Cornelli Part 15

"But good gracious!" he exclaimed, "there must certainly be a way to help a child of ten years. Are there no means except chastis.e.m.e.nt to bring up a young creature like her? What an abominable thought! I will not believe such a thing! Can you give me no advice? What could I do?

Ladies surely know how to educate a little girl. Something simply has to be done right away. I am to blame for my neglect and for leaving her too long in the wrong hands. Oh, what would my Cornelia say if she could see her child?" Mr. h.e.l.lmut threw himself down in his chair and put his hands before his face.

"Please calm yourself, Frederick! It is not your fault at all, for you can't fight against her disposition," the cousin said soothingly. "We have thought of a way of helping the child. You might send her to a boarding school in town where there are a great many children and young girls. Children often help each other by rubbing up against one another and by noticing each other's faults and mistakes."

"Do you think that this might help Cornelli?" asked the father doubtfully. "Cornelli is not used to being rubbed against and laughed at."

"For that reason it would make a still deeper impression on her,"

answered the cousin. "You can believe me when I say that this may be the only means to break her obstinacy, and I am not sure that even this will help. If such a school can't break her will, n.o.body on earth can reform her; you can believe me, Frederick."

"She is still very young to be sent away from home," said the father, full of pity. "But I fear that you are right. She could not get better here, only worse, and so it will probably have to be. Do you know of a boarding school you could recommend?"

The cousin answered that she knew of one, and offered to take the necessary steps as soon as she was again at home. Miss Dorner hoped in vain that her cousin's humor would change and that he would become again the merry and sociable companion of old days. He tried with all his might to be entertaining when they met at table; but he always had to glance at his little girl, who sat at her place dumb and seemingly afraid even to glance about her. A deep shadow always came across his features, and one could see that it was hard for him to mingle in the general conversation.

Miss Dorner at last had enough of his unfriendly att.i.tude. As a last means to break it and to shake him up a little, she said to him on the third day after his arrival: "It seems to me, Frederick, that you are too much occupied even to remember your duties as a host. We are thinking of going back to town. Are you willing?"

"I understand your decision absolutely," Mr. h.e.l.lmut answered politely.

"You are right in telling me that I am the most unpleasant host that could be found, but I hope you understand that the change in Cornelli has spoiled everything for me and has only filled me with the thought of how to help her. I hope very much that you will visit my house again at a pleasanter time. You can order the carriage whenever you want it."

The cousin had not expected this answer. "You go entirely too far, Frederick," she said angrily. "How can a man sacrifice everything and change all his ideas for the sake of such a child?"

"You seem to forget that it is my Cornelia's and my only child,"

answered the Director. "But we shall not talk about it any more, because we could not understand each other. I am so grateful for your goodwill that I do not want to cause you any anger at the end."

Two days later the carriage stood before the door. Both ladies stepped in and Mina stepped in after them. The latter had known so well how to make herself liked by them that they were taking her to town, for Mina had wished to become a maid in the city to get away from country people. One of the ladies was to take her as chambermaid, but it had not been settled yet which of them would do so.

Esther was terribly indignant because Mina was leaving a good house for no reason whatsoever. Since Esther had been managing in the Director's home she had always felt the honor of the house to be her own. Full of resentment, she was standing behind her master, who was shaking hands as a last farewell.

Miss Mina was looking towards the other side, where Cornelli stood: "Won't you even give me your hand? This is not very friendly of you.

That is just the way you are," she said to the child in a low voice.

Now Esther broke forth: "Miss Mina," she called out as loudly as she could, "please be so kind as to tell the ladies on the trip who left the dusty marks on the sofa by standing on it. They were not from a child's shoe."

Mina blushed a deep scarlet and Miss Dorner, full of astonishment, looked at her glowing face. She expected a fitting retort, but none came.

"Go ahead, Matthew," Miss Dorner ordered excitedly. She did not desire a further explanation.

Mr. h.e.l.lmut had moved away.

Cornelli now took Esther's broad hand inside both her own and pressed it hard. A ray of joy flitted over her features, the first after a long, long time. "Oh, I am so glad that you said that, Esther; I am more glad than you can think," she said eagerly. "If you had not said that, they would have thought all their lives that I had done it and denied it. But how does Mina know who did it?"

"She knows, because she did it herself," Esther replied.

"Oh, oh! So she did it with her own feet," Cornelli exclaimed. "It is better that she has gone then. We'd rather be left alone here, wouldn't we, Esther, just you and I?"

"Yes, indeed," said the cook, full of satisfaction. "Just tell your father that I do not mind double work, but that I do mind deceitful ways."

Cornelli had not spoken to her father since he had come back. She was shy before him, because she realized that the sight of her displeased him. She was, however, quite sure that she could never change and always had to be like that. She was also certain that he would only abhor her more if he ever found out what was hidden under her locks of hair. She therefore went slowly and hesitatingly towards his room in order to give him Esther's message. In former times she had always run to him gaily, whenever she had something to tell him. Since then things had changed.

"It will never again be that way," she said to herself. The thought seemed to weigh so heavily on her that she suddenly stood still. At that moment her father opened the door in front of which she stood.

