"Enormous?" she repeated. "Mine are by no means so large. I will sell out, and invest in this new stock."
"That can easily be arranged, dearest grandmamma; I will take the necessary steps immediately. Yes, yes, the saying is quite true, 'Where doves alight there doves will flock,' and never truer than in the present wondrous age. The capitalist is a rock upon which the waves toss up treasure of their own accord——"
"That is not the opinion of the prudent men of the day, Moritz," said Doctor Bruck. When Henriette made her eager retort he had advanced to the bedside and had taken her hand soothingly in both his own, and he was still standing thus. He was in full dress beneath his light overcoat, and looked a most distinguished figure, but in the face which he now turned full upon those present there was perceptible a certain strange look of suffering which Kitty had noticed to-day for the first time. "There has been a good deal of mistrust lately about these sudden gains, and people begin to call them by a very ugly name——"
"Swindling, I suppose you mean," the councillor gaily interrupted him. "My dearest doctor, I have the highest respect for your scientific attainments, but you must permit me to excel you in a knowledge of business affairs. You are a most distinguished surgeon, and have just achieved fame——"
Henriette here sat upright, and asked, eagerly, panting as if almost overcome by her feeling of triumph, "Do you know that, Flora?"
"Of course I know it, you silly child, although the Herr Doctor has hitherto not thought it worth while to give me any personal information of his fortunate cure at L——," Flora lightly made answer, while her eyes boldly and as if in challenge encountered Henriette's gaze. "I also know that the sun of princely favour has suddenly shone full upon him in a most unexampled fashion. Of course this is still a court secret, to be kept even from his betrothed." Her lips parted in an enchanting smile, and the rosy flush that tinted her cheek at her last words became her charmingly.
Henriette fell back disappointed among her pillows,—even she had been mistaken in this chameleon nature.
The Frau President, standing beside the doctor, tapped him almost affectionately upon the shoulder. Never before had she treated him with such condescending familiarity. "May we not know something further? Are the preliminaries not yet arranged?" she asked, in a gentle, flattering tone.
"He has just returned from an interview with the prince," his aunt said, never turning her gaze from her darling, her eyes beaming with proud affection.
"Ah, then the report that Herr von Bär has been pensioned off is true?" the old lady asked, with well-feigned indifference, masking her eagerness.