Rachel's Romance; or, the Countess Otto

Front matter

PRICE ONE SHILLING London • DTPROSE t* BATEMAN OR, THE COUNTESS OTTO. A gJoi-hs bu tlje same giniljor. "LAUTERDALE," A Story of Two Generations. "CATERINA; or. Colonel Harding's Folly." "COUNTESS IRENE," A Romance of Austrian Life. "ROBERT LEEMAN'S DAUGHTERS." "Mr. JOCKO." "JUANITA." GAME AT CHESS; or, When Jew meets Greek." ; OR, THE COUNTESS OTTO BY J. FOGERTY, Author of " Lauterdale," "Countess Irene," " Caterina," " Robert Leeman's Daughters," &c. LONDON : DIPROSE & BATEMAN, Sheffield Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. [AIL RIGHTS RESERVE D.\ ** CONTENTS •§* CHAPTER PAGE I. Franz ... 7 II. Frau Rosenheim 17 III. Lotscha 35 IV. Rachel 45 V. The Steiners 56 VI. Count Otto 67 VII. Retrospect 79 VIII. Fraulein Gotschalk 91 IX. Mitzel 104 X. The Conspirators 116 XI. The Inquest 129 XII. The Trial and Conclusion 143

Chapter I. Franz

OLOMON ROSENHEIM was a working jeweller who occupied a very little shop in a narrow covered passage called a " durchgang," which connected two busy streets in Vienna. He was a hunchback with a large head and prominent grey eyes, and it was supposed that his deformity had had much to do with the selection of the trade to which he had been apprenticed when a lad, as it involved close application to his work-table, where but few people could notice his hump as he bent over his work. It had never been very large, so that many persons imagined it had arisen from continued stooping, but it certainly had in creased with his increasing years. He was now over sixty and looked much older. He was a taciturn man, and only went forth from his small shop in the dusk of evening, always wearing a long cloak with a wide fur collar, which fell back on his shoulders and served to conceal his deformity.

A principal part of Solomon's occupation was the cleaning and repair of watches and jewellery, at which he was very skilful and punctual. He was short-sighted, like most working jewellers, and his vision was almost micro scopic, so that he seldom required to use a magnifying lens at his work, but his short-sightedness was a great disadvantage to him when he took his walks abroad, or when he was called on to attend customers in his shop, wherein many small articles of jewellery had disappeared from the narrow counter, without being missed by him until he came to count up and remove his moderate stock of trinkets at night to an iron safe let into the wall behind the counter, of which he kept the key suspended by a steel chain to his waist. Notwithstanding his hump and odd personal appear ance, Solomon had found a Bohemian wife willing to share his lot and his fortune — probably more willing to share the fortune than the lot of the solitary man, as Frau Rosenberg, who was twenty years his junior, and had been twice married, was social in her tendencies, and had a large circle of gossiping acquaintance in the quarter of the city in which she lived.

She visited her friends very often, and they came to see her occasionally in the little parlour behind the shop, from which it was separated by a glazed partition. Frau Rosenberg had a daughter of her previous marriage— or, at least, so she said— living with her, named Rachel Sacher, now about eighteen years of age, and possessing very handsome features, with great coils of glossy, coal-black hair piled on her well-shaped head. Franz 9 She was more Jewish-looking than her mother, who never admitted that she had any Semitic blood in her, and was ostensibly a devout Catholic, from which it was usually inferred that Rachel's father was probably of Hebrew descent. Rachel had dark, almond-shaped eyes, and knew how to use them with powerful effect. She was very kind to her step-father in a half-pitying way, and was accustomed to hold him by the arm when he took his evening walks, so as to guide his footsteps over the narrow, crooked side-paths in the older Vienna streets, and thus save him from being run over at crossings by the drivers of fiacres emulating the prowess of the son of Nimshi.

In the warm summer evenings the little family generally visited the Volksgarten to hear the open-air concerts conducted by Edward Strauss. In colder weather they were often to be seen at one or other of the numerous cheap concert-rooms of Vienna, enjoy ing good music, and at the same time breathing a detestable atmosphere, owing to the smoking of inferior tobacco by the male part of the audience, and the absence of ventilation. Rosenberg suffered a good deal in consequence, being weak in the chest, and often requested Rachel to guide him homewards, leaving her mother at the place of amusement, which was generally not far from his abode, and to which Rachel had to return again when she had seen her step-father safe indoors. Rachel was always convoyed back to her mother by the domestic, who acted as general servant, as to appear alone in the streets of Vienna at night time is impractic able for a good-looking damsel.

