nd admires!

It was while in this mood that the Baroness and her daughter came to see
him. The sight of the two women left him momentarily speechless. He
forgot to say good-day to them; to ask them in never once occurred to
him.

The Baroness wanted to know where Eberhard was: she was determined to
see him. When Herr Carovius stuttered out the astounding information to
her that he was living hardly more than three hundred paces from where
she was then standing, she began to tremble and leaned against the wall.
She was not prepared for this: she had always imagined that he was
staying at some mysterious place in some mysterious distance.

Herr Carovius at once insisted that he accompany the ladies to the
Baron's diminutive residence. But the Baroness felt that she was not
capable of this: she feared it would mean her death. "Take me home with
you, Emilia," she said to her daughter, "and you go over and have a talk
with Eberhard first."

But Emilia had not seen Eberhard once during the nine years of her
married life, and was even less inclined than her mother to meet him
now. Nor was it possible to take the Baroness to her home. The old lady
had evidently forgotten that she had told Count Urlich never to show his
face in her presence again. The occasion of this inexorable request was
the time she learned that the governess of his child was in a family way
and that he was responsible for her disgrace.

Since the Baroness stoutly refused to return either to her town
residence or to Siegmundshof, there was nothing for Emilia to do but to
take her to a hotel. Herr Carovius, who had accompanied the two women on
the street and had enjoyed to the full their pitiable distress,
suggested that they go to the Bavarian Court. He climbed up on the seat
by the coachman, told him how to get there, and looked down in regal
triumph on the pedestrians.

Countess Emilia, quite at her wits' end, sent a telegram to her Aunt
Agatha. The next Wednesday Frau von Erfft with her daughter Sylvia
arrived. "Clotilda acts as if she had lost her mind," she said to Emilia
after having spent an hour in the room with her sister. "I am going to
see your father. I must have a long talk with Siegmund."

The Baron received his sister-in-law with marked coolness, though he had
always had a great deal of respect for her.

Frau von Erfft was quite careful to avoid any reference to the family
affairs. She talked about Sylvia, remarking that she was now