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I K E C H A E E C H A BY D0E0THEA GEEAED AUTHOR OF ( ORTHODOX,' ' LADY BABY,' ETC. JOINT-AUTHOR OF REATA,' 'THE WATERS OF HERCULES,' ETC. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON HDCCGXC All Rights reserved RECHA CHAPTEE I. It was in the year 1865 that on a forenoon in the end of February a number of persons were assembled in a room which adjoined the office of Doktor Fichter, the Bezirks richter (district judge) of Sachsendorf. Sachsendorf is a small, dull, respectable, well - regulated, and colourless provincial town of Upper Austria. The persons as sembled in the bare space which served as Doktor Fichter's ante-room, had come here independently of one another, each upon his A RECHA, own business; but they were all known to one another — by sight at least — and there fore most of them were talking.

Many of them had met here before, sometimes as antagonists, for Doktor Fichter's office was the place where most quarrels in Sachsen dorf were settled, or not settled, as the case might be. There were antagonists here to-day also, easy to recognise by the vin dictive glances that were exchanged, or by the ostentatious care which some individual would take to place the whole length of the apartment between himself and some other individual. This room was never quite empty at this hour ; but it was fuller than usual to-day, for it was market-day, the hardest day for the Bezirksrichter, the day on which the treasured -up quarrels of the week were brought into town, together with the butter and the cheese and the fattened pigs that were to be disposed of. These KECHA 3 quarrels were generally of no very grave nature.

Two peasant women, for instance, were led here to-day by a deadly feud which turned upon the question of one newly hatched chicken. They had gone shares in a batch of eggs which had been put under a sitting hen, each contributing six eggs. One egg had come to grief : whose egg was it ? Who had the best claim to the odd chicken % That the Bezirksrichter alone could decide ; and in order to assist him in his decision, the hen in question, together with the eleven chicks, had been brought to town, and was at that moment clucking audibly in a basket which stood on the floor of the ante-room, between the two claimants, who even now were clamor ously disputing the point with an energy which seemed worthy of a better cause. A little farther off sat a sullen - looking old farmer, who had sat here many times before, and all because of some square yard or so RECHA of wheat which his neighbour's sickle — so he declared — had encroached upon, and for which he had not yet succeeded in obtaining what he considered sufficient damages.

Chapter II

Horoweska, the scene of the events that are about to be recounted, stood upon a plain that had, some centuries back, been one vast tract of forest, and had been cleared by degrees, irregularly and at intervals, as space was wanted for new village settlements or as agriculture became more highly prized. Tree roots were being continually ploughed out of the fields, while some of the stretches of pasture consisted of a succession of green humps that looked like myriads of nameless graves, but were in reality the decayed stumps of trees that had once stood here in close ranks, now slowly crumbling into mould, and already so far transformed as RECHA, to be grass-grown. A certain number of the old forest-trees had survived by some chance, and stood dotted over the plain, singly or in groups ; huge oaks and beeches, with gaping trunks and blighted crowns, and with dead arms thrust out from among green leaves.

A moderately broad river — very slow, very deep, and of water so dull that it gave back no reflection either of the sky or of its own steep banks — cut the plain in two, and, describing one very marked curve, fell back into its straight course, and flowed on eastward. AVithin this curve of the river stood Horoweska. There is not much to say about the town : it was as irregular, as straggling, as dilapidated, as badly lighted, and as badly paved, as any other provincial town in East Galicia. There were unplastered brick walls, rickety bridges, and gates off their hinges to be seen on all sides. AVhere there was any thing of wood it was generally rotten ; RECHA where there was anything of iron it was invariably rusted; a lamp -post or a chim ney absolutely on the perpendicular was more the exception than the rule.

Though Horoweska covered a large space of ground, its population did not amount to very many thousands, for most of the houses were built only one story high ; and even of these there seemed to be more than were needed, for a good many windows were barred and doors locked. Altogether, the place gave the impression of being too large for its inhabitants. One of the few buildings of Horoweska which was more than one story high was the Jewish synagogue ; but this stood almost outside the town, at the end of a long, straggling, deserted street, and towards the river. There must have been a time when Horoweska had expected to spread itself in this direction, for this street — the Ulica Gelona (the "Green Street") — ended ab- RECHA ruptly ; the last house at either side showing a windowless brick wall — the sort of rawT-looking wall that obviously has only been intended as a temporary eyesore ; while, for several hundred yards farther, were still to be traced the lines which had marked the proposed continuation of the street.

