“I have not the means. Besides, I should not find it congenial.”
“You will find it very hard to get a place in a home ... without references and so dangerously pretty.... I should hesitate to recommend you. There is nothing that I know of now to suit you. However, perhaps something may turn up; if there should, I will communicate with you.”
When Franka got home after this unsuccessful circuit, the maid met her with the information that a gentleman had been there inquiring after her. He said he had been acquainted with her late father and that he would return in an hour.
Shortly after this the doorbell rang and the maid brought her a visiting-card on which Franka read:—
Freiherr Ludwig Malhof, k.k. Kämmerer.
She admitted the visitor. At the first glance she recognized in the person entering the elderly gentleman who had recently followed her from the cemetery to the house. She had only once, when she reached the door, turned around to glance at him, but his appearance was too striking not to make an immediate impression: a figure of more than ordinary height with broad shoulders and long, sweeping gray side-whiskers.
“Pardon me, Fräulein, for introducing myself, yet I might....”
“You knew my father?” said Franka, interrupting his apology; “will you not sit down, Baron, and tell me...?”
She herself took a seat and indicated a chair for her visitor. He sat down and placed his silk hat on the floor. His eyes rested inquisitively on the lovely maiden’s face.
“In fact,” said he, somewhat hesitatingly, “I am ... I met Mr. Garlett at a friend’s house where he was giving lessons.” His glance wandered to the opposite wall on which hung a portrait.