"What do you mean by such words, Captain Rodenberg?"
"I must request you to ask the Count himself that question. Since, as I see, your Excellency has no knowledge of the state of the case, I prefer not to be your informant."
"But I insist upon an explanation. I must know to what you refer."
"To the relations of the Count to Frau von Nérac."
Steinrück started. This was the danger of which he had had a vague foreboding.
"Héloïse von Nérac?" he repeated, in a low tone.
"The sister of Herr von Clermont. This knowledge, I assure you, was unsought; accident alone revealed it to me. Hertha asks of the Count only the formal retraction of a promise long since broken by him, and I cannot think that it will cause him any regret to comply with her request. Fear of his grandfather's interference alone prevented him from himself dissolving the tie binding him to the young Countess."
A pause ensued. The blow was so sudden and unexpected that the general needed time to collect himself.
"I shall question Raoul," he said at last. "If he admits what you say to be the fact, the Countess certainly has a right to ask to be released from her promise; but that cannot further your hopes, for I neither can nor will consent that my ward----"
"Should follow the fortunes of a Rodenberg," Michael bluntly completed the sentence. "I am aware of it, but I must remind your Excellency that your power as guardian comes to an end in a few months."