A turbulent gust of wind swept through the top loose piles of snow and whirled them about so that Romeo and Juliet must simultaneously wipe the snow out of their eyes.

"I love you, Olga!"

Olga started back in alarm, making the little bells on her fur rug tinkle; it is true it was sweet alarm, but she was not prepared for a declaration of love with the thermometer so low. Wegen waited for the result, while alternately stamping his feet and beating himself with his arms, so as to impart some warmth to his body.

"Yes, I have always loved you, that is to say," added he in his love of truth, "after Ccilie--but you know it? Why waste so many words? My breath freezes upon my lips, but my heart is all the warmer. Will you belong to me for ever?"

Olga drew one hand out of her m.u.f.f and extended it as if in protestation:

"So suddenly, dear friend? And here in the snow?"

"Here we are undisturbed."

"Then it was base treachery?"

"Yes, I will confess it, my compa.s.s would not have failed me, but to be able to say to you at last what fills my whole--"

Wegen stopped, his teeth chattered, it was internal emotion mingled with a shiver, called forth by the low temperature of Boreas, who was blowing with inflated cheeks.

"It is indeed weather in which only the Lapland youth can stammer about love to a Lapland maiden," added Wegen dejectedly, "but the circ.u.mstances, the conditions--Olga, tell yourself that it is a favourable moment. I do not mean the weather, but that we are alone, quite alone. I will make you happy--we have little time, I do not mean for your happiness, for that we have our whole lives; but now to arrange matters. It is indeed barbarously cold. A gla.s.s of negus or mulled ale will do us good. But speak then, will you be mine?"

"I must consider it, weigh--"

"And the result you have seen in Ccilie's case. Those are words as cold as ice; it is enough to freeze one's soul. My Olga, dear sweet girl, you know my circ.u.mstances, they are affluent, my people approve of my choice. Your mamma had already given her consent when I proposed to Ccilie, and, of course, it is immaterial which of the two daughters--I mean--that is to say, immaterial to your mamma. And now once more may I claim my sleighing rights?"

Olga nodded pleasantly, and withdrew her other hand from her m.u.f.f.

Wegen pressed a glowing kiss upon her lips, the ice upon his fair beard melted in the fervour of his love.

"That was the sleighing privilege, and now--shall we glide together over the mirror-like surface of life, as we do over the ice? I promise to avoid every uneven course. The sleighing right for life?"

"Yes," whispered Olga, out of her fur hood, into which she had again relapsed.

Then Wegen pressed the betrothal kiss upon her lips, her arms encircled and folded him to herself, and heart would have beaten glowingly against heart if the thick fur tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs had not been an insurmountable obstacle.

Soon the sleigh stumbled over the snow hillocks once more into the smooth course, and now they went impetuously towards the inn near the Haff, where a numerous circle of people was a.s.sembled.

Wegen led Olga to Frau von Dornau, and as he could not shout the glad tidings out aloud, sought by means of speaking pantomime to make her understand that he was engaged to Olga. A mother always understands such things, even although the where and how may remain a riddle to her, and while the waiter brought the negus ordered by Wegen and all fell to gallantly, Frau von Dornau spoke words of consent, and after having refreshed herself with a gla.s.s of the fiery drink, imparted her blessing in a voice full of emotion.

Ccilie triumphed when she heard the news from Olga. "She is the right one, now at last you have found her," said she, as she shook Wegen's hand heartily. The intelligence spread rapidly, like quicksilver, amongst those present. A betrothed! Frulein Baute's entire school becomes excited. A lover--for the first-cla.s.s in a girl's school, that is the loftiest position upon earth to which a man can attain. Every eve of St. Sylvester they cast him in lead, and yet nothing can be done with such a leaden lover, a lover of the future.

Iduna, with her companions, one after another, glided past the chair in order to get a closer view of the marvel.

"It is, indeed, remarkable," said Lori to Dr. Sperner, who sat beside her and drank to her in a gla.s.s of mulled ale; "in Neukuhren people believed that he was as good as engaged to Ccilie, he accompanied her upon the piano--and that is always the beginning. But he appears to have made a mistake then; this Olga is the right major chord. Upon the whole, I consider such feeling about rather tactless. Herr von Wegen is no Don Juan by profession like the other. I believe he allows himself to be married, and Ccilie, who holds the first mortgage upon him, has given him notice, because he--did not offer sufficiently good security."