"Oh, here you are, Cornelli," he said delightedly. "Did you want to pay me a little visit? We have really hardly seen each other. Come in here! I was just going to get you, for I want to speak with you."

Cornelli entered, not saying a word and avoiding her father's glance.

"Come, Cornelli," he said, leading her through the room and sitting down beside her. "I have something to tell you that will make you very happy. You have changed so much during my absence and so little to your advantage that something has to be done for your education. It is high time. I shall take you to a boarding school in town, where you can be with many other children and young girls. You will have the chance to learn many things from them and to make friends with many.

You will be sure to change there, then you can return to bring your father joy. I cannot enjoy you now, for I do not know what ails you.

It may be better after you get some education. I expect to take you away next week."

Cornelli's face became snow white from sudden terror. First she uttered no sound, but soon she burst into violent tears.

"Oh, Papa," she sobbed, "leave me at home! I'll be good. Oh, don't send me to town to so many children! Oh, I can't, I can't. Oh, Papa, don't send me away!"

Mr. h.e.l.lmut could not bear to see Cornelli's tears and still less to hear her supplications. "But for her own good it has to be," he said to himself to strengthen his resolution. Cornelli's lamentations were too much for him and he rushed away.

Several hours later, the time had come for supper and he returned from the iron foundry.

Esther came to meet him: "Oh, I am glad that you have come, Director,"

she said excitedly. "When I went up to Cornelli just now she was crying.

I wanted her to taste some of the little plum cakes she usually likes so much, but the poor child only shrieked: 'Oh, leave me here, leave me here!' Oh, Mr. h.e.l.lmut, what if Cornelli should get sick and die?"

"Nonsense, Esther," he returned; "children do not die from obstinacy."

The master of the house had tried to speak harshly, but he did not quite succeed. He ran straight upstairs to Cornelli's room and saw the child on her knees in front of the bed. Her head was pressed into the pillows and she cried as if her heart was breaking.

"Oh, don't send me away, don't send me away!" she cried as soon as he entered.

He saw that Cornelli was trembling all over from fear and excitement.

"I cannot endure this," he said to himself, and seizing his hat ran out of the house.

Martha was sitting in her peaceful little chamber, busy with her mending and thinking about Cornelli. She was wondering what would happen now that she was again left alone with her father. She wondered if the old days would come back, or if something new was going to be done for Cornelli's education. The door was suddenly flung open and Mr. h.e.l.lmut entered.

"Oh, Martha, I do not know what to do," he said to her in a perturbed manner. "You simply have to help me. You knew my wife and you know my child and love her; and besides, she is attached to you. Tell me what has come over her. Since when has she been so frightfully stubborn?

Was the child always that way, or has she only grown more stubborn lately? Have you noticed how she has changed in my absence?"

"There is nothing so very much the matter with Cornelli, Mr. h.e.l.lmut.

Cornelli is not an ill-natured child, I am sure of that. But won't you take a seat, Director?" Martha interrupted her speech, placing a chair now here and now there for her visitor, who was running excitedly to and fro. But he refused, for he was too restless to settle down.

"It was really a very abrupt and sudden change for the child, and it was hard for her to have everything so different all at once," Martha said. "Even an older child might have become shy under those conditions, and Cornelli is still very young. It is hard for a small plant to have too much done for it all at once and too suddenly; it has to have time to develop, and the better the plant the more carefully it should be tended."

"I hope you are not trying to insinuate that it was not good for Cornelli to at last get into the right hands," said Mr. h.e.l.lmut, standing still in the middle of the room. "I have to reckon it as a great blessing that she was thrown with ladies of culture and refinement, who could awaken in her everything that was good, n.o.ble and fine, and could teach her many things. My Cornelia would have done this herself, above all others, for she was in all those things the most striking example. The child has not a trace of her, not even in her looks; everything is lost that used to remind me of her."

"Oh, Mr. h.e.l.lmut, if I might be allowed to say anything else, I would only add one word," Martha replied calmly. "I have always found that a little love goes further than many good rules. I know that a young child can be frightened by harsh words more than grown-up people realize. Afterwards they cannot understand the cause of the shy behavior which is the result. Cornelli has not lost her mother's eyes, only one cannot see them under her hanging fringes."

"Yes, that's it, Martha, this horrible disfigurement, this obstinacy which holds fast to it all. The shy, spiritless manner, the absolutely changed ways of the child hurt and worry me so. It takes away all my joy and all my courage and paralyzes all hope for the future. It has absolutely spoiled my life."

The visitor had gotten more and more stirred up as he went on. "So I shall help her in the only way I know of: I shall send her to a boarding school. I just told her about it and she acted as if she were absolutely desperate. I simply cannot look upon her terrible despair. I actually feel as if my Cornelia could have no peace in Heaven if she heard her child's supplications."

"Oh, Director, if you could only keep Cornelli at home for a little while, so that she could calm down," Martha said humbly. "Cornelli has had to go through so many new experiences lately that it would be good for her to stay quietly at home for a while. In the meantime you could get her more accustomed to the idea of leaving home, so that it would not scare her so dreadfully. I promise to do all I can too, Mr. h.e.l.lmut.

I will tell her pleasant things about the school and the nice children that she might meet there."