must go and remonstrate with her before it was +too late; and there, struggling in the wind and deep sand towards me, +her arms full of warm things and her face of anxious solicitude, was the +good Gertrud herself. 'I have prepared the gracious one's bed,' she +called out breathlessly; 'will she not soon enter it?' + +'Oh Gertrud,' I cried, remembering the garret and forgetting the ghoul, +'which bed?' + +'With the aid of the chambermaid I have removed two of them into the +passage,' said Gertrud, buttoning me into my coat. + +'And the wash-stand?' + +She shook her head. 'That I could not remove, for there is no other to +be had in its place. The chambermaid said that in four weeks' time' +--she stopped and scanned my face. 'The gracious one looks put out,' she +said. 'Has anything happened?' + +'Put out? My dear Gertrud, I have been thinking of very serious things. +You cannot expect me to frolic along paths of thought that lead to +mighty and unpleasant truths. Why should I always smile? I am not a +Cheshire cat.' + +'I trust the gracious one will come in now and enter her bed,' said +Gertrud decidedly, who had never heard of Cheshire cats, and was sure +that the mention of them indicated a brain in need of repose. + +'Oh Gertrud,' I cried, intolerably stirred by the bare mention of that +bed, 'this is a bleak and mischievous world, isn't it? Do you think we +shall ever be warm and comfortable and happy again?' + + + + +THE FOURTH DAY + +FROM GÖHREN TO THIESSOW + + +We left Göhren at seven the next morning and breakfasted outside it +where the lodging-houses end and the woods begin. Gertrud had bought +bread, and butter, and a bottle of milk, and we sat among the +nightshades, whose flowers were everywhere, and ate in purity and +cleanliness while August waited in the road. The charming little flowers +with their one-half purple and other half yellow are those that have red +berries later in the year and are called by Keats ruby grapes of +Proserpine. Yet they are not poisonous, and there is no reason why you +should not suffer your pale forehead to be kissed by them if you want +to. They are as innocent as they are pretty, and the wood was full of +them. Poison, death, and Proserpine seemed far enough away from that +leafy place and the rude honesty of bread and butter. Still, lest I +should feel too happy, and therefore be less able to bear any shocks +that might be awaiting me at Thiessow, I repeated the melancholy and +beautiful ode for my admonishment under my breath. It had no effect. +Usually it is an unfailing antidote in its extraordinary depression to +any excess of cheerfulness; but the wood and the morning sun and the +bread and butter were more than a match for it. No incantation of verse +could make me believe that Joy's hand was for ever at his lips bidding +adieu. Joy seemed to be sitting contentedly beside me sharing my bread +and butter; and when I drove away towards Thiessow he got into the +carriage with me, and whispered that I was going to be very happy there. + +Outside the wood the sandy road lay between cornfields gay with +corncockles, bright reminders that the coming harvest will be poor. From +here to Thiessow there are no trees except round the cottages of +Philippshagen, a pretty village with a hoary church, beyond which the +road became pure sand, dribbling off into mere uncertain tracks over the +flat pasture land that stretches all the way to Thiessow. + +The guide-book warmly recommends the seashore when the wind is in the +east (which it was) as the quickest and firmest route from Göhren to +Thiessow; but I chose rather to take the road over the plain because +there was a poem in the guide-book about the way along the shore, and +the guide-book said it described it extremely well, and I was sure that +if that were so I would do better to go the other way. This is the +poem--the translation is exact, the original being unrhymed, and the +punctuation is the poet's-- + + Splashing waves + Rocking boat + Dipping gulls-- + Dunes. + + Raging winds + Floating froth. + Flashing lightning + Moon! + + Fearful hearts + Morning grey-- + Stormy nights + Faith! + +I read it, marvelled, and went the other way. + +Thiessow is a place that has to be gone to for its sake alone, as a +glance at the map will show. If you make up your mind to journey the +entire length of the plain that separates it from everywhere else you +must also make up your mind to journey the entire length back again, to +see Göhren once more, to pass through Baabe, and to make a closer +acquaintance with Sellin which is on the way to the yet unvisited +villages going north. It is a singular drive down to Thiessow, singular +because it seems as though it would never leave off. You see the place +far away in the distance the whole time, and you jolt on and on at a +walking pace towards it, in and out of ruts, over grass-mounds, the sun +beating on your head, sea on your left rolling up the beach in long +waves, more sea on your right across the undulating greenness, a distant +hill with a village by the water to the west, sails of fisher-boats, +people in a curious costume mowing in a meadow a great way off, and +tethered all over the plain solitary sheep and cows, whose nervousness +at your approach is the nervousness begotten of a retired life. There +are no trees; and if we had not seen Thiessow all the time we should +have lost our way, for there is no road. As it is, you go on till you +are stopped by the land coming to an end, and there you are at Thiessow. +I believe in the summer you can get there by steamer from Göhren or +Baabe; but if it is windy and the waves are too big for the boats that +land you to put off, the steamer does not stop; so that the only way is +over the plain or along the shore. I walked nearly all the time, the +jolting was so intolerable. It was heavy work for the horses, and +straining work for the carriage. Gertrud sat gripping the bandbox, for +with every lurch it tried to roll out. August looked unhappy. His +experiences at Göhren had been worse than ours, and Thiessow was right +down at the end of all things, and had the drawback, obvious even to +August, that whatever it was like we would have to endure it, for +swelter back again over the broiling plain only to stay a second night +at Göhren was as much out of the question for the horses as for +ourselves. As for me, I was absolutely happy. The wide plain, the wide +sea, the wide sky were so gloriously full of light and life. The very +turf beneath my feet had an eager spring in it; the very daisies +covering it looked sprightlier than anywhere else; and up among the +great piled clouds the blessed little larks were fairly drunk with +delight. I walked some way ahead of the carriage so as to feel alone. I +could have walked for ever in that radiance and freshness. The +black-faced sheep ran wildly round and round as I passed, tugging at +their chains in frantic agitation. Even the cows seemed uneasy if I came +too close; and in the far-off meadow the mowers stopped mowing to watch +us dwindle into dots. In this part of Rügen the natives wear a +peculiarly hideous dress, or rather the men do--the women's costume is +not so ugly--and looking through my glasses to my astonishment I saw +that the male mowers had on long baggy white things that were like +nothing so much as a woman's white petticoat on either leg. But the +mowers and their trousers were soon left far behind. The sun had climbed +very high, was pouring down almost straight on to our heads, and still +Thiessow seemed no nearer. Well, it did not matter. That is the chief +beauty of a tour like mine, that nothing matters. As soon as there are +no trains to catch a journey becomes magnificently simple. We might +loiter as long as we liked on the road if only we got to some place, any +place, by nightfall. This, of course, was my buoyant midday mood, before +fatigue had weighed down my limbs and hunger gnawed holes in my +cheerfulness. The wind, smelling of sea and freshly-cut grass, had quite +blown away the memory of how tragic life had looked the night before +when set about by too many beds and not enough wash-stand; and I walked +along with what felt like all the brightness of heaven in my heart. + +The end of this walk--I think of it as one of the happiest and most +beautiful I have had--came about one o'clock. At that dull hour, when +the glory of morning is gone and the serenity of afternoon has not +begun, we arrived at a small grey wooden hotel, separated from the east +sea by a belt of fir-wood, facing a common to the south, and about +twenty minutes' walk from Thiessow proper, which lies on the sea on the +western and southern shore of the point. It looked clean, and I went in. +August and Gertrud sat broiling in the sun of the shelterless sandy road +in front of the lily-grown garden. Somehow I had no doubts about being +taken in here, and I was at once shown a spotless little bedroom by a +spotless landlady. It was a corner room in the south-west corner of the +house, and one window looked south on to the common and the other west +on to the plain. The bed was drawn across this window, and lying on it I +could see the western sea, the distant hill on the shore with its +village, and grass, grass, nothing but grass, rolling away from the very +wall of the house to infinity and the sunset. The room was tiny. If I +had had more than a hold-all I should not have been able to get into it. +It had a locked door leading into another bedroom which was occupied, +said the chambermaid, by a quiet lady who would make no noise. Gertrud's +room was opposite mine. August cheered up when I went out and told him +he could go to the stables and put up, and Gertrud was visibly agreeably +surprised by the cleanliness of both our rooms. + +I lunched on a verandah overlooking the common, with the Madonna lilies +of the little garden within reach of my hand; and the tablecloth and the +spoons and the waiter were all in keeping with the clean landlady. The +inn being small the visitors were few, and those I saw dining at the +other little tables on the verandah appeared to be quiet, inoffensive +people such as one would expect to find in a quiet, out-of-the-way +place. The sea was not visible, but I could hear it on the other side of +the belt of firs; and the verandah facing south and being hot and +airless, a longing to get into the cool water took hold of me. The +waiter said the bathing-huts were open in the afternoon from four to +five, and I went upstairs to tell Gertrud to bring my things down to the +beach at four, when she would find me lying in the sand. While I was +talking, the quiet lady in the next room began to talk too, apparently +to the chambermaid, for she talked of hot water. I broke off my own talk +short. It was not that the partition was so thin that it seemed as if +she were in the same room as myself, though that was sufficiently +disturbing--it was that I thought for a moment I knew the voice. I +looked at Gertrud. Gertrud's face was empty of all expression. The quiet +lady, continuing, told the chambermaid to let down the sun-blinds, and +the note in her voice that had struck me was no longer there. Feeling +relieved, for I did not want to come across acquaintances, I put _The +Prelude_ in my pocket and went out. The fir-wood was stuffy, and +suggested mosquitoes, but several bath-guests had slung up hammocks and +were lying in them dozing, so that there could not have been mosquitoes; +and coming suddenly out on to the sands all idea of stuffiness vanished, +for there was the same glorious, heaving, sparkling, splashing blue that +I had seen from the dunes of Göhren the evening before at sunset. The +bathing-house, a modest place with only two cells and a long plank +bridge running into deep water, was just opposite the end of the path +through the firs. It was locked up and deserted. The sands were deserted +too, for the tourists were all dozing in hammocks or in beds. I made a +hollow in the clean dry sand beneath the last of the fir trees, and +settled down to enjoy myself till Gertrud came. Oh, I was happy! +Thiessow was so quiet and primitive, the afternoon so radiant, the +colours of the sea and of the long line of silver sand, and of the soft +green gloom of the background of firs so beautiful. Commendably far away +to the north I saw the coastguard hill belonging to Göhren. On my right +the woods turned into beechwoods, and scrambled up high cliffs that +seemed to form the end of the peninsula. I would go and look at all that +later on after my bathe. If there is a thing I love it is exploring the +little paths of an unknown wood, finding out the corners where it keeps +its periwinkles and anemones, discovering its birds' nests, waiting +motionless for its hedgehogs and squirrels, and even searching out those +luscious recesses, oozy and green, where it keeps its happy slugs. They +tell me slugs are not really happy, that Nature is cruel, and that you +only have to scratch the pleasant surface of things to get at once to +blood-curdling brutalities. Perhaps if you were to go on scratching you +might get to consolations and beneficiencies again; but why scratch at +all? Why not take the beauty and be grateful? I will not scratch. I will +not criticise my own mother who has sheltered me so long in her broad +bosom, and been so long my surest guide to all that is gentle and +lovely. Whatever she does, from thunderbolts to headaches, I will not +criticise; for if she gives me a headache, is there not pleasure when it +leaves off? And if she hurls a thunderbolt at me and I am unexpectedly +exterminated, my body shall serve as a basis for fresh life and growth, +and shall blossom out presently into an immortality of daisies. + +I think I must have slept, for the sound of the waves grew very far +away, and I only seemed to have been watching the sun on them for a few +minutes, when Gertrud's voice floated across space to my ears; and she +was saying it was past four, and that one lady had already gone down to +bathe, and that, as there were only two cells, if I did not go soon I +might not get a bathe at all. I sat up in my hollow and looked across to +the huts. The bathing woman in the usual white calico sunbonnet was +there, waiting on the plank bridge. No one was in the sea yet. It was a +great bore that there should be any one else bathing just then, for +German female tourists are apt to be extraordinarily cordial in the +water. On land, laced into suppressive whalebone, dressed, and with +their hair dry and curled, they cannot but keep within the limits set by +convention; but the more clothes they take off the more do they seem to +consider the last barrier between human creature and human creature +broken down, and they will behave towards you, meeting you on this +common ground of wateriness, as though they had known you and +extravagantly esteemed you for years. Their cordiality, too, becomes +more pronounced in proportion to the coldness and roughness of the +water; and the water that day looked cold and was certainly rough, and I +felt that there being only two of us in it it would be impossible to +escape the advances of the other one. Still, as the cells were shut at +five, I could not wait till she had done, so I went down and began to +undress. + +While I was doing it I heard her leave her cell and anxiously ask the +woman if the sea were very cold. Then she apparently put in one foot, +for I heard her shriek. Then she apparently bent down, and scooping up +water in her hand splashed her face with it, for I heard her gasp. Then +she tried the other foot, and shrieked again. And then the bathing +woman, fearful lest five o'clock should still find her on duty, began +mellifluously to persuade. By this time I was ready, but I did not +choose to meet the unknown emotional one on the plank bridge because the +garments in which one bathes in German waters are regrettably scanty; so +I waited, peeping through the little window. After much talk the +eloquence of the bathing woman had its effect, and the bather with one +wild scream leapt into the foam, which immediately engulfed her, and +when she emerged the first thing she did on getting her breath was to +clutch hold of the rope and shriek without stopping for at least a +minute. 'Unwürdiges Benehmen,' I observed to Gertrud with a shrug. 'It +must be very cold,' I added to myself, not without a secret shrinking. +But to my surprise, when I ran along the planks above where the +unfortunate clutched and shrieked, she looked up at me with a wet but +beaming countenance, and interrupted her shrieks to gasp out, +'_Prachtvoll!_' + +'Really these bath-guests in the water----' I thought indignantly. What +right had this one, only because my apparel was scanty, to smile at me +and say _prachtvoll_? I was so much startled by the unexpected +exclamation from a person who had the minute before been rending the air +with her laments, that my foot slipped on the wet planks, I just heard +the bathing woman advising me to take care, just had time to comment to +myself on the foolishness of such advice to one already hurling through +space, and then came a shock of all-engulfing coldness and wetness and +suffocation, and the next moment there I was gasping and spluttering +exactly as the other bath-guest had gasped and spluttered, but with this +difference, that she had clutched the rope and shrieked, and I, with all +the convulsive energy of panic, was shrieking and clutching the +bath-guest. + +'_Prachtvoll_, nicht?' I heard her say with an odious jollity through +the singing in my ears. Every wave lifted me a little off my feet. My +mouth was full of water. My eyes were blinded with spray. I continued to +cling to her with one hand, miserably conscious that after this there +would be no shaking her off, and rubbing my eyes with the other looked +at her. My shrieks froze on my lips. Where had I seen her face before? +Surely I knew it? She wore one of those grey india-rubber caps, drawn +tightly down to her eyes, that keep the water out so well and are so +hopelessly hideous. She smiled back at me with the utmost friendliness, +and asked me again whether I did not think it glorious. + +'_Ach ja-ja_,' I panted, letting her go and groping blindly for the +rope. 'Thank you, thank you; pray pardon me for having seized you so +rudely.' + +'_Bitte, bitte_,' she cried, beginning to jump up and down again. + +'Who in the world is she?' I asked myself, getting away as fast as I +could. 'Where have I seen her before?' + +Probably she was an undesirable acquaintance. Perhaps she was my +dressmaker. I had not paid her last absurd bill, and that and a certain +faint resemblance to what my dressmaker would look like in an +india-rubber cap was what put her into my head; and no sooner had I +thought it than I was sure of it, and the conviction was one of quite +unprecedented disagreeableness. How profoundly unpleasant to meet this +person in the water, to have come all the way to Rügen, to have suffered +at Göhren, to have walked miles in the heat of the day to Thiessow, for +the sole purpose of bathing tête-à-tête with my dressmaker. And to have +tumbled in on top of her and clung about her neck! I climbed out and ran +into my cell. My idea was to get dressed and away as speedily as +possible; yet with all Gertrud's haste, just as I came out of my cell +the other woman came out of hers in her clothes, and we met face to +face. With one accord we stopped dead and our mouths fell open, 'What,' +she cried, 'it is _you_?' + +'What,' I cried, 'it is _you_?' + +It was my cousin Charlotte whom I had not seen for ten years. + + + + +THE FOURTH DAY--_Continued_ + +AT THIESSOW + + +My cousin Charlotte was twenty when I saw her last. Now she was thirty, +besides having had an india-rubber cap on. Both these things make a +difference to a woman, though she did not seem aware of it, and was lost +in amazement that I should not have recognised her at once. I told her +it was because of the cap. Then I expressed the astonishment I felt that +she had not at once recognised me, and after hesitating a moment she +said that I had been making too many faces; and so with infinite +delicacy did we avoid all allusion to those ten unhideable years. + +Charlotte had had a chequered career; at least, beside my placid life it +seemed to have bristled with events. In her early youth, and to the +dismay of her parents, she insisted on being educated at one of the +English colleges for women--it was at Oxford, but I forget its name--a +most unusual course for a young German girl of her class to take. She +was so determined, and made her relations so uncomfortable during their +period of opposition, that they gave in with what appeared to more +distant relatives who were not with Charlotte all day long a criminal +weakness. At Oxford she took everything there was to take in the way of +honours and prizes, and was the joy and pride of her college. In her +last year, a German savant of sixty, an exceedingly bright light in the +firmament of European learning, came to Oxford and was fêted. When +Charlotte saw the great local beings she was accustomed to look upon as +the most marvellous men of the age--the heads of colleges, professors, +and other celebrities--vying with each other in honouring her +countryman, her admiration for him was such that it took her breath +away. At some function she was brought to his notice, and her family +being well known in Germany and she herself then in the freshness of +twenty-one, besides being very pretty, the great man was much +interested, and beamed benevolently upon her, and chucked her under the +chin. The head in whose house he was staying, a person equally exquisite +in appearance and manners, who had had much to forgive that was less +excellent in his guest and had done so freely for the sake of the known +profundity of his knowledge, could not but remark this interest in +Charlotte, and told him pleasantly of her promising career. The +professor appeared to listen with attention, and looked pleased and +approving; but when the head ceased, instead of commenting on her +talents or the creditable manner in which she had developed them, what +he said was, 'A nice, round little girl. A very nice, round little girl. +_Colossal appetitlich_.' And this he repeated emphatically several +times, to the distinct discomfort of the head, while his eyes followed +her benignly into the distant corner placed at the disposal of the +obscure. + +Six months later she married the professor. Her family wept and implored +in vain; told her in vain of the terrificness of marrying a widower with +seven children all older than herself. Charlotte was blinded by the +glory of having been chosen by the greatest man Oxford had ever seen. +Oxford was everything to her. Her distant German home and its spiritless +inhabitants were objects only of her good-natured shrugs. She wrote to +me saying she was going to be the life companion of the finest thinker +of the age; her people, so illiterate and so full of prejudices, could +not, she supposed, be expected to appreciate the splendour of her +prospects; she thanked heaven that her own education had saved her from +such a laughable blindness; she could conceive nothing more glorious +than marrying the man in all the world whom you most reverently admire, +than being chosen as the sharer of his thoughts, and the partner of his +intellectual joys. After that I seldom heard from her. She lived in the +south of Germany, and her professor's fame waxed vaster every year. +Every year, too, she brought a potential professor into a world already +so full of them, and every year death cut short its career after a +period varying from ten days to a fortnight, and the _Kreuzzeitung_ +seemed perpetually to be announcing that _Heute früh ist meine liebe +Frau Charlotte von einem strammen Jungen leicht und glücklich entbunden +worden_, and _Heute starb unser Sohn Bernhard im zarten Alter von zwei +Wochen_. None of the children lived long enough to meet the next +brother, and they were steadily christened Bernhard, after a father +apparently thirsting to perpetuate his name. It became at last quite +uncomfortable. Charlotte seemed never to be out of the _Kreuzzeitung_. +For six years she and the poor little Bernhards went on in this manner, +haunting its birth and death columns, and then abruptly disappeared from +them; and the next I heard of her was that she was in England,--in +London, Oxford, and other intellectual centres, lecturing in the cause +of Woman. The _Kreuzzeitung_ began about her again, but on another page. +The _Kreuzzeitung_ was shocked; for Charlotte was emancipated. +Charlotte's family was so much shocked that it was hysterical. +Charlotte, not content with lecturing, wrote pamphlets,--lofty documents +of a deadly earnestness, in German and English, and they might be seen +any day in the bookshop windows _Unter den Linden_. Charlotte's family +nearly fainted when it had to walk _Unter den Linden_. The Radical +papers, which were only read by Charlotte's family when nobody was +looking and were never allowed openly to darken their doors, took her +under their wing and wrote articles in her praise. It was, they said, +surprising and refreshing to find views and intelligence of the sort +emerging from the suffocating ancestral atmosphere that hangs about the +_Landadel_. The paralysing effect of too many ancestors was not as a +rule to be lightly shaken off, especially by the female descendants. +When it did get shaken off, as in this instance, it should be the +subject of rejoicing to every person who had the advancement of +civilisation at heart. The civilisation of a state could never be great +so long as its women, etc. etc. + +My uncle and aunt nearly died of this praise. Her brothers and sisters +stayed in the country and refused invitations. Only the professor seemed +as pleased as ever. 'Charlotte is my cousin,' I said to him at a party +in Berlin where he was being lionised. 'How proud you must be of such a +clever wife!' I had not met him before, and a more pleasant, rosy, nice +little old man I have never seen. + +He beamed at me through his spectacles. Almost could I see the narrow +line that separated me from a chin-chucking. 'Yes, yes,' he said, 'so +they all tell me. The little Lotte is making a noise. Empty vessels do. +But I daresay what she tells them is a very pretty little nonsense. One +must not be too critical in these cases.' And, seizing upon the +cousinship, he began to call me _Du_. + +I inquired how it was she was wandering about the world alone. He said +he could not imagine. I asked him what he thought of the pamphlets. He +said he had no time for light reading. I was so unfortunate as to +remark, no doubt with enthusiasm, that I had read some of his simpler +works to my great benefit and unbounded admiration. He looked more +benign than ever, and said he had had no idea that anything of his was +taught in elementary schools. + +In a word, I was routed by the professor. I withdrew, feeling crushed, +and wondering if I had deserved it. He came after me, called me his +_liebe kleine Cousine_, and sitting down beside me patted my hand and +inquired with solicitude how it was he had never seen me before. Renewed +attempts on my part to feed like a bee on the honey of his learning were +met only by pats. He would pat, but he would not impart wisdom; and the +longer he patted the more perfect did his serenity seem to become. When +people approached us and showed a tendency to hang on the great man's +lips, he looked up with a happy smile and said, 'This is my little +cousin--we have much to say to each other,' and turned his back on them. +And when I was asked whether I had not spent a memorable, an elevating +evening, being talked to so much by the famous Nieberlein, I could only +put on a solemn face and say that I should not soon forget it. 'It will +be something to tell your children of, in the days to come when he is a +splendid memory,' said the enthusiast. + +'Oh won't it!' I ejaculated, with the turned-up eyes of rapture. + +'Tell me one thing,' I said to Charlotte as we walked slowly along the +sands towards the cliff and the beechwood; 'why, since you took me for a +stranger, were you so--well, so gracious to me in the water?' + +Gertrud had gone back to the hotel laden with both our bathing-things. +'She may as well take mine up at the same time,' Charlotte had remarked, +piling them on Gertrud's passive arms. Undeniably she might; and +accordingly she did. But her face was wry, and so had been the smile +with which she returned Charlotte's careless greetings. 'You still keep +that old fool, I see,' said Charlotte. 'It would send me mad to have a +person of inferior intellect for ever fussing round me.' + +'It would send me much madder to have a person of superior intellect +buttoning my boots and scorning me while she does it,' I replied. + +'Why was I so gracious to you in the water?' repeated Charlotte in +answer to my inquiry, made not without anxiousness, for one likes to +know one's own cousin above the practices of ordinary bath-guests. 'I'll +tell you why. I detest the stiff, icy way women have of turning their +backs if they don't know each other.' + +'Oh they're not very stiff,' I remarked, thinking of past bathing +experiences, 'and besides, in the water----' + +'It is not only unkind, it is simply wicked. For how shall we ever be +anything but tools and drudges if we don't co-operate, if we don't stand +shoulder to shoulder? Oh my heart goes out to all women! I never see one +without feeling I must do all in my power to get to know her, to help +her, to show her what she must do, so that when her youth is gone there +will still be something left, a so much nobler happiness, a so much +truer joy.' + +'Than what?' I asked, puzzled. + +Charlotte was looking into my eyes as though she were reading my soul. +She wasn't, whatever she might have thought she was doing. 'Than what +she had before, of course,' she said with some asperity. + +'But perhaps what she had before was just what she liked best.' + +'But if it was only the sort of joy every woman who is young and pretty +gets heaped on her, does it not take wings and fly away the moment she +happens to look haggard, or is low-spirited, or ill?' + +It was as I had feared. Charlotte was strenuous. There was not a doubt +of it. And the strenuous woman is a form of the sex out of whose way I +have hitherto kept. Of course I knew from the pamphlets and the lectures +that she was not one to stay at home and see the point of purring over +her husband's socks; but I had supposed one might lecture and write +things without bringing the pamphlet manner to bear on one's own blood +relations. + +'You were very jolly in the water,' I said. 'Why are you suddenly so +serious?' + +'The water,' replied Charlotte, 'is the only place I am ever what you +call jolly in. It is the only place where I can ever forget how terribly +earnest life is.' + +'My dear Charlotte, shall we sit down? The bathing has made me tired.' + +We did sit down, and leaning my back against a rock, and pulling my hat +over my eyes, I gazed out at the sunlit sea and at the flocks of little +white clouds hanging over it to the point where they met the water, +while Charlotte talked. Yes, she was right, nearly always right, in +everything she said, and it was certainly meritorious to use one's +strength, and health, and talents as she was doing, trying to get rid of +mouldy prejudices. I gathered that what she was fighting for were equal +rights and equal privileges for women and men alike. It is a story I +have heard before, and up to now it has not had a satisfactory ending. +And Charlotte was so small, and the world she defied was so big and so +indifferent and had such an inconsequent habit of associating all such +efforts--in themselves nothing less than heroic--with the +ridiculousness of cropped hair and extremities clothed in bloomers. I +protest that the thought of this brick wall of indifference with +Charlotte hurling herself against it during all the years that might +have been pleasant was so tragic to me that I was nearly tempted to try +to please her by offering to come and hurl myself too. But I have no +heroism. The hardness and coldness of bricks terrifies me. What, I +wondered, could her experiences with her great thinker have been, to +make her turn her back so absolutely on the fair and sheltered land of +matrimony? I could not but agree with much that she was saying. That +women, if they chose, need not do or endure any of the things against +which those of them who find their voice cry out has long been clear to +me. That they are, on the whole, not well-disposed towards each other is +also a fact frequently to be observed. And that this secret antagonism +must be got over before there can be any real co-operation may, I +suppose, be regarded as certain. But when Charlotte spoke of +co-operation she was apparently thinking only of the co-operation of +those whom years, in place of the might of youth, have provided with the +sad sensibleness that comes of repeated disappointments--the +co-operation, that is, of the elderly; and the German elderly in the +immense majority of cases remains obscurely in her kitchen and does not +dream of co-operating. Has she not got over the conjugal quarrels of the +first married years? Has she not filled her nurseries and become +indefinite in outline? And do not these things make for content? If +thoughts of rebellion enter her head, she need only look honestly at her +image in the glass to be aware that it is not her kind that will ever +wring concessions from the other sex. She is a _brave Frau_, and a +_brave Frau_ who should try to do anything beyond keeping her home tidy +and feeding its inmates would be almost pathetically ridiculous. + +'You shouldn't bother about the old ones,' I murmured, watching a little +white steamer rounding the Göhren headland. 'Get the young to +co-operate, my dear Charlotte. The young inherit the earth--Teutonic +earth certainly they do. If you got all the pretty women between twenty +and thirty on your side the thing's done. No wringing would be required. +The concessions would simply shower down.' + +'I detest the word concession,' said Charlotte. + +'Do you? But there it is. We live on the concessions made us by those +beings you would probably call the enemy. And, after all, most of us +live fairly comfortably.' + +'By the way,' she said, turning her head suddenly and looking at me, +'what have you been doing all these years?' + +'Doing?' I repeated in some confusion. I don't know why there should +have been any confusion, unless it was a note in Charlotte's voice that +made her question sound like a stern inquiry after that one talent which +is death to hide lodged with me useless. 