"Nonsense! nonsense, my darling!"
"Promise me at least not to let Herr von Ernau know that Elise is here."
"The fact cannot be concealed."
"Trust me to see that it is. Only say that you will not tell him of it."
He promised, although he could not persuade himself that Fräulein Lieschen was what his wife represented her. How could it be that he had been so mistaken in her? Still, his respect for his wife's superiority of mind, his entire confidence in her keenness of insight, so far beyond his own, forbade his seeming to doubt what she asserted so positively. And then when she looked into his face with those pleading eyes he was as wax in her hands.
CHAPTER XXIV.
[PAST AND PRESENT].
Egon rose to dress after Wangen had left him, but he found that he had overrated his strength. He grew giddy, a dull headache confused his thoughts, and he lay down again for a while to collect them before making another attempt to rise. By degrees the pain subsided, and he was able to reflect calmly upon what had occurred, and upon the future.
He was to see Bertha again, and, to his own surprise, the thought of a fresh meeting with the woman with whom he had once dreamed of passing his life had no power to agitate him, or to quicken his pulses. It was simply a necessity, and, since the vicinity of Plagnitz to Linau made future intercourse unavoidable, the sooner it was over the better.
His second attempt to complete his toilet was much more successful than the first, although, as he finally looked at himself in the mirror before leaving his room, he was startled at the pale face and weary eyes which he saw there. He was conscious for the first time that he had grown very much older in the last four years. Was there not a white hair in the curl that escaped from beneath the narrow strip of linen bound about his brow?