Elective Affinities (Oxford World's Classics) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Author:Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1994-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

CHAPTER ONE

It often happens in ordinary life as in an epic poem (where we admire it as poetic artifice) that when the principal characters withdraw, remove themselves from view, become inactive, at once some second or third and until then scarcely noticed person takes their place and, by the entire engagement of himself, like them seems worthy of our attention, sympathetic interest, and even our approval and our praise.

Thus day by day after the departure of the Captain and of Eduard, the Architect became more important. So many matters depended on him entirely for their organization and execution. He was exact, sensible, and energetic in carrying out his duties; assisted the ladies in a variety of ways and kept them entertained when their quiet lives grew tedious. His very appearance was of a kind to inspire trust and kindle affection. He was a youth in the full sense of the word, a fine figure, slim, if anything a little too tall, modest without being timid, eager to confide but never importunate. He would gladly take on any responsibility and go to any trouble, and having a very good head for figures he had soon understood all the management of the household and his helpful influence extended everywhere. It was usually left to him to receive visitors, and if they arrived unexpectedly he either succeeded in putting them off or, at the very least, so prepared the women that no inconvenience resulted.

Among those giving him a good deal of trouble was a young lawyer sent one day by a gentleman of the neighbourhood to discuss a matter which, though of no very great significance, nevertheless touched Charlotte closely. We are obliged to consider this incident because it gave an impetus to various things which might otherwise have lain dormant for a long time.

The reader will remember the changes Charlotte had made in the churchyard. All the memorial stones had been removed from their places and set along the wall and along the plinth of the church. The space thus vacated had been levelled. Apart from one broad path which led to the church and past it to a little gate on the far side, everywhere else had been sown with different kinds of clover, now beautifully verdant and flowering. New graves were to be dug in a certain order starting from the far corner, but the site afterwards was always to be levelled and sown in the same manner. Nobody could deny that by this arrangement churchgoers on Sundays and holy days were afforded a prospect that was both cheerful and in keeping. Even the parson, though advanced in years and attached to the old ways and at first not especially happy with what had been done, was now delighted to sit like Philemon with his Baucis* under the old lime trees at his back door and see before him not the bumpy graves but a fine colourful carpet, which moreover would be of benefit to his household since Charlotte had granted the parsonage sole use of the piece of land.

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