'Now, as though you didn't very +well know what I have been doing. I have had a row of babies and brought +it up quite nicely.' + +'_That_ isn't anything to be proud of.' + +'I didn't say it was.' + +'Your cat achieves precisely the same thing.' + +'My dear Charlotte, I haven't got a cat.' + +'And now--what are you doing now?' + +'You see what I am doing. Apparently exactly what you are.' + +'I don't mean that. Of course you know I don't mean that. What are you +doing now with your life?' + +I turned my head and gazed reproachfully at Charlotte. How pretty she +used to be. How prettily the corners of her mouth used to turn up, as +though her soul were always smiling. And she had had the dearest chin +with a dimple in it, and she had had clear, hopeful eyes, and all the +lines of her body had been comely and gracious. These are solid +advantages that should not lightly be allowed to go. Not a trace of them +was left. Her face was thin, and its expression of determination made it +look hard. There was a deep line straight down between her eyebrows, as +though she frowned at life more than is needful. Angles had everywhere +taken the place of curves. Her eyes were as bright and intelligent as +ever, but seemed to have grown larger. Something had completely done for +Charlotte as far as beauty of person goes; whether it was the six +Bernhards, or her actual enthusiasms, or the unusual mixture of both, I +could not at this stage discover; nor could I yet see if her soul had +gained the beauty that her body had lost, which is undoubtedly what the +rightly cared-for soul does do. Meanwhile anything more utterly unlike +the wife of a famous professor I have never seen. The wife of an aged +German celebrity should be, and is, calm, comfortable, large, and slow. +She must be, and is, proud of her great man. She attends to his bodily +wants, and does not presume to share his spiritual excitements. In their +common life he is the brain, she the willing hands and feet. It is +perfectly fair. If there are to be great men some one must be found to +look after them--some one who shall be more patient, faithful, and +admiring than a servant, and unable like a servant to throw up the +situation on the least provocation. A wife is an admirable institution. +She is the hedge set between the precious flowers of the male intellect +and the sun and dust of sordid worries. She is the flannel that protects +when the winds of routine are cold. She is the sheltering jam that makes +the pills of life possible. She is buffer, comforter, and cook. And so +long as she enjoys these various roles the arrangement is perfect. The +difficulties begin when, defying Nature's teaching, which on this point +is luminous, she refuses to be the hedge, flannel, jam, buffer, +comforter, and cook; and when she goes so far on the sulphuric path of +rebellion as to insist on being clever on her own account and publicly, +she has, in Germany at least, set every law of religion and decency at +defiance. Charlotte had been doing this, if all I had heard was true, +for the last three years; therefore her stern inquiry addressed to a +wife of my sobriety struck me as singularly out of place. What had I +been doing with my life? Looking back into it in search of an answer it +seemed very spacious, and sunny, and quiet. There were children in it, +and there was a garden, and a spouse in whose eyes I was precious; but I +had not done anything. And if I could point to no pamphlets or lectures, +neither need I point to a furrow between my eyebrows. + +'It is very odd,' Charlotte went on, as I sat silent, 'our meeting like +this. I was on the verge of writing to ask if I might come and stay with +you.' + +'Oh were you?' + +'So often lately I have thought just you might be such a help to me if +only I could wake you up.' + +'Wake me up, my dear Charlotte?' + +'Oh, I've heard about you. I know you live stuffed away in the country +in a sort of dream. You needn't try to answer my question about what you +have done. You can't answer it. You have lived in a dream, entirely +wrapped up in your family and your plants.' + +'Plants, my dear Charlotte?' + +'You do not see nor want to see farther than the ditch at the end of +your garden. All that is going on outside, out in the great real world +where people are in earnest, where they strive, and long, and suffer, +where they unceasingly pursue their ideal of a wider life, a richer +experience, a higher knowledge, is absolutely indifferent to you. Your +existence--no one could call it life--is quite negative and unemotional. +It is as negative and as unemotional as----' She paused and looked at me +with a faint, compassionate smile. + +'As what?' I asked, anxious to hear the worst. + +'Frankly, as an oyster's.' + +'Really, my dear Charlotte,' I exclaimed, naturally upset. How very +unfortunate that I should have hurried away from Göhren. Why had I not +stayed there two or three days, as I had at first intended? It was such +a safe place; you could get out of it so easily and so quickly. If I +were an oyster--curious how much the word disconcerted me--at least I +was a happy oyster, which was surely better than being miserable and not +an oyster at all. Charlotte was certainly nearer being miserable than +happy. People who are happy do not have the look she had in her eyes, +nor is their expression so uninterruptedly determined. And why should I +be lectured? When I am in the mood for a lecture, my habit is to buy a +ticket and go and listen; and when I have not bought a ticket, it is a +sign that I do not want a lecture. I did not like to explain this +beautifully simple position to Charlotte, yet felt that at all costs I +must nip her eloquence in the bud or she would keep me out till it was +dark; so I got up, cleared my throat, and said in the balmy tone in +which people on platforms begin their orations, '_Geehrte Anwesende_.' + +'Are you going to give me a lecture?' she inquired with a surprised +smile. + +'In return for yours.' + +'My dear soul, may I not talk to you about anything except plants?' + +'I really don't know why you should think plants are the only things +that interest me. I have not yet mentioned them. And, as a matter of +fact, you are the last person with whom I would share my vegetable +griefs. But that isn't what I wished to say. I was going to offer you, +_geehrte Anwesende_, a few remarks about husbands.' + +Charlotte frowned. + +'About husbands,' I repeated blandly, in a voice of milk and honey. +'_Geehrte Anwesende_, in the course of an uneventful existence I have +had much leisure for reflection, and my reflections have led me to the +conclusion, erroneous perhaps, but fixed, that having got a husband, +taken him of one's own free will, taken him sometimes even in the face +of opposition, the least one can do is to stick to him. Now, Charlotte, +where is yours? What have you done with him? Is he here? And if not, why +is he not here, and where is he?' + +Charlotte got up hastily and brushed the sand out of the folds of her +dress. 'You haven't changed a bit,' she said with a slight laugh. 'You +are just as----' + +'Silly?' I suggested. + +'Oh, I didn't say that. And as for Bernhard, he is where he always was, +marching triumphantly along the road to undying fame. But you know that. +You only ask because your ideas of the duties of woman are medieval, and +you are shocked. Well, I'm afraid you must be shocked then. I haven't +seen him for a whole year.' + +Luckily at this moment, for I think we were going to quarrel, Gertrud +came heaving through the sand towards us with a packet of letters. She +had been to the post, and knowing I loved getting letters came out to +look for me so that I might have them at once; and as I eagerly opened +them and buried myself in them, Charlotte confined her occasional +interjections to deprecating the obviously inferior shape of Gertrud's +head. + + + + +THE FIFTH DAY + +FROM THIESSOW TO SELLIN + + +Many a time have I wondered at the unworthy ways of Fate, at the +pettiness of the pleasure it takes in frustrating plans that are small +and innocent, at its entire want of dignity, at its singular +spitefulness, at the resemblance of its manners to those of an +evilly-disposed kitchen-maid; but never have I wondered more than I did +that night at Thiessow. + +We had been for a walk after tea through the beechwood, up a hill behind +it to the signal station, along a footpath on the edge of the cliff with +blue gleams of sea on one side through a waving fringe of blue and +purple flowers, and the ryefields on the other. We had stood looking +down at the village of Thiessow far below us, a cluster of picturesque +roofs surrounded on three sides by sunlit water; had gazed across the +vast plain to the distant hill and village of Gross Zickow; watched the +shadows passing over meadows miles away; seen how the sea to the west +had the calm colours of a pearl; how the sea beneath us through the +parting stalks of scabious and harebells was quiet but very blue; and +how behind us, over the beech-tops, there was the eastern sea where the +wind was, as brilliant and busy and foam-flecked as before. It was all +very wide, and open, and roomy. It was a place to bless God in and cease +from vain words. And when the stars came out we went down into the +plain, and wandered out across the dewy grass in the gathering night, +our faces towards the red strip of sky where the sun had set. + +Charlotte had not been silent all this time; she had been, on the +contrary, passionately explanatory. She had passionately explained the +intolerableness of her life with the famous Nieberlein; she had +passionately justified her action in cutting it short. And listening in +silence, I had soon located the real wound, the place she did not +mention where all the bruises were; for talk and explain as she might it +was clear that her chief grievance was that the great man had never +taken her seriously. To be strenuous, to hold intense views on questions +that seem to you to burn, and to be treated as an airy nothing, a +charming nothing perhaps, but still a nothing, must be, on the whole, +disconcerting. I do not know that I should call it more than +disconcerting. You need not, after all, let your vision be blocked +entirely by the person with whom you chance to live; however vast his +intellectual bulk may be, you can look round him and see that the stars +and the sky are still there, and you need not run away from him to do +that. If the great Nieberlein had not taken Charlotte sufficiently +seriously, she had manifestly taken him much too seriously. It is better +to laugh at one's Nieberlein than to be angry with him, and it is +infinitely more personally soothing. And presently you find you have +grown old together, and that your Nieberlein has become unaccountably +precious, and that you do not want to laugh at all,--or if you do, it is +a very tender laughter, tender almost to tears. + +And then, as we walked on over the wonderful starlit plain in the huge +hush of the brooding night, the air, heavy with dew and the smell of +grass cut that afternoon in distant meadows, so sweet and soft that it +seemed as if it must smooth away every line of midday eagerness from our +tired faces, Charlotte paused; and before I had done praising Providence +for this refreshment, she not yet having paused at all, she began again +in a new key of briskness, and said, 'By the way, I may as well come +with you when you leave this. I have nothing particular to do. I came +down here for a day or two to get away from some English people I was +with at Binz who had rather got on to my nerves. And I have so much to +say to you, and it will be a good opportunity. We can talk all day, +while we are driving.' + +Talk all day while we were driving! If Hazlitt saw no wit in talking and +walking, I see less than none in talking and driving. It was this speech +of Charlotte's that set me marvelling anew at the maliciousness of Fate. +Here was I, the most harmless of women, engaged in the most harmless of +little expeditions, asking and wanting nothing but to be left alone; a +person so obscure as to be, one would think, altogether out of the reach +of the blind Fury with the accursèd shears; a person with a plan so mild +and humble that I was ashamed of the childishness of the Fate that could +waste its energies spoiling it. Yet before the end of the fourth day I +was confronted with the old familiar inexorableness, taking its stand +this time on the impossibility of refusing the company of a cousin whom +you have not seen for ten years. + +'Oh Charlotte,' I cried, seized her arm convulsively, struggling in the +very clutches of Fate, 'what--what a good idea! And what a thousand +pities that it can't be managed! You see it is a victoria, and there are +only two places because of all the luggage, so that we can't use the +little seat, or Gertrud might have sat on that----' + +'Gertrud? Send her home. What do you want with Gertrud if I am with +you?' + +I stared dismayed through the dusk at Charlotte's determined face. 'But +she--packs,' I said. + +'Don't be so helpless. As though two healthy women couldn't wrap up +their own hair-brushes.' + +'Oh it isn't only hair-brushes,' I went on, still struggling, 'it's +everything. You can't think how much I loathe buttoning boots--I know I +never would button them, but go about with them undone, and then I'd +disgrace you, and I don't want to do that. But that isn't it really +either,' I went on hurriedly, for Charlotte had opened her mouth to tell +me, I felt certain, that she would button them for me, 'my husband never +will let me go anywhere without Gertrud. You see she looked after his +mother too, and he thinks awful things would happen if I hadn't got her. +I'm very sorry, Charlotte. It is most unfortunate. I wish--I wish I had +thought of bringing the omnibus.' + +'But is your husband such an absurd tyrant?' asked Charlotte, a robust +scorn for my flabby obedience in her voice. + +'Oh--tyrant!' I ejaculated, casting up my eyes to the stars, and +mentally begging the unconscious innocent's pardon. + +'Well, then, we must get a luggage cart and put the things into that.' + +'Oh,' I cried, seizing her arm again, my thoughts whirling round in +search of a loophole of escape, 'what--what another good idea!' + +'And Gertrud can go in the cart too.' + +'So she can. What--what a trilogy of good ideas! Have you got any more, +Charlotte? What a resourceful woman you are. I believe you like fighting +and getting over difficulties.' + +'I believe I do,' said Charlotte complacently. + +I dropped her arm, ceased to struggle, walked on vanquished. Henceforth, +if no more interesting difficulties presented themselves, Charlotte was +going to spend her time overcoming me. And besides an eloquent Charlotte +sitting next to me, there would be a cart rattling along behind me all +day. I could have wept at the sudden end to the peace and perfect +freedom of my journey. I went to bed, to a clean and pleasant bed that +at another time would have pleased me, strongly of opinion that life was +not worth while. Nor did it comfort me that from my pillow I looked out +at the mysterious dark plain with its roof of stars and its faint red +window in the north-west, because Charlotte had opened the door between +our rooms and every now and then asked me if I were asleep. I lay making +plans for the circumvention of Charlotte, and rejecting them one after +the other as too uncousinly; and when I had made my head ache with the +difficulty of uniting a becoming cousinliness with the cold-bloodedness +necessary for shaking her off, I spent my time feebly deprecating the +superabundance of cousins in the world. Surely there are too many? +Surely almost everybody has more than he can manage comfortably? It must +have been long after midnight that Charlotte, herself very restless, +called out once more to know if I were asleep. + +'Yes I am,' I answered; not quite kindly I fear, but indeed it is an +irritating question. + +We left Thiessow at ten the next morning under a grey sky, and drove, at +the strong recommendation of the landlord, along the hard sands as far +as a little fishing place called Lobberort, where we struck off to the +left on to the plain again, and so came once more to Philippshagen and +the high road that runs from there to Göhren, Baabe, and Sellin. I took +the landlord's advice willingly, because I did not choose to drive on +that grey morning in my altered circumstances over the plain along which +I had walked so happily only the day before. The landlord, as obliging a +person as his wife was a capable one, had provided a cart with two +long-tailed, raw-boned horses who were to come with us as far as Binz, +my next stopping-place. Gertrud sat next to the driver of this cart +looking grim. Her prospects were gloomy, for the seat was hard, the +driver was dirty, the cart had no springs, and she had had to pack +Charlotte's clothes. She did not approve of the Frau Professor; how +should she? Gertrud read her _Kreuzzeitung_ as regularly as she did her +Bible, and believed it as implicitly; she knew all about the pamphlets, +and only from the _Kreuzzeitung's_ point of view. And then Charlotte +made the mistake clever people sometimes do of too readily supposing +that others are stupid; and it did not need much shrewdness on Gertrud's +part to see that the Frau Professor disliked the shape of her head. + +The drive along the wet sands was uninteresting because of the +prevailing greyness of sky and sea; but the waves made so much noise +that Charlotte, unable to get anything out of me but head-shakings and +pointings to my ears, gave up trying to talk and kept quiet. The luggage +cart came on close behind, the lean horses showing an undesirable +skittishness, and once, in an attempt to run away, swerved so close to +the water that Gertrud's gloom became absolutely leaden. But we reached +Lobberort safely, ploughed up through the deep sand on to the track +again, and after Philippshagen the sky cleared, the sun came out, and +the world began on a sudden to sparkle. + +We did not see Göhren again. The road, very hilly just there, passes +behind it between steep grassy banks blue with harebells and with a +strip of brilliant sky above it between the tops of the beeches. But +once more did I rattle over the stones of the Lonely One, pass the +wooden inn where the same people seemed to be drinking the same beer and +still waiting for the same train, and drive along the dull straight bit +between Baabe and the first pines of Sellin. At Sellin we were going to +lunch, rest the horses, and then, late in the afternoon, go on to Binz. +Sellin from this side is a pine-forest with a very deep sandy road. +Occasional villas appear between the trees, and becoming more frequent +join into a string and form one side of the road. After passing them we +came to a broad gravel road at right angles to the one we were on, with +restaurants and villas on either side, trim rows of iron lamp-posts and +stripling chestnut trees, and a wide gap at the end at the edge of the +cliff below which lay the sea. + +This was the real Sellin, this single wide hot road, with its glaring +white houses, and at the back of them on either side the forest brushing +against their windows. It was one o'clock. Dinner bells were ringing all +down the street, visitors were streaming up from the sands into the +different hotels, dishes clattered, and the air was full of food. On +every balcony families were sitting round tables waiting for the servant +who was fetching their dinner from a restaurant. Down at the foot of the +cliff the sea lay in perfect quiet, a heavenly blue, out of reach in +that bay of the wind that was blowing on Thiessow. There was no wind +here, only intense heat and light and smells of cooking. 'Shall we leave +August to put up, and get away into the forest and let Gertrud buy some +lunch and bring it to us?' I asked Charlotte. 'Don't you think dinner in +one of these places will be rather horrid?' + +'What sort of lunch will Gertrud buy?' inquired Charlotte cautiously. + +'Oh bread, and eggs, and fruit, and things. It is enough on a hot day +like this.' + +'My dear soul, it is not enough. Surely it is foolish to starve. I'll +come with you if you like, of course, but I see no sense in not being +properly nourished. And we don't know where and when we shall get +another meal.' + +So we drove on to the end hotel, from whose terrace we could look down +at the deserted sands and the wonderful colour of the water. August and +the driver of the luggage cart put up. Gertrud retired to a neighbouring +cafe, and we sat and gasped under the glass roof of the verandah of the +hotel while a hot waiter brought us boiling soup. + +It is a barbarous custom, this of dining at one o'clock. Under the most +favourable circumstances one o'clock is a difficult hour to manage +profitably to the soul. There is something peculiarly base about it. It +is the hour, I suppose, when the life of the spirit is at its lowest +ebb, and one should be careful not to extinguish it altogether under the +weight of a gigantic menu. I know my spirit fainted utterly away at the +aspect of those plates of steaming soup and at the smell of all the +other things we were going to be given after it. Charlotte ate her soup +calmly and complacently. It did not seem to make her hotter. She also +ate everything else with equal calmness, and remarked that full brains +are never to be found united to an empty stomach. + +'But a full stomach is often to be found united to empty brains,' I +replied. + +'No one asserted the contrary,' said Charlotte; and took some more +_Rinderbrust_. + +I thought that dinner would never be done. The hotel was full, and the +big dining-room was crowded, as well as the verandah where we were. +Everybody talked at once, and the noise was like the noise of the parrot +house at the Zoological Gardens. It looked as if it were an expensive +place; it had parquet floors and flowers on the tables and various other +things I had not yet come across in Rügen; and when the bill came I +found that it not only looked so but was so. All the more, then, was I +astonished at the numbers of families with many children and the +necessary Fräulein staying in it. How did they manage it? There was a +visitors' list on the table, and turning it over I found that none of +them, in the nature of things, could be well off. They all gave their +occupations, and the majority were _Apotheker_ and _Photographen_. There +were two _Herren Pianofabrikanten_, several _Lehrer_, a _Herr +Geheimcalculator_ whatever that is, many _Bankbeamten_ or clerks, and +one surely who must have found the place beyond his means, a _Herr +Schriftsteller_. All these had wives and children with them, 'I can't +make it out,' I said to Charlotte. + +'What can't you make out?' + +'How these people contrive to stay weeks in a dear hotel like this.' + +'Oh, it is quite simple. The _Badereise_ is the great event of the year. +They save up for it all the rest of the year. They live at home as +frugally as possible so that for one magnificent month they can pretend +to waiters and chambermaids and the other visitors that they are richer +than they are. It is very foolish, sadly foolish. It is one of the +things I am trying to persuade women to give up.' + +'But you are doing it yourself.' + +'But surely there is a difference in the method. Besides, I was run +down.' + +'Well, so I should think were the poor mothers of families by the time +they have kept house frugally for a year. And if it makes them happy, +why not?' + +'Just that is another of the things I am working to persuade them to +give up.' + +'What, being happy?' + +'No, being mothers of families.' + +'My dear Charlotte,' I murmured; and mused in silence on the six +Bernhards. + +'Of unwieldily big ones, of course I mean.' + +'And what do you understand by unwieldily big ones?' I asked, still +musing on the Bernhards. + +'Any number above three. And for most of these women even three is +excessive.' + +The images of the six Bernhards troubled me so much that I could not +speak. + +'Look,' said Charlotte, 'at the women here. All of them, or any of them. +The one at the opposite table, for instance. Do you see the bulk of the +poor soul? Do you see how difficult existence must be made for her by +that circumstance alone? How life can be nothing to her but +uninterrupted panting?' + +'Perhaps she doesn't walk enough,' I suggested. 'She ought to walk round +Rügen once a year instead of casting anchor in the flesh-pots of +Sellin.' + +'She looks fifty,' continued Charlotte. 'And why does she look fifty?' + +'Perhaps because she is fifty.' + +'Nonsense. She is quite young. But those four awful children are hers, +and no doubt there is a baby, or perhaps two babies, upstairs, and they +have finished her. How is such a woman to realise herself? How can she +work out her own salvation? What energies she has must be spent on her +children. And if ever she tries to think, she must fall asleep from +sheer torpor of brain. Now why should she be deprived of the use of her +soul?' + +'Charlotte, are you not obscure? Here, take my pudding. I don't like +it.' + +I hoped the pudding would stem the stream of her eloquence. I feared an +impending lecture. She had resumed the pamphlet manner of the previous +afternoon, and I felt very helpless. She took the pudding, and I was +dismayed, to find that though she ate it it had no effect whatever. She +did not even seem to know she was eating it, and continued to address me +with rapidly-increasing vehemence on the proper treatment of female +souls. Now why could she not talk on this subject without being +vehement? There is something about vehemence that freezes responsiveness +out of me; I suppose it is what Charlotte would call the oyster +characteristics coming out. Anyhow, by the time the waiter brought +cheese and woolly radishes and those wicked black slabs of leather +called _Pumpernickel_, I was sitting quite silent, and Charlotte was +leaning across the little table hurling fiery words at me. And as for +the stout lady who had set her ablaze, she ate almonds and raisins with +a sublime placidity, throwing the almonds down on to the stone floor, +cracking them with the heel of her boot, and exhibiting an unexpected +nimbleness in picking them up again. + +'Do you suppose that if she hadn't had those four children and heaven +knows how many besides she wouldn't be different from what she is now?' +asked Charlotte, leaning her elbows on the table and fixing me with eyes +whose brightness dazzled me, 'As different as day is from night? As +health from disease? As briskness from torpor? She'd have looked and +felt ten years younger. She'd have had all her energies unimpaired. +She'd have had the use of her soul, her time, her individuality. Now it +is too late. All that has been choked out of her by the miserable daily +drudgery. What would the man, her smug husband there, say if he were +made to help in the soul-killing work a woman is expected to do as a +matter of course? Yet why shouldn't he help her bear her burdens? Why +shouldn't he take them on his stronger shoulders? Don't give me the +trite answer that it is because he has his own work to do--we know his +work, the man's work, at its hardest full of satisfactions and +pleasures, and hopes and ambitions, besides coming to an end every day +at a certain hour, while she grows old in hopeless, hideous, +never-ending drudgery. There is a difference between the two that makes +my blood boil.' + +'Oh don't let it boil,' I cried, alarmed. 'We're so hot as it is.' + +'I tell you I think that woman over there as tragic a spectacle as it +would be possible to find. I could cry over her--poor dumb, +half-conscious remnant of what was meant to be the image of God.' + +'My dear Charlotte,' I murmured uneasily. There were actual tears in +Charlotte's eyes. Where I saw only an ample lady serenely cracking +almonds in a way condemned by the polite, Charlotte's earnest glance +pierced the veil of flesh to the withered, stunted soul of her. And +Charlotte was so sincere, was so honestly grieved by the hopeless +dulness of the fulfilment of what had once been the blithe promise of +young girlhood, that I began to feel distressed too, and cast glances of +respectful sympathy at the poor lady. Very little more would have made +me cry, but I was saved by something unexpected; for the waiter came +round with newly-arrived letters for the visitors, and laying two by the +almond-eating lady's plate he said quite distinctly, and we both heard +him distinctly, _Zwei für Fräulein Schmidt_; and the eldest of the four +children, a pert little girl with a pig-tail, cried out, _Ei, ei, hast +Du heute Glück, Tante Marie_; and having finished our dinner we got up +and went on our way in silence; and when we were at the door, I said +with a suavity of voice and manner meant to be healing, 'Shall we go +into the woods, Charlotte? There are a few remarks I should like to +offer you on the Souls of Maiden Aunts;' and Charlotte said, with some +petulance, that the principle was the same, and that her head ached, and +would I mind being quiet. + + + + +THE FIFTH DAY--_Continued_ + +FROM SELLIN TO BINZ + +Suppose a being who should be neither man nor woman, a creature wholly +removed from the temptations that beset either sex, a person who could +look on with absolute indifference at all our various ways of wasting +life, untouched by the ambitions of man, and unstirred by the longings +of woman, what would such a being think of the popular notion against +which other uneasy women besides Charlotte raise their voices, that the +man should never be bothered by the cares of the house and the babies, +but rather go his daily round of business or pleasure precisely as he +did before he had his house and his babies? I love to have the details +of life arranged with fastidious justice, all its little burdens +distributed with an exact fairness among those who have to carry them; +and I imagine that this being, who should be rather more than man and +less than god, who should understand everything and care nothing, would +call it wrong to allot a double weight to the strong merely because he +is strong, and would call it right that he should have his exact share, +and use the strength he has left over not in carrying the burden of some +weak friend who, burdenless, is still of no account in life, but in +praising God, going first, and showing the others the way. + +Thus did I meditate, walking in silence by Charlotte's side in the beech +forest of Sellin. Not for anything would I have put my meditations into +words, well aware that though they might be nourishing to me they would +poison Charlotte. The maiden aunt and the dinner together had given +Charlotte a headache, which I respected by keeping silent; and for two +hours we wandered and sat about among the beeches, sometimes on the +grassy edge of the cliffs, our backs against tree trunks, looking out +over the brilliant blue water with its brilliant green shallows, or +lying in the grass watching the fine weather clouds floating past +between the shining beech-leaves. + +Those were glorious hours, for Charlotte dozed most of the time, and it +was almost as quiet as though she had not been there at all. No +bath-guests parted the branches to stare at us; they were sleeping till +the cool of the day. No pedestrians with field-glasses came to look at +the view and ask each other, with one attentive eye on us, if it were +not colossal. No warm students walked along wiping their foreheads as +they sang of love and beer. Nothing that had dined at a _table d'hôte_ +could possibly move in such heat. + +And so it came about that Charlotte and I shared the forest only with +birds and squirrels. + +This forest is extremely beautiful. It stretches for miles along the +coast, and is full of paths and roads that lead you to unexpected +lovelinesses--sudden glimpses of the sea between huge beech trunks on +grassy plateaus; deep ravines, their sides clothed with moss, with water +trickling down over green stones to the sea out in the sun at the +bottom; silent glades of bracken, silvery in the afternoon light, where +fallow deer examine you for one brief moment of curiosity before they +spring away, panic-stricken, into the deeper shadows of the beeches. In +that sun-flecked place, so exquisite whichever way I looked, so +spacious, and so quiet, how could I be seriously interested in stuffy +indoor questions such as the equality of the sexes, in anything but the +beauty of the world and the joy of living in it? I was not seriously +interested; I doubt if I have ever been. Destiny having decided that I +shall walk through life petticoated, weighed down by the entire range of +disabilities connected with German petticoats, I will waste no time +arguing. There it is, the inexorable fact, and there it will remain; and +one gets used to the disabilities, and finds, on looking at them closer, +that they exclude nothing that is really worth having. + +I glanced at the dozing Charlotte, half inclined to wake her up to tell +her this, and exhort her to do as the dragons in the glorious verse of +Doctor Watts, who + + Changed their fierce hissings into joyful songs. + And praised their Maker with their forked tongues. + +But I was afraid to stir her up lest her tongue should be too forked and +split my arguments to pieces. So she dozed on undisturbed, and I enjoyed +myself in silence, repeating gems from the pages of the immortal doctor, +echoes of the days when I lisped in numbers that were not only infant +but English at the knee of a pious nurse from the land of fogs. + +At five o'clock, when I felt that a gentle shaking of Charlotte was no +longer avoidable if we were to reach Binz that evening, and was +preparing to apply it with cousinly gingerliness, an obliging bumble-bee +who had been swinging deliciously for some minutes past in the purple +flower of a foxglove on the very edge of the cliff, backed out of it and +blundered so near Charlotte's face that he brushed it with his wings. +Charlotte instantly sat up, opened her eyes, and stared hard at me. Such +is the suspiciousness of cousins that though I was lying half a dozen +yards away she was manifestly of opinion that I had tickled her. This +annoyed me, for Charlotte was the last person in the world I would think +of tickling. There was something about her that would make it +impossible, however sportively disposed I might be; and besides, you +must be very great friends before you begin to tickle. Charlotte and I +were cousins, but we were as yet nowhere near being very great friends. +I got up, put on my hat, and said rather stiffly, for she still sat +staring, that it was time to go. We walked back in silence, each feeling +resentful, and keeping along the cliff passed, just before we came to +Sellin, a little restaurant of coloured glass, a round building of an +atrocious ugliness, which we discovered was one of the prides of Sellin; +for afterwards, driving through the forest to Binz, all the sign-posts +had fingers pointing in its direction, and bore the inscription _Glas +Pavilion, schönste Aussicht Sellins_. The _schöne Aussicht_ was +indisputable, but to choose the loveliest spot and blot its beauty with +a coloured glass restaurant so close to a place full of restaurants is +surely unusually profane. There it is, however, and all day long it +industriously scents the forest round it with the smell of soup. People +were beginning to gather about its tables, the people we had seen dining +and who had slept since, and some of them were already drinking coffee +and eating slabs of cherry cake with a pile of whipped cream on each +slab, for all the world as though they had had nothing since breakfast. +Conspicuous at one table sat the maiden aunt, still rosy from her sleep. +She too had ordered cherry cake, and the waiter put it down before her +as we came by, and she sat for a moment fondly regarding it, turning the +plate round and round so as to take in all its beauties, and if ever a +woman looked happy it was that one. 'Poor dumb, half-conscious +remnant'--I murmured under my breath. Charlotte seemed to read my +thoughts, for she turned her head impatiently away from the cake and the +lady, and said once again and defiantly, 'The principle is the same, of +course.' + +'Of course,' said I. + +The drive from Sellin to Binz was by far the most beautiful I had had. +Up to that point no drive had been uninterruptedly beautiful, but this +one was lovely from end to end. It took about an hour and a half, and we +were the whole time in the glorious mixed forest belonging to Prince +Putbus and called the Granitz. As we neared Binz the road runs down +close to the sea, and through the overhanging branches we could see that +we had rounded another headland and were in another bay. Also, after +having met nothing but shy troops of deer, we began to pass increasing +numbers of bath-guests, walking slowly, taking the gentlest of exercise +before their evening meal. Charlotte had been fairly quiet. Her head, +apparently, still ached; but suddenly she started and exclaimed 'There +are the Harvey-Brownes.' + +'And who, pray, are the Harvey-Brownes?' I inquired, following the +direction of her eyes. + +It was easy enough to see which of the groups of tourists were the +Harvey-Brownes. They were going in the same direction as ourselves, a +tall couple in clothes of surpassing simplicity and excellence. +Immediately afterwards we drove past them; Charlotte bowed coldly; the +Harvey-Brownes bowed cordially, and I saw that the young man was my +philosophic friend of the afternoon at Vilm. + +'And who, pray, are the Harvey-Brownes?' I asked again. + +'The English people I told you about who had got on to my nerves. I +thought they'd have left by now.' + +'And why were they on your nerves?' + +'Oh she's a bishop's wife, and is about the narrowest person I have met, +so we're not likely to be anywhere but on each other's nerves. But she +adores that son of hers and would do anything in the world that pleases +him, and he pursues me.' + +'Pursues you?' I cried, with an incredulousness that I immediately +perceived was rude. I hastened to correct it by shaking my head in +gentle reproof and saying: 'Dear me, Charlotte--dear, dear me.' +Simultaneously I was conscious of feeling disappointed in young +Harvey-Browne. + +'What do you suppose he pursues me for?' Charlotte asked, turning her +head and looking at me. + +'I can't think,' I was going to say, but stopped in time. + +'The most absurd reason. He torments me with attentions because I am +Bernhard's wife. He is a hero-worshipper, and he says Bernhard is the +greatest man living.' + +'Well, but isn't he?' + +'He can't get hold of him, so he hovers round me, and talks Bernhard to +me for hours together. That's why I went to Thiessow. He was sending me +mad.' + +'He hasn't an idea, poor innocent, that you don't--that you no +longer----' + +'I have as much courage as other people, but I don't think there's +enough of it for explaining things to the mother. You see, she's the +wife of a bishop.' + +Not being so well acquainted as Charlotte with the characteristics of +the wives of bishops I did not see; but she seemed to think it explained +everything. + +'Doesn't she know about your writings?' I inquired. + +'Oh yes, and she came to a lecture I gave at Oxford--the boy is at +Balliol--and she read some of the pamphlets. He made her.' + +'Well?' + +'Oh she made a few conventional remarks that showed me her limitations, +and then she began about Bernhard. To these people I have no +individuality, no separate existence, no brains of my own, no opinions +worth listening to--I am solely of interest as the wife of Bernhard. Oh, +it's maddening! The boy has put I don't know what ideas into his +mother's head. She has actually tried to read one of Bernhard's works, +and she pretends she thought it sublime. She quotes it. I won't stay at +Binz. Let us go on somewhere else to-morrow.' + +'But I think Binz looks as if it were a lovely place, and the +Harvey-Brownes look very nice. I am not at all sure that I want to go on +somewhere else to-morrow.' + +'Then I'll go on alone, and wait for you at Sassnitz.' + +'Oh, don't wait. I mightn't come to Sassnitz.' + +'Oh well, I'll be sure to pick you up again somewhere. It isn't a very +big island, and you are a conspicuous object, driving round it.' + +This was true. So long as I was on that island I could not hope to +escape Charlotte. I entered Binz in a state of moody acquiescence. + +Every hotel was full, and every room in the villas was taken. It was the +Göhren experience over again. At last we found shelter by the merest +chance in the prettiest house in the place--we had not dared inquire +there, certain that its rooms would be taken first of all--a little +house on the sands, overhung at the back by beechwoods, its windows +garnished with bright yellow damask curtains, its roof very red, and its +walls very white. A most cheerful, trim little house, with a nice tiled +path up to the door, and pots of geraniums on its sills. A cleanly +person of the usual decent widow type welcomed us with a cordiality +contrasting pleasantly with the indifference of those widows whose rooms +had been all engaged. The entire lower floor, she said, was at our +disposal. We each had a bedroom opening on to a verandah that seemed to +hang right over the sea; and there was a dining-room, and a beautiful +blue-and-white kitchen if we wanted to cook, and a spacious chamber for +Gertrud. The price was low. Even when I said that we should probably +only stay one or two nights it did not go up. The widow explained that +the rooms were engaged for the entire season, but that the Berlin +gentleman who had taken them was unavoidably prevented coming, which was +the reason why we might have them, for it was not her habit to take in +the passing stranger. + +I asked whether it were likely that the Berlin gentleman might yet +appear and turn us out. She stared at me a moment as though struck by my +question, and then shook her head. 