Bertha Garlan Part 26

When Bertha had read the letter to the end, for some little time she sat bolt upright in the bed. A shudder seemed to pa.s.s through her whole body.

She was not surprised; she knew that she had expected no other kind of letter. She shook herself....

Every four or six weeks ... excellent! Yes, for a day and a night.... It was shameful, shameful!... And how afraid he was that she might go to Vienna.... And then that observation right at the end, as if his object had been, while he was still at a safe distance, so to speak, to stimulate her senses, because that, forsooth, was the only kind of relations he desired to keep up with her.... It was shameful, shameful!... What sort of a woman had she been! She felt a loathing--loathing!...

She sprang out of bed and dressed herself.... Well, what was going to happen after that?... It was over, over, over! He had not time to spare for her--no time at all!... One night every, six weeks, after the autumn.... Yes, my dear sir, I at once accept your honourable proposals with pleasure. Indeed, for myself, I desire nothing better! I will go on turning sour; I will go on giving music lessons and growing imbecile in this hole of a town.... You will fiddle away, turn women's heads, travel, be rich, famous and happy--and every four or six weeks I may hope to be taken for one night to some shabby room where you entertain your women of the street.... It was shameful, shameful, shameful!...

Quick! She would get ready to go to Frau Rupius--Anna was ill, seriously ill--what mattered anything else?

Before she went out, Bertha pressed Fritz to her heart, and she recalled the pa.s.sage in Emil's letter: it is the place where your child was born.... Indeed, that was quite right, too; but Emil had not said that because it was true, but only to avoid the danger of having to see her more than once in six weeks.

She hurried off.... How was it, then, that she did not feel any nervousness on Frau Rupius' account?... Ah, of course, she had known that Frau Rupius had been better the previous evening. But where was the letter, though?... She had again thrust it quite mechanically into her bodice.

Some officers were sitting in front of the restaurant having breakfast.

They were all covered with dust, having just returned from the manoeuvres. One of them gazed after Bertha. He was a very young man, and could only have obtained his commission quite recently....

Pray, don't be afraid, thought Bertha. I am altogether at your disposal.

I have an engagement which takes me into Vienna only once every four or six weeks ... please, tell me when you would like ...

The balcony door was open, the red velvet piano cover was hanging over the bal.u.s.trade. Well, evidently order had been restored again--otherwise, would the cover have been hanging over the bal.u.s.trade?... Of course not, so forward then, and upstairs without fear....

The maid opened the door. There was no need for Bertha to ask her any questions; in her wide-open eyes there was an expression of terrified amazement, such as is only called forth by the proximity of an appalling death.

Bertha went in. She entered the drawing-room first; the door leading to the bedroom was open to its full extent. The bed was standing in the middle of the room, away from the wall, and free on all sides. At the foot was sitting the nurse, looking very tired, with her head sunk upon her breast, Herr Rupius was sitting in his invalid's chair by the head of the bed. The room was so dark that it was not until Bertha had come quite close that she could see Anna's face clearly. Frau Rupius seemed to be asleep. Bertha came nearer. She could hear the patient's breathing; it was regular, but inconceivably rapid--she had never heard a human being breathe like that before. Then Bertha felt that the eyes of the two others were fixed upon her. Her surprise at having been admitted in this unceremonious manner lasted only for a moment, since she understood that all precautionary measures had now become superfluous; the matter had been decided.

Suddenly another pair of eyes turned towards Bertha. Frau Rupius opened her eyes, and was watching her friend attentively. The nurse made room for Bertha, and went into the adjoining room. Bertha sat down, moving her chair closer to the bed. She noticed that Anna was slowly stretching out her hand towards her. She grasped it.

"Dear Frau Rupius," she said, "you are already getting on much better now, are you not?"

She felt that she was again saying something awkward, but she knew she could not help doing so. It was just her fate to say such things in the presence of Frau Rupius, even in her last hour.

Anna smiled; she looked as pale and young as a girl.

"Thank you, dear Bertha," she said.

"But whatever for, my dear, dear Anna?"

She had the greatest difficulty in restraining her tears. At the same time, however, she was very curious to hear what had actually happened.

A long interval of silence ensued. Anna closed her eyes again and appeared to sleep. Herr Rupius sat motionless in his chair. Bertha looked sometimes at Anna and sometimes at him.

In any case, she must wait, she thought. She wondered what Emil would say if _she_ were suddenly to die. Ah, surely it would cause him some slight grief if he had to think that she whom he had held in his arms a few days before now lay mouldering in the grave. He might even weep.

Yes, he would weep if she were to die ... wretched egoist though he was at other times....

Ah, but where were her thoughts flying to again? Wasn't she still holding her friend's hand in her own? Oh, if she could only save her!...

