CHAPTER X. A TRAGEDY OF GOWNS
From husbands in general, and from oogly German husbands in particularmay Hymen defend me! Never again will I attempt to select "echtAmerikanische" clothes for a woman who must not weary her young husband.But how was I to know that the harmless little shopping expeditionwould resolve itself into a domestic tragedy, with Herr Nirlanger as thevillain, Frau Nirlanger as the persecuted heroine, and I as--what is itin tragedy that corresponds to the innocent bystander in real life? Thatwould be my role.
The purchasing of the clothes was a real joy. Next to buying prettythings for myself there is nothing I like better than choosing them forsome one else. And when that some one else happens to be a fascinatinglittle foreigner who coos over the silken stuffs in a delightful mixtureof German and English; and especially when that some one else must bemade to look so charming that she will astonish her oogly husband, thendoes the selecting of those pretty things cease to be a task, and becomean art.
It was to be a complete surprise to Herr Nirlanger. He was to knownothing of it until everything was finished and Frau Nirlanger, dressedin the prettiest of the pretty Amerikanisch gowns, was ready to astoundhim when he should come home from the office of the vast plant where hesolved engineering problems.
"From my own money I buy all this," Frau Nirlanger confided to me, witha gay little laugh of excitement, as we started out. "From Vienna itcomes. Always I have given it at once to my husband, as a wife should.Yesterday it came, but I said nothing, and when my husband said to me,'Anna, did not the money come as usual to-day? It is time,' I told alittle lie--but a little one, is it not? Very amusing it was. Almost Idid laugh. Na, he will not be cross when he see how his wife like theAmerikanische ladies will look. He admires very much the ladies ofAmerika. Many times he has said so."
("I'll wager he has--the great, ugly boor!" I thought, in parenthesis.)"We'll show him!" I said, aloud. "He won't know you. Such a lot ofbeautiful clothes as we can buy with all this money. Oh, dear FrauNirlanger, it's going to be slathers of fun! I feel as excited about itas though it were a trousseau we were buying."
"So it is," she replied, a little shadow of sadness falling acrossthe brightness of her face. "I had no proper clothes when we weremarried--but nothing! You know perhaps my story. In America, everyoneknows everything. It is wonderful. When I ran away to marry KonradNirlanger I had only the dress which I wore; even that I borrowed fromone of the upper servants, on a pretext, so that no one should recognizeme. Ach Gott! I need not have worried. So! You see, it will be after alla trousseau."
Why, oh, why should a woman with her graceful carriage and prettyvivacity have been cursed with such an ill-assorted lot of features!Especially when certain boorish young husbands have expressed anadmiration for pink-and-white effects in femininity.
"Never mind, Mr. Husband, I'll show yez!" I resolved as the elevatorleft us at the floor where waxen ladies in shining glass cases smiledamiably all the day.
There must be no violent pinks or blues. Brown was too old. She was notyoung enough for black. Violet was too trying. And so the gowns began tostrew tables and chairs and racks, and still I shook my head, and FrauNirlanger looked despairing, and the be-puffed and real Irish-crochetedsaleswoman began to develop a baleful gleam about the eyes.
And then we found it! It was a case of love at first sight. Theunimaginative would have called it gray. The thoughtless would havepronounced it pink. It was neither, and both; a soft, rosily-graymixture of the two, like the sky that one sometimes sees at wintertwilight, the pink of the sunset veiled by the gray of the snow clouds.It was of a supple, shining cloth, simple in cut, graceful in lines.
"There! We've found it. Let's pray that it will not require too muchaltering."
But when it had been slipped over her head we groaned at the inadequacyof her old-fashioned stays. There followed a flying visit to thedepartment where hips were whisked out of sight in a jiffy, and wherelines miraculously took the place of curves. Then came the gownonce more, over the new stays this time. The effect was magical.The Irish-crocheted saleswoman and I clasped hands and fell back inattitudes of admiration. Frau Nirlanger turned this way and that beforethe long mirror and chattered like a pleased child. Her adjectives grewinto words of six syllables. She cooed over the soft-shining stuff inlittle broken exclamations in French and German.
Then came a straight and simple street suit of blue cloth, a lingeriegown of white, hats, shoes and even a couple of limp satin petticoats.The day was gone before we could finish.
I bullied them into promising the pinky-gray gown for the nextafternoon.
"Sooch funs!" giggled Frau Nirlanger, "and how it makes one tired.So kind you were, to take this trouble for me. Me, I could never havewarred with that Fraulein who served us--so haughty she was, nicht? Butit is good again pretty clothes to have. Pretty gowns I lofe--you also,not?"
"Indeed I do lofe 'em. But my money comes to me in a yellow payenvelope, and it is spent before it reaches me, as a rule. It doesn'tleave much of a margin for general recklessness."
