"I have every reason to be contented. I have hardly reached your heights, Herr President, but one must not expect too much."
"True, true. Human destinies are very various."
"And when men undertake to control them, it all depends upon who can best steer his own boat."
The remark displeased the president as being too familiar; he desired no intimacy with his former comrade, so he said, evasively,--
"But we are straying from the object of your visit. Herr Waltenberg sends you to----?"
"No," Gronau replied, drily.
Nordheim looked at him in surprise: "You do not bring me a message from him?"
"No, Herr President. I have just returned from a journey, and have not yet seen Herr Waltenberg. I announced myself in my capacity of his secretary in order to make sure of your receiving me. I come about an affair of my own."
At this disclosure the president became several degrees colder and more formal, for he suspected some favour to be asked; yet the man seated so calmly before him, looking at him with so searching an expression in his clear, keen eyes, did not look like a suppliant; there was something of defiance in his bearing which impressed Nordheim disagreeably.
"Go on, then," he said, with perceptible condescension. "All relations between us are far in the past, nevertheless----"