. : THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GOD'S WILL AND OTHER STORIES PSEUDONYM LIBRARY THE PSEUDONYM LIBRARY. Paper, 1/6 ; cloth, a/-. 1. MADEMOISELLE IXE. 2. STORY OF ELEANOR LAMBERT. 3. MYSTERY OF THE CAM- PAGNA. 4. THE SCHOOL OF ART. 5 . AMARYLLIS. 6. THE HOTEL D'ANGLE- TERRE. 7 . A RUSSIAN PRIEST. 8. SOME EMOTIONS AND AMORAL. q. EUROPEAN RELA- TIONS. jo. JOHN SHERMAN. 11. THROUGH THE RED- LITTEN WINDOWS. 12. GREEN TEA. 13. HEAVY LADEN. 14. MAKAR'S DREAM. 15. A NEW ENGLAND CAC- TUS. 16. THE HERB OF LOVE. 17. THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER. 18. SAGHALIEN CONVICT. ig. GENTLEMAN UPCOTT'S DAUGHTER. 20. A SPLENDID COUSIN. ai. COLETTE. 22. OTTILIE. 21 A STUDY IN TEMPTA- TIONS. 24. THE CRUISE OF THE "WILD DUCK." 25. SQUIRE HELLMAN. 26. A FATHER OF SIX. 27. THETWOCOUNTESSES. 28. GOD'S WILL. ILSE FRAPAN GOD'S WILL STORIES TRANSLATED BY HELEN A. MACDONELL LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE M DCCC XCJI1 COPYRIGHT. All rights reserved. ?T A CONTENTS PAGE GOD'S WILL 9 OUR JENNY 113 THE OLD BOOK-KEEPER . . . 139 A CHRISTMAS STORY . . .155 THE FIRST 181 THE SCORCHER . . .195 866725 GOD'S WILL. GOD'S WILL. iPRING had scarcely begun, but already mild sunshine lay above the swift-speeding Neckar, and the trees along the hill-slope wore a greenish veil woven of young open- ing buds. Children passed by with bunches of cowslips and wild hya- cinths in their hands ; holding their flowers they stood round the glebe- farmer's dwelling, from which the coffin had just been carried, and stared with wide-open blue eyes at the mysterious proceedings. The glebe-farmer's wife had died. With bowed and uncovered head her husband stepped from the house ; after him came two little girls clad in new black frocks that hung dangling about their feet. The 10 GOD'S WILL. elder, her eyes buried in her hand- kerchief, followed the mournful procession with blind, stumbling footsteps. The younger cried un- restrainedly ; her brown, curly- locked head, however, moved this way and that, or turned right round, for the inquisitive eyes to note who might yet follow. The old woman at her side would now and again shake her roughly by the arm as a means of re- calling her to a fitting seriousness ; whereat, snatching her handker- chief, she must needs pour into it such piercing shrieks as impelled first one and then another of the small flower-bearers to stand on tiptoe in order to find out from whom the noise proceeded. At the open grave the mourners halted, the minister meeting them to bear witness in tones of emotion to the virtues and piety of the dead woman, and to deplore her pre- mature cutting off from her young children. Here the little girl sud- denly caught sight of her cousin, for whom she had long been on the watch. He stood opposite her at the other side of the grave, and when their eyes met, both were seized with one of those fits of in- voluntary laughter that are so apt GOD'S WILL. ii on solemn occasions to bring children into trouble. Lena was thrust aside with an angry jerk by her Aunt Ursula ; ashamed, she hid her eyes in the folds of the woman's skirts. The lanky boy, Pete, received a warning cuff from one of the pall- bearers, and narrowly missed tum- bling into the open mound. To cover his confusion at sight of the minister's reproving glance, he slipped on all fours and edged himself surreptitiously out of the throng. At that moment, however, every eye became fixed upon the elder girl, who, when the minister had finished speaking, and the coffin was being raised, threw herself with a loud cry upon it, clutching at it with outstretched arms. " Marie, child ! " cried the father, and caught her by her frock. But she did not move. Then the minis- ter drew near, touched her shoulder softly, and said in a voice that was almost tender " Let your mother sleep till our dear Lord awakens her." The girl lifted her head ; gradu- ally her hands relaxed their hold. " Come," said the minister ; and he led her back into the empty house. 12 GOD'S WILL. Verily the cross is hard to bear when young daughters are bereft of their mother. Like orphaned lambs Marie and Lena ran about among the farm-servants. The ten-year- old younger child asked in blank perplexity, " Who will give me my supper now ? " as if with the dis- appearance of mother, the provider, all outlook of food and drink had likewise vanished. Of course she found quicker comfort than the thirteen - year - old Marie, whose silent, scalding tears neither bread nor friendly words could have eased. Bread indeed was forthcoming ; friendly words lacked utterly. Children thus circumstanced too often, alas ! lose even the surviving parent, though he, perchance, re- main mindful of his outward duty. The natural binding element is gone, and to an old peasant his young daughter's thoughts may well prove a foreign language. On the other hand, it will sometimes come to pass that father and daughter grow nearer one another ; but this supposes that the man yet preserves within him the poten- tiality of growth. As regarded the glebe-farmer, no such hope could be entertained. His wife had died after years of grievous illness, but GOD'S WILL. 13 even while lying half paralysed on her bed of sorrow she had been the life and soul of the household. She thought for her husband, she availed herself of his strength to act for him ; it was her voice that maintained discipline among the servants. One could have fancied her watchful eye had power to pierce through walls and doors. On the very eve of her death her trembling fingers still managed to cut the children's bread. And now, since her feeble voice had ceased to call, the farmer went about like an altered man. He, who had once been extolled for the wonderful patience with which he endured his wife's long illness, fell into a state of chronic irritation now that he found himself free. He bore his trouble unresignedly, as though there was nothing worse that God could have imposed, and would fain have straightway wed- ded another wife just to escape from his unchanging mood of de- pression. Like most hard-natured beings, he could at any time ill support the sight of other people's grief. His elder daughter's tears were a standing annoyance. Her delicately-shaped little face, with its clear white brow and wistful 14 GOD'S WILL. eyes, had assumed a pained expres- sion which he read as a reproach. In his wife's active days, when she was eager to take upon herself the lion's share of work, he had many a time nagged at her, and with coarse brutality taunted her for her feebleness of body. On such occa- sions she had looked at him with the very look that he now saw on Marie's countenance a week after her mother's death when he came home half drunk to dinner. His eyebrows contracted as he said "What's up?" And when the tears rose to her eyes, he flung down his spoon. "Ah, raining into the broth, as usual, is it ? " " Eh, but it's good ; fit for a king ! " said Lena, and smiled at her father. Muttering, he took up his spoon again, from time to time casting a dissatisfied glance at Marie. " Look at Lena ; she's not for ever moping. I wish you took after her a bit more," he broke out at length, when food had slightly mollified his cross-grained humour. With an effort Marie swallowed her broth and tears, but there was no smile on her brow. She gazed at the place where her mother's GOD'S WILL. 15 bed had stood, from which after any prolonged absence the pallid hand had always greeted her she seemed still to see the large grey eyes shine sadly, lovingly from the empty space against the wall. " I'd such a craving after mother," said Marie, " and " a fearless look suddenly animating her face "after all, she was my mother." " Ay, she was all you ever troubled your head over ; but she's gone now,'' shrieked the glebe- farmer, with thickened utterance, and banged his hand in an aimless fashion upon the table, causing the crockery to rattle. " I'm there now ; one would think He gazed savagely round, then snatched the loaf, but straightway flung down the knife upon the floor. " Not been sharpened," he growled ; " it's as blunt as a yard-stick ! What's the good of you ? Are you there for nothing but to eat ? " Crimson with confusion, Marie ran off to sharpen the knife, but by the time she returned her father had gone, and when late in the evening he came home again his a drop too much " had grown into a real bout of drunkenness. Marie dreamed that night that she was going to die ; she watched 1 6 GOD'S WILL. her grave being dug, and felt quite happy over it. But somehow she could not get free ; Lena twined her arms about her, and said, " Mother's not there yet ; must wait a bit." Whereupon she awoke, and heard the sister drawing even breath beside her. " I am glad I've got my Lena," she murmured. The little girl tossed about in her sleep, her sharp elbow almost push- ing Marie out of bed. Cautiously the elder sister climbed over her, and lay down in the vacant space against the wall. But she could not get to sleep again : it was so stuffy in the room, and through the thin wall came the loud, irri- tating sound of her father's uneasy snore. It was yet hardly dusk ; the small windows were thickly bedewed. Marie got out of the warm bed, slipped on a skirt and short jacket, and stole barefooted to the house- door. Ragged strips of cloud flecked the clear grey sky, and in the whitely brilliant east appeared a dark and mighty form, huge as a gigantic bird with outspread wings. The girl's knees trembled as she gazed upon it ; below in the steam- ing mist lay the river, the weir, the vine-clad banks, Muhlhausen nest- GOD S WILL. I 7 ling round the slender church-spire on the opposite shore of the Neckar like a white flock grouped slumber- ing about its herd. The great cloud-picture alone seemed to live, to be awake ; the huge wings were bordered by the yet unrisen sun with a hem of glittering silver. " Tis the eagle of the Lord," thought Marie of a sudden, " the Lord who has watched over us, our house, the whole village, while it was dark." A feeling of reverent thankful- ness thrilled her soul. But in the same instant a grave sense of re- sponsibility overcame her, as the lowing of the cows in their stall fell upon her ear. " Hannah ought to be up, feeding them," she thought. " I must wake her ; it is my business now." She looked around. All manner of implements lay strewn untidily about the floor, or stood so placed in corners that any one might stumble over them. The milk-cans were unsecured ; the dung-heaps upset, littering half the courtyard. " The farm-boy is careless ; father must give him a talking to," she told herself. Then she no longer stayed musing, but went into the room 1 8 GOD'S WILL. that adjoined the stable, and tapped the servant-girl on the shoulder. " Up with you, Hannah ; you'd sleep till doomsday, I believe." The girl opened her heavy eyes and stared. "It's still half dark," she yawned ; " what do you want of me ? " " You're to get up and feed the cows ; it's time," repeated Marie, firmly ; and her serious face told Hannah that from that moment a new mistress had arisen in the motherless household. * * -::- -x- When the minister set out on his morning walk a daily expedition undertaken as part of his water-cure he noticed an unwonted activity at his neighbour's farm. Jackie was standing sullenly among the dung-heaps, raking and tidying in right thorough fashion. And round a bend of the road came Marie herself, wheeling a barrow piled high with fresh fodder. Her breast heaved, and she moved somewhat wearily. Drops of perspiration stood upon her brow, but her glow- ing little face expressed self-satisfac- tion and zeal. "You're at it betimes, Marie," said the minister, approvingly. "That'll please father." GOD'S WILL. 19 " Last night when he got in he " she blushed a still deeper red, and broke off. " You'll soon be a real help to him," continued the minister, kindly, and his smile went to the young firl's heart like a paternal greeting. he bent upon him her large, trust- ful eyes, and said in a faltering voice " He asked what I was good for whether I was only there to eat." The pastor's face darkened as from an unpleasant sensation. " I don't like to hear that," he said, reprovingly ; u it is not for a child to complain of her father." " No," said Marie, and the gently reliant expression vanished from her face. With a shy, sideward glance she made room for the minister to pass. He looked back at her once, then went on his way, shaking his grey head from time to time. While the two girls were at school the minister again halted beside his neighbour's yard, and finally beckoned to the farmer, who, heavy- browed and red-eyed, was trying to clear his fuddled head at the well. They held short converse, the farmer contributing but little. Once in a while the clergyman's voice 20 GOD S WILL. would grow loud and urgent ; for the most part, however, they spoke in undertones. Impotent defiance expressed itself on Deininger's rough sunburnt face, as the visitor took his departure. After this conversa- tion he indeed no longer frequented the alehouse, but his elder daughter came in for many a malignant glance, and the gulf between father and child steadily widened. In spite of industry, thrift, and good conduct, it would have been a gloomy household had not light- hearted Lena been there to tease and provoke laughter. Fearless as a squirrel for which nuts are every day forthcoming, and which no blast, however rough, can dislodge from the tree, she tripped about the house, her tongue as incessantly busy as were her slender limbs. Yes, Lena was a winsome, lively creature. Even the minister always welcomed the sight of her rosebud face peeping over the hedge, and her never-failing suggestion of some small service to be done him or his good wife. Their own children being full-grown and dispersed abroad, the merry little maiden was doubly pleasing to them, and she was made free to accompany the minister's wife on her rambles GOD'S WILL. 21 through the woods. Lena would, it is true, have preferred going to Cannstadt ; it was not over-amusing to walk in the wood. Still, a fair measure of gossip was open to her here, and at home Marie had ever a task ready to hand, which by this device she could escape ; for of course a walk with the minister's wife served to cancel all obligations. Then, too, she loved little children more than aught else, and could fondle and nurse them so deftly that the village mothers gladly confided their babies to her care. Everybody found her obliging ; the neighbours at the parsonage most of all. If the servant was out, it was