"No!" said Reinsfeld, with so decided an emphasis that Alice looked up at him in surprise and with a sad smile.

"Then we are both dreamers and fools, whom sensible people would despise."

"Thank G.o.d that it is so!" Benno broke forth. "Never let 'such sentiment' be s.n.a.t.c.hed from you, Fraulein Nordheim; it is all that can make life happy or even worth the living. Wolf has always prophesied that I should never come to good, or make myself a fine position in the world. So be it. I do not care! I am happier than he with all his wisdom and his schemes. He takes no real pleasure in anything,--sees nothing anywhere save bare, forlorn reality, transfigured by no ray of inspiration. I have had a hard life. When my parents died I was knocked about the world, with scant favour from any one, and sometimes, as a student, was hard put to it for bread to eat; even now I possess merely the necessaries of life; but I would not exchange lots with my friend for all his brilliant future."

He was carried away by his emotion, and did not perceive how his words accused Wolfgang; nor did Alice appear to take note of it, for she looked up with sparkling eyes at the young physician, wont to be so quiet and calm, who seemed for the moment transfigured. Usually shy and reserved; as is the case with all introspective natures, when once the barrier of reserve was overleaped he forgot that any such had ever existed, and went on, with what was almost pa.s.sionate ardour, "When the sum of our lives is reckoned up, the gain may after all be mine. I question whether Wolfgang would not give all the results he has achieved for one draught from the fountain which flows inexhaustibly for me. We poor, ridiculed dreamers are, after all, the only happy human beings, for in spite of all experience we can love with all our hearts, can hope, and trust, and have faith in truth and goodness. And whatever of disappointment this world may have in store for us, nothing can deprive us of the belief in something higher. We attain heights to which others cannot soar; wings to reach it are worth all their vaunted worldly wisdom!"

Alice listened in breathless silence to these words, the like of which she had never heard beneath her father's roof, but which nevertheless she comprehended at once with the instinct of a warm young heart thirsting for love and happiness. She did not dream that the consciousness of the man who spoke thus in eager defence of faith in all that is best in humanity was burdened with the knowledge of the bitterest failure in the faith and honour of her own father.

"You are right!" she exclaimed, holding out both hands to him as in grat.i.tude. "This faith is the highest, the only happiness in life, and we will not allow it to be s.n.a.t.c.hed from us."

"The only happiness?" Benno repeated, while, scarcely knowing what he did, he clasped and held fast the hands held out to him. "No, Fraulein Nordheim, other joys also await you. Wolfgang's is a n.o.ble nature in spite of his ambition; in time you will learn to understand each other, and then he will make you truly happy, or he is utterly unworthy of you. I"--here his voice grew slightly unsteady--"I shall often hear from him and of his married life,--we are faithful correspondents,--and sometimes, perhaps, you will allow me to recall myself to your memory."

Alice made no reply; her eyes filled with tears. Unable to conceal the first profound grief in her young life, at Benno's last words she hid her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.

For Benno this moment was one of intoxicating delight and of intense pain. Another man might perhaps have forgotten all else in the rapture of the revelation thus made, but for him Alice was sacred as the betrothed of his friend; not for the world would he have uttered one of the thousand expressions of love that rose to his lips. He slowly retreated a few paces, and said, almost inaudibly, "It is well that I am to go to Neuenfeld. I have long known how it was with me!"

Neither of the pair had any idea that they were overheard. Just as the doctor had clasped the young girl's hands in his, the shrubbery at the foot of the rock had parted, and Molly, who had intended in jest to startle Alice by her sudden appearance, noiselessly emerged. Her merry face a.s.sumed, however, an expression of extreme surprise upon finding her friend, whom she had supposed alone, in Benno's society, and in such evident agitation.

Among the praiseworthy qualities of Frau Gersdorf might be reckoned intense curiosity. She was instantly eager to know how this interesting interview would terminate. She therefore retreated unperceived, as noiselessly as she had appeared, and, hid among the bushes, overheard all that ensued, until Waltenberg's and Erna's approaching footsteps became audible as they descended the rocky pathway.

