rau von Treumann.

"Yes, and she died."

"But did he not marry soon afterwards? I heard he married."

"That was the second brother. This one is the eldest, and lives next to
us, and is single."

Frau von Treumann was silent for a moment. Then she said blandly, "Now
confess, princess, that _he_ is the perilous person from whom you think
it necessary to defend Miss Estcourt."

"Oh no," said the princess with equal blandness; "I have no fears about
him."

"What, is he too possessed of an invulnerable heart?"

"I know nothing of his heart. I said, I believe, adventurers. And no one
could call Axel Lohm an adventurer. I was thinking of men who have run
through all their own and all their relations' money in betting and
gambling, and who want a wife who will pay their debts."

"_Ach so_," said Frau von Treumann with perfect urbanity. And if this
talk about protecting Miss Estcourt from adventurers in a place where
there were apparently no human beings of any kind, but only trees and
marshes, might seem to a bystander to be foolishness, to the speakers it
was luminousness itself, and in no way increased their love for each
other.

Meanwhile Dellwig, looking through the door and seeing Lohm, brought his
heels together and bowed with his customary exaggeration. "I beg a
thousand times pardon," he said; "I thought the gracious Miss was
engaged and would not return, and I was about to go home."

"I have found the paper, and am coming," said Anna coldly. "Well,
good-night," she added in English, holding out her hand to Axel.

"If you will allow me, I should like to pay my respects to Princess
Ludwig before I go," he said, thinking thus to see her later.

"Ah! wasn't I right?" she said, smiling. "You are determined to look at
the new arrivals. How can a man be so inquisitive? But I will say
good-night all the same. I shall be ages with Herr Dellwig, and shall
not see you again." She shook hands with him, and went into the
dining-room, Dellwig standing aside with deep respect to let her pass.
But she turned to say something to him as he shut the door, and Axel
caught the expression of her face, the intense boredom on it, the
profound distrust of self; and he went in to the princess with an
unusually severe and determined look on his own.

Dellwig went home that night in a savage mood. "That young man," he said
to his wife, flinging his hat and coat on to a chair and himself on to a
sofa, "is thrusting himself more and