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Updated: June 5, 2025
"Where then?" "In the garden of Helenenthal." A surpressed murmur arose, which grew into a tumult when old Douglas, who had sprung up from his chair, cried out in a voice that penetrated through the court, "What were you doing there?" Old Meyerhofer uttered a curse. Elsbeth turned pale, and her head sank heavily against the back of the bench. The president seized the bell.
When Paul had ended, he made a sign to the gendarme, who turned round silently, and walked off on the way to Helenenthal. "Now for your father," said the magistrate; "is he in a state to be examined?" "Let me see," answered Paul, and he went into the sick-room. He found his father sitting erect in his bed; his eyes sparkled, and on his features there were signs of ill-suppressed fury.
The dog again gave a short howl, and then ran with great speed down the path towards Helenenthal. Helenenthal! What does father want in Helenenthal? Ah, did he not say a short time ago that he had been there one afternoon for an experiment? For an experiment! And how strangely and unpleasantly he laughed when he said it. And to-day, too. How mysterious his behavior had been!
The sun had been shining all day, and now the sky was all aglow with the last rays of the setting sun. The heath lay shrouded in a blue-gray mist, and sparkling ice-crystals were flying through the clear winter air. When he passed Helenenthal he saw two sledges moving towards the manor-house laden with fir branches.
From that day forward Paul was master in the house. Three weeks had passed since then. Paul worked like a galley-slave. In spite of that a strange unrest was upon him. When he allowed himself a few moments' repose he could not bear to stay at home. He felt as if the walls were falling in upon him. Then he rambled about on the heath or in the wood, or he lingered near Helenenthal.
The next forenoon he stood in the snow behind the shed and gazed towards Helenenthal, where a dark funeral procession was preparing for its sad journey. Twice he had gone to the stables to tell the servants to get the sledge ready, and each time the word had stuck in his throat.
"It goes first-rate," he laughed; "the day before yesterday I even went as far as Helenenthal." They looked at him in surprise, and almost in terror, for since he was forced to leave it he had never been there again. "How were you received?" asked Frau Greta. "Who? What? Oh, you think perhaps I went for a neighborly visit? You are real geese!
"Oh, why that of all places?" she asked, shuddering. He immediately fell in love with the idea. "Yes; that would be emptying the cup to the dregs. The lost magnificence always in view for, you must know, the manor-house of Helenenthal exactly overlooks it. It is surrounded by moor and fen wellnigh two hundred acres. Perhaps one could cultivate some of it one might be the pioneer of progress.
Of course it was not nice when we had to leave Helenenthal, and when I saw the room lit up blood-red by the burning barn, it gave me a bad enough fright, but, on the whole, life has treated me tolerably well. I have reared all you children, I have not lost one by death-we have always had food and drink, too.
Now he stood there with his hands folded, watching how the long, black, undulating line crept on over the dazzling-white snowy heath; it grew smaller and smaller, and disappeared at last behind the wood, for the cemetery of Helenenthal lay far off on the way to the town.
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