Latest / The Scorpion by Anna Elisabet Weirauch. / 01 - The Scorpion.

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01 - The Scorpion. · The Scorpion by Anna Elisabet Weirauch.

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Speaker 1: Frankly, I desired to make Myra's acquaintance because of her
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Speaker 1: evil reputation. It was from Aunt Antonia that I first
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Speaker 1: heard of her. Aunt Antonia was a very pious and
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Speaker 1: respectable lady, and lies and slander were alien to her.
0:15
Speaker 1: She saw things with a sharp eye but saw them
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Speaker 1: from a set viewpoint. According to her tale, Myra had
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Speaker 1: even as a child exhibited a peculiar propensity to lying
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Speaker 1: and stealing. In school she was considered stupid and lazy.
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Speaker 1: As a young girl, she had run around with a
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Speaker 1: remarkable woman, a fashionably dressed sharper, with a decidedly masculine manner. Misled, perhaps,
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Speaker 1: by this friend, she had stolen her father's silver service
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Speaker 1: and pawned it. After a fit of downright insanity during
0:47
Speaker 1: which she tried to strangle her aunt, who had been
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Speaker 1: the motherless child's faithful guardian, she was dispatched to her
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Speaker 1: Uncle George in a small town. There she stole everything
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Speaker 1: not nailed down. very skillfully forced her uncle's desk and,
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Speaker 1: appropriating a large sum of money, fled. Her father, a
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Speaker 1: mental man of a most sensitive nature, did not long
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Speaker 1: survive this news. He died of a stroke. Myra's mother
1:13
Speaker 1: had died in giving her life. Luckily, as Uncle George
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Speaker 1: was wont to say bitterly, but Myra did not share
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Speaker 1: his opinion. She had a fantastic notion of what a
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Speaker 1: mother is, and believed that her own mother's premature death
1:27
Speaker 1: was the cause of all the misfortunes in her life.
1:30
Speaker 1: For my part, I cannot say which view is correct.
1:34
Speaker 1: Certain it is that Myra's childhood would not have been
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Speaker 1: as dismal and joyless as under Aunt Emily's bony fingers.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, even the gentlest of mother's hands
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Speaker 1: could not have saved her from the bitterest struggles of
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Speaker 1: her life. And when I recall the latter, I understand
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Speaker 1: Uncle George's luckily quite well. Doubtless he had a clearer
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Speaker 1: picture of his sister than Myra could possibly have had.
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Speaker 1: Little Myra was not to go to school. Her father,
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Speaker 1: Franz Rudloff himself ordered it so. He had an almost
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Speaker 1: morbid fear of anything that suggested the common people. It
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Speaker 1: seemed to him as if his cool high-ceilinged home would
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Speaker 1: be contaminated with the exhalations of poorly ventilated classrooms, as
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Speaker 1: if his quiet walls would re-echo to hundreds of shrill voices,
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Speaker 1: to hundreds of trampling feet. were he to send his
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Speaker 1: daughter to school. So a governess came to the house.
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Speaker 1: Aunt Emily was in secret opposition from the first. She
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Speaker 1: had gone to school, and school had not harmed her
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Speaker 1: in any way. Quite the contrary. She was absolutely opposed
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Speaker 1: to the idea that anybody in this world should have
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Speaker 1: anything better than she had or had had. One of
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Speaker 1: the few pleasures she permitted herself in life was that
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Speaker 1: of impartial justice, as she called it. That is to say,
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Speaker 1: if anyone is getting along undeservedly well, he must be
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Speaker 1: made to suffer for his unmerited good fortune by some
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Speaker 1: heavy blow of fate. Other people have another name for
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Speaker 1: this type of pleasure. Aunt Emily was against the teacher.
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Speaker 1: But Aunt Emily was much too much of a model
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Speaker 1: to object when the master of the house expressed a desire.
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Speaker 1: She knew that in such cases she must submit in silence.
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Speaker 1: Not that poor Franz would ever have demanded it of her.
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Speaker 1: Oh dear no, but it was the proper thing to do.
