title: Fridolin's mystical marriage;
text: '2 f M. \ % S 0. 0 p-;:* ) i.jr ‘ ‘ rv-sK> - >'V; J ^ T ' V V ^ ‘ • .'‘.;n^*.* ''■n'J’ .•IK?' •' • “ « . . -v ••■ ' '•:' ■ ' . 'S' ? ’ ^ V - ». • V- -- ■ > .V i r > • >. . ' -i K rf ' V.. - ? 7'\;n ' V ^ ^ • I I ' -# • Y '•• 4 . M ^ ;jr '-•■ 4 > •A •f • / ' -^ • I « ^■1 •v»; 4 ■> * /- • » .’. • 7 » ■ r f M «■ - > l.\ :*C i*V*/ » % rt . ^ V /:• V- 4- •. ■ .■H' '!"• .1. i;:;?k.’-v=. M i» ' -s • ‘»V * # . • I. - I f *> * 9 \ r '7 I i %» 9 4'f,l * « * ;/«'.♦ .JTf V j4‘ - \ t ^ • % ' -1- -i' • ^ I .< \ ; ^ ^ ^ j* FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE A STUDY OF AN ORIGINAL FOUNDED ON REiMINISCENCES OF A FRIEND ADOLF BY WILBRANDT From the German by CLARA BELL REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE NEW YORK WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER. II MURRAY STREET 1884 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884 BY William S. Gottsberger in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER 0XeMJ ^°ljovh p TO MY DEAR FRIEND HERMANN SCHONE '•■ ’ '■ '^' jSi '‘.O'’ ‘.,4 ;v»HH( . V' . - V^. FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. CHAPTER L Dearly beloved reader, permit me to lead the way into a house in Berlin, across the court-yard, and up to the third floor, into a room in which, you feel at once, without any help of mine, what sort of a man it belongs to. If four walls covered with prints and photographs from the most famous pictures in the world — if a dozen plaster-casts from the antique — if bas-reliefs, statuettes, port- folios, fragments of carving and artistic “ proper- ties ” of every description crowding every square inch of space — if the impossibility of stirring without doing some mischief among all this deco- rative lumber can suffice to prove to you that their owner is a dilettante in art, a single glance will be enough. A man so clever as I take you to be, will discern at the second glance that he has a particular predilection for Raphael’s earlier Ma- donnas as well as for Rembrandt’s etchings ; from 2 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. which you may venture to conclude that two Spirits rule his mind : one which yearns for the tender grace of the South, while the other has the sombre humor of the North. If you will now step out on to the balcony, which has been very tastefully turned into a little garden, but from which the marauding sparrows and pigeons fly in positive terror the instant the latch of the window is touched, you may further infer that the absent proprietor loves flowers and hates birds. The image of a very eccentric per- sonage rises before your fancy and as you look into the room again and perceive that, though it is still early twilight, all the gas is lighted and a dozen tapers to boot, you understand that he has a passion for ample illumination. Now look at the chimney-piece and you will understand that this lover of light must be a man of strong natural affections ; for there — a most unaesthetical senti- mental break in the artistic decoration of the room — behold a long row of small photographs in vul- gar frames : worthy but utterly commonplace old men and old women, in garments of unfashion- able cut ; children with their mouths puckered up ready for a whimper, and held in the arms of un- speakably proud and plain mammas ; a few pretty comfortable-looking dames in caps (these, you FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 3 think, he must have loved but they married other men) and lastly a few groups of young men, with boldly-tied cravats and a perfectly inspired growth of hair ; these likenesses have dedicatory inscrip- tions. “To his dear Master,” “ To his Fridolin,” and so on. Who is this Fridolin ? One more investigating glance, at a calendar hanging on the door, will re- veal him to you. The days of the week are colored in turn, red, blue, and green ; only the Sundays are left white. Against a saint’s day here and there you see written, in a minute professorial hand : “4 to 5,” or “ to 6.” This settles the question. You are sure now that this bitter-sweet dilettante, who seems to love method and his fel- low-men and light and flowers, while he does not love birds, is a Professor of Art whom his devoted but flippant disciples call “Fridolin,” who lives in his favorite ideals and whom it might be very pleasant to know — provided one were not a sparrow. And so, without my having had to tell you any- thing about him, simply and solely by the acute- ness of your own intuition, you have conjured up for yourself a fairly distinct idea of this man, and spared me the eflbrt which so often makes the nar- rator a terror to his reader : that namely of be- 4 fridolin’s mystical marriage. wildering your brain with a tedious and circum- stantial description. At the same time I must warn you that you are in error if, made bold by