The Merchant of Berlin | Page 4

a million, and will his lordship be
kind enough in return to take the trifling burden of my person into the
bargain?"
Her father gazed at her glowing countenance with eyes beaming with
joy; but he quickly suppressed this emotion, and reassumed a serious
air.
"Yes," he said, "the good count, in consideration of half a million, will
consent to raise the manufacturer's daughter to the rank of a countess.

But for a whole million we can obtain still more; we can rise yet higher
in the scale. If I will advance his uncle, Prince Saldem, half a million to
redeem his mortgaged estates, the prince promises to adopt the nephew,
your suitor, as his son. You would then be a princess, Elise, and I
would have the proud satisfaction of calling a prince my son."
"As if the king would consent to a nobleman thus demeaning himself!"
cried Elise; "as if he would graciously allow the count so far to degrade
himself!"
"Oh, the king will consent," continued her father in a light tone. "You
know that he is fond of me. Only say whether you consent to become
Countess Saldem."
"Never!" cried she proudly. "I am no chattel to be bartered, and this
miserable title of princess has no charms for me. You can command me,
father, to renounce the man I love, but you can never compel me to
give my hand to a man I do not love, were he even a king!"
Her father clasped her vehemently in his arms.
"That is blood of my blood, and spirit of my spirit," cried he. "You are
right, my child, to despise honors and titles; they are empty tinsel, and
no one believes in them any longer. We stand at the portal of a new era,
and this era will erect new palaces and create new princes; but you, my
child, will be one of the first princesses of this new era. Manufactories
will be the new palaces, and manufacturers the new princes. Instead of
the sword, money will rule the world, and men will bow down before
manufacturers and merchants as they are wont to do before generals.
Therefore I say you are right in refusing Prince Saldem's offer, for I
promise you, you shall be a princess, even without the title, and the
great and noble shall bow as low before your riches as if they were a
ducal diadem."
Elise shook her head with a melancholy smile: "I have no desire for
such homage, and I despise the base metal with which you can buy
everything."

"Despise it not!" cried her father, "prize it rather! Gold is a holy power;
it is the magic wand of Moses which caused springs to gush forth from
the sterile rock. See, my child--I, who despise all the rank and honors
which the world can offer me, I tell you gold is the only thing for which
I have any respect. But a man must perceive and understand the secret
of this magic power. He who strives for wealth only to possess it is a
heartless fool, and his fate will be that of Midas--he will starve in the
midst of his treasures. But he who strives for wealth for the purpose of
giving, he will discover that money is the fountain of happiness; and in
his hands the dead metal is transformed into a living blessing. You may
believe your father, who knows the world, and who has drunk the bitter
cup of poverty."
"You were once poor?" asked Elise, looking at her father with
astonishment.
Gotzkowsky smiled, and sank back in his chair, musing and silent.
After a pause he resumed: "Yes, I was poor. I have endured all the
horrors of poverty. I have hungered and thirsted, suffered misery and
privation, even as a little boy. Thus lay I once, wretched and forsaken,
in a ditch by the highway, and raised my hands to God on high, praying
but for a drop of water, but for a morsel of bread. Ah! so strong was the
belief of the goodness of God in my heart, that I was convinced He
would open the heavens, and reach to me with His own hand the food
for which I prayed. I waited and waited, in despairing anxiety, but the
heavens were not opened, and not even a drop of rain came to cool my
parched lips. But the cloud, which I had looked for in vain in the sky,
was seen at last on the highway, and, as I saw this whirling cloud of
dust, in the midst of which a splendid equipage came rolling on, I said
to myself: 'Here comes God!' and then I found strength enough to raise
myself from my knees, to hurry toward the rapidly