Who was now in the worse plight--this woman who was doomed to die, or Bertha herself--who had been so ignominiously deceived? Was it necessary, though, to put it so strongly as that, because of one night?... Ah, but that had much too fine a sound!... for the sake of one hour--to humiliate her so--to ruin her so--was not that unscrupulous and shameless?... How she hated him! How she hated him!... If only he were to break down at the next concert, so that all the people would laugh him to scorn, and he would be put to shame, and all the papers would have the news--"The career of Herr Emil Lindbach is absolutely ended." And all his women would say: "Ah, I don't like that a bit, a fiddler who breaks down!"...

Yes, then he would probably remember her, the only woman who had loved him since the days of her girlhood, who loved him truly ... and whom he was now treating so basely!... Then he would be sure to come back to her and beg her to forgive him--and she would say to him: "Do you see, Emil; do you see, Emil?"... for, naturally, anything more intelligent than that would not occur to her....

And there she was thinking again of him, always of him--and here somebody was dying, and she was sitting by the bed, and that silent person there was the husband.... It was all so quiet; only from the street, as though wafted up over the balcony and through the open door, came a confused murmur--men's voices, the rumble of the traffic, the jingle of a cyclist's bell, the clattering of a sabre on the pavement, and, now and then, the twitter of the birds--but it all seemed so far away, so utterly unconnected with actuality.

Anna became restless and tossed her head to and fro--several times, quickly, quicker and quicker....

"Now it's beginning!" said a soft voice behind Bertha.

She turned round. It was the nurse with the cheerful features; but Bertha now perceived that that expression did not denote cheerfulness at all, but was only the result of a strained effort never to allow sorrow to be noticeable, and she considered the face to be indescribably fearful....

What was it the nurse had said?... "Now it's beginning."... Yes, like a concert or a play ... and Bertha remembered that once the same words had been spoken beside her own bed, at the time when she began to feel the pangs of childbirth....

Suddenly Anna opened her eyes, opened them very wide, so that they appeared immense; she fixed them on her husband, and, vainly striving, meanwhile, to raise herself up, said in a quite clear voice:

"It was only you, only you ... believe me, it was only you whom I have..."

The last word was unintelligible, but Bertha guessed it.

Then Herr Rupius bent down, and kissed the dying woman on the forehead.

Anna threw her arms around him; his lips lingered long on her eyes.

The nurse had gone out of the room again. Suddenly Anna pushed her husband away from her; she no longer recognized him; delirium had set in.

Bertha rose to her feet in great alarm, but she remained standing by the bed.

"Go now!" said Herr Rupius to her.

She lingered.

"Go!" he repeated, this time in a stern voice.

Bertha realized that she must go. She left the room quietly on tip-toes, as though Anna might still be disturbed by the sound of footsteps. Just as she entered the adjoining room she saw Doctor Friedrich, who was taking off his overcoat and, at the same time, was talking to a young doctor, the a.s.sistant at the hospital.

He did not notice Bertha, and she heard him say:

"In any other case I would have notified the authorities, but, as this affair falls out as it does.... Besides, there would be a terrible scandal, and poor Rupius would be the worst sufferer--" then he saw Bertha--"Good day, Frau Garlan."

"Oh, doctor, what is really the matter, then?"

Doctor Friedrich threw his colleague a rapid glance.

"Blood poisoning," he replied. "You are, of course, aware, my dear Frau Garlan, that people often cut their fingers and die as a result; the wound cannot always he located. It is a great misfortune.... Yes, indeed!"

He went into the room, followed by the a.s.sistant.

Bertha went into the street like one stupified. What could be the meaning of the words which she had overheard--"information?"--"scandal?" Yes, had Herr Rupius, perhaps, murdered his own wife?... No, what nonsense! But some injury had been done to her, it was quite obvious ... and it must have been, in some way, connected with the visit to Vienna; for she had been taken ill during the night subsequent to her journey.... And the words of the dying woman recurred to Bertha: "It was only you, only you whom I have loved!..." Had they not sounded like a prayer for forgiveness? "Loved only you"--but ... another ... of course, she had a lover in Vienna.... Well, yes, but what followed?... Yes, she had wished to go away, and had not done so after all.... What could it have been that she said on that occasion at the railway station?... "I have made up my mind to do something else."... Yes, of course, she had taken leave of her lover in Vienna, and, on her return--had poisoned herself?... But why should she do that, though, if she loved only her husband?... And that was not a lie, certainly not!

Bertha could not understand....

Why ever had she gone away, then?... What should she do now, too?... She could not rest. She could neither go home nor to her relatives, she must go back again.... She wondered, too, whether Anna would have to die if another letter from Emil came that day?... In truth, she was losing her reason.... Of course, these two things had not the least connection between them ... and yet ... why was she unable to dissociate them one from the other?...

Once more she hurried up the steps. Not a quarter of an hour had elapsed since she had left the house. The hall door was open, the nurse was in the anteroom.