"Has Hartmann been talking to you?"
She moved toward the stair-foot.
"Just a moment, please," Frederik interposed, hurrying forward to catch up with her before she could gain the safety of the stairway.
"Hartmann has been talking to you. What has he been saying?"
He had seized her hand as she made to mount the stairway. As she did not reply to his question, he repeated it, adding:
"Do you really imagine, Kathrien, that you care for that—fellow?"
"I'd rather not talk about it, please, Frederik," she pleaded.
"No? But it is necessary. Do you——"
She broke away from his suddenly rough grip and fled up the stairway to her own room. As the door shut behind her, Frederik, with clouded face and working lips, strode over to the desk. He passed close by Peter Grimm. But the Dead Man was still staring blankly after Kathrien.
"Oh, Katje," he muttered, "even Love could not get my message to you! Less influence would be needed to change the fate of a nation than the mind of one good woman. I think a good woman—a good woman,—is more stubborn than anything else in the Universe. Not excepting myself. When she has made up her mind to do right,—which invariably means to sacrifice herself and thereby make as many other people wretched as possible—not even a Spirit from the Other World can influence her."