"Were you frightened, Eugénie?" he asked again in soft, low tones, pressing her arm more and more firmly to his breast. She raised her eyes to his, and, once more, saw that bright illumining, more radiant now and more significant than she had ever seen it yet. He bent down to her, as if to lose no syllable of her reply.
"Arthur, I----"
"Baron Windeg and his eldest son arrived half-an-hour ago," announced a servant, hastening forward, and the words were hardly spoken when the young Baron, who had probably been watching for them from the window, rushed down the stairs with all the ardour of his eighteen years, eager to greet his sister whom he had not seen since her marriage.
"Ah, Con, is it you?"
She felt something like a pang at this arrival of father and brother, an arrival for which she had before so earnestly longed.
Arthur had let her hand fall as the name of Windeg was mentioned. She saw the glacial expression which stole over his features, and heard the freezing tone of his voice as he greeted his young brother-in-law with distant politeness.
"Will you not come up with me?" she asked, seeing that he remained standing at the foot of the staircase.
"Excuse me if I ask you to receive your father alone. I had ... forgotten something which has just been recalled to my memory. I will wait on the Baron as soon as I possibly can."
He stepped back while Eugénie and her brother went up the stairs by themselves. The latter seemed rather surprised, but a glance at his sister's pale face made him suppress the question which was on his lips. He knew pretty well, he thought, how matters stood here. Perhaps during their ride that parvenu had taken occasion to inflict some fresh mortification on his wife. The young fellow cast a threatening look below, and turned to his sister with impetuous tenderness.
"Eugénie, I am so happy to see you again, and you"----