"But I always detested explanations. What interests me at present is that you should take a comfortable chair and rest yourself: you are weak from loss of blood. You are trembling: take my arm."
In truth Egon was giddy for a moment, and involuntarily availed himself of the hand she extended to him. Wangen came forward to assist his wife, and conducted Egon to a luxurious chair on the balcony, where Bertha flitted about him, placing the cushions comfortably beneath his head, silently lavishing upon him a hundred little kindnesses, which scarcely contributed to dispel a certain embarrassment which began to possess him. Wangen was unwontedly silent; in truth his thoughts, like those of his wife and his guest, were busy with the past. Although hardly of a jealous temperament, his sense of his wife's intellectual superiority was always present to prompt him to self-depreciation, and he had remembered more than once during the morning the many brilliant qualities which he had long since heard attributed to Egon von Ernau,--the same man who, marvellously enough, had played the part of the Candidate at Castle Osternau. As he marked his wife's eager attention to their guest it occurred to him to wonder--it was but a passing thought--whether Bertha had not once been more interested in the tutor than she would have cared to admit. He felt ashamed of himself on the instant that such an idea should have found entrance in his mind, and yet he could not quite forget it.
His wife's influence, however, was so great over his moods that she soon conquered his taciturnity, and Egon was both interested and charmed by the lively talk that occupied the next hour. Bertha passed in review for her guest's entertainment and information all the principal persons in the neighborhood. True, her wit was sometimes far from kindly, but her tact was great, and she was quick to mark and to obliterate any adverse impression with regard to herself which she might produce. He therefore resigned himself to the spell of the moment, and had quite forgotten the unfortunate cause of his presence in Linau, when Inspector Kämpf made his appearance to announce to Wangen that the conveyance was about to start for Station R---- with the body of the unfortunate driver.
This recalled Egon to a sense of reality, the spell of the moment was broken; he begged the inspector to inform himself as to the poor man's family, for whose future he should care, and then, turning to Wangen, asked that he would kindly allow him the use of a vehicle in which to drive immediately to Plagnitz.
"Impossible! Indeed you cannot, you must not leave us, Herr von Ernau," Bertha exclaimed, in answer to his request. "You must stay in Linau until your wound is healed. We cannot let you go until you are perfectly strong."
Wangen added his entreaties to his wife's, although not with the same urgency, but Egon was firm. He declared that it was a matter of necessity that he should be in Plagnitz before evening, that he was quite strong enough to undertake the short journey thither, and that, with many thanks for the kind hospitality extended to him at Linau, he was resolved not to trespass upon it further. Neither Wangen nor Bertha could turn him from his purpose, and the former therefore yielded to his request, and directed Inspector Kämpf to have a light wagon made ready for Herr von Ernau's use.
CHAPTER XXV.
[AT HOME].
The old administrator, Sieveking, at Plagnitz, had at last actually taken to his bed, and the whole responsibility of the management of the estate devolved upon Storting. He was quite equal to it, but just at present he was rather anxious; a few days previously a magnificent grand piano, with several large cases of books, had arrived from Berlin, addressed to Herr Egon von Ernau, Plagnitz, and it was evident that the proprietor of the estate was shortly to arrive and establish himself in his home.
There were many matters not yet ordered as Storting could have wished. Herr Sieveking belonged to the old school of agriculture; he was an old man, and had been ailing for some time; abuses had crept into his management which Storting had not been able to reform in the short time that had elapsed since his installation as inspector.