Fortunately, the little lady was not lacking in presence of mind, and, moreover, since she had before her own marriage peremptorily claimed Alice's services as guardian angel, she felt called upon now to requite her after the same manner. So she retreated still farther into the shrubbery, and then called out aloud to the approaching couple that she had easily outstripped them. The result was all that could be desired, and when some minutes later the three new-comers reached the mountain-meadow, Alice was sitting as they had left her, and Benno, grave and silent, was standing beside her. Molly was, of course, immensely surprised at finding her cousin Benno, of whom she straightway took possession. She was resolved to extort a confession from him as soon as they should be alone, and from Alice also,--as guardian angel she had a right to their unreserved confidence.

The little party took its way homewards, and Benno was plied by his young relative with questions, to which he replied absently and mechanically, while his eyes sought the slender, delicate figure walking silently beside Erna; he had not waited until to-day to know that she was dearer to him than aught else on earth.

CHAPTER XIX.

NEMESIS.

The president made his appearance at the appointed time; until the opening of the railway he was obliged to drive over from Heilborn, and he brought with him Herr Gersdorf, who was to come for his wife. The engineer-in-chief was 'accidentally' absent at a distant post, and could not receive his future father-in-law as usual. Nordheim knew what this meant,--he no longer reckoned upon Wolfgang's compliance,--but he also knew that matters must come to a final explanation.

Molly immediately after dinner invited her husband to walk with her in the grove at the foot of the garden, that she might open her heart to him; but when she would have told her secret she prefaced the revelation by so many mysterious hints, such oracular sentences, that Gersdorf grew uneasy.

"My dear child, pray tell me outright what has happened," he begged her. "I noticed nothing whatever unusual upon my arrival; what have you to tell me?"

"A secret, Albert," she replied, with much solemnity,--"a profound secret, which I adjure you not to reveal. Incredible things have been happening,--here and at Oberstein."

"At Oberstein? Has Benno anything to do with them?"

"Yes!" And here Frau Gersdorf made a long, artistic pause, to give due effect to what was to follow. Then she said, in a tone of the deepest tragedy, "Benno--loves Alice Nordheim."

Unfortunately, the revelation did not produce the desired effect; the lawyer merely shook his head, and observed, with exasperating indifference, "Poor fellow! It is well that he is going to Neuenfeld, where he will soon get such nonsense out of his head."

"Nonsense, do you call it?" Molly exclaimed, indignantly. "And you suppose it can be easily got rid of? You probably could have done so if you had not married me, Albert, for you are a heartless monster!"

"But an excellent husband," Gersdorf, who was quite used to such tragic outbursts from his wife, a.s.serted with philosophic serenity. "Moreover, the case was not similar. I knew that in spite of obstacles I could win you, and then I was sure of your love."

"And so is Benno. Alice loves him also," Molly explained, gratified to perceive that her husband took this announcement much more seriously.

He listened in thoughtful silence, while, after her usual lively fashion, she told of the scene on the mountain-meadow, of her concealment among the trees, and of her extremely vigorous efforts to smooth matters, as she expressed it.

"An hour later I had Benno alone by himself," she continued. "At first he would not confess,--not a word; but I should like to see any one conceal from me what I have resolved to find out. Finally I said to him, frankly, 'Benno, you are in love, desperately in love,' and then he denied it no longer, but said, with a sigh, 'Yes, and hopelessly so!' He was in despair, poor fellow, but I told him to take courage, for I would undertake to arrange the affair."

"That must, of course, have consoled him greatly," the lawyer interposed.

"No; on the contrary, he would not hear of it. Benno's conscientiousness is positively something frightful. Alice was the betrothed of his friend,--he could not even allow his thoughts to dwell upon her,--never would he see her again, but if possible he would start for Neuenfeld to-morrow, and a deal more of such nonsense. He forbade me to speak to Alice. Of course, as soon as his back was turned, I went to her and extorted a confession from her too. In short, they love each other dearly, intensely, inexpressibly. So there is nothing for them to do but to be married!"

