Reinhold sat at his piano, improvising. The room was not lighted, only the moon's rays, streaming fully in, hung over the flood of tones, which now rose as if the storm were raging in its waves, now rolling up mountains high, and then again disclosing the depths of an abyss. The melodies flowed forth passionately, glowing, intoxicatingly, and then suddenly they would start and change as if to harsh dissonance, to jarring discord. Those were the tones with which Rinaldo for years had reigned in the realms of music, with which he carried the crowd away to admiration; perhaps because they lent language to that demon-like element which slumbers in every one's breast, and of which every one is conscious, partly with dread, partly with secret shuddering. There lay, too, in these melodies something of that wild rush from pleasure to pleasure, of that rapid change from feverish excitement to deadly exhaustion, from that striving to benumb all feeling, which, sought for ever, is never found; and yet there rang forth something powerful, eternal, which had nothing in common with that element with which it fought, and which was raised above it, only to be wrecked within it at last.
The perfume of oranges rose from the gardens and streamed in through the widely-opened doors on to the balcony, and was wafted intoxicatingly through the apartments. Clear, full of great beauty and intense peace, lay the moonlight above the old town, and the dim distance disappeared in the blue, misty vapour. The fountain rustled dreamily amongst the blooming trees, and the light which shone in the falling drops illuminated with powerful distinctness the whole row of apartments, with their marble treasures of art; it illuminated the picture in the richly gilt frame, so that the witch-like, beautiful figure above seemed to live; and the same light fell upon the countenance of the man, whose brow, amid all this beauty and all this peace, remained so heavily overcast.
How many years, and, indeed, much besides which weighed more heavily than years only, lay between those long northern winter nights on which the young musician created his first compositions, and this balmy moonlight night of the south, on which the world-renowned Rinaldo repeated, in endless variations, the principal theme of his newest opera. And yet all vanished in this hour. Softly, recollection passed before him, and let long-forgotten days live again, long-forgotten pictures stand before him; the little garden house, with its old-fashioned furniture, and the stunted vines over the window, the miserable little strip of garden with its few trees and shrubs, and the high, prison-like walls around it; the narrow, gloomy house, with the so intensely hated business-room. Faint, colourless pictures--and yet they would not give way, as above them floated smilingly a pair of large, deep, blue child's eyes, which only there had shone for the father, and which here, in this orbit, full of poetry and beauty, he sought for in vain. He had seen them so often in his child's face, and also once--somewhere else. The remembrance of this was certainly but dim, almost forgotten; they had only then shown themselves to him for a moment, before being veiled again immediately, as they had been for years; but it was still those eyes, which hovered before him, as now, out of the storming and rolling tones, a magically sweet melody arose. An endless longing spoke in it, a pain which his lips would not utter, and thus formed a bridge across into the far distant past. Now had genius burst the fetters which then oppressed and confined him; now he stood aloft on the once dreamed-of heights. All that life and success, fame and love could give had become his portion, and now--again like a storm, it swept over the notes, wild, passionate, bacchante-like, and through it ever again that melody came plaintively, with its touching pain, its restless longing, which could not be pacified.
"I fear our captain will not endure Mirando much longer. It is dangerous having the sea thus ever before his eyes; he gazes over it with such longing, as if the sooner that he could sail away from us the better."
With these words Marchese Tortoni turned to his guest, who, for the last quarter of an hour had taken hardly any part in the conversation, and whom the young lord just caught in the act of a surreptitious yawn.
"Indeed not," said Hugo, defending himself. "I only feel myself so utterly unimportant and ignorant in these ideal art discussions, and so deeply impressed with the sense of my ignorance, that I have just gone hurriedly through all the words of command during a storm, in order to obtain for myself the consolatory conviction that I do understand something."
"All evasion!" cried the Marchese. "You miss the female element here, which you adore so much, and now appear unable to forego. Unfortunately, my Mirando cannot offer you that charm, as yet. You know I am not married, and have not been able to resolve upon sacrificing my freedom."