The whole had been the work of a speculative builder, who had ruined him self over it. Many of the houses had never been lived in — some others had even been left unfinished, the tops roughly roofed in and the windows boarded up ; and if the grass did not actually grow in the street, this was only because the synagogue stood beyond it. Beyond the synagogue there was nothing more but a stretch of waste ground, covered with dwarfed bushes, twisted by the wind into fantastical knots, and in summer with tufts of white camomile flowers; and beyond that again only the river. It was just here that the river took its sharpest RECHA curve, so that this stretch of ground was bordered on three sides by water, and as there was no means of crossing the river here — the bridge being higher up — the spot was the most lonely to be found for miles around, leading to nowhere and ending in itself, visited only by the birds that pecked at the berries on the bushes, or occasionally by some child collecting camomile flowers to dry.

The river-banks were in many places precipitous, in some spots overhang ing, where the sluggish current had gradually eaten its way into the solid earth, and stood now in stagnant pools, choked by long grasses and by the leaves of water-plants that had taken root in these sheltered basins. These pools were very deep, but so screened by the overhanging brushwood as to be entirely invisible from the river-bank above, and even from the opposite side scarcely to be detected. In Horoweska, Lieutenant Borkam had been stationed for over a year, when upon a cer- RECHA, tain morning in March two letters reached him by the post. Most of the letters that reached him by the post were not letters at all, but unpaid bills, and consequently he was not generally in a hurry about opening them. These two letters, therefore, lay upon his smoking - table intact for fully forty - eight hours, at the expiration of which time they happened to come under his hand as he was searching for a fresh cigar.

As he had nothing particular to do at the moment, it occurred to him that he might as well read them. The first that he opened ran as follows : — " Lemberg, March 2, 1865. " Most Honoured Sir, — Convinced as I am that nothing but the cares of your pro fession can have been the cause of your overlooking the modest claim to which I have twice had the honour of directing your attention, I feel no scruple in mentioninc RECHA to you that, though my shattered health imperiously demands a course of Karlsbad waters, and though all my preparations are completed, it will be impossible for me — despite the risk of a delay which at my advanced age may possibly be fatal — to start on my journey until I am in receipt of the two hundred florins for which I had the honour to supply my most esteemed customer with the best wine at my com mand, and which, as I trust, has given entire satisfaction. — Your obedient servant, " Elias Bluthenreich.

"P.S. — Nothing would distress me more than to see myself compelled to enforce my claims in any other than the most deeply respectful manner." To some men the letter, or at least the postscript, would have caused a sleepless night; another sort of man would have C RECHA laughed and torn up the paper. Lieutenant Borkam did not belong to either of these classes of men. He laid down the letter and sighed — a very deep and heartfelt sigh — then he rested his chin upon his two hands and groaned, also from the bottom of his heart. The sigh wTas quite as much for Elias Bluthenreich as for himself; the groan was the first symptom of a fit of remorse coming on. These fits visited Lieutenant Borkam upon an average about twice a year, and as he was used to do whatever he happened to be doing rather violently, his remorse wTas generally of an extreme kind.

His expenditure, unfortunately, was marked by the same exhaustive thoroughness. But the blame was not all his ; this was once more a case where the sins of the father had left their shadow behind them. The only son of one of the kings of the financial world of Vienna, he had grown up the idol of his father, who never seemed better pleased than RECHA 35 when Theodor asked for an increase of pocket money. Ferdinand Borkam had been a clever man, but guilty of that one great stupidity of successful fortune-makers — that of being ashamed of having earned his money. His dream was that his son should step over that narrow but deep gulf which separates the Vienna financial world from the Vienna aristocracy, and therefore it was that Theodor was studiously excluded from any part in that industry which the old man blushed for and yet clung to, and that his taste for expenditure was encouraged and cherished with as much tender care as though it had been some costly plant of precarious growth.

That he had not, under this treatment, de veloped into an insupportable puppy or a ridiculous braggart, but had escaped wTith only the legitimate egotism of a spoilt child, was solely due to a certain naive simplicity of character which by some miracle had sur vived in him. RECHA AVhen he was eighteen the catastrophe came. Ferdinand Borkam, made reckless by success, had risked a speculation against which he had been repeatedly warned, and had failed. He sank under the blow, and died a ruined man. For Theodor, brought up as he was, the army was the only chance. Awakening one day from his passion of grief at the loss of his father, he was handed sixty florins (about five pounds), an Austrian lieutenant's pay, the sum which he generally spent upon his boots and upon his cab-fares, and was told that on that sum he wTas to live for a month.

