"For Heaven's sake, papa! tell me the meaning of that crape. My brothers" ...
"They are well and send their love," said the Baron soothingly. "Do not be alarmed, Eugénie, you have no cause to fear for any who are dear to you. The mourning which has fallen on our house does not, I regret to say, deeply affect our hearts. But you shall hear all about that later on, now you must tell me" ...
"No, no," interrupted his daughter uneasily. "I must know first for whom you wear this crape. Why are you in mourning?"
"Windeg placed his crape-bound hat on one side and drew his child more closely to him; there was something convulsive, something painful, in the manner of his tenderness towards her.
"I am on my way to pay the last marks of respect to our cousin Rabenau. His property lies in this province."
Eugénie started up. "Count Rabenau? the owner of the entailed estates?"
"Is dead," continued the Baron, speaking with difficulty. "In the fulness of life and strength, a few weeks before his intended marriage. No one could have foreseen that."
Eugénie had grown deadly white. It was evident that the news awakened in her some terrible emotion which yet was not grief. She said no word, but her father seemed to understand her agitation.
"You know that we have been strangers to each other for a long time," he went on sadly. "Rabenau's rough, fierce ways made it impossible for us to be on good terms, and I shall never forget the bitter repulse I met with from him six months ago. He could have saved us if he would, it would have been but a light thing to him. He refused harshly and peremptorily, and now he is dead, leaving no issue. I succeed to the entailed property, now that it is too late, that I have sacrificed my child!"
There was such misery in his tone that Eugénie made a great effort to control herself, and succeeded after the lapse of a minute or two.