e understand. It was as if she were trying to make up to him for an
unintentional wrong that she had done him, and which she feared he might
not forgive when he discovered. To add further to this strange state of
affairs, the more amiable she was towards him the more ill at ease did
he become with her. He seemed restless, discontented, and yet
particularly anxious to be on friendly terms with myself, the one person
of all others, after what had happened that afternoon, whom he might
have been forgiven had he ignored. I could not understand it all, and
the more I thought of it the more it troubled me. Surely Max did not
imagine that I deemed it likely I should ever ascend the throne! I could
not believe that he would be so foolish as to attach any credence to the
old superstition concerning the Michael cross, or that even if he did,
he would be weak enough to allow it to embitter his life.

If I live to be a hundred I shall not forget that evening, every detail
connected with which, as I have shown, is engraved upon my memory. It
was considerably after ten o'clock before my father and Marquart joined
us in the drawing-room. The former seemed in excellent spirits, the
latter scarcely so happy. Doubtless he had come expecting to find his
old master pining to be back in his own country once more. His shrewd
common sense, however, must have shown him, before they had been very
long together, that this was far from being the case. He found him
contented with his lot, and far from desirous of again taking up the
load of responsibility he had been so fortunate as to cast off. Knowing
nothing of the strained state of affairs that had existed prior to their
entrance, Marquart must not be blamed if he unwittingly intensified the
unpleasantness of the situation. He seated himself by the side of my
mother, and talked with her of bygone days, and of friends of whom she
had long lost sight, thus raising a train of thoughts in her mind that
could only give birth to hopes she must have felt in her heart would
never now be realised. It was noticeable also that the Count's eyes
wandered continually in my direction. In consequence, I did not appear
at my best. Knowing that Max was watching me, and that my mother was
nervous on his account, I would have given anything to have been able to
slip quietly from the room, and not make my appearance in public again
until Marquart had left the house. This, however, was out of the
question. The Count