The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II | Page 5

past life;
and you will acknowledge that the invitation of the Captain does not
fall in so entirely with our purposes, our plans, and our arrangements. I
will go back to those happy days of our earliest intercourse. We loved

each other, young as we then were, with all our hearts. We were parted:
you from me--your father, from an insatiable desire of wealth, choosing
to marry you to an elderly and rich lady; I from you, having to give my
hand, without any especial motive, to an excellent man, whom I
respected, if I did not love. We became again free--you first, your poor
mother at the same time leaving you in possession of your large fortune;
I later, just at the time when you returned from abroad. So we met once
more. We spoke of the past; we could enjoy and love the recollection of
it; we might have been contented, in each other's society, to leave
things as they were. You were urgent for our marriage. I at first
hesitated. We were about the same age; but I as a woman had grown
older than you as a man. At last I could not refuse you what you
seemed to think the one thing you cared for. All the discomfort which
you had ever experienced, at court, in the army, or in traveling, you
were to recover from at my side; you would settle down and enjoy life;
but only with me for your companion. I settled my daughter at a school,
where she could be more completely educated than would be possible
in the retirement of the country; and I placed my niece Ottilie there
with her as well, who, perhaps, would have grown up better at home
with me, under my own care. This was done with your consent, merely
that we might have our own lives to ourselves--merely that we might
enjoy undisturbed our so-long-wished-for, so-long-delayed happiness.
We came here and settled ourselves. I undertook the domestic part of
the ménage, you the out-of-doors and the general control. My own
principle has been to meet your wishes in everything, to live only for
you. At least, let us give ourselves a fair trial how far in this way we
can be enough for each other."
"Since the interdependence of things, as you call it, is your especial
element," replied Edward, "one should either never listen to any of your
trains of reasoning, or make up one's mind to allow you to be in the
right; and, indeed, you have been in the right up to the present day. The
foundation which we have hitherto been laying for ourselves, is of the
true, sound sort; only, are we to build nothing upon it? is nothing to be
developed out of it? All the work we have done--I in the garden, you in
the park--is it all only for a pair of hermits?"

"Well, well," replied Charlotte, "very well. What we have to look to is,
that we introduce no alien element, nothing which shall cross or
obstruct us. Remember, our plans, even those which only concern our
amusements, depend mainly on our being together. You were to read to
me, in consecutive order, the journal which you made when you were
abroad. You were to take the opportunity of arranging it, putting all the
loose matter connected with it in its place; and with me to work with
you and help you, out of these invaluable but chaotic leaves and sheets
to put together a complete thing, which should give pleasure to
ourselves and to others. I promised to assist you in transcribing; and we
thought it would be so pleasant, so delightful, so charming, to travel
over in recollection the world which we were unable to see together.
The beginning is already made. Then, in the evenings, you have taken
up your flute again, accompanying me on the piano, while of visits
backwards and forwards among the neighborhood, there is abundance.
For my part, I have been promising myself out of all this the first really
happy summer I have ever thought to spend in my life."
"Only I cannot see," replied Edward, rubbing his forehead, "how,
through every bit of this which you have been so sweetly and so
sensibly laying before me, the Captain's presence can be any
interruption; I should rather have thought it would give it all fresh zest
and life. He was my companion during a part of my travels. He made
many observations from a different point of view from mine. We can
put it all together, and so make a charmingly complete work of it."
"Well, then, I will acknowledge openly," answered Charlotte, with
some impatience, "my feeling is against this plan. I have an instinct
which tells me