By degrees, however, the crowd dispersed, and the two men were left alone on the platform. "Low-lived canaille!" the Russian exclaimed, giving vent to his suppressed indignation. "I would have every scoundrel of them well thrashed!"
"You do them too much honour, my dear Count, in allowing them to ruffle you!" Werner calmly rejoined. "Let them roar their 'Wacht am Rhein' as they please. I am annoyed only by Sorr's non-appearance. He cannot have arrived, as he is not awaiting us here."
"True, I had forgotten the rascal in the midst of their shouts; but you are right. Baron, he should have been here if he obeyed my commands and left for A---- two days ago. What can have happened to him?"
"Nothing; we have seen the difficulty that exists now in getting from one place to another. He will come by the next train,--but it is very unfortunate for me to have to wait here at the station. I am so well known in A---- that people will wonder why I do not go immediately to Castle Hohenwald."
"Unfortunately, there is no help for it."
"Why should not you await him here while I go on to Hohenwald alone?"
"Impossible; you know that I cannot appear at Hohenwald, and that Sorr must accompany you thither, since, if introduced there by you, his wife cannot refuse to give him a hearing. Then when he swears that he has broken off all connection with me, she cannot refuse to follow him, and should she, your father would refuse protection to a wife so false to her duty. Sorr will do as I say, swear what I dictate to him, and the result is certain."
"But what, after all, Count, can the result avail you? You know Frau von Sorr detests you. Will she not instantly return to Hohenwald when she finds that she has been deceived?"
"That is my affair, my dear friend," Count Repuin replied, with an ugly smile. "There are means to tame the wildest bird, and of those means I shall avail myself."
What means, the Finanzrath asked himself, would the Russian use to bend the young wife's will, to conquer her hatred of him? Brutal force spoke in the Count's words and gleamed in his treacherous eyes. And to such villainy he, Werner von Hohenwald, was lending himself!