The Alpine Fay Part 37

The most conflicting sensations were pictured on Wolfgang's features as he listened. True, he had never loved his betrothed, but Benno's confession touched him very strangely, and there was something akin to bitterness in his voice as he said, "Well, I am no longer an obstacle in your way, and if you have any hope that your love is returned----"

"It would be vain!" Reinsfeld interposed. "You know now what happened between our fathers, enough to separate me from Alice forever."

"Perhaps so, const.i.tuted as you are. Another man, on the contrary, might use it to force from Nordheim a consent which he a.s.suredly would otherwise refuse. That you never could be induced to do."

"No, never!" Benno said, sadly. "I am going to Neuenfeld, and I shall in all probability never see Alice again."

They were interrupted by the announcement that Herr Waltenberg wished to speak with the engineer-in-chief. Elmhorst instantly arose, and Reinsfeld prepared to leave. "Good-night, Wolf," he said, cordially extending his hand. "Nothing can sever our friends.h.i.+p; we must always be what we have always been to each other,--eh?"

Wolfgang warmly returned the pressure of the hand thus given: "Good-night, Benno. I shall see you to-morrow."

He went with him to the door of the room, just as Waltenberg made his appearance; a few words were exchanged among the young men, and then Reinsfeld departed, and the two were left alone.

Ernst seemed to have regained his self-control during his lonely ride of two hours; his manner, at least, was cold and collected, although there was still a gleam in his eyes that boded no good.

"I hope I do not interrupt you, Herr Elmhorst?" he said, slowly approaching the young engineer.

"No, Herr Waltenberg; I expected you," was the reply.

"So much the better; there is no need, then, of any preface to what I am come to say. No, thank you!" he interrupted himself, as Elmhorst offered him a chair. "Between us formal courtesy is superfluous. I need not tell you why I am here. Our interpretation of the scene of this afternoon differed from that of the strangers then present, and I have a few words to say to you with regard to it."

"I am quite at your service."

Ernst folded his arms, and there was a trace of contempt in his voice as he continued: "I am, as you know, betrothed to Baroness von Thurgau, and I am not inclined to allow in my betrothed so intense an interest in the peril of another man. But that is a matter between herself and myself. What I desire to know at present is how far you are implicated in this interest. Do you love Fraulein von Thurgau?"

The question sounded like a threat, but Wolfgang's answer came instantly and simply: "Yes."

A flash of deadly hatred shot from Ernst Waltenberg's eyes, and yet this confession told him nothing new. He knew from Erna herself that she had loved another, but he had fancied that he should have to seek that other in the grave, among the shades. Here he stood living before him, the man who could sacrifice an Erna to wretched mammon; a man incapable of a pure, exalted affection, and who yet held his head as haughtily erect as if there were no reason why he should bow before any on earth. This irritated Ernst still more.

"And this love does not probably date from to-day or from yesterday? As far as I know, you have frequented the house of the president for years,--before I returned from Europe, before Baroness von Thurgau was betrothed."

"I regret being obliged to refuse to give you any satisfaction on these points," Wolfgang replied, as frigidly as before. "I am quite ready to answer any question you have a right to put. I refuse to submit to a cross-examination."

"I can well believe it," Waltenberg declared, with a bitter laugh. "You would fare but ill in such an examination,--as the betrothed of Alice Nordheim."

Elmhorst bit his lip,--the shot found a joint in his armour, but he recovered himself in an instant:

"First of all, Herr Waltenberg, I must request you to change your tone, if this conversation is to be prolonged. I will tolerate no insults, least of all, as you well know, from yourself."

"I am not to blame if the truth insults you," Ernst retorted, arrogantly. "Contradict my words, and I will retract them. Until you do, you must allow me to entertain my own opinion with regard to a man who loves, or pretends to love, a woman while he woos and wins a wealthy heiress. You cannot possibly ask esteem for such a paltr----"

"Enough!" Wolfgang cut short his words. "No need of abuse to attain your end. I am perfectly aware of why you are here, and I will not balk you. But such words as you are using I forbid. I am in my own house."

He confronted his antagonist erect and very pale. Something in the man commanded respect, even as he thus repelled the imputation which his conduct had ostensibly deserved. Ernst could not but feel that his rival bore himself with dignity, hard as it was to admit it.

