“Did you see her? Beautiful woman! I am quite in love with her. The little Werben girl seems marvellously intimate with her. The man on the other side, I hear, was Count Golm, grand seigneur, but over head and ears in debt. Now is the time to save himself if he is clever. I hope soon we shall do some business together in grand style; don’t know him personally—know his signature very well. And did you see young Werben, Ferdinanda, with Fräulein von Wallbach? It must be all right there—not a bad match; she is worth about a hundred thousand; and her brother, who manages her property, was there too—there, Reinhold—with rather a bald head, he is not half a bad fellow; and young Werben himself—well, just now he is rather shaky, but no doubt he will pick up again.”
“Shall we go?” said Ferdinanda.
She stepped forward without waiting for any answer, and rather to Reinhold’s horror, right in front of the Princess and her party. The Princess had, however, again stopped to accost some other important people who had just arrived. Her attendants had stepped back a little, and were conversing together in low tones, and so it was to be hoped that they might slip through unperceived, but just as he was crossing he caught Elsa’s eye, and she nodded to him so cordially, and indeed heartily, that Count Golm, whose attention was attracted, half turned, and certainly recognised him, although his light eyes instead of greeting him, slightly fell, and immediately looked in another direction; but Reinhold had not observed that Ottomar, who had also turned, bowed to Ferdinanda, whose dress touched him, with polite indifference, and immediately continued his interrupted conversation with Fräulein von Wallbach with increased earnestness, while Ferdinanda returned his bow with a blank, fixed look.
But the scene had not escaped someone else’s eyes, the dark, gleaming, fiery eyes of the handsome young man, who had already observed from afar the rendezvous in the gallery. He had been standing now in the very centre of the dark wall of the room leaning against one of the columns, and suddenly came forward and stood before the two as they were going.
“Thank heaven I have found you at last, signora,” said he in his soft voice, which seemed to tremble a little from breathless haste. “I have looked for you everywhere, to tell you that Signor Anders has not been able to wait downstairs any longer. He was obliged to keep an appointment which was settled for .”
“So much the better,” answered Ferdinanda; “I was just starting to go home.”
“It is a pity!” said Philip. “I wanted to hear your opinion of a wonderful young Bacchus by Müller; Herr Anders has not yet sold his Satyr; I am doubting between the two, perhaps I shall buy both, and your Shepherd Boy too, Ferdinanda, if you will only put a decent price on it.”
“Are you coming with us, Antonio?” asked Ferdinanda impatiently.
“I think I will stay a little longer,” answered the Italian, hesitating.
“Very well. Come. Addio, Signor Antonio!”
“Addio, signora!”
The Italian remained in the door between the second room and the clock-room, his black eyes following the receding figures till they disappeared through the entrance; then they turned back upon the second room, and remained fixed upon Ottomar with a look of deadly hate.
“Now I know from whom the letters are which she so often reads! You shall pay for it, per Bacco!” he murmured between his white teeth.
XIV
That same evening in the elegant salon of the Royal Hotel, Unter den Linden, sat Count Golm and Councillor Schieler at a table covered with maps and plans. The two gentlemen had conversed long and eagerly over a bottle of wine; the bright colour in the Count’s cheeks was deeper, and a certain look of displeasure appeared in his face as he now leaned back in his rocking-chair, and began silently to rock himself backwards and forwards; the Councillor still continued to turn over the plans for a little while, sipped his wine, and then also leaned back, and said:
“I find you, take it all in all, Count Golm, less inclined to concur in our project than our correspondence had led me to believe.”
“But is it our project?” cried the Count, rousing himself. “What does it signify to me if you want a harbour in the north instead of in the east? The railway will cut one of my properties in half, and come in contact with another. Voilà tout! I don’t see why I should excite myself about that.”
“We only want the northern harbour because we cannot get the eastern one,” answered the Councillor coolly. “A harbour to the north might be conceded by the Government. As to one to the east—well, Count Golm, I think that after such very interesting explanations as you heard at your own table from the lips of the General and the President, we must give up any hope of it. Get the concession for the harbour to the east for us, and the Sundin-Wissow Railway Company will be formed tomorrow.”
“How can I do so if you cannot, who are at the very fountainhead?”
The Councillor shrugged his shoulders.
“You know, Count Golm, that I no longer hold any office, and have only now and then to give an opinion; that I have not failed to do so on this side you will believe without my trying to convince you.”
“And you have not been able to get the concession?”
“It is not so easily to be had, and especially now when he is busy getting that bill through. People do not dare go to him with many questions which would seem to touch upon the great principle of self-government, which is the order of the day. However—I say it in the strictest confidence—as soon as this bill, which you know goes