It said much for him that he had not been embittered, but in no other point could it be asserted of him that he had fitted himself to his altered lot. The foolish father might have spared the pains he had taken to cul tivate his son's expensive tastes. The boy's whole individuality was one which leant towards expansion. His was a nature traced RECHA with large lines, cast in a broad mould, and which struggled honestly but in vain to squeeze itself into the narrow limits within which it suddenly found itself placed. No one could accuse him of any one great extravagance, it was only that he spent a little too much upon everything. He could not see an outstretched hand without putting something into it — not so much from pure Christian charity, as from a weakness he had for preferring a cheerful face to a sad one, a pleasant sight to an unpleasant one.

He invariably overtipped the waiter for the same reason, and also because he could not get over the feeling that there was something shabby about putting back coppers into one's purse. Though he was no greater dandy than every good-looking man of his age ought to be, his bill at the regimental tailor's was generally of alarming length, simply because he felt miserable in a blouse that was at all rubbed at the elbows, or an attila with discoloured cords. RECHA Neither could he ever bring himself to bargain with a Jew, however barefacedly he wras being taken advantage of. The littlenesses of this new life oppressed him ; it was some thing like an eagle trying to live in a hen coop. In his extravagance there was about as much generosity as self-indulgence. If he smoked first-rate cigars, it was quite as much for the sake of being able to offer one to a comrade as because he enjoyed them himself; if he ordered expensive wine, he was materially guided therein by the know ledge that Captain S. or Lieutenant E. con sidered a glass of Tokayer a treat, the mere recollection of which would cheer their monotonous existence for days after.

That to give treats is as great a luxury as any other, did not generally occur to him until he found himself face to face with an enrao-ed creditor, and then reaction would set in. If he could only have managed to repent a little less violently, there would have been RECHA, 39 far more chance of his reforming ; but when the remorseful fit was upon him, he became, in his own eyes, the blackest sinner that walked this earth ; his own image horrified him, no punishment was severe enough for such a wretch as he, and immediately he would condemn himself to so rigid an economy that of course flesh and blood could not stand it for more than eight days at the outside, and the result was a rebound to the opposite extreme, as violent as had been the remorse. AVithin the six years that he had served in the army he had in this way four times renounced smoking for ever, and had twice come to the conclusion that one meal a-day, besides a cup of tea in the morning (without sugar), was quite sufficient to support life.

On each of the occasions aforenamed he had made a hurried gift of all his smoking apparatus — including ash-holders, tobacco-jars, cigarette-tips, pipe racks, &c, besides an ample stock of cigars — RECHA, to one of his comrades, and for two days he had walked about with his head very high, and supported by the nervous tension pro duced by the excitement of his voluntary martyrdom. Then had followed two days of growing dejection, then two more of undis guised moroseness, and on the seventh or the eighth day — according to whichever happened to be the more drizzly and dull — he would burst out laughing at himself, and sitting down at his stripped smoking-table, would write off for a fresh supply of cigars, and, of course, also for new sets of ash-holders, tobacco -j ars, cigarette -tips, and pipe -racks.

His fasting experiments ended in the same way, only that they seldom lasted for more than three clays ; and the return to ordinary existence was generally celebrated by a sup per given to his comrades, at which Theodor, with the appetite of a starved lion, ate double portions of all the viands, and drowned whatever lingering scruples mio-ht RECHA 41 still be disturbing his mind in the best wine that money — that is to say, credit — could procure. These had been the worst of his excesses, and yet he had been more than once in very desperate straits. Under the existing conditions in Poland it does not take very much to bring this about. The process by which an Austrian officer is brought to ruin, and frequently also to disgrace, at the hands of a Jew, is very simple. A lieutenant who has over-spent his pay is in a hurry for 500 florins (between £40 and £50).

The Jew offers it him on the terms of 25 florins interest a month — that is, 300 florins a year, or 60 per cent ; the ar rangement, however, holding only for three months. The lieutenant receives 425 florins in cash — the interest for the three months being deducted in advance. Polish Jews have been known to lend money to a cavalry lieutenant at 24 per cent, but such cases are rare ; the aforenamed terms may RECHA be taken as the average, the so-called "Nor mal Geschdft," and, in any case, this is only the first stage on the road to ruin. At the end of the three months one of two things must necessarily have happened ; either the lieutenant's financial prospects have bettered themselves and he is able to pay the Jew, or else they have not bet tered themselves, and, since no one short of a magician can be expected to save 425 florins in three months from 70 florins a month, he is not able to pay him.