so easy to send Lena to the baker for rolls. If a bit of linen flew off the lines, the light-footed slip of a thing tore away to recover it, and the minister's wife noted approvingly how she would give it a thorough rinsing down at the river if the moist ground had left a stain upon its whiteness. Marie, who silently, to the best of her ability, had undertaken the guidance of the household, could in truth have related that, in her own home, the little sister was not so out-of-the-way serviceable, but her more serious temperament led her 22 GOD'S WILL. to think of Lena as much younger even than she was. Gradually it came about that Marie assumed altogether the position of the minis- tering mother, even as regarded Lena herself. " She, indeed ! " Lena would ex- claim, if her teacher at the school found fault, and set up Marie as a model of diligence. She was simply amazed at the notion of any one suggesting that it was in her to sit gravely there like Marie. Lena was very popular with her school-mates. No prank could be carried out in which she did not participate ; were she missing, no game was held complete. Her arms were such snug handles for any one to hook into, and she was rarely seen unattended. " There goes the glebe-farmer's Lena," would say the neighbours, whereat every face re- laxed into smiles, though there was nothing much to commend about her. " There goes the glebe-farmer's Marie ! There's industry for you ; that girl has stuff in her." But the praise was spoken in sober accents. The truth is, Marie was held in esteem, not beloved. " Miss Long- face," said the girls when she passed by grave and preoccupied. If some one addressed her she was quickly GOD S WILL. 23 responsive, but she kept to the point, and then went her way. She had no notion of gossip, and never knew what was going on in the village. Not so much from timidity as from disapproval did she shun noisy discussions, chaffering in the market, and street fights. Had her lot been cast in the early days of Catholicism she would perhaps have entered a convent at the age of fourteen. She seemed oppressed with the sense of her responsibility, with her indoor and outdoor duties. Her father could spare neither time nor thought save for his vineyard, which, admirably situated on the sunny bank of the Neckar, and yielding a full crop almost year by year, yet demanded unremitting attention. The kitchen - garden, potato-patch, the maize, and a small plot of rye some distance off towards Fellbach, were entirely left in the keeping of Marie and Hannah. Even the farm-boy's help was scarcely vouchsafed them. They lived meagrely withal, the farmer piling piece on piece in miserly fashion and paring down expenses. Except on Sunday meat was not seen upon his table. A big dish of salad, curds, and bread, and, as a beverage, must with these his 24 GOD'S WILL. day's needs were fulfilled. His tough, brown, dried-up body needed nothing more therefore such pro- vision must suffice the remainder of the household. " Have a care lest Marie push things too far," said the doctor one day when he came across the farmer at the " Star " ; " she's pale and weedy-looking, and she tells me of bad headaches many a time." " ' Morning showers, women's trouble, Vanish quicker than a bubble, ' " laughed the farmer, with a jerk of his head. " It might be with her as it was with your late wife," continued the doctor, nowise disconcerted. " She broke down in the same way." " Work's good for folk," persisted the farmer, in a tone of conviction ; "just look at me," and he tried to straighten his stooping shoulders. " But a young girl's another sort of thing ! " said the doctor, irri- tably, and took up the newspaper. a Ay, there's the mischief. I wanted a son. What possessed her to give me daughters ? I always hated the notion of a pack of girls." Those present laughed ; the doctor, however, exclaimed angrily GOD'S WILL. 25 u You talk like a fool. There's truth in the saying that nine oxen and one peasant make ten head of cattle." Whereupon he rose up to go. But now it was the vine-grower's turn to be caustic "Better a peasant on wheels than a foot-sore squire," he exclaimed, excitedly ; and then after a pause, though the doctor had by this time gone, " All very well for him to preach who's got nothing to do save wag his tongue." A sympathetic murmur greeted this sally, notwithstanding which suggestions were freely offered from more than one quarter. On the following Sunday the farmer went over to Fellbach to see his brother-in-law, landlord of the " Bear," the father of Pete and of three other boys. And on the suc- ceeding Tuesday Pete made his appearance at the farm, carrying a little trunk upon his head. In answer to Marie's big eyes of as- tonishment, the farmer said " He'll be stopping now ; make him up a bed beside o' mine." At this news Lena twirled round on her heels with delight. She ran after Marie into the bedroom, ex- claiming 26 GOD'S WILL. " That's the best thing that could have happened. Pete's my sort. You've only to look at a cheese with him, and he's ready to laugh. Now with you it's always me that needs to set the fun a-going." * -x- # * However, it soon became evident that Pete had been sent for, not to amuse himself with Lena, but to make good to the farmer the son that his wife had denied him. The landlord of the " Bear " had not been over-willing to part with his fair-skinned, strapping firstborn, but the farmer had worked upon his feelings with all manner of argu- ments. " What think you, Urschi ? Look at these four young savages. They'll eat you out of house and home before vou've done with them." Urschi was Pete's stepmother. The three other boys were her own ; two of them by a former marriage. There was no denying that they sat down to every meal with formid- able appetites, and in Urschi's opinion Pete's consumption of food sometimes went the length of a punishable offence. " Folks is not born greedy ; it's a matter of up- bringing," she used to say, and her restless black eyes would scan with GOD'S WILL. 27 disapproval the huge hunks of bread that her stepson made away with. The very notion of allowing a boy like that to carry a big clasp-knife in his trouser-pocket ! That knife, cleaned and polished by Pete with more care than he bestowed on his own face, had before now been a bone of contention he would rather have swallowed it than let it out of his hands. Finding Urschi so favourable to his scheme, the farmer next set him- self to get round his brother a more difficult task that. The black- locked louts brought him by his second wife were not to be named with Pete in point of strength and sturdiness. But what sacrifice will a man not make for a quiet hearth ! Urschi strove and struggled for her own brood, who could have but scanty prospects in the way of future inheritance. Now here was a capital opening for Pete. " Your boy can wed my girl Marie," said the farmer ; " my wife spoke of it when she lay dying. He'll pay off Lena, and then the place'll be his own once I'm out o' the way." "Who knows but you'll be for taking another wife?" suggested the other, eyeing him narrowly. 28 GOD'S WILL. "Not I! I've had enough of one," said the farmer, stoutly. And so the thing was settled, Pete's father explaining to him why he had to go to Hofen. The lad went not unwillingly, though he had lived on good terms with his stepbrothers, and must now be subject to feminine au- thority. That he stood in his step- mother's way he recognised, even though she did not say it in so many words. And then to have to do with a girl who would one day become his wife and bring him a fine property, was not such a bad look-out. When he got to Hofen he at once surveyed things even Marie, who pleased him con- siderably with the eye of pros- pective ownership. She indeed looked womanly and sedate enough to marry there and then. But as it happened she was only just four- teen and a half, and on the eve of confirmation. " I say, do you mind how I got up into the cherry-tree that day ? " he asked her as they sat in front of the house one evening. Marie nodded, and then they told Lena about it, who had not been a witness at the time, having in fact not yet come into existence. Pete, GOD'S WILL. 29 as a four-year-old boy, was on a visit toHofen with his then living mother. The children were summoned to din- ner, he and the three-year-old Marie; but they were nowhere to be found. Presently his mother, coming into Marie's room, finds him in her bed, she sitting by and uttering no word. u What ails the boy ? " she cries, rushing forward in alarm. " He's got hurt," said Marie ; " I've tucked him up well." Then the mother notices that Pete's little hand is all smeared, and that resting on the thick cover- let it grasps three cherries on one stalk. " Marie ! " exclaims the frightened mother, " tell me what has the boy been doing ? " " He was gathering, and I read- ing," said Marie, and pointed under the bed ; " we've a whole basket of cherries down there." Lena clapped her hands. " But you're forgetting the best part, "said Pete, complacently. "My arm was broke, but I didn't howl. Mother used often to tell me how I wouldn't let go of the cherries out of my right hand at the doctor's." " Did she also tell you how the doctor said, ' You'd better brace up his breeches pretty tight, or you'll 30 GOD'S WILL. have him climbing over his father's head next ' ? " said Marie, playfully. Pete appeared not to hear this observation. " Those were good cherries," he said, musing ; and with the air of a connoisseur he added, "They're always nicest fresh gathered ; but girls don't know how to climb." u If girls don't climb, anyhow they don't tumble and break their bones," laughed Marie. But the lad was now launched upon a favourite theme, and quietly proceeded " My father's of the same mind. He says it's a bad business to be a girl. A girl or a cow can only look on. She can't climb a tree, she can't ride, she's no good at farm work. I'd just like to understand what girls are in the world for." Marie glanced up as though she were minded to say something ; but her eyes straightway returned to her knitting. Lena sprang to her feet and called angrily to Blackie, u You're right, old dog ; bark at him, then ! Stupid fellow that he is a regular ninny ! " And she excited the wolf-dog to a furious bark. The colour rose in her face, she clenched her fists, stamped with her feet, gasping and GOD'S WILL. 31 rolling her eyes the while till her cousin was ready to die of laughing. "Go it, Lena; keep it up, spit- fire ! " he shouted ; " it's just rare fun to watch you." Of a sudden her rough little hand was among his locks, tugging with might and main. " Now you know what girls are there for ! " she cried, intrepidly. Pete sat passive in his amazement, and only gave his tumbled hair a slight shake when the angry little creature drew back her hand. " You're a regular fury," he said, wondering at her. " But, to be sure, small streams are quick to overflow." u Small folk are folk none the less," retorted Lena, promptly. " I'm off to see after supper," said Marie, getting up. a You'll have made peace by then, I'm thinking." And so, indeed, it proved ; but fresh altercations arose next day. The two seemed to take pleasure in their differences. If Marie were not by, it would occasionally go the length of blows. Pete had got over his first surprise, and though he supposed himself to be merely hitting out in play, a red mark would often be left on the little 32 GOD'S WILL. cousin's brown arm. She paid slight heed ; at the moment, how- ever, the pain sometimes brought tears to her eyes. Pete was rude enough to make fun of these memorials of prowess. u You've got more bruises than one can count," he mocked one day, pulling the plaits of her hair. Marie was away at her confirma- tion class, and the two were alone together in the room. Lena gave a light laugh. "They'll be gone before my wedding-day." " Before your wedding-day ? " The lad opened wide his eyes. "Who would wed such a stupid girl ? " u None would wed such a stupid boy," she retorted, sharply. "Think so? But I'm to have Marie." " And who's for me ? " asked the little one, anxiously expectant. " You ! You'll get nothing ! " shouted Pete, with insulting laughter. " You'll be an old maid ! " Lena gazed at him in deadly fear. Her lower lip trembled violently. In vain did the stubborn little mouth set itself to avoid sobbing. Then she ran to the bench near the stove, thrust herself into the corner GOD'S WILL. 33 of it, drew up her knees, wrapped her hands in her apron, and re- mained in that attitude, a picture of quiet despair. " I'm like to die of vexation," she murmured. The cousin sat hacking a chip of wood with his beloved clasp-knife. He was whistling, and did not trouble to look round. At length he managed to cut his finger, and went to hold the bleeding wound close under her woebegone eyes. " Haven't you got a linen rag ? Any small thing will do." The child sprang quickly up to look for the desired object, which she handed him without looking his way. " Have you a bit of thread as well, Lena ? " Then she wrapped the rag about his outstretched finger, and tied the thread firmly round it ; in doing which she was obliged to let him see her swollen eyes. "Eh, but you're a regular bit of womankind. Womenkind are for ever turning on the waterworks," said Pete, feelingly. This method of comfort failing of its purpose, he clapped her encouragingly on the shoulder. " Don't fret, Lena, I'll take the pair of you." 3 34 GOD'S WILL. " What are you raving about ? Two wives ! That's no good," said the little one, sadly. " It answers among the Turks. The Turks go in for having several wives," Pete informed her with a learned air. A ray of hope shot over Lena's flushed little face. With one finger pressed against her lip she looked thoughtfully at him. " I'll become a Turk," shouted Pete, enjoying his own inspiration. " Then I can have as many wives as ever I like. I'll have a score of them, or maybe more." But at this Lena's grief gave way to an outburst of wrath. u Shame upon you ! " she ex- claimed. a It's disgraceful to have twenty wives." " If I've got to be a Turk, I may as well be one in right earnest," bragged the boy ; and Lena had to content herself with the mournful prospect of some day becoming one of twenty. -::- ::- * -* The day of Marie's confirmation was drawing near a day to which she had looked forward with vague yearning. By means of it, the minister had explained, one became a member of the Christian commu- GOD'S WILL. 35 nion. One's own reason and free will brought it about : it was not as when