front hallway; he looked up at me brightly as I went by.
I paused at the iron gate leading into the garden at the sound of two voices. And there, in the garden before me as I watched unobserved, stood Count Mayhew with my own Natisha.
A great shock coursed through me at the sight of them embracing; from the way the Count held her in his arms it was plain that this was not their first meeting. My eyes filled with hot tears. I was only able to hear the Count say to her, 'He must finish it in time,' before my body betrayed my intellect and I burst in upon them.
For a moment I so startled them that they held their embrace; then suddenly they parted, with such self- consciousness that there was no further doubt in my mind at what I had seen.
Then suddenly Natisha, unfaithful Natisha, was smothering herself in my breast and crying out that she had missed me so!
'After what I've seen?' I said, pushing her back away from me.
'Oh, Karl, no, you don't understand!'
'I'm afraid I do.'
Once again she pressed herself against me, and this time her presence, and the odor that she wore, and the very act of her hands around me combined to temper my anger.
'Perhaps,' I said, 'You would care to explain your behavior.'
This time it was she who pushed herself away.
'I cannot.'
'I can't accept that.'
'Oh, Karl, please believe me! I cannot tell you anything, only to say that he does it for us!'
'I do not understand. You must admit to me that you knew this place before I came here, that your urging me to take this commission was a deliberate, calculated act on your part, and that you are somehow in league with the Count himself—am I correct?'
She seemed torn, and then once again she threw herself at me. 'Oh, yes, yes,' she whispered fiercely, and I could tell by the way she clutched me that she was crying. 'Only please believe me when I say that I love you more than anything in this world, Karl, and that everything that has been done has been done for you and me. Can you believe that?' She looked up at me, clutching me firmly by the arms.
'How can I believe you unless you explain?'
'Please, Karl, I can tell you no more!'
Her pleading was so intense that I found myself swayed, and held her to me as though I would never let her go. I had not realized how much I had missed her and told her so, and for a moment we once again fell into discussion of our future together, of our marriage and the life we planned to share, and thoughts of the Count were lifted from me.
But suddenly Natisha disentangled herself from me, and I turned to see the diminutive porter standing there, a beaming smile upon his face.
'Pardon me,' he said, 'but I come for Herr Begener.' He turned to me. 'The Count waits for you in the tower.'
'Tell the Count to go to blazes—' I began, but Natisha clutched at my hand with such a firm grip that her nails dug into my palm. I turned to see the pleading in her face and then said to Franz, in a somewhat less heated tone, 'Tell the Count that I will join him immediately.'
'Very good, Sir.'
And then he suddenly threw back his head and laughed, skipping out of the garden like some wild Pan filled with youth, and without a glance back at Natisha I followed.
The days, and then the weeks, passed.
I became lost in a haze of work. Day melted into night and still the work went on; when the light in the tall wide dome began to fail there would come the solemn march up the metallic steps and a phalanx of ghostly workers bearing torches would rise to stand guard against the darkness around the circumference. There always seemed to be more workers when they were needed; but a curious fact, beside all the other curious facts I had amassed since my arrival at Castle Mayhew, was that none of the workers, or none of the other people of any capacity I had seen in all my time there, be they men or women, were young. Excepting myself, Natisha and little Franz, all were old, and tired, and worn, and all worked with the same detached weariness that I had at first noticed.
I sought to ask the Count about this one day, but he only regarded me with his weary yet blazing eyes and then turned away. 'Life is for the young, it seems, Herr Begener,' he said slowly, and off somewhere outside at that moment I heard a robin call and then, in the recesses of the castle, came little Franz's infectious laugh, and I asked the Count no more.
And still the work went on.
At the end of the third week it became apparent that the Count's demand had not been so far-fetched after all; and after I had become accustomed to the fact that I would get whatever I wanted and whenever I required it, night or day, I became quite confident that the commission would, indeed, be completed on time. The modifications needed turned out to be slighter than I had at first imagined. The Count, despite his sober demeanor, seemed to brighten somewhat, and when I told him that we would apparently make the deadline he had set for the completion of the work, something almost like a smile crossed his tired lips and he muttered, 'So then we will win,' before nodding and moving off away from me to inspect some gold plating that was in the process of being tacked over the entire inside surface of the dome. This had been one of my chief worries, but the Count had steadfastly maintained that such foil could be obtained, and, when indeed it did arrive, and in sufficient quantities, I felt completely justified in passing my completely optimistic estimate to him.
My chagrin was all the greater when I approached him a mere hour or two later with a problem that could not be so easily surmounted.
'These beams,' I said, rolling out a plan before him and indicating the pair of huge timbers that formed an X and upon which the platform was presently being mounted, 'I see now that they were to be covered each with pure silver. Were you aware of the fact that no such amount of silver appears to be obtainable or has even been ordered?'
He studied the paper in silence for a few moments, and then I saw his creased skin whiten under his collar. Unsteadily, he regained his composure.
'You are sure of this?'
'According to your men the silver was not ordered. And until I can get the silver my hands are tied.'
'I see,' he remarked, and then he wandered away from me. 'I will see what can be done,' he called back distractedly, and I did not see him again for the rest of the day.
When I did catch sight of him again it was under trying circumstances. Other work went on for the rest of the week, until the day finally passed that was to be the deadline for the completion of the project. By this time I felt I could work no longer without dropping from exhaustion, and so I took a short repast and then went to my bed. But I could not sleep. Strange noises from the nether parts of the castle kept me awake—the grindings and various sounds emanating from the dome, as well as the slow, steady trampings of workers here and there; and this, combined with my overactive mind kept me from the sleep I so desperately needed. Several times I rose, pacing to and fro before attempting to settle into bed once more, but without success; finally, I went to the window and gazed out upon the lawn for a while. At this time an odd sight I witnessed; for there, crossing the lawn below my window and making their way toward the outside stairway leading to the dome, were two figures; as they passed directly below me I made them out to be the old barman whom I had first met in the town below, and a youth I had seen before; he had made two or three special deliveries of material to the castle and was one of the few workers from outside the village I had encountered. He seemed excited, and before his voice faded I heard the word, 'money' and the old barman's head bowed slowly. Soon came the metallic thump of their feet on the stairway and they were gone.
One final time I crawled off to bed, and for a short time seemed to attain a kind of troubled sleep; but then came a sound that was of my dreams or beside them, I could not tell which: a high keening wail that sounded like some construction process but which soon took on a distinctly human property. As I awoke fully it suddenly ceased, and now I found that I could not regain sleep again.
Finally, unable to obtain the rest I required, I put on my robe and began to wander the castle. I went first up
