"I will see that they do not go too far, we will not go beyond the park to-day."
A second bow, as formal as the first, and she crossed the terrace with the children, and went down towards the park. The Präsidentin turned once more to her grandson.
"I think we were saying--but why don't you sit down, Hermann?"
He still remained standing, his hand on the arm chair, and his eyes fixed upon the avenue, where the three had disappeared; mechanically following the invitation, he sat down once more.
"Well, I thing we were speaking of your future wife. I imagine the choice lies open to you; Count Hermann Arnau will hardly receive a refusal, however ambitious he may be."
"Who is this Mademoiselle Walter?" asked Hermann, instead of answering, without turning his eyes from the window.
The grandmother looked at him with some astonishment, the question seemed to her to have very little place in this important conversation.
"She is the new governess for Eurt's daughters," replied the Präsidentin coldly. "She is said to be pretty well educated and useful, and the children are wonderfully fond of her considering the short time she has been with them. I have a certain antipathy against her, for I fear that she carries something like haughtiness underneath her unfailing calm politeness, which is, of course, insufferable in a person of her dependent position."
Hermann was silent, he knew by experience, that here, too, the Präsidentin's penetration had not deceived her.
"But to come back to our subject--"