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Speaker 1: So she pinched the corners of her mouth a little
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Speaker 1: tighter and submitted in silence. The teacher had such wavy,
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Speaker 1: wayward hair that the brown curls refused to be laid
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Speaker 1: flat and were always fluttering about her face. Moreover, she
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Speaker 1: had the disposition which, according to the proverb, goes with
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Speaker 1: such hair. All the men who had played a brief
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Speaker 1: or a lengthy role in her life declared she would
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Speaker 1: have made a ravishing lover. She was somewhat less qualified
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Speaker 1: to educate a little girl. Aunt Emily had not chosen her.
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Speaker 1: That had been quite definitely Franz Rudloff's and Myra's concern,
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Speaker 1: one thing father and daughter had in common. All their
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Speaker 1: senses thirsted for beauty and harmony. They put a premium
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Speaker 1: on externals, as Aunt Emily expressed it. The governess, the
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Speaker 1: young lady, had such a charming girlish face, such gentle
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Speaker 1: gestures and such a beautiful vibrant voice. But it was
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Speaker 1: no sense of personal interest that attracted Franz Rudloff to
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Speaker 1: the young lady. It was simply that if he must
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Speaker 1: take a stranger into his house, he preferred that she
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Speaker 1: be an agreeable creature. Perhaps he was, to a degree
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Speaker 1: unsuspected by himself, heartily sick of a disagreeable one. Myra's
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Speaker 1: case was different. She had never in all her life
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Speaker 1: seen any human soul that so appealed to her. All
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Speaker 1: her eager child's heart, which neither love nor tenderness had
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Speaker 1: ever filled, went out toward this stranger, this stranger who
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Speaker 1: took her into her arms, who brushed the hair from
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Speaker 1: her forehead with her gentle hands while her voice caressingly
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Speaker 1: called her darling and pet. The prospect of having this
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Speaker 1: person always near her was an inconceivable, a delirious joy.
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Speaker 1: She did not beg her father. Myra Rudloff never could beg,
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Speaker 1: not even if it were a question of her life.
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Speaker 1: But when her father asked her if the young lady
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Speaker 1: should come, she said, yes. And the young lady came.
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Speaker 1: But Aunt Emily pinched the corners of her mouth tighter
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Speaker 1: and submitted in silence. In the next three or four years,
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Speaker 1: while the young lady remained in the house, Myra experienced
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Speaker 1: all the tortures of unhappy love. For the first few
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Speaker 1: months everything went splendidly. That is the most unhappy part
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Speaker 1: of an unhappy love. It always begins with an extravagant happiness.
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Speaker 1: The young lady was very fond indeed of Myra. and
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Speaker 1: Myra was very fond indeed of the young lady, and
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Speaker 1: they studied together and played together and went for walks together.
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Speaker 1: It was a glorious time, but like all glorious times
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Speaker 1: of brief duration. Surely some fiend suddenly cast the former
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Speaker 1: lieutenant of Hussars, von Hanston, in their path, that very
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Speaker 1: lieutenant of Hussars whom the young lady had loved ardently
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Speaker 1: from the time when she was not a young lady
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Speaker 1: at all. but was called Frida Ellert and went to
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Speaker 1: the seminary and danced at her first balls in the
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Speaker 1: city where she was born. This former lieutenant of Hussars
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Speaker 1: had no very clean record behind him. He had had
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Speaker 1: to leave the service on account of debts, and had
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Speaker 1: since tried his hand at a little of everything. He
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Speaker 1: referred to his present occupation only in very ambiguous, albeit
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Speaker 1: in very high-sounding terms. but that in no sense prevented
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Speaker 1: the flame from kindling again in the young lady's bosom
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Speaker 1: or Myra, sweet little Myra, who was as good as gold,
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Speaker 1: from being a nuisance who was continually in the way.
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Speaker 1: At first, Myra was simply cross when her brother paid
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Speaker 1: the young lady a visit and the child was sent
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Speaker 1: to her bedroom, because the young lady could not receive
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Speaker 1: a gentleman in a room where there was a bed.