The servant was a stout Styrian girl, and usually carried a big broom-handle and a lantern on such occasions, and thus armed might expect to be allowed to return un molested by idle youth. Once, however, recently, a half drunken fellow had accosted her as she hurried home, and was found lying stunned in the gutter with a broken head by the police patrol later on. There had been some trouble over this, as, for a time, the man's life was in danger, and the girl had been obliged to go to the hospital to be identified by the injured inebriate, who, on seeing her very plain face and its hostile expression, had declared " that the police must be mistaken," as, no matter how intoxicated he might have been, he could not possibly have addressed such an ugly female in amorous terms, whereupon Lotscha shook her clenched fist at him and retired triumphantly, but she declined to act as protector over Rachel after nightfall any longer, and informed her mistress that it was quite time the young lady had a guardian in the shape of a young man who could accompany her and her mother to and from places of amusement.

Upon this Frau Rosenheim had knit her black eyebrows in cogitation, and remained singularly silent for a whole afternoon in the little parlour, whilst her daughter attended at the counter in the shop outside and her husband worked away with his assistant at the bench in the window, from whence now and then could be heard the whir of a small lathe, drilling or polishing parts of watches, as the two men wrought silently, elbow to elbow, for the shop-window, which gave on the passage was very narrow. The assistant was a fair young German with a blonde moustache and blue eyes. He was just now engaged in fixing a new pin in a brooch, for which a woman was Franz. 11 waiting outside the counter. Presently he rose and handed the repaired article to Rachel, whose eyes met his for a moment, as if questioning him.

He looked at his watch, and simply said "halbe-stunde"— half-an-hour — as the time occupied in the repair. Rachel stated the price as twenty-five kreutzers to the woman, who glanced at her curiously and paid it, then, leaning across the counter, she whispered to Rachel, " He is clever and good-looking, isn't he ? I know him. He used to be in Otto's factory, and is a steady youn*?; fellow." At this instant Frau Rosenheim appeared at the door leading from the back parlour. " I want thee, Rachel," she said. " Come in here." When Rachel was seated near her mother in the little parlour, the latter commenced, with crude direct ness of speech : " My child, it is time you were married. We can't go on much longer as we have done this winter with my old man, who can scarcely find his way across the street without getting run over, and he wants better help than that long, stupid Franz, who takes so much time over little jobs."

" Mother, Franz is clever, and works well and fast, and father likes him. He is poor, I fear, and so is con tent with small wages, but he is honest and good." " You cannot tell, child, whether he is honest or not. He is deep as a well. I saw him well-dressed and smoking a big cigar, which smelt very good, in the Prater one Sunday, and yet here he wears shabby clothes and never smokes. I know that he dines at Klumser's, and often has a small bottle of Vdslauer to his dinner. Frau Gotschalk saw him there twice, and he gave the waiter ten kreutzers. He couldn't do that with his wages of only twelve florins a week." " But you know he plays the first violin in the orchestra at the Karl Theatre, mother, and for that he probably gets much more than we pay him, and he has written musical critiques for the ' Fremdenblatt.' Franz is industrious, and does not waste his evenings in cafes, like so many young men."

" You seem to know more about him than I do, Rachel. Where did you learn all this ? It is his own story, probably, but he has never told me anything of the kind. He scarcely ever speaks to me, nor much to anyone else, so far as I have seen. I am suspicious of young men who are so reticent. We know very little, about him or where he came from. I think he is a Saxon by his way of speaking German." " Yes, he is a Saxon, and speaks good German," said Rachel. " He has been well-educated, one can see, and he is a good musician. He was at the Augustiner Church when I was permitted to take the solo part last Christ mas, and he has told me where I made mistakes. He thinks I ought to have more singing lessons, but how can I find the time and money ? If I do not stay in the shop, things will disappear from the counter when my father attends to customers, as they have done so often lately in a mysterious way."

" It was after Christmas when you sang the solo, that he came here," said the mother. " That was about six months ago, and many small articles have disappeared since then, although you see most of the customers yourself. Do you suspect any of them ? " "I cannot say I do," said Rachel, thoughtfully. *' Fraulein Gotschalk is wearing a garnet brooch which Franz. 13 is like one we missed some months ago. She has had it repaired several times by Franz, and said * her mother had given it to her.' It has a mark like ours on the back, and one stone is a little loose." "I sold it to her mother," said Frau Rosenheim, quickly. « " Then why did you not say so when father spoke of it as being lost, and worried himself so much over it?" enquired Rachel. " I suppose I forgot. It was eighteen florins, and I must have paid some bill with the money at the moment.

