CHAPTER FOUR

Andreas to Nikolai.

"... I am dreaming again. I never can dream when I am actively happy. Then my nights follow one another in unchanging succession. The hand, which a moment before had been caressing the beloved, seems to go to sleep of its own accord; while my head, close to hers, is still linked to it by some few strands of hair. Then my capacities for dreaming seem to be lulled as if, in the arms of love, they were gathering new inspiration for the solitary days which were bound to follow.

"For the moment I am not alone, but I am not fully in possession of my joy; therefore I am dreaming once again.

"Last night I was on our island. Day was beginning to dawn. The boatman could hardly see the landing-stage, so dark lay the shadow from the oleander tree. I went slowly up the hill towards the white house. The door was open, but Othello was not there to greet me. As in summer time, cushions were strewn on the terrace, and some rugs lay there just as Diana might have left them. A book had slipped to the ground. My weary feet went slowly up the steps. The door leading into our bedroom was open; on a low table, a candle was guttering into its socket. I stepped noiselessly up to the curtain which sheltered the bed, and through whose folds I could hear the regular breathing of the sleeper. I pulled the curtain back, and there lay--Olivia, naked, before my eyes. Othello (can you understand, my Nikolai?), Othello will not enter dreams into which Diana does not come, and where Olivia breathes and has her being. Othello is faithful. I fear I am not! Is Diana?

"For she is here, in this out-of-the-way part of Europe. Don't be too astonished!

"The day after the one I last wrote to you about, the day I made the principessa's acquaintance, I was invited to lunch at the embassy, and was standing behind Olivia when, all of a sudden, in came Diana. I cannot honestly say that I was surprised. 'Dream, come back to me,' I had whispered every night during all those weeks when, in my loneliness, I longed for a sight of her. So when she appeared thus before me it was as if in response to my expectations. She herself was taken aback by our meeting, for she grew pale. When we took our places at table, and as the meal progressed, my heart went out to her, and every word I said seemed to be inspired by her. She was dressed in white, and the bronze of her skin shone through the raiment and gleamed forth among the pale company like the horns among the violins in that piece of Schumann's--you remember it.

"Othello had sensed her presence before I did. He had run hither and thither restlessly as we were out walking the previous evening. He was searching for a trail that I knew nothing of. She may have passed by in a carriage, and only my dog and not my heart had been aware of her proximity. Am I being put to a test? How would it have been had I not seen Olivia, and had run across Diana while taking a stroll? Would everything have been as it was in the spring? I ask myself whether the extreme of love which Olivia's lips seem to promise, will, if I ever get so far, sow the field of my life with as lavish a hand as Diana's when she yielded hesitatingly to my passionate embrace. I see, I feel, what awaits me. Everything, in the world of reality, my friend, we are doomed to know beforehand. You may well ask why I have set my foot on the hard and toilsome road leading to this new experience. How, I answer, can a man control his fate in such matters?

"A creature resembling a young moon has driven me forth into the noonday glare, I know not why. There I am faced with the great sun who, in his turn... Will he drive me back into the dusk whence I have so recently emerged? I'm sorry to be writing so mad a letter. The nights are to blame, so hot, and the sirocco blowing....

"I enclose a new poem--To Olivia.

"ANDREAS."

Diana to Scherer.

"... My very first experiences here confirm your hopes. I've called on the minister. The visit was fairly successful, partly because I did not go with an introduction from the embassy, and partly because a certain Egyptian, sent to me by the manager, smoothed the way for me. Furthermore, the process of interpreting facilitated our negotiations. Where else in Europe are we given so much time for reflection, where else can we study the effect of our actions upon our antagonists so admirably as here? He did not believe a word I said when I informed him that I wished later on to make a few excavations and wanted to use the new permanent way to get to the ruins which lie on either side of the track. I gathered all this by the solemn fashion in which he nodded his head and promised me everything I asked. He is not more narrow-minded than many of our own folk, but he is extremely false. He speaks reservedly about the count, which inclines me to believe that some sympathy exists between them. The railroad people are of course uncongenial to him, when he does not positively loathe them; and he is comforted by the thought that I personally seem to have little to do with them. His secretary speaks French, and I paid him a score of compliments afterwards. Nor did I miss an opportunity to have a dig at his master. I shall certainly need the man's help in the future. The main thing is to discover what the French have promised, and especially how much they have offered him if he will consent to act against Münsterberg. I have tipped the bearer of this letter as handsomely as if the missive were destined for a ruling monarch....

