Delphi Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \(Illustrated\) pdfdrive com

CHAPTER V.

Wilhelm  was  conducted  to  a  little  upper  room:  the  house  was  new,  as  small

nearly  as  it  could  be,  and  extremely  orderly  and  clean.  In  Theresa,  who  had

welcomed  him  and  Lydia  at  the  coach,  he  had  not  found  his  Amazon:  she  was

another  and  an  altogether  different  woman.  Handsome,  and  but  of  middle

stature, she moved about with great alertness; and it seemed as if her clear, blue,

open eyes let nothing that occurred escape them.

She entered Wilhelm’s room, inquiring if he wanted any thing. “Pardon me,”

said  she,  “for  having  lodged  you  in  a  chamber  which  the  smell  of  paint  still

renders  disagreeable:  my  little  dwelling  is  but  just  made  ready;  you  are

handselling  this  room,  which  is  appointed  for  my  guests.  Would  that  you  had

come on some more pleasant errand! Poor Lydia is like to be a dull companion:

in other points, also, you will have much to pardon. My cook has run away from

me, at this unseasonable time; and a serving-man has bruised his hand. The case

might happen I had to manage every thing myself; and if it were so, why, then

we  should  just  put  up  with  it.  One  is  plagued  so  with  nobody  as  with  one’s

servants: none of them will serve you, scarcely even serve himself.”

She said a good deal more on different matters: in general she seemed to like

speaking. Wilhelm inquired for Lydia, — if he might not see her, and endeavor

to excuse himself.

“It will have no effect at present,” said Theresa: “time excuses, as it comforts.

Words, in both cases, are of little effect. Lydia will not see you. ‘Keep him from

my sight,’ she cried, when I was leaving her: ‘I could almost despair of human

nature.  Such  an  honorable  countenance,  so  frank  a  manner,  and  this  secret

guile!’  Lothario  she  has  quite  forgiven:  in  a  letter  to  the  poor  girl,  he  declares,

‘My friends persuaded me, my friends compelled me!’ Among these she reckons

you, and she condemns you with the rest.”

“She does me too much honor in so blaming me,” said Wilhelm: “I have no

pretension to the friendship of that noble gentleman; on this occasion, I am but a

guiltless instrument. I will not praise what I have done: it is enough that I could

do it. It concerned the health, it concerned the life, of a man whom I value more

than any one I ever knew before. Oh, what a man is he, Fräulein! and what men

are they that live about him! In their society, I for the first time, I may well say,

carried on a conversation; for the first time, was the inmost sense of my words

returned  to  me,  more  rich,  more  full,  more  comprehensive,  from  another’s

mouth; what I had been groping for was rendered clear to me; what I had been

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thinking I was taught to see. Unfortunately this enjoyment was disturbed, at first

by numerous anxieties and whims, and then by this unpleasant task. I undertook

it  with  submission;  for  I  reckoned  it  my  duty,  even  though  I  sacrificed  my

feelings, to comply with the request of this gifted company of men.”

While  he  spoke,  Theresa  had  been  looking  at  him  with  a  very  friendly  air.

“Oh, how sweet is it to hear one’s own opinion uttered by a stranger tongue! We

are  never  properly  ourselves  until  another  thinks  entirely  as  we  do.  My  own

opinion of Lothario is perfectly the same as yours: it is not every one that does

him justice, and therefore all that know him better are enthusiastic in esteem of

him.  The  painful  sentiment  that  mingles  with  the  memory  of  him  in  my  heart

cannot hinder me from thinking of him daily.” A sigh heaved her bosom as she

spoke  thus,  and  a  lovely  tear  glittered  in  her  right  eye.  “Think  not,”  continued

she, “that I am so weak, so easy to be moved. It is but the eye that weeps. There

was a little wart upon the under eyelid; they have happily removed it, but the eye

has  been  weak  ever  since;  the  smallest  cause  brings  a  tear  into  it.  Here  sat  the

little wart: you cannot see a vestige of it now.”

He saw no vestige, but he saw into her eye; it was clear as crystal: he almost

imagined he could see to the very bottom of her soul.