"Not resolve upon sacrificing your freedom," intimated Hugo. "My God, that sounds shocking. If you have not yet ascended the highest ladder of earthly happiness, as books express it--"
"Do not believe him, Cesario," broke in Reinhold. "Notwithstanding all his gallantry and knightliness, at heart he is of an icy nature, which nothing warms too easily. He plays with all--has no feeling for any; the ever-recurring romance, which he even sometimes calls passion, lasts just so long as he is on shore, and disappears with the first fresh breeze which wafts his 'Ellida' away on the sea. Nothing has ever yet stirred his heart."
"Abominable character!" cried Hugo, throwing away his cigar. "I protest against it most solemnly."
"Well you, perhaps, maintain that it is untrue?"
The Captain laughed and turned to Tortoni. "I assure you, Signor Marchese, that I too can be unimpeachably true to my beautiful blue ocean bride"--he pointed towards the sea--"to her I am pledged with heart and hand. She alone understands how to chain and hold me fast again and again, and if she do allow me now and then to look into a pair of beautiful eyes, she never tolerates serious faithlessness."
"Until you look at last into a pair of eyes which teach you that you also are not proof against the universal fate of mortals," said Reinhold, half-jokingly, half with a bitterness which was intelligible only to his brother. "There are such eyes."
"Oh, yes, there are such eyes," repeated Hugo, looking out over the sea with an almost dreamy expression.
"Ah, sir, the tone sounds very suspicious," said the Marchese, teasingly. "Perhaps you have already met with those kind of eyes?"
"I?" The Captain had at once thrown off the momentary seriousness, and was again full of the old mischief. "Folly! I hope to defy long enough yet the 'universal doom of mortals.' Do you hear?"
"What a pity you can find no opportunity here of proving this determination," said Cesario. "The only neighbours whom we have keep themselves so secluded that no attempt ever could be made. The young Signora even--"
"A young Signora? Where?" Hugo jumped up eagerly.
The Marchese pointed to a country house, which, barely a mile distant, lay half-hidden in an olive grove.
"The villa Fiorina yonder has been inhabited for some months. So far as I hear they are also countrymen of yours, Germans, who have settled there for the summer; but they appear to make the most perfect solitude and invisibility their law. No one is received, no one allowed to enter. Visitors from S----, taking advantage of their acquaintance at home, were dismissed, without exception, and, as the family confine their walks chiefly to the park and terrace, it is impossible to approach them."
"And the Signora--is she beautiful?" asked Hugo, with most lively eagerness.
Cesario shrugged his shoulders. "With the best will I cannot tell you. I only saw her once slightly, and at some distance. A slight, youthful figure; a head covered with beautiful golden plaits; unfortunately her face was not turned towards me, and I rode pretty quickly past her."
"Without having seen her face? I admire your stoicism, Marchese, but guarantee myself solemnly against the suspicion of doing likewise. By this evening I will bring you and Reinhold information as to whether the Signora be beautiful or no."
"You may find it difficult," laughed the Marchese. "Do you not hear, all entrance is forbidden?"
"Bah! as if that would prevent me!" cried Hugo, confidently. "The affair only now begins to be interesting. An unapproachable villa, an invisible lady, who is, besides, fair and a German. I will enquire into it, thoroughly examine into it. My duty as a countryman requires it."
"Thank God that you put him upon this scent, Cesario," said Reinhold. "Now let us hope that his ill-concealed yawns will not disturb us any more, when we talk of music. I wished to discuss the parts with you again."
The young Marchese had risen and laid his hand entreatingly on Rinaldo's shoulder.
"Well, and the opera? Do you stand immovably by your ultimatum? I assure you, Rinaldo, it is almost impossible to carry out all these alterations by the autumn; I have convinced myself of it. A new postponement will be required, and the public and company have been waiting for months already."
"They must wait longer." The words sounded haughty, and short in their decision.
"Spoken like a dictator," remarked Hugo. "Are you always so autocratic towards the public? The picture which Maestro Gianelli sketches of you appears to possess some very striking traits of resemblance. I believe it was not really so absolutely necessary to bring the entire opera company, including his Excellency the intendant, into such despair as you have done this time."
Reinhold raised his head with all the pride and indifference of the spoilt, admired artist, who is accustomed to see his will obeyed as if it were law, and to whom opposition is considered equal to an insult.
