“They were certainly rather — rather dilapidated,” said Dellwig, eyeing him.
“They were very dilapidated,” said Axel.
Anna and the princess stood a little way from the engines watching the efforts to check the spread of the fire for some time before Axel noticed them. Manske, who had been the first to volunteer as a link in the human chain to the pump, bowed and smiled from his place at them, and was stared at in return by both women, who wondered who the begrimed and friendly individual could be. “It is the pastor,” then said the princess, smiling back at him; on which Manske’s smiles and bows redoubled, and he spilt half the contents of the bucket passing through his hands.
“So it is,” said Anna.
“Take care there, No. 3!” roared Dellwig, affecting not to know who No. 3 was, and glad of an opportunity of calling the parson to order. Dellwig was making so much noise flinging orders and reprimands about, that a stranger would certainly have taken him for the frantic owner of the burning property.
“You see the pastor looks anything but alarmed,” said the princess. “If Axel were losing much by this, Manske would be weeping into his bucket instead of smiling so kindly at us.”
“So he would,” said Anna, a little reassured by that cheerful and grimy countenance. Her eyes wandered to Axel, so cool and so vigilant, giving the necessary orders so quietly, losing no precious moments in trying to save what was past saving, and without any noise or any abuse getting what he wanted done. “It can’t be a good thing, a fire like this,” she said to herself. “Whatever they say, it can’t be a good thing.”
A huge pine-tree was dragged down at that moment, dragged in a direction away from its fellows, against a beech, whose branches it tore down in its fall, ruining the beech for ever, but smothering a few of its own twigs that had begun to burn among the fresh young leaves. Anna watched the havoc going on among poor Axel’s trees in silence. “He can’t not care,” she said to herself. He turned round quickly at that moment, as though he heard her thinking of him, and looked straight into her eyes. “You here!” he exclaimed, striding across the road to her at once.
“Yes, we are here,” replied the princess. “We cannot let our neighbour burn without coming to see if we can do anything. But seriously, I hear that it is a good thing for you.”
“I prefer the less good thing that I had before, just now. But it is gone. I shall not waste time fretting over it.”
He ran back again to stop something that was being done wrong, but returned immediately to tell them to go into his house and not stand there in the heat. “You look so tired — and anxious,” he said, his eyes searching Anna’s face. “Why are you anxious? The fire has frightened you? It is all insured, I assure you, and there is only the bother of having to build just now.”
He could not stay, and hurried back to his men.
“We can go indoors a moment,” said the princess, “and see what is going on in his house. It will be standing empty and open, and it is not necessary that he should suffer losses from thieves as well as from fire. His Mamsell is like all bachelors’ Mamsells — losing, I am sure, no opportunity of feathering her nest at his expense.”
Anna thought this a practical way of helping Axel, since the throwing of water on the flames was not required of her. She turned to call Letty, and found that no Letty was to be seen. “Why, where is Letty?” she asked, looking round.
“I thought she was behind us,” said the princess.
“So did I,” said Anna anxiously.
They went back a few steps, looking for her among the bystanders. They saw her at last a long way off, her handkerchief still round her head and her long thick hair blowing round her shoulders, rapt in contemplation of the fiery furnace. Then a shout went up from the people in the road, and they all ran back into the potato field. Anna and the princess stood rooted to the spot, clutching each other’s hands. Letty looked round when she heard the shout, and began to run too. The flaming outer wall of the yard swayed and tottered and then fell outwards with a terrific crash and crackling, filling the road with a smoking heap of rubbish, and sending a shower of sparks on a puff of wind after the flying spectators.
The princess had certainly not run so fast since her girlhood as she did with Anna towards the spot in the field where they had last seen Letty. A crowd had gathered round it, they could see, an excited, gesticulating crowd. But they found her apparently unhurt, sitting on the ground, surrounded by sympathisers, and with someone’s coat over her head. She looked up, very pale, but smiling apologetically at her aunt. “It’s all gone,” she said, pointing to her head.
“What is gone?” cried Anna, dropping on her knees beside her.
“Ach Gott, die Haare — die herrlichen Haare!” lamented a woman in the crowd. The smell of burnt hair explained what had happened.
Anna seized her in her arms. “You might have been killed — you might have been killed,” she panted, rocking her to and fro. “Oh, Letty — who saved you?”
“Somebody put this beastly thing over my head — it smells of herrings. Sparks got into my hair, and it all frizzled up. Can’t I take this off? It’s out now — and off too.”
The princess felt all over her head through the coat, patting and pressing it carefully; then she took the coat off, and restored it with effusive thanks to its sheepish owner. There was a murmur of sympathy from the women as Letty emerged, shorn of those flowing curls that were her only glory. “Oh Weh, die herrlichen Haare!” sighed the women to one another, “Oh Weh, oh Weh!” But the handkerchief tied so tightly round her head had saved her from a worse fate; she had been an ugly little girl before — all that had happened was that she looked now like an ugly little boy.
“I say, Aunt Anna, don’t mind,” said Letty; for her aunt was crying, and kissing her, and tying and untying the handkerchief, and arranging and rearranging it, and stroking and smoothing the singed irregular wisps of hair that were left as though she loved them. “I’m frightfully sorry — I didn’t know you were so fond of my hair.”
