"Madame will hardly find her old admirer dangerous," he said to himself, with a smiling nod at his reflection. "You never were handsome, old fellow, at the best of times, but to-day you are a positive fright. Perhaps 'tis best so. The consciousness of the figure that I cut may be of use in putting an end to any foolish fancies that might be born from a very gracious reception of me. Let the past be buried in the grave of poor Pigglewitch, we do not need it for the better life of the future." Thus reflecting, he left his room to take his way to the balcony, where, Wangen had told him, he should find the mistress of the mansion.
As he closed his door behind him he heard another door open at the end of the corridor, along which there instantly came tripping a graceful little girl of scarcely fifteen.
Involuntarily Egon's slow steps were stayed. There was something about the child that reminded him of Lieschen as he had first seen her. For an instant the present vanished, and he was standing, in the form of 'the new tutor,' at his window at Castle Osternau. Merry laughter floated upward from the lawn, and two children came flying out of the shrubbery. Lieschen's image as he had then seen it arose vividly before his mind's eye in all its innocent charm; but another moment brought him back to reality, and he knew that he was in a strange house, and that courtesy required that he should show himself aware of the presence of the new-comer. He bowed as ceremoniously as he would have done to a woman grown, and surveyed the pretty girl with great interest. Indeed, there was something of Lieschen in the arch sparkle of her eyes and in the girlish grace of her movements.
Clara paused also as she became aware of the stranger's presence, and returned his bow with a charming little courtesy. Then, suddenly approaching him, she said, "Are you Herr von Ernau, of whom I have heard so much? Oh, I thought you would look so different!"
"Indeed? And in what does the reality differ from the picture you condescended to frame of my insignificance?"
"I can't exactly say, but you are very---- Of course that bandage disfigures you, and you will look better when you have recovered from losing so much blood. Do you feel better? Are you strong enough to go alone, or shall I support you? Oh, you think I am too little to be of any use; but indeed you are mistaken, I am very strong. Lean on me. Indeed you do need help, you look so terribly pale and tired."
"I thank you for your kind offer of help, but----"
"Oh, you refuse it, of course; but I shall walk behind you, and if you totter I shall hold you up. Now I think of it, you do not know who I am. I must introduce myself. I am Clara von Wangen, Hugo von Wangen's sister, and I know you are on your way to pay my sister-in-law a visit. Is it not so?"
"You are right, Fräulein Clara."
"Do not call me Fräulein, it sounds as if you were laughing at me. Only the servants say Fräulein Clara, every one else calls me Clara only. I will show you the way to the balcony, where my sister-in-law is anxiously expecting you. She was very much surprised when she heard that you were Herr von Ernau, and I don't wonder at it, for a cousin who used to live with us while poor papa was alive told me such an interesting tale about how you were once betrothed to Bertha, and how you were thought dead, when she was betrothed to my brother. I hope it is not pert and forward to talk so to you, Herr von Ernau?"