The Jew infinitely prefers the second contingency. Supposing, however, the first to have arisen, — finding himself in face of the unpleasant prospect of getting his money back again, the money - lender does not generally find it hard to parry this blow. Why should the Herr Lieutenant be in such a hurry to pay back so small a sum ? He (the Jew) has no use for the money at present, times are so bad for investments ; he knows that RECHA 43 the money is safe with the Herr Lieutenant — and so on, and so on. He has always felt so deep a respect for him that he would rather leave the money in his hands, even on the most miserable terms, say three, say even two florins a month. The Herr Lieu tenant, if he be at all green — which is not an infrequent thing with lieutenants — can not fail to be a little touched at this mark of confidence, and will naturally be the more touched in exact proportion as he is con scious of not deserving it.

It is always so much easier to leave things as they are ; perhaps the young man is a trifle easy-going or a trifle impatient, or perhaps he has just seen a horse which he would very much like to buy, and which he cannot buy if he divests himself of all his ready money. He ends by yielding, and the second stage is thus reached. There now comes a period during which the Jew watches his victim. He notes each one of his movements. Put the case that RECHA the horse in question is actually bought, or that the Jew otherwise obtains a certainty that the young officer has had to meet some heavy expense, the very next morning he will appear in the victim's lodging, and with smiling confidence will announce to the Herr Lieutenant that the times have suddenly taken a better turn, that it is so fortunate that the gracious gentleman should be able to return the money, as he assured him only the other day with his own honoured lips, &c, &c. Upon this follows real consternation on the part of the lieutenant, and well-acted consternation on the part of the Jew when he hears that the money is no longer avail able.

Then come laments for the brilliant Geschdft that will be missed ; harrowing pictures are drawn of starving grandchildren or sick fathers, — the amount of colour laid on being regulated by the individuality of the victim. AVhen he has reached the sta^e of feeling himself a monster, the idea is RECHA thrown out that the harm may be partially repaired by paying higher percentage on the money. Fifty florins a month is sug gested for 500, which means 120 per cent. In his present state of mind the victim is thankful for the terms ; he can breathe now for six months, and there is no saying what turn affairs may take before then. The fifty florins a month do not oppress him particularly, as he, of course, leaves them to accumulate. The Jew keeps so carefully out of sight that when one morning the lieutenant finds him at his door he has to consult his calendar before he can convince himself that the six months are actually passed, and that the only other turn which matters have taken is that the sum of which in hard cash he never has received more than 425 florins, has grown into 800.

And now the Jew holds him. This is the beginning of the last stage. AVhat follows upon this is incalculable ; it may be long years RECHA of grinding misery, or it may be — and not infrequently is — a pistol-shot and a suicide's grave. Of course this same theme is liable to be infinitely and very comically varied ; there are thousands of ways of inviting the fly into the parlour. Let us put another case. Lieutenant X. wants five hundred florins. He sends for liis Factor, the same Jew-agent who procures him his horses and his wine and his oats. " Aron Schimmel, I must have five hundred florins by six o'clock this evening ; get along with you and fetch them." " At your service, Herr Lieutenant." At the end of an hour : " Gott und die Welt, Herr Lieutenant ! " says Aron Schim mel, returning breathless and with streaming locks, "five hundred florins are absolutely not to be had in the town, on no terms whatever.

I have been to Moses Rosenroth and to Samson Veilchenblau, but the first RECHA is out of town and the other has got his last penny invested ; my one wish is to serve Euer Gnaden, but " " Wretched hound ! spare me your lies. I tell you that I must have five hundred florins ; go to some one else ! " At the end of another hour Aron Schim mel returns, more breathless and with more wildly streaming locks. " At last ! " he pants. " AVhat a struggle it was ! AVhat a fight ! " " Have you got the money ? " interrupts Lieutenant X. " Not the money, but the certainty of it. Herr AVeinstock is ready to make the Ge schdft ; it is not very convenient for him, but on consideration of its being the Herr Lieu tenant. And even for him he is utterly unable to do it in cash, but only in hides." " In what?" shouts the incensed lieutenant.