“Come, we’ll go to the house,” was all Anna said, stumbling on to her feet and putting her arm round Letty. And they clung to each other so close that they could hardly walk.
“We are going indoors a moment,” called the princess, who was very pale, to Axel as they passed the engines.
He smiled across at her, and lifted his hat.
“I never saw anyone quite so composed,” she observed to Anna, trying to turn her attention to other things. “Your man Dellwig, who has nothing to do with it all, is displaying the kind of behaviour the people expect on these occasions. I am sure that Axel has puzzled a great many people to-night.”
Anna did not answer. She was thinking only of Letty. What a slender thread of chance had saved her from death, from a dreadful death, the little Letty who was under her care, for whom she was responsible, and whom she had quite forgotten in her stupid interest in Axel Lohm’s affairs. Woman-like, she felt very angry with Axel. What did it matter to her whether his place burnt to ashes or not? But Letty mattered to her, her own little niece, poor solitary Letty, practically motherless, so ugly, and so full of good intentions. She had scolded her so much about Klutz; wretched Klutz, it was entirely his fault that Letty had been so silly, and yet only Letty had had the scoldings. Anna held her closer. In the light of that narrow escape how trivial, how indifferent, all this folly of love-talk and messages and anger seemed. For a short space she touched the realities, she saw life and death in their true proportion; and even while she was looking at them with clear and startled vision they were blurred again into indistinctness, they faded away and were gone — rubbed out by the inevitable details of the passing hour.
“I thought as much,” said the princess, as they drew near the house. “All the doors wide open and the place deserted.” And Anna came back with a start from the reality to the well-known dream of daily life, and immediately felt as though that other flash had been the dream and only this were real.
“A man without a wife,” said the princess, gazing round at the litter, composed chiefly of cigar-ashes and old envelopes, “is a truly miserable being. What condition can be more wretched than to be at the mercy of a Mamsell? I shall go and inquire into the whereabouts of this one. Axel will want some food when he comes in.”
She took up one of the candles and went out. Letty had sat down at once on the nearest chair, and was looking very pale. Anna untied the handkerchief, and tried to arrange what was left of her hair. “I must cut off these uneven ends,” she said, “but there won’t be any scissors here.”
“I say,” began Letty, staring very hard at her.
“I believe you were terribly scared, you poor little creature,” said Anna, struck by her pale face, and passing her hand tenderly over the singed head.
“Oh, not much. A bit, of course. But it was soon over. Don’t worry. What will mamma say to my head?” And Letty’s mouth widened into a grin at this thought. “I say,” she began again, relapsing into solemnity.
“Well, what?” smiled Anna, sitting down on the same chair and putting her arm round her.
“You don’t know the whole of that poetry business.”
“That silly business with Herr Klutz? Oh, was there more of it? Oh, Letty, what did you do more? I am so tired of it, and of him, and of everything. Tell me, and then we’ll forget it for ever.”
“I’m afraid you won’t forget it. I’m afraid I’m a bigger beast than you think, Aunt Anna,” said Letty, with a conviction that frightened Anna.
“Oh, Letty,” she said faintly, “what did you do?”
“Why, I — I will get it out — I — he was so miserable, and went on so when you didn’t answer that poetry — that he sent with the heart, you know — —”
“Oh yes, I know.”
“Well, he was in such a state about it that I — that I made up a poem, just to comfort him, you know, and keep him quiet, and — and pretended it came from you.” She threw back her head and looked up at her aunt. “There now, it’s out,” she said defiantly.
Anna was silent for a moment. “Was it — was it very affectionate?” she asked under her breath. Then she slipped down on to the floor, and put both her arms round Letty. “Don’t tell me,” she cried, laying her face on Letty’s knees, “I don’t want to know. Suppose you had been dreadfully hurt just now, burnt, or — or dead, what would it have mattered? Oh, we will forget all that ridiculous nonsense, and only never, never be so silly again. Let us be happy together, and finish with Herr Klutz for ever — it was all so stupid, and so little worth while.” And she put up her face, and they both began to cry and kiss each other through their tears. And so it came about that Letty was in the same hour relieved of the burden on her conscience, of most of her hair, and was taken once again, and with redoubled enthusiasm, into Anna’s heart. Logic had never been Anna’s strong point.
CHAPTER XXV
When Axel came in two hours later, bringing Dellwig and Manske and two or three other helpers, farmers, who had driven across the plain to do what they could, he found his house lit up and food and drink set out ready in the dining-room.