a helpless, unthinking infant is received in baptism. Marie regarded the Christian com- munion as a solemn mystery. For her an odour of sanctity pervaded everything that bore relation to her church ; the very edifice had from her earliest days represented all that her imagination could conjure up of noblest and most beautiful. The high-arched, sober enclosure, in such marked contrast to the cramped, lovv-ceilinged rooms at home ; the peculiar smell of books and dry dust of which one was conscious there, to the exclusion of any breath from field or stall ; the chairs fixed in their place, so that not even the unruliest urchin could shift them all this gave her an unwonted sense of a sanctuary secure against noise, harshness, and the base and unlovely conditions from which her austere young soul recoiled. Here might not enter coarse laughter or drunken shout- ing, the blight of scandal or the cancer of envy ; here was heard the organ's full deep peal, and the voice of him who ranked highest in the village their minister. His words, even if their full import did not 36 GOD'S WILL. always reach Marie, were yet lofty words, such as none but himself made use of. He spoke of love, faith, a godly life, holiness, and peace. This was the house of God ; here God abode. No herd was here, no implement that served the daily life. Everything was other than at home, God only being served. A thrill would pass through the girl when the final benediction was being spoken " The Lord bless and preserve you ; the Lord make His countenance to shine upon you and give you peace." She dared not raise her eyes, but she distinctly felt the Presence. His Being was above, and peace entered her soul. The minister liked while he was preaching to watch her meditative face with its rapt expression. It was a small face. The eyes were almost overpoweringly large ; many times they had a fixed, unillumined look. But there would be days upon which those eyes were well-nigh more than the minister could bear. "It's a lucky thing she has got her hands full of work," he would then think ; " meditation is all very well, but she might be led into a mis- taken course." GODS WILL. 37 The confirmation day arrived. Marie had not slept the night before ; she looked paler even than her wont, and when she entered the church with the others it must have struck many a one that life could never be plain sailing to this young being. Pretty she assuredly was, in spite of the disfiguring arrangement of her hair. The rich, smooth, fair tresses had been dragged back from the white brow with painful tightness, and fastened by a black velvet band. They hung upon her neck in two solid tails, so firmly plaited that as she walked they could scarcely be seen to move. In a clear treble voice she uttered her responses, a tender pink flush overspreading her face at each. Quite at her ease, and without stumbling, yet in the same half-drawling, exercise voice as the other children, she repeated her part out of the catechism ; only on none of the other faces did there lie her look of eager expectation. During the sermon, in which the minister spoke of the new life about to dawn for the young Christians, her eye never left the preacher's face, and she turned upon him a great gaze of inquiry, under which he felt him- 38 GOD'S WILL. self grow restless. Then came the benediction. With bowed heads the children knelt before the altar. The minister distributed texts and verses, reciting to each child respectively an appointed text, and then handing her a written copy. When Marie's turn came round, the minister, blessing her with outstretched hands, said, "God loveth a cheerful giver." And then followed the opening lines of the hymn " An angel speeds on silent way Across the land, From God's own hand Brings balm our sorrows to allay. His presence makes men strong to bear Their heaven-sent lot, Repining not ; Oh, follow ye him everywhere." When the child stood up she gazed in tearful disappointment at the leaflet in her hand, and stepped back with a sudden movement. The minister beckoned to her. " Come to me after dinner, dear child," he said kindly. She hardly knew how to wait for the moment when with shy tread she might enter his book-filled study. The minister was walking slowly to and fro when she got in, half obscured by the blue clouds GOD'S WILL. 39 that issued from his pipe. Ho scrutinised her inquiringly, and paused in his walk to say "Well, Marie, you didn't take it all in to-day, I'm thinking." There was a touch of defiance in the vehement shake of her head. " I don't know all that about a new life I can't begin a new life," she faltered, timidly. " Speak out fearlessly, child," said the clergyman, and laid down his pipe. " Why, I can't" she pressed her hands together as though she were holding something tightly in them " I surely can't go and forget my mother," she whispered, and looked up with beseeching eyes. The minister cleared his throat. " Nobody asks you to, Marie," he said, " but still you have to remem- ber that your filial duty extends not only to your dead mother but also to your living father. Perform the one, and do not leave undone the other, dear child." " I already do what I have got to do," she said, softly. " Yes, yes, I know ; you are good and hard-working, and you spare your father the necessity of a house- keeper. But what are we told ? God loveth a cheerful giver, Marie. 40 GOD S WILL. What you give, see that you give it cheerfully. The thing is to be cheerful even in toil and trouble." " I can't get over my heartache," said the poor child, with brimming eyes. Warmly and sympathetically the minister exclaimed " Your mother's well out of it, Marie. Don't grudge her her rest. What she went through with that cross-grained husband who'd not a good word for a creature He broke off, annoyed at his own un- guarded words, and continued in gentle tones, " When she looks down from heaven upon her chil- dren, just think how it would please her to hear a hearty laugh from her Marie." And he himself smiled in very sympathy, and his whole heart went out to the girl standing there before him with her wistful face. " If it be God's will," murmured Marie. " I'm much beholden to you, sir." And with that she slipped away. Thereupon the minister straight- way opened his door and called to his wife that he must quite specially commend to her this strange girl. '' Lena is far more to my taste, GOD'S WILL. 41 she's so likeable and obliging," said that lady. " Marie doesn't attach herself to any one. She's a tho- roughly good girl, but terribly re- served ; one has to wring the words out of her." "Well, but all the same ' persisted her husband. Marie waited in a state of per- turbation that evening for her sister and cousin to go to bed, when she and her father would be left alone. Lena generally began to get sleepy at an early hour, for she was on the move all day like any sparrow, but just this very night Pete chanced to be so talka- tive that she remained sitting with sparkling eyes in spite of her father's significant yawns. At length he dismissed the three of them with a peremptory order. Marie, how- ever, turned back, and, stepping nearer than she generally ventured to do, said " Father, I want to speak to you." The farmer stood open-mouthed upon hearing this. Marie's eyes fell as she faltered " Father, the minister was saying that God loveth a cheerful giver." The farmer's mouth closed with a jerk. Then he recovered himself. 42 GOD S WILL. " I think you might begin to be content by this. Didn't I let you have your mother's black gown ? A girl such as you hasn't got no call to whine ; her victuals are found her. But you seem to fancy there's to be nothing but holidays." Marie reddened. " That's not what I was meaning, father," she said, abashed. " The giver that should be myself. It's I that have got to become a cheerful giver." The farmer laughed aloud. " You're a fool, my girl ! " But then, looking mistrustfully at her, he added, freezingly, " You can go to the parson to-morrow morning and ask him what's owing. I've got it ready." "I'll go," said Marie; "but, father, it was something else I wanted to say. I will do my duty cheerfully now." Shyly she put out her hand to touch his ; her eyes over- flowed. But her father saw neither the hand nor the twitching face that expressed the pain of not being able to make clear its meaning. He had taken a piece of silver from his pocket, and was turning it round and round. He pulled out a bit of paper and wrapped the coin up with deliberation. " A precious lot of GOD'S WILL. 43 money, come to think of it," he muttered ; "wouldn't mind turning parson myself at that rate." Then he thrust the coin back into his pocket. " It'll do to-morrow ; you might lose it," he said. Marie went sadly to her room, where Lena was placidly sleeping. She slipped under the coverlet be- side her little sister, and turned with her promise to her heavenly Father, the kindly gravity of whose far-reaching, penetrating eye she seemed to feel upon her as she lay. " I will try, Thou knowest what," she murmured within herself, and beneath that radiant, answering gaze from above she fell asleep. * * -x- * The years passed on, obliterating the difference of age between the sisters. Since her cousin had formed part of the household, Marie, relieved of undivided toil, had grown physically more robust. She could now, too, not merely smile, but laugh outright at Lena's pranks. Yet inwardly she remained much as she had ever been, appear- ing scarcely to belong to the com- rades of her own generation with whom she had once sat at school together. Her abiding, never-fail- ing comfort lay in her close, trustful 44 GOD'S WILL. communion with God. Whatever befell she accepted as His sending, piously and unmurmuring : her father's ill temper ; hailstorms and spoilt crops ; the loss of the favourite cow ; yes, even the withering of her little myrtle-tree, which Lena wept over, interpreting it as a dreadful omen. Her capacity of suffering was perhaps for the time exhausted, a result of what she had gone through after her mother's death. She would preserve self- control, and be able to soothe and counsel, when all around her were lamenting and bewailing their lot. The monotony of their life called forth many complaints from Lena. When, at the age of eighteen, Pete entered upon his three years' ser- vice as a volunteer, she broke out weeping on the subject of Marie's silences and their never going any- where, not so much as a step out of the house. Thereupon Marie took her next Sunday to Fellbach to call on her uncle, whom she had not visited for a considerable time. Their aunt greeted them coolly enough ; her watchful black eyes strove anxiously to divine the true explanation of the visit. Irritated, Lena whispered her sister that Urschi had come to meet them in a GOD'S WILL. 45 torn jacket, and that surely she had given up washing her face this long while past. The two elder of the black, shock-headed boys stood stiffly against the wall, looking like a pair of begrimed snow-men, and not knowing whether to shake hands or run away. Only the youngest, who was some six years of age, placed himself, finger in mouth, before the new-comers, and stared wonderingly at them. For Marie had brought him a cake, and he waited to see what might yet follow. At length the uncle himself joined them. He wore a soiled shirt and sat down rather inarticu- lately opposite the girls. Urschi produced wine and then a loaf. Upon the table in their best parlour might be seen wet rings left by tumblers that had stood there. In- numerable flies and wasps buz/ed about the heads of the assembled party. In the midst of this unsavoury muddle Lena's sauciness came back to her, and she made them all laugh. Even the shockheaded urchins relaxed into a spasmodic grin, though on being looked at they quickly resumed their snow- man posture. 46 GOD'S WILL. A milk-pail stood in the corner. Lena nudged her sister and pointed to the green film upon its surface. Then she asked her aunt " Eh, what's that ? Is it for the pigs?" u You've a nice way of talking, certainly," croaked the woman, with a bitter laugh. a It's for butter, I tell you." " Heaven preserve me from such butter ! " said Lena, frankly, and turned her little nose aside. Urschi now retreated into the background, abandoning the nieces to her husband, who uttered a word now and again, as if he wished to be friendly but didn't quite know how to set about it. " Come, girls, eat," he said at length, and opened the stove, which was full of sliced pears and dried prunes. The girls attacked them ; but Lena straightway uttered a cry, and threw her slice away with a gesture of disgust. " I've gone and bitten a beetle ! " She stooped down and looked into the oven. Yea, verily. Crowds of cockroaches were careering about among the dried fruit. Lena began to chase and massacre them ; the boys joined in the fray. GOD'S WILL. 47 Marie meanwhile slipped out into the garden, which was in almost as neglected a condition as the house. She gathered a little posy of mig- nonette, and stroked the cat that stared at her shyly and strangely with its green eyes as though no one had ever before caressed it. At length Lena joined her, flushed and hot. " A new sort of amusement," she exclaimed. " I must have killed at least two hundred of them." " I think we'll be going," said Marie. " We might just as well stop a bit now," urged the younger girl ; u she can't get any crosser than she is by this. After all, he is Pete's father." " Out of this house he has come," thought Marie to herself. Then they were summoned to coffee. They sat down eight round a big pot of that beverage ; the uncle dipped his bread into it ; all the others followed suit. "Thank you, we don't drink coffee," said the girls. " It turns my stomach," whispered Lena. On their leaving, their uncle accompanied them a bit of the way. " My Pete has a good time of it better than his father," he said to 48 GOD'S WILL. Marie. " You've grown a comely lass." His small eyes twinkled approval of her person. " When he comes back it'll be the wedding," he continued ; " seems long, eh ? " a I'm in no hurry," answered Marie, composedly. " Good-bye, uncle." It was October, but bright still and warm, with a dark blue sky setting off the yellow brilliance of the vineyards. But the fruit plantations through which they passed wore a dead look ; most of the leaves had fallen, those that remained hung speckled and dis- coloured on the plundered boughs. The sisters sat down upon a ridge where purple scabions and dande- lions were still blossoming. " Look at that bee," said Marie, " it's not troubling its head about winter." " I say, let's pluck grasses," and Lena began rooting out the blades. " Pluck grasses ? What's the good of that ? " "To see who'll be first to marry." u Ah," said Marie, smiling, "I suppose I'll need to be thinking of it first ; in six months Pete will be free." " Why, look here," cried Lena, in astonishment, "I've got the longest GODS WILL. 49 one ! It'll be my turn first." And she began to spring about and laugh till she made Marie laugh too. " You stupid thing," said the elder sister, " you're in too great a hurry ; think what six months is ; you can hardly settle it as quick as that." " Why not ? Why should you grudge me that ? I don't grudge you yours," answered Lena, in pique ; but then her head dropped. " I don't believe in my luck, though," she said ; " it's just crossed my mind that I spilled salt yes- terday : that's throwing my lover away no chance for me now." " Lose the gain, save the pain,' 1 comforted Marie. "Ain't I just glad that I've no stepmother," said Lena that even- ing at home. " It would suffocate me to live in such filth as hers." "She was a thorn in Pete's side," put in Marie. " Pete ! You're for ever thinking of your Pete. The livelong day it's just Pete and Pete ! " cried Lena, tugging violently at a knotted string. " Nothing of the sort," insisted Marie, taken aback. " You're sleepy, and I, too, begin to feel tired." 