'No, no,' she said decidedly; 'he +will not appear.' + +A very pretty little maidservant who was bringing in our luggage was so +much perturbed by my innocent inquiry that she let the things drop. + +'Hedwig, do not be a fool,' said the widow sternly. 'The gentleman,' she +went on, turning to me, 'cannot come, because he is dead.' + +'Oh,' I said, silenced by the excellence of the reason. + +Charlotte, being readier of speech, said 'Indeed.' + +The reason was a good one; but when I heard it it seemed as if the +pleasant rooms with the beds all ready and everything set out for the +expected one took on a look of awfulness. It is true it was now past +eight o'clock, and the sun had gone, and across the bay the dusk was +creeping. I went out through the long windows to the little verandah. It +had white pillars of great apparent massiveness, which looked as though +they were meant to support vast weights of masonry; and through them I +watched the water rippling in slow, steely ripples along the sand just +beneath me, and the ripples had the peculiar lonely sound that slight +waves have in the evening when they lick a deserted shore. + +'When was he expected?' I heard Charlotte, within the room, ask in a +depressed voice. + +'To-day,' said the widow. + +'To-day?' echoed Charlotte. + +'That is why the beds are made. It is lucky for you ladies.' + +'Very,' agreed Charlotte; and her voice was hollow. + +'He died yesterday--an accident. I received the telegram only this +morning. It is a great misfortune for me. Will the ladies sup? I have +some provisions in the house sent on by the gentleman for his supper +to-night. He, poor soul, will never sup again.' + +The widow, more moved by this last reflection than she had yet been, +sighed heavily. She then made the observation usual on such occasions +that it is a strange world, and that one is here to-day and gone +to-morrow--or rather, correcting herself, here yesterday and gone +to-day--and that the one thing certain was the _schönes Essen_ at that +moment on the shelves of the larder. Would the ladies not seize the +splendid opportunity and sup? + +'No, no, we will not sup,' Charlotte cried with great decision. 'You +won't eat here to-night, will you?' she asked through the yellow +window-curtains, which made her look very pale. 'It is always horrid in +lodgings. Shall we go to that nice red-brick hotel we passed, where the +people were sitting under the big tree looking so happy?' + +We went in silence to the red-brick hotel; and threading our way among +the crowded tables set out under a huge beech tree a few yards from the +water to the only empty one, we found ourselves sitting next to the +Harvey-Brownes. + +'Dear Frau Nieberlein, how delightful to have you here again!' cried the +bishop's wife in tones of utmost cordiality, leaning across the little +space between the tables to press Charlotte's hand. 'Brosy has been +scouring the country on his bicycle trying to discover your retreat, and +was quite disconsolate at not finding you.' + +Scouring the country in search of Charlotte! Heavens. And I who had +dropped straight on top of her in the waters of Thiessow without any +effort at all! Thus does Fortune withhold blessings from those who +clamour, and piles them unasked on the shrinking heads of the meek. + +Brosy Harvey-Browne meanwhile, like a polite young man acquainted with +German customs, had got out of his chair and was waiting for Charlotte +to present him to me. 'Oh yes, my young philosopher,' I thought, not +without a faint regret, 'you are now to find out that your promising and +intellectual Fräulein isn't anything of the sort.' + +'Pray present me,' said Brosy. + +Charlotte did. + +'Pray present me,' I said in my turn, bowing in the direction of the +bishop's wife. + +Charlotte did. + +At this ceremony the bishop's wife's face took on the look of one who +thinks there is really no need to make fresh acquaintances in breathless +hurries. It also wore the look of one who, while admitting a Nieberlein +within the range of her cordiality on account of the prestige of that +Nieberlein's famous husband, does not see why the Nieberlein's obscure +female relatives should be admitted too. So I was not admitted; and I +sat outside and studied the menu. + +'How very strange,' observed Brosy in his beautifully correct German as +he dropped into a vacant chair at our table, 'that you should be related +to the Nieberleins.' + +'One is always related to somebody,' I replied; and marvelled at my own +intelligence. + +'And how odd that we should meet again here.' + +'One is always meeting again on an island if it is small enough.' + +This is a sample of my conversation with Brosy, weighty on my part with +solid truths, while our supper was being prepared and while Charlotte +answered his mother's questions as to where she had been, where she had +met me, how we were related, and who my husband was. + +'Her husband is a farmer,' I heard Charlotte say in the dreary voice of +hopeless boredom. + +'Oh, really. How interesting,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne; and immediately +ceased to be interested. + +The lights of Sassnitz twinkled on the other side of the bay. A steamer +came across the calm grey water, gaily decked out in coloured lights, +the throbbing of her paddle-wheels heard almost from the time she left +Sassnitz in the still evening air. Up and down the road between our +tables and the sea groups of bath-guests strolled--artless family +groups, papa and mamma arm in arm, and in front the daughter and the +admirer; knots of girls in the _backfisch_ stage, tittering and pushing +each other about; quiet maiden-ladies, placid after their supper, gently +praising, as they passed, the delights of a few weeks spent in the very +bosom of Nature, expatiating on her peace, her restfulness, and the +freshness of her vegetables. And with us, while the stars flashed +through the stirring beech leaves, Mrs. Harvey-Browne rhapsodised about +the great Nieberlein to the blank Charlotte, and Brosy tried to carry on +a reasonable conversation about things like souls with a woman who was +eating an omelette. + +I was in an entirely different mood from the one of the afternoon at +Vilm, and it was a mood in which I like to be left alone. When it is on +me not all the beautiful young men in the world, looking like archangels +and wearing the loveliest linen, would be able to shake me out of it. +Brosy was apparently in exactly the same mood as he had been then. Was +it his perennially? Did he always want to talk about the Unknowable, and +the Unthinkable, and the Unspeakable? I am positive I did not look +intelligent this time, not only because I did not try to, but because I +was feeling profoundly stupid. And still he went on. There was only one +thing I really wanted to know, and that was why he was called Brosy. +While I ate my supper, and he talked, and his mother listened during the +pauses of her fitful conversation with Charlotte, I turned this over in +my mind. Why Brosy? His mother kept on saying it. To Charlotte her talk, +having done with Nieberlein, was all of Brosy. Was it in itself a +perfect name, or was it the short of something long, or did it come +under the heading Pet? Was he perhaps a twin, and his twin sister was +Rosy? In which case, if his parents were lovers of the neat, his own +name would be almost inevitable. + +It was when our supper had been cleared away and he was remarking for +the second time--the first time he remarked it I had said 'What?',--that +ultimate religious ideas are merely symbols of the actual, not +cognitions of it, and his mother not well knowing what he meant but +afraid it must be something a bishop's son ought not to mean said with +gentle reproach, 'My dear Brosy,' that I took courage to inquire of him +'Why Brosy?' + +'It is short for Ambrose,' he answered. + +'He was christened after Ambrose,' said his mother,--' one of the Early +Fathers, as no doubt you know.' + +But I did not know, because she spoke in German, for the sake, I +suppose, of making things easier for me, and she called the Early +Fathers _frühzeitige Väter_, so how could I know? + +'_Frühzeitige Väter?_' I repeated dully; 'Who are they?' + +The bishop's wife took the kindest view of it. 'Perhaps you do not have +them in the Lutheran Church,' she said; but she did not speak to me +again at all, turning her back on me quite this time, and wholly +concentrating her attention on the monosyllabic Charlotte. + +'My mother,' Ambrose explained in subdued tones, 'meant to say +_Kirchenväter_.' + +'I am sorry,' said I politely, 'that I was so dull.' + +And then he went on with the paragraph--for to me it seemed as though he +spoke always in entire paragraphs instead of sentences--he had been +engaged upon when I interrupted him; and, for my refreshment, I caught +fragments of Mrs. Harvey-Browne's conversation in between. + +'I have a message for you, dear Frau Nieberlein,' I heard her say,--'a +message from the bishop.' + +'Yes?' said Charlotte, without warmth. + +'We had letters from home to-day, and in his he mentions you.' + +'Yes?' said Charlotte, ungratefully cold. + +'"Tell her," he writes,--"tell her I have been reading her pamphlets."' + +'Indeed?' said Charlotte, beginning to warm. + +'It is not often that the bishop has time for reading, and it is quite +unusual for him to look at anything written by a woman, so that it is +really an honour he has paid you.' + +'Of course it is,' said Charlotte, quite warmly. + +'And he is an old man, dear Frau Nieberlein, of ripe experience, and +admirable wisdom, as no doubt you have heard, and I am sure you will +take what he says in good part.' + +This sounded ominous, so Charlotte said nothing. + +'"Tell her," he writes,--"tell her that I grieve for her."' + +There was a pause. Then Charlotte said loftily, 'It is very good of +him.' + +'And I can assure you the bishop never grieves without reason, or else +in such a large diocese he would always be doing it.' + +Charlotte was silent. + +'He begged me to tell you that he will pray for you.' + +There was another pause. Then Charlotte said, 'Thank you.' + +What else was she to say? What does one say in such a case? Our +governesses teach us how pleasant and amiable an adornment is +politeness, but not one of mine ever told me what I was to say when +confronted by an announcement that I was to be included in somebody's +prayers. If Charlotte, anxious to be polite, had said, 'Oh, please don't +let him trouble,' the bishop's wife would have been shocked. If she had +said what she felt, and wholly declined to be prayed for at all by +strange bishops, Mrs. Harvey-Browne would have been horrified. It is a +nice question; and it preoccupied me for the rest of the time we sat +there, and we sat there a very long time; for although Charlotte was +manifestly sorely tried by Mrs. Harvey-Browne I had great difficulty in +getting her away. Each time I suggested going back to our lodgings to +bed she made some excuse for staying where she was. Everybody else +seemed to have gone to bed, and even Ambrose, who had been bicycling all +day, had begun visibly to droop before I could persuade her to come +home. Slowly she walked along the silent sands, slowly she went into the +house, still more slowly into her bedroom; and then, just as Gertrud had +blessed me and blown out my candle in one breath, in she came with a +light, and remarking that she did not feel sleepy sat down on the foot +of my bed and began to talk. + +She had on a white dressing-gown, and her hair fell loose about her +face, and she was very pale. + +'I can't talk; I am much too sleepy,' I said, 'and you look dreadfully +tired.' + +'My soul is tired--tired out utterly by that woman. I wanted to ask you +if you won't come away with me to-morrow.' + +'I can't go away till I have explored these heavenly forests.' + +'I can't stay here if I am to spend my time with that woman.' + +'That woman? Oh Charlotte, don't call her such awful names. Try and +imagine her sensations if she heard you.' + +'Why, I shouldn't care.' + +'Oh hush,' I whispered, 'the windows are open--she might be just outside +on the beach. It gives me shivers only to think of it. Don't say it +again. Don't be such an audacious German. Think of Oxford--think of +venerable things like cathedral closes and bishops' palaces. Think of +the dignity and deference that surround Mrs. Harvey-Browne at home. And +won't you go to bed? You can't think how sleepy I am.' + +'Will you come away with me to-morrow?' + +'We'll talk it over in the morning. I'm not nearly awake enough now.' + +Charlotte got up reluctantly and went to the door leading into her +bedroom. Then she came back and crossed over to the windows and peeped +out between the yellow curtains. 'It's bright moonlight,' she said, 'and +so quiet. The sea is like a pond. How clear the Sassnitz lights are.' + +'Are they?' I murmured drowsily. + +'Are you really going to leave your windows open? Any one can get in. We +are almost on a level with the beach.' + +To this I made no answer; and my little travelling-clock on the table +gave point to my silence by chiming twelve. + +Charlotte went away slowly, candle in hand. At her door she stopped and +looked back. 'It seems,' she said, 'that I have got that unfortunate +man's bed.' + +So it was the Berlin gentleman who was making her restless. + +'And you,' she went on, 'have got the one his daughter was to have had.' + +'Is she alive?' I asked sleepily. + +'Oh yes, she's alive.' + +'Well, that was nice, anyway.' + +'I believe you are frightened,' I murmured, as she still lingered. + +'Frightened? What of?' + +'The Berlin gentleman.' + +'Absurd,' said Charlotte, and went away. + +I was having a most cheerful dream in which I tried hard to remember the +exact words Herbert Spencer uses about effete beliefs that, in the +stole, still cling about the necks of priests, and, in gaiters, linger +round the legs of bishops, and was repeating the words about the bishops +in a rapture of enjoyment--and indeed it is a lovely sentence--when a +sudden pause of fear came into my dream, and I felt that some one beside +myself was in the room. + +The dark to me has always been full of terrors. I can look back through +my memories and find past years studded with horrible black nights on +which I woke up and was afraid. Till I have lit a candle, how can I +remember that I do not believe in ghosts, and in nameless hideousnesses +infinitely more frightful than ghosts? But what courage is needed to sit +up in all the solid, pressing blackness, and stretch out one defenceless +hand into it to feel about for the matches, appalled by the echoing +noises the search produces, cold with fear that the hand may touch +something unknown and terrible. And so at Binz, dragged out of my +pleasant dream to night and loneliness, I could not move for a moment +for sheer extremity of fright. When I did, when I did put out a shaking +hand to feel for the matches, the dread of years became a reality--I +touched another hand. Now I think it was very wonderful of me not to +scream. I suppose I did not dare. I don't know how I managed it, +petrified as I was with terror, but the next thing that happened was +that I found myself under the bedclothes thinking things over. Whose +hand had I touched? And what was it doing on my table? It was a nasty, +cold hand, and it had clutched at mine as I tore it away. Oh--there it +was, coming after me--it was feeling its way along the +bedclothes--surely it was not real--it must be a nightmare--and that was +why no sound came when I tried to shriek for Charlotte--but what a +horrible nightmare--so very, very real--I could hear the hand sliding +along the sheet to the corner where I was huddling--oh, why had I come +to this frightful island? A gasp of helpless horror did get out, and +instantly Charlotte's voice whispered, 'Be quiet. Don't make a sound. +There's a man outside your window.' + +At this my senses came back to me with a rush. 'You've nearly killed +me,' I whispered, filling the whisper with as much hot indignation as it +would hold. 'If my heart had had anything the matter with it I would +have died. Let me go--I want to light the candle. What does a man, a +real living man, matter?' + +Charlotte held me tighter. 'Be quiet,' she whispered, in an agony, it +seemed, of fear. 'Be quiet--he isn't--he doesn't look--I don't think he +is alive.' + +'_What?_' I whispered. + +'Sh--sh--your window's open--he only need put his leg over the sill to +get in.' + +'But if he isn't alive he can't put his leg over sills,' I whispered +back incredulously. 'He's some poor drowned sailor washed ashore.' + +'Oh be _quiet!_' implored Charlotte, burying her face on my shoulder; +and having got over my own fright I marvelled at the abjectness of hers. + +'Let me go. I want to look at him,' I said, trying to get away. + +'Sh--sh--don't move--he'd hear--he is just outside----' And she clung to +me in terror. + +'But how can he hear if he isn't alive? Let me go----' + +'No--no--he's sitting there--just outside--he's been sitting there for +hours--and never moves--oh, it's that man!--I know it is--I knew he'd +come----' + +'What man?' + +'Oh the dreadful, dreadful Berlin man who died----' + +'My dear Charlotte,' I expostulated, feeling now perfectly calm in the +presence of such a collapse. 'Let me go. I'll look through the curtains +so that he shall not see me, and I'll soon tell you if he's alive or +not. Do you suppose I don't know a live man when I see one?' + +I wriggled out of her arms and crept with bare, silent feet to the +window, and cautiously moving the curtains a slit apart peeped through. +There certainly was a man outside, sitting on a rock exactly in front of +my window, with his face to the sea. Clouds were passing slowly across +the moon, and I waited for them to pass to see him more clearly. He +never moved. And when the light did fall on him it fell on a +well-clothed back with two shining buttons on it,--not the back of a +burglar, and surely not the back of a ghost. In all my varied imaginings +I had never yet imagined a ghost in buttons, and I refused to believe +that I saw one then. + +Back I crept to the cowering Charlotte. 'It isn't anybody who's dead,' I +whispered cheerfully, 'and I think he wants to paddle.' + +'Paddle?' echoed Charlotte sitting up, the word seeming to restore her +to her senses. 'Why should he want to paddle in the middle of the +night?' + +'Well, why not? It's the only thing I can think of that makes you sit on +rocks.' + +Charlotte was so much recovered and so much relieved at finding herself +recovered, that she gave a hysterical giggle. Instantly there was a +slight noise outside, and the shadow of a man appeared on the curtains. +We clung to each other in consternation. + +'Hedwig,' whispered the man, pushing the curtains a little aside, and +peering into the darkness of the room; '_kleiner Schatz--endlich da? +Lässt mich so lange warten_----' + +He waited, uncertain, trying to see in. Charlotte grasped the situation +quickest. 'Hedwig is not here,' she said with immense dignity, 'and you +should be ashamed of yourself, disturbing ladies in this manner. I must +request you to go away at once, and to give me your name and address so +that I may report you to the proper authorities. I shall not fail in my +duty, which will be to make an example of you.' + +'That was admirably put,' I remarked, going across to the window and +shutting it, 'only he didn't stay to listen. Now we'll light the +candle.' + +And looking out as I drew the curtains I saw the moonlight flash on +flying buttons. + +'Who would have thought,' I observed to Charlotte, who was standing in +the middle of the room shaking with indignation,--'who would have +thought that that very demure little Hedwig would be the cause of a +night of terror for us?' + +'Who could have imagined her so depraved?' said Charlotte wrathfully. + +'Well, we don't know that she is.' + +'Doesn't it look like it?' + +'Poor little thing.' + +'Poor little thing! What drivel is this?' + +'Oh I don't know--we all want forgiving very badly, it seems to +me--Hedwig not more than you and I. And we want it so much more badly +than we want punishing, yet we are always getting punished and hardly +ever getting forgiven.' + +'I don't know what you mean,' said Charlotte. + +'It isn't very clear,' I admitted. + + + + +THE SIXTH DAY + +THE JAGDSCHLOSS + + +She was asleep next morning when I looked into her bedroom, so I shut +the door softly, and charging Gertrud not to disturb her, went out for a +walk. It was not quite eight and people had not got away from their +coffee yet, so I had it to myself, the walk along the shore beneath the +beeches, beside the flashing morning sea. The path runs along for a +little close to the water at the foot of the steep beech-grown hill that +shuts the west winds out of Binz--a hill steep enough and high enough to +make him pant grievously who goes up it after dinner; then on the right +comes a deep narrow cutting running up into the woods, cut, it seems, +entirely out of smoothest, greenest moss, so completely are its sides +covered with it. Standing midway up this cutting in the soft gloom of +its green walls, with the branches of the beeches meeting far away +above, and down at the bottom the sheet of shining water, I found +absolutely the most silent bit of the world I have ever been in. The +silence was wonderful. There seemed positively to be no sound at all. No +sound came down from the beech leaves, and yet they were stirring; no +sound came up from the water, not a ripple, not a splash; I heard no +birds while I stood there, nor any hum of insects. It might have been +the entrance to some holy place, so strange and solemn was the quiet; +and looking from out of its shadows to the brightness shining at the +upper end where the sun was flooding the bracken with happy morning +radiance, I felt suddenly that my walk had ceased to be a common thing, +and that I was going up into the temple of God to pray. + +I know no surer way of shaking off the dreary crust formed about the +soul by the trying to do one's duty or the patient enduring of having +somebody else's duty done to one, than going out alone, either at the +bright beginning of the day, when the earth is still unsoiled by the +feet of the strenuous and only God is abroad; or in the evening, when +the hush has come, out to the blessed stars, and looking up at them +wonder at the meanness of the day just past, at the worthlessness of the +things one has struggled for, at the folly of having been so angry, and +so restless, and so much afraid. Nothing focusses life more exactly than +a little while alone at night with the stars. What are perfunctory +bedroom prayers hurried through in an atmosphere of blankets, to this +deep abasement of the spirit before the majesty of heaven? And as a +consecration of what should be yet one more happy day, of what value are +those hasty morning devotions, disturbed by fears lest the coffee should +be getting cold and that person, present in every household, whose +property is always to reprove, be more than usually provoked, compared +to going out into the freshness of the new day and thanking God +deliberately under His own wide sky for having been so good to us? I +know that when I had done my open-air _Te Deum_ up there in the +sun-flooded space among the shimmering bracken I went on my way with a +lightheartedness never mine after indoor religious exercises. The forest +was so gay that morning, so sparkling, so full of busy, happy creatures, +it would have been a sorry heart that did not feel jolly in such +society. In that all-pervading wholesomeness there was no room for +repentance, no place for conscience-stricken beating of the breast; and +indeed I think we waste a terrible amount of time repenting. The healthy +attitude, the only reasonable one towards a fault made or a sin +committed is surely a vigorous shake of one's moral shoulders, vigorous +enough to shake it off and out of remembrance. The sin itself was a sad +waste of time and happiness, and absolutely no more should be wasted in +lugubriously reflecting on it. Shall we, poor human beings at such a +disadvantage from the first in the fight with Fate through the many +weaknesses and ailments of our bodies, load our souls as well with an +ever-growing burden of regret and penitence? Shall we let a weight of +vivid memories break our hearts? How are we to get on with our living if +we are continually dropping into sloughs of bitter and often unjust +self-reproach? Every morning comes the light, and a fresh chance of +doing better. Is it not the sheerest folly and ingratitude to let +yesterday spoil the God-given to-day? + +There had been a heavy dew, and the moss along the wayside was soaked +with it, and the leaves of the slender young beeches sparkled with it, +and the bracken bending over the path on either side left its wetness on +my dress as I passed. Nowhere was there a single bit of gloom where you +could sit down and be wretched. The very jays would have laughed you out +of countenance if you had sat there looking sorrowful. Sometimes the +path was narrow, and the trees shut out the sky; sometimes it led me +into the hot sunshine of an open, forest-fringed space; once it took me +along the side of a meadow sloping up on its distant side to more +forest, with only a single row of great beeches between me and the heat +and light dancing over the grass; and all the way I had squirrels for +company, chattering and enjoying themselves as sensible squirrels living +only in the present do; and larks over my head singing in careless +ecstasy just because they had no idea they were probably bad larks with +pasts; and lizards, down at my feet, motionless in the hot sun, quite +unaware of how wicked it becomes to lie in the sun doing nothing +directly you wear clothes and have consciences. As for the scent of the +forest, he who has been in it early after a dewy night knows that, and +the effect it has on the spirits of him who smells it; so I need not +explain how happy I was and how invigorated as I climbed up a long hill +where the wood was thick and cool, and coming out at the top found I had +reached a place of turf and sunshine, with tables in the shade at the +farther side, and in the middle, coffee-pot in hand, a waiter. + +This waiter came as a shock. My thoughts had wandered quite into the +opposite channel to the one that ends in waiters. There he stood, +however, solitary and suggestive, in the middle of the sunny green, a +crumpled waiter in regard to shirt-front, and not a waiter, I should +say, of more than bi-weekly washings; but his eye was persuasive, steam +came out of the spout of his coffee-pot, and out of his mouth as I +walked towards him issued appropriate words about the weather. I had +meant to go back to breakfast with Charlotte, and there was no reason at +all why I should cross the green and walk straight up to the waiter; but +there was that in his eye which made me feel that if I did not drink his +coffee not only had I no business on the top of the hill but I was +unspeakably base besides. So I sat down at one of the tables beneath the +beeches--there were at least twelve tables, and only one other visitor, +a man in spectacles--and the waiter produced a tablecloth that made me +shiver, and poured me out a cup of coffee and brought me a roll of +immense resistance--one of yesterday's, I imagined, the roll cart from +Binz not having had time yet to get up the hill. He fetched this roll +from a pretty house with latticed windows standing on the side of the +green, and he fixed me with his hungry eye and told me the house was an +inn, and that it was not only ready but anxious to take me as a lodger +for any period I might choose. I excused myself on the plea of its +distance from the water. He said that precisely this distance was its +charm. 'The lady,' he continued, with a wave of his coffee-pot that +immediately caused a thin streak of steam to rise from the grass--'the +lady can see for herself how idyllic is the situation.' + +The lady murmured assent; and in order to avoid his hungry eye busied +herself dividing her roll among some expectant fowls who, plainly used +to the business, were crowding round her; so that the roll's staleness, +perhaps intentional, ended by being entirely to the good of the inn. + +By the time the fowls were ready for more the waiter, who had nothing +pressing on hand, had become a nuisance too great to be borne. I would +have liked to sit there and rest in the shade, watching the clouds +slowly appear above the tree-tops opposite and sail over my head and out +of sight, but I could not because of the waiter. So I paid him, got up, +once more firmly declined either to take or look at rooms at the inn, +and wished him a good morning instinct with dignity and chill. + +'The lady will now of course visit the Jagdschloss,' said the waiter, +whipping out a bundle of tickets of admission. + +'The Jagdschloss?' I repeated; and following the direction of his eyes I +saw a building through the trees just behind where I had been sitting, +on the top of a sharp ascent. + +So that was where my walk had led me to. The guide-book devotes several +animated pages to this Jagdschloss, or shooting lodge. It belongs to +Prince Putbus. Its round tower, rising out of a green sea of wood, was a +landmark with which I had soon grown familiar. Whenever you climb up a +hill in Rügen to see the view, you see the Jagdschloss. Whichever way +you drive, it is always the central feature of the landscape. If it +isn't anywhere else it is sure to be on the horizon. Only in some +northern parts of the island does one get away from it, and even there +probably a telescope used with skill would produce it at once. And here +I was beneath its walls. Well, I had not intended going over it, and all +I wanted at that moment was to get rid of the waiter and go on with my +walk. But it was easier to take a ticket than to refuse and hear him +exclaim and protest; so I paid fifty _pfennings_, was given a slip of +paper, and started climbing the extremely steep ascent. + +The site was obviously chosen without the least reference to the legs or +lungs of tourists. They arrive at the top warm and speechless, and +sinking down on the steps between two wolves made of copper the first +thing they do is to spend several minutes gasping. Then they ring a +bell, give up their tickets and umbrellas, and are taken round in +batches by an elderly person who manifestly thinks them poor things. + +When I got to the top I found the other visitor, the man in spectacles, +sitting on the steps getting his gasping done. Having finished mine +before him, he being a man of bulk, I rang the bell. The elderly +official, who had a singular talent for making one feel by a mere look +what a worm one really is, appeared. 'I cannot take each of you round +separately,' he said, pointing at the man still fighting for air on the +bottom step, 'or does your husband not intend to see the Schloss?' + +'My husband?' I echoed, astonished. + +'Now, sir,' he continued impatiently, addressing the back below, 'are +you coming or not?' + +The man in spectacles made a great effort, caught hold of the convenient +leg of one of the copper wolves, pulled himself on to his feet with its +aid, and climbed slowly up the steps. + +'The public is requested not to touch the objects of art,' snapped the +custodian, glancing at the wolf's leg to see if it had suffered. + +The man in spectacles looked properly ashamed of his conduct; I felt +ashamed of myself too, but only on the more general grounds of being +such a worm; and together we silently followed the guide into the house, +together gave up our tickets, and together laid our stick and sunshade +side by side on a table. + +A number was given to the man in spectacles. + +'And my number?' I inquired politely. + +'Surely one suffices?' said the guide, eyeing me with disapproval; for +taking me for the wife of the man in spectacles he regarded my desire to +have a number all to myself as only one more instance of the lengths to +which the modern woman in her struggle for emancipation will go. + +The stick and sunshade were accordingly tied together. + +'Do you wish to ascend the tower?' he asked my companion, showing us the +open-work iron staircase winding round and round inside the tower up to +the top. + +'Gott Du Allmächtiger, nein,' was the hasty reply after a glance and a +shudder. + +Taking for granted that without my husband I would not want to go up +towers he did not ask me, but at once led the way through a very +charming hall decorated with what are known as trophies of the chase, to +a locked door, before which stood a row of enormous grey felt slippers. + +'The public is not allowed to enter the princely apartments unless it +has previously drawn these slippers over its boots,' said the guide as +though he were quoting. + +'All of them?' I asked, faintly facetious. + +Again he eyed me, but this time in silence. + +The man in spectacles thrust his feet into the nearest pair. They were +generously roomy even for him, and he was a big man with boots to match. +I looked down the row hoping to see something smaller, and perhaps +newer, but they were all the same size, and all had been worn repeatedly +by other tourists. + +'The next time I come to the Jagdschloss,' I observed thoughtfully, as I +saw my feet disappear into the gaping mouths of two of these woolly +monsters, 'I shall bring my own slippers. This arrangement may be +useful, but no one could call it select.' + +Neither of my companions took the least notice of me. The guide looked +disgusted. Judging from his face, though he still thought me a worm he +now suspected me of belonging to that highly objectionable class known +as turned. + +Having seen us safely into our slippers he was about to unlock the door +when the bell rang. He left us standing mute before the shut door, and +leaning over the balustrade--for, Reader, as Charlotte Brontë would say, +he had come upstairs--he called down to the Fräulein who had taken our +stick and sunshade to let in the visitors. She did so; and as she flung +open the door I saw, through the pillars of the balustrade, Brosy on the +threshold, and at the bottom of the steps, leaning against one of the +copper wolves, her arm, indeed, flung over its valuable shoulder, the +bishop's wife gasping. + +At this sight the custodian rushed downstairs. The man in spectacles and +myself, mute, meek, and motionless in our felt slippers, held our +breaths. + +'The public is requested not to touch the objects of art!' shouted the +custodian as he rushed. + +'Is he speaking to me, dear?' asked Mrs. Harvey-Browne, looking up at +her son. + +'I think he is, mother,' said Ambrose. 'I don't think you may lean on +that wolf.' + +'Wolf?' said his mother in surprise, standing upright and examining the +animal through her eyeglasses with interest. 'So it is. I thought they +were Prussian eagles.' + +'Anyhow you mustn't touch it, mother,' said Ambrose, a slight impatience +in his voice. 