Needless to say that I was on the appointed path in more than good time.
It was my first tryst. I do not know whether my delight was greater than my wonder when I thought of how, hardly four weeks ago, I had strolled about here and on other pathways in the vain hope of meeting Minna. And now! Even in those days the sun had laughed and smiled through the air, the shadows had refreshed me, the woods had been filled with perfume, the song of the birds had made everything joyous, and the fresh, light breeze had rustled through the high crowns of the trees. But now, with how much more intensity did the same nature, that was as radiant and summerlike as ever, fascinate my overwrought senses! I threw my hat into the air; I meant it to have flown up into the sky as a salute, but it scarcely reached the lower branch of one of the gigantic pine trees. I boldly cried out to a little robin redbreast which twittered on a dry twig of one of the trunks: "Ah, ah! you little one, are you also waiting for some one? I am waiting for my beloved one, for my darling, my little Minna."
Thereupon I peeped round, frightened that some one might have witnessed my childishness. At the same moment Minna appeared at the turn of the path with her little pupils, and with as much calmness as I could muster I hurried to meet her.
"Here I am with my chaperones," said Minna. And she quickly added: "Remember to call me Miss Jagemann, and if you feel tempted to say something which they are not to hear, then speak Danish; I shall manage to understand it."
"Little pitchers have long ears," I remarked.
Minna laughed heartily, and pointed in front to the eldest of the little girls, who happened to be endowed with large projecting ears which glowed transparently in the sunshine.
How gay and full of spirits Minna was! Though generally she looked older than her age, now she seemed so childlike that I involuntarily said to myself: "Is it possible that this is the girl who loves me as a woman loves, and who, unfortunately, has even loved before?" She wore the hood-shaped garden hat made of black straw, which I knew from 'Sophien Ruhe,' a practical head-gear, as it shaded her face down to the middle of the cheek. From this calm shadow, which caught a green light from the wood, the clear, deep-set eyes looked without a cloud, at nature and at me. Her dress was of some light material, in blue and white stripes; falling in long pleats from the waist, which was tightened by a light blue silk ribbon, instead of the usual belt.
I had already, for several minutes, expressed myself in Danish upon rather indifferent topics, when the catastrophe foreseen by her occurred. I became so overwhelmed by my feelings that I exclaimed: "But, Minna, how well that dress suits you, how sweet you look in it!" As I had already accustomed myself to express my love in German, this little Cupid, on leaving my lips, put on that becoming linguistic garment. Of this I first became aware when Minna violently caught hold of my arm, and I saw that one of the projecting ears in front had disappeared, while the other one was turned towards us.
Minna bit her lip. At the same time the smallest girl turned round and held her doll towards her.
"Miss Jagemann, shall we soon be in the shade? Otherwise Caroline will get freckles."
We were only too glad of the chance to laugh, but the child was very much insulted by our outburst.
"Then I will say it is your fault, and mother will have to give Caroline some of her toilet water."
"Good-day, Cousin Minna," suddenly sounded behind us. "I say, how jolly! Good-day, Mr.—Mr. Fenger!" The schoolmaster, marching along in shirt-sleeves, with his jacket hanging on a stick over his shoulder, had come up behind us, and Minna replied a little stiffly to his greeting.
"Ah, is it you, Mr. Storch," I exclaimed, feeling as if he had caught me in a trap.
"Yes, indeed," he answered, with a wink which clearly said: "Well, so you have discovered her, the little governess, my beautiful Cousin Minna! Now, did I not say so?"
"Nice weather, but warm—pouf! It is the last day of my holiday," he added with a sigh.
"Where are you going?"
"I am bound for Hohenstein; will you come with me?"
"Thanks, not this time."
"Do not mind for my sake, Mr. Fenger" Minna began.
