just in time
to meet the head forester at its entrance.

"Where have you been hiding yourself, Herbert?" Schoenau asked
impatiently. "I have been searching the whole place for you."

"I went to the tower-chamber in search of my wife."

"She's in the dining-room with all the rest of the world, but you have
been missed already. Come, it is time that we got something to eat."

With which the head forester took hold of his brother-in-law's arm and
led him away, after his usual jolly manner.

Hartmut stood where von Wallmoden had left him. His breath came fast and
thick, and he was almost stifled with the feelings of shame, and hate,
and revolt, which surged within him. The ambassador's significant
speeches had crushed him utterly, although he had hardly grasped their
full meaning. They tore aside the veil with which he, half
unconsciously, half purposely, had enveloped himself. He had believed
implicitly what his mother told him concerning the portion of their
fortune which was saved to them, and which enabled them to live and
travel. But there were times when he had chosen to close his eyes rather
than enter into investigations.

When his mother's hand had torn him so suddenly from his father's side,
when after the hard discipline of obedience and duty, he had been
plunged into a life of boundless freedom, he had allowed himself an
unchecked rein, having no one to whom to account for his actions. He was
too young for reflection or judgment, and later--but it was too late for
him then, and habit had woven a net about him which could not be
destroyed. Now for the first time it was shown him clearly and
definitely what that life was which he had led so long; the life of an
adventurer, and as an adventurer he was to be expelled from society.

But above all the shame was the sense of ignominy and defeat, the
feeling of intense hatred toward the man who had told him the truth.
That unholy heritage from his mother, the hot, wild, passionate blood,
which had proven so fatal to the boy, welled up like a stream of fire in
the man's breast and extinguished all feeling but that of revenge.
Hartmut's handsome features were still disfigured with passion and
anger, when, with compressed lips, he finally left the tower room.

He knew and felt but one thing, that he must have revenge, revenge at
any price.

It was late when the guests arose from the table. The duke and duchess
retired soon after, and carriage after carriage ascen