Then the Factor explains that Herr AVeinstock, who has just returned from RECHA the market at Tardubitz, has brought with him two cartloads of raw cowhides (or possibly the wares quoted may be empty wine -bottles, or a damaged lot of sealing wax, or a bankrupt's stock of shoe-blacking, — the exact details are immaterial, all these articles having repeatedly figured in similar scenes), which he would be willing to hand over to the Herr Lieutenant in return for a note in which the Herr Lieutenant acknow ledged himself debtor to the amount of six hundred florins. They were such fine hides that the Factor was ready to pledge his re putation as a Factor that they would be sold again within an hour. The explanation is shortened by the lieutenant turning the Jew out of the room by the scruff of his neck.

Having given him time to cool down, the Factor once more slinks in by the door ; he has only returned to mention that in case the gracious gentleman wished to reconsider the matter, he had a buyer in his eye al- RECHA. ready. " Shall I go and settle the Geschdft ? I know that the Herr Lieutenant will not forget me when the Geschdft is settled." " Go and do anything that you like, Christ-murderer that you are ! " cries the lieutenant, at his wits' end by this time, " so long as you bring me five hundred florins. Five hundred florins ! " he shouts after the Factor, who, not waiting for any more explicit consent, is already half-way down the staircase. Presently he reappears beaming, and announces to the lieutenant that he is the happy possessor of two hun dred raw cowhides. Such hides ! AVill the Herr Lieutenant not trouble himself to look at them ?

Of course the hides exist nowhere except in the Factor's ima gination, but he knows very well that the lieutenant is not likely to sally forth in full hussar uniform and in the light of day, in order to enforce his claims to two cartloads of cowhides. And even should D RECHA this unlikely case arise, the Factor will not be embarrassed ; he will take him into the nearest store-house and show him what ever pile of hides happens to be at hand, comforted by the assurance that the young hussar's comprehension of the possible value of such wares will be as that of the babe unborn. And now for the buyer ! Aron Schimmel starts off once more on his aching feet in search of the right man. Alas ! he is not to be found. Nathaniel Grunschmied, on whom he had based his hopes, has left the town half an hour ago.

" I don't care who has left the town and who hasn't ! " cries Lieutenant X., beginning to fume ; " I want to be rid of the filthy old hides that you have stuck on to me, and I want five hundred florins. They must be here in an hour, you despicable dog, miserable ser pent, creeping crocodile," &c, &c, &c. Exit Jew very hurriedly, for the lieutenant has made a movement towards his ridino--Cane. RECHA This time the Factor allows several hours to elapse, and returns in so limp a state that he appears to be nothing but a bundle of damp greenish rags. It is the tendency of all cheap black stuff to turn green with wear. He explains dejectedly that, contrary to all expectations, four hundred and fifty florins is the utmost price to be had for the hides. He cannot understand people being so blind to the beauty of these hides, &c. He did not dare to close the Geschdft without the Herr Lieutenant's consent, but he has brought the four hundred and fifty florins with him in case the Herr Lieutenant should be inclined All this time he is observing every twitch of the lieutenant's eyelids, and according to the degree of desperation or recklessness that his expression betrays, he decides whether he will have to remember some other possible buyer to whom he will then hurry off, or, in other words, whether the extra fifty florins which he holds in RECHA reserve in his pocket will have to be pro duced or not.

By this time the afternoon is far advanced, and the chances are that the lieutenant will not require much more pressure before he succumbs to the tempta tion of being rid of his ridiculous bargain before any of his comrades get wind of it, more especially if it is a debt of honour which he has to despatch by the six o'clock post. Through these or similar scenes Theodor Borkam had repeatedly passed. In this way he had struggled on for six years, falling repeated ly and rising again with that same irrepressible buoyancy which had lifted him over the shock of a catastrophe that would have broken many men for ever. At this time Theodor was twenty-four years of age, younger in face even than his years, and generally acknowledged to be the handsomest man in his regiment. What sort of a man he would ultimately become it was hard to RECHA 53 say.

Everything about him was as yet unfinished. Probably the ultimate develop ment of his character would depend upon the sort of woman into whose hands he would fall. It is contact with women that alone can give the finishing touches to the individ uality of a man, and the class of women with whom Theodor had been thrown during six years of village garrisons was not of the sort that generally exercises a lasting influence upon an educated mind. As he sat with his elbows upon the table and his chin in his hands, giving way to his latest fit of remorse, Theodor was already busy with all sorts of penitential plans that were to enable Herr Bluthenreich, the wine merchant, to enter into possession of those two hundred florins of which the poor man was in such urgent need. He was tormented by the vision of the old broken-down man, sitting on the top of his strapped and corded trunk, all ready to start for Karlsbad, and RECHA yet chained to Lemberg for want of that sum.