'He says the public are not to touch things.' + +'Does he really call me the public? Do you think he is a rude person, +dear?' + +'Does the lady intend to see the Schloss or not?' interrupted the +custodian. 'I have another party inside waiting.' + +'Come on, mother--you want to, don't you?' + +'Yes--but not if he's a rude man, dear,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, slowly +ascending the steps. 'Perhaps you had better tell him who father is.' + +'I don't think it would impress him much,' said Brosy, smiling. 'Parsons +come here too often for that.' + +'Parsons! Yes; but not bishops,' said his mother, coming into the +echoing hall, through whose emptiness her last words rang like a +trumpet. + +'He wouldn't know what a bishop is. They don't have them.' + +'No bishops?' exclaimed his mother, stopping short and staring at her +son with a face of concern. + +'_Bitte um die Eintrittskarten_,' interrupted the custodian, slamming +the door; and he pulled the tickets out of Brosy's hand. + +'No bishops?' continued Mrs. Harvey-Browne, 'and no Early Fathers, as +that smashed-looking person, that cousin of Frau Nieberlein's, told us +last night? My dear Brosy, what a very strange state of things.' + +'I don't think she quite said that, did she? They have Early Fathers +right enough. She didn't understand what you meant.' + +'Stick and umbrella, please,' interrupted the custodian, snatching them +out of their passive hands. 'Take the number, please. Now this way, +please.' + +He hurried, or tried to hurry, them under the tower, but the bishop's +wife had not hurried for years, and would not have dreamed of doing so; +and when he had got them under it he asked if they wished to make the +ascent. They looked up, shuddered, and declined. + +'Then we will at once join the other party,' said the custodian, +bustling on. + +'The other party?' exclaimed Mrs. Harvey-Browne in German. 'Oh, I hope +no objectionable tourists? I quite thought coming so early we would +avoid them.' + +'Only two,' said the custodian: 'a respectable gentleman and his wife.' + +The man in spectacles and I, up to then mute, meek, and motionless in +our grey slippers, started simultaneously. I looked at him cautiously +out of the corners of my eyes, and found to my confusion that he was +looking at me cautiously out of the corners of his. In another moment +the Harvey-Brownes stood before us. + +After one slight look of faintest surprise at my companion the pleasant +Ambrose greeted me as though I were an old friend; and then bowing with +a politeness acquired during his long stay in the Fatherland to the +person he supposed was my husband, introduced himself in German fashion +by mentioning his name, and observed that he was exceedingly pleased to +make his acquaintance. _'Es freut mich sehr Ihre Bekanntschaft zu +machen,'_ said the pleasant Ambrose. + +_'Gleichfalls, gleichfalls,'_ murmured the man in spectacles, bowing +repeatedly, and obviously astonished. To the bishop's wife he also made +rapid and bewildered bows until he saw she was gazing over his head, and +then he stopped. She had recognised my presence by the merest shadow of +a nod, which I returned with an indifference that was icy; but, oddly +enough, what offended me more than her nod was the glance she had +bestowed on the man in spectacles before she began to gaze over his +head. He certainly did not belong to me, and yet I was offended. This +seemed to me so subtle that it set me off pondering. + +'The public is not allowed to enter the princely apartments unless it +has previously drawn these slippers over its boots,' said the custodian. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne looked at him critically. 'He has a very crude way of +expressing himself, hasn't he, dear?' she remarked to Ambrose. + +'He is only quoting official regulations. He must, you know, mother. And +we are undoubtedly the public.' + +Ambrose looked at my feet, then at the feet of my companion, and then +without more ado got into a pair of slippers. He wore knickerbockers and +stockings, and his legs had a classic refinement that erred, if at all, +on the side of over-slenderness. The effect of the enormous grey +slippers at the end of these Attic legs made me, for one awful moment, +feel as though I were going to shriek with laughter. An immense effort +strangled the shriek and left me unnaturally solemn. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne had now caught sight of the row of slippers. She put +up her eyeglasses and examined them carefully. 'How very German,' she +remarked. + +'Put them on, mother,' said Ambrose; 'we are all waiting for you.' + +'Are they new, Brosy?' she asked, hesitating. + +'The lady must put on the slippers, or she cannot enter the princely +apartments,' said the custodian severely. + +'Must I really, Brosy?' she inquired, looking extremely unhappy. 'I am +so terribly afraid of infection, or--or other things. Do they think we +shall spoil their carpets?' + +'The floors are polished, I imagine,' said Ambrose, 'and the owner is +probably afraid the visitors might slip and hurt themselves.' + +'Really quite nice and considerate of him--if only they were new.' + +Ambrose shuffled to the end of the row in his and took up two.' Look +here, mother,' he said, bringing them to her, 'here's quite a new pair. +Never been worn before. Put them on--they can't possibly do any harm.' + +They were not new, but Mrs. Harvey-Browne thought they were and +consented to put them on. The instant they were on her feet, stretching +out in all their hugeness far beyond the frills of her skirt and +obliging her to slide instead of walk, she became gracious. The smile +with which she slid past me was amiable as well as deprecatory. They had +apparently reduced her at once to the level of other sinful mortals. +This effect seemed to me so subtle that again I fell a-pondering. + +'Frau Nieberlein is not with you this morning?' she asked pleasantly, as +we shuffled side by side into the princely apartments. + +'She is resting. She had rather a bad night.' + +'Nerves, of course.' + +'No, ghosts.' + +'Ghosts?' + +'It's the same thing,' said Ambrose. 'Is it not, sir?' he asked amiably +of the man in spectacles. + +'Perhaps,' said the man in spectacles cautiously. + +'But not a real ghost?' asked Mrs. Harvey-Browne, interested. + +'I believe the great point about a ghost is that it never is real.' + +'The bishop doesn't believe in them either. But I--I really hardly know. +One hears such strange tales. The wife of one of the clergy of our +diocese believes quite firmly in them. She is a vegetarian, and of +course she eats a great many vegetables, and then she sees ghosts.' + +'The chimney-piece,' said the guide, 'is constructed entirely of Roman +marble.' + +'Really?' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, examining it abstractedly through her +eyeglasses. 'She declares their vicarage is haunted; and what in the +world do you think by? The strangest thing. It is haunted by the ghost +of a cat.' + +'The statue on the right is by Thorwaldsen,' said the guide. + +'By the ghost of a cat,' repeated Mrs. Harvey-Browne impressively. + +She seemed to expect me to say something, so I said Indeed. + +'That on the left is by Rauch,' said the guide. + +'And this cat does not do anything. I mean, it is not prophetic of +impending family disaster. It simply walks across a certain room--the +drawing-room, I believe--quite like a real cat, and nothing happens.' + +'But perhaps it is a real cat?' + +'Oh no, it is supernatural. No one sees it but herself. It walks quite +slowly with its tail up in the air, and once when she went up to it to +try to pull its tail so as to convince herself of its existence, she +only clutched empty air.' + +'The frescoes with which this apartment is adorned are by Kolbe and +Eybel,' said the guide. + +'You mean it ran away?' + +'No, it walked on quite deliberately. But the tail not being made of +human flesh and blood there was naturally nothing to pull.' + +'Beginning from left to right, we have in the first a representation of +the entry of King Waldemar I. into Rügen,' said the guide. + +'But the most extraordinary thing about it happened one day when she put +a saucer of cream on the floor for it. She had thought it all over in +the night, and had come to the conclusion that as no ghost would lap +cream and no real cat be able to help lapping it this would provide her +with a decisive proof one way or the other. The cat came, saw the cream, +and immediately lapped it up. My friend was so pleased, because of +course one likes real cats best----' + +'The second represents the introduction of Christianity into the +island,' said the guide. + +'--and when it had done, and the saucer was empty, she went over to +it----' + +'The third represents the laying of the foundation stone of the church +at Vilmnitz,' said the guide. + +'--and what do you think happened? _She walked straight through it_.' + +'Through what?' I asked, profoundly interested. 'The cream, or the cat?' + +'Ah, that was what was so marvellous. She walked right through the body +of the cat. Now what had become of the cream?' + +I confess this story impressed me more than any ghost story I have ever +heard; the disappearance of the cream was so extraordinary. + +'And there was nothing--nothing at all left on her dress?' I asked +eagerly. 'I mean, after walking through the cat? One would have thought +that some, at least, of the cream----' + +'Not a vestige.' + +I stood gazing at the bishop's wife absorbed in reflection. 'How truly +strange,' I murmured at length, after having vainly endeavoured to +account for the missing cream. + +'_Wasn't_ it?' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, much pleased with the effect of +her story. Indeed the amiability awakened in her bosom by the grey felt +slippers had increased rapidly, and the unaccountable conduct of the +cream seemed about to cement our friendship when, at this point, she +having remarked that there are more things in heaven and earth than are +dreamt of in our philosophy, and I, in order to show my acquaintance +with the classics of other countries, having added 'As Chaucer justly +observes,' to which she said, 'Ah, yes--so beautiful, isn't he?' a voice +behind us made us both jump; and turning round we beheld, at our elbows, +the man in spectacles. Ambrose, aided by the guide, was on the other +side of the room studying the works of Kolbe and Eybel, The man in +spectacles had evidently heard the whole story of the cat, for this is +what he said:-- + +'The apparition, madam, if it has any meaning at all, which I doubt, +being myself inclined to locate its origin in the faulty digestion of +the lady, seems to point to a life beyond the grave for the spirits of +cats. Considered as a proof of such a life for the human soul, which is +the one claim to our interest phenomena of the kind can possess, it is, +of course, valueless.' + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne stared at him a moment through her eyeglasses. +'Christians,' she then said distantly, 'need no further proof of that.' + +'May I ask, madam, what, precisely, you mean by Christians?' inquired +the man in spectacles briskly. 'Define them, if you please.' + +Now the bishop's wife was not used to being asked to define things, and +disliked it as much as anybody else. Besides, though rays of intelligent +interest darted through his spectacles, the wearer of them also wore +clothes that were not only old but peculiar, and his whole appearance +cried aloud of much work and small reward. She therefore looked not only +helpless but indignant. 'Sir,' she said icily, 'this is not the moment +to define Christians.' + +'I hear the name repeatedly,' said the man in spectacles, bowing but +undaunted; 'and looking round me I ask myself where are they?' + +'Sir,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, 'they are in every Christian country.' + +'And which, pray, madam, would you call the Christian countries? I look +around me, and I see nations armed to the teeth, ready and sometimes +even anxious to fly at each other's throats. Their attitude may be +patriotic, virile, perhaps necessary, conceivably estimable; but, madam, +would you call it Christian?' + +'Sir----' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'Having noticed by your accent, madam, that the excellent German you +speak was not originally acquired in our Fatherland, but must be the +result of a commendable diligence practised in the schoolrooms of your +youth and native land, and having further observed, from certain +unmistakable signs, that the native land in question must be England, it +would have a peculiar interest for me to be favoured with the exact +meaning the inhabitants of that enlightened country attach to the term. +My income having hitherto not been sufficient to enable me to visit its +hospitable shores, I hail this opportunity with pleasure of discussing +questions that are of importance to us all with one of its, no doubt, +most distinguished daughters.' + +'Sir----' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'At first sight,' went on the man in spectacles, 'one would be disposed +to say that a Christian is a person who believes in the tenets of the +Christian faith. But belief, if it is genuine, must necessarily find its +practical expression in works. How then, madam, would you account for +the fact that when I look round me in the provincial town in which I +pursue the honourable calling of a pedagogue, I see numerous Christians +but no works?' + +'Sir, I do not account for it,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne angrily. + +'For consider, madam, the lively faith inspired by other creeds. Place +against this inertia the activity of other believers. Observe the +dervish, how he dances; observe the fakir, hanging from his hook----' + +'I will not, sir,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, roused now beyond endurance; +'and I do not know why you should choose this place and time to thrust +your opinions on sacred subjects on a stranger and a lady.' + +With which she turned her back on him, and shuffled away with all the +dignity the felt slippers allowed. + +The man in spectacles stood confounded. + +'The lady,' I said, desirous of applying balm, 'is the wife of a +clergyman'--(Heavens, if she had heard me!)--'and is therefore afraid of +talking about things that must lead her on to sacred ground. I think you +will find the son very intelligent and ready to talk.' + +But I regret to say the man in spectacles seemed extremely shy of me; +whether it was because the custodian had taken me for his wife, or +because I was an apparently unattached female wandering about and +drinking coffee by myself contrary to all decent custom, I do not know. +Anyhow he met my well-meant attempt to explain Mrs. Harvey-Browne to him +with suspicion, and murmuring something about the English being indeed +very strangely mannered, he edged cautiously away. + +We now straggled through the rooms separately,--Ambrose in front with +the guide, his mother by herself, I by myself, and a good way behind us, +the mortified man in spectacles. He made no effort to take my advice and +talk to Ambrose, but kept carefully as far away from the rest of us as +possible; and when we presently found ourselves once more outside the +princely apartments, on the opposite side to the door by which we had +gone into them, he slid forward, shook off his felt slippers with the +finality of one who shakes off dust from his feet, made three rapid +bows, one to each of us, and hurried down the stairs. Arrived at the +bottom we saw him take his stick from the Fräulein, shake his head with +indignant vigour when she tried to make him take my sunshade too, pull +open the heavy door, and almost run through it. He slammed it with an +energy that made the Jagdschloss tremble. + +The Fräulein looked first at the slammed door, then at the sunshade, and +then up at me. 'Quarrelled,' said the Fräulein's look as plainly as +speech. + +Ambrose looked at me too, and in his eyes was an interrogation. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne looked at me too, and in her eyes was coldest +condemnation. 'Is it possible,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne's eyes, 'that +any one can really marry such a person?' + +As for me, I walked downstairs, my face bland with innocence and +unconcern. 'How delightful,' I said enthusiastically, 'how truly +delightful these walls look, with all the antlers and things on them.' + +'Very,' said Ambrose. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne was silent. Probably she had resolved never to speak +to me again; but when we were at the bottom, and Ambrose was bestowing +fees on the Fräulein and the custodian, she said, 'I did not know your +husband was travelling with you.' + +'My husband?' I repeated inquiringly. 'But he isn't. He's at home. +Minding, I hope, my neglected children.' + +'At home? Then who--then whose husband was that?' + +'Was what?' I asked, following her eyes which were fixed on the door so +lately slammed. + +'Why, that man in spectacles?' + +'Really, how can I tell? Perhaps nobody's. Certainly not mine.' + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne stared at me in immense surprise. 'How very +extraordinary,' she said. + + + + +THE SIXTH DAY--_Continued_ + +THE GRANITZ WOODS, SCHWARZER SEE, AND KIEKÖWER + + +In the woods behind Binz, alone in the heart of them, near a clearing +where in past days somebody must have lived, for ancient fruit trees +still mark the place that used to be a garden, there is a single grave +on which the dead beech leaves slowly dropping down through the days and +nights of many autumns, have heaped a sober cover. On the headstone is a +rusty iron plate with this inscription-- + + Hier ruht ein Finnischer Krieger + 1806. + +There is no fence round it, and no name on it. Every autumn the beech +leaves make the unknown soldier a new brown pall, and through the +sparkling frozen winters, except for the thin shadows of naked branches, +he lies in sunshine. In the spring the blue hepaticas, children of those +that were there the first day, gather about his sodden mound in little +flocks of loveliness. Then, after a warm rain, the shadows broaden and +draw together, for overhead the leaves are bursting; the wind blowing on +to him from the clearing is scented, for the grass out there has violets +in it; the pear trees in the deserted garden put on their white robes of +promise; and then comes summer, and in the long days there are wanderers +in the woods, and the chance passer-by, moved perhaps by some vague +sentiment of pity for so much loneliness, throws him a few flowers or a +bunch of ferns as he goes his way. There was a cross of bracken lying on +the grave when I came upon it, still fresh and tied together with bits +of grass, and a wreath of sea-holly hung round the headstone. + +Sitting down by the side of the nameless one to rest, for the sun was +high and I began to be tired, it seemed to me as I leaned my face +against his cool covering of leaves, still wet with the last rain, that +he was very cosily tucked away down there, away from worries and the +chill fingers of fear, with everything over so far as he was concerned, +and each of the hours destined for him in which hard things were to +happen lived through and done with. A curiosity to know how he came to +be in the Granitz woods at a time when Rügen, belonging to the French, +had nothing to do with Finland, made me pull out my guide-book. But it +was blank. The whole time I was journeying round Rügen it was invariably +blank when it ought to have been illuminating. What had this man done or +left undone that he should have been shut out from the company of those +who are buried in churchyards? Why should he, because he was nameless, +be outcast as well? Why should his body be held unworthy of a place by +the side of persons who, though they were as dead as himself, still went +on being respectable? I took off my hat and leaned against the Finnish +warrior's grave and stared up along the smooth beech trunks to the point +where the leaves, getting out of the shade, flashed in the sun at the +top, and marvelled greatly at the ways of men, who pursue each other +with conventions and disapproval even when their object, ceasing to be a +man, is nothing but a poor, unresentful, indifferent corpse. + +It is--certainly with me it is--a symptom of fatigue and want of food to +marvel at the ways of men. My spirit grows more and more inclined to +carp as my body grows more tired and hungry. When I am not too weary and +have not given my breakfast to fowls, my thoughts have a cheerful way of +fixing themselves entirely on the happy side of things, and life seems +extraordinarily charming. But I see nothing happy and my soul is lost in +blackness if, for many hours, I have had no food. How useless to talk to +a person of the charities if you have not first fed him. How useless to +explain that they are scattered at his feet like flowers if you have fed +him too much. Both these states, of being over-fed and not fed enough, +are equally fatal to the exquisitely sensitive life of the soul. And so +it came about that because it was long past luncheon-time, and I had +walked far, and it was hot, I found myself growing sentimental over the +poor dead Finn; inclined to envy him because he could go on resting +there while I had to find a way back to Binz in the heat and excuse my +absence to an offended cousin; launching, indignant at his having been +denied Christian burial, into a whole sea of woful reflections on the +spites and follies of mankind, from which a single piece of bread would +have rescued me. And as I was very tired, and it was very hot, and very +silent, and very drowsy, my grumblings and disapprovals grew gradually +vaguer, grew milder, grew confused, grew intermittent, and I went to +sleep. + +Now to go to sleep out of doors on a fine summer afternoon is an +extremely pleasant thing to do if nobody comes and looks at you and you +are comfortable. I was not exactly comfortable, for the ground round the +grave was mossless and hard; and when the wind caught it the bracken +cross tickled my ear and jerked my mind dismally on to earwigs. Also +some spiders with frail long legs which they seemed to leave lying about +at the least and gentlest attempt to persuade them to go away, walked +about on me and would not walk anywhere else. But presently I left off +feeling them or caring and sank away deliciously into dreams, the last +thing I heard being the rustling of leaves, and the last thing I felt +the cool wind lifting my hair. + +And now the truly literary, if he did not here digress into a +description of what he dreamed, which is a form of digression skipped by +the truly judicious, would certainly write 'How long I had slept I know +not,' and would then tell the reader that, waking with a start, he +immediately proceeded to shiver. I cannot do better than imitate him, +leaving out the start and the shiver, since I did neither, and altering +his method to suit my greater homeliness, remark that I don't know how +long I had been asleep because I had not looked at a watch when I began, +but opening my eyes in due season I found that they stared straight into +the eyes of Mrs. Harvey-Browne, and that she and Brosy were standing +side by side looking down at me. + +Being a woman, my first thought was a fervent hope that I had not been +sleeping with my mouth wide open. Being a human creature torn by +ungovernable passions, my second was to cry out inwardly and +historically, 'Will no one rid me of this troublesome prelatess?' Then I +sat up and feverishly patted my hair. + +'I am not in the guide-book,' I said with some asperity. + +'We came to look at the grave,' smilingly answered Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'May I help you up?' asked Ambrose. + +'Thanks, no.' + +'Brosy, fetch me my camp-stool out of the fly--I will sit here a few +minutes with Frau X. You were having a little post-prandial nap?' she +added, turning to me still smiling. + +'Ante-prandial.' + +'What, you have been in the woods ever since we parted this morning at +the Jagdschloss? Brosy,' she called after him, 'bring the tea-basket out +as well. My dear Frau X., you must be absolutely faint. Do you not think +it injudicious to go so many hours without nourishment? We will make tea +now instead of a little later, and I insist on your eating something.' + +Really this was very obliging. What had happened to the bishop's wife? +Her urbanity was so marked that I thought it could only be a beautiful +dream, and I rubbed my eyes before answering. But it was undoubtedly +Mrs. Harvey-Browne. She had been home since I saw her last, rested, +lunched, put on fresh garments, perhaps bathed; but all these things, +soothing as they are, could not by themselves account for the change. +Also she spoke to me in English for the first time. 'You are very kind,' +I murmured, staring. + +'Just imagine,' she said to Ambrose, who approached across the crackling +leaves with the camp-stool, tea-basket, and cushions from the seats of +the fly waiting in the forest road a few yards away, 'this little lady +has had nothing to eat all day.' + +'Oh I say!' said Brosy sympathetically. + +'Little lady?' I repeated to myself, more and more puzzled. + +'If you must lean against a hard grave,' said Brosy; 'at least, let me +put this cushion behind your back. And I can make you much more +comfortable if you will stand up a moment.' + +'Oh I am so stiff,' I exclaimed as he helped me up; 'I must have been +here hours. What time is it?' + +'Past four,' said Brosy. + +'_Most_ injudicious,' said his mother. 'Dear Frau X., you must promise +me never to do such a thing again. What would happen to those sweet +children of yours if their little mother were to be laid up?' + +Dear, dear me. What was all this? Sweet children? Little mother? I could +only sit on my cushions and stare. + +'This,' she explained, noticing I suppose that I looked astonished, and +thinking it was because Brosy was spreading out cups and lighting the +spirit-lamp so very close to the deceased Finn, 'is not desecration. It +is not as though we were having tea in a churchyard, which of course we +never would have. This is unconsecrated ground. One cannot desecrate +that which has never been consecrated. Desecration can only begin after +consecration has taken place.' + +I bowed my head and then, cheered into speech by the sight of an +approaching rusk, I added, 'I know a family with a mausoleum, and on +fine days they go and have coffee at it.' + +'Germans, of course,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, smiling, but with an +effort. 'One can hardly imagine English----' + +'Oh yes, Germans. When any one goes to see them, if it is fine they say, +"Let us drink coffee at the mausoleum." And then they do.' + +'Is it a special treat?' asked Brosy. + +'The view there is very lovely.' + +'Oh I see,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, relieved. 'They only sit outside. I +was afraid for a moment that they actually----' + +'Oh no,' I said, eating what seemed to be the most perfect rusk ever +produced by German baker, 'not actually.' + +'What a sweet spot this is to be buried in,' remarked Mrs. +Harvey-Browne, while Brosy, with the skill of one used to doing it, made +the tea; and then according to the wont of good women when they speak of +being buried, she sighed. 'I wonder,' she went on, 'how he came to be +put here.' + +'That is what I have been wondering ever since I found him,' I said. + +'He was wounded in some battle and was trying to get home,' said Brosy. +'You know Finland was Swedish in those days, and so was Rügen.' + +As I did not know I said nothing, but looked exceedingly bright. + +'He had been fighting for Sweden against the French. I met a forester +yesterday, and he told me there used to be a forester's house where +those fruit trees are, and the people in it took him in and nursed him +till he died. Then they buried him here.' + +'But why was he not buried in a churchyard?' asked his mother. + +'I don't know. Poor chap, I don't suppose he would have cared. The great +point I should say under such circumstances would be the being dead.' + +'My dear Brosy,' murmured his mother; which was what she always murmured +when he said things that she disapproved without quite knowing why. + +'Or a still greater point,' I remarked, moved again to cheerful speech +by the excellent tea Brosy had made, and his mother, justly suspicious +of the tea of Teutons, had smuggled through the customs, as she +afterwards told me with pride,--'a still greater point if those are the +circumstances that lie in wait for one, would be the never being born.' + +'Oh but that is pessimism!' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne, shaking a finger +at me. 'What have you, of all people in the world, to do with +pessimism?' + +'Oh I don't know--I suppose I have my days, like everybody else,' I +said, slightly puzzled again by this remark. 'Once I was told of two +aged Germans,' I continued, for by this time I had had three rusks and +was feeling very pleasant,--'of two aged Germans whose digestive +machinery was fragile.' + +'Oh, poor things,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne sympathetically. + +'And in spite of that they drank beer all their lives persistently and +excessively.' + +'How very injudicious,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'They drank such a fearful lot and for so long that at last they became +philosophers.' + +'My dear Frau X.,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne incredulously, 'what an +unexpected result.' + +'Oh but indeed there is hardly anything you may not at last become,' I +insisted, 'if besides being German your diet is indiscreet enough.' + +'Yes, I quite think _that_,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'Well, and what happened?' asked Brosy with smiling eyes. + +'Well, they were naturally profoundly pessimistic, both of them. You +are, you know, if your diet----' + +'Oh yes, yes indeed,' agreed Mrs. Harvey-Browne, with the conviction of +one who has been through it. + +'They were absolutely sick of things. They loathed everything anybody +said or did. And they were disciples of Nietzsche.' + +'Was that the cause or the effect of the excessive beer-drinking?' asked +Brosy. + +'Oh, I can't _endure_ Nietzsche,' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne. 'Don't ever +read him, Brosy. I saw some things he says about women--he is too +dreadful.' + +'And one said to the other over their despairing potations: "Only those +can be considered truly happy who are destined never to be born."' + +'There!' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne. 'That is Nietzsche all over--_rank_ +pessimism.' + +'I never heard ranker,' said Brosy smiling. + +'And the other thought it over, and then said drearily: "But to how few +falls that happy lot."' + +There was a pause. Brosy was laughing behind his teacup. His mother, on +the contrary, looked solemn, and gazed at me thoughtfully. 'There is a +great want of simple faith about Germans,' she said. 'The bishop thinks +it so sad. A story like that would quite upset him. He has been very +anxious lest Brosy--our only child, dear Frau X., so you may imagine how +precious--should become tainted by it.' + +'I dislike beer,' said Brosy. + +'That man this morning, for instance--did you ever hear anything like +it? He was just the type of man, quite apart from his insolence, that +most grieves the bishop.' + +'Really?' I said; and wondered respectfully at the amount of grieving +the bishop got through. + +'An educated man, I suppose--did he not say he was a schoolmaster? A +teacher of the young, without a vestige himself of the simple faith he +ought to inculcate. For if he had had a vestige, would it not have +prevented his launching into an irreverent conversation with a lady who +was not only a stranger, but the wife of a prelate of the Church of +England?' + +'He couldn't know that, mother,' said Brosy; 'and from what you told me +it wasn't a conversation he launched into but a monologue. And I must +beg your pardon,' he added, turning to me with a smile, 'for the absurd +mistake we made. It was the guide's fault.' + +'Oh yes, my dear Frau X., you must forgive me--it was really too silly +of me--I might have known--I was completely taken aback, I assure you, +but the guide was so very positive----' And there followed such a number +of apologies that again I was bewildered, only retaining the one clear +impression that the bishop's wife desired exceedingly to be agreeable. + +Well, a woman bent on being agreeable is better than a woman bent on +being disagreeable, though, being the soul of caution in my statements, +I must add, Not always; for I suppose few of us have walked any distance +along the path of life without having had to go at least some part of +the way in the company of persons who, filled with the praiseworthy wish +to be very pleasant, succeeded only in drenching our spirits with the +depressing torrents of effusion. And effusiveness applied to myself has +precisely the effect of a finger applied to the horns of a snail who +shall be innocently airing himself in the sun: he gets back without more +ado into his shell, and so do I. + +That is what happened on this occasion. For some reason, which I could +only faintly guess, the bishop's wife after disapproving of me in the +morning was petting me in the afternoon. She had been lunching, she told +me, with Charlotte, and they had had a nice talk, she said, about me. +About me? Instantly I scrambled back into my shell. There is surely +nothing in the world so tiresome as being questioned, as I now was, on +one's household arrangements and personal habits. I will talk about +anything but that. I will talk with the courage of ignorance about all +high matters, of which I know nothing. I am ready to discourse on all or +any of the great Abstractions with the glibness of the shallow mind. I +will listen sympathetically to descriptions of diseases suffered and +operations survived, of the brilliance of sons and the beauty of +daughters. I will lend an attentive ear to an enumeration of social +successes and family difficulties, of woes and triumphs of every sort, +including those connected with kitchens; but I will not answer questions +about myself. And indeed, what is there to talk about? No one is +interested in my soul, and as for my body I long ago got tired of that. + +One cannot, however, eat a person's rusks without assuming a certain +amount of subsequent blandness; so I did my best to behave nicely. Brosy +smoked cigarettes. Whatever it was that had sent me up in his mother's +estimation had apparently sent me down in his. He no longer, it seemed, +looked upon me as a good specimen of the intelligent German female. I +might be as eloquently silent as I liked, and it did not impress him in +the least. The few remarks he made showed me that. This was grievous, +for Brosy was, in person, a very charming young man, and the good +opinion of charming young men is quite a nice thing to possess. Now I +began to regret, now that he was merely interjectional, those earnest +paragraphs in which he had talked the night before at supper and during +the sunset walk on the island of Vilm. Observing him sideways and +cautiously I saw that the pretty speeches his mother was making me +_apropos_ of everything and nothing were objectionable to him; and I +silently agreed with him that pretty speeches are unpleasant things, +especially when made by one woman to another. You can forgive a man +perhaps, because in your heart in spite of all experience lurks the +comfortable belief that he means what he says; but how shall you forgive +a woman for mistaking you for a fool? + +They persuaded me to drive with them to the place in the woods they were +bound for called Kieköwer, where the view over the bay was said to be +very beautiful; and when I got on to my feet I found I was so stiff that +driving seemed the only thing possible. Ambrose was very kind and +careful of my bodily comfort, but did not bother about me spiritually. +Whenever there was a hill, and there kept on being hills, he got out and +walked, leaving me wholly to his mother. But it did not matter any more, +for the forest was so exquisite that way, the afternoon so serene, so +mellow with lovely light, that I could not look round me without being +happy. Oh blessed state, when mere quiet weather, trees and grass, sea +and clouds, can make you forget that life has anything in it but +rapture, can make you drink in heaven with every breath! How long will +it last, this joy of living, this splendid ecstasy of the soul? I am +more afraid of losing this, of losing even a little of this, of having +so much as the edge of its radiance dimmed, than of parting with any +other earthly possession. And I think of Wordsworth, its divine singer, +who yet lost it so soon and could no longer see the splendour in the +grass, the glory in the flower, and I ask myself with a sinking heart if +it faded so quickly for him who saw it and sang it by God's grace to +such perfection, how long, oh how long does the common soul, half blind, +half dead, half dumb, keep its little, precious share? + +My intention when I began this book was to write a useful Guide to +Rügen, one that should point out its best parts and least uncomfortable +inns to any English or American traveller whose energy lands him on its +shores. With every page I write it grows more plain that I shall not +fulfil that intention. What, for instance, have Charlotte and the +bishop's wife of illuminating for the tourist who wants to be shown the +way? As I cannot conscientiously praise the inns I will not give their +names, and what is the use of that to a tourist who wishes to know where +to sleep and dine? I meant to describe the Jagdschloss, and find I only +repeated a ghost story. It is true I said the rolls at the inn there +were hard, but the information was so deeply embedded in superfluities +that no tourist will discover it in time to save him from ordering one. +Still anxious to be of use, I will now tell the traveller that he must +on no account miss going from Binz to Kieköwer, but that he must go +there on his feet, and not allow himself to be driven over the roots and +stones by the wives of bishops; and that shortly before he reaches +Kieköwer (Low German for look, or peep over), he will come to four +cross-roads with a sign-post in the middle, and he is to follow the one +to the right, which will lead him to the Schwarze See or Black Lake, and +having got there let him sit down quietly, and take out the volume of +poetry he ought to have in his pocket, and bless God who made this +little lovely hollow on the top of the hills, and drew it round with a +girdle of forest, and filled its reedy curves with white water-lilies, +and set it about with silence, and gave him eyes to see its beauty. + +I am afraid I could not have heard Mrs. Harvey-Browne's questions for +quite a long time, for presently I found she had sauntered round this +enchanted spot to the side where Brosy was taking photographs, and I was +sitting alone on the moss looking down through the trees at the lilies, +and listening only to frogs. I looked down between the slender stems of +some silver birches that hung over the water; every now and then a tiny +gust of wind came along and rippled their clear reflections, ruffling up +half of each water-lily leaf, and losing itself somewhere among the +reeds. Then when it had gone, the lily leaves dropped back one after the +other on to the calm water, each with a little thud. On the west side +the lake ends in a reedy marsh, very froggy that afternoon, and starred +with the snowy cotton flower. A peculiarly fragrant smell like +exceedingly delicate Russian leather hangs round the place, or did that +afternoon. It was, I suppose, the hot sun bringing out the scent of some +hidden herb, and it would not always be there; but I like to think of +the beautiful little lake as for ever fragrant, all the year round lying +alone and sweet-smelling and enchanted, tucked away in the bosom of the +solitary hills. + +When the traveller has spent some time lying on the moss with his +poet--and he should lie there long enough for his soul to grow as quiet +and clear as the water, and the poet, I think, should be Milton--he can +go back to the cross-roads, five minutes' walk over beech leaves, and so +to Kieköwer, about half a mile farther on. The contrast between the +Schwarze See and Kieköwer is striking. Coming from that sheltered place +of suspended breath you climb up a steep hill and find yourself suddenly +on the edge of high cliffs where the air is always moving and the wind +blows freshly on to you across the bay. Far down below, the blue water +heaves and glitters. In the distance lies the headland beyond Sassnitz, +hazy in the afternoon light. The beech trees, motionless round the lake, +here keep up a ceaseless rustle. You who have been so hot all day find +you are growing almost too cool. + +'_Sie ist schön, unsere Ostsee, was?