success, you try to picture his personal appearance and embody the sum total of these gentle qualities in a pale and elegant being with thin, beardless lips, a voiceless smile and modest retiring manners. Yes — mis- taken — for you can have no idea of the trick Nature played him. Quite the reverse ! The clock is striking five and in he comes — a radiant creature, rather like Count Egmont with a splen- did light beard, and a thick Apollo-like curl on his forehead ; a large nose which the judicious stars that watched over him stayed in its growth at precisely the right moment; broad shoulders and a deep chest. He glances round, that noble nose seems to scent mischief, it curls, it sniffs sus- piciously, and above it appears a deep and sinister line of command which has its duplicate over his gracefully twisted moustache. He shakes his wav- ing locks, he stamps his foot, he marches majesti- cally to the bell and rings so violently that the bell-pull curtsies to the carpet. Again he pulls — then he stands and waits. Who is the victim to his fury ? It must be dangerous to appear in the presence of this indignant Egmont — unless for FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 5 the Duke of Alva himself. How came this lover of flowers and Madonnas to put on such a face and form ? Can you, most sapient of readers, have made some mistake ? We must wait till some one comes. — Dame Therese Ritter appears. A tall woman with a tall snow-white cap, and hair already turning grey, but with a remarkably fresh-colored, pleasant and good-humored coun- tenance. “You rang?” says she, in a no less pleasant and good-humored voice, while she looks at him gently but quite composedly. “You found that out did you!” he retorts. “ Yes my dear — I did ring. I rang because you never as long as you live will think of having anything done that I desire. Why has not this room been fumigated ? You know I hate this confounded smell of coal-smoke — that it makes me sick. — Why do you neglect me ? Why do you not do as I ask you ?” “ I do not neglect you,” replied the good woman gently. “ I always does as you asks me ; and I will fumigate your room.” “ Always do — not does. Does for the third person do for the first,” he corrected her. “ I always do,” she repeated timidly. “Yes — you will fumigate it now. Now — 6 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. when it is too late. Do you know I shall have to go out again at once ? When you say so blandly : ‘ I will fumigate your room,’ does it strike you that I shall have to go away ?” “ I know all about that Professor,” she said with a satisfied smile. “ And I will fumigate it all the same, for you are sure to come back again.” Upon my word — but you know too much dame Know-all. What leads your wisdom to conclude that I shall not go to some party when the lecture is over or to see some one, instead of coming back to this sooty stinkosphere ?” Because you have not done your necktie in a large company knot, but in a little bow, as you wear it at home ; and because you have got on your grey satin waistcoat and you always come home again when you have that on.” What a very remarkable waistcoat ! A waist- coat in which I am bound to come home. And all my other twenty waistcoats are different. In those twenty I suppose I never come home at all !” Frau Ritter colored faintly and then she smiled. “ Of course I said it stupidly,” she re- plied, “but you know what I mean and you know I am right.” FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. / “ Mark the day with red chalk — the day when you were right ! It is a great event in your life. The twentieth of March — never forget it. Very good, then, most judicious of women — you will fumigate the room and I will go; but first you will permit me to fumigate myself that I may not take the smell with which you have regaled me here, about with me as a souvenir. I prom- ised my audience to discourse of the fine arts, not to introduce them to foul vapors.” And as he spoke he took up a bottle of Eau de Cologne — there was one on each table — -and plentifully be- dewed his grey satin waistcoat, his shirt front, and the Olympian curl on his forehead. Then you have no further orders ?” asked Frau Ritter without moving a muscle; she seemed used to this sort of tirade. The professor went close up to her with his hands behind his back and poking his face so close to hers that they almost touched he said with a dry emphasis on each syllable : “ No — you may go now.” She went, noiselessly and silently in her felt slippers. The door closed gently behind her ; the storm was over. The professor stood looking at the door ; the lines in his forehead deepened ; he did not seem quite satisfied that it should have blown over so quickly. He went to a shelf built 8 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. into the wall of the room, took his hat and was on