50 GOD'S WILL. " Don't talk such stuff" ! " began Lena, snappishly, but broke off and climbed quickly into bed, burying her hot cheeks deep in her pillow. Suddenly she thrust forward her head, cried " It's you that are my stepmother ! " and as quickly lay down again. u You peppery thing," said Marie, quietly, "sleep away your tantrums, and to-morrow you'll tell me what harm I've done you." By next day, indeed, they had both forgotten their tiff. * -* -:- -13- Th e following Easter Pete's time of service was up, and he came back. But the wedding was not to take place till the autumn. With country people summer is too busy a season for festivities. Military drill had made another man of Pete. His rather stumpy nose had lengthened out ; a mous- tache, fair as the hair of his head, feathered his upper lip ; he bore himself erect, and walked with firm tread and an air of self-assur- ance. " You go along like a strutting cock," said Marie, smiling ; " you've grown into a man." Lena contemplated her reflection in his shining buttons. GOD'S WILL. 51 "It's a real pity you've got to leave off wearing a uniform," she remarked ; " I like to see you in it." Upon which he began a recital of his hardships and drudgery, his skill in shooting and general prowess, his duties as sentryman on pitch dark nights, the parades and manoeuvres, and, to wind up, an account of his and his companions' pranks in bar- racks. Of these last, however, the girls failed for the most part to seize the point, even after he had ex- plained it to them ; so he soon repaired to the alehouse, where he found a more understanding public, and Lena was very angry with him, and predicted that he would come home the worse. This prediction was, alas, fulfilled, after which Lena would not vouchsafe him a word anyhow, not a friendly word. She looked at him defiantly whenever the chance arose, ran him down to her father, and would gladly have set Marie against him too ; but the latter only said " Those are men's ways nowadays. He's like the rest of them. One has to accept the things that God has willed." The arrival of her betrothed had not greatly disturbed her equanimity; she looked after him almost like a 52 GOD'S WILL. wife, and even walked hand in hand with him through the fields on a Sunday. But once, when he wanted to pull her behind a bush and kiss her, she said, "Time enough for that after the wedding" ; and when he persisted, she shoved him not too gently aside : " Get along with you ! What are you about ? Are you afraid I'm to be running away from you, Pete ? " "Marie's uncommon stubborn," complained Pete once to her father. " I shall have trouble with her yet." But the old man straightened his bent form with a jerk, made a clucking sound with his tongue, and said " Her like's not got for the asking. If I were you There's no sweet, mind you, where there ain't no sour." And his small eyes winked so signifi- cantly at his prospective son-in-law that Pete's spirits rose again. "I shall bring her to reason," he said. " Ah, my boy, you know there ain't never been but three good women one of 'em ran out of the world, the second was drowned, the third's still to seek. And, take it all in all, the farm's worth a tidy sum." GOD'S WILL. 53 The sisters set out one Sunday afternoon in August to gather rasp- berries. There was a broad strip of ground against the vineyard wall where the bushes were thick with fruit. Even in unfavourable sea- sons, when the yield of the vines was below the average, there would yet be a goodly crop from these bushes. The glebe-farmer had long opposed their cultivation, but the minister had at length persuaded him to institute this profitable new departure. In his obstinate fashion, however, he still gave little heed to the plantation ; that was the girls' province every bit as much as were the white narcissus flowers that they grew in a spare corner of the vine- yard. The girls liked to be up here, high above the road, high above the Neckar, whose green waters rushed at this point in little glistening rapids over unseen rocks. In spring, when the whole valley lay robed in white blossoms, it was lovely, from beneath the pink glow of a peach- tree, to listen to the blackbird's call, to watch the swallows as they skimmed the surface of the river with their pointed wings, or, soaring aloft, appeared to lose themselves in the blue of heaven. To-day the scene was enchanting. Everything 54 GOD'S WILL. lay sun-suffused and glowing, the evening light turning red to purple, yellow to gold. The blackbirds were singing again, but no tender spring breeze now held sway in the air. Through the sunlit dust the strong passion -laden scent of white lilies was shed abroad ; they bloomed in every vineyard, in ever}' garden, very types of beauty itself as they lifted their proud, defenceless heads. Marie watered her lilies, taking an occasional glance at the mirror- like surface of the weir. Lena stood lower down and watched the passers- by crossing each other along the dusty river path. Those who were setting out looked fresh and un- stained ; the home-comers trudged along with bunches of flowers in their hands, hatless, coatless, and red-faced, uttering loud snatches of song. Lena craned her neck. What comical-looking hats and gowns kept passing there ! Often she was moved to laugh aloud. A teasing or flattering word would now and again be tossed up to her. The winsome maiden presented a pleas- ing vision to the passers-by as she stood there on her high-raised platform, her brown curly hair gleaming in the evening light, her GOD'S WILL. 55 clear, childish profile sharply de- fined against a background of deep blue. One raw young fellow, who carried a paint-box in his hand, actually stood still, and, after indulging in a prolonged upward look, began to unpack his apparatus upon the narrow strip of grass. Lena gazed down in vague surprise. When presently she proceeded to take a bright-tinted apricot out of the basket beside her and to set her teeth in it, the young fellow shouted, "Keep still, now!" and began to ply his brushes. Then Lena turned crimson, flung the fruit back into the basket and vanished with light- ning speed. " Come along, Marie ; let's be going," she cried, quite audibly ; '' there's too many loafers down there by half." They took their baskets, now filled with rasp- berries and apricots, covered them carefully with vine leaves, and one behind the other descended the long narrow steps that led sharply- down between the vineyard walls by a little side-way to the crowded river path. " Just see how yellow these melons have begun to turn," said Marie, and stopped to look at the shining globes that overhung the wall with their 56 GOD'S WILL. long rows of big-leaved, coiling wreaths. And the wall itself how full of life it was ! Delicate green-grey lichen sprang from every crevice, and the graceful Syrian rue covered wide surfaces with its pale lilac blossoms. Lena had as usual run on in front. Suddenly, as she set foot to the ground, an unpleasing sound of laughter grated on her ear, and an impudent voice called out, " All right, my lass ; come a bit nearer ; want to make things easy for me, eh?" It was the art-student of her recent encounter who accosted her in this barefaced fashicn. He held the painting-box in one hand, with the other he put up his eye- glass. A repellent smirk distorted his beardless face. Lena looked at him, and said " You're surely not in your right wits that you go and close up the road in that impudent fashion against me ! " " Aha ! 'not in my right wits/ and 'impudent fashion ! ' You're an ill- bred hussy," shouted the young fellow, and planted himself straight in front of her so as to bar her passage. GOD'S WILL. 57 " You've no business to talk to me like that ! " retorted the girl ; and turning back up two of the steps, she called to her sister, " Marie, this man is tipsy, tell him to let us through." " Tipsy ? That's what you say, eh ? " cried the fellow, who clearly was not quite sober. u Wait a bit, you shall make amends to me, though." And he seized Lena by the arm, causing some of her fruit to roll out of the basket upon the ground. " You'll please let my sister be ! " cried Marie, stepping hastily down. But what did that avail ? The narrow passage, where only a single person at a time could pass, shut them in helplessly one behind the other. The impudent youth completely barred the exit. Scarcely a passer-by looked up, and such as did made sure that nothing beyond a little harmless teasing was being carried on. Anger overcame Lena. <( Take your ugly face away ! " she cried, and struck him suddenly upon the chest. Only a second did he pause, then grasped the girl round her body, and thrust his pursed-up lips against her face, which she kept turning from side to side. Marie, who had 58 GOD'S WILL. slid down by means of the wall, tried to extricate her sister. It looked as if a regular scuffle must ensue. At that moment, however, a hand seized the shoulder of the embryo painter, and a voice called out " I thought it was fun, or I'd have come sooner. Out of the road there, young sir," and with a firm grip he thrust him away from the foot of the steps. The offender stumbled backwards, treading as he went upon his colour- box, which gave a sharp crack under his foot. In alarm he stooped down over his damaged property. " Now," said the stranger, a town- clad young man of grave and pleasing aspect, "the way is clear." The girls did not wait to be told a second time, but pushed on hurriedly. When they had walked a few steps Marie turned once again, saying in her gentle voice " I thank you kindly." " And I too," echoed Lena. Then they both blushed, for the stranger had lifted his hat and saluted them as one salutes young ladies. Lena went chuckling all the way home over the discomfited youth who had smashed his own property. GOD'S WILL. 59 " I am right glad," she kept re- peating. "But the other was a nice fellow, eh, Marie ? " she -con- tinued, with animation. " Why, look you, there he goes, Marie ; he'll be making for the ' Star.' " But the stranger walked past the beautiful garden of the "Star," with its grey ruin, without entering the inn itself, and his slight form pre- sently vanished among the houses. u He's got some visit to pay, I suppose," assumed Lena. " I say, Marie, that's not one of the common sort. I wouldn't refuse the like of him a real gentleman as he is, and so full of pluck." " What honest eyes he had ! " said Marie, pensively ; " but what I liked best was his not saying an unneces- sary word. Yes, he's a good sort." Then they trudged home chatting about their adventure, and Lena wanted at once to tell it all to her cousin as soon as ever he came in from the " Star." He, however, paid little heed, saying carelessly " Ah, just one of those woman- hunters ; I know the style of thing. They swarm at Stuttgardt. In King Street one sees them about with eye-glasses cocked on their noses. Easy enough to tackle, for the most part ; they're seldom dangerous." 60 GOD'S WILL. He concluded by sagely advising them to call him at once if the fellow came back again, lazily ex- tending his strong arms as he spoke. They did not recur to the theme of their deliverer. Marie hardly knew why, but she preferred not to mention him. * * # * Next morning she set off early with her raspberries to the car- penter's ; to have the juice pressed out in the turning-lathe is so con- venient, saving elaborate appliances and much expenditure of time. And old Dietz had always been very willing to render her this service. But to-day, as she opened the workshop door, she beheld a new-comer at work there, and, sur- prised, remained standing a moment upon the threshold. " Is the master not within ? " she asked, hesitating. The young workman came to- wards her holding his plane on which the bright yellow shavings hung curling. " Is it anything that I can do ? " he asked, modestly. Then their eyes met, and they re- cognised one another. To-day he was wearing no light summer coat, but stood there in snowv shirt- GOD'S WILL. 6 1 sleeves and coloured braces looking none the worse on that account, Marie told herself. On the con- trary, the bronzed and slender neck rose with such fine effect from its white setting, the crisp black hair lay so thick and glossy over the well-shapen head, that Marie's ad- miration made her forget to speak, and she gazed at him blushing and smiling. She failed, however, to perceive that he on his part was every bit as much absorbed in contemplating her. There was little of the peasant-girl about her. The sun had not tanned iher skin, nor had work caused her features to grow heavy and blunted. The large light-grey eyes had rather a wistful expression ; the smooth hair, the delicate bloom of the cheeks, and the small, firm-set mouth, made up a pleasing whole. Something of pathos mingled with the charm. The young man ap- peared to be moved by her presence. His eyes remained fixed upon her as he rather shyly answered " I'm the master's godson. He has got a big order to carry out, and as I am now a free agent, he asked me to come and help him. He's not in this moment what is there you may be wanting ? '' 62 GOD'S WILL. "Oh," said Marie, smiling, "it's