Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

176
THE ATTEMPT
The orderly man was evidently going to some meeting, or to pay a visit; at all
events he became very uneasy just before arriving at the next station. Just then we
heard the whistle. “ Gotha,” said the orderly man, as he looked out of the right
window, and sighed. The frightful man opposite was still gazing at his coat collar, and
he would willingly have taken a look in the glass to see if all were right, but it was too
late. At that moment the train stopped. The clock struck twenty minutes to three!
With a hasty “good morning” the wretched man rushed from the carriage to meet his fate.
In the mean time the little man in nankeen went to perform his labour of love.
He gave up the numerous belongings of the professor and his wife to a railway porter,
of whom there were many standing on the platform, and glided like a lizard to the
telegraph office, to send the message to Dietendorf.
There was very little time for it, for almost immediately the bell rang for the
departure of the train. The train had been eight minutes late, and, come what might,
the minutes must be made up. I supposed that the little man would also lose this
fatal train; but no, here he is. He sat down in the seat vacated by the orderly
man. He was scarcely seated, when the guard opened the door, and said, “ Tickets for
Frottstadt, gentlemen.”
A young man, with a small knapsack, entered the carriage, who appeared also to be
going to take a pleasure tour in the Thiiringer Forest. The little man and he both
gave their tickets, and the guard disappeared, while the former said, “ Bless me ! how
quickly we are going! They could not give the change quick enough, and so I
nearly lost the train. That would have been a good story, and Jemima and her father
and mother at Frottstadt.”
The only answer he got from the stout gentleman, if answer it could be called,
was a cloud of smoke that would have done honour to a young chimney. But the little
man required to impart the intelligence of his long-wished-for happiness to some one;
and, finding no other sympathising friend in the carriage, he turned to the young tourist,
as he had done to the professor’s wife, and told who were to meet him at Frottstadt,
and what a merry marriage they were going to make after. Dinner was to be ready
at Beinhardsbrunn, also a guide, and a porter to carry the luggage; in short, every thing
had been done in the best style. At that moment they heard the whistle, and the
train stopped.
“ Heine! another stoppage between Gotha and Frottstadt ? ”
“ Oh dear, no,” said the tourist, “ this is Frottstadt.”
“ Frottstadt,” the guard cried at that moment, and opened the door; “ be quick,
whoever gets out here, for it will start immediately.”