"Indeed?" said her husband, rather surprised by this conclusion.

"You seem to have quite forgotten that Alice is betrothed to the engineer-in-chief."

Frau Molly turned up her little nose contemptuously; that betrothal never had found favour in her eyes, and at present she was inclined to make short work of it.

"Alice never loved that Wolfgang Elmhorst," she a.s.serted, with decision. "She said yes because her father told her to, because she had not the energy then to say no, and he--well, what he wanted was a wealthy wife."

"A very good reason, as you must admit, for disinclination to relinquish her."

"I told you just now, Albert, that I was going myself to undertake the adjustment of the affair," Frau Molly declared, with dignity. "I shall see Elmhorst, and appeal to his generosity, representing to him that unless he wishes to make two people wretched he must withdraw. He will be touched and softened, he will bring the lovers together, and----"

"There will be a most romantic scene," Albert concluded her sentence.

"No, that is just what he will _not_ do. You little know the engineer-in-chief if you credit him with such sensibility. He is not the man to withdraw from a connection that insures him the future possession of millions, and he will soon console himself for lack of affection in his wife. And what do you suppose Nordheim will say to your romance?"

"The president?" Molly asked, dejectedly. In the contemplation of her scheme in which she played the part of beneficent fairy, joining the hands of the lovers with all the emotion befitting the occasion, she had quite forgotten that Alice had a father whose word might be decisive in this matter.

"Yes, President Nordheim, who brought about this betrothal, and who will hardly consent to dissolve it, and to bestow his daughter's hand upon a young country doctor, who, with all his courage and capacity, has nothing to give in return. No, Molly, the affair is perfectly hopeless, and Benno is quite right to resign all hope. Even if Alice really loves him, she has promised her hand to Wolfgang, and neither he nor her father will release her. There is no help for it, they must both submit."

He might have gone on thus forever without convincing his wife. She knew what her own obstinacy had effected in uniting her with her lover, and she would not see why Alice could not persist in the same manner.

She listened, indeed, attentively, and then cut short any further remarks from her husband by declaring, dictatorially,--

"You do not understand it at all, Albert! They love each other. Then they ought to marry; and marry they shall!"

What could Gersdorf say to refute such logic as this?

Meanwhile, Alice Nordheim was in her father's study, which she rarely entered, and which she must have sought now for some important purpose, for she looked pale and agitated, and as she stood leaning against the window-frame, seemed to be undergoing an inward struggle; yet there was nothing in prospect save an interview between the father and daughter.

There was, to be sure, nothing of confidence or intimacy in the relation existing between them. Nordheim, who had surrounded his daughter with all the luxury and splendour that wealth could procure, took, in fact, very little interest in her, as Alice had always felt, but in her docile compliance with whatever her father desired, there had never been any collision between them.

For the first time this was otherwise; she was about to go to her father with a confession, which must, she knew, provoke his wrath, and she trembled at the thought, although her resolution never wavered.

All at once the president's step was heard in the next room, and his voice said, "Herr Waltenberg's secretary? Certainly. Show him in!"

Alice stood hesitating for a moment; her father, who did not suspect her presence here, was not alone, and, agitated as she was, she could not confront a stranger. Probably the man brought some message from Waltenberg, and his business would shortly be despatched. The young girl, therefore, slipped into her father's bedroom, which adjoined his office, and the door of which remained ajar. Nordheim immediately entered the room she had left, and was shortly joined there by his visitor.

The president received him with affable ease. He knew that Ernst in his travels had picked up somewhere an individual who, ostensibly his secretary, played the part of his confidential friend, but he took further interest in the matter. He either had not heard or had not heeded his name; at all events, he did not recognize his former friend.

Twenty-five years are long in pa.s.sing, and such a life as Gronau's had been is a great disguiser. This man with his brown, deeply-furrowed face and gray hair had nothing in his appearance to recall the fresh, merry youth who had gone out into the world to seek his fortune.

"You are Herr Waltenberg's secretary?" It was thus that Nordheim opened the conversation.