"I dispose of my work and its performance. Either the opera shall be heard in the form I wish, or not at all. I have left them the choice."
"As if there were any choice!" said Cesario, shrugging his shoulders, as he turned to his servant to give him an order, and left the two brothers alone.
"Unfortunately, there appears to be none in this case," said Hugo, looking after his young host. "And Marchese Tortoni will have you on his conscience also, if you become thoroughly spoiled at last with this senseless worship of you. He does his utmost, like the rest of your adoring circle! They set you up in their midst like a Llama, and group themselves respectfully around you to listen to the remarks of your genius, even if it should please your genius to maltreat your infatuated, surrounders. I am sorry for you, Reinhold. You are driving yourself with certainty to the rock on which already so many valuable powers have been wrecked--self-adoration."
"Hum! in the meanwhile you take care that this should not occur," replied Reinhold, sarcastically. "You appear to like the part of the faithful Eckhard in a remarkable degree, and rehearse it at every opportunity; but it is the most thankless of all. Give it up, Hugo! It does not suit your nature in the least."
The Captain knit his brows, but he remained quite calm at the tone, which might easily have irritated another, threw his fowling-piece over his shoulder, and went out. A few minutes later he found himself by the shore, and only when the fresh sea breeze cooled his head, did the Captain's seriousness leave him; he struck at once into the road to the Villa Fiorina.
To tell the truth, Hugo began to be wearied of Mirando and the prevailing artistic atmosphere which the Marchese's inclination and his brother's presence created there. The paradise-like situation of the property was nothing new to the sailor, who knew so well the beauties of the tropical world, and the solitude to which Reinhold gave himself up with an almost sick longing did not at all suit Hugo's joyous nature. Certainly S----, so much frequented by strangers, lay pretty near, but he could not sail over to it too frequently, and thus indicate to the young host that he missed companionship. Therefore this probably beautiful, and at any rate interesting and mysterious neighbour was very welcome, and Hugo resolved immediately to utilise it.
"Let some one else endure these art lovers and art enthusiasts!" said he, annoyed, as he followed the road by the sea. "Half the day long they sit at the piano, and the rest of the time talk of music. Reinhold always is in extremes. From the midst of the wildest life, out of the most senseless excitement, he rushes head over heels into this romantic solitude, and will hear and know of nothing but his music; I only wonder how long it will last. And this Marchese Tortoni? Young, handsome, rich, of a most noble line; this Cesario does not know what better to do with his life than to bury himself for months in his lonely Mirando, to play thedilettantein grand style, and, with his endless worship, turn Reinhold's head still more. I know how to spend my time better than that."
At these last words, spoken with great self-satisfaction, the Captain stopped, as the end of his walk was already, so far, attained. Before him lay the Villa Fiorina, shaded by high fir trees and cypresses, and buried almost in blooming shrubs. The house itself appeared magnificent and roomy, but the chief façade as well as the terrace turned towards the sea, and were so thickly overgrown and surrounded by roses and oleander bushes that even Hugo's hawk's eye was not able to penetrate the balmy fortification. A high wall, covered with creeping plants, enclosed the park-like grounds, which terminated in the olive grove which surrounded the estate. It might formerly have been, judging by the size of the grounds, the property of some great family, then, like so many others, have often changed owners, and now served as temporary residence for rich strangers. At all events, in beauty of situation, it did not yield the palm to Marchese Tortoni's highly prized Mirando.
The Captain had already formed his plan of campaign; he therefore only scanned the country slightly, made a vain attempt to obtain a better view of the terrace from the seaward side, measured the height of the garden walls with his eye, in case of accident, and then went direct to the entrance, where he rang the bell, and demanded to see the owners, without hesitation.
The porter, an old Italian, appeared to have received his instruction for the like cases, as, without even asking the stranger's name, he explained shortly and decidedly that his master and mistress received no visits, and he regretted that the Signor had troubled himself in vain.
Hugo coolly drew out a card. "They will make an exception. It is concerning an affair of importance, which requires a personal interview. I will wait here in the meanwhile, as I am sure to be received."
