Just outside stood the young girl, leaning against the frame; pale, and with a hard, determined gaze, she looked abroad beyond the man at her side into the empty air,—she would not see him.
He recoiled at sight of her, then stood for one moment speechless before her motionless figure. "Kitty!" he called, softly, in the anxious, hesitating tone of one who seeks to arouse another from some heavy, troubled dream.
She drew herself up to her full height, and slowly descended the steps. "What do you wish, Doctor Bruck?" she asked, over her shoulder, when she stood upon the grass below. She might have been some automaton, but for the indignant light that flamed in her eyes.
He blushed like a girl, and approached her. "You heard—" he asked, with hesitation, but with intense eagerness.
"Yes," she interrupted him, with a bitter smile, "every word. Another reason why you should rid your house of intrusive strangers,—the walls have ears." She moved away from the steps, as if to be quite clear of the threshold she was no more to cross.
Meanwhile he had recovered himself; he threw his hat upon a garden-table near, and stood erect before her, no longer blushing, but with an air of relief, as if matters had taken a wished-for turn, and chance had come to aid him. "Fear of being overheard has no part in what I have been telling my aunt. This quiet home has no secrets, and those which one must imprison in his own breast will not escape, even where the walls have no ears," he said, with calm gravity. "You heard every word,—you know, then, that only the desire for present rest induces me to ask for undisturbed quiet. Unfortunately, I must resign any attempt to justify my rude egotism. You certainly cannot conceive that there are those who are perpetually fleeing from thoughts and—images; but perhaps you may more easily imagine the angry pain, the torture of a man so fleeing, who, hurrying exhausted to his home, finds there just what he seeks to escape."
As he spoke, he had approached her more nearly, and she now looked him keenly and inquiringly in the face. Yes, he was in earnest; he not only described this torture, he felt it at this very moment; his strangely disordered glance, the pallor that overspread his countenance, left her no room to doubt it; but—he did not flee from his future wife, or from the innocent children; and none others frequented his room, except herself. It was really true, then, as she had frequently told herself, that she had become utterly distasteful to him since she had several times been the witness of scenes between himself and Flora; he did not wish to see her in his house, and he had begged his aunt to put a stop to her afternoon classes, that her further intercourse there might cease. As this conviction crept over her, her lovely features lost their usual mobility, and their expression grew stern and hard.
"There is no reason why you should justify your proceeding; you are master here,—that suffices," she replied, icily. "But what an unbounded esteem you must entertain for the Baroness Steiner, since you sacrifice your coveted repose to her, and wish to receive her spoiled grandchild and his governess beneath your roof!" It was a harsh reproof to come from girlish lips which were wont to be frank and outspoken, but which had never hitherto uttered words to show how sharp and cutting the clear, bell-like voice could be. "No, no; do not speak!" she cried, with sudden passion, as he opened his lips to reply. "I would not have you stoop to frame a false excuse for courtesy's sake, and say what you do not think. I know too well what motives influence you!" She evidently struggled to keep down angry tears. "I have most inopportunely crossed your path on several occasions, and entirely understand the irritation with which you exclaimed, a moment ago, 'Always that girl!' I cannot forgive myself for my awkwardness, although upon one occasion only did I wilfully interfere. But you judge me still more harshly,—you persecute me in consequence."
Doctor Bruck did not contradict her, but it seemed as though he had a struggle to resist the temptation to speak. He looked down upon her with eyes full of an inexplicable expression, and his right hand leaning upon the garden-table was tightly clenched. As he stood thus, every lineament of his handsome face showed the strength and resolution that would to the last resist being forced to an explanation.
"It cost me much to return hither," she began again. "The Frau President"—she pointed towards the Villa Baumgarten—"poisoned my childhood with her pride of rank whenever it was in her power to do so, and I can never forget the bitter tears which her perpetual insolence wrung from my poor Lukas. You know how, upon my arrival, I shrank from meeting my clever sister Flora, and how, in sight of the villa, I longed to turn back and flee to my Dresden home. Would that I had done so! In addition to pride of rank and of office, the arrogance of wealth is now rampant in the villa. In that air, filled with pretence and gold-dust, no healthy thought or feeling can survive. By my very nature I am incapable of striking root in such a soil; but here,"—she extended her arms towards the house and garden,—"here I was at home; here I could even have forgotten my dear Dresden; why,—I do not know myself!"