not exactly what you would reckon carpenter's work. They're rasp- berries I've got in here, and the master he knows about it ; I can wait a bit." But it appeared that the young carpenter, too, was up to this wrinkle of squeezing out raspberries in a turning-lathe, and it was easy to see how anxious he Avas to oblige. " My mother gets it done in the same way," he said, while he atten- tively watched the girl as she shook the red fruit out of a dish into a white cloth, here and there rescuing a berry that was about to roll over the edge, and laying it among the others with her taper fingers. "Taste them," urged Marie, cordially. "I got them myself; they're real good to eat." So from time to time he slipped a berry into his mouth that gleamed forth as red and bright as the fruit itself from his short, dark beard. "Why," thought Marie, silently making this same observation, " I'm not given to studying the looks of men in that way ; I must be very wanting in modesty." And she blushed at her own thought and turned her eyes away. But not for many seconds. The young man GOD'S WILL. 63 seemed to her so little of a stranger ; it was as though they had long held converse together. Not that he said very much. Only it impressed her that he spoke again several times of his mother, and always as of a person of con- sequence so to say, one time quo- ting her words, another telling how it cost him a pang to leave her again so soon, even though it were but for half a year " One could never know what might happen when folks were weakly and no longer young." The cloth containing the rasp- berries was now screwed in ; Marie squatted upon the ground near her dish to watch the bright, sweet juice run into it. Cautiously the young carpenter increased the pressure, looking down from time to time at the blonde head from which the white kerchief had slipped back- wards upon the neck. The whole workshop was filled with the frag- rance of raspberry juice, and both were thinking " If there had but been ten times the quantity ! " Said he to himself: " It is so plea- santly cool here, especially if one is not obliged to be planing. Out- side the heat is enough to give one a sunstroke, and a little job like this 64 GOD'S WILL. fruit-pressing is a real boon by com- parison with other work." At last, however, the fruit was all pressed dry. The little cloth that held the skins had been wrung into a red rag, and the girl gazed ad- miringly at her dish of syrup. "Looks as bright as blood, doesn't it ? " she remarked. To her surprise she received no answer, and as she raised a look of inquiry to her friendly helper, she was frightened at the sight of his sudden pallor and downcast head. "If only you'd not said that!" he murmured, and the altered and deeply melancholy tone in which he uttered these words went to her heart. " It has spoiled all my pleasure," he added. " There are people, sure enough, who can't bear the sight of blood," said Marie, half to herself. The young man shook his head. "It's a wretched story. I was the cause of blood being spilled ; I've got a human life on my conscience," he said, gloomily. A shudder passed through the girl ; but a moment later she exclaimed, in accents of conviction, " By your own doing ? Nay, I'll never believe that " And half mechanically she reseated herself GOD'S WILL. 65 upon the shavings by the turning- lathe as if it were not yet time to go home. " I'll tell you how it came about," said the young workman. He stood before this unknown girl like a penitent at the con- fessional, leaning upon his hand, his eyes downcast. " I couldn't tell it to any one, but there's something in your face well, I feel as if I might unburden my heavy heart. There was a girl, then, that I cared a lot about ; she was a cousin down in Veihinge, a sensible, tidy sort of girl. Well, when I'd only just become a journeyman, the time of military service came on. There was no escape, and I had to serve. In the second year on Christmas Eve, I got .-leave of absence, and we were engaged, down at Esslinge where Rikele was staying at her god- mother's ; we had a right merry time of it." He passed the back of his hand over his eyes ; his face twitched nervously. "Well, within six months of that I was declared free. It came quite unexpected like a reward for good conduct they called it in my certificate. Wasn't I glad, just ! I said never a word, nor wrote a line ; I wanted to sur- 5 66 GOD'S WILL. prise them. First my mother in Veihinge yonder ; and then I was in such impatience to get to Rikele at Esslinge that I didn't bide half an hour at home. I'd been for ever thinking of Rikele, and the pleasure and surprise of my stroke of luck. So I got to Esslinge, and rushed to the market-place where her god- mother's house stood. While I was still far off I looked up at the top floor of the house, and there was Rikele on the window-sill, half inside and half out, busy cleaning the windows." He heaved a deep sigh. Marie sat listening with folded hands, and a frightened look in her wide-open eyes. " Then, as often happens, some evil power put it into me to shout up ' Rikele ! ' Like lightning she turns her little head. I see that she knows me ; she turns red and then white, and leaves go. ' Don't fall, Rikele ! ' I shrieked out, in deadly fear, and sprang forward, for I saw her losing balance. Next minute she was lying on the pave- ment The young fellow covered his face ; the girl's tears flowed fast. "Was there no hope for her?" she asked, softly. GOD'S WILL. 67 "She never stirred. She just gave one sigh and was gone ; " and he added, sorrowfully, " If I had but written to her, the misfortune would never have happened. That thought leaves me no peace. That's how I came to learn who is the ruler of life and death." " The Lord will bring you com- fort," said the girl, after a long pause. " Seems to me He ought to have sent His angels to hold poor Rikele," he replied, moodily. u No sparrow falls from the roof save by His will," rejoined Marie, earnestly. The Biblical expressions and images rose familiarly to her lips ; they had ever been her source of comfort. But the young man exclaimed impatiently, u Preserve me from believing that it was God's will ! I could never bring myself to pray to Him again." In the presence of so great a grief Marie grew silent. Only after a while did she whisper to herself, " Poor Rikele." " The minister did say, to be sure, that her end was beautiful," con- tinued the young carpenter, " and it's true enough that she lay there as if in sleep, and even in her coffin 68 GOD'S WILL. she seemed to smile. She had felt neither terror nor pain, the doctor said. But," and he broke into fresh lamentation, " to think that I was the cause of it all that her young life was lost through me ! " Slowly the girl stood up and took her cloth and the dish of fruit-juice. " I must be going now," she said, softly. He was sunk in gloomy medita- tion. She wanted to add some- thing, but the words died on her lips. " Ah, are you going already ? " he asked. "Yes. God help you." More she could not utter. " God bless you. And I thank you kindly," he replied, and looked trustfully into her moist eyes. " God help you," she said once again, and went ; slowly at first, more quickly when she remembered that it was already late, ten o'clock ; the church clock had just struck. " Why, you have been a time," said Lena, in astonishment, as her sister came in. '' Twice already has Pete been for his lunch. He was wondering what pond you had fallen into." " Let him wonder," said Marie, placing her dish upon the table. GOD'S WILL. 69 " Ah, then you've been at the carpenter's ! What was he talking about, then, all this time ? " asked Lena, inquisitively. " Nothing. He wasn't in when I got there." Marie's answer came forth hesi- tatingly. Then she hurried into the kitchen. Why had she with- held the truth from her sister ? she asked herself. But it had never come naturally to her to make a confidante of Lena. How could she have told her such a history as this ? She blushed at the very thought of having to name him. His name ! Why, she did not know it herself. *- -* * -X- His face, however, and his voice never left her thoughts. u Poor Rikele," she thought ; " it was in- deed great happiness you lost. Would that he were less sad, that one might somehow bring him com- fort. It must indeed have been God's will, but he cannot believe it because she was so dear to him." Marie mused over the subject of such attachments ; in her family nothing of the sort was known. Curious ! not even Lena was very devoted to her. It suddenly came back to her how the girl had once exclaimed, " You are my step- 70 GOD S WILL. mother," and the words now smote her to the heart. They had grown away from one another as the years went by. Perhaps it would become better if Lena also married ; she might then know a tender feel- ing for her husband. After that Marie's thoughts turned to Pete. What would he have said if Rikele's fate had befallen her ? No, she couldn't imagine, for Pete's coming could by no possibility make any one so frantically glad as to lead to their falling out of the window. That was simply incon- ceivable. And she began to think of the wonder of there being a joy so great as to make a person leave go in a dangerous position and risk falling just in order to give a sign, a nod. Then across her mind flitted a vague memory of her having clung to her mother's coffin, and of having wanted to stay with her even in the cold ground. All that day she went about as in a trance. A portal had opened it- self to her, but she still stood only upon its threshold, dazzled and con- fused by the brightness within. Late in the afternoon, when day- light was fast fading, she slipped into the little bedroom which she and Lena shared, unlocked her box, GOD'S WILL. 71 and took out of it a small case. This was her treasure casket, her shrine of relics. It held her mother's prayer-book ; a cornelian ring which her mother had once brought her from the yearly fair, and which she had long since out- grown ; a dried oak-twig plucked on the last walk with her teacher after her confirmation ; an unpre- tentious garnet necklace that had come to her at the death of Pete's own mother ; a letter from the schoolmaster, who on having to go away had once deputed her to instruct some of the youngest and most backward children in reading. As a rule she was wont to go through all these treasures with grave deliberation whenever a free moment threw her together with them ; to-day, however, she turned out the box with a hasty hand, even tossed the lavender and sweet- scented woodroof carelessly on the ground in order more quickly to get at the underlying memorials of her confirmation. There they were at length : a glossy pink leaf- let with a text from the Bible printed upon it ; then another with a picture and verses underneath. These she read eagerly through, though she knew them by heart. 72 GOD S WILL. Then, having paused to think a- while, she fetched a small ink bottle and a sheet of paper, and after much careful glancing hither and thither, began in her stiff, un- practised hand to copy out " An angel speeds on silent way Across the land, From God's own hand Brings balm our sorrows to allay. His presence makes men strong to bear Their heaven-sent lot, Repining not ; Oh, follow ye him everywhere." Many times as she wrote did a mist creep over her eyes ; she wiped them with her hand, not noticing the tears that welled up. Once steps came past her door ; then the blood rushed to her face, and she wanted to thrust everything out of sight. But the sound died away, and the last word of the verses was now written. What next ? Long did she deliberate, pushing her sheet of paper to and fro on the window-sill, and looking down va- cantly at the little kitchen garden where the beans still bore their fiery red and white blossoms, and moist lettuce beds sent up an earthy frag- rance. This was not to be a letter, only he must be made aware that it came from her. So she did as with GOD'S WILL. 73 verses in an album which she had sometimes had to write. She care- fully traced below, " In remem- brance of Marie Deininger." She tried to sign her name with a bold flourish, but the pen spluttered in her unpractised hand, scattering a shower of black drops about the signature. In dismay she beheld this misfortune, wondering whether she must write the whole thing over again. It was already growing dark, however ; there would not have been time enough, and to-morrow was to be such a full day. So, with some pricks of conscience, she thrust her ill-starred handiwork into a yel- lowed but unused envelope, the only one she possessed, and proceeded to address it. No easy task that, when the name of the addressee is wanting. She might of course have inquired, but for some reason not quite clear to herself she could not make up her mind to take that step. At last she merely wrote : " To the young joiner who is help- ing the carpenter Dietz." Her letter must naturally not be confided to the post ; no, she would need to deliver it herself. But how ? She spent half the night in considering this problem, and rose from her bed even earlier than usual. With 74 GOD'S WILL. burning cheeks and a beating heart did she make her way to the car- penter's workshop. There unbroken stillness reigned. She looked through the dust-dimmed windows into the workshop on the ground floor ; it was empty. That made her bolder. She gently shook the window sashes. Yes, one of them had been left slightly open this hot night ; she was able to raise it. The turning-lathe beside which she had yesterday stood and listened to the stranger's unhappy love story was placed not far from the window. If she took very care- ful aim she might perhaps manage to throw her missive as far as that. But her hands trembled, she threw clumsily, and there lay her letter among the wood shavings under the turning-lathe ! Craning her neck she looked in, supporting her- self with both hands on the win- dow-sill. All care for precaution had fled from her mind. Then suddenly a door opened, and the young workman entered the shop just opposite to where she stood. He was in his white shirt-sleeves, as she had seen him yesterday. Had he espied her ? So great a terror overcame her at the thought that she could not even have uttered a GOD'S WILL. 75 cry, and now only ducked hastily down like a wild bird. Then, gathering up her strength, she flew for her life, as she had not done since the days of childhood. The windows of the workshop looked out upon the Neckar ; once round the corner of the house there was no seeing her from it. She never paused in her race, however, but tore along till she reached home, feeling secure only when she had regained the dusk enclosure of her little room, where the rosy-cheeked Lena still lay sleeping. Quickly, as though there were an ill deed to be atoned for, she went into the kitchen and lit the fire. At the door of the wood-shed she encoun- tered Pete, who asked in sleepy won- derment " Where on earth have you been to at this hour of night ? " The girl took a step backwards had Pete, then, seen her ? " I don't know what concern that is of yours," she said. But she was not quite at her ease. " You'll have been visiting your sweetheart seemingly," teased the young man. u I have no sweetheart," cried Marie, sharply. " Don't talk such silly stuff." 