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Speaker 1: Later they changed all that. It was enough to make
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Speaker 1: anybody cross. and if the visits had continued and Myra
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Speaker 1: had continued to be shut out, and if that cold,
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Speaker 1: unfriendly tone which was habitual with the young lady these days,
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Speaker 1: had continued too Myra's burning love might have changed very
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Speaker 1: quickly to hate, and all would have been well. But
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Speaker 1: the devil alone knows, that same devil who had washed
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Speaker 1: up Von Hanston on Victoria Louisa Square one morning, what
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Speaker 1: Von Hanston had up his sleeve. Some private worries, no doubt,
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Speaker 1: or debts or another little love affair. At any rate,
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Speaker 1: the young lady presently began to feel aggrieved, and to
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Speaker 1: mope and to weep all night. That was too much
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Speaker 1: for Myra. Myra Rudloff did not cry easily. She did
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Speaker 1: not believe that a human being could cry unless he
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Speaker 1: were suffering the extremes of agonized despair. Therefore, she would
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Speaker 1: have torn her heart out of her breast to comfort
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Speaker 1: anyone who was crying. So when Frida wept for her
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Speaker 1: lieutenant of hussars, Myra suffered all the torments of hell.
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Speaker 1: At first, since the young lady did not want to
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Speaker 1: wake the child, she wept softly. In fact, wept herself
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Speaker 1: to sleep in a quarter of an hour. But when
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Speaker 1: she observed that Myra woke up, or perhaps did not
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Speaker 1: dare go to sleep, and made an effort to remain awake,
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Speaker 1: listening to every breath, then she felt quite free to
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Speaker 1: give vent to her grief and let herself be comforted.
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Speaker 1: At the sound of the first sobs, Myra would jump
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Speaker 1: out of her little bed and run in her bare
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Speaker 1: feet across the bare floor. Then she would crouch at
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Speaker 1: the young lady's bedside and weep and shiver, and comfort
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Speaker 1: her with her sweet, delicate child's voice, and her gentle
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Speaker 1: and good child's hands. And the young lady permitted herself
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Speaker 1: to be caressed and comforted while she braced her feet
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Speaker 1: against the foot of the bed, bent back her head,
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Speaker 1: tore the pillows with her nails and cried, The dog!
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Speaker 1: The scoundrel! I can't stand it any longer! I'll die!
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Speaker 1: He's killing me! By the time that these scenes took place,
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Speaker 1: Myra had already known for some while that these outbursts
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Speaker 1: referred to the brother, and that this brother was no
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Speaker 1: brother at all. She felt such a furious torment of
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Speaker 1: hatred against the man that she often pondered with fierce
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Speaker 1: intensity how she could manage to do away with him.
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Speaker 1: These nights of memories and of sighs were bad, but
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Speaker 1: they were by no means the worst. The worst was
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Speaker 1: that the gentleman would appear again the next day and
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Speaker 1: be received between laughter and tears, with open reproaches and
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Speaker 1: hardly dissembled tenderness, and Myra would be sent to her room.
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Speaker 1: Then Myra would grind her teeth and dig her nails
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Speaker 1: into her palms, and give way to the most torturing rage.
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Speaker 1: Myra was capable of much rudeness on these occasions. It
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Speaker 1: was not her way to show sorrow when she was suffering.
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Speaker 1: She preferred to be rude. Hence it is quite understandable
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Speaker 1: that there were times when the young lady was furiously
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Speaker 1: angry at her. Had Myra been able to tell how
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Speaker 1: she felt? inside she would have wept and said, I
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Speaker 1: love you and I am jealous. Doubly jealous because your
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Speaker 1: love is bestowed on a man who torments you and
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Speaker 1: whom you pretend to despise. I suffer because I have
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Speaker 1: to love a creature who has so little pride in character.
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Speaker 1: Myra went into the room, Her room that she was
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Speaker 1: not permitted to enter while that hated scoundrel was sitting there.
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Speaker 1: She entered without knocking. She carried her head very high
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Speaker 1: and set her tiny foot down very firmly. She laid
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Speaker 1: her books and notebooks on the table, opened the inkwell
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Speaker 1: with a bang and pretended to be looking at the clock.
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Speaker 1: She really was, but she was still so small that
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Speaker 1: she had some difficulty in telling the time. I have
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Speaker 1: a lesson, she said. That scoundrel sneered contemptuously and excused himself.
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Speaker 1: How dare she do such a thing? The young lady
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Speaker 1: hissed at her. Myra strove to think of some hateful reply,
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Speaker 1: and she succeeded. My father doesn't pay you simply to
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Speaker 1: keep that scoundrel sitting here all the time, she said.
