"But the countess is a sovereign, at least of me and mine," he retorted.
"Doubtless the baron thinks the price small to pay for the joys of his wedding night," broke in Herr Frederich with a laugh.
Erna flushed and bent lower over the pearls she was examining, while Albrecht turned haughtily upon Herr von Zimmern with a look of rebuke under which the other dropped his head. Bowing profoundly to the company, Herr Frederich made a sign to the musicians, and as they again took up their wild strain and led the way down the hall, he followed with the bearers who had accompanied him to bring in the caskets.
For the first time in his life Albrecht found himself penetrated with a sense of disgust and of distrust of his teacher as he looked after him. He felt for the first time that the relations of himself and his wife were too sacred to be jested upon, and it seemed, moreover, as if his new powers gave him an insight into the true nature of Herr von Zimmern which he had never possessed before; so that one of the earliest results of his winning the quest to which he had been incited by his instructor was the springing of an instinctive repulsion from the latter as from an evil thing.
All this, however, was but the feeling of an instant as he stood in the hall and watched the delight of Erna over the jewels. He laughed at her childlike surprise and delight, and jested with the Lady Adelaide in his accustomed fashion. He even had a smile for Elsa when that forward maiden, behind the backs of the ladies, held a great carbuncle, as large as a pigeon's egg, up to her ear, and pretended to find the weight unbearable. But at last a chance word of Erna's changed again his mood.
"Look!" she said, holding up a rope of pearls, "they are as large again as those the emperor gave to the Madonna at Mayence."
And at the name of the Madonna Albrecht remembered his baptism, and the burden of his soul once more fell upon him.