To-day, however, there was a something unusual in the Colonel's manner and reception of his visitor, a certain constraint which he did his best to conceal by talking with more fluency than was his wont. The Baron did not heed this. His mind was busy with other thoughts, and he was not disposed to attach importance to such trifles. He was about to turn the conversation to those measures of public safety which were still to some extent in the hands of the military, when Wilten forestalled him, and said rather hurriedly:
"Have you received further intelligence from the capital yet? You are, no doubt, expecting an answer relative to that Winterfeld pamphlet."
The Baron's brow clouded over very noticeably at this question, and there was a pause of some seconds before he responded.
"Yes," he said at length. "The answer reached me this morning."
"Well?" asked the Colonel, eagerly.
Raven leaned back in his chair, and replied in a tone wherein irony and bitterness were equally blended:
"Our friends in the capital appear to have lost sight of the fact that, as their representative, I have acted in their name, and that through long years they have seconded me in all my acts to the best of their ability. You were right in warning me against the intrigues at head- quarters, which were secretly undermining me. I see now how hollow is the ground on which I stand. A few months ago they would not have dared to give me such an answer."
"What: they have not tried to hint----" the Colonel stopped; he did not like to finish the phrase.
"They have hinted much--in the most courteous form, naturally, and with an unusually lavish expenditure of fair words--but the meaning remains the same. I think it would not be disagreeable to the gentlemen in office yonder, if I were to make my bow and withdraw from the scene. I am a stumbling-block in the way of several persons there, and they, of course, seek to profit by any attack upon me. At present, however, I am not inclined to make room for them."
Colonel Wilten remained silent, and studied the carpet diligently.