The Prussian OfficerLawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
General
The Prussian Officer
Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Fiction; Short stories
In this way, he was a gentleman in sensibility, though his intellect
was not developed. He could afford to pay freely for things. He had,
moreover, his native, fine breeding. Emilie wavered uncertainly before
him. So he became her sweetheart, and she hungered after him. But she
was virgin, and shy, and needed to be in subjection, because she was
primitive and had no grasp on civilized forms of living, nor on
civilized purposes.
IV
At six o’clock came the inquiry of the soldiers: Had anything been seen
of Bachmann? Fräulein Hesse answered, pleased to be playing a rôle:
“No, I’ve not seen him since Sunday—have you, Emilie?”
“No, I haven’t seen him,” said Emilie, and her awkwardness was
construed as bashfulness. Ida Hesse, stimulated, asked questions, and
played her part.
“But it hasn’t killed Sergeant Huber?” she cried in consternation.
“No. He fell into the water. But it gave him a bad shock, and smashed
his foot on the side of the moat. He’s in hospital. It’s a bad look-out
for Bachmann.”
Emilie, implicated and captive, stood looking on. She was no longer
free, working with all this regulated system which she could not
understand and which was almost god-like to her. She was put out of her
place. Bachmann was in her room, she was no longer the faithful in
service serving with religious surety.
Her situation was intolerable to her. All evening long the burden was
upon her, she could not live. The children must be fed and put to
sleep. The Baron and Baroness were going out, she must give them light
refreshment. The man-servant was coming in to supper after returning
with the carriage. And all the while she had the insupportable feeling
of being out of the order, self-responsible, bewildered. The control of
her life should come from those above her, and she should move within
that control. But now she was out of it, uncontrolled and troubled.
More than that, the man, the lover, Bachmann, who was he, what was he?
He alone of all men contained for her the unknown quantity which
terrified her beyond her service. Oh, she had wanted him as a distant
sweetheart, not close, like this, casting her out of her world.
When the Baron and Baroness had departed, and the young man-servant had
gone out to enjoy himself, she went upstairs to Bachmann. He had
wakened up, and sat dimly in the room. Out in the open he heard the
soldiers, his comrades, singing the sentimental songs of the nightfall,
the drone of the concertina rising in accompaniment.
“Wenn ich zu mei...nem Kinde geh’...
In seinem Au...g die Mutter seh’...”
But he himself was removed from it now. Only the sentimental cry of
young, unsatisfied desire in the soldiers’ singing penetrated his blood
and stirred him subtly. He let his head hang; he had become gradually
roused: and he waited in concentration, in another world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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