Letty and Anna had had time to recover from their tears and vows, sundry small blisters on the back of Letty’s neck had been treated with cotton wool, and they had emerged from their agitation to a calmer state in which the helping of the princess in the middle of the night to make somebody else’s house comfortable was not without its joys. The Mamsell, no more able than the Kleinwalde servants to withstand the authority of the princess’s name and eye, had collected the maids and worked with a will; and when, all danger of the fire spreading being over, Axel came in dirty and smoky and scorched, prepared to have to hunt himself in the dark house for the refreshment he could not but offer his helpers, he was agreeably surprised to find the lamp in the hall alight, and to be met by a wide-awake Mamsell in a clean apron who proposed to provide the gentlemen with hot water. This was very attentive. Axel had never known her so thoughtful. The gentlemen, however, with one accord refused the hot water; they would drink a glass of wine, perhaps, as Herr von Lohm so kindly suggested, and then go to their homes and beds as quickly as possible. Manske, by far the grimiest, was also the most decided in his refusal; he was a godly man, but he did not love supererogatory washings, under which heading surely a washing at two o’clock in the morning came. Axel left them in the hall a moment, and went into his study to fetch cigars; and there he found Letty, hiding behind the door.
“You here, young lady?” he exclaimed surprised, stopping short.
“Don’t let anyone see me,” she whispered. “Princess Ludwig and Aunt Anna are in the dining-room. I ran in here when I heard people with you. My hair is all burnt off.”
“What, you went too near?”
“Sparks came after me. Don’t let them come in — —”
“You were not hurt?”
“No. A little — on the back of my neck, but it’s hardly anything.”
“I am very glad your hair was burnt off,” said Axel with great severity.
“So am I,” was the hearty reply. “The tangles at night were something awful.”
He stood silent for a moment, the cigar-boxes under his arm, uncertain whether he ought not to enlighten her as to the reprehensibility of her late conduct in regard to her aunt and Klutz. Evidently her conscience was cloudless, and yet she had done more harm than was quite calculable. Axel was fairly certain that Klutz had set fire to the stables. Absolutely certain he could not be, but the first blaze had occurred so nearly at the moment when Klutz must have reached them on his way home, that he had hardly a doubt about it. It was his duty as Amtsvorsteher to institute inquiries. If these inquiries ended in the arrest of Klutz, the whole silly story about Anna would come out, for Klutz would be only too eager to explain the reasons that had driven him to the act; and what an unspeakable joy for the province, and what a delicious excitement for Stralsund! He could only hope that Klutz was not the culprit, he could only hope it fervently with all his heart; for if he was, the child peeping out at him so cheerfully from behind the door had managed to make an amount of mischief and bring an amount of trouble on Anna that staggered him. Such a little nonsense, and such far-reaching consequences! He could not speak when he thought of it, and strode past her indignantly, and left the room without a word.
“Now what’s the row with him?” Letty asked herself, her finger in her mouth; for Axel had looked at her as he passed with very grave and angry eyes.
The men waiting in the hall were slightly disconcerted, on being taken into the dining-room, to find the Kleinwalde ladies there. None of them, except Manske, liked ladies; and ladies in the small hours of the morning were a special weariness to the flesh. Dellwig, having made his two deep bows to them, looked meaningly at his friends the other farmers; Miss Estcourt’s private engagement to Lohm seemed to be placed beyond a doubt by her presence in his house on this occasion.
“How delightful of you,” said Axel to her in English.
“I am glad to hear,” she replied stiffly in German, for she was still angry with him because of Letty’s hair, “I am glad to hear that you will have no losses from this.”
“Losses!” cried Manske. “On the contrary, it is the best thing that could happen — the very best thing. Those stables have long been almost unfit for use, Herr von Lohm, and I can say from my heart that I was glad to see them go. They were al
l to pieces even in your father’s time.”
“Yes, they ought to have been rebuilt long ago, but one has not always the money in one’s pocket. Help yourself, my dear pastor.”
“Who is the enemy?” broke in Dellwig’s harsh voice.
“Ah, who indeed?” said Manske, looking sad. “That is the melancholy side of the affair — that someone, presumably of my parish, should commit such a crime.”
“He has done me a great service, anyhow,” said Axel, filling the glasses.
“He has imperilled his immortal soul,” said Manske.
“Have you such an enemy?” asked Anna, surprised.
“I did not know it. Most likely it was some poor, half-witted devil, or perhaps — perhaps a child.”
“But I saw the blaze immediately after I passed you,” said Dellwig. “You were within a stone’s throw of the stables, going home. I had hardly reached them when the fire broke out. Did you then see no one on the road?”
“No, I did not,” said Axel shortly. There was an aggressive note in Dellwig’s voice that made him fear he was going to be very zealous in helping to bring the delinquent to justice.
“It was the supper hour,” said Dellwig, musing, “and the men would all be indoors. Had you been to the stables, gnädiger Herr?”
“No, I had not. Take another glass of wine. A cigar? Whoever it was, he has done me a good turn.”
“Beyond all doubt he has,” said Dellwig, his eyes fixed on Axel with an odd expression.
“Some of us would have no objection to the same thing happening at our places,” remarked one of the farmers jocosely.
“No objection whatever,” agreed another with a laugh.
“If the man could be trusted to display the same discrimination everywhere,” said the third.
“Joke not about crime,” said Manske, rebuking them.
“The discrimination was certainly remarkable,” said Dellwig.
“That is why I think it must have been done by some person more or less imbecile,” said Axel; “otherwise one of the good buildings, whose destruction would really have harmed me, would have been chosen.”
Delphi Collected Works of Elizabeth von Arnim (Illustrated) Page 53
