It was some time before she found him. The Count did not care for dancing much at any time, and did not, as usual, take part in it to-night. The clang of a post horn sounded below on the country road, mixing itself strangely with the noisy dance music.
"My dear Count, what in the world are you doing here in this secluded room, at the open window? All the guests have missed you already!"
Hermann turned round, with a face on which vexation at the interruption was written plainly enough.
"It is oppressive in the ball-room," replied he, very coldly and repellantly. "I found it necessary to get a few minutes' fresh air."
"You are right, it is terribly warm there, and the air after the storm is so refreshing! But you are missing too much here--your cousin waltzes so charmingly with your friend, the young artist--àpropos, my dear Count, is it true then--this report, that the Gräfin returns the passion of this Herr Reinert, which he takes no pains to conceal? Does she actually intend to honour him with her hand?"
Hermann shut down the window hastily.
"I regret, my gnädigste Baronin, that I cannot give you any information upon the subject. I am as little instructed by my cousin as to her intentions as you can be. And, by the way, I think it is becoming too cool for you here, allow me to conduct you back to the saal."
So saying, he offered his arm with cool politeness, and led her back to the ball-room. The waltz was not yet finished as they entered; Gräfin Antonie floated past them in the full light of the wax tapers, moving in time to the lively music, with Eugen as her partner--and in the distance died away the last note of the post horn!
CHAPTER V.
Seven years had passed by, altering many things, and burying away and blotting out others, and, as often happens in life, so also here the reality had been very, very different from the hopes and expectations of mankind.