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Speaker 1: The young lady would have liked to strike her, but
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Speaker 1: she shrank from the menacing gravity of the child's pale face.
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Speaker 1: Never had anybody dared strike Myra Rudloff, although many may
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Speaker 1: have felt the temptation. The young lady caught her by
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Speaker 1: the arm and shook her. She gripped the child so
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Speaker 1: tightly that the pressure of her fingers was visible several
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Speaker 1: days afterward as five blue marks on the tender skin.
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Speaker 1: If Myra had blue marks on her arm once, she
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Speaker 1: had them a hundred times, or welts on her shoulders
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Speaker 1: or scratches on her hands. Had she wanted to complain,
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Speaker 1: help was assured. If she had just once showed Aunt
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Speaker 1: Emily the traces of one such scene, Instead of anxiously
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Speaker 1: hiding them, that person would have gone for good. Myra
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Speaker 1: knew this but did not want to do it. Hence
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Speaker 1: she had to fight her battle through single-handed. When Frida
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Speaker 1: perceived that the child was superior to her, she changed
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Speaker 1: her tactics. Myra must no longer be treated as an enemy.
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Speaker 1: She must be made a confidant. Everything must be poured
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Speaker 1: forth to Myra's silent, little heart. All the joys and
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Speaker 1: sorrows of this affair. and a whole mass of rubbish besides.
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Speaker 1: Myra had to stand watch, Myra had to convey letters
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Speaker 1: and carry on telephone conversations, and Myra was showered with
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Speaker 1: kisses and caresses. Another child might have been quite happy
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Speaker 1: in this state of affairs. Myra continued to suffer. The
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Speaker 1: difficulty probably lay in the fact that she detested the
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Speaker 1: man so much. If it had been someone she liked,
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Speaker 1: she might have accommodated herself more readily to the situation.
12:40
Speaker 1: Sometimes when the young lady was in a mood to
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Speaker 1: belabor her heart's dearest, she would take the child on
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Speaker 1: her knee and swear to leave that terrible man. Then
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Speaker 1: amidst tears and oaths everything would be promised. Yes, my darling, yes,
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Speaker 1: my angel, he shall never cross that threshold again, the
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Speaker 1: dirty dog. I have you, my pet, my comfort. I
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Speaker 1: will live for you alone. For Myra these were moments
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Speaker 1: of an agonized bliss. But they were only moments for
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Speaker 1: all that, For when the telephone rang or when a
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Speaker 1: letter came, or when they met the gentleman accidentally in
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Speaker 1: the public gardens, everything was forgotten again. Myra comprehended that
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Speaker 1: here was something against which she could do nothing. She
13:24
Speaker 1: comprehended darkly that she had no right to demand a
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Speaker 1: human being entirely for herself, because she was a child.
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Speaker 1: And she burned with a desire to grow up quickly, quickly,
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Speaker 1: in order to possess what she loved wholly and solely.
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Speaker 1: Then came that strange business with the silverware. One night
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Speaker 1: the young lady gave Myra the keys to the silver
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Speaker 1: closet and a shallow leather-covered case. Myra was to return
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Speaker 1: the case to the closet. The young lady had borrowed
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Speaker 1: it secretly because her bridegroom wanted to see the pretty silver.
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Speaker 1: Myra wanted to see, too. She teased so long that
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Speaker 1: the young lady opened the case. There were the thick,
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Speaker 1: shiny spoons row on row, each in its groove in
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Speaker 1: the dark blue velvet. Not one was missing. Myra felt
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Speaker 1: an irresistible pleasure in stealing down the long hall, as
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Speaker 1: silently as a cat, groping her way in the dining
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Speaker 1: room without turning on the lights, cautiously unlocking the closet
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Speaker 1: without the keys grinding or the doors creaking, laying the
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Speaker 1: case in its place and looking up again. Then she
14:27
Speaker 1: had to suppress her joy with an effort as she
14:29
Speaker 1: flew into the young lady's arms and let herself be praised.
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Speaker 1: This first attempt was only an introduction. With astonishment and
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Speaker 1: admiration Myra discovered the workings of the pawn system. It
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Speaker 1: was quite miraculous. All one needed to do was lend
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Speaker 1: silver or jewelry in order to receive a whole heap
14:48
Speaker 1: of money. And in a short time you received your
14:51
Speaker 1: things back again unharmed. Indeed, they were not even used
14:55
Speaker 1: during that time. As the young lady replied assuringly to
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Speaker 1: Myra's questions with a laugh. It was a wonderful arrangement.
