“Why, how lucky!” cried Madame Rosenberg. “There is now actually a stable to let in this house; the new first floors don’t keep horses, so you can have it all to yourself; and old Hans asked me only yesterday if I could not recommend his son to some one who wanted a groom or coachman! I will go down with you at once, and look at the stable, and you can speak to old Hans about his son.”
The arrangements were soon completed, and as they ascended the stairs together, they met two very well-dressed women, who bowed civilly, but distantly to Madame Rosenberg. When they had passed, she observed to Hamilton—
“The new lodgers for the first floor; they come on the 29th of this month, and have been looking at their apartments, which are being papered and painted. On the second floor we shall find our landlord, who has the warehouse below stairs, as he has six or eight children, and they make a tremendous noise; I am better pleased to live above than below them, though it is not so noble.”
After dinner, Hamilton, finding himself alone with Crescenz in the drawing-room, insisted on her giving him a lesson in German waltzing; she had just completed her instructions, and they were whirling around the room for the first time when the door was opened, and Hildegarde, having looked in, closed it again without speaking.
“There, now!” cried Crescenz, walking with a look of great vexation towards the open window; “was there ever anything so provoking! and after our explanation last night, too, but she really requires too much!”
“What does she require?” asked Hamilton, taking possession of the other half of the window, and leaning on one of the cushions, which, as usual in Germany, were conveniently placed for the elbows of those who habitually gazed into the street. “What does she require?”
“That I should never, for one moment, forget that I have promised to marry Major Stultz. I know quite well that she disapproves of my having danced with you.”
“And if you were to go to a ball now, would you not be at liberty to dance with whomsoever you pleased?”
“Oh, of course.”
“Then, why not with me?”