The Serapion Brethren, Vol. IIHoffmann, E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus)
Science
The Serapion Brethren, Vol. II
Hoffmann, E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus)
Fiction
But the following night he was standing in his old place, opposite to
Siegfried, transfixing him with his gloomy, glowing eyes. The Baron
broke out more angrily than on the previous night. "If it is any
entertainment to you, sir, to glare at me in that sort of manner, I
must beg you to select another place and another time. But--for the
present"--a motion of the hand in the direction of the door took the
place of the hard words which the Baron had on the tip of his tongue.
And, as on the previous night, the Stranger, bowing with the same
pained smile, left the room. Excited by the game, by the wine he had
taken, and by the encounter with the Stranger, Siegfried could not
sleep. When morning broke, the whole appearance of the Stranger rose to
his memory. He saw the expressive face, the well-cut features, marked
with sorrow, the hollow gloomy eyes which had gazed at him. He noticed
that though he was poorly dressed, his refined manners and bearing
spoke of good birth and up-bringing. And then the way in which he had
received the hard words with quiet resignation, and gone away,
swallowing the bitterness of his feelings with a power over himself.
"Oh!" said Siegfried, "I was wrong--I did him great injustice. Is it
like me to fly into a passion, and insult people without rhyme or
reason, like a foolish boy?" He came to the conclusion that the man had
been gazing at him with a bitter sense of the tremendous contrast
between them. At the moment when he--perhaps--was in the depths of
distress, the Baron was heaping gold on the top of gold, and carrying
all before him. He determined that the first thing in the morning he
would go and find out the Stranger, and do something to remedy his
condition.
And, as fate would have it, the Stranger was the first person he met,
as he was taking a walk down the Alleé.
The Baron addressed him, apologised for his behaviour on the previous
night, and formally asked him to forgive him. The Stranger said there
was nothing to forgive. People who were much interested in their game
must have every consideration, and he quite deserved to be reminded
that he was obstinately planting himself in a place where he could not
but put the Baron out in his play.
The Baron went further. He spoke of the circumstance that in life
temporary difficulties often come upon people of education in the most
trying manner, and he gave him pretty clearly to understand that he
was ready to pay him back the money he had won from him, or more, if
necessary, should that be likely to be of any assistance to him.
"My dear sir," said the Stranger, "you suppose that I am pressed for
money. Strictly speaking, I am not. Although I am rather a poor man
than a rich, I have enough for my little requirements. And you will see
in a moment, if you consider, that if you should suppose you could
atone for an insult to me by offering me a sum of money, I could not
accept it, even as a mere ordinary man of honour. And I am a
Chevalier."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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