Ulric had gone up to the gate and seized it with both hands. He shook the iron rails with such force that the bolts and locks creaked again. Finding that it did not give way promptly, his features contracted angrily, he gave one violent thrust at it with his foot, and so made an end of all resistance. The fastenings, which were not in the best condition, yielded; the gate flew open.
"Good Heavens! Hartmann, what are you about?" cried Wilberg, terrified. "You are spoiling the lock. What will Herr Berkow say?"
Ulric gave him no answer. He pushed the gate quite back and turned quickly round.
"The way is open, my lady."
Eugénie did not look half so shocked as the young clerk. She even laughed, as she proceeded towards the path so vigorously cleared for her.
"Thank you, Hartmann. Do not make yourself uneasy as to the spoilt lock, Herr Wilberg; I will take the responsibility on myself. But, as the gate is open now, will you not take the shorter cut through the park?"
What a proposal! Herr Wilberg did not hasten, he rushed, he flew to the lady's side, racking his brain even in this hurried moment to find an interesting and striking theme on which to discourse; but he was obliged to begin with a very prosaic one, for Eugénie, turning her head once more, looked curiously after the enigmatic being who had puzzled her so much once before, as though she would again try to read the riddle of his character with her grave meditative eyes. "That Hartmann has the strength and the fury of an old Berserker. He crashes down locks and bolts without more ado, just to"----
"Just to make my way easy," continued Eugénie, with a touch of irony, as she looked at her companion. "You would not have been guilty of such a forcible act of politeness?"
Wilberg protested against even the supposition of such a thing. Her ladyship could not believe for a moment that he would have laid violent hands on other people's property, and that too in her presence; no, most assuredly he would not.... But she listened to his protestations with marked abstraction, and in spite of all the pains he took to interest her, he could not succeed in fully gaining her attention once during their walk through the park.