"He has gone for a moment to the dining-hall," Elmhorst replied, after a salutation quite as formal as her own.
For an instant Erna seemed about to follow her uncle, but, apparently recollecting that this might be discourteous towards a future relative, she paused and let her gaze wander through the long suite of rooms.
"I think you see these rooms fully lighted to-night for the first time, Herr Elmhorst? They are very fine, are they not?"
"Very fine; and upon one coming, as I do, from the winter solitude of the mountains, they produce a dazzling impression."
"They dazzled me too when I first came here," the young lady said, indifferently; "but one easily becomes accustomed to such surroundings, as you will find by experience when you take up your residence here. It is settled that you are to be married in a year, is it not?"
"It is,--next spring."
"Rather a long time to wait. Have you really consented to such a period of probation?"
The lover seemed, oddly enough, to be rather averse to this allusion to his marriage. He examined with apparent interest a huge porcelain vase which stood near him, and replied, evidently desirous of changing the subject, "I cannot but consent, since for the present I am master neither of my time nor of my movements. The first thing to be attended to is the completion of the railway, of the construction of which I am superintendent."
"Are you, then, so fettered?" Erna asked, with gentle irony. "I should have thought you would find it easy to liberate yourself?"
"Liberate myself,--from what?"