The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) (16 page)

"Ali, as to that, I do not know."

"What do you think?"

"I think-well, I think he is not."

"I am very, very glad to hear it, my child, and you will be glad,
too, when you learn that he can never marry."

I thought poor Lilly's cheek lost a little of its color.

"Can . . . . . never marry?" she said with a sort of gasp. "Why,
mother?" and her eyes lost somewhat of their sparkle.

"Because he is studying for the ministry. He is going to be a
priest."

"That is a mistake, Mutterchen!" and the color came back and
the eyes brightened; "he told me so himself."

"Ile did, did he? Upon my word the confidences have begun to
flow early! So he is not to be a priest. I do not know whether to be
glad or sorry." She looked bothered, and went on talking, with the
look in her eyes of one who is thinking aloud without being
conscious of it: "So beautiful,-such a gentleman-doubtless
rich. . . ." Then she broke out with "I do wish we could know
something about him before this thing goes any further. Did he tell
you anything about himself? . . . . . but that would be worth
nothing; it might be all lies, of course."

"Ah, no-no, mother, you wrong him, indeed you do. He is not
capable of telling a lie."

It took me so unprepared that the laugh was half out before I
could stop it; but I turned it into a strangle, and no one knew it was
anything but that.

"Oh, of course you would think he couldn't tell a lie, but that is
no proof. What did he say about himself? Anything? Where does
he live when he is at home?"

"His country seat-"

"He has a country seat . . . . . um . . . . . well, that is something, anyway. And I must say that his clothes and his style are a
sort of-of-"

"Corroborative evidence," suggested my father, helping her
out.

"Yes. Where is his country seat?"

"In Austria or Germany, I think, but he didn't say."

"What is the name of it?"

"Himmelreich."

"The Kingdom of Heaven! What a modest name."

"Blasphemous, you would better say," said my father, with censure in his voice.

Mother went on questioning, and getting answers, and growing
gradually reconciled to the perplexing situation and fortifying herself to entertain the idea of taking Satan into the family in the
quality of son-in-law if the worst should come to the worst, so to
speak; and finally she said-

"Well, there's one comfort: he is but a child, yet, and so are you; and we shall know all about him long before either of you is old
enough to marry. I hope his character is good, and his morals; he
seems to have a fair enough nature."

"Oh, a beautiful nature, mother."

"Of course you think so, but that is nothing to the point."

"He is ever so kind-hearted, mother, and admires rattlesnakes."

Mother came near fainting.

"Admires rattlesnakes! Is he insane?"

"No. But he has read all about them, and admires their noble
character."

"Their noble character-the most infamous beast that crawls!
What rubbish is this you are talking?"

"But mother, it is not so unreasonable when he explains it. He
says this, to the credit of the rattlesnake: that he never takes
advantage of any one, and has none of the instincts of an assassin;
that he never strikes without first giving warning, and then does
not strike if the enemy will keep his distance and not attack him.
Isn't that true of the rattlesnake, papa?"

"Well-yes, it is. I had not thought of it before. The truth is, it is
better morals than some men have."

"I am so glad you think so, papa; it is what he says."

"Oh, if he says it, that settles it," said my mother, not well
pleased to be caught in the minority. Then I could see she wanted a
change of subject, and had her eye out for a pretext. She seemed to
find it, and said, "There, you'd better run along and get at your
embroidery; if you haven't finished it in thirty days-"

"It happens that it's already finished!" cried Lilly, without trying
to conceal how vain she was about it.

"Finished? When?"

"Day before yesterday."

"The idea! Very well, you can pull it all out and do it over again.
And next time, do it right."

"It is done right-I'll bring it and you can see for yourself," and
she ran and brought it.

It was a little picture, wrought in threads of silk and gold and
silver. My mother was astonished, and said-

"Dear me, it is finer than the original-much finer. It is easily
forty days' work. How is it that it took you ten days to merely start
it, and only one day to complete it? And certainly the workmanship
is beyond praise for grace and beauty and perfection. Dear, dear,
the exquisite delicacy of it! It's just a dream!"