You know my memory is so bad." Rachel knew quite the contrary, and remained silent and distressed-looking. " You should tell father now," she said at. length. " Have you sold and forgotten any other articles ? " " Not a thing that is not entered in the book and the money placed in the till," said the mother excitedly. " I remember now it was a gas bill I paid the collector in a hurry to get rid of him. It was just the same amount. I complained about the badness of the gas, and he was impertinent. Rosenheim says he can scarcely see with it." ■' Yes, the gas was bad in the cold, damp weather, mother, but the brooch disappeared early in the spring. You ought to tell my father about it at once, as he may be suspecting someone wrongfully. Say nothing about the gas account. Franz says we could have electrical lights like those at Klein's shop, in the Graben, if we wished — with a little gas engine in the cellar to supply the electricity.

He seems to know how such things are fitted up, and it would bring more custom to the shop in ihfi evenin-;?." "And compel us to stay at home to attend to the customers," said Frau Rosenheim, angrily. " Franz Schaller goes away at five o'clock to amuse himself, and leaves your father at work." " But he comes an hour earlier than the former assistant used to do, mother. He is here punctually at eight every morning, before you are downstairs — often before Lotscha has the shop swept out. Be just to him." " That's when you hear so much from him about himself, I suppose, and when he finds his tongue, if I am not in the way, Rachel. I dislike him, and distrust him, and I wish you to keep him in his proper place, or he will have to find another berth with a sharp master who can look after him and isn't half blind.

I believe he is a heretic or an atheist. He wouldn't say what he was when the census people came round to correct his paper, but told them they had no right to inquire from a foreigner. Father Nicolas says it is unlucky to have such people in our business, and that harm will come of it sooner or later." With this, Frau Rosenheim flounced out of the parlour in anger, banging the door, which led to a staircase, by which she ascended to an upper room, where she could be heard pacing up and down with heavy tread, for half an hour. Rachel went back to the little shop, and took down a file of receipts, amongst which she searched for the gas bill her mother had referred to. It was for twenty-two florins, and that amount she found properly entered in the cash book in her step-father's handwriting; so he had evidently paid it himself.

Just then her motner appeared again in the shop, dressed to go out. She came close to the counter, and leaning over it, spoke in a low tone to Rachel. Franz. 15 "I am going to Frau Gotschalk's," she said, "to make enquiry about that brooch, and whether she paid for it at all. I am confused over it. Do not say anything about it until I can clear it up." Rachel nodded her head, but said nothing. She hoped her mother had really made a mistake, and that the brooch had not yet been paid for. They did not sell jewellery on credit, but often allowed a customer to take articles away for a short time on approval, and perhaps Frau Gotschalk had availed herself of this privilege ; but then, why did not her mother remember at the time ? It was puzzling, vexatious, and incomprehensible. Just then she heard Franz and her father speaking of the oft-discussed question of the electric light.

" Some day, perhaps," Franz said, " all the large buildings and good shops in Vienna will have it laid on when the stupid Corporation get tired of opposing a new thing. Meanwhile, Herr Otto will hire you a little gas engine at a cheap rate. I can do all the fitting work, and a small dynamo, with four incandescent lamps and accumulators, can be had for about three hundred florins. If you do not like to keep them, the makers will take them back at a little less than cost price." " I cannot afford three hundred florins," said Herr Rosenheim, sadly ; " or half the money. The times are so bad, and I have had losses — more than anyone here knows of." " What have you lost lately, Herr Rosenheim ? " " Money — much money. I think that Satan himself must have stolen it." "That is foolishness. There is no such person as Satan.

He is an invention of the priests. When did you lose your money ? " Solomon looked round cautiously and saw Rachel seated behind the counter with some piece of needlework in her hands. " I will tell you some other time," he said in a low tone. " Perhaps I am mistaken in some way. My eyes grow worse, and I may have misplaced two parcels I have lost containing paper florins. I will search again, but now it is five o'clock, and you should be going to your theatre." Franz quickly placed his light tools and the work he was engaged on in a drawer beneath the work table, then locked the drawer, stood up to his full height and stretched his long arms upward to the ceiling, which they almost touched. Rachel rose from her seat to make room for him to pass behind the counter. She presented her small hand, which he took and held for a moment ; then he bent down and said in a low tone, " Try to find out, Fraulein, what it is that is troubling him."

He pointed backward at the old man still bending over his work, then took down his hat and bowed politely to Rachel, who smiled back at him as he went out into the passage.

