longer heard him; her clear eyes seemed to be staring out upon
something at which they wondered and which frightened them. Then she
suddenly faced about and left the room.

The count passed his hand over his face. A devilish feeling, sympathy.
It is really a powerful physical ailment. Then he bent down and picked
up the carnations which Billy had plucked to pieces. He wished to keep
them in his hand.

On this sultry day even life in Kadullen was strangely tense.
Everywhere people stood together in couples and whispered with serious
faces. The professor's daughters sat a little neglected on the
verandah, talking together in low voices. At times Egon joined them and
flirted with them in a half-hearted, absent-minded way. Billy had
withdrawn to her room, whither Countess Betty carried up quantities of
raspberry-juice, and Marion was incessantly racing back and forth
between the garden and Billy's room, carrying messages. No one was
comfortable. Lisa walked around between the flower-beds under her red
parasol. This love affair, in which she was to have no part, made her
restless. The lieutenant had gone partridge-shooting. Of course, she
had seen that in men; when there was a decision to make, or life became
difficult in other ways, they always went shooting partridges. These
poor creatures seemed to exist only for the purpose of helping mankind
over difficult situations in life. Now she was looking for Boris,
wishing to speak with him. Who could give the lovers better counsel
than she. But he was not there. They said he had gone out into the
meadow. Very well, then Lisa would have a conversation with Billy. But
when Marion took this message to Billy, the latter became quite
violent.

"No, she is not to come. What will she say, and she'll talk about her
old Greek. The affair with her Katakasianopulos is altogether
different from mine. Tell her that. She can't help me; nobody can help
me." And she buried her face in the pillows and wept. Marion stood
helplessly before her. "And Boris has disappeared," continued Billy's
wail; "go to Moritz, tell him to find Boris and keep watch over him and
stay with him. Go quickly." Marion rushed down the stairs again.

She found Moritz in the park, stretched out lazy and woe-begone under a
tree. He blinked sleepily at Marion as she delivered her message.

"Bah, keep watch over him," he said, "what's going to happen to him?
He's all right, and for all of me he can----"

"She wants it