"You adopt a lofty tone," said Waltenberg, with a sneer. "'Tis a pity your betrothed is not here; in her presence there might not be so much conscious rect.i.tude in your manner."

"I am no longer betrothed," Wolfgang coldly declared.

Waltenberg retreated a step in extreme amazement.

"What--what do you mean?"

"I simply inform you of a fact to show you that the cause for the imputation with which you would insult me exists no longer, for _I_ was the one to withdraw from the engagement."

"When? For what reason?" The questions were put hurriedly.

"On these points I owe you no explanation."

"I am not so sure of that, for here, as it seems to me, you are reckoning upon my magnanimity. You are mistaken. I never will release Erna; and she herself, as I know, will never ask her release at my hands. She does not make a promise to-day to break it to-morrow, and she is far too proud to give herself to a man who preferred wealth to her love."

"Pray cease your attempts to use the old weapon: it has lost its point," Elmhorst said, sternly. "Born and bred in the very lap of luxury as you were, ignorant of all self-denial, what can you know of the struggles and efforts of one longing to rise, consumed by ambition to win recognition for himself, to attain a great goal? I yielded to temptation, yes; but I have delivered my soul now, and can bid defiance to your boasted virtue. You too would have succ.u.mbed if life had denied you fortune and happiness,--you first of all,--and it may be you would not have fought your way free as I have, for, by heaven! the struggle is no easy one."

There was such convincing truth in his words that Ernst was silent. He to whom luxury was a necessity of existence could hardly have withstood temptation; but because he could not help the conviction that this was so, did he all the more detest the man who had come off conqueror in the fiercest of all battles,--the conflict with self.

"And now go, and hold your betrothed to her promise," Wolfgang went on, still more bitterly. "She will not break it, nor will she forgive me for what has been. There you are right. I have paid for my wrong-doing with my happiness. Force Erna to bestow upon you her hand; her love you cannot gain, for that belongs to me,--to me alone!"

"Ah, you dare----!" Ernst began, furiously, but paused before the cold, proud triumph in the eyes that met his own.

"Well? upon what ground now would you quarrel with me? That I love your betrothed is hardly an insult; that I am beloved you cannot pardon. I never knew it myself before to-day."

Waltenberg looked as if he would fain have flown at the throat of the man who thus uttered what could not be gainsaid; in a voice half stifled by pa.s.sion be rejoined, "Then you can easily conceive that I shall hardly consent to share the love of my betrothed with another,--with a living rival at least."

Elmhorst shrugged his shoulders: "Is this a challenge?"

"Yes, and the affair had best be concluded as soon as possible. I will send Herr Gronau to you to-morrow to make the necessary arrangements, and I hope you will agree that to-morrow shall decide----"

"Not at all," Elmhorst interrupted him. "I shall have no time to-morrow, nor the day after."

"No time for an affair of honour?"

"No, Herr Waltenberg. In fact, I have no great opinion of these affairs of honour which consist in trying to put an end as quickly as possible to a man whom one hates. But there are cases in which one must be false to his convictions rather than incur the imputation of cowardice. So I am ready. But we workingmen have an honour of our own apart from that cherished as such by the favoured idlers of society, and mine demands that I should not expose myself to the possibility of being shot before the task which I have undertaken to fulfil has been accomplished. In eight or ten days the Wolkenstein bridge will be finished,--I shall then have completed my task; I shall have seen my work accomplished.

Then I shall be at your disposal, but not an hour sooner. Until then you will be obliged to curb your impatience."

There was an almost contemptuous deliberation in the manner in which all this was stated to the man to whom it was scarcely intelligible.

Waltenberg had never worked, never devised anything that he loved and would fain see completed; he had never done aught save follow the impulse of the whim of the moment. Now this impulse incited him to the destruction of his enemy or to his own ruin,--he did not stop to ask which; but to be obliged to wait for days, to stay his thirst for revenge,--the thing seemed an impossibility.

"And if I do not accept this condition?" he asked, sharply.

"Then I do not accept your challenge. The choice is yours."

Ernst clinched his fist in suppressed fury; but he saw that he must submit: it was his antagonist's right to require this delay.

"So be it, then!" he said, controlling himself by an effort. "In from eight to ten days. I rely upon your word."

"You will find me ready."

A formal, hostile bow was given on both sides, and Ernst left the room, while Elmhorst slowly walked to the window.