"Of course, of course! What further intentions could you have? Forgive me for my strange reception of you: my mind sometimes wanders; you must not take it ill of a feeble old man. I hope, Hilda, that you have the rooms ready for Leo, and Herr Delmar, Leo's friend?"
"Certainly, papa; they were all ready two days ago; but Herr Delmar refuses to stay with us, and says he must return to the Post at Tausens."
"Indeed? I am very sorry."
The 'very sorry' did not sound genuine. The old man's mind was evidently relieved when he heard that Paul had declined to be his guest at the castle. Apparently the coldness of his expression of regret struck him also, for he hastened to atone for it by a request that Paul would reconsider the refusal. But upon receiving Paul's courteous excuse for not complying with this request, he forbore to urge it, and when Delmar expressed his regret in being obliged to return immediately to Tausens, he did not press him to remain, but gave him his hand in token of farewell, and expressed, although with some hesitation, a hope that he would frequently visit his friend Leo at the castle.
Hilda fulfilled her promise; she accompanied Paul through the garden, the castle court-yard, and the large gateway, across the bridge to the foot-path, which, lying to the left of the road, passed down the mountain at some distance from the steep rocky side. She walked beside Delmar in silence; her father's strange conduct had filled her with vague anxiety. She felt that there must be some relation which she did not understand existing between him and Herr Delmar, and she vainly wondered what it could be. She knew that her father was misanthropic and inhospitable, but with regard to Leo and his friend he had not been in the least so until a few moments previously, but had given express orders that everything should be done to make the young men's stay at Castle Reifenstein agreeable to them.
What reason could he have for such terror at sight of a stranger, and for receiving him so disagreeably? She longed to say some word to Delmar in excuse: she was afraid that he was offended; but what could she say? In vain she tried to find words suitable to the occasion, and while she was trying they had crossed the bridge, and she had accompanied the young man as far as was fitting, and not one word had she uttered.
Paul, too, who was not often at a loss for words, had been vainly searching for something to say during their short walk; and thus both went on together in silence until Hilda held out her hand to him by way of farewell, when he asked, "Has the lovely fairy no word for me that I may take as a permission to return?"
Hilda blushed. Why should the words 'lovely fairy' move her strangely at this moment? She had heard them and laughed at them repeatedly in the last hour, but now she could not laugh,--she was confused,--for the tone of Delmar's voice was far more serious than before. She did not reply directly, but asked in her turn, "Oh, Herr Delmar, what will you think of us? I do not know what papa had in his mind, but I am sure he did not mean to offend you. I beg you not to be angry with us!"
"How could I be angry? Your father was under some mistake with regard to me. What puzzles me is how he should have known that my name is Paul. Perhaps Colonel von Heydeck mentioned it in his letter."
"No; he wrote only a few words to say that my cousin Leo had gone to the Tyrol accompanied by a friend, whose name he did not mention, and that in a few days he would arrive at Castle Reifenstein."