“We  have  now,”  said  she,  “pronounced  the  watchword  of  our  friendship:  let

us get entirely acquainted as fast as possible. The history of every person paints

his character. I will tell you what my life has been: do you, too, place a little trust

in me, and let us be united even when distance parts us. The world is so waste

and empty, when we figure only towns and hills and rivers in it; but to know of

some one here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in

silence, — this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.”

She  hastened  off,  engaging  soon  to  take  him  out  to  walk.  Her  presence  had

affected him agreeably: he wished to be informed of her relation to Lothario. He

was  called:  she  came  to  meet  him  from  her  room.  While  they  descended,

necessarily one  by  one, the  straight  and even  steepish  stairs, she  said,  “All this

might  have  been  larger  and  grander,  had  I  chosen  to  accept  the  offers  of  your

generous  friend;  but,  to  continue  worthy  of  him,  I  must  study  to  retain  the

qualities  which  gave  me  merit  in  his  eyes.  Where  is  the  steward?”  asked  she,

stepping  from  the  bottom  of  the  stairs.  “You  must  not  think,”  continued  she,

“that I am rich enough to need a steward: the few acres of my own little property

I myself can manage well enough. The steward is my new neighbor’s, who has

bought a fine estate beside us, every point of which I am acquainted with. The

good  old  gentleman  is  lying  ill  of  gout:  his  men  are  strangers  here;  I  willingly

assist in settling them.”

They  took  a  walk  through  fields,  meadows,  and  some  orchards.  Everywhere

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Theresa  kept  instructing  the  steward;  nothing  so  minute  but  she  could  give

account  of  it:  and  Wilhelm  had  reason  to  wonder  at  her  knowledge,  her

precision,  the  prompt  dexterity  with  which  she  suggested  means  for  ends.  She

loitered  nowhere,  always  hastened  to  the  leading-points;  and  thus  her  task  was

quickly over. “Salute your master,” said she, as she sent away the man: “I mean

to visit him as soon as possible, and wish him a complete recovery. There, now,”

she added with a smile, as soon as he was gone, “I might soon be rich: my good

neighbor, I believe, would not be disinclined to offer me his hand.”

“The old man with the gout?” cried Wilhelm: “I know not how, at your years,

you could bring yourself to make so desperate a determination.” — “Nor am I

tempted  to  it!”  said  Theresa.  “Whoever  can  administer  what  he  possesses  has

enough; and to be wealthy is a burdensome affair, unless you understand it.”

Wilhelm testified his admiration at her skill in husbandry concerns. “Decided

inclination,  early  opportunity,  external  impulse,  and  continued  occupation  in  a

useful  business,”  said  she,  “make  many  things,  which  were  at  first  far  harder,

possible  in  life.  When  you  have  learned  what  causes  stimulated  me  in  this

pursuit, you will cease to wonder at the talent you now think strange.”

On returning home, she sent him to her little garden. Here he could scarcely

turn himself, so narrow were the walks, so thickly was it sown and planted. On

looking  over  to  the  court,  he  could  not  help  smiling:  the  fire-wood  was  lying

there, as accurately sawed, split, and piled, as if it had been part of the building,

and had been intended to continue permanently there. The tubs and implements,

all clean, were standing in their places: the house was painted white and red; it

was really pleasant to behold. Whatever can be done by handicraft, which knows

not  beautiful  proportions,  but  labors  for  convenience,  cheerfulness,  and

durability,  appeared  united  in  this  spot.  They  served  him  up  dinner  in  his  own

room:  he  had  time  enough  for  meditating.  Especially  it  struck  him,  that  he

should  have  got  acquainted  with  another  person  of  so  interesting  a  character,

who had been so closely related to Lothario. “It is just,” said he to himself, “that

a man so gifted should attract round him gifted women. How far the influence of

manliness and dignity extends! Would that others did not come so wofully short,

compared with him! Yes, confess thy fear. When thou meetest with thy Amazon,

this woman of women, in spite of all thy hopes and dreaming, thou wilt find her,

in the end, to thy humiliation and thy shame, — his bride.”

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