Ilse clung to him: Mr. Hummel pressed her hand, after his fashion, tenderly; but it was a hard pressure.

"Now for composure and cool blood. It can be no small matter which moves you so strongly. I will not leave you until I see you well protected." He looked at Gabriel, who made him a sign. "Do not trouble yourself further in the matter. Be quietly seated, and allow me to confer with Gabriel. I will take care of everything for you, and I shall answer for everything."

Ilse looked at him thankfully and seated herself obediently. Mr. Hummel beckoned Gabriel into the next room.

"What has happened here?" he asked.

"The master has gone away for a few days; meanwhile Mrs. Werner has been treated in an unseemly way; great wickedness is carried on here, and they will not let her go."

"Not let my lodger go?" cried Mr. Hummel; "ridiculous! I have a pa.s.sport to Paris in my pocket, we will skip over this country like gra.s.shoppers. I will fetch a conveyance immediately."

Gabriel shook his head. The confidants again conferred together. Mr.

Hummel came back and said, with greater seriousness, to Ilse:

"Now I must beg of you to write a few lines to the Crown Inspector--to the husband, not to his wife, otherwise there would be confusion. You must request him, immediately after the receipt of this letter, if he is willing to do a great kindness, to come here in a closed carriage, to stop in the suburb, at the Black Bear; and he must not leave his carriage. Nothing further. This letter Gabriel will convey to him. How he does so is his affair, not ours; if he chooses to fly, like this ambiguous genius on the ceiling, who has forgotten its overcoat, it will be so much the better. Now the letter is written, forgive me if I read it. All right and accurate--away, Gabriel, quickly. When you have pa.s.sed the castle, then make speed: till then, act like a composed philanthropist. I will allow you to whistle my Dessauer, if you can. If they ask you any questions, say you are attending to some business for me."

Gabriel hastened away. Mr. Hummel placed his chair in front of Ilse, and looked at his watch.

"You will have to wait five hours for the carriage if all goes right.

Meanwhile you must bear my company, I will not leave the house without you. Do not be troubled at the delay. I am glad of it; for I wish to speak with you as with an honorable woman, to whom I can take off my hat with true respect, concerning my own affairs, which I have much at heart. We have time enough for it. I have also brought some papers to the Professor; they are of little importance, but I will lay them on the table, and we shall sit opposite each other like people of business. Then I should be glad if you would give that Judas in the servants' chamber a few instructions for me. Have the goodness also to take everything away that might lead him to suppose that you and I were going to elope."

Ilse looked round her, undecided.

"What shall I say to the man, Mr. Hummel?"

"You are so good a housewife," replied Hummel, politely, "that I can leave entirely to you to decide what you will provide for me. I have been travelling the whole day," and he made a significant gesture towards his waistcoat.

"Ilse jumped up; in spite of all her anxieties, she could not help laughing, and said:

"Forgive me, Mr. Hummel."

"That is the right frame of mind," replied Hummel; "there is no better remedy for tragic spirits than a well spread table. I beg, therefore that you will send not only for one plate, but for two. I could not eat if you were looking on. Believe me, Mrs. Werner, the n.o.blest feelings are not to be depended on if an honest piece of bread and b.u.t.ter is not impressed on them as a stamp. It makes people calm and firm--and you will have occasion for these virtues to-day."

Ilse rang the bell.

"If the knave appears," proceeded Mr. Hummel, "mention to him my name and my firm. I do not generally travel incognito, and I wish not to be looked upon as a mystery here."

The lackey appeared. Ilse gave him orders to fetch the necessary refreshment, and asked him how it was he had denied her dear landlord admittance.

The man stammered an excuse, and went away hastily.

"When I came to the house I was aware that all was not right here. I asked after you at the castle and received no satisfactory answer. I asked a man at the back of the castle who was wandering about, which was your house. He looked at me like a crossbill. You were travelling, he declared, and he tried to discover my secret. Thereupon there was a short conversation, in which cross-bill showed his spite because I in ignorance called him by his proper t.i.tle of spy. The sentinel came up at this, and I saw that these jovial comrades had a great mind to arrest me. Then a young gentleman appeared, who asked the other the cause of the disturbance, and said he knew that you were at home. He accompanied me up to this house, asked my name politely, told me also his own, Lieutenant Treeclimber, and advised me not to be frightened away, that the servants were insolent, but that you would be rejoiced to see an old friend. He must be known to you."

