To an active temperament like mine nothing could be more galling. Prompt decision and action were mental instincts with me. I was accustomed in all affairs of life to take hold of a thing, plan my course and follow it up quickly and energetically. And yet here I had somehow allowed the reins to be snatched from my grasp and could only wring my hands in fatuous futility while I was being carried I could not tell where.
Do something I must; so I made another effort to see Gatrina, and pushed it until I met with a very ugly rebuff. I was told she was out, and I declared I would wait until she returned.
I waited, and waited, and waited until my patience was exhausted, only to be told by her servants that while I had been waiting she had returned and gone out again without seeing me.
I went home and wrote to her that I must see her on a matter of the most urgent importance. I gave the letter to Buller with instructions to place it personally in Gatrina’s hands.
An hour and more passed, and when he came he brought a reply in her handwriting. I tore the envelope open and my own letter, unopened, was enclosed and with it a cutting from a paper of that morning’s date, announcing in guarded terms my engagement to Elma.
At first I flushed with mortification and resentment, but then caught a glimpse of light.
If it was really the lie about Elma which had estranged her, I had but to get the truth to her to change that anger and make her feel the injustice she had done me.
I cast about for the means. She would neither see me nor read my letters; so that I must find someone who could get access to her.
I thought instantly of Karasch. I would send him to her and let Chris go with him as a mute ambassador. This might touch her for the sake of the past; and Karasch’s message should be just one sentence—that the announcement in the paper was a lie.
I sent for him at once, instructed him how to act, and despatched him on the errand; only to be defeated again, however. Gatrina had refused to see him.