He sat down quietly on the stone bench, and this immovable confidence impressed the porter so much that he really began to believe in the importance of the pretended mission. He disappeared with the card, while Hugo, quite unconcerned as to the possible consequences, awaited the result of his impudent manœ uvre.
The result was unexpectedly favourable, as in a short time a servant appeared and addressed the stranger, who had introduced himself by a German name, in that language, and begged him to enter. He conducted the Captain into a garden parlour and there left him alone, with the intimation that his master would appear immediately.
"I must be a lucky man," said Hugo, himself somewhat surprised at this unexpected, rapid success. "I wish Reinhold and the Marchese could see me now. Inside the 'unapproachable' villa, expecting the lord and master of the same, and only a few doors apart from the blonde Signora. That is certainly enough for the first five minutes, and what my charming brother could not have attained, although all doors fly open before him. But now I must be charming,--in lies, that is to say--what in the world shall I say to this nobleman, to whom I have had myself announced concerning some important affair, without ever having heard a syllable about him, or he of me? Ah! some one or other, on some of my voyages has given me some commission. In the worst case I can always have mistaken the person; in the meanwhile the acquaintance has been begun, and the rest will follow of itself. I will arrange the improvisation according to the character of the person; at any rate I shall not leave the place without having seen the beautiful Signora."
He sat down and began to examine the room in a perfectly calm state of mind. "My respected countrymen appear to belong to the happy minority, who have at their disposal an income of several ten thousands. The entire villa, with the park, rented for their exclusive use--the arrangements made at great cost; one does not find this comfort in the south--brought their own servants with them; I see no fewer than three faces outside, on which German descent is written. Now the question remains, have we to do with the aristocracy or the exchange? I should prefer the latter; I can then pretend it is about some mercantile affairs, while before some great nobleman, in the nonentity of a citizen, I--how, Herr Consul Erlau!"
With this exclamation, made in boundless astonishment, Hugo started back from the doorway in which the well-known figure of the merchant now appeared. The Consul had certainly aged much in the course of years; the once luxuriant dark hair appeared grey and scant; his features bore an expression of unmistakable suffering, and the friendly good will which formerly enlivened them had given way, momentarily at all events, to a distant coldness, with which he drew near to his guest.
"Herr Captain Almbach, you wish to speak to me?"
Hugo had already recovered from his astonishment, and resolved at once to take every advantage in his power of this unexpectedly favourable chance. He put forth all his capacities for pleasing.
"I am much obliged to you, sir. I hardly dared hope to be received personally by you."
Erlau sat down, and invited his guest by a sign to do the same.
"I am also medically advised to avoid visits, but at the mention of your name, I thought I ought to make an exception, as probably it concerns my guardianship of your nephew. You come on your brother's behalf?"
"On Reinhold's behalf?" repeated Hugo uncertainly, "How so?"
"I am glad that Herr Almbach has not attempted any personal intercourse, as he did once already in writing," continued the Consul, still in the same tone of cold restraint. "He appears, notwithstanding our intentional seclusion, to know of his son's presence here. I regret, however, being obliged to inform you, that Eleonore is not at all disposed--"
"Ella? Is she here? With you?" exclaimed Hugo so eagerly, that Erlau gazed at him in utter amazement.
"Did you not know it? Then Herr Captain Almbach, may I ask what has really caused me the honour of your visit?"
Hugo considered for a moment; he saw plainly that Reinhold's name, which had opened the doors for him, was nevertheless the worst recommendation which he could bring, and made his decision accordingly.
"I must first of all clear up a mistake," replied he, with thorough frankness. "I neither come as my brother's ambassador, which you seem to imagine, nor am I here, indeed, in his interest or with his knowledge. I give you my word for it, at this moment he has no suspicion that his wife and son are in the neighbourhood, or, still less, that they are even in Italy. I, on the contrary"--here the Captain thought it necessary to mix a little invention with the truth--"I on the contrary was put by chance on the track, and wished first of all to satisfy myself of its correctness; I came to see my sister-in-law."
"Which had better remain undone," said the Consul, with remarkable coldness. "You will comprehend that such a meeting could only be painful for Ella."