At the same time Lori made a gesture of explanation. Dr. Sperner knew how, by ringing laughter, to do honour to the schoolmistress' hint.

What an amount of genius she concealed in her little head!

"But the other?" asked the Doctor, as he stroked his moustache complacently, "where is her first mortgage now?"

"On a spot, which alas! is even more insecure! If a suit be opened upon Dr. Kuhl's heart, then every unhappy creditor, or much rather female creditor, will have to content herself with very little payment."

"But I do not understand how a young lady can be so thoughtless."

"They should be cut, propriety requires it, nothing else is left for us."

At that moment Ccilie pa.s.sed by; she greeted them pleasantly, but her bow was scarcely returned by Lori, while Doctor Sperner looked defiantly at her, a bold smile upon his lips, and only nodded his head slightly.

Her sister's engagement cast her far into the shade, people gave her to understand that her free behaviour would no longer be tolerated in society. Major Bern's wife did not press her to sit down, although Banquo's ghost might have been obliged to sit either on the right or left hand, and the Frau Kanzleirthin wrapped herself disapprovingly in her red shawl when Ccilie addressed her, and was so chary of her words, that her friends looked anxiously at her as if she had been suddenly taken ill, because only shortly before she had gathered together the sluices of her eloquence, to pour out an overwhelming flood of language. Even Minna, who was still unmarried, and in spite of that fact had forfeited none of her good nature--fat Minna, who had already in all dancing parties long since belonged to the female _land-sturm_, and was only called out when no one else could be mobilised--did not talk to Ccilie without a certain timidity, as if contact with so adventuresome a beauty might injure her good character, and frighten away some wooer, although for years already none had appeared on her horizon.

Ccilie seemed to challenge danger with a certain amount of defiance, the tokens of contempt increased at table after table, where she greeted old acquaintances. Not more cheering was the familiar and impudent greeting of gifted Salomon, who, seated with a few friends over a large bowl of negus, pledged a gla.s.s to the lady pa.s.sing by, and invited her to sit down at their table while he recited in a half intoxicated voice--

"With brunettes I now have finished, And this year am once more fond Of the eyes whose hue is azure Of the hair whose colour's blonde."

Ccilie found it difficult to defend herself from these importunate invitations.

Dr. Kuhl stood beside the stove, and warmed himself with his hands behind him, but nothing of that which befell Ccilie escaped him. It filled him with extreme dissatisfaction, it was as if his beloved were running the gauntlet, and with such irritating composure. He had caught himself in the act of pulling up his coat sleeves in rage, ready to knock down all who insulted her.

"Dear Paul," said Ccilie, "I have something to tell you."

"I do not understand," replied Paul, angrily, "how you can court all these people; they are the most worn out coinage which can have no circulation amongst us. Let us sit down here at this table behind the stove, there we shall at least not see these bald heads, which only by an oversight, or by the magic wand of some mischievous Demiurgos, were thrown amongst human beings. Well your communication--"

"It could be foreseen, Olga has engaged herself to Herr von Wegen."

Kuhl struck the table with his hand.

"Then may the weather--that Wegen! I always had an antipathy for the man; he belongs to those who would play with dice, and cannot count, and with the most innocent face he gets up one affair after another.

First he proposes to you, then to Olga--I feel as if I saw my face in a distorting mirror, like a ridiculous caricature."

"No one will blame his conduct!"

"That is it! People may dare much for love! Only a little time must elapse between--time! That is the meaning of all wisdom, and yet that old maid who paints our wrinkles upon us makes everything worse!

Whether to-day I love two girls at once, or to-day the one, and to-morrow the other, is really no very great difference! And yet the first is accounted a sin, and the other is most correct. Always the goose-step in life and love, and so one walks most comfortably through the world."

"You see, though, how kindly they greet Olga and thrust me aside."

"Olga--she has put a crown upon her faithlessness to our alliance, now it is broken! I did not think her so calculating."

"Calculating? She loves Wegen!"

"It is not possible!"

"Why? He is honest, and a gentleman!"

"Did you perhaps love him too?"

"And if I had done so? bountiful natures must find an outlet!"