"It didn't take a day, it took only twenty minutes. He did it."

My mother was astonished again, and asked dozens of questions,
and got all the particulars, and grew more and more astonished all
the time. Then she examined the work in this and that and the
other light, hanging it on the wall, on a chair, spreading it on the
table, her eyes speaking her wondering and worshiping delight in
it, and her lips muttering all the time, "Marvelous creature, amazing creature," and Lilly stood drinking it all in, happy and proud as
a person could be.

"Well," said mother at last, "it strikes a body dumb, I must say.
He is a most singular creature, take him how you will. Embroiders
like an angel, and admires rattlesnakes; a most unaccountable mixture in the matter of tastes. With his gifts he will get along. He
doesn't need any better profession than this, and I hope he will stick
to it, and make a name for himself. That is his intention, isn't it?"

"No," said my sister, "he looks higher."

"Higher? What is he going to be?"

"An author."

"Author of what?"

"When he has finished his education at Heidelberg, he is going
to write the history of the Roman jurisprudence and codify the
Roman laws."

"That kitten?"

"He is not a kitten, mamma, and it isn't right for you to call him
such names."

"Child, then-I'm not particular. But the bare idea of it-eight
weeks old, so to speak, and already planning a flight like that; it
does seem to me to smack of self-conceit. But no matter, it's no
affair of mine, but I know one thing: if he were my child I would
see to it that he stuck to his embroidery, that I would. There's the
makings of a man in him if he had the right kind of a mother. Poor thing, it is a shame that he has been allowed to grow up in this
helter-skelter fashion. His mother was a Pole, probably; I never did
think much of those Poles."

She had probably never had an opinion about the Poles before,
but she was in the humor to hit somebody a thump and the Poles
happened to turn up in her head just in time to be useful.

There was one very noticeable thing: in all this conversation the
name of young Joseph Fuchs the brewer's son and heir was not
mentioned once. It was another instance of the fact that wherever
Satan came people dropped other interests out of their minds for
the time and they could not seem to think of anything but him. It
was the same now. Apparently no one had thought of Joseph
Fuchs, not even my father; yet my father was a steady-going
practical man, and a judge. This was strange, for Joseph was the
best catch in the region, and was courting my sister, apparently
with her approval, and certainly with the approval of papa and
mamma. And yet all of a sudden comes this revolution, and my
mother is dazzled, and turned topsy-turvy, and sets herself to contemplating Satan as a possible son-in-law, just as if there was no
impropriety about it and nothing in the way; and if papa was
surprised at it or dissatisfied, he gave no sign of it. It was Satan's
influence; it had put the family under an enchantment. Not purposely, of course; for these people belonged to the human race and
it would not have occurred to him to interest himself in their small
affairs-unasked-one way or the other; either to help them or to
hurt them. The villagers, high and low, were all bugs to him, and
by his nature he seemed unable to take a bug seriously.

Joseph Fuchs was twenty-one and a good enough young fellow.
Ile wouldn't ever be likely to set the river on fire, but that was
nothing-there was plenty of company of this calibre, he was with
the majority. He took an innocent pleasure in his clothes and in his
father's riches, but that was natural enough in one whose people
had been poor no long time back; and he was likely to take a seat
which commanded a mirror if it came handy, but nobody minded
it, since it did him good and harmed no one. These were the outside tinselings of his character, but there was gold back of them; he was
honest and clean and true, and had warm affections and deep
feelings.