_' said a hearty male voice behind +us. + +We were all three leaning against the wooden rail put up for our +protection on the edge of the cliff. A few yards off is a shed where a +waiter, battered by the sea breezes he is forced daily to endure, +supplies the thirsty with beer and coffee. The hearty owner of the +voice, brown with the sun, damp and jolly with exercise and +beer-drinking, stood looking over Mrs. Harvey-Browne's shoulder at the +view with an air of proud proprietorship, his hands in his pockets, his +legs wide apart, his cap pushed well off an extremely heated brow. + +He addressed this remark to Mrs. Harvey-Browne, to whom, I suppose, she +being a matron of years and patent sobriety, he thought cheery remarks +might safely be addressed. But if there was a thing the bishop's wife +disliked it was a cheery stranger. The pedagogue that morning, so +artlessly interested in her conversation with me as to forget he had not +met her before, had manifestly revolted her. I myself the previous +evening, though not cheery still a stranger, had been objectionable to +her. How much more offensive, then, was a warm man speaking to her with +a familiarity so sudden and jolly as to resemble nothing so much as a +slap on the back. She, of course, took no notice of him after the first +slight start and glance round, but stared out to sea with eyes grown +stony. + +'In England you do not see such blue water, what?' shouted the jolly +man, who was plainly in the happy mood the French call _déboutonné_. + +His wife and daughters, ladies clothed in dust-cloaks sitting at a rough +wooden table with empty beer-glasses before them, laughed hilariously. +The mere fact of the Harvey-Brownes being so obviously English appeared +to amuse them enormously. They too were in the mood _déboutonné_. + +Ambrose, as ready to talk as his mother to turn her back, answered for +her, and assured the jolly man that he had indeed never seen such blue +water in England. + +This seemed to give the whole family intense delight. '_Ja, ja,_' +shouted the father, '_Deutschland, Deutschland, über Alles!_' And he +trolled out that famous song in the sort of voice known as rich. + +'Quite so,' said Ambrose politely, when he had done. + +'Oh come, we must drink together,' cried the jolly man, 'drink in the +best beer in the world to the health of Old England, what?' And he +called the waiter, and in another moment he and Ambrose stood clinking +glasses and praising each other's countries, while the hilarious family +laughed and applauded in the background. + +The bishop's wife had not moved. She stood staring out to sea, and her +stare grew ever stonier. + +'I wish----' she began; but did not go on. Then, there being plainly no +means of stopping Ambrose's cordiality, she wisely resolved to pass the +time while we waited for him in exchanging luminous thoughts with me. +And we did exchange them for some minutes, until my luminousness was +clouded and put out by the following short conversation:-- + +'I must say I cannot see what there is about Germans that so fascinates +Ambrose. Do you hear that empty laughter? "The loud laugh that betrays +the empty mind"?' + +'As Shakespeare says.' + +'Dear Frau X., you are so beautifully read.' + +'So nice of you.' + +'I know you are a woman of a liberal mind, so you will not object to my +saying that I am much disappointed in the Germans.' + +'Not a bit.' + +'Ambrose has always been so enthusiastic about them that I expected +quite wonders. What do I find? I pass over in silence many things, +including the ill-bred mirth--just listen to those people--but I cannot +help lamenting their complete want of common sense.' + +'Indeed?' + +'How sensible English people are compared to them!' + +'Do you think so?' + +'Why, of course, in everything.' + +'But are you not judging the whole nation by the few?' + +'Oh, one can always tell. What could be more supremely senseless for +instance'--and she waved a hand over the bay--'than calling the Baltic +the Ostsee?' + +'Well, but why shouldn't they if they want to?' + +'But dear Frau X., it is so foolish. East sea? Of what is it the east? +One is always the east of something, but one doesn't talk about it. The +name has no meaning whatever. Now "Baltic" exactly describes it.' + + + + +THE SEVENTH DAY + +FROM BINZ TO STUBBENKAMMER + + +We left Binz at ten o'clock the next morning for Sassnitz and +Stubbenkammer. Sassnitz is the principal bathing-place on the island, +and I had meant to stay there a night; but as neither of us liked the +glare of chalk roads and white houses we went on that day to +Stubbenkammer, where everything is in the shade. + +Charlotte had not gone away as she said she would, and when I got back +to our lodgings the evening before, penitent and apologetic after my +wanderings in the forest, besides being rather frightened, for I was +afraid I was going to be scolded and was not sure that I did not deserve +it, I found her sitting on the pillared verandah indulgently watching +the sunset sky, with _The Prelude_ lying open on her lap. She did not +ask me where I had been all day; she only pointed to _The Prelude_ and +said, 'This is great rubbish; 'to which I only answered 'Oh?' + +Later in the evening I discovered that the reason of her want of +interest in my movements and absence of reproachfulness was that she +herself had had a busy and a successful day. Judgment, hurried on by +Charlotte, had overtaken the erring Hedwig; and the widow, expressing +horror and disgust, had turned her out. Charlotte praised the widow. +'She is an intelligent and a right-minded woman,' she said. 'She assured +me she would rather do all the work herself and be left without a +servant altogether than keep a wicked girl like that. I was prepared to +leave at once if she had not dismissed her then and there.' + +Still later in the evening I gathered from certain remarks Charlotte +made that she had lent the most lurid of her works, a pamphlet called +_The Beast of Prey_, to the widow, who to judge from Charlotte's +satisfaction was quite carried away by it. Its nature was certainly +sufficiently startling to carry any ordinary widow away. + +We left the next morning, pursued by the widow's blessings,--blessings +of great potency, I suppose, of the same degree of potency exactly as +the curses of orphans, and we all know the peculiar efficaciousness of +those. 'Good creature,' said Charlotte, touched by the number of them as +we drove away; 'I am so glad I was able to help her a little by opening +her eyes.' + +'The operation,' I observed, 'is not always pleasant.' + +'But invariably necessary,' said Charlotte with decision. + +What then was my astonishment on looking back, as we were turning the +corner by the red-brick hotel, to take a last farewell of the pretty +white house on the shore, to see Hedwig hanging out of an upper window +waving a duster to Gertrud who was following us in the luggage cart, and +chatting and laughing while she did it with the widow standing at the +gate below. 'That house is certainly haunted,' I exclaimed. 'There's a +fresh ghost looking out of the window at this very moment.' + +Charlotte turned her head with an incredulous face. Having seen the +apparition she turned it back again. + +'It can't be Hedwig,' I hastened to assure her, 'because you told me she +had been sent to her mother in the country. It can only, then, be +Hedwig's ghost. She is very young to have one, isn't she?' + +But Charlotte said nothing at all; and so we left Binz in silence, and +got into the sandy road and pine forest that takes you the first part of +your way towards the north and Sassnitz. + +The road I had meant to take goes straight from Binz along the narrow +tongue of land, marked Schmale Heide on the map, separating the Baltic +Sea from the inland sea called Jasmunder Bodden; but outside the village +I saw a sheet of calm water shining through pine trunks on the left, and +I got out to go and look at it, and August, always nervous when I got +out, drove off the beaten track after me, and so we missed our way. + +The water was the Schmachter See, a real lake in size, not a pond like +the exquisite little Schwarze See, and I stood on the edge admiring its +morning loveliness as it lay without a ripple in the sun, the noise of +the sea on the other side of the belt of pines sounding unreal as the +waves of a dream on that still shore. And while I was standing among its +reeds August was busy thinking out a short cut that would strike the +road we had left higher up. The result was that we very soon went +astray, and emerging from the woods at the farm of Dollahn found +ourselves heading straight for the Jasmunder Bodden. But it did not +matter where we went so long as we were pleased, and when everything is +fresh and new how can you help being pleased? So we drove on looking for +a road to the right that should bring us back again to the Schmale +Heide, and enjoyed the open fields and the bright morning, and pretended +to ourselves that it was not dusty. At least that is what I pretended to +myself. Charlotte pretended nothing of the sort; on the contrary, she +declared at intervals that grew shorter that she was being suffocated. + +And that is one of the many points on which the walker has the advantage +of him who drives--he can walk on the grass at the side of the road, or +over moss or whortleberries, and need not endure the dust kicked up by +eight hoofs. But where has he not the advantage? The only one of driving +is that you can take a great many clean clothes with you; for the rest, +there is no comparing the two pleasures. And, after all, what does it +matter if for one fortnight out of all the fortnights there are in a +year you are not so clean as usual? Indeed, I think there must be a +quite peculiar charm for the habitually well-washed in being for a short +time deliberately dirty. + +At Lubkow, a small village on the Jasmunder Bodden, we got on to the +high road to Bergen, and turning up it to the right faced northwards +once more. Soon after passing a forestry in the woods we reached the +Schmale Heide again, and then for four miles drove along a white road +between young pines, the bluest of skies overhead, and on our right, +level with the road, the violet sea. This was the first time I saw the +Baltic really violet. On other days it had been a deep blue or a +brilliant green, but here it was a wonderful, dazzling violet. + +At Neu Mucran--all these places are on the map--we left the high road to +go on by itself up to the inland town of Sagard, and plunged into sandy, +shadeless country roads, trying to keep as near the shore as possible. +The rest of the way to Sassnitz was too unmitigatedly glaring and dusty +to be pleasant. There were no trees at all; and as it was uphill nearly +the whole way we had time to be thoroughly scorched and blinded. Nor +could we keep near the sea. The road took us farther and farther away +from it as we toiled slowly up between cornfields, crammed on that poor +soil with poppies and marguerites and chickory. Earth and sky were one +blaze of brightness. Our eyes, filled with dust, were smarting long +before we got to the yet fiercer blaze of Sassnitz; and it was when we +found that the place is all chalk and white houses, built in the open +with the forest pushed well back behind, that with one accord we decided +not to stay in it. + +I would advise the intending tourist to use Sassnitz only as a place to +make excursions to from Binz on one side or Stubbenkammer on the other; +though, aware of my peculiarities, I advise it with diffidence. For out +of every thousand Germans nine hundred and ninety-nine would give, with +emphasis, a contrary advice, and the remaining one would not agree with +me. But I have nothing to do with the enthusiasms of other people, and +can only repeat that it is a dusty, glaring place--quaint enough on a +fine day, with its steep streets leading down to the water, and on wet +days dreary beyond words, for its houses all look as though they were +built of cardboard and were only meant, as indeed is the case, to be +used during a few weeks in summer. + +August, Gertrud, and the horses were sent to an inn for a three hours' +rest, and we walked down the little street, lined with stalls covered +with amber ornaments and photographs, to the sea. As it was dinner-time +the place was empty, and from the different hotels came such a hum and +clatter of voices and dishes that, remembering Sellin, we decided not to +go in. Down on the beach we found a confectioner's shop directly +overlooking the sea, with sun-blinds and open windows, and no one in it. +It looked cool, so we went in and sat at a marble table in a draught, +and the sea splashed refreshingly on the shingle just outside, and we +ate a great many cakes and sardines and vanilla ices, and then began to +feel wretched. + +'What shall we do till four o'clock?' I inquired disconsolately, leaning +my elbows on the window-sill and watching the heat dancing outside over +the shingle. + +'Do?' said somebody, stopping beneath the window; 'why, walk with us to +Stubbenkammer, of course.' + +It was Ambrose, clad from head to foot in white linen, a cool and +beautiful vision. + +'You here? I thought you were going to stay in Binz?' + +'We came across for the day in a steamer. My mother is waiting for me in +the shade. She sent me to get some biscuits, and then we are going to +Stubbenkammer. Come too.' + +'Oh but the heat!' + +'Wait a minute. I'm coming in there to get the biscuits.' + +He disappeared round the corner of the house, the door being behind. + +'He is good-looking, isn't he?' I said to Charlotte. + +'I dislike that type of healthy, successful, self-satisfied young +animal.' + +'That's because you have eaten so many cakes and sardines,' I said +soothingly. + +'Are you never serious?' + +'But invariably.' + +'Frankly, I find nothing more tiring than talking to a person who is +persistently playful.' + +'That's only those three vanilla ices,' I assured her encouragingly. + +'You here, too, Frau Nieberlein?' exclaimed Ambrose, coming in. 'Oh +good. You will come with us, won't you? It's a beautiful walk--shade the +whole way. And I have just got that work of the Professor's about the +Phrygians, and want to talk about it frightfully badly. I've been +reading it all night. It's the most marvellous book. No wonder it +revolutionised European thought. Absolutely epoch-making.' He bought his +biscuits as one in a dream, so greatly did he glow with rapture. + +'Come on Charlotte,' I said; 'a walk will do us both good. I'll send +word to August to meet us at Stubbenkammer.' + +But Charlotte would not come on. She would sit there quietly, she said; +bathe perhaps, later, and then drive to Stubbenkammer. + +'I tell you what, Frau Nieberlein,' cried Ambrose from the counter, 'I +never envied a woman before, but I must say I envy you. What a +marvellously glorious fate to be the wife of such an extraordinary +thinker!' + +'Very well then,' I said quickly, not knowing what Charlotte's reply +might be, 'you'll come on with August and meet us there. _Auf +Wiedersehen_, Lottchen.' And I hurried Ambrose and his biscuits out. + +Looking up as we passed beneath the window, we saw Charlotte still +sitting at the marble table gazing into space. + +'Your cousin is wonderful about the Professor,' said Ambrose as we +crossed a scorching bit of chalky promenade to the trees where Mrs. +Harvey-Browne was waiting. + +'In what way wonderful?' I asked uneasily, for I had no wish to discuss +the Nieberlein conjugalities with him. + +'Oh, so self-controlled, so quiet, so modest; never trots him out, never +puts on airs because she's his wife--oh, quite wonderful.' + +'Ah, yes. About those Phrygians----' + +And so I got his thoughts away from Charlotte, and by the time we had +found his mother I knew far more about Phrygians than I should have +thought possible. + +The walk along the coast from Sassnitz to Stubbenkammer is alone worth a +journey to Rügen. I suppose there are few walks in the world more wholly +beautiful from beginning to end. On no account, therefore, should the +traveller, all unsuspecting of so much beauty so near at hand, be +persuaded to go to Stubbenkammer by road. The road will give him merely +a pretty country drive, taking him the shortest way, quite out of sight +of the sea; the path keeps close to the edge of the cliffs, and is a +series of exquisite surprises. But only the lusty and the spare must +undertake it, for it is not to be done under three hours, and is an +almost continual going down countless steps into deep ravines, and up +countless steps out of them again. You are, however, in the shade of +beeches the whole time; and who shall describe, as you climb higher and +higher, the lovely sparkle and colour of the sea as it curls, far below +you, in and out among the folds of the cliffs? + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne was sufficiently spare to enjoy the walk. Ambrose was +perfectly content telling us about Nieberlein's new work. I was +perfectly content too, because only one ear was wanted for Nieberlein, +and I still had one over for the larks and the lapping of the water, +besides both my happy eyes. We did not hurry, but lingered over each +beauty, resting on little sunny plateaus high up on the very edge of the +cliffs, where, sitting on the hot sweet grass, we saw the colour of the +sea shine through the colour of the fringing scabious--a divine meeting +of colours often to be seen along the Rügen coast in July; or, in the +deep shade at the bottom of a ravine, we rested on the moss by water +trickling down over slimy green stones to the sea which looked, from +those dark places, like a great wall of light. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne listened with a placid pride to her son's +explanations of the scope and nature of Nieberlein's book. His +enthusiasm made him talk so much that she, perforce, was silent; and her +love for him written so plainly on her face showed what she must have +been like in her best days, the younger days before her husband got his +gaiters and began to grieve. Besides, during the last and steepest part +of the walk we were beyond the range of other tourists, for they had all +dropped off at the Waldhalle, a place half-way where you drink, so that +there was nothing at all to offend her. We arrived, therefore, at +Stubbenkammer about six o'clock in a state of perfect concord, +pleasantly tired, and hot enough to be glad we had got there. On the +plateau in front of the restaurant--there is, of course, a restaurant at +the climax of the walk--there were tables under the trees and people +eating and drinking. One table, at a little distance from the others, +with the best view over the cliff, had a white cloth on it, and was +spread for what looked like tea. There were nice thin cups, and +strawberries, and a teapot, and a jug in the middle with roses in it; +and while I was wondering who were the privileged persons for whom it +had been laid Gertrud came out of the restaurant, followed by a waiter +carrying thin bread and butter, and then I knew that the privileged +persons were ourselves. + +'I had tea with you yesterday,' I said to Mrs. Harvey-Browne. 'Now it is +your turn to have tea with me.' + +'How charming,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne with a sigh of satisfaction, +sinking into a chair and smelling the roses. 'Your maid seems to be one +of those rare treasures who like doing extra things for their +mistresses.' + +Well, Gertrud is a rare treasure, and it did look clean and dainty next +to the beer-stained tables at which coffee was being drunk and spilt by +tourists who had left their Gertruds at home. Then the place was so +wonderful, the white cliffs cutting out sheer and sharp into the sea, +their huge folds filled with every sort of greenery--masses of shrubby +trees, masses of ferns, masses of wild-flowers. Down at the bottom there +was a steamer anchored, the one by which the Harvey-Brownes were going +back later to Binz, quite a big, two-funnelled steamer, and it looked +from where we were like a tiny white toy. + +'I fear the gracious one will not enjoy sleeping here,' whispered +Gertrud as she put a pot of milk on the table. 'I made inquiries on +arrival, and the hotel is entirely full, and only one small bedroom in a +pavilion, detached, among trees, can be placed at the gracious one's +disposal.' + +'And my cousin?' + +'The room has two beds, and the cousin of the gracious one is sitting on +one of them. We have been here already an hour. August is installed. The +horses are well accommodated here. I have an attic of sufficient +comfort. Only the ladies will suffer.' + +'I will go to my cousin. Show me, I pray thee, the way.' + +Excusing myself to Mrs. Harvey-Browne I followed Gertrud. At the back of +the restaurant there is an open space where a great many feather-beds in +red covers were being aired on the grass, while fowls and the waiting +drivers of the Sassnitz waggonettes wandered about among them. In the +middle of this space is a big, bare, yellow house, the only hotel in +Stubbenkammer, the only house in fact that I saw at all, and some +distance to the left of this in the shade of the forest, one-storied, +dank, dark, and mosquito-y, the pavilion. + +'Gertrud,' I said, scanning it with a sinking heart, 'never yet did I +sleep in a pavilion.' + +'I know it, gracious one.' + +'With shutterless windows on a level with the elbows of the passers-by.' + +'What the gracious one says is but too true.' + +'I will enter and speak with my cousin Charlotte.' + +Charlotte was, as Gertrud had said, sitting on one of the two beds that +nearly filled the room. She was feverishly writing something in pencil +on the margin of _The Beast of Prey_, and looked up with an eager, +worried expression when I opened the door. 'Is it not terrible,' she +said, 'that one should not be able to do more than one's best, and that +one's best is never enough?' + +'Why, what's the matter?' + +'Oh everything's the matter! You are all dull, indifferent, deadened to +everything that is vital. You don't care--you let things slide--and if +any one tries to wake you up and tell you the truth you never, never +listen.' + +'Who--me?' I asked, confused into this sad grammar by her outburst. + +She threw the pamphlet down and jumped up, 'Oh, I am sick of all your +sins and stupidities!' she cried, pulling her hat straight and sticking +violent pins into it. + +'Whose--mine?' I asked in great perplexity. + +'It would almost seem,' said Charlotte, fixing me with angry eyes,--'it +would really almost seem that there is no use whatever in devoting one's +life to one's fellow-creatures.' + +'Well, one naturally likes to be left alone,' I murmured. + +'What I try to do is to pull them out of the mud when they are in it, to +warn them when they are going in it, and to help them when they have +been in it.' + +'Well, that sounds very noble. Being full of noble intentions, why on +earth, my dear Charlotte, can't you be placid? You are never placid. +Come and have some tea.' + +'Tea! What, with those wretched people? Those leathern souls? Those +Harvey-Brownes?' + +'Come along--it isn't only tea--it's strawberries and roses, and looks +lovely.' + +'Oh, those people half kill me! They are so pleased with themselves, so +satisfied with life, such prigs, such toadies. What have I in common +with them?' + +'Nonsense. Ambrose is not a toady at all--he's nothing but a dear. And +his mother has her points. Why not try to do them good? You'd be +interested in them at once if you'd look upon them as patients.' + +I put my arm through hers and drew her out of the room. 'This stuffy +room is enough to depress anybody,' I said. 'And I know what's worrying +you--it's that widow.' + +'I know what's an irritating trick of yours,' exclaimed Charlotte, +turning on me, 'it's always explaining the reason why I say or feel what +I do say or feel.' + +'What, and isn't there any reason?' + +'That widow has no power to worry me. Her hypocrisy will bear its own +fruit, and she will have to eat it. Then, when the catastrophe comes, +the sure consequence of folly and weakness, she'll do what you all do in +face of the inevitable--sit and lament and say it was somebody else's +fault. And of course every single thing that happens to you is never +anybody's fault but your own miserable self's.' + +'I wish you would teach me to dodge what you call the inevitable,' I +said. + +'As though it wanted any teaching,' said Charlotte stopping short in the +middle of the open space before our table to look into my eyes. 'You've +only not got to be silly.' + +'But what am I to do if I am silly--naturally silly--born it?' + +'The tea is getting very cold,' called out Mrs. Harvey-Browne +plaintively. She had been watching us with impatience, and seemed +perturbed. The moment we got near enough she informed us that the +tourists were such that no decent woman could stand it. 'Ambrose has +gone off with one of them,' she said,--'a most terrible old man--to look +at some view over there. Would you believe it, while we were quietly +sitting here not harming anybody, this person came up the hill and +immediately began to talk to us as if we knew each other? He actually +had the audacity to ask if he might sit with us at this table, as there +was no room elsewhere. He was _most_ objectionable. Of course I refused. +The most pushing person I have met at all.' + +'But there is ample room,' said Charlotte, to whom everything the +bishop's wife said and did appeared bad. + +'But, my dear Frau Nieberlein, a complete stranger! And such an +unpleasantly jocular old man. And I think it so very ill-bred to be +jocular in the wrong places.' + +'I always think it a pity to cold-shoulder people,' said Charlotte +sternly. She was not, it seemed, going to stand any nonsense from the +bishop's wife. + +'You must be dying for some tea,' I interposed, pouring it out as one +who should pour oil on troubled waters. + +'And you should consider,' continued Charlotte, 'that in fifty years we +shall all be dead, and our opportunities for being kind will be over.' + +'My dear Frau Nieberlein!' ejaculated the astonished bishop's wife. + +'Why, it isn't certain,' I said. 'You'll only be eighty then, Charlotte, +and what is eighty? When I am eighty I hope to be a gay granddame +skilled in gestic lore, frisking beneath the burthen of fourscore.' + +But the bishop's wife did not like being told she would be dead in fifty +years, and no artless quotations of mine could make her like it; so she +drank her tea with an offended face. 'Perhaps, then,' she remarked, 'you +will tell me I ought to have accepted the proposal one of the other +tourists, a woman, made me a moment ago. She suggested that I should +drive back to Sassnitz with her and her party, and halve the expense of +the fly.' + +'Well, and why should you not?' said Charlotte. + +'Why should I not? There were two excellent reasons why I should not. +First, because it was an impertinence; and secondly, because I am going +back in the boat.' + +'The second reason is good, but you must pardon my seeing no excellence +whatever in the first.' + +'Your son's tea will be undrinkable,' I said, feebly interrupting. I can +never see two people contradicting each other without feeling wretched. +Why contradict? Why argue at all? Only one's Best-Beloved, one's Closest +and Most Understanding should be contradicted and argued with. How +simple to keep quiet with all the rest and agree to everything they say. +Charlotte up to this had kept very quiet in the presence of Mrs. +Harvey-Browne, had said yes in the right places, and had only been +listless and bored. Now, after reading her own explosive pamphlet for an +hour, stirred besides by the widow's base behaviour and by the failure +of her effort to induce penitence in Hedwig by means of punishment, she +was in the strenuous mood again, and inclined to see all manner of +horrid truths and fates hovering round the harmless tea-table, where +denser eyes like mine, and no doubt Mrs. Harvey-Browne's, only saw a +pleasant flicker of beech leaves over cups and saucers, and bland +strawberries in a nest of green. + +'If women did not regard each other's advances with so much suspicion,' +Charlotte proceeded emphatically, 'if they did not look upon every one +of a slightly different class as an impossible person to be avoided, +they would make a much better show in the fight for independent +existence. The value of co-operation is so gigantic----' + +'Ah yes, I fancy I remember your saying something like this at that +lecture in Oxford last winter,' interrupted Mrs. Harvey-Browne with an +immense plaintiveness. + +'It cannot be said too often.' + +'Oh yes dear Frau Nieberlein, believe me it can. What, for instance, has +it to do with my being asked to drive back to Sassnitz with a strange +family in a fly?' + +'Why, with that it has very much to do,' I interposed, smiling +pleasantly on them both. 'You would have paid half. And what is +co-operation if it is not paying half? Indeed, I've been told by people +who have done it that it sometimes even means paying all. In which case +you don't see its point.' + +'What I mean, of course,' said Charlotte, 'is moral co-operation. A +ceaseless working together of its members for the welfare of the sex. No +opportunity should ever be lost. One should always be ready to talk to, +to get to know, to encourage. One must cultivate a large love for +humanity to whatever class it belongs, and however individually +objectionable it is. You, no doubt,' she continued, waving her teaspoon +at the staring bishop's wife, 'curtly refused the very innocent +invitation of your fellow-creature because she was badly dressed and had +manners of a type with which you are not acquainted. You considered it +an impertinence--nay, more than an impertinence, an insult, to be +approached in such a manner. Now, how can you tell'--(here she leaned +across the table, and in her earnestness pointed the teaspoon straight +at Mrs. Harvey-Browne, who stared harder than ever)--'how will you ever +know that the woman did not happen to be full, full to the brim, of that +good soil in which the seed of a few encouraging words dropped during +your drive would have produced a splendid harvest of energy and +freedom?' + +'But my dear Frau Nieberlein,' said the bishop's wife, much taken aback +by this striking image, 'I do not think she was full of anything of the +kind. She did not look so, anyhow. And I myself, to pursue your +metaphor, am hardly fitted for the office of an agricultural implement. +I believe all these things are done nowadays by machinery, are they +not?' she asked, turning to me in a well-meant effort to get away from +the subject. 'The old-fashioned and picturesque sower has been quite +superseded, has he not?' + +'Why are you talking about farming?' asked Ambrose, who came up at this +moment. + +'We are talking of the farming of souls,' replied Charlotte. + +'Oh,' said Ambrose, in his turn taken aback. He pretended to be so busy +sitting down that he couldn't say more than just Oh. We watched him in +silence fussing into his chair. 'How pleasant it is here,' he went on +when he was settled. 'No, I don't mind cold tea a bit, really. Mother, +why wouldn't you let the old man sit with us? He's a frightfully good +sort.' + +'Because there are certain limits beyond which I decline to go,' replied +his mother, visibly annoyed that he should thus unconsciously side with +Charlotte. + +'Oh but it was rough on him--don't you think so, Frau Nieberlein? We +have the biggest table and only half-fill it, and there isn't another +place to be had. It is so characteristically British for us to sit here +and keep other people out. He'll have to wait heaven knows how long for +his coffee, and he has walked miles.' + +'I think,' said Charlotte slowly, loudly, and weightily, 'that he might +very well have joined us.' + +'But you did not see him,' protested Mrs. Harvey-Browne. 'I assure you +he really was impossible. _Much_ worse than the woman we were talking +about.' + +'I can only say,' said Charlotte, even slower, louder, and more +weightily, 'that one should, before all things, be human, and that one +has no right whatever to turn one's back on the smallest request of a +fellow-creature.' + +Hardly had she said it, hardly had the bishop's wife had time to open +her mouth and stare in stoniest astonishment, hardly had I had time to +follow her petrified gaze, than an old man in a long waterproof garment +with a green felt hat set askew on his venerable head, came nimbly up +behind Charlotte, and bending down to her unsuspecting ear shouted into +it the amazing monosyllable 'Bo!' + + + + +THE SEVENTH DAY--_Continued_ + +AT STUBBENKAMMER + + +I believe I have somewhere remarked that Charlotte was not the kind of +person one could ever tickle. She was also the last person in the world +to whom most people would want to say Bo. The effect on her of this Bo +was alarming. She started up as though she had been struck, and then +stood as one turned to stone. + +Brosy jumped up as if to protect her. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne looked really frightened, and gasped 'It is the old +man again--an escaped lunatic--how very unpleasant!' + +'No, no,' I hurriedly explained, 'it is the Professor.' + +'_The Professor?