“I am sure I ought to be obliged to you, Crescenz, for discussing my affairs in this manner with my great enemy,” said Hildegarde, indignantly.
“Oh, don’t be angry. I assure you she talked all herself. I did not say a single word——”
“You forget having confessed that you told her all I confided to you about Count Zedwitz.”
“But you never confided in me at all, Hildegarde! All I know was what I overheard when you were so angry about the letter, you know!”
“I remember speaking to you about that letter, and telling you to rejoice that you had never any annoyance of the kind.”
“But I assure you, Lina had heard everything from the Doctor——”
“Pshaw!” cried Hildegarde, pushing back her chair, “there is no use talking to you!”
“I am quite prepared for remarks of this kind,” said Crescenz, with a ludicrous imitation of Hildegarde’s natural dignity of manner; “Lina says there is no bearing you since I have been engaged to be married!”
“So,” said Hildegarde, throwing down her work; “but I do not quite understand the——”
“Oh, it is easily understood—you are older, and think you ought to have been first.”