the point of putting it on; but after stepping across the room he set it down again on the piano. He glanced at the bell-rope as though minded to renew the unfinished contest with Frau Ritter ; but he caught sight of the clock and took his hat in his hand once more. Then, before opening the door he stopped to read a motto written on a piece of paper below the calendar. “ Fridoline ! Ne tmquam imniemor sis te philoso- phum esseP In English : “ Fridolin, never forget at all times to behave with philosophy.” “ With philosophy,” he muttered. The door was thrown open. He had thought that he heard Frau Ritter’s step, and had com- posed his face to an expression of sublime Olym- pian calm ; but his ears had deceived him. A pair of noiseless slippers it is true came towards him, but they bore a manly form. — A tall ashy- pale man with grey-sandy hair, in a dark grey dressing-gown. His shoulders were as narrow and sloping as the professor’s were broad and square ; his long hair was stroked away behind his ears, his dim grey eyes, with their dreamy outlook, had a twilight effect under the projecting brows. This lank personage said nothing; he only nodded to the other but he came towards FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 9 him with a few heavy shuffling steps and held out a large hand. The professor took it in equal silence, and then stooped to pick up a little leather case which his visitor’s dressing-gown had swept off one of the tables as he slouched across the room. Again — have I . . . ?” asked the tall man with a look of dismay. “Yes, again. — This little case. For the sixth time my dear brother.’’ “ Oh dear ! — Broken ?’’ “ No. Leather cases do not break.’’ “ This luckless room ! — Must the leather case lie just there ?’’ “ Yes, it must.” The tall man looked at the case ; then he smiled. “ With your leave,” he said, “ I cannot help remarking that I cannot imagine what you want it for.” “ There is a higher need for things, my dear Philip, than for mere commonplace daily use.” “ But this case,” continued the other, “ is not a gentleman’s case, so far as I can discover.” “No — it is a lady’s case.” “ Then what can you want it for ?” lO FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. “ I have it near me. I can see it. It is a souvenir.” “ A souvenir !” said the tall man in a softened voice ; and he said no more. He fixed his eyes dreamily on the pocket-book — through it — be- yond it — into a remote distance.- Then he slowly closed them, as though to suppress and hide the feeling they might betray. At last he took it up and nodded to it with a slow melan- choly gesture, as though the “ souvenir” con- cerned him, and then he waved it up and down at arm’s length. The professor did not disturb him in his cogitations. “ Fridolin,” he said at last, seeing that the professor had put on his hat and was leaving the room. ‘‘Adieu, my son — I must be off.” “ To be sure — you must be off I had some- thing to say to you.” “ It must keep till I return.” “ When you return your young men will be here, your body-guard, your disciples in art, and then I cannot talk to you as a brother to a brother. One minute, Fridolin ! Have you just one min- ute ?” “ I have just two to spare,” said Fridolin, look- ing at the clock. FRIDOLIN’S mystical marriage. II “ I have reconsidered the whole question " — and the tall man, as he spoke, tried to laugh — “I am quite sure of myself now. I shall give up the remainder of my leave. To-morrow morning I shall start — I am only a burden to you.” ‘^You are what?'" Fridolin involuntarily turned back as if to hear better. “You are a born idiot,” he added emphatically. “ In the first place there is Judica,” Brother Philip went on calmly in his husky matter-of-fact tones, while he still fidgeted with the leather case. “You say the child amuses you. Thank you for that. Yes — perhaps she is an amusing child. But she is a spoilt child — a motherless child. ...” Again he was silent, and even without looking at him a listener could have guessed that it was an inconsolable widower that spoke. “ Well, we have found a governess for her — a kind of mother in one way at any rate,” said Fridolin. “ Then, in the second place, there would be the governess,” Philip went on, pursuing the thread of his argument. “ We do not even know her ; she might be amusing too — she might be the re- verse. Now you are the most devoted admirer of the fair sex when they — when they — well when you take a fancy to them ; but you hate them like 12 fridolin’s mystical marriage. spiders when they bore you. Shall I stay here to have to say the day after to-morrow : ‘ He hates my Judica’s governess like a spider and it is I who dropped the spider into his snuggery?” “ For all that I must go,” said Fridolin, look- ing again at the clock. ^‘Then, in the third place there is myself,” continued Philip, who was too much absorbed