satisfied with masculine society. Have the gentlemen come
down?" he asked, turning to the butler who, holding a silver
candlestick, was preceding the gentlemen up the already brilliantly
lighted marble staircase.

"Five minutes ago. Your Excellency."

"Then we'll not keep them waiting. But perhaps, Herr Doctor, before we
sit down to supper, you'll wish to retire to your room a moment."

Edwin smiled. "I'm not able to make an elaborate toilette," he said
glancing at his traveling satchel, which a servant was carrying after
him. "You must apologize to your guests, Herr Count, for picking up a
simple wayfarer and bringing him under your stately roof."

"No ceremony among friends," replied the count, still with the same
immovably courteous face. "You'll find us too entirely _sans gene_;
some of my neighbors have ridden over in their hunting suits, as we
have a deer hunt early to-morrow morning and I hope you'll give us the
pleasure of your company on the occasion."

He did not wait for a reply, but approached the large folding doors,
which were hastily thrown open by two footmen, and which admitted them
to the broad, carpeted ante-room of the first story. With an easy,
friendly gesture, the count invited Edwin to precede him, and they
entered the lofty dining hall.

CHAPTER IV.

Several slender tawny greyhounds came bounding toward them and
completed the illusion that they were entering a banqueting hall of the
_rococo_ times. The room was spacious and lofty, of an oblong shape,
with rounded corners adorned in the richest style of the last century
with gilded stucco-work and huge pier glasses which reflected the light
of the candles in the large glass chandelier and the glittering silver
on the table. At the other end of the apartment a glass door opened
upon a balcony, and this, like the two windows on each side, afforded a
view of the park, whose majestic trees towered above the long clipped
hedges and arbors. Nothing recalled the present century except an
elegant piano, at which a young man sat who failed to hear the entrance
of the master of the house and his guest, amid the noise made by his
dashing passages.

The others, who appeared to have been waiting some time, instantly
turned toward the door, and one after another was greeted by the count
and introduced to Edwin. Suddenly the musician paused, started up and
with great cordiality, hurried toward the count. He was a