The lackey laid the table. Whenever he offered Mr. Hummel a dish, the latter gave him a withering look, and did not endeavor to make his office easy to him. While the servant was removing the things, Mr.

Hummel began:

"Now permit me to talk of our affairs, it will be a long account; have you patience for it?"

The evening had set in, darkness lay over the dismal house, the storm came on, the windows rattled, and the rain poured down. Ilse sat as in a dream. In the midst of the stormy scenes of the past day and the uneasy expectation of a wild night, the comfortable prose of the Park Street rose before her, where, fearless and secure, she was at peace with herself and the world,--so far as the world was not vexatious. But she felt how beneficial this contrast was; she even forgot her own position, and listened with deep sympathy to the account of the father.

"I am speaking to a daughter," said Mr. Hummel, "who is going back to her father, and I tell her what I have said to no one else: how hard it is to bear my child's wish to leave me."

He spoke about the child whom they both loved, and it was pleasant intercourse between them. Thus several hours pa.s.sed.

The lackey came again, and asked respectfully whether Mrs. Werner had sent Gabriel away.

"He has gone upon a commission for me," grumbled Mr. Hummel, to the inquirer; "he is looking after some money matters with which I did not choose to burden your honesty. If any one inquires from the city for me, I must beg, Mrs. Werner, to request this man to say that I am at home."

He again looked at his watch.

"Four hours," he said. "If the horse was good, and Gabriel did not lose his way in the dark, we may expect him every moment. If he has not succeeded, you may still be without anxiety; I will still take you from this house."

The bell below rang, and the house door opened--Gabriel entered. There was a gleam of pleasure in his countenance.

"Promptly, at ten, the carriage will stop before the inn," he said, cautiously; "I have ridden hastily in advance."

Ilse jumped up. Again the terrors of the day and anxiety for the future pa.s.sed through her mind.

"Sit still," admonished Mr. Hummel again; "violent moving about is suspicious. I will meanwhile hold council once more with Gabriel."

This council lasted a long time. At last Mr. Hummel came back, and said, very seriously:

"Now, Mrs. Werner, prepare yourself; we have a quarter of an hour's walk. Yield yourself quietly to our guidance; all has been carefully considered."

Mr. Hummel rang. Gabriel, who had returned to the spy on the ground floor, entered as usual, and took several keys and a screw-driver out of his pocket, and said, cautiously:

"The first week we were here I closed the small back staircase and secured the door with a large screw; the people do not know that I have the keys."

He went to one of the back rooms and opened the entrance to a secret staircase. Mr. Hummel glided after him.

"I wished to know how I was to let myself in again," he said, returning to Ilse. "When I have taken you away some one must be heard moving about here as your spirit, otherwise all the trouble would be lost.

Gabriel will take you down the back staircase, while I go out at the front door and keep the lackey in conversation. I will meet you a short distance from the house among the bushes; Gabriel will bring you to me, and I will be sure to be there."

Ilse pressed his hand anxiously.

"I hope all will go well," said Mr. Hummel, cautiously. "Take care to have a cloak that will disguise you as much as possible."

Ilse flew to her writing-table and in haste wrote these words:

"Farewell, beloved; I am gone to my father."

Again sorrow overpowered her; she wrung her hands and wept. Mr. Hummel stood respectfully aside. At last he laid his hand on her shoulder: "The time is pa.s.sing away."

Ilse jumped up, enclosed the note in an envelope, gave it to Gabriel, and quickly veiled herself.

"Now forward," admonished Mr. Hummel, "out of both doors. I go first.

Good bye, Mrs. Werner," he called out, through the open door; "I hope you will rest well."

He stepped heavily down the stairs, the lackey was standing on the last step.