in his subject to heed any interruption. “ A wretched piece of humanity who has lost his little all of life and joy — a miserable ruin. In every way the very opposite to you. This very opposition interests and excites you, you say. Thank you for that But what a heavy price you pay for that interest, Fridolin ! You had your roomy bachelor lodg- ings all to yourself, and were as comfortable as a Prince — now you have to sleep in your study. . .” “ Under the protection of Apollo !” cried P'ri- dolin, pointing to a cast of the Apollo Belvedere which, standing on a plinth in one corner of the room, towered above the bed. “ Even before that it was always a question to me whether I could walk across your room with- out breaking the neck of one of your casts ; now, it is an unsolved riddle why every morning and every evening some fresh victim is not damaged or slain. And for what are you making all this fridolin’s mystical marriage. 13 sacrifice ? Because, as you say, you want to * save ’ me ; because you wished to bring me for a change from my desolate nest ; to cheer and to amuse me. But you cannot save me, Fridolin. I am still young you say ? But you cannot cheer and amuse me. You will see — I am past cheer- ing and amusing ; there is nothing to be done for me. I shall do both — but now I must be gone.’* “ Then, in the fourth place, there is my un- lucky disposition to take everything seriously, to discuss everything, to resent all contradiction — you are really going? — Then I will go with you.” “ Put on a hat then.” Yes, I will put on my hat,” — he went to the piano but instead of a hat he took up Fridolin’s red fez, and without stirring another step, he went on : — “ my unfortunate and incurable bad habit of maintaining my own opinion with the stubborn- ness of a mule, roughly and even rudely ; a habit of which you would be the last man to cure me because your vehemence and heat always rub me the wrong way. ...” “ A quarter past five !” cried Fridolin, passing into the other room to get off at last. “ This very afternoon,” Philip continued, “ I 14 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. again allowed myself to be tempted into very un- brotherly violence ; because in this unhappy con- test between the Church and State you choose to assume that the despotism of an overbearing min- istry. ...” “ An overbearing ministry ?” cried Fridolin ; “ my dear Philip, I could tell you things — bring confuting evidence — if it were not that I must go ” “ What could you say that I did not disprove point by point this very afternoon ? What argu- ment could you bring to undermine the perfectly justifiable detestation which every man of good feeling and conscientious judgment, every man of deep and sacred convictions must feel for the audacious presumption of secular force. . . . ?” “ Presumption ? Secular force ?” Fridolin re- turned a few steps. “ Presumption ? In us ? In the State ? Our tolerant, humane, moderate, benevolent government ? Why, you clericals do not know it — no nor yourselves either ; you choose to be blind, and you are blind ; there is nothing to be done for you ?” “ And pray why not ? Why is there nothing to be done for us ? Because we are not impressed by the precocious knowingness, the absurd con- ceit, the fussy pomposity of your superior govern- FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 1 5 ment.” — Fridolin, who had gone on a little way, stood still again. “ Because we have a higher ideal than you, is there nothing to be done for us ? Because we find the interference of an omniscient State in Church matters absolutely unendura- ble ” “ In what Church, and what concern of yours is the Church ? Because you wear a Protestant pastor’s cassock is it any business of yours to stand up for the Pope and his infallibility? — By Jupiter, I must go !” He had reached the outer door, and Philip at the same time had shuffled into the second room. “ I stand up for his infallibility ! Who dares to say that I stand up for the Pope’s infallibility ? I abhor the Pope and his infallibility. I do not recognize him, nor acknowledge him — I have nothing to say to him ; and how can you be so absurd, so frivolous as to assert that I stand up for him?” — Fridolin came back and angrily shook his Olympian curls in his brother’s flushed face. He was about to speak, but Philip went on : “No — I have nothing to say to the Pope and his infallibility ; but Religion ! What does your State want and expect ? To educate men all by itself, without Religion to aid it ? Childish ! Mon- strous ! You may patch up the world with phi- l6 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. losophies and analyze it by chemistry, you may have your money swindled out of you by stock- brokers, or lose it by speculation — but without religion you are, and will remain, nothing better than a higher type of ape.’' “ Thank you !” retorted