She had made a gesture as if to rise and leave the room, but seemed to remember in time that so sudden a move would look like flight. She remained seated and leaned over the plants. Absently she picked one of the large crimson japonicas as she replied to the question about her health, but that line of severe will-power appeared again, sharply and distinctly, just as in that moment when she stood in the middle of the brook. That day she had stepped without hesitation into ankle-deep water rather than accept the help which was offered her; but that had occurred in the forest loneliness. No such obstacle had to be overcome here in the ducal castle, filled with the pomp of a fête; but the man with the dark, consuming glance was here, and he did not remove his eyes from her face.
"Shall you remain at Rodeck any length of time?" asked Adelaide in the indifferent tone with which remarks are exchanged in society.
"Probably a few weeks longer. Prince Adelsberg will hardly leave his castle as long as the Duke is at Furstenstein. I intend to accompany him to the Residenz later on."
"And we shall then learn to know you as a poet?"
"Me, Your Excellency?"
"I learned so from the Prince."
"Oh, that is only Egon's idea," said Hartmut, lightly. "He has settled it in his mind that he must see my Arivana upon the stage."
"Arivana! A strange title."
"It is an Oriental name for an Indian legend, whose poetical charm had prepossessed me so strangely that I could not resist the temptation to form it into a drama."
"And the heroine of the drama is Arivana?"