human
He will not take it so ill, will he? he said rubbing his hands in ecstasy.
gpt
So entirely without song or garland, the professor was not to enter my house, which of all others has the first right to welcome him. He will meet welcomes enough outside! All B. has blazoned his name on its shield as her hero and poet, and the students are wild with enthusiasm. He is the only one of the professors who has fought with them, and how he has fought! I tell you, colleague, there was exultation enough here whenever your letters or other tidings of him arrived. City and university alike went wild over him, and his poems that you sent us, as your malicious Mr. Atkins would say, like Congreve rockets, set fire to both old and young. Do you know that the university designs giving him a reception?
human
I have heard so, but I shall advise the gentlemen to make no arrangements on his account. It is very doubtful whether Walter returns.
gpt
Doubtful as to his coming? Good heavens! we confidently expect his regiment this very morning.
human
Certainly! But I fear Walter will not be with his comrades. According to the letter I received from him this morning, he appears to be tarrying behind in H., and to have no intention of coming home.
gpt
I wish our whole military strength might be brought to bear against this obstinate lieutenant, and force him to come home! he cried angrily.
human
And so he is not to return to us! He went away as a sick man, whose life we half despaired of; and now, when he might come back healthy, honored, admired by all the world, he will not come. Doctor Behrend, there is some hidden reason for all this! He might have come with you if he had chosen, but he really flies from B. Why did he always make his military duties an excuse for absence, and now that they are ended, why will he persist in remaining away! Something has happened. Tell me what it is.
gpt
I know nothing about it, replied Doctor Behrend evasively.
human
Perhaps he dislikes the ovation which awaits him here. You know he could never endure being placed in the foreground.
gpt
Nonsense! cried the doctor furiously.
human
He must now step to the foreground. We tolerated that anxious timidity in the scholar; but now when he has launched out under full sail as a poet, we forbid all such whims!
gpt
Do not cherish too great hopes as to Walter's poetic future, he said.
human
I very much fear that with the sword, he will also lay aside the poets, then bury himself among his books, shut himself out from the outside world more vexatiously than ever, and in a year's time stand just where he did at the opening of the war.
gpt
He will not do that!
human
He will; it would just suit his fancy. With all his genius, Walter remains an incorrigible dreamer; his energy is only an impulse of the moment. In moments of excitement and inspiration such natures do and dare all; as soon as the incitement is wanting, they sink back again into their dreaming. Life in its every-day dress is nothing to them, simply because they do not understand it.
gpt
And a delightful thing it must be to dream away one's life,
human
Sensible men like you and me, Doctor Behrend, haven't the least idea of the nonsensical things that haunt such a learned, poetic head as Walter Fernow's.
gpt
He needs a spur to effort, replied the doctor, gravely.
human
He needs an energetic, ardent force to remain daily and hourly at his side, and wrest him from that ideal life, to animate him for the conflict with the world and give him what he does not possess; ambition and self-confidence. If this were granted him, I believe there is no height he might not attain in the long future yet before him. But if an unhappy passion once comes to such a nature--
gpt
An unhappy passion! he cried.
human
For Heaven's sake, our professor has not fallen in love!
gpt
Oh, not at all! It only occurred to me as a mere supposition.
human
You have hinted at the truth, he said,
gpt
I know nothing at all about it, my friend.
human
You are positively insufferable with your know-nothingness, growled the old doctor.
gpt
You know all about this matter and you might confide in my discretion!
human
I repeat to you that my idea is founded upon a mere suspicion. You know Walter's reticence; he has never spoken a word to me on the subject. In any event, I urgently implore you not to take advantage of my indiscretion, and tell the Frau Doctorin--
gpt
My wife? The doctor threw a glance at the door, which fortunately, he had closed behind him.
human
God forbid! That would be to set all the women of B. in an uproar! The professor has already become a hero to our ladies; if now, the nimbus of an unhappy love surrounds him, he will be overwhelmed by their romantic sympathy. Who would have thought this of our timid professor, when he sat here at his writing-desk, and I gave him lectures upon his health, which I warned him was going to ruin physically and mentally! Now he goes to the war, fights, makes verses, falls in love--it is most atrocious!
gpt
I must go, said Behrend, evidently anxious to shorten the interview.
human
You will excuse me for to-day.
gpt
Well, go then! growled the old doctor.
human
I can get nothing out of you; but let the professor only come home, and I will set his head right.
gpt
Well, try it! he said.
human
I have done my utmost; but that sickly melancholy is beyond my power.