7 6 GOD'S WILL. " But what am I, then ? Am I not your sweetheart ? " said Pete, trying to put his arm round her. " You," said Marie, pushing away his hand "you will soon be my husband if God so wills it that's another matter," she added. "Ah," muttered Pete, "a good excuse is worth a mint o' money. Now, where have you been gallivan- ting ? " His face assumed a look of sour suspicion. Within the girl defiance and frankness were at war. "I've been at the carpenter's," she at length said. " Are you satisfied now ? " Thereupon she disappeared into the wood-shed, and began pulling the logs about as if she were anxious to drown all other sound. Her heart beat with an oppression that yet had gladness in it a hitherto unknown sensation. All day long she kept examining the chairs and benches about the house, to see if they were whole and not in need of some repair. Yes, there were indeed certain damaged articles that ought long since to have been seen to. But courage failed her to take them to the carpenter ; once, after reaching his very door, she felt con- strained to retrace her steps. GOD'S WILL. 77 Next morning she found a little bunch of roses and rosemary lying outside the sill of her window. With trembling hands she tucked it under her neckerchief ; it was for herself only, no one else was meant to see it. " That is in return for the song," she thought ; " ah, if it has but brought him comfort ! " And dearly would she have liked to see him, but she considered it quite out of the question that she should go to the workshop any more. On the following morning there was a fresh posy on the window-sill, and every day for a whole fortnight she found one. Once, as she was returning with Lena from the field, carrying her hoe across her shoulder, they met him. He looked very comely in his neat attire as he courteously raised his big brown straw hat to greet them. Then suddenly she grew flushed and nervous, becoming conscious of her soiled and overheated person ; they had been busy breaking clods all the afternoon. He looked as if he would like to approach them, but were hesitating because of Lena, who was calmly taking stock of him. " Round this corner," said Marie, and drew her sister quickly away. " You stupid thing," answered 78 GOD'S WILL. Lena, indignantly ; " as if that nice fellow were thinking to bite one ! He's living down there at Dietz's ; they call him Wilhelm but you're for ever curled up like any cater- pillar ; it's of no use telling you things." Marie was, however, listening at- tentively, and in listening forgot to answer. Perhaps she had no wish to do so. Lena chattered on " Pity that he's a carpenter ; and he's got no money, as Dietz's Betty tells. Otherwise he'd have pleased me well enough. Betty, too, would have been ready to think of him, but she says his mouth's in a way to grow all of a piece j he hardly ever opens it." "Betty's an ill-natured thing, with her squinting eyes," put in Marie. " That's what I say," laughed Lena. " He'd talk fast enough to me, just you see if he don't." "My gracious ! Are you wanting to run after him ? " asked Marie, angry and disturbed. But wholly unconcerned, Lena laughed and prattled on " It's not a question of running after him only of seeing if his mouth has really grown all of a piece, which would indeed be a pity for such a bonny lad." GOD'S WILL. 79 They had hardly washed and tidied themselves up at home when Lena seized upon a broken chair and ran out of the room in a state of wild mirth. " Hand, hand, bite me not ! Tooth, tooth, wring me not ! " she called to Marie, who stood there with contracted brows, ask- ing herself whether she ought to restrain the girl from going. To what end ? Lena was indeed a madcap, but it was not thinkable that she should be guilty of an un- seemly act. A good deal of time went by before Lena returned ; it seemed long, at least, to her sister. She appeared less elated than she had shown herself on setting out, and devoted her first attention to the jug of must ; it was such hot, thirsty sort of weather, this September. " Well ? " inquired Marie at length, busying herself with the drawer of the table, which she pulled open and slowly closed again. " Well ? " repeated the younger sister, as if she had no idea what was expected of her. u Did you see him ? " Again Marie slowly opened the drawer. 8o GOD'S WILL. Lena nodded. " Why shouldn't I?" " What had he to gossip about ? " " Oh, what we talked about ? " answered Lena, with a laugh. u Why, about the house, and the weather, and Pete, and Blackie." At the mention of his name the dog sprang at his mistress, wagging his tail. " If he only had a little money," she added, musingly, " one might have something to say to him. I like him well enough." " How do you know that he likes you ? " suggested Marie, rather severely. u Well, I should think he does. I'm a nice enough girl," said Lena, innocently. There was no posy on the win- dow-sill next morning. Marie looked sadly at the empty place. She knew directly that there would never be another. Every evening she had laid the faded one, after wearing it secretly all day, in her little box among her childish treasures. There was quite a high pile by this time, each blossom of which had meant happiness. Nothing on earth had ever yet gladdened her as this silent daily greeting had done. But it had been a sin, she now thought. It was GOD'S WILL. 8 1 even wrong that the sender should have found a way into her heart, that his straight, spare figure, gentle eyes, red lips, and winning manners should so greatly have pleased her ; nay, even his mourning and his tears. That the devil walks abroad under guises the most diverse she was well aware. The very things in which we chiefly delight often proceed from him, and are an incitement to wrong-doing. True, she had not yet been guilty of much wrong- doing, but her eye and her soul had delighted in him, she told her- self ; else would she not have known all this unrest and fear, would not have shrunk from naming him and speaking about him. That had been wrong. Then before the empty place upon her window-sill she uttered a fervent prayer that God might turn her heart away from him ; but in between she felt with burning joy how dear he was, how near and how dear, and how never again could she forget him. On the following day she heard her and Pete's marriage banns published for the first time. She sat in a place that enabled her clearly to see her cousin. He looked just as he had always done as a lad, with 6 82 GOD'S WILL. his freckled, clownishly-shrewd face. No brother could be more inti- mately understood by her. When his name was pronounced, he drew himself stiffly erect, like a school- boy during roll-call ; or was the movement a survival of military drill ? He seemed nowise em- barrassed ; if anything, on the con- trary, too self-possessed. Was not the glebe-farmer one of the richest men in the village ? That afternoon Lena said with lips thrust out, u Wilhelm is no longer there. He's always having business to see to at Stuttgardt, Betty says. But it's all one to me, for I fancy his ways are none of the straightest." And Marie making no response, she continued, u He has not kept company with any one, but he has had a secret sweetheart all the same. For Betty says he gathered flowers and set off with them in the small hours of the morning. She saw him do it twice. Then she spoke to him about it, and he took no notice, trickster that he is." Marie had bent low over her sewing. Sorrow and a furtive smile, pallor and blushes, succeeded one another upon her countenance. She was relieved when her father's GOD'S WILL. 83 entrance made an end of Lena's chatter. * * * * Some weeks later came the Sun- day of her wedding. Marie had cooked and baked for this occasion, in due observance of prescribed usage. " There's just no end to it," said the glebe-farmer to his sister-in-law, between whom and himself a par- ticularly good understanding had arisen. Urschi looked even sallower than usual. She had been ill for some weeks past. " I made sure it was the church- yard I was bound for," she groaned, as she dragged herself slowly in at the door, and dropped heavily down upon a bench, which creaked be- neath her weight. " But it seems they're not ready for me yet," she added, with her unpleasing smile. " Nay, you're still too big a sinner ! " cried Lena, mockingly. The uncle laughed approval ; Urschi's face, however, wore any- thing but an amiable expression. "You might be a doll out of a shop in that there dress," she re- marked ; "it's hard to make out which is the bride of you two." Marie looked pale and tired. All night long she had been kneading 84 GOD'S WILL. dough for pasties and spiced loaf, and making shortbread. By four o'clock everything had to be carried to the baker's. Lena had indeed given some help, but the task of direction rested mainly upon Marie herself. True, it had all been by her own wish. She was quite de- termined that the wedding should not take place from Urschi's house at Fellbach, and there Lena had sturdily backed her up. " In that piggery of theirs there would not be a mouthful fit to eat," said Lena, in her usual blunt fashion, not caring in the least how Pete might feel at such mention of the parental home. But Pete manifested no emotion ; he thought it much more comfort- able to remain in the house of which he was some day to be the master. And his parents, it need hardly be said, offered no kind of opposition. They were indeed rather taken aback when in due course the glebe - farmer handed them a minutely-reckoned claim for the expense? he had incurred both at home and at the " Star " ; but Ursula's respect for her brother-in- law was only increased by this fresh instance of his uncompromising tight-fistedness. "There's a man of business for GOD'S WILL. 85 you ! " said she, admiringly, to her sons ; " that's just how you should do. I almost think it's my mother he takes after, though to be sure he never set eyes on her. She was a cute body, was my mother. ' What- ever is not more worthless than vermin you'd best pick up,' she used to say. She said it every day." The boys were well acquainted with this appetising domestic maxim ; it was often quoted for their benefit. They yawned undisguisedly, but their well-disciplined eyes travelled over every corner of the festal par- lour, for there it was that this con- versation took place. The benches against the wall, and the chairs, were filled with guests ; the younger ones stood about together in corners, lads and maidens, however, keeping apart. Most of them seemed ill at ease in their black holiday attire ; only the elder men with their lighted pipes, and the old women with their hymn-books, wore that air of composure which betokens an unmoved acceptance of what the day brings forth. They applied themselves eagerly to the wine which the girls handed round ; empty glasses, hymn-books, ker- chiefs, and here and there a posy lay upon the table and window-sills 86 GOD'S WILL, amongst dishes of cake. From the young girls' corner would come an occasional titter, followed by the closing up of their ranks, which, however, reopened freely to admit Lena when she came tripping by. Marie's thoughts reverted continu- ally to her mother's funeral this was the first occasion since that day on which all the kinsfolk had been assembled at the farm. The giggling in the corner disturbed her as some- thing that had not formed part of that other gathering. Now and again, too, she caught her father's voice ; he had been silent then it stood out from the chatter of the guests and had a rasping sound such as his horn snuff-box made when being unscrewed. He was explain- ing that he had not wished for any music, flutes, fiddles, and the like. "It all mounts up directly, and at Stuttgardt they don't ever go in for that sort of thing." The glebe- farmer was a strong advocate of progress, when progress meant economy. The bridegroom's father had gone out " to have a look at the sow." " You can see your son at the same time," cried Lena's sharp little tongue ; " he's still at the dung- heap." GOD'S WILL. 87 Pete had indeed not yet put in an appearance ; he disliked nothing more than to be stared at by a crowd of relatives. So he contrived to be urgently engaged while await- ing the moment at which the com- pany was to take its departure for the church, when without further ado he would don his wedding-suit. Lena, however, espied him, and let fly one stinging word on the top of the other. The early cordial rela- tion between these two had come to an end just as had the close bond between the sisters. The house had hardly been more uncomfortable at the moment of the mother's death than of late. The uncle came back into the stifling room and called through grey clouds of tobacco that it was time to be moving. At his heels followed Pete, red from much wash- ing and wearing a look of annoyance the result probably of Lena's recent thrusts. In spite of which she now drew near him to fasten his bridegroom's nosegay to his coat. A mere breath, it was plain, might yet easily suffice to rekindle the flames of war. Something im- pelled her to tug at his necktie and undo it with the remark, " How should a donkey know when it's 88 GOD'S WILL. Sunday ? " Now this selfsame necktie had already that morning cost Pete an hour's anguish ; where- fore he struck Lena roughly upon the hand, and could in the end be mollified only by Marie's peace- making measures. Both, however, still continued in a state of smoulder- ing irritation, and even on the way to church kept eyeing each other with scowls and wrathful glances, so that one of the bridesmaids felt prompted to give Lena a shove and to whisper, " Go it, Lena, at him then ! " But no laugh greeted this sally ; a strain of bitterness had soured the girl's whole nature. Marie entered the church as in a