Chapter II. Frau Rosenheim

Franz had disappeared, Rachel crept up l&0ji\ behind her step-father and playfully placed her hands over his eyes. " You must not work any more this evening, father," she said. "We are alone. Let me close the outer door and make you some coffee in the parlour, Put up your tools and lock your drawer. See Franz has left the key in his, like a careless fellow." Solomon rose slowly, and placing his open hands on Rachel's shoulders, drew her towards him and kissed her. " Yes, I'll be glad to have some coffee," he said. " You are a good girl, Rachel. Where has your mother gone to?" " She has gone to Frau Gotschalk's about something. When she comes back we, too, must go for a little walk as far as the Stadt Park to see the new statue they have erected to Franz Schubert, who wrote those songs you like to hear.

Mother will stay at home to mind the house, I think, if I ask her, as it is Lotscha's evening out. The girl says she has a long way to go to see her brother, who is a soldier. She appears to have a great many brothers and cousins in the Kaiser's army, and they are always quartered in barracks a long way off. It is a 17 D pity she was not born a man, then she could go soldiering herself." " Then she'd come looking after her numerous sisters in Vienna," said Solomon, smiling. " It's the way of the world. One might as well try to turn the Danube up stream as to oppose it. How is it, Rachel, that no young man comes here to see you, although I see the young fellows often following you about in the Volks garten ?" "Those are idle youths, I think," said Rachel, laughing, " and, probably, not able to keep a tame cat, let alone an extravagant wife like I should be, without a penny of my own.

I wish you wouldn't object so much to my singing at the Karl Theatre, father, to earn a little money to pay for music lessons; then some day, perhaps, they would give me a good part and a fair salary, and I might get on in time like Fraulein Wiedemann, who began by singing in the chorus, and is now a prima donna." " I do not like the idea, Rachel, nor that you should follow Fraulein Wiedemann's example. She has left her father's house, and is at variance with her family, and is not respected." " I would not leave you, father —you might trust me — and you know well the profits in the shop are small, although I do try hard to make people buy things. It is the want of good light, Franz says, that makes our goods look dull. Even when the sun shines brightly we have but little light in this narrow passage."

Just then came the sound of loud knocking at the outer door. " Rachel knew that it was her mother, and said quickly, " Put on your hat and coat, father, so that we may go out at once. You and I want a little fresh air, and mother has been out for an hour." She hurriedly assisted Solomon to assume his outdoor garment, and then opened the shop door. "Why is the door closed so early, Rachel?" asked her mother, impatiently. " I have been knocking for a quarter-of-an-hour." " We were preparing to go out for a little walk when you would come back, mother. Perhaps you wouldn't mind keeping house alone for an hour. Lotscha is out with one of her soldier brothers or cousins. You have had your walk, and if father does not get some air and exercise he will not sleep. We are going to the Stadt Park to hear the band."

" Surely the house can be left to take care of itself for an hour," said Frau Rosenheim, with evident annoyance. " The hair-dresser opposite will keep an eye on the shop. I have had no walk. I have been waiting for Frau Gotschalk to come in and pay me that eighteen florins she forgot to pay for the brooch. There they are, and a pretty lot of trouble I have had to get them. We have quarrelled over it, as she could not at first recollect the transaction ; but there was the brooch and no receipt, so at last she paid the money with grumblings. I want my coffee and something to eat." " The coffee is ready," said Rachel. " We really must go now, or it will be too late. You will oblige me, mother, by remaining here for an hour. Father will not be content if there is no one in the house, and will not enjoy his short walk.

I shall stop at home next time when Lotscha is away." Solomon had been silently looking from mother to daughter during this dialogue in a bewildered way, not B understanding about the brooch or Rachel's anxiety that her mother should stay at home alone. The latter suddenly took his arm and led him forth, so terminating the discussion. They walked to the Stadt Park without much con versation. Rachel was preoccupied, and only briefly answered Solomon's questions. She found a good seat for him near the covered chalet, where a military band was playing, and told him the names of the pieces per formed, without the aid of a programme. She was passionately fond cf music, and had a quick ear. Her f"mall foot kept beating time as she listened. Suddenly she ceased to do so, arrested by the sight of three persons on a seat a little way in front.

She saw Frau Gotschalk and her daughter, and between them sat Franz Schaller, now well dressed, and leaning towards the young lady, to whom he was explaining something. As Fraulein Gotschalk turned her animated face towards Franz, Rachel could see that she wore the brooch which she had brought so often to the shop to be repaired. Presently she unfastened it from her neck and handed it to him. He examined it and put it in his pocket. Then he rose and raised his hat, as if he meant to leave, but the young lady had evidently many things yet to say to him. She wished to have his opinion as to the cau:e of her watch losing time, and pressed close to Franz as he opened the watch to touch the regulator. This done, she wished him to name the stones in a ring •she wore, and to say if it could be enlarged, as her fingers were growing stouter, in saying which she giggled and -simpered, and placed a fat hand on one of Franz's. Rachel could both see and hear her, and her dark ■eyebrows were contracted as if she felt pain.