A tiny sigh came from Frau Nirlanger. "There will be little to give toKonrad this time. So much money they cost, those clothes! But Konrad, hewill not care when he sees the so beautiful dresses, is it not so?"
"Care!" I cried with a great deal of bravado, although a tiny innervoice spake in doubt. "Certainly not. How could he?"
Next day the boxes came, and we smuggled them into my room. Theunwrapping of the tissue paper folds was a ceremony. We reveled in thevery crackle of it. I had scuttled home from the office as early asdecency would permit, in order to have plenty of time for the dressing.It must be quite finished before Herr Nirlanger should arrive. FrauNirlanger had purchased three tickets for the German theater, also as asurprise, and I was to accompany the happily surprised husband and theproud little wife of the new Amerikanische clothes.
I coaxed her to let me do things to her hair. Usually she wore a stiffand ugly coiffure that could only be described as a chignon. I do notrecollect ever having seen a chignon, but I know that it must look likethat. I was thankful for my Irish deftness of fingers as I stepped backto view the result of my labors. The new arrangement of the hair gaveher features a new softness and dignity.
We came to the lacing of the stays, with their exaggerated length."Aber!" exclaimed Frau Nirlanger, not daring to laugh because of thestrange snugness. "Ach!" and again, "Aber to laugh it is!"
We had decided the prettiest of the new gowns must do honor to theoccasion. "This shade is called ashes of roses," I explained, as Islipped it over her head.
"Ashes of roses!" she echoed. "How pretty, yes? But a little sad too, isit not so? Like rosy hopes that have been withered. Ach, what a foolishtalk! So, now you will fasten it please. A real trick it is to buttonsuch a dress--so sly they are, those fastenings."
When all the sly fastenings were secure I stood at gaze.
"Nose is shiny," I announced, searching in a drawer for chamois andpowder.
Frau Nirlanger raised an objecting hand. "But Konrad does not approve ofsuch things. He has said so. He has--"
"You tell your Konrad that a chamois skin isn't half as objectionableas a shiny one. Come here and let me dust this over your nose and chin,while I breathe a prayer of thanks that I have no overzealous husbandnear to forbid me the use of a bit of powder. There! If I sez it mesilfas shouldn't, yez ar-r-re a credit t' me, me darlint."
"You are satisfied. There is not one small thing awry? Ach, how we shalllaugh at Konrad's face."
"Satisfied! I'd kiss you if I weren't afraid that I should muss youup. You're not the same woman. You look like a girl! And so pretty!Now skedaddle into your own rooms, but don't you dare to sit down for amoment. I'm going down to get Frau Knapf before your husband arrives."
"But is there then time?" inquired Frau Nirlanger. "He should be herenow."
"I'll bring her up in a jiffy, just for one peep. She won't know you!Her face will be a treat! Don't touch your hair--it's quite perfect. Andf'r J
awn's sake! Don't twist around to look at yourself in the backor something will burst, I know it will. I'll be back in a minute. Nowrun!"
The slender, graceful figure disappeared with a gay little laugh, and Iflew downstairs for Frau Knapf. She was discovered with a spoon in onehand and a spluttering saucepan in the other. I detached her fromthem, clasped her big, capable red hands and dragged her up the stairs,explaining as I went.
"Now don't fuss about that supper! Let 'em wait. You must see her beforeHerr Nirlanger comes home. He's due any minute. She looks like a girl.So young! And actually pretty! And her figure--divine! Funny what adifference a decent pair of corsets, and a gown, and some puffs willmake, h'm?"
Frau Knapf was panting as I pulled her after me in swift eagerness.Between puffs she brought out exclamations of surprise and unbelief suchas: "Unmoglich! (Puff! Puff!) Aber--wunderbar! (Puff! Puff!)"
We stopped before Frau Nirlanger's door. I struck a dramatic pose."Prepare!" I cried grandly, and threw open the door with a bang.
Crouched against the wall at a far corner of the room was FrauNirlanger. Her hands were clasped over her breast and her eyes weredilated as though she had been running. In the center of the room stoodKonrad Nirlanger, and on his oogly face was the very oogliest look thatI have ever seen on a man. He glanced at us as we stood transfixedin the doorway, and laughed a short, sneering laugh that was like astinging blow on the cheek.
"So!" he said; and I would not have believed that men really said "So!"in that way outside of a melodrama. "So! You are in the little surprise,yes? You carry your meddling outside of your newspaper work, eh? I leavebehind me an old wife in the morning and in the evening, presto! I finda young bride. Wonderful!--but wonderful!" He laughed an unmusical andmirthless laugh.
"But--don't you like it?" I asked, like a simpleton.
Frau Nirlanger seemed to shrink before our very eyes, so that the prettygown hung in limp folds about her.
I stared, fascinated, at Konrad Nirlanger's cruel face with its littleeyes that were too close together and its chin that curved in below themouth and out again so grotesquely.