Fridolin furiously, at last getting in a word. “ Then when I conceive of myself as you see me, reflected in the truthful mirror of your mind, it is merely as a higher type of ape ! Because I set my face against the folly which the arch-foes of your church want to make universal law, I — your brother — am a higher type of ape !” “ I regard you as an ape ? Now, did I say that ? How can you distort my words so ?” “ I distort your words ? Why, did you not say we were all a higher type of ape ?” “ Without religion !” “ Without which religion ? Without your re- ligion — your degenerate, mechanical, artificial re- ligion — a religion choked in its own bog ? You scare away religion with your religion.” “ Good Heavens ! That I should live to hear such mad folly !” “ Mad folly — you say that to me ?” Certainly — to whom if not to you. Has FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 1/ any one spoken but you ? — So we scare away re- ligion ! And I stand up for the Pope’s infallibil- ity ! And there is nothing to be done for us ! We are blind and we. choose to be blind ! And all this I am to listen to with patience !” “ With patience ! You answer everything I say with an insult and you call that listening with patience ? I can only pray Heaven that I may never stand by when you are listening with impa- tience. I have only one thing more to say to you” — and for the seventh time he got as far as the door and turned round to address his brother: “You are driving me, and men like me, away from religion by your religion. — for your credit, that you have only spoken in a paroxysm of insanity.” At this moment the clock on the drawers — an old-fashioned rococo commode, — struck half- past five ! “ Gracious Heaven ! Half-past five! And my lecture?” Fridolin stood as if stunned; stood and listened, as if he expected the clock to strike once more and something different Then he rushed out into the anteroom. Philip stared after him. He felt suddenly startled and alarmed without knowing wherefor. He heard the outer door open and slam ; then all was still. Then he fancied he could hear a few loud words, a curse or something of the kind — that too died away. The vehement quarrel was suddenly silenced. He looked round the room, strangely perplexed. His eye was caught by an old mirror, with carved figures on the frame, which reflected his person. He gazed with an astonished stare at the face which gazed at him with an as- tonished stare — a flushed face, that gradually grew paler. Those glaring eyes, thcfse pale shaven lips, that tall lank form in a dressing-gown dis- turbed him greatly. He started violently when suddenly a harsh voice croaked out behind him : FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 1 9 “ Fridoline ! Ne unquani hnmemor sis te phU losophum esseP “ Who is there ?” he involuntarily asked. “ Who is there ?” echoed the voice, and then there was a loud strange laugh. Philip now recognized the philosophical coun- sellor who had shrieked at him from a cage in a corner of the room; a red-tailed parrot, Fridolin’s only friend in the world of birds, the “ Professor extraordinary ” as Fridolin’s pupils were wont to call him. He sat on his gilt perch and cocked his head to look at the pastor; his sharp round eyes seemed to say that he was laughing at him as he deserved. Philip, instead of laughing — his melancholy soul was incapable of thinking even of a smile at this moment — cast a bewildered glance at the un- canny bird ; then he escaped, almost swiftly, through the door and back into his brother’s study There he stood still. He picked up the leather case, which he had again knocked down, and as he held it in his hand it reminded him of the er- rand that had originally brought him there. He had come to relieve his brotherly feelings, to ex- press, once for all, his sentiments as to Fridolin’s generosity, self-sacrifice, unwearied sympathy and kindliness ; to give utterance to his gratitude and 20 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. heartfelt acknowledgments; and at the same time to apologize to his brother for the temper he had shown in the earlier part of the day. “ This was what I came for,” thought he — and he sighed. *‘But I did not do it — I did not do it.” Philip went to the door in great perturbation and shut it. Then he wandered about the room ‘‘melancholy, slow,” from the piano to the desk, the bookcase to the portfolio stand, among the arm- chairs and tables, till at last he dropped into a carved chair in front of the writing-table ; he found a sheet of paper — note-paper, with Frido- lin’s monogram — took a carved ivory pen-holder, and began to write : “ My dear Brother. “ I have once more proved beyond a doubt that I am a burden to you, and one too many in your household. Nay, I have myself given the proof If the existence of a man whose nature is gloomy, whose life is darkened, who has not even the gift of seeming amiable, and who, from that unlucky predisposition we have already mentioned, cannot endure contradiction, but is al- ways led into unbrotherly wrath — if the existence of such a man at all is simply superfluous, we need trouble ourselves for no further proofs. To- fridolin’s mystical marriage. 