“Not in the least. As far as I am concerned I should be glad that the Baroness would not return for six weeks! All places are alike to me where you are; and much as we were together at the Iron Works, you have more time to bestow on me here; and therefore I am proportionably happier.”
This kind of speech she never answered; and after a short pause Hamilton proposed showing her the gardens which surrounded the town, and in their shady walks they wandered until evening.
CHAPTER XLV.
WHAT OCCURRED AT THE HOTEL D’ANGLETERRE FRANKFORT.
The next day after dinner, while Hamilton went to his banker’s, Hildegarde looked out of her window, and watched, with a sort of quiet indifference, the arrival of two travelling carriages at the hotel. Out of the first sprang a tall large man, who, merely raising two fingers to his travelling cap by way of salutation, instantly disappeared—and even while the heated and tired horses were still being led up and down the yard others were brought out, and the servant, after great bustling and hurrying, followed his master into the hotel. Again the cracking of the whips and ringing of bells became audible, and another and larger carriage arrived—decidedly English. The well-built vehicle swung easily with all its weight of imperials and servants’ seats behind, and out of it stepped a tall, thin gentleman, with a grey hat, a grey coat, grey trousers, grey gaiters, and grey whiskers! An elderly lady followed, her face half concealed by her pendent lace veil, and two young and pretty girls stopped for a moment to inspect the building they were about to enter. Hildegarde looked at her watch, it was the hour that Hamilton told her he would return, so she locked her door, and began slowly to walk along the corridor and descend the stairs. The English family were just turning into a large suite of rooms on the first floor as she passed—the gentleman in grey had stopped at the door, his hat fast on his head; he turned to his wife, who was entering, and observed, quite loud enough for Hildegarde to hear, “By Jove, that’s the handsomest girl I have seen for a long time!” The lady turned round and deliberately raised her lorgnette to her eye, while their two daughters, after a hasty glance, exclaimed, “Oh, papa, I really do think she understood you.” Hildegarde walked quickly on, but met so many servants and strangers that she took refuge at last in the large dining-room, which at that hour was generally quite unoccupied.
One solitary individual sat at the enormous table. He seemed to have been dining, and Hildegarde walked to one of the windows without looking at him. Soon after she heard him striding up and down the room, and as the waiter entered with some fruit and confitures, he asked rather impatiently, “Has my servant not yet dined? Tell him to make haste—he knows we have no time to lose.”
The voice was familiar to Hildegarde, she unconsciously turned round to look at the speaker, and was instantly recognised by Count Zedwitz, who, with a look of astonishment, hurried toward her, exclaiming, “Mademoiselle Rosenberg! What on earth has brought you to Frankfort?”
“I came here intending to go to a Baroness Waldorf as governess to her daughter—she has gone to Mayence, I hear, and——”
“And you are here alone, unprotected, and I cannot offer to stay with you—I do not know if you have heard that my father is dying—no hope whatever of his recovery; I only received the intelligence yesterday, and am now travelling night and day to reach home in time to see him once more!”
At this moment the servant entered to say that the carriage was ready.