_ What, never the _Professor?_ What, _the_ Professor? +Brosy--Brosy'--she leaned over and seized his coat in an agony of +haste--'never breathe it's the old man I've been talking about--never +breathe it--it's Professor Nieberlein himself!' + +'_What?_' exclaimed Brosy, flushing all over his face. + +But the Professor took no notice of any of us, for he was diligently +kissing Charlotte. He kissed her first on one cheek, then he kissed her +on the other cheek, then he pulled her ears, then he tickled her under +the chin, and he beamed upon her all the while with such an +uninterrupted radiance that the coldest heart must have glowed only to +see it. + +'So here I meet thee, little treasure?' he cried. 'Here once more thy +twitter falls upon my ears? I knew at once thy little chirp. I heard it +above all the drinking noises. "Come, come," I said to myself, "if that +is not the little Lot!" And chirping the self-same tune I know of old, +in the beautiful English tongue: Turn not your back on a creature, turn +not your back. Only on the old husband one turns the pretty back--what? +Fie, fie, the naughty little Lot!' + +I protest I never saw a stranger sight than this of Charlotte being +toyed with. And the rigidity of her! + +'How _charming_ the simple German ways are,' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne in +a great flutter to me while the toying was going on. She was so torn by +horror at what she had said and by rapture at meeting the Professor, +that she hardly knew what she was doing. 'It really does one good to be +given a peep at genuine family emotions. Delightful Professor. You heard +what he said to the Duke after he had gone all the way to Bonn on +purpose to see him? And my dear Frau X., _such_ a Duke!' And she +whispered the name in my ear as though it were altogether too great to +be said aloud. + +I conceded by a nod that he was a very superior duke; but what the +Professor said to him I never heard, for at that moment Charlotte +dropped back into her chair and the Professor immediately scrambled (I +fear there is no other word, he did scramble) into the next one to her, +which was Brosy's. + +'Will you kindly present me?' said Brosy to Charlotte, standing +reverential and bare-headed before the great man. + +'Ah, I know you, my young friend, already,' said the Professor genially. +'We have just been admiring Nature together.' + +At this the bishop's wife blushed, deeply, thoroughly, a thing I suppose +she had not done for years, and cast a supplicating look at Charlotte, +who sat rigid with her eyes on her plate. Brosy blushed too and bowed +profoundly. 'I cannot tell you, sir, how greatly honoured I feel at +being allowed to make your acquaintance,' he said. + +'Tut, tut,' said the Professor. 'Lottchen, present me to these ladies.' + +What, he did not remember me? What, after the memorable evening in +Berlin? I know of few things more wholly grievous than to have a +celebrated connection who forgets he has ever seen you. + +'I must apologise to you, madam,' he said to the bishop's wife, for +taking a seat at your table after all.' + +'Oh, Professor----' murmured Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'But you will perhaps forgive my joining a party of which my wife is a +member.' + +'Oh, Professor, do pray believe----' + +'I know a Brown,' he continued; 'in England there is a Brown I know. He +is of a great skill in card-tricks. Hold--I know another Brown--nay, I +know several. Relations, no doubt, of yours, madam?' + +'No, sir, our name is _Harvey_-Browne.' + +'_Ach so_. I understood Brown. So it is Harvey. Yes, yes; Harvey made +the excellent sauce. I eat it daily with my fish. Madam, a public +benefactor.' + +'Sir, we are not related. We are the Harvey-Brownes.' + +'What, you are both Harveys and Browns, and yet not related to either +Browns or Harveys? Nay, but that is a problem to split the head.' + +'My husband is the Bishop of Babbacombe. Perhaps you have heard of him. +Professor. He too is literary. He annotates.' + +'In any case, madam, his wife speaks admirable German,' said the +Professor, with a little bow. 'And this lady?' he asked, turning to me. + +'Why, I am Charlotte's cousin,' I said, no longer able to hide my +affliction at the rapid way in which he had forgotten me, 'and +accordingly yours. Do you not remember I met you last winter in Berlin +at a party at the Hofmeyers?' + +'Of course--of course. That is to say, I fear, of course not. I have no +memory at all for things of importance. But one can never have too many +little cousins, can one, young man? Sit thee down next to me--then shall +I be indeed a happy man, with my little wife on one side and my little +cousin on the other. So--now we are comfortable; and when my coffee +comes I shall ask for nothing more. Young man, when you marry, see to it +that your wife has many nice little cousins. It is very important. As +for my not remembering thee,' he went on, putting one arm round the back +of my chair, while the other was round the back of Charlotte's, 'be not +offended, for I tell thee that the day after I married my Lot here, I +fell into so great an abstraction that I started for a walking tour in +the Alps with some friends I met, and for an entire week she passed from +my mind. It was at Lucerne. So completely did she pass from it that I +omitted to tell her I was going or bid her farewell. I went. Dost thou +remember, Lottchen? I came to myself on the top of Pilatus a week after +our wedding day. "What ails thee, man?" said my comrades, for I was +disturbed. "I must go down at once," I cried; "I have forgotten +something." "Bah! you do not need your umbrella up here," they said, for +they knew I forget it much. "It is not my umbrella that I have left +behind," I cried, "it is my wife." They were surprised, for I had +forgotten to tell them I had a wife. And when I got down to Lucerne, +there was the poor Lot quite offended.' And he pulled her nearest ear +and laughed till his spectacles grew dim. + +'Delightful,' whispered Mrs. Harvey-Browne to her son. 'So natural.' + +Her son never took his eyes off the Professor, ready to pounce on the +first word of wisdom and assimilate it, as a hungry cat might sit ready +for the mouse that unaccountably delays. + +'Ah yes,' sighed the Professor, stretching out his legs under the table +and stirring the coffee the waiter had set before him, 'never forget, +young man, that the only truly important thing in life is women. Little +round, soft women. Little purring pussy-cats. Eh, Lot? Some of them will +not always purr, will they, little Lot? Some of them mew much, some of +them scratch, some of them have days when they will only wave their +naughty little tails in anger. But all are soft and pleasant, and add +much grace to the fireside.' + +'How true,' murmured Mrs. Harvey-Browne in a rapture, 'how very, very +true. So, so different from Nietzsche.' + +'What, thou art silent, little treasure?' he continued, pinching +Charlotte's cheek.' Thou lovest not the image of the little cats?' + +'No,' said Charlotte; and the word was jerked up red-hot from an +interior manifestly molten. + +'Well, then, pass me those strawberries that blink so pleasantly from +their bed of green, and while I eat pour out of thy dear heart all that +it contains concerning pussies, which interest thee greatly as I well +know, and all else that it contains and has contained since last I saw +thee. For it is long since I heard thy voice, and I have missed thee +much. Art thou not my dearest wife?' + +Clearly it was time for me to get up and remove the Harvey-Brownes out +of earshot. I prepared to do so, but at the first movement the arm along +the back of the chair slid down and gripped hold of me. + +'Not so restless, not so restless, little cousin,' said the Professor, +smiling rosily. 'Did I not tell thee I am happy so? And wilt thou mar +the happiness of a good old man?' + +'But you have Charlotte, and you must wish to talk to her----' + +'Certainly do I wish it. But talking to Charlotte excludeth not the +encircling of Elizabeth. And have I not two arms?' + +'I want to go and show Mrs. Harvey-Browne the view from the cliff,' I +said, appalled at the thought of what Charlotte, when she did begin to +speak, would probably say. + +'Tut, tut,' said the Professor, gripping me tighter, 'we are very well +so. The contemplation of virtuous happiness is at least as edifying for +this lady as the contemplation of water from a cliff.' + +'Delightful originality,' murmured Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +'Madam, you flatter me,' said the Professor, whose ears were quick. + +'Oh no. Professor, indeed, it is not flattery.' + +'Madam, I am the more obliged.' + +'We have so long wished we could meet you. My son spent the whole of +last summer in Bonn trying to do so----' + +'Waste of time, waste of time, madam.' + +'--and all in vain. And this year we were both there before coming up +here and did all we could, but also unfortunately in vain. It really +seems as if Providence had expressly led us to this place to-day.' + +'Providence, madam, is continually leading people to places, and then +leading them away again. I, for instance, am to be led away again from +this one with great rapidity, for I am on foot and must reach a bed by +nightfall. Here there is nothing to be had.' + +'Oh you must come back to Binz with us,' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne. 'The +steamer leaves in an hour, and I am sure room could be found for you in +our hotel. My son would gladly give you his, if necessary; he would feel +only too proud if you would take it, would you not, Brosy?' + +'Madam, I am overwhelmed by your amiability. You will, however, +understand that I cannot leave my wife. Where I go she comes too--is it +not so, little treasure? I am only waiting to hear her plans to arrange +mine accordingly. I have no luggage. I am very movable. My night attire +is on my person, beneath the attire appropriate to the day. In one +pocket of my mantle I carry an extra pair of socks. In another my +handkerchiefs, of which there are two. And my sponge, damp and cool, is +embedded in the crown of my hat. Thus, madam, I am of a remarkable +independence. Its one restriction is the necessity of finding a shelter +daily before dark. Tell me, little Lot, is there no room for the old +husband here with thee?' And there was something so sweet in his smile +as he turned to her that I think if she had seen it she must have +followed him wherever he went. + +But she did not raise her eyes. 'I go to Berlin this evening,' she said. +'I have important engagements, and must leave at once.' + +'My dear Frau Nieberlein,' exclaimed the bishop's wife, 'is not this +very sudden?' + +Brosy, who had been looking uncomfortable for some minutes quite apart +from not having got his mouse, pulled out his watch and stood up. 'If we +are to catch that steamer, mother, I think it would be wise to start,' +he said. + +'Nonsense, Brosy, it doesn't go for an hour,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, +revolted at the notion of being torn from her celebrity in the very +moment of finding him. + +'I am afraid we must,' insisted Brosy. 'It takes much longer to get down +the cliff than one would suppose. And it is slippery--I want to take you +down an easier and rather longer way.' + +And he carried her off, ruthlessly cutting short her parting entreaties +that the Professor would come too, come to-morrow, then, come without +fail the next day, then, to Binz; and he took her, as I observed, +straight in the direction of the Hertha See as a beginning of the easy +descent, and the Hertha See, as everybody knows, is in the exactly +contrary direction to the one he ought to have gone; but no doubt he +filled up the hour instructively with stories of the ancient heathen +rites performed on those mystic shores, and so left Charlotte free to +behave to her husband as she chose. + +How she did behave I can easily guess, for hurrying off into the +pavilion, desirous of nothing except to get out of the way, I had hardly +had time to marvel that she should be able to dislike such an old dear, +when she burst in. 'Quick, quick--help me to get my things!' she cried, +flying up and down the slit of a room and pouncing on the bags stowed +away by Gertrud in corners. 'I can just catch the night train at +Sassnitz--I'm off to Berlin--I'll write to you from there. Why, if that +fool Gertrud hasn't emptied everything out! What a terrible fate yours +is, always at the mercy of an overfed underling--a person who empties +bags without being asked. Give me those brushes--and the papers. Well, +you've seen me dragged down into the depths to-day, haven't you?' And +she straightened herself from bending over the bag, a brush in each +hand, and looking at me with a most bitter and defiant smile +incontinently began to cry. + +'Don't cry, Charlotte,' I said, who had been dumbly staring, 'don't cry, +my dear. I didn't see any depths. I only saw nice things. Don't go to +Berlin--stay here and let us be happy together.' + +'Stay here? Never!' And she feverishly crammed things into her bag, and +the bag must have been at least as full of tears as of other things, for +she cried bitterly the whole time. + +Well, women have always been a source of wonderment to me, myself +included, who am for ever hurled in the direction of foolishness, for +ever unable to stop; and never are they so mysterious, so wholly +unaccountable, as in their relations to their husbands. But who shall +judge them? The paths of fate are all so narrow that two people bound +together, forced to walk abreast, cannot, except they keep perfect step, +but push each other against the rocks on either side. So that it behoves +the weaker and the lighter, if he would remain unbruised, to be very +attentive, very adaptable, very deft. + +I saw Charlotte off in one of the waiting waggonettes that was to take +her to Sassnitz where the railway begins. 'I'll let you know where I +am,' she called out as she was rattled away down the hill; and with a +wave of the hand she turned the corner and vanished from my sight, gone +once more into those frozen regions where noble and forlorn persons +pursue ideals. + +Walking back slowly through the trees towards the cliffs I met the +Professor looking everywhere for his wife. 'What time does Lot leave?' +he cried when he saw me. 'Must she really go?' + +'She is gone.' + +'No! How long since?' + +'About ten minutes.' + +'Then I too take that train.' + +And he hurried off, clambering with the nimbleness that was all his own +into a second waggonette, and disappeared in his turn down the hill. +'Dearest little cousin,' he shouted just before being whisked round the +corner, 'permit me to bid thee farewell and wish thee good luck. I shall +seriously endeavour to remember thee this time.' + +'Do,' I called back, smiling; but he could not have heard. + +Once again I slowly walked through the trees to the cliffs. The highest +of these cliffs, the Königsstuhl, jutting out into the sea forms a +plateau where a few trees that have weathered the winter storms of many +years stand in little groups. For a long while I sat on the knotted +roots of one of them, listening to the slow wash of the waves on the +shingle far below. I saw the ribbon of smoke left by the Harvey-Browne's +steamer get thinner and disappear. I watched the sunset-red fade out of +the sky and sea, and all the world grow grey and full of secrets. Once, +after I had sat there a very long time, I thought I heard the faint +departing whistle of a far-distant train, and my heart leapt up with +exultation. Oh the gloriousness of freedom and silence, of being alone +with my own soul once more! I drew a long, long breath, and stood up and +stretched myself in the supreme comfort of complete relaxation. + +'You look very happy,' said a rather grudging voice close to me. + +It belonged to a Fräulein of uncertain age, come up to the plateau in +galoshes to commune in her turn with night and Nature; and I suppose I +must have been smiling foolishly all over my face, after the manner of +those whose thoughts are pleasant. + +A Harvey-Browne impulse seized me to stare at her and turn my back, but +I strangled it. 'Do you know why I look happy?' I inquired instead; and +my voice was as the voice of turtle-doves. + +'No--why?' was the eagerly inquisitive answer. + +'Because I am.' + +And nodding sweetly I walked away. + + + + +THE EIGHTH DAY + +FROM STUBBENKAMMER TO GLOWE + + +When Reason lecturing us on certain actions explains that they are best +avoided, and Experience with her sledge-hammers drives the lesson home, +why do we, convinced and battered, repeat the actions every time we get +the chance? I have known from my youth the opinion of Solomon that he +that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like +one that taketh a dog by the ears; and I have a wise relative--not a +blood-relation, but still very wise--who at suitable intervals addresses +me in the following manner:--'Don't meddle.' Yet now I have to relate +how, on the eighth day of my journey round Rügen, in defiance of Reason, +Experience, Solomon, and the wise relative, I began to meddle. + +The first desire came upon me in the night, when I could not sleep +because of the mosquitoes and the constant coming into the pavilion of +late and jovial tourists. The tourists came in in jolly batches till +well on towards morning, singing about things like the Rhine and the +Fatherland's frontiers, glorious songs and very gory, as they passed my +hastily-shut window on their way round to the door. After each batch had +gone I got out and cautiously opened the window again, and then waited +for the next ones, slaying mosquitoes while I waited; and it was while I +lay there sleepless and tormented that the longing to help reunite +Charlotte and her husband first entered my head. + +It is true that I was bothered for some time trying to arrive at a clear +comprehension of what constitutes selfishness, but I gave that up for it +only made my head ache. Surely Charlotte, for instance, was intensely +selfish to leave her home and, heedless of her husband's unhappiness, +live the life she preferred? But was not he equally selfish in wanting +to have her back again? For whose happiness would that be? He could not +suppose for hers. If she, determined to be unselfish, went home, she +would only be pandering to his selfishness. The more she destroyed her +individuality and laid its broken remains at his feet, the more she +would be developing evil qualities in the acceptor of such a gift. We +are taught that our duty is to make each other good and happy, not bad +and happy; Charlotte, therefore, would be doing wrong if, making the +Professor happy, she also made him bad. Because he had a sweet way with +him and she had not, he got all the sympathy, including mine; and of +course the whole of that windy mass of biassed superficiality called +Public Opinion was on his side. But how can one, if one truly loves a +woman, wish her to live a life that must make her wretched? Such love +can only be selfish; accordingly the Professor was selfish. They were +both selfish; and if one were not so the other would be more so. And if +to be unselfish meant making those about you the opposite, then it must +be wrong; and were it conceivable that a whole family should determine +to be unselfish and actually carry out the dreadful plan, life in that +doomed house would become a perpetual _combat de générosité_, not in any +way to be borne. Here it was that my head began to ache. 'What stuff is +this?' I thought, veering round suddenly to the easeful simplicity of +the old conventions. 'Just to think of it gives me a headache. The only +thing I know of that does not give a woman a headache is to live the +life for which she was intended--the comfortable life with a brain at +rest and a body wholly occupied with benevolences; and if her meekness +makes her husband bad, what does that matter in the end to any one but +him? Charlotte ought to be very happy with that kind old man. Any woman +would be. Her leaving him must have been owing to some trifling +misunderstanding. I am sure it would be for her happiness to go back to +him. She would grow quite round and mellow. Could I not do something, +say something, to get her to give him another trial? I wish--oh, I wish +I could!' + +Now from time to time the wise relative quoted above amplifies his +advice in the following manner:--'Of all forms of meddling that which +deals with man and wife is, to the meddler, the most immediately fatal.' + +But where are the persons who take advice? I never yet met them. When +the first shaft of sunshine slanted through my window it fell on me in +my dressing-gown feverishly writing to Charlotte. The eloquence of that +letter! I really think it had all the words in it I know, except those +about growing round and mellow. Something told me that they would not +appeal to her. I put it in an envelope and locked it in my dressing-case +till, unconscious of what was in store for her, she should send me her +address; and then, full of the glow that warms the doer of good actions +equally with the officious, I put on my bathing things, a decent skirt +and cloak over them, got out of the window, and went down the cliff to +the beach to bathe. + +The water was icily cold in the shadow of the cliffs, but it was a +wonderful feeling getting all the closeness of the night dashed off me +in that vast and splendid morning solitude. Dripping I hurried up again, +my skirt and cloak over the soaked bathing dress, my wet feet thrust +into shoes I could never afterwards wear, a trickle of salt water +marking the way I took. It was just five o'clock as I got in at the +window. In another quarter of an hour I was dry and dressed and out of +the window a second time--getting in and out of that window had a +singular fascination for me--and on my way for an early exploring of the +woods. + +But those Stubbenkammer woods were destined never to be explored by me; +for I had hardly walked ten minutes along their beechen ways listening +to the birds and stopping every few steps to look up at the blue of the +sky between the branches, before I came to the Hertha See, a mysterious +silent pond of black water with reeds round it and solemn forest paths, +and on the moss by the shore of the Hertha See, his eyes fixed on its +sullen waters, deep in thought, sat the Professor. + +'Don't tell me you have forgotten me again,' I exclaimed anxiously; for +his eyes turned from the lake to me as I came over the moss to him in an +unchanged abstraction. What was he doing there? He looked exceedingly +untidy, and his boots were white with dust. + +'Good morning,' I said cheerfully, as he continued to gaze straight +through me. + +'I have no doubt whatever that this was the place,' he remarked, 'and +Klüver was correct in his conjecture.' + +'Now what is the use,' I said, sitting down on the moss beside him, 'of +talking to me like that when I don't know the beginning? Who is Klüver? +And what did he conjecture?' + +His eyes suddenly flashed out of their dream, and he smiled and patted +my hand. 'Why, it is the little cousin,' he said, looking pleased. + +'It is. May I ask what you are doing here?' + +'Doing? Agreeing with Klüver that this is undoubtedly the spot.' + +'What spot?' + +'Tacitus describes it so accurately that there can be no reasonable +doubt.' + +'Oh--Tacitus. I thought Klüver had something to do with Charlotte. Where +is Charlotte?' + +'Conceive the procession of the goddess Nerthus, or Hertha, mother of +the earth, passing through these sacred groves on the way to bless her +children. Her car is covered, so that no eye shall behold her. The +priest alone, walking by the side, is permitted to touch it. Wherever +she passes holyday is kept. Arms are laid aside. Peace reigns absolute. +No man may seek to slay his brother while she who blesses all alike is +passing among her children. Then, when she has once more been carried to +her temple, in this water thou here seest, in this very lake, her car +and its draperies are cleansed by slaves, who, after performing their +office, are themselves thrown into the water and left to perish; for +they had laid hands on that which was holy, and even to-day, when we are +half-hearted in the defence of our adorations and rarely set up altars +in our souls, that is a dangerous thing to do.' + +'Dear Professor,' I said, 'it is perfectly sweet of you to tell me about +the goddess Nerthus, but would you mind, before you go any further, +telling me where Charlotte is? When I last saw you you were whirling +after her in a waggonette. Did you ever catch her?' + +He looked at me a moment, then gave the bulging pocket of his waterproof +a sounding slap. 'Little cousin,' he said, 'in me thou beholdest a +dreamer of dreams, an unpractical greybeard, a venerable sheep's-head. +Never, I suppose, shall I learn to remember, unaided, those occurrences +that I fain would not forget. Therefore I assist myself by making notes +of them to which I can refer. Unfortunately it seldom happens that I +remember to refer. Thou, however, hast reminded me of them. I will now +seek them out.' And he dragged different articles from the bulging +pocket, laying them carefully on the moss beside him in tidy rows. But +the fact of only one of the two handkerchiefs being there nearly put him +off the track, so much and so long did he marvel where its fellow could +be; also the sight of his extra pair of socks reminded him of the urgent +need they were in of mending, and he broke off his search for the +note-book to hold each up in turn to me and eloquently lament. _'Nein, +nein, was fur Socken!'_ he moaned, with a final shake of the head as he +spread them out too on the moss. + +'Yes, they are very bad,' I agreed for the tenth time. + +'Bad! They are emblematic.' + +'Will you let me mend them? Or rather,' I hastily added, 'cause them to +be mended?' For my aversion to needles is at least as great as +Charlotte's. + +'No, no--what is the use? There are cupboards full of socks like them in +Bonn, skeletons of that which once was socks, mere outlines filled in +with holes.' + +'And all are emblematic?' + +'Every single one.' But this time he looked at me with a twinkle in his +eye. + +'I don't think,' I said, 'that I'd let my soul be ruffled by a sock. If +it offended me I'd throw it away and buy some more.' + +'Behold wisdom,' cried the Professor gaily, 'proceeding from the mouth +of an intellectual suckling!' And without more ado he flung both the +socks into the Hertha See. There they lay, like strange flowers of +yellow wool, motionless on the face of the mystic waters. + +'And now the note-book?' I asked; for he had relapsed into immobility, +and was watching the socks with abstracted eyes. + +'_Ach_ yes--the note-book.' + +Being heavy, it was at the very bottom of what was more like a sack in +size than a pocket; but once he had run his glance over the latest +entries he began very volubly to tell me what he had been doing all +night. It had been an even busier night than mine. Charlotte, he +explained, had left Sassnitz by the Berlin train, and had taken a ticket +for Berlin, as he ascertained at the booking-office, a few minutes +before he took his. He arrived at the very last moment, yet as he jumped +into the just departing train he caught sight of her sitting in a +ladies' compartment. She also caught sight of him. 'I therefore gave a +sigh of satisfaction,' he continued, 'lit my pipe, and, contemplating +the evening heavens from the window, happy in the thought of being so +near my little wife, I fell into an abstraction.' + +I shook my head. 'These abstractions. Professor,' I observed, 'are +inconvenient things to fall into. What had happened by the time you fell +out again?' + +'I found that I had emerged from my compartment and was standing on the +ferry that takes the train across the water to Stralsund. The ancient +city rose in venerable majesty----' + +'Never mind the ancient city, dearest Professor. Look at your notes +again--what was Charlotte doing?' + +'Charlotte? She had entirely escaped my memory, so great was the +pleasure excited in my breast by the contemplation of the starlit scene +before me. But glancing away from the massive towers of Stralsund, my +eye fell on the word "_Frauen_" on the window of the ladies' carriage. +Instantly remembering Charlotte, I clambered up eager to speak to her. +The compartment was empty.' + +'She too was contemplating the starlit scene from the deck of the +ferry?' + +'She was not.' + +'Were there no bags in the carriage?' + +'Not a bag.' + +'What had become of her?' + +'She had left the train; and I'll tell thee how. At Bergen, our only +stopping-place, we crossed a train returning to Sassnitz. Plentiful +applications of drink-money to officials revealed the fact that she had +changed into this train.' + +'Not very clever,' I thought. + +'No, no,' said the Professor, as if he had heard me thinking. 'The +little Lot's cleverness invariably falls just short of the demands made +upon it. At critical moments, when the choice lies between the substance +and the shadow, I have observed she unfailingly chooses the shadow. This +comical life she leads, what is it but a pursuit of shadows? +However----' And he stopped short, not caring, I suppose, to discuss his +wife. + +'Where do you think she is now?' + +'I conjecture not far from here. I arrived at Sassnitz at one o'clock +this morning by the Swedish boat-train. I was told that a lady answering +her description had got out there at eleven, taken a fly, and driven +into the town. I walked out here to speak with thee, and was only +waiting for the breakfast-hour to seek thee out, for she will not, being +so near thee, omit to join thee.' + +'You must be perfectly exhausted.' + +'What I most wish for is breakfast.' + +'Then let us go and see if we can't get some. Gertrud will be up by now, +and can produce coffee at the shortest notice.' + +'Who is Gertrud? Another dear little cousin? If it be so, lead me, I +pray thee, at once to Gertrud.' + +I laughed, and explaining Gertrud to him helped him pack his pocket +again. Then we started for the hotel full of hope, each thinking that if +Charlotte were not already there she would very soon turn up. + +But Charlotte was not there, nor did she, though we loitered over our +coffee till we ended by being as late as the latest tourist, turn up. +'She is certain to come during the day,' said the Professor. + +I told him I had arranged to go to Glowe that day, a little place +farther along the coast; and he said he would, in that case, engage my +vacant pavilion-bedroom for himself and stay that night at +Stubbenkammer. 'She is certain to come here,' he repeated; 'and I will +not lose her a second time.' + +'You won't like the pavilion,' I remarked. + +About eleven, there being still no signs of Charlotte, I set out on foot +on the first stage of my journey to Glowe, sending the carriage round by +road to meet me at Lohme, the place where I meant to stop for lunch, and +going myself along the footpath down on the shore. The Professor, who +was a great walker and extraordinarily active for his years, came with +me part of the way. He intended, he said, to go into Sassnitz that +afternoon if Charlotte did not appear before then and make inquiries, +and meanwhile he would walk a little with me; so we started very gaily +down the same zigzag path up which I had crawled dripping a few hours +before. At the bottom of the ravine the shore-path from Stubbenkammer to +Lohme begins. It is a continuation of the lovely path from Sassnitz, +but, less steep, it keeps closer to the beach. It is a white chalk path +running along the foot of cliffs clothed with moss and every kind of +wild-flower and fern. Masses of the leaves of lilies of the valley show +what it must look like in May, and on the day we walked there the space +between the twisted beech trunks--twisted into the strangest contortions +under the lash of winter storms--was blue with wild campanula. + +What a walk that was. The sea lay close to our feet in great green and +blue streaks; the leaves of the beeches on our left seemed carved in +gold, they shone so motionless against the sky; and the Professor was so +gay, so certain that he was going to find Charlotte, that he almost +danced instead of walking. He talked to me, there is no doubt, as he +might have talked to quite a little child--of erudition there was not a +sign, of wisdom in Brosy's sense not a word; but what of that? The happy +result was that I understood him, and I know we were very merry. If I +were Charlotte nothing would induce me to stir from the side of a +good-natured man who could make me laugh. Why, what a quality in a +husband, how precious and how rare. Think of living with a person who +looks at the world with the kindliest amused eyes. Imagine having a +perpetual spring of pleasant mirth in one's own house, babbling coolly +of refreshing things on days when life is dusty. Must not wholesomeness +pervade the very cellars and lumber-rooms of such a home? Well, I meant +to do all in my power to persuade Charlotte to go into the home again. +How delightful to be the means of doing the dear old man beside me a +good turn! Meanwhile he walked along happily, all unconscious that I was +meditating good turns, perhaps happy for that very reason, and full of +confidence in his ability to catch and to keep Charlotte. 'Where she +goes I go with her,' he said. 'I now have my summer leisure and can +devote myself entirely to her.' + +'Do not fall into abstractions then, dear Professor, at important +moments,' I said; and inwardly rehearsed the eloquent pleadings with +which I meant to shake Charlotte's soul when next I saw her. + +We said good-bye where the wood ends and the white path goes out into +the sun. 'Be sure you let me know when you meet Charlotte,' I said. 'I +want particularly to speak to her. Something really important. Tell her +so. And I have a letter for her if I can't see her. Don't forget I sleep +at Glowe to-night. I'll telegraph where I stay to-morrow. Don't forget. +Won't you be very nice and make notes of it?' + +He promised, wished me Godspeed, kissed my hand, and turned back into +the wood swinging his stick and humming gay little tunes; and I went on +in the sun to Lohme. + +There I bathed again, a delicious solitary bathe just as the woman was +locking up for the day; and afterwards, when she had gone away up the +cliff to her dinner, I sat on the empty beach in the sun and thought of +all I was going to say to Charlotte. It interested me so much that I +forgot I had meant to lunch at Lohme, and when I remembered it it was +already time to go up and meet the carriage. It did not matter, as the +midday meal is the best one to leave out, and Lohme is not the kind of +place I would ever want to lunch in. The beach at the foot of the cliffs +is quiet and pleasant, and from it you can see the misty headland of +Arkona with its lighthouse, the northernmost point of the island, far +away on the left. Lohme itself is a small group of hotels and +lodging-houses on the top of low cliffs, very small and modest compared +even to Binz and Sassnitz, which are not very big themselves, and much +more difficult to get at. There is no railway nearer than Sassnitz, and +the few steamers that stop there disgorge the tourist who wants to get +out into a small boat and steam away leaving him to his fate, which is +only a nice one on quite calm days. Safely on land he climbs up a +shadeless zigzag path which must be beautiful in June, for the cliffs +are thickly covered with wild-rose bushes, and at the top finds himself +among the lodging-houses of Lohme. The only thing I saw when I got to +the top that made me linger was a row of tubs filled with nasturtiums +along the little terrace in front of the first hotel I passed. The way +those nasturtiums blazed against the vast blue curtain of sea and sky +that hung behind them, with no tree or bush anywhere near to shadow +their fierce splendour, was a sight well worth coming to Lohme for. +There is no shade anywhere at Lohme. It stands entirely exposed out in +the open beyond the Stubbenkammer forest, and on a dull day must be +dreary. It is, I imagine, a convenient place for quiet persons who do +not wish to spend much, and the air is beautiful. In spite of the heat I +felt as if it were the most bracing air I had yet come across on my +journey. + +The carriage was waiting just outside the empty, sunny little place, in +a road that winds chalkily between undulating fields in the direction of +Glowe. Gertrud's face wore a look of satisfaction as she got into her +old seat beside me and took out her knitting. She had not been able to +knit during those few dreadful days in which her place had been usurped, +and she had bumped after us ignominiously in a cart; and how pleasant it +was not to have the ceaseless rattle just behind. Yes; it became more +and more clear that Charlotte ought to be in her own home with her +husband. Her being there would undoubtedly promote the general peace. +And why should she go about stirring people up and forcing them to be +dogged by luggage carts? + +The road wound higher through the cornfields, dwindling at last into a +stony track. The country heaved away in ample undulations on either +side. There were no trees, but so many flowers that even the ruts were +blue with chickory. On the right, over the cornfields, lay the Baltic. I +could still see Arkona in front of me on the dim edge of the world. Down +at our feet stretched the calm silver of the Jasmunder Bodden, the +biggest of those inland seas that hollow out the island into a mere +frame; and a tongue of pine-forest, black and narrow, curved northwards +between its pale waters and the vigorous blue of the sea. I stopped the +carriage as I love to do in lonely places, and there was no sound but a +faint whispering in the corn. + +We drove down over stones between grassy banks to a tiny village with a +very ancient church and the pleasing name of Bobbin. I looked wistfully +up at the church on its mound as we passed below it. It was very +old--six centuries the guide-book said--and fain would I have gone into +it; but I knew it would be locked, and did not like to disturb the +parson for the key. The parson himself came along the road at that +moment, and he looked so kind, and his eye was so mild that I got out +and inquired of him with what I hope was an engaging modesty whether the +guide-book were correct about the six centuries. He was amiability +itself. Not only, he said, was the church ancient, but interesting. +Would I like to see it? 