dream. Only when her cherished minister's familiar voice struck upon her ear was she able to pull herself together and listen to the words he uttered. " Since God has willed it," was the one thought firmly rooted in her mind the thought which had guided her to the altar. All along, as often as the image of that other man forced a way in, she had resisted it by repeating, " God's will. 1 ' And at such times she had passed in review the entire situation, and considered it from every side. " It is my father's will ; but then he wants it because of Pete, seeing GOD'S WILL. 89 that he has no son of his own, and that Pete can do the work of three, and does it too. It is my uncle's will ; but that is on account of my property. It is Urschi's will ; but then she wants to get her own sons a share in the inheritance. It is Pete's will ; he, however, wishes to have the farm. But it was my dead mother's will who loved me dearly, and so it is also God's will, and must therefore be mine." And now she gathered up all her strength to listen for confirmation of this whole train of reasoning in the minister's words. She fixed her great, weary eyes questioningly upon his benign and gentle face, and he noticed the look, and soon it was as though he spoke for her alone. So lengthy a marriage dis- course had seldom issued from his lips. He spoke of love of that Divine love which laid down life for the sake of fellow-men, whereby they might preserve an undying example of supreme devotion. Then he passed on to types of human affec- tion, saying that before him stood a faithful daughter who well knew the meaning of a mother's love, which had watched and cared for her child even beyond the grave, 90 GOD'S WILL. planning that her own guardianship, so soon to be withdrawn, should be replaced by another by a husband's attachment and fidelity. The mother had herself sought out the man who should lead Marie to her new life. Marie drew a deep breath. The whole thing fitted. " It is true," continued the minister, earnestly, "that in all human concerns man proposes and God disposes. Here, however, both have met. God has blessed the wish of the parents, has inclined the hearts of the young kinsfolk to one another so that they have be- come attached, and in the strength of their love desire none other he no other wife, she no other husband. For that let them thank God in their hearts." Marie had turned pale. She still gazed upon the minister, but she no longer heard what he said. His last words had aroused something new and unsuspected within her. Was she in that state of which her spiritual guide had spoken ? And if she were not, was it still God's will ? The bridegroom was then addressed in the prescribed form, " Wherefore I ask you " but she was awakened from her ruminations GOD'S WILL. 91 only when at her side "Yea!" rang forth, uttered in Pete's familiar voice. The sound fell with a dead weight upon her heart. And now her turn had come ; but she paid no heed to the words ; her thoughts passed into vacancy ; she ceased to watch the minister. Suddenly her eyes raised themselves and became fixed in an ecstasy upon a corner behind the altar, from which, as if out of the wall, a well-known face of blank despair was eagerly watch- ing her. Whence had he so sud- denly arisen ? And wherefore that expression of terror, as though she were Rikele and were about to fall from the window before his very eyes ? A shudder ran through her limbs. Was it God's will ? Could it be God's will that she should marry Pete, and that the other should stand in the corner like an image of death ? And was it in- deed a sin that this should cause her grief? She sighed audibly, a corpse-like pallor overspread her features, she turned giddy and put out her hand to steady herself. " Therefore confirm this before God and these Christian witnesses with an upright Yea," said the minister, and he looked at her searchingly, solemnly. Marie no 92 GOD'S WILL. longer trembled, only her heart beat tumultuously within her at the sound of her own voice : she had said " Nay." "What? What was that? Nayf" A disturbed murmur ran through the congregation ; the inn-keeper uncle shook the glebe-farmer roughly by the arm the latter had just been deeply engaged in calculations about his excellent vintage and shouted, " Marie says ' Nay ' ! " And " Marie says ' Nay ! ' " was caught up and passed along through the church, and upon every face wonder and consternation displayed themselves. Pete, dark-browed and heated, was muttering, " Sir, she refuses to have me ! " Urschi clenched her fist in the air ; the glebe-farmer, angry veins swelling upon his low-set fore- head, went flinging his arms about as though he were ready to commit an assault upon his daughter. Then suddenly the voice of the minister thundered forth " Silence ! " and quiet being straightway restored, he resumed in a low voice without a trace of anger, but also without solemnity just, indeed, as a father might speak " Lena, will you have him?" "Yes ! " cried a loud, sobbing voice, and in a twinkling Marie, who had GOD S WILL. 93 watched the whole proceedings with lamb-like passivity felt herself lifted off her feet and thrust back among the infuriated elders. In her de- serted place at Pete's side stood Lena, so tremblingly eager, so flushed with happiness that one would have supposed she had lived for no other end save this. An amused expression flickered over the minister's face. He now uttered another prayer while Marie was slipping into her sister's hand the ring which she was to have ex- changed with Pete. This brought the ceremony to an end. The minister vanished into the sacristy ; amid loud discourse and laughter the wedding- guests filed out of the church. The new-made pair had till now hardly looked at one another, but no sooner did they find them- selves outside the sacred precincts than Pete, turning deliberately round, scanned Lena's face as though he had never yet set eyes upon her. Then of a sudden he exclaimed with a ringing shout, " Hurrah, Lena, we two ! " And he lifted her off her feet, and swung her round, nor could he be brought to set her down till, crimson for shame and with persistent en- treaties, she had pulled him by the ears. 94 GOD'S WILL. Now uprose wildest jubilation. " Hurrah ! " shouted the young men ; the girls responded with laughter and clapping of hands, running on tiptoe before the bride and her mate. The hopping and skipping went on as though a dance was to be started in the street itself. And where on earth did the music spring from ? Anyhow, there it was, as if by magic, and the fiddles scraped, and the flutes rhapsodised, and by way of accompaniment to the joyous wedding-march, the lads at the " Star " set up a sort of birds' chorus from amidst the thick ver- dure of their garden. Ill at ease in the rear of the merry-makers walked the elders, like a constricted dragon's tail, angry, nay furious, scandalised beyond all measure at such a breach of time- honoured usage and paternal au- thority. Urschi railed the loudest, not sparing the minister who had strengthened the rebel instead of duly rebuking her. Such conduct should be denounced in the pres- bytery, and then the minister would go bare of his May offerings, she maintained. Pete had now got the feather-head, Lena, hung round his neck and no estate with her, for the other was still the elder as much GOD'S WILL. 95 as before. The glebe-farmer might just go and hire himself out as a common labourer to make up Lena's portion. Why did that blockhead of a Pete not guard him- self against having Lena foisted upon him ? He guard himself! At that very moment his shout of exultation was heard above the torrent of Urschi's vituperations. Never in the whole course of his life had Pete felt so happy ; and he, habitually so deliber- ate, so hard to rouse, now gave vent to such exuberance of spirits, such boy-like merriment as he had not for many a long year past indulged in. Lena's mock admonitions and gay laugh were heard from every corner. She could hardly get him to leave her ; his arm was for ever round her ; he wanted her beside him. What mattered to them the shrieking and execrations of the elders who without compunction thrust themselves in between them for the chance that the marriage might yet perhaps be cancelled. The happy pair only laughed them to scorn, infuriating Urschi the more that they succeeded in win- ning over the shock-headed louts to espouse their cause those docile sons, one of whom his mother had g6 GOD'S WILL. destined, if things had but gone straight, to become Lena's husband ; she had already in her own imagi- nation seen him established along with Pete upon old Deininger's estate. Like conspirators fearful of the light, the three old people with- drew into a dark back room of the u Star " that looked out upon a dung- hill and hen-coops. Countless pots of beer that were carried in, and loud outbursts of wrath every now and then audible, testified to their place of retreat. On the river side of the garden Marie was sitting in a sheltered summer-house. She still wore her black bridal dress, but her wreath she had taken off while standing before the altar, to place it upon her sister's head. She sat there pen- sively, her face bent down a little, her hands folded upon the rotten wooden table, and tried to think what would now be her lot in the home from which she had banished herself. Banishment it was ; that she well realised. Had her father not shouted at her even in the church that a beggar's pack be- fitted the likes of her, and that she should no longer be suffered to make a fool of him ? Yet she was not sad. On the GODS WILL. 97 contrary, she felt strengthened, full of courage, free. "And now," thought she, " I too understand what Rikele was feeling when she fell out of the window," and an unseen flush rose to her cheeks. Then in came Lena and sat down beside her. Tears and laughter con- tended for victory upon her roguish face. She took Marie's hand, and leaned her cheek upon it, while a burning tear dropped from her eye. " Oh, Marie, what is to be done ? Now I'm married, and father goes on shouting that whoever has got Pete is to have the farm ; that way you lose all, and it falls to me." Marie cast a wistful glance in the direction of her father's house, the scene of her lifelong toil and care ; but she said quietly " I thought as much, Lena, and it's right enough. I make no hin- drance. God's will must be done." After a pause she continued, u Weren't you a bit over-hasty, though, in giving your word to Pete ? I was half-scared when I heard you." " Oh, I've cared for him this long time," cried Lena, effusively, "and I thank you from my heart for leaving 7 98 GOD'S WILL. him to me." And she threw her- self upon her sister's neck and kissed her vehemently. Such an embrace they had not known since their childish days. As if a sudden ray of light had struck her, Marie said " Then I'm no longer a step- mother to you ? " " I was very trying," whispered Lena, shamefacedly, and she squeezed her sister's hand. " Hullo ! there comes Pete, he's looking for me. He's rather in a way, do you know, at your saying ' Nay ' to him, and leaving him planted there like a waxen image. Good-bye for a minute ; I'll fetch you something to eat and drink." With a smile on her face Marie watched her spring towards Pete. She read the girl's feeling by the light of her own. " So it is," she thought ; " it is God's will that people should love one another, and we must accept it. But where there is no love, God does not wish them to be joined together." And, overcome by reverent admiration of so perfect an ordering of things, she sent up fervent thanks to God for having allowed her to say no. Then she looked through the branches of her green retreat, and felt pleasure GOD'S WILL. 99 in all she saw : in the flowing river above which a diaphanous mist was rising ; in the glassy weir and the pink-flushed evening sky ; in the heavily-laden vine-poles on the hill-side ; nay, even in the abundant meadow-saffron that flecked the greensward with its delicate purple touches. Though, to be sure, this plant is poisonous and hard to ex- tirpate, and it had many a time awakened wrath both in her father and the schoolmaster. But the eye is ofttimes oblivious of material considerations, and was not even meadow-saffron the work of God ? Why, her very white lilies and hyacinths were unwelcome to her father, and maybe they too are poisonous for goats and cows. Surely everything cannot be grown for the one purpose of being de- voured by cattle. " In the country that is how they, forsooth, regard it," thought Marie, " and if it were not for the Stuttgardt people's ex- cursions out here, they would long since have pulled down the ruins in the garden at the 'Star.' But I myself heard a gentleman saying to the landlord, ' You should look well after that crumbling grey brickwork ; wine, and very good wine too, can be got in many ioo GOD'S WILL. places, but these ruins here on the banks of the Neckar are the glory of Hofen, and cannot be multiplied.' And," thought Marie, " it's true there are none such at Fellbach, and it would be a thousand pities if they were pulled down. And then where would the Green -slipper go wandering that so many people have seen stepping in and out of the walls with its train and golden scarf and the pointed green shoes from which it gets its name ? " Then, her heart being lightened and her eyes weary, Marie laid her head upon her arms and fell asleep. She dreamed that the Green-slipper came by out of the wall and made a sign to her with a gold bunch of keys that it held in the right hand. " You'll find a sweetheart," said the little elf ; it was but half the size of a human being, the face was pointed and white and wrinkled, and the voice clear as a flute. " Yes, Green-slipper, but where ? " asked Marie, bewildered. Then the elf took her hand, at which she started up and stared about. It had grown dusk ; in her left hand was a little bunch of flowers fragrant to the sense. And near her a voice exclaimed " God be with you, Marie ! " GOD'S WILL. ioi Rather sleepily and still half- dreaming, she responded " God be with you ! Who is there ? " " You already know me," said the voice, with gentle assurance. It was a deep voice, not in the least like that in which Green-slipper had spoken. Marie recognised it, and hid her face in her nosegay, although it was too dark for her to be seen. She now knew quite well, however, who it was that stood before her at the table. u I wanted to ask you, Marie, why you said ' Nay ' in the church ? " " I didn't love him, not more than " she answered, falteringly. A pause followed. Then, but tentatively and in low tones, came forth the words '' Marie, my heart is heavy and my purse but light. Yet, may I bring flowers again to-morrow ? " " I'm going into service in the town," whispered the girl. Again a pause. Then he spoke, more diffidently than belore " Marie, do you think you could care for me ? " " I almost think it." And from her voice he could hear that she was laughing. She put out her hand across the table. 