'Very tender,' said he, after having re-perused the note. 'An amorous intrigue at court, and yet the youth desirous of engaging in the Norwegian war! It is strange--but it pleases me.'
Brodin, the count's secretary, an old, true, experienced, hereditary servant, now stepped softly into the cabinet, gently closing the door after him.
'A billet-doux, that my son has just dropped here,' cried the senator, advancing and handing the letter to him. 'It is signed with the name only of Georgina. Who is this Georgina?'
'I am not indeed so happy,' answered the secretary, with a satyr-like smile, 'as to know the christian names of all the females with whom count Arwed might possibly form tender connections. Nevertheless, I have provided myself, partly from curiosity and partly that I might be enabled to answer inquiries, with a genealogical list of those ladies now resident at Stockholm, from which some pertinent information may perhaps be gained. Fortunately I have the list now with me, if your excellency will condescend to make present use of it,--however, I cannot guarantee that you will find there the Georgina in question, as the taste of my lord, your son, like that of other young cavaliers, may possibly have led him into a lower circle, of which hitherto I have been unable to find any tolerably correct catalogue.'
'Produce it!' cried the senator, with ill-humor;--and the secretary drew forth his geneological list.
'H-m, h-m,' hummed he, perusing it. 'I cannot find any Georgina, and yet the name must be very common at Stockholm. 'Eureka!' he suddenly exclaimed; 'here stands a Georgina! but whether it be the right one must be determined by further evidence.'
'Come, be expeditious!' impatiently cried old Gyllenstierna.
'Georgina Henrike Dorothea Baroness von Goertz,' read Brodin, 'daughter of George Heinrich Freiherrn von Goertz, privy counsellor and lord marshal of the duke of Holstein Gottorp Durchlaucht, and temporary prime minister and director of the finance commission of his royal Swedish majesty.'
'He is out of his senses!' loudly exclaimed Gyllenstierna, interrupting his secretary in his tedious narration. 'The maiden is yet but a mere child!'
'According to my notes, past fourteen,' replied the secretary; 'but she looks as if she were eighteen. She has been confirmed this year at the time of Easter; and has thereby acquired, as it were, a privilege in regard to such love affairs; besides, she is the only Georgina among the ladies of this capital.'