Hermann smiled with unconcealed irony.
"Something you have found out lately? Really!"
Antonie looked questioningly at him.
"What do you mean? I don't understand you."
"Oh, I only meant, that what is not in the young lady's favour, namely, her outward appearance, you must have found out at the first moment."
Antonie flushed deeply at this malice of Hermann's, which, unfortunately, was only too true, and she did not make any denial.
She knew her cousin well enough to know that in a dispute she always got the worst of it, and that when he looked, as he did at this moment, not the slightest consideration need be expected from him. She contented herself, therefore, with darting an angry look at him, and completely ignoring the speech, turned to the Baronin, who now exclaimed suspiciously--
"But what is this you have found out about her?"
Antonie took a rose from the vase before her, and began to pluck it to pieces.
"Well, my information does not concern her so much as her family. I suppose you do not know that 'mademoiselle' has no right to the name of 'Walter.' It is her mother's family name, which the latter re-assumed, or rather was obliged to do so, because her husband's name called forth very unpleasant remembrances."