THE FLYING MAIL

BY

M. GOLDSCHMIDT

From “The Flying Mail.”  Translated by Carl Larsen.

THE FLYING MAIL

BY

M. GOLDSCHMIDT

I.

Fritz Bagger had just been admitted to the bar.  He had come home and entered his room, seeking rest.  All his mental faculties were now relaxed after their recent exertion, and a long-restrained power was awakened.  He had reached a crisis in life:  the future lay before him,—­the future, the future!  What was it to be?  He was twenty-four years old, and could turn himself whichever way he pleased, let fancy run to any line of the compass.  Out upon the horizon, he saw little rose-colored clouds, and nothing therein but a certain undefined bliss.  He put his hands over his eyes, and sought to bring this uncertainty into clear vision; and after a long time had elapsed, he said:  “Yes, and so one marries.”

“Yes, one marries,” he continued, after a pause; “but whom?”

His thoughts now took a more direct course; but the pictures in his mind’s eye had not become plainer.  Again the horizon widely around was rose-colored, and between the tinted cloud-layers angel-heads peeped out—­not Bible angels, which are neither man nor woman; but angelic girls, whom he didn’t know, and who didn’t know him.  The truth was, he didn’t know anybody to whom he could give his heart, but longed, with a certain twenty-four-year power, for her to whom he could offer it,—­her who was worthy to receive his whole self-made being, and in exchange give him all that queer imagined bliss, which is or ought to be in the world, as every one so firmly believes.

“Oh, I am a fool!” he said, as he suddenly became conscious that he was merely dreaming and wishing.  He tried to think of something practical, thought upon a little picnic that was to be held in the evening; but the same dream returned and overpowered him, because the season of spring was in him, because life thrilled in him as in trees and plants when the spring sun shines.

He leaned upon the window-seat—­it was in an attic—­and let the wind cool his forehead.  But while the wind refreshed, the street itself gave his mind new nourishment.  Down there it moved, to him unknown, and veiled and hidden as at a masquerade.  What a treasure might not that easy virgin foot carry!  What a fancy might there not be moving in the head under that little bonnet, and what a heart might there not be beating under the folds of that shawl!  But, too, all this preciousness might belong to another.

Alas! yes, there were certainly many amiable ones down there!—­and if destiny should lead him to one of them, who was free, lovely, well-bred, of good family, could any one vouch that for her sake he was not giving up her, the beau-ideal, the expected, whose portrait had shown itself between the tinted clouds? or, in any event, who can vouch for one’s success in not missing the right one?