25. XXV.
While it was yet early, he had a visit the next
morning from Hans Busacher, who had recently
become a neighbor, and was in possession of the
domains formerly belonging to Conrade Weickhoff.
Rodolph trembled and shuddered to behold
him, not only as his neighborhood reminded him
of his friend, but because there was something in
the face of Busacher very much like that of Conrade.
There was nothing offensive, however,
either in the person or the manners of the new visiter.
He was courteous and affable, seemed to
have always moved in the best society, and, in
every respect, might have been considered a very
model of gentility. There was, perhaps, something
of loftiness in his air, which some may have
regarded as stiffness, and he was essentially divested
of all those softer feelings which beguile
humanity with dreams. He was cold in the extreme,
if not a phlegmatic. Rodolph and himself
conversed for a good while on indifferent topics,
and the youth, who, wanting in decision of character,
himself needed some stronger spirit upon
whom to lean, began to be pleased with his visiter,
and was really grateful to him for having called.
When Busacher was about to go, Rodolph warmly
made his acknowledgments, and grasping the
hand of the former with a strong gripe, he begged
that he might again soon see him at the castle.
“I know not,” said the other, with composure,
“that I shall soon have that pleasure. This is
July. I go in a few days upon a journey to the
borders, where I have to make some arrangements
in respect to property. I shall return by November,
when I shall see you again, of course.”
The very language of Conrade a year before.
The visiter was gone; and, during the rest of that
day, unseen by wife or domestics, Rodolph tottered,
like a paralytic, through a dark gallery of his
dwelling.