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Speaker 1: It was so lovely to lie in bed at night
15:05
Speaker 1: and chatter a nibble candy. but candy was so terribly dear.
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Speaker 1: Therefore from time to time the silver was lent. It
15:13
Speaker 1: did the silver no harm, and the secrecy with which
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Speaker 1: it had to be taken and returned was a real lark.
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Speaker 1: But once the big case was sent away and did
15:22
Speaker 1: not come back again, it was gone so everlastingly long
15:26
Speaker 1: that nobody gave a thought to it any longer. Then
15:29
Speaker 1: it occurred to Aunt Emily during house-cleaning one day to
15:32
Speaker 1: have all the silver counted over and cleaned. Aunt Emily
15:36
Speaker 1: knew to a forked time just how much silver was
15:38
Speaker 1: in the household. But Aunt Emily was much too much
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Speaker 1: of a model to depend upon her memory in matters
15:44
Speaker 1: so tremendous. On the inside of each door in the
15:47
Speaker 1: sideboard was tacked a little slip of rice paper on
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Speaker 1: which was written in Aunt Emily's eminently distinct and legible hand. Contents.
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Speaker 1: A leather case with twelve soup spoons monogram L. R.
16:01
Speaker 1: A wooden case with twelve dessert spoons monogram GV. With
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Speaker 1: the help of these lists she established beyond a doubt
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Speaker 1: that one case was missing. Myra was not even frightened
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Speaker 1: when she heard Aunt Emily's shrill, excited voice and the
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Speaker 1: weeping of the affronted maid. She was simply happy to
16:20
Speaker 1: be able to straighten out the situation. Thank heaven! Else
16:24
Speaker 1: poor Bertha would very likely have been suspected of stealing.
16:28
Speaker 1: Myra entered the room and said quite coolly and somewhat proudly,
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Speaker 1: You don't need to be upset, Aunt. The silver is safe.
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Speaker 1: I pawned it. As a result of the next few
16:39
Speaker 1: days' events, it gradually dawned on Myra that she had
16:42
Speaker 1: done something which, in the opinion of the others, she
16:45
Speaker 1: was not justified in doing. The housemaid told everybody who
16:49
Speaker 1: would listen to her that honest people were accused of
16:52
Speaker 1: stealing in her house because the little brat had snitched
16:55
Speaker 1: the silver and taken it to the pawnbroker. The fat
16:59
Speaker 1: old cook wept and wrung her hands in lamentation. Aunt
17:02
Speaker 1: Emily went about as if horror had turned her to stone.
17:06
Speaker 1: Tears came to the eyes of Myra's father whenever he
17:09
Speaker 1: looked at his unhappy child. A children's specialist even appeared
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Speaker 1: on the scene, bearing the fearful and uncanny title of psychiatrist,
17:18
Speaker 1: and subjected Myra to a long examination. And the young
17:22
Speaker 1: lady stormed and wept and screamed at her, calling her
17:25
Speaker 1: an idiot and an imbecile, and kicked and scratched her,
17:29
Speaker 1: then fell on her knees before her. declaring she was
17:32
Speaker 1: a little saint and imploring her to keep quiet. Myra
17:36
Speaker 1: kept quiet, but as she did not know what it
17:38
Speaker 1: was she should keep quiet about, she kept quiet about everything.
17:43
Speaker 1: She let them question her gently or angrily during inquisitions
17:47
Speaker 1: that lasted for hours. She let them shake her, beseech her,
17:51
Speaker 1: let them lock her in her room. She would not talk.
17:54
Speaker 1: Her silence became a wall about her. She could no
17:58
Speaker 1: longer have broken it had she wished. But the young
18:01
Speaker 1: lady had to leave anyway. Whether she was an accessory
18:05
Speaker 1: or innocent, it was clear that no child could be
18:08
Speaker 1: so abandoned if its education were in good hands. The
18:11
Speaker 1: young lady left, and Myra suffered all the mortal pangs
18:15
Speaker 1: of separation and loneliness.