第17章 PART I(16)

Did I,or did I not,begin with the ancient Egyptians,and end with Doctor Bernastrokius,our neighbor in the next street?"Poor Mr.Engelman looked frightened.

"Don't be angry,my dear friend,"he said softly.

"Angry?"repeated Mr.Keller,more furiously than ever."My good Engelman,you never were more absurdly mistaken in your life!I am delighted.Exactly what I expected,exactly what I predicted,has come to pass.Put down your pipe!I can bear a great deal--but tobacco smoke is beyond me at such a crisis as this.And do for once overcome your constitutional indolence.Consult your memory;recall my own words when we were first informed that we had a woman for head-partner.""She was a very pretty woman when I first saw her,"Mr.Engelman remarked.

"Pooh!"cried Mr.Keller.

"I didn't mean to offend you,"said Mr.Engelman."Allow me to present you with one of my roses as a peace-offering."_"Will_you be quiet,and let me speak?"

"My dear Keller,I am always too glad to hear you speak!You put ideas into my poor head,and my poor head lets them out,and then you put them in again.What noble perseverance!If I live a while longer I do really think you will make a clever man of me.Let me put the rose in your buttonhole for you.And I say,I wish you would allow me to go on with my pipe."Mr.Keller made a gesture of resignation,and gave up his partner in despair."I appeal to _you,_David,"he said,and poured the full flow of his learning and his indignation into my unlucky ears.

Mr.Engelman,enveloped in clouds of tobacco-smoke,enjoyed in silence the composing influence of his pipe.I said,"Yes,sir,"and "No,sir,"at the right intervals in the flow of Mr.Keller's eloquence.At this distance of time,I cannot pretend to report the long harangue of which Iwas made the victim.In substance,Mr.Keller held that there were two irremediable vices in the composition of women.Their dispositions presented,morally speaking,a disastrous mixture of the imitativeness of a monkey and the restlessness of a child.Having proved this by copious references to the highest authorities,Mr.Keller logically claimed my aunt as a woman,and,as such,not only incapable of "letting well alone,"but naturally disposed to imitate her husband on the most superficial and defective sides of his character."I predicted,David,that the fatal disturbance of our steady old business was now only a question of time--and there,in Mrs.Wagner's ridiculous instructions,is the fulfillment of my prophecy!"Before we went to bed that night,the partners arrived at two resolutions.Mr.Keller resolved to address a written remonstrance to my aunt.Mr.Engelman resolved to show me his garden the first thing in the morning.

CHAPTER X

On the afternoon of the next day,while my two good friends were still occupied by the duties of the office,I stole out to pay my promised visit to Minna and Minna's mother.

It was impossible not to arrive at the conclusion that they were indeed in straitened circumstances.Their lodgings were in the cheap suburban quarter of Frankfort on the left bank of the river.Everything was scrupulously neat,and the poor furniture was arranged with taste--but no dexterity of management could disguise the squalid shabbiness of the sitting-room into which I was shown.I could not help thinking how distressed Fritz would feel,if he could have seen his charming Minna in a place so unworthy of her as this.

The rickety door opened,and the "Jezebel"of the anonymous letter (followed by her daughter)entered the room.

There are certain remarkable women in all countries who,whatever sphere they may be seen in,fill that sphere as completely as a great actor fills the stage.Widow Fontaine was one of these noteworthy persons.The wretched little room seemed to disappear when she softly glided into it;and even the pretty Minna herself receded into partial obscurity in her mother's presence.And yet there was nothing in the least obtrusive in the manner of Madame Fontaine,and nothing remarkable in her stature.Her figure,reaching to no more than the middle height,was the well-rounded figure of a woman approaching forty years of age.The influence she exercised was,in part,attributable,as I suppose,to the supple grace of all her movements;in part,to the commanding composure of her expression and the indescribable witchery of her manner.Her dark eyes,never fully opened in my remembrance,looked at me under heavy overhanging upper eyelids.Her enemies saw something sensual in their strange expression.To my mind it was rather something furtively cruel--except when she looked at her daughter.Sensuality shows itself most plainly in the excessive development of the lower part of the face.

Madame Fontaine's lips were thin,and her chin was too small.Her profuse black hair was just beginning to be streaked with gray.Her complexion wanted color.In spite of these drawbacks,she was still a striking,Imight almost say a startling,creature,when you first looked at her.

And,though she only wore the plainest widow's weeds,I don't scruple to assert that she was the most perfectly dressed woman I ever saw.

Minna made a modest attempt to present me in due form.Her mother put her aside playfully,and held out both her long white powerful hands to me as cordially as if we had known each other for years.

"I wait to prove other people before I accept them for my friends,"she said."Mr.David,you have been more than kind to my daughter--and _you_are my friend at our first meeting."

I believe I repeat the words exactly.I wish I could give any adequate idea of the exquisite charm of voice and manner which accompanied them.