Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

174
THE ATTEMPT
and clung convulsively to the handle of the door. Eut the door of course did not
open, as it was held down by an iron bar; besides, the guards, who were standing near,
immediately interfered, for the unfortunate lady might have met with an accident. To
stop was out of the question.
“ My husband is sitting in that carriage, and I must go to him.”
That was the last we heard of the professor’s lady, and the professor, with his
head still out of the window, kept his eyes fixed on his wife until the train shot below
the tunnel, when he immediately pulled in terrified, sank down in the seat at the
window, and groaned aloud.
“ Oh, dear ! what will become of her ? ”
The little man tried to console him. At the next station he could telegraph hack
for her to follow him by the next train. At about half-past five they would be again
in Eisenach, and they would still have a long summer evening to make a nice party to
the Wartburg. The professor involuntarily seized his waistcoat pocket and exclaimed,
“ Oh ! if she would only come, she has got the coffee.”
But really nothing more could he done at present, and the train had just stopped
at Dietendorf, when the professor called to the guard to open the door.
“ Make haste, it will start again immediately,” the latter said to him, hut the
professor did not hear him, but ran in all haste to the telegraph office.
While the little man in nankeen was wandering about the platform, another
passenger stepped in and sat down opposite to the stout gentleman. The stranger was
not only very respectably, but very carefully dressed in a suit of black dress clothes,
and a spotlessly white neck-tie. There was a painful order and neatness in his whole
person which was scarcely fit for a railway carriage. As he came in he saluted us
timidly, and took off his hat, which shone like a mirror, and laid it cautiously beside
him; but he always took it up again, smoothed it with a small brush, and put
it on. He seemed to have a decided design of putting on a pair of spotless white
gloves, but, recollecting himself in time, he rolled them up and put them back into his
pocket. He had also a blue silk umbrella which he laid on the seat beside him. At
that moment the clock struck, and, with the last stroke of the hour, the little
man in nankeen jumped into the carriage and sat down upon the blue umbrella, from
which he immediately sprang up, apologising.
“ Oh, dear ! is the professor not in 1 ” he cried, as the door was shut. “ Hollo,
guard, there is another person to come in yet.”
He was answered by a whistle, and away went the train. We heard some one
calling, and saw a number of people laughing—nothing more.