Cihlar & Egeler - The Saint and her Fool

„You have now seen deeper into my grief than most people... I do hope that, you as my kinsman, as the English say, will indeed make no use of this. My daughter seems to be my greatest sorrow, more from year to year. Since she has lost her mother…it is as if a dark cloud hangs over her life, she is often ill; but not only physically, but she is also mentally unbalanced in some peculiar way.”

„It seems to me,“ Harro begins humbly, „as if the child has a highly poetic temperament. She brings everything in her mind to life and describes this with quite relevant terms. The poplar trees are giant trees that sigh; a fine observation; thinking of how the wind catches in the branches, especially in old poplars. The child has a tender soul, which reacts very strongly and her features are so strikingly beautiful, as if this face has royalty in it, though I cannot find any resemblance in your family line.“

„You think my little girl is beautiful? No one has said anything near that so far; but I assume artists have their own views of where beauty can be found. I cannot see it; she always looks so pale and unhappy.”

„In a few years…“ says Harro von Thorstein thoughtfully.

„Oh yes, waiting for the years to go by, I have been waiting in vain for years, that has not done me good.“

„The Princess is very well aware that she makes you worry and suffers also.“

„This child should know that?” wonders the Duke naively, who usually refers to his daughter as his sorrow stone. „How is it that she has so entrusted you, she is usually so shy of strangers.“

„She was uprooted from her familiar surroundings; her bold venture has strengthened her self-consciousness.“

The Duke gets up impatiently. „How much longer must I wait? Where is that doctor?”

As if he had been eavesdropping, the doctor suddenly appears, looking quite excited.

„Milord, the Princess is in terrible anxiety; she urgently requests someone with the name Harro. An examination is impossible; I fear she might have convulsions, if I force it. It seems as if one of the ladies is also trying her best to keep me from examining the Princess.”

The Doctor seems offended. „Can this Harro be found?”

Harro has gone respectfully out into the hall when the Doctor arrived, but he could still hear the conversation.

„This Harro is the Earl of Thorstein. I cannot possibly … „

The Earl can feel his blood rush to his head. What cannot possibly be done? The Duke surely thinks he is not worthy to help at the bedside of the Princess, even though it being an emergency, as if he is not genteel enough.

The Duke approaches him reluctantly, seemingly embarrassed.

„It appears that you must again be the savior of my dear daughter.” He sighs. „She wants to only see you. The greatest tyrant is a sick child!”

The Thorsteiner’s voice is thick with emotion, so that the Duke is very touched.

„Thank you, Your Excellency; I am sure I will be able to help the Princess. I have once cared for a sick friend quite awhile. Although, I have been so alone all these years… „ His feelings take over. „I have been a suffering soul, having no pleasure for so long and then this tender little treasure, opening up like a blooming flower in a deep winter night, making me now behave quite foolish. My excuse is my loneliness and my overload of emotion is surely due to the kindness I have experienced today…” His last words are choked.

The Duke takes his hand; he is moved by the words of this man. He had thought it would be too much to ask of him, to go through such trouble again for his daughter. He had not imagined how involved the Earl has already become, how the child has touched his heart.

The child is lying in a shell-shaped bed that stands in an alcove, and has pulled up a silk blanket to her chin, her hands trembling feverishly. Her father bends over her.

„I have brought you your friend, Harro, what do you want from him?“

„He must protect me and not let anyone take my blanket away!”

The Duke shrugs his shoulders helplessly.

„And he must wrap me in my blanket and carry me around just like yesterday and tell me about his house.“

The doctor nods and whispers to the Earl: „Do the will of the little one, it is important that she calms down as soon as possible, and try to persuade her to let me examine her.”

He wraps the child in the blanket and his touch is so sensitive, as if he has done nothing else all his life. Then he walks with long, careful strides up and down; the golden hair covering his arm, her head resting on his chest.

The Duke has gone into another room; sitting at his old desk, his fingers tap nervously on the table top. An impossible situation; the whole house full of women, and he has to engage this, until yesterday, stranger.

„I could employ three women and the matter would be the same.”

Miss Whart appears briefly, inquires if she is needed and leaves again. She is, after all, hired only as an educator. Fräulein Braun seems to have completely lost her head, always bringing the doctor the wrong things, asking for the third time if she could now go to bed, she had been up all of last night and Babette is here, if something is needed.

The doctor says dryly: „You stay until I dismiss you.“

She hastily turns away, in her pretty silk blouse, and sits into a niche by the window, sulking.

Meanwhile, Harro walks up and down and speaks of the ruin, of Selma the cow and how his Saint Rose must get well very soon, to be able to see Selma and hear the singing well. And for this, it is necessary that she must entrust herself to an examination.

She winces. „I cannot, Harro ... O Harro, I am not permitted to; think of my word of honor. If I do not keep it, they will think I am not worthy, the decedents in the paintings, the beautiful girl and the man with the sword.”

„Your word of honor? My Rose, that is something much too heavy for such a small girl to carry, none of the old Braunecker family would ask that of you.”

Harro is standing at a window now; he listens to the scratching sounds as the branches of a large tree scrape against the window.

„Can you hear the sound of the tree, as if it is alive and speaks aloud? It is saying liar , everywhere just lies. My father thinks the same. I have told him that I have a word of honor.”

„Rose, darling, if you do have one, small as you are, then the situation is quite different. Have you made this promise to others or just to yourself?”

„I have spoken it out. It is very difficult when you are young, and one must suffer. “

„Poor little Rose,“he says softly. He knows he must not dissuade her from her path of mind; it would be an injustice not to take this quivering little child very seriously.

„A word of honor can be made under conditions that do not apply at a later time,“ he says. He feels quite ridiculous giving her this explanation.

„I know nothing about conditions, Harro,“ she says pitifully.

„Never mind, it is enough that I know. Whom have you given your word of honor to?”

He hears something and as he turns, receiving no answer, he realizes that the woman in her pretty silk blouse has disappeared from the niche.

„Darling Rose, rest awhile, I will get your word of honor back.”

„Oh Harro … „she wraps her arms around his neck before letting him go. He hurries out, runs down a corridor at random, a spiral staircase, four steps at a time; somebody has to be here! As he looks up, he sees Fräulein Braun in her pink blouse disappear around a corner... four more steps, and then he grabs the woman’s sleeve.

„Hey you, where are you going so quickly, has the doctor permitted you to leave?“ The young woman begins to stammer a few words and then starts to cry in a shy way, of how young girls often try to arouse pity. But he isn’t touched by it. He feels ridiculous, standing here on the stairs, bargaining for a word of honor and yet it seems so life threatening for his delicate Rose.