constrained silence fell on the remaining three. Wilhelmine leaned back
in the chair into which she had sunk directly Schuetz and Wuerben
disappeared; her elbows rested on the chair-arms, and her fingers were
pressed together at the points in an attitude of fastidious, artificial
prayer. Madame de Ruth fanned herself slowly and watched Friedrich
Graevenitz, who stood paring his nails with a small file he had taken from
his pocket.

'I certainly do not like your way towards me, Wilhelmine,' he broke
forth, puffing out his fine torso. 'You show a spirit which is not nice
towards the head of your family! I think----'

'Dear Friedrich, if you could but realise that I do not care what you
think,' Wilhelmine interrupted icily.

'And your manner was not kind to Wuerben--a nice man, I like him!' said
her brother in an almost ecstatic tone.

'How fortunate!' she called after Friedrich's retreating figure, as he
strode across the room with such pompous haste that the affairs of the
whole Empire might have waited his directions.

The two ladies smiled at one another wearily when he had gone; then,
without honouring this self-sufficient person with a word of comment,
they fell to discussing Wuerben. This Bohemian nobleman was not an
altogether unpleasing personality. Of middle height, he had a stoop
which caused him to appear short; it was not the stoop of the scholar,
but that bend which ill-health, caused by debauch, often gives to a
comparatively young man. His face was sallow, hollow beneath the eyes,
emaciated between chin and cheek-bone. The brown eyes were feverishly
bright and a trifle blood-shot. The well-shaven mouth had loose, sensual
lips, and the teeth were large and discoloured. And yet one knew that
this man, repulsive though he had become, must have been a youth of
promise and some personal beauty; and his manner betokened the man of
breeding, and one with knowledge of the great world. His sneer at the
unholy bargain he was about to make told Madame de Ruth that he was fully
aware of the degradation of it. An admirably adapted person for the
purpose, she reflected; for, being ashamed of his bargain, he would hide
in Vienna, content so long as he had sufficient money to risk at l'hombre
and faro. This she and Wilhelmine discussed while Schuetz and Wuerben were
upstairs removing their dusty garments.

Suddenly Friedrich Graevenitz burst into the room. 'His Highness has just
ridden up to the door! This is really