21 morrow, therefore, I, with Judica — Providence must have some specially chastening end in view in giving her such a father! — I, with Judica, will leave your hospitable roof and return to spend the remainder of my holiday in my own home. May God reward you — better than I ever can — for all your kindness and affection ; I only pray that He may some day prove to you by the course of historical events, that I am right, and that religion will be inevitably wrecked against the despotism of an arbitrary and materialistic Government. “ Your unhappy Brother Philip.” When he had done writing he sighed ; then he folded up the. note, sealed it, and addressed it : “For Fridolin after which he left by the way he had come. 22 CHAPTER 11. Professor Fridolin — for 1 propose to re- tain the name which his friends had given him, and which all the world took leave to call him by — Professor Fridolin had established a custom of inviting his favorite pupils from the three schools where he delivered lectures on art, one evening in the week, and showing them hospitality within the “ rules of the house” — rules which by one and another unwritten compact and compromise had become a fixed law in Frau Ritter’s mind. But as, during the last year or two, he had got into a habit of working all the evening and late into the night, and as he would not give up either the regular invitation nor his sacred hours of study, he had hit upon a plan for combining them ; his boys — his “ body-guard” as they were com- monly called — found their supper laid in the parrot’s room, while he sat in his sanctum, read- ing and writing. It would have been sheer sacri- lege to disturb him there, but it was their privi- lege to be as noisy and merry as they pleased within the limits of “ dignified sobriety and FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 23 from time to time the master would put his head in at the door to cast some jest among them, or to moderate some transcendental and aesthetic squabble by a few words of rational commonplace that brought it down from the clouds again. Five of them, that evening, about an hour and a half after Philip had written his doleful letter, climbed up the three flights of stairs to Fridolin’s sky parlor,” rousing the echoes of the house with a vehement debate on the superiority of painting to sculpture. They rang ; Frau Ritter herself opened the door and received them with a smile. It was the kindly, motherly smile with which she always greeted the body-guard — past and present alike — for, although the ruling idea of her life was a feeling of reverence for Professor Fridolin, whom she regarded as the most wonder- ful man on earth, she herself had gained too much power over him and too much dignity as his housekeeper, not to look down with a slight touch of maternal superiority on the lads whose father in the spirit he was. Besides, her self-respect was founded on three pillars which no shock could affect : First, the time when she was young — oh ! distant time — when she was admired by painters and sculptors, and had gone — with an order to the pit — to be fired with enthusiasm for 24 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. Ludwig Devrient’s* inspired acting ; next her nearest relations, the children of a “scholard” brother ; a nephew — the second pillar, and a niece — the third. Of these two young persons she had predicted so much that was great and promising that the professor had finally decided on engaging the niece — though he had never seen her — to come, on probation, as governess to Judica then and there. Since the day when this decision had been an- nounced to Frau Ritter in solemn conclave — in the presence, that is to say, of the pastor and his little girl — her smile had increased in motherly dignity, or so the body-guard declared ; and to- day had risen to the zenith of maternal import- ance, for this very evening the niece of all her hopes was to join the expectant household. “ Good evening. Aunt Ritter,” — she was every- one’s aunt — said the foremost of the five, as he hung his overcoat which he had already pulled off, on one of the pegs of the cloak-stand which narrowed the anteroom. “ Is the professor come in from lecture ?” “ I have fumigated his room,” replied Frau Ritter, “ and have had his fire laid with wood ; but he is not come in yet.” * A famous German actor some years since. FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 2$ ‘‘ You grow handsomer and more queenly every day, Aunt Ritter,” said the next comer, who was the shortest ; and