102 GOD S WILL. "Wilhelm is what they call you ? " " Aye, Wilhelm," and he grasped her hand tightly with both his own. " Do you know, one finds out quickly when God has willed a thing," she said pensively, yet with joy at her heart ; " one feels it somehow." " Well, well ! I thought it was all up with me when I heard you were to marry another man, and this morning " Yes," said Marie, stopping him, " but your flowers " And that sweet song, Marie. It runs for ever in my head, ' An angel speeds on silent way.' That's you, Marie." " Nay, nay," said the girl, with eager deprecation, "it means Pa- tience." " I was for ever seeing the look on your face, and your tears over my misfortune they were worth more than mere patience," said the young man. "You must be going, Wilhelm, lest they see you," begged the girl. " Good-night, sleep well." And she tried to disengage her hand. "Good-night, sleep well ; may the Lord keep watch over you that's what my mother always GOD'S WILL. 103 says.'' His voice grew so tender as he uttered the words that Marie was impelled to say " You set store by your mother, I'm thinking." " You're not far out," he rejoined, smiling. " My father died early I was but three and she brought me up alone. A trifle of money came to her from her own home, and she set up a business with it gold-thread embroidering. It brings in a little, for it ain't every one as can do it. Well, I'll be off to see her, and get her to have a talk with your father." " Yes, but he'll be in a way, and what'll your mother say, seeing as the farm is never to come to me ? " " She'll just tell herself that it's the girl I'm wanting, and not her money then there's naught to be said. If your sister will pay you out, well and good ; if not, it's all one to me. I'm no hand at farm work." " If I could learn your mother's business ? " suggested Marie. " And why not ? But there'll be no need. I've learnt my trade and studied, and the day before yes- terday I won a prize at the in- dustrial exhibition at Stuttgardt." " A prize ? And for what ? " iO4 GOD'S WILL. " For an oak dinner-table with carved dragon's feet. Stay, I know what I'll do now. I'll make another, but a smaller one this time, "and he laughed cheerily to himself. Then he again squeezed her hand tightly. "Oh, my girl, do you know the song that begins ' Sun-flower, fairest, banish doubt, My heart shall wall thee round about ' ? That's just how I feel, Marie." Lena was not a little astonished to hear subdued voices among the bushes, for she still believed her sister to be alone. She was, there- fore, the more startled when, en- tering laden with food and drink, she ran against a man, who straight- way struck a match and held it up before his face. The handsome young carpenter himself ! Quickly Lena set down her tray and looked with anxious scrutiny from one to the other. u Good gracious, Marie, you don't even know who he is ! " she ex- claimed, in astonishment. Marie blushed and laughed, " I do, though." " But, bless me, you don't know his name." u You told it me yourself, Lena." GOD'S WILL. 105 " Come, be sensible ; shake hands with your brother-in-law, and I'm much beholden to you for having wedded Pete," said the carpenter, without ceremony. Lena was on the edge of breaking out, as was her way when things passed her understanding. " Trickster ! " she muttered ; but suddenly she broke into loud laughter. " What will father say now ? I can see the eyes he'll make." *- * # * And that indeed was what hap- pened when there presented herself before him on the following day a little old woman with a prematurely withered but intelligent face and a pair of large though somewhat tired eyes. She wore decent-looking, town-made clothes, a grey dress, grey shawl, grey woollen gloves, and a straw bonnet trimmed with a ribbon of the same colour. Her voice was as soft -toned as her gar- ments ; but she knew quite well how to direct the conversation to the subject of her son, whom the farmer must certainly have heard of, seeing that he had been helping for a time at Dietz's workshop. " Sorry know nothing of him," said the farmer, abruptly. 106 GOD'S WILL. This did not greatly disconcert his visitor, who quietly proceeded to enlarge upon her son's merits and skill, and to tell how he had lately won a prize at the industrial exhibition. "Know nothing of all that," coughed the glebe-farmer. But the woman now came to the point with calm precision. This excellent son of hers desired to ask for the hand of the glebe-farmer's daughter Marie. " Sorry, but she ain't got no money." And Deininger was about to turn his back upon her. At this the woman bridled up. Was it money she had been asking for, or the girl ? Sure enough it was a convenience to a workman if his wife did not come to him quite unfurnished. But to be set upon these things as peasants were that was not in their ways. " Sorry, ma'am, but them as goes in for abusing peasants had best not seek to get into a peasant's house ! " was the furious retort. She chose not to hear this speech, but with great animation proceeded to inform him how for years she had maintained herself and her son with her gold-thread work. The flags of military men's and retired officers' GOD'S WILL. 107 clubs and of the guilds all round about, not to speak of many altar cloths, had been the work of her hands ; therefore she felt no anxiety as to her future, even though her son's wife should come with a purse not over full. "Empty," interrupted the farmer. She continued, " And a girl's heart that keeps faith under temp- tation is not to be held cheap. My son's account of it all drew the tears from me." Here Deininger broke out, "Then it must have been a plot, that refusing at the altar. But I can play at that game, too. My daughter is the child of peasants, and not one for a carpenter. Ay, if he'd had money, but he ain't got none ; he f!as nothing at his back. With money anything's to be had, but without At this moment in came Marie, who with a palpitating heart had followed the discussion unseen. She- no w exclaimed, in a voice half of exhortation half of entreaty a Father, are you wanting to sell Christ over again ? " Whether she rightly knew what she was saying, whether her father understood her, remains matter for conjecture. Anyhow, these words io8 GOD'S WILL. failed not of the desired effect ; the farmer was reduced to silence. Then Marie led Wilhelm's mother, who had sunk exhausted upon the bench, into the garden, that she might soothe and revive her. They had taken to one another from the very first. An hour glided happily by. Meanwhile Pete and Lena had been doing their part in the work of intercession, and by the time Marie and Wilhelm's mother re- turned the old man was ready to declare that his daughter's conduct in the church had been a scandal through the whole village, and that he was only too glad to be rid of her. That was his form of consent ; and four weeks later Marie again stood at the altar, but this time in the high-lying little Gothic church at Berg, from which the fertile green valley of the Neckar lies to view. Rumour said that the presbytery had indeed admonished the minister regarding his summary proceedings ; their action did not appear, however, to have greatly troubled him. His face beamed delightedly each time his young couple came across him. When first they met, he beckoned GOD'S WILL. 109 Lena to him and said, with a twinkle " Neatly done, wasn't it ? " Lena was unequal to more than a shy nod of assent, upon which he whispered " I wanted to ask you who was it that was kissing Pete behind the hedge on the morning of the wed- ding ?" " Why, sir, he's my own cousin," faltered Lena, turning crimson. " Well, well ; but it's best as it is," said the minister, smiling. In the little Gothic church at Berg Marie uttered only the customary " Yea," but, although this momen- tous word had converted her into a happy wife, its very familiarity made it of no great account in the memory of her co-viilagers. Her u Nay," on the other hand, has become prover- bial ; and if any one now says or does the exact opposite of what had been expected of him, friends still look at one another and exclaim, " Marie says ' Nay ! ' " OUR JENNY. OUR JENNY. \IS from Holstein, after all, that the best are got. Bohemian carp have a quality of their own, but there are so many of the mirror kind among them, and you get hardly any- thing to suck off the scales little enough even off the so-called leather carp, the thick-skinned sort. Then, again, what is sent from Bohemia takes long in coming ; and some- times the water in the barrels will be tepid, which spoils the flavour of the fish, or it will freeze and kill a good few. The bit of bread steeped in spirits that is stuck into their mouths does not always suffice to ensure their living not by any means always. No, it's much safer to have to do with Holstein carp. Johann Christian Wobbe dealt in these exclusively got them from Dieksee, as every customer of his 8 "3 114 UR JENNY. had had frequent opportunities of learning. What a blessing it is when one can trust the people with whom one has business dealings ! To Johann Christian Wobbe you might blindly pin your faith. Look at him in his broad white apron and poke-cap, with his ruddy cheeks and blue eyes. Trustworthiness itself seems to con- front you as he stands there in his rambling cellar-shop among his ten square red-japanned tanks, into which fresh water trickles unceas- ingly from above, and in like measure dribbles out below. Some- thing rotund and well-to-do not only belongs to his face, but informs his very movements, as when he draws a big floundering carp out of its tank and lays it with an air of protecting tenderness upon the scales. " And, if you wish him killed at once, ma'am, I'll knock him on the head, but I'll lay a cloth on top, so as you don't need to see, for I've heard some say as how they no longer fancy eating 'em after they've seen 'em hit. Do I feel that way ? Nay, ma'am, not I. It's just a matter of habit, and, after all, ma'am, come to think of it ain't they there to be eaten ? Carp is sent into the world for us OUR JENNY. 115 to enjoy 'em, as you may say, at New Year or other times. There, ma'am nay, he'll not come to life again, and you needn't fear being messed ; the wrappings is thick. Shall you be needing any horse- radish, ma'am ? Already got it ? I'd have served you with it just as handy, and only one settling. Good- day to you, ma'am. A Happy New Year, and shall be pleased to see you here again soon." The lady pulled out her purse and paid. "But your prices are a trifle high, my good Herr Wobbe," she said, raising her finger at him ; " quite up to last year's. Across the way there at Bornemann's they are asking a penny a pound less." " Ma'am, you know what I told you ! Them's not Holstein carp. They's just odd lots, bought in a lump, as you might say. Think of carp got wholesale ! Now I put it to you ! " Wobbe's whole being expressed repugnance and contempt. " When one bears in mind that every single fish needs to be sorted out by itself," he added, preg- nantly. His customer shrugged her shoulders. " I was only thinking your business might otherwise be a bit brisker. Over at Bornemann's Il6 OUR JENNY. the people are actually standing out in the street, and his store on the Alster looked like an ant-hill." " Ay, business ain't none too easy nowadays," sighed the fishmonger, and he glanced anxiously towards the doorway, where a couple of servant-girls happened to stand gos- siping ; " but, when all's said and done, Bornemann don't keep the right article." With a shake of his round head he added, in a low tone, " My shed is next his on the Alster ; it's just half-dead wares he deals in ! They'd not suit my stomach, I know that." Suddenly he saw the servant-girls preparing to go. He sprang after them, and seized one by the arm. " Hist ! young woman ! Have you got what you want ? No ? What are you off for, then ? Can't you wait a minute? " he called, eagerly. " We was just hearing tell that you charge ninepence, and so we mean to try Bornemann yonder," said one of the girls, pertly. " I'd as soon save a penny a pound. Come on, Lizzie." A pale and sickly-looking woman rose up against the counter. She was swathed in the folds of a close- knit lilac crossover ; a woollen wrap encompassed her head. It was Frau OUR JENNY. I 17 Wobbe herself. She had been in the small basement-room at the back of the shop, her wonted retreat during sale hours. " Nothing doing again," she said, in a disheartened tone, surveying the empty shop ; " I can't make it out." " I can," retorted her husband ; "and I only wish as how I could put a stopper on him." " For why, Crish ? " " So as he shouldn't grab hold of everything for hisself ! " he exclaimed , fiercely. " How could you hinder him ? " urged the woman ; " things is as they is." u But it shan't go on ! " shouted the fishmonger, flushing crimson. No one would have believed that his jolly, double-chinned, stumpy- nosed face could wear so threatening an aspect. He struck his fist upon the marble top of the counter. " It ain't nothing short of murder, it ain't ! " "That child's still out," said the woman, by way of diversion, and thrust her hands under her apron. u I hope to goodness she won't get herself a cold." " The girl favours me ; she's hearty," declared Webbe. " But you won't do amiss to call her in." Il8 OUR JENNY. His wife went to the shop-door, threw open a wing of it and called, "Jenny ! Jenny ! " holding her head- wrap over her mouth the while, for there was a strong draught, and clouds of damp fog came drifting from outside. In moody silence, his hands clasped behind his back, Wobbe had taken his stand against one of the tanks. " It's past all endu- rance ! " he murmured to himself. " We'd ought to have had more stock in the shop this evening. You'd best go out, Crish." "We'll be having the lot upon our hands ; see if we don't." The woman seated herself upon a chair ; it was one that stood there habitually for the use of customers. " I say, Crish," she began, hesita- tingly, " how 'ud it do if you was to bring down prices a bit ? " Wobbe looked angrily at her.