"Your manager is splendid. But he will have to get over the mistrust he naturally feels towards me on account of your very flattering recommendation. At present he sees in me nothing other than a kind of supervisor! His house is not sufficiently comfortable to receive guests, so I was invited to dine at the hotel. We ate what was provided by the menu of the day, and drank a sweet fizz very much the worse for wear, from which I gather he is of a thrifty disposition. His wife has the beautiful eyes, the slow movements, the cloying sweetness, the perfidy, and the ceaseless longing for love, typical of the Levantine woman. He manages to keep her in hand for the present. While we were at dinner, for instance, she ogled an English naval officer at a neighbouring table, and her husband literally crushed the look under foot before my very eyes. You know that since his marriage he is still received at the embassy, but only once a year now, at the annual levee when there are some three hundred guests present.

"For the rest, I shall have to be concise. I enclose the notes I made immediately after my several visits to the manager, the minister and the bank director (who seems ill-disposed towards me).

"As for the ambassador, I can't say much as yet, for we are only in the initial stages of our acquaintanceship. Still, I like the man. Seen him twice, en petit comité, no politics. I cannot believe that you really care for him. He speaks of you with a kind of cool warmth.

"His enemy, the baron, is likewise my foe; so is the baroness. Eckersberg is innocuous, but his thoughts run in a somewhat bawdy vein. The tall prince may be a friend. I am doing my best to be pleasant to the secretary who sees after the dispatching of my correspondence, for as Count M. says, we are all at his mercy. He is a domestic tyrant, but tamable.

"Since, in spite of my arts and wiles, I foresee that he will read my letters, and since I may seldom have a chance of sending you a letter, as on this occasion, by a trusty hand, we had better agree upon a code: Greyhound = Count Münsterberg, the German ambassador; Terrier = Count Eckersberg, the military attaché; Policedog = Baron Linnartz, secretary to the Legation; Sheepdog = Prince Eduard, youngest attaché; Drayhound = the aforesaid secretary; Great Dane = Manager; Bulldog = Minister. Further zoological data to follow.

"Best wishes.

"DIANA."

The major to Diana.

"Your card with address only and view of the town hardly seems to court an acknowledgment. Nevertheless it does not actually forbid me to answer. So I shall profit by the fact and send you a few lines, especially as today is the anniversary of a date that will for ever be inscribed in my heart.

"Unfortunately such times as those of three years ago are not to be recaptured. Were it not for my work (I shall ever have you to thank for helping me to get it) I could hardly believe that I am the same man.

"Talk here runs mainly upon that corner of the world where you happen to be. Nobody has any confidence in the present peaceful situation; calm before a storm. I have seen Herr Scherer lately, two meetings quite close together. He is amazingly inquisitive, always plying me with questions, looks at me searchingly, and so on. I wonder if he suspects me of something. If anyone has a right to suspicion surely it is I rather than he!

"By the way, I have to thank his rival in the political field--if the question of gratitude arises at all in the matter, which I doubt--for a very interesting possibility. Last Tuesday, the minister came over to me after being deep in talk with N. We were all at the club. He said he had heard that I was interested in politics. Was I good at languages, and so forth. I was guarded in my replies, for I was not sure what he was driving at. In the end he asked whether I'd like a post abroad....

"What would you say if one fine morning I appeared on the scene of your mysterious operations, and greeted you with: 'Good-morning, most honoured of friends?'--Have no fear, I'm effectively stuck here at my post, and when I'm 78 I'll be relegated to the pensioners' almshouse--if any such thing still exists after another eighty years of peace.

"Your faithful servant,

"F. v. M."