he kissed her hand with overwhelming gallantry. She gave him a little slap on the hand in which he had taken hers. “ Well, you will never grow to be anything but what you are, and the best they can make of you will be professor of oddities.” Is there hot or cold meat for supper this evening. Aunt Ritter?” asked a third. “ It is the great day you know, the day when your niece is to arrive.” “ Is she pretty, that niece of yours ?” said the former speaker, who bore the character among his companions of being the Don Juan of the body- guard — “ Frivolin” they called him. “ Does she sing ?” asked another. “ Is her beauty picturesque or statuesque ?” asked the fifth and he laughed ; for he had the happy, and very common peculiarity of always laughing at his. own wit. ‘^Yes — what is her style of architecture?” added the first. “ You are a Godless crew; and the cold meat is burning,” retorted Frau Ritter; and she van- ished with her soft heavy tread in the direction of the kitchen. 26 fridolin's mystical marriage. The .young men, laughing and talking, went into the parrot’s room, where the table was al- ready laid. The “professor extraordinary” or “ Pittacus the wise” — as they had dubbed this very respectable Psittaais erithacus — sat hunched on his topmost perch with his eyes shut, appar- ently asleep. From the adjoining room — Frido- lin’s sanctum — a sort of song was audible, a hoarse vague concatenation of sounds hardly to be called a tune — a distorted echo of a well- known air by Schubert. The body-guard lis- tened. “ Can that be Father Philippus ?” asked one in a whisper. “No — those are not the sepulchral tones of the reverend Father,” replied Frivolin. “ No pas- tor could ever sing so much out of tune. This is a natural phenomenon that must be investigated.” And he opened the door. On Fridolin’s bed, outside the Turkish rug that covered it, a young man lay stretching his long legs with an astounding air of intimacy; between his fingers he flourished a smoking cig- arette, while he hummed his melancholy ditty. A black hat, which he had not taken off, covered his forehead and eyes ; nothing was to be seen of his face but a slightly Roman nose and the profile FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 2/ of his mouth and chin. But when he ceased singing his lips, unconcealed by a moustache, wore a singular and subtle expression of irony that at once betrayed the owner of the Roman nose as plainly as if he had been ticketed with his name. Little Frivolin drew himself up exclaim- ing : “ Why — it is Leopold !” The young man said not a word, but raised and twisted himself round till he sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating the five who had come into the room in single file like a flock of geese, the last man filling up the door- way. A sarcastic but not disagreeable smile was his only greeting, and some little time passed before he took ofif his hat, displaying a high and handsome forehead. Then he once more glanced from one to another, with an expression of puzzled amazement in his keen observant grey eyes. At last he opened his mouth and spake : “ It is very odd,” he said, “ you all look exactly as you did this time twelvemonth. Good evening young men.” “ And are you altered ?” said Frivolin a little testily. “Yes — he is altered. Look boys, he is dressed in the latest fashion. He has become a slave to his tailor. He wears a chimney pot, and shiny leather boots. May I be permitted to ask, 28 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. Leopold, whether it will occur to you to shake hands ?” “With both hands,” said Leopold smiling. “ Sensitive youth ! I was only giving myself the pleasure of a few minutes study of my species — I am a naturalist you know. You art students certainly rejoice in an absolute independence of the fashions, and a despotic power over your tailors. Your intellectual neckties, the air of con- viction about the cut of your waistcoats — the same, the very same as a twelvemonth since ! You are more steadfast than I. Yes, yes — those shirt collars — audacious but noble ! Now I have so far yielded to the seductions of the world that I can bear to look like other people without a blush of shame. The tailor has ideas — I wear them — a division of labor; the modern principle. Well — and how are you Risotto ? ‘ Your blue eyes still behold the light of day.’ You still dwell with your ideals I see.” The young man thus addressed was a Hun in stature, which had procured him the nick- name of Riese (giant) ; to this had been added the Italian augmentative otto, and the whole re- sult was Risotto a name more quaint than appro- priate. Risotto blushed — it was a way he had ; and FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 29 said in the gentle voice which always sounded strange as proceeding from such a huge person : “ I hope you have not altogether abandoned yours, though you no longer are one of us.” “ I never was one of you,” replied Leopold. “ It was only a whim that made me nibble at art for a year, before I set to work to digest Nature.” “ What a way to speak of it !” said Risotto coloring again — this time with indignation. A yearning seeking for the Ideal — and you had it — you can call a whim ?” “ I have no fancy for big words,” answered Leopold a little drily. You have not seen Fridolin ?” asked Fri- volin. “ No — I am waiting for him.” “ You will take supper with us here to-night ?” “ I rather think so.” “ As I hear,” continued Frivolin with in- creased solemnity, “ you are a Darwinist ?” “I am a Darwinist.” “An evolutionist?” ' “ An evolutionist.” , Leopold could have sworn to himself that the word Evolutionist was all that Frivolin knew of the subject ; but he suppressed an ironical smile and said nothing more. 30 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. “ An evolutionist,” repeated Risotto in a tone that combined reproach and regret. “ Formerly, when you were with us, you took a higher — a philosophical view of the universe.” In those days I was a fool.” There was a pause ; the five brethren of art looked at each other in silence. Frivolin only stood nodding gravely to himself and seemed to reserve his opinion on this heresy, from a higher standpoint. This uncomfortable silence was not, however, of long duration. First Frau Ritter and then Fridolin were heard on the landing. “ Is that my dear Leopold !” he exclaimed with hearty feeling, as he appeared at the door, and then opening his arms wide, with a certain solemnity in spite of the delight that sparkled in his eyes, he declaimed : “ Hail fulfilment, fairest of Heaven’s daughters ! Come and crown my fondest hopes with joy.” Then, as Leopold came forward to meet him, he clasped him in his arms and kissed him — German fashion. “ Welcome, thrice welcome !” he exclaimed. If you are hungry or thirsty tell Frau Ritter what you want. But first to business, before I FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 3 1 can give myself up to the pleasure of seeing you again.” He turned to the body-guard, and taking the arm of the one who stood nearest to him : “You see that wardrobe,” he said. “ Yes, I see it’ “ It must be cleared out for Fraulein Ottilie Ritter, the long-expected niece. It contains ...” “ Papers, pamphlets, and waistcoats.” “ Quite right. Well-informed young man ! Now, you two sucking architects are expected to superintend the evacuation of this structure within the next quarter of an hour, and to find another place for the evicted documents and waistcoats, with that keen wit for contrivance that distin- guishes you. This is the task? Your teacher has a right to ask. And he who does not earn his appetite, does not earn the food to appease it withal.” The professor had not done speaking before the lads had stormed the wardrobe, some standing to reach the shelves and the others kneeling to empty the drawers. Fridolin beckoned Risotto, by whose side he himself looked small and slight, to come with him ; but before speaking to him he 32 FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. could not resist casting a glance of affectionate glee at Leopold as he exclaimed : “ How like his mother he is ! — When did you reach Berlin my son ?” “ This afternoon.” And of course you promised your mother you would write at once ? ’ “ Yes.” “ And of course you have not done so.” Leopold shook his head. “ At the same time you do not wish to go through life bereft of your mother’s blessing ?” “ Certainly not.” “ Then proceed to earn that and your supper,” said Fridolin, politely offering the young man his arm and conducting him with much ceremony to the writing-table. “Here is a chair,” — into which he gently forced him — “ Here is a pen,” — which he put into his hand — “ And here is a post-card — a blessed invention in this degenerate age ! — Now, write my compliments to her Serene Highness,” he added with a magnificent wave of the hand. Leopold laughed and wrote. “ Now is your turn. Risotto,” said the profes- sor. “ I had appointed you to the honorable duty of meeting this much-expected niece at the sta- FRIDOLIN’S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 33 tion, and of escorting her under your gigantic pro- tection home to this house. Why then are you here, my son, and not at the railway station ?” The train does not come in till nine.” Are you sure of that ?” ” I firmly believe that it does.” What a beautiful syllogism of covert logic !” exclaimed Fridolin. “You firmly believe it — you firmly believe in a thing that you do not know; which is as much as to say that you are firmly certain of knowing nothing about it ! — Go, man of immeasurable stature and most limited capac- ity; put on your hat.” Risotto colored deeply. “ I firmly believe that you are too late already. 