"My goodness! An engagement is an engagement, and what is best is best. In your case, neither would I go—'Why gaze into the distance, look here—the good lies near.' Thank goodness one knows one's classics. As long as one can quote Goethe, drink München beer, smoke Altstädter Ziegel-tobacco, climb up and down the mountains, and one more thing, which I dare not mention before Cousin Minna, so long Poland is not lost, even if one has to ram knowledge into the heads of stupid youngsters six hours a day; or, to use a more stylish expression, to work in the noble service of the education of the people. Well, good-morning!"
He disappeared quickly, humming a gay ditty—
"We make a night of it,
We make a day of it,
We make a whole life of it.…"
"What a funny fellow!" exclaimed the smallest of the girls; "and he called you cousin!"
"The baker's Tinka says that he gives them so many slaps," the eldest one added. "A nice cousin! What a dirty shirt he was wearing!"
"Mother always tells us to say 'chemise.'"
"Not about that sort, Sophy!"
Minna threw a look, not of the kindest, after the sleeves of the garment mentioned, which shone between the trunks of the trees, and asked with a little annoyance—
"How is it that you are on such intimate terms with my honoured relation?"
I told her about our acquaintance, the reason why I had taken a walk with him, and how my expectations had been rewarded.
"So already in those days you made inquiries about me," she said, shaking her finger, and at the same time smiling quite gaily. "If only I had known that!"
"What then?"
Minna laughed, and having put down her parasol she pointed with it to a shady road which almost seemed to breathe out coolness in the heat of the sun.
"Let us go down here, then Caroline will avoid freckles, and we, very likely, tourists."
The road was so overgrown with long grass that the wheel tracks were obliterated. A fine moss of tiny green stars, in which drops of the morning dew were still sparkling, covered the ditches, and a whole hedge of different kinds of ferns bent over the olive-brown moss-cushions, which swelled out on the margin of the other side.
"Just look how pretty!" Minna exclaimed, and pointed to some ferns that only consisted of one single stem with lancet-shaped fronds. As a rule they were not higher than a span's length, but some of these were quite a foot high. "I wish I could have one or two of those, roots and all. I have already got several ferns. Here, too, is a beautiful one."
She pulled off her silk gloves and knelt down. In the meantime I succeeded in jumping over to the other side.
"If only we can get them properly! Have you got a knife?"
"No, but we say in Danish: 'Five fingers are just as good as a boat hook.'"
She laughed and shook the loose hair from her face; then we began to dig and scratch away the earth. At last we got the plants out of the ground, and as I recrossed the ditch I succeeded in wetting one of my feet. Minna carefully bound her handkerchief round the ferns, so that she should not lose any of the mould that was hanging to the roots. We showed our earth-begrimed hands to each other and laughed like a couple of children as we hurried after the little girls, who had nearly gone out of sight and were now beginning to call for us.
Above the tops of the dark fir-trees the arched sky was of a reddish blue. Into the deep brown shadows between the grey trunks, keen slanting rays of the sun penetrated like golden spears, while dim lights quivered, glittering like silver, on the huge ferns that resembled the outstretched wings of an enormous bird; and bright yellow flames of the sulphur-like saxifrage shone along the edge of a bit of rock, which lay between the trees, like a little house with a garden of ferns and young beeches on its flat and slightly sloping roof. The air was fragrant with the scent of firs and the fresh smell of fungi.
I do not remember what the subject was on which I began to talk, but even if the theme had been interesting, I at any rate wasted my breath, for I noticed that Minna constantly stared at me with a peculiar, inattentive smile which had something almost teasing in it, and increased just like a spreading light.
"Why do you smile?" I asked, a little mortified. "Do you not think so?"
"What?"
"Oh—of course"
"I do not know. I have not heard anything. I have not the faintest idea what you have been speaking about, and I do not care about it at all"—(the words came hurriedly)—"but continue, please do. I am listening to your voice, to your voice alone. I have no mind to understand with; I look at your mouth and your profile. Do you know, Harald, you have a nice profile? And your mouth is so funny when you speak. Your lower lip protrudes—like this—with every pause. But it suits you, and the dimple in the chin gets deeper, and the nose bends right at the point, and that is the best of all. It is a Schiller nose, and you are an idealist like him—you are indeed, darling."