'Oh please.' Then would I come to the parsonage +while he got the key? 'Oh thank you.' + +The Bobbin parsonage is a delightful little house of the kind that I +dream of for my declining years, with latticed windows and a vine. It +stands in a garden so pretty, so full of narrow paths disappearing round +corners, that I longed far more to be shown where they led to than to be +shown the inside of the church. Several times I said things that ought +to have resulted in my being taken along them, but the parson heeded +not; his talk was and remained wholly church. A friendly dog lay among +croquet hoops on the lawn, a pleasant, silent dog, who wagged his tail +when I came round the corner and saw no reason why he should bark and +sniff. No one else was to be seen. The house was so quiet it seemed +asleep while I waited in the parlour. The parson took me down a little +path to the church, talking amiably on the way. He was proud, he said, +of his church, very proud on week-days; on Sundays so few people came to +the services that his pride was quenched by the aspect of the empty +seats. A bell began to toll as we reached the door. In answer to my +inquiring look he said it was the _Gebetglocke_, the prayer-bell, and +was rung three times a day, at eight, and twelve, and four, so that the +scattered inhabitants of the lonely country-side, the sower in the +field, the housewife among her pots, the fisherman on the Bodden, or +over there, in quiet weather, on the sea, might hear it and join +together spiritually at those hours in a common prayer. 'And do they?' I +asked. He shrugged his shoulders and murmured of hopes. + +It is the quaintest church. The vaulted chancel is the oldest part, and +there is an altarpiece put there by the Swedish Field-Marshal Wrangel, +who in the seventeenth century lived in a turreted Schloss near by that +I had seen from the hills. A closed-in seat high up on the side of the +chancel was where he sat; it has latticed windows and curiously-painted +panels, with his arms in the middle panel and those of Prince Putbus, to +whom the Schloss now belongs, on either side. The parson took me up into +the gallery and showed me a picture of John the Baptist's head, just +off, with Herodias trying to pull out its tongue. I said I thought it +nasty, and he told me it had been moved up there because the lady +downstairs over whose head it used to hang was made ill by it every +Sunday. Had the parishioners up in the gallery thicker skins, I asked? +But there was no question of skins, because the congregation never +overflowed into the galleries. There is another picture up there, the +Supper at Emmaus, with the Scripture account written underneath in +Latin. The parson read this aloud, and his eyes, otherwise so mild, woke +into gleams of enthusiasm. It sounded very dignified and compressed to +ears accustomed to Luther's lengthy rendering of the same thing. I +remarked how beautiful it was, and with a pleased smile he at once read +it again, and then translated it into Greek, lingering lovingly over +each of the beautiful words. I sat listening in the cool of the dusty +little gallery, gazing out at the summer fields and the glistening water +of the Bodden through the open door. His gentle voice made a soft +droning in the emptiness. A swallow came in and skimmed about anxiously, +trying to get out again. + +'The painted pulpit was also given by Wrangel,' said the parson, as we +went downstairs. + +'He seems to have given a great deal.' + +'He needed to, to make good all his sins,' he replied with a smile. +'Many were the sins he committed.' + +I smiled too. Posterity in the shape of the parishioners of Bobbin have +been direct gainers by Wrangel's sins. + +'Good, you see, comes out of evil,' I observed. + +He shook his head. + +'Well, painted pulpits do then,' I amended; for who that is in his +senses would contradict a parson? + +I gave a last glance at the quaint pulpit across which a shaft of +coloured sunlight lay, inquired if I might make an offering for the poor +of Bobbin, made it, thanked my amiable guide, and was accompanied by him +out into the heat that danced among the tombstones down to the carriage. +To the last he was mild and kind, tucking the Holland cover round me +with the same solicitude that he might have shown in a January +snowstorm. + +Glowe, my destination, is not far from Bobbin. On the way we passed the +Schloss with the four towers where the wicked Wrangel committed all +those sins that presently crystallised into a painted pulpit. The +Schloss, called the Spyker Schloss, is let to a farmer. We met him +riding home, to his coffee, I suppose, it being now nearly five, and I +caught a glimpse of a beautiful old garden with ancient pyramids of box, +many flowers, broad alleys, and an aggressively new baby in a +perambulator beneath the trees, rending the holy quiet of the afternoon +with its shrieks. They pursued us quite a long way along the bald high +road that brought us after another mile to Glowe. + +Glowe is a handful of houses built between the high road and the sea. +There is nothing on the other side of the road but a great green plain +stretching to the Bodden. We stopped at the first inn we came to--it was +almost the first house--a meek, ugly little place, with the following +severe advice to tourists hanging up in the entrance:-- + + _Sag was Du willst kurz und bestimmt._ + _Lass alle schöne Phrasen fehlen;_ + _Wer nutzlos unsere Zeit uns nimmt_ + _Bestiehlt uns--und Du sollst nicht stehlen._ + +Accordingly I was very short with the landlord when he appeared, left +out most of my articles, all of my adjectives, clipped my remarks of +weaknesses such as please and thank you, and became at last ferociously +monosyllabic in my effort to give satisfaction. My room was quite nice, +with two windows looking across the plain. Cows were tethered on it +almost to where the Bodden glittered in the sun, and it was scattered +over with great pale patches of clover. On the left was the Spyker +Schloss, with the spire of Bobbin church behind it. Far away in front, +blue with distance but still there, rose as usual the round tower of the +ubiquitous Jagdschloss. I leaned out into the sunshine, and the air was +full of the freshness of the pines I had seen from the heights, and the +freshness of the invisible sea. Some one downstairs was playing sadly on +a cello, tunes that reeked of _Weltschmerz_, and overhead the larks +shrilled an exquisite derision. + +I thought I would combine luncheon, tea, and dinner in one meal, and so +have done with food for the day, so I said to the landlord, still +careful to be _kurz und bestimmt_: 'Bring food.' I left it to him to +decide what food, and he brought me fried eels and asparagus first, +sausages with cranberries second, and coffee with gooseberry jam last. +It was odd and indigestible, but quite clean. Afterwards I went down to +the shore through an ear-wiggy, stuffy little garden at the back, where +mosquitoes hummed round the heads of silent bath-guests sitting +statuesquely in tiny arbours, and flies buzzed about me in a cloud. On +the shore the fishermen's children were wading about and playing in the +parental smacks. The sea looked so clear that I thought it would be +lovely to have yet another bathe; so I sent a boy to call Gertrud, and +set out along the beach to the very distant and solitary bathing-house. +It was clean and convenient, but there were more local children playing +in it, darting in and out of the dusky cells like bats. No one was in +charge, and rows of towels and clothes hung up on hooks only asking to +be used. Gertrud brought my things and I got in. The water seemed +desperately cold and stinging, colder far than the water at +Stubbenkammer that morning, almost intolerably cold; but perhaps it only +seemed so because of the eels and cranberries that had come too. The +children were deeply interested, and presently undressed and followed me +in, one girl bathing only in her pinafore. They were very kind to me, +showed me the least stony places, encouraged me when I shivered, and +made a tremendous noise,--I concluded for my benefit, because after +every outburst they paused and looked at me with modest pride. When I +got out they got out too and insisted on helping Gertrud wring out my +things. I distributed _pfennings_ among them when I was dressed, and +they clung to me closer than ever after that, escorting me in a body +back to the inn, and hardly were they to be persuaded to leave me at the +door. + +That evening was one of profound peace. I sat at my bedroom window, my +body and soul in a perfect harmony of content. My body had been so much +bathed and walked about all day that it was incapable of intruding its +shadow on the light of the soul, and remained entirely quiescent, +pleased to be left quiet and forgotten in an easy-chair. The light of my +soul, feeble as it had been since Thiessow, burned that night clear and +steady, for once more I was alone and could breathe and think and +rejoice over the serenity of the next few days that lay before me like a +fair landscape in the sun. And when I had come to the end of the island +and my drive I would go home and devote ardent weeks to bringing +Charlotte and the Professor together again. If necessary I would even +ask her to come and stay with me, so much stirred was I by the desire to +do good. Match-making is not a work I have cared about since one that I +made with infinite enthusiasm resulted a few months later in reproaches +of a bitter nature being heaped on my head by the persons matched; but +surely to help reunite two noble souls, one of which is eager to be +reunited and the other only does not know what it really wants, is a +blessed work? Anyhow the contemplation of it made me glow. + +After the sun had dropped behind the black line of pines on the right +the plain seemed to wrap itself in peace. The road beneath my window was +quite quiet except for the occasional clatter past of a child in wooden +shoes. Of all the places I had stayed at in Rügen this place was the +most countrified and innocent. Idly I sat there, enjoying the soft +dampness of the clover-laden air, counting how many stars I could see in +the pale sky, watching the women who had been milking the cows far away +across the plain come out of the dusk towards me carrying their frothing +pails. It must have been quite late, for the plain had risen up in front +of my window like a great black wall, when I heard a rattle of wheels on +the high road in the direction of Bobbin. At first very faint it grew +rapidly louder. 'What a time to come along this lonely road,' I thought; +and wondered how it would be farther along where the blackness of the +pines began. But the cart pulled up immediately beneath my window, and +leaning out I saw the light from the inn door stream on to a green hat +that I knew, and familiar shoulders draped in waterproof clothing. + +'Why, what in the world----' I exclaimed. + +The Professor looked up quickly. 'Lot left Sassnitz by steamer this +morning,' he cried in English and in great jubilation. 'She took a +ticket for Arkona. I received full information in Sassnitz, and started +at once. This horned cattle of a coachman, however, will drive me no +farther. I therefore appeal to thee to take me on in thy carriage.' + +'What, never to-night?' + +'To-night? Certainly to-night. Who knows where she will go to-morrow?' + +'But Arkona is miles away--we should never get there--it would kill the +horses'---- + +'Tut, tut, tut,' was all the answer I got, ejected with a terrific +impatience; and much accompanying clinking of money made it evident that +the person described as horned cattle was being paid. + +I turned and stared at Gertrud, who had been arrested by this +conversation in the act of arranging my bed, with a stare of horror. +Then in a flash I saw which was the one safe place, and I flung myself +all dressed into the bed. 'Go down, Gertrud,' I said, pulling the +bedclothes up to my chin, 'and say what you like to the Professor. Tell +him I am in bed and nothing will get me out of it. Tell him I'll drive +him to-morrow to any place on earth. Yes--tell him that. Tell him I +promise, I promise faithfully, to see him through. Go on, and lock me +in.' For I heard a great clamour on the stairs, and who knows what an +agitated wise man may not do, and afterwards pretend he was in an +abstraction? + +But I had definitely pledged myself to a course of active meddling. + + + + +THE NINTH DAY + +FROM GLOWE TO WIEK + + +The landlord was concerned, Gertrud told me, when he heard we were going +to drive to Arkona at an hour in the morning known practically only to +birds. Professor Nieberlein, after fuming long and audibly in the +passage downstairs, had sent her up with a request, made in his hearing, +that the carriage might be at the door for that purpose at four o'clock. + +'At that hour there is no door,' said the landlord. + +'Tut, tut,' said the Professor. + +The landlord raised his hands and described the length and sandiness of +the way. + +'Three o'clock, then,' was all the Professor said to that, calling after +Gertrud. + +'Oh, oh!' was my eloquent exclamation when she came in and told me; and +I pulled the bedclothes up still higher, as though seeking protection in +them from the blows of Fate. + +'It is possible August may oversleep himself,' suggested Gertrud, seeing +my speechless objection to starting for anywhere at three o'clock. + +'So it is; I think it very likely,' I said, emerging from the bedclothes +to speak earnestly. 'Till six o'clock, I should think he would sleep--at +_least_ till six; should not you, Gertrud?' + +'It is very probable,' said Gertrud; and went away to give the order. + +August did. He slept so heavily that eight o'clock found the Professor +and myself still at Glowe, breakfasting at a little table in the road +before the house on flounders and hot gooseberry jam. The Professor was +much calmer, quite composed in fact, and liked the flounders, which he +said were as fresh as young love. He had been very tired after his long +day and the previous sleepless night, and when he found I was immovable +he too had gone to bed and overslept himself Immediately on seeing him +in the morning I told him what I felt sure was true--that Charlotte, +knowing I would come to Arkona in the course of my drive round the +coast, had gone on there to wait for me. 'So there is really no hurry,' +I added. + +'Hurry? certainly not,' he said, gay and reasonable after his good +night. 'We will enjoy the present, little cousin, and the admirable +flounders.' And he told me the story of the boastful man who had vaunted +the loftiness of his rooms to a man poorer than himself except in wit; +and the poorer man, weary of this talk of ceilings, was goaded at last +to relate how in his own house the rooms were so low that the only +things he could ever have for meals were flounders; and though I had +heard the story before I took care to exhibit a decent mirth in the +proper place, ending by laughing with all my heart only to see how the +Professor laughed and wiped his eyes. + +It was a close day of sunless heat. The sky was an intolerable grey +glare. There was no wind, and the flies buzzed in swarms about the +horses' heads as we drove along the straight white road between the +pines towards Arkona. Gertrud was once more relegated to a cart, but she +did not look nearly so grim as before; she obviously preferred the +Professor to his wife, which was a lapse from the normal discretion of +her manners, Gertruds not being supposed to have preferences, and +certainly none that are obvious. + +From Glowe the high road goes through the pines almost without a bend to +the next place, Juliusruh, about an hour and a half north of Glowe. We +did not pass a single house. The way was absolutely lonely, and its +stuffiness dreadful. We could see neither the Baltic nor the Bodden, +though both were only a few yards off on the other side of the pines. At +Juliusruh, a flat, airless place of new lodging-houses, we did get a +glimpse of a mud-coloured sea; and after Juliusruh, the high road and +the pines abruptly ending, we got into the open country of whose +sandiness the Glowe landlord had spoken with uplifted hands. As we +laboured along at a walking pace the greyness of the sky grew denser, +and it began to rain. This was the first rain I had had during my +journey, and it was delicious. The ripe corn on our left looked a deeper +gold against the dull sky; the ditches were like streaks of light, they +were so crammed with yellow flowers; the air grew fragrant with wetness; +and, best of all, the dust left off. The Professor put up his umbrella, +which turned out to be so enormous when open that we could both sit +comfortably under it and keep dry; and he was in such good spirits at +being fairly on Charlotte's tracks that I am inclined to think it was +the most agreeable drive I had had in Rügen. The traveller, however, who +does not sit under one umbrella with a pleased Professor on the way to +Arkona must not suppose that he too will like this bit best, for he will +not. + +The road turns off sharply inland at Vitt, a tiny fisher-hamlet we came +upon unexpectedly, hidden in a deep clough. It is a charming little +place--a few fishermen's huts, a minute inn, and a great many walnut +trees. Passing along the upper end of the clough we looked straight down +its one shingly street to the sea washing among rocks. Big black +fisher-boats were hauled up almost into the street itself. A forlorn +artist's umbrella stood all alone half-way down, sheltering an +unfinished painting from the gentle rain, while the artist--I supposed +him to be the artist because of his unique neck arrangements--watched it +wistfully from the inn door. As Vitt even in rain was perfectly charming +I can confidently recommend it to the traveller; for on a sunny day it +must be quite one of the prettiest spots in Rügen. If I had been alone I +would certainly have stayed there at least one night, though the inn +looked as if its beds were feather and its butter bad; but I now had a +mission, and he who has a mission spends most of his time passing the +best things by. + +'Is not that a little paradise?' I exclaimed. + +The Professor quoted Dr. Johnson and Charles Lamb, remarking that he +understood their taste better than that of those persons who indulge in +ill-defined and windy raptures about scenery and the weather. + +'But we cannot all have the tastes of great scholars,' I said rather +coldly, for I did not like the expression windy raptures. + +'If thou meanest me by great scholars, thou female babe, know that my +years and poor rudiments of learning have served only to make it clear +to me that the best things in life are of the class to which sitting +under one umbrella with a dear little cousin belong. I endeavoured +yesterday to impress this result of experience on the long Englishman, +but he is still knee-deep in theories, and cannot yet see the simple and +the close at hand.' + +'I don't care one little bit for the umbrella form of joy,' I said +obstinately. 'It is the blankest dulness compared to the joy to be +extracted from looking at a place like Vitt in fine weather.' + +'Tut, tut,' said the Professor, 'talk not to me of weather. Thou dost +not mean it from thy heart.' And he arranged the rug afresh round me so +that I should not get wet, and inquired solicitously why I did not wear +a waterproof cloak like his, which was so very _praktisch_. + +From Vitt the road to Arkona describes a triangle of which the village +of Putgarten is the apex, and round which it took us half an hour to +drive. We got to Arkona, which consists solely of a lighthouse with an +inn in it, about one. + +'Now for the little Lot,' cried the Professor leaping out into the rain +and hastening towards the emerging landlord, while I hurriedly rehearsed +the main points of my arguments. + +But Charlotte was not there. She had been there, the landlord said, the +previous afternoon, having arrived by steamer; had asked for a bedroom, +been shown one, but had wanted better accommodation than he could give. +Anyhow after drinking coffee she had hired a conveyance and had gone on +to Wiek. + +The Professor was terribly crestfallen. 'We will go on, then,' he said. +'We will at once proceed to Wiek. Where Wiek is, I conclude we shall +ultimately discover.' + +'I know where it is--it's on the map.' + +'I never doubted it.' + +'I mean I know the way from here. I was going there anyhow, and +Charlotte knew that. But we can't go on yet, dear Professor. The horses +would never get us there. It must be at least ten miles off, and awful +sand the whole way.' + +It took me some time and many words to convince him that nothing would +make me move till the horses had had a feed and a rest. 'We'll only stay +here a few hours,' I comforted, 'and get to Wiek anyhow to-day.' + +'But who can tell whether she will be there two nights running?' cried +the Professor, excitedly striding about in the mud. + +'Why, we can, when we get there, and it's no use bothering till we are +there. But I'm sure she'll wait till I come. Let us go in out of the +rain.' + +'I will hire a cart,' he announced with great determination. + +'What, and go on without me?' + +'I tell thee I will hire a cart. No time shall be lost.' + +And he ran back again to the landlord who was watching us from the door +with much disapproval; for I suppose Charlotte's refusal to consider his +accommodation worthy of her had not disposed him well towards her +friends, and possibly he considered the Professor's rapid movements +among the puddles too unaccountable to be nice. There was no cart, he +said, absolutely none; and the Professor, in a state of fuming +dejection, was forced to what resignation he could muster. + +During this parleying I had been sitting alone under the umbrella, the +rain falling monotonously on its vast surface, running off the glazed +lid of my yellow bandbox in streams, and dripping from the brim of +August's hat down his patient neck. A yard or two behind sat Gertrud on +the hold-all, dimly visible through the cloud of steam rising from the +back of her soaked cart-horse. I could hear the sea at the foot of the +cliff sluggishly heaving on and off the shingle, and I could see it over +the edge of the cliff to the east, and here for the first time round the +bend of the island to the north. It was flat, oily, and brown. Never was +such a dreary sea or such a melancholy spot. I got out and went into the +house feeling depressed. + +The landlord led us into a room at the back, the room in front being for +the use of fishermen wishing to drink. Clouds of smoke and a great +clamour smote our senses when he opened the door. The room was full of +what looked like an excursion; about thirty people, male and female, +sitting at narrow tables eating, chattering, singing, and smoking all at +once. Three specially variegated young women, dressed in the flimsiest +of fine-weather clothes, all damp muslin and feathers, pretty girls with +pronounced hair arrangements, were smoking cigarettes; and in the corner +near the door, demure and solitary, sat another pretty young woman in +black, with a very small bonnet trimmed with a very big Alsatian bow on +the back of a very elaborately curled head. Her eyes were discreetly +fixed on a Wiener Schnitzel that she was eating with a singular +mincingness; and all those young men who could not get near the girls in +muslin, were doing their utmost to attract this one's notice. + +'We can't stay here,' I whispered to the Professor; 'it is too +dreadful.' + +'Dreadful? It is humanity, little cousin. Humanity at its happiest--in +other words, at its dinner.' + +And he pulled off his cloak and hung up his hat with a brisk +cheerfulness at which I, who had just seen him striding about among +puddles, rent with vexation, could only marvel. + +'But there is no room,' I objected. + +'There is an ample sufficiency of room. We shall sit there in the corner +by the young lady in black.' + +'Well, you go and sit there, and I'll go out into that porch place over +there, and get some air.' + +'Never did I meet any one needing so much air. Air! Has thou not, then, +been aired the entire morning?' + +But I made my way through the smoke to a door standing open at the other +end that led into a little covered place, through which was the garden. +I put my head gratefully round the corner to breathe the sweet air. The +garden is on the west side of the lighthouse on ground falling steeply +away to the flat of the cornfields that stretch between Arkona and +Putgarten. It is a pretty place full of lilies--in flower that day--and +of poplars, those most musical of trees. Rough steps cut in the side of +the hill lead down out of the garden to a footpath through the rye to +Putgarten; and on the top step, as straight and motionless as the +poplars, stood two persons under umbrellas, gazing in silence at the +view. Oh, unmistakable English backs! And most unmistakable of all +backs, the backs of the Harvey-Brownes. + +I pulled my head into the porch again with a wrench, and instinctively +turned to flee; but there in the corner of the room sat the Professor, +and I could hear him being pleasant to the young person in the Alsatian +bow. I did not choose to interrupt him, for she was obviously Mrs. +Harvey-Browne's maid; but I did wonder whether the bishop had grieved at +all over the manifest unregeneracy of the way she did her hair. +Hesitating where to go, and sure of being ultimately caught wherever I +went, I peeped again in a sort of fascination at the two mackintoshed +figures outlined against the lowering heavens; and as so often happens, +the persons being looked at turned round. + +'My _dear_ Frau X., you here too? When did you arrive in this terrible +place?' cried Mrs. Harvey-Browne, hurrying towards me through the rain +with outstretched hand and face made up of welcome and commiseration. +'This is too charming--to meet you again, but here! Imagine it, we were +under the impression it was a place one could stay at, and we brought +all our luggage and left our comfortable Binz for good. It is impossible +to be in that room. We were just considering what we could do, and +feeling really desperate. Brosy, is not this a charming surprise?' + +Brosy smiled, and said it was very charming, and he wished it would +leave off raining. He supposed I was only driving through on my way +round? + +'Yes,' I said, a thousand thoughts flying about in my head. + +'Have you seen anything more of the Nieberleins?' asked Mrs. +Harvey-Browne, shutting her umbrella, and preparing to come inside the +porch too. + +'My cousin left that evening, as you know,' I said. + +'Yes; I could not help wondering----' began Mrs. Harvey-Browne; but was +interrupted by her son, who asked where I was going to sleep that night. + +'I think at Wiek,' I answered. + +'Isn't Wiek a little place on the----' began Brosy; but was interrupted +by his mother, who asked if the Professor had followed his wife. + +'Yes,' I said. + +'I confess I was surprised----' began Mrs. Harvey-Browne; but was +interrupted by her son, who asked whether I thought Lohme possessed an +hotel where one could stay. + +'I should think so from the look of it as I passed through,' I said. + +'Because----' began Brosy; but was interrupted by his mother, who asked +whether I had heard anything of the dear Professor since he left. +'Delightful genius,' she added enthusiastically. + +'Yes,' I said. + +'I suppose he and his wife will go back to Bonn now?' + +'Soon, I hope.' + +'Did you say he had gone to Berlin? Is he there now?' + +'No, he isn't.' + +'Have you seen him again?' + +'Yes; he came back to Stubbenkammer.' + +'Indeed? With his wife?' + +'No; Charlotte was not with him.' + +'Indeed?' + +Never was a more expressive Indeed. + +'My cousin changed her plans about Berlin,' I said hastily, disturbed by +this expressiveness, 'and came back too. But she didn't care for +Stubbenkammer. She is waiting for me--for us--at Wiek. She is waiting +there till I--till we come.' + +'Oh really? And the Professor?' + +'The Professor goes to Wiek, too, of course.' + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne gazed at me a moment as though endeavouring to +arrange her thoughts. 'Do forgive me,' she said, 'for seeming stupid, +but I don't quite understand where the Professor is. He was at +Stubbenkammer, and he will be at Wiek; but where is he now?' + +'In there,' I said, with a nod in the direction of the dining-room; and +I wished with all my heart that he wasn't. + +'In there?' cried the bishop's wife. 'Brosy, do you hear? How very +delightful. Let us go to him at once.' And she rustled into the room, +followed by Brosy and myself. 'You go first, dear Frau X.,' she turned +round to say, daunted by the clouds of smoke, and all the chairs and +people who had to be got out of the way; for by this time the tourists +had finished dining, and had pushed their chairs out into the room to +talk together more conveniently, and the room was dim with smoke. 'You +know where he is. I can't tell you how charmed I am; really most +fortunate. He seems to be with an English friend,' she added, for the +revellers, having paused in their din to stare at us, the Professor's +cheery voice was distinctly heard inquiring in English of some person or +persons unseen whether they knew the difference between a canary and a +grand piano. + +'Always in such genial spirits,' murmured Mrs. Harvey-Browne +rapturously. + +Here there was a great obstruction, a group of people blocking the +passage down the room and having to be got out of the way before we +could pass; and when the scraping of their chairs and their grumbles had +ceased we caught the Professor's conversation a little farther on. He +was saying, 'I cannot in that case, my dear young lady, caution you with +a sufficient earnestness to be of an extreme care when purchasing a +grand piano----' + +'I don't ever think of doing such a thing,' interrupted a shrill female +voice, at whose sound Mrs. Harvey-Browne made an exclamation. + +'Tut, tut. I am putting a case. Suppose you wished to purchase a grand +piano, and did not know, as you say you do not, the difference between +it----' + +'I shan't wish, though. I'd be a nice silly to.' + +'Nay, but suppose you did wish----' + +'What's the good of supposing silly things like that? You _are_ a funny +old man.' + +'Andrews?' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, at this point emerging on the +absorbed couple, and speaking with a languid gentleness that curled +slightly upwards into an interrogation at the end. + +Andrews, whose face had been overspread by the expression that +accompanies titters, started to her feet and froze before our eyes into +the dumb passivity of the decent maid. The Professor hardly gave himself +time to bow and kiss Mrs. Harvey-Browne's hand before he poured forth +his pleasure that this charming young lady should be of her party. 'Your +daughter, madam, I doubt not?' + +'My maid,' said Mrs. Harvey-Browne, in a curdled kind of voice. +'Andrews, please see about the luggage. She _is_ rather a nice-looking +girl, I suppose,' she conceded, anxious to approve of all the Professor +said and did. + +'Nice-looking? She is so exceedingly pretty, madam, that I could only +conclude she must be your daughter.' + +This elementary application of balm at once soothed Mrs. Harvey-Browne +into a radiance of smiles perplexing in conjunction with her age and +supposed superiority to vanities. Forgetful of her objections to German +crowds and smoke she sat down in the chair vacated by Andrews, made the +Professor sit down again in his, and plunged into an exuberant +conversation, which began by an invitation so warm that it almost seemed +on fire to visit herself and the bishop before the summer was over in +the episcopal glories of Babbacombe. This much I heard as I slipped away +into the peace of the front room. Brosy came after me. To him the +picture of the Professor being wrapped about in Mrs. Harvey-Browne's +amenities was manifestly displeasing. + +The front room seemed very calm and spacious after what we had just been +in. A few fishermen were drinking beer at the bar; in a corner sat +Andrews and Gertrud, beginning a necessarily inarticulate acquaintance +over the hold-alls; both window and door were open, and the rain came +down straight and steady, filling the place with a soft murmuring and +dampness. Across the clearness of my first decision that the Professor +must be an absolutely delightful person to be always with, had crept a +slight film of doubt. There were some things about him that might +possibly, I began in a dim way to see, annoy a wife. He seemed to love +Charlotte, and he had seemed to be very fond of me--anyhow, never before +had I been so much patted in so short a space of time. Yet the moment he +caught sight of the Alsatian bow he forgot my presence and existence, +forgot the fluster he had been in to get on after his wife, and attached +himself to it with a vehemence that no one could be expected to like. A +shadowy conviction began to pervade my mind that the sooner I handed him +over to Charlotte and drove on again alone the better. Surely Charlotte +_ought_ to go back to him and look after him; why should I be obliged to +drive round Rügen first with one Nieberlein and then with the other? + +'The ways of Fate are truly eccentric,' I remarked, half to myself, +going to the door and gazing out into the wet. + +'Because they have led you to Arkona on a rainy day?' asked Brosy. + +'Because of that and because of heaps of other things,' I said; and +sitting down at a table on which lay a bulky tome with much-thumbed +covers, I began rather impatiently to turn over its pages. + +But I had not yet reached the limits of what Fate can and will do to a +harmless woman who only asks to be left unnoticed; for while Brosy and I +were studying this book, which is an ancient visitor's book of 1843 kept +by the landlord's father or grandfather, I forget which, and quite the +best thing Arkona possesses, so that I advise the traveller, whose +welfare I do my best at intervals to promote, not to leave Arkona +without having seen it,--while, I say, we were studying this book, +admiring many of its sketches, laughing over the inevitable ineptitudes +that seem to drop with so surprising a facility from the pens of persons +who inscribe their names, examining with awe the signatures of +celebrated men who came here before they were celebrated,--Bismarck's as +assessor in 1843, Caprivi's as lieutenant, Waldersee's also as +lieutenant, and others of the kind,--while, I repeat, we were +innocently studying this book, Fate was busy tucking up her sleeves +preparing to hit me harder than ever. + +'It was not Fate,' interrupted the wise relative before alluded to, as I +sat after my return recounting my adventures and trying to extract +sympathy, 'it was the first consequence of your having meddled. If you +had not----' + +Well, well. The great comfort about relatives is that though they may +make what assertions they like you need not and do not believe them; and +it was Fate and nothing but Fate that had dogged me malevolently all +round Rügen and joined me here at Arkona once more to Mrs. +Harvey-Browne. In she came while we were bending over the book, followed +by the Professor, who walked as a man may walk in a dream, his eyes +fixed on nothing, and asked me without more ado whether I would let her +share my carriage as far as Wiek. + +'Then, you see, dear Frau X., I shall get there,' she observed. + +'But why do you want to get there?' I asked, absolutely knocked over +this time by the fists of Fate. + +'Oh why not? We must go somewhere, and quite the most natural thing to +do is to join forces. You agree, don't you, Brosy dear? The Professor +thinks it an excellent plan, and is charming enough to want to +relinquish his seat to me if you will have me, are you not, Professor? +However I only ask to be allowed to sit on the small seat, for the last +thing I wish to do is to disturb anybody. But I fear the Professor will +not allow----' and she stopped and looked with arch pleasantness at the +Professor who murmured abstractedly 'Certainly, certainly '--which, of +course, might mean anything. + +'My dear mother----' began Brosy in a tone of strong remonstrance. + +'Oh I'm sure it is the best thing we can do, Brosy. I did ask the +landlord about hiring a fly, and there is no such thing. It will only be +as far as Wiek, and I hear that is not so very far. You don't mind do +you, dear Frau X.?' + +'Mind?' I cried, wriggling out a smile, 'mind? But how will your son I +don't quite see--and your maid?' + +'Oh Brosy has his bicycle, and if you'll let the luggage be put in your +luggage cart Andrews can quite well sit beside your maid. Of course we +will share expenses, so that it will really be mutually advantageous.' + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne being one of those few persons who know exactly what +they want, did as she chose with wavering creatures like myself. She +also did as she chose with Brosy, because the impossibility of publicly +rebuking one's mother shut his mouth. She even did as she chose with the +Professor, who, declaring that sooner than incommode the ladies he would +go in the luggage cart, was in the very act as we were preparing to +start off of nimbly climbing on to the trunk next to the one on which +Andrews sat, when he found himself hesitating, coming down again, +getting into the victoria, subsiding on to the little seat, and all in +obedience to a clear something in the voice of Mrs. Harvey-Browne. + +Never did unhappy celebrity sit more wretchedly than the poor Professor. +It was raining so hard that we were obliged to have the hood up, and its +edge came to within an inch of his nose--would have touched it quite if +he had not sat as straight and as far back as possible. He could not, +therefore, put up his umbrella, and was reduced, while water trickled +ceaselessly off the hood down his neck, to pretending with great heroism +that he was perfectly comfortable. It was impossible to sit under the +snug hood and contemplate the drenched Professor outside it. It was +impossible to let an old man of seventy, and an old man, besides, of +such immense European value, catch his death before my very eyes. Either +he must come between us and be what is known as bodkin, or some one must +get out and walk; and the bodkin solution not commending itself to me it +was plain that if some one walked it must be myself. + +In an instant the carriage was stopped, protestations filled the air, I +got out, the Professor was transferred to my place, the bishop's wife +turned deaf ears to his entreaties that he might go in the luggage cart +and hold his big umbrella over the two poor drowning maids, the hood +became vocal with arguments, suggestions, expostulations, apologies--and +'Go on, August,' I interrupted; and dropped behind into sand and +silence. + +We were already beyond Putgarten, in a flat, uninteresting country of +deep sand and treeless, hedgeless cornfields. I had no umbrella, but a +cloak with a hood to it which I drew over my head, throwing Gertrud my +hat when she too presently heaved past in a cloud of expostulations. 