She was meditating removing from the vicinity, when Franz saw her, and then hastened to restore Miss Gotschalk her ring and to take leave of her. He came round at once to where Rachel sat with Rosenheim. " I am glad to see you both here," he said. " I am not engaged at the Karl to-night. There has been some difference between the conductor and Fraulein Wiede mann at the rehearsal to-day, and she has declined to sing. No other light opera was ready, and so we are all amusing ourselves." "I see you are," said Rachel. "Are you often at liberty in the evenings like this ? " " Not often. When I have an evening to spare I go to hear some good music elsewhere — generally at the Grand Opera if it is open. If you and Herr Rosenheim would come with me this evening to hear Rigoletto I think I can get good seats.

I have never been with you to any place of amusement." Rachel shook her head. " Mother is at home alone," she said, sadly ; " and we must return shortly. Probably Frau Gotschalk and her daughter would be glad to go. They are looking at us just now as if we had no right to be here." For answer Franz quietly took a seat near Rachel. " I am sorry )*ou are vexed about something," he said, kindly. "Fraulein Gotschalk called me just now as I passed to ask me to look at that everlastingly damaged brooch of hers. One of the stones has fallen out this time. She says she is going to return it to Jacob Siebel, who sold it to her mother, and to ask him to exchange it for a better one when it is repaired. I am glad she did not buy it at our shop ; but I think she is careless with such things." Rachel turned pale, and clasped her hands together.

" When did her mother buy it ? " she asked. " About three months ago. Here it is. I must get a little stone for it to-morrow before I come to work. She is to call for it at ten o'clock." " Father," said Rachel, as she handed him the brooch, " did you ever see this before ? " Solomon took the brooch and held it close to his microscopic eyes. He peered into the inner edge of the silver rim, and said, " Yes, that was once in my stock. I can see my mark. I think we lost one like this about three months ago. We have lost many such things, Rachel, but nothing cf great value, like something that has gone lately." " Herr Schaller," said Rachel, " would you be so kind as to go back to Fraulein Gotschalk and ask her if she is sure her mother bought this brooch from Jacob Siebel, and what she paid for it, and also, perhaps, you would ask if my mother has been with them this evening.

You can tell me early to-morrow when you come to work. There is some mystery here. Now we must go back, or mother will be impatient." Rachel led her stepfather away from the crowd to a quiet avenue of the park in which Schubert's statue had been erected. Solomon could not see the rough features of the figure, but he could feel Rachel's grasp tightening on his arm in suppressed indignation. She spoke at length with deep feeling. " Father, I know you cannot sleep well lately. Tell me what is troubling you, — now, here, where we are alone. Perhaps I can find a remedy. You are depressed and unhappy. You have lost some money, is it not ? " " Yes, Rachel, a large sum of money for a poor man ■j like me, which I had saved, florin by florin, during years past, and hidden away in a drawer of the safe.

It is more than I shall ever be able to put together again. Sometimes I think I must have mislaid it. I have searched in every corner of the safe at times when I was left alone in the house, and yet the key of the safe has never been out of my possession. It is chained all day round my waist, and placed under my pillow at night." " How much money was there in the safe, father? " "About two thousand florins in notes and silver coin. The notes were taken, and the coins left in a bag." " And how much did you lose, father ? " " I think over eighteen hundred florins, which I had placed in two large envelopes. I meant one of them for you, Rachel, in case you got married, or if anything happened to me. There was a thousand florins in it, and I had written your name on it with the reason why I gave it, because you have been very good to me ever since you came with your mother.

They were new notes I got from the Lander bank. I used to open the envelopes and count them over now and then, and always found them correct. I didn't seal them up, because I liked to count them often ; but last month when I looked for them they were gone— envelopes and all — the bag only was left with the silver money in it. I suppose because I could see it every day and would miss it directly." " Do you suspect anyone, father ? " Rachel asked at length ; and as she did so, she trembled violently, but she grasped Solomon's arm all the tighter. "There is only Franz and Lotscha who have any business near the safe when I am not there," he said, in a low tone. " I do not like to think that it was either of them," " No, father, it was neither of them. Let us go home. I must think it over. Will you let me search the safe with you early to-morrow before anyone comes ?