"Ella knows best how I have ever stood as regards the whole affair," interrupted Captain Almbach, "and she will certainly not refuse me the wished for interview."
"Then I do so in my adopted daughter's name," declared Erlau positively. Hugo rose--
"I know, Herr Consul Erlau, that you have gained a father's rights towards my nephew, and also his mother, and honour these rights. Therefore I entreat you to grant me this meeting. I will not wound my sister-in-law with one word, with one recollection, as you appear to dread, only--I should just like to see her."
Such a warm appeal lay in the words, that the Consul wavered; perhaps he remembered the time when young Captain Almbach's courage had saved his best ship, and how politely, but positively, he had rejected the gratitude which the rich merchant was ready to bestow so oppressively. It would have been more than thankless to have persisted in his sturdy refusal towards this man--he gave way.
"I will ask if Eleonore be inclined for this interview," he said rising; "she is already informed of your being here, as she was with me when I received your card. I must ask you to be patient for a few moments only."
He left the room. A short period of impatient waiting passed, when at last the door was again opened, and a lady's dress rustled on the threshold. Hugo went quickly towards the new comer.
"Ella! I knew you would not--" he stopped suddenly; his hand, stretched out in welcome, dropped slowly, and Captain Almbach stood as if rooted to the ground.
"You do not seem to recognise me quite," said the lady, waiting in vain for the rest of the greeting, "am I so much altered?"
"Yes, very much," said Hugo, whose glance still hung in intense astonishment on the figure of the lady before him. The impudent, confident sailor, who had hitherto always shown himself equal to every circumstance in his life, stood now dumb, confused, almost stupified. Who, indeed, could ever have deemed this possible!
This was what his brother's former wife had become, the shy, frightened Ella, with the pale unlovely face, and the awkward timid manner! Now only could one see how the dress had sinned, in which Eleanor Almbach always appeared like the maidservant, and never like the daughter of the house, and also that enormous cap, which, as if made for the brow of a person of sixty, had covered the youthful woman's head day after day. Every trace of all this had entirely disappeared. The light airy morning dress let the still girlishly, slight, delicate figure display itself in its full beauty, and the rich ornament of her fair plaits, which were now worn uncovered, encircled her head in all their heavy, glimmering, golden glory. Marchese Tortoni had not seen the face of the "blonde Signora," but Hugo saw it now, and during this contemplation of some seconds' duration, he asked himself, again and again, what had really taken place in these features, which were once so stolid and vacant that one reproached them with stupidity, and which now appeared so full of intellect and thought, as if a ban had been lifted from off them, and something, never suspected in them, awakened to life. Certainly around the mouth there lay a line of tender, unconquered pain, and her brow was shaded by a sadness it had formerly not known, but no more did her eyes seek the ground timidly, as if veiled; now they were clear and open, and they had truly forfeited none of their former beauty. Ella appeared to have learned not to hide any longer from the gaze of strangers that with which nature had endowed her. When she was eighteen, every one asked, shrugging his shoulders, "how does this wife come by that husband's side?" At eight and twenty, she was an apparition, fitted to compete with any one. How heavily must the burden and chains of her parents' house have rested upon the young wife, when only a few years in freer, nobler surroundings had sufficed to remove the former shroud, to the very last morsel, and to loose the wings of the butterfly. The almost incredible alteration proved of what her youthful education was guilty.
"You wished an interview with me, Herr Captain Almbach?" began Ella, as she seated herself upon an ottoman, "May I offer you a seat." Words and bearing were as assured and easy, as if coming from a perfect woman of the world receiving a visitor, but also distant and cool, as if she had no deeper concern in this visit. Hugo bowed, a slight colour tinged his cheeks, as he, following the invitation, sat down beside her.
"I begged for it. Herr Consul Erlau thought himself obliged to deny me this interview in your name, but I persisted in a direct appeal to you. I had more confidence in your goodness, my dear Madame."
She looked inquiringly with open eyes at him, "Are we become such strangers? Why do you give me this name?"
