For answer his grandfather handed him the telegram. "Read it yourself."
Raoul glanced through it and laid it down. "Sad news, but not unexpected. The last letters prepared us for the end. You said yesterday that if it came you should not be able to leave the capital, so I shall go alone with my mother."
"Yes, if you can."
"There will be no difficulty about my leave. The Minister offered to give it to me when he heard of the state of affairs at Steinrück. I can go at any moment to----"
"Console your betrothed," the general completed the sentence.
"Of course. I have the first right to do so."
"Have you still that right?"
The young Count started at the tone in which the words were spoken, but his grandfather left him no time for surmise, but asked, sharply,--
"What are your relations with Héloïse von Nérac?"
The question was so unexpected that for a moment Raoul was confused, but in the next he replied, "Why, she is the sister of my friend Clermont."