'Go +on, go on,' I called to the driver with a wave of my hand seeing him +hesitate; and then stood waiting for Brosy who was some little way +behind pushing his bicycle dismally through the sand, meditating no +doubt on the immense difficulties of dealing with mothers who do things +one does not like. When he realised that the solitary figure with the +peaked hood outlined against the sullen grey background was mine he +pushed along at a trot, with a face of great distress. But I had no +difficulty in looking happy and assuring him that I liked walking, +because I really was thankful to get away from the bishop's wife, and I +rather liked, besides, to be able to stretch myself thoroughly; while as +for getting wet, to let oneself slowly be soaked to the skin while +walking in a warm rain has a charm all its own. + +Accordingly, after the preliminary explanations, we plodded along +comfortably enough towards Wiek, keeping the carriage in sight as much +as possible, and talking about all the things that interested Brosy, +which were mostly things of great obscurity to myself. I suppose he +thought it safest to keep to high truths and generalities, fearing lest +the conversation in dropping to an everyday level should also drop on to +the Nieberleins, and he seemed quite anxious not to know why Charlotte +was at Wiek by herself while her husband and I were driving together +without her. Therefore he soared carefully in realms of pure reason, and +I, silent and respectful, watched him from below; only I could not help +comparing the exalted vagueness of his talk with the sharp clearness of +all that the old and wise Professor said. + +Wiek after all turned out to be hardly more than five miles from Arkona, +but it was heavy going. What with the bicycle and my wet skirts and the +high talk we got along slowly, and my soul grew more chilled with every +step by the thought of the complications the presence of the +Harvey-Brownes was going to make in the delicate task of persuading +Charlotte to return to her husband. + +Brosy knew very well that there was something unusual in the Nieberlein +relations, and was plainly uneasy at being thrust into a family meeting. +When the red roofs and poplars of Wiek came in sight he sank into +thoughtfulness, and we walked the last mile in our heavy, sand-caked +shoes in almost total silence. The carriage and cart had disappeared +long ago, urged on, no doubt, by the Professor's eagerness to get to +Charlotte and away from Mrs. Harvey-Browne, and we were quite near the +first cottages when August appeared coming back to fetch us, driving +very fast, with Gertrud's face peering anxiously round the hood. It was +only a few yards from there to the open space in the middle of the +village in which the two inns are, and Brosy got on his bicycle while I +drove with Gertrud, wrapped in all the rugs she could muster. + +There are two inns at Wiek, and one is the best. The Professor had gone +to each to inquire for his wife, and I found him striding about in front +of the one that is the best, and I saw at once by the very hang of his +cloak and position of his hat that Charlotte was not there. + +'Gone! gone!' he cried, before the carriage stopped even. 'Gone this +very day--this very morning, gone at eight, at the self-same hour we +wasted over those accursed flounders. Is it not sufficient to make a +poor husband become mad? After months of patience? To miss her +everywhere by a few miserable hours? I told thee, I begged thee, to +bring me on last night----' + +Brosy, now of a quite deadly anxiety to keep out of Nieberlein +complications, removed himself and his bicycle with all possible speed. +Mrs. Harvey-Browne, watching my arrival from an upper window, waved a +genial hand with ill-timed cordiality whenever I looked her way. The +landlord and his wife carried in all the rugs that dropped off me +unheeded into the mud when I got out, and did not visibly turn a hair at +my peaked hood and draggled garments. + +'Where has she gone?' I asked, as soon as I could get the Professor to +keep still and listen. 'We'll drive after her the first thing to-morrow +morning--to-night if you like----' + +'Drive after her? Last night, when it would have availed, thou wouldest +not drive after her. Now, if we follow her, we must swim. She has gone +to an island--an island, I tell thee, of which I never till this day +heard--an island to reach which requires much wind from a favourable +quarter--which without wind is not to be reached at all--and in me thou +now beholdest a broken-hearted man.' + + + + +THE TENTH DAY + +FROM WIEK TO HIDDENSEE + + +The island to which Charlotte had retired was the island of Hiddensee, a +narrow strip of sand to the west of Rügen. Generally so wordy, the +guide-book merely mentions it as a place to which it is possible for +Rügen tourists to make excursions, and proffers with a certain timidity +the information that pleasure may be had there in observing the life and +habits of sea-birds. + +To this place of sea-birds Charlotte had gone, as she wrote in a letter +left with the landlady for me, because during the night she spent at +Wiek a panic had seized her lest the Harvey-Brownes should by some +chance appear there in their wanderings before I did. 'I daresay they +will not dream of coming round this way at all,' she continued, 'but you +never know.' + +You certainly never know, I agreed, Mrs. Harvey-Browne being at that +very moment in the room Charlotte had had the panic in; and I lay awake +elaborating a most beautiful plan by which I intended at one stroke to +reunite Charlotte and her husband and free myself of both of them. + +This plan came into my head during the evening while sitting sadly +listening to something extremely like a scolding from the Professor. It +seemed to me that I had done all in my power short of inhumanity to the +horses to help him, and it was surely not my fault that Charlotte had +not happened to stay anywhere long enough for us to catch her up. My +intentions were so good. Far preferring to drive alone and stop where +and when I pleased--at Vitt for instance, among the walnut trees--I had +yet given up all my preferences so that I might help bring man and wife +together. If anything, did not this conduct incline towards the noble? + +'Your extreme simplicity amazes me,' remarked the wise relative when, +arrived at this part of my story on my return home, I plaintively asked +the above question. 'Under no circumstances is the meddler ever +thanked.' + +'Meddler? Helper, you mean. Apparently you would call every person who +helps a meddler.' + +'_Armes Kind_, proceed with the story.' + +Well, the Professor, who had suffered much in the hood between Arkona +and Wiek, and was more irritated by his disappointment on getting to +Wiek than seemed consistent with the supposed serenity of the truly +wise, was telling me for the tenth time that if I had brought him on at +once from Glowe as he begged me to do we would not only have escaped the +Harvey-Brownes but would have caught his Charlotte by now, seeing that +she had not left Wiek for Hiddensee till eight o'clock of this Saturday +we had now got to, and I was drooping more and more under these +reproaches when, with the suddenness of inspiration, the beautiful plan +flooded my dejected brain with such a cheerful light that I lifted my +head and laughed in the Professor's face. + +'Now pray tell me,' he exclaimed, stopping short in his strides about +the room, 'what thou seest to laugh at in my present condition?' + +'Nothing in your present condition. It's the glories of your future one +that made me laugh.' + +'Surely that is not a subject on which one laughs. Nor will I discuss it +with a woman. Nor is this the place or the moment. I refer thee'--and he +swept round his arm as though to sweep me altogether out of sight,--'I +refer thee to thy pastor.' + +'Dearest Professor, don't be so dreadfully cross. The future state I was +thinking of isn't further off than to-morrow. Sometimes there's a +cunning about a woman's wit that you great artists in profundity don't +possess. You can't, of course, because you are so busy being wise on a +large scale. But it's quite useful to have some cunning when you have to +work out petty schemes. And I tell you solemnly that at this moment I am +full of it.' + +He stopped again in his striding. The good landlady and her one +handmaiden were laying the table for supper. Mrs. Harvey-Browne had gone +upstairs to put on those evening robes in which, it appeared, she had +nightly astonished the ignorant tourists of Rügen. Brosy had not been +seen at all since our arrival. + +'What thou art full of is nothing but poking of fun at me, I fear,' said +the Professor; but his kind old face began to smooth out a little. + +'I'm not. I'm only full of artfulness, and anxious to put it all at your +disposal. But you mustn't be quite so cross. Pray, am I no longer then +your little and dear cousin?' + +'When thou art good, yes.' + +'Whom to pat is pleasant?' + +'Yes, yes, it is pleasant, but if unreasonableness develops----' + +'And with whom to sit under one umbrella is a joy?' + +'Surely, surely--but thou hast been of a great obstinacy----' + +'Well, come and sit here and let us be happy. We're very comfortable +here, aren't we? Don't let us think any more about the wet, horrid, +obstinate, disappointing day we've had. And as for to-morrow, I've got a +plan.' + +The Professor, who had begun to calm, sat down beside me on the sofa. +The landlord, deft and noiseless, was giving a finishing touch of roses +and fruit and candles to the supper table. He had been a butler in a +good family, and was of the most beautiful dignity and solemnity. We +were sitting in a very queer old room, used in past years for balls to +which the quality drove in from their distant estates and danced through +winter nights. There was a gallery for the fiddlers, and the chairs and +benches ranged round the walls were still covered with a festive-looking +faded red stuff. In the middle of this room the landlord had put a table +for us to sup at, and had arranged it in a way I had not seen since +leaving home. No one else was in the house but ourselves. No one, +hardly, of the tourist class comes to Wiek; and yet, or because of it, +this inn of all the inns I had stayed at was in every way quite +excellent. + +'Tell me then thy plan, little one,' said the Professor, settling +himself comfortably into the sofa corner. + +'Oh, it's quite simple. You and I to-morrow morning will go to +Hiddensee.' + +'Go! Yes, but how? It is Sunday, and even if it were not, no steamers +seem to go to what appears to be a spot of great desolation.' + +'We'll hire a fishing-smack.' + +'And if there is no wind?' + +'We'll pray for wind.' + +'And I shall spend an entire day within the cramped limits of a vessel +in the company of the English female bishop? I tell thee it is not to be +accomplished.' + +'No, no--of course they mustn't come too.' + +'Come? She will come if she wishes to. Never did I meet a more +commanding woman.' + +'No, no, we must circumvent the Harvey-Brownes.' + +'Do thou stay here then, and circumvent. Then shall I proceed in safety +on my way.' + +'Oh no,' I exclaimed in some consternation; the success of my plan, +which was by no means to be explained in its entirety to the Professor, +wholly depended on my going too. 'I--I want to see Charlotte again. You +know I'm--fond of Charlotte. And besides, long before you got to +Hiddensee you would have sunk into another abstraction and begun to fish +or something, and you'd come back here in the evening with no Charlotte +and only fishes.' + +'Tut, tut--well do I now know what is the object I have in view.' + +'Don't be so proud. Remember Pilatus.' + +'Tut, tut. Thou art beginning to be like a conscience to me, rebuking +and urging onwards the poor old man in bewildering alternations. But I +tell thee there is no hope of setting sail without the English madam +unless thou remainest here while I secretly slip away.' + +'I won't remain here. I'm coming too. Leave the arrangements to me, +dearest Professor, and you'll see we'll secretly slip away together.' + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne sweeping in at that moment in impressive garments +that trailed, our conversation had to end abruptly. The landlord lit the +candles; the landlady brought in the soup; Brosy appeared dressed as one +dresses in civilised regions. 'Cheer up,' I whispered to the Professor +as I got up from the sofa; and he cheered up so immediately and so +excessively that before I could stop him, before I could realise what he +was going to do, he had actually chucked me under the chin. + +We spent a constrained evening. The one remark Mrs. Harvey-Browne +addressed to me during the hours that followed this chin-chucking was: +'I am altogether at a loss to understand Frau Nieberlein's having +retired, without her husband, to yet another island. Why this +regrettable multiplicity of islands?' + +To which I could only answer that I did not know. + +The next day being Sunday, a small boy went up into the wooden belfry of +the church, which was just opposite my window, and began to toll two +bells. The belfry is built separate from the church, and commands a view +into the room of the inn that was my bedroom. I could see the small boy +walking leisurely from bell to bell, giving each a pull, and then +refreshing himself by leaning out and staring hard at me. I got my +opera-glasses and examined him with equal care, trying to stare him out +of countenance; but though a small he was also a bold boy and not to be +abashed, and as I would not give in either we stared at each other +steadily between the tolls till nine o'clock, when the bell-ringing +ceased, service began, and he reluctantly went down into the church, +where I suppose he had to join in the singing of the tune to which in +England the hymn beginning 'All glory, laud, and honour,' is sung, for +it presently floated out into the quiet little market-place, filling it +with the feeling of Sunday. While I lingered at the window listening to +this, I saw Mrs. Harvey-Browne emerge from the inn door in her Sunday +toque, and, crossing the market-place followed by Brosy, go into the +church. In an instant I had whisked into my hat, and hurrying downstairs +to the Professor who was strolling up and down a rose-bordered path in +the garden at the back of the house, informed him breathlessly that the +Harvey-Brownes might now be looked upon as circumvented. + +'What, already? Thou art truly a wonderful ally!' he exclaimed in great +glee. + +'Oh _that's_ nothing,' I replied modestly; as indeed it was. + +'Let us start at once then,' he cried briskly; and we accordingly +started, slipping out of the house and round the corner down to the +quay. + +The sun was shining, the ground was drying, there was a slight breeze +from the east which ought, the landlord said, to blow us gently to +Hiddensee if it kept up in about four hours. All my arrangements had +been made the night before with the aid of August and Gertrud, and the +brig _Bertha_, quite an imposing-looking craft that plied on week-days, +weather permitting, between Wiek and Stralsund, had been hired for the +day at a cost of fifteen marks, including a skipper with one eye and +four able seamen. The brig _Bertha_ seemed to me very cheap. She was to +be at my disposal from dawn till as far into the night as I wanted her. +All the time the bell-boy and I were exchanging increasingly sarcastic +stares she was lying at the quay ready to start at any moment. She had +been chartered in my name, and for that one day she, her skipper, and +her four able seamen, belonged entirely to me. + +Gertrud was waiting on board, and had arranged a sort of nest of rugs +and cushions for me. The landlady and her servant were also there, with +a basket of home-made cakes, and cherries out of the inn garden. This +landlady, by the way, was quite ideal. Her one aim seemed to be to do +things like baking cakes for her visitors and not putting them in the +bill. I met nothing else at all like her or her husband on my journey +round Rügen or anywhere else. Their simple kindness shall not go unsung; +and therefore do I pause here, with one foot on the quay and the other +on the brig _Bertha_, to sing it. But indeed the traveller who does not +yearn for waiters and has no prejudices against crawling up a staircase +so steep that it is practically a ladder when he wants to go to bed, who +loves quiet, is not insensible to the charms of good cooking, and thinks +bathing and sailing agreeable pastimes, could be extremely happy at a +very small cost at Wiek. And when all other pleasures are exhausted he +can hire the _Bertha_ and go to Hiddensee and study sea-birds. + +'Thou takest the excellent but unprepossessing Gertrud with thee?' +inquired the Professor in a slightly displeased voice, seeing her +immovable and the sails being hoisted. + +'Yes. I don't like being sick without her.' + +'Sick! There will hardly be a sufficiency of wind for the needs of the +vessel--how wilt thou be sick in a calm?' + +'How can I tell till I have tried?' + +Oh gay voyage down the Wieker Bodden, over the little dancing waves, +under the serene summer sky! Oh blessed change from the creaking of a +carriage through dust to rippling silence and freshness! The Professor +was in such spirits that he could hardly be kept from doing what he +called manning the yards, and had to be fetched down when he began to +clamber by the alarmed skipper. Gertrud sat watching for the first +glimpse of our destination with the intentness of a second Brangäne. The +wind could hardly be said to blow us along, it was so very gentle, but +it did waft us along smoothly and steadily, and Wiek slipped into +distance and its bells into silence, and the occasional solitary farms +on the flat shores slid away one after the other, and the farthest point +ahead came to meet us, dropped astern, became the farthest point behind, +and we were far on our way while we were thinking we could hardly be +moving. The reader who looks at the map will see the course we took, and +how with that gentle wind it came to be nearly twelve before we rounded +the corner of the Wieker Bodden, passed a sandbank crowded with hundreds +of sea-gulls, and headed for the northern end of Hiddensee. + +Hiddensee lay stretched out from north to south, long and narrow, like a +lizard lying in the sun. It is absolutely flat, a mere sandbank, except +at the northern end where it swells up into hills and a lighthouse. +There are only two villages on it with inns, the one called Vitte, built +on a strip of sand so low, so level with the sea that it looks as if an +extra big wave, or indeed any wave, must wash right over it and clean it +off the face of the earth; and the other called Kloster, where Charlotte +was. + +I observe that on the map Kloster is printed in large letters, as though +it were a place of some importance. It is a very pretty, very small, +handful of fishermen's cottages, one little line of them in a green nest +of rushes and willows along the water's edge, with a hill at the back, +and some way up the hill a small, dilapidated church, forlorn and +spireless, in a churchyard bare of trees. + +We dropped anchor in the glassy bay about two o'clock, the last bit of +the Vitter Bodden having been slow, almost windless work, and were rowed +ashore in a dinghy, there not being enough water within a hundred yards +to float so majestic a craft as the _Bertha_. The skipper leaned over +the side of his brig watching us go and wishing us _viel Vergnügen_. The +dinghy and the two rowers were to wait at the little landing-stage till +such time as we should want them again. Gertrud came with us, carrying +the landlady's basket of food. + +'Once more thou takest the excellent but unprepossessing Gertrud with +thee?' inquired the Professor with increased displeasure. + +'Yes. To carry the cakes.' + +'Tut, tut.' And he muttered something that sounded irritable about the +_lieber Gott_ having strewn the world with so many plain women. + +'_This_ isn't the time to bother about plain women,' I said. 'Don't you +feel in every fibre that you are within a stone's throw of your +Charlotte? I am sure we have caught her this time.' + +For a moment he had forgotten Charlotte, and all his face grew radiant +at the reminder. With the alacrity of eighteen he leapt ashore, and we +hurried along a narrow rushy path at the water's edge to the one inn, a +small cottage of the simplest sort, overlooking green fields and placid +water. A trim servant in Sunday raiment was clearing away coffee cups +from a table in the tiny front garden, and of her we asked, with some +trembling after our many disappointments, whether Frau Nieberlein were +there. + +Yes, she was staying there, but had gone up on to the downs after +dinner. In which direction? Past the church, up the lighthouse way. + +The Professor darted off before she had done. I hastened after him. +Gertrud waited at the inn. With my own eyes I wished to see that he +actually did meet Charlotte, for the least thing would make him forget +what he had come for; and so nimble was he, so winged with love, that I +had to make desperate and panting efforts to get up to the top of the +hill as soon as he did. Up we sped in silence past the bleak churchyard +on to what turned out to be the most glorious downs. On the top the +Professor stopped a moment to wipe his forehead, and looking back for +the first time I was absolutely startled by the loveliness of the view. +The shining Bodden with its bays and little islands lay beneath us, to +the north was the sea, to the west the sea, to the east, right away on +the other side of distant Rügen, the sea; far in the south rose the +towers of Stralsund; close behind us a forest of young pines filled the +air with warm waves of fragrance; at our feet the turf was thick with +flowers,--oh, wide and splendid world! How good it is to look sometimes +across great spaces, to lift one's eyes from narrowness, to feel the +large silence that rests on lonely hills! Motionless we stood before +this sudden unrolling of the beauty of God's earth. The place seemed +full of a serene and mighty Presence. Far up near the clouds a solitary +lark was singing its joys. There was no other sound. + +I believe if I had not been with him the Professor would again have +forgotten Charlotte, and lying down on the flowery turf with his eyes on +that most beautiful of views have given himself over to abstractions. +But I stopped him at the very moment when he was preparing to sink to +the ground. 'No, no,' I besought, 'don't sit down.' + +'Not sit? And why, then, shall not a warm old man sit?' + +'First let us find Charlotte.' At the bare mention of the name he began +to run. + +The inn servant had said Charlotte had gone up to the lighthouse. From +where we were we could not see it, but hurrying through a corner of the +pine-wood we came out on the north end of Hiddensee, and there it was on +the edge of the cliff. Then my heart began to beat with mingled +feelings--exultation that I should be on the verge of doing so much +good, fear lest my plan by some fatal mishap should be spoilt, or, if it +succeeded, my actions be misjudged. 'Wait a moment,' I murmured faintly, +laying a trembling hand on the Professor's arm. 'Dear Professor, wait a +moment--Charlotte must be quite close now--I don't want to intrude on +you both at first, so please, will you give her this letter'--and I +pulled it with great difficulty, it being fat and my fingers shaky, out +of my pocket, the eloquent letter I had written in the dawn at +Stubbenkammer, and pressed it into his hand,--'give it to her with my +love--with my very dear love.' + +'Yes, yes,' said the Professor, impatient of these speeches, and only +desirous of getting on. He crushed the letter unquestioningly into his +pocket and we resumed our hurried walking. The footpath led us across a +flowery slope ending in a cliff that dropped down on the sunset side of +the island to the sea. We had not gone many yards before we saw a single +figure sitting on this slope, its back to us, its slightly dejected head +and shoulders appearing above the crowd of wild-flowers--scabious, +harebells, and cow-parsley, through whose frail loveliness flashed the +shimmering sea. It was Charlotte. + +I seized the Professor's hand. 'Look--there she is,' I whispered in +great excitement, holding him back for one instant. 'Give me time to get +out of sight--don't forget the letter--let me get into the wood first, +and then go to her. Now, all blessings be with thee, dearest +Professor--good luck to you both! You'll see how happy you both are +going to be!' And wringing his hand with a fervour that evidently +surprised him, I turned and fled. + +Oh, how I fled! Never have I run so fast, with such a nightmare feeling +of covering no ground. Back through the wood, out on the other side, +straight as an arrow down the hill towards the Bodden, taking the +shortest cut over the turf to Kloster--oh, how I ran! It makes me +breathless now to think of it. As if pursued by demons I ran, not daring +to look back, not daring to stop and gasp, away I flew, past the church, +past the parson, who I remember stared at me aghast over his garden +wall, past the willows, past the rushes, down to the landing-stage and +Gertrud. Everything was ready. I had given the strictest private +instructions; and dropping speechless into the dinghy, a palpitating +mixture of heat, anxiety, and rapture, was rowed as fast as two strong +men could row me to the brig and the waiting skipper. + +The wind was terribly light, the water terribly glassy. At first I lay +in a quivering heap on the cushions, hardly daring to think we were not +moving, hardly daring to remember how I had seen a small boat tied to a +stake in front of the inn, and that if the _Bertha_ did not get away +soon---- + +Then Fortune smiled on the doer of good, a gentle puff filled the sails, +there was a distinct rippling across the bows, it increased to a gurgle, +and Kloster with its willows, its downs, its one inn, and its +impossibility of being got out of, silently withdrew into shadows. + +Then did I stretch myself out on my rugs with a deep sigh of relief and +allow Gertrud to fuss over me. Never have I felt so nice, so kind, so +exactly like a ministering angel. How grateful the dear old Professor +would be! And Charlotte too, when she had read my letter and listened to +all he had to say; she would have to listen, she wouldn't be able to +help herself, and there would be heaps of time. I laughed aloud for joy +at the success of my plan. There they were on that tiny island, and +there they would have to stay at least till to-morrow, probably longer. +Perhaps they would get so fond of it that they would stay on there +indefinitely. Anyhow I had certainly reunited them--reunited them and +freed myself. Emphatically this was one of those good actions that +blesses him who acts and him who is acted upon; and never did well-doer +glow with a warmer consciousness of having done well than I glowed as I +lay on the deck of the _Bertha_ watching the sea-gulls in great comfort, +and eating not only my own cherries but the Professor's as well. + +All the way up the Wieker Bodden we had to tack. Hour after hour we +tacked, and seemed to get no nearer home. The afternoon wore on, the +evening came, and still we tacked. The sun set gloriously, the moon came +up, the sea was a deep violet, the clouds in the eastern sky about the +moon shone with a pearly whiteness, the clouds in the west were gorgeous +past belief, flaming across in marvellous colours even to us, the light +reflected from them transfiguring our sails, our men, our whole boat +into a spirit ship of an unearthly radiance, bound for Elysium, manned +by immortal gods. + + Look now how Colour, the Soul's bridegroom, makes + The house of Heaven splendid for the bride.... + +I quoted awestruck, watching this vast plain of light with clasped hands +and rapt spirit. + +It was a solemn and magnificent close to my journey. + + + + +THE ELEVENTH DAY + +FROM WIEK HOME + + +The traveller in whose interests I began this book and who has so +frequently been forgotten during the writing of it, might very well +protest here that I have not yet been all round Rügen, and should not, +therefore, talk of closes to my journey. But nothing that the traveller +can say will keep me from going home in this chapter. I did go home on +the morning of the eleventh day, driving from Wiek to Bergen, and taking +the train from there; and the red line on the map will show that, except +for one dull corner in the south-east, I had practically carried out my +original plan and really had driven all round the island. + +Reaching the inn at Wiek at ten o'clock on the Sunday night I went +straight and very softly to bed; and leaving the inn at Wiek at eight +o'clock on the Monday morning I might have got away without ever seeing +Mrs. Harvey-Browne again if the remembrance of Brosy's unvarying +kindness had not stirred me to send Gertrud up with a farewell message. + +Mrs. Harvey-Browne, having heard all about my day on the _Bertha_ from +the landlady, and how I had come back in the unimpeachability of +singleness, the Professor safely handed over to his wife, forgave the +chin-chucking, forgave the secret setting out, and hurried on to the +landing in a wrapper, warmth in her heart and honey on her lips. + +'What, you are leaving us, dear Frau X.?' she called over the baluster. +'So early? So suddenly? I can't come down to you--do come up here. _Why_ +didn't you tell me you were going to-day?' she continued when I had come +up, holding my hand in both hers, speaking with emphatic cordiality, an +altogether melted and mellifluous bishop's wife. + +'I hadn't quite decided. I fear I must go home to-day. They want me +badly.' + +'That I can _quite_ understand--of course they want their little ray of +sunshine,' she cried, growing more and more mellifluous. 'Now tell me,' +she went on, stroking the hand she held, 'when are you coming to see us +all at Babbacombe?' + +Babbacombe! Heavens. When indeed? Never, never, never, shrieked my soul. +'Oh thanks,' murmured my lips, 'how kind you are. But--do you think the +bishop would like me?' + +'The bishop? He would more than like you, dear Frau X.--he would +positively glory in you.' + +'Glory in me?' I faintly gasped; and a gaudy vision of the bishop +glorying, that bishop of whom I had been taught to think as steeped in +chronic sorrow, swam before my dazzled eyes. 'How kind you are. But I'm +afraid you are too kind. I'm afraid he would soon see there wasn't +anything to make him glory and much to make him grieve.' + +'Well, well, we mustn't be so modest. Of course the bishop knows we are +all human, and so must have our little faults. But I can assure you he +would be _delighted_ to make your acquaintance. He is a most +large-minded man. Now _promise_.' + +I murmured confused thanks and tried to draw my hand away, but it was +held tight. 'I shall miss the midday train at Bergen if I don't go at +once,' I appealed--'I really must go.' + +'You long to be with all your dear ones again, I am sure.' + +'If I don't catch this train I shall not get home to-night. I really +must go.' + +'Ah, home. How charming your home must be. One hears so much about the +charming German home-life, but unfortunately just travelling through the +country one gets no chance of a peep into it.' + +'Yes, I have felt that myself in other countries. Good-bye--I absolutely +must run. Good-bye!' And, tearing my hand away with the energy of panic +I got down the ladder as quickly as I could without actually sliding, +for I knew that in another moment the bishop's wife would have invited +herself--oh, it did not bear thinking of. + +'And the Nieberleins?' she called over the baluster, suddenly +remembering them. + +'They're on an island. Quite inaccessible in this wind. A mere +desert--only sea-birds--and one is sick getting to it. Good-bye!' + +'But do they not return here?' she called still louder, for I was +through the door now, and out on the path. + +'No, no--Stralsund, Berlin, Bonn--_good_-bye!' + +The landlord and his wife were waiting outside, the landlady with a +great bunch of roses and yet another basket of cakes. Brosy was there +too, and helped me into the carriage. 'I'm frightfully sorry you are +going,' he said. + +'So am I. But one must ultimately go. Observe the eternal truth lurking +in that sentence. If ever you are wandering about Germany alone, do come +and see us.' + +'I should love to.' + +And thus with mutual amenities Brosy and I parted. + +So ended my journey round Rügen, for there is nothing to be recorded of +that last drive to the railway station at Bergen except that it was +flat, and we saw the Jagdschloss in the distance. At the station I bade +farewell to the carriage in which I had sometimes suffered and often +been happy, for August stayed that night in Bergen, and brought the +horses home next day; and presently the train appeared and swept up +Gertrud and myself, and Rügen knew us no more. + +But before I part from the traveller, who ought by this time to be very +tired, I will present him with the following condensed experiences:-- + + The nicest bathing was at Lauterbach, + The best inn was at Wiek. + I was happiest at Lauterbach and Wiek. + I was most wretched at Göhren. + The cheapest place was Thiessow. + The dearest place was Stubbenkammer. + The most beautiful place was Hiddensee. + +And perhaps he may like to know, too, though it really is no business of +his, what became of the Nieberleins. I am sorry to say that I had +letters from them both of a nature that positively prohibits +publication; and a mutual acquaintance told me that Charlotte had +applied for a judicial separation. + +When I heard it I was thunderstruck. + + + +THE END +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33762 *** |