"Because I see that my visit here is considered as an intrusion to which I have no right, which I was not utterly denied, only on account of the name which I bear," replied Hugo, rather bitterly. "Herr Consul Erlau made me feel that already, and now I experience it a second time, and yet I can only repeat to you, that without the knowledge or on behalf of another, am I here, and that the other up to this moment has no suspicion of your vicinity."
"Then, I beg you to allow this vicinity to remain still a secret," said the young wife earnestly. "You will understand that I do not wish my presence to be betrayed, and S---- is far enough to make that possible!"
"Who told you that we are staying in S----?" asked Hugo, somewhat struck by the certainty of this conviction.
She pointed to some newspapers lying on the table--
"I read this morning that two of the greatest musical celebrities were expected there. The news has been delayed, as I see, and you are your brother's guest."
Hugo was silent; he had not courage to tell her how much nearer her husband was, and he could easily explain the notice in the papers to himself, as he knew of Beatrice's intended arrival. People were accustomed always to name her and Reinhold together, and although the latter was now even staying in Mirando, they considered his coming as certain, the moment she arrived in S----. Indeed it was also a pre-arranged meeting between the two, and could not be denied.
"But why this concealment?" asked he, leaving the dangerous point quite untouched. "It is not you, Ella, who have to avoid or flee from a possible meeting."
"No! but I will protect my boy at any cost from the possibility of such a meeting."
"With his father?" Hugo laid a reproachful stress upon the last word.
"With your brother--yes!"
Captain Almbach looked up surprised. The tone sounded freezingly cold, and a stony, icy look lay on the young wife's countenance, which all at once displayed the expression of an unbending will, such as no one would have expected in so pleasing an apparition.
"That is hard, Ella," said Hugo softly. "If you now render yourself unapproachable--I can understand it, after all that has happened; but why the boy also? Reinhold tried once already to communicate with his child; you repulsed him."
Ella interrupted him--
"You have told me that you come without any commission, Hugo, and I believe you; therefore this subject need not be discussed between us, let it rest! I was greatly astonished to see you again here, in Italy. Do you purpose remaining long?"
Captain Almbach took the hint given him, although somewhat taken aback by it. He was so unaccustomed for his young sister-in-law, whom he had almost always known as a silent, frightened listener, to govern the conversation so entirely, and lead it with such decision and ease to another topic when the former one had become painful to her.
"Most likely longer than I thought at first," said he, replying to her question. "My stay was originally only intended to be a short one, but a storm which caught us on the open sea, so dismantled the 'Ellida,' that I only reached the Italian harbour with great difficulty, and for the present cannot think of another voyage. The repairs will occupy some months, and my leave has therefore been prolonged indefinitely. I certainly never anticipated finding you here."
A shadow passed over the lady's face.
"We are here by medical advice," she replied sadly. "Weakness of his chest, obliged my adopted father to seek the south; his wife has been dead some years, and you know that he is childless. I had long since received all the privileges of a daughter, so that, of course, I also undertook the duties of one. The doctor insisted particularly upon this place, which indeed seems to exercise a most beneficial effect, and however much I might have desired to avoid Italy, I could not persuade myself to allow the invalid, to whom my presence is a necessity, to travel alone. We hoped to escape any painful meeting by avoiding the town in which Signor Rinaldo lives, and chose the most lonely, retired villa in order to obtain the greatest seclusion possible. Our precautions were in vain, as I see; you were no sooner in my vicinity than you discovered my whereabouts."
"I? Yes certainly," said Hugo with involuntary confusion. "And you reproach me with it."
Ella smiled.
"No, but I wondered that Herr Captain Hugo still entertained sufficient interest in the little cousin Ella, to insist so obstinately upon seeing her, when he was at first refused. We thought we had guarded amply against strange visits. You knew, nevertheless, how to force your entrance, and this shows me that I even possessed friends in my former life. Until to-day, I doubted it, but it is a fact which does me good, and I thank you for it, Hugo."
She raised her eyes clearly and openly to him; and with a charming smile, which made her face appear intensely lovely, she stretched out her hand to him. But the kindly thanks met with no response. Captain Almbach's brow burned deeply red, then he sprang up suddenly and pushed her hand aside.