Quickly glancing ahead to see whether the children were out of sight she kissed me impetuously.
"But, Minna, you cannot mean what you say!"
I was quite intoxicated by this sweet flattery. It was the first time in my life that my physical vanity had been tickled. Formerly, on the contrary, I had always had to hear about my "beak of a nose," and about being a little underhung—really not much, it seemed to me—and now! That this pretty girl should find something attractive in me, and just in these peculiarities—it was like a fairy tale. I felt myself in the seventh heaven, and God only knows how foolishly I should have behaved, had not the children come running to tell us that beautiful ripe raspberries were to be found—in this seventh heaven!
The wood became less dense, with low shrubs between big moss-covered stones. The road we had followed now narrowed down to a path, at the side of which we stopped beneath the shadow of a baby rock, while the little girls crawled about between the bushes. Minna took off her hat, lay down on her back, and looked up into the deep sky. Suddenly she burst out into brief laughter.
"What is it?"
She half got up, and, supporting herself on one arm, said—
"Do you remember, Harald, there are on the Zwinger some tiny children—fauns I think they are called—with goat-legs, quite plump, you know; they also have a small tail?"
"Well?"
"It struck me if such a little chap came jumping along how sweet it would be. I would take him on my lap and pet him."
"Yes, I should like to see that. How funny you are!"
"Am I?" she asked with a comical little stress on the "I."
At the same instant something living moved with big bounds within the bushes. The smallest girl began to shriek, and the good-natured head of a pointer appeared, his long tongue hanging out on one side of his dry mouth. The next moment a bearded forester with a gun over his shoulder stood on the path a few yards from us, and scrutinised us with a most sullen look. Surely this man could have no human feeling in that broad breast of his since he could scowl at Minna in such a way, as she sat there with her bodice tightened by the uplifted half-bare arms, which she had raised to put straight her hair and hat. A veritable forest ogre!
"What are you doing here?" he asked sternly. "This is not a road for tourists."
"Well, you must excuse us, but there was no notice-board with 'Trespassers will be prosecuted' at the entrance."
"As if you couldn't see that it was only a wood-road!… Hang it all, there are pathways enough made for the public."
"So one is not allowed to take a step beyond the laid-out pathways? Upon my word, it is too bad!" I shouted, and began to lose my temper.
"No, damn it, you are not allowed!" he yelled, his face extremely red and angry.
"We really did not know, otherwise we should not have come here," Minna said politely but firmly. "But I do not think we have done any harm."
"Then it's not your fault," he mumbled, a little less irritably. "A few yards farther on there are plenty of fir trees about the size of a nail, and anyhow the kids don't think where they are stepping. You too, I suppose, have also something else to think of." And annoyed at having allowed himself to be smoothed down so far as to give an explanation, he added, "Well, now you know what you have to do."
He then whistled the dog, spat contemptuously, and marched off by a side-path into the wood, at the same time looking occasionally over his shoulder to see whether we were also returning.
We did so, with that crestfallen feeling which, whether reasonably or not, one has after such an encounter.
"That was a fine old Pan who came and drove us away, instead of the little one you had dreamt of."
"What a bear!" she said sulkily, and imitated mockingly his hoarse bass.
The children laughed boisterously.
"Well, I suppose he was right after all, though a notice-board ought to have been put up," she said. "If I were a forester, I should also be annoyed with all these people who come running about in the woods. But you really ought to feel it more than I, being the son of a ranger. Was your father like that, Harald?"
"My father was a Royal Forester, this one was only an impolite steward."
"Aristocrat!"
"Well, you yourself do not speak exactly like a democrat about people who roam about the woods."
"That is quite a different matter."
"No, not at all."
In this way we argued gently and joked for the rest of the way. Indeed, in the end we even played tig with the children, and came home hot and out of breath and in the best humour in the world.