“Quite between ourselves, dear Baroness,” whispered Baroness Holzweg.
“Of course between ourselves!” cried Baroness Kniebreche.
“Prince Wladimir is expected to be here for a moment.”
“ ‘You don’t say so! Of course you and your niece could not fail. But take care! The ‘illustrious lovers’ are getting quite common. Come, come, I meant no harm; I readily allow the greatest latitude in the upper circles, if only the proprieties are observed as regards the lower ranks. But such things are going on now, dear Baroness—such things!”
And Baroness Kniebreche began waving her gigantic fan with much energy.
“May I venture to ask, dear Baroness?” whispered Baroness Holzweg, drawing nearer, in curiosity.
“Well, quite between ourselves, you know, dear Baroness.”
“How can you imagine, dear Baroness—”
The heads of the two old ladies disappeared for a long time behind the black fan.
“And these are all facts, dear Baroness?”
“Absolute facts. I have them from Wallbach, who is generally discretion itself—but there are limits to everything. Is not that him there behind the door? Actually! and talking to Signor Giraldi. I must go there. That good man absolutely hears the grass grow.”
The old lady got up with difficulty, and rustled off, with her glass to her half-blind eyes, towards the two gentlemen, everyone retreating, scared, before the black fan.
Baroness Holzweg remained sitting, with an evil smile upon her pale, puffy face.
“Ah!” she murmured, “how pleased Agnes will be. The haughty Herr von Werben, who will not dance with her, because he can understand either secret or open engagements, but not those that cannot be made public! And his arrogant sister, whom he has forbidden to have anything to do with Agnes, and who has now taken up with a merchant-captain. Charming!”
“What is amusing you so, my dear?” asked Frau von Pusterhausen, coming back again to her friend. “You were talking such secrets with Baroness Kniebreche, and I could not get away from Madame Veitel, or whatever she calls herself. She chatters and chatters—I only heard a few words—you seemed to be talking about the Werbens? Am I right? And can you tell me what it was about?”
“But it remains between ourselves, my dear?”
“You may be quite easy, my dear.”
And the two ladies put their heads together, one maliciously listening, the other spitefully retailing what she had herself just heard.
Giraldi, after he had wandered through the rooms for half an hour, met Herr von Wallbach, who had luckily got away from the Baroness.
“I was just going,” he said; “the heat, the noise, the everlasting talk about Lasker—”
Herr von Wallbach passed his hand over his bald forehead with a gentle sigh. “To be sure,” he said, “Lasker! it is a terrible blow. Such a splendid business. We shall never recover the blow, although he has not directly attacked us. It is the beginning of the end, believe me.”
“I do not think it looks so bad,” said Giraldi. “It is only the first shock; our Ministers have certainly behaved miserably, the mob will triumph, but the reaction cannot be long in coming. They will find that the sun of radicalism, which shines so brightly just now, is itself not without a flaw. The Government, if only to anger the opposition, will guarantee the interest for a sufficient loan for a time, and probably afterwards take over the whole business. The promoters must have acted worse than stupidly if a good slice does not fall to their share, amongst others to our friend the Count.”
“Nevertheless we—I mean the Warnow trustees—may have to wait a long time for the payment of the second instalment,” said Herr von Wallbach thoughtfully.
“I am certain of that,” answered Giraldi. “You may thank your forbearance, which has lasted until the shares with which you paid him have gone down so far. If I had only been listened to, he must have paid the whole million at once, when the shares stood at seventy-five; it would have been possible, and he would still have retained nearly half a million.”
“Yes, true,” said Herr von Wallbach, “it has again been proved that you are the best financier amongst us. It is lucky that we got the first instalment. The money, if all happens as you say, is as good as the Baroness’s property already; but, nevertheless, we must one of these days—I wanted to remind you of that—meet once more, as a matter of form, to receive your report. You have still got the money at Haselow’s?”
“Where else?”
“I only mention it because we left the investment absolutely to you. I wish to heaven the time had already come when I was quit of the whole thing. At any rate I shall make Schieler represent me at the trustees’ meeting. When a man is on the point of breaking with the son, he cannot very well be on friendly terms with the father.”
“Pay Ottomar’s bills tomorrow; close one eye to certain mistakes in the signatures which must be amongst them—how should he have managed otherwise?—shut the other to the fair Ferdinanda, and everything remains as it was.”
“Do not joke about it. At the best there will be a fearful scandal.”
“Better too early than too late. And besides, if the public hear of the new engagement at the same time that they hear of the breaking off of the other, all will be well again.”
Herr von Wallbach looked very thoughtful.
“Since this morning, since that terrible speech,” he said, “the Count’s position has become much worse. I don’t know what will become of him now.”
“Pardon me,” answered Giraldi; “to my mind the affair looks quite different. The respite is an immense gain for the Count. There are so many chances. The shares may go up again, or the powerful hand