"Like it?" sneered Konrad Nirlanger. "For a young girl, yes. But howuseless, this belated trousseau. What a waste of good money! For see,a young wife I do not want. Young women one can have in plenty, always.But I have an old woman married, and for an old woman the gowns need befew--eh, Frau Orme? And you too, Frau Knapf?"
Frau Knapf, crimson and staring, was dumb. There came a little shiveringmoan from the figure crouched in the corner, and Frau Nirlanger, herface queerly withered and ashen, crumpled slowly in a little heap on thefloor and buried her shamed head in her arms.
Konrad Nirlanger turned to his wife, the black look on his face growingblacker.
"Come, get up Anna," he ordered, in German. "These heroics become not awoman of your years. And too, you must not ruin the so costly gown thatwill be returned to-morrow."
Frau Nirlanger's white face was lifted from the shelter of her arms.The stricken look was still upon it, but there was no cowering in herattitude now. Slowly she rose to her feet. I had not realized that shewas so tall.
"The gown does not go back," she said.
"So?" he snarled, with a savage note in his voice. "Now hear me. Thereshall be no more buying of gowns and fripperies. You hear? It is forthe wife to come to the husband for the money; not for her to waste itwantonly on gowns, like a creature of the streets. You," his voice wasan insult, "you, with your wrinkles and your faded eyes in a gown of--"he turned inquiringly toward me--"How does one call it, that color, FrauOrme?"
There came a blur of tears to my eyes. "It is called ashes of roses," Ianswered. "Ashes of roses."
Konrad Nirlanger threw back his head and laughed a laugh as stinging asa whip-lash. "Ashes of roses! So? It is well named. For my dear wifeit is poetically fit, is it not so? For see, her roses are but witheredashes, eh Anna?"
Deliberately and in silence Anna Nirlanger walked to the mirror andstood there, gazing at the woman in the glass. There was somethingdreadful and portentous about the calm and studied deliberation withwhich she critically viewed that reflection. She lifted her arms slowlyand patted into place the locks that had become disarranged, turning herhead from side to side to study the effect. Then she took from a drawerthe bit of chamois skin that I had given her, and passed it lightly overher eyelids and cheeks, humming softly to herself the while. No musicever sounded so uncanny to my ears. The woman before the mirror lookedat the woman in the mirror with a long, steady, measuring look. Then,slowly and deliberately, the long graceful folds of her lovely gowntrailing behind her, she walked over to where her frowning husbandstood. So might a queen have walked, head held high, gaze steady. Shestopped within half a foot of him, her eyes level with his. For a longhalf-minute they stood thus, the faded blue eyes of the wife gazing intothe sullen black eyes of the husband, and his were the first to drop,for all the noble blood in Anna Nirlanger's veins, and all her longline of gently bred ancestors were coming to her aid in dealing with hermiddle-class husband.
"You forget," she said, very slowly and distinctly. "If this wereAustria, instead of Amerika, you would not forget. In Austria people ofyour class do not speak in this manner to those of my caste."
"Unsinn!" laughed Konrad Nirlanger. "This is Amerika."
"Yes," said Anna Nirlanger, "this is Amerika. And in Amerika all thingsare different. I see now that my people knew of what they spoke whenthey called me mad to think of wedding a clod of the people, such asyou."
For a moment I thought that he was going to strike her. I think he wouldhave, if she had flinched. But she did not. Her head was held high, andher eyes did not waver.
"I married you for love. It is most comical, is it not? With youI thought I should find peace, and happiness and a re-birth of theintellect that was being smothered in the splendor and artificialityand the restrictions of my life there. Well, I was wrong. But wrong.Now hear me!" Her voice was tense with passion. "There will be gowns--asmany and as rich as I choose. You have said many times that the ladiesof Amerika you admire. And see! I shall be also one of those so-admiredladies. My money shall go for gowns! For hats! For trifles of lace andvelvet and fur! You shall learn that it is not a peasant woman whom youhave married. This is Amerika, the land of the free, my husband. Andsee! Who is more of Amerika than I? Who?"
She laughed a high little laugh and came over to me, taking my hands inher own.
"Dear girl, you must run quickly and dress. For this evening we go tothe theater. Oh, but you must. There shall be no unpleasantness, that Ipromise. My husband accompanies us--with joy. Is it not so, Konrad? Withjoy? So!"
Wildly I longed to decline, but I dared not. So I only nodded, for fearof the great lump in my throat, and taking Frau Knapf's hand I turnedand fled with her. Frau Knapf was muttering:
"Du Hund! Du unverschamter Hund du!" in good Billingsgate German, andwiping her eyes with her apron. And I dressed with trembling fingersbecause I dared not otherwise face the brave little Austrian, the pluckylittle aborigine who, with the donning of the new Amerikanische gown hadacquired some real Amerikanisch nerve.