Just as mamma had finished her slat at the Poles, Joseph came in.
The effect was curious; the family looked a trifle startled; much as
if he was a half-remembered disappearance come back out of the
long ago. It took them half a moment or two to wake up and pull
themselves together; then they set him a chair where he could face
the mirror, and gave him welcome and asked after his people, and
so worked off the restraint that was in the atmosphere and got
things going in a more or less natural and comfortable fashion.
Joseph had not noticed anything; it was not to be expected that he
would. He did not even seem to notice that Lilly's welcome did not
come from her eyes, according to custom, but only from her mouth;
but I noticed it. I was sorry, too; for this was a man, and could meet
her on her own human level, and make her brief breath of life
happy, and share with her the peace and oblivion of the grave
afterward; whereas in her innocence and ignorance she was fixing
her heart of flesh upon a spirit, a wanderer of the skies, an object as
unattainable as a comet and not more competent to meet the
requirements of a this-world fellowship.

Being asked for the news, Joseph said-

"Oh, there isn't any, of course, except the new stranger. It's all
Philip Traum here, Philip Traum there, Philip Traum yondernothing but Philip Traum; but I suppose that that is no news to
you-of course it isn't. Father is infatuated with him; so is everybody-in fact I don't mind saying I include myself. Well, you
know, he is a wonderful creature; now there's no getting around
that." His voice took on a grave tone, and he added, "That youth is
doing things which can get him into trouble-can, I say, though I
hope they won't."

Lilly paled a little, and asked-

"What kind of things?"

"Well, things which the people can't understand; strange things
which set them to shaking their heads and talking under their
breath. This morning he jumped off the bridge and saved old Haas from drowning; did it without an effort, they say, fat and monstrous
as old Haas is."

"It was a brave fine act," said Lilly; "surely there was nothing
about that for people to criticise and shake their heads over."

"Well, you see, that wasn't the worst of it-I mean, that wasn't
all of it. They might have overlooked the miracle of strength
displayed, but they say the water didn't wet his clothes. They
couldn't account for that."

"Do you believe the water didn't wet his clothes, Joseph?"

'Well, you know, they say it didn't. They believed it, I am quite
sure of it; and the police must have believed it, too, for when they
heard of it they arrested him."

"What a shame! and he had been doing such a brave thing.
Papa, you will order them to set him free-you can't refuse."

"Don't you worry," said Joseph, "he's already free."

"How is that?"

"He wouldn't go with them."

"Did they try to make him?" my father asked.

"Yes, but he only made fun of them. They tried to carry him off
by force, but they hadn't the strength; they couldn't budge him
from where he stood. Then they were afraid; for he said that if they
tried it again he would throw them in the river. Now you know
that for some reason or other they were afraid, for if they hadn't
been they would have summoned more help, that being the usual
course; but this they did not do. They only crossed themselves and
looked foolish. Then they asked him to come to headquarters and
fill up the usual form which requires a stranger to give his address,
name, age, religion, occupation, whence he is from, how long he
proposes to stay, and all that; and he wouldn't do it, and laughed at
them again, and walked off about his business, no one interfering.
He doesn't seem to be afraid of anybody or any thing. Oh, yes,
everybody is talking! Among other things, about his chess and his
music-have you heard of that?"

"No."

"Well, then, it's because it only came out yesterday evening, I
suppose; but it is started, now, and you'll hear plenty about it soon. It happened four or five days ago, and yesterday evening Wilhelm
Meidling lost his temper and told about it. The way of it was
this."

Then Joseph told all about the four chess games and that wonderful music.

"Do you see?" he continued, "it's all as astounding as Father
Adolf's bowl and bottle, and his jugglery and gymnastics in the
market square. Very well. Put this and that together, and what do
you arrive at? This: we all know Father Adolf is possessed of a
devil; that being the case, what is the matter with Philip
Traum?"

It was a hard hit and sudden. It made them all jump. But Joseph
didn't see it; he went tinkling right along:

"Well, now, that's my news; what's yours? You know Philip the
Magician, as I call him; have you been favored yet? has he been
exhibiting here?"

It was another hit. It made them look unwell. Mother glanced at
Lilly, and she slid the embroidery out of sight. Joseph was having a
very successful time with his random gun, but he didn't know it.

Mother replied, a little stiffly, that Mr. Traum had not been
exhibiting here. The others said nothing, and Joseph laughed pleasantly and remarked-