The young girl's eyes flashed indignantly at the air and tone of the speaker. She turned proudly away to depart without a word.
"Only see how dignified the child can look!" Flora said, with a forced laugh. She could not succeed in quite concealing her vexation. "She behaves as if my harmless trifling had betrayed a state secret. Is it a crime, then, to want to be married? Nonsense, you little prude! Never deny in public what may be confessed in confidential moments." She ran her fingers over the sparkling rubies with a mischievous and significant glance at the councillor. "Yes, Moritz, this certainly is a necklace fit only for—the wife of a millionaire."
The Frau President now arose, hastily gathered up her letters and her eye-glass, and drew her scarf over her shoulders to leave the room. "I hope you will never falter in your love of the genuine, my dear Moritz," she said, coldly. "The champagne in which we drank Flora's health to-day was wanting in that quality: it has given me a headache. I must lie down for a while."
At the door she turned once more. "When I have refreshed myself a little, I must beg you to come to some conclusion," she said, holding out a letter to the councillor. "Read that, and you will see that the Baroness must not be put off and offended a second time. I yielded the other day for the sake of peace, but indeed I cannot submit so entirely again. People of position really cannot be pulled about like puppets and shaken off at pleasure. Remember that, I beg you, Moritz."
She left the room with a stately inclination and an air of severe dignity.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
"You will have hard work, Moritz," said Flora, pointing towards the door through which the Frau President had vanished. "Grandmamma is evidently on her mettle and armed to the teeth."
The councillor laughed gaily.
"Well, well," Flora continued, "you will see whether she will yield one inch of the authority you have allowed her to exert so absolutely. I have warned you repeatedly; now see——" She suddenly interrupted herself, and anxiously seized Bruck's hand. "For heaven's sake, tell me, Leo, what is the matter with you?" she cried, passionately. "You are struggling with some grief which you would conceal from me. Ah, you cannot deceive me! Here, and here"—she passed her white fingers across his forehead, that flushed to the roots of his hair—"I see lines that distress me. You are working too hard. After to-day, I shall take the liberty of sending one of the servants every day to your house in town to deny you positively to that tiresome crowd, who, after defaming you in every possible way, are killing you with their importunity."
Henriette stared at the speaker like one dismayed, and the councillor cleared his throat and stroked his delicate moustache to conceal a slight sneer, while the doctor, whose face had hitherto maintained a rigid composure, smiled a faint smile of bitter contempt. "That you will certainly not do, Flora," he said, in a peremptory tone. "I must decidedly forbid any interference with my practice, either at present or in future. Just now," and he turned to the councillor, "I have a word to say to you on behalf